Research Anthology on Applied Linguistics and Language Practices 1668456826, 9781668456828

Whether through speech, writing, or other methods, language and communication has been an essential tool for human coope

141 31

English Pages 1681 [1714] Year 2022

Report DMCA / Copyright

DOWNLOAD PDF FILE

Table of contents :
Editorial Advisory Board
List of Contributors
Table of Contents
Preface
Section 1: Fundamental Concepts and Theories
Chapter 1: How Do We Communicate
Chapter 2: Phrase and Sentence Structure
Chapter 3: The Rules of Phonology
Chapter 4: The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings
Chapter 5: Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers
Chapter 6: The Role of Context on Age of Acquisition Effect
Section 2: Development and Design Methodologies
Chapter 7: The Dispositive of Intercultural Communication
Chapter 8: Morphemes
Chapter 9: Identity and Alterity of the Text in Translation
Chapter 10: Narrative Generation Using Psychological Value Variables
Chapter 11: Neurodevelopmental Disorders From a Clinical Linguistics Perspective
Chapter 12: Influence of Multimedia and Cognitive Strategies in Deep and Surface Verbal Processing
Chapter 13: Transdisciplinary Approach to Linguistic Diversity
Chapter 14: Gender and Language
Chapter 15: Ideology as Social Imagination
Chapter 16: Neologisms
Chapter 17: Navajo Speech and Language Evaluation
Chapter 18: A Discourse Analytic Approach to Practices of Hawaiian Language Revitalization in the Mass Media
Chapter 19: Inclusion in Linguistic Education
Chapter 20: Linguistically-Responsive Literacy Pedagogies Across Primary and Secondary Classrooms
Chapter 21: English as a Lingua Franca
Chapter 22: Dynamics of Translanguaging Practices
Chapter 23: Linguodidactic Analysis of Professionally-Oriented Language Education and CLIL Special Features
Chapter 24: Signs of Plurilingualism
Section 3: Tools and Technologies
Chapter 25: A Study on the Application of Technology for Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis in Language Research
Chapter 26: Speech Acts and Cross-Cultural Pragmatics
Chapter 27: Discursive-Linguistic Devices and Strategies in Spam E-Mail Narratives
Chapter 28: Multilayer Neural Network Technique for Parsing the Natural Language Sentences
Chapter 29: The Medical Interpreter Mediation Role
Chapter 30: Linguistic Elements as Tools for the Analysis of Media Narratives
Chapter 31: Linguistic Analysis of Science Teachers' Narratives Using AntConc Software
Chapter 32: Learning Law Using Augmented Reality and Neuro-Linguistic Programming
Chapter 33: Lawyer's ICC as a Result of Integration of Linguo-Didactics, Linguoculturology, and Jurisprudence
Chapter 34: Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality
Chapter 35: Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation
Chapter 36: Professional Support Networks in TESOL
Chapter 37: Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis
Chapter 38: Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning
Chapter 39: Translanguaging and Digital Technologies in the Realm of Language Learning
Chapter 40: Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia
Section 4: Utilization and Applications
Chapter 41: English Sounds in Context
Chapter 42: Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English
Chapter 43: Advertising With Humour
Chapter 44: Phonetic Fossilization
Chapter 45: Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity
Chapter 46: A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research
Chapter 47: Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy
Chapter 48: Teachers' Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach
Chapter 49: Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds With Social Justice and Inclusive Critical Literacy Practices
Chapter 50: ‘To Know Is to Love?'
Chapter 51: Working With Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children From Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds
Chapter 52: Language Hierarchisations and Dehierarchisations
Chapter 53: Plurilingualism and STEAM
Chapter 54: The Teaching of Corpus Languages in Higher Education
Chapter 55: Chinese Foreign Language Online Course Design to Improve English Monolingual Teachers' Awareness of ELLs
Chapter 56: The Rhetoric of Mass Communication and Media in the Contrastive Sociolinguistics
Chapter 57: Female Writings in Times of Crisis
Chapter 58: A Sociocultural Study on English Learners' Critical Thinking Skills and Competence
Chapter 59: A Photo-Narrative of the Sociolinguistic and Sociocultural Identities of a Refugee Adolescent
Chapter 60: Cultural Identity and Catalan Language Planning
Chapter 61: Catalan Sociolinguistics
Chapter 62: Language Shift and Maintenance in Uttarakhand, a Hilly State of India
Section 5: Organizational and Social Implications
Chapter 63: Are We Living in a Globalized World?
Chapter 64: The Transborderization of Neoliberalism
Chapter 65: Modified Road Traffic Signs in the South African Linguistic Landscape
Chapter 66: Marking Community Identity Through Languaging
Chapter 67: A Study on Linguistic Management in Online and Offline Communities
Chapter 68: Creative Discourse as a Means of Exploring and Developing Human Creativity
Chapter 69: Digital Identity and Reputation in a Virtual Practice Network - Insights Using Linguistic Features
Chapter 70: Teleuts' Family and Kinship Ties
Chapter 71: The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition
Chapter 72: The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English
Chapter 73: Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2
Chapter 74: Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners
Chapter 75: Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru
Chapter 76: Discourse Analysis
Section 6: Critical Issues and Challenges
Chapter 77: An Exploration of the Manipulative Use of Language and Visuals in Advertisements
Chapter 78: Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis
Chapter 79: A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria
Chapter 80: Australian Aboriginal Languages
Index
Recommend Papers

Research Anthology on Applied Linguistics and Language Practices
 1668456826, 9781668456828

  • 0 0 0
  • Like this paper and download? You can publish your own PDF file online for free in a few minutes! Sign Up
File loading please wait...
Citation preview

Research Anthology on Applied Linguistics and Language Practices Information Resources Management Association USA

Published in the United States of America by IGI Global Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global) 701 E. Chocolate Avenue Hershey PA, USA 17033 Tel: 717-533-8845 Fax: 717-533-8661 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.igi-global.com Copyright © 2022 by IGI Global. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without written permission from the publisher. Product or company names used in this set are for identification purposes only. Inclusion of the names of the products or companies does not indicate a claim of ownership by IGI Global of the trademark or registered trademark. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Information Resources Management Association, editor. Title: Research anthology on applied linguistics and language practices / Information Resources Management Association. Description: Hershey, PA : Information Science Reference, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “This reference discusses in-depth the current global research on linguistics from the development of language to the practices in language acquisition investigating social factors behind language and dialect as well as cultural identity found behind unique traits in language and dialect throughtopics such as linguistic equity, phonology, and sociolinguistics”-- Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2022007271 (print) | LCCN 2022007272 (ebook) | ISBN 9781668456828 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781668456835 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Applied linguistics. | LCGFT: Essays. Classification: LCC P129 .R474 2022 (print) | LCC P129 (ebook) | DDC 418--dc23/eng/20220308 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022007271 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022007272 British Cataloguing in Publication Data A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. The views expressed in this book are those of the authors, but not necessarily of the publisher. For electronic access to this publication, please contact: [email protected].

Editor-in-Chief Mehdi Khosrow-Pour, DBA Information Resources Management Association, USA

Associate Editors Steve Clarke, University of Hull, UK Murray E. Jennex, San Diego State University, USA Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko, University of Tampere, Finland

Editorial Advisory Board Sherif Kamel, American University in Cairo, Egypt In Lee, Western Illinois University, USA Jerzy Kisielnicki, Warsaw University, Poland Amar Gupta, Arizona University, USA Craig van Slyke, University of Central Florida, USA John Wang, Montclair State University, USA Vishanth Weerakkody, Brunel University, UK



List of Contributors

Abdallah, Salam / Abu Dhabi University, Abu Dhabi, UAE........................................................... 1427 Abdelghany, Hala / City University of New York, USA..................................................................... 154 Acosta, Jatnna / University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA.................................................. 1534 Adi, Kathy / Readware Institute, USA............................................................................................... 154 Adi, Tom / The Readware Institute, USA........................................................................................... 154 Aguilera, Earl / California State University, Fresno, USA................................................................ 471 Aguirre, Jesús / The University of Texas at El Paso, USA.............................................................. 1340 Al-Doghmi, Nancy / Yarmouk University, Jordan........................................................................... 1216 Alkhazraji, Asmaa Muwafaq / The British University in Dubai, UAE........................................... 1464 Almazova, Nadezhda / Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Russia.................... 518 Amirnuddin, Puteri Sofia / Taylor’s University, Malaysia................................................................ 685 Araeva, Liudmila Alexeyevna / Kemerovo State University, Russia............................................... 1447 Ashcraft, Nikki / University of Missouri, USA.................................................................................. 252 Asubiaro, Toluwase Victor / University of Ibadan, Nigeria & Western University, Canada............ 982 Aygen, Gulsat / Northern Illinois University, USA............................................................................ 884 Baek, U Jin / Seoul Women’s University, Seoul, Republic of Korea................................................. 1390 Bakos, Jon / Indiana State University, USA....................................................................................... 805 Baranova, Tatiana / Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Russia........................ 518 Barman, Binoy / Daffodil International University, Bangladesh...................................................... 553 Bauler, Clara / Adelphi University, USA........................................................................................... 566 Belli, Simone / Yachay Tech, Urcuqui, Ecuador................................................................................ 582 Bello, Shamsuddeen / Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, Nigeria................................................ 1628 Bernal, Miriam Jiménez / European University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain..................................... 582 Bulgakova, Olga Anatolyevna / Kemerovo State University, Russia............................................... 1447 Busch, Dominic / Universität der Bundeswehr München, Germany................................................. 233 Chaturvedi, Sukrati / Department of Physics and Computer Science, DEI, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.............................................................................................................................................. 595 Clavijo-Olmos, Sandra Bibiana / EAN University, Colombia.......................................................... 183 Daryai-Hansen, Petra / University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark................ 534, 1032, 1110 Davies, Alex P. / Portland State University, USA.............................................................................. 1258 Epure, Manuela / Spiru Haret University, Romania......................................................................... 934 Escolano, Xènia / University of Alicante, Spain.............................................................................. 1276 Furukawa, Toshiaki / Waseda University, Japan.............................................................................. 433 Galskova, Natalia Dmitrievna / Moscow Region State University, Russia....................................... 840 García González, Vega María / University of Salamanca, Spain................................................... 1149  



Garrido-Nag, Karen / Gallaudet University, USA.......................................................................... 1087 Glumova, Elena Petrovna / Nizhny Novgorod State Linguistic University, Russia........................... 705 Golzar, Jawad / Herat University, Afghanistan................................................................................. 785 Greenstein, Ilana / California State University, Fresno, USA........................................................... 471 Hancı-Azizoglu, Eda Başak / Mediterranean (Akdeniz) University, Turkey................................... 1612 Henderson, Davis E. / Northern Arizona University, USA................................................................ 417 Horbacauskiene, Jolita / Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania........................................... 650 Igwe, Ebelechukwu Gloria / University of Ibadan, Nigeria.............................................................. 982 Ilosvay, Kimberly / University of Portland, USA.............................................................................. 503 Irisawa, Kana / Nara University of Education Elementary School, Japan..................................... 1129 Jongore, Magret / Bindura University of Science Education, Bindura, Zimbabwe........................ 1597 Kakoti, Madri / University of Lucknow, India................................................................................. 1303 Karthikeyan J. / VIT University, India............................................................................................... 553 Khalyapina, Liudmila / Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Russia.................. 518 Kirilova, Marta / University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.............................................. 534 Kkese, Elena Theodosis / Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus.............................................. 1514 Koban Koç, Didem / Izmir Democracy University, Turkey............................................................... 376 Layne, Heidi Johanna / National Institute of Education/NTU, Singapore...................................... 1110 Lee, Jongtae / Seoul Women’s University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.............................................. 1390 Lee, Miji / Seoul Women’s University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.................................................... 1390 Lefever, Samúel / University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland................................................. 1032, 1110 Li, Charles X. / Central Washington University, USA........................................................................ 119 Lwin, Soe Marlar / Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore........................................ 1573 Magill, Kevin Russel / Baylor University, USA................................................................................ 1004 Mahesh, B. V. M. / All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, India................................................ 324 Márquez, Eva / Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain............................................................. 1237 Masubelele, Rose / UNISA, Pretoria, South Africa......................................................................... 1597 McCann, James / Gallaudet University, USA................................................................................. 1087 Michailidis, Tasos / National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece............................... 1406 Mihăeş, Lorena Clara / University of Bucharest, Romania............................................................... 934 Miller, JungKang / Mercy College, USA.......................................................................................... 768 Miri, Mir Abdullah / Herat University, Afghanistan......................................................................... 785 Mokwena, Lorato / University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa............................. 1352 Mollà Orts, Toni / Universitat de Valencia, Spain.......................................................................... 1290 Monte-Serrat, Dionéia Motta / Universidade de Ribeirão Preto, Brazil.......................................... 456 Moore, Danièle / Simon Fraser University, Canada........................................................................ 1129 Msengi, Shadrack Gabriel / Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, USA............................... 1049 Muchnik-Rozanov, Yulia / Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel................................... 665 Ögeyik, Muhlise Coşgun / Trakya University, Turkey........................................................................ 966 Okamura, Toru / Komatsu University, Japan................................................................................. 1552 Olenev, Stanislav Vladimirovich / Kemerovo State University, Russia........................................... 1447 Otcu-Grillman, Bahar / Mercy College, USA.................................................................................. 768 Oyama, Mayo / Ritsumeikan University, Japan.............................................................................. 1129 Paschalidou, Gina / Ministry of Education, Research, and Religious Affairs, Greece................... 1406 Pearce, Daniel Roy / Kyoto Notre Dame University, Japan............................................................. 1129 Petrilli, Susan / University of Bari “Aldo Moro,” Bari, Italy............................................................ 276



Phaahla, Pinky / UNISA, Pretoria, South Africa............................................................................ 1597 Pham, Duc Huu / International University, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam........................................................................................................................................ 1196 Pinto-Llorente, Ana María / University of Salamanca, Spain.......................................................... 747 Ponzio, Augusto / University of Bari “Aldo Moro,” , Bari, Italy...................................................... 276 Priyadarshi, Brajesh / All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, India.......................................... 324 Rahal, Aicha / University of Gafsa, Tunisia...................................................................... 362, 491, 949 Raman, Ilhan / Middlesex University, UK........................................................................................ 205 Ramírez-Verdugo, Maria Dolores / Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain............................. 1237 Rastogi, Kavita / University of Lucknow, India............................................................................... 1303 Rimšāne, Inta / Rezekne Academy of Technologies, Rēzekne, Latvia............................................. 1032 Rossatto, César A. / The University of Texas at El Paso, USA......................................................... 1340 Rothgerber, John / Indiana University, USA.................................................................................. 1495 Salah, Reema / Al al-Bayt University, Jordan................................................................................. 1216 Shannon, Linda A. / California State University, Fresno, USA......................................................... 471 Shiny K. G. / VIT University, India..................................................................................................... 553 Shudhalwar, Deepak D. / PSS Central Institute of Vocational Education, NCERT, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India................................................................................................................. 595 Singh, Manu Pratap / Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.................... 595 Sokolova, Elena Gennadievna / Volga State University of Water Transport, Russia........................ 705 Soria, Beatriz García / The University of Texas at El Paso, USA.................................................... 1340 Sullivan, Kirk P. H. / Umeå University, Sweden................................................................................ 723 T. de V. Souza, Izabel E. / Osaka University, Japan.......................................................................... 614 Tanida, Yasuo / Kotonoha Research Laboratory, Japan................................................................... 297 Torricelli, Patrizia / University of Messina, Italy.............................................................................. 393 Tsunoda, Tasaku / Emeritus, National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, Japan.. 1647 Tsybulsky, Dina / Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel.................................................. 665 Tunde, Asiru Hameed / Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, Nigeria.............................................. 1628 Turner, Jason J. / Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation, Malaysia............................ 685 Tzirides, Anastasia Olga / University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA................................. 827 Ursyn, Anna / University of Northern Colorado, USA.......................................................................... 1 Vining, Christine B. / University of New Mexico, USA...................................................................... 417 Waldmann, Christian / Linnaeus University, Sweden...................................................................... 723 Walker, Chloe / The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados......................... 1068 Wang, Ai-Ling / Tamkang University, Taiwan................................................................................ 1320 Wang, Congcong / University of Northern Iowa, USA.................................................................... 1170 West, Joel / University of Toronto, Canada....................................................................................... 405 White, Jonathan R. / Högskolan Dalarna, Sweden......................................................................... 1369 Williams, Howard A. / Teachers College, Columbia University, USA................................................ 79 Wiltshire, Caroline / University of Florida, USA............................................................................. 861 Zheng, Robert Z. / University of Utah, USA...................................................................................... 341

Table of Contents

Preface................................................................................................................................................. xvii

Volume I Section 1 Fundamental Concepts and Theories Chapter 1 How Do We Communicate...................................................................................................................... 1 Anna Ursyn, University of Northern Colorado, USA Chapter 2 Phrase and Sentence Structure............................................................................................................... 79 Howard A. Williams, Teachers College, Columbia University, USA Chapter 3 The Rules of Phonology....................................................................................................................... 119 Charles X. Li, Central Washington University, USA Chapter 4 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings............................................... 154 Tom Adi, The Readware Institute, USA Hala Abdelghany, City University of New York, USA Kathy Adi, Readware Institute, USA Chapter 5 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers: A Key to Improve Stakeholder Relationships of  SMEs.................................................................................................................................................... 183 Sandra Bibiana Clavijo-Olmos, EAN University, Colombia Chapter 6 The Role of Context on Age of Acquisition Effect: Strategic Control in Word Naming in  Turkish................................................................................................................................................. 205 Ilhan Raman, Middlesex University, UK





Section 2 Development and Design Methodologies Chapter 7 The Dispositive of Intercultural Communication................................................................................ 233 Dominic Busch, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Germany Chapter 8 Morphemes.......................................................................................................................................... 252 Nikki Ashcraft, University of Missouri, USA Chapter 9 Identity and Alterity of the Text in Translation: A Semioethic Approach........................................... 276 Susan Petrilli, University of Bari “Aldo Moro,” Bari, Italy Augusto Ponzio, University of Bari “Aldo Moro,” , Bari, Italy Chapter 10 Narrative Generation Using Psychological Value Variables: Probabilistic Model of Language Expressions and Values........................................................................................................................ 297 Yasuo Tanida, Kotonoha Research Laboratory, Japan Chapter 11 Neurodevelopmental Disorders From a Clinical Linguistics Perspective........................................... 324 Brajesh Priyadarshi, All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, India B. V. M. Mahesh, All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, India Chapter 12 Influence of Multimedia and Cognitive Strategies in Deep and Surface Verbal Processing: A Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence Perspective.......................................................................................... 341 Robert Z. Zheng, University of Utah, USA Chapter 13 Transdisciplinary Approach to Linguistic Diversity: Can We Co-Exist Without “One English”?..... 362 Aicha Rahal, University of Gafsa, Tunisia Chapter 14 Gender and Language: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Second Language Writing.............................. 376 Didem Koban Koç, Izmir Democracy University, Turkey Chapter 15 Ideology as Social Imagination: Linguistic Strategies for a Cultural Approach to Controversial Social Situations.................................................................................................................................. 393 Patrizia Torricelli, University of Messina, Italy



Chapter 16 Neologisms: Semiotic Deconstruction of the New Words “Lizardy,” “Staycation,” and “Wannarexia” as Peircean Indexes of Culture..................................................................................... 405 Joel West, University of Toronto, Canada Chapter 17 Navajo Speech and Language Evaluation: Difference vs. Disorder..................................................... 417 Christine B. Vining, University of New Mexico, USA Davis E. Henderson, Northern Arizona University, USA Chapter 18 A Discourse Analytic Approach to Practices of Hawaiian Language Revitalization in the Mass Media: Style, Bivalency, and Metapragmatic Commentary................................................................ 433 Toshiaki Furukawa, Waseda University, Japan Chapter 19 Inclusion in Linguistic Education: Neurolinguistics, Language, and Subject..................................... 456 Dionéia Motta Monte-Serrat, Universidade de Ribeirão Preto, Brazil Chapter 20 Linguistically-Responsive Literacy Pedagogies Across Primary and Secondary Classrooms............ 471 Earl Aguilera, California State University, Fresno, USA Ilana Greenstein, California State University, Fresno, USA Linda A. Shannon, California State University, Fresno, USA Chapter 21 English as a Lingua Franca: Approaches to Bridge the Gap Between Theory and Practice............... 491 Aicha Rahal, Aix-Marseille University, France Chapter 22 Dynamics of Translanguaging Practices.............................................................................................. 503 Kimberly Ilosvay, University of Portland, USA Chapter 23 Linguodidactic Analysis of Professionally-Oriented Language Education and CLIL Special Features................................................................................................................................................ 518 Liudmila Khalyapina, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Russia Nadezhda Almazova, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Russia Tatiana Baranova, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Russia Chapter 24 Signs of Plurilingualism: Current Plurilingual Countermoves in Danish Higher Education.............. 534 Petra Daryai-Hansen, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Marta Kirilova, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark



Volume II Section 3 Tools and Technologies Chapter 25 A Study on the Application of Technology for Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis in Language Research............................................................................................................................................... 553 Shiny K. G., VIT University, India Karthikeyan J., VIT University, India Binoy Barman, Daffodil International University, Bangladesh Chapter 26 Speech Acts and Cross-Cultural Pragmatics........................................................................................ 566 Clara Bauler, Adelphi University, USA Chapter 27 Discursive-Linguistic Devices and Strategies in Spam E-Mail Narratives.......................................... 582 Simone Belli, Yachay Tech, Urcuqui, Ecuador Miriam Jiménez Bernal, European University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain Chapter 28 Multilayer Neural Network Technique for Parsing the Natural Language Sentences.......................... 595 Manu Pratap Singh, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India Sukrati Chaturvedi, Department of Physics and Computer Science, DEI, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India Deepak D. Shudhalwar, PSS Central Institute of Vocational Education, NCERT, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India Chapter 29 The Medical Interpreter Mediation Role: Through the Lens of Therapeutic Communication............ 614 Izabel E. T. de V. Souza, Osaka University, Japan Chapter 30 Linguistic Elements as Tools for the Analysis of Media Narratives.................................................... 650 Jolita Horbacauskiene, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania Chapter 31 Linguistic Analysis of Science Teachers’ Narratives Using AntConc Software................................. 665 Yulia Muchnik-Rozanov, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel Dina Tsybulsky, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel Chapter 32 Learning Law Using Augmented Reality and Neuro-Linguistic Programming.................................. 685 Puteri Sofia Amirnuddin, Taylor’s University, Malaysia Jason J. Turner, Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation, Malaysia



Chapter 33 Lawyer’s ICC as a Result of Integration of Linguo-Didactics, Linguoculturology, and Jurisprudence: New Perspectives of ESP............................................................................................. 705 Elena Petrovna Glumova, Nizhny Novgorod State Linguistic University, Russia Elena Gennadievna Sokolova, Volga State University of Water Transport, Russia Chapter 34 Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality................................................................................................ 723 Christian Waldmann, Linnaeus University, Sweden Kirk P. H. Sullivan, Umeå University, Sweden Chapter 35 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation................................... 747 Ana María Pinto-Llorente, University of Salamanca, Spain Chapter 36 Professional Support Networks in TESOL: Sociolinguistic Approaches to Professional Development in ESOL Teacher Education.......................................................................................... 768 Bahar Otcu-Grillman, Mercy College, USA JungKang Miller, Mercy College, USA Chapter 37 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis: Poetry as a Humanistic  Practice................................................................................................................................................. 785 Jawad Golzar, Herat University, Afghanistan Mir Abdullah Miri, Herat University, Afghanistan Chapter 38 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning........................................................ 805 Jon Bakos, Indiana State University, USA Chapter 39 Translanguaging and Digital Technologies in the Realm of Language Learning............................... 827 Anastasia Olga Tzirides, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Chapter 40 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia.............................................. 840 Natalia Dmitrievna Galskova, Moscow Region State University, Russia Section 4 Utilization and Applications Chapter 41 English Sounds in Context: The Pronunciation of Phonemes and Morphemes.................................. 861 Caroline Wiltshire, University of Florida, USA



Chapter 42 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English...................................................... 884 Gulsat Aygen, Northern Illinois University, USA Chapter 43 Advertising With Humour: A Pragmatic and Semantic Investigation................................................. 934 Lorena Clara Mihăeş, University of Bucharest, Romania Manuela Epure, Spiru Haret University, Romania Chapter 44 Phonetic Fossilization: Is It a Matter of Perfection or Intelligibility?................................................. 949 Aicha Rahal, University of Gafsa, Tunisia Chapter 45 Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity: The Case of Loanwords in Turkish and English................................................................................................................................................. 966 Muhlise Coşgun Ögeyik, Trakya University, Turkey Chapter 46 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research.............. 982 Toluwase Victor Asubiaro, University of Ibadan, Nigeria & Western University, Canada Ebelechukwu Gloria Igwe, University of Ibadan, Nigeria Chapter 47 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy: Examining How Teachers Engage ELL Knowledge, Interests, and Struggles in Social Studies Classrooms.................................................. 1004 Kevin Russel Magill, Baylor University, USA Chapter 48 Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach........ 1032 Petra Daryai-Hansen, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Samúel Lefever, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland Inta Rimšāne, Rezekne Academy of Technologies, Rēzekne, Latvia Chapter 49 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds With Social Justice and Inclusive Critical Literacy Practices............................................................ 1049 Shadrack Gabriel Msengi, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, USA Chapter 50 ‘To Know Is to Love?’: Language Awareness and Language Attitudes in a Barbadian  Classroom.......................................................................................................................................... 1068 Chloe Walker, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados



Chapter 51 Working With Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children From Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds...... 1087 Karen Garrido-Nag, Gallaudet University, USA James McCann, Gallaudet University, USA

Volume III Chapter 52 Language Hierarchisations and Dehierarchisations: Nordic Parents’ Views Towards Language Awareness Activities.......................................................................................................................... 1110 Petra Daryai-Hansen, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Heidi Johanna Layne, National Institute of Education/NTU, Singapore Samúel Lefever, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland Chapter 53 Plurilingualism and STEAM: Unfolding the Paper Crane of Peace at an Elementary School in Japan.................................................................................................................................................. 1129 Daniel Roy Pearce, Kyoto Notre Dame University, Japan Mayo Oyama, Ritsumeikan University, Japan Danièle Moore, Simon Fraser University, Canada Kana Irisawa, Nara University of Education Elementary School, Japan Chapter 54 The Teaching of Corpus Languages in Higher Education: Late Eastern Aramaic (Syriac) at the University of Salamanca.................................................................................................................... 1149 Vega María García González, University of Salamanca, Spain Chapter 55 Chinese Foreign Language Online Course Design to Improve English Monolingual Teachers’ Awareness of ELLs: A Linguistic, Cultural, and Technological Awareness Development and Transfer Model................................................................................................................................... 1170 Congcong Wang, University of Northern Iowa, USA Chapter 56 The Rhetoric of Mass Communication and Media in the Contrastive Sociolinguistics.................... 1196 Duc Huu Pham, International University, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Chapter 57 Female Writings in Times of Crisis: A Transnational Feminist and Sociolinguistic Study.............. 1216 Nancy Al-Doghmi, Yarmouk University, Jordan Reema Salah, Al al-Bayt University, Jordan



Chapter 58 A Sociocultural Study on English Learners’ Critical Thinking Skills and Competence................... 1237 Maria Dolores Ramírez-Verdugo, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain Eva Márquez, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain Chapter 59 A Photo-Narrative of the Sociolinguistic and Sociocultural Identities of a Refugee Adolescent: Through His Eyes.............................................................................................................................. 1258 Alex P. Davies, Portland State University, USA Chapter 60 Cultural Identity and Catalan Language Planning............................................................................. 1276 Xènia Escolano, University of Alicante, Spain Chapter 61 Catalan Sociolinguistics: Between Essay and Social Science........................................................... 1290 Toni Mollà Orts, Universitat de Valencia, Spain Chapter 62 Language Shift and Maintenance in Uttarakhand, a Hilly State of India.......................................... 1303 Kavita Rastogi, University of Lucknow, India Madri Kakoti, University of Lucknow, India Section 5 Organizational and Social Implications Chapter 63 Are We Living in a Globalized World? Reflections on Language Use and Global Inequality.......... 1320 Ai-Ling Wang, Tamkang University, Taiwan Chapter 64 The Transborderization of Neoliberalism: In the Trenches of Cultural and Linguistic Equity for Social and Educational Transformation............................................................................................. 1340 César A. Rossatto, The University of Texas at El Paso, USA Beatriz García Soria, The University of Texas at El Paso, USA Jesús Aguirre, The University of Texas at El Paso, USA Chapter 65 Modified Road Traffic Signs in the South African Linguistic Landscape......................................... 1352 Lorato Mokwena, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa Chapter 66 Marking Community Identity Through Languaging: Authentic Norms in TELL............................. 1369 Jonathan R. White, Högskolan Dalarna, Sweden



Chapter 67 A Study on Linguistic Management in Online and Offline Communities: Focusing on the Effect of Jargons on the Conflict.................................................................................................................. 1390 U Jin Baek, Seoul Women’s University, Seoul, Republic of Korea Miji Lee, Seoul Women’s University, Seoul, Republic of Korea Jongtae Lee, Seoul Women’s University, Seoul, Republic of Korea Chapter 68 Creative Discourse as a Means of Exploring and Developing Human Creativity............................. 1406 Tasos Michailidis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece Gina Paschalidou, Ministry of Education, Research, and Religious Affairs, Greece Chapter 69 Digital Identity and Reputation in a Virtual Practice Network - Insights Using Linguistic  Features.............................................................................................................................................. 1427 Salam Abdallah, Abu Dhabi University, Abu Dhabi, UAE Chapter 70 Teleuts’ Family and Kinship Ties: Socio-Demographic Background and Linguistic Analysis......... 1447 Stanislav Vladimirovich Olenev, Kemerovo State University, Russia Liudmila Alexeyevna Araeva, Kemerovo State University, Russia Olga Anatolyevna Bulgakova, Kemerovo State University, Russia Chapter 71 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition...................................................... 1464 Asmaa Muwafaq Alkhazraji, The British University in Dubai, UAE Chapter 72 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English.............................................................. 1495 John Rothgerber, Indiana University, USA Chapter 73 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2: Sensitivity to Phonological Awareness and Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences in L2 English....................................................................... 1514 Elena Theodosis Kkese, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus Chapter 74 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners......................................................... 1534 Jatnna Acosta, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA Chapter 75 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru...................................................... 1552 Toru Okamura, Komatsu University, Japan



Chapter 76 Discourse Analysis............................................................................................................................. 1573 Soe Marlar Lwin, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore Section 6 Critical Issues and Challenges Chapter 77 An Exploration of the Manipulative Use of Language and Visuals in Advertisements: A Critical Discourse Approach........................................................................................................................... 1597 Magret Jongore, Bindura University of Science Education, Bindura, Zimbabwe Pinky Phaahla, UNISA, Pretoria, South Africa Rose Masubelele, UNISA, Pretoria, South Africa Chapter 78 Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis...................................... 1612 Eda Başak Hancı-Azizoglu, Mediterranean (Akdeniz) University, Turkey Chapter 79 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria............................................................................................................................................... 1628 Asiru Hameed Tunde, Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, Nigeria Shamsuddeen Bello, Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, Nigeria Chapter 80 Australian Aboriginal Languages: Their Decline and Revitalisation................................................ 1647 Tasaku Tsunoda, Emeritus, National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, Japan Index...................................................................................................................................................... xx

xvii

Preface

Whether through speech, writing, or other methods, language and communication has been an essential tool for human cooperation. Across the world, language varies drastically based on culture and disposition. Even in areas in which language is standardized, it is common to have many varieties of dialects. Despite the innate diversity of language practices, societies have historically discriminated against those speaking different native languages or dialects. It is essential to understand applied linguistics and the diversity of language practices to create equitable spaces for all dialects and languages. Through this study, we also find inclusive and practical methods to best teach language learners. Staying informed of the most up-to-date research trends and findings is of the utmost importance. That is why IGI Global is pleased to offer this three-volume reference collection of reprinted IGI Global book chapters and journal articles that have been handpicked by senior editorial staff. This collection will shed light on critical issues related to the trends, techniques, and uses of various applications by providing both broad and detailed perspectives on cutting-edge theories and developments. This collection is designed to act as a single reference source on conceptual, methodological, technical, and managerial issues, as well as to provide insight into emerging trends and future opportunities within the field. The Research Anthology on Applied Linguistics and Language Practices is organized into six distinct sections that provide comprehensive coverage of important topics. The sections are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Fundamental Concepts and Theories; Development and Design Methodologies; Tools and Technologies; Utilization and Applications; Organizational and Social Implications; and Critical Issues and Challenges.

The following paragraphs provide a summary of what to expect from this invaluable reference tool. Section 1, “Fundamental Concepts and Theories,” serves as a foundation for this extensive reference tool by addressing crucial theories essential to understanding linguistic and language practices. The first chapter, “How Do We Communicate,” by Prof. Anna Ursyn of University of Northern Colorado, USA, examines our modes of imparting or exchanging facts and opinions. Emphasis is put on visual communication, some basic notions about semantics, and also visualization techniques and domains. The final chapter, “The Role of Context on Age of Acquisition Effect: Strategic Control in Word Naming in Turkish,” by Prof. Ilhan Raman of Middlesex University, UK, examines the role of filler type critically manipulated on lexicality, frequency, and imageability on the size of age of acquisition (AoA) effect 

Preface

in word naming in an entirely transparent orthography. Overall, results, which are discussed within the current theoretical frameworks, suggest that context plays a significant role on the AoA. Section 2, “Development and Design Methodologies,” presents in-depth coverage of the design and development of language research methodology and language learning curriculum. The first chapter, “The Dispositive of Intercultural Communication,” by Prof. Dominic Busch of Universität der Bundeswehr München, Germany, presents the concept of dispositives as it has been introduced by the French philosopher Michel Foucault. The concept is contrasted with competing approaches from discourse analysis, and it is then explored in its potential as a basis for empirical analysis. Dispositive analyses provide insights into how discourse, power, and knowledge shape society on a very general macro-level. Instead of linguistic, textual analyses, dispositive analysis helps to re-read the emergence, the development, and, as an example here, the inner composition of academic fields. The final chapter, “Signs of Plurilingualism: Current Plurilingual Countermoves in Danish Higher Education,” by Profs. Petra Daryai-Hansen and Marta Kirilova of University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, discusses the signs of plurilingualism, how they can be conceptualized, and why the promotion of plurilingualism seems to be central to Danish universities’ internationalization efforts. Furthermore, the authors present a preliminary model that tries to capture the plurilingual countermoves and the quantitative data that have been collected in order to investigate students’ language needs and teachers’ language needs, competences, and practices. These findings suggest a multifaceted picture of language needs among students and language competences, practices, and needs among university staff and problematize the perception of English and the national language(s) as sufficient languages for academia. Section 3, “Tools and Technologies,” explores the various tools and technologies used in linguistics. The first chapter, “A Study on the Application of Technology for Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis in Language Research,” by Profs. Karthikeyan J. and Shiny K. G. of VIT University, India and Prof. Binoy Barman of Daffodil International University, Bangladesh, analyses various statistical techniques used and the various software that offers these techniques according to need. It also suggests the best software for ELT research and explains the features of these software packages. The final chapter, “Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia,” by Prof. Natalia Dmitrievna Galskova of Moscow Region State University, Russia, studies the interaction of phenomena such as language, consciousness, culture, society, and processes of teaching a foreign language, mastering this language as part of educational process, using the language as a means of communication, (self)-knowledge, and (self)development. Emphasis is placed on both describing linguodidactics research areas through addressing its notion “professional language personality” and interpreting content-specific and innovative features of the contemporary sociocultural model of students’ linguistics education and its essential structural elements, including the value of this education, its purpose, content, and methods, as well as students’ communication activities, their involvement in the system of social relations, and educational outcomes. Section 4, “Utilization and Applications,” describes how concepts described in the field of linguistics can be analyzed in real-world applications. The first chapter, “English Sounds in Context: The Pronunciation of Phonemes and Morphemes,” by Prof. Caroline Wiltshire of University of Florida, USA, provides the phonemes of English, which are the distinctive units of sound, and examples of how they vary in context. It also illustrates the variation of English morphemes in context, by providing examples of allomorphy. Some implications of variation in context for teaching English are discussed. The final chapter, “Language Shift and Maintenance in Uttarakhand, a Hilly State of India,” by Prof. Kavita Rastogi and Madri Kakoti of University of Lucknow, India, examines the extent of language shift with respect to two communities living in the state of Uttarakhand in India and speaking respectively named endangered xviii

Preface

languages, Jad and Raji, in the light of these factors. The authors examine how language contact that is causal in language shift is changing their linguistic make up. Section 5, “Organizational and Social Implications,” includes chapters discussing the impact of language use on cultures, societies, and communities. The first chapter, “Are We Living in a Globalized World? Reflections on Language Use and Global Inequality,” by Prof. Ai-Ling Wang of Tamkang University, Taiwan, discusses the prejudiced or inappropriate language use in an era of globalization, for example, distinctions between language and dialect, Global South and Global North, developed countries and developing countries, majority and minority, intercultural education, and multicultural education. Then the author extends the discussion to the inequality in different fields, such as the educational and economic fields. The final chapter, “Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru,” by Prof. Toru Okamura of Komatsu University, Japan, surveys sociolinguistic features with a special emphasis on Japanese on Nauru Island. It considers factors affecting the stability of the Nauruan language and Pidgin English. Section 6, “Critical Issues and Challenges,” presents coverage of the issues and challenges surrounding language and linguistics research. The first chapter, “Discourse Analysis,” by Prof. Soe Marlar Lwin of Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore, introduces discourse analysis as a sub-discipline of linguistics. Relevant concepts from pragmatics, another closely-related sub-discipline, are also discussed within the context of discourse analysis. The final chapter, “Australian Aboriginal Languages: Their Decline and Revitalisation,” by Prof. Tasaku Tsunoda of Emeritus, National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, Japan, describes the decline and revitalisation of Australian Aboriginal languages—also called Australian languages. It examines a problem that is frequently encountered in language revitalisation activities: confusion over writing systems. The entire chapter pays careful attention to the changing political climate that surrounds Australian languages and activities for them. Although the primary organization of the contents in this multi-volume work is based on its six sections, offering a progression of coverage of the important concepts, methodologies, technologies, applications, social issues, and emerging trends, the reader can also identify specific contents by utilizing the extensive indexing system listed at the end of each volume. As a comprehensive collection of research on the latest findings related to linguistics, the Research Anthology on Applied Linguistics and Language Practices provides linguists, pre-service teachers, libraries, students and educators of higher education, educational administration, ESL organizations, government officials, researchers, and academicians with a complete understanding of the applications and impacts of linguistics and language practices. Given the vast number of issues concerning usage, failure, success, strategies, and applications of language in modern research and use, the Research Anthology on Applied Linguistics and Language Practices encompasses the most pertinent research on the applications, impacts, uses, and development of language.

xix

Section 1

Fundamental Concepts and Theories

1

Chapter 1

How Do We Communicate Anna Ursyn University of Northern Colorado, USA

ABSTRACT This chapter examines our modes of imparting or exchanging facts and opinions. After discussion of the role of electromagnetic waves in our sensory perception, further text describes the ways we and other living beings gain information through the senses, especially when enhanced with technology. Finally, communication between people, with computers, and with other living things is described, especially when animal communication involves senses unavailable to human beings. Emphasis is put on visual communication, some basic notions about semantics, and also visualization techniques and domains. Basic art concepts, elements of design in art, and principles of design in art serve as background information, followed by learning projects.

INTRODUCTION First of all, electromagnetic waves of different wavelengths serve as a medium and thus make a worthwhile contribution to our perception and means of communication. Many kinds of human and animal senses operate as a source of gathering information, and then cognitive abilities support our sensing of numbers and spoken or written language. The following text discusses a notion of semantics as it tells about visual communication through images, art, and signs of different kinds. Visualization with its techniques and domains, along with some other ways of sharing data support these actions. Technologies that enhance our senses and means of communication involve our communication with computers. Humans have been exposed to encounters with threats of different kinds from the very beginnings of history. Knowledge about acute abilities of animals enhances our communication, defense, and attack capabilities related to many spheres of life. In some of these cases, communication happens to be unilateral.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch001

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 How Do We Communicate

2.1. MODES OF GATHERING INFORMATION Wavelengths: Sources for Our Perception Describing senses in separate groups may be seen improper because senses are interconnected in many ways. Communication may mean an exchange of sensory information from different kinds of perception. Signals coming from the senses are often combined to convey a clear message. For example, we can receive information about numbers from various senses, looking at patterns, listening to sounds, feeling vibrations, or reading numbers. In general terms, senses provide input to an organism due to their physiological capacities. Our senses can identify distinctive electromagnetic wavelengths. The electromagnetic spectrum might best characterize our world (Table 1). It includes, from longest wavelength to shortest: radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays. We can detect only a small fragment of the electromagnetic spectrum as sounds, heat, or light. A lot of applications and tools serve for light transmission, amplification, signal processing, and other kinds of manipulation. These interacting electric and magnetic currents or fields have distinctive wavelengths, energy, and frequency. Living beings gather information and communicate by responding to electromagnetic waves, cymatics (wave phenomena, vibration of matter that makes sound visible), the pitch response, the senses of vision, smell, touch, and taste, and more. Signals become stimuli that cause physical or physiological reflex responses, which may be performed without our consciousness or as intentional reactions; they also cause psychological reactions. Our communication may involve many internal and external senses: a sense of temperature, kinesthetic sense that gives us balance, a sense of motion, a sense of acceleration and velocity changes (e.g., pressure caused by the wind), proprioception that allows sensing the relative position and movement of parts of the body, a feel of direction, responsiveness to pheromones, and sensitivity to pain. We are constantly processing sensory information coming from our external and internal receptors that respond to and transmit signals about our body. We may sense someone’s feelings or mood through the tone of their voice, body language, even from the look in their eyes; it may happen also in our communication with animals. Our own feelings, for example a feeling of being tired, exhausted, hungry, or just thirsty and dehydrated after a vigorous physical exercise or after a long discussion, can add or subtract the intensity of the sensory perception. For this reason, information coming to us from our senses might be discussed in diverse frames of reference: physiological, physical, technological, and aesthetical. Some hold that humans, and maybe some animals are experts (without training) of picking up emotional expression in faces (Loizides, 2019). The answers depend on the sensitivity of our senses or our organism. We are able to capture light – photons or energy; we recognize, name, and categorize it with our senses. We observe, study, and record nature in terms of making inventions. For example, we use wind for such purposes as sailing, harvesting energy, and converting it into different forms. We produce photographic recording of movement, frozen in time or moving in films and movies. From the theoretical study that is possible by applying mathematics, we can develop areas for research that make the unseen, unfelt, or unheard converted into the visible, palpable, or sending sounds. From there, we go from the physical to digital or vice versa. We examine these capacities and use this information for theoretical, practical, and computational solutions within the domains of physiology, neuroscience, cognitive science, cognitive psychology, sociology, anthropology, medicine, computer science, but also human perception, philosophy, and art. 2

 How Do We Communicate

While we can get a candle smelling like rain, we cannot obtain a library of smells and create a smellsense related composition. We can think how to code smells, so one could develop a composition taking the audience through the journey of various smells, or to go even farther and to create an IMAX like experience, when images, movies, and stories would be supported by this experience. How about an email attachment that smells? Of course, there are many not so nice smells, so we should think about how those would be used, for example as a warning, or for making a spam on the internet. We make research to transform information into visual forms. For example, we examine history and future of computer graphics in service of information graphics, and investigate into internet data to find a source for inspiration, transformation, translation, or copying images. These sources are augmenting our bank of information. We also use the nature- and science-based data for performing one’s own experimental study or production. Finally, we apply visualization of scientific and abstract concepts, events, and processes as a learning tool with explanatory power. For some people sensitivity is considered a weakness, especially in boys. Some boys are often trained to be insensitive to be considered strong, and thus they may develop a wide spectrum of unfriendly attitudes toward highly sensitive people. In many instances boys are encouraged to shoot, hunt animals, and fish. They are trained to be insensitive to pain coming from sport games and competitions. Military training, especially intelligence services and espionage training comprise exercises focused on building insensitivity to own or others’ pain. Many domains of art that require sensitivity (and sensibility) often evoke hostile reaction and a need to deny the meaning and value of these qualities. On th other hand, the role of the sensory input in art may pertain in some extent to individual curiosity and sensibility. Animal senses may often act differently, as it for instance happens with worms, butterflies, or birds. Some animals may receive ultrasound signals, some have more acute sense of smell, some have better balance, and other have the wider or more narrow ranges of frequencies used for vision and hearing. Many kinds of animals have also other kinds of senses, different ways of interpreting data from the environment such as echolocation, and different kinds of receptors such as electrically sensitive electroreceptors found in sharks, electric eels, catfish, and other fish (Wueringer, 2019; Wueringer, Squire, Kajiura, Hart, & Collin, 2012). In a saw of a sawfish (all species of sawfish are critically endangered), an elongated cranial cartilage with teeth is covered in a dense array of electroreceptors. The sawfish’s saw is unique in its use for both detecting and manipulating prey (Wueringer et al., 2012). Sharks, rays, and some other aquatic animals generate bioelectric dipole fields created by the opposite electromagnetic charges separated by a small distance; they can detect such fields and attack their prey. Figure 1 shows a water creature imagined by Cassidy Stratton. Creatures that live in the darkness of the deep sea wouldn’t seem to have need for eyes, or the ability to see color. However, some dragon fish, as well as by other deep-sea creatures have evolved from blue-light sensitivity to red-light sensitivity, and then back to blue. The force driving these changes is likely the bioluminescence produced by the dragon fish themselves. Dragon fish can see and emit far red light using organs called photophores placed below its eyes. Bioluminescence – the production and emission of light by a living organism occurs widely in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, in terrestrial invertebrates such as fireflies, as well as in some fungi and microorganisms. Also the light is produced by symbiosis between some animals and bioluminescent bacteria (Parry, 2014). Figure 2 shows a work by Anna Ursyn entitled “Tolerance.”

3

 How Do We Communicate

Figure 1. A Creature: Life in Water

(© 2018, C. Stratton. Used with permission)

Figure 2. Tolerance

(© 2018, A. Ursyn. Used with permission)

4

 How Do We Communicate

We are still not sure which senses we had already lost, and which ones we ignore or are not aware of. Sometimes our senses are below par with the animal senses. For example, we cannot sense from a distance the body heat of people or animals, and cannot perceive the signals related to the degree of water pressure or water current. However, we lack senses or not have enough sensitivity to detect many physical or chemical qualities. We seem to lack the sense of ultrasounds, we are unsure (in variable degree) about our circadian rhythms (biological processes recurring on a 24-hour cycle and influenced by the environment), our sense of time, our body temperature, or physiological responses to our emotions. Some animals have strong geospatial sense of the direction; we do not navigate like earthworms, fish, bees, or birds do. We cannot measure with our senses the strength of electric and magnetic fields, and also week electromagnetic fields, in spite of the warnings that electromagnetic fields produced by such human-made devices as mobile phones, computers, power lines, and domestic wiring might have harmful effects on living organisms: cell membranes, DNA, metabolism, and also neuronal activity. Also, we do not estimate without tools the air pressure or our blood pressure, to name a few. Therefore, we have to rely on man-made sensors and devices. When we think about a threshold intensity for a stimulus that is needed to evoke a reaction, we can see that sensitivity to particular kinds of stimuli such as visuals, sounds, or smells varies greatly, both between species and among individual people. Not only most of animals are more sensitive than humans, for example to a smell, but they also produce and release chemical substances that cause physiological and behavioral reactions in others members of their species or in different living beings. A growing number of studies focus on the relationship between human decisions and the levels of biologically active substances in blood. Both the hormones released into the blood and the pheromones (substances produced by organisms, e.g., of mammals and insects) can affect human physiology and behavior. Other studies support the idea that online relationships can be associated with the release of oxytocin. Several companies started production of pheromone substances containing oxytocin. One may think about factors promoting or inhibiting the release of biologically active substances; for example, how particular colors, traditionally ascribed to the mood changes, would contribute to the release of these compounds to the bloodstream. Video game designers create numerous genres of first-person-shooter or survival-horror action games. On the recipients’ side, emotional problems in social relations often arise when gamers become addicted. Pheromones are carriers of information that activate biochemical, physiological, and psychological reactions. They activate not only the organ of smell but also many other structures in the brain. In case of pheromones the threshold level is usually so low that single molecules can evoke reaction. Possibly, a dog can gather information about the gender, size, age, etc. of another dog that left some substances behind a tree trunk, while a newborn infant cannot recognize mother by sight but can smell her pheromones. While constructing models of animal behavior it is important to incorporate variables such as internal states: hunger, sex, drive, and higher functions: learning, memory, and personality. Most models focus on social systems. Computing scientists examine social insects, which display behavior of individuals that does not require centralized command. Packs of wolf, schools of fish, flocks of birds, and other social animals are a source of biology inspired solutions. Signals may last long, for example, chemical signals, or may be transient like the acoustical ones. Animals communicate with members of their own species and with another species. They convey information about actions such as foraging and predator defense. Some signals may differ from those used by humans: they may include chemical substances,

5

 How Do We Communicate

electrical, and seismic signals (for example, when blind mole rats transmit signals over long distances by thumping on burrow walls). Social insects working in swarms can manage complex situations (Schmickl & Hamann, 2011). Animals developed senses into highly sophisticated devices by joining and combining their sensors. Social insects developed also methods of acting on their environment, for example, by determining ant trails or building termite mounds; the swarm’s behavior may change the environment and the changed stimuli from the environment may in turn alter the swarm’s behavior (Schmickl & Hamann, 2011, p. 100). The authors adapted the rules of interactions inside the swarm; information about these rules may be valuable in constructing swarm robots. The principles of swarm intelligence, where the colony agents cooperate to achieve a common goal without a higher supervision, apply to the mould building capability of termites. A lost worker ant will mimic the task that the successful one is performing, which means a worker ant can assess its own success. In social insects, many individuals respond to stimuli in a similar way. The resulting quality, referred to as swarm intelligence, has been compared to distributed, parallel computing. Social insect inspired meta-heuristic optimization solutions have been based on ant colony, wasp swarm, termite mould, honeybee hive, and genetic algorithms, among other optimization solutions (Hartman, Pinto, Runkler, & Sousa, 2011). Biologically inspired evolutionary robotics (ER) is a powerful approach for the automatic synthesis of robot controllers. Creation of collective and swarm robotics may be inspired by a feature that the behavior of a social group results from the control and communication rules followed by each individual.

Project: Pattern and Order Some individuals move independently in the same direction, indifferent to others’ goals. On the road, a speed limit, a slope and turns of a highway determine the cars’ performance. Swarm computing examines several kinds of collective behavior. Individual members of a swarm assume repetitive configurations without orchestration imposed by any conductor. There is no leader in this case, in contrast to organized events that are commanded by a leader, such as in case of marching in a military manner, being a part of an air force squadron, walking together during weddings, funerals, or participating in a circus caravan. Yet another way of an animal collective movement may result from chemical cues produced by members of a swarm in case of ants, may be measured by a distance between individuals’ wings in a flock of birds, or may be caused by the smell of food attracting bees. Collective behavior of animal species often serves as inspiration for designing mechanical systems that function like living organisms. Figure 3 shows a work by Anna Ursyn entitled “Reality Check.” Depict animals showing collective way of life. Create a multiple-horizon environment on many levels, with inhabitants moving in a particular order and obeying their specific rules. It may be the world of various kinds of birds, fish, insects, bats, four-legged animals, and also humans. Think about the ways you will apply to indicate patterns and order existing in such flocks, schools, swarms, packs, herds, crowds, battalions, and other formations. Show differences one can see between the species’ behavior and the ways they form collective actions.

6

 How Do We Communicate

Figure 3. Reality Check

(© 2018, A. Ursyn. Used with permission)

Sensory Enhancement by Technologies Human sensory experiences are expanded by the developments in current technologies including quantum physics and nanotechnology. We use our sensory information for theoretical, practical, and computational solutions within the domains of physiology, neuroscience, cognitive science, cognitive psychology, sociology, anthropology, medicine, computer science, philosophy, and art. One may say that art media of the 21st century including music, theater, interactive media and installations are inspired by the input from our senses, and also incorporate the viewers’ senses. They often visualize the unseen and give the viewer the phenomenal, immediate experience. Figure 4 shows a work by Anna Ursyn entitled “Stellar Music.” Figure 4. Stellar Music

(© 2018, A. Ursyn. Used with permission)

7

 How Do We Communicate

Portable devices act as an extension of human senses. Bio-interfaces have been used as wearable devices to provide organic interaction between man and machine. Developers and designers search for computational solutions and applications that enhance sensitivity and improve emotional wellbeing of the user. Within the scope of interaction with games, the wearable computers allow the users to interact with digital games through their physiological and cerebral signals. Forms of interaction include the use of mice, keyboards, joysticks, or touch screens, as well as participation by adding voice, changing position, face expression, or gesture.

GATHERING INFORMATION THROUGH THE SENSES Hearing: Sounds as Electromagnetic Waves Sounds evoke our sensory response. Sound waves cause that the ear structures pass and translate vibrations into neural messages sent through the auditory nerve from about 25,000 receptors to the brain. The ears contain also semicircular structures that provide the feeling of balance. Sensory responses to electromagnetic waves include, music and various types of communications. Musical sound is produced by continuous, regular vibrations, while noise is not regular. Electromagnetic waves, seen as energy and matter, conduct the waves as repetitive oscillations. That means the system (for example, molecules, drums, pipes, bridges, or houses) displays sinusoidal motion with a given frequency and pattern. Music, speech, and sound effects go together in a sound studio for a broadcast production, film, or video. Artists translate musical compositions into visual imagery and thus create visual music. A growing number of musical events (such as Eurographics – European Association for Computer Graphics, Imagina, or Ars Electronica) incorporate varied kinds of media: performances, live action, interactive installations, and movies.

Pitch Absolute (perfect) pitch is the ability to recognize and remember a tone without a reference. It’s a great asset for musicians who just know the exact tone they hear and name exact notes and chords by ear. Many musicians have no pitch recognition – they have relative pitch – an ability unique to people to identify pitches in relation to other pitches. Many hold that a great deal of newborn babies have absolute pitch: they prefer to respond to absolute rather than relative pitch differences. This ability may possibly cease to exist in early maturation when absolute pitch would interfere with language perception. Infants learn to understand what their parents say; they are focusing on the content – the language perception. However, the pitch and the timbre (a tone quality of a sound that helps distinguish it from other sounds of the same pitch and volume) of the female or male voices are of no importance and of no use in this difficult task. Absolute pitch is prevalent among those who speak tonal languages where high/low pitch combinations are important (such as happens in Mandarin or Cantonese languages). Perfect pitch perception is present in many members of animal kingdom. Some animal species display ability to learn songs. Vocal learners that gain vocalization through imitation have been found in three groups of mammals (humans, bats, and cetaceans – dolphins) and three groups of birds (parrots, hummingbirds, and songbirds). Humans hear sounds of about 12 Hz to 20 kHz. Dogs have their hearing superior to human hearing, with a range 40 to 60 kHz (dog whistles are set at about 44 kHz). Dogs can convey a lot of information 8

 How Do We Communicate

and emotions through their barking. Also bats have sensitive hearing, between 20 and 150 kHz; they use it for navigation and echolocation for locating and tracking their prey. Mice hear sounds of about 1 kHz to 70 kHz. They communicate using high frequency noises partially inaudible by humans. Marmots and ground squirrels, groundhogs, squirrels, and prairie dogs all are highly social; they whistle when alarmed to warn others. Chameleons can sound frequencies in the range 200 to 600 Hz.

Vision The part of the electromagnetic spectrum that can be seen by human eye is in the range of 370-750 nm. There are about 150 million light-sensitive cells. Rods identify shapes, especially in dim light. Three different kinds of cones are sensitive to different wavelengths: long (~564-580 nm – perceived as red), middle (~534-545 – green), and short (~420-440 – blue color space). That means they identify colors (if light is bright enough). A term hue identifies a color or a shade of an object. Images are then sent to the brain’s visual cortex, the outer layer of the cerebrum composed of grey matter that relates to vision. Photoreception in other species differs from that of humans. Human vision is imperfect in comparison to many animals, such as owls, which can see in a dim light a mouse moving in a distance over 150 feet away. Contrary to us, many animal species such as a horse have night vision. Eyes positioned on the sides of the horses’ heads allow them seeing in a range of about 350o, while humans have about 180o field of vision. Part of vision that is outside of the center of our gaze is called peripheral vision; it is weaker in humans than in many animal species. Within the 370-750 nm part of a spectrum, humans and animals react to light by seeing colors. While light in a single wavelength is monochromatic, most colors are polychromatic – contain two or more colors. Our eyes, optic nerve, and visual cortex react to light and lighten surfaces of objects by creating mental images of colors. However, about 7% of male population is color deficient, mostly for red-green discrimination, so many visualization designers are avoiding the red-green color contrasts. People developed also several conventional mental models about colors, by considering a given color as a warm, cool, pleasant, or sad one. Humans developed several mental models of colors. In the RGB additive color model is about light emission; red green, and blue light can be added to produce various colors. The RGB model serves for sensing, representing, and displaying images in computers, television, and traditional color photography. Representations of the RGB color space model designed for the purposes of computer graphics include the HSL (hue, saturation, lightness) and the HSV (hue, saturation, value) models. The CMYK model is about light absorption and the subtractive mixing process in printing, when the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black colors are used in color printers. The CIE 1931 defines colorimetric properties of the color spectrum and a link between the spectrum wavelengths and color perception. Some painters (and not only painters) have perfect color feel and color memory, in a similar way, as some musicians (and not only musicians) possess perfect pitch. They have an ability to recognize and remember color without an external reference for making a comparison, so they do not need to bring a color sample to a store in order to choose the right color of paint. For most people, the visual system perceives the light frequencies in terms of luminance (as in gray scale seen by the rods). Hence, to pick colors for visualization, it’s good to use a few distinctive colors and have a high luminance contrast between foreground and background. Thus, the lightness is important, in addition to color. Humans and animals are able to encode several variables, such as a shape, size (length or area), color hue and color saturation, texture, value (density), and orientation of an object as seen in a 2D image; also, form, position and volume when seen in 3D. 9

 How Do We Communicate

Smell The sense of smell, called olfaction can convert chemical signals into stimuli for our perception. Separate systems detect airborne substances and fluid stimuli. For example, pheromones – chemical substances produced mostly mammals and insects and released into the environment trigger specific social responses. Depending on the type of a pheromone the response is in the form of aggregation of individuals, flight, aggression, but also attraction of mates or babies, and changes their activity, behavior, or physiology. As for the matters of smell and taste, people can tell the difference between 4,000-10,000 smells, and they have close to 10,000 taste buds in their mouths. In most cases those living in big cities may desire to have a quality of smell displayed by people living in pristine conditions, such as members of tribes living in the Sahara Desert or the Aboriginal people living in Western Australia. A single receptor recognizes many odors. Odors are translated into patterns of neural activity and the olfactory bulb, olfactory nerve, and then the olfactory cortex interpret the patterns. Olfactory sensory neurons are replaced throughout life. Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2004 “for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system.” A big part of an olfactory receptor is placed outside the cells, another part is inside a cell membrane, and the inner part is in a cell. The outer part of the receptor changes its shape when it binds with an odor molecule, and the olfactory cell sends a message to a brain. Andreas Mershin and some researchers pose that olfaction may be both a physical sense (detecting molecular vibrations of odors) as well as a chemical sense by sensing shapes of odorant molecules). While vision and hearing are vibration-based senses, taste is a purely chemical one (Franco, Turin, Mershin, & Skoulakis, 2011). In 2017, Maniati, Haralambous, Turin, and Skoulakis concluded that the character of odorant functional groups in Drosophila is encoded in their molecular vibrations. The smell cells in dogs are 100 times larger than human cells. Dogs have about 1 million smell cells per a nostril and therefore dogs are so keen to go for a walk to detect (perceive) and mark their messages. Army and police forces train dogs to sniff out and track bodies, drugs, and bombs. Later on, researchers found that dogs can detect many more. Some diseases, for example prostate cancer, are difficult to detect. Methods of detection, which include biopsy or testing patient’s blood for specific agents, are often not satisfactorily accurate. However, a considerable number of cancer and many other diseases give rise to a volatile signature present in human body, which is discernible for a dog. When trained to detect cancer, dogs can detect a prostate cancer in human urine with over 90 percent accuracy, can sniff out cancer in blood with nearly 100 percent efficacy 18 months before medical tests (Newsmax Health, 2019), smell the early onset of melanoma, breast cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and ovarian cancer (Harrison, 2019). However, not only dogs can be trained to detect diseases in humans. In Tanzania (Africa), scientists have trained rats to detect tuberculosis (TB) by smelling saliva samples. While laboratory workers could analyze with microscopes twenty samples per day, a trained rat, attached to a leash, can examine 120-150 samples in a half hour. The African rat can also sniff TNT – the explosive used in mines, and detect mines. It is too light to set off a mine; as a reward, the handler gives the rat a banana, a pat, and some kind words (Marrin, 2006). Detecting smells may become the better way for finding hidden events that are illegible to people without expensive tools such as gas chromatography or mass spectrometry, or painful procedures, for example biopsy. Scientists are currently trying to gain understanding how is the sense of smell working, in order to create robots that can sniff as well as dogs. At the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) they conduct research toward developing artificial olfaction and create a Nano-Nose – a sensing device 10

 How Do We Communicate

and a diagnostic tool. Researchers promise that we will be “Smelling skin cancer with your smartphone” (Franco et al., 2017). Researchers are training the AI system on a data gathered from trained dogs, to decide what receptors they need to develop. They are working on running a kind of Turing test for smell by imitating the Medical Detection Dogs’ results until they could not be differentiated between the Nano-Nose’s reactions and their canine’s (Harrison, 2019). Medical Detection Dogs is a group in UK that trains animals to be able to sniff out cancers.

Taste Taste: A physical ability to discern flavors is one of the senses; however, gustatory perception securing us a sense of taste can hardly be considered a tool for building communication. We can feel a specific taste when a substance in the mouth reacts chemically with taste receptors on the taste buds. Taste, smell, and activation of trigeminal nerve determine altogether the flavors. Perception of taste is provided by the gustatory cortex. Five basic tastes include saltiness, sweetness, sourness, bitterness, and umami – a savory taste found in broths, cooked meats, soy sauce, and tomatoes. Herz, Schankler, & Beland (2004) have shown that the senses of smell and taste are uniquely sentimental, prompting the feelings because they “are the only senses that connect directly to the hippocampus, the center of the brain’s long-term memory (while) all our other senses (sight, touch, and hearing) are first processed by the thalamus, the source of language and the front door to consciousness.” The sense of smell is well connected to our memory. As often quoted in numerous books, French writer Marcel Proust (1871-1922) described the power of his early sensory experiences when he translated the taste of the madeleine pastry and the smell of the tea he remembered from his childhood. In a book “Proust was a neuroscientist” Jonah Lehrer (2007) wrote that Proust intuited a lot about the structure of our brain. The insight of the writer was that senses of smell and taste bear a unique burden of memory.

Touch The sense of touch is of special importance for some people, which can be illustrated by the bringing the virtuoso musician’s hand in contact with an instrument, the distinctive manner of performing a surgical operation, or the faculty of reading by touch (for example, Braille), and perception through physical contact. An eye surgeon Vladimir Petrovich Filatov was famous for his ability to cut a stack of ultra-thin tissues used for rolling tobacco cigarettes for a depth (for example, 100 layers) requested by an audience, so everybody could count and check the number of the cut tissues. The sense of touch is located in the dermis – the bottom layer of skin. About twenty different types of nerve endings in the dermis carry to the spinal cord and further to the brain information coming from the heat, cold, pressure, touch, pain, and other receptors, especially from the most sensitive body areas: hands, lips, face, neck, tongue, fingertips and feet. One may say our sense of touch may impose our need for creating the palpable, three-dimensional art forms; we can go around, and touch them.

The Sense of Numbers: Communication Using Numerals The sense of numbers involves numerical and verbal cognition and communication with the use of numerals. Many studies and publications explore the sense of numbers as a nonverbal counting and search whether there is thought, especially math thought, without language. Howard Gardner considered those 11

 How Do We Communicate

processing capabilities being the environmental information processing devices. For example, he considered the perception of certain recurrent patterns, including numerical patterns, to be the core of logical mathematical intelligence (Gardner, 1983, 2011; 1993, 2006; 1999). As stated by Rudolph Arnheim (1969, 1974), perceptual sensitivity is the ability to see a visual order of shapes as images of patterned forces that underlie our existence. This approach to perceptual sensitivity somehow corresponds to the way computer scientists talk about the codes in terms of patterns. One may also ponder about programming languages such as HTML or Processing as the information and communication tools related to the numeral perception and serving for nonverbal communication between individuals and computers, as well as for human-computer interaction.

The Numerical and Verbal Cognition The numerical cognition involves mental processes of acquiring and processing knowledge and understanding of numbers. Adults, infants, and animals have already revealed a shared system of representing numbers as analog magnitudes (that contain information on a continuous scale not restricted to a specific set of values). Children count first without naming, then with names spoken or read, or seen as written. How do you know without counting that a mosquito bites you three times or you hear a whistle two times? Numbers can be received by various senses: the same message can be received visually with flags, dots and dashes, or with sounds (long–short or sharp–dull, by pressing 3x3, etc.). Scientists look for correlations between verbal (language dependent) and nonverbal number knowledge. According to Bar-David, Compton, Drennan, Finder, Grogan, & Leonard (2009), the number concepts can be categorized into two major conceptual camps: language-independent model that claims that nonverbal number concepts are not shaped or created by verbal number understanding and abilities, and the language-dependent model that claims that the use and development of number in verbal activities enables children to become proficient (conceptually and procedurally) with numbers. There is an opposition between Symbolist theories, which pose that the thinking occurs in mental symbols, and Conceptualist theories considering mental symbols as products of the thinking about conceptual and abstract entities.

The Language-Dependent Model One hypothesis is that language is necessary to produce thought and children are unable to think about exact number quantities without first learning and mastering verbal counting. Gordon (2004) and then Frank, Everett, Fedorenko, & Gibson (2008) examined connections between language and numbers in the Piraha people, an indigenous hunter-gatherer Amazonian tribe mainly located in Brazil. The Piraha have a counting system with words for “one,” “two,” and “many” but no exact verbal number words for numbers higher than two; the lack of language for exact large numbers affected the Piraha’s numerical cognition and performance with numbers higher than three (according to Bar-David et al., 2009). It is believed that, in contrast with the Arabic decimal system used today almost everywhere, the Mayans counted with fingers and toes and thus they used the Maya vigesimal system based on groups of twenty units (Maya Mathematical System, 2016). One may wonder whether the covering of toes with shoes might influence the developing of counting systems by limiting possibility to use this counting tool to ten. The Maya discovered a notion of zero, and thus the 20 units meant [0-19] with a significant zero, while in the decimal system we apply [0-9] as a placeholder. Each number, from zero to 19, had 12

 How Do We Communicate

its name. They only used three symbols: an ovular shell for a zero, a dot, and a dash, alone or combined, and wrote them vertically or horizontally. Ancient Egyptians performed division as multiplication in reverse: they repeatedly doubled the divisor to obtain the dividend. Actually, we often avoid using exact verbal number words when we say, some, less, a few, several, many, numerous, or a couple. A rosary designed as a string of beads for keeping count in practicing devotion, a calculating tool abacus, the secular strings of worry beads komboloi used in Greece and other countries, and Hindu prayer beads can be seen as examples of numerical cognition processed without verbalizing.

Numerical Representation Without Language On the other hand, there is evidence for precise numerical representation in the absence of language, indicating that language is not necessary to represent small exact numbers or large approximate numbers, and one does not have to know language to understand number. Researchers explored the counting systems in native tribes of South America, and indigenous Australian Aborigines looking for languages that encode the linguistic as well as numerical information. The quipu, a system of knotted cords, is a numerical recording system that was used in the Inca Empire in the Andean region in the 15th and 16th centuries. Gary Urton, a specialist in Andean archaeology, posed that this combination of fiber types, dye colors, and intricate knotting contains a seven-bit binary code capable of conveying more than 1,500 separate units of information. According to Marcia and Robert Ascher (1980, 1997), most information on quipus is numeric, and these numbers can be read. Each cluster of knots is a digit, and there are three main types of knots: simple overhand knots; “long knots”, consisting of an overhand knot with one or more additional turns; and figure-of-eight knots. Butterworth, Reeve, Reynolds, & Lloyd (2008) questioned claims that thoughts about numbers are impossible without the words to express them, that children cannot have the concept of exact numbers until they know the words for them, and adults in cultures whose languages lack a counting vocabulary similarly cannot possess these concepts. They have shown that children who are monolingual speakers of two Australian languages with very restricted number vocabularies possess the same numerical concepts as a comparable group of English-speaking indigenous Australian children. Dunn, Greenhill, Levinson, & Gray (2011) pose that cultural evolution, rather than innate parameters or universal tendencies is the primary factor that determines linguistic structure and diversity, with a current state shaping and constraining future states. Data collected by Gelman and Butterworth (2005) imply that numerical concepts have an ontogenetic origin (resulting from the development of an individual organism) and a neural basis that are independent of language. They question theories about the necessity of using language to develop numerical concepts, both in the case of the child developmental psychology and the counting systems in Amazonian cultures that have very restricted number vocabularies, with the lack of language for exact large numbers. Preverbal humans and animals can represent number through analog magnitudes. Adult people, when told to tap 15 times with their finger while blocking out the counting system through verbal interference, can usually perform 15 taps, showing that humans can approximately map the number 15. As subjects try to tap higher numbers, responses become less precise (Carey, 2011). According to Varley, Klessinger, Romanowski, & Siegal (2005), the numerical reasoning and language are functionally and neuro-anatomically independent in adult humans. They demonstrated a dissociation between grammatical and mathematical syntax in patients with brain damage who suffered from severe aphasia, 13

 How Do We Communicate

preventing them from understanding or producing grammatically correct language. Models of number processing, which are language-independent, indicate that number concepts exist prior to verbal counting (Bar-David et al., 2009).

Supporting Our Senses With Technologies Animals are able to detect and locate environmental changes, so the scientists are working on finding biology-inspired computational solutions that improve our ability to control our external and internal environment. For example, we apply echolocation, ultrasound imaging, and gather thermally conveyed information, which allows us to see from a helicopter whether an object is alive, dead, or inanimate. Communication satellites include civilian and military Earth observation satellites, weather satellites, research satellites, GPS navigation satellites, space stations and other spacecraft orbiting a planet. People are competing to build a satellite network that can deliver internet anywhere in the world. The orbit used is crucial to delivering on the vision. There are two current orbits: low-earth orbit, up to 1,200 miles high and geostationary orbit, about 22,000 high. Figure 5 shows work by Anna Ursyn titled “Waiting for Rain.” Amid drought, people wait as quiescently as the golden soil does. Figure 5. Waiting for Rain

(© 2018, A. Ursyn. Used with permission)

Sensors inform us about levels of substances that are crucial factors in our metabolism such as glucose level in our blood, or are vital components of our environment such as air pressure or information about time and position. Biosensors are used as input channels for galvanic skin response sensor (measuring the electrical conductance from skin), blood volume pulse sensor (that uses photo-plethysmography

14

 How Do We Communicate

to detect existing blood pressure), breathing sensor (monitoring the individual’s thorax or diaphragm activity), and electromyogram sensor (that captures the electrical activity produced by a muscle at the moment of contraction). Works on enhancing human sensitivity continue from the seventies. A Canadian Steve Mann is one of the pioneers of wearable, mobile, wireless computing, and he also worked on augmented reality and computational photography. A wearable computer is included into the personal space of a user and controlled by the user. Mann built the WearComp with display and camera concealed in ordinary eyeglasses, so the wearer had increased awareness of the environment. WearCam was one of the first cameras transmitting images on the web. Janzen & Mann (2017) introduced a feedback-control method to automatically adjust multiple exposure settings for assembling sensor information, such as images or audio, from multiple “strong” and “weak” samplings or sensor snapshots, whose sensitivities drift and change over time. The system responds in real-time to changing ambient conditions and sensor motion. Janzen, Yang, & Mann (2018) introduced a “veillogram,” a measurement of sensing or perception of physical objects. A veillogram is a detailed sensory map, 3D sensory measurement space, which is transformed and rendered onto physical objects, so it indicates sensory attention accumulated over an object’s surface. Applications can include the assessment of control panels in aircraft cockpits, automobiles, and industrial control rooms. Connectivity among humans and their environment is enhanced with accessories such as bands, watches, glasses, clothing and implants. Graphene is becoming part of wearable smart health devices or environmental sensors thanks to its sensitivity to subtle variations in its surroundings (Graphene Flagship, 2019). Wearable sensors, when attached to skin or a fingernail, record our movements and provide medical information about our bodies telling about our heart rate, blood oxygenation, possible arterial blockade or other peripheral arterial disease. Optoelectronic sensors can detect muscle contractions, and then a robotic arm can mimic a recorded movement (Ahmed, 2019a, 2019b). Applications designed to power human senses take a form of small gadgets, such as a smart phone or a smart watch, which tracks sleep patterns (deep versus light sleep, awake time, and overall sleep quality), has a silent vibrating alarm, a motion sensor (that counts your steps on a track), and more. For example, smart watch designed by Apple relies on its wireless connection to an iPhone. It can track health activity using built-in sensors (e.g., a heart-rate sensor), communicate with others, run a wide range of apps, and make retail payments. Users can send and receive messages by dictating them or selecting from preset options. There’s a built-in speaker and microphone for phone calls; one can draw on the watch’s screen. A personal assistant can take dictations, give directions, or perform local searches. There are also numerous applications aimed at powering human actions. Hiroo Iwata, Yu-ta Kimura, Hikaru Takatori and Yu-ki Enzaki constructed and exhibited, at Post City of Ars Electronica 2015 Festival, a project that was conceived as a human-centered computing. A Big Robot, a large humanoid interactive robot on wheels places the pilot at 5m-height position. Thus, the pilot, who can ride and move, feels as if his/her body were extended to 5m giant. Even a novice rider can walk on the Big Robot Mk.1A. It was then exhibited at the SIGGRAPH 2016 Conference.

Micro- and Nanoscale Structures and Applications We can see now the world in a changed way due to advances in microscopy and spectroscopy that allow discoveries in a nanoscale. We can study nanoscale objects: liquid crystals, soft matter, nanoshells, and carbon nanotubes; we can learn about nanoparticles and processes going in the nanoscale. Possible uses 15

 How Do We Communicate

of nanotechnology, especially nanophotonic techniques serve in biomedical and clinical research, cancer treatment, clinical neuroscience, tissue engineering, drug delivery, and diagnostics. They allow biosensing of various molecular processes occurring in nanostructures in live cells. Nanophotonic biosensors enable scientists to study proteomes – complements of proteins expressed by cells, detect viruses and their functions, and create new diagnostic tools (Li, Soler, Yesilköy, & Altug, 2018). Electroceramics such as piezoelectric materials make possible to break nanometer resolution barrier. Imaging and visualization of small particles in cells can be now done with the use of computed tomography, to know how nanoparticles interact, undergo changes, and deliver drugs into a cell or on a cell membrane.

Fiber Optics Optical fibers have usually diameter of human hair and may have length of many miles. They are made from glass or plastic. They transmit light along the center of the fiber. Total internal refraction keeps light inside the fiber’s core. Optical fibers are better than metallic conductors as they transmit signals with more information, the wide bandwidth of light wavelength. They are light, they are immune to tapping, do not need grounding, do not react to nor create electromagnetic interference. Optical fibers serve for communication by transmission of voice, data, and video, but also for sensing pressure, temperature, or spectral information. They deliver power (e.g., for laser cutting, welding, or drilling), illuminate (for example, an inside of human body), and display signs or decorations (Photonics Handbook, 2019b). Gigabit-capable optical fibers are used for phone and data communications. First trans-Atlantic fiber optic communication system was led in1988. Over 90% of the world international digital data goes through under water fiber optics, with over a million kilometers of submarine cable in service globally (Petrie, 2019). Currently hollow-core optical fibers deliver ultrashort pulses in the visible and near-infrared light.

Photonics and Biophotonics Support Vision and Serve Science and Medicine Optical components and optical fibers include sensors, microscopes, lasers, cameras, and more. They all support us in drawing information from our surrounding environments and other living beings. The science of photonics (as the science of photons) serves for studying the visible and invisible light detection and generation. Photonics and biophotonics are examples of current areas that involve a great number of disciplines. Understanding of this field seems important because of its wide spectrum of applications. Photonics techniques support telecommunication, information processing and computing, lighting, spectroscopy, holography, agriculture, and robotics. In metrology, photonics enabled updates in measuring time and determining precisely how much is a meter. In military technology, these techniques lead to many solutions such as jackets giving the soldiers invisibility. Laser material processing offers changing the properties of materials. Art diagnostics with the use of infrared reflection from the material, x-rays, ultraviolet fluorescence, and x-ray fluorescence are other examples. Biophotonics and optical artificial materials result from bio inspiration from living organisms; solutions involve also bioinspired colors, pigments, and structural colorations. Molecular biomimetics are materials based on studying biological molecules. Organic materials for photonics can be tuned by adjusting their structure when organic photovoltaics (OPV) turn light into electricity. A sea mouse (Aphrodita aculeata) is an example of biophotonic engineering by a living organism: it has deep red spines that become green and blue when the light shines on them (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2018). Communication

16

 How Do We Communicate

rates of organic semiconductors enable 1 gigabite/second communication rate. Organic materials can be coupled with organic laser sensors (Freebody, 2017). Biophotonic technologies serve many medical purposes including endoscopy, vision correction, and surgery. They are largely aimed at imaging tissues. Computational imaging uses hardware and software to provide high-resolution 3D imaging systems. Biophotonic applications are used in laboratory results, clinical diagnoses, and treatment. Portable cameras as the compact modules can be now mounted on a smart phone to monitor our health at home. Technologies used in laboratories include X-rays, computer tomography scans (CT-scans or CAT-scans), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET-scans). Clinicians make use of fluorescence imaging and sensing techniques combined with advanced microscopy. For example, three-dimensional organization of live tissue structures can be captured by SHG (second harmonic generation) microscopy (Alonzo, 2018). Biological specimens can be also seen in 2D by combining light sheet fluorescence microscopy with super-slow-motion imaging. Results can be correlated with physicochemical data such as oxygen concentration or pH. Due to the biophotonic revolution a considerable shortage of skilled technicians caused that there is more openings than people to fill them, and there are not enough graduates to fill the open technical positions worldwide (Vogt, 2018). There is considerable difference between temperature of mammals and their environment, which makes possible to make heat signatures of animals in a complex structure of their habitat. Scientists are using drones (remotely piloted aircraft systems) equipped with thermal imaging and object detection algorithms to detect wildlife populations including koalas (Maine, 2019).

Modes of Our Communication With Humans, Computers, or Other Living Beings Communication involves our senses, as our exchange depends on what is the content of information we have already gathered. We develop technologies to extend our senses beyond what we can see, feel, or hear. Also, we benefit from inspiration coming from studying our living environment, and then mimicking solutions used by small and big living beings. In most cases, communication requires the use of a language to send or receive information. However, it may be successful through the use of images or other modes of exchanging information. Figure 6 shows a work “Weekday, 5 p.m.” by Anna Ursyn. In a cycle of city life, twice a day: At midday and in the afternoon The City becomes vibrant with life Organized around people Reflecting them in its stone-and-glass walls. The overall vitality of the City, its cars, lights, windows Become the focus of their attention. We may use our communication skills to share or exchange information with fellow humans, computers, or other living beings. Visual and verbal codes support a notion that if something exists, there can be a function, and vice versa. The following text examines modes of our exchange of ideas.

17

 How Do We Communicate

Figure 6. Weekday, 5 p.m.

(© 2018, A. Ursyn. Used with permission)

2.2. HOW DO WE COMMUNICATE WITH PEOPLE We may envision a range of possible ways of communication: • • •

• • • • • •

18

Visual communication may refer to visual semiotics, signs, symbols, analogies, icons, visual plus verbal imaginative metaphors, and visualizations, but also to the robotic vision integrated with sensors, and computer vision applications (Chen, 2011). Communication through art involves the process of creating an artwork, conveying a message through an artwork, and receiving a message by viewers. Verbal communication may involve semantics, abstract ideas and messages, and also storytelling, using a story as a container (a setting appropriate for telling the same story in another, particular medium) or for an interactive novel (where a user is given a power to dictate how the story would unfold); at the same time, websites, especially those containing games, are illustrated. Nonverbal communication includes gesture, face expression (used by software designers for creating glyphs), body language, and pitch, among other means of expression. Communication through numbers, with more than one sense (and brain areas) is involved in numeral activities. Sound and visual music, which combines sensory modalities such as acoustical, visual, oral, and gestural. Temperature and thermal information. Other ways to communicate may involve faculties usually described as senses, which include many internal and external receptors answering to changes in environment. Computer languages allow communicating with a machine by using programs as instructions. For example, HTML (HyperText Markup Language) allows displaying information on the internet, e.g., on the websites or in web browsers. HTML allows transformation of communication resulting from developments in ubiquitous portable apps, smart apps, and smart phones. Processing, an open source programming language and integrated development environment is not only a

 How Do We Communicate

programming language but also a source for creating an online community. Environment for developments supported by haptic actions and data or info collection are possible with the Arduino boards.

Semantics Semantics defines the role of meaning in a sign or a sentence. Semanticists analyze also the structural features of sentences, for example location of the sign in a text. The search for information goes through making associations (relations between topics) and linking the topics. Semantic networks comprise knowledge about interconnected categories, from taxonomies of knowledge about animals and plants to multimedia communication. Semantics make such network of topics meaningful. Semantics (from the Greek semantikos, ‘significant’) is a linguistic and philosophical study of meaning in languages, programming languages, formal logics, and semiotics. Semantics applies the concepts of signifiers (words, phrases, signs, and symbols) and their denotations (what they stand for). The formal semantics studies the logical aspects of meaning, while the lexical semantics studies word meanings and word relations, and conceptual semantics studies the cognitive structure of meaning. In computing, semantics denotes the meaning of language constructs, while syntax indicates their form. Alfred Korzybski, who initiated the movement called General Semantics, drew attention to a difference between a thing and a word. According to Korzybski, language comes between someone and the objective world, sometimes causing the confusion between the signifier and the signified. Because of that, we allow language to take us up the ‘ladder of abstraction’. A well-known example of the levels of verbal abstraction of categories in relation to a cow called ‘Bessie’ has been transferred from Korzybski via Hayakawa (1973). The denotative and connotative meanings are two main forms of the sign meanings in semiotic analyses. Denotation means that the meaning is translated to a sign in literal way, not admitting other meanings. Connotation may be composed of associated meanings. With connotative meanings, associations usually coexist and add nuances to the sign meanings. The word ‘heart’ taken alone has a denotative meaning, but when it is used in a context it may carry many connotations characteristic of distinct cultures, and not necessarily relevant directly to a part of an organism. Figure 7 presents a work of Alicia Baeza entitled “Signs.” Visual semantics is used in design and in presentation of three-dimensional objects, for example, in experimenting with the design of utility products. We apply semantics in practice by describing purpose, function, and qualities of the product. Symbols can be pictorial drawings, everyday pictographs such as street signs; they can be ideograms presenting an idea or an abstract concept, e.g., mathematical symbols or Egyptian hieroglyphs. Both pictograms and ideograms convey semantic content often enriched with the emotive component. According to Danesi (2017, p. 55), nuances in the symbolic meanings built in pictorial messages such as emoji can result in a ‘thesaurus effect’ of encoding various connotative meanings defined by the author as a “potential set of related cultural and symbolic concepts“ used in some specific context. Semantic structure of a sentence is often offered from a specific perspective depending on a sender’s frame of mind. The message can be interpreted differently when received by somebody who is accustomed to a dissimilar cultural context. While posting pictorial messages into the networked world, we cannot assume that the internet-savvy recipients will understood them universally.

19

 How Do We Communicate

Figure 7. Signs

(© 2018, A.Baeza. Used with permission)

In the semantic web, an extension of the World Wide Web, computers can read the data in web pages. According to Sir Tim Berners-Lee who started the World Wide Web and its evolving extension – the semantic web, information can be expressed in a format that is readable and usable not only for humans but also for the software applications. The Data Web and the Web 3.0 are aimed to grow as a universal database, a medium for data, information, and knowledge exchange (Wikipedia, 2019). A Web3D Consortium is working on transforming the Web into a series of 3D spaces, realized also by the Second Life. Topic maps help navigate on the web. Topic maps bridge knowledge representation and information management by building a structured semantic network above information resources.

Communication Through Images Visual communication may involve images as well as written texts. Communication through images may take various forms: two-dimensional images such as drawings, art works, graphs, graphics, or typographic prints, among others; three-dimensional forms – such as architectural or sculptural works; 4-dimensional time-based media – such as moving images. Communication through images can be interactive with the viewers; it can be also virtual. Communication and collaboration within 3D virtual worlds may occur by

20

 How Do We Communicate

interacting with the help of customized avatars in three-dimensional graphical settings. Virtual setting enables bringing content to life, sharing and using 3D objects and thus augmenting immersion. Visual information is often presented as numerals, graphics, or diagrams; it may be shown as a sketch, drawing, plan, outline, image, geometric relationship, map, music and dance notation, object, interactive installation, or a story. Nonverbal means of communication is of utmost importance because we are constantly immersed in interactive contact with others through social networking that uses multimedia to convey information through combinations of forms such as still images, animation, video clips, or interactive media. Imagery refers to mental images in everyday conversation, which involves cognitive processes. Mental imagery may be visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, or kinesthetic. Images are the mental models for thinking; they influence language, concepts, and values, and support reading comprehension. Images and mental imagery are important in developing skills, concepts, problem solving, explaining life, and may assist in understanding forms and patterns to make discoveries. Students’ learning can be mightily supported by visual display of the learning content, for example by applying color coding, interactivity (e.g., by showing interactive links in blue color or underlined), using micro/macro display (Tufte, 1983/2001, 1990/2005), or in many other ways. Visual communication techniques often include small multiple drawings that represent the sets of data with miniature pictures, to reveal repetition, change, pattern, and facilitate comparisons (Tufte, 1990). Since their introduction, cartoon faces evolved into a tool for presenting data as empathic facial expressions (Loizides, 2019). The cognitive approach to visual thinking stimulates the progress in many disciplines, such as graphic presentation of quantitative and qualitative information, structural analysis, semiotics, computing, and also art inspired with generative algorithms, cellular automata, emergent systems, or the A-life systems. Education, computer science, business, and marketing are becoming increasingly visual, especially in the web space context, as they offer both visual and verbal types of communication. Product design and advertising depend on visual thinking. Industrial design uses applied art and science to improve aesthetics, design, ergonomics, and usability of products, such as the Bauhaus products. Images serve as models for thinking and discussing imagery as a medium for thought. Integrative fields combine literature, poetry, sociology, psychology, social anthropology, art, and music with any discipline related to the media techniques. Visual thinking applied to practice serves as an information tool. Even bank reports are often shown as pictures, possibly as an artwork.

Communication Through Art Basic Art Concepts Many concepts about art may stem from a statement that every artwork should fulfill general principles related to its design, editing, and presentation. For example, a good graphic project should enhance complexity, dimensionality, density, and beauty of communication (Tufte, 1983; 1990). Basic art concepts, which can be applied to any work of a visual arts help in analysis of a work, especially of its beauty and aesthetics of display. For example, while creating an artwork representing an apple, they support us in making certain decisions. Below the theme about apple will be further discussed. Basic art concepts include the type or form of art, subject matter, style, medium, and design.

21

 How Do We Communicate

1. The type or form of art describes the kind of art or art products, the schemes used to classify art, and the functions art products serve; an artwork may be described as a drawing, a painting, a sculpture, etc. Would we paint, sculpt, draw an apple, or erect an architectural structure in the form of an apple? 2. The subject matter defines the meaning of the work of art; the theme, topic, or motif represented as a person or object; it may be a portrait, a landscape, a still life, an abstract work, etc. Would we represent an apple as a part of a still life, a portrait of a man or a woman eating an apple, a landscape such as an orchard with small, multiplied images of an apple, an abstract artwork about an apple, or an almost abstract image of a close-up of the apple skin or showing an apple’s interior. 3. The style tells about the traits and resemblances within a group of works of art, the visual similarities influenced by the time, place, or personal manner of the artist. We’d need to decide if an apple would be seen as a geometric form, as the cubist artists would see it; if we ‘d work on the scenery issues, like in paintings from the Renaissance or Mannerism periods; if we’d focus on light and paint related work, as it was done by the Impressionist artists; or if we’d create pop art, or a generative artwork using programming or software. 4. The medium informs about the materials, tools and procedures the artist uses to create the work of art. For example, medium can be described as: ‘oil on canvas mounted on panel,’ ‘acrylic on canvas,’ ‘marble sculpture,’ ‘paper, pen and ink over chalk drawing,’ or ‘polychrome woodblock print on paper.’ We need to secure proper materials, tools, and apply selected techniques for our representation of an apple. We may choose to use Adobe Photoshop filters and effects for a painting, or apply additive and subtractive sculpture chisel. The medium can depict the differences resulting from a particular use of materials and tools. For example, an oil-on-canvas painting will look differently than an oil-on-paper painting because a canvas would repel paint, while paper would absorb it. That is while we refer to the artwork as ‘oil-on-canvas painting’ rather than just ‘oil painting.’ 5. The design specifies the visual elements and principles used in the artwork; the planned organization of the visual phenomena the artist manipulates. We can cut an apple in half and focus on pips (seeds) and how they are placed inside five carpels arranged in a five-point star. We can picture the repetition of lines and dots on the apple skin or exaggerate irregularities in its design.

Project: An Apple Project about an apple may be solved in many ways: it may be a still life with apples on a plate, a portrait of a man or a woman eating an apple, landscape with apple trees, or abstract cross section showing the geometrical character of the apple carpel and the seeds arrangement. This project may take form of a book for children about an apple. In that case you may reuse your images by for example, placing the same apple many times on a tree, or on your still life. Selections from images can serve as illustrations. Figure 8 shows a computer graphics made by my student Tatiana Ingino as a part of the story. After making decisions described above we may examine further properties of an artwork about an apple, for example, composition – the arrangement of visual elements in a work of art, the construction and layout of a work that defines how everything is put together using thoughtful choices. In graphic design and desktop publishing, composition is usually called a page layout. Now we would decide on the arrangement and style treatment of our image of an apple. Also, iconography is important: visual signs, symbols, and icons contained in the work. In case of an apple there is extremely rich set of meanings, connotations, cultural traditions, legends, and fairy tales. Connotations may be related to the old scripts 22

 How Do We Communicate

Figure 8. Grasping an apple

(© 2018, T. Ingino. Used with permission)

(such as the biblical accounts about Adam and Eve), scientific research and experiments (Newton’s apple), art works (Claes Oldenburg), legends (a Swiss folk hero Wilhelm Tell as an expert shot with the crossbow), symbols (an apple for a teacher), fairy tales (Snow White), artistic exaggeration (Giuseppe Arcimboldo), companies (Apple computers), places (Big Apple), many literary and cinematic works, and colloquial expressions (an apple of my eye, an apple a day keeps the doctors away). Figure 9 is a work by Ethan (the) Funk-Breay – page 4 of a story about apple. After completing your artwork you may feel ready to write a short poem about an apple as a transformation from the visual mode of thinking to the verbal expression of your thought. Choose a form for your short verse: it may be a rhymed poem or a blank verse with a few metrical lines; or, a free verse having no fixed meter and no rhymes. You may as well prefer to write a pun – a short, humorous word play that suggests two or more meanings, or to create an apple out of letters and numbers. Make decisions about typography – the style and appearance of your work. You may also want to combine your visual and verbal solutions into one work, with the text and image well balanced. It can become a book for children about an apple.

Elements of Design in Art Elements of design refer to what is available for the artist/designer or any person willing to communicate visually, while principles of design describe how the elements could be used (Goldstein, Saunders, & Kowalchuk, 1986). We usually consider line, color and value, shape and form, space, line, and texture as the design elements. By applying elements and principles of design we may expand our art beyond just depiction of reality and invoke aesthetical and intellectual sensations. Fine art, web production of all kinds, utilitarian pictures, posters, and commercials are evaluated in terms of the elements and principles of design. These elements are just the fundamentals for all works of art. Also, they are applied for data

23

 How Do We Communicate

Figure 9. A story about apple

(© 2018, E. Funk-Breay. Used with permission)

presentation in all branches of knowledge. In the same way, basic kinds of picturing in art, such as still life, portrait, landscape, and abstract obey the design elements and principles. All of these elements exist in nature and in the environment we create. Depending on the kind of an artwork and the message it conveys, particular elements take over the overall composition. •

Line: As the shortest path between two points, line leads the eye through space. Thus, line can be a record of movement and can create illusion of motion in a work of art. Lines define an enclosed space. In a drawing or a painting, line may be used both in a functional and imagined way and may represent anything: an actual shape, a person, or a building.

Lines may be thick or thin, wavy, curved or angular, continuous or broken, dotted, dashed or a combination of any of these. There are many ways in which we can vary a line by changing its width, length, curvature, direction, or position. The use of line in art involves selection and repetition, opposition, transition, and variety of length, width, curvature, direction, and texture. Movement shown by a line is considered a principle of art. Examine short sketches and explore by drawing how different lines can show emotion. Draw and title expressive lines: draw happy lines, excited lines, stressful lines, dramatic lines relaxed lines, pathetic lines, and boring lines. Norton Juster created “The Dot and the Line: a Romance in Lower Mathematics” (1963) using line drawings for his amazing storytelling. The title is considered a reference to a book “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions” by Edwin Abbott Abbott (1994/2008). This book is easy to find online, in

24

 How Do We Communicate

bookstores, or libraries. A 10-minute animation by Chuck Jones of Juster’s book won the 1965 Academy Award for Animated Short Film. It can be seen online and it still attracts tens of thousands of visitors. •

Color and Value: A band of colors called a spectrum is formed when the light passes through a prism. Sir Isaac Newton discovered in 1704 that all colors of the rainbow are contained in white light such as sunlight. Newton also invented a color wheel: color dimensions in pigment. He put the three primary colors: red, yellow and blue, and the three secondary colors: orange, green, and violet, in an outer circle. Black is the sum of all of these colors. Intermediate colors are the additional hues, which fall between the primary and secondary colors. The mixture of adjoining primary and secondary colors can produce intermediate colors.

The source of color is light – visible radiant energy having various wavelengths. We see color because light reflects from the object. Color is a property of the light waves reaching our eyes, not a property of the object seen. The white light of the sun contains all wavelengths of light. When light falls on a surface that reflects all white light, it appears white. When the surface absorbs all the white light, we see the object as black. The primary colors of pigment are derived from mixtures of pigment primaries. A pigment primary is caused by the reflection of two light primaries. The pigment primaries are red (magenta), yellow, and blue (a blue-green referred to as cyan). Colors of light are derived from mixtures of light primaries. A primary color of light is caused by the reflection of two pigment primaries. The light primaries are green, red-orange, and blue-violet. This means that a pigment primary is a secondary color of light. The value of color is its lightness and darkness. Colors can be made lighter or darker by adding either white or black. To lighten value, add white. Lightening (any color plus white) produces a tint. To produce a shade, add black: any color plus black is a shade. Black plus white makes gray. A color plus gray is called a tone. Black, white and gray are called neutrals. Hue, a synonym for color, is a particular quality of a color (full intensity, tint, tone, or shade). In order to change the hue of a color, we add the neighboring color. Primary hues are: red, yellow, blue. Secondary hues are: orange, green, and violet. Intermediate hues are: yellow-green, blue-green, etc. Intensity means the purity or strength (also called chroma). To change intensity and produce a tone, add a complementary or gray color. Gray is a color without hue, made from black and white. On Figure 10, Jeremy Blue Rice presents colors that are usually seen as a color wheel. •

Psychological Aspects of Color: According to Tufte (1983; 1990), color is used in printing to gain attention, to be legible and comprehensible, and to make an impression. Tufte provides some helpful hints about using color: ◦◦ To Attract Attention: Warm colors are higher in visibility than cool colors; contrast in values (light versus dark) is greater than contrast in hues (blue versus yellow); the darker the background, the lighter a color appears against it. ◦◦ To Produce Psychological Effects: To convey coolness, warmth, action, purity, etc. ◦◦ To Develop Associations: Do not use green when advertising fresh meet. ◦◦ To Build Retention: Color has high memory value, especially in repeated messages. ◦◦ To Create Aesthetically Pleasing Atmosphere: Poor choice is worse than the use of no color at all. The use of elements and principles of design is effective for this purpose.

25

 How Do We Communicate

Figure 10. A Color Wheel

(© 2018, J. Blue Rice. Used with permission)



Shape and Form: Shapes describe two-dimensional (2D) configurations; they have no volume. In an outline drawing we only show the shape. An ambiguous shape is doubtful, uncertain, or open to more than one interpretation. A favorite textbook example of ambiguous space is a vase/profile, and an old/young woman. Form describes and gives a three-dimensional (3D) feel and look of an object. In drawing and painting, we may use shading and highlighting of an outline drawing to show this. Forms have volume – a word that describes the weight, density, and thickness of an object. The solidness or volume of the form could be obtained by using highlights on one side of each object and shading on the opposite side. Shapes are geometric (such as triangles, squares, circles, etc.) or organic (such as leaves). Forms also are geometric (such as pyramids, cones, cubes, spheres, etc.) or organic – natural (like trees). They can be irregular (like clouds).

Space is the void between solid objects (forms) and shapes. Everything takes up space, whether it’s two-dimensional, like drawing and painting, or three-dimensional, like sculpture and architecture. Paintings, drawings, and prints take up 2D space. In a painting, it is limited to the edges of the canvas. Sculpture and architecture take up 3D space. Music and literature take up time. Some arts, such as film, opera, dance and theater take both space and time. We talk about positive and negative space when space describes the void between solid shapes and forms. The solid shape or form is called a positive space. The space within the drawn objects is a positive space; a doughnut has a positive shape or form. The space between the objects is a negative space; the doughnut hole is a negative shape or space. •

26

Perspective: Is the appearance of depth or distance on a flat surface. We are picturing a 3D world of depth and distance on a 2D surface of a sheet of paper or a computer screen. With perspective, we show objects and scenes as they appear to the eye, with relation to implied depth on a flat surface of the picture. Designing a 3D display involves visual thinking. Perspective drawing is one of the solutions, often with orthographic projection or the bird’s eye view. We can display data in 3D as cardboard models or on the surfaces of a polyhedron – a solid body bounded by polygons. Other presentation techniques include architectural miniatures, stereo illustrations and slides. Three-dimensional graphics are designed with the use of programming strategies or 3D

 How Do We Communicate

graphics software packages; data can be presented as holograms, video, stereo illustrations, and slides. Maybe the most impressive is a computer-based immersive multi-wall virtual reality and interactive visualization environment. Thus, we can show a 3D object as a 2D image when we draw a perspective drawing, a shaded drawing, or create a painting or a sculpture, but we do not achieve it by designing a map. We can consider a geometrical cardboard model a 3D form of display, but we cannot say this about a musical score, a railroad schedule, a periodic system of elements in chemistry, or a tabular array of numbers. Figure 11 presents work of Anna Ursyn entitled “Viewpoints.” Figure 11. Viewpoints

(© 2018, A. Ursyn. Used with permission)

Several methods help us to create an aerial perspective, the representation of objects and scenes according to their distance: overlapping, vertical positioning, graying colors, varying details, varying size, and converging lines. By overlapping objects, we may create an illusion that the partially hidden object is more distant. Vertical positioning lets us believe that objects placed higher are at a considerable distance and those positioned lower are closer in space. Gradation of the strength of light and colors of objects, and showing objects in grayed colors makes them look remote. We may show less detail on an object to make it more distant than another, as well as drawing distant objects smaller and nearer objects larger. Converging lines is the most frequently used method that can be achieved by drawing lines closer and closer together in the distance. Cognitive perception addressed by painters was not always derived from an analysis of traditional rules governing the composition of an artwork. Many times, the masters chose the perspective according

27

 How Do We Communicate

to their cognitive perception. Sometimes, it was an isometric method of drawing, so that three dimensions were shown not in perspective, but in their actual size. For example, interiors painted by Vincent Van Gogh were not fully based on the familiar Euclidian perspective. Cezanne’s paintings reflected the way the viewer perceives reality. Areas where the viewers were supposed to direct and focus their eyes were painted in a three-dimensional perspective with greater detail and enhanced color in the center (and blurred lines at the edge). The rest of the painting addressed peripheral vision and so it was flat. •



Pattern: Is an artistic or decorative design made of lines; thus, pattern is a repetition of shapes. Patterns make a basis of ornaments, which are specific for different cultures. Owen Jones (1856/2010) made a huge collection of ornaments typical of different countries. He wrote a monographic book entitled “The Grammar of Ornament.” Texture: Is a general characteristic for a substance or a material. It can be either actual (natural, invented, or manufactured) or simulated texture (made to look rough, smooth, hard or soft, or natural). Simulated textures are made to represent real textures such as a smooth arm or rough rock formation. But they are not actual textures, and if you touch the picture you feel only the paint or the pencil marks.

Principles of Design in Art Principles of design that are most often used in visual arts are: balance, emphasis, movement, variety, proportion and unity. These principles may vary according to the person using them. For example, some textbooks discuss also contrast, rhythm, and repetition (Goldstein, Saunders, & Kowalchuk, 1986). The skillful use of elements and principles of design may enrich the work of art beyond just depiction of reality and invoke aesthetical and intellectual sensations of pleasure, appreciation, or repulsion. •







28

Balance: Is an arrangement of lines, colors, values, textures, forms, and space, so that one section or side of the artwork does not look heavier or stronger than another. We can see in art three main types of balance: formal (or symmetrical, for example two people of the same weight at two ends of a see-saw), informal (or asymmetrical, for example, when a person on a see-saw who weighs more sits closer to the center and the lighter person sits farther out on the end), and radial balance, a circular balance moving out from a center of an object (for example, when only one object is centered in a picture). Emphasis: Is way of bringing a dominance or subordination into a design or a painting. Major objects, shapes, or colors may dominate a picture when they are larger and repeated more often, by being heavier in volume, or by being stronger in color and color contrast than the subordinate objects, shapes, or colors. Without a balanced relationship between the dominant and subordinate elements there is too much emphasis. Movement: We may achieve the illusion of movement by the use of lines, colors, values, textures, forms and space to direct the eye of the viewer from one part of the picture to another. For example, the feeling of movement can be suggested by circular, diagonal or vertical arrangements; we may also create illusion of movement that goes back into the distance, both by diminution of sizes and similarity of shapes. Composition: Is orderly arrangement, a proper combination of distinct parts so they are presented as a unified whole. To develop composition in a drawing or painting, we have to select the objects

 How Do We Communicate

we want to show, then create a center of interest and find out balance among the objects. Good composition may involve movement, rhythm, and well-arranged positive and negative space. It took many years to develop routine features of books, with page numbering, indexes, tables of contents, and title pages. Web documents undergo a similar evolution and standardization in order to define the way information is organized and made available in electronic form. Visual composition of a website and its graphics is an important part of the user’s experience. In interactive documents, the interface design includes the metaphors, images, and concepts used to convey function and meaning of the website on a computer screen. In accordance with Edward Tufte (1990), every graphic presentation, as well as every project should fulfill general principles related to its design. Tufte taught that information should enhance complexity, dimensionality, density, and beauty of communication. Good information display should be: documentary, comparative, casual and explanatory, quantified, multivariate, exploratory, and skeptical; it should allow comparing and contrasting. When envisioning statistical information, such display should insistently enforce comparisons, express mechanisms of cause and effect quantitatively, recognize the multivariate nature of analytic problems, inspect and evaluate alternative explanations. • •



Variety and Contrast: An artist uses elements of design to create diversity and differences in an artwork. Contrasting colors, textures, and patterns all add interest to the artwork. Highlights of color to the corners or edges of some shapes may be used to add contrast. Proportion: The size of one part of an artwork in comparative relation its other parts is called proportion. Artists use proportion to show balance, emphasis, distance, and the use of space. Sometimes, for example in medieval religious paintings, saints were pictured out-of-proportion to emphasize their importance: some donors were painted bigger and humble donators smaller. Unity: Unity is the result of how all elements and principles of design work together. All parts must have some relation to each other. They must fit together to create the overall message and effect.

Project: Crowd This learning project is about creating art works as a means of communication and introduces information about creating pictures that communicate message to the viewers. This activity serves as introduction to the cognitive way of learning by creating visual presentation of knowledge. First, you are invited to draw several sketches: first a shoe, then a manikin, and finally a group of people. Read about the elements and principles of design in arts as well as in other disciplines, and explore by sketching the positive–negative space relations. Consider links of drawings, architecture, and design with mathematics, physics, and the functioning of the brain and body (Halpers, 2015). Sketching has a cognitive power as it enhances the mind–brain–eye–hand coordination. Write your own statement on this theme. First, draw some basic lines: thick, thin, wavy, curved, angular, continuous, broken, dotted, dashed. Start with ovals, and then work like a sculptor by removing unwanted parts and adding lines bringing depth and character to your drawing. Change line’s width, length, curvature, and texture. Now, draw some geometric sketches.

29

 How Do We Communicate

Sketching a Shoe This part of a project is designed to exercise in capturing an essence of an object. Take off your shoe and make sketches of the shoe done in 3 minutes, and then 2 minutes, 30 seconds, and in 10 seconds. This last sketch would take only 10 seconds, so you’ll need to eliminate what is not relevant. Examine all your sketches. Which one is the best? Many would say this is the last one. Anyway, we have a camera when we need a detailed picture. When you have less time each time for drawing lines, you make fast decisions what is really crucial for a depiction of your shoe, by drawing only important characteristics that make it your own shoe. Repetition of lines without erasing them shows the shoe’s weight and implies motion, so your drawing will be more imaginative. A unique portrait of your shoe, almost a caricature, will show its specific features exaggerated in a funny way. Explore the ways a line can function in a work of art showing not only forms but also the meaning and emotion.

Drawing a Manikin Familiarize yourself with sketches made by artists such as Chris Lester, Danny Coleman, and Ken Bernstein. This part of a project involves drawing a manikin that serves for learning drawing or a mannequin usually used for displaying garments on it. Draw an image of a person while looking at a wooden manikin. There are three ideas you might want to consider: 1. Proportion: The head of a man fits seven to eight times in the entire body. Look at the manikin and think of its head as a unit. Make a mental or sketched division of your entire paper, so eight heads would fit in. This way you will make a grid, a network of lines that cross each other to form rectangles. 2. Geometric Approach: Examine your model. It is made out of geometric forms; in computer world it is referred to as primitives. Those are the 3-D objects. Start with thinking in terms of 2D objects: an oval, a trapezoid, a circle, a rectangle, etc. By looking at the initial grid you created, start inserting an oval for the head, another one for the neck, a trapezoid for a torso, etc., till you see the whole figure drawn. Make your own individual decisions about dividing your paper with lines and placing shapes into the rectangles of the grid. Draw only absolutely necessary lines to convey the essence of the human shape. 3. Positive and Negative Space: Consider all the space that belongs to your manikin a positive space and all that does not, a negative space. For example, its leg will form a positive space, while the space between an arm and its torso will be considered a negative one. Now, examine the relationship between the positive and the negative space. Like a subtractive sculptor working with clay, keep polishing your lines by making darker those lines that better define your shapes. Do not erase lines, and don’t get upset if your hand guides the pencil in an unwanted direction. The triad of lines with different shades of gray will build the depth in your object. Your drawing will not appear flat anymore, but will show an illusion of depth.

30

 How Do We Communicate

To summarize, define proportion of the body parts to the whole picture: a head, as a unit, fits 7-8 times in the entire body. Insert geometric forms: an oval for a head, another one for a neck, a trapezoid for a torso, etc., till you see the whole figure drawn. Figure 12 shows a manikin drawn by Erin McClintock. Figure 12. A manikin

(© 2018, McClintock, E.. Used with permission)

Drawing a Group of People Create a crowd scene by multiplying and then placing human figures in a background. Repeat these steps, so you have a scene with people crowding. Unless you have drawn your manikin using any image editing software, you may either scan your drawing or photograph it. Open your file in any image editing software, for example in Adobe Photoshop (you may try this program for 30 days, before buying it by registering and downloading from the Adobe.com website). Select your manikin, copy it, then paste on a new canvas. Figure 13 shows a scene with manikins drawn by Alejandra Ramos. Change the size, transform it by rotating, skewing, or applying perspective, so a manikin that is further away from you will appear smaller than the one that is right in front of you. When you repeat these steps three times, you will have a scene with four people, for example crowding in an elevator. Create an impression of motion by slanting the whole bodies of your figures, and changing position of their limbs. Your picture will show the dynamics of a group gathered with an unknown common purpose: it might be an attempt to make a performance or to dance. Figure 14 presents a work of Nicolas Kunkel entitled “A crowd on a roof” where a solitary viewer watches a crowd on a screen.

31

 How Do We Communicate

Figure 13. A workout

(© 2018, A. Ramos. Used with permission)

Figure 14. A crowd on a roof

(© 2018, N. Kunkel. Used with permission)

Drawing a Background That Explains Why These People Are Together Create a background, showing the reason why these people are gathered. At this moment, your human figures are no longer unidentified, nameless figures – they acquire meaning. The relation between human figures and a background in your project can be compared to the relation between the data and information gained when you conduct a search. The data itself has no meaning – it contains just numbers; the numbers gain meaning in a context of your search and just become meaningful information. Draw scenery for your visual story, and at the same time create a clear message. Many artists use deliberately open messages using symbols or signs that could be freely interpreted and also generated cooperatively by the viewer. Abstract artists choose their own means of expression, so their paintings gain a feature of an ambiguous, open work with loose relation between signs and meanings. Thus, the paintings of

32

 How Do We Communicate

Rothko, in spite of their recognition in the world of art, may be annoying for someone who can see there only the colorful rectangles. Figure 15 shows a composition with manikins by Mary Jo Lasky entitled “Who killed Mr. Green?” Figure 15. “Who killed Mr. Green?” (© 2018, M-J. Lasky. Used with permission)

Design a background as a visual clue. It can be a concert hall, a field game scene, a roof to take shelter from rain, or an approaching bus during a rush hour. Depending on the background, the crowd becomes the audience at the concert, viewers of the circus performance, soldiers serving in an army, players, contestants, or competitors. Draw your visual story, and create a message by adding patterns, colors, densities, and sizes. You have just created a composition that is self-explanatory and can be classified as a closed message rather than an open message, because everyone will see what you described visually. This is an example of an artwork with an explanatory power because the viewer can look at your composition and understand why those people are there. Figure 16 presents a work by James Reiman entitled “Packed train.”

Metaphor The use of signs and metaphors in art, graphic design, and visual storytelling supports visual communication. Learning and understanding of abstract ideas and processes can be easier when difficult concepts are presented through visual metaphors – a basic structure for communicating a message. Visual metaphors, which make difficult concepts visible, help us to abstract the essence of an idea. Metaphors focus people on an issue and facilitate understanding of the idea. They enable us to translate abstract knowledge into a realm of familiar actualities that we can experience or see (Ursyn & Lohr, 2010). A metaphor describes

33

 How Do We Communicate

Figure 16. Packed train

(© 2018, J. Reiman. Used with permission)

relations among data, organizes information in a meaningful way, and combines creative imagery with the analytic rationality of conceptual diagrams. Visual metaphor indicates one thing as representing another, difficult one. In a metaphor, a feature of an object or a word belonging to a particular object is applied to another thing, concept, or idea. Metaphors enable making mental models and comparisons, so a basic structure of visualization is metaphorical. The word ‘metaphor’ has been created in ancient Greece where ‘μεταφορά’ (metaphorá) meant ‘carrying over’ or ‘transferring’ and then used in Latin as ‘metaphora’ – a transfer (Online Etymology Dictionary, 2014). To create a visual metaphor, we can use natural objects or phenomena (e. g., mountains, tornados), artificial, man-made objects (e. g., a bridge, a temple), activities (climbing), or concepts (war, family). Metaphors structure information, organize knowledge in visualizations, and thus originate an insight. Metaphors may convey disparate topics such as theological events or encyclopedias’ entries, or serve as classification systems (Lima, 2011, Lima, 2019). Manuel Lima called the tree figure the most ubiquitous and long-lasting visual metaphor, “through which we can observe the evolution of human consciousness, ideology, culture, and society” (Lima, 2014, p. 42). Therefore, hierarchical structures are most often analyzed with the use of a tree metaphor. Digital images, sounds, or animations can be analyzed as metaphors and seen as important sign systems working beyond the literary culture. Linking a culture of the image and of the text, for example sending messages containing words, images, sounds and objects, makes a synesthetic mode of cognition which operates outside the language-based thinking. Messages conveyed as the non-verbal, visual media are often more abstract and more interactive with the viewer. By crossing senses, viewers construct their perception of the reality that has been communicated by an artist in their own art-historical and cultural contexts. Visual metaphor may support conveying meaning when a notion defined and verbalized in one language has quite different meaning when transferred into another language, alphabet, and culture.

34

 How Do We Communicate

Application of the visual metaphor may eliminate such differences in understanding concepts. Many times this happens through the use of a meta-language, as in case of blogs. Figure 17 shows a work of Anna Ursyn titled “Urban Masquerade.” Figure 17. Urban Masquerade

(© 2018, A. Ursyn. Used with permission)

Dream you can fly. You can mold everything you dream into an amazing form You can create other cities in your dreamy wonderings And know kin souls’ lingo. It happens. You have double force now, Uncanny might, potent, ongoing, supernatural command. All because of computers.

Pretenders, Misleaders, and Informers When we communicate online, send a voicemail, or use visualization, we want to be understood exactly as intended. However, addressing user’s need for joy is equally important. In contrast to generally accepted philosophy that the best design is self-explanatory, every day we encounter objects that challenge our sagacity, entertain us by mimicking other things, mislead us about their function, or about the material they are made of. Some objects are designed to inform and entertain at the same time, by mimicking other objects’ characteristics. Some of them are made to mislead us. The thinking behind this design is aimed to entertain, make the day brighter, or make a product more attractive, while fulfilling its purpose. •

Pretenders: Products that show metaphorical likeness to other forms and ‘pretend’ to be something else can be called pretenders. For example, a candle may be shaped like a cactus, a cat, or 35

 How Do We Communicate

anything else. One may say about Las Vegas, Nevada that a whole Las Vegas Strip is a big pretender, with Paris, Venice, and ancient Egypt recreated inside of it. Many times, ample semiotic content is needed in product design to make it easy to understand, rather than metaphorical likeness of a product to something else. In fact, there are a lot of gift products with the appearance of another well-known object and it is difficult to guess what it is for or how to use it. On the other hand, the Apple Company ensures that the design of the connectors does not allow plugging them in the wrong way. One may see pretenders in everyday life. Healthy food products are often designed to pretend something else, for example meatless meatballs. Hamburgers made of portabella mushroom ‘pretend’ they are made of meat. There are even human pretenders – when a person wears a costume and advertises a product, for example pretending to be a Mexican taco. Toys are often designed as transformers and pretenders. Toys called Transformers (introduced in 1988) and the Ultra Pretenders featured a large exterior vehicle shell, then a secondary humanoid shell (which could also transform), and within that, the miniature interior robot. A puppet often hides another character within itself. The notion of pretenders is somehow related to the concept of camouflage. It could be understood as the disguising forms, patterns, or coloring that enables to blend with the surroundings. Figure 18 presents a candy box pretender. Figure 18. A bus: A candy box pretender

(© 2019, photographed by A. Ursyn. Used with permission)



36

Misleaders: We may think about some products as misleaders, when objects are designed to look like one thing while they are serving quite another purpose, for example, you may think it’s a book but it is a CD cover. Some souvenir products lack the product semantics, as they have an appearance of another well-known object as a disguise; it prevents the viewer from understanding what it is for or how to use it. For example, candles that are made in a shape of fruits or toys, and therefore do not look like candles, are misleaders. Figure 19 displays a container pretending to contain mushrooms while it is empty (mushrooms make a cover).

 How Do We Communicate

Figure 19. A pretender: Mushroom storage. pretender

(© 2019, photographed by A. Ursyn. Used with permission)

The most dramatic example of a misleader comes from the Bronze Age, when a huge figure of a wooden horse, with a force of men hidden inside, allowed the Greeks to enter the city of Troy (Figure 61). After the Greeks pretended to sail away, the Trojans pulled the wooden horse into their city as a gift and a victory trophy. Then, at night, the hidden soldiers came out of their wooden structure, opened the city gates and let the Greek army get in and take over the place. Many times, one material pretends to be another, for example, traditionally designed laces threaded in a web-like pattern are actually made of a synthetic material, not even knitted with thread but polymerized as a whole. A ‘crystal’ vase is often made of plastic. A countertop in a kitchen may be made of another plastic material that pretends to look like marble. Figure 20 shows a small figurine of a Trojan Horse. Figure 20. A figurine of a Trojan Horse as a misleader (© 2019, photographed by A. Ursyn. Used with permission)

37

 How Do We Communicate



Informers –Hidden Messages: Objects may have hidden messages. For example, when car dealers want to make you feel powerful, they show a lion or a tiger and transfer this feeling on a car. Other objects carry the hidden messages to help to use products. Such objects that have an easy recognizable shape are called canonical objects. In spite of the new line in a design of cellular phones, we still draw an old-style telephone with a round dial to signal where we can find the phone booths with the more modern touch-tone ones. We use symbols and link-node diagrams for abstract concepts in graphic languages.

The developments in product semantics put the designers on guard about the role of images as cognitive reflections of real world. Hence, aesthetics in marketing became important. Designers and advertisers began to consider visual imagery as a form of non-verbal processing. They became aware that products might be better remembered as easy to evoke images, so they started to apply imagery as a mnemonic strategy. Quite often, objects carry hidden messages: to attract prospective buyers, phone may take a shape of something else, for example, a pet animal. Figure 21 presents an informer – a container for a tomato. Figure 21. A tomato container as an informer–pretender (© 2019, photographed by A. Ursyn. Used with permission)

Thus, there is a link from iconic, well known content to a hidden content of a commercial, but designers must know the audience they are talking to evoke expected reaction. Also, CD covers send hidden messages through images, sexual, political, or other, to address visually a selected group of listeners. Many times color takes as a message using generally accepted associations, such as green = calm and soothing, red = hot and violent, etc. Thus, commercials present a product along with a hidden message that provides the viewer with aesthetic sensations, emotional associations, and the producer’s promises that supplement the product itself. Designers and advertisers began to consider visual imagery as a form of non-verbal processing. They became aware that products might be best remembered when they evoke images, so they started to apply imagery as a mnemonic strategy. Designing informers and pretenders may be somehow related to entertainment: objects one can play with and laugh at may be useful in marketing.

38

 How Do We Communicate

There are many camouflage restaurants blended with the surroundings or pretending they are something else by applying unusual decor. Also, hundreds of hotels defy convention, hosting quests in the cars, aircraft, in a prison, a lighthouse, a tree house, underground, underwater, on the top of cranes, and in other unusual places. In terms of product design, when discussing pretenders and misleaders we may think about their look, functionality of the product and its effectiveness in terms of cost, maintenance, or ecology, messages it conveys, joy, fun, and emotions they evoke. We may ponder why the pretenders and misleaders are so ubiquitous and what kind of needs they satisfy. Maybe, they quench our inclination toward spontaneous playfulness. If so, we may seek advantages of applying them in communication, product design, and in instruction. We may use their ludic character relating to play or playfulness properties to entertain, evoke attention, emotion, and curiosity, and thus enhance the attractive qualities of a product or motivation of the learner. With cognitive approach to mental imagery, one can include pretenders as tools to visualize a concept and create image representation of it. Thus, we may make pretenders, misleaders, and informers a tool for instruction, as well as the product design and it’s marketing; they convey both emotion and poetry, and make us aware of the artistic context of material culture of the products. Figure 22 shows a playful misleader: One may think it is possible to write on this mug, so it would be useful for making notes. Figure 22. A mug as a misleader–pretender, standing on another pretender: A laptop cover

(© 2019, photographed by A. Ursyn. Used with permission)

39

 How Do We Communicate

Emoji The main use of emoji is in sharing informal messages and bonding with others, mostly friends (as in F2F – friend-to-friend computer networks), family, and acquaintances. Web users add various kinds of emoji into their phone messages, Facebook pages, Twitter postings, Instagram uploads, websites, and internet domains. The word Emoji corresponds to a Japanese word containing notions of a picture (e) and a letter or character (moji). Manga comics have been the main source of inspiration for creating the Emoji code. Emoi characters make up a common visual alphabet, the universal set of characters for the languages of the world. They are standardized in the Unicode Standard, with its recent version 12.0, by the Unicode Consortium, which specifies and maintains 150 modern and historic scripts, as well as symbols and emoi. As we don’t draw emoji ourselves but we select them from a standardized set, so they do not reveal our subjectivity. Emoji are mostly adjective to the main message; they enhance mood of the receiver, add emotions to communication, and emphasize remarks or comments it contains. Many times, they save the effort of writing full phrases, as it happens when they replace salutations or punctuation in informal writing. Emoji are added to make a message more positive, joyful, and amusing but also sometimes ironic or sarcastic. The hybrid emoji text produces writing blended with pictorial system, and thus emoji as metaphorical pictures produce a new kind of meaning (Danesi, 2017). Many keyboards have emoji characters included. Apple is adding 50 emoji to its latest keyboard iteration, so do Google & Instagram. However, writing emoi-only texts or even sentences engenders considerable difficulty to decode for older generation not trained in communicating visually but popular with teenagers intuitively comfortable in today’s image based environment. Emoji are different from emoticons, which are pictorial representations of facial expressions using keyboard characters such as punctuation marks, letters, and numbers. Probably the most used emoticon is a smiley face. For example, emoji of a smiley-face is a picture ☺, while the analogous type-based emoticon looks like:–). While they are concise in a graphic form, emoji can convey complex emotions through their symbolic expressions, somehow in a way a chemical formula or a mathematical equation represent complexity of natural forms in a compact way. However, the same emoji may invoke unexpected connotations and arouse unpredicted emotions because people develop various conceptual meanings for signs and symbols according to their cultural background (Danesi, 2017). Figure 23 presents a work done by Karli Cumber titled “Karli’s Monday Routine.” Figure 23. “Karli’s Monday Routine” (© 2019, K. Cumber. Used with permission)

40

 How Do We Communicate

Synesthesia Synesthesia is a neurologically based condition that results from the merging of two or more sensory or cognitive pathways. It happens when stimulation of one sense leads to experiences in another sensory pathway: one may taste some shapes or hear color. Visual perception may involuntary accompany sensations of taste, touch, pain, smell, or temperature. Synesthesia may be induced with drugs. The most common types of synesthesia are: the word-to-color association and colored hearing, when someone is seeing colors when hearing a musical tone; usually the lower a musical note, the darker is the color. Therefore, synesthesia can be seen as a metaphor for transferring sensations typical of one medium into another. Thus, the notion of synesthesia incorporates elements of design, optics, neurology, physiology and psychology. Synesthetic ways of expression are applied in electronic art, performance arts, data presentation, technical implementations, design, advertisement, visualizations and simulations for scientific and educational purposes; they interact with the varied audience. A Russian painter and art theorist Wassily Kandinsky claimed he experienced synesthesia. Several writers, such as Edgar Allan Poe or Arthur Rimbaud described synesthetic experience and even linked it with memory. Some poets state they hear sounds or musical tones when they see words, images, and colors. Some musicians interpret their color experience in terms of musical keys or associate their mood or feeling with musical keys; they assert that they see colors assigned to particular tones or musical passages. Interactive multimodal data presentations are of interests to scientists. Strong aesthetic experience elicited by synesthetic art may result in a sensation of increased artistic potential and a need for doing one’s own artwork. Examples of visual presentation of music and sound include artwork sonification and environmental problems sonification.

2.3. VISUALIZATION OF NATURE AND KNOWLEDGE AS COMMUNICATION Visualization means the communication of data, information, and knowledge with graphical representations. It changes numerical data into graphs, clouds (Chen, 2010, 2011), tree visualizations (Shneiderman, 2014; Lima, 2014), network data, time-based, interactive, metaphorical visualization designs, and other formats. We can see and understand our data more deeply and this understanding may help us make first-rate decisions. Many times, a good visualization changes the way how one thinks about the topic. We can create visualization of our concepts by drawing basic shapes like squares, triangles, and circles connected by lines and arrows, and then inserting simple drawings inside of these shapes. Graphs, diagrams, or animations can visualize messages as well. Other examples are multimodal interactive data presentations, sonifications, and haptic/touch interfaces. Visualization has also been considered a semiotic process because of the use of signs to present ideas. According to Manuel Lima (2011), visualizations fall into three categories: science, design, and art; they are used as a tool for understanding data – i.e. discovering patterns, connections, and structure. For example, one can adopt a visualization workflow with components: data sources (data base, programs, files) – data transformers (filters, spreadsheet formulae, file format converters) – data visualizers (graphical representation of results) (Benoît, 2019). Visualization enhances communication through information display with the use of letters, numerals, art, graphic design, visual storytelling, signs, symbols, and application software. Visualization in the form of a diagram may change information into plots, line-graphs and charts, or the engineers or architects’ blueprints. Diagram is rather abstract than illustrative. Presentations of data organization and interpre41

 How Do We Communicate

tation such as governmental statistics are easier to comprehend in a graphic than in a numerical form. Graphics serve as explanatory tools for the data sets. Visualization usually means using the computer, which transforms data into information, and then visualization converts information into picture forms. Graphic images and symbols convey and express the meaning of abstract data, which lets us comprehend data and make discoveries, decisions, or explanations about patterns or individual items (Shneiderman, 1996). Thus, communication through visualization is at the same time pictorial and linguistic. It is socially and culturally conditioned, based on familiar linguistic patterns, as in a ‘pie chart’ metaphor for market shares, or a ‘starry night’ metaphor showing data in 3D (Bertschi & Bubenhofer, 2005). Visualization assists practitioners in creating communication media-art, installations, animated video or film, architectural projects, designing newspapers and magazines, or working on website design. Users apply. Visualization helps to analyze huge resources of information such as libraries, email archives, or things such as a blog, a wiki, and a tweeter feed (Ward, Grinstein, & Keim, 2010, p. 291). These applications are running the World Wide Web – an information space containing web resources accessible over the internet with the use of software called a web browser. Visualizations help users to understand how data analyses and queries relate to each other. From simple charts and data graphics to 3D multi-user virtual reality environments happening in real time, with human interaction possible, visualizations let us fly around the organized data, comprehend, and make decisions (Chen, 2010, 2011). According to Lev Manowich (in Lima, 2011), there are important features that make information visualization unique: projects are visually dense, with more data; they show relations between data; in aesthetical terms, they show complexity (chaos theory, emergent complexity theory) rather than reduction (breaking down into the simplest elements). As a scientific tool, information visualization serves for discovery of new knowledge; as a design tool it facilitates the perception of patterns and evokes emotions in the viewers; as art it is a technique to produce something non-utilitarian and aesthetically interesting (Lima, 2011, p. 12). Visualization projects often include icons. Images of iconic objects are familiar to all viewers, such as an old-style electric bulb, a DNA double helix, or a telephone handset. To convey a message visually with an icon, we take in those features that best identify an object, and suppress those features that are not basic to comprehending it, thus showing the scissorness of the scissors. In order to give a meaning to our image, we get rid of similarities and features (visible or semantic) that are not crucial. For example, knife and fork belong to ‘silverware’ - does not matter if it is green or wooden. Most often, these are icons referring to concrete objects; however, many icons stand for abstract ideas. For example, an oldstyle electric bulb shining above one’s head is often meant to stand for a bright idea. Many icons have a longer life than the shapes of the objects they stand for; we already seldom use the old-style phones with a round dial but we can see this icon when we look for a phone booth. In the same way, in spite of the developments in robotics, a picture of an anthropomorphic, humanoid robot still serves as an icon for industrial, servicing robots designed for specific tasks, or bots (virtual software agents), which do not resemble humans. By the way, the word “robot” was coined in 1920, in the course of conversation between the Czech writer Karel Čapek and his brother, the cubist painter and writer Josef Čapek (Zunt, 2005); it was given to an artificial man that could be mistaken for humans. The U.S. writer of Russian origin Isaac Asimov introduced to the readers the term ‘robotics’ in 1941, building on Karel Čapek’s concept of the robot. Visualization of large data sets is in demand because the web became the main carrier of information. When we use the search engines, there is too much data to be scrolled on the screen; a search can be done with the use of information visualization, data mining, and semantic web. A big set of data can 42

 How Do We Communicate

be presented in an interactive way on more than three axes. Users can navigate across big data sets, find patterns, relationships, and structures, and then examine their dynamic factors, resulting changes, and effects in real time. All that would be invisible if presented numerically. Pedagogical qualities of visualizations involve their visual, verbal, auditory, haptic, and other features, along with the easiness of learning about their use. Visualization is a way of learning, teaching, or sharing the data, information, and knowledge because it supports cognition, outperforms text-based sources, and increases our ability to think and communicate. In the field of product design, product visualization supports market research and advertising; a grasp of visualization technologies is a requisite for designing effective visual marketing. Various trends in product design aim for comfort, simplicity, elaboration, or fool proof and easiness of use. Designers and advertisers consider visual imagery as non-verbal processing. By applying icons in design designers can support our learning of using a complicated product, so it’s easy to answer a question, for example, “How to open this thing?” The best design is often self-explanatory. Information visualization communicates with users through shortcuts. It uses signs, symbols, icons, metaphors, connotations, and associations. We can create open or closed messages, whether we intend the user to understand the info as close to what is being sent, or we’d allow for imaginative interpretation. Object design has to fulfill functional, ergonomically oriented, aesthetic, material and space related demands, as well as match the area of joy of the user. Product visualization can show high-quality features of products in a way that everybody can apprehend the product’s values and buy the marketed article. The objectives of aesthetic studies move toward the effectiveness, efficiency, and easiness to understand (at a low cognitive cost) of visual presentation, not exclusively the beauty of an image. Informative art works are not only aesthetical objects but also contain information. Users tend to associate aesthetics with readability, and readability with understanding. Traditionally, visualization meant the intuitive use of visual presentation of concepts. There are anecdotes about famous inventors such as Friedrich Kekulé, Albert Einstein, and many other scientists. Friedrich Kekulé formulated an idea of four covalent bonds between a carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms. He supposedly visualized the theory of chemical structure as the dancing atoms and molecules while he was riding in 1855 on the upper deck of a horse-drawn omnibus in London (Rocke, 2010). Kekulé also discovered the ring-shaped structure of benzene (Kekulé, 1865). It is said that he had a daydream of a snake seizing and eating its own tail resembling the ancient symbol ouroboros depicting such a serpent or dragon. These cases may serve as examples of knowledge inspired by mental visualization on the subconscious level. The imagining such things might be stimulated by the long hours of learning and working in a lab. Asking the challenging and puzzling questions may evoke curiosity in students. •

Tools for Visualization: Serve as cognitive instruments such as utilization of metaphors, simulations, or the use of layers, details, and complex presentations in a website. Tools and instruments for visualization are derived from many domains; they may include scanners, microscopes, and cameras, micro agents, or bots, along with many kinds of applications for recording and measuring in real time. One may apply computer graphics tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Dreamweaver, and more, along with the computer networking related concepts such as cloud computing. Also, geographic maps, heat maps, and graphical representations such as flow or fever charts, and sparklines often serve for visualization of events. Clustering technique (clusters as subsets of observations) is used in data mining for statistical analysis, pattern recognition, and bioinformatics. 43

 How Do We Communicate



Simulation: Takes the appearance of a process or system to create a model and represent the real world by a computer program, if events can be presented as mathematical data. Thus, simulation creates computer-generated environment or virtual environment. The values of certain variables can be changed to simulate and measure the effect of the variable of interest, for example the effect of a price change on a market.

This allows predicting the behavior of the system. Simulations describing the space phenomena can be enhanced with the use of mapping colors. With this pseudocolor technique, complex waveforms are converted to a composite color map; it can show variables such as amplitude, frequency, and phase. This method allows the user immediate visual feedback and is also an effective educational tool. Interactive simulation including human operators is used in virtual reality techniques, as it happens in the aircraft flight simulator (equipment which represents real conditions in an aircraft or spacecraft used by people learning to fly) or an electronic circuit simulator. Immersive, interactive VR systems are used as a public display medium in common spaces, such as museums, galleries, conferences, and festivals. The projection-based VR bring forth artistic and educational experiences in entertainment and museum settings and serve the research community. Simulation has been applied to analysis of the dark matter. Various kinds of simulation support works performed in different domains: in petrology, to understand the origin and properties of rocks; in aerodynamics to study gases in motion; in biology to study homology, the similarities in structure or function in different species; in archeology, art, and architecture, to support reconstruction of medieval mosaics, mural works and mosaic floors; in mathematics, simulations support analysis of axioms and logical methods; in neural network, simulation of neural networks imitate the brain’s ability to sort out patterns and extract the relationships; in object-oriented programming and in software design, simulations support combining data and procedures; in multimedia, software and applications are often simulated, that combine text, sound, two- and three-dimensional graphics, animation, photo images, and full-motion video; and in many other fields. Simulation video games copy the real-life actions for entertainment, training, analysis, or prediction.

Visualization Techniques To create visualizations, computing and technical persons have to study graphics, while art and design individuals should study data (Benoît, 2019). Tools for creating visualizations include libraries such as a W3C Architectural domain, which provides a Document Object Model (DOM) – a platform and interface that allows programs to access and update documents. Also, a D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data, using HTML, SVG, and CSS. Visualization techniques often include small multiple drawings that represent the sets of data with miniature pictures, to reveal repetition, change, pattern, and facilitate comparisons. The pioneer in the field of data visualization Edward Rolf Tufte is an expert in the presentation of informational graphics, visual literacy, and visual communication of information. For Edward Tufte (1983, 1990), good design has two key elements found in simplicity of design and complexity of data. He described the collecting of small, sequential changes as the time series, and then drawing explanatory conclusions (Tufte, 1983, 1990, 1997, & blog 2006). Data can be presented in many ways, for example they can be ordered by the value of a variable, displayed as a stem-and-leaf exploratory analysis invented in 1977 by John Tukey (1977), or as time series plots, which were first drawn in 1785 by William Playfair (1805/2005; 1807/2005). Currently, animations and movies effectively present the causal factors. In his book entitled 44

 How Do We Communicate

“Envisioning Information” (1990/2005) Tufte wrote that vision is the only universal language: “the world is complex, dynamic, multidimensional, and all the interesting worlds are inevitably and happily multivariate in nature, having many values and dimensions.” He taught that information should enhance complexity, dimensionality, density, and beauty of communication. Good information display should be: documentary, comparative, casual and explanatory, quantified, multivariate, exploratory, and skeptical; it should allow comparing and contrasting. In accordance with Edward Tufte (1997), the good design means that “information is effectively arranged and empty space is used properly due to contrast, comparison, and choice, to allow reasoning about information.” In visualization domain, interactive visual metaphors enable us converting abstract knowledge into familiar facts that we can experience or see. A fisheye view (visual distortion creating a hemispherical or panoramic image) or a tree-map (a display of hierarchical data with the use of ordered, nested items) are examples of classic representations used for pictorial data presentation. Glyphs – graphical units that portray many variables by adapting their properties – can display much more in a small space than abstract presentations, just helping to overview, examine details, and abstract information about the very large, multi-variate data sets. An early example was developed by Chernoff who represented multivariable data through face expressions as a way of displaying interactive content. Thus, by observing data points represented on a glyph, such as a sphere or a “bubble,” one can determine the quality and quantity of the links within a website, because they are displayed in five dimensions by the position (x, y, and z), size, shape, and color of the sphere. Tag maps – visual representations of text in geographical space – are used in social software (where users can interact and share data) for labeling digital content of websites. They are also useful when we are browsing for topics; importance of a tag is depicted by a font size, color, popularity, or content. Metaphors may link the sender and the viewer by conveying not only perception but also the meaning. We can think in pictures, in addition to a linear, sequential fashion that is typical of talking. With images, linear information can be translated into spatial one. Graphic imaging is considered a means to reason about an arrangement of data, to communicate, document, and preserve knowledge. Visual metaphors serve for labeling various Web services, such as photos (Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest), videoclips sharing (YouTube), microblogging platforms (Twitter), making the www. bookmarks (delicious.com), as well as using services like MySpace, Blogger, Facebook, or professional networking (LinkedIn), and collecting online content (Twine, Dropbox). The internet portals and communication media, such as the Web, videoconference software, and search platforms (e.g., Wikipedia) became more visual interdisciplinary and more interactive. Most metaphors originate from biology-inspired thinking. Nature-derived metaphors support data visualization, information and knowledge visualization, data mining, semantic web, swarm computing, cloud computing, and serve as the enrichment of interdisciplinary models. In many cases they are used as tools for visualization techniques such as data mining, clusters and biclustering, concept mapping, knowledge maps, network visualization, web-search result visualization, open source intelligence, visualization of the semantic web, visual analytics, and tag cloud visualization, along with music visualization. We haven’t developed a nomenclature specific for computing. Instead, we apply names of familiar items and actions as metaphors, which serve to organize computing-related items and activities. Thus, we open a new window or a file with a mouse, put them in a folder, we cut, copy, and paste, place icons on a desktop, use tools and search engines, canvas, mailbox, documents, in-and-out boxes, and a web portal. The desktop metaphor is now fading because cell phones and tablets are replacing PCs as the main gateway to the internet. When describing photographic images, we talk about clouds and fluid 45

 How Do We Communicate

metaphors: there is image flow in the JavaScript image gallery, a photo stream in Apple’s photo storage software, and photo streams in a viewing page for photographs hosted on Flickr (Henning, 2018). Since people are familiar with general concept of a parking lot or a skyscraper, this type of environment is being used to create metaphors for large web data organization. For instance, data are structured toward metaphorical representation of a building. Floors, rooms, elevators, or corridors are being used as visual interpretation of subsets of a data set. Thus, by imaginative tour of a skyscraper, one may create connotations about each subset and its relationship to the whole set of data and its links. Figure 24. Uptown

(© 2019, A. Ursyn. Used with permission)

Go uptown at night to eat and shop, Meet artists and musicians, Visit local bistros and bars. Homeless people spend their days here, And then leave to find quiet sheltered areas. Young professionals look for trendy addresses. What a diverse community! The choice of a metaphor for data visualization depends on the kind of connections existing between the data. Information can be looked at from various angles, so the user has an understanding of the hierarchy of the web site and its topology. For example, we may use a city metaphor with districts, blocks, houses, buildings, with a height dimensionality. When the data are organized into ranks with each level subordinate to the one above, a tree metaphor with a hierarchy of its limbs, branches and twigs would be helpful. For a hierarchical presentation of a concept, a description of the animal kingdom may also serve well. The division in biological classification comprises its phyla (such as Chordata), classes (such as Mammalia), orders (such as Carnivora), families (such as Canidae), genera (such as Canis - Latin

46

 How Do We Communicate

‘dog’), and species (such as doglike species - dogs, wolves, jackals, coyotes, and foxes). If the connections among concepts are not hierarchical, we may draw a garden and arrange various plants, shrubs, and trees in a specified relation or order. When we can list many kinds of equally important data, we may need to describe the structure and the relations among these data, which means, explore their topology. A parking lot metaphor could be useful for this purpose. For example, metaphors used for multiple visualizations applied topological view with conetrees, workstation view as a solar system, file system view as pyramids, geographic view as a landscape, temporal view as a library, and a site view as a pyramid.

Project: Portrait as Visualization Now, create a visualization using metaphors for a set of factors that make up a visual portrait or a verbal profile of a person. It may be your portrait or you may choose to portray a person of your choice. You may do it in two ways – the journalistic way by writing a profile (verbal portrait), and the artistic way by graphically conveying a mental image (visual portrait). Depending on the kind of a profile you will work on, whether it be a personal, cultural, social, political, or psychological portrait, you will cope with a different set of variables you will have to take into account. For this reason, you will have to structure them toward different metaphorical representations. Figures 25 a, b, c show three computer graphics made with different approaches to the task of creating a self-portrait, solved by Computer Graphics students Shauna Pitzer, Oksanna Worthington, and Jenny Lee. Figures 25. Three self-portraits

(© 2019, © S. Pitzer, O. Worthington, and J. Lee. Used with permission)

We may examine pictures portraying people in terms of the content (what does this portrait say). Portraits may serve various purposes, such as in works of artists: • • • •

Social, for example, painted by William Hogarth or Francisco Goya. Political, such as by Jacques-Louis David. Erotic, as in Agnolo Bronzino. Religious, such as Francisco de Zurbaran.

47

 How Do We Communicate

• • • •

Ironic, as in William Holman Hunt. Enigmatic, such as by Andy Warhol. Psychological, e.g., Christian Schad. Experimental, for example, Hans Holbein.

Figures 26 and 27 present two portraits of other people. Figure 26 shows a portrait of a neighbor sketched by Katherine Ashcraft, while figure 27 presents a portrait of an elderly man drawn by Anna Ursyn. Figure 26. Portrait of a neighbor

(© 2018, K. Ashcraft. Used with permission)

We may also examine pictures portraying people in terms of the artistic process applied by the artist (how does this portrait look). A portrait may be made as: •

• •



A Caricature: Which deliberately exaggerates the subject’s distinctive features or peculiarities. A caricature could be made with a number of approaches to original works including humor, symbolic or metaphorical interpretation, satirical intent of the pastiche creator, or visualization of one’s needs and dreams, as at the George Grosz’ “Berlin Street scene.” An Assemblage: An arrangement of miscellaneous objects, such as fruits and vegetables in works of Giuseppe Arcimboldo. A Pastiche: A work that imitates other artists, made with a number of approaches to original works including humor, symbolic or metaphorical interpretation, satirical intent of the pastiche creator, or visualization of one’s needs and dreams (e.g., Francis Bacon, “Study after Velasquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X”) A Grid of Assemblage Units: As in photorealistic portraits by Chuck Close Figure 28 shows a triptych over time created by Kate Bierschwale.

48

 How Do We Communicate

Figure 27. Portrait of an elderly man (© 2018, A. Ursyn. Used with permission)

Figure 28. Self-portraits: As a kid, now, and in the future (© 2018, K. Bierschwale. Used with permission)

49

 How Do We Communicate

Design a portrait using a metaphor for its organization. Explore and communicate your art concepts about portraying people and the relevance of various solutions to one another. This project provides a good occasion to apply your visual literacy and exercise cognitive processes related to imaging. It may serve well to enhance your familiarity with art, both passive and active, when you act both as a perceiver, when you look at art works on a computer screen or in books, and a creator. Works of art are available in abundance at the internet-based sources such as the websites of. Figures 29 a, b show two self-portraits by Jeremy Rice: first is current, and a next one shows his vision of himself as an old man. Figure 29a. Two self-portraits: A current one (© 2018, J. Rice Used with permission)

Figure 29b. Two self-portraits: A prediction of future (© 2018, J. Rice Used with permission)

In a similar way, Evan Van Dyke reflects on evolution of his image against time presenting on Figure 30 three stages of his life along with objects telling about him.

Visualization Domains The most important domains in visualization are: data visualization, information visualization, and knowledge visualization. •

50

Data Visualization: Presents the sets of data in a visual form, and thus enables us to go from the abstract numbers in a computer program (ones and zeros) to visual interpretation of data. Sabol

 How Do We Communicate

(in Bertschi, Bresciani, Crawford, Goebel, Kienreich, Lindner, Sabol, & Moere, 2011, p. 333) describes data as “sequences of numbers or characters representing qualitative or quantitative attributes of specific variables.” Moreover, data may result from facts, products, but also from naming these products. Many types of physical or numerical data may include 1D linear, 2D with horizontal and vertical axes (e.g., a map), 3D world including depth on the z-axis (e.g., molecule or architectural models), multidimensional, often presented in an interactive form (scattergrams, clusters), and other types. Data visualization applies tools that have been listed as techniques for spatial and geospatial data, imaging multivariate data, visualization of trees, graphs, and networks, text representations, and interaction techniques (Ward, Grinstein, & Keim, 2010). Data provide us a raw material that has no meaning if we do not process it. To obtain information, data is processed and brought into a context where it gains a specific meaning and becomes understandable to users. About 80% of sensory input comes from our visual system (Hartman & Bertoline 2005). Text visualization means converting textual information into graphic representation, so we can see information without having to read the data; we can see tables, histograms, pie or bar charts, or Cartesian coordinates. Figure 30. A triptych

(© 2018, E. Van Dyke. Used with permission)



Information Visualization (IV): Happens when somebody presents what has been done with the data. It gathers information and puts it in a visual format. It is often characterized as graphic representation of data plus interaction, which means the use of computer-supported, interactive visual representations of abstract data to amplify cognition (Bederson & Shneiderman, 2003). It thus provides the visual insight into sets of data. Due to our visual perception capabilities we can recognize patterns and extract knowledge from raw data and information. In structural modeling of data we can detect, extract, and simplify relationships and structure in a graphical form, and then examine them visually, often interactively. Creating visualizations includes transforming raw

51

 How Do We Communicate

data (that may be abstract, semantic, or verbal information that is present in hypertext, www, or other text documents) into structured forms as data tables, converting data for calculations of their attributes, and visual mapping of important structures into the abstract visual structures. The strong point in information visualization is that it could be (and should be) interactive. Interactive information visualization combines interaction design, exploratory data analysis, and graphic design (Benoît, 2019). Interactivity in visualization means that specific data are analyzed in exploratory way to allow creating web- and computer-based info graphics that can serve the information visualization. Users transform structures on a screen changing their shape, color, size, or location. Biomolecular structures were first visualized as balls connected with sticks, and then as spheres with rods; visualizers generate now images from an electron microscope, thus providing information visualization (Ward, Grinstein, & Keim, 2010, p. 24). We can visualize information as graphs, trees, or cones; detect proximity and connectivity; cluster and classify using word search; scale in multi-dimensional way; perform network analysis; design glyphs, charts and graphs; create virtual structures; apply complex network theory, and make network representations (Chen, 2010). Information visualization as a tool for visual communication helps to locate data and explore its structure, understand its complexity, communicate and navigate, for instance on the web. We can communicate visual messages showing events and their patterns for further analysis. With computer programs, abstract data is identified and gathered, selected, transformed, and manipulated directly from the data into pictorial form. Then textual labels and related information are combined with visuals to be published online. Information visualization supports applications of graph theory, geometric modeling and imaging, visual analytics, virtual environments, geo-analytics, biomedical informatics and visualization, web visualization, cultural heritage knowledge visualization, aesthetics, visualization in software engineering, architecture, visualization in built and rural environments, and many other fields. It serves for conveying information in online journalism, business management, technical writing, social networks, and education. Web search engines, a software system for searching information presents its results often as a mix of web pages, images, and other types of files. According to the eBusiness Guide (http://www.ebizmba. com/), the most popular search engines are: Google with 1,800,000,000 monthly visitors, Bing with 500,000,000, Yahoo! with 490,000,000, Baidu with 480,000,000, and Ask with 300,000,000 estimated unique monthly visitors (eBizma/MBA, 2019). Visual search engines use information visualization, data mining, and semantic web. Visual queries help us to find patterns in node-link diagrams in software architecture. Web architectures use search engines, manage large databases, and create web interfaces based on the concept of the semantic web. Surfing the web involves visualizing and manipulating data in multiple dimensions, using Java, 2D and 3D interaction metaphors, and data mining. Visualization techniques support clinical studies including cancer treatment. While information visualization supports the retrieval and organization of large data sets about facts and numbers, knowledge visualization helps to augment communication about knowledge-related relations and principles. •

52

Knowledge Visualization: Is a general concept underlying an action of gathering of data, interpretation, creation of a new visualization, and sharing knowledge in a visual format. Knowledge visualization has been defined as the presentation of pictures showing easy-to-recognize objects, which are connected through some well-defined relations, to amplify cognition. It uses visual representation to transfer insights to create, integrate, and apply knowledge between individuals; it focuses on the recipients, other types of knowledge, and on the process of communicating differ-

 How Do We Communicate

ent visual formats (Burkhard, Meier, Smis, Allemang, & Honish, 2005). As Jean Constant (2019) put it, “The concept of Knowledge Visualization, more framework than theory, affects all areas of science such as mathematics, physics, engineering, chemistry, biology as well as medical and social sciences, art and the humanities. Techniques are aimed at explanation and presentation of knowledge, so they enhance cognitive processes of users and reduce cognitive load for working memory. Knowledge visualization can be created without the use of a computer. A cave drawing, a map, or a mind map drawn with a pen on paper may serve as examples of knowledge visualization generated without a computer. Knowledge visualization has been present in different disciplines and in various modes since early days of civilization. Many kinds of tables preserved since ancient times, the Near East Akkadian clay tablets, Sumerian accounting tables, Aztec calendars, or the Egyptian stele Rosetta Stone, as well as the medieval chronicles, canon tables, and calendars are representations of early genres of knowledge visualization. Analysis of these tables demonstrates the constant need to visualize abstract data, information, and knowledge. Cognitive solutions for knowledge visualization take form of a selection of science-based problems using computer graphics, computer art, images, algorithms, animations, or web art. Knowledge visualization specialists use computer-based (and also non-computer-based) graphic representations, such as information graphics (infographics), objects, sketches, conceptual diagrams, concept maps, interactive visualizations, storyboards, and visual metaphors to produce solutions concerning readability, simplification, and effectiveness of presentation for a wide spectrum of users. Designers co-work with communication science specialists for social network users (such as cell phone users, e-mail archives, criminal networks, or underage audience sensitive messages). Knowledge visualization could contribute design- and user-specific representations, e.g., a map, metro, aquarium, solar system, or flower metaphor for users with limited visual literacy (Kienreich, in Bertschi et al., 2011). We often utilize current technological appliances and applications without thinking about scientific disciplines that have been necessary to create them; on the other hand, our knowledge of science disciplines paves the way for creating nature inspired solutions to high-priority problems. •



Scientific Visualization: Is a field in computer science that encompasses user interface, data representation, processing algorithms, visual representations, and other sensory presentation such as sound or touch (McCormick, DeFanti, & Brown, 1987). Abstract or model-based scientific visualizations present real objects in a digital way. Scientific visualization means mapping from the computed to perceptual representations. Physically based data are defined, selected, transformed, and represented according to space coordinates, such as geographic data or computer tomography data of a body for medical use. Analysts, decision makers, engineers, or emergency-response teams depend on the ability to analyze information contained in the data; they also search how users navigate the database. Concept Mapping: Shows the structure of information, and builds knowledge models useful for strategic planning, product development, market analysis, decision-making, and measurement development. Concept maps support the learning, construct knowledge, reduce cognitive load, and improve recall of information. Knowledge maps visualize knowledge by showing changes and interrelationships; they help us design strategies and build assessment. Network and web-search result visualization became the important carrier of information.

53

 How Do We Communicate



Visual Analytics: Provides automated analysis of large amounts of dynamic information. The closed loop approach uses visualization and interaction of multi-touch surfaces; combine mobility s computational and visual methods using visualization, data mining, and statistics; uses abstract visual metaphors, mathematical deduction, and human intuitive interaction. Visual analytics serves for studying the entire genome of an organism at many abstraction levels: cells, organisms, and ecosystems, in formats and scales such as molecules, gene networks, and signaling networks. It also serves medicine, environmental investigation, and national security. Tag cloud visualization is a text-based visual representation of a set of tags.

Currently, technology is used for genome editing. CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) has been developed as a coding language of DNA to edit the genome, the organism’s hereditary information. It has potential to make it easier to write new code in the language of genetics (Parker & Marson, 2018). CRISPR/Cas9 is an enzyme that can be used to edit genes within organism, to confer resistance to foreign genetic elements and provide a form of acquired immunity (CRISPR, 2018). CRISPR scissors show potential to cut the some DNA and insert a new gene. Scientists perform experiments both on gene editing and building chimeras. The epigenetic editing is a variation of CRISPR that modulates, rather than cuts away the DNA sequences. With a chimera approach, the gene editing technique is being used to grow human organs on animal bodies (Hayasaki, 2019). However, these developments in biology of gene expression – signals that govern the organs’ development – are a subject of fervent discussion in terms of ethics and safety. •

Information Aesthetics: Combines information visualization and visualization art. Ward, Grinstein, & Keim (2010, p. 366) stressed that the effectiveness of visualization depends on its aesthetics. Visual appeal of visualization may depend on drawing the user’s focus to the most important parts, balance of the screen space, and simplicity of presentation provided without information overload and graphical gimmicks. The authors provide several design rules for creating effective visualizations. These include the use of intuitive data-graphic mappings; providing multiple views of the data; a careful use of color and grids without occluding the data; creating attractive but not misleading design with semantic meaning and compatible units; providing the user an access to the raw data; and designing visualizations of the relative rather than absolute judgment (Ward, Grinstein, & Keim, 2010, p. 374).

A large number of scientists perceive the visualization techniques as a chance to show what is invisible – translation of mental, abstract, formal concepts into images: pictures or graphs (Lima, 2011). Visualization not only makes the unseen visible; it builds a meaningful net of associations and connotations. Information visualization often represents data in pleasurable and intelligible way. Computing technology may cause that aesthetics of knowledge visualization may be measured as the balance between art literacy and technological literacy: visual competence in the art, design, and technological solutions in visualization. Aesthetic values are considered important in mathematics, science, and computing, including the aesthetic computing and aesthetic issues related to digital environment.

54

 How Do We Communicate

Other Forms of Sharing Data •





Infographics: Are tools and techniques used in graphical representation of data, information, and knowledge, mostly in journalism, art, and storytelling. For example, representing information management may involve data presentation, mapping, and issues related to the temporal dimension. Infographics can tell a story, reveal relationships, and show structure. A model may mean a scaled copy of some object (often using interactive modeling systems), or a mathematical model describing physical laws and the behavior of physical objects. Instagram: Is a social networking service own by Facebook, for sharing photos and videos. Uploaded material can be edited with filters, and then organized with tags and location information. The instagram egg, a photo of a brown egg, posted on 14 January 2019 on this social media platform by the account @world_record_egg, gained the most-liked online post on any website in history. According to The New York Times, on January 13, 2019 this instagram gained 53,393,058 likes (Victor, 2019). A Radar Chart: is also called a spider chart or a star chart. It presents multivariate data in the form of a two-dimensional chart of variables presented on axes starting from the same point. The radar chart consists of a sequence of spokes called radii. Each spoke represents one of the variables. The length of a spoke is proportional to the magnitude of the variable. A line connects the data values for each spoke.

Calligraphy Handwritten lettering is considered art in many cultures. This visual art of decorative writing gives “form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, and skillful level” (Mediaville, 1996, p.18). Figure 31 a b presents works of my doctoral student Fatma Alabdullaziz who juxtaposed an Arabic script and old cultural symbols with the quick response code (QR code) matrices, thus blending Islamic cultural icons with the contemporary QR matrix barcodes. Figure 31a. Kufic, the oldest calligraphic form of various Arabic calligraphic scripts combines a geometric discipline with a dynamic rhythm (© 2015, F. Alabdullaziz. Used with permission)

55

 How Do We Communicate

Figure 31b. Kufic, the oldest calligraphic form of various Arabic calligraphic scripts combines a geometric discipline with a dynamic rhythm

(© 2015, F. Alabdullaziz. Used with permission)

Calligraphers create inscriptions, which are often considered fine art works. Calligraphic inscriptions are made in service of font design and typography, graphic design, and logo design. They are present in cut stone inscriptions, maps, memorial documents, religious art, film and television, wedding and other events announcements, birth and death certificates, and other testimonials (Geddes & Dion, 2004). The following figures, figure 32a, 32b, 32c, and 32d are created by my student Jingying Zhen as a visual counterpart of selected calligraphic scripts of Chinese characters. The calligraphy of Chinese characters carried artistic expressions of emotions. Jingying Zhen have been studying characteristics of calligraphy by personifying calligraphy as humans: characters with personalities. Figure 32a. Visual counterpart of a Chinese calligraphic script (© 2018, J. Zhen. Used with permission)

Tools serving for calligraphers include broad tip instruments, brushes, fiber tip pens, reed pens, fountain pens, dip pens, quills, steel or copperplate nibs, or other writing tools (Harris, 2003). Origins of calligraphy come from the visual context, with nature-based depictions gradually changing into abstract shapes symbolizing objects existing in nature.

56

 How Do We Communicate

Figure 32b. Visual counterpart of a Chinese calligraphic script

(© 2018, J. Zhen. Used with permission)

Figure 32c. Visual counterpart of a Chinese calligraphic script (© 2018, J. Zhen. Used with permission)

In many countries calligraphy is considered a measure of culture, and a person who writes beautifully in a rigorous way is valued as someone with integrity and artistic talent. Calligraphy masters perfected their strokes to express the structure and harmony in a single character by exerting force and transpire emotion; at the same time they focused on overall composition of the work, which led to developing the individual character of the artist. There are several calligraphic styles, some coming from ancient times. Arabic scripts include Islamic calligraphy, Coptic Christian, and Kufic script, which is the oldest. Arabic calligraphy draws from Arabic alphabet. Persian (or Iranian) calligraphy, respected and admired as art, has developed several styles with more letters than the Arabic handwriting, including many contemporary artistic movements and styles. There are four Tibetan calligraphic traditions, mostly created with a reed pen. Chinese artistic writing and painting, playing string instruments, and the game go are celebrated as forms of artistic

57

 How Do We Communicate

Figure 32d. Visual counterpart of a Chinese calligraphic script (© 2018, J. Zhen. Used with permission)

expression. There are several transcriptions, traditional or simplified. Related art forms are seal carving, ornate paperweights, and ink stones. Japanese calligraphy with Chinese roots dates from the twenty-eight century BC, while the first calligraphic Japan text was written in early 7th century. The Hiragana and Katakane are distinctive Japanese kana syllabaries (characters representing syllables). Five types of Korean script are derived from Chinese calligraphy; artists are developing their own Korean style. Indian scripts have been mostly Buddhist religious texts. European calligraphy mostly used the Latin script serving for sacred texts, often decorated with illuminations. Font families used in computers for software such as Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Word, or Apple Pages draw from past calligraphic tradition as well as from contemporary typeface designers. Current computer writing systems have been standardized by the Unicode Consortium, which has published on March 2019 the Unicode 12.0.0 containing a repertoire of 137,993 characters covering 150 modern and historic scripts, as well as multiple symbol sets and emoji (http://www.unicode.org/ versions/Unicode12.0.0).

Ethical and Legal Issues: Copyright Ethics in communication and the use moral reasoning in a variety of contexts is often an important factor, when one has to take into consideration legal rights and copyright laws, or learn how to defend one’s ethical decisions. Bioethics examines issues concerning the ethical, legal and social implications of advances in biotechnology and biomedicine. From stem cell research to health care reform, these topics involve critical dilemmas at the intersections of law, society, culture, public policy, philosophy, religion, economics, and history. Some examples of such issues might involve history-based trading (software helping with stocks, retirement, or house mortgage rates). Transparency in the open source companies becomes an important issue. For example, Aleph Object, the producer of 3-d printers that also print themselves, Lulzbot has

58

 How Do We Communicate

open source policy allowing anyone to learn all about their work, from collaboration, ideas, inspirations, to materials, techniques and processes. Medical, criminal, family data becomes a growing issue on several levels. Crime and solutions are yet another topic: private detectives using the internet, security cameras (miniaturization). Apps devised for everything are changing business models, from taxi to Lyft, with the internet shopping resulting in reducing the number of such stores such as Toys R Us and closing bookstores. Those movements are removing many social opportunities from the global map, some believe. Gaming is becoming extremely collaborative across the globe, too.

2.4. HOW DO WE COMMUNICATE WITH COMPUTERS Interface A notion of interface is important for successful communication. When we talk about an interface we use a preposition ‘between.’ The term interface, usually denoting any type of connection or interaction between two units (which may be subjects, organizations, physical or electronic systems) is used every day in many contexts and meanings. In social science, we can talk about social interface. Physicians tell about interface as a boundary between matter or phases of mater such as solid, liquid, and gas. For example, aerosol presents a gas-liquid interface. Such interfaces may cause optical effects such as for instant refraction. Optical lenses create interface between glass (or plastic) and air. This term also describes connections in electrical circuits. An interface in computing denotes a point of interaction at the level of both hardware and software. For example, a graphics card (hardware) and an internet browser (software) may use interfaces to communicate with other components. Most computer interfaces are bi-directional. A computing interface may provide communication between the computer and the user with a monitor and a keyboard. Interface with the internet may go through the Internet protocol. Computing specialists would program user interface between a user and a computer allowing the user to communicate with the operating system, human-computer interface (using touch, visual, auditory, olfactory, balance, or taste), or an interaction and thus communication between items of hardware, software, or their combination. They make network interfaces and protocol interfaces in a computer network to pass messages, or connect and disconnect communication between computer peripherals. Graphical user interface (GUI) uses visuals and graphical icons instead of texts as user interfaces. GUI allows users to interact with electronic devices using images rather than text commands. It can be used in computers, portable devices, and appliances, using graphical icons rather than text based interfaces. Many kinds of user interfaces are realized in visual, auditory, or tactile domains. The haptic/touch interfaces, for example pressure sensitive interfaces, exemplify a kind of multimodal data presentations. The interface between software and hardware means a set of instructions represented by binary codes. Codes make up a machine language that is then decoded by a computer. Assembler is a program that converts assembly language to binary digits. Compilers are programs that convert commands into computer codes (Kerlow & Rosebush, 1994). Biointerfaces and brain-computer interfaces enable communication between humans and machines and/or humans-machines-humans. Biointerface means contacts between organic materials such as biomolecules, tissues, or cells with inorganic matter. These interfaces translate biological functions 59

 How Do We Communicate

into numerical data and then computer systems interpret them and display the results. For example, electrophysiological functions of a brain are gathered as electroencephalographic activities. Biosensors placed on a skin register galvanic skin response measuring the electrical conductance from the skin. Blood volume pulse sensors detect changes in blood pressure (e.g., as photoplethysmography). Breathing sensors monitor one’s thorax or diaphragm activity. Electromyogram sensors capture the electrical activity produced by a muscle at the moment of its contraction. Biointerfaces can also transform electrophysiological signals from the brain and physiological information about the user into commands that produce actions performed by the hardware and software. This may aid failing human senses and bio-regenerative medicine by enhancing potential of individuals with social and/or motor disabilities, severe muscle disorders such as lateral amyotrophic sclerosis, cerebral hemorrhage, and muscle damage. Interest in biointerfaces is now important in biotechnology, medicine, for creating new materials, bioengineered products, nano and micro contact methods, nanotube and nanoparticle interfaces, and in many other disciplines. Bio-interfaces can be used as wearable devices that provide organic interaction between man and machine. This area of study involves different fields of knowledge, such as neurobiology, psychology, design, engineering, mathematics, and computer science. Biointerfaces also enable applications in the areas of design, art, education, and games. They allow participation and audience’s interaction with art works, design projects, and games. They connect participants’ physiological and brain activities with the therapeutic, educational, or entertainment games, so the participants feel and act as co-authors.

Classical Computers Apparently, the world’s first mechanical computer had been built sometime between 200 and 70 B.C. and was discovered 117 years ago off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera. It is called Antikythera Mechanism, and it shows the engineering prowess of the ancient Greeks as well as their impressive knowledge of astronomy. This clock-sized device contained about 30 interlocking, spinning gears that controlled dials tracking the Sun, the Moon, eclipses, planets, and the schedule for the Olympics (Becker, 2017). Archeologists believe it was sunken with the ship carrying it to Rome, and possibly the dark ages ended its future existence (Pruitt, 2016). Before the advent of nanotechnology and works on designing a nanocomputer, when one talked about computers one might mean an original mainframe computer, a mini computer, or a microcomputer. The powerful mainframe computers served for statistics, planning, and processing of big data sets such as those concerning the census, government, industry, or consumers. They included the central processing unit, main memory, hosted multiple operating systems, and operated virtual machines – the guest operating systems with software implementation of a computer enabling the execution of the operating system or running programs aiding the single processes. Mini computers, introduced in mid-1960s were priced at about $25,000; they had input-output devices such as a teleprinter and memory capable of running higher-level language programs such as Fortran or Basic. Microcomputers, often called personal computers and designed for individual users, did not need big cabinets or special rooms. They contained a microprocessor, a central processing unit (CPU), a power supply unit, RAM memory, memory storage devices combined with the CPU, batteries, and integrated or separate input/output devices for conveying information such as monitors, keyboards, printers, and other human interface devices. Some of them became personal computers. 60

 How Do We Communicate

Classical computers convert information to binary digits (bits); thus, the state of a classical computer is determined by the binary values of bits. Each bit has only two possible values, 0 or 1. Computers operate on bits using integrated circuits containing billions of transistors. They manipulate binary representations to process algorithms, assembly codes, text documents and spreadsheets, games, videos, and the Web-based services. Transistors are used to build integrated circuits, where they are connected with wires and send electrical signals. When signals are analog, their values change smoothly. The values of these signals may depend on changes in environment creating noise. Transistors that create circuits sending digital binary signals (around two Boolean states – either 0 or 1) form ‘digital gates’ which send electrical signals as binary values.

Quantum Computers Nanocomputers might be possibly built using quantum mechanics principles. Richard Feynman introduced the field of quantum computing in 1982. Quantum computing combines physics, mathematics, and computer science. In the same way as a bit which can only be 0 or 1, a qubit can represent the values 0 or 1; but the fundamental premise of quantum mechanics poses that a qubit may be a superposition of both such states at the same time. Thus, at the level of quantum mechanics particles of matter can exist in multiple, simultaneous combinations of states (0 or 1). The qubits have both digital and analog character, and quantum phenomena manifest as noise. Qubit is the quantum analogue of the bit. The basic paradigm for quantum algorithms involves the quantum circuit model composed of the basic quantum units of information (qubits) and their basic logical manipulations (quantum gates represented by matrices). As for now, groups of scientists are striving to build small quantum computers by creating and controlling ‘qubits’ – units of quantum information. They are now working on building small demonstration quantum computing systems, which are based on two technologies, one uses trapped ionized atoms (trapped ions) and the other uses artificial ‘atoms’ generated by miniature superconducting circuits (Grumbling & Horowitz 2018). Earlier attempts included developing a quantum computer that utilized properties of superconductor circuits, trapped ions, quantum dot charge based semiconductor, nuclear magnetic resonance on molecules in solution, fullerene-based (electronic spin of atoms or molecules encased in fullerene structures), or a diamond based quantum computer. Nanoscale computers would be tentatively faster and combine high computing power with low electrical requirements. Nanotubes allow reducing the size of chips and lowering physical limitations. Grids of nanotubes may form memory and very fast operating circuits. Researchers are developing quantum computers based on light rather than electricity. At Stanford, new materials could be the key to progress in this field. With the Stanford team’s approach, quantum computers work by isolating spinning electrons inside a new type of semiconductor material. When a laser strikes the electron, it reveals which way it is spinning by emitting quanta or particles of light. Those spin states replace the ones and zeros of traditional computing (Abate, 2017). Zhang et al. (2016) present diamonds as quantum emitters, where semiconductor-based quantum photonic structures contain negatively charged silicon-vacancy color centers. These hybrid quantum photonic structures result from combining the growth of nano- and microdiamonds on silicon carbide substrates. Color centers are incorporated in diamond during its synthesis from molecular diamond seeds (diamondoids), with no need for ion-implantation or annealing. Thus, high quality color centers can be incorporated into nanophotonic structures synthetically. Applications comprise both classical and quantum information processing.

61

 How Do We Communicate

According to the 2018 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, “quantum computers are unlikely to be useful as a direct replacement for conventional computers, or for all applications; rather, they are currently expected to be special-purpose devices operating in a complementary fashion with conventional processors, analogous to a co-processor or accelerator. Apart from the problems with logistics and costs, it may soon change so workstations will be terminals & quantum computers will operate server side, in the cloud. Perhaps the best-understood application of quantum algorithms is in the field of cryptography (specifically, defeating it), an application based directly on mathematics” (Grumbling & Horowitz 2018). The cryptographic methods are used to protect government and civilian communications and stored data. Investigations into quantum computing offer promises to solve these civilian and national security purposes.

Programming Languages To communicate with a computer, we use a language that is understandable for the machine. Computers that do not consist of hard-wired algorithms have to understand the language in which their algorithms are given. The algorithm is a process involving a set of rules. A program combines several algorithms, and the language in which it is given is called a programming language. A computer must have the ability to access (read and manipulate) the representation that is us ed by the algorithm (it operates on) and affect it’s required changes (Erwig, 2017). Programming languages are discussed with two broad perspectives involving the examination of their syntax and semantics. The syntax of a programming language defines the structure of the code and its form of expression. The semantics relates to the meaning of the code. A sign communicates a meaning; it is a representation of something else. For example, we can design a road sign “left turn” and then by crossing this sign we will make a new sign “no left turn.” Manipulating such representations means computation. By writing a combination of signs we can produce an algorithm. By providing interpretation needed to understand these signs or transformation of signs we perform computation. Writing an algorithm is a method for sending a set of instructions and solving a particular problem. Each algorithm can be then executed many times. In computer science, each use of algorithm is called a computation, thus computation is algorithm execution (Erwig, 2017). •





62

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML): Is the core language of the World Wide Web. It makes the structure of a web page explicit and presented in unambiguous way allowing only one interpretation. Uniform Resource Locators identify documents and other web resources. HTML documents represent a media-independent description of interactive content. HTML documents might be rendered to a screen, through a speech synthesizer, or on a Braille display. HTML represents information but does not describe computation. JavaScript: Is a language that defines the dynamic behavior of web pages (Erwig, 2017). Visual types of programming may involve object oriented programming – language oriented toward objects and data, more than actions or logic. Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is a set of tags used for describing web pages and building web applications (HTML W3C, 2016). Markup language is a system for tagging a document to indicate its logical structure (such as paragraphs). Tags replace text providing typesetting instructions. Markups instruct the software about electronic transmission and display of the text (Merriam-Webster, 2019). HTML5 Canvas: Element is used to draw graphics on a web page via JavaScript, for example color or multicolor shapes, gradient colors, or multicolor texts. Canvas has several methods for

 How Do We Communicate



drawing paths, boxes, circles, text, and adding images. Canvas is a container for graphics; so using JavaScript is needed to actually draw the graphics (HTML.5 Canvas, 2019). Processing: Was created by the MIT alumni Ben Fry and Casey Reas for the electronic arts and visual design communities. Processing, which is based on Java, is a flexible software sketchbook and a programming language for learning how to code within the context of the visual arts (Reas & Fry, 2015). This award-winning program serves for anyone willing to try one’s exploratory way of programming. In the program, the image, animation, or an interactive work is presented along with a code, and the user is welcome to alter the code and see the changes made to the visual data provided by the authors, or write the own code following the rules provided in the added manual. An open source programming language Processing.org can be downloaded without any charge (https://processing.org). Since 2001, Processing has promoted software literacy within the visual arts and visual literacy within technology. There are tens of thousands of students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists who use Processing for learning and prototyping. However, Casey Reas & Ben Fry (2007, p. 5) express their dissatisfaction, “there have been very few classes that strive to integrate media arts knowledge with core concepts of computation.”

Processing won a 2005 Golden Nica award at Prix Ars Electronica – International Competition for CyberArts, which incorporates varied kinds of media: performances, live action, interactive installations, visual music, and movies.

Biologically Inspired Models for Nano Computing As a Nobel laureate in chemistry Frances Arnold put it, DNA was discovered about 50 years ago, genetic engineering 30 years ago, and in the last 10 years scientists learn how to synthesize DNA. By using evolution, we are doing what nature does—just faster and more targeted. While natural evolution takes for millions of years, new biological molecules and organisms are much faster created in the laboratory by forcing their evolution. Synthetic biologists are working on identifying genomic parts to build biological systems, improving functioning of existing biological parts, engineer microbes to produce enzymes and natural products, and learn to construct simple genomes of natural bacteria (Biotechnology Innovation Organization, 2019). Nano computing can be produced by various nanoscale structures including biomolecules such as DNA and proteins. As DNA functions through a coding system of four nucleobases it is suited for application in data processing. Practical applications of this theoretical technology will require the ability to control and program DNA flexibly. Applications of DNA to computing will likely be in the form of transistor switches overcoming current microcomputing problems such as transistor tunneling. Biomolecular switches will be able to control electron flow for computation through a change in composition of the DNA molecules or by adapting the amount of light scattered by the biomolecules (AZoNano, 2017). Alternative transistors have already been developed using DNA for biological nano computers. The DNA switch could be genetically programmed to produce or inhibit the production of a protein. Many people strived for over 50 years to build, using DNA, a molecular scale of the universal Turing machine (UTM). According to Currin, Korovin, Ababi, Roper, Kell, Day, & King (2017), DNA is an excellent medium for information processing and storage because it is stable, can be copied reliably as many genes remain unchanged for millions of years. Thus speed, energy efficiency, and information storage are advantages of DNA over electronics. Authors work toward engineering a general-purpose way 63

 How Do We Communicate

of controlling cells. In living organisms, cells are controlled by a combination of DNA, RNA, protein interactions, and chemical interactions. The authors’ approach is to develop a DNA non-deterministic UTM (NUTM) that would enable arbitrary biological processes to be programmed and executed. According to authors, a desktop DNA NUTM could potentially utilize more processors than all the electronic computers in the world combined, and thereby outperform the world’s current fastest supercomputer, while consuming a tiny fraction of its energy. Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2019) and the Arizona State University have created a computer program that can translate drawings of arbitrary shapes into two-dimensional structures made of DNA. According to Jun, Zhang, Shepherd, Ratanalert, Qi, Yan, & Bathe (2019), “until now, designing such structures has required technical expertise that puts the process out of reach of most people. Using the new program, anyone can create a DNA nanostructure of any shape, for applications in cell biology, photonics, and quantum sensing and computing, among many others.” The shape can be sketched in any computer-drawing program and then converted into a computer-aided design (CAD) file, which is fed into the DNA design program. Quantum dot are used for labeling and tracking individual pollen grains transported by bees (BioPhotonics, 2019, p. 11). Bio-inspired models utilize information gathered from animal social systems. Artificial life (ALife) denotes the creation of synthetic life on computers to study, simulate, and understand living systems. ALife application fields include robot control, robot manufacturing, practical robots, computer graphics, natural phenomenon modeling, entertainment, games, music, economics, internet, information processing, industrial design, simulation software, electronics, security, data mining, and telecommunications. Methods for designing such applications include evolutionary computation, swarm intelligence, artificial immune network, and agent-based modeling. Biologically inspired evolutionary robotics (ER) is a powerful approach for the automatic synthesis of robot controllers. Drawing from the object-oriented and functional programming languages allowed creating programs as polypeptides: object-oriented combinator chemistry, an artificial chemistry with composition devices (Williams, 2016). The study of biological networks may result in creating biologically inspired models for information and communication networking (Liu & Leibnitz, 2011). In problem optimization, basic families of social insects: ants, wasps, bees, and termites were used as an inspiration source for designing challenging computational models (Hartmann, Pinto, Runkler, & Sousa, 2011). For example, ants in ant colonies can indicate the shortest path from a food resource to the anthill by depositing pheromones on the trail, so other ants can sense their high concentration and follow this trail. Mathematical models of real colonies serve the authors in developing optimization algorithms. The way these social insects interact to efficiently carry food to the colony served as inspiration for writing meta-heuristic, approximate algorithms and creating mathematical models of ant colony that served the purpose of problem optimization (Hartman, Pinto, Runkler, & Sousa, 2011). According to Liu & Leibnitz (2011), cells interact with each other by transmitting the first messenger signaling molecules from a cell membrane to another cell’s membrane receptors. Receptors activate the signaling proteins within the cell that are referred to as secondary messengers. Due to a signaling cascade of reactions the signal arrives to the nucleus, activates a specific gene in the DNA causing the gene expression – the production and release of the protein it encodes. Many times a solution is needed very soon, even if the optimality of the solution is not guaranteed. For example, a car-navigating system (GPS) should respond quickly to a driver’s mistake in selecting a route, so the driver wouldn’t need to stop the car while waiting for computation of the new solution and new directives about the corrected route. A compromise between optimization and effectiveness and speed is needed. Observation of ants’ behavior serves for creating the biologically inspired models, 64

 How Do We Communicate

which are aimed at finding approximate algorithms providing good, even if not very meticulous solutions in a short computation time.

The Next Industrial Revolution According to Christopher Mims (2018), “the first three industrial revolutions were driven by coal, and steam, then electricity and the automobile, then computing. Now we may be witnessing the rise of the fourth: an economy powered by the mobile internet, automation and artificial intelligence.” For example, in 2015 global shipments of smart phones exceeded 1,500 million (the smart phone is the first and only computer for many people); in US there were 340 000 active cell sites; E-commerce sector has created more jobs than brick-and-mortar retailers have lost; in 2016 estimated global shipment of industrial robots amounted to 400,000; in academic papers mentioned about 90 000 smart machines learning (AI). However, it is predicted, China will surpass US in spending on RD at the end of 2018, as the pace is quicker there (Mims, 2018). And, as the President of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto (2018) stated, “Mexico is one of the only nations whose constitution recognizes the right of its people to a broadband internet connection” which may be the DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), fiber-optic, cable, and satellite connection. The fifth-generation wireless system networks (5G) are expected to be 100 times faster than 4G networks we have today. The country that takes the lead in 5G will enable its companies to access powerful technologies sooner than rivals from other countries. The convergence of AI with internet-connected machines and superfast 5G wireless networks opens possibilities on Earth and in space to transform industrial technology. There is no need to build fiber optic networks. Internet-connected devices will transmit information more quickly. The Internet of Things links technology with 5G and networks of online-capable devices. The founder of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab (2017) explores how it will be fundamentally changing the way we live, work, and relate to one another. According to the author, previous industrial revolutions liberated humankind from animal power, made mass production possible, and brought digital capabilities to billions of people. This fourth industrial revolution provides new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital, and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies, and industries, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human (Schwab, 2018).

Heuristic Methods Self-discovery and practical methods that may be not perfect (called, heuristic techniques for problem solving and learning) may ease the cognitive load of making decisions, such as in case of making an educated guess, an intuitive judgment, stereotyping, or using a common sense. Metaheuristic strategies apply search and optimization algorithms. Many times finding solutions for problems in accordance with the computational complexity theory is not efficient when time is important. For example, with the use of the global positioning system (GPS), quick compensation for the driver’s mistakes in the car route are more desirable than having the driver to stop the car and wait for an optimal solution, so trading optimality for efficiency is preferable (Hartmann, Pinto, Runkler, & Sousa, 2011). For example, Ant Colony Optimization is a bio-inspired metaheuristic that examines how ants keep supplying lines excreting the chemical factors pheromones (Dorigo & Stützle, 2004); coordination between termites for building their mounds goes by the use of pheromone traces; hierarchical organization of wasp colonies provides combinations of factors such as reduced risk from predators, easier access to food, increased 65

 How Do We Communicate

productivity, and availability of mates; and bee colonies, simulated by the Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) communicate by performing a waggle dance (Hartmann et al., 2011).

Deriving Solutions From Biology for Production The use of bio-inspired way of developing new solutions applies to a number of venues. Bio-inspired technologies change the way people think in the fields of computing, software management, material science and material design, resource management, developments in computer technologies, and many other fields. Scientists focus on biology-inspired research to understand how biological systems work, and then create systems and materials that would have efficiency and precision of living structures. Current bio-inspired modeling approaches apply models based on four families of social insects (ants, wasps, bees, and termites) and non-insect models for communication and robotics, including primates and other socially complex mammals as biological models. Inventors develop systems inspired by structures that can be seen in nature, such as optical fibers, liquid crystals, or structures that scatter light. Many times designers combine biomaterials with artificial ones to create hybrid materials and technologies. The National Research Council of the National Academies (2008) provided examples of three strategies for creation of new materials and systems: (1) bio-mimicry, (2) bio-inspiration, and (3) bio-derivation. 1. Bio-mimicry involves designing structures that function in the same way as living systems and creating synthetic materials that respond to external stimuli. Visualization of living systems is aimed at achieving similar functions in synthetic material and creating new materials, which would mimic cells in their response to external stimuli; this strategy may serve for detecting hazardous biological and chemical agents and strengthening national security systems. 2. Bio-inspiration means developing systems performing the same function, even with different scheme than the living systems. For example, the adhesive gecko foot, the self-cleaning lotus leaf, and the fracture-resistant mollusk shell are examples of inspiring structures. The optical technology solutions can be found in animals as well: multilayer reflectors, diffraction gratings that spread a beam of light waves, optical fibers, liquid crystals, and structures that scatter light. For instance, Morpho butterfly has iridescence sparkle and blue color visible from hundreds of meters due to periodic photonic nanostructure in scales on wings that responds to specific wavelengths of light without any dye involved. 3. Bio-derivation means incorporating biomaterials into human-made structures: using existing biomaterial to create a hybrid with artificial material. For example, incorporation of a protein into polymeric (that has many similar units bonded together) assemblies for targeted drug delivery. The photosynthesis occurs in green plants and other organisms, which use sunlight to synthesize carbohydrates as food from carbon dioxide and water. These biological structures and processes can support harvesting light and fuels by converting cellulose polymer to ethanol. Bio-derivation can advance clinical diagnostics, prosthetics, and drug delivery. Molecular motors convert chemical energy (usually in form of ATP – adenosine triphosphate) into mechanical energy. Scientists create self-evolving, self-healing, self-cleaning, and self-replicating super-materials that could mimic the ability to evolve and adapt. For example, the gecko’s adhesive works in vacuum, under water, leaves no residue, and is self-cleaning; adhesion is reversible, so geckoes run up walls alternatively sticking and unfastening themselves 15 times per second.

66

 How Do We Communicate

2.5. HOW DO WE COMMUNICATE WITH LIVING BEINGS? Communication vs. Information Either we draw information from our surrounding environment and from other living beings or we bring about changes to induce desired improvement in our surroundings. For this reason, it is important to recognize a relation between communication and information. Information is a fact we learn about something or someone but not a signal to communicate. For example, one of the ways a mother receives information about a baby is through her smell sense, while a baby communicates by voice (and mother’s hearing). Communication can be visual, acoustic, chemical (e. g., pheromones produced and released by animals), tactile, electrical, or conveyed as seismic signals resulting in vibration of earth (Bales & Kitzmann, 2011). For example, a blind mole rat’s thumping on burrow walls transmits over very long distances. The same message can be conveyed and received in many ways: visually with the semaphore flags (signals made with hand-held flags, rods, disks, paddles, or just hands), sonically (3 times 3 long versus short sounds: “· · · — — — · · ·” for the SOS, or through the international Morse code, for example as a distress signal. Visual communication may involve the use of graphs, trees, or cones; detecting proximity and connectivity; clustering and classification using word search; multi-dimensional-scaling; network analysis; glyphs; virtual structures; applying complex network theory and network representations (Chen, 2010). In a historical perspective, our visual communication abilities draw from the old cultural patterns including visual writings in many modes and styles, visible stories, and visual rhetoric. Yet older ways of visual communication involved cave paintings, clay tablets, hieroglyphs, knots, numbers, and their various representations. Human history was strongly influenced by the ways various senses were used in human communication. However, images change along with technical advances.

Camouflage According to Merilaita, Scott-Samuel, & Cuthill (2017), camouflage is an adaptation to the perception and cognitive mechanisms of another animal, in accordance to the principles of visual perception of objects; it is a suite of adaptations to reduce the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The authors state, “Camouflage mechanisms can be characterized as interference with the perception of primitive features, edges, surfaces, characteristic features or objects (whole animals). Camouflage acts to minimize the SNR at different stages in visual processing.” The most widespread camouflage strategy is matching of the background, so animals avoid detection by having color and pattern similar to the background. However, the camouflage strategies cannot be static, as predators learn the features of their prey, and humans can also learn about the background (Michalis, Scott-Samuel, Gibson, & Cuthill, 2017). Camouflage in the floral and animal world exists as a natural design of the outer surface; flounder can almost totally blend with small rocks at the bottom; patterns on a giraffe and zebra’s skin, or the whiteness of polar bears in the winter months allow the animals to remain unnoticed or resemble something else (camouflage by mimesis). Some animals stop moving when being approached, to be confused with the background, for example pretending to be an inedible stick. Camouflage may take form of the ability to change color quickly as a means of survival, as it can be seen in chameleon, fish in coral reefs, foxes and hares in winter, and in many other cases.

67

 How Do We Communicate

People can disguise their presence, mostly for military purposes by means of a camouflage clothing, equipment, and installation. Camouflage may also mean dressing unusually and wearing masks to disguise one’s identity or personality, especially during special holidays and festivities such as St Patrick’s Day parade, Halloween’s ‘trick-or-treating activities, Venice carnivals in Italy with the costume and mask balls, Mardi Grass celebrations in New Orleans, or the forty-six days lasting Brazilian Carnival and parades. Costume design may transform a person into somebody different. A mask serves as camouflage and, at the same time a pretender, as it is aimed to blend in or stick out. Many celebrities wear dark glasses or sun glasses. In visual arts, camouflage and pretending something else used to be applied mostly in painting. For example, the trompe l’oeil art technique created (first in the Greek and Roman times and then from the 16th century on), optical illusion of three-dimensionality with the use of exceptionally realistic imagery. One may find several other ways to pretend there is different actuality or reality disguised by camouflage, for example, the camouflage work of an artist Bev Doolittle. Craig Reynolds (2011) designed an abstract computation model of the evolution of camouflage in nature, “The 2D model uses evolved textures for prey, a background texture representing the environment, and a visual predator. A human observer, acting as the predator, is shown a cohort of 10 evolved textures overlaid on the background texture. The observer clicks on the five most conspicuous prey to remove (“eat”) them” (Reynolds, 2011, p. 123). One of the proponents of Op-art Bridget Riley (2012) shows movement on still canvas. Considering that “Camouflage can be thought of as visual warfare, the Ohio State University hosts “The Camouflage Project” (https://camouflage.osu.edu/research-camo.html). Also, in his camouflage art an artist Liu Bolin (2010) turns himself into the invisible man. Inspired by how some animals can blend into their environment, Bolin uses camouflage principles to create his art.

Animal Communication About Defense and Attack The faculty of perceiving sounds used as a communication tool is often more acute in animals than in humans, animals having greater sensitivity to sounds than people. A Zen monk once asked, what is the sound of a cloud? Do different clouds have different sound? (Constant, 2019, personal communication). Birds communicate by sounds but they try to avoid being heard by predators. A bird may emit a very high-pitched and a very short sound, which its mate but not its predator can hear. Some species display ability to learn songs. Vocal learning is considered a substrate for human language. This trait has been found in three groups of mammals (humans, bats, and cetaceans – dolphins) and three groups of birds (parrots, hummingbirds, and songbirds). Vocal learners gain vocalization through imitation, while auditory learners do that by making associations. Perfect pitch perception is present in many members of animal kingdom. According to Slobodchikoff, prairie dogs have highly developed cognitive abilities (Jabr, 2017); they use vocal communication to describe any potential threat, send information about what the predator is, how big it is, and how fast it is approaching. As described by the author, alarm response behavior varies according to the type of predator announced. Slobodchikoff thinks that the idea that a human might have a two-way conversation with another species, even a humble prairie dog, is inevitability. According to Jabr (2017), “Over the course of a 30-year research project, an African gray parrot named Alex learned to identify seven colors, five shapes, quantities up to eight, and more than 50 objects; he could correctly pick out the number of, for instance, green wooden blocks on a tray with more than a dozen objects; he routinely said “no,” “come here” and “wanna go X” to get what he

68

 How Do We Communicate

desired; and on occasion he spontaneously combined words from his growing vocabulary into descriptive phrases, like “yummy bread” for a cake. Senses may be considered the important part of the communication process, not only about food, reproduction, and family matters but also about the self-defense, group defense, and finding a prey or a competitor. Communication is an important factor in the defense systems for all populations of living things. One may say living organisms use their senses to become aware of the danger, defend their integrity, survive harsh environmental conditions, or attack other creatures in attempt to forage on them. Computing based approaches and technologies allow learning more about varied mechanisms of communication, defense, and aggression in living organisms. When we mention defense mechanisms in plants, spines may come to mind first. Most cacti are spiny plants. Spines are modified leaves, while thorns present in many other kinds of plants are modified branches. Most of the species of a stinging nettle have stinging hairs on the stems and leaves. Venus flytrap catches and then digests (with the use of catalyzing enzymes) animal prey, mostly insects and spiders (arachnids). It does it by a complex interaction between elasticity and turgor – pressure in cell plasma. Animals use many of their senses at the same time to develop their defense systems that fit their living conditions and their needs. The sense of smell applied as a communication tool is often more acute in animals than in humans, so most of animals manifest greater sensitivity to smells than people. Elks can smell their predators approaching against the wind at a distance of 0.5 mile. A skunk secretes a foul-smelling liquid as a defense against predators. However, many keep a skunk as a pet and playful companion because skunks are intelligent, curious, and friendly. The sense of touch allows animals to feel the harmful things but also to develop the mechanical ways of defense and aggression. Porcupines (and also other rodents belong here, such as capybaras and agoutis) use their sharp spines or quills when necessary; they defend and camouflage them from predators. The same can be told about hedgehogs. Swordfish, which usually reach ten feet in length, use their long, flat bill to slash (but not to spear) its prey and then catch it; they are among the fastest fish. Moreover, they efficiently use their excellent sense of vision. Sea urchins, small globular animals with radial symmetry, have long protective spines. Starfish also have spines covering their upper surface and a soft bottom side. Many species can sense changes in air pressure or react to wind. Picas defend against blowing food by wind by building walls of pebbles and storing dry plants and grasses for the cold season. Cockroaches have sensitive appendages called cerci, which can sense air motion caused by leaps of their predators such as toads. A beak, bill, or rostrum helps a bird to eat, groom, feed its young, courtship, or manipulate objects but also fight. A shape of a beak depends mostly on a bird’s feeding method. Mammals use teeth and claws both for defense and aggression. Many mammals, for example cattle, goats, and antelopes use horns to defend and attack. A horn is a projection of the skin with a bone inside. However, there are many kinds of hornlike growths. Giraffes have bony bumps, deer have antlers, and rhinoceros have keratin horns. Also chameleons, horned lizards, some insects, and even some jackals display horny growth on their heads. Many mammals, such as musk deer, wild boars, elephants, narwhals, and walruses have tusks that are oversized teeth but serve the same function as horns. Chemical defense and attack include the ability of sensing smells but also secreting, excreting, and in some cases injecting harmful substances. Jellyfish can sting their prey and inject venom; some of them may even kill a grown man. Puffer fish not only uses its external, spiky fins combining it with sudden speed burst, but it also puffs up, and many of them contain neurotoxins (tetrodotoxin) in their stomachs, ovaries, and livers that have lethal effect. 69

 How Do We Communicate

Spiders use chemical sensors providing information about taste and smell and touch sensors called setae located on their bristles. They also use their four pairs of eyes, some of them very acute, to detect direction of their prey movement. Spiders defense themselves against birds and parasitic wasps by their camouflage coloration as a method of concealment. Venomous spiders have the warning coloration. Frogs defense themselves in many ways: by camouflage, making long leaps, or secreting mucus with diverse toxic substances (bufotoxins) from their parotid glands behind the eyes. Poison dart frogs use their toxins for hunting. Some Australian frogs synthesize the alkaloids that are irritants, hallucinogenic, convulsant, nerve poisoning, and vasoconstrictors, so they can severely affect humans. Poisonous mushrooms, which contain many kinds of toxins, are often looking like the edible ones and taste good. However, an edible chanterelle looks like a poisonous Jack-o-lantern. Some other examples of defense systems may include using a shell as a shield by turtles; using an exoskeleton of calcium carbonate and a single pair of chelae (claws) by crabs; applying long lasting force of jaws by a badger: their lower jaws are articulated to the upper by means of transverse condyles firmly locked into long cavities of the skull, so dislocation of the jaw is all but impossible. This enables the badgers to maintain their hold with the utmost tenacity.

Sensing Electricity and Magnetism An electric eel that is often over 6 feet long is capable of generating electric shocks up to 600 volts and use them for self-defense and hunting. They can stun the prey by producing either a low voltage or high voltage electric charges in two pairs of electric organs made of electrocytes – muscle-like cells. Electric eel can also use electrolocation by emitting electrical signals. Many kinds of animals can detect the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field and use this information for orientation and navigation. Those are turtles, spiny lobsters, newts (including salamanders), and birds (Lohman, Lohmann, & Putman, 2007). Also, earthworms can feel magnetic field. The directional ‘compass’ information extracted from the Earth’s field provides the animals with positional ‘map’ information. It helps navigate; for example, small birds pied flycatchers navigate along the migratory pathways possibly using several magnetic navigational strategies in different parts of their journey. The tied to vision magnetic sense in the birds such as European robins, Australian silvereyes, homing pigeons, and domestic chickens allows them to sense the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field and navigate when other landmarks are obscured. The magnetic compass orientation of birds is light dependent, in particular on blue-green wavelengths. The compass lies in the right eye of the robin. For example, if their right eye was blocked, they headed in random directions. Thanks to special molecules in their retinas, birds like robins can ‘see’ magnetic fields. Magnetic fields act upon the unpaired electrons and affect the sensitivity of a bird’s retina (Stapput, Güntürkün, Hoffmann, Wiltschko, & Wiltschko, 2010).

Camouflage as Defense Some fish show their colorful parts of fins only to their mates and hide them in other times while trying to stay invisible. Many mammals such as polar bears or foxes change their color according to the season so they are almost invisible from a distance. Many birds have colorful feathers on their sides only, so the predators cannot see them from above. Chameleons, which have stereoscopic vision and depth perception, can see in both visible and ultraviolet light. They can change their skin color; in three layers below their transparent outer skin they have the chromatophores – cells containing pigments (yellow, red, blue, or white) in their cytoplasm, 70

 How Do We Communicate

and melanophores with a pigment melanin controlling how much light is reflected, which sets the intensity of each color. Prairie dogs use a dichromatic color vision. The common toad has golden irises and horizontal slit-like pupils, the red-eye tree frog has vertical slit pupils, the poison dart frog has dark irises, the fire-bellied toad has triangular pupils and the tomato frog has circular ones. The irises of the southern frog are patterned so as to blend in with the surrounding camouflaged skin (Beltz, 2009; Mattison, 2007). Some frogs are bluffing by inflating their body and standing on its hind legs, other ‘scream’ loudly or remain immobile. There are many forms of parental care in frogs. Cuttlefish – the mollusk of the order Sepia, one of the most intelligent invertebrates, release brown pigment from its siphon when it is alarmed. The pupils of their eyes have a W shape. They do not see colors; they can perceive light polarization and contrast. The sensor cells (foveae) in their retina look forward and backward. According to Mäthger, Barbosa, Miner, & Hanlon (2005), the eyes focus by shifting the position of the entire lens with respect to the retina, instead of reshaping the lens as in mammals. Unlike the vertebrate eye, there is no blind spot because the optic nerve is positioned behind the retina. Cuttlefish can camouflage by intensity of their color. They have leucophores (the light reflectors) that help match the blue-green spectrum of their deep-sea environment.

Other Defense Systems Animals develop many kinds of communication through specific visual defense systems. Examples may include the bird neck swelling, chameleon color change, and even cat’s fur spikes swelling. The social grouping animals develop many kinds of the collective defense systems, for example by keeping their females and youngsters inside a herd. Animal communication in associations of animals goes often through secreted or excreted chemical factors that trigger a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones could be alarm related, food trail or sex related, evoking aggregation, attracting a mate, marking trails, defining landmarks for territory boundaries, and other types that affect behavior or physiology of a plant, an insect, a reptile, or a mammal. Also plants release pheromones to attract bees and other pollinators to their flowers. Leukocytes, white blood cells are involved in defending an organism against infection. They evolve from a hematopoietic stem cell produced in bone marrow. The number of leukocytes in blood is an indicator of a disease. Immunology – a branch of biomedical science study the immune system that protects an organism. It is present in all organisms: phagocytosis is present in single-celled organisms, production of the antimicrobial peptides in arthropods, and the lymphatic system has developed of in vertebrates; it uses both ways of protecting an organism, phagocytosis and production of immunoactive substances. It has been reported that many sea animals can sense the coming eruptions of submarine volcanoes, possibly through acoustic vibrations. These underwater fissures in the Earth surface located mostly near ocean ridges (tectonic plate movement areas) account for 75% of annual magma output. In the past, life on the seafloor was perishing because of the two huge volcanic eruptions; the age of dinosaurs might end about 65 million years ago for the same reason, especially due to the rise of the levels of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other greenhouse gases followed by the climate warming and two mass extinctions.

71

 How Do We Communicate

REFERENCES Abate, T. (2017). Stanford team brings quantum computing closer to reality with new materials. Stanford News. Retrieved from https://news.stanford.edu/2017/05/09/new-materials-bring-quantum-computingcloser-reality/ Abbott Abbott, E. A. (1994/2008). Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Oxford World’s Classics). Oxford University Press. Ahmed, F. (2019a). Wearable Sensors Challenge Traditional Medical Technology. BioPhotonics, 26(1), 38–43. Ahmed, F. (2019b, Apr.). Ultrashort-Pulse Lasers: Emerging Tools for Biomedical Discovery. BioPhotonics, 45-48. Alonzo, C. (2018). SHG Microscopy Brings Live Cells into 3D Focus. BioPhotonics, 25(7), 24–27. Arnheim, R. (1969/2004). Visual Thinking. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Arnheim, R. (1974). Art and Visual Perception. Occasional Paper. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Ascher, M., & Ascher, R. (1980). Code of the Quipu: A study in media, mathematics, and culture. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Retrieved from http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx? c=acls;cc=acls;view=toc;idno=heb03649.0001.001 Ascher, M., & Ascher, R. (1997). Mathematics of the Incas: Code of the Quipu. Dover Publications. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Incas-Quipu-Marcia-Ascher/dp/0486295540 AZoNano. (2017). Benefits and Applications of Nanocomputing: DNA nanocomputing. Retrieved from https://www.azonano.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=4700 Bales, K. L., & Kitzmann, C. D. (2011). Animal models for computing and communications. In Bio Inspired Computing and Networking. CRS Press. Retrieved from http://escholarship.org/uc/item/33t2p1nw Bar-David, E., Compton, E., Drennan, L., Finder, B., Grogan, K., & Leonard, J. (2009). Nonverbal Number Knowledge in Preschool-Age Children. Mind Matters: The Wesleyan Journal of Psychology, 4, 51–64. Becker, R. (2017). A 2,000-year-old computer called the Antikythera Mechanism helped the ancient Greeks understand their universe. The Verge. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/ Bederson, B., & Shneiderman, B. (2003). The Craft of Information Visualization: Readings and Reflections. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. Beltz, E. (2009). Frogs: Inside their remarkable world. Firefly Books. Benoît, G. (2019). Introduction to Information Visualization: Transforming Data into Meaningful Information. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

72

 How Do We Communicate

Bertschi, S., Bresciani, S., Crawford, T., Goebel, R., Kienreich, W., Lindner, M., ... Moere, A. V. (2011). What is Knowledge Visualization? Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline. Proceedings of the Information Visualisation 15th International Conference, 329-336. 10.1109/IV.2011.58 Bertschi, S., & Bubenhofer, N. (2005). Linguistic learning: a new conceptual focus in knowledge visualization. Proceedings of the Information Visualisation 9th International Conference, 383-389. 10.1109/ IV.2005.71 BioPhotonics. (2019, no author), p. 11 Biotechnology Innovation Organization. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.bio.org/articles/syntheticbiology-explained Bolin, L. (2010). Now you see me, now you don’t: The artist who turns himself into the Invisible Man. Mail Online. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1201398/Liu-Bolin-The-Chineseartist-turns-Invisible-Man.html Burkhard, R., Meier, M., Smis, J. M., Allemang, J., & Honish, J. (2005). Beyond Excel and PowerPoint: Knowledge maps for the transfer and creation of knowledge in organizations. In Proceedings of iV, International Conference on Information Visualisation. IEEE. Butterworth, B., Reeve, R., Reynolds, F., & Lloyd, D. (2008). Numerical thought with and without words: Evidence from indigenous Australian children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(35), 13179–13184. doi:10.1073/pnas.0806045105 PMID:18757729 Carey, S. (2011). The origin of concepts. Oxford University Press. Chen, C. (2010). Information Visualization: Beyond the Horizon (2nd ed.). Springer. Chen, C. H. (2011). Emerging topics in computer vision and its applications. World Scientific Publishing Company. doi:10.1142/8103 CRISPR. (2018). Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR Currin, A., Korovin, K., Ababi, M., Roper, K., Kell, D. B., Day, P. J., & King, R. D. (2017). Computing exponentially faster: implementing a non-deterministic universal Turing machine using DNA. Journal of the Royal Society Interface. Retrieved from https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/ rsif.2016.0990 Danesi, M. (2017). The Semiotics of Emoji. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Dorigo, M., & Stützle, T. (2004). Ant Colony Optimization. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. doi:10.7551/ mitpress/1290.001.0001 Dunn, M., Greenhill, S. J., Levinson, S. C., & Gray, R. D. (2011, May 05). Evolved structure of language shows lineage-specific trends in word-order universals. Nature, 473(7345), 79–82. doi:10.1038/ nature09923 PMID:21490599 eBizma/MBA. (2019). The eBusiness Guide. Search engines. Retrieved from http://www.ebizmba.com/ articles/search-engines

73

 How Do We Communicate

Encyclopedia Britannica. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Aphrodi ta+aculeata Erwig, M. (2017). Once Upon an Algorithm: How Stories Explain Computing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. doi:10.7551/mitpress/10786.001.0001 Flagship, G. (2019). Wearables of the Future. Retrieved from https://graphene-flagship.eu/exhibitions/ MWC2019/Pages/Wearables-of-the-Future.aspx Franco, M. I., Turin, L., Mershin, A., & Skoulakis, E. (2011). Reply to Hettinger: Olfaction is a physical and a chemical sense in Drosophila. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(31), E350. doi:10.1073/pnas.1107618108 Frank, M. C., Everett, D. L., Fedorenko, E., & Gibson, E. (2008). Number as a cognitive technology: Evidence from Piraha language and cognition. Cognition, 108(3), 819–824. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2008.04.007 PMID:18547557 Freebody, M. (2017, Oct.). Promise of Organic Photonics Looms Large. Photonics Spectra, 36–40. Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century. Basic Books. Gardner, H. (2006). Art, Mind, and Brain: A Cognitive Approach to Creativity. New York: Basic Books, A Division of Harper Collins Publishers. (Originally published 1993) Gardner, H. (2011). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences (3rd ed.). Basic Books. (Originally published 1983) Geddes, A., & Dion, C. (2004). Miracle: a celebration of new life. Auckland, New Zealand: Photogenique Publishers. Gelman, R., & Butterworth, B. (2005). Number and language: How are they related? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(1), 6–10. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2004.11.004 PMID:15639434 Goldstein, E., Saunders, R., Kowalchuk, J. D., & Katz, T. H. (1986). Understanding and Creating Art: Annotated Teachers Edition. Book One. Dallas, TX: Guard Publishing Company. Gordon, P. (2004). Numerical cognition without words: Evidence from the Amazonia. Science, 306(5695), 496-499. doi:10.1126science.1094492 Grumbling, E., & Horowitz, M. (Eds.). (2018). Quantum Computing: Progress and Prospects. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press; doi:10.17226/25196 Halpers, O. (2015). Beautiful Data: A History of Vision and Reason Since 1945 (Experimental Futures). Duke University Press Books. doi:10.1215/9780822376323 Handbook, P. (2019b). Fiber Optics: Understanding the Basics (65th ed.). Photonics Media. Harris, D. (2003). The Calligrapher’s Bible: 100 Complete Alphabets and How to Draw Them. B.E.S. Publishing. Harrison, S. (2019). Right Under Our Noses. Wired, 27(6), 78-85.

74

 How Do We Communicate

Hartman, N. W., & Bertoline, G. R. (2005). Spatial Abilities and Virtual Technologies: Examining the Computer Graphics Learning Environment. Proceedings of 9th International Conference on Information Visualisation, 992-999. 10.1109/IV.2005.120 Hartmann, S. A., Pinto, P. C., Runkler, T. A., & Sousa, J. M. C. (2011). Social Insect Societies for Optimization of Dynamic NP-Hard Problems. In Bio-Inspired Computing and Networking, (pp. 43-68). CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. doi:10.1201/b10781-6 Hayakawa, S. I. (1973). Language in Thought and Action (2nd ed.). London: George Allen & Unwin. Hayasaki, E. (2019, Apr.). Building a Trojan Pig. Wired, 46-48. Herz, R. S., Schankler, C., & Beland, S. (2004). Olfaction, emotion and associative learning: Effects on motivated behavior. Motivation and Emotion, 28(4), 363–383. doi:10.100711031-004-2389-x HTML5 Canvas. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_canvas.asp HTML W3C. (2016). HTML 5.1: W3C Recommendation, 1 November 2016. Retrieved from https:// www.w3.org/TR/2016/REC-html51-20161101/dom.html Jabr, F. (2017). Can Prairie Dogs Talk? The New York Times Magazine. Janzen, R., & Mann, S. (2017). Extreme-Dynamic-Range Sensing: Real-Time Adaptation to Extreme Signals. Journal IEEE MultiMedia. Retrieved from http://eyetap.org/docs/EDRsensing_JanzenMann2017_preview.pdf Janzen, R., Yang, S., & Mann, S. (2018). Painting with the eyes: Sensory perception flux time-integrated on the physical world. Proc. IEEE GEM 2018. Retrieved from http://eyetap.org/docs/veillogramAndTheory_camreadyBF.pdf Jun, H., Zhang, F., Shepherd, T., Ratanalert, S., Qi, X., Yan, H., & Bathe, M. (2019). Autonomously designed free-form 2D DNA origami. Science Advances, 5(1). Doi:10.1126/sciadv.aav0655 Juster, N. (2000). The Dot and the Line: a Romance in Lower Mathematics. Chronicle Books. (Original work published 1963) Kekulé, F. A. (1865). Sur la constitution des substances aromatiques. Bulletin de la Societe Chimique de Paris, 3(2), 98–110. Kerlow, I. V., & Rosebush, J. (1994). Computer Graphics for Designers and Artists (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons Inc. Lehrer, J. (2007). Proust Was a Neuroscientist. Houghton Mifflin. Li, X., Soler, M., Yesilköy, F., & Altug, H. (2018). Noanophotonic Biosensors Expand Live Cell Analysis. Biophotonics, 25(7), 28–33. Lima, M. (2011). Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Lima, M. (2014). The Book of Trees: Visualizing the Branches of Knowledge. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

75

 How Do We Communicate

Lima, M. (2019). Manuel Lima: Visual Complexity. Retrieved from http://www.visualcomplexity.com/ vc/index.cfm?domain=Art Liu, J.-Q., & Leibnitz, K. (2011). Modeling the Dynamics of Cellular Signaling for Communication networks. In Bio-Inspired Computing and Networking, (pp. 457-480). CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. doi:10.1201/b10781-22 Lohman, K. J., Lohmann, C. M., & Putman, N. F. (2007). Magnetic maps in animals: Nature’s GPS. The Journal of Experimental Biology, 210(21), 3697–3705. doi:10.1242/jeb.001313 PMID:17951410 Loizides, A. (2019). Andreas Loizides research home page. Retrieved from http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/ staff/a.loizides/research.html Maine, R. (2019, Apr.). Drones seek out cryptic koalas. Biophotonics, 58. Maniati, K., Haralambous, K-J., Turin, L, & Skoulakis, E. M. C. (2017). Vibrational Detection of Odorant Functional Groups by Drosophila melanogaster. eNeuro, 4(5). doi:10.1523/ENEURO.0049-17.2017 Marrin, A., & Mordan, C. B. (Illustrator). (2006). Oh, Rats! The Story of Rats and People. Dutton. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (2019). DNA design that anyone can do: Computer program can translate a free-form 2-D drawing into a DNA structure. Science Daily. Retrieved from www.sciencedaily. com/releases/2019/01/190103142244.htm Mäthger, L. M., Barbosa, A., Miner, S., & Hanlon, R. T. (2005). Color blindness and color perception in cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) determined by a visual sensorimotor assay. Vision Research, 46(11), 1746–1753. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2005.09.035 PMID:16376404 Mattison, C. (2007). 300 Frogs: A Visual Reference to Frogs and Toads from Around the World. Firefly Books. Maya Mathematical System. (2016). Maya World Studies Center. Retrieved from http://www.mayacalendar.com/f-mayamath.html McCormick, B. H., DeFanti, T. A., & Brown, M. D. (1987). Computer Graphics. ACM SIGGRAPH, 21(6). Retrieved from http://www.evl.uic.edu/core.php?mod=4&type=3&indi=348 Mediaville, C. (1996). Calligraphy: From Calligraphy to Abstract Painting. Scirpus-Publications. Merilaita, S., Scott-Samuel, N. E., & Cuthill, I. C. (2017). How camouflage works. Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. doi:10.1098/rstb.2016.0341 Michalis, C., Scott-Samuel, N. E., Gibson, D. P., & Cuthill, I. C. (2017). Optimal background matching camouflage. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284(1858). 10.1098/rspb.2017.0709 Mims, C. (2018, Nov. 13). Inside the New Industrial Revolution. Wall Street Journal. National Research Council of the National Academies. (2008). Inspired by Biology: From molecules to materials to machines. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

76

 How Do We Communicate

Newsmax Health. (2019). Dogs sniff out Cancer 18 Months Before Medical Tests. Retrieved from https:// www.newsmax.com/health/health-news/medical-detection-dogs-cancer-detection-tools/2019/04/10/ id/911019/ NietoE. P. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/9-quotes-that-sum-up-thefourth-industrial-revolution Online Etymology Dictionary. (2019). Metaphor. Retrieved from https://www.etymonline.com/ search?q=metaphor Parker, S. & Marson, M. (2018, Oct.). DNA Is the Next C++. Wired, 48-49. Parry, W. (2014). Red-Seeing Fish, Blue-Seeing Fish: Deep-Sea Vision Evolves. Live Science. Retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/43832-deep-sea-fish-vision.html Petrie, S. (2019, Feb.). Connectivity: As above, so below. Photonics Spectra, 10. Pruitt, S. (2016). Ancient Greeks May Have Used World’s First Computer to Predict the Future. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/news/ancient-greeks-may-have-used-worlds-first-computer-to-predictthe-future Reas, C., & Fry, B. (2007). Processing: a programming handbook for visual designers and artists. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Reas, C., & Fry, B. (2015). Getting Started with Processing: A Hands-On Introduction to Making Interactive Graphics (2nd ed.). Maker Media, Inc. Reynolds, C. (2011). Interactive Evolution of Camouflage. Artificial Life, 17(2), 123–126. doi:10.1162/ artl_a_00023 PMID:21370960 Riley, B. (2012). Brigdet Riley. Retrieved from http://www.op-art.co.uk/bridget-riley/ Rocke, A. J. (2010). Image and Reality: Kekulé, Kopp, and the Scientific Imagination. University of Chicago Press. doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226723358.001.0001 Schmickl, T., & Hamann, H. (2011). Beeclust: A Swarm Algorithm Derived from Honeybees: Derivation of the Algorithm, Analysis by Mathematical Models, and Implementation on a Robot Swarm. In Bio-Inspired Computing and Networking. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. Schwab, K. (2017). The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Penguin Random House. Shneiderman, B. (1996). The Eyes Have It: A Task by Data Type Taxonomy for Information Visualizations. In Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages, (pp. 336-343). Washington, DC: IEEE Computer Society Press. 10.1109/VL.1996.545307 Shneiderman, B. (2014). Treemaps for space constrained visualization of hierarchies. Retrieved August 10, 2015, from: http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/treemap-history/ Stapput, K., Güntürkün, O., Hoffmann, K.-P., Wiltschko, R., & Wiltschko, W. (2010). Magnetoreception of Directional Information in Birds Requires Nondegraded Vision. Current Biology, 20(14), 1259–1262. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2010.05.070 PMID:20619654

77

 How Do We Communicate

Tufte, E. R. (1983/2001). The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press. Tufte, E. R. (1990/2005). Envisioning information (2nd ed.). Graphics Press. Tufte, E. R. (1997). Visual explanations: Images and quantities, evidence and narrative. Graphics Press. Ursyn, A., & Lohr, L. (2010). Pretenders and Misleaders in Product Design. Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal, 4(3), 99–108. doi:10.18848/1833-1874/CGP/v04i03/57886 Varley, R. A., Klessinger, N. J. C., Romanowski, C. A. J., & Siegal, M. (2005). Agrammatic but Numerate. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102(9), 3519–3524. doi:10.1073/pnas.0407470102 PMID:15713804 Victor, D. (2019). An Egg, Just a Regular Egg, Is Instagram’s Most-Liked Post Ever. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/13/style/egg-instagram-most-liked.html Vogt, A. K. S. (2018, Nov.). A Biophotonics Revolution. BioPhotonics. Ward, M., Grinstein, G. G., & Keim, D. (2010). Interactive data visualization: foundations, techniques, and applications. Natick, MA: A. K. Peters, Ltd. doi:10.1201/b10683 Webster, M. (2019). Dictionary by Merriam Webster. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/ Williams, L. (2016). Programs as Polypeptides. Artificial Life, 22(4), 451–482. doi:10.1162/ARTL_a_00213 PMID:27824500 Wueringer, B. (2019, Aug. 10). Sawfish, the forgotten sea monsters. National Science Week. Wueringer, B. E., Squire, L. Jr, Kajiura, S. M., Hart, N. S., & Collin, S. P. (2012). The function of the sawfish’s saw. Current Biology, 22(5), R150–R151. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.01.055 PMID:22401891 Zhang, J. L., & Ishiwata, H. (2016). Hybrid Group IV Nanophotonic Structures Incorporating Diamond Silicon-Vacancy Color Centers. Nano Letters, 16(1), 212–217. doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b03515 PMID:26695059 Zunt, D. (2005). Who did actually invent the word “robot” and what does it mean? The Karel Čapek website. Retrieved from http://capek.misto.cz/english/robot.html

This research was previously published in Graphical Thinking for Science and Technology Through Knowledge Visualization; pages 104-211, copyright year 2020 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

78

79

Chapter 2

Phrase and Sentence Structure Howard A. Williams Teachers College, Columbia University, USA

ABSTRACT This chapter surveys the basics of the syntax of main clauses, with special attention to English. Readers are guided through the process of doing syntactic analysis with the aid of syntactic trees that model the properties of linearity, hierarchy, and recursion that characterize the syntax of human languages. The model used is a somewhat simplified version of X-bar syntax, which is currently the best-known and best-tested model of phrase structure within the subfield of syntax and which combines the virtues of simplicity, breadth, and predictive power. There is a section on the theory of grammatical relations and its relationship to phrase structure theory, as well as a section providing an overview of basic world constituent orders.

WHAT IS SYNTAX? No matter how difficult it may be to define a term as basic as ‘word’ in a precise way, it is taken as assumed that a sentence in any language is a collection of units, most of which are words. Some of these units are verbs, some are nouns, some are adjectives and so on, and some represent larger entities. Languages also differ in certain respects. For example, some languages permit prepositions to stand as free words while others use bound affixes to represent English prepositional meanings; some languages make regular use of pronouns while others avoid them; some languages turn concepts into verbs that English would denote through the use of adjectives. However, no language creates sentences simply by stringing words together without some higher level of organization. This higher level of organization is called a syntax. While each language has a syntax that is unique to that language, there are common features that recur across languages, and the observation of these commonalities has led many linguists over the years to seek a ‘skeleton key’ that will reveal a universal structure common to natural (i.e., human) languages. In the 1950s and 1960s, the linguist Joseph Greenberg surveyed large numbers of languages with the goal of finding what he called language universals, i.e., statistical generalizations that generate predictions about features of the next language we might study, once we learn a few facts about the language (Greenberg, 1966). From the 1960s onward, linguist Noam Chomsky took the idea of universality a step DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch002

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

further in attempting to ground human language in cognition with the goal of specifying basic features of syntactic structure that are part of our biological inheritance. The goal has been to characterize a universal grammar (UG) that transcends, but is reflected in, the surface-level differences among world languages (Chomsky, 1957, 1968, 1986). In general, the ‘core’ of UG represents the common platform or matrix of principles upon which language learning takes place; this platform includes language features which are unlikely to be taught explicitly as part of a second-language classroom syllabus because they are already shared by the first language. One key principle is that sentences have organizational structures of a type that will be sketched in this chapter, using English as the raw data for analysis; the basic framework is held to be biologically given. However, some structural facts are also highly idiosyncratic to individual languages. To take one example, there seems no reason why the fourth sentence below, which seems organized in a way parallel to the other three, should be unacceptable to those who learned English from an early age: I don’t know the place where she went. I don’t know the time when she left. I don’t know the reason why she left. *I don’t know the way how to find her. Yet speakers of most dialects of English do not produce the way how; if they are presented with the last sentence above, they will judge it to be ungrammatical (or at least odd) in a way that the other three sentences are not. In the absence of a better explanation, this ‘hole’ in the system can only be described as a quasi-random language-particular fact that warrants special attention by teachers of English as a second language. It does not seem predictable by any general principles. In between universal principles and language-specific facts lie what Chomsky (1981, 1986) has called parameters, or universal alternations between two basic structural options which tend to split world languages into large, fairly uniform groups. For example, languages tend to branch in two directions where the formation of informational questions is concerned – i.e., questions that use words like who, when, or where. Some languages (such as English, Spanish, and German) place these words at the beginning of questions, as in Where are you sitting? Other languages (such as Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean) leave these wh-words in the same place in a sentence where the corresponding non-wh nouns or adverbs would appear (as in I’m sitting here. You’re sitting where?). In general, a learner will not be challenged by universal principles in the process of learning a new language since they hold more or less constant across very different languages. However, the learner will be confronted with parametric differences from an early stage of learning and be forced to make major shifts in orientation toward such things as wh-questions. As for language-particular facts, learners will find them challenging throughout the acquisition process.

THE NATURE OF PHRASES To say that every language has a syntax is essentially to say that the sentences of each language have a structure. What does this structure look like? This chapter will look in detail at the basic architecture of English sentences on the assumption that readers of this book have sufficient knowledge of English to make judgments of their own about grammatical (“OK”) sentences of English and ungrammatical (“not 80

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

OK”) sentences. In the process we will sidestep the obvious fact that sentences can be unacceptable for reasons other than structural ones; that is, we will assume that the judgments given here are structurerelated, rather than meaning- or appropriateness-related. We will not attempt to explain why a hearer would find a senseless sentence like, Please, my invisible airplane wrote the latitude! or a rude one like Hey, dummy! unacceptable. The problems in such sentences belong more properly to the study of semantics and pragmatics, respectively – essentially, to problems of meaning and use. First, consider the nouns squirrel and Fred, and sentences in which both occur: (1) Squirrels climb trees. (2) Fred bought books. Each (grammatical) sentence consists of three words. We might ask questions about all or part of these sentences. For example, we might ask the questions, “What do squirrels do?” and “Tell me again – Fred did WHAT?” and receive as our answers, (1a) Climb trees. (2a) Bought books. We might also ask questions like, “What can you tell me about squirrels?” or “What’s true about books?” We would be unlikely to receive as responses, (1b) ?*Squirrels trees. (2b) ?*Fred bought. There is something clearly unacceptable about both (1b) and (2b), and it is not that they are responses to odd questions. For example, we could respond, Squirrels climb them or Fred bought some. Both responses would be acceptable in a way that (1b-2b) would not. We could think up other similar examples, and we predict that the judgments of acceptability and unacceptability would parallel those above. The intuitive problem with (1b-2b) is that neither sequence seems to constitute a ‘unified whole’, while (1a2a) do seem to constitute unified wholes. Using the relevant terminology from traditional grammar, we would say that sentences are divided into two basic parts – subjects, which tell us who or what the sentence is about, and predicates, which tell us something about those subjects. It is generally agreed that sentences have subjects and predicates. In the traditional formalization used for generations in middle schools throughout the English-speaking world, sentence (1) was diagrammed as (3) ___squirrels_____|___climb___|___trees___ The words are written on a horizontal line. A bold vertical line divides subject from predicate. A smaller vertical line separates the predicate into two parts, the verb and its direct object. The essential idea is that the first division point is more basic or fundamental than the second, since the former splits the entire sentence into two large parts, while the latter division takes place over a smaller domain (i.e., the predicate) that is, in turn, contained within a larger domain – i.e., the sentence itself.

81

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

These so-called ‘stick diagrams’ worked well for the kinds of simple sentence analysis done in oldtime grammar classes. Linguists have long since adopted a quasi-mathematical convention using ‘trees’ for making the same kind of diagram. A preliminary tree for sentence (1) might look like the following:

(4) This tree tells us several things. First, the organization of the sentence is linear in that one word precedes another. Second, it is hierarchical, or tiered into levels. The subject squirrels sits on an equal plane with the combined words climb+trees, and the latter breaks down into two equal parts which form a second, lower plane. Two of the bedrock principles of syntax are that linguistic structure is both linear and hierarchical. Two elements which sit on the same plane and can be traced back to a common mother node in a single step are called sister nodes; thus SUBJECT is sister to PREDICATE, and VERB is sister to DIRECT OBJECT. Third, we see that each tree ultimately branches downward into terminal nodes, or words that are given category labels such as ‘noun’ or ‘verb’. Fourth, the tree tells us that the ‘parts’ of this sentence include (a) the subject noun squirrels, (b) the verb climb, (c) the direct object noun trees, and (d) the predicate climb+trees. Each of these parts is called a constituent of the sentence. A constituent may be informally defined as the full set of nodes and branches that merge upward to a single mother node; that is, a constituent is the sum total of everything that branches under a mother node. We would like to generalize our claims to sentences that are longer and more complex. Consider another simple sentence, and note that this sentence may be transformed from active voice to passive voice with no loss of meaning: (5) [Squirrels] annoy the cat. → The cat is annoyed by [squirrels]. To say that there is no loss of meaning is to say that if squirrels annoy the cat, then it follows that the cat is annoyed by squirrels, and vice versa. This kind of identity is called truth-conditional equivalence: If A entails B and B entails A, then A and B are equivalents. We have called squirrels a noun. Now notice that the same transformation is possible with a longer sentence, and again we see truth-conditional equivalence: (6) [The gray squirrels in the park] annoy the cat. → The cat is annoyed by [the gray squirrels in the park].

82

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

Note too, that if we apply the same fragment test that we applied in (1a) and (2a), we get parallel acceptable results: (7) What annoys the cat? → (a) Squirrels. (b) The gray squirrels in the park. We would get no such acceptable results with (6) if we instead chose to reply with, *The gray squirrels in. The claim is that the sequence the gray squirrels in the park behaves as a unit, just as the sequences Bought books and Climb trees behaved. We would like to say that the gray squirrels in the park behaves as a constituent, and this constituent is of the same type as the single word squirrels in sentence (5). The name given to this constituent type is noun phrase, or NP. We will further argue that the sequences climb trees, bought books, and annoy the cat constitute verb phrases, or VPs. We now redraw our original tree as follows, using “S” to indicate “sentence”:

(8) This tree makes the claim that a string of words is a sentence if a tree can be drawn such that S → NP VP, and if there are terminal elements of a type that crucially correspond to the phrasal category (i.e., N for “NP” and V for “VP”). This condition illustrates the key property of endocentricity, which simply says that every NP has a head that is an N, and every VP has a head that is a V; this property is held to be a universal property of phrases in natural languages. It will be noticed that we have omitted the labels SUBJECT – PREDICATE in our new tree. We will address the reasoning for this omission in the section on grammatical relations. For now, let us further develop the conception of phrases that we have begun. We can apply the same kinds of tests to VPs that we have just applied to NPs, thereby establishing that a VP can consist of one or multiple words, provided only that it have a V as its head. Consider question (9) and its possible responses: (9) What do squirrels do? > Climb. > Climb trees. > Climb trees in the park with great enthusiasm. > Climb trees energetically.

83

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

Our claim is that each of the possible predicate responses represents a single constituent, as evidenced by the fact that the words ‘hang together’ as a single unit for processing. As additional evidence, we can note that each of the responses could be placed at the beginning of a sentence, or fronted, and serve equally well as a modifier of another sentence if the verb is given an –ing suffix: (10) Climbing, the squirrel finally reached the top. Climbing trees, squirrels protect themselves from predators. Climbing trees in the park with great enthusiasm, squirrels are wonders of nature. Climbing trees energetically, squirrels escape cats. We conclude that predicates, which we have called VPs, are constituents that may consist of one or many words, as long as each predicate contains a V as its head, or center. We can argue the same for Adjective Phrases (APs) in (11), where we see fragmented responses: (11) How would you describe that tree? > Tall. > Very tall. > Too tall to climb. We can also use a test that fills a slot in an NP: (12) That ______ tree is on my property. We could fill the slot with tall, very tall, or even too-tall-to-climb (though such highly complex APs as the last one sound awkward as pre-noun modifiers and tend to be marked off with hyphens between their parts); our base requirement is that one adjective must serve as head of the AP. It will be recalled from Chapter 2 that determiners include a wide range of function words that are often classified into groups according to the kinds of meaning that they encode – possessive determiners such as your/my/her/his/their, demonstratives such as this/that, and ordinary articles a/an/the, among others. Like nouns, verbs, and adjective, determiners also seem to admit of modification options, given the right context. (13) He ate almost two pints of ice cream. (14) Only your paper (not also my paper) was reviewed. A moment’s reflection should reveal that the adverb almost in (13) is not modifying two pints of ice cream; it is modifying two (it is not [almost [two pints of ice cream]], but [[almost two] pints of ice cream]). Likewise, the adverb only in (14) is intended to modify your, not your paper (unless the interpretation is ‘only your paper, not also your book’). Examples like (13-14) suggest that we also need to speak of determiners as head elements of phrases, which we will refer to as DPs – phrases centered around a head D. Generalizing at this point, we may state a hypothesis widely agreed on in syntactic analysis: (15) All heads project into endocentric phrasal expansions. This claim, if true, will simplify our grammar tremendously by setting a basic requirement on heads of any type (including, so far, N, V, Adj, and D): all must originate higher in the tree as phrases of the 84

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

same type as the head. In other words, if there is a head X, it must project upward into an XP. We will not find an NP, for example, whose head is a V. We can construct similar arguments in favor of Adverb Phrases (AdvPs) (quickly, very quickly, unbelievably quickly, etc.) headed by adverbs. We will take a closer look at prepositional phrases (PPs) in the next section. Each of these phrasal types will form nodes and branches in trees according to a set of phrase structure rules that will allow us to create, or generate, trees such as the tree in (8) above. A phrase structure rule takes the form X → Y Z and may be read as, “For any X, that X will be rewritten in every case as “Y Z”. The X is called the input, and the “Y Z” the output. Traditional phrase structure rules are an elaborate input-output system. That may sound abstract, but it can be brought down to earth by the paraphrase, “Every X consists of a Y plus a Z”. In the case of the English sentence, it may be paraphrased as “Every sentence is composed of an NP followed by a VP”. This intuition is captured well in the traditional ‘stick’ diagram (3) above as well as in tree (8). It then remains to expand, or develop, the input notions ‘NP/VP’ to determine their own outputs.1 A system of phrase structure rules needs to be supplemented with a set of what are called lexical rules that specify what items can be placed in the terminal nodes. A lexical rule is simply a statement of what counts as an “N”, a “V”, an “adjective”, and so on in the language that we are studying. For sentences (1) through (8) above, we need to rely on a set of rules that contains at least the following: (16) N → squirrel(s), park(s), tree(s), Fred, you, I, he, she V → climb(s), annoy(s), buy(s)/bought Determiner → the Adjective → gray Preposition → in, by Note that pronouns have been included as lexical equivalents to nouns. This set represents only a tiny fraction of the English lexicon and will have to be expanded to yield other sentences, but it is interesting that it is capable of generating quite a large number of sentences as it stands now. It will generate Fred climbs trees, Fred bought squirrels, and Squirrels climbed Fred. It will also generate nonsensical strings like Trees bought squirrels and The park in the squirrel annoys Fred. We will eventually require some means to exclude these sentences from acceptable English discourse, but we will also claim that the problems with these sentences are essentially lexical or semantic rather than syntactic; the problems concern our conception of the kinds of things that can or cannot be ‘bought’ or ‘annoyed’, for example. The sentence Trees bought squirrels will be regarded as grammatical, but semantically anomalous; that is, it represents a situation in the world that is in some way impossible or contradictory.

HEADS AND COMPLEMENTS We will return to drawing trees for entire sentences below, in the section on the English predicate. For now, it is important to make note of a key feature of many heads such as N, V, P, and Adj. Heads have the ability to select sister constituents called complements. The idea of complements is old, and it has been expressed in different ways by different schools of grammatical analysis. The central intuition is that when a certain head is chosen, it selects or ‘goes with’ some element that follows it. Importantly, that added element is so strongly associated with the head 85

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

that the complement is lexicalized – i.e., is included as part of the lexical description of the head, even in those cases when the complement is not, strictly speaking, required for the use of the head. When we learn the dictionary meaning of the head, we also learn its (possible or obligatory) association with a complement. Sometimes the association is simply one where a certain type of phrase, such as an NP or PP, must follow the complement; sometimes the association is even more specific in requiring that phrase type to include a certain lexical item, or word, in the complement such as the preposition in or with. Exactly what does this mean? Let us take a few example types, some of which are likely to be familiar once more traditional terminology is used. We noted in the chapter on morphosyntax that some verbs are transitive, others are intransitive, and still others ditransitive. To use the relevant syntactic term, verbs are classified in terms of the number of arguments, or required syntactic positions, they are associated with in the lexicon. Some verbs take a single NP subject argument (e.g., sleep, rain), others take two NP arguments (e.g., take, make), while still others take three arguments (e.g., put, give), the third of which is typically housed in a PP (as in I put the book on the table); other three-argument verbs are associated with three NPs (as in The grocer charged the customer ten dollars). Sometimes these arguments are required for any use of the verb: we can make something, but we cannot simply *make. In other cases a verb may specify alternative frames. For example, the verb attach would be listed as a three-argument verb in sentence (17), but listed as a two-argument verb in (18): (17) Susan attached the poster to the wall. (18) Susan attached the file. Note that file in (18) would be interpreted to refer to a computer file. Not surprisingly, the two verbs attach have distinctly different but related meanings here (the second being rather metaphorical). In other cases, a verb such as eat with more or less stable meaning seems able to appear with either one or two arguments: (19) They ate dinner. (20) They ate. We could claim that in such cases, the lexicon lists two discrete meanings (for attach) or a single meaning with two argument frame options (for eat). When looking at examples (17-20), a reader might ask whether we are making anything beyond the generalization from traditional grammar that some verbs are transitive, others are intransitive, and others ditransitive. The answer is that we are indeed saying more, since similar phenomena occur with heads other than verbs where the terms ‘transitive’, ’intransitive’, and ‘ditransitive’ do not traditionally apply. When these phenomena are considered together with verbs, we see a point of commonality that has larger significance. Let us then look at adjectives. Certain adjectives such as nice, green, hot seem perfectly acceptable on their own with nothing to follow them: (21) (a) Our new house is nice (now that we’ve painted it). (b) These flowers are green (in the spring). (c) This curry is overly hot (in my opinion).

86

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

While we certainly could follow the adjectives nice, green, hot with the material in parentheses, we need not add anything. More to the point, we would not consult our lexicon (whether our mental lexicon or a physical dictionary) and expect to find anything resembling the material in parentheses in the description of the proper use of the adjectives. After all, an almost infinite variety of material could be found after these adjectives, and no efficient storage system (again, whether mental or physical) would contain even a small sampling of them. The situation is different, however, with certain other adjectives. Consider those in the next set of sentences: (22) (a) I am amazed at my progress in linguistics. (b) She is fond of white wine. (c) The umpire was biased against the player. While the meaning of the boldfaced adjectives may be specified lexically in isolation from the material that comes after them, we can say that each adjective has an organic ‘connection’ with the prepositional phrases that follow them in a way that the material following the adjectives in (21) does not have. That is, we associate amazed with the preposition at (as opposed to being amazed around or amazed from something). We associate fond with of. We associate biased with against. Each adjective is listed in the lexicon with a prepositional phrase headed by the respective preposition, together with information about whether this PP is genuinely obligatory or not. For most speakers, it is safe to say that fond cannot be used at all without a PP headed by the preposition of (e.g., *Mary is very fond). In the cases of amazed and biased, the PPs are optional but still lexicalized; a book can simply be ‘biased’, and a person can simply be ‘amazed’, but if a PP specifying the target of bias or amazement follows, it will be headed by a particular preposition. These lexicalized associations are complements to the adjectives. It is important to note that in talking about the relationship between adjectives and prepositions here, we are speaking of something different from mere statistical frequency. There is, no doubt, a strong likelihood that where the word fish occurs, the word water will occur nearby – much higher than the likelihood of the co-occurrence of fish and desert – but this reflects only the fact that when we are talking about fish, we are also likely to be talking about water rather than deserts. In the case of the three adjectives in (22), we can go so far as to say that the prepositions that follow them are ‘correct’ while other prepositions would be ‘incorrect’ – in other words, that the linguistic relationships involved here go beyond issues of discourse frequency. Though some newly-discovered language very similar to English (call it ‘Zinglish’) might exist in which a person may be “aware to something”, the lexical entry for that adjective in English is simply not set up as in the hypothetical Zinglish to include the preposition to. While Zinglish uses a PP complement with to after the adjective aware, English uses a PP with of. Next, consider NPs. When phrasal material is placed before or after certain head nouns, there may be no particular reason to suppose that a lexical association exists between the noun and that material. For example, (23) (a) We bought a (new) house (in the suburbs). (b) Juliet made a plea (without saying a word). (c) The lawyer stated her objections (with great eloquence).

87

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

No doubt there is a fairly strong statistical co-occurrence among new, house, in, and suburbs – suburbs are full of houses, and many are new – but that fact does not bear on the question of whether learning the proper use of the words new, house, in, and suburbs crucially involves learning a key lexical relationship among any of those four words. Such a connection seems dubious; a speaker may be perfectly ‘fluent’ in the use of some of the words without knowing a thing about the others. The same holds for the other phrases in parentheses in (23) with respect to their head nouns. The situation is different in the sentences in (24): (24) (a) The president made a decision (on the proposal). (b) John made a plea (for mercy). (c) The lawyer stated her objections (to the judgment). There seems an intuitive connection between the words decision+on, plea+for, and objection+to that does not exist in the corresponding parts of the (23) sentences. Evidence that this is so comes from the ability of speakers to strand the prepositions in (24) but not in (23). Stranding prepositions, though frowned on in prescriptive grammar, is done on a regular basis by nearly every native speaker of English: (23’) (a) *?What did you buy a new house in__? (b) *?What did Juliet make a plea without__? (c) *?What did the lawyer state her objections with__? Leaving aside the issue of whether the questions in (23’) are grammatical, we must regard them as strange; if they are asked, it is unclear what sort of answers would be appropriate. The same is not true of the corresponding transformations of (24) shown in (24’): (24’) (a) What did the president make a decision on__? (b) What did John make a plea for__? (c) Which allegation did the lawyer state her objections to__? The ease of comprehension of the (24’) questions in comparison with the (23’) questions argues for an existing lexical relationship between the relevant words in (24’). Part of what is learned in the proper use of the nouns decision, plea, and objection is that they are lexically associated with prepositional phrases headed by specific prepositions. In other words, each of these nouns is lexically listed with a complement, though it is in all three cases an optional complement. Finally, let us look at prepositions. The traditional analysis of a prepositional phrase says that prepositions are always followed by NPs. In other words, each instance of use of a preposition requires the presence of a sister NP constituent. Since the head of a PP is a preposition, it follows that its NP sister is also a complement to that head, since heads determine the nature of their complements. In traditional grammar, these complements are called objects of prepositions, and that label is still appropriate. However, in calling them complements, we are tying together generalizations that we have also made for verbs and adjectives – something that traditional grammar has not done. At this point we might raise the question, “If some verbs and adjectives take complements while others do not, and if some verbs and adjectives can take optional complements while others take obligatory ones, why would the same not be true for prepositions?” The question is good, and the answer seems to 88

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

be affirmative – though there may be some resistance from traditionalists on this claim. Consider the points of overlap in the two columns below:

While the boldfaced words in the first column are indisputably traditional prepositions, grammarians have differed in their categorization of those in the second column. They have variously been called ‘adverbs’ and ‘particles’. Often a distinction has been made between those words that are semantically transparent (such as walk in, meaning ‘move on foot to the interior of an enclosure’) and those that are not (such as the very opaque sequence turn in, meaning ‘go to bed at the end of the day’). However, the sheer amount of overlap in the columns strongly suggests that these words are really prepositions and that their behavior is remarkably parallel to verbal and adjectival heads. In the (a-d) examples, we see that in, down, off, and on are all capable of appearing with or without complements (similar to the behavior of verbs like eat or adjectives like amazed). In examples (e) and (f), we see that complements are required (as is true with verbs like make or adjectives like fond). In examples (g) and (h) we witness the opposite situation: away and apart seem unable to take complements at all (as is true with verbs like sleep and adjectives like nice). By assuming that the boldfaced words in the second column are prepositions, we achieve a solid generalization about heads – namely, that they determine their own complements (or lack thereof) – and we incidentally eliminate the need for a special category of words called ‘particles’ that would have to be listed twice in the lexicon under different category labels. Emonds (1976) has argued that prepositions, like verbs, can be usefully described as ‘transitive’, ‘intransitive’, or both, depending on their use. To sum up this section: we have defined ‘complements’ as sisters to heads and said that heads bear a special relationship to complements, a relationship that is specified in the lexical entry for the particular head; we have presented data from four different lexical categories V, Adj, N, and P. In the process, we have justified four phrase structure rules that could be written as follows: (26) VP → V (NP) AP → Adj (PP) NP → N (PP) PP → P (NP) These rules tell us that each of the four lexical categories V, Adj, N, and P is capable of branching into head and complement. While heads are always required, complements are specified as optional or obligatory on a case-by-case basis, depending on the head. That specification is provided in the lexicon. We can observe the parallelism by showing phrasal expansions in tree form as below:

89

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

(26’) At this point we can address the question, “What is the structure of the English predicate?” As we will see, the relationship between head and complement plays a large role there, as well.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH PREDICATE So far, we have been working with very simple predicates with verbs that have appeared in their simplest forms. However, a sentence can have two, three, or even four verbs in a complex system, as below: (27) Fred bought books. (28) Fred has bought books. (29) Fred is buying books. (30) Fred has been buying books. The default assumption is that for each separate word in a sentence, we expect a separate node in the tree. Therefore, we cannot place sets of two, three, or more verbs at a single node. How, then, do we analyze these sequences? We develop below a version of a well-accepted model of syntactic knowledge of English predicates that utilizes the notion of complements and thereby simplifies our understanding of the English auxiliary system. Let us start by contrasting two sentences: (31) Fred buys books. (32) Fred can buy books. One predicate contains two words, the other three words. Viewing the predicates in another way, however, we can say that they contain an equal number of morphemes. The verb buys comprises a free morpheme (buy) plus a bound present tense suffix –s. This suffix is required (in dominant dialects, at least); we cannot say *Fred buy books as a normal indicative sentence. In contrast, the verb can has no such suffix, and the sequence *Fred cans buy books would also count as ungrammatical. Can and the suffix –s are in ‘complementary distribution’; that is, where one appears, the other is always absent (the notion of complementary distribution will play a much more prominent role in the Phonology chapters). Complementarity suggests that these two morphemes – the modal verb and the –s suffix – are versions of the same essential node type. We will call this node T, for ‘tense’, refer to the predicate as a T’, or ‘tense-bar’, and call the entire sentence a TP, or ‘tense phrase’. In the upcoming section on modifiers,

90

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

we will explain the rationale for this move in greater detail, but for now, we are abandoning our original representation of sentences as composed of the sequence NP-VP and deriving from the expansion S → NP VP. The trees now look as below, with VP becoming a right-sister of T:

It seems that trees (31a) and (32a) differ in just one small detail. However, it is clear that the two morphemes can and –s are categorically different from each other. One is a free morpheme, the other a bound morpheme. As evidence, consider that we could say, John cannot buy books, but Fred can, while we could not say, *John does not buy books, but Fred –s. An affix must attach to a ‘host’, or stem morpheme; it cannot stand alone as a word. To make sentence (31) grammatical, we will have to formulate what looks like a special rule, (33) Bound affixes must attach to a proper host. There is nothing startling about principle (33); after all, attachment is what bound morphemes are all about. In the case of a verbal suffix like -s, the grammar will look for the closest available verb and attach the suffix to it. Affixation of tensed elements like –s is a regular process in English and many other languages. In the case of sentence (32), we need not apply the rule of affixation because there is no overt affix at all. The modal verb is followed by a plain verb stem. Now let us look at more complex predicates -- those with multiple auxiliary verbs in sequence. There are a number of key generalizations that were first highlighted in Chomsky (1957) in his attempt to formulate a simple statement of what is possible and impossible in English auxiliary-verb combinations. The generalizations may be summarized as below: (a) Every predicate has a tense or modal, and at least one (main) verb. (b) If a predicate has one verb, the tense will attach to that verb as a suffix. (c) If a predicate uses perfect (have+V), the verb that follows have will be a past participle. (E.g., we can say Summer has gone, but not *Summer has go/going.) (d) If a predicate uses progressive (be+V), the verb that follows be will end in –ing. (E.g., we can say It is raining, but not *It is rain/rained.) (e) If a predicate uses a modal verb, the verb that follows the modal will have no suffix. (E.g., we can say Fred can buy books, but not *Fred can buying/bought books.)

91

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

Two things are important to keep in mind. One is that options (b, c, d, e) are only that – options. While each sentence requires a subject, a tense, and a verb, there is no requirement on the number of verbs beyond a main verb (in fact, there can be up to four in active-voice sentences). The other is that we have defined an ordering relation among these elements that cannot be altered (thus, *Fred going been have would is impossible). If we consolidate all this information into a simple statement as in Chomsky (1957), the result looks approximately as follows, (34) PREDICATE → T/(modal) (have+past participle) (be+-ing) V where one may choose between a tense or a modal, but not both. The material in parentheses is optional. Each affix – the T, the past participle, and the –ing – is determined by the just-preceding element in the string of morphemes. That is, the tense will attach to whichever verb comes next; the past participle will attach to whichever verb follows have; the progressive –ing suffix will attach to whichever verb follows be; and in the case of modal verbs such as may/might/must/can/could, the following verb receives no affix at all – as sentence (32) and its corresponding tree shows. One last detail needs to be included. We have added a new category to the lexicon – tense – and we require a lexical rule that tells us how tense is realized in English sentences. In order to do so, we need to address what we mean by ‘tense’. We adopt a well-known and fairly uncontroversial definition consistent with that in Comrie (1985) that calls tense a marking (possibly a zero-marking) on a verb that denotes a time relative to the time of speaking. When a speaker says “I am baking cookies”, the speaker denotes a time that is contiguous with the time of saying the sentence. We call that present tense. When a speaker says, “I baked cookies (yesterday)”, the time denoted is (one day) prior to the time of speaking. We call that past tense. What, then, about the ‘future’, ‘present perfect’, ‘past perfect’, present progressive’, and other constructions that are frequently referred to as ‘tenses’? Such structures, and the meanings they convey, are key parts of a description of English. We will argue (in a way consistent with mainstream linguists) that they are not tenses in the strict sense. When we refer to future time in English, we typically say “I will bake cookies (tomorrow)”; we also might say, “I am baking cookies (tomorrow)”, using the present tense of be and leaving part of the intended interpretation up to pragmatic factors, i.e., the context of utterance of the sentence. English does not place affixes on verbs in order to denote future time, as in French: (35) (a) Je joue. ‘I play’; ‘I am playing’. (b) Je jouais. ‘I played’; ‘I was playing’. (c) Je jouerai. ‘I will play’; ‘I am going to play’. Rather, the standard English way of indicating future time is to combine the modal verb will with the base form of a verb, as in will+play. Such a form, often called ‘periphrastic’ because it utilizes multiple words to express the idea of futurity, is really better analyzed in terms of modal constructions including the modal auxiliaries would, should, shall, may, might, can, and could. We then say that the expression of future time is a function of modal use (or other periphrastic means such as be going to) and that English does not have a genuine future ‘tense’ that is realized morphologically. What, then, of constructions like those below, together with their traditional names?

92

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

Though traditional grammarians have called each of these a ‘tense’, linguists generally agree that the labels obscure a key distinction between time reference and aspectual reference and that each construction (a-i) above, as well as the ‘simple present’, ‘simple past’, and ‘simple future’ combine time marking relative to speaker-time together with a marking of the nature or ‘internal consistency’ of the event (Comrie, 1976). Thus, for example, a sentence like (36a), She is playing, combines the notion of an event taking place at speaker-time with the notion that this event has some limited duration, or at least is meant to be viewed that way. In contrast, the simple present She plays is normally taken as the expression of a habit or permanent duration, and She has played indicates an action that is completed at an unexpressed time prior to speaker-time. These are only rough descriptions of the meaning differences; we do not want to minimize the complexity of meanings expressed through the use of aspect in English. The point here is that all three sentences share a single tense – ‘present’ -- but indicate different aspects. The lexical rule for tense, then, simply reads as follows: (37) tense → present/past and this is how T, or ‘tense’, will be represented in trees with finite, or time-sensitive, verbs. Keeping the above picture of auxiliary verbs and tenses in mind, we can now visualize the syntax of complex predicates in terms of the head-complement relationship developed in the preceding section. Let us start with a simple example, then try a more complicated one: (38) Fred has bought his books.

93

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

As the tree makes clear, the relation between T and VP is in fact a head-complement relation. Since heads specify complements, we can say that any T consisting of “present” or “past” may lexically specify a complement that is headed by a verb ending in –s (for third-person present singular forms), ending in a zero-allomorph (for all other persons in the present), or ending in –ed (for past forms). In turn, since V has is also a head, we can say that has, being a perfect form, lexically specifies its own complement – one headed by a past participle form of the verb (bought). The verb bought, of course, specifies its own complement, a direct object NP. Tree (39) is more complex, but it follows the same set of rules: (39) Fred might be buying books.

94

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

The T node contains the modal verb might. Modal verbs select complements that are headed by the base (or ‘stem’, or ‘plain’, or affix-less) form of the verb. Since the complement of T is the topmost VP, and since the head of that VP is be, we have selected the right complement. Next, the auxiliary verb be is a head, and it selects a VP complement headed by an –ing form. This requirement is met in the form buying, which heads the next lower VP. Finally, the verb buying selects a direct object – i.e., an NP complement, in this case books. In making explicit the notion of heads and complements, we have managed to unify the discussion of a number of traditionally separate grammatical phenomena. What, then, do we make of sentential elements that are not lexically specified complements? Before pursuing this question, let us first answer an unresolved question from the beginning of this chapter.

GRAMMATICAL RELATIONS If we reconsider tree (4), the first branching below S indicated that a sentence branches into “SUBJECT… PREDICATE”. We might ask what happened to this level of analysis: are we not required to specify subjects and predicate nodes in the tree? Traditional grammar offers definitions of these two terms approximately as follows: (40) (a) The subject is the main actor in a sentence, or at least what the sentence is about. (b) The predicate is the event performed by the subject, or at least what we are saying about the subject. (c) The direct object is the receiver of the action.

95

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

These grade-school definitions may work for a majority of sentences (just as defining nouns as “persons, places, things’ and verbs as ‘action words’ might do), but they do not cover all of them. Compare sentences like: (41) The gray squirrels in the park annoy the cat. (42) It is too bad that we lost the election. (43) There’s an armchair in the corner. We take all three sentences to be grammatical, acceptable and ‘complete’, as sentences are said to be. In (41), if we were to ask what the sentence is about, the answer would be, “The gray squirrels in the park”. That is also the subject NP. If we were to ask what the event performed by that actor is, a reasonable answer would be “the event of annoying the cat”. That meaning is covered in the predicate. However, we cannot get such neat results for (42) and (43). No one would say that sentence (42) is ‘about’ it, or that sentence (43) is ‘about’ there. A more plausible reply is that (42) is about our losing the election and (43) is about an armchair. Yet neither that we lost the election nor armchair is the subject of (42) or (43). The subjects of (42) and (43) are it and there. Likewise, it is accurate enough to say that the cat is ‘the receiver of the action’ of ‘annoying’ in sentence (41); however, it is less clear that the election is the ‘receiver’ of the ‘loss’ in (42) or that we would describe the situation in that way at all. In short, we would like definitions that cover all cases, on the ground that ‘exceptions’ imply that no real rule exists. A proposed ‘rule’ defined with exceptions suggests that the actual rule is eluding our grasp. The general view of syntacticians is that subjects and predicates are formally defined in tree-relational terms, not in terms of meaning – and that these tree relations are represented mentally. A look at grammatical relations – the study of the spatial-hierarchical relationships among the various parts of sentences – reveals that subjects and predicates still exist, but the need for labeling them in the tree is rendered unnecessary. How so? We are able with our tree system to specify, for any tree, which NP is the subject simply by tracing a line upward in the tree. If the NP appears in the sequence, TP → NP T’, then we can define “subject” as “the first NP under TP and adjacent to (or sister to) T’”. This definition holds for all three sentences (41-43) above:

96

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

We can extend this line of reasoning to the traditional category direct object and say that a direct object is “the first NP under VP that is a right sister to a verb”. Thus, for the relevant parts of sentences (41) and (42), we would draw:

and we now have what looks like an adequate syntactic definition of ‘direct object’, and it is irrelevant whether that object is the ‘receiver’ of any action, though of course it often is one. But is this definition adequate? It could be argued that the definition does not take into account traditional indirect objects. An indirect object is traditionally said to be the beneficiary or receiver of the event performed, as in Mary gave John a gift, or Can you lend me a hand? In these sentences, John and me are the indirect objects, while a gift and a hand are the direct objects. We expect the tree for the first sentence to look like the following: (44) Mary gave John a gift.

97

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

Since we could not say *Mary gave a gift John, it seems safe to say that the concept indirect object can be defined in the following way: (45) An indirect object is a right sister to V and a left sister to NP. The implicit assumption here, of course, is that indirect objects cannot exist on their own without the presence of direct objects – at least not in English. It is worth pointing out that often, grammarians define ‘indirect object’ in semantic rather than syntactic terms. Some would claim that in the following sentence, John is also an indirect object: (46) Mary gave a gift to John. If John is the recipient or beneficiary of the act of gift giving in (44), surely he is still a recipient or beneficiary in (46). We do not wish to get into unnecessary arguments over the use of terminology, i.e., over who has the better definition of ‘indirect object’. We will simply say that if indirect object is defined syntactically rather than semantically, only (44) provides an example of one. Sentence (46) does, however, provide a good example of a syntactic object of a preposition (or prepositional object), of which only a subset contains what could be called ‘recipients’ or ‘beneficiaries’. For example, consider the bracketed PPs below: (47) Jack likes roast beef [with horseradish]. (48) They went home [after the storm]. (49) We bought a box [of cookies].

98

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

Each boldfaced NP is the object of a preposition, but none could be called a recipient or beneficiary of anything. However, we should make note of the (possibly interesting) fact that such meanings can be encoded in two different syntactic positions. Prepositional objects, then, can be regarded as complements – i.e., right sisters to prepositions – in a class with subjects, direct objects, and indirect objects as categories marking grammatical relations that are definable in terms of their positions in trees and relations to other constituents.

MODIFIERS We have not yet mentioned anything about modification. For example, we have said nothing about where we would place adjectives in a tree when they modify nouns. (50) spicy tamales And though we have mentioned PPs that are not complements (as in sentences (23a-c) above), we have not said where they would fit into a tree: (51) a house in suburbia As a first attempt to draw trees for these NPs, we might try diagrams like the one below:

Such representations are fairly traditional (and for those readers who are familiar with the older ‘stick diagrams’, these trees could be easily converted to the old diagramming system by placing the modifiers on slanted lines below the main line). However, the trees miss an important point. The tree relations above indicate that AP, DP, and PP are complements to the head nouns tamales and house, since complements are sisters to heads. Yet they do not look like complements. There cannot be anything lexicalized about the relationship between the head noun tamales and the AP spicy; we do not memorize the preposition in as part of an idiomatic syntactic frame for the use of the head noun house. Given these facts, we do not want to represent either the AP spicy or the PP in suburbia as sisters to N in the same way that we would certainly want to represent money as a lexicalized sister to make in the VP make money. Is there a way to show the difference? The fairly standard solution that has been in use since Chomsky (1970) and was fully developed in Jackendoff (1977) is called the X’ framework, or X’ theory. X’ (pronounced X-bar) theory argues for an intermediate projection between the full phrasal level (NP) and the word level (N). Thus, rather than

99

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

proceeding directly from NP to N in a word like restaurants, we will require an intermediate step NP → N’ → N. Applied to NPs, the new framework requires a set of phrase structure rules that are presented as follows: (52) (a) NP → (DP) N’ (b) (N’ → (AP) N’ (PP)) (c) N’ → N (NP) (PP) Let us go through the rules step by step, and then show how the trees for phrases (50) and (51) would be properly drawn. The top line simply repeats our original claim that an NP may begin with a determiner phrase; however, that DP is now paired with an N’ rather than an N. This N’ then serves as input to the second rule, which introduces modifiers like spicy or in suburbia. However, as we well know, not every NP contains modifiers, so this second rule is optional (note the parentheses around it). We may therefore skip it in simpler phrases (e.g., in NPs such as tamales or a house) and go directly to the third rule, for which N’ will also be the input. The output of the third rule will include the head N and any complements to N. We then arrive at trees which look like those below:

In (50b), there is no determiner because according to the rule, determiners are optional. We therefore go directly to N’, which branches into a modifying AP spicy and another N’. The N’ is not further modified, so it goes directly to N tamales. In (51b), we do have a determiner; the N’ branches to another N’, indicating that there is a modifier to N’, which is the PP in suburbia. That N’ is not further modified, so it branches directly to N house. Finally, we see that the NP complement to P, suburbia, is not modified at all (e.g., as it might be in beautiful suburbia), so NP goes directly to N’, and N’ goes directly to N. Is it possible for two PPs to follow a head N, one of which is a modifying PP, and the other a complement PP? It certainly is, and use of the three-tiered X’ framework will help account for an interpretation puzzle in the process. Consider the three sentences in (53): (53) (a) We made a decision on the boat. (b) We made a decision on the plane. (c) We made a decision on the boat on the plane. The (a) and (b) sentences are ambiguous; it is not clear in (a), for example, whether we decided to make use of a boat (by buying or traveling on one), or whether we made a decision while we were riding on a

100

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

boat. The same ambiguity holds for (b). For (c), however, there is no such ambiguity: it is clear that we made a decision to buy or travel on a boat while we were riding on a plane. We cannot get the opposite interpretation (i.e., a scenario where we made a decision to travel on a plane while we were riding on a boat), which would make an ungrammatical sentence on that interpretation. If we drew the trees in a two-tiered system as in (50a-51a), we would have no means of capturing these different interpretations, since the two PPs would be treated as equal sisters to N. In the three-tiered X’ system, however, we see that the attachments are at different levels:

(53c) The PP on the right is a sister to N’, while the one on the left is a sister to N. This tree captures the idea that the head-complement relationship between decision+on (the boat) is a closer one than the modifying relationship between decision+on (the plane). Notice, too, that we could not reverse the order of these two PPs (i.e., a decision on the plane on the boat) and get the same interpretation. The reason is that complements are closer to their heads than modifiers are. Note, too, that we can now also avoid saying that a determiner is a direct modifier of a noun; rather, it is a sister to the higher-level N’ (and because a determiner is also a daughter to NP, it is technically called a specifier rather than a modifier; a true modifier would be a daughter of the higher-level N’ and a sister to N’.) One of the advantages of using this three-tiered system, then, is that it explains ambiguity in a way that earlier syntactic representations could not do. It also explains certain puzzling facts about the coordination of phrases. A coordinate structure is a structure utilizing a traditional coordinating conjunction such as and, but, so, for (meaning ‘because’), and (either)/or. It is a commonplace observation that coordination must take place between identical constituent types. Consider the examples in (54): (54) (a) doctors and nurses (b) friendly and helpful (c) *friendly and nurses (d) in and out

101

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

(e) ran and jumped (f) *in and jumped If coordination is between pairs of NPs, APs, PPs, or VPs, there is no problem. However, if we propose to coordinate AP+NP, or PP+VP, we get bad results. Coordination requires lexical and grammatical parallelism. The same generalization seems to hold between complement phrases and modifying phrases, as illustrated in the examples below: (55) He made pleas for mercy and for reconsideration of his case. (56) He made pleas from the courtyard and from the hallway. (57) *He made pleas for mercy and from the courtyard. Sentence (57) may be comprehensible with some mental gymnastics, but it is clearly unacceptable. The unacceptability can be accounted for on grounds that there is illegitimate coordination of a complement PP with a modifying PP. Modifiers within VPs can be treated with the same logic. In sentences (58-60), (58) Fred buys tickets often. (59) Fred carefully read the instructions. (60) Fred has frequently landed in Seattle. traditional grammar would say that often, carefully, and frequently modify the verbs buys, read, and landed. If we were to extend the analysis of NP to VP by assuming a three-tiered level of structure, then we would have to say that these adverbs are sisters of V’, just as adjective phrases like spicy are sisters to N’. Is it reasonable, however, to draw VPs in an analogous way? The answer seems to be ‘yes’ if we consider example sentences like (53c), where we saw that the complement PP on the boat must be closer to the head N than the modifying PP on the plane and that only a single interpretation of that sentence is available while, interestingly, two interpretations each are available for (53a) and (53b). How, then, are those examples relevant? Sentence (58) above contains ticket, a direct object, and often, a time adverb that modifies buys. The sentence would be wholly unacceptable if we reversed the order of those two elements: (58a) *Fred buys often tickets. If we assume that an analogous relationship holds here, i.e., that often is a sister to V’ and tickets is a sister to V, then it seems that the same rule framework we used in (53) for NP can be used for VP, and we can explain the badness of (58a). The tree for (58) would be drawn as below:

102

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

(58b) Clearly, tickets cannot follow often since it is a complement, while often is a modifier. What, then, of (59)-(60), where the adverbs appear in different VP positions? Traditional grammar noticed long ago that English adverbs are freer in their positional options than NPs or APs. An adverb may occur on either side of the verb: we can buy tickets often or often buy tickets, but we cannot have both a spicy tamale and *a tamale spicy. This appears simply to mean that an AdvP can be a right-sister or a left-sister to V’. The VP structure for (59) would simply be that below:

103

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

(59a) Finally, what about sentence (60), where the adverb appears between two verbs, the auxiliary has and the main verb landed? We are drawn intuitively to the interpretation that it is the ‘landing’, not the ‘having’, that is frequent, and can safely assume that the adverb modifies the V’ landed. Recall from an earlier section that auxiliary constructions involve head-complement relationships, and that if have is a head, then frequently landed in Seattle would be its complement, a VP. This VP would then be treed as in (59a) above -- but this time we need to repeat the modifier rule, since the PP in Seattle is also a modifier:

104

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

(60a) If this line of reasoning is clear, then, we are operating with a set of rules very much like the rules we used for NPs. They may be schematized as in (61): (61) VP → V’ (V’ → (AdvP) V’ (AdvP)(PP)) V’ → V (NP) (PP) In short, a VP branches to a V’, just as an NP branches to an N’. We have no obvious analogue to the determiners that we saw with NPs, so the branching with the first rule is only singular or one-way. Using the second rule, we are then free to add modifiers either before, after, or both before and after, V’. Repeated applications of the second rule will permit us as many modifiers as we wish (as in Fred has frequently reluctantly landed in Seattle in November on Tuesdays with six suitcases.) Application of the third rule will generate NP objects (as in landed a plane) as well as complement PPs (as in the complement interpretation of decided on the boat). To show that the X’ framework may be generalized further, we will look at one more phrase type, APs. It is clear from example (26’b), fond of jazz, that adjectives may take complements:

105

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

(26’)(b) A moment’s reflection reveals that fond may take a modifier as well as a complement: (62) I am especially fond of jazz on Sunday afternoons. Since the sentence is technically ambiguous, let us be clear that the reading is, “On Sundays, I especially like jazz” as opposed to “The jazz played on Sundays is what I am fondest of”. Notice that reversing the order of the two PPs will not work, nor can the PPs be coordinated: (63) *I am especially fond on Sunday afternoons of jazz. (64) *I am especially fond of jazz and on Sunday afternoons. Moreover, the adverb especially in (62) seems able to modify the entire sequence fond of jazz on Sunday afternoons. It looks, then, as though we are able to expand AP in the same way that we expanded NP and VP. The tree for the AP in (62) would look as follows:

106

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

(62’) And the expansion for AP, parallel to that of NP and VP, would be the following: (65) AP → (AdvP) A’ A’ → A’ (PP) A’ → A (PP) Such a scheme is far superior to one where especially, fond, and jazz branch directly off the AP node to sit alongside the adjective fond, for it makes the right predictions about the behavior of smaller constituents within the larger AP. The abrupt switch that we made in the section on English predicates from the rule [S → NP VP] to the new rules [TP → NP T’] and [T’ → T VP] can hopefully now be placed in a familiar context. We made the switch because the same rationale that applies to other phrases applies to entire clauses. The T node also takes complements, just as smaller phrases do, and in this sense a sentence is much like a phrase. Let us now sum up the rule schemas that we have developed in this chapter:

107

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

Given space, we could pursue the possibility of developing expanded analyses of DPs, AdvPs, and PPs in which these, too, are analyzed into three-level projections. In fact, the relevant literature has done this, with the ultimate goal of illustrating the symmetrical structure of all English phrases. This leads naturally into the intriguing question of whether other languages exhibit the same symmetry – a topic which we cannot pursue here. Looking at the larger picture, we can say that if these phrase structure rules are adequate and supplemented by a rich set of lexical rules, they will permit the construction of simple English clauses, i.e., units comprising TP → NP+T’ expansions. While not every clause is a sentence, every sentence comprises at least one clause. For example, the sentence (67) Our work will be done when we return from our trip. consists of two separate clauses (Our work will be done and when we return from our trip), the second of which is said to be embedded inside the other as a ‘dependent’ or ‘subordinate’ clause. Together, they create what is traditionally called a ‘complex sentence’. While we will not present rules for generating complex sentences in this chapter, the rules that we have developed apply equally to the embedded clause as to the non-embedded, independent, main clause of the sentence.

IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS Imparting a clear sense of the basic word order of a particular second language is an obvious goal of early second-language instruction. One of the most noticeable features of world languages is that there are strong statistical correlations regarding the feature of headedness, or principal branching direction of heads with respect to their mother nodes and their complements. Headedness has been identified as a basic parameter that differentiates languages. Pulling together the evidence from the trees in (26’) above and elsewhere in the chapter, we notice a striking gross feature of English phrasal expansions – that they have left-branching or head-first structures:

108

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

That is, in any expansion of TP, VP, AP, NP, or PP, the head precedes its complements. This generalization does not come without qualifications. For one thing, we have not investigated whether determiners and adverbs can also take complements. For another thing, we have already seen that English is capable of pre-nominal modifiers such as happy campers. If English were consistently head-first, we might expect to hear *campers happy, but this is in fact not the way that noun modification works. Moreover, it is possible to argue that NPs can take pre-nominal complements, as in NPs such as (69a): (69) (a) Fred is a professional student. (b) Fred is a professional student. In the (a) example, with emphasis on the boldfaced syllable, we get the interpretation that Fred is studying to enter one of the professions, such as law or medicine. In (b), we get a much different interpretation, i.e., that Fred is making a career out of being in school. Without the variant emphases as shown, the sentence is ambiguous. As noted in the chapter on word formation, the (a) example exhibits the stress pattern of a compound, where the most-stressed syllable in the first free morpheme takes primary stress. Note, too, that if we combine both senses of professional in a single NP, the interpretation is not at all ambiguous, and we know exactly which instance of the word professional takes which interpretation: (70) Fred is a professional professional student. If (70) is sounded out properly, it means that Fred is making a career out of studying (as opposed to actually working in) one of the professions. Further, if we combine the (a) sense of the word with a clear case of another modifier, it is clear that only one ordering is permissible: (71) (a) Fred is a star professional student. (b) *Fred is a professional star student. It appears, then, that pre-nominal complements are behaving like post-nominal complements in their requirement to be nearer their heads than modifiers are. Do these facts affect the overall assessment of English as a head-first language? In general, they do not, considering that most complements are not of the (69a) type but are rather of the (68) type, and considering that there are few convincing parallel instances of the same phenomenon for other heads; compound nouns are rather ‘special’. How, then, do other languages organize their most basic units? It is useful to contrast English with Japanese here. Japanese represents the other parametric option in that its main branching direction seems in many ways the polar opposite of English:

109

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

The first, most striking feature of Japanese (for a native English speaker, at least) is that verbs are the final element in a sentence. The second is that their versions of prepositions are generally analyzed as suffixes on a noun (technically making them postpositions rather than prepositions). Because Japanese is also a language with tenses, like English, and because tense is realized on its verbs, Japanese tense appears in the opposite part of the TP tree from English. The general consensus on Japanese is that it is a head-last language, i.e., one whose principal branching direction is to the right. Japanese trees look approximately as follows:

(74) Where modification is concerned, Japanese does place its adjectives before the nouns they modify, as in English. Overall, however, unlike the SVO (subject-verb-object) order of English, Japanese exhibits an SOV (subject-object-verb) order. While there are six mathematical options for the ordering of S, V, and O, the vast majority of the world’s languages may be classified on either the English or the Japanese pattern. In some cases -- such as German, where SVO order is found in main clauses and SOV in dependent clauses – languages are ‘mixed’. The study of these inconsistencies, both historically and in a present-day context, has been a topic of fascination for linguists for many years. It is tempting to ask whether headedness, i.e., principal branching direction, has any effect on the early linguistic production of second language learners. The long tradition of contrastive analysis (see, e.g., Lado, 1957; Wardhaugh, 1970) argued that the phenomenon of negative transfer of structures of the first or native language will be apparent whenever two languages differ in comparable respects (cf. Odlin, 1989). The proponents of contrastive analysis were careful to undergird their claims in the predominant habit-based, stimulus-and-response-oriented behaviorist learning theory of the time. They also took the trouble to classify levels of difficulty where transfer was predicted to take place. For example, Englishspeaking learners of Spanish will have to learn that there are two verbs, ser and estar, corresponding to the English verb be, and to use them correctly each time. In contrast, Spanish-speaking learners of English need only learn a form of be for both Spanish verbs. The English learners, faced with a ‘split’ learning task, were argued have a more challenging task than the Spanish learners faced with a case of ‘coalescence’ of two forms into a single form. It took more than a decade after the first systematic predictions of contrastive analysis were made for actual empirical studies of transfer phenomena to be carried out, i.e., where large-scale learner production data was collected and examined. One such study was Whitman & Jackson (1972), two researchers working with a population of several thousand Japanese secondary-school students at various levels of

110

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

attainment in English. The most straightforward predictions of contrastive analysis were that Japanese learners, at least at the early stages of development, would be strongly inclined to reproduce Japanese word order in their English production – e.g., *I my friend the gymnasium in saw (for I saw my friend in the gymnasium). Those learners at the ages of 12-18 could be expected to have produced many thousands of Japanese sentences up to that point in their lives, with the head-last ‘habit’ well ingrained, and resistance to English SVO could be expected to be strong. In fact, however, the researchers found no replication of Japanese word order in their English learner production data. At most, learners experienced hesitation in producing English sentences. While transfer was indeed observed – the English “r” sound did sound remarkably like the Japanese “r” – the transfer was not at the level of basic constituent order. Data in Rutherford (1983) pointed to a similar conclusion. The situation is somewhat different where modifiers are concerned. Though French is an SVO language like English, French places time adverbs like souvent (‘often’) and toujours (‘always’) in a position just after the verb and before any complements:

We have said that English complements must appear adjacent to their heads, without modifiers intervening.2 French learners of English do, in fact, often replicate French word order as follows: (75a) *They like often to go to the beach. (76a) *He smokes always (the) Gauloises. A tentative conclusion might be drawn that where the most basic elements of message communication are concerned, learners are quite sensitive to the code of the new language and will follow it; where ‘add-ons’ such as adverbial modifiers are involved, learners’ attention is less focused (perhaps because they are subconsciously aware that the central message has been successfully transmitted). The conclusion seems generally upheld in second-language production research, but it requires much qualification. For example, speakers of SVO languages have been observed to have generalized the SVO order of German main clauses to subordinate clauses as well, where the actual German order is SOV (e.g., Meisel, Clahsen, & Pienemann, 1981). Where such cases of ‘overdifferentiation’ of base structure exist, the predictions of contrastive analysis seem to have a degree of validity. However, if a researcher hopes to document cases of rich first-language transfer, it seems there are more fruitful places to look than the most basic constituent order.

111

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Simple sentences with copula be. In our discussion of the structure of predicates, we said nothing about what some might imagine as the simplest, ‘archetypal’ sentence – a sentence such as Mary is a doctor or Don is dishonest. Such sentences contain a form of the verb be. It is important to take note of the fact that English has two different versions of be. One is the auxiliary that is associated with progressive predicates such as Jane’s family is watching the horse race now. In that sentence, the word is counts as an auxiliary verb. The other, traditionally called “main-verb be”, may stand on its own with no auxiliaries and is called a copula. (Both versions of be may appear sequentially in a sentence like Bob is being silly now.) Though a copula may appear as part of a more complex predicate, its key point of identification is the fact that the copula always comes last in the sequence of verbs and therefore counts as a main verb. When a copula is used, it appears with what is traditionally called either a predicate adjective (as in Don is dishonest) or a predicate nominal (as in Mary is a doctor). Using the X’ framework for VPs, draw trees for the sentences below. You will need to decide on the status of predicate adjectives and predicate nouns as either complements or modifiers. Consider what information you must take into account in making this decision.

2. Determiners. Grammar books point out that English permits multiple determiners in sequence. As many as three are possible, but notice that some sequences are not possible:

It is risky to try to account for the good and the bad cases in terms of meaning restrictions alone. After all, if we can say a single egg, why not *a one egg? Also, there are languages (such as Italian) where a sequence translated literally as the my book or a my book would be acceptable. An account based in lexical and/or syntactic frames seems the best way to explain the options and prohibitions. How should we proceed? Note the following observations: (a) Since each D appears to be a separate word, we want to keep each D in a separate node. (b) If possible, we would like to maintain the same phrase structure rules that we have developed without complicating them unnecessarily. (c) There are fairly strict ordering relations among the D types; not every order is possible.

112

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

Keeping (a-c) in mind, what would the dictionary entries for the various determiner types specify, apart from their meaning alone? How could trees be drawn for the good examples? How would the DP rule in (66) have to be revised in order to accommodate the new options? (You can answer these three questions in any order.) In drawing trees, it will be necessary to decide what branching relationships exist among the Ds, and between the Ds and the head N. 3. PP ‘types’. In traditional grammar books (such as the Warriner’s manual used for generations in the U.S.), two types of PPs are often distinguished: an ‘adjectival’ type and an ‘adverbial’ type. The first type can be defined in notional terms as answering the questions, “What kind” and “Which one”. The second type answers the questions “How”, “Where”, “When”, and Why?” The following sentences illustrate this claim:

(a) If it is true that some or all PPs are ‘really’ adjectival while others are ‘really’ adverbial, what would the tree structure for such PPs look like? How would that structure prove problematical for the syntactic framework we have presented in this chapter? (b) Whether or not we permit trees like those you described in (a), traditional grammarians do seem to agree on what “questions” are answered by these PPs. How, then, can we account for these intuitions within the X’ framework? That is, how might we explain, through tree relationships, why some PPs ‘feel’ adjectival or adverbial? 4. Preposition stranding. The ‘stranding’ of prepositions as in Which clerk did you speak with__? has long been regarded as prescriptively wrong, despite the fact that practically every native speaker does it. Stranding involves the fronting of the object of the preposition to the beginning of the sentence, leaving the P alone at the end. One of the features of complement PPs is the ability of their objects to detach in this way and produce an acceptable sentence. Modifying PPs are not able to undergo this change. With these facts in mind, test each of the following sentences by manipulating and expanding the sentence in such a way as to force the stranding of the P (e.g., The cookies that… or Which cookies…?). Which PPs are complements, and which are modifiers? My friends and I ate a whole box of cookies. We watched the deer eating our garden flowers on Sunday. I am appalled at our sales record. The decision on the plan was difficult to make. We paid for the sandwich with a ten-dollar bill.

113

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

The students hoped for better results. They met five linguistics students during the conference. The worst people often lust after power. Meet me around the corner! My sister firmly believes in ghosts. 5. Another property of syntax. Early in the chapter, we said that two key properties of a syntax are linearity and hierarchy. A third property that we did not mention is recursion. Recursion may be a property of a single rule, or of a rule system. In either case, it exists when at least one input term also occurs as an output term. Recursion was built into our original rule system for complements. To review those rules in (26’), we showed the following four trees:

Note, for example, that the output of the PP rule (d) includes an NP. When we expand that NP using rule (c), we see that one of its outputs is PP. That PP will in turn be expanded as P+NP, and the last NP permits branching into another N+PP sequence. In principle, this ‘looping’ could go on forever, but in the case of complements, it will soon run into a dead end, since complements are lexically specified by heads, and not every head specifies a complement: We were not fond of the objections to the decision on the boat….? Unfortunately, boat specifies no obvious complements, and we cannot go further. However, with our improved, final set of rules (62) that permit the inclusion of modifiers, the process of recursion becomes more promising since modifiers are adjuncts, and adjuncts may be multiplied as far as desired. Look at (62) and identify points where the system is recursive in the same way as above. Using the lexicon of English and applying modifier rules iteratively, give examples of three long phrases that the system will generate.

EXERCISES 1. Phrases. Draw tree representations for the following phrases: a. a foggy day b. sleepless in Seattle c. afraid of airplanes d. a mostly successful attempt e. having finished our work f. generally satisfied with her prospects

114

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

g. in the box under the table in the kitchen h. very sick of beans in my salad 2. Sentences. Draw tree representations for the following sentences: a. Their youngest sister has rebelled against her family. b. Fred wants a new bicycle for his birthday. c. People in glass houses should take good care of their windows. d. Joe is building his parents a rustic house in the woods. e. A question like that really is too difficult. f. We may have been asking him too many questions. 3. Ambiguity. Linguists often distinguish two types of ambiguity. With lexical ambiguity, a word may be assigned multiple meanings (such as right meaning ‘correct’ or ‘opposite of left’) where only the context of utterance may decide the intended meaning. With structural ambiguity, the problem is that more than one tree may be assigned to a whole sentence. Consider the following NP: the man on the house with the shingles There is potential lexical ambiguity in the word shingles, which may refer either to a disease or to a covering for the exterior surface of a house. However, even once we have decided that the second meaning is the correct one, there is additional ambiguity that can be reflected in two possible tree structures. Show, by drawing trees, the syntactic structures of the two interpretations. Which interpretation goes with which tree? 4. Prenominal adjectives. We have said that the second line of rule (60), the VP rule, is iterative; that is, we may have multiple V’ modifiers in a VP that require the repeated application of the second rule to yield V’ → V’ branching. When discussing NPs, we said nothing about whether the same applies to the second line of the NP rule in (52b). We know that the NPs below are possible, which suggests that the second line of the NP rule is also iterative. Draw trees for them in a way parallel to the VP tree for sentence (60): a. hot, spicy tamales with beans b. a long, happy life with many friendships 5. Ungrammaticality. All of the following sentences are taken from the oral or written production of ESL/EFL learners. Explain, in syntactic and/or lexical terms, the source of the problems. a. *I am see him tomorrow night. b. *He visit my best friend every summer. c. *She dislike about what they say. d. *My friend will given me the answers. e. *I don’t like too many violent in movies. f. *I want for you a happy life. 6. Complements and modifiers. We have said that complements sit closer to their heads than modifiers and that a modifier cannot intervene between a verb and its direct object. We can use the same test to distinguish complement PPs from modifying PPs. How could relevant modifiers be added within the sentences below to test for the syntactic status of the boldfaced PPs below, which are repeated from Discussion Question 3? Do your results (‘acceptable’ or ‘unacceptable’) match the same results you found in DQ #3? 115

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

a. My friends and I ate a whole box of cookies. b. We watched the deer eating our garden flowers on Sunday. c. I am appalled at our sales record. d. The decision on the plan was difficult to make. e. We paid for the sandwich with a ten-dollar bill. f. The students hoped for better results. g. They met five linguistics students during the conference. h. The worst people often lust after power. i. Meet me around the corner! j. My friend firmly believes in ghosts. 7. A syntactic puzzle. Note the PPs in the following sentence: A stray cat was running [along the top] [of the roof]. It could be argued that the PP along the top is a modifier, while of the roof is a complement. At first glance, this seems to violate the rules for the ordering of complements and modifiers. How, then, is this sentence possible? 8. A phrase-level puzzle. Traditional grammar occasionally has trouble categorizing certain English constituents. One problematical type is the time/place expressions in the following sentences: We are going downtown. Let’s go home. The package will arrive next week. We ordered pizza last night. The problem is that the boldfaced expressions seem to be NPs. After all, they behave like NPs in the sentences below: Downtown is three miles away. Home is where the heart is. Next week is too late. Last night was great! Moreover, the words next and last are determiners, which are traditionally said to modify nouns. Suggest a way (or ways) in which a syntactic theory could deal with this problem – if it is indeed a problem! If necessary, draw trees to illustrate your solution. 9. An expansion of TP. In the list of rules in (66), you will notice that we did not have a ‘middle’ rule that optionally expanded T’ to include modifiers. Does such an intermediate rule exist? Consider the sentences below for hints as to what kinds of sentence might be covered: (a) She currently has no mailing address. They inexplicably left town without leaving one. (b) We have no answer to your question, unfortunately. You have been looking in the wrong place, obviously.

116

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

How could the TP rule be modified to permit these sentences? Choose one sentence from (a) and one from (b) and draw your proposed tree. 10. Exercise 3 in Chapter 3 (Word Formation) asked you to determine whether the part of speech of a compound could be predicted in any way by looking at the free morphemes within a compound. After reviewing your answer, consider whether the discussion of headedness in this chapter can throw new light on that answer.

REFERENCES Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures. The Hague: Mouton. Chomsky, N. (1968). Language and mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Chomsky, N. (1970). Remarks on nominalization. In R. A. Jacobs & P. S. Rosenbaum (Eds.), English transformational grammar (pp. 184–221). Waltham, MA: Ginn. Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures on government and binding. Dordrecht: Foris. Chomsky, N. (1986). Knowledge of language. New York: Praeger. Comrie, B. (1985). Tense. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139165815 Comrie, B. (1986). Aspect. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Emonds, J. E. (1976). A transformational approach to English syntax: Root, structure-preserving, and local transformations. New York: Academic Press. Greenberg, J. H. (1966). Universals of language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Jackendoff, R. (1977). X̄ syntax: A study of phrase structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Lado, R. (1957). Linguistics across cultures. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Meisel, J., Clahsen, H., & Pienemann, M. (1981). On determining developmental stages in natural second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 3(2), 109–135. doi:10.1017/ S0272263100004137 Odlin, T. (1989). Language transfer: Cross-linguistic influence in language learning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139524537 Rutherford, W. (1983). Language typology and language transfer. In S. Gass & L. Selinker (Eds.), Language transfer in language learning (pp. 358–369). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Wardhaugh, R. (1970). The contrastive analysis hypothesis. TESOL Quarterly, 4(2), 123–130. doi:10.2307/3586182 Warriner, J. E. (1946). Warriner’s English grammar and composition. New York: Harcourt.

117

 Phrase and Sentence Structure

Whitman, R., & Jackson, K. L. (1972). The unpredictability of contrastive analysis. Language Learning, 22(1), 29–41. doi:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1972.tb00071.x

ADDITIONAL READING Carnie, A. (2013). Syntax: A generative introduction (3rd ed.). West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. Radford, A. (1988). Transformational grammar. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/ CBO9780511840425

ENDNOTES 1



2



Some readers might wonder about subjects in sentences such as It is too bad that we lost the game or There is a book on the table. Both sentences contain material in subject position that is generally regarded as ‘semantically empty’, i.e., meaningless. Though true, we maintain that this meaningless material still falls under the NP node in the trees for these sentences. That is, there is no claim that subjects will be meaningful 100% of the time (though of course they do carry meaning in most instances). See discussion of it and there subjects after example sentences (42-43). The same is claimed to be true for French, but for reasons too complex to explain here, French permits the (70-71) order.

This research was previously published in Applied Linguistics for Teachers of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners; pages 66-102, copyright year 2019 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

118

119

Chapter 3

The Rules of Phonology Charles X. Li Central Washington University, USA

ABSTRACT This chapter focuses on formulating North American English (NAE) phonological rules and discussing their pedagogical implications. It begins with a brief account of NAE phonology as a rule-governed system and then outlines feature-based phonology as a theoretical framework in which phonological rules operate. The chapter further defines an inventory of distinctive features for characterizing the NAE phonological system. After discussing rule components and matrix underspecification, the chapter presents phonological rules subsumed under seven categories: deletion, epenthesis, metathesis, reduction, assimilation, dissimilation, and morphophonology. Most rules are couched in three expressions—prose, semi-formal, formal—to meet different needs of readers. Pedagogical implications of phonological rules, discussed in the last section, are explicated in the framework of language transfer and universal grammar. The same section also emphasizes the importance of balancing linguistic analysis and classroom practice.

PHONOLOGY AS A RULE-GOVERNED SYSTEM Phonology is often said to be a rule-governed system. It describes, rather than prescribes, human speech patterns internalized in the brain of the speaker. As a system, phonology consists of segments, and segments in turn consist of smaller building blocks known as distinctive features (dfs) that categorize natural classes of segments. All dfs stand in relation to one another and alternate along with rapidly changing phonetic environments for oral communication. For example, the word hand /hænd/ becomes [hæ̃ːm] in hand me that if uttered in one breath in which /æ/ is nasalized and lengthened to [æ̃ː], /d/ is deleted, and /n/ is assimilated to [m] before me. Phonological rules seek to account for triggers and processes of sound alternations such as these. The feature property of speech sounds has long been recognized at least since the International Phonetic Association (IPA) was established in 1886 but the df theory did not appear until 1952 when Jakobson, Frant, and Halle published their book Preliminaries to Speech Analysis: The Distinctive Features and Their Correlates. Chomsky and Halle (1968) further developed this theory in The Sound Patterns of English. Since then, feature-based phonology has grown steadily and become part of mainstream DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch003

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 The Rules of Phonology

linguistics. It is now considered an essential part of education for graduate students of linguistics, and it plays an increasingly visible role in the undergraduate classroom of linguistics as well. However, this branch of linguistics, which frequently employs such unusual language and organizational principles that seem to defy non-linguists’ understandings and acceptance, has been regrettably brushed away from the English language teaching arena and marginalized in teacher training programs. In the newly published eight-volume The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching (Liontas, 2018), feature-based phonology does not even earn a single appearance. This chapter fills this gap by offering an accessible introduction to this challenging subfield of linguistics that will enable ESOL teachers, TESOL graduate students, and teacher candidates to grasp heretofore obscure theoretical concepts and understand precisely the ways in which our own phonological experience is determined by phonological principles. There is no reason for teachers not to benefit from achievements of theoretical linguistics. To that end, this chapter will focus on defining dfs, describing environment-driven phonological rules, and discussing their implications for teaching NAE as a second or foreign language. These goals assume prior knowledge of articulators in the vocal tract, physical descriptions of sounds, phonemes and allophones, morphemes and allomorphs, IPA symbols, as well as phonemic and phonetic transcriptions. Since these topics are all covered in Chapters 11 through 13, we will turn directly to key topics of feature-based phonology below.

A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF FEATURE-BASED PHONOLOGY Feature-based phonology posits two levels of sound representation as its theoretical framework. The most basic form, i.e., the phonemic form, of a lexical item, such as /hænd/ for hand, is called an underlying representation (UR). UR is viewed as what a native speaker knows about the abstract sound image of a word, and by extension, about the underlying sound system of his or her native language. What a word is actually and physically realized as, like [hæ̃ːm] for hand, is called its surface representation (SR). The process of converting UR to SR is called a derivation or a derivational process, and can be modeled below:

(1) Interestingly, native language speakers have to learn UR sound images of lexical items so as to learn new words, but few speakers learn the derived SR images, so their knowledge of derivational processes remain tacit. Feature-based phonology aims to account for the tacit knowledge that remains subconscious in the mind of native language speakers, and it does so by analyzing components of segments and how the components change from UR to SR so as to account for how and why segments change in context. If all this is understood, we will be in a better position to explain how and why the four rules in (1) occur, and for that matter, many other rules, too. Nevertheless, the first step in acquiring this branch of linguistics is understanding distinctive features.

120

 The Rules of Phonology

DISTINCTIVE FEATURES Distinctive features refer to physical properties of the vocal tract and constitute the atomic units of segments and phonological structure that can be analyzed in feature-based phonology. They are typically grouped to categories based on the natural classes of segments they describe: diffuse, manner, place, and laryngeal. By “diffuse” is meant that features under this category spread over a large number of segments also covered in other categories. Since the inception of feature-based phonology, features have been traditionally specified by binary values to indicate whether a segment is described by the feature. A positive value, written as [+], signifies the presence of a feature, while a negative value, written as [-], denotes its absence. In recent developments of feature phonology, however, phonologists have also proposed the existence of singlevalued features known as univalent or privative features or of zero-valued features known as “not to care” features. Since single-valued features can only capture the classes of segments that possess them but not the classes that are without them, we will not include them in this chapter, nor will we include zero-valued features. At least, keeping only binary features in mind eases out memory burdens of those new to phonology. Depending on purposes, coverage of dfs varies tremendously from book to book. With reference to multiple sources,1 this chapter selected 24 features. When assignments of featural values conflict, this chapter followed the majority rule along with the author’s own judgement. These selected features are defined one by one in four categories below.

a. Diffuse Features 1. [±consonantal] (abbreviated [±cons]): Sounds produced with a major obstruction in the oral cavity. All NAE consonants are [+cons] except for glottals /h, ʔ/, glides /j, w/,2 and vowels. The non-NAE voiceless velar fricative /x/ is also [+cons]. 2. [±sonorant] ([±son]): Singable sounds produced with smooth air flow through the vocal tract, including vowels, nasals, liquids, and glides. Obstruents and glottals are not singable and thus [-son]. 3. [±syllabic] ([±syl]): Sounds that constitute a syllabic nucleus, including vowels and syllabic consonants [l̩], [ɹ̩], [m̩], [ n̩ ], are [+syl], and sounds that do not are [-syl].

b. Manner Features 1. [±continuant] ([±cont]): Sounds produced with continued air movement through the oral cavity are [+cont], and sounds not produced in this manner are [-cont]. Thus, [+cont] sounds include vowels, fricatives (including /x/), liquids, glides, and the glottal fricative /h/, whereas [-cont] sounds include stops, affricates, nasals, and the glottal stop [ʔ]. 2. [±nasal] ([±nas]): Sounds produced with the opening of the velum to allow air to release through the nasal passage are [+nas]. In NAE, it includes nasals /m, n, ŋ/ and nasalized vowels. 3. [±delayed release] ([±d.r.]): Sounds produced with a slower tongue drop from the roof of the mouth than oral stops. This feature separates NAE affricates /ʧ, ʤ/ from oral stops /p, b, t, d, k, ɡ/. It also separates the NAE glottal /h/ from the non-NAE fricative /x/.

121

 The Rules of Phonology

4. [±tap]: All sounds are [-tap] except for the allophone [ɾ] derived from phonemes /t/ and /d/, as in writer and rider. 5. [±trill] ([±tri]): All sounds are [-tri] except for the [+tri] [r] in many non-NAE languages and interlanguages that changes the NAE retroflex liquid [ɹ] to the trilled liquid [r].

c. Laryngeal Features 1. [±voiced] ([±vd]): Sounds produced with vibration of the vocal folds are [+vd]; sounds articulated without the vibration are [-vd]. In NAE, [+vd] specifies vowels, voiced consonants, and glides; [-vd] specifies voiceless obstruents and glottals /h/ and [ʔ]. 2. [±constrained glottis] ([±c.g.]): Sounds articulated with constricted vocal folds. In NAE, it specifies the voiceless allophonic glottal stop [ʔ] only. 3. [±spread glottis] ([±s.g.]): Sounds articulated with aspiration from open or spread vocal folds that follows the closure of a voiceless oral stop excluding the glottal stop [ʔ]. In NAE, this feature specifies the glottal fricative /h/ and the aspirated allophonic stops [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ].

d. Place Features 1. [±lateral] ([±lat]): /l/ and its varieties are [+lat], and all other segments are [-lat]. 2. [±labial] ([±lab]): Sounds produced with active movement of one lip or both lips. [+lab] invokes NAE bilabials /p, b, m/ and labiodentals /f, v/, and [-lab] invokes other NAE consonants. 3. [±round] ([±rd]): Sounds produced with the lips protruding. The [+rd] sounds are simultaneously [+lab], but the opposite is not true. In NAE, [+rd] specifies the labiovelar glide /w/ and back vowels /u, ʊ, o, ɔ/ but not the non-contrastive low central /a/ and low back [ɑ], though /a, ɑ/ can be contrastive in other languages. 4. [±coronal] ([±cor]): Sounds requiring active raising of the tongue tip or blade. In NAE, it specifies interdentals /θ, ð/, alveolars /t, d, s, z, n, l, ɹ/, alveopalatals /ʃ, ʒ, ʧ, ʤ/, the allophonic flap [ɾ], as well as the trill [r] in many other languages. All other NAE consonants are 5. [±anterior] ([±ant]): Sounds articulated in front of the alveopalatal area are [+ant]. In NAE, [+ant] includes interdentals /θ, ð/, alveolars /t, d, s, z, n, l/, and the flap [ɾ]; the interlanguage sound [r] is also [+ant]. All sounds articulated at or behind the alveopalatal area are [-ant]. In NAE, [-ant] specifies stops /p, b, k, ɡ/, fricatives /f, v, ʃ, ʒ, x/, affricates /ʧ, ʤ/, nasals /m, ŋ/, the retroflex /ɹ/, glides /j, w/, and glottals /h, ʔ/. 6. [±distributed] ([±dis]): Sounds produced with the tongue blade being activated to yield more contact (i.e., distribution) between tongue and roof of mouth are [+dis]; sounds produced with the tongue tip being activated to yield less contact or less distribution between tongue and roof of mouth are [-dis]. Thus, in NAE, /θ, ð, ʃ, ʒ, ʧ, ʤ/ and dentalized allophones [t̪, d̪, n̪] are [+dis] while all other segments are [-dis]. 7. [±strident] ([±str]): Sounds articulated with noisy, high-amplitude, hi-pitched friction is [+str]. In NAE, [+str] specifies alveolars /s, z/ and alveopalatals [ʃ, ʒ, ʧ, ʤ/. Other NAE sounds are [+stri]. 8. [±dorsal] ([±dor]): All sounds requiring raising activation of the tongue body. In NAE, [+dor] specifies velars /k, ɡ, ŋ/, glides /j, w/, as well as vowels. This feature also specifies the non-NAE fricative /x/. All other sounds are [-dor].

122

 The Rules of Phonology

9. [±high] ([±hi]): Sounds articulated with a raised tongue body in the oral cavity is [+hi]. In NAE, this feature invokes velars /k, ɡ, ŋ/, glides /j, w/, high front and high back vowels /i, ɪ, u, ʊ/, as well as the non-NAE /x/. 10. [±back] ([±bk]): Sounds produced with activation of the tongue body behind the palatal area in the oral cavity is [+bk]. In NAE, [+bk] specifies velars /k, ɡ, ŋ/, the glide /w/, and back vowels /ə, ʌ, u, ʊ, o, ɔ, ɑ/.3 It also specifies the fricative /x/. All other NAE sounds, including the glide /j/, are [-bk]. The next three features are pertinent to NAE vowels only: 1. [±low] ([±lo]): A sound produced with the tongue body lowed from a neutral position in the oral cavity. NAE has no soft uvulars, so this feature is intended to capture the low front /æ/ and low back /ɑ/.4 2. [±tense] ([±tns]): Vowel sounds articulated with muscles in the oral cavity being stretched tight or rigid. In NAE, [+tns] captures vowels /i, e, u, o/. The back vowel /ɑ/ shows both [+tns] and [-tns] values and is thus assigned the [±tns] value.5 3. [±reduced] ([±rdu]): This feature specifies the schwa /ə/ only; thus, all other vowels are [-rdu]. This feature plays a unique role in producing rhythm, yet it is frequently realized as [-rdu] in interlanguage phonology. Tables 1 and 2 below summarize all the 24 dfs defined above. Table 1 includes the allophone [ɾ] because it is a hallmark of NAE pronunciation, the allophone /ʔ/ because it frequently appears in native English pronunciation, and two non-NAE phonemes /r/ and /x/ because they often make their way as mispronunciations in learner speech and deserve special attention. Nasals /m, n/ and liquids /l, ɹ/ can serve as syllabic nuclei in unstressed syllables, notated [m̩, n̩] and [ɫ̩, ɹ̩] respectively, so they are assigned [±] values. In addition, /m, n, ŋ] are assigned a [-cont] feature because of total air blockage in the oral cavity even though they are [+son]. Table 2 summarizes 13 features pertinent to NAE vowels. By default, all vowels share features [-cons, +son, +syl, +cont, +vd, +dor], so vowels are differentiated by [lab, rd, hi, lo, bk, tns, rdu] features. Features unrelated with vowels are excluded from this table. With this inventory of dfs and their value assignments as summarized in both tables, we are now ready to explicate the inner workings of sound alternations from UR to SR expressed in phonological rules that we will precisely formalize below.

THE RULES OF PHONOLOGY This section consists of three parts: (1) components of phonological rules, (2) simplification of redundant features, and (3) classified NAE phonological rules. The first two parts are mainly for readers new to rule formation and feature specification.

123

 The Rules of Phonology

Table 1. Feature chart for NAE consonants (including two NAE allophones and two non-NAE sounds)

Table 2. Feature chart for NAE vowels

124

 The Rules of Phonology

Components of Phonological Rules There are three components in a phonological rule: the input (UR), the output (SR), and the environment in which the input is realized as the output, as formalized below: (2) α -> β / γ____δ This abstraction has seven signs: α, for the input (a target phoneme or a target natural class of sounds prior to changes); β, for the output derived from α; the arrow, meaning “becomes,” so α -> β is read “α becomes β.” The slash, the fourth sign, means “in the environment of . . .” and is followed with a specified environment. The fifth sign, the underscore, known as the environment bar, indicates where α resides. In (2), α occurs between γ and δ (the sixth and seventh signs), forming a sound string γαδ. Essentially, the rule states that “α becomes β when it occurs in γαδ.” This formalized rule template stands for generalizations that are categorical. An optional generalization is conventionally enclosed in parenthesis, as below, where (β) in parentheses indicates an output that can be realized as an option: (3) α -> (β) / γ____δ Language offers diverse environments, so γ____δ is adapted for environmental or positional changes with the following signs:

(4) The null sign ∅ in the last rule template expresses a deleted element, so the rule reads: “Sound α (e.g., /k/) is deleted at the end of a morpheme (e.g., /æs_/) when it precedes another morpheme (e.g., /-t/ derived from –ed) in the same word,” resulting in [æst] instead of [æskt]. Other signs (#, σ, $, @, {, }, +) used in the template indicate the boundaries of and various positions in syllables, words, and utterances.

125

 The Rules of Phonology

Stress often plays a role. For example, a change can occur between a stressed and an unstressed syllable. In this case, [+stress] or its shorthand form V́ and [-stress] or its shorthand form V are used. Thus, (5a) and (5b) designate the same environment. (5) a. α -> β / [+stress]_____[-stress] b. α -> β / V́_____V What if two adjacent or distant phonemes are permuted? Numbers can be used under the input and then are permuted in the output: (6) α β γ ## -> 2 1 3 (adapted from Wolfram & Johnson, 1982, p.131) 1 2 3 Having familiarized us with these signs and templates, we now turn to two new concepts below in rule formalization to simplify rule writing.

Simplification of Redundant Features In earlier chapters, we have learned that some sounds are predictable while others are not. Unpredictable ones are underlyingly phonemic and thus meaning-related, while predictable ones do not affect meaning and are phonetic or allophonic. For example, the vowel /æ/ in the context S_m is unpredictable because other vowels can also appear in the same position to make a contrastively different word, as /i/ and [ĩ] in seam is predictable because each vowel in seam; however, the [+nasal] feature of [æ]̃ in [sæm] ̃ precedes the nasal [m]. As mentioned earlier, speakers learn unpredictable phonemes when they learn new words; dictionaries spell out unpredictable phonemes when they list words, such as Sam /sæm/ and seam /sim/. These examples show that the feature [nas] is redundant for NAE vowels but non-redundant for NAE nasal consonants because not just /m/, but also /n/ and /ŋ/ can nasalize a preceding vowel. To write a phonological rule, we would not just want to specify a single nasal, for the whole natural class of nasals has the function to nasalize any preceding vowel but not any particular vowel. It is in this sense that we claim that phonological rules make reference to natural classes. Invoking features to get natural classes of sounds in place, redundant (predictable) features are excluded from feature matrixes (i.e., a bundle of features) of the input and output. Technically, exclusion of redundant features is known as underspecification, which is the most economical way to call into use relevant segments that undergo changes. Underspecification is usually a learning bottleneck in feature-based phonology, so we will explain it further here. Nasal consonants are by default [+son], so [+son] is redundant if [+nas] is specified; the combination of [+dor, -cons] eliminates all consonants and invokes vowels, so all other features become redundant and can be left out. The examples in (7a) and (7b) show more clearly the differences between the redundant feature matrixes and underspecified distinctive feature matrixes for the three phonemes in the word seam: (7) a. Redundant feature matrixes for /s/, /i/, /m/:

126

 The Rules of Phonology

b. Underspecified distinctive feature matrixes (URs) for /s/, /i/, /m/:

The feature theory assumes that words have unique URs of non-redundant dfs stored in a speaker’s mental dictionary, so URs should keep as few features as possible and leave out redundant and predictable features. In general, to specify a single phoneme, a longer bundle of dfs is needed, but to specify a natural class of sounds, a shorter bundle of dfs usually does the work, as shown in (8):

(8)

127

 The Rules of Phonology

Though underspecification simplifies the selection of distinctive features, placing the specified segments either above or below corresponding feature matrixes is usually a good practice for easier segment-matrix mappings, as also shown in (7) and (8) above. If finding features just needed for specifying a natural class is still a challenge, readers are advised to follow this three-step elimination method adapted from Hayes (2009, pp. 92-93): (9) The Three-step Elimination Method a. Be clear about a target segment or a target natural class of sounds to specify; b. Start with the complete set of segments in a language; c. Use just enough features to eliminate all the segments not wanted and leave the target segment or target natural class in place. For instance, if we are seeking to describe the natural class of voiceless consonants /p, t, k, f, θ/ that collectively takes the phonetic value [s] derived from the plural morpheme -s, which is also the possessive case ending and the third person singular present tense marker, we can use [+cons] to eliminate glides /j, w/, glottals /h, ʔ/, and all vowels, [-vd] to take away all voiced consonants, and then [-stri] to get rid of all the sibilants. At this point, only our target class remains, i.e., /p, t, k, f, θ, x/. We should disregard the non-NAE phoneme /x/ since we are specifying the natural class of sounds that takes the plural morpheme –s instead of comparing the class with a sound from another language. We will formalize this derivational process when we discuss morphophonemic rules of assimilation that apply only to particular morphemes. The points we are making here have been that, first, we take an elimination method to invoke a target class of sounds and, second, IPA classes of sounds will not serve our purpose because /p, t, k, f, θ/ cross two IPA categories, [+stop] and [+fricative], which are mutually exclusive. Below, we look at general phonological rules that sweepingly apply to various UR-SR derivational processes as categories.

Phonological Rules In this chapter, we express phonological rules in three formats: prose, semi-formal, and formal so that they complement each other in helping readers gain insights to phonological alternations. In general, prose rules use words for description but do not appeal to dfs, while formal rules make entire use of dfs but do not use words and segments, with semi-formal rules using a compromised mixture of segments and features as long as the mixture contributes insight. In most cases, this section provides all three expressions for individual rules, from prose to semi-formal to formal in that order, to meet varying needs of readers. In general, the more formal a rule is, the more precise it becomes in capturing phonological generalizations. Conversely, the less formal a rule is, the more accessible it is to human perusing, though less precise it is. So the whole matter is a trade-off. Language offers an optimal phonological system with multiple resources which delete, add, reduce, metathesize, assimilate, and dissimilate segments and dfs for effective oral communication. We will begin with deletion rules below, followed by rules of addition, reduction, metathesis, assimilation, and dissimilation. Roughly, this order reflects phonological rules that operate more at the level of segments toward more at the level of dfs.

128

 The Rules of Phonology

Deletion Rules Deletion is particularly common when it results in the simplification of a consonant cluster in both tautosyllables (phonemes occurring in one syllable) and heterosyllables (phonemes not occurring in the same syllable): asked [æskt] can become [æst], exactly [ɪɡzǽktli] [ɪɡzǽkli], and many more. Since English syllable structure allows both onsets and codas, chances of coda-onset bumping multiply, creating multiple consonant sequences, with the longest being –C1C2C3C4##C1C2C3-, such as [-ksts skj-] as in These texts skew the facts, in which the first [-s-] in the left C2 position is frequently deleted. Deletion is more common in unstressed than in stressed syllables. Further, unstressed vowels or syllables are often deleted when they occur word-initially known as aphesis, as in ’bout for about and ’fend for defend, or in the middle of a word known as syncope, as in cam’ra for camera. Apocope is the loss of sounds at the end of a word, as in chile care for child care. Below we look at several common rules that delete segments. All rules are derived inductively, i.e., examples first, and rules second. (10) The Medial Schwa Deletion Rule Examine the sample words uttered in careful and casual speech respectively:

These words show that when a stressed syllable is followed with two successive schwas in two unstressed syllables, the first schwa can be deleted but retained if it is followed with a secondary stress, (as compared to *[ɔpɹ̥ eɪt], the asterisk marks an illicit linguistic form). as in the verb operate [ɔpəɹeɪt] ́ ́ This rule can be captured in three different expressions:

Since [rdu] is pertinent to vowels only, it alone makes inclusion of other dfs redundant. Note that utterance tempo acts as a catalyst for deletion to happen. The faster the tempo is, the more likely a deletion happens. (11) The /ɡ/-Deletion Rule When affixations are added, silent letters may sound as the “silent g–articulated /ɡ/” alternation in the following words shows, causing spelling nightmares (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2017):

129

 The Rules of Phonology

This phonological alternation can be generalized as the /ɡ/-deletion rule:

Note that this rule deletes the whole segment /ɡ/. It is obvious that the prose and semi-formal rules work better, making it unnecessary to write an inhumanly formal rule that does not contribute insight. For similar cases below, we will content ourselves to write just a prose or semi-formal rule. (12) The /h/-Deletion Rule The pronominal syllable-initial /h/ is frequently deleted, especially in casual speech. Examine the examples below. a. /h/ not pronounced in French loans (though not pronouns) (h)our, (h)erb, (h)onest, (h)onor b. /h/ retained when stressed and sentence-initial: He likes her. c. /h/ frequently deleted elsewhere: Did (h)e come? [dɪdi kʌ̃́m] It’s (h)er car. [ɪtsɚ kaɹ] What (h)ad (h)is Dad say? [wətədiz dæd seɪ] The /h/-deletion in French loanwords in (a) is unpredictable and thus must be learned from scratch, but the /h/-deletions in (b) and (c) are rule-governed and thus predictable, as generalized below:

(13) The Postnasal /t/ Deletion Rule Deletion takes many forms, and the optional deletion of the phoneme /t/ is another example:

130

 The Rules of Phonology

Analyses of (a) indicate that /t/ can be deleted under two co-occuring constraints: when a syllable boundary exists between the coda /n/ of a preceding syllable that is stressed and the onset /t/ of a following syllable that is stressless. The word want.ed is an interesting example because it invokes a resyllabification rule thereby the last consonant in a word-medial or word-final consonant cluster (not just a single word-final consonant), when followed by a word or syllable commencing with a vowel, is pronounced as if it were the onset of the following syllable. As a result, want.ed is uttered as if it were wan.ted, which satisfies the two co-existing constraints and activates the postnasal /t/ deletion, resulting in [wɑ́n.əd]. The phrase want to fails to meet the syllable boundary condition. How come that the Postnasal /t/ Deletion Rule is also activated? It turns out that a different rule – the Word-boundary Alveolar Stop Deletion Rule – has to apply first before the Postnasal /t/ Deletion Rule can take effect. This first rule deletes “word-final /t/ or /d/ in cluster of two at a word boundary” prior to a consonant other than /ɹ, y, w, h/, producing west side, blind man (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010, p.172), and want to. Now, wan.to meets the two co-occurring conditions and thus activates the Postnasal /t/ Deletion Rule, and ultimately creates [wɔ́n.ə]. Note that the phonological alternations [wɑ́n.təd]: [wɑ́n.əd] and [wɔ́nt.tə]: [wɔ́n.ə] are examples of ordered rule applications, i.e., the activation of the second rule rests on the activation of the first rule, a topic we will return to later in this chapter. Now, we focus on the examples in (13b), in which the operation of the Postnasal /t/ Deletion Rule generates ungrammatical pronunciations. What blocks this rule from activation? In the first two words front and antler, the word-final -nt cluster forms a syllabic coda, not meeting the syllable-boundary condition, so /t/ cannot be deleted. The -n.t- sequence in the French loan man.teau does cross the syllable boundary, but the second syllable is assigned a secondary stress, so we might say that it is an unstressed syllable that is required for the rule to be active. In the last two examples, men.tal.i.ty and pres.en.ta.tion, though the cross-syllable boundary condition is met, the syllable with the onset /t/ is assigned stress, and that prevents the rule from functioning. Now, we are able to generalize this Postnasal /t/ Deletion Rule below:

131

 The Rules of Phonology

(14) The Adaptive Deletion Rules Phonological adaptation of loan words often results in various types of deletion as constrained by English syllable structure. Phonotactically, English syllable structure does not permit the onset cluster /hj-/ unless followed by /u/ as in humor; thus /j/ is deleted from the Korean automobile name Hyundai [hjʌ́ndæ], giving [hʌ́ndeɪ], where the Korean [-tns] /æ/ is replaced with the English [+tns] [e] because English syllables do not end in [-tns] vowels and the [+tns] [e] is the closest available segment to /æ/, both of which share the [-bk] feature. Though /i/ also shares the [-bk] feature, it is a [+hi] tense vowel, further up from the [+lo] /æ/ in Korean, thus not the best candidate for substitution. This example demonstrates that dfs can account for not only what and how a phonological change happens but also why it happens. Deletion is omnipresent and heterogeneous, and it cannot be exhausted here. Fortunately, its rule formation is straightforward because it involves deletion of whole segments, so in most cases the prose and semi-formal rules work better than formal rules. Below, we turn to epenthesis.

Epenthesis Rules Epenthesis, also known as addition or insertion, is a phonological process that adds a whole segment or a df not reflected in spelling. This can happen in multiple situations. When a loanword contains a syllable structure impermissible in English, such as /pf-/ in Pfenning, English speakers not knowing German tend to insert [ə] to break up the initial consonant cluster or simply delete the initial /p/, creating an example of either an adaptive epenthesis or an adaptive deletion. Conversely, Korean speakers of English often break up an English monosyllable like scream to a four-syllable secereame [səkəɹímə]. When loan words are not involved, consonant segments can also be inserted to facilitate the pronunciation of existing clusters in regional dialects. For instance, /t/ is inserted as a transition between /n/ and /s/, forming a [-nts] sequence, as in fence [fɛnts] and prince [pɹɪnts], and /p/ can be added between /m/ and /f/, as in com(p)fort. We hear the same process at work when some English speakers add /ɹ/ between /ɑ/ and /ʃ/ in Wa(r)shington. Below, we look at more words with /p/-epenthesis. (15) The /p/-Epenthesis Rule Examine the following words, in which /p/ can be optionally inserted in casual speech, creating alternations:

132

 The Rules of Phonology

These words show that the [p]-insertion is not sensitive to stress location, syllable count, and compounding, although disyllables with initial stress seem to have more triggering power for the epenthesis. This insensitivity makes the rule writing easier:

The matrix-segment matching reveals that this formal rule captures the shared [+lab] feature in /mp-f/ that triggers the epenthesis, but this insight is not discernable in the prose and semi-formal rules. Some dialects do not allow a coda of /l/ to precede a following stop consonant, so [ə] is inserted to break up the cluster, as in film [fɪ́ləm], silk [sɪ́lək], built [bɪ́lət], and killed [kɪ́ləd]. The last example is reminiscent of a historical pronunciation of schwa in the past tense marker –ed, as in Chaucer’s familiar examples of perced [pɛ̄ɹsəd], bathed [bǽðəd], and engendred [ɛnʤɛ́ndɹəd] at the beginning lines in The Canterbury Tales (Chaucer & Benson, 1987). Below, we formalize this dialectal Schwa-Insertion Rule. (16) The Dialectal Schwa Epenthesis Rule:

All the examples above illustrate that epenthesis occurs at the level of segments. However, epenthesis can also occur at the level of dfs. The feature [+s.g.] addition rule is such an example, shown in (17) below. (17) The Feature [+s.g.] Addition Rule Examine the following sample words:

133

 The Rules of Phonology

Oral voiceless stops /p, t, k/ in the left column all aspirate as [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ] when occurring at the beginning of a stressed syllable; those in the right column do not when occurring elsewhere, namely, in a coda, after the initial /s/, or at the beginning of an unstressed syllable. This generalization can be made as follows:

The formal rule explicitly shows that what is added to /p, t, k/ is the [+s.g.] feature. Epenthesis, whether at the level of segment or feature, has significant implications in interphonology, which we discuss in Section V. Below, we turn to metathesis rules.

Metathesis Rules This phonological process refers to the reordering of sound segments in a word, phrase, or sentence. Thus, jewelry becomes jewlery, where the [əl] sequence is interchanged to [lə], and asked becomes aksed, where [s] and [k] are switched. Chaucer freely used both bird and brid in his Middle English poems for the Modern English word bird, where [ɪ] and [ɹ] changed places (Chaucer & Benson, 1987). The author of this chapter sometimes subconsciously switches relevant to revelant, where [l] and [v] are reordered. Metathesis is especially common with /ɹ/ and a schwa, forming alternations such as perform~preform, precipitation~percipitation, prepare~perpare, where -er- becomes –re- and vice versa. Spoonerisms are special cases of metathesis,6 resulting in sound exchanges between words in a phrase or sentence, so the verb phrase missed my history lecture becomes hissed my mystery lecture, and the sentence The Lord is a loving shepherd is metathesized as The Lord is a shoving leopard (For more examples, see Wolfram & Johnson, 1982). A metathesis rule can be formulated in a way shown in the Lord example, where /l/ alternates with /ʃ/ as below: (18) The /l ~ ʃ/ Metathesis

Of the three versions of the rule, the semi-formal expression is at a glance the clearest.

134

 The Rules of Phonology

Reduction Rules Reduction tones down phonemic contrasts, so that sounds that are normally distinct are sometimes identical in certain environments. For example, most vowels are reduced to /ə/ or /ɪ/ in unstressed syllables, so CONduct [kɔ́ndəkt] becomes conDUCT [kəndʌ́kt]. Nearly every polysyllable without stress doublets contains one or more reduced vowels, as in America [əmɛ́ɹɪkə] and revolution [ɹɛvəlúʃən]. Vowel reduction, also known as leveling, can be generalized in the following expressions: (19) The Vowel Reduction Rule

Not only can vowel contrasts be reduced, but contrasts between consonants can also be reduced. For example, /t/ and /d/, when each directly abuts a preceding stressed vowel and a following unstressed vowels in two syllables, are often neutralized to a flap [ɾ] by many NAE speakers, as in metal [mɛ́ɾɫ̩] and meddle [mɛ́.ɾɫ̩], the two of which can only be differentiated by vowel length, that is, the stressed vowel [ɛ] is shorter in metal but longer in meddle. We will revisit this consonant reduction or alternation when we discuss assimilation rules below.

Assimilation Rules Assimilation is a highly productive phonological process in NAE that transfers dfs of a segment to its neighboring segment so that the two of them sound more alike, thereby smoothening pronunciation. Unlike most phonological processes discussed above that operate largely on the level of segments, almost all assimilations operate on the df level. Assimilation falls into different yet overlapping categories. In terms of direction, there are regressive (or anticipatory) and progressive (or perseverative) assimilations; in terms of degree, there are partial and total assimilations. Regressive assimilation refers to the influence that a segment has on its preceding segment (e.g., pancake [pæŋkeɪk, *pænkeɪk], where the [+dor] feature in /k/ is assimilated to the [+cor] feature in the preceding /n/ and changes /n/ to [ŋ], so that both [ŋ] and [k] becomes identical in [+dor]). Progressive assimilation refers to the influence that a segment has on its following segment (e.g., price [pʰɹ̥aɪs]), where the [-vd] feature in /p/ devoices its following voiced retroflex [ɹ] and alters it to [ɹ̥], rendering [p] and [ɹ] more alike in [-vd]. Both pancake and price are also examples of partial assimilation because [ŋ: k] and [p: ɹ̥] are still distinct by other features. An example of total assimilation is the alveolar /n/ in ten and /t/ in let that become [m] when prior to words beginning with the bilabial /m/, as in ten months [tɛ́m m-] and let me do it [lɛm m-]. These two total assimilations are also regressive assimilations. Total assimilation changes a different segment to a phonetically similar segment, making rule formation plain sailing:

135

 The Rules of Phonology

(20) The /n/-Assimilation Rule

Only the formal rule makes it explicit that it is the [+lab] feature in /m/ that assimilates [+cor] in /n/ to [+lab]. In addition to regressive, progressive, partial, and complete assimilations, assimilation can also be classified by place, manner, and voicing (i.e., laryngeal). We will discuss place assimilation first. Place assimilation occurs when a phoneme assimilates the place features of adjacent consonants in certain environments. The /-n/ or /-t/ assimilations are classical examples. The alveolar /n/ can be dentalized as [n̪] when prior to the labiodental fricative [θ], as in tenth [tɛn̪θ] and month [mʌn̪θ]. A [-rd] consonant such as /k, ɡ, s, z, l, ʃ/ acquires [+rd] when prior to the [+rd] glide /w/ or a [+rd] high back vowel /u, ʊ/, as in quick [k̹wɪk], goose [ɡus], and zoo [z̹u] (the crescent sign under the consonants stands for the [+rd] feature). Examples are extensive. Below, we formalize the consonant rounding generalization. (21) The Consonant Rounding Rule

Below, we turn to manner assimilation, which refers to the process in which a sound takes on the same articulation manner as its nearby sound. Vowel nasalization is a good example. (22) The Vowel Nasalization Rule In each of the words below, a vowel goes before a nasal sound: beam [bĩ:m] ten [tɛ̃:n] gunman [ɡʌ̃́nmɛ̃̀n] or [ɡʌ̃:nmən] dam [dæ̃:m] song [sɔ̃:ŋ] freedom [fɹídəm] or [fɹí:dm̩] These words show that the vowels pick up the [+nas] feature from the following nasal sounds so that both the vowels and nasals sound alike with reference to nasality, but they also show that vowel nasalization occurs in stressed syllables, including secondary stress (e.g., [-mɛ̃̀n]). In an unstressed syllable, nasalization is so minimal that it is often ignored. We state this observation below:

136

 The Rules of Phonology

(23) The /t/ Tapping Rule In casual NAE speech, the [-vd] alveolar /t/ often becomes a [+vd] alveolar flap [ɾ] made by rapidly touching the tongue tip against the alveolar ridge and then instantly releasing it. Exam the examples below: atom [ǽɾəm] atomic *[əɾɔ́mɪk] data [dǽɾə] guilty *[ɡɪ́lɾy] I bought it [aɪ bɔ́ɾɪt] John lost them [ʤɔn *lɔ́sɾəm] The examples in the left column show that /t/ becomes [ɾ] when it occurs between two syllabic vowels of which the first is stressed while the second is not. However, the rule is blocked in the examples in the right column, where /t/ occurs either at the beginning of a stressed syllable or after a different consonant. This generalization can be captured below:

Once more, only the formal rule has the capacity of revealing exactly what features are changed. (24) The /t, d/ Neutralization Rule The /t/-tapping rule in (23), however, fails to capture a higher-level generalization because the voiced alveolar /d/ can also be flapped. Consequently, word pairs, writer [ɹáɪɾɚ] vs. rider [ɹáɪɾɚ], latter [lǽɾɚ] vs. ladder [lǽɾɚ], sound the same. In other words, /t/ and /d/ are neutralized to [ɾ]. We can capture this generalization as such:

137

 The Rules of Phonology

Note that the [vd] feature is no longer relevant here. The phoneme /t/ is phonetically volatile. In addition to deletion and flapping as discussed above, it can also become aspirated as [tʰ], unreleased as [t̚], nasalized as [m], glottalized as [ʔ], velarized as [tˠ], fricated as [ʃ], and affricated as [ʧ], subject to positional restrictions, as shown below:

The examples in (a) show feature-adding alternations that we mentioned earlier, those in (b) show place assimilations, and those in (c) are manner assimilations. (25) The Onset Liquids-Glides Devoicing Rule NAE has a devoicing assimilation occurring in the onset of a stressed syllable, where liquids /l, ɹ/ and glides /j, w/ have [-vd] allophones after a [-vd] stop, as illustrated below:

Though the tl- onset is phototactically unwelcome in English, Tlingit, as a loanword from Hindi, has nevertheless made its way to English and obeys this devoicing rule, so does the Spanish borrowing Pueblo. The last word, surplus, shows that devoicing is suspended in the onset of an unstressed syllable. We could write separate rules for individual devoicing cases, but that would again fly in the face of the very tenet that phonological rules make reference to natural classes. By specifying the natural class with dfs, we can easily capture this generalization:

138

 The Rules of Phonology

(26) The Coda Fricative Devoicing Rule NAE has four voiced fricatives /v, ð, z, ʒ/, as shown in the following words:

In careful speech, the [+vd] feature of the fricative in each word is retained, and in casual speech [+vd] is devoiced to [-vd]. Writing four separate rules would miss the point that the four voiced fricatives belong to one natural class and undergo the same devoicing process:

Only the formal rule explicitly and precisely reveals the fact that it is the [vd] feature that is changed whereas the [-son, +cont] features are still retained. (27) The Vowel Length Rule English vowels each have three values: schwa in unstressed syllables (see Rule 19), plus two full values in stressed syllables, either [+tns] or [-tns], as shown below:

139

 The Rules of Phonology

The [-tns] vowels follow a simple rule throughout the history of English, that is, when they appear in a closed syllable that is stressed. Elsewhere in stressed syllables, vowels acquire the [+tns] feature. This rule is made easy if we focus on the [-tns] feature:

The [+tns] value, often considered the outcome of the vowel lengthening rule, is also called “alphabet value,” and the [-tns] value “relative value” (Gilbert, 2018, pp.1706-1708).9 In many cases, vowels with alphabet values are written in two vowel letters with the first vowels standing for alphabet values and the second being silent, a Middle English orthographic tradition created by scribes. In general, [-tns] vowels are short and [+tns] vowels are long. Celce-Murcia, et al. (2010, p.126) further classify vowel length into three grades: Vowels are longest in an open syllable or before a sonorant consonant, next longest before a voiced obstruent, and shortest before a voiceless consonant:

The [±tns] values are phonemic, but length variations of either [+tns] or [-tns] are allophonic. This vowel length rule, like aspiration, simply adds a new feature and modifies the manner of articulation of the affected vowels. Next, we look at out last phonological rule, in which alveolars /s, z, t, d/ are palatalized. (28) The Palatalization Rule Analyze the following two groups of words:

These examples differ. First, examples in (a) are across word boundaries, but those in (b) occur word internally; second, items in (a) show that alveolars /s, z, t, d/ and alveolar clusters /ts, dz/ become palatals [ʃ, ʒ, ʧ, ʤ] respectively when followed by an initial palatal glide /j/, while words in (b) shows an “invisible /j/” in spelling (Dickerson, 1985, as cited in Celce-Murcia et al., 2010, p. 434). Palatalization

140

 The Rules of Phonology

is considered coalescent or reciprocal assimilation whereby two words uttered in sequence without any pause produce a palatal consonant across the word boundary or word-internally. Below, we capture the generalization shown in (a), excluding /ts, dz/ palatalization because they are morphophonemic rules to be discussed further in the chapter:

The formal expression provides the most explicit information of the three: It is the [+dor] feature of /j/ that causes the features [+ant, -dis] of the input to become [-ant, +dis] of the output because [+dor] requires the tongue body to raise, and this raising activation adds more contact between tongue and roof of mouth. The more such contact there is, the more [+dis] a natural class. The formal expression also shows its charm that all the four rules are collapsed into one to show the precise inner workings of this coalescent assimilation that the prose and semi-formal expressions fail to capture. Below, we move to dissimilation rules.

Dissimilation Rules Dissimilation, as the opposite of assimilation, renders nearby sounds less alike in terms of dfs, and it is much less common. Adjacent sounds that resemble each other too closely sometimes dissimilate. For example, diphthong [dɪ́fθɔŋ] is usually pronounced [dɪ́pθɔŋ]. Because the [-fθ-] sequence shares the df [+cont] on top of a whole set of redundant features and thus sounds too closely, the [+cont] feature of [f] is dissimilated to the [-cont] feature of [p]. Then why is [p] selected but not a different consonant? That is because the URs of both /f/ and /p/ share the dfs of [+lab] that is not shared by [θ], which is distinguished by the [-stri] feature. This implicit explanation can in fact be precisely represented in the formal rule below: (29) The /f/ to /p/ Dissimilation Rule

This example illustrates that dissimilation changes just one df, that is, from [+cont] to [-cont] of two contrastive sounds /f/ and /p/ in the same position, as is also shown in words such as fifths [fɪ́fθs] dis-

141

 The Rules of Phonology

similated to [fɪ́fts]. This [θ~t] alternation also dissimilates the [+cont] feature of [θ] into [-cont] of [t] while the two sounds still share the features [-vd, -stri]. Other times, dissimilation changes more than one feature of two sounds. A good example is the word chimney [ʧɪ́mne]; it is often pronounced as if it were spelled chimley [ʧɪ́mle] because both [m] and [n] share [+nas, -cont] and resemble each other too closely. This [n~l] alternation dissimilates the [+nas, -cont] features of [n] to the [-nas, +cont] features of [l]. Another source of dissimilation is from words containing two nearby [ɹ] sounds, as in rese(r)voir, southe(r)ner, su(r)prised, and Cante(r)bury. Because these words sound as if (r) were deleted, phonologists often consider them as either dissimilation or deletion. This consideration can be well justified because as a constraint the vowel in the unstressed r-syllable is reduced from [ɚ] to [ə], creating an alternation, and this dissimilated [ə] can be deleted in fast speech, creating a case of deletion.

Morphophonemic Rules Morphophonemic rules, also known as morphophonological rules, are not general phonological rules because they just describe phonetically conditioned allomorphic variations. Since this topic is covered in detail in Chapter 13, suffice it to say that following cases are all morphophonemic in nature: the prefix in- [ɪn] “not” becomes im- [ɪm] before bilabials /b, p, m/, ir- [ɪɹ] before the retroflex /ɹ/, and il- [ɪl] before the lateral /l/. The same applies to other prefixes like con- that becomes -com, or en- that becomes em-. All of these are Latin borrowings. Native English un- is not assimilated and unpredictable, so this assimilation rule applies only to specific morphemes and thus is not a general phonological rule. Silent-articulated morphological alternations also belong to this area, as attested in word pairs iamb/ iambic but climb/climber, sign/signature but assign/assignment. Inflectional morphology also shows a clear morphophonemic nature. Also belonging to this area are the five types of regular morphological inflections that English words can take: the final –s as the plural, possessive, third-person singular present tense morpheme, past tense and past participle -ed, present participle –ing, comparative degree -er, and superlative degree -est. Take the –s form first. After a [+stri] sibilant consonant /s, z, ʃ, ʒ, ʧ, ʤ/, it generates an epenthetic vowel and is realized as unstressed [ɪz] or [əz], as in roses and matches. After a voiceless nonsibilant consonant, including /p, t, k, θ/ but not /f/ (c.f., oaf/oafs but knife/knives), it undergoes progressive assimilation and is realized as [s]; after a vowel or a voiced nonsibilant consonant, specifically /b, d, ɡ, l, m, n, ɹ, v, w/, it also undergoes progressive assimilation, takes on the [+vd] feature, and is realized as [z]. Similarly, the regular past tense –ed form, when after /t/ or /d/, takes an epenthetic vowel and is realized as [ɪd] or [əd], as in waited and waded, but when after a voiced segment other than /d/, undergoes progressive assimilation and is realized as /d/, but when after a voiceless consonant other than /t/, undergoes progressive assimilation and is realized as [t]. Unlike phonological rules, which apply automatically whenever their conditions are met, morphophonemic rules apply only to specific morphemes. Compare these two words: pence [pɛns] v.s. pens [tɛnz]. In both words, [s] and [z] each follow a voiced nasal [n]. However, only the plural suffix –s assimilates in part of its internal structure to the sound /n/ and becomes a voiced [z] because /n/ is a voiced sound. This assimilation does not happen to pence because the [s] sound is part of the syllabic coda but not a suffix.

142

 The Rules of Phonology

Ordered Rule Application Earlier, we have mentioned the topic of rule ordering. Now, we look at it in more detail. A rule application is either ordered or unordered. Unordered application refers to cases where the order in which two or more rules apply makes no difference to the output of the derivation, as demonstrated in (30):

(30) Ordered rule application refers to cases where the application of one rule generates a new environment that renders the application of another rule possible. In (31), the two application orders of the Flapping and Vowel Lengthening Rules result in different outputs:

(31) If the V-Lengthening Rule applies first and the Flapping Rule the second, the vowel length of the output is differentiated; otherwise, the outcome is the same. Since the order in (31a) leads to length difference, it is arguably the proper application order of these two rules.

IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS The previous section has provided ample NAE phonological rules that guide and support teachers. The three-way rule expressions—prose, semi-formal, and formal—offer convenient options for teachers to choose from and use in the classroom. Experienced teachers may not require further information on pedagogical implications of the rules, but novice teachers and teacher candidates will benefit from further explanations and guidance.

When and How to Choose and Use Different Rule Expressions? In principle, feature matrixes become longer and more complex when they specify single segments in the input and output but become shorter and less complex when they specify classes of sounds. Rules

143

 The Rules of Phonology

of deletion, epenthesis, and metathesis often account for UR-SR derivations on the level of segments, so teachers may consider using mainly prose and semi-formal expressions for these rules. However, rules of reduction, assimilation, and dissimilation often operate on the level of dfs and make reference to natural classes of sounds, so their feature matrixes are generally shorter and less complex. Because formal rules in these UR-SR derivations frequently contribute insights to the inner workings of phonological processes, it is advantageous to use formal expressions that complement prose and semi-formal expressions.

Phonological Rules and Phonological Acquisition Phonological rules play a major role in shaping learner pronunciation. Second language acquisition (SLA) studies show that acquisition of the phonological system of a target language requires accurate perception of phonemes and phonemic contrasts, but a deeper level of perception does not take place until learners also perceive dfs and UR-SR derivations. SLA research also shows that although the starting point of children acquiring the L1 is a set of innate principles common to all languages known as universal grammar or UG (Chomsky, 1995), the starting point of acquiring an L2 is much debated. Many researchers now hold that the starting point for SLA is the L1, with full access to UG as a backup. That is, L2 learners start with the L1 and turn to UG when necessary. This view is commonly known as the Full Transfer/Full Access Hypothesis (Schwartz & Sprouse, 1996). Briefly, this hypothesis assumes that learners filter the L2 input through the phonological system of their mature native language (Brown, 2000). This chapter integrates these theories into a Phonological Acquisition Triangle (PAT) that is actually easier to follow, schematized in (32), where phonological UR-SR derivations are emphasized: (32) The Phonological Acquisition Triangle

In part, the PAT tallies with Flege’s Speech Learning Model (SLM, original, 1995; updated, 2007), which hinges on whether a new category can or cannot be established for an L2 sound in the learner’s mind. The more similar L2 sounds are to L1 sounds, the more difficult they are established as new categories; conversely, the more distant L2 sounds are from L1 sounds, the more likely they are established as new categories. However, the PAT differs from the SLM in that the PAT admits UG as an important guidance available to learners during their mental processing vacillating between Steps 2 and 3. Furthermore, the SLM leaves an important question unanswered: “How does one define similar” between two sounds? (Gass, Behney, & Plonsky, 2013, p.185). Fortunately, the question can be statistically answered. Because dfs are countable in number, they lend themselves in calculating similarity rate (sr) between any two sounds either in one language or between two languages. Take the glottal /h/ and the non-NAE fricative /x/ for example. A count of the features specified in Table 1 shows that they share 15 redundant features and are differentiated by 6 dfs, so their sr is 0.71 (15/21). Assuming this sr is high enough that escapes learner attention, the PAT would predict that learners whose native language has /x/ would more likely to take the short cut from Step 1 directly to Step 3 with little processing when learning the NAE /h/. Now look at a different scenario. Spanish

144

 The Rules of Phonology

has no phoneme /ʃ/ (though in some dialects), so the sr between the NAE /ʃ/ and its zero appearance in Spanish is 0.00. The PAT would predict that Spanish speakers of NAE would more likely take the long route going through all three steps with mental processing. However, situations are sometimes more complex. For example, /ð/ in English is a phoneme but an allophone of the phoneme /d/ in Spanish because the two sounds are in complementary distribution in the language--[ð] after a vowel and [d] elsewhere (e.g., dedo [deðo] ‘finger’). To calculate sr, which two sounds should we compare? We know that native speakers’ mental establishment of new phonemic categories occur at the UR level, and their knowledge about SR is usually subconscious. Based on this reasoning, we should calculate the sr between English phoneme /ð/ and Spanish phoneme /d/ but not the English phoneme /ð/ and the Spanish allophone [ð]. A count in Table 1 shows that /ð/ and /d/ share 19 features, with their sr being 0.90 (19/21) and are differentiated by only 2 dfs: [-cont, -dis] for /d/ and [+cont, +dis] for /ð/. With their sr being that high, it is not a surprise that Spanish learners of NAE frequently substitute /d/ for English /ð/, without realizing the two sounds are contrastively phonemic in NAE, producing [deɪ] for they and confusing it with day. However, language learning is not that straighforward. Language universals, such as typological markedness, also play a role in the acquisition of an L2 sound system. In the world languages, sounds that are common are considered unmarked (e.g., /s, ʃ/), and those that are less common are more marked (e.g., /θ, ð/). Generalizations such as these are logically developed into implicational hierarchies in which the presence of a more marked sound is viewed to imply a less marked sound (Greenburg, 1976). That is, if a language has /θ, ð/, it is predicted that the language also has /s, ʃ/, but the opposite is not true. Eckman (1977) applied implicational hierarchies to second language acquisition and formulated the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (MDH), which predicts that linguistic structures are difficult to acquire only when they are more marked in the L2 than in the L1. Thus, unmarked forms are learned before marked forms. Consequently, the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (Lado, 1957) that L2 sounds absent in the native language are difficult to learn is modified. Under the MDH, sounds not in the L1 may be not difficult to learn unless they are marked. This applies well to the universally unmarked phoneme /ʃ/. Research shows that Spanish speakers learning NAE indeed do not have difficulty pronouncing it even if Spanish does not have this sound (Freeman & Freeman, 2014, p.123). This can be construed that UG backs up Spanish learners when they are processing this new category of sound between steps 2 and 3 in the PAT. If we turn to the concept of sr in terms of dfs, this complex acquisition process is made even easier to understand. Take segments /s, ʃ, ʧ/ for example. Depending on which two of them are being compared, in total they share a range of 17 to 19 features and are separated by a range of 2 to 4 dfs, as analyzed below:

(33) Close analyses of these feature matrixes reveal that every two of the three sounds differ by two dfs and share 19 features save the pair /s, ʧ/, which differs by four dfs but share 17 features. Thus, their srs are calculated and factored out to demonstrate how similar or different these sounds are, as below:

145

 The Rules of Phonology

(34) Note that 0.90 indicates 90% of similarity between the sounds /s-ʃ/ and /ʃ-ʧ/, and 0.81 shows 81% of similarity between /s-ʧ/ in languages. English has /s, ʃ, ʧ/, and Spanish has /s, ʧ/. What do the srs in (34) inform us of? In light of the PAT, Spanish speakers learning NAE would more likely to substitute /ʃ/ for /ʧ/ than /s/ for /ʧ/ because /ʃ-ʧ/ are more similar (90% similarity) than /s-ʧ/ (81% similarity). The fact that Spanish learners are reported to produce [tíʃɚ] for teacher and [ʃɛɹ] for chair (Freeman & Freeman, 2014, p.323) supports what srs predict. The sr concept informs teachers of targeted pedagogical interventions. That is, when learners substitute /x/ for /h/ or vice versa, teachers should direct their attention to the six dfs that separate the two sounds, that is, [-cons, -d.r., +s.g., -dor, -hi, -bk] for /h/ but [+cons, +d.r., -s.g., +dor, +hi, +bk] for /x/. When learners substitute /ð/ for /d/ or vice versa, the pedagogical target should aim at the two dfs: [-cont, -dis] for /d/ but [+cont, +dis] for /ð/. When learners substitute /ʃ/ for /ʧ/ or vice versa, instructors should guide them to practising the two dfs that differentiate the two similar sounds: [+cont, -d.r.] for /ʃ/ but [-cont, +d.r.] for /ʧ/. Voicing contrast, pertinent to multiple rules presented above, is yet another difficult feature for learners. It has long been reported that there exists a Voice Contrast Hierarchy in world languages (Dinnsen & Eckman, 1975). English-type languages (the most marked), including Arabic, Hungarian, Swedish, maintain voice contrast in syllable-initial, -medial, and –final positions; German-type languages (the next most marked), including Catalan, Greek, Japanese, Polish, Russian, maintain voice contrast in initial and medial positions, but not in final position; Corsican-type languages (less marked), including Sardinian, only maintain voice contrast in initial position, while Korean (least marked) maintains no voice contrast in all three positions. Predictably, a speaker of English will have the least trouble producing German words, but a German speaker will have a difficult time in producing English words because the learner has to learn to make a voicing contrast in final position. Syllable structure also plays a role in understanding nearly every phonological rule we generalized above. Interestingly, English learners’ emerging acquisition of syllable structure is subject to positional parameters. Much of the studies concerning L2 syllable acquisition is centered on two determinants: the learner’s L1 knowledge and the role the universal principles and parameters play. Tarone (1980) claims that learners simplify syllables in English by epenthesis that are permissible in the L1. For example, Korean learners apply epenthesis to word-final sequences as in the English word sack [sæ.ke]. In Eckman’s 1981 study, Chinese speakers also add a schwa to the end of words with a voiced obstruent coda, such as in the English word Bob to produce [bɔ.bə]. Neither Korean nor Chinese has a voice contrast in final position, so these English learners revert to the universal CV syllable structure. Spanish does not have a voice contrast in final position but allows a voiceless consonant in coda, so Spanish speakers choose to devoice a voiced obstruent coda, changing Bob to [bɔp]. These examples all support the MDH because a voicing contrast in final position is the most marked and hence the last voicing contrast to be learned. Based on the MDH and the supporting examples above, it can be generalized that initial position is least marked, medial position more marked, and final position most marked. Though initial position is typically unmarked, English onset clusters are cross-linguistically marked because many other languages allow only the CV or C+Glide+V structure. How do English learners

146

 The Rules of Phonology

acquire the Onset Liquids/Glides Devoicing Rule (Rule 25), for example? Research shows that initial C+/j/ clusters (where C stands for a consonant) is less marked (e.g., few [fj-]) and the initial C+/ɹ/ cluster is more marked (e.g., free [fɹ-]), based on the sonority levels of segments, namely, stops (the least sonorant)-fricatives-nasals-liquids-glides-vowels (the most sonorant). Learners whose first languages do not allow consonant clusters have no problem learning C+/j/ clusters but tend to epenthesize a schwa between C+/ɹ/ clusters, more so with the /fɹ/ cluster, for example, bride [bəɹaɪd] and frog [fəɹɔɡ] (Broselow & Finer, 1991). When comparing errors (deletion and epenthesis) in onset and coda clusters, research has found that error rates in coda clusters far outnumber the onset clusters (Sato, 1984). This once more supports the MDH. Though adult L2 learners delete unstressed syllables and consonants less frequently than children do (Oller, 1974), they do make deletion errors. When a single coda obstruent precedes an onset obstruent, many learners delete the coda obstruent (e.g., bad car [bæ kaɹ]) instead of just unrelease it [bæd ̚ kaɹ] as native NAE speakers would do. Conversely, native NAE speakers delete the middle obstruent in the heterosyllabic –C1C2##C1- environment (e.g., [wɛs] for the west park), but learners would delete the coda C1C2, i.e., [wɛ paɹk] or epenthesize a schwa, i.e., [wɛstə paɹk] to break up the cluster. Assimilation rules are more subtle. In general, English assimilation rules within words tend to be obligatory, and those between words optional. Regardless, they often require a fast speech tempo or one-breath utterance to get activated. As with other types of rules, assimilation rules are also position-restricted. In fact, nearly every phonological rule delineated above can be classified in terms of positional parameters that constrain UR-SR derivations. Below is a classification of the rules we discussed earlier, where R stands for ‘rule” and where some rules are cross-listed because they involve more than one position:

(35) In light of the MDH, these positional classifications should offer teachers insights into prioritizing classroom instruction of the rules. Some teachers may balk at dfs and formalized rules. It is probably a good idea for beginning and junior teachers to use just prose and/or semi-formal expressions in the classroom. However, for trainers of teacher candidates, using all three-way rule expressions should work better if descriptive precision is sought for. The traditional intuitive-imitative approach of teaching pronunciation simply poses too much onto learners’ shoulders. Take for example the /ɹ/-coloring rule not discussed earlier. Nearly all books explain this rule thusly: Vowels are colored by their immediately following retroflex liquid /ɹ/, and thus the value of the vowels takes on some of the retroflex quality, as in girl or work. Without a formal phonological analysis, the process of “coloring” remains implicit. The following rule, which applies to all vowels, renders the coloring process explicit: (36) The /ɹ/-Coloring Rule (formal):

147

 The Rules of Phonology

As the arrow shows, the /ɹ/-coloring exactly means the superimposition of the df [+cor, -ant] from [ɹ] onto the preceding vowel. It is this superimposition that precisely helps both teachers and learners to understand the colored values of the affected vowel. Then, they can target at these two dfs for practice rather than just blindly imitate. Before we move to the following section, a few words about the implication of rule ordering is in order. As we know, different rule orderings result in different outputs. For learners to differentiate the vowel length in [ɹáɪɾɚ] for writer and [ɹáɪɾɚ] for rider, instructors should teach the V-Lengthening Rule before the Flapping Rule, as shown in (31) above.

Interfaces of Phonological Rules with Other Areas of Language Phonological rules also play a role in teaching spelling, listening, speaking, and reading. For both naturalistic and classroom-taught English learners, morphological-phonological alternations explicitly help them perceive letter-sound discrepancies and, therefore, have the potential to improve their essential language skills. At the very least, after understanding rule-governed alternations, learners’ chances of misspelling words due to various kinds of deletion rules would decrease, including words such as (a)lone and (de)fend due to initial schwa deletion; fed(e)ral and gen(e)ral due to word-medial schwa deletion; iam(b) and desi(g)n due to /b/- and /ɡ/-deletions restored in alternating forms iambic and designation. In the nutshell, it would be inconceivable that learners would spell words correctly if they pronounce words incorrectly. It would be unimaginable that learners would improve listening comprehension significantly if they just utter URs of phonological rules while hearing SRs in the input. It would be questionable that learners’ reading speed and comprehension would arise effectively if they had not automatized one-breath reading of chunks of sentences that activates SR of phonological rules. The discussion of these topics is outside the scope of this chapter. However, readers who are interested in learning more about these topics are advised to consult Celce-Murcia et al. (2010), an excellent source that devotes three full chapters to these interface areas.

Importance of Balancing Explanations and Practices Experienced teachers know that merely teaching students how to analyze language parts with little pedagogical interventions usually does not work well. They also know that a good balance between explanations and practice to ensure that sufficient time is devoted to practice is equally important. In addition, they know to recycle material with spaced repetition so as to offer learners opportunities to review aspects of the sound system that they have learned previously. Table 3, adapted from Celce-Murcia et al. (2010) but with emphasis shifting to dfs and phonological rules (PhRs), provides teachers a communicative framework for teaching pronunciation in order to improve accuracy, fluency, and automaticity of learner pronunciation.

148

 The Rules of Phonology

Table 3. A modified communicative framework for teaching pronunciation Five Steps

Purposes

Activities/Tools

Feedback

1. Description and Analysis of dfs and PhR– oral, written, digital descriptions of dfs, PhRs, articulatory gestures and/acoustic effects

Learner awareness of new dfs and PhRs

Interactive digital sagittal diagrams of the speech organs and lip movements; consonant and vowel charts; teaching aids like rubber bands, kazoos, balloons, teacher modeling, etc. to support imitations

Immediate teacher feedback

2. Listening Discrimination – focused perception of target dfs and PhRs

Learner perception of new dfs and PhRs

Minimal-pair words, phrases, sentences, worksheets, all of which containing target dfs and PhRs

Immediate teacher feedback

3. Controlled Practice – oral reading of minimal-pair sentences and short dialogues to identify target dfs and PhRs

Learner accuracy in producing utterances containing target dfs and PhRs

Repetition practice, oral reading of minimal-pair words, phrases, sentences, worksheets, and short dialogues; proverbs, maxims, tongue twisters, Jazz chants, children’s rhymes, short metered poems; pair or small-group work

Timely teacher feedback during individual activities; delayed peer and/or teacher feedback till the end of pair or smallgroup work

4. Guided Practice – structured communication exercises enabling the learner to monitor for target dfs and PhRs

Learner accuracy and fluency in producing utterances with target dfs and PhRs

Task-based activities such as cued dialogues, gap-filling exercises, story strips; teacher-provided lists of words and phrases containing target dfs and PhRs for student use in and out of class

Delayed peer and/ or teacher feedback till the completion of activities to avoid communication disruption

5. Communicative Practice – less structured activities

Meaning-oriented learner fluency in utterances with target dfs and PhRs

Debate, interviews, storytelling, role play, doubt-believe games, clarification of values, problem solving, performance assessment, (dis)agreements, and other speech acts

Delayed peer and/or teacher feedback till the end of activities

L2 pronunciation and speech can hardly become natural and fluent without accurately activating PhRs. However, PhRs have two contradictory attributes: they are omnipresent, yet they sneakily reside in the subconscious of speakers. These attributes require teachers to understand them, to discover more of them, to introduce them to learners early instead of late so that learners have timely enough chances to become aware of them, perceive them, imitate them, produce them, and eventually automatize them. Accuracy and fluency of natural L2 pronunciation, after all, require teachers’ laborious gardening, seeding, watering, weeding, and nurturing to come to fruition. Feature-based phonology ought to become a powerful gardening tool in the hands of teacher-gardeners that enables learners to make predictions of UR-SR derivations themselves leading to independent and automatized pronunciation.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Going beyond the information provided in this chapter, further discuss why the df theory works better than IPA classes of sounds such as [±stop] and [±fricative]. On the other hand, could the df theory work without IPA classifications of sounds? 2. Phonological UR-SR derivations are omnipresent in NAE pronunciation. What would happen to students’ pronunciation of NAE as a second or foreign language if only UR forms are taught to them? If UR-SR derivations are taught, when will be the best time to teach them and in what ways?

149

 The Rules of Phonology

3. Phonological rules can be stated in prose, semi-formal, and formal expressions to meet various needs of users. Discuss how they are best used to train teacher candidates and how different proficiency levels of your students would dictate your choices of rule formats in classroom instruction 4. One of my international students did not understand why she was slapped with a fine for parking her car in a university parking lot where she said a policeman told her “You can park here.” Discuss why this happened by explicitly referring to dfs in characterizing how native speakers of NAE distinguish the affirmative can and the negative can’t in these two sentences: (a) You can park here, and (b) You can’t park here with /t/ being deleted since the word string can’t park does meet the deletion condition –C1C2##C1- in hetero-syllables. 5. Use your own examples to discuss the interactions between language transfer and universal grammar. In doing so, make reference to the Phonological Acquisition Triangle and the Markedness Differential Hypothesis.

EXERCISES 1. Give all but only those NAE classes of sounds as specified by the following feature matrixes.

2. Build a minimal feature matrix to specify each of the following natural classes of sounds. a. /m, n, ŋ/ b. /θ, ð/ c. /l, ɹ, j, w/ d. /u, ʊ, o, ɔ/ 3. First, convert each prose interphonological rule below into its semi-formal and formal expressions; then tell which format is preferred and explain why. Finally, tell how each rule deviates from its corresponding NAE phonological rule. a. The [-tns] vowel /ɛ/ is epenthesized at the beginning of a word starting with the voiceless fricative /s/. b. Voiced obstruents are devoiced at the end of a word. c. Stressed tense vowels are realized as stressed lax vowels preceding a coda nasal (disregard /±ɑ/). 4. Specify the phonological environment in which each word below changes its pronunciation from UR to SR. Provide one or two illustrative examples, and then explain what df or dfs are changed.

5. Use one breath in fast tempo to utter this italicized request so that phonological rules in them are best triggered: Could you hand Gregory this shutter, please? Then, do the following operations: a. Phonemically transcribe the request as its UR form. b. Phonetically transcribe the request as its SR form. 150

 The Rules of Phonology

c. From left to right, carefully compare the UR and SR forms, list and explain as many phonological rules as possible. If necessary, utter the request fast and naturally several more times to reveal rules that might be unnoticed. d. Collapse all the rules you have listed into distinct rule categories; that is, if one rule applies more than one time, count them as one rule. e. Are there any ordered rule applications? If yes, explain what rules are involved and how they are ordered.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT Thanks are due to our volume editors, Dr. Nabat Erdogan and Dr. Michael Wei, for their professional guidance; I particularly appreciate Dr. Erdogan’s meticulous editing, vital feedback, and great patience during my development of this chapter. Thanks are also due to two anonymous reviewers, whose invaluable feedback helped me improve the quality and readership of this chapter. Errors, however, are my responsibilities.

REFERENCES Algeo, J., & Butcher, C. A. (2014). The origins and development of the English language. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Broselow, E., & Finer, D. (1991). Parameter setting in second language phonology and syntax. Second Language Research, 7, 35–59. Brown, C. (2000). The interrelation between speech perception and phonological acquisition from infant to adult. In J. Archibald (Ed.), Second language acquisition and linguistic theory (pp. 4–63). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers Inc. Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M., Goodwin, J. M., & Griner, B. (2010). Teaching pronunciation: A course book and reference guide (2nd ed.). Cambridge, UK: CUP. Chaucer, G., & Benson, L. D. (1987). The Riverside Chaucer. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co. Chomsky, N. (1995). The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Chomsky, N., & Halle, M. (1968). The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper & Row. Dinnsen, D., & Eckman, F. (1975). In R. E. Grossman, L. J. San, & T. J. Vance (Eds.), Functionalism (pp. 126–134). Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society. Eckman, F. (1977). Markedness and the contrastive analysis hypothesis. Language Learning: A Journal of Applied Linguistics, 27, 315–30. Eckman, F. (1981). On predicting phonological difficulty in second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 4(1), 18–30. doi:10.1017/S0272263100004253

151

 The Rules of Phonology

Flege, J. E. (1995). Second language speech learning: Theory, findings, and problems. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-linguistic research (pp. 233–277). Timonium, MD: York Press. Flege, J. E. (2007). Language contact in bilingualism: Phonetic system interactions. In J. Cole & J. I. Hualde (Eds.), Laboratory phonology 9. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Freeman, D. E., & Freeman, Y. S. (2014). Essential linguistics: What teachers need to know to teach ESL, reading, spelling, grammar. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2017). An introduction to language (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, Inc. Gass, S. M., Behney, J., & Plonsky, L. (2013). Second language acquisition: An introductory course (4th ed.). New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. doi:10.4324/9780203137093 Gilbert, J. B. (2018). Issues in teaching pronunciation: Prosody, intonation, and vowels. In The TESOL encyclopedia of English language teaching (vol. 3, pp. 1701-1709). Hoboken, NJ: TESOL International Association/Wiley Blackwell. Greenburg, J. H. (1976). Language universals. The Hague, The Netherlands: Mouton de Gruyter. Hayes, B. (2009). Introductory phonology. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Jakobson, R., Frant, C. G. M., & Halle, M. (1952). Preliminaries to speech analysis: The distinctive features and their correlates. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Lado, R. (1957). Linguistics across cultures. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Lass, R. (1988). Phonology: An introduction to basic concepts. Cambridge, UK: CUP. Liontas, J. I. (Ed.). (2018). The TESOL encyclopedia of English language teaching. Hoboken, NJ: TESOL International Association/John Wiley & Sons, Inc. doi:10.1002/9781118784235 O’Grady, W., Archibald, J., Aronoff, M., & Rees-Miller, J. (2017). Contemporary linguistics: An introduction (7th ed.). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s Macmillan Learning. Oller, D. K. (1974). Towards a general theory of phonological processes in first and second language learning. Paper presented at the Western Conference on Linguistics, Seattle, WA. Sato, C. (1984). Phonological process in second language acquisition: Another look at interlanguage syllable structure. Language Learning, 34(4), 43–57. doi:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1984.tb00351.x Schwartz, B., & Sprouse, R. (1996). L2 cognitive states and the full transfer/full access model. Second Language Research, 12(1), 40–72. doi:10.1177/026765839601200103 Tarone, E. (1980). Some influence on the syllable structure of interlanguage phonology. IRAL, 18, 139–152. Wolfram, W., & Johnson, R. (1982). Phonological analysis: Focus on American English. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.

152

 The Rules of Phonology

Zsiga, E. C. (2013). The sounds of language: An introduction to phonetics and phonology. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

ADDITIONAL READING Brown, J. D. (2012). New ways in teaching connected speech. Alexandria, VA: TESOL International Association. Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M., Goodwin, J. M., & Griner, B. (2010). Teaching pronunciation: A course book and reference guide (2nd ed.). Cambridge, UK: CUP. Swan, M., & Smith, B. (2001). Learner English: A teacher’s guide to interference and other problems (2nd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511667121

ENDNOTES 1



4 2 3

5



6



7



8

9



These sources include: Fromkin et al., 2017 (21 features); Hayes, 2009 (26 features); Lass, 1988 (16 features); O’Grady et al., 2017 (21 features); Wolfram & Johnson, 1982 (16 features); Zsiga, 2013 (22 features). NAE glides also include the voiceless labial-velar glide /ʍ/ found in dialects. In the feature system used in this chapter, central vowels are treated as [+bk]. In NAE, [a] and [ɑ] are not contrastive, so they are treated as allophones of the phoneme [ɑ] and has the [+bk] feature. Phonologists do not agree with each other about which feature, [+tns], [-tns], [0tns], should be assigned to /ɑ/. This chapter assigns [±tns] to it based on the fact that it can end a syllable though frequently it cannot (e.g., spa /spɑ/ but rob /ɹɑb/). Spoonerisms are errors resulting in slip of the tongue that switches two sounds or words in a phrase. They are named after the Oxford minister William W. Spooner, who was well-known for deliberately creating such sound rearrangements. In NAE, /ɑ/ and /ɔ/ are free variations. Since the early Middle English period, [-tns] vowels have acquired the [+tns] feature in a limited number of closed and stressed syllables ending with –mb (e.g., comb), -ld (e.g., old), or –nd (e.g., find) (Algeo & Butcher, 2014). Correlations between alphabet values and relative values of vowel letters is not always 100%. Carney (1974) provides correlation percentages based on analyses of a database of 2.5 million words in British English and NAE, as cited in Gilbert, 2018, p.144.

This research was previously published in Applied Linguistics for Teachers of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners; pages 325-360, copyright year 2019 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

153

154

Chapter 4

The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings Tom Adi The Readware Institute, USA Hala Abdelghany City University of New York, USA Kathy Adi Readware Institute, USA

ABSTRACT In this chapter, the authors look at how the sounds that make up words may play a role in determining the meanings of words.

INTRODUCTION This book is about the relationship between deep semantics and the evolution of new scientific theories and discoveries. Deep semantics is a theory about the meanings of sounds that was first formulated in 1985. It was first published under peer review in 2007 (Adi, 2007). Many other peer-reviewed publications about deep semantics followed over the period of a decade (Adi, 2009; Adi, Ewell, Adi & Vogel, 2009; Adi, Ewell, Vogel, Payton & Hippchen, 2013 & 2014; Adi & Nevers, 2014; Adi, 2015a & 2015b; Adi, 2017). In Section 1, we will first discuss the evolution of our view of the role of the human mind in interpreting sounds over the years. Next, we will introduce the basic concepts of the meanings of sounds. Then, we will demonstrate how sounds acquire meaning using examples with the English sounds “I”, “W”, “A”, and “H.” These four sounds represent one type of sound meaning that is called “Assignment.” Finally, we will introduce the big picture for English and Arabic sounds. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch004

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

In Section 2, we will demonstrate another type of sound meaning that is called “Manifestation.” In Section 3, we will demonstrate a third type of sound meaning that is called “Containment.”

SECTION 1: THE NATURE OF THE MEANINGS OF SOUNDS The individual sounds that make up words seem to have many conflicting meanings. In Figure 1, the sound “A” is an “indefinite article” in the phrase “A Bird.” “A” here means “any” bird, not a specific bird. Figure 1. Sounds have conflicting meanings

However, in the word “Atypical” (which means “not typical”), sound “A” means “not.” And in the word “Aside” (which means “at the side”), the sound “A” means “at.” In other languages, the sound “A” has even more conflicting meanings. Unable to reconcile these conflicting meanings, most scientists think that sounds have no meanings at all. In other words, they believe in shallow semantics: words as a whole are labels for things, and the individual sounds that make up a word are chosen arbitrarily (Saussure, 1916). However, we use words to organize our thoughts, and words consist of sounds. Therefore, sounds must mean something.

Evolution of Our View of the Role of the Human Mind in Interpreting Sounds We discovered deep semantics in 1985 during work on machine translation. Deep semantics was first introduced to the scientific community at a workshop on Arabic morphology in 1987 (Adi & Ewell, 1987). Deep semantics techniques for calculating relationships of meaning between words were patented in 1989 (Adi, 1989). Deep semantics was entirely based on the Arabic language of the Quran (Al-Qur’an, 1992). Verse 1 of Chapter 2 of the Quran (Al-Qur’an, 1992) is “‫ ملا‬A.L.M.” It is a sequence of sounds that don’t form a word. The following Verse 2 says that “A.L.M.” is the Scripture (i.e., the Quran). What does that mean? Most Quran commentators have said that only God knows what “A.L.M.” means. Moreover, they never connected “A.L.M.” to the nature of the Quran. Instead, they said that the first two Arabic words of Verse 2 (‫ ُباتِكلا كلذ‬Thaalika alKiTaaBu, word root KTB) mean, “This is the Scripture,” without reference to A.L.M.

155

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

However, the literal translation of the first two words of Verse 2 is: That is the Scripture! Obviously, “that” refers to “A.L.M.” The meaning is: Those three sounds are the Scripture. This means that the nature of the Quran is based on the meanings of sounds. Indeed, the style of the Quran is very unique: The meanings of words are strongly indicated by context. Moreover, the meanings of words are so precise that the role of individual sounds in the forming of meaning can be seen. This is why we were able to develop a theory of the meanings of sounds (deep semantics) by studying the text of the Quran. The first peer-reviewed publication about deep semantics appeared in 2007 (Adi, 2007). In this publication, we proposed the view that the sounds that make up the name of a thing “are signs that refer to abstract objects” which are somehow related to the properties of the thing named (Adi, 2007). Moreover, we proposed then that the human mind interprets and re-interprets these abstract objects (Adi, 2007). The Adi Theory of Semantics was developed based only on observations of Arabic word usage in the Quran (Al-Qur’an, 1992), a book that exists in its exact original form as authored by God according to the beliefs of over a billion people. In the 2007 publication, it was implied that God designed and created the system of abstract objects and assigned them to the sounds of words. However, we believed then that the human mind was perfectly capable of interpreting and re-interpreting these abstract objects, consciously and subconsciously (Adi, 2007). This view remained unchanged in many later publications (Adi, 2009; Adi, Ewell, Adi & Vogel, 2009; Adi, Ewell, Vogel, Payton & Hippchen, 2013 & 2014). In these publications, Divine help for the human mind in interpreting the abstract objects associated with sounds appeared limited to hints suggested by the word usage and contexts of the Quran. In late 2014, the theory of deep semantics (meanings of sounds) was discussed at a behavioral economics conference (Adi & Nevers, 2014). In addition to hints suggested by the word usage of the Quran, we proposed for the first time that Divine inspiration is necessary to guide the human mind in interpreting the abstract objects associated with sounds: “divine inspiration guides the navigation along norm texts [Quran text] from general concepts to specific templates” (Figure 5 in Adi & Nevers, 2014). At seminars dedicated to explaining deep semantics to highly motivated students in 2013, it became clear that the teacher (Tom Adi) was not always able to interpret the abstract objects associated with sounds. Such interpretations are only available to the human mind at certain lucid moments. In other words, these interpretations are inspired by God, not constructed by humans. Only God can interpret the abstract objects associated with sounds, and He only shares (inspires) His interpretations when He wishes. Moreover, after writing down the inspirations we receive about the meanings of sounds, we are often unable to understand what we wrote. In 2015, we expressed an implicit belief regarding the role of God. We stated that the practical interpretation of the abstract objects associated with the sounds of Quran words happens subconsciously and is affected by our emotional and spiritual state of mind (Adi, 2015a & 2015b). Our first explicit hint at God’s responsibility for the practical interpretation of the abstract objects associated with sounds appeared in our video lecture: We stated there that there is a “cognitive chef” (we meant God) who bakes “cognitive cakes” (practical interpretations of abstract word root structures) for us in the dark backrooms of our minds (Adi, 2017). 156

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

In decades of research, we have found out that each sound can have an infinite number of useful meanings. However, “God doesn’t play dice with the world,” as Einstein repeatedly stated (Hermanns & Einstein, 1983, p. 58). This infinity of meanings is neither random nor chaotic, contrary to what most linguists believe (Saussure, 1916). There is a rational system in the meanings of sounds, and this system guides human thinking. This system of meanings of sounds cannot be understood by the human mind. Moreover, we are unaware of the existence of this system of meanings. The most plausible explanation of how sounds acquire meaning is that the link between sounds and their meanings in a certain context is inspired by God. It appears that God has designed the system of meanings of sounds for His own purposes, and that He only shares glimpses of that system with humans through fleeting, short-lived inspirations. Since the meanings of sounds are paramount for language processing and human intelligence, this means that God completely controls the human mind although He doesn’t seem to let us know how He does that. It seems that the overriding purpose of God’s hiding of His actions and designs in language processing and elsewhere is that He wants to draw the humans’ attention to His power and sovereignty so that they recognize it with awe and humility and ask for His help. Scriptures say that it is in the humans’ best interest to turn to God in prayer and ask for His help. In other words, consciousness of God’s control of human life is not for the benefit of God but for the benefit of humans. Sir Isaac Newton said: “All my discoveries have been made in an answer to prayer” (Tiner, 2006, p. 30). This book confirms that Divine inspiration is the source of discovery and knowledge. Our discoveries about the meanings of sounds are very preliminary and they are completely based on inspirations that we received. In other words, our thoughts about the meanings of sounds are speculations based on fleeting Divine inspirations. Still, there are no other theories that explain meanings of sounds. After presenting a rough idea about the system of the meanings of sounds as it may exist in God’s mind, we will try to explain through different examples how we may be inspired by God to get the different meanings of single sounds.

A Sound Represents a Divine General Process of a Certain Type We believe that all the meanings of a certain sound can be grouped under a single “Divine general process” of some kind. In other words, a sound represents a Divine general process of a certain type. We don’t know the nature of these Divine general processes and we are unable to understand their types. For fleeting moments now and then, we have received vague hints through Divine inspiration about some meanings of sounds that belong to these Divine general processes and their types. What we mean by Divine inspiration is that we sometimes receive an idea about the meaning of a certain sound in a certain word. At that moment, we were not trying to figure out the meaning of that sound. The idea comes suddenly without an effort to bring it. This idea is not the result of our thinking, reasoning, deduction, or inference. We didn’t come up with this idea on our own. It suddenly “fell into our lap.” 157

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

The inspired idea about the meaning of a sound is unusual and new, so we write it down very quickly. Sometimes, the idea about the meaning of the sound is accompanied by a reason for why that sound has that meaning. However, the idea and the reason disappear from our minds within minutes. Later, we read what we wrote, and sometimes, we can understand it, but sometimes, we cannot understand it. Most of the time, we are unable to understand what we wrote. In our experience, the readers have a very difficult time understanding our publications, possibly for the same reason: These are Divine ideas that are beyond the capability of the human mind. Over decades of research, we have received many fleeting inspirations about the meanings of sounds. Different inspirations about the same sound in different words gave us a vague idea about the Divine general process to which these meanings belong. It appeared that different sounds indicated the same Divine general process. However, each sound represented that process in a different mode. We found out that there are four Arabic sounds for each Divine general process, each sound representing a different mode. The four Arabic sounds represent a Divine general process of a certain type. According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, it appears that sounds represent only three types of Divine general processes: Assignment, Manifestation, and Containment. We were inspired to choose these names of Divine general process types. We don’t understand what they really mean. Since creation is associated with words in all Scriptures, it appears that God uses these three types of general processes for every aspect of creation: Physics, chemistry, biology, botany, geology, psychology, and so on. To illustrate these mysterious Divine general process types, we illustrate Assignment as a pointy figure, Manifestation as a wavy figure, and Containment as an oval figure. In other words, a sound of a word that is used in a certain context may represent a Divine general process of one of the three types: Assignment, Manifestation, or Containment. A sound may also represent a Divine general process that belongs to a combination of the three types. A Divine general process of any type has an engagement mode and a border mode. Thus, a sound represents a Divine general process that consists of three components: Divine engagement mode, Divine general process mode, and Divine general process type. Figure 2 illustrates these components. Figure 2. Each sound represents a Divine general process

158

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

Engagement mode is either “Self” or “Group.” “Self” is a part of “Group.” If the engagement mode is “Self,” then a small shape representing “Self” will have a bright color. The rest of the “Group” shape will be in dark color. If the engagement mode is “Group,” then the whole shape will have a bright color. Border mode is either “Open” (dotted shape border) or “Closed” (solid shape border). The combination “engagement mode + border mode” shall be called “Divine general process mode.” Again, we were inspired to choose these names of Divine general process modes. We don’t understand what they really mean and what aspects of creation they are used for in physics, chemistry, biology, botany, geology, psychology, and so on. The following explanation only gives a vague, partial, and approximate idea about the Divine general process types: “Assignment” deals with the broad concept of “pointing.” “Manifestation” deals with the broad concept of “realization.” “Containment” deals with the broad concept of “containing” or “controlling.” We will repeatedly revisit this subject throughout this book. In Figure 2 above, the big pointy shape illustrates what the sound “A” appears to represent according to some inspirations. The little bright “Self” shape means that the engagement mode is “Self”. The dotted border of this little shape means that the border mode is “Open.” The Divine general process mode is “Open Self.” The big pointy shape in Figure 2 means that the illustrated Divine general process type is “Assignment.” Thus, sound “A” represents the Divine general process “Open Self Assignment.” The implementation of the Divine general process “Open Self Assignment” which is represented by “A” produces endless meanings such as those in Figure 1 above: “A bird” (A = indefinite article), “Atypical” (A = not), and “Aside” (A = at).

How Sound “A” Acquires Its Different Meanings How does God determine and inspire the different meanings of sound “A” (that are part of many words and phrases) into the human mind? We can only speculate. Let’s start with the meaning of “A” in the word “Aside.” Our speculations are illustrated in Figure 3. They are based on scattered, short-lived Divine inspirations that we received in the past. Each inspiration only lasted for minutes. When we now look at Figure 3 and its discussion, we only understand it 10% of the time, and we cannot tell beforehand whether we will understand it at the next moment. Most of the time, we are unable to understand Figure 3 or its discussion. When we think about the sound “A” in “Aside,” we initially have no idea what it means. According to a set of inspirations that we later connected to each other, “A” represents the general process “Open Self Assignment” in God’s mind. This is an idea that is hard for us to think about. Moreover, we are not aware of it when we think about sound “A.” According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, it appears that God translates “Open Self Assignment” in His mind in the following way for the sake of the word “Aside”: He seems to skip “Open” and “Self” as He focuses on “Assignment.” We indicate this with strikethrough on “Open Self.” God then translates “Assignment” into “location” or “at” in His mind. Next, He inspires us with “A = at.”

159

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

Figure 3. How “A” in “Aside” acquires its meaning

All we are aware of is that “A” in “Aside” means “at.” We don’t know why. We are not aware of the Divine general process “Open Self Assignment” and its translation steps. Still, the inspiration that “A” in “Aside” means “at” contributes to our thought process. This is a plausible explanation of how “A” in “Aside” acquires the meaning “at,” and how “Aside” acquires the meaning “at the side” or “to the side.” No other scientists have offered any explanation for how sounds acquire their meanings. Our explanation gives exclusive credit to God for translating sounds and inspiring us with their meanings. Let’s now look at the meaning of sound “A” in “Atypical” which is illustrated in Figure 4. Figure 4. How “A” in “Atypical” acquires its meaning

Again, we believe that in God’s mind the sound “A” represents the general process “Open Self Assignment.” How did the the meaning of “A” in “Atypical” come to us? According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, it appears that God relies on the concept “Open.” In His mind, He translates “Open” into “not there” or simply “not.” Then, He inspires “A = not” into our minds. Finally, let’s look at the meaning of sound “A” in “A Bird” as illustrated in Figure 5. In God’s mind, “A” initially means “Open Self Assignment.” According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, it appears that He performs several translations for the sake of “A” in “A Bird.”

160

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

Figure 5. How “A” in “A Bird” acquires its meaning

First, God translates “Assignment” into “pointing” in His mind. Then, He combines “pointing” with “self” and produces the meaning “identify” in His mind. Next, He translates “Open” into “free” in His mind. Then, God translates the combination “free + identify” into “indefinite” in His mind. “Indefinite” basically means “anything will do.” Finally, God inspires “A = indefinite” into our mind. When we say, “A Bird,” we mean that it can be any bird.

The Other Sounds of Assignment We have just looked at three different meanings of the sound “A.” These are three different meanings of the Divine general process of the type “Assignment” when it has the Divine general process mode “Open Self.” Figure 6 illustrates how sound “A” (Open Self Assignment) along with the three other sounds “I”, “W”, and “H” represent the Divine general process of the type “Assignment” in all four Divine general process modes: “Closed Self,” “Closed Group,” “Open Self,” and “Open Group.” In the following, we will discuss examples of how these sounds may acquire meanings based on fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past. Figure 6. The sounds of assignment

161

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

Figure 7 shows how the sound “I” acquires the meaning “first person pronoun.” In God’s mind, sound “I” represents the general process “Closed Self Assignment.” He translates “Closed Self” into “limitedto-self.” Then, He translates “Assignment” into “referral.” We are not aware of these translations. God then combines “limited-to-self” with “referral” and produces for us the concept of the “first person pronoun I.” Pronouns are used to “refer” to “nouns” (persons, places, etc.). He inspires this concept into our minds. We don’t know where the idea of the “first person pronoun” came from, and we don’t know why “I” is used for the first person. We simply utilize these inspired gifts of language. Figure 7. How sound “I” acquires its meaning

Figure 8 shows how sound “W” gives us the meaning “We.” In God’s mind, sound “W” represents the general process “Closed Group Assignment.” According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Closed” into “inner,” so that “Closed Group” means “inner group.” He then seems to translate “Assignment” into “referral.” Finally, He combines “referral” with “inner group” and produces for us the concept “first person plural pronoun.” We are not aware of these translations and combinations. Figure 8. How sound “W” acquires its meaning

162

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

Finally, God inspires “We = first person plural pronoun” into our minds. Maybe for the convenience of pronunciation, God appends “e” to “W”, producing “We” for us. This is a plausible explanation for how the “W” in “We” acquired its meaning. We don’t know of any other explanations by scientists for why the “W” in “We” has its meaning. Finally, Figure 9 shows how the sound “H” acquires the meaning it has in “He.” Figure 9. How sound “H” acquires its meaning

In God’s mind, sound “H” represents the general process “Open Group Assignment.” According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God first appears to translate “Open Group” into “not in group” in His mind. Out of “not in group,” He seems to create the meaning “outsider” or “third party.” Next, God translates “Assignment” into “referral” in His mind. He then combines “referral” with “third party” and produces for us the concept of the “third person pronoun.” Finally, God appends “e” to “H” and inspires “He = third person pronoun” into our minds.

The Big Picture In the above discussion, we have introduced the Divine general process type “Assignment” in all four Divine general process modes using simple English sound examples. Figure 10 lists many English sounds and attempts to specify which types and modes of Divine general processes they represent. In the Row headers of Figure 10, we have all possible Divine general process types and their combinations. In the Column headers we have all possible Divine general process modes. Unfortunately, English sounds don’t cover all possible combinations of Divine general process modes and Divine general process types. Figure 10 has inconsistencies and missing cells. The hyphen after a sound means that it must be at the beginning of a word to represent the corresponding combination of Divine general process type and Divine general process mode. Question marks mean that we’re not sure about what those sounds represent.

163

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

Figure 10. Divine general process types and general process modes represented by English sounds

Moreover, there is inconsistency in the relationship between the sounds and the letters of the English language alphabet. For example, one letter (such as “C”) may represent different sounds (“S” and “K”). Our research indicates that the sounds of the Arabic language cover every possible combination of Divine general process modes and Divine general process types as illustrated in Figure 11. Arabic sounds represent all these combinations in a unique and consistent way. Figure 11. Arabic sounds uniquely cover all possible combinations

164

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

Moreover, every Arabic sound is represented by a single Arabic letter of the alphabet. For the above reasons, we will only use Arabic sounds and letters in the rest of this book. To accommodate the English language of this book, each Arabic sound (= Arabic letter) will be represented by one or two English letters (as in Figure 11), sometimes underlined to distinguish from other sounds. An underlined sound is not the same sound as the sound that is not underlined.

Summary of Section 1 Figure 12 shows the meanings of the Divine general process types which we encountered in Section 1. We find them in the last row under “Assignment.” They are: location, pointing, and referral. We will explain the meaning of the pyramid in Chapter 3. Figure 12. Meanings of Divine general process types in Section 1

Figure 13 shows the meanings of the Divine general process modes which we encountered in Section 1. We will explain the meaning of the ladder in Chapter 3. Figure 13. Meanings of Divine general process modes in Section 1

165

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

SECTION 2: SOUNDS OF MANIFESTATION The Arabic sounds that represent the Divine general process type “Manifestation” are “‫ م‬M”, “‫ د‬D”, “‫ف‬ F” and “‫ ذ‬Th” (sounds like “the”). They are illustrated in Figure 14 with different wavy figures where colors and shape borders express the corresponding Divine general process modes. Figure 14. Sounds of manifestation by Divine general process mode

The Meanings of “‫ م‬M” In God’s mind, the Arabic sound “‫ م‬M” represents the general process “Closed Self Manifestation.” In the following examples, we will show how this Divine general concept acquires many different meanings. In Figure 15, the Arabic word “‫( ”ام‬Ma) means “what.” “M” is the main focus. How do we get from the Divine general process “Closed Self Manifestation” to “what”? According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, it appears that God translates “Closed Self” into “defined.” Maybe He first translates “Closed Self” into “self-contained,” and then translates “self-contained” into “defined.” Then, God translates “Manifestation” into “event.” Finally, He inspires “Ma = defined event” into our minds. One way we use the word “Ma” (what) is to ask for the definition of an event. There are many other meanings of “Manifestation” as we shall see in the rest of this book. Figure 15. “M” means “what”

166

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

In Figure 16, the Arabic word “‫( ”ْنَم‬MaN) means “who.” We believe that “M” is the basic sound in this word. “N” appears to add a secondary meaning which we have not yet investigated. How do we get from the Divine general process “Closed Self Manifestation” to “who”? According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Closed Self” into “defined” again. However, He translates “Manifestation” here into “person.” Finally, He inspires “MaN = defined person” into our minds. When we use the word “MaN” (who), we may be asking for the definition of the person in question. Figure 16. “M” means “who”

In Figure 17, the Arabic prefix “‫( ”م‬M-) in front of a word root gives us the name of a place that is dedicated to a certain activity such as an airport (‫ )راطم‬or a playground (‫)بعلم‬. In God’s mind, the Arabic sound “‫ م‬M” represents the general process “Closed Self Manifestation.” According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Closed Self” into “dedicated” and “Manifestation” into “place.” In Figure 18, the Arabic word “‫( ”مْوَي‬YowM) means “day.” “Y” represents the Divine general process “Closed Self Assignment” and is not illustrated in this figure. Both sounds contribute to the meaning of “day.” Figure 17. “M” means “dedicated place”

167

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

“M” represents the Divine general process “Closed Self Manifestation” as illustrated by the wavy shape. According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Closed Self” into “determine” and “Manifestation” into “time.” In His mind, “M” then means “determined time.” Remember that “Assignment” is illustrated by a pointy shape which has to do with “pointing.” “Y” here adds the meaning of a “point.” A day starts at a certain point in time. Figure 18. “M” means “day”

In Figure 19, the Arabic word “‫( ”ام‬Ma) means “none.” In God’s mind, the Arabic sound “‫ م‬M” represents the general process “Closed Self Manifestation.” According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Closed Self” into “limited” and “Manifestation” into “thing or person.” “Ma” is used in expressions like “None but God knows the future.” Figure 19. “M” means “none”

In Figure 20, the Arabic word “‫( ”ءام‬MaaA) means “water.”

168

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

In God’s mind, the Arabic sound “‫ م‬M” represents the general process “Closed Self Manifestation.” God appears to translate “Closed Self” into “basic” and “Manifestation” into “substance.” “Water” is the “basic substance” of life and everything else. Figure 20. “M” means “water”

The Meanings of “‫ د‬D” In God’s mind, sound “‫ د‬D” represents the general process “Closed Group Manifestation.” In the following examples, we will see how this Divine general concept acquires different meanings. In Figure 21, the Arabic word “‫( ”نيِد‬DeeN) means “judgment.” “N” here plays a secondary role in the meaning. It stands for “Open Self Containment.” We will discuss this word in more detail in the future. “D” represents the Divine general process “Closed Group Manifestation.” According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Closed Group” into “reciprocal” and “Manifestation” into “action.” The transition from “Closed Group” to “reciprocal” may appear complicated. “Closed Group” means “together.” This is related to “shared” and “mutual,” and hence to “reciprocal.” Judgment is action in reciprocation (reward or punishment) to one’s action(s). Figure 21. “D” means “judgment”

169

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

In Figure 22, the Arabic word “‫( ”ىدُه‬HuDaa) means “guidance.” “H” here plays a major role in the meaning. It represents the Divine general process “Open Group Assignment” which God appears to translate into “point out.” “D” represents the Divine general process “Closed Group Manifestation.” According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Closed Group” into “general” and “Manifestation” into “action.” To guide is thus “to point out (H) what action (D) to take.” Figure 22. “D” means (guided) “action”

The Meanings of “‫ ف‬F” In God’s mind, sound “‫ ف‬F” represents the general process “Open Self Manifestation.” In the following examples, we will see how this Divine general concept acquires different meanings. In Figure 23, the Arabic word “‫( ”وف‬Foo) means “mouth.” According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Open Self Manifestation” into “mouth.” Figure 23. “F” means “mouth”

170

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

In Figure 24, the Arabic word “‫( ”يف‬Fee) means “in.” In God’s mind, sound “‫ ف‬F” represents the general process “Open Self Manifestation.” According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Open Self” into “into” and “Manifestation” into “place.” Figure 24. “F” means “in”

In Figure 25, the Arabic word “‫( ”َف‬Fa) means “then.” In God’s mind, sound “‫ ف‬F” represents the general process “Open Self Manifestation.” For the sake of the word “Fa” (then), inspirations that we received in the past suggest that God appears to translate “Open Self” into “forward” and “Manifestation” into “activity.” The transition from “Open Self” to “forward” may appear complicated. However, “Open Self” may mean “outward,” and this can be related to “what comes next.” Figure 25. “F” means “then”

The Meanings of “‫ ذ‬Th” In God’s mind, the sound “‫ ذ‬Th” represents the general process “Open Group Manifestation.” In the following example, we will see how this Divine general concept acquires a practical meaning.

171

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

In Figure 26, the Arabic word “‫( ”اذ‬Thaa) means “this” or “that.” According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Open Group” into “out of group” which means “selection.” He translates “Manifestation” into “person” or “thing.” “This” or “that” indicates a specific person or thing that has been selected out of a group. Figure 26. “Th” means “this”

Summary of Section 2 Figure 27 shows the meanings of the Divine general process types which we encountered in Section 2. We find them in the third row under “Manifestation.” They are: action, activity, event, person, place, space, time, thing, and substance. We will explain the meaning of the pyramid in Chapter 3. Figure 27. Meanings of Divine general process types in Section 2

172

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

Figure 28 shows the meanings of the Divine general process modes which we encountered in Section 2. We will explain the meaning of the ladder in Chapter 3. Figure 28. Meanings of Divine general process modes in Section 2

SECTION 3: SOUNDS OF CONTAINMENT Most of the Arabic sounds that represent the Divine general process type “Containment” are missing in English. We will represent the missing sounds with underlined English letters: “‫ ع‬O” (‘ain, sounds like rgh in aargh), “‫ ق‬Q” (qaf, very strong k sound), “‫ ن‬N” (noon, just like N), and “‫ غ‬G” (ghain, like French r). We will demonstrate the Divine general concept “containment” with Arabic examples. The sounds that represent the Divine general process type “Containment” are “‫ ع‬O”, “‫ ق‬Q”, “‫ ن‬N” and “‫ غ‬G.” They are illustrated in Figure 29 with different oval figures where colors and shape borders express the corresponding Divine general process modes. Figure 29. Sounds of containment by Divine general process mode

The Meanings of “‫ ع‬O” In God’s mind, the sound “‫ ع‬O” represents the general process “Closed Self Containment.” In the following examples, we will show how this Divine general concept acquires different meanings.

173

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

In Figure 30, the Arabic word “‫( ”ىعو‬WaOaa) means “to contain” (as in “a container”). The sound “‫ ع‬O” is the main focus. According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Closed Self” into “in itself.” He takes “Containment” as it is. A container “contains in itself.” Figure 30. “‫ ع‬O” means container

In Figure 31, the Arabic word “‫( ”ىعو‬WaOaa) means “to grasp,” “perceive,” or “get it.” The sound “‫ ع‬O” is the main focus. In God’s mind, the sound “‫ ع‬O” represents the general process “Closed Self Containment.” According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Closed Self” into “in oneself.” To “contain in oneself” means “to grasp” (e.g. what has been said). Figure 31. “‫ ع‬O” means “to grasp”

In Figure 32, the Arabic word “‫( ”َيِيَع‬OaYiYa) means “disability.” The sound “‫ ع‬O” is the main focus. In God’s mind, the sound “‫ ع‬O” represents the general process “Closed Self Containment.”

174

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Closed Self” into “limited” and “Containment” into “ability.” Figure 32. “‫ ع‬O” means “disability”

In Figure 33, the Arabic word root “‫( ”ع بر‬RBO) is used for the number “4.” The word root also contains “R” and “B” which we have not yet introduced. As we shall explain later, “B” adds “O” to itself and “R” multiplies the result by two. What does “O” mean? In God’s mind, the sound “‫ ع‬O” represents the general process “Closed Self Containment.” According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Closed Self” into “basic” as already discussed in Section 2 above at Figure 20. It seems that He also translates “Containment” into “quantity.” “O” then means “basic quantity”: number 1. Thus, the word root “‫( ”ع بر‬RBO) represents the mathematical equation 4 = 2 x (1 + 1) Figure 33. “‫ ع‬O” means “1”

175

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

The Meanings of “‫ ق‬Q” In God’s mind, the sound “‫ ق‬Q” represents the general process “Closed Group Containment.” In the following examples, we will see how this Divine general concept acquires different meanings. In Figure 34, the Arabic word root “‫( ”ىقَو‬WaQaa) means “protect.” Grammatically, “‫ ق‬Q” is the only significant sound in this word root. According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Closed Group” into “counteract” (similar to “reciprocal” in Figure 21 above). It seems that He translates “Containment” into “force.” Figure 34. “‫ ق‬Q” means “protect”

In Figure 35, the Arabic word “‫( ”يِوَق‬QaWiY) means “strong.” “‫ ق‬Q” is the main sound. In God’s mind, the sound “‫ ق‬Q” represents the general process “Closed Group Containment.” According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Closed Group” into “general” or “generic,” and it seems that He translates “Containment” into “force.”

The Meanings of “‫ ن‬N” In God’s mind, the sound “‫ ن‬N” represents the general process “Open Self Containment.” In the following examples, we will see how this Divine general concept acquires different meanings. In Figure 36, the Arabic word “‫( ”ى َن َو‬WaNaa) means “weak.” “‫ ن‬N” is the main sound. According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Open Self” into “lack” and “Containment” into “force.” Lack of force is weakness.

176

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

Figure 35. “‫ ق‬Q” means “strong”

Figure 36. “‫ ن‬N” means “weak”

In Figure 37, the Arabic word “‫( ”ى َو َن‬NaWaa) means “intention.” “‫ ن‬N” is the main sound. In God’s mind, the sound “‫ ن‬N” represents the general process “Open Self Containment.” According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Open Self” into “future” and it seems that He translates “Containment” into “energy.” It appears that God constructed the concept “intention” based on the meaning “energy for the future.” In Figure 38, the Arabic word “‫( ”ى َو َن‬NaWaa) means the “core” of a fruit or the nucleus of something. “‫ ن‬N” is the main sound. In God’s mind, the sound “‫ ن‬N” represents the general process “Open Self Containment.” According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Open Self” into “future” and it seems that He translates “Containment” into “energy” or “resources.” 177

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

Figure 37. “‫ ن‬N” means “intention”

It is as if the core of a fruit is a source of energy for us (like nuts), or the seed of a plant is a resource for growing future plants. Figure 38. “‫ ن‬N” means “core”

The Meanings of “‫ غ‬G” In God’s mind, the sound “‫ غ‬G” represents the general process “Open Group Containment.” In the following examples, we will see how this Divine general concept acquires different meanings. In Figure 39, the Arabic word “‫( ”ى َو َغ‬GaWaa) means “to become a wrongdoer” or to lose one’s way. “‫ غ‬G” is the main sound. According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded

178

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

in the past, God appears to translate “Open Group” into “not-in-group” or “outside” and “Containment” into “law and order.” To become a wrongdoer is to go outside law and order. In Figure 40, the Arabic word “‫( ”ي ي َغ‬GaYY) means “punishment.” “‫ غ‬G” is the main sound. In God’s mind, the sound “‫ غ‬G” represents the general process “Open Group Containment.” According to fleeting Divine inspirations that we received and recorded in the past, God appears to translate “Open Group” into “take-apart” which is destructive. It seems that He translates “Containment” into “force.” Destructive force may be used as a punishment. Figure 39. “‫ غ‬G” means “wrongdoer”

Figure 40. “‫ غ‬G” means “punishment”

179

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

Summary of Section 3 Figure 41 shows the meanings of the Divine general process types which we encountered in Section 3. We find them in the first row under “Containment.” They are: contain, force, ability, quantity, energy, resources, law and order. We will explain the meaning of the pyramid in Chapter 3. Figure 41. Meanings of Divine general process types in Section 3

Figure 42 shows the meanings of Divine general process modes which we encountered in Section 3. We will explain the meaning of the ladder in Chapter 3. Figure 42. Meanings of Divine general process modes in Section 3

180

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 1 Figure 43 shows the meanings of the Divine general process types which we encountered in all three sections of Chapter 1. We find them in three rows. We will explain the meaning of the pyramid in Chapter 3. Figure 43. Meanings of Divine general process types in Chapter 1

Figure 44 shows the meanings of the Divine general process modes which we encountered in all three sections of Chapter 1. We will explain the meaning of the ladder in Chapter 3. Figure 44. Meanings of Divine general process modes in Chapter 1

181

 The Nature of the Relationship Between Sounds and Their Meanings

REFERENCES Adi, T. (1989). Method and apparatus to identify the relation of meaning between words in text expressions, U.S. Patent 4,848,898. Retrieved from https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US4849898.pdf Adi, T. (2007). A theory of semantics based on old Arabic. In R. Gudwin & J. Queiroz (Eds.), Semiotics and intelligent systems development (pp. 176–209). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-59904063-9.ch007 Adi, T. (2009). A theory of emotions based on natural language semantics. In J. Vallverdú & D. Casacuberta (Eds.), Handbook of research on synthetic emotions and sociable robotics, new applications in affective computing and artificial intelligence. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-60566-354-8.ch016 Adi, T. (2015a). A framework of cognition and conceptual structures based on deep semantics. International Journal of Conceptual Structures and Smart Applications, 3(1), 1–19. doi:10.4018/IJCSSA.2015010101 Adi, T. (2015b). The semantic dominance of emotional templates in cognitive structures. International Journal of Synthetic Emotions, 6(2), 1–13. doi:10.4018/IJSE.2015070101 Adi, T. (2017). Cognitive Modeling Systems in Information Technology, Psychology, and Business. Video lecture. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Adi, T., & Ewell, O. K. (1987). Letter semantics in Arabic morphology. Proceedings from the Morphology Workshop of the 1987 Linguistic Institute Conference. Retrieved July 2008, from http://www. readware.com/papers/ltr_sem.doc Adi, T., Ewell, O. K., Adi, P., & Vogel, T. (2009). A new theory of cognition and software implementations in information technology. Journal of Information Technology Research, 2(2), 65–89. doi:10.4018/ jitr.2009040105 Adi, T., Ewell, O. K., Vogel, T., Payton, K., & Hippchen, J. L. (2013). Muhkam algorithmic models of real world processes for intelligent technologies. International Journal of Robotics Applications and Technologies, 1(2), 56–82. doi:10.4018/ijrat.2013070105 Adi, T., Ewell, O. K., Vogel, T., Payton, K., & Hippchen, J. L. (2014). Adaptive interoperable models of all things based on human language. In Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology (3rd ed.). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Adi, T., & Nevers, G. (2014). A consumer choice theory incorporating behavioral and spiritual wisdom. Chinese Business Review, 13(10), 624-641. Al-Qur’an. (1992). Medina: Mujamma Publishers. Hermanns, W., & Einstein, A. (1983). Einstein and the Poet. In Search of the Cosmic Man. Brookline, MA: Branden Press. Saussure, F. (1916). Cours de linguistique générale. Paris: Payot. Tiner, J. H. (2006). Exploring the World of Physics: From Simple Machines to Nuclear Energy. Green Forest, AR: Mater Books. This research was previously published in Deep Semantics and the Evolution of New Scientific Theories and Discoveries; pages 1-36, copyright year 2019 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

182

183

Chapter 5

Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers: A Key to Improve Stakeholder Relationships of SMEs Sandra Bibiana Clavijo-Olmos https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8493-8992 EAN University, Colombia

ABSTRACT This chapter describes how since successful communication with stakeholders is a vital process for every company, it is necessary to consider language and cultural barriers as external factors to internationalize SMEs, that company owners must consider carefully. The language industry is constantly growing and getting stronger to supply business needs and to support SMEs in their internationalization processes. A survey was applied to a sample of Translation Service Providers in order to analyze the physical, digital and human resources they use in their translation processes. It found that they use different state of the art digital resources, they do not really use physical resources frequently (different from dictionaries) and they include proofreaders and experts in different areas as human resources, in addition to specialized translators, in their processes. As a conclusion, Translation Service Providers are getting prepared to support companies and especially to promote the internationalization of SMEs, by helping them break language and cultural barriers.

INTRODUCTION This chapter analyzes the influence of adequate communication between small and medium enterprises and their stakeholders in their internationalization process. It explains linguistic and cultural barriers that can obstacle business relations, when small and medium enterprises want to expand their markets and enter a different commercial environment. Any company having internationalization processes may face communication problems to access new markets, because of the lack of knowledge of linguistic DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch005

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

differences of the target culture. As García et al (2016) show about the importance of language in internationalizing companies, sharing the same language reduces a lot of transactions to be made abroad. They also consider that language is cultural and historical “bridge” that shortens distances among individuals and countries. Small and medium enterprises opening markets to international environments should consider these differences to reduce unnecessary costs. When small and medium enterprises are getting involved in international operations, their communications with stakeholders must be as natural and fluent as possible, to project the best image and avoid misunderstandings. As García, Alonso and Jiménez (2016) state: the use of a common language is a decisive factor to know about foreign markets, to reduce the psychological distance between physical barriers and to make businesses closer and more attractive to enter new markets. That is a very strong reason for small and medium enterprises to translate its corporate texts such as website contents, the portfolio of its services and some other specific communications into the native language of its target audience. For this reason, proper semantic translation of documents and general contents of sources of information of small and medium enterprises is a necessary tool, to improve internationalization processes in specific foreign markets. Opening to new markets implies knowing other cultures and localizing language to be close to customers and in general to all stakeholders. It means communicating in the right way and using the right messages. Adequate, high quality translations enable small and medium enterprises have appropriate communication with stakeholders abroad. Having the website translated into different languages, offering corporate information in the language of customers. Even more, sending everyday messages abroad, not only readable, but also understandable, creates a friendly environment for a company to enter into new markets. Translation becomes a valuable asset to make small and medium enterprises expand abroad. This chapter also includes the results of a research project that is aimed at determining the trends of the Colombian translation industry, to support the internationalization process of small and medium enterprises. This study identifies different resources including physical, digital and human to translate documents, as a support for small and medium enterprises involved in international environments. In addition, it describes the areas in which companies require more translation services in order to get into foreign markets.

BACKGROUND The Revista Dinero, a well-known business magazine, wrote about Colombian small and medium enterprises in its edition issued on September 16th, 2015. It stated that Small and Medium Enterprises not only offer 64% of employment in Colombia, but they also contribute with 30% of the GDP and participate with 94.6% of the industry. According to this magazine, they have become into a strong commitment to reach the internationalization of Economy and growth rates required by Colombia to decrease poverty. It means that Colombian SMEs are hardly supported to begin their internationalization processes. Programs like MIPYME INTERNACIONAL are created by PROCOLOMBIA (the Colombian entity that promotes international tourism, foreign investment and non-traditional exports) to encourage small and medium enterprises that have highly demanded products in international markets, to create their foreign trade areas, as specified in the website of PROCOLOMBIA. This program is mainly proposed for business in the agricultural, agro-industrial and manufacturing industry. It means that small and medium enterprises have excellent support and opportunities to expand their markets abroad. 184

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

The internationalization process of small and medium enterprises is considered a corporate learning process, as stated by Johanson and Vahlne (1990). It means that companies must follow an international behavior to enter into foreign markets. Barbosa and Ayala, (2014) mention four approaches based on different authors such as Williamson (1975), Alonso and Donoso (1994), Weinnam (1989) and some others, to explain the international behavior of companies. (p. 177). The first one refers to companies that follow an economic perspective focused on the analysis of international operations of multinational companies. The second refers to companies that are focused on a process that involves increasing learning and resources in order to guarantee that companies prevail in foreign markets. The third one is centered on a strategic perspective and proves that internationalization success depends on the integration of resources in networks, and its adaptation to international environments. The last one is called “born global” approach, in which just born companies (no more than two years old) want to internationalize, as stated by Barbosa and Ayala (2014). As a conclusion, the expansion of small and medium enterprises into foreign markets is a matter of learning to get adapted to a new cultural behavior. The approach they apply depends on the trends they have to go international. Bianchi and Ostale (2006), mentioned in Clavijo (2013) refer to some governmental, cultural or psychological differences companies may consider when having relations with foreign parties. In general, the success of a business in its local place does not guarantee its success in a foreign place. As Clavijo (2013) states: a very simple reason for a company to fail in international markets is communication problems caused by the lack of knowledge of a foreign language and the cultural aspects of prospect foreign partners. (p. 129). When small and medium enterprises want to internationalize their activities, they can face language and cultural problems that generate unwanted effects. Those linguistic and cultural barriers may lead to misunderstandings that can even project the wrong image of the company. As a result, small and medium enterprises can lose potential contracts and their expansion strategies can be affected. Using the language of clients is essential to internationalize small and medium enterprises. Harzing, Köster and Magner (2011) cited by García, Alonso and Jiménez (2016, p. 80-81) summarize the three most frequent solutions to the linguistic barriers that companies may face when growing international as follows: • • •

Redundacy: It means asking the other party to repeat information, mainly referring to meetings and verbal contacts, until it has been completely understood. Changing the Means of Communication: It means using more written than oral communication, since differences in pronunciation and accents may difficult understanding. It implies using more emails than telephone conversations. Code Switching: It means using the native language of stakeholders to talk to them, and using the native language of the staff of the company to communicate with them. However, this is the least recommended solution because it may irritate people who do not understand the other language and have to listen to the conversation.

A very frequent error made by companies growing internationally is to translate its content, without considering cultural differences. Using literal, non-professional translation is the worst mistake companies can make when opening to new markets abroad. Brooks (2013) described at Business news daily, an American website designed to support small businesses, some international fails in marketing campaigns caused by translating without taking into account the culture of the target language. These are clear examples of disastrous outcomes for companies to be mentioned below: 185

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

HSBC HSBC Bank was forced to rebrand its entire global private banking operations after bringing a U.S. campaign overseas. In 2009, the worldwide bank spent millions of dollars to scrap its 5-year-old “Assume Nothing” campaign. Problems arose when the message was brought overseas, where it was translated in many countries as “Do Nothing.” In the end, the bank spent $10 million to change its tagline to “The world’s private bank,” which has a much more friendly translation.

Ford Auto giant Ford found that in Belgium, enticing customers with a dead body in every car isn’t the best way to make a sale. Hoping to highlight the cars’ excellent manufacturing, Ford launched an ad campaign in the European country that execs thought said “Every car has a high-quality body.” However, when translated, the slogan read, “Every car has a high-quality corpse” — far from the image they were hoping to invoke.

MAIN FOCUS OF THE CHAPTER This chapter is divided into six main parts in order to explain the importance of adequate communication in a second language, to avoid communication barriers between small and medium enterprises (following internationalization processes) and their stakeholders. First of all, it describes how successful communication with foreign stakeholders should be. It emphasizes on the importance of solid language management strategies. Then, it describes foreign language and foreign culture as two external barriers small and medium enterprises may face, if they don’t manage language strategies properly. So, the role of translators is essential to break these barriers and manage language as a valuable intangible asset. After this, it describes how the language industry in the world works and its role to promote adequate and high quality communication between companies and its stakeholders, when having internationalization processes. The language industry is very solid and has excellent perspectives, mainly due to the internationalization and globalization processes of businesses everywhere. It also includes the role of translators as the main actors of the language industry and the resources they apply in their processes. It shows how this role has changed with the evolution and proper use of technological resources. After this, it analyzes how translation works in Colombia, by identifying how Language Service Providers support small and medium enterprises when getting international. Finally, the last section also includes the results of a research study about physical, digital and human resources applied by translation service providers.

1. Successful Communication With Foreign Stakeholders A key aspect for a company to be competitive is to have successful communication strategies that help them overcome barriers easily. Effective communication becomes a valuable strategy companies must manage, not only within the company, but also with their stakeholders. Small and medium enterprises should take effective communication with stakeholders as a starting point to expand operations abroad. Bourne (2009, p.15) defines stakeholders as individuals or groups who will be impacted by, or can influence the success or failure of the organization´ s activities. For example, in the case of small and 186

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

medium enterprises expanding markets abroad, communication with prospect investors, carriers and even foreign customers may lead the company to be successful or not. Communication plays an essential role to understand stakeholders’ expectations in order to satisfy them, to share common goals and to be adapted to the new market culture. Bourne (2009, p. 35) defines some aspects as the fundamentals for an effective communication plan, which are: • • •

The Purpose of Communication: What the team needs to achieve through communication, The Most Appropriate Information: Most effective message format and delivery method, Targeted to meet the expectations and requirements of the stakeholder and the capacity and capability of the team.

Considering these aspects from the beginning increases the chance of success for small and medium enterprises expanding markets abroad. They should also refer to cultural differences to deliver messages, including negotiation techniques, rules of courtesy and even levels of power within the company to transmit the right message in the right way. When small and medium enterprises want to become international, they have to get adapted to the local business customs of the target culture. Brannen & Doz (2012) argue: Corporate language can therefore facilitate or limit strategic growth. Although some researchers have argued that what matters is what firms do, not how their managers think, without language there is not explicit thought. (p. 79). The use of proper language within a company and also with its stakeholders facilitates the internationalization of small and medium enterprises. Small and medium enterprises following internationalization processes need planning, constant feedback and proper leadership abilities to make proper communication a mean of constructing satisfactory relationships abroad. Different words have different impact on stakeholders. Effective communication enables them to understand their expectations and achieve goals in a natural way, in order to build strong business relationships that prevent potential problems, which could reduce opportunities small and medium enterprises may have in new markets. Small and medium enterprises have to build trust and create good relationship with local stakeholders by communicating with them properly, in their local language. Filling language gaps allows companies and their stakeholders to create strong relationships that help them grow in international markets. García (2012) refers to three levels in terms of communication activities, which are strategic, operational and tactical. (p. 23). This author considers strategic level of communication directly related to the business goals, since it helps to plan effectively, to win the marketplace securing trust and confidence. The operational level is aimed at winning communication campaigns, by anticipating stakeholder reaction and adapting to their needs. The tactical level is considered as where communication actually takes place. It includes press release, speech, e-mail, press conference. In summary, all these three levels of communication are to be made in a foreign language when internationalizing, so messages can clearly be delivered to the different stakeholders and following the three levels of communication activities mentioned above. Creating appropriate language management strategies in a second language, for small and medium enterprises that want to internationalize their markets, becomes an essential component of the expansion policy. As the European Commission (2011 p. 9) states: language management strategy is a company’s package of measures and techniques used to prevent linguistic and cultural barriers from occurring in new and expanding foreign markets. Intercultural communication means being able to adapt commu187

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

nication to different cultures in order to describe the business to prospect clients or partners, offer the right advertising campaigns according to different cultural contexts and provide appropriate customer care. Small and medium enterprises have to determine their language management policies as strategies before beginning their internationalization processes.

2. Foreign Language and Foreign Culture: Two External Barriers In order to talk about barriers to enter foreign markets, authors like Arbaugh, et al. (2008) include lack of knowledge of international markets and cultural differences as two of the most important. They argue: …lack of knowledge with regard to regulations, language, technical standards, the availability of qualified international employees, and general information and understanding reduce the skill (and therefore capacity) of entrepreneurs to enter new international markets. (p. 369). It means that small and medium enterprises beginning internationalization processes should consider these aspects to avoid cultural problems and overcome these barriers. In addition, every company has its own internal culture that begins to change with the expansion of the company, and even more when facing a different culture. In those cases, SMEs have to be open and adapt their behavior to the new circumstances. Good leadership may result in the acceptance of the new culture and learning from each other in order to have more opportunities in the foreign market. According to Hannan and Freeman (1984), Johanson and Vahlne (2009), Stinchcombe (1965) and Zaheer (1995), all of them cited by Kahiya (2014): Exporting SMEs have to function within the confines of ‘newness’ and ‘smallness’, while at the host market level they have to contend with ‘foreignness’ or ‘outsidership’. (p. 354). It means adapting themselves to new cultural environments with new challenges to consider. Successful small and medium enterprises in a local environment must learn to grow properly in a foreign market. They have to be prepared by analyzing the new cultural and linguistic circumstances of the host market in advance, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of becoming international. In terms of language, as García, Alonso and Jiménez (2016, p. 77) state, any language has a triple function from the economic perspective. They explain as follows: • • •

As raw material or main input of goods to be produced or services to be rendered As means of communication that is shared and makes a negotiation easier As a sign of collective identity, expression of intangible and symbolic links that make economic relations easier.

These authors also state that language differences between companies and their stakeholders increase internationalization costs. They also mention that stages like Identification of partners, knowledge of the market, definition of contractual obligations, and negotiations are easier when information flows and there is a friendly environment created by the use of the same language (p. 78). 188

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

It means that language is an intangible asset small and medium enterprises have to consider when they want to enter into international markets. It is their tool for mutual understanding and interaction to make transactions abroad. Companies that do no manage the native language of their foreign partners will not be able to begin negotiations or to transmit their interests in international environments. That is why language is considered as input for small and medium enterprises to begin international negotiations. In terms of linguistic diversity, proper semantic translation avoids barriers small and medium enterprises may face when opening markets abroad. Poor quality translations can affect the company’s reputation. Those language constraints reduce value to the company and may make the company lose potential customers. The right use of language and the correct translations can be considered an essential element to internationalize a SME. It implies having corporate documents properly translated according to the target context and culture to break communication barriers. Different scholars like Muñoz-Calvo (2010) and Zabalbescoa (2000) have studied the relation between translation and cultural identity and analyzed it in the globalized world, compared to the role of the translator to transmit those aspects and to shape cultures. In addition, globalization and the concept of “the global village” make countries apply specific strategies to compete to be relevant in domestic and foreign markets. Those strategies include the recognition of corporate policies, the projection of a positive image of the company abroad and the attraction of investors to open markets for exportations. Small and medium enterprises must manage clear linguistic policies and transmit them to their translators, in order to make communication a valuable asset in their internationalization processes, instead of causing language barriers because of the lack of understanding between companies and their stakeholders. Internationalizing means beginning to explore new cultural options, so it implies being aware of cultural and linguistic differences and absorbing them. It means adapting to new aspects of the target culture. Including clear language management strategies for the host country where small and medium enterprises will have internationalization processes will enable small and medium enterprises have clear information to show it to stakeholders and especially to potential customers. In this sense, proficient translators become key actors of the internationalization processes of small and medium enterprises. The European Commission (2011) discusses the importance of high quality translations to project the positive image of businesses. It specifies a clear relation between these translations, image of the company and confidence of clients based on the communication they receive. For example, one of the biggest problems in terms of cultural diversity that translators working for companies going international may face is to transmit corporate values and culture in a foreign country. So, there is a group of experts that combine their expertise in translation and English as target language, with their knowledge of corporate culture. These translations have to follow a market research process, before they are launched to the market, in order to verify its real intention and acceptance in the target language, avoiding cultural mistakes that may cause a negative effect for the company. When translators receive texts written in Spanish to be spread to different countries, mainly to the United States as Colombia’s largest trading partner, they have to translate them into American English. In those cases, they must be aware of possible problems they will face such as: •

Original texts written in Spanish have long and repetitive sentences that cannot be translated in the same way. Syntax has to change and sometimes translations are paraphrased texts, maintaining the idea of the original. It means translators should follow more semantic than literal translation processes.

189

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

• •

Original texts have too many negative words to transmit a positive message. So, translators have to use transposition to change the negative words into a positive message in order to project a positive attitude of the company. Original texts have too much, related but not relevant information that may confuse the readers. Translators have to edit texts, and focus on the real message to transmit it directly, based on the cultural characteristics of the target audience.

In summary, translators act as communication agents between small and medium enterprises and their stakeholders in a foreign country. They facilitate communication processes and improve business relationships, when they consider the target audience and the target culture to transmit a message coming from a specific corporate culture. Translators make possible the interaction between small and medium enterprises and their stakeholders, since they have to transmit their feelings and ideas to make mutual understanding possible. They break cultural and linguistic barriers for small and medium enterprises that enter into international markets with a different target language. They help the company manage language as an intangible and differential asset that adds value to the internationalization process.

3. The Language Industry In order to describe the language industry, it is mandatory to cite an analysis made by ELIA1, EUATC2 and GALA3 supported by the EMT4 university network called: “2016 Language Industry Survey – Expectations and Concerns of the European Language Industry-.” This survey, published by GALA in its website, received 445 responses from 35 countries, and the results were considered sufficiently reliable. 293 out of 445 respondents described themselves as translation companies (LSPs5), while 107 considered themselves as individual professionals (independent translators or interpreters). 30 translation departments in companies or public institutions, 11 training institutes, 3 translation tool providers and 1 association were also included. Some of the findings were: • • • • • •

190

The average European translation company is small to very small, with 60% below the €1 m sales level. 75% have less than 20 employees with 56% fewer than 10. Only 8% represent the large and very large segments with a sales volume exceeding € 5m or more than 50 employees. Technology is strongly embedded in the language industry, with only 7% of translation companies not using computer aided translation, and 40% already reporting that they are using machine translation in one form or another. Translation management and workflow systems are surprisingly well utilized in the industry, with 84% of the companies using some form of this technology. In terms of recruitment, language service providers attach strong importance to formal educational degrees without relying exclusively on them. Legal services are the most widely served type of customer, followed by manufacturing, financial services, life sciences, automotive and customer electronics. The most important criteria in LSPs recruitment are native language competence, foreign language competence and translation competence, computer assisted translation tool skills, localization competence, organizational skills, interpersonal skills and generic ICT skills.

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

Just to add some more facts, this worldwide industry is growing at an annual rate of 5.52%, according to the 2016 report of Common Sense Advisory published by GALA. In addition, Inc. magazine considers this industry as one of the top industries for starting a business. The projected growth rate is 6.5 to 7.5 annually through 2018 as mentioned in the Global Market Study 2015 made by Common Sense Advisory. These are just some of the findings of the language industry that demonstrate how strong it is. It also mentions the resources they use, showing that translators must use state of the art technologies and be ready to collaborate businesses expand their markets, as communication bridges. Some other market studies such as the one made by De Palma et al (2016) demonstrate that the language industry is constantly growing. They surveyed 728 translation providers from their global database of more than 18,500 firms finding that: People around the world prefer communicating in their native tongue. That fact will drive the language industry to US $40 billion in revenue for 2016. To support this growth, language service and technology providers are extending their repertoire beyond basic translation, localization, and interpreting to embrace their clients’ global content strategy. They are offering new services, building new tools, and linking their processes and technology with that of their customers to provide better, faster, and more reliable products and services. To complement the previously mentioned studies, the main findings of a report made by Common Sense Advisory, one of the leading market research firms on the language industry in 2016 are going to be mentioned, as follows as published online: • • •

The language industry grows at an annual rate of 5.52. Localization is the 4th fastest-growing industry in the United States. The industry is diverse and technology-driven, with an increasing impact on both global and regional economies. Three key facts to consider are: The size of the overall global language industry in 2016 is estimated at $40 billion (USD), with estimates of up to $45 Billion by 2020. The projected growth rate is 6.5-7.5% annually through 2018. The size of the language technology industry is estimated at €29 billion.

Krasny (2014) describes at Inc., the American magazine that has offered information about how to start and grow your business for more than 30 years, published an article about the translation industry. This article describes translation as one of the top industries to start a business. It explains the importance of this growing industry to support companies that are entering international and global markets. It also emphasizes on the trend consumers are following about their preference to communicate themselves in their own language, and contrasts it with the importance of projecting the best image of the company by using the appropriate language. Another study made by Common Sense Advisory produced the 2016 report on the Language industry specifying the top 20 Language Service Providers. This information can be observed below, noticing that they are mainly located in the United States and Europe. Company 1: Lionbridge from the United States Company 2: TransPerfect from the United States Company 3: HPE ACG from France 191

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

Company 4: LanguagLine Solutions from the United States Company 5: SDL from the Great Britain Company 6: RWS Group from the Great Britain Company 7: Welocalize from the United States Company 8: STAR Group from Switzerland Company 9: Amplexor from Luxembourg Company 10: Moravia from the Czech Republic Company 11: Hogarth Worldwide from the Great Britain Company 12: CyraCom International, inc from the US Company 13: RR Donnelley Language Solutions from the US Company 14: Semantix from Sweden Company 15: Honyaku Center Inc. From Japan Company 16: Pactera Technology International Limited from China Company 17: Ubiqus from France Company 18: Keywords Studios from Great Britain Company 19: Logos Group from Italy Company 20: Capita Translation and Interpreting from Great Britain The above-mentioned list of companies includes very big and well-known Language Service Providers around the world that mainly support companies to expand their markets by offering translation and localization services. Translators that can help small and medium enterprises become international do not follow isolated translation processes, as they were used to do in the past. Efficient translators manage technological resources that help them be more productive. Translators today do not only translate texts, but they manage translation projects, they localize and globalize texts. Their services are mainly required by multinational companies, global companies or companies going international or global. According to GALA, as published online, the language industry professionals offer globalization, internationalization, localization and translation and interpretation services. This industry also includes different stakeholders such as: Language service providers (LSPs) adapt products and services for consumption in multilingual markets. LSPs provide expertise on the language, culture, customs, and other characteristics of the target locale(s) and include both translation and interpreting companies. Translation companies focus primarily on delivering written text, such as product labels, websites, documentation, and marketing communications. Interpreting companies transmit spoken information for meetings and conferences, telephone conversations, medical and legal situations, and more. Service providers are often classified by the number of languages they handle. Multi-language vendors (MLV) work with many languages and markets; Single-language vendors (SLV) primarily deliver language services in a single language pair; Regional-language vendors cover regional areas of languages and markets, for example Eastern Europe or the Middle East. Some other stakeholders of this industry, as mentioned by GALA are: •

192

Language technology and software developers who create tools to manage the different steps of the translation management process.

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

• • •

Localization and translation teams who work in-house or as freelancers. Researchers, specialized publications, training companies, and academic and university programs around the world. Globalization and localization consultants who help optimize processes and budgets.

All of the previously mentioned studies determine that the translation industry is constantly growing and has very positive projections. Translation businesses are in high demand. Their services are constantly needed, so the demand for high quality translation services is quickly growing. The language industry is definitely necessary to help small and medium enterprises overcome language and cultural barriers to become international. All services that this industry offers are in constant demand by companies and that is why this industry has grown and experienced so many changes. Linguists, who are the core professionals of this industry have to diversity their tasks and be ready to use the appropriate technological tools computational linguists are developing in order to support companies by solving their linguistic problems.

4. The Role of Translators As Massion (2013) states: “Today’s working environment of translators is entirely different and the evolution still hasn’t come to a halt.” (p. 57). This author highlights the multidisciplinary knowledge and extensive use of networks by translators, to find information or terminology. Massion (2013, p. 60) divides technologies used by translators as follows: •





Translation management technologies talking about various technologies used to manage, deliver and invoice translation projects. Most of their tasks are assigned and delivered by email. These resources are also very useful to manage different formats in order to translate texts. It means to manage files that are compressed or cannot be easily modified. These tools reduce administrative workload. Translation technologies are also evolving since the early eighties when the first computer assisted translation programs appeared. These resources help translators to handle memories and create term bases, while translating. These resources help translators be more productive and precise in their tasks. Some of the most commonly used are TRADOS and Deja Vu, and some of the most popular, and free are Memo Q, Omega T and Wordfast Anywhere. Depending on the language pairs and the step of the translation process, some translators also use Machine Translation that translates automatically. That is why only language experts should use this tool in the pre-translation stage. In this case, translators become editors of the resulting text of the MT program. Communication technologies are used to have contact with clients or peers. They include translation portals, blogs, forums, webinars, virtual conferences, and many others created by translators and for translators. They make translation a global activity, where exchanging information has no physical barriers. Some of the most widely known by translators are Proz, which includes glossaries, forum, sharing resources, and some other tools for translators; Wordreference that incorporates two dictionaries and also includes forum; logos and some others.

193

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

The evolution of the translator’s role also refers to local and global translation standards that certify the quality of translations as final products that result from a very precise process, in which every step can be demonstrated. The main translation standards are the following: •

• •





ISO 17100 Translation Services – Requirements for Translation Services: This is the International Standards Organization guide that was launched in 2015. It includes the means by which a TSP (Translation Service Provider) delivers translation services meeting the client and some other specifications. Most of the countries are comparing and reorganizing their own standards based on this one. ISO 11669 Translation Projects – General Guidance: This standard was launched in 2015, and specifies how to manage translation projects. It includes the phases, specifications and parameters of translation projects and also describes terminology work and machine translation use. ASTM F2575 -14 Standard Guide for Quality Assurance in Translation: Which is intended to facilitate clear communication, thereby avoiding potential losses in time, money and quality during the life of a translation project, as specified in 4.1 Audience of the same guide. This is a standard for American translators. EN 15038 Translation Services: Service Requirements, which is considered national standard in CEN countries such as Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. Its purpose, as specified in the document and confirmed by the FIT (International Federation of Translators) is to ensure high-quality translation services, fair competition, improved transparency and end user satisfaction. NTC 5808 Translation Services: It specifies the requirements to deliver translation services, as determined by ICONTEC (Colombian Institute for Technical Standards and Certification). It is aimed at defining the requirements that translation service providers must fulfill in order to provide translation services. It specifies human, technical and technological requirements, as well as quality and procedures to render translation services.

In order to provide adequate services for companies, and especially for small and medium enterprises that are growing internationally, translation service providers have clear requirements to follow according to the standards already mentioned. These standards allow translators demonstrate quality in their processes. In general terms, as specified in these standards, every translation process should include the following steps: • • •

194

Step 1 - Preparation of the Project: The project manager organizes all the human, physical and digital resources needed to develop the project. This step also includes the initial contact with the client to determine the project needs and specifications. Step 2 - Documentation: This step consists of understanding the main principles and concepts developed in the document to be translated. Some linguists can take this role. Step 3 - Terminology: A group of members of the project prepares a glossary unifying the key terms of the text and including the translation of difficult and specific terms.

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

• • • •

Step 4 – Translation: A specific team of in-house or freelance translators prepares a first version of the translated text by using computer assisted translation programs and other available resources. Step 5 – Proofreading: This task is aimed at reviewing the translated text in order to secure terminological and syntactic consistency. It means that the text will look as translated by one single person, not as an addition of different pieces of information. Step 6 - Technical Revision: This step is intended to check that the whole text was translated and that it follows the same form of the original. Step 7 – Editing: This is the final review made by the project manager, who is responsible of the complete process and is the direct contact with the client.

The above-mentioned standards certify quality in translation processes. Companies that want to get certified ask certification organisms and demonstrate them their processes step by step. This certificate of quality makes clients feel satisfied with their translated documents. Nowadays to complement the role of translators, there is a very important position required to guarantee this process. Now, translations are not just documents to be delivered, but projects to be managed. The main role that has evolved in this industry refers to project managers, who are now in charge of organizing and coordinating translation teams formed by people in the same or different locations. It means, preparing a translation project developed by outsourced experts who complement each other based on their cultural, and maybe geographical diversity, to achieve a common goal. It implies that project managers are responsible for developing the right skills, using the right resources and tools to meet the requirements of the project following the client specifications. Translators today have to offer more than linguistic expertise in two or more languages. They have to manage projects and to be specialists in different specialized sublanguages, as demanded by their clients. Their competences also involve managerial skills, strategic skills, technological skills and even team working skills. Competent translators also have the ability to localize language according to the target audience. It implies applying intralinguistic translation techniques to deliver a message understandable in a specific cultural context. It means adapting the language to the specific target audience, taking into account linguistic differences that may arise depending on the cultural and geographic situations of the audience. In summary, translators have to certify quality in their tasks in order to satisfy the needs of their clients and offer the right tools to make small and medium enterprises expand their markets. It means offering them proper communication with stakeholders abroad in their native language. It is an excellent opportunity and also a big challenge for translators to use the right physical and technological resources to deliver high quality translations as intangible assets of small and medium enterprises expanding markets abroad.

5. Language Service Providers (LSP) in Colombia Although translation in Colombia is considered as an occupation, not a profession, as it occurs in most of the world countries, the demand for qualified translators in Colombia is constantly growing, mainly in business areas. As the author of this chapter stated before, it is basically caused by internationalization of business and opening of new markets abroad. As mentioned by Clavijo (2013):

195

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

Although Colombian translators engage in different areas of knowledge, not only one, there is a general trend to the translation of Business languages such as financial, banking or even legal languages. (p. 106). The opening of markets and the need for internationalizing small and medium enterprises requires more and more high quality translated documents. This fact demands a strong and highly qualified translation industry to respond to the market needs, even more when translation is not only based on local needs, but mainly on global needs. Colombian translators can be part of translation teams located in different parts of the world, or can also work as freelancers using online communication with their clients. However, the characteristic that differentiates their competences and adds value to their job is specialization. As businesses are growing internationally or even globally, the demand for translators who can deliver high quality specialized translations is also growing. Orozco-Jutorán (2012) states the following stages of specialized translation: the process starts with the “translation request”, which includes the intention of the client for the translated text. It means telling the translator the purpose of the translated text and the type of reader who is going to receive the document. This information helps the translator use proper registry and terminology according to the audience and made the translation easy readable and understandable. The second stage proposed by Orozco refers to the analysis of the source text, referring to how specialized the text is, the characteristics of the author and the reader. This analysis helps the translator transmit the real message companies want to transmit, their identity and intention in a very natural manner. The third stage proposes the documentation plan in order to focus on the topic its lf, its terminology, context and co-text by using the adequate resources. After following these stages, the translator gets his / her first version of the translated text. If this translator follows translation standards, he / she should make the translation revised by a specialist in the topic of the translated text, in order to proofread the document, verifying its content and the correct and understandable transfer of information. Then, a linguist reads the document to verify the correct use of equivalence, terminology, phraseology and general linguistic features of the translated text. Following these stages to certify quality in translated texts will really help SMEs break language and cultural barriers and transmit the right message to stakeholders abroad. Translation clients classify translators in Colombia into certified and non-certified translators. It means translators who took and approved the “official translation exam” and translators who may have studies or just experience, but who have not taken or approved the exam. People who do not really know how the translation industry operates make this classification. It means that approving an exam that does not have any previous requirement different from getting registered and paying for the registry does not really show the translator’s competence. Even more, it may demonstrate the ability to translate and interpret an official document, not any kind of document. Although Colombian universities offer just a few studies in translation, translators are getting more and more specialized in translation by taking formal study programs abroad. This specialization includes becoming a translator of specific areas of knowledge, which really prepares translators to become professionals, no matter if they are certified as “official” or not. Referring to certification, it is essential to clarify that Colombian translators are exclusively certified to translate public or private official documents, which is very different from being certified as professional translators. Art. 251 and Art. 252 of the Colombian Code of Civil Procedure define public and private documents, which means that only those documents that are have legal purposes in Colombia and will have these purposes abroad, or the opposite documents that have legal purposes abroad and will preserve those purposes in Colombia, need to be translated by an officially certified Colombian translator. When someone needs an official 196

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

translator, this person should visit the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that includes a list including all official translators in Colombia. It is organized by language combination, offering more than twenty language combinations, and also by geographical location. The list includes more than nine hundred translators. In summary, official translators translate very specific documents. Thus, more certifications are needed for Colombian translators based on their areas of expertise. It means that organizations like translators’ associations should be in charge of administering tests to certify translators in different areas, as they do in other countries. For example, in the United States ATA6 groups and certifies translators in different areas. Users of translation services know that ATA certified translators offer high quality in their tasks. Even though, Colombian experienced Translation Service Providers help companies to communicate with their stakeholders in their native target language. Business specialized Colombian translators are highly demanded by companies from different industries. Their role is essential to make companies grow by having efficient communication processes in different languages.

6. A Small Sample of Translators in Colombia A study was developed with a small sample of professional translators in Colombia, aimed at determining some trends of the translation industry that may help small and medium enterprises expand abroad and grow internationally. For this purpose, a group of 20 professional, experienced translators was selected to apply them a survey about industries and business areas where they performed their job and which resources they used. This sample included freelance translators and translation agencies. It was also designed to determine physical, digital and human resources, as tools to provide translation services for small and medium enterprises, and to collaborate these companies in their internationalization processes. The findings were grouped as follows: To identify the main industries that translation service providers work for, the surveyed translators were given a list of sectors to classify them into the three sectors that demand their services the most and the results for the sector selected as number one were: • • • • • • • •

Financial 30% Transportation 10% Services 10% Mining and energy 10% Construction 10% Education 10% Technology 10% Pharmaceutical 10%.

In the second place came financial 20%, industrial 20%, transportation 10%, services 10%, mining 10%, construction 10%, communications 10%, and trade 10%. In the third place, the surveyed respondents answered services 20%, communications 20%, trade 20%, financial 10%, transportation 10%, agribusiness 10% and credit unions 10%. Based on the previous data, the surveyed group showed to have more demands from the financial sector and also clearly showed to work for all of the different sectors, without a clear difference among them.

197

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

Surveyed translators were also asked to identify the three business areas that require translation services the most, and the results for the first area were: • • • • • • •

Legal 30% Accounting and finance 20% Managerial 10% Production 10% Marketing 10% International 10% Technological 10%.

In the second place came legal 30%, managerial 30%, accounting and finance 20%, production 10% and marketing 10%. In third place managerial 40%, human resources 30%, marketing 20% and accounting and finance 10%. Based on the previous data, it can be inferred that the sample of surveyed translators receive their translation requests the most, from legal and managerial areas. It means that the strategic level of companies is demanding translations the most. Translators are the voice of important decision within the company and also the external voice with stakeholders. Their tasks really influence the expansion and growth of companies. It also shows that all levels of communication within a company require translation services, so effective communication becomes an intangible asset of companies going abroad. After identifying the sectors and the areas that demand translations the most, surveyed translators were asked to identify the three digital resources that they use the most. This question refers to the advances of the translation industry and its impact on their job. The results in the first place were: • • •

Online dictionaries 50% CAT (Computer Assisted Translators) 30% Internet search engines 20%.

In the second place came online dictionaries 50%, Internet search engines 20%, computer assisted translators 10%, translation portals 10% and MT (machine translation) 10%. In the third place came Internet search engines 40%, translation portals 30%, computer assisted translation programs 20% and institutional websites 10%. Based on the previous findings about digital resources, it is clear that online dictionaries are the most commonly used tools. It is also clear that Colombian translators do not commonly use computer assisted translators or machine translation programs, although they are highly used by translators abroad. These findings may be considered as an opportunity to receive more training about technological resources, since they support translators to be more effective in their processes. As industry evolves globally, Colombian translators should be updated with the use of these tools. Referring to physical resources, surveyed translators were asked to identify the three physical resources that they use the most, the results in the first place were: • • • 198

Specialized texts 40% Dictionaries 40% None 20%.

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

In the second place came dictionaries 40%, specialized texts 30%, newspapers 10%, journals 10% and none 10%. In the third place came journals 50%, specialized texts 20%, previous translations 20% and none 10%. Based on the previous findings, it is clear that specialized texts and dictionaries are the most commonly used physical resources. When it refers to specialized texts, it shows that specialized translations require specialized texts for documentation or terminological purposes. It also shows that translators follow documentation stages before finding terminological resources, which means that they must have clear concepts before they translate specialized texts. Finally, surveyed translators were asked to identify the three human resources that they hire the most and the results in the first place were: • • •

Translators 60%, Experts in specialized areas 30% Proofreaders 10%.

In the second place came proofreaders 40%, experts in specialized areas 30%, translators 20% and layout designers 10%. In the third place: proofreaders 30%, layout designers 30%, none 20%, translators 10% and experts in specialized areas 10%. These results show that as the translation industry evolves and as the translation standards specify; translators are not the only actors of the translation process. Colombian translators are following high quality standards in their translations where they include proofreaders, experts in specialized areas and even designers in their translation processes. Translators in Colombia understand that a translation process involves different actors to offer high quality translations. As a conclusion, based on the small sample of translators interviewed, it can be stated that Colombian translators are producing high quality translation following specific standards, for the different industries and areas of business. It can be said that translation industry in Colombia is also evolving to cope with the challenges small and medium enterprises may face when going abroad. Translators are getting prepared to solve communication problems between companies and their stakeholders.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS Based on the information presented above, it is advisable for future research to focus on topics about communication that impact on the growth of companies abroad. These future research topics may discuss how to make communication plans for companies expanding to new markets, or how to offer the best communication strategies in bilingual contexts. As explained in this chapter, language is an intangible asset that has to be managed properly to avoid unnecessary costs for small and medium enterprises expanding markets internationally. Proper translation is required to strengthen relations between companies and their foreign stakeholders. All of the information presented in the chapter may be useful for managers or owners of small and medium enterprises to break cultural and linguistic barriers when entering markets of different cultures and languages. Once small and medium enterprises enter new markets abroad, they need to have clear communication policies and a common linguistic basis to make normal operations flow in an efficient and friendly environment. It means that once initial cultural and linguistic barriers disappear, once small and medium 199

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

enterprises have learned to overcome those barriers, they need to focus their attention on how to make language a valuable asset in their operations by creating their own terminological base and having their own communication formats. So, a future research may also support small and medium enterprises to have their own bilingual communication policies while these companies follow expansion processes and become stronger in foreign markets.

CONCLUSION Opening new markets abroad for small and medium enterprises is highly supported by the Colombian government, so these companies are in their best moment to begin internationalizing their operations. However, effective communication between companies and their stakeholders is a key aspect that helps small and medium enterprises break linguistic and cultural barriers. It implies using the native language of stakeholders abroad and learning about their negotiation techniques and their general cultural aspects to have a successful business relationship. Breaking linguistic barriers is essential for small and medium enterprises to begin internationalizing their operations. Managing clear linguistic policies is also necessary for small and medium enterprises to have clear communication and break those linguistic differences. Having strong linguistic terms and reaching new markets is an important factor for small and medium enterprises to become sustainable. By getting into foreign markets, small and medium enterprises can learn from the best practices of such markets. Small and medium enterprises have to apply higher production and environmental standards and they can get the necessary resources to grow and invest, to be successful and sustainable in their future commercial life cycle in the industry. Overcoming cultural barriers is another important challenge for small and medium companies growing internationally. Although all companies have their own internal culture, they must be open to change when facing a different culture. It means adapting their behavior to the new circumstances, understanding how others behave and understand business relations to succeed in the foreign market. In these situations, managers of small and medium enterprises have to lead the acceptance of the new culture in their working environment to make processes flow easier. Language industry is constantly growing as the numbers mentioned in this chapter prove it. It is getting more and more prepared each time in terms of business areas and specialization. Technological advances are making this industry more efficient, since they offer many new and useful tools for professional translators to manage. It means that professional translators everywhere can be more productive and offer better quality. Even more, translation standards help translation service providers offer high quality translations that support small and medium companies to internationalize easily. Small and medium enterprises have to hire professional translators as their communication bridges. High quality translation is a valuable resource for small and medium enterprises to expand their markets abroad. Language is an intangible valuable asset that small and medium companies have to support them to enter into new international markets and succeed. In Colombia, small and medium enterprises have highly demanded products in international markets, so they require translation services to break language and cultural barriers and have optimum communication processes with their stakeholders. Knowing the stakeholders’ needs and expectations helps small and medium enterprises be adapted easily to the new market culture.

200

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

Translation project managers lead translation teams. Their role is essential to satisfy the linguistic needs and requirements of small and medium enterprises. Translation teams are not exclusively formed by translators, but also by experts in specific topics, terminologists and proofreaders. In other words, these teams include outsourced experts who complement each other based on their cultural, and maybe geographical diversity, to achieve a common goal that results in adequate communication for small and medium enterprises going abroad. In summary, these teams make communication flow between small and medium companies and their stakeholders abroad. Colombian translators are getting more and more prepared each time. They are following national or international translation standards and using adequate resources to do their jobs in the best way. Although universitites do not offer many professional options, they are getting prepared abroad and getting ready to satisfy the market needs. Since translation is not a local activity, but an activity that can be performed globally, they have to compete and be updated at a global level. The results of the survey applied to a small sample of Colombian translators showed that translation professionals are not homogeneous, but there is heterogeneity regarding topics translated and areas of the company for which they perform their labor. They use many state of the art digital resources in their translation processes, and they are using less physical resources. It also showed that being updated in terms of resources and standards is very important for translators. Translation service providers also follow national and international standards, although the survey did not include information about their certification. However, they follow full translation processes, where they involve different professionals. It includes not only translators, but also proofreaders and experts in different areas of knowledge. In summary, Colombian translators have to be prepared to support the internationalization processes of small and medium enterprises, since their effective communication processes are really essential for their success in foreign markets.

REFERENCES Arbaugh, J. B., Camp, S. M., & Cox, L. W. (2008). Why don’t entrepreneurial firms internationalize more? Journal of Managerial Issues, 366–382. Barbosa, D. M. E., & Ayala, A. H. (2014). Factores que influyen en el desarrollo exportador de las pymes en Colombia. Estudios Gerenciales, 30(131), 172–183. doi:10.1016/j.estger.2014.04.006 Bourne, L. (2009). Stakeholder Relationship Management: A Maturity Model for Organizational Implementation. New York, NY: Routledge. Brannen, M. Y., & Doz, Y. L. (2012). Corporate Languages and Strategic Agility. California Management Review, 54(3), 77–97. doi:10.1525/cmr.2012.54.3.77 Brooks, Ch. (2013). Lost in Translation: 8 International Marketing Fails. Business News Daily. Retrieved October 6th, 2017 from http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5241-international-marketing-fails.html Clavijo, S. (2013). Translating in Colombia in Using English in Colombian Companies: A pathway to Internationalization and Increased Productivity. Bogotá, Colombia: Ediciones EAN. De Palma, D. Pielmeier H., Stewart, R. & Henderson, S. (2016). The Language Services Market: 2016 published online by Common Sense Advisory Inc. June.

201

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

Dinero (2015, September 16). ¿Qué tanto han aprovechado las Pymes el comercio exterior? retrieved from http://www.dinero.com/edicion-impresa/caratula/articulo/que-tanto-han-aprovechado-pymescomercio-exterior-colombia/213538 European Commission (2011). The Language Guide for European Business. Directorate General for Education and Culture. Luxembourg. Publications office of the European Union. GALA-Globalization & Localization Association. (2016). Industry Facts and Data. Retrieved March 15th, 2017 from https://www.gala-global.org/industry/industry-facts-and-data Garcia, H. F. (2012). Power of Communication, The: Skills to Build Trust, Inspire Loyalty, and Lead Effectively. New Jersey, NJ: FT Press. García, J., Alonso, J., & Jiménez, J. (2012). Valor económico del español. Madrid, Spain: Fundación Telefónica Ariel. García, J., Alonso, J., & Jiménez, J. (2016). Lengua, empresa y mercado ¿Ha ayudado el español a la internacionalización? Madrid, Spain: Fundación Telefónica Ariel. González de la Cueva, M., & Campo Rangel, J. (2013). Administración de proyectos: optimización de recursos. Ciudad de México, Mexico: Trillas. Johanson, J., & Vahlne, J. (1990). The mechanism of internationalization. International Marketing Review, 7(4), 11–23. doi:10.1108/02651339010137414 Kahiya, E. T., Dean, D. L., & Heyl, J. (2014). Export barriers in a changing institutional environment: A quasi-longitudinal study of New Zealand’s manufacturing exporters. Journal of International Entrepreneurship, 12(4), 331–364. doi:10.100710843-014-0131-7 Krasny, J. (2014). Lost in Translation? There’s a Whole Industry to Help at Inc. Magazine retrieved from: https://www.inc.com/jill-krasny/why-translation-services-is-a-top-industry-to-start-a-business.html Lionbridge (2015). The Definitive Guide to Website Translation. published on May 2015. Retrieved March 1st, 2017 from https://ww1.lionbridge.com/definitive-guide-website-translation/ Massion, F. (2013) The Global Translation Village Impact on Networking and Web Technologies on the Translation Profession. In Proceedings of Ciuti-Forum 2013 (pp. 55-60). Bern: Peter Lang. Muñoz-Calvo, M. (2010). Introduction in Translation and Cultural Identity in Selected Essays on Translation and Cross Cultural Communication. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Orozco-Jutorán, M. (2012). Metodología de la traducción directa del ingles al español. Materiales didácticos para traduccion general y especializada. Granada, Spain: Ed. Comares. Sprung, R. C., & Jaroniec, S. (Eds.). (2000). Translating into Success: Cutting-edge strategies for going multilingual in a global age. Boston, MA: John Benjamins Publishing. doi:10.1075/ata.xi Zabalbeascoa, P. (2000). From Techniques to Types of Solutions. Barcelona, Spain: Benjamins Translation Library. doi:10.1075/btl.32.15zab

202

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

ADDITIONAL READING Beaton, A. (2016). Life Science Localization: Challenges and Trends in Lionbridge. Retrieved March 15th, 2017 from: http://content.lionbridge.com/life-science-localization-challenges-and-trends/ Boonstra, J. J. (2012). Cultural change and leadership in organizations: a practical guide to successful organizational change. US: John Wiley & Sons. Dunne, K., & Dunne, E. (2011). Project Management in the Discipline of Translation Studies in Translation and Localization Project Management. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing. doi:10.1075/ata.xvi Gallego, D. (2016). Current Approaches to Business and Institutional Translation. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. Hicks, K. (2005). How to Communicate with your Spanish and Asian Employees: A Translation Guide for Small Business Owners. B.A. B. Houston, TX: Ed Atlantic publishing. Insignares, J. (2009). ¿Hacia el camino de la profesionalización de la traducción gracias a la futura NTC? Revista Latinoamericana de traducción Mutatis Mutandis, 2(2), 393-397. Paunović, Z., & Prebežac, D. (2010). Internationalization of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. Market-Tržište, 22(1). Peltokorpi, V. & Vaara, E. (2012) Language Policies and Practices in Wholly Owned Foreign Subsidiaries: A Recontextualization Perspective. Journal of International Business Studies, 43(9), 808-833. Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (Vol. 2). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Communication: The oral or written exchange of information to transmit ideas or feelings. Culture: Group of traditions, social behavior, ideas and attitudes of a particular society. Foreign Markets: Areas for trading abroad. Language Service Providers: People or companies offering services related to the language such as translation, edition, transcription, revision and some others. Language Strategies: Clear linguistic terms that allow companies have unified language policies. Linguistic Barrier: Obstacle like the lack of knowledge of a specific language that obstructs communication. Stakeholders: All the parties involved in a company. SMEs: According to Law 905 issued in 2004, SMEs in Spanish Pyme refers to the group of small and medium enterprises whose total assets are between 500 Colombian MMLW (COP) and 30000 Colombian MMLW. Translation Industry: Translation services market.

203

 Breaking Language and Cultural Barriers

ENDNOTES 3 4 5 6 1 2

European Language Industry Association European Union of Associations of Translation Companies Globalization & Localization Association European Master`s in Translation Language Service Providers American Translators Association

This research was previously published in the Handbook of Research on Intrapreneurship and Organizational Sustainability in SMEs; pages 73-94, copyright year 2018 by Business Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

204

205

Chapter 6

The Role of Context on Age of Acquisition Effect: Strategic Control in Word Naming in Turkish Ilhan Raman Middlesex University, UK

ABSTRACT Processes involved in converting print to sound are reported to be flexible and under the strategic control of skilled readers even in transparent orthographies. In this respect, word frequency effect, regularity, and lexicality have been the topic of much research and debate in understanding how context is involved in the emergence of strategies. However, whether age of acquisition (AoA) effects are influenced by context and under the strategic control of readers have yet to be established. A series of single-word naming experiments addresses this issue and examines the role of filler type critically manipulated on lexicality, frequency, and imageability on the size of AoA effect in word naming in an entirely transparent orthography. Overall, results, which are discussed within the current theoretical frameworks, suggest that context plays a significant role on AoA.

INTRODUCTION It has long been acknowledged that readers can attune their reading strategies in response to task demands as determined by context (e.g. Frederiksen & Kroll, 1976; Baluch & Besner, 1991; Paap & Noel, 1991; Rastle & Coltheart, 1999). An example of this flexibility in selecting the most effective strategy is observed when the effect of word frequency is eliminated when subjects name words and nonwords mixed together in a single block. Historically, this phenomenon reported in English and other orthographies had been explained within the dual-route model of reading (e.g., Baluch & Besner, 1991; Coltheart & Rastle, 1994; Monsell, Patterson, Graham, Hughes, & Milroy, 1992; Raman, Baluch & Sneddon, 1996; Rastle & Coltheart, 1999; Reynolds & Besner, 2005; Tabossi & Laghi, 1992; Zevin & Balota, 2000). DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch006

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 The Role of Context on Age of Acquisition Effect

According to the dual-route model generation of phonology can take place via two qualitatively distinct routes: namely the lexical and the nonlexical route (e.g. Coltheart, 1978; Coltheart and colleagues, 1993; 1999). What characterizes these two routes is that while the nonlexical phonology can be ‘assembled’ via rules, assumptions about generating phonology via the lexical route is twofold: One way to generate lexical phonology is assumed to be via the direct orthography-to-phonology, OP, route where words’ phonology is directly ‘addressed’. A second way of generating lexical phonology is assumed to be via the orthography-to-semantics route where a word’s meaning is activated for the purpose of generating phonology. Some dual-route theorists have argued that the dual-route model is in effect a three-route model, whilst, it is generally assumed that the impact of the semantic route on single-word naming in skilled reading is minimal (e.g. Besner, 1999; Besner & Smith, 1992). This is because the general consensus within the dual-route framework (in terms of RTs) is that attaining phonology from print via the semantic route is the slowest of the two routes. It is further assumed that the involvement of the semantic route in computing words’ phonology is only facilitated when words’ semantic characteristics such as imageability is involved. However, it must be highlighted that systematic investigation of imageability effects in single-word naming is not a widely explored issue in English with the exception of several papers (Strain, Patterson, & Seidenberg, 1995; Hino & Lupker, 1996) and to date just a handful of papers have been reported on other writing systems, e.g. Persian (Baluch & Besner, 2001) and Turkish (Raman & Baluch, 2001). In summary, semantics is assumed to contribute to the computation of phonology from print in orthographies with inconsistent and/or irregular OP representations, such as English and opaque Persian, but not in orthographies with entirely consistent OP representations such as Turkish. It would be naïve to assume that there is no semantic involvement in reading entirely transparent orthographies as semantic information ought to be utilized in order to extract meaning during reading. When OP mappings are entirely transparent, however, the input from semantics in decoding OP mappings that are exception to the rule becomes redundant. Therefore, the claim here is that semantics develops and exerts itself differentially as a function of orthographic transparency across different languages. Indeed, evidence for this claim was presented in Turkish (Raman & Baluch, 2001) and Persian (Baluch & Besner, 2001). Insofar as strategies are considered, although several positions (e.g. attentional control, de-emphasis of routes) have been proposed to explain the phenomenon of how presenting identical target stimuli in different contexts, i.e. mixed vs pure blocks, has differential influence on RTs and accuracy, the time criterion is the most plausible alternative account thus far (Lupker, Brown & Colombo, 1997; Kinoshita & Lupker 2002; 2007). The proposition is that a time-criterion which is determined by the perceived difficulty of the stimuli to be named is active prior to computing a phonological output. The notion of difficulty is central to time-criterion because it leads to strategically adjusting the generation of an acceptable criterion appropriate for all stimuli to be named which in effect leads to the homogenisation of RTs. Previous work in Turkish explored the role of nonword fillers on word frequency in which single-word naming in Turkish was strongly influenced by the setting of a time-criterion in response to presence of nonwords that lent support to the time-criterion account (Raman, Baluch & Besner, 2004). While the time-criterion account is mute with respect to the issue of the nature of OP representations, the number of routes and which route drives the computation of phonology, one of it’s most prominent feature is that readers employ a checking strategy especially under ‘slow’ conditions such as the irregular English words when computing phonology. This strategy is to ensure that a corresponding phonological code exists in the phonological output lexicon prior to attempting articulation, hence maximising a successful outcome. It is not yet established whether a checking mechanism can be extended to totally transparent orthographies in which OP mappings are one-to-one with very low error rates in pronunciation in which 206

 The Role of Context on Age of Acquisition Effect

such a mechanism would redeem futile. Equally, it could be argued that the checking mechanism may evolve as an artefact of the writing system. Traditionally, research on examining strategies in word naming has primarily focused on the influence of context on word frequency and regularity effects, and lexicality, i.e. the use of nonwords (e.g., Baluch & Besner, 1991, Kinoshita & Lupker, 2002; 2007, Lupker, et al, 1997; Raman et al, 1996, Raman et al, 2004, Reynolds & Besner, 2005 amongst others). It is of importance, therefore, to explore whether context will differentially influence and modify another lexical variable that has attracted much research, namely AoA. According to Johnston and Barry (2006) ‘AoA effects .. have also been claimed to operate either instead of, or over and above, those of word frequency.’. Understanding the conditions that facilitate or hinder the AoA effects in word naming will be a key addition to the growing body of literature on strategies. It is widely accepted that the age at which particular words enter into our vocabulary has a long-lasting effect such that early acquired words have been consistently demonstrated to possess an advantage over words that are acquired comparably later on in life (see Juhasz, 2005, and Johnston & Barry, 2006 for comprehensive reviews). This advantage known as the AoA effect has an impact on lexical processing, picture naming and face recognition amongst other tasks. More importantly, AoA is now agreed to be a universal phenomenon in lexical processing irrespective of the linguistic properties of a given language. To date reports exist in alphabetic languages such as English (e.g., Gerhand & Barry, 1999; Morrison & Ellis, 1999; and Morrison & Ellis, 2000; Morrison, Hirsh, Chappell & Ellis, 2002), Spanish (e.g., Cuetos, Ellis & Alvarez, 1999), French (Bonin and colleagues, 2001; 2002), Italian (Barca, Burani & Arduino, 2002; Bates, Burani, D’Amico & Barca, 2001), Greek (e.g., Bogka, Masterson, Druks, Fragkioudaki, Chatziprokopiou & Economou, 2003), Dutch (e.g., Ghyselinck, Custers & Brysbaert, 2004), Turkish (Raman, 2006), German (Brase & Raman, 2009) and non-alphabetic languages such as Japanese (Havelka & Tomita, 2006; and Yamazaki, Ellis, Morrison & Lambon Ralph, 1997) and Chinese (Chen and colleagues, 2007a, 2007b). The arbitrary mapping hypothesis (Ellis & Lambon Ralph, 2000; Monaghan & Ellis, 2002a; 2002b) and the semantic hypothesis (Brysbaert, Lange & Van Wijnendaele, 2000; Brysbaert, van Wijnendaele & De Deyne, 2000) are two main theoretical views that explain the locus of AoA effects in lexical processing. Whilst OP mappings are central to understanding the AoA effects in the former account, semantics is at centre of the latter view. Therefore, OP mappings together with semantics play a central role in understanding the AoA effects particularly as a function of orthographic transparency. If one assumes that AoA (and imageability) arise at the level of arbitrary mappings and/or semantics then we would not expect reliable effects in writing systems in which OP mappings are totally predictable and one-to-one. This premise is partially supported in that no reliable imageability effects were found in Turkish (Raman & Baluch, 2001) or in transparent Persian (Baluch & Besner, 2001) whilst a robust AoA effect in word naming was reported in Turkish (Raman, 2006). Collectively the findings suggest that in extremely transparent orthographies a) the contribution of semantics is minimal insofar as computation of phonology is concerned (but see point above in the role of semantics in extracting meaning), and b) a reliable AoA effect is perhaps indicative of a lexical locus for AoA, similar to word frequency. Consequently, since reports of AoA effects are so ubiquitous AoA must be a universal and an inherent property of the cognitive architecture (Raman, 2006). The aim of the series of experiments reported here is twofold: a) first, the aim is to explore the impact of context on AoA to test the claims of the time-criterion account - a limitation in the current literature - in an entirely transparent orthography and b) second, to examine the issue of strategic control in word 207

 The Role of Context on Age of Acquisition Effect

naming in relation to AoA. If the time-criterion account holds true, then the AoA effect is predicted to vary and to be modified in response to the ease/difficulty of the filler stimuli. More specifically, a significant AoA effect is expected to be maintained when Early and Late items are presented on their own in Experiments 1 and 6 as well as with High frequency and High imageable filler items in Experiments 2 and 7, respectively. Moreover, AoA effect should be reduced considerably when Early and Late items are presented with nonwords, in Experiments 5 and 10 as well as when presented with Low frequency and Low imageable items in Experiments 4 and 9. The effect of Mid frequency and Mid imageable filler items is expected to considerably reduce the AoA effect.

GENERAL METHOD Participants Participation in all experiments was on a voluntary basis from native Turkish speaking undergraduate students at the Eastern Mediterranean University, Cyprus. Each experiment employed a different set of participants who did not take part in any other experiment. Participants were given course accreditation in return of their participation.

Apparatus and Procedure Participants were instructed to call out each word presented on the computer screen as fast and as accurately as possible. The stimuli were presented one at a time using Superlab experimental software. Each word appeared in the centre of an Acer notepad screen in Times New Roman, black 32-point lowercase font. All test items were mixed at random and presented in two blocks. A block of practice trials with 10 words were presented for naming prior to the main experiment. This allowed the participants to familiarise themselves with the experimental procedure and for the voice key to be adjusted accordingly. Order of presentation for each block of stimuli was counterbalanced for participants. Reaction times were recorded via a voice activated microphone. A 1000ms inter-stimulus interval was followed by the target word which remained on the screen until it was named. Errors were noted by the experimenter.

Materials The target and filler stimuli used in the experiments came from previously established norms for AoA, imageability and frequency in Turkish (Raman, 2001; 2004; 2006). Word frequency, imageability and AoA counts were obtained for 433 words based on subjective ratings from 50 highly literate, native speakers of Turkish. Frequency norms were obtained by asking participants to indicate the frequency with which they encountered a word on a 7-point rating scale ranging from 1 (most frequent) to 7 (least frequent). Subjective ratings thought to be closely linked with objective norms (Gernsbacher, 1984; Gordon, 1985) were used for frequency, AoA and imageability in the absence of objective word norms in Turkish. Word imageability was also rated on a 7-point scale ranging from 7 (very high imageability) to 1 (no imageability). Word imageability norms in Turkish was previously demonstrated to be reliably correlated with (r = 0.8) with those obtained by Paivio, Yuille and Madigan (1968) in English (see Raman & Baluch, 2001 for details). For example, a high imageable word such as ANNE (mother) has a rating 208

 The Role of Context on Age of Acquisition Effect

of 6.3 in Turkish and a corresponding rating of 6.7 in Paivio et. al.’s scale. Similarly, a low imageable word such as FELEK (fate) has a rating of 1.98 in Turkish and 2.3 in English. The instructions for AoA ratings were adapted from Gilhooly and Logie (1980) in that participants were required to estimate the age they encountered a word for the first time in their language environment - either in spoken or written form. The scale on which they had to indicate the acquisition age ranged from 1 to 7, where 1 = 0-2 years old, 2 = 3-4 years old, 3 = 4-5 years old, 4 = 5-6 years old, 5 = 7-9 years old, 6 = 10-11 years old and 7 = 12 years old or older. For the purpose of the study, a word was selected as being acquired early if it had a mean rating of 2.5 (up to 4yrs of age) or less, and late if it had a mean rating of 6 (over 10yrs of age) or above. Two target word sets, Early AoA and Late AoA, each with 25 items were created. All words in each of the two sets were high frequency, high Imageable and were matched on initial phoneme, letter and syllable length. The critical variable was AoA with an early acquired word such as GÜNEŞ (sun) matched with a late acquired word GÜMÜŞ (silver). Early AoA and Late AoA Turkish words and their English equivalents are presented with their corresponding AoA, imageability and frequency ratings in the Appendix. The norms for English translations were obtained from the electronic MRC Psycholinguistic Database. The filler items were matched to the target stimuli on as many variables particularly on number of letters and initial phoneme as best as possible. In addition, care was taken to match the filler items in Study 1 (High, Mid, and Low Frequency conditions) with Study 2 (High, Mid, and Low Imageable conditions) on AoA, Imageability, Frequency and Letter length in an attempt to control for as many extraneous variables as possible. Summary statistics for Target and Filler items are presented in Table 1. Full details of the filler items including the nonwords used in Experiments 5 and 10 are presented in the Appendix. Table 1. Summary statistics (Mean and SD) of target and filler items AoA, imageability and frequency ratings together with letter and syllable length Target Stimuli

Filler Items Study 1

Filler Items Study 2

Early AoA

Late AoA

HF Exp 2

MF Exp 3

LF Exp 4

HI Exp 7

MI Exp 8

LI Exp 9

AoA

1.89 (.31)

4.54 (.64)

3.34 (.82)

4.89 (.91)

4.97 (.64)

3.47 (.86)

4.64 (.87)

4.98 (.65)

Imageability

5.33 (.32)

5.03 (.30)

4.94 (.34)

4.56 (.28)

3.33 (.84)

5.02 (.51)

4.78 (.23)

2.78 (.60)

Frequency

1.78 (.46)

1.96 (.36)

1.77 (.20)

3.78 (.18)

4.63 (.48)

1.93 (.62)

3.05 (.82)

4.01 (1.44)

Letter Length

4.04 (1.17)

4.44 (1.39)

4.54 (.86)

5.62 (1.59)

5.10 (1.17)

5.04 (1.01)

4.98 (1.08)

5.24 (1.08)

Syllable Length

1.76 (.44)

1.76 (.60)

1.84 (.37)

2.24 (.66)

2.08 (.44)

2.02 (.32)

2.02 (.38)

2.18 (.56)

Study 1 Study 1 comprised five single-word naming experiments all utilising the target items (25 Early and 25 Late acquired words) in the presence of filler items manipulated on frequency (high, mid, low) and lexicality (nonwords).

209

 The Role of Context on Age of Acquisition Effect

Experiment 1 In a single-word naming task, 33 participants were required to call out 25 early and 25 late acquired target items only. The mean RTs for early acquired words was 519ms compared to 550ms for late acquired words and a planned comparison showed that this difference (31ms) was statistically significant [t(32)=4.04 p *Yesterday bought he milk. As subjects need to precede finite verbs in English declarative sentences (SV-order), English can be said to have SVO-order. Transfer is thus an important characteristic of second and foreign language learning as it may reveal how the syntax of the learners’ first languages influences the process of learning a new grammar. As first observed by Lado (1957), in an educational context, information about how the syntax of L1s influences the syntax of L2s/FLs may be valuable to teachers as it provides opportunities to illustrate and clarify specific syntactic aspects of the L2/FL against the L1 backgrounds of the learners. Contrasting the syntax of learners’ L1s with the syntax of the L2/FL may facilitate learners’ understanding and learning of new syntactic rules. Whether second and foreign language learners also have access to and can make use of the inborn grammatical knowledge provided by UG is, however, debated (see Cook, 1988; Slabakova, 2016; White, 730

 Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality

2003). Suggestions range from having full access to UG (Schwartz & Sprouse, 1996), to having partial access to UG via only those features instantiated in the L1 (Hawkins & Chan, 1997; Tsimpli & Dimitrakopoulou, 2007), to UG not being available to L2/FL learners at all (Bley-Vroman, 1989, 2009; Clahsen & Muysken, 1986). This remains a topic of debate in the field of second language acquisition but will not be discussed further in this chapter. The acquisition of a grammar in childhood proceeds automatically and effortlessly solely on the basis of positive evidence in the language input, most often in an informal family or family-like setting. L1 acquisition is so automatic that only the absence of exposure to language input can prevent children from acquiring a first language. Second and foreign language learning of grammar in the classroom, on the other hand, largely depends on formal instruction and access to both positive and negative evidence. The acquisition of a grammar in childhood results in a native-like language proficiency with only minor, if any, individual differences between speakers. Second and foreign language learners, by contrast, typically do not achieve a native-like proficiency. Also, individual variation in proficiency is vast in L2/ FL learning (Dornyei, 2006; Skehan, 1989). Factors such as motivation, attitude and learning styles/ strategies influence the success of L2/FL learning but not L1 acquisition. Whereas the language knowledge resulting from L1 acquisition is an internal grammar, it is considered more controversial whether the result of L2/FL learning is an internal grammar (see the collected papers in the 2009 special issue of Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 31(2)). As access to UG is considered to be a prerequisite for developing an internal grammar, the answer to this question depends on whether one considers L2/ FL learners to have access to UG or not. Nevertheless, for the purposes of this chapter, it suffices to conclude that second and foreign language learning will certainly result in the gradual development of a language capacity that provides L2/FL learners with an intuition about the grammaticality of utterances.

Grammaticality Judgments in Second/Foreign Language Learning This section introduces and exemplifies specific syntactic phenomena and grammaticality judgment task designs and discusses how different first language backgrounds of L2/FL learners may influence judgments and interpretations. The examples have been chosen to illustrate syntactic phenomena suitable for English language learners at various proficiency levels, from basic word order phenomena in declarative and interrogative sentence formation suitable for beginning learners to more advanced phenomena such as forward/backward anaphora and quantification suitable for very advanced learners. The examples are a small selection and not intended to provide a comprehensive picture of the range of syntactic phenomena and designs for grammaticality judgment tasks. Teachers may, of course, choose other syntactic phenomena and task designs suitable to their own and their students’ needs. It is important to remember that the learners’ first languages may differ from English regarding the selected syntactic phenomena. When referring to learners’ L1 backgrounds, the authors predominantly use the frequent languages in the US according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 2017 American Community Survey on language spoken at home (https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview. xhtml?pid=ACS_17_1YR_B16001&prodType=table). The section aims to show that teachers can use second and foreign language learners’ diverse intuitions about the grammaticality of English utterances as a resource when teaching syntax rules. Adult second and foreign language learners often do not have the same intuitions about the syntax of the language as native speakers. Yet, grammaticality judgment tasks are also used in linguistic research to tap into the grammatical knowledge of both second and foreign language learners (Ionin & Zyzik, 731

 Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality

2014). Second and foreign language learners of English are expected not to show the same uniform agreement on grammaticality as native speakers but provide more variation in their judgments. In educational contexts, grammaticality judgments of linguistically diverse learners of English can uncover the learners’ current knowledge about the syntax of English for teachers and potentially also reveal transfer of syntactic rules from the first languages of the learners to English. By drawing on learners’ knowledge about the syntax of both English and their first languages, second and foreign language teachers can get a better understanding of the individual needs of the learners and assist learners to a better understanding of the syntactic rules of the target language. Equally, by drawing on learners’ own knowledge about the syntax of both English and their first languages, teachers can get a better understanding of where they need to be conscious about their own non-native grammaticality judgments. This will also assist teachers to identify gaps in linguistic understanding and perception of grammatical variation among the learners, to determine the grammatical rules that need to be taught in a particular learner group and to assist learners to a better understanding of the syntactic rules of English. Grammaticality judgment tasks can be designed to meet the needs of learners at different proficiency levels. The order in which the examples are presented below illustrates an increased complexity of the syntactic constructions. Beginning learners may need to practice more basic syntactic skills than more advanced learners, which means that grammaticality judgment tasks for beginning learners need to target more basic grammatical rules. To give a simple example illustrating word order phenomena, a teacher can present beginning learners of English with the sentences in (12) asking them to assess if the sentences are grammatically correct and why they are grammatically correct/incorrect. Note that in a grammaticality judgment task, the asterisk indicating ungrammaticality should not be used as it reveals the grammaticality of the sentences to the learners. In the examples below, the asterisk is only used for illustrative purposes. (12) a. Petra bought Elena milk yesterday. b. Elena bought Petra milk yesterday. c. Yesterday Petra bought Elena milk. d. *Yesterday bought Petra Elena milk. Native speakers of English will most likely agree on the grammaticality of the sentences judging (12a), (12b) and (12c) as grammatical and (12d) as ungrammatical, whereas beginning L2/FL learners may not agree on the grammaticality to the same extent. By emphasizing the different meanings of (12a) and (12b), the rules governing the placement of subjects and objects in relation to the finite verb in English can be illustrated. And by contrasting the grammatical sentence in (12c) with the ungrammatical sentence in (12d), the rules governing topicalization can be illustrated. So what kind of challenges may the sentences in (12) pose for beginning L2/FL learners with different first language backgrounds? As transfer may occur from learners’ first languages to English, particularly in the early stages of L2/FL learning, one aspect that could influence learner judgments is whether their internal L1 grammars encompass the grammatical rules of V2-order and subject-verb inversion. In other words, learners whose L1 grammars include V2-order and subject-verb inversion may judge the sentences in (12) differently than learners whose L1 grammars do not include these syntax rules. For example, learners whose first language requires V2-order and allows subject-verb inversion in declarative sentences (for instance, all Germanic languages except English) may consider the sentences

732

 Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality

in (12a) and (12b) ambiguous. One interpretation, which is also the interpretation preferred by native speakers of English, is that Elena receives milk from Petra in (12a) and that Petra receives milk from Elena in (12b). In this interpretation, which is in line with the SVO-order in English, Petra in (12a) and Elena in (12b) are assigned the grammatical role of subject, whereas Elena in (12a) and Petra in (12b) are assigned the role of indirect object. The other interpretation, which is not accessible to native speakers of English, is that Elena provides Petra with milk in (12a) and that Petra provides Elena with milk in (12b). In this interpretation, which goes against the SVO-order in English, Petra in (12a) and Elena in (12b) are assigned the grammatical role of indirect object, whereas Elena in (12a) and Petra in (12b) are assigned the role of subject. This interpretation depends on access to and negative transfer of the rules of V2-order and inversion between subjects and finite verbs. Learners whose first languages require V2-order and allow subject-verb inversion may also incorrectly reject the sentence in (12c) and accept the sentence in (12d), as topicalization of an adverb in their first languages requires subject-verb inversion to establish V2-order. By contrast, for learners whose first languages do not encompass rules of V2-order and subject-verb inversion but, like English, typically require SVO-order in declaratives (for instance, Chinese, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese), the sentences in (12a) and (12b) may be considered unambiguous with Petra in (12a) and Elena in (12b) being assigned subject roles and Elena in (12a) and Petra in (12b) being assigned object roles. These learners may also accept the sentence in (12c) and reject the sentence in (12d), as SVO-order should be preserved also in non-subject initial declaratives in their first languages. For these learners, transfer may be positive. A second example illustrates how a teacher can use grammaticality judgment tasks to introduce word order differences between declaratives and wh-questions to beginning L2/FL learners of English. By letting learners assess the grammaticality of the sentences in (13), a teacher can elaborate on the basic SV-order in declaratives and subject-auxiliary inversion in wh-questions: (13) a. You will buy milk tomorrow. b. Tomorrow you will buy milk. c. *When you will buy milk? d. When will you buy milk? A comparison of the sentences in (13a) and (13b) with the sentences in (13c) and (13d) can illustrate that the SV-order (i.e. you will) in subject-initial declaratives (13a) should be preserved in non-subjectinitial declaratives (13b) but not in non-subject-initial wh-questions (13c). The sentence in (13d) illustrates that non-subject-initial wh-questions require subject-auxiliary inversion (i.e. will you). As wh-questions may have different word orders in the L2/FL learners’ first languages, transfer from L1 to L2/FL may result in a diversity of judgments of the sentences in (13c) and (13d). Learners whose first language requires non-subject initial wh-questions to have SV-order (for instance, Italian and Portuguese) may accept (13c) and reject (13d), as a result of negative transfer. However, learners whose first languages require non-subject-initial wh-questions to have V2-order and subject-verb inversion (i.e. all Germanic languages except English) may benefit from transfer and reject (13c) and accept (13d). A third example illustrates another important syntactic phenomenon concerning the formation of whquestions, namely the placement of wh-words. By letting L2/FL learners assess the grammaticality of the sentences in (14), a teacher can introduce and discuss compulsory fronting of wh-words in English:

733

 Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality

(14) a. You will buy milk. b. ?You will buy what? c. What will you buy? A comparison of the sentences in (14) illustrates that it does not suffice to replace the direct object (i.e. milk in 14a) with a wh-word to form a wh-question, as in (14b). The wh-word also needs to be fronted (14c). Again, L1 transfer may result in a diversity of judgments, as learners whose first languages require wh-words to stay in situ (not fronted), such as Chinese (Cheng, 1991), may incorrectly accept (14b) and reject (14c), whereas learners whose first languages typically require fronting of wh-words (for instance, Germanic languages, Italian and Portuguese,) may correctly reject (14b) and accept (14c). For more advanced L2/FL learners, a teacher may also consider introducing how wh-questions with the wh-word in situ, as in (14b), is used correctly in English. A fourth example illustrates how a teacher can introduce do-insertion in the formation of wh-questions by asking learners to assess the grammaticality of the sentences in (15): (15) a. He bought milk. b. Who bought milk? c. *What bought he? d. What did he buy? A comparison of the sentences in (15a) and (15b) illustrates that subject-initial wh-questions can be formed by replacing the subject (i.e. he) with a wh-word (i.e. who). The sentence in (15c) illustrates that fronting of the object wh-word and subject-verb inversion do not suffice to form grammatically correct non-subject-initial wh-questions, as lexical main verbs cannot undergo subject-verb inversion. As nonsubject-initial wh-questions require subject-auxiliary inversion, and an auxiliary is missing in (15c), the insertion of do is needed to allow subject-auxiliary inversion, as in (15d). As regards potential negative transfer effects, learners whose first languages allow lexical main verbs to undergo subject-verb inversion (for instance, Germanic languages except English) may incorrectly accept (15c) and struggle with the rules of do-insertion in (15d). By contrast, the subject-initial whquestion in (15b) should be less of a problem, as learners whose first languages require SVO-order and wh-words to simply replace a constituent may benefit from positive transfer. A fifth example illustrates how the grammar of English constrains forward and backward anaphoric interpretations (Kennison, Fernandez, & Bowers, 2009; Trnavac & Taboada, 2016). Forward anaphora refers to constructions where the pronoun linearly follows its antecedent, whereas backward anaphora refers to constructions where the pronoun precedes its antecedent. By presenting learners with the sentences in (16) followed by the questions “Who painted the wall?” and “Who cleaned the windows?”, a teacher can introduce structural constraints on anaphoric interpretations of the pronoun he:

734

 Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality

To make the task easier for the learners, pictures or photos can be used to illustrate both licit and illicit interpretations of he, for example a picture with John painting/cleaning and a picture with a third person painting/cleaning. Native speakers of English would agree that John and he are the same individuals in (16a), (16b) and (16d), but not in (16c). In (16c), he and John must be different individuals, with he referring to a third person. A comparison of the interpretation of he in the sentences where he follows John (16b and 16d) with the interpretations of he in the sentences where he precedes John (16a and 16c) reveals that anaphoric interpretations are not constrained by the linearity between he and John, but rather by structural aspects. Forward anaphoric interpretations are licit, independent of whether the pronoun is superordinate (16b) or subordinate (16d) to its antecedent. A backward anaphoric interpretation, on the other hand, is only licit when the pronoun is subordinate to its antecedent (16a). In (16c), a backward anaphoric interpretation is not available as the pronoun he occurs in the main clause and John in the subordinate clause, which means that John cannot be the antecedent of he. Thus, he must refer to a third person. Regarding potential transfer effects, the interpretations of learners whose first languages does not behave like English with regards to forward and backward anaphora may differ from native speaker interpretations. While Russian typically allows backward anaphora if the pronoun occurs in an embedded clause, as in (16a), backward anaphora is more restricted in Russian than in English (Kazanina & Phillips, 2010). For example, embedded clauses introduced by poka, while in English, do not allow backward anaphora if the subject of the main clause is agentive. Such contextual restriction may be incorrectly transferred to English. A sixth and final example concerns quantification (Aoun & Li, 1989; Cheng, 1991; Huang, 1982). A teacher can present second and foreign language learners with the sentences in (17) to illustrate how quantified expressions are interpreted in English: (17) a. A grammarian fed every cat. b. Every grammarian fed a cat. Native speakers of English would agree that the sentences in (17) are ambiguous, and that each sentence can have two different interpretations (Fox, 2000; Ionin, Luchkina, & Stoops, 2014). Sentence (17a) can mean either that there is only one grammarian and that they fed every cat (so-called surface scope reading), or that each cat is fed by a different grammarian (so-called inverse scope reading). Sentence (17b) can mean either that each grammarian fed a different cat (surface scope), or that there is only one cat and that every grammarian fed it (inverse scope). To illustrate these interpretations for learners, it is recommended that a teacher uses pictures depicting both licit and illicit interpretations. To illustrate the licit interpretations of the sentence in (17a), pictures depicting the surface reading (for instance, one grammarian feeding three cats) and the inverse reading (for instance, three grammarians each feeding one cat) can be complemented with pictures depicting illicit readings such as three grammarians feeding a single cat or one grammarian feeding one cat. The same pictures can be used to illustrate the surface (three grammarians each feeding one cat) and the inverse (three grammarians feeding the same one cat) readings of the sentence in (17b). By contrasting the licit and illicit interpretations of the sentences in (17), a teacher can illustrate and explain the constraints on the interpretation of quantified expressions for second and foreign language learners. For example, it can be illustrated that the inverse scope reading of (17a) is the same reading as the surface scope reading of (17b). In other words, in a situation where three grammarians are each feeding one cat, both sentences in (17) can be used to describe the situation. 735

 Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality

L1 transfer may result in a diversity of judgments among the learners. For learners whose first languages allow both surface and inverse scope readings, for example, Norwegian and Swedish, transfer may be positive and facilitate the learning of English (Bentzen, Merchant, & Svenonius, 2013; Vinka & Waldmann, 2013). By contrast, learners whose first languages do not allow both readings may incorrectly transfer their scope readings to English. For example, it has been observed that languages such as Chinese, German, Japanese and Korean do not allow inverse scope readings of sentences such as in (17a) (Aoun & Li, 1989; Cheng, 1991; Frey, 1993; Huang, 1982). English language learners with these L1 backgrounds may thus not appreciate the ambiguity of (17a) and interpret it as meaning that one and only one grammarian is feeding three cats. In sum, this section has provided a selection of examples illustrating how grammaticality judgment tasks can be used to address syntactic phenomena in the teaching of English as a second and foreign language. The examples have been discussed in the light of the diverse L1 backgrounds of learners focusing on potential L1 transfer effects. It can be valuable for teachers to understand that certain grammaticality judgments or interpretations can be logically explained by transfer—positive or negative—from the first languages of the learners. However, it is important to note that identifying and addressing instances of L1 transfer in the teaching of syntax rules does not require the teachers to have in-depth cross-linguistic knowledge about various syntactic phenomena. Teachers can address transfer effects by discussing the judgments and interpretations with the learners in order to understand how the learners’ L1 background influences their learning of English. Involving the learners’ L1 backgrounds in second and foreign language teaching of English may not only facilitate the adaption of the teaching of English syntax rules to learners’ needs but also enhance learners’ feelings of inclusion and participation. The next section focuses specifically on how the design of grammaticality judgment tasks can facilitate learners’ engagement and participation.

Designing Grammaticality Judgment Tasks for Second and Foreign Language Learners The way grammaticality judgment tasks are designed and presented to second and foreign language learners is central to such tasks achieving their goal of supporting language learners’ understanding of their personal grammars and their teachers’ understanding of how far the students have come and where their teaching should be directed for maximal affect. In other words, although grammaticality judgment tasks in language teaching have the potential to support both language teaching and language learning, presentation of grammaticality judgment tasks in a less interesting way can result in no benefits for teachers or learners. From the perspective of the teacher, poorly presented grammaticality judgment tasks will not result in important information about the needs of the learners, nor will they foster learnercentered teaching by taking the students’ current knowledge about the language as the starting point for the lesson. Thus, presenting grammaticality judgment tasks in interesting and motivating ways will allow the teacher to access learners’ grammatical intuitions to make it easier to customize the content of lessons and meet the needs of the students. The detection of where the learner currently is and variance in intuition have driven the use of computer keystroke logging techniques in the use of writing in the classroom (Lindgren & Sullivan, 2019; Sullivan & Lindgren, 2006). The use of grammaticality judgment tasks, however, affords more precise information about grammatical intuitions of interest to the teacher. Student needs can be highly varied. That is, in addition to being an important source of information for the teacher, we see some further affordances that follow from using grammaticality judgment tasks in 736

 Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality

language teaching. A key affordance we suggest is that grammaticality judgment tasks have the potential to be an important source of information when teaching a second or foreign language of the multiplicity of intuitions that exist among the learners in a class. In today’s increasingly global world with its migratory flows, variety is expected as students potentially come from very many language backgrounds and may transfer very different intuitions into their new language. It is, however, important to remember that grammaticality judgment tasks can reveal that a student has native-like intuitions for a grammatical feature. In other words, grammaticality judgment tasks can reveal both the strengths and the weaknesses of the learners in a particular class. So how can grammaticality judgment tasks be designed and presented to maximize their potential in the second and foreign language classroom? Grammaticality judgment tasks can be done by simply presenting sentences on PowerPoint, however, we recommended that teachers consider carefully how tasks are designed and presented to learners for clarity. A key aspect here is student exposure and student motivation to rely on their grammaticality intuitions. We propose the use of an interactive presentation quiz software for conducting the grammaticality judgment tasks. By using a quiz software, the learners use their mobile devices (phones, tablets, laptops) to make the grammaticality judgments. The results are automatically summarized and can be presented graphically on a screen using a video projector. Besides the speed and clarity of the presentation of the results, a quiz software ensures that the results of the grammaticality judgments are anonymous which means that the foreign language learners do not have to expose their lack of linguistic knowledge publicly, not need to be stressed that their performance is being judged. The result directs the teaching rather than deciding which students pass and fail. By using an interactive presentation quiz software, the methods for eliciting intuitions can be very entertaining, inspiring, and fun for the students, and the potential to increase student motivation is large. Motivated students know their strengths and weaknesses, and grammaticality judgment tasks have the potential to continually reveal both strengths and weaknesses to learners – as grammaticality judgment tasks can be made anonymously online, students will only become aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, not other individuals’ strengths and weaknesses. These online quiz environments can be used by teachers to present grammaticality judgment tasks every now and then with “simple sentences” that the teacher knows the students will judge correctly. This would result in positive feedback and foster a climate where the students feel a sense of accomplishment, and boost their confidence in the language and their motivation to continue learning the language. As modern technology and online services are ubiquitous in modern student life, by including modern technology such as mobile devices in the teaching and learning of languages, student motivation may increase together with the feeling of participation. It also allows the student to be active and engaged in their learning process and prevent passiveness in the classroom that would negatively affect student learning. Grammaticality judgment tasks can also be used to strengthen peer and cooperative learning. Learners can work in groups/pairs to discuss and try out their intuitions. It is likely that students feel safer sharing their intuitions in smaller groups than providing intuitions in front of the whole class. This may be beneficial for quieter students who feel safer and more able to express their ideas and thoughts with a single peer or in a small group of peers. When students collaborate around a structured, scaffolding grammar task, they are able to learn from each other as one student’s thoughts are noticed by the others and picked up by the others leading to learning that can be transferred into their (un)grammaticality judgments.

737

 Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality

Concluding Remarks Although our proposal deals with the learners’ understanding of syntax rules and not with their actual use of these rules in real situations, it is important to point out that we do not suggest that competence is more important in language teaching and learning than performance. They are equally important. However, in order to use language, learners need to know language. Our proposal is thus a way to facilitate learners’ understanding of syntax rules in order to create a foundation for correct, varied, and advanced language use. We thus suggest that our proposal is combined with tasks for practicing the syntax rules under discussion in spontaneous speech in real situations. We do not suggest that teachers build their grammar teaching solely on grammaticality judgment tasks. Rather, we propose that using grammaticality judgment tasks is an approach for introducing, testing and developing various grammatical aspects, and that it be used as a way of introducing new grammatical aspects in order to more easily illustrate syntactic rules. In sum, they are beneficial both for teachers (easy way to illustrate specific syntax rules in a “fun” manner) and for learners (participation and own knowledge may increase engagement and understanding of syntax).

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Basic word order phenomena 1. The following sentences were presented in (12) above to illustrate some basic word order phenomena in English, namely the placement of subjects, finite verbs and objects, and topicalization. We said that the different meanings of (a) and (b) can be used to illustrate the rules governing the placement of subjects and objects in relation to finite verbs, and that contrasting (c) with (d) can illustrate the rules governing topicalization. (18) a. Petra bought Elena milk yesterday. b. Elena bought Petra milk yesterday. c. Yesterday Petra bought Elena milk. d. *Yesterday bought Petra Elena milk. Discuss how to explain the placement of subjects, objects and finite verbs, and topicalization in English to second and foreign language learners using the examples in (18) and/or your own examples. Also discuss what you think are the main challenges in explaining these grammatical phenomena to second and foreign language learners of English. 2. Basic word order phenomena 2. The following sentences were presented in (13) above to illustrate basic SV-order in declaratives and subject-auxiliary inversion in wh-questions. We said that comparing the sentences in (a) and (b) with the sentences in (c) and (d) can illustrate the rules governing SV-order in declaratives and the rules governing subject-auxiliary inversion in wh-questions. (19) a. You will buy milk tomorrow. b. Tomorrow you will buy milk. c. *When you will buy milk? d. When will you buy milk? 738

 Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality

Discuss how to explain SV-order in declaratives and subject-auxiliary inversion in wh-questions to second and foreign language learners using the examples in (19) and/or your own examples. Also discuss what you think are the main challenges in explaining these grammatical phenomena to second and foreign language learners of English. 3. Binding. In our discussion about the binding domains of pronouns, we said that pronouns must be bound by a nonlocal antecedent. In example (7b) above, this means that the pronoun must be bound by an antecedent occurring in a different clause. However, this is not always true. Consider the examples in (20). Similar to (7b) above, the pronoun her in (20a) cannot be bound by Elena (her ≠ Elena). Now consider (20b). Who does her in (20b) refer to? What does a nonlocal antecedent mean in (20b)? (20) a. Elena praised her. b. Elena praised her cousin. 4. Transfer. L1 transfer is a common feature in second and foreign language learning and can be a valuable resource for second/foreign language teachers. In our discussion about potential transfer effects in grammaticality judgment tasks, we said nothing specific about how teachers can use transfer as a resource in the teaching of the syntax of English. Discuss how positive and negative L1 transfer, both in grammaticality judgment tasks and more generally in the students’ oral and written production, can be used by teachers as a resource in the teaching of the syntax of English. 5. Grammaticality. In our description of (un)grammaticality we mentioned that sentences can be semantically or syntactically well-/ill-formed. Come up with your own examples illustrating each of the following: a. a sentence that is semantically ill-formed and syntactically well-formed b. a sentence that is semantically ill-formed and syntactically ill-formed c. a sentence that is semantically well-formed and syntactically well-formed d. a sentence that is semantically well-formed and syntactically ill-formed

EXERCISES The following exercises aim to increase teachers’ understanding of syntactic phenomena, linguistic variation and grammaticality judgments in second and foreign language teaching. All exercises are structured in the same way: the first step is to design a grammaticality judgment task, the second step is to present the task to learners, and the third step is to reflect upon one’s own learning. Readers can choose if they want to proceed with the second step after designing the task. 1. Basic word order phenomena 1. The sentences in (12) above illustrate the placement of subjects, finite verbs and objects, and topicalization in English.

739

 Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality

Step 1 Using these examples as inspiration, create your own examples and design a grammaticality judgment task targeting the placement of subjects, finite verbs and objects in English. Choose between a simple design involving the sentences presented on a paper, or a more advanced design involving the sentences presented through PowerPoint (or a similar program) or an interactive presentation quiz software. Make sure you familiarize yourself with the different options for design and presentation that the chosen program or software offers before deciding on a particular design and presentation.

Step 2 Present the task to a group of 3–5 native speakers of English who are not linguistics students, for example family or friends. Let them collectively assess and discuss the grammaticality and interpretation of the sentences. If needed, provide guidance questions to make sure the discussion focuses on the word order and interpretation of the sentences. Present the task to a group of 3–5 second or foreign language learners of English. Let them collectively assess and discuss the grammaticality and interpretation of the sentences. If needed, provide guidance questions. When the discussion has ended, clarify the grammaticality and interpretation of the sentences. Then let the learners discuss what the corresponding sentences to the experimental sentences are in their respective native languages, focusing specifically on the targeted syntactic phenomena (placement of subjects, finite verbs and objects). If needed, provide guidance questions.

Step 3 Reflect upon what you can learn as a teacher from the discussions of the native speakers and the learners regarding (1) how to teach rules governing the placement of subjects, finite verbs and objects, and (2) how to design grammaticality judgment tasks for educational purposes. 2. Basic word order phenomena 2.

Step 1 Create your own sentences for a grammaticality judgment task targeting subject-auxiliary inversion in wh-questions. If you chose a simple design in the previous exercise it is recommended that you choose a more advanced design including PowerPoint (or a similar program) or an interactive presentation quiz software for this exercise.

Step 2 Follow the instructions in the previous exercise. Ensure that the discussion is focusing on subject-auxiliary inversion in wh-questions. Guidance questions: Do their native languages require SV-order in both subject-initial and non-subject-initial declaratives? Do their native languages require subject-auxiliary inversion in subject-auxiliary inversion in non-subject-initial wh-questions? 740

 Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality

Step 3 Reflect upon what you can learn as a teacher from the discussions of the native speakers and the learners regarding (1) how to teach rules governing subject-auxiliary inversion in wh-questions, and (2) how to design grammaticality judgment tasks for educational purposes. 3. Do-insertion. The sentences in (15) above illustrate do-insertion in the formation of wh-questions.

Step 1 Create your own sentences and design a grammaticality judgment task targeting the rules of do-insertion. Use PowerPoint (or a similar program) or an interactive presentation quiz software when designing the tasks.

Step 2 Present the task to a group of second or foreign language learners of English and let them assess and discuss the grammaticality of the sentences. Also let the learners discuss what the corresponding sentences are in their respective native languages. Guidance questions: Do their native languages require fronting of object wh-words, or do object wh-words stay in situ? If fronting is required, does subject-verb inversion apply? Or does fronting of object wh-words require the insertion of an auxiliary verb like do in English?

Step 3 Reflect upon what you can learn as a teacher from the discussions regarding (1) how to teach rules governing do-insertion in wh-questions, and (2) how to design grammaticality judgment tasks for educational purposes. 4. Binding. The following sentences can be used to introduce the binding domains of reflexives and pronouns to second/foreign language learners of English: (21) a. Peter said that John scratched himself. b. Peter said that John scratched him.

Step 1 Design a grammaticality judgment task that addresses the binding constraints of the reflexive himself and the pronoun him in (21). It is recommended that you use an interactive presentation software for this exercise to be able to explore different options for designing tasks and visually presenting the results to learners. Each task should present one of the sentences followed by the following question: “Who is being scratched?” The design should include pictures or photos that illustrate licit and illicit interpretations of the respective sentences. For example, to illustrate different interpretations of the sentence in (21a), three pictures showing John scratching himself, John scratching Peter and John scratching a third person can 741

 Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality

be used. The task of the learners is to choose the picture/s that they think correctly answer/s the question “Who is being scratched?” The same pictures can be used to illustrate licit and illicit interpretations of the sentence in (21b).

Step 2 Present the task to a group of second or foreign language learners of English. Let them individually interpret himself and him by taking the quiz on their mobile devices or laptops. Present the results of the judgments to the learners and discuss their interpretations in order to better understand underlying mechanism such as L1 transfer. When discussion has ended, clarify the interpretation of the sentences and the binding domains of reflexives and pronouns.

Step 3 Reflect upon what you can learn as a teacher from the discussions regarding (1) how to teach rules governing the binding of reflexives and pronouns, and (2) how to design grammaticality judgment tasks for educational purposes. 5. Control constructions. The following sentences can be used to illustrate how the understood subject in control constructions is interpreted: (22) a. Elena yearned to mow the grass. b. Elena begged Petra to mow the grass. c. Elena begged Petra to be allowed to mow the grass.

Step 1 Design a grammaticality judgment task for each of the sentences that addresses subject and object control. It is recommended that you use an interactive presentation software for this exercise. The tasks should include pictures or photos to illustrate licit and illicit interpretations of the respective sentences in (22), for example a picture with Elena mowing the grass, a picture with Petra mowing the grass and a picture with a third person mowing the grass. The task of the learners is to choose the picture/s that they think correctly answer/s the question “Who is going to mow the grass?”.

Step 2 Present the task to a group of second or foreign language learners of English. Let them individually interpret the understood subject by taking the quiz on their mobile devices or laptops. Present the results of the judgments to the learners and discuss their interpretations in order to better understand underlying mechanism such as L1 transfer. Let the learners discuss what the corresponding sentences to (22) are in their respective native languages. Guidance questions: Do their native languages allow control constructions of the type in (22), or do the sentences need to be paraphrased? If control constructions are allowed, how are subject and object control manifested in their native languages? If

742

 Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality

paraphrasing is needed, how are the sentences in (22) paraphrased in their native languages? When discussion has ended, clarify the interpretation of the sentences and the rules for subject and object control.

Step 3 Reflect upon what you can learn as a teacher from the discussions regarding (1) how to teach rules governing subject and object control, and (2) how to design grammaticality judgment tasks for educational purposes.

REFERENCES Aoun, J., & Li, Y.-A. (1989). Scope and constituency. Linguistic Inquiry, 20, 141–172. Bentzen, K., Merchant, J., & Svenonius, P. (2013). Deep properties of surface pronouns: Pronominal predicate anaphors in Norwegian and German. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics, 16(2-3), 97–125. doi:10.100710828-013-9057-z Bley-Vroman, R. (1989). What is the logical problem of foreign language learning? In S. Gass & J. Schachter (Eds.), Linguistic perspectives on second language acquisition (pp. 41–68). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139524544.005 Bley-Vroman, R. (2009). The evolving context of the fundamental difference hypothesis. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 31(2), 175–198. doi:10.1017/S0272263109090275 Cheng, L. L. S. (1991). On the typology of wh-questions (Doctoral dissertation). Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures. The Hague: Mouton. Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Clahsen, H., & Muysken, P. (1986). The availability of universal grammar to adult and child learners—a study of the acquisition of German word order. Second Language Research, 2, 93–119. Cook, V. (1988). Chomsky’s universal grammar. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Dornyei, Z. (2006). The Psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition. Lawrence Erlbaum. Fox, D. (2000). Economy and semantic interpretation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Frey, W. (1993). Syntaktische Bedingungen für die semantische Repräsentation: Über Bindung, Implizite Argumente und Skopus. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. Gropen, J., Pinker, S., Hollander, M., Goldberg, R., & Wilson, R. (1989). The learnability and acquisition of the dative alternation in English. Language, 65(2), 203–257. doi:10.2307/415332 Guasti, M.-T. (2002). Language acquisition: The growth of grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

743

 Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality

Hawkins, R., & Chan, C. Y.-H. (1997). The partial availability of universal grammar in second language acquisition: The ‘failed functional features hypothesis’. Second Language Research, 13(3), 187–226. doi:10.1191/026765897671476153 Hoff, E. (2006). How social contexts support and shape language development. Developmental Review, 26(1), 55–88. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2005.11.002 Huang, C.-T. J. (1982). Logical relation in Chinese and the theory of grammar (Doctoral dissertation). Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. Ionin, T., Luchkina, T., & Stoops, A. (2014). Quantifier scope and scrambling in the second language acquisition of Russian. In C.-Y. Chu, C. E. Coughlin, B. Lopez Prego, U. Minai & A. Tremblay (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (GALANA 2012) (pp. 169–180). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. Ionin, T., & Zyzik, E. (2014). Judgment and interpretation tasks in second language research. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 34, 37–64. doi:10.1017/S0267190514000026 Kazanina, N., & Phillips, C. (2010). Differential effects of constraints in the processing of Russian cataphora. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63(2), 371–400. doi:10.1080/17470210902974120 PMID:19585389 Kennison, S. M., Fernandez, E. C., & Bowers, J. M. (2009). Processing differences for anaphoric and cataphoric pronouns: Implications for theories of discourse processing. Discourse Processes, 46(1), 25–45. doi:10.1080/01638530802359145 Kim, C.-E., O’Grady, W., Deen, K., & Kim, K. (2017). Syntactic fast mapping: The Korean extrinsic plural marker. Language Acquisition, 24(1), 70–79. doi:10.1080/10489223.2016.1187612 Lado, R. (1957). Linguistics across cultures: Applied linguistics for language teachers. University of Michigan Press. Lindgren, E., & Sullivan, K. P. H. (2019). Observing writing: Insights from keystroke logging and handwriting. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Publishing. doi:10.1163/9789004392526 Lust, B. (2006). Child language: Acquisition and growth. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511803413 Marcus, G. F. (1993). Negative evidence in language acquisition. Cognition, 46(1), 53–85. doi:10.1016/00100277(93)90022-N PMID:8432090 Morgan, J. L., & Travis, L. L. (1989). Limits on negative information in language input. Journal of Child Language, 16(3), 531–552. doi:10.1017/S0305000900010709 PMID:2808572 O’Grady, W. (2005). How children learn language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511791192 Pinker, S. (1989). Learnability and cognition: The acquisition of argument structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

744

 Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality

Pullum, G. K., & Scholz, B. C. (2002). Empirical assessment of stimulus poverty arguments. Linguistic Review, 19, 9–50. Radford, A., Felser, C., & Boxell, O. (2012). Preposition copying and pruning in present-day English. English Language and Linguistics, 16(3), 403–426. doi:10.1017/S1360674312000172 Rutherford, W. (1983). Language typology and language transfer. In S. M. Gass & L. Selinker (Eds.), Language transfer in language learning. Powley, MA: Newbury House. Schwartz, B. D., & Sprouse, R. A. (1996). L2 cognitive states and the full transfer/full access model. Second Language Research, 12(1), 40–72. doi:10.1177/026765839601200103 Skehan, P. (1989). Individual differences in second-language learning. London: Edward Arnold. Slabakova, R. (2016). Second language acquisition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Snyder, W., & Lillo-Marin, D. (2011). Principles and parameters theory and language acquisition. In P. Colm Hogan (Ed.), The Cambridge encyclopedia of language sciences (pp. 670–673). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Sullivan, K. P. H., & Lindgren, E. (2006). Computer keystroke logging: Methods and applications. Oxford, UK: Elsevier. Tremblay, A. (2005). Theoretical and methodological perspectives on the use of grammaticality judgment tasks in linguistic theory. Second Language Studies, 24, 129–167. Trnavac, R., & Taboada, M. (2016). Cataphora, backgrounding and accessibility in discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 93, 68–84. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2015.12.008 Tsimpli, I. M., & Dimitrakopoulou, M. (2007). The Interpretability Hypothesis: Evidence from wh-interrogatives in second language acquisition. Second Language Research, 23(2), 215–242. doi:10.1177/0267658307076546 Unsworth, S. (2007). L1 and L2 acquisition between sentence and discourse: Comparing production and comprehension in child Dutch. Lingua, 117(11), 1930–1958. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2006.11.009 Vinka, M., & Waldmann, C. (2013). Doing it in Swedish doesn’t mean you’ve done it. In J. Iyer & L. Kusmer (Eds.), NELS 44: Proceedings of the Forty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society (pp. 243–254). University of Massachusetts. Vygotsky, L. (1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Waldmann, C., & Sullivan, K. P. H. (2019). How the materiality of mobile video chats shapes emergent language learning practices in early childhood. In T. Cerratto Pargman & I. Jahnke (Eds.), Emergent practices and material conditions in learning and teaching with technologies (pp. 217–229). Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-10764-2_13 White, L. (2003). Second language acquisition and universal grammar. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511815065

745

 Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality

ADDITIONAL READING Carnie, A. (2013). Syntax: A generative introduction (3rd ed.). Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. Haegeman, L. (1994). Introduction to government and binding theory (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Radford, A. (2004). Minimalist syntax: Exploring the structure of English. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511811319

This research was previously published in Applied Linguistics for Teachers of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners; pages 103-126, copyright year 2019 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

746

747

Chapter 35

Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation Ana María Pinto-Llorente https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8538-9902 University of Salamanca, Spain

ABSTRACT The present research is an innovative study that intends to analyse the effectiveness of a b-learning digital ecosystem implemented in the area of English phonetics and phonology. It also aims to highlight the benefits of some transmissive, interactive, and collaborative resources in learning of the subject. It is a quantitative research with an ex-post-facto design, collecting data through a questionnaire. The results demonstrated that pre-service teachers had positive views towards the digital ecosystem to improve their English pronunciation level and their ability to perceive and produce English more accurately. The findings also emphasized the potential of the digital ecosystem to provide a more natural environment for pronunciation practice and a more individualized instruction focused on learners who become active learners generating knowledge.

INTRODUCTION Research in second language learning has used different methods in teaching pronunciation. However, it has revealed that there is a need to develop new methods and further investigate, especially teaching English pronuınciation in higher education. Therefore, the study in this chapter aims to contribute to the research in the field of phonology, English as a second language and e-learning in higher education by analyzing the effectiveness of a blended learning (b-learning) digital ecosystem implemented in English Phonetics and Phonology subject, which has been traditionally taught face-to-face. The current chapter presents a project which develops a digital ecosystem, using Moodle, the open-source learning platform, to create an adequate virtual environment in which pre-service teachers will be able to improve their phonological competence in all its dimensions. The digital ecosystem was made up of 4 modules: the DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch035

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

organs of speech, vowel sounds, consonant sounds, and homophones, homographs, stress, unstressed syllables, weak and strong forms of the words, and intonation. All four modules included different transmissive (podcast and videocast), interactive (online glossary and online questionnaires) and collaborative (forum) technological tools to develop the e-activities and promote interaction between the participants. The goals of the present quantitative research were to analyse pre-service teachers’ perceptions about the effectiveness of the blended learning digital ecosystem implemented in the area of English Phonetics and Phonology, and to highlight the benefits of some transmissive, interactive and collaborative tools such as podcast, videocast, online questionnaires, online glossary and forum in learning English Phonetics and Phonology. The study focused on three research questions: 1. How do pre-service teachers perceive the digital ecosystem in terms of effectiveness? 2. Do pre-service teachers believe that the digital ecosystem implemented provide a natural environment for authentic pronunciation practice? 3. Do pre-service teachers perceive that the digital ecosystem supports individual and collaborative learning throughout technological tools? The study also tried to test three hypotheses (H): H1. English pronunciation learning level and the satisfaction of pre-service teachers will be higher with the implementation of the blended learning digital ecosystem. H2. The digital ecosystem implemented will help pre-service teachers to develop their ability to perceive and produce English more accurately. H3. The digital ecosystem will supply pre-service teachers with a natural environment for pronunciation practice.

BACKGROUND Teaching Second Language Throughout the history of teaching English as second language (L2), reserachers adopted varied methods for teaching pronunciation. As Levis (2005) points out, “the history of pronunciation in English language teaching is a study in extremes. Some approaches to teaching, such as the reformed method and audiolingualism, elevated pronunciation to a pinnacle of importance, while other approaches, such as the cognitive movement and early communicative language teaching, mostly ignored pronunciation” (p.369). As Larsen-Freeman, 2003, Larsen-Freeman and Long, 1994, and Sánchez, (1997) stated, in the beginning, teaching second language was basically through the memorization of grammar rules and vocabulary lists. That intended to enable learners to read texts, make translations and use the L2 to communicate in written form. Besides, teachers used students’ mother tongue in their lesson predominantly, so there was no oral exposure to the L2 and, of course, no interest in pronunciation (Santos, 1999). The direct method emerged to reject all the principles on which the previous method was based and became the first approach focusing mainly on oral skills. That directly implied the improvement of oral skills and the emphasis on the correct pronunciation (Pastor, 2005). It emerged from a project carried out by the German linguist and the founder of the Berlitz Language Schools, Maximilian Berlitz (1852748

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

1921) in Rhode Island in 1978. The method rapidly spread throughout Europe and America. The principles and procedures followed in the method were aimed at the exclusive use of the L2, the learning of vocabulary and sentences used in real context. The grammar was taught inductively, and teachers put a great emphasis on correct pronunciation. These principles were reflected in the guidelines followed at Berlitz schools (Richards and Rodgers, 2001). In the mid of the twentieth century, the audio-oral method emerged, which was based on structuralist linguistics that highlighted Bloomfield and his school, and on behavioural theory with a clear influence of the psychologist Skinner. The conclusions, which were drawn from the formation of certain habits through the repetitions of behaviours in animals, were transferred to people and to second language acquisition (Pastor, 2005; Sánchez, 1997). Lado (1915-1995) presented a clear description of the approach in his work. It was suggested that, when teaching a L2, oral skills must be enhanced and must be acquired through the creation of habits and the learning of certain patterns that must be used automatically in response to a stimulus. There was a specific emphasis on pronunciation and on the immediate correction of mistakes to avoid the acquisition of an incorrect habit. As Usó (2008) pointed out, the pronunciation had been in the background and it was not until the 1990s when it recovered its importance in the communicative method that was based on cognitive psychology with focus on communication in the L2. Specifically, the acquisition of an adequate communicative competence conformed by a set of competences (grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence) and an adequate pronunciation. The term communicative competence was coined by Hymes (1972), who considered that it did not only refer to produce grammatically correct sentences, but it must also consider the socio-cultural context in which the interaction takes place. Therefore, it is essential to know the receiver, the moment and place in which communication takes place. A few years later, other linguists such as Canale (1983), and Canale and Swain (1980) defined communicative competence as a competence in which other four competences (linguistic competence also known as grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence) were interrelated. In 2001, the European Council published the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching and assessment (CEFR). It was part of the general project of linguistic policy that was exemplified in the Rüschlikon (Switzerland) symposium entitled Transparency and Coherence in Language Learning in Europe: Objectives, Evaluation and Certification. That document included a definition of communicative competence, which was composed of a set of competences: linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic competences. In the communicative method, pronunciation played a fundamental role in relation to the oral skills, becoming an essential aspect when determining the communicative competence of a L2 speaker (Iruela, 2007). It is basic for interaction since if the speaker’s pronunciation is adequate, there will not be obstacles in communication and there will be greater acceptance by native speakers (Cortés, 2002). As Bartolí (2005) stated, learners who had an adequate pronunciation contributed to their greater self-esteem and confidence. It is necessary that pronunciation receives appropriate treatment (Iruela, 2004). This aspect has not usually devoted the same attention to other aspects of the L2 because teachers do not normally know how to integrate it into the communicative approach. Derwing and Munro (2005) pointed out that “the study of pronunciation has been marginalized within the field of applied linguistics. As a result, teachers are often left to rely on their own intuitions with little direction. Although some instructors can successfully assist their students under these conditions, many are reluctant to teach pronunciation” (p.379). This statement led us to carry out this research on analyzing pre-service teachers’ perceptions about the effectiveness of the b-learning digital ecosystem 749

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

of English phonetics and phonology subject. Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that deals with the manner in which sounds are perceived, produced and transmitted, so it is the science that deals with speech sounds and the way in which they are produced, transmitted, received, analysed, classified and transcribed. It is concerned with articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics and auditory phonetics (Hardcastle, Laver & Gibbon, 2010; Richard & Schmidt, 2013; Yule, 2014). On the other hand, Phonology is also a branch of linguistics, which concerned with the way in which sounds are organized and used in first languages (Hardcastle, Laver & Gibbon, 2010; Richard & Schmidt, 2013; Yule, 2014). There are different definitions of phonological competence. In our study, we will use the definition of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) (Council of Europe, 2001) in which “Phonological competence involves a knowledge of, and skill in the perception and production of: sound-units (phonemes) of the language and their realization in particular contexts (allophones); phonetic features which distinguish phonemes (distinctive features, e.g. voicing, rounding, nasality, plosion); phonetic composition of words (syllable structure, the sequence of phonemes, word stress, word tones); sentence phonetics (prosody); sentence stress and rhythm; intonation; phonetic reduction; vowel reduction; strong and weak forms; assimilation; elision.” (p.116)

Relevant Studies on Teaching Pronunciation Through Technology According to Derwing and Munro (2005), there has been a growing literature on L2 speech production and perception. However, it has not usually been published in teacher-oriented publications. They also state that a part of the research “may not be perceived as practical because it has been carried out under strict laboratory conditions, so it is not immediately clear how the findings apply to the classroom” (ibid, p.382). This section presents a brief overview of the most relevant studies around teaching pronunciation, technology and blended learning approach. Wilson (2005) carried out one of the first studies on the use of Moodle in teaching pronunciation. That research combined the use of the platform and an open-source acoustic analysis software called Praat. According to the results, learners became more autonomous in their learning, something that traditionally depended on teacher’s evaluation. Moreover, the use of Praat allowed them to analyse their pronunciation level by their own. On the other hand, the combination of Moodle and Praat permitted teacher to find out the weaknesses of each student to help with the areas they needed to improve. Ashby (2008) published a paper that presented different grant-funded initiatives carried out at the University College London for four years to develop innovations in the teaching, learning and assessment of phonetics at the university. One of those initiative referred to the project Phonline that was a comprehensive attempt to develop an online course in which most of the elements of phonetic training, tutorial materials, exercises, practical training and assessment were embedded and available. Specifically, the project aimed to achieve three main goals. The study was conducted to research and find out solutions within a virtual learning environment to the specific multimedia problems of distance learning in phonetics, to design and implement a distance-learning course in English phonetics and to pilot the course and obtain feedback. An eight-week introductory course in English Phonetics was designed for the pilot study and 25 students across five continents were participated in the study. The overall results obtained showed a high degree of satisfaction towards different aspects of the design, organisation and delivery of the course. A majority of the participants also stated that they would recommend the course to other learners and would undertake further online courses based on the experience with the project.

750

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

Ali (2016) presented a research developed at Renner 2 University. The university aimed to develop a comprehensive pedagogical framework for English pronunciation training consisting of a blended learning framework that combined face-to-face teaching of pronunciation with online instruction using technology, called Automatic Speech Recognition. The participants who were French university students majoring in Literature, Arts and Communication showed an advanced level of grammar and syntax. However, their spoken English remained the same with a heavy accent of their mother tongue which could hinder effective communication. The paper analysed how computer assisted pronunciation training software had been used to identify potential improvements to deal with bad pronunciation habits. Liu and Hung (2016) carried out a study to assess the effectiveness of computer assisted pronunciation instruction and practice in English pronunciation. The participants who were undergraduate students studying general English at a technological university in Taiwan took an eight-week English pronunciation course. The results obtained through a questionnaire at the end of the course revealed a significant improvement in the quality of participants’ pronunciation, and their positive opinions towards instruction were enhanced. A qualitative research was carried out by Pourhosein Gilakjani (2018) to find out Iranian teachers’ views toward computer technology in teaching English pronunciation. The researcher used a semistructured interview to collect data which were analysed according to the Miles and Huberman’s process of reducing data, constructing theme and drawing conclusions. The results emphasized that participants’ positive attitude towards the use of computer technology increased, since it provided a useful, pleasing and interactive environment that helped participants to have an accurate pronunciation and improve the quality and deliver of pronunciation instruction. The results also revealed that the participants’ confidence and motivation towards technology increased because it played a key role that changed their instruction and helped them to teach pronunciation effectively.

The Digital Ecosystem The digital ecosystem implemented in English Phonetics and Phonology course was designed through the open-source Learning Management System, Moodle. This stands out for having a support and development community, and for being based on a solid educational philosophy (Cole & Foster, 2008). It is a platform for the creation and management of Internet-based courses that provide educators with the necessary tools to create an effective course in a website and allow the participants to enroll in this course. It is a project inspired by social constructionist pedagogy (Rice, 2011) a feature that distinguishes it from other Content Management System (CMS) developed only for a series of tools without an educational theory. The design was based on the selection of a pedagogical model according to the principles of a constructivist web-based learning environment (Duffy & Cunningham, 1996; Honebein, 1996; Knuth & Cunnigham, 1993) where students are placed at the centre of the teaching-learning process. Considering this premise, the digital ecosystem was designed to: • • •

provide learners with an experience in the construction of knowledge and in different points of view (Baker & Gossman, 2013; Walsh & Kahn, 2010) develop learning in real and relevant contexts for students so that they can transfer what they learn in an academic context to everyday life (Payne, 2009; Willis, 2009) allow students to have a relevant role, being place in the centre of the process (Altanopoulou, Tselios, Katsanos, & Georgoutsou, 2015; Blumberg, 2009; Gisbert, 2002) 751

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

• • •

set learning in social experience in which takes place (Bell, 2009) use multiple modes of representation to meet participants’ different learning styles (Pinto-Llorente, Sánchez-Gómez & García-Peñalvo, 2018a) and encourage self-awareness of the knowledge construction process (Gan, Menkhoff & Smith, 2015; Pinto-Llorente, Sánchez-Gómez & García-Peñalvo, 2018b).

Regarding the design of the digital ecosystem, the visual organization of the virtual environment was topic format, dividing the environment into an introductory block and other four parts around the contents of the course: (1) the organs of speech; (2) vowel sounds; (3) consonant sounds, and (4) homophones, homographs, stress, unstressed syllables, weak and strong forms of the words, and intonation. Each block included different materials and e-activities (digital activities) available through the transmissive, interactive, and collaborative resources offered by Moodle. As Gómez (2006) and Pérez et al., (2009) point out, this division of the resources is due to two factors. On one hand, the degree of difficulty of the process of communication; on the other hand, the pedagogical model on which they are based. Transmissive resources referred to PDF and Word files, podcasts, videocast and links to external websites where participants had access to dictionaries or pages where they could use specific software to create their own podcasts and videocasts. Transmissive resources could be downloaded so that students could access to the contents and the practices developed through podcast and videocast to work with them on different media tools such as smartphones, tablets or computers. As Man-Man (2006) states, this facilitated access to the content of the subject and their practice in a multitude of situations and contexts. Regarding interactive resources, one of the blocks contained an online glossary a digital tool used to create an online dictionary of key concepts of phonetics and phonology. Each block also included assessment and self-assessment tests. On one hand, the assessment tests were available to carry out the continuous assessment of the learning process and provide students with feedback about their progress. They were enabled with a limited time, allowing a single attempt and applying penalties for the incorrect answers. On the other hand, the self-assessment tests were available during the whole course. The learners could complete them whenever they wanted and the times they needed. The purpose of those tests was to help them practice the contents of the subject and be ready to do the assessment ones. Moreover, the learners could know their level in the course and their needs since they also included feedback. Concerning collaborative resources, the blocks of the digital ecosystem contained forums divided into two types. Some of the forums were designed to encourage interaction between the participants and create a space in which they could ask the doubts about the content of the course. Other forums were designed to facilitate the development of the group e-activities that were assessed by the teacher as part of the continuous assessment.

MAIN FOCUS OF THE CHAPTER Research Design This is a quantitative study with an ex-post-facto design that is defined as “a systematic empirical inquiry in which the scientist does not have direct control of independent variables because their manifestations have already occurred or because they are inherently not manipulable.” (Kerlinger, 1973, p.379). The study addressed a descriptive study, using techniques of descriptive and inferential analysis for differ752

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

ent strata sample of the study (Arnal, Rincón & Latorre, 1994). To develop the study, the researcher followed the phases established by Buendía, Colás and Hernández (1997). During the first phase, the theoretical and conceptual phase, the researcher set the objectives and hypotheses of the study. During the second phase, the methodological phase, the researcher selected the sample and the variables of the study and prepared the definitive design of the instrument to collect data. In the last phase, the statistical and conceptual phase, the researcher coded and analysed the data to obtain the results that could be generalized and stated the main conclusions.

Participants 87 Spanish pre-service teachers in Primary Education were enrolled in the semestral and compulsory course of English phonetics and phonology. The majority of the participants were women, specifically 78.1% (n=68) of the sample, and 21.9% (n= 19) were men. The age range of the sample components was very wide, ranging from 20 to 58 years old. The 87 participants were divided into four age groups, 20-24 years old (Group 1), 25-29 (Group 2), 30-34 (Group 3) and 35 or more (Group 4). All of them had already completed a university degree, since one of the requirements of the university to study a degree in blended learning modalities was to have completed a degree before. It is also relevant to highlight that the previous degree of most participants was related to education. In addition, most of them (71,5%, n=62) were working full-time or part-time and had a job related to education.

Instrument The researcher used a test to collect data. It was designed using the option form provided by Google Drive and stored in the digital ecosystem implemented for English Phonetics and Phonology subject. That instrument was designed to collect information about the followings: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Sociodemographic pre-service teachers’ details. Pre-service teachers’ perspectives about the teaching contents provided in the digital ecosystem. Pre-service teachers’ perceptions about the e-activities developed. Pre-service teachers’ perceptions about some technological tools. Pre-service teachers’ self-assessment of their oral skills and pronunciation level.

Alternative responses ranged from open, closed, yes/no to Likert scale depending on the nature of the item. Likert scale questions were coded from ‘totally effective’ to ‘totally ineffective’. For this study ‘Totally ineffective’ was coded as 1; ‘Ineffective’ as 2; ‘Neither effective nor ineffective’ as 3; ‘Effective’ as 4 and ‘Totally effective’ as 5. The external validity of the instrument was guaranteed through the experts in educational research, English as a L2 and educational technology in the design of the questionnaire. On the other hand, the internal consistency of the test was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha, high internal consistency α=0.894 was obtained, so their measures were stable and consistent.

753

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

Data Collection and Analyses Data were collected at the end of the first semester using a questionnaire. As stated earlier, the questionnaire was stored in the digital ecosystem of English Phonetics and Phonology subject and it was available to be completed within a week. The researcher collected data and downloaded them to the personal computer for coding. After creating the data matrix, using the software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 24, the researcher started introducing and debugging data followed by descriptive (frequency and percentages) and inferential analyses (ANOVA).

RESULTS, SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATION The results of the descriptive analysis revealed that most pre-service teachers (66.8%, n=58) had a positive perception towards their improvement of English pronunciation level through the digital ecosystem designed and implemented in English Phonetics and Phonology subject as found by Ashby (2008). The results, as the inferential analysis determined, differed according to age groups. Specifically, the results of analysis of variance according to the different age groups (p=.000) showed that there were statistically significant differences (CI 95%). It was calculated the Tukey HSD post-hoc test (Figure 1) in order to determine the differences between the groups. The test indicated that the mean scores for Group 1 (=4.41, SD=.561) and Group 2 (=4.22, SD=.551) were significantly different from Group 3 (=3.71, .952) and Group 4 (=3.42, SD=.956). The test revealed that Group 1 and Group 2 had considered that they improved their English pronunciation level more than Group 3 and Group 4. Figure 1. Results of the Tukey HSD Test of the Dependent Variable English pronunciation level

754

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

The results of the descriptive analysis (Table 1) of the dependent variable that referred to pre-serviced teachers’ perception about the effectiveness of the transmissive (podcasts and videocasts), interactive (online tests and online glossary) and collaborative (forums) technological tools were in general quite positive. Regarding participants’ perspective about podcasts, most of them considered that they were effective (38.3%, n=33) and totally effective (45%, n=39). Similar results were obtained in the variable that refers to videocasts. In that case, 37.7% (n=32) stated that they were effective and 48.9% (n=43) totally effective. In both variables, just few of participants considered that they were absolutely ineffective. In relation to the results of the effectiveness of online test, online glossary and forums, most of them considered that they were effective (36,6% n=31, 38,5% n=33 & 44,4% n=38) and totally effective (32,7% n=28, 33,8% n=29 & 38,3% n=33). Table 1. Statistics of the Dependent Variables of the Effectiveness of Podcasts, Videocasts, Online test, Online Glossary & Forums Items

Ineffective

Neither effective nor ineffective

Effective

Totally Effective



Sx

Podcasts

2.2%

14.5%

38.3%

45%

4.26

.787

Videocasts

0.8%

12.6%

37.7%

48.9%

4.35

.728

Online Tests

12%

18.7%

36.6%

32.7%

3.90

.994

Online Glossary

2.8%

24.9%

38.5%

33.8%

4.03

.836

Forums

1.1%

16.2%

44.4%

38.3%

4.20

.743

It was analysed if there were statistically significant differences (CI 95%) between the different groups on those variables. The results of analysis of variance according to those groups (p=.000) showed that there were statistically significant differences in the dependent variables that referred to the effectiveness of podcasts (p=.000), videocasts (p=.000), online tests (p=.000), online glossary (p=.000) and forums (p=.000). The Tukey HSD post-hoc test was conducted (Figures 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) to find out which the difference between the groups. The results illustrated that the mean scores for Group 1 (Podcasts: =4.67 Videocasts: =4.69, Online tests: =4.75, Online glossary: =4.69 & Forums: =4.63) and Group 2 (Podcasts: =4.58, Videocasts: =4.57, Online tests =4.51, Online glossary =4.65 & Forums: =4.50) were significantly different from Group 3 (Podcasts: =3.95, Videocasts: =4.04, Online tests: =3.10, Online glossary: =3.40 & Forums: =3.77) and Group 4 (Podcasts: =3.78, Videocasts: =3.78, Online tests: =3.35, Online glossary: =3.38 & Forums: =3.96). The test revealed that groups 1 and 2 gave higher ratings to the effectiveness of all tools than groups 3 and 4. The results of the descriptive analysis (Table 2) regarding the perceptions of the pre-service teachers were also favourable in relation to the dependent variables that refer to the effectiveness of the e-activities available in the digital ecosystem to develop their phonological competence, pronunciation and oral skills. 47.8% (n=42) assessed those e-activities as effective and 27.9% (n=24) as totally effective. Regarding the results of the other two variables, they were quite similar, since 67.9% (n=59) and 71.2% (n=62) considered that they were effective to improve pronunciation and oral skills.

755

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

Figure 2. Results of the Tukey HSD Test of the Dependent Variable level of the Effectiveness of Podcast

Figure 3. Results of the Tukey HSD Test of the Dependent Variable level of the Effectiveness of Videocast

The results of those dependent variables, as the inferential analysis determined, differed according to age groups. Specifically, the results of analysis of variance according to the different age groups (p=.000, p=.000, p=.000) showed that there were statistically significant differences (CI 95%). The Tukey HSD post-hoc test was conducted (Figures 7, 8, 9) to ascertain which groups significantly differed from the others. The test indicated that the mean scores for Group 1 (phonological competence: =4.54, SD=.501; pronunciation: =4.41, SD=.561; oral skills: =4.69, SD=.465) and Group 2 (phonological

756

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

competence: =4.32, SD=.553, pronunciation: =3.71, SD=.952; oral skills: =4.61, SD=.554) were significantly different from Group 3 (phonological competence: =3.44, SD=1.142; pronunciation: =3.42, SD=.956; oral skills: =4.13, SD=.674 and Group 4 (phonological competence: =3.38, SD=1.097; pronunciation: =3.36, SD=; oral skills: =4.18, SD=.819). The test revealed that Groups 1 and 2 considered that they had improved their English pronunciation level more than Groups 3 and 4. Figure 4. Results of the Tukey HSD Test of the Dependent Variable level of the Effectiveness of Online Tests

Figure 5. Results of the Tukey HSD Test of the Dependent Variable level of the Effectiveness of Online Glossary

757

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

Figure 6. Results of the Tukey HSD Test of the Dependent Variable level of the Effectiveness of Forums

Table 2. Statistics of the Dependent Variables of the Effectiveness of E-activities to Develop Phonological Competence, Pronunciation & Oral Skills Items

Totally effective

Ineffective

Neither effective nor ineffective

Effective

Totally Effective



Sx

Phonological Competence

2.8%

5.3%

16.2%

47.8%

27.9%

3.93

.950

Pronunciation

0.3%

3.1%

12.8%

67.9%

15.9%

3.96

.660

Oral Skills

0.3%

2.2%

8.1%

71.2%

18.2%

4.05

.613

The descriptive analyses (Table 3) also revealed that most pre-serviced teachers considered that the digital ecosystem designed and implemented was effective (42.2%, n=37) and totally effective (41.3%, n=36) to help them to develop their ability to perceive and produce English more accurately. Moreover, more than half of the participants (69,6%, n=61) also assessed the digital ecosystem as effective to help them to be aware of the different English accents. Regarding the results about the effectiveness of the digital ecosystem to provide a natural environment to practice English pronunciation, 45.5% (n=40) assessed it as effective and 45% (n=39) as totally effective. The results of the inferential analysis (Figure 10) emphasized that there were differences between the different age groups in the dependent variable that refer to the possibilities provided by the digital ecosystem to help pre-service teachers to develop their ability to perceive and produce English more accurately. Specifically, the results of analysis of variance according to the different age groups (p=.000) showed that there were statistically significant differences (CI 95%). The Tukey HSD post-hoc test was conducted in order to ascertain which groups significantly differed from the others. The test indicated that the mean scores for Group 1 (=4.38, SD=.595), Group 2 (=4.24, SD=.843), and Group 3 (=4.19, SD=1.031) were significantly different from Group 4 (=3.64, SD=1.060). The test revealed that Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3 assessed better the digital ecosystem for that purpose than Group 4. 758

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

Figure 7. Results of the Tukey HSD Test of the Dependent Variable level of the Effectiveness of the Eactivities to Develop Phonological Competence

Figure 8. Results of the Tukey HSD Test of the Dependent Variable level of the Effectiveness of the Eactivities to Develop Pronunciation

Finally, the pre-serviced teachers were also asked about the effectiveness of the digital ecosystem to support autonomous and collaborative learning of English pronunciation through technological tools. In line with Wilson’s (2005) findings, the results of the descriptive analysis (Table 4) were also quite positive about those dependent variables. Specifically, 48% (n=42) and 27.9% (n=24) of the participants

759

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

pointed out that the digital ecosystem was effective and totally effective to support autonomous learning. Similar results were obtained in the other variable, since 54.7% (n=46) stated that it was effective and 30.2% (n=26) totally effective. Overall, the current research provides specific evidences of the potential of podcasts and videocasts to provide access to the necessary practice with a wide range of accents and contexts to improve English pronunciation level and oral skills (Mbah, Mbah & Iloene, 2014). The direct consequence of that was the possibility to communicate more effectively in different communicative situations and get a significant learning of English pronunciation. The study proved how the use of different technological tools made possible, as Llisterri (2007) points out, the systematic integration of English pronunciation activities in self-learning, online learning and blended learning environments.

Figure 9. Results of the Tukey HSD Test of the Dependent Variable level of the Effectiveness of the Eactivities to Develop Oral Skills

Table 3. Statistics of the Dependent Variables of the Effectiveness of the Digital Ecosystem to perceive and produce English more accurately, to be aware of the different English Accents & to provide a Natural Environment to practice English Pronunciation Items

Totally effective

Ineffective

Neither effective nor ineffective

Effective

Totally Effective



Sx

To perceive and produce English more accurately

1.7%

2.8%

8.4%

69.6%

17.6%

3.93

.950

Different English Accents

0.5%

4.1%

12.6%

67.9%

14.9%

3.96

.660

Natural environment to practice English Pronunciation

0.6%

2.2%

6.7%

45.5%

45%

4.05

.613

760

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

Figure 10. Results of the Tukey HSD Test of the Dependent Variable level of the Effectiveness of the Digital Ecosystem to help Pre-service Teachers to perceive and produce English more accurately

Table 4. Statistics of the Dependent Variables of the Effectiveness of the Digital Ecosystem to support Autonomous & Collaborative Learning of English Pronunciation Items

Totally effective

Ineffective

Neither effective nor ineffective

Effective

Totally Effective



Sx

Autonomous Learning

2.5%

8.4%

13.1%

48%

27.9%

3.91

.983

Collaborative Learning

2.0%

3.4%

9.8%

54.7%

30.2%

4.08

.840

There were evidences of the pedagogical sense of the transmissive, interactive and collaborative tools used in the digital ecosystem. In line with other studies, those tools were suitable for learning in the blended learning modality, since they facilitated the necessary practice for the participants of blended learning modality in which the number of sessions was smaller than in the face-to-face modality (Ruiz, 2008). In those studies, there were evidences on how technology provided an improvement in the quality of education, and on the teaching-learning process and therefore on the learning outcomes (Chacón & Pérez, 2011; Talero & Elizabeth, 2012).

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS AMD LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY The study suggests that the great potential of the digital ecosystem implemented, and the technological tools used to provide a virtual environment where students can improve their English pronunciation level. These digital ecosystems can represent a great opportunity to allow people to carry out their training throughtout their lives independently. The new virtual learning environments and the technological resources are essential to respond to knowledge society people’s needs.

761

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

However, this chapter recommends that future research should focus on the use of other technological tools that help to eliminate the weak aspects of the digital ecosystem analysed. Studies should also focus on the potential of these digital ecosystems to train students on other skills and aspects of the second language. Furthermore, the current study presents two main limitations. On one hand, the researcher focuses on a specific degree, English language teaching in Primary Education. On the other hand, it is the number of participants, only 87 learners enrolled in English phonetics and phonology course. Regarding these limitations, the quantitative results would probably be different if the study were carried out with students who study at different departments. It is recommended to repeat the research in different context to analyse and compare the results obtained in this research with new studies.

CONCLUSION The study aimed to analyse the pre-service teachers’ perceptions about the effectiveness of a digital ecosystem implemented in English Phonetics and Phonology subject, and to highlight the benefits of some transmissive, interactive and collaborative tools in learning that subject. Regarding the results, the pre-service teachers considered that they improved their English pronunciation level. However, there were differences, younger participanta showed a more positive perception towards the potential of the digital ecosystem and the technological resources used for the development of the e-activities (Abdous, Camarena & Facer, 2009). There was a more individualized instruction, focused on learners to a large extend that it was due to the e-activities developed in the digital ecosystem in which the participants became active learners, generating knowledge (Evangelidou, 2017; Pinto-Llorente, Sánchez-Gómez & García-Peñalvo, 2018a). An evidence of that active role was the creation of podcast uploaded in the digital ecosystem on their part (Tallei & Coura, 2011). The fact of being active participants and providing them with opportunities to take their own decisions increased their motivation to improve their oral skills and their English pronunciation level (Man-Man, 2006). It was highlighted how the online tests enabled in the digital ecosystem allowed the participants to self-assess their English pronunciation level and oral skills systematically (Pinto-Llorente, Sánchez-Gómez & García-Peñalvo, 2016) in order to know their strengths, weaknesses and needs. It is necessary not to neglect the teaching of pronunciation when learning a L2, but also try another component of the curriculum design, since it has the same importance as other aspects such as grammar, vocabulary, culture, etc.

REFERENCES Abdous, M., Camarena, M. M., & Facer, B. R. (2009). MALL Technology: Use of Academic Podcasting in the Foreign Language Classroom. ReCALL, 21(1), 76–95. doi:10.1017/S0958344009000020 Ali, S. (2016). Towards the development of a comprehensive pedagogical framework for pronunciation training based on adapted automatic speech recognition systems. In S. Papadima-Sophocleous, L. Bradley & S. Thouësny (Eds.), CALL communities and culture – short papers from EUROCALL 2016 (pp. 7-13). Research-publishing.net. doi:10.14705/rpnet.2016.eurocall2016.530

762

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

Altanopoulou, P., Tselios, N., Katsanos, C., & Georgoutsou, M. (2015). Wiki-Mediated Activities in Higher Education: Evidence-Based Analysis of Learning Effectiveness Across Three Studies. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 18(4), 511–522. Arnal, J., Rincón, D., & Latorre, A. (1994). Investigación educativa. Fundamentos y metodología. Barcelona: Labor. Asbhy, M. (2008). New directions in learning teaching and assessment for phonetics. Estudios de Fonética Experimental, 17, 17-44. Baker, J., & Gossman, P. (2013). The learning impact of a virtual learning environment: Students’ views. Teacher Education Advancement Network Journal, 5(2), 19–38. Bartolí, M. (2005). La pronunciación en la clase de lenguas extranjeras. Phonica, 1, 1–27. Bell, G. (2009). Building Social Web Applications. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media. Blumberg, P. (2009). Developing Learner-Centered Teaching. A Practical Guide for Faculty. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons. Buendía, L., Colás, P., & Hernández, F. (1997). Métodos de investigación en psicopedagogía. Madrid: McGraw-Hill. Canale, M. (1983). De la competencia comunicativa a la pedagogía comunicativa del lenguaje. In Competencia comunicativa. Documentos básicos en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras (pp. 63–83). Madrid: Edelsa. Canale, M., & Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical Bases of Communicative Approaches to Second Language Teaching and Testing. Applied Linguistics, 1(1), 1–47. doi:10.1093/applin/1.1.1 Chacón, C., & Pérez, C. (2011). El podcast como innovación en la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera. Pixel-Bit. Revista de Medios y Educación, 39, 41–54. Cole, J., & Foster, H. (2008). Using Moodle. Teaching with the Popular Open Source Course Management System. Sebastopol, California: O’Reilly Media. Cortés, M. (2002). Didáctica de la prosodia del español: la acentuación y la entonación. Barcelona: Edinumen. Council of Europe. (2001). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Derwing, T. M., & Munro, M. (2005). Second Language Accent and Pronunciation Teaching: A ResearchBased Approach. TESOL Quarterly, 39(3), 379–397. doi:10.2307/3588486 Duffy, T. M., & Cunningham, D. J. (1996). Constructivism: Implications for the Design and Delivery of Instruction. In D. H. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of Research for Educational Communications and Technology (pp. 170–198). New York: Macmillan Library Reference.

763

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

Evangelidou, F. (2017). Kavala’s 6th Graders towards Mastering Mathematics: A Blended Learning Proposal at Disabled Students’ Side. In A. Palalas & P. Pawluk (Eds.), Blended Learning Theory and Practice Proceedings of the 2nd World Conference on Blended Learning (IABL2017) (pp. 79-84). Toronto: International Association for Blended Learning and George Brown College. Gan, B., Menkhoff, T., & Smith, R. (2015). Enhancing students’ learning process through interactive digital media: new opportunities for collaborative learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 51(B), 652-663. Gisbert, M. (2002). El Nuevo rol del profesor en entornos tecnológicos. Acción pedagógica, 11(1), 48-59. Gómez, J. (2006). Moodle 1.5 Manual de Consulta. Propuesta Pedagógica. Valladolid: GNU Press. Hardcastle, W. J., Laver, J., & Gibbon, F. E. (2013). The Handbook of Phonetics Sciences. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Honebein, P. C. (1996). Seven Goals for the Design of Constuctivist Learning Environment. In B. G. Wilson (Ed.), Constructivist learning environments: Case studies in instructional design (pp. 11–24). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications. Hymes, D. (1972). On Communicative Competence. In J. Pride & J. Holmes (Eds.), Sociolinguistics (pp. 269–293). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. Iruela, A. (2007). Principios didácticos para enseñanza de la pronunciación en lenguas extranjeras. MarcoELE Revista de Didáctica, 4. Retrieved from https://marcoele.com/principios-didacticos-parala-ensenanza-de-la-pronunciacion-en-lenguas-extranjeras Kerlinger, F. N. (1985). Investigación del comportamiento. Técnicas y metodología. Nueva Editorial Interamericana. Knuth, R. A., & Cunnigham, D. J. (1993). Tools for constrcutivism. In T. Duffy, J. Lowyck, & D. Jonassen (Eds.), Designing environments for constructivist learning (pp. 163–187). Berlín: Springer-Verlag. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-78069-1_9 Larsen-Freeman, D. (2003). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Larsen-Freeman, D., & Long, M. (1994). Introducción al estudio de la adquisición de segundas lenguas. Madrid: Gredos. Levis, J. M. (2005). Changing Contexts and Shifting Paradigms in Pronunciation Teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 39(3), 369–377. doi:10.2307/3588485 Liu, S. C., & Hung, P. Y. (2016). Teaching Pronunciation with Computer Assisted Pronunciation Instruction in a Technological University. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 4(9), 1939–1943. doi:10.13189/ujer.2016.040902 Llisterri, J. (2007). La enseñanza de la pronunciación asistida por ordenador. In XXIV congreso internacional de AESLA. Aprendizaje de lenguas, uso del lenguaje y modelación cognitiva: Perspectivas aplicadas entre disciplinas (91-120). España, Madrid: UNED.

764

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

Man-Man, P. (2006). Developing Students’ listening and speaking Skills Through ELT Podcasts. Education Journal, 34(2), 115–134. Mbah, E. E., Mbah, B. M., Iloene, M. I., & Iloene, G. (2014). Podcasts for Learning English Pronunciation in Igboland: Students’ Experiences and Expectations. The EUROCALL Review, 22(2), 57–68. doi:10.4995/eurocall.2014.3635 Pastor, S. (2005). La enseñanza de segundas lenguas. In A. López & B. Gallardo (Eds.), Conocimiento y lenguaje (pp. 361–399). Valencia: PUV. Payne, C. R. (2009). Information Technology and Constructivism in Higher Education Progressive Learning Frameworks. Hershey, PA: IGI Global Snippet. doi:10.4018/978-1-60566-654-9 Pérez, M. T., Arratia, O., Martín, M. A., & Galisteo, D. (2009). Innovación en docencia universitaria con Moodle. Casos prácticos. Alicante: Editorial Club Universitario. Pinto-Llorente, A. M., Sánchez-Gómez, M. C., & García-Peñalvo, F. J. (2016). Assessing the Effectiveness of Interactive and Collaborative Resources to Improve Reading and Writing in English. International Journal of Human Capital and Information Technology Professionals, 7(1), 66–85. doi:10.4018/ IJHCITP.2016010105 Pinto-Llorente, A. M., Sánchez-Gómez, M. C., & García-Peñalvo, F. J. (2018a). A Research on Students’ Perceptions on a B-Learning English Environment to Improve Written Skills. In V. Ahuja & S. Rathore (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Human Capital and Information Technology Professionals (pp. 179–201). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-5297-0.ch010 Pinto-Llorente, A. M., Sánchez-Gómez, M. C., & García-Peñalvo, F. J. (2018b). Students Skills in a Blended Learning Environment: A Qualitative Research. In A. Borchers (Ed.), Technology Management in Organizational and Societal Contexts (pp. 249–280). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-15225-5279-6.ch011 Pourhosein Gilakjani, A. (2018). Teaching Pronunciation of English with Computer Technology: A Qualitative Study. International Journal of Research in English Education, 3(2), 94–114. doi:10.29252/ ijree.3.2.94 Rice, W. (2011). Moodle 2.0 E-Learning Course Development. Birmingham: Packt publishing. Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; doi:10.1017/CBO9780511667305 Richard, J. C., & Schmidt, R. (2013). Longman Dictionary of Language, Teaching and Applied Linguistics. New York: Routledge; doi:10.4324/9781315833835 Ruiz, C. (2008). El Blended-learning: Evaluación de una experiencia de aprendizaje en el nivel de postgrado. Investigación y Posgrado, 23(1), 11–36. Sánchez, A. (1997). Los métodos en la enseñanza de idiomas: evolución histórica y análisis didáctico. Madrid: SGEL.

765

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

Santos, I. (1999). Lingüística Aplicada a la enseñanza-aprendizaje del español como lengua extranjera. Madrid: Arco Libros. Talero, A., & Elizabeth, S. (2012). El podcast en la enseñanza de la lectoescritura. Revista Virtual Universidad Católica del Norte, 37, 9–26. Tallei, J. I., & Coura, J. (2011). El uso del podcasts en la enseñanza secundaria. Revista de humanidades, tecnología e cultura, 1(1), 234-242. Usó, L. (2008). La enseñanza de la pronunciación en LE: Algunas consideraciones. Phonica, 4, 104–130. Walsh, L., & Kahn, P. (2010). Collaborative Working in Higher Education. The Social Academy. New York: Routledge. Willis, J. (2009). Constructivist Instructional Design (C-ID). Foundations, Models, and Examples. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Wilson, I. (2005). Using Praat and Moodle for teaching segmental and supra segmental pronunciation. TESOL Quarterly, 3, 33–43. Yule, G. (2014). The Study of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

ADDITIONAL READING Baker, A., & Murphy, J. (2011). Knowledge base of pronunciation teaching: Staking out the territory. TESL Canada Journal, 28(2), 29–50. doi:10.18806/tesl.v28i2.1071 Dell’Aria, C., & Incalcaterra McLoughlin, L. (2013). Developing Phonological Awareness in Blendedlearning Language Courses. In L. Bradley & S. Thouësny (Eds.), 20 Years of EUROCALL: Learning from the Past, Looking to the Future. Proceedings of the 2013 EUROCALL Conference, Évora, Portugal (pp.78-85). 10.14705/rpnet.2013.000142 Derwin, T. M., & Munro, M. J. (2009). Putting accent in its place: Rethinking obstacles to communication. Language Teaching, 42(4), 476–490. doi:10.1017/S026144480800551X Foote, J. A., Trofimovich, P., Collins, L., & Urzúa, F. (2013). Pronunciation teaching practices in communicative second language classes. Language Learning Journal, 1–16. Gilakjani, A. P. (2012). A study of factors affecting EFL learners’ English pronunciation learning and the strategies for instruction. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2(3), 119–128. Kochaksaraie, M. N., & Makiabadi, H. (2018). Second Language Learners’ Phonological Awareness and Perception of Foreign Accentedness and Comprehensibility by Native and Non-native English Speaking EFL Teachers. Journal of Teaching Language Skills, 36(4), 103–140. Kwary, D. A., & Fauzie, S. (2018). Students’ achievement and opinions on the implementation of e-learning for phonetics and phonology lectures at Airlangga University. Educação e Pesquisa, 44. Retrieved from http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1517-97022018000100432

766

 Assessing the Impact of a Digital Ecosystem to Learn English Pronunciation

Mohammed, F. O. (2014). The Use of Phonological Awareness Skills in Teaching Phonetics and Phonology for University Students. Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 19(1), 101–116. doi:10.9790/0837-1919101106 Nadiera, N., & Hamidah Yamat, H. (2019). Phonics Teaching Techniques: A Mixed Method Study with Lower Primary English Teachers in Malaysia. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 9(4), 618–624. doi:10.29322/IJSRP.9.04.2019.p8875 Pinto-Llorente, A. M., Sánchez-Gómez, M. C., & García-Peñalvo, F. J. (2015). To Be or Not to Be Successful? That Does Not Only Depend on Technology, But Also on Human Factors. Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 17(1), 51–69. doi:10.4018/JCIT.2015010104

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Active Learning: It is a type of learning in which teaching tries to involve learners in the learning process. Students are actively engaged in the development of the lessons, activities, etc., and improve skills such as reflection, problem solving, and critical thinking, etc. Autonomous Learning: It refers to a situation in which learners are responsible for their learning. They take charge of their own learning and are actively involved, taking individual decisions according to their necessities or preferences focused on the goals they need to achieve. Blended Learning: A kind of education modality that combines both face-to-face and online lessons. Collaborative Learning: It refers to a situation in which a group of students learn together and have an active role in creating and sharing knowledge. Higher Education: It is the third level of education. It is beyond secondary education and is normally provided by universities or colleges. Learner-Centered Pedagogy: It refers to a pedagogy that places students at the centre of the teaching-learning process. Students are more active and participative, and the process turns knowledge into a negotiation between teachers and students. Furthermore, this pedagogy starts from students’ interests and objectives, and it carries out a learning process based on real situations and materials, using the current technologies to favour this process. Learning Community: It refers to a group of students who work collaboratively, share knowledge and have common learning objectives. Quantitative Research: It is a structured and rigour methodological approach focused on quantifying the problem and finding out how frequent the results are in order to project these results to a larger population. The techniques used to collect quantitative data are mainly questionnaires.

This research was previously published in ICT-Based Assessment, Methods, and Programs in Tertiary Education; pages 23-44, copyright year 2020 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

767

768

Chapter 36

Professional Support Networks in TESOL:

Sociolinguistic Approaches to Professional Development in ESOL Teacher Education Bahar Otcu-Grillman Mercy College, USA JungKang Miller Mercy College, USA

ABSTRACT This chapter investigates professional development for ESOL teachers and shows the importance of building systems of support for teachers through professional support networks and sociolinguistic perspectives. It aims to raise awareness about existing professional networks for the education of bilingual educators and ESOL teachers in NY. It introduces some initiatives at a NY college that address such challenges and make NYS’s various professional networks accessible to candidates. The chapter suggests that it is important for college educators and teacher trainers to get the teacher-in-training more involved in working with professionals. Growing the professional network in multimodal ways would help create a sense of community and belonging in the profession of teaching ESOL students.

PRE-READING DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Do teachers or education professionals ever feel in need of collaboration with or support from other colleagues? Explain the circumstances they may feel this way when teaching English language learners or when educating English teachers. 2. What are professional support networks? Discuss what they may entail with a partner.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch036

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Professional Support Networks in TESOL

INTRODUCTION This chapter reports on a year-long program study that investigates professional development for bilingual education and TESOL (Teaching English to the Speakers of Other Languages) teachers and shows the importance of building systems of support for teachers during and after their training. A conceptual framework combining educational approaches to professional development with a sociolinguistic field study method of nexus analysis (Scollon & Scollon, 2004) was employed. Data collection and analysis were done through ethnographic means as put forth by nexus analysis. Participant observations, written documents and artifacts, field notes, focus groups, informal interviews, and survey questionnaires were the main data sources. The research question that governed the present study was: What are key local entities governing professional development of English teachers to speakers of other languages (ESOL), and in what ways do they render professional growth in connection with the graduate program of study? The chapter aims to raise awareness about existing professional networks for ESOL teachers’ education by introducing two initiatives at a New York (N.Y.) college that address challenges and make New York State’s (NYS) various professional networks accessible to teacher candidates. The first initiative, a one-year grant program leading to advanced certification in teaching ESOL, is introduced in detail with its course work span throughout the year, and evaluations of the entire program with an open-ended questionnaire are discussed. The second initiative, another smaller-scale grant, is also introduced, and an open-ended survey questionnaire about the program was administered to the participants at the end of the program. The chapter suggests that growing the professional support networks, or nexus, in multimodal ways will help create a sense of community and belonging in the profession of teaching English language learners, hence rendering continuous professional growth throughout their profession.

BACKGROUND Researchers in education have long-established the need for continuous professional development for teachers. It has been agreed today that “high-quality professional development opportunities for teachers improve instructional effectiveness and increase student learning” (Vangrieken et al., 2017; U.S. Department of Education, 2014; Wei et al., 2009). Richards and Farrell (2005) have noted the significance of professional development where teachers could be continuously reinventing themselves and expanding their knowledge base. The need for quality professional development exists not only for teacher candidates or novice teachers but also for experienced teachers who need to make instructional shifts required in implementing college and career-readiness standards (Brown & Kappes, 2012). This could be exemplified by general or special education teachers who need to shift to another focus area, such as TESOL, for various reasons. Roy-Campbell (2013) points out that “the actual preparation general education teachers receive for teaching ELL students varies widely across teacher-education programs in the U. S.” (p. 260). The author indicates that this variation is despite the standards put forth by National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), which are basically: candidates’ acquiring pedagogical content knowledge to address English language learners (ELLs); candidates’ understanding the range in diversity among ELLs; and providing qualified faculty and sufficient resources supporting teachers’ learning about ELLs (Roy-Campbell, 2013). Regarding an effective professional development for teachers teaching culturally diverse students, Eun (2011) emphasizes providing teachers continuously with culturally relevant resources in appropri769

 Professional Support Networks in TESOL

ate follow‐up systems and bringing teachers together in a collaborative network to share not only their intellectual challenges and resolutions but also emotional struggles and coping strategies (p. 330). Accordingly, “only by attending to the whole teacher as a professional on a lifelong journey of continuous development can professional development leave its traces in the classroom where everyday teaching and learning occurs” (Eun, 2011, p. 330). Despite large investments and efforts (Jacob & McGovern, 2015), schools and districts have long struggled to provide ongoing, effective, and sustained support for teachers’ professional development. A National Education Association (NEA) policy brief indicates that most general education teachers have at least one English language learner (ELL) in their classroom, but only 29.5 percent of those teachers have professional development opportunities in working with ELLs. According to the same document, only 20 states require general education teachers to complete course work working with ELLs. It is also stated that, in a 2001 National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) survey, only 27 percent of teachers said they were “very well prepared” to meet the needs of ELLs, and 12 percent reported that they were “not at all prepared” (VanRoekel, 2008). Regarding professional development opportunities in their employment, schools have been found to face challenges related to time and budgetary constraints (U.S. Department of Education, 2014). Such time and budgetary constraints may pose various challenges in providing continuous and effective professional development opportunities in ESOL teacher education, such as the following. Teacher candidates or novice teachers may find it difficult to be actively involved with continuous professional development due to their course loads in their certification or master’s program in their colleges and employment sites. Continuous professional development via attending professional organizations’ annual conferences and short-term meetings, such as local and regional workshops or seminars, may not be easy because of budgetary concerns. Teacher education departments of Institutes of Higher Education (IHE’s) generally require their candidates to be members of professional organizations. Candidates who are actively teaching may have memberships, but new candidates may have difficulty joining organizations either because of lack of mentorship or budgetary concerns. Adding to these challenges, “the typical teaching situation is one of isolation” (Crookes, 2003, p. 183). An attempt to respond to this isolation is reflective practice within teacher development groups, good interpersonal relations among teachers termed “collegiality,” and schools’ social structures and systems facilitating reflective practice (Crookes, 2003). Chan and Pang (2006) have pointed out that “increased research on teacher collaboration and teachers learning together is particularly important in the light of changing educational contexts” (p. 3). While much research has examined the growth of individual teachers, such as in the comparison of expert and novice teachers, current research has focused further on teacher participation in communities of practice to improve their knowledge and practice (Cochran‐Smith & Lytle, 1999).

Conceptual Framework This research draws on a combination of sociolinguistic and educational approaches to enhancing teacher education via professional development. The part of its conceptual framework derived from the field of education concerns organizational connections and support networks. This is because, while such support groups are well-documented in general education, there seems to be a gap in their discussion in ESOL education (Crookes, 2003). According to Ramírez-Verdugo (this volume), while collaborative networks’ popularity has been increasing, there is a gap in the literature concerning their purposes, design, function, and their effect on schools, teachers, and students is unclear. Accordingly, educational 770

 Professional Support Networks in TESOL

networking could be defined as the use of social networks for educational purposes. They help overcome the isolation of teachers, schools, and educators by providing organized, professional exchange, development, and enrichment opportunities and being perceived as support structures for strategic development. Some structural advantages of educational networks are increased opportunities for peer exchange and cooperation, teacher professional development, and the greater political force through collaboration (Ramírez-Verdugo, this volume). A broad array of research has investigated teachers as a community of learners between late 1990s and early 2000s: research on teacher networks, professional learning communities, communities of learners, teachers as communities of learners, communities of practice, online learning communities, and knowledge‐building communities (Chan & Pang, 2006). A common denominator of all this research highlights “the need for teachers to work as members of a community focusing on reflection, collaboration, and inquiry as they work to transform their classroom practice” (Chan & Pang, 2006, p. 3). Different terms can refer to professional support groups, e.g., collegial support groups, personal effectiveness groups, teacher development groups, teacher study groups, teacher support groups or teams, teachers groups, teachers’ learning cooperatives, teachers’ networks, teachers’ support networks (Crookes, 2003), and professional learning communities (PLCs) (Vescio et al., 2008). As it is stated by Oliphant (2003), “the reasons given for organizing teacher networks generally fall into two main categories: (a) emotional support and (b) professional support and growth” (p. 204). Such networks emotionally support their teacher members on issues like burnout, feelings of isolation, loneliness, and lack of support, time and economic pressures, an undesirable separation between people and their working environment, and their administrators. Such personal support may be needed more by ESOL teachers working abroad to teach English as a foreign language, because they may feel even more isolated, considering other problems related to living in a different culture (Oliphant, 2003). Professional support and growth groups may get together for various specific reasons, such as the “writing support program for junior faculty women,” (Gainen, 1993 as cited in Oliphant, 2003), and the high school English teachers writing group organized to help teachers write for publication (Flythe, 1989 as cited in Oliphant, 2003). Important issues are surrounding these personal emotional and professional support groups, such as logistic and organizational concerns. Logistic concerns could be member selection, group size, meeting place and time, goals, and organizational concerns could be the groups’ activities, guidelines, and encountered problems. Positive outcomes are observed as a result of teachers joining such support groups: greater awareness, increased motivation, better teaching, benefits to students, the joy of sharing, connection to others, new ways of thinking, and empowerment (Oliphant, 2003). According to Gerdeman, Garrett, and Monahan (2018), network organizations can take many forms. However, in general, they support teachers and their instructional practice by (a) providing access to instructional materials, (b) providing training and support in the use of instructional resources and strategies, and (c) enabling teachers to connect with a network of other teachers to support instructional improvements (Gerdeman et al., 2018). Schools with favorable organizational characteristics and schoolwide professional communities are sometimes called “collegial schools” and generally have the following five components: shared norms and values, reflective dialog, deprivatization of practice, school-wide focus on student learning, and collaboration. Such collegial schools show professional reflective practice characteristics and are supported by factors such as small school size, fewer specialized staffing, and, most importantly, school autonomy (Crookes, 2003). It has been found that well-developed PLCs in such organizations positively impact both teaching practice and student achievement (Vescio et al., 2008).

771

 Professional Support Networks in TESOL

Siciliano (2016) accentuates that each teacher has a self-efficacy with certain characteristics on their own, but their self-efficacy is limited to their personal attributes and their school attributes. It is only when they start to connect with other teachers and colleagues from other institutions that they belong to a social network of support. With this kind of a network, their attributes start to enlarge, and limitations to their personal characteristics and attributes lift. Each teacher connects with another teacher with different characteristics and attributes, which belong to different school characteristics and backgrounds. Within a professional learning community (PLC), teachers may be exposed to a broader array of experiences and learn from them. Laferrière, Lamon & Chan (2006) discuss professional learning communities within an ecological approach. Accordingly, PLCs “need to be ecological to provide teachers with opportunities for reflective and collaborative learning for sustained growth within their local context. Teachers can participate in local as well as delocalized ‘networked communities.’ The notion of distributed cognition suggests that when diverse teachers with different expertise come together, they can draw upon each other’s’ expertise and create new insights into teaching and learning” (p. 78). This kind of social network constitutes the kind of professional development opportunities discussed in this chapter for strengthening teacher education. As abovementioned, this type of professional development opportunity is considered in a sociolinguistic framework and called professional support networks or professional growth nexus in the chapter. The conceptual framework’s sociolinguistic approach is based on Scollon and Scollon’s (2004) nexus analysis, an ethnographic study of discourse based on field research. Nexus analysis is typically advised for field research projects scheduled to last for about a year. This schedule is well-fitting for the study’s professional development program to observe three main tasks proposed by the approach: engagement, navigation, and change. These will be discussed in the following sections as they constitute the study’s data collection and analysis methodology. In applying the nexus analysis steps to investigate available professional development opportunities to enhance education for ELLs, the first step is “engagement.” It is to discover the actions and actors in the situation, observe the interaction order among these actors and actions, and determine the most significant discourse cycles. Overall, these establish the present study’s zone of identification; in other words, its research context and the researchers also included among the participants in the nexus. The next step is collecting data via various means, such as written documents and artifacts, survey questionnaires, field notes, and focus groups (Scollon & Scollon, 2004). The second step and the main work of a nexus analysis is “navigation.” As Scollon and Scollon (2004) suggest, while navigating the present study’s nexus of providing professional development to enhance education for ELLs, the researchers reflect on “historical trajectories of people, places, discourses, ideas, and objects that come together to enable some action which in itself alters those historical trajectories in some way” (p. 159). One guiding question out of several others that can be asked regarding nexus relationships is: “How did these participants all come to be placed at this moment and in this way to enable or carry out this action?” (Scollon & Scollon, 2004, p. 160). The third and last step in nexus analysis is “change.” According to Scollon and Scollon (2004), a nexus analysis is different from an ethnographic study by making all the communications become actions within the nexus of practice. The nexus analyst is already involved in the nexus of practice, but other participants are also eventually drawn into the nexus analysis. This stage establishes the answer to the following question: “What actions can you take as a participant analyst in this nexus of practice that will transform discourses into actions and actions into new discourses and practices?” (p. 178). The analyst provides the answers by making “visible links and connections among the many trajectories of 772

 Professional Support Networks in TESOL

historical bodies, discourses in place, and interaction order which constitute our social life” (p. 178). Below, all these details are described in professional support nexus to strengthen ESOL teachers’ professional development.

RESEARCH CONTEXT Engaging the Nexus of Professional Support In the present study’s nexus analysis of professional support, the researchers identify two initiatives at the college of research and describe the engagement of these initiatives. In other words, these engagement initiatives constitute the research context. The first one is the Clinically Rich Intensive Teacher Institute in English to Speakers of Other Languages (CR-ITI ESOL) grant program. New York State Department of Education (NYSED) grants this program for five years. The researchers, who are also co-directors and analysts of the grant project, applied for this grant and were granted the full period of five years between 2019-2023. The program provides a considerable discount in tuition, geared to make it appealing for ESOL teacher candidates. A maximum number of twenty participants can be admitted to the program every year. It prepares effective ESOL teachers by offering a clinically-rich intensive teacher institute leading to ESOL certification and addresses the shortage of certified ESOL teachers in NYC. The participants take five required courses and complete the 15 credit advanced certification in TESOL program within a year. The program requires participants to have a mentor teacher with a minimum of three years of ESOL teaching experience, who could work closely with them, possibly within the same employment site. Field supervisors, mostly TESOL faculty within the college, are expected to visit the candidates’ classroom once a semester, observe their lessons, and give them feedback throughout the year. The second initiative in the engagement of the nexus of professional support is through the college’s grant. The authors were awarded a micro-grant from the college to bring the participants to the annual conference of a regional organization for ESOL and bilingual educators. This was a micro-grant geared towards increased faculty-student collaboration and communication. The funds were used to cover one full-day conference registration fee and a one-year membership for each of the participants. The researchers were able to invite seven participants and one mentor teacher to the conference. This offered the participants opportunities to network with professionals in the field and keep current with research and best English language learners’ practices. In the following section, these initiatives will be opened up, and a detailed description of them will be laid out as supported by all available data.

DATA COLLECTION Navigating the Nexus of Professional Support In the nexus analysis, the authors of this study “navigate” the two initiatives mentioned by collecting all the data available via documents, communications, assessments, course descriptions, and multimedia resources. To begin with the first initiative focused, the authors provide a rich background of the CR-ITI program of study, how all actors and processes came together to establish it, and how it made progress. The CR-ITI ESOL program started at the authors’ affiliated college in the Spring of 2019. The authors 773

 Professional Support Networks in TESOL

began program activities with the recruitment of qualified teachers for the program. In collaboration with the Office of Teacher Recruitment and Quality at the New York City Department of Education (DOE), the college signed a memorandum of understanding with NYC DOE Central that allows the program to recruit from districts citywide in-service NYCDOE teachers who plan to provide ESOL services upon the completion of the program. Through this partnership, the authors reached out to various schools and districts in NYC and promoted the opportunity that the new program offers to prepare and support teachers to become state-certified in ESOL and help all ELLs achieve standards of learning and development. There were 53 inquiries and 13 applications to the program. At the start of the program in the spring term of 2019, there were seven program participants. During the first week of the semester, one participant dropped out of the program for personal reasons. With more program promotion and advertisement via various professional networks (e.g., regional organizations’ web sites and listservs, alumni servers), the researchers recruited three more participants who joined Cohort I starting in the summer and three more teachers in the fall term. With NYSED’s approval, these participants were given time until the spring and summer terms of 2020 to complete the program. The initial group of Cohort I participants registered for the following courses per the program curriculum for the spring and summer term, and took two courses out of these in Fall 2019: Teaching English as a Second Language, Modern English Structure and the Teaching of English, Methods, and Materials of Teaching English as a Second Language through the Content Areas PreK-12, Cultural Perspectives and the Teaching-Learning Process, Mentoring Seminar in TESOL. The program orientations for the participants were held on one of the college’s campuses. Because there were members of Cohort I coming in the spring, summer, and fall terms, the researchers held two separate orientation sessions, one in spring for the seven participants who joined in the spring and one in fall for the six participants who joined in the summer and fall. During the orientations, the program director and co-director, i.e., the researchers, reviewed the program goals and requirements, curriculum and NYS ESOL certification requirements, clinical experience expectations and requirements, monthly meeting with mentor teacher requirements, and other coursework and curriculum-related information including the data system that the college is using to track candidates’ performance in the courses. Letters were sent to the principals and mentor teachers of the participants. The letters were intended to inform the principals and mentor teachers about the program goals, principals’ role in collaboration with the college, and mentor teachers’ responsibilities in working with the participants. A separate orientation session with the mentor teachers was held. During that session, the mentor teachers were informed about their roles and responsibilities. A three-hour workshop to help the program participants with the state certification test, CST-ESOL, was offered in the summer. All participants who joined in the spring term took the test and passed it. The participants who joined the program in the summer and fall would be taking the test before the end of the Spring 2020 term. Continuous support was provided for the participants to ensure that they all pass the test. In the spring and fall terms, the college’s clinical supervisor observed each of the participants at their current placements. The supervised observation included a pre-observation report that the participants were required to submit detailing their instruction in preparation for the observation, a SIOP, i.e., Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (Echevarría et al., 2000) lesson plan to be submitted to the supervisor before the visit, and a post-observation reflection. The observations were all documented and recorded in the college’s assessment system, TaskStream. The clinical supervisors entered their evaluations in TaskStream, and the participants’ post-observation reflections were also submitted in TaskStream. A 774

 Professional Support Networks in TESOL

separate data portal for program participants was created there so that the program candidates’ performance can be monitored and tracked. The mentor teachers’ contact information, their final evaluation of the candidates, and clinical practice placement information are all recorded in TaskStream. All candidates completed the required 100 hours of clinical practice in PreK-12. They submitted their weekly observation summaries, held regular monthly meetings with their mentor teachers, and discussed best practices and needs areas. All courses in the CR-ITI-ESOL program have field experience-based assignments that the participants complete as part of the course requirements. The participants completed a minimum of 10 hours of field experience in ENL instructional settings in each of the courses they took in the spring, summer, and fall 2019 terms. The candidates who did their field experiences in the summer term were able to complete this assessment because the summer term started in May and ended the first week of July, giving the candidates enough time to fulfill this requirement while the schools were still in session. These field experiences are related to the course content being studied and provide course-embedded opportunities for working with ELLs in a classroom/school setting. All field experience assignments are aligned with course objectives, the student learning outcomes stipulated in the college’s School of Education Conceptual Framework, and the TESOL Standards (Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages Inc., 2006). Field experiences in the program are designed to enhance the participant’s knowledge and skills as an ESOL teacher. Through a series of these field experiences, the participants are expected to observe, interview, and interact with professionals in PreK-12, make connections between course work and classroom-based activities by applying what they have learned to how they teach, develop or refine content, professional, and pedagogical knowledge, skills, and dispositions, and critically reflect on different educational practices and improve their teaching practices. The candidates kept field logs of their observations for each field experience assignment and wrote a detailed description of the ESOL program they observed by making connections to the course topics and Danielson’s framework (Danielson, 2013). The candidates also uploaded these field logs into the web-based assessment system, TaskStream, as a part of the program requirement to keep their field experiences documented in TaskStream. The “navigation” of the CR-ITI-ESOL program in the previous section shows that the program curriculum helps participants acquire the knowledge, skills, and professionalism necessary to meet English language learners’ English language and content area needs. Throughout the program, candidates have multiple opportunities to demonstrate their content-area knowledge and professional and pedagogical knowledge, skill, and dispositions (Please see Table 1). Through the content area curriculum unit in EDUC 636 and SIOP lesson planning in EDUC 505 assignments, the participants were evaluated on their understanding of ESOL instruction’s theoretical and research-based foundations. By creating a content area curriculum unit employing ESL methodology and appropriate instructional techniques, the participants link research in second language learning to the development and application of quality content for linguistically and culturally responsive teaching. Specifically, the Content Area Curriculum Unit data analysis indicated that the candidates are able to apply the knowledge gained in the program effectively. The participants evaluated their professional and pedagogical knowledge, skill, and dispositions in various assessments through the SIOP lesson planning assignment. The data analysis for the assignment provided strong evidence that the participants demonstrated the ability to plan, implement, and manage standards-based ESOL and content instruction for ELLs using various strategies and resources, including technology, and to meet ELLs’ diverse needs. To recap, all the candidates of Cohort I completed the following required assessments in order to earn a passing grade and finalize their courses and clinically-rich aspects of the program (Table 1). 775

 Professional Support Networks in TESOL

Table 1. Clinically-rich aspects of the program across courses and assessments Course

Assessments

Teaching English as a Second Language

Weekly reflections on course readings, quizzes, article annotation, 15 hours of fieldwork and field logs, technology-based field report: digital storytelling, key assessment: SIOP lesson plan modification

Methods and Materials of Teaching ESL through the Content Areas, PreK-12

Weekly reflections on course readings, language arts ESL lesson plan, 10 hours of fieldwork and field logs, key assessment: curriculum development in two content-areas for content-based ESL/ ENL teaching

Modern English Structure and the Teaching of English

Weekly reflection on course readings, 10 hours of fieldwork and field logs, language analysis of ELLs, and ESOL grammar instruction observation.

Mentoring Seminar in TESOL (Plus, clinical practice ongoing throughout the program)

Portfolio requirements: Weekly reflections on course readings, weekly summaries of observations in an ESL/ENL program, philosophy of teaching, curriculum vitae and cover letters, family engagement plan, classroom management plan, professional development plan, two supervised observations in the field (one in PreK-6, one in 7-12 levels), composite unit plan including the analyses of two supervised observations.

DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS Changing the Nexus of Professional Support The last stage in the analysis of the nexus of professional support is “change,” where the researchers analyze all the available data and decide how they provide professional support to the program participants. Besides all the data displayed in the “navigation” stage via their communications, documents, course descriptions, and requirements, the researchers also administered open-ended questionnaires on two separate occasions, which are revealed with a qualitative analysis below. The researchers’ affiliated institution’s second initiative above, the micro-grant, was an important “change” that occurred during the first year of the program. As the participants progressed with the program requirements, the researchers got to know each program participant’s needs in ESOL certification. They provided extra professional development opportunities to the participants by taking most of them to a professional conference. The candidates also received an annual membership to the organization. After attending the conference, four out of seven participants who attended the conference filled out an open-ended survey questionnaire on their experience at this professional development opportunity, whose questions and responses are discussed below. The participants’ responses indicated specific recurring themes, as summarized in Table 2. Table 2. Summary of participants’ views on the experience of attending the conference Question 1: If you attended a Keynote speech, what were the key points of the presentation?

N=4

Importance of bilingual education and bilingualism

4 (100%)

Question 2: What other presentations did you attend? Briefly introduce the presentations you attended using 1 or 2 sentences. Attended four or more sessions on various aspects of bilingual education

2 (50%)

Attended fewer than four sessions on various aspects of bilingual education

2 (50%)

Question 3: General comments and recommendations Rich and interesting conference, enhanced my view on bilingual education

776

4 (100%)

 Professional Support Networks in TESOL

Accordingly, 100% of the participants who responded to the questionnaire mentioned the key points of the presentations they attended as “the importance of ESOL and bilingual education.” 50% of the respondents indicated attending four or more sessions during the conference, and 50% fewer than four sessions. These are important numbers, considering there were tens of simultaneous sessions at the conference, and they had also attended the major sessions. All of the respondents indicated that the conference was a rich and interesting venue for them, and it enhanced their view on the education of ESOL students and bilingual education. The authors administered the second open-ended survey questionnaire to the graduating candidates about their experiences in the program. Out of 12 graduating candidates, ten responded to the questionnaire. The survey questions, participants’ responses indicating certain themes, or discourses, are summarized in Table 3. According to question 1, 40% of the respondents emphasized that the program helped them better understand their ESOL students. 30% focused on the course work and mentioned they learned various strategies like scaffolding, graphic organizer use, and grammar teaching to their ELLs. Another 30% stated that they learned how to make lesson plans for ELLs. 20% indicated using ESOL standards in their teaching, and another 20% learning about reflective practice. Only 10% explicitly mentioned learning how to differentiate for ELLs, but this statement may just be a rephrasing of “how to make lesson plans for ELLs.” Because differentiation is a teaching term, this is listed as a separate response of 10% rather than being added among the group, which mentioned learning how to make lesson plans for ELLs. For question 2, most of the respondents (30%) mentioned that all their expectations were met or have nothing to say about points that can be improved in the program. 20% mentioned the grammar class being intense and its textbook confusing. The rest of the respondents made separate comments. For example, course work could be separate for novice candidates and more experienced program participants. There could be more focus on teaching writing, clearer discussion instructions online, and a form to be used for fieldwork date and hours. Question 3 asked the respondents to mention any changes they noticed within themselves throughout the program. A majority of 50% stated being more attentive to ESOL students and their families’ cultures and needs. 20% mentioned they can collaborate with the ESOL teachers in their school, and another 20% differentiating their lessons for ESOL students. The remainder of the respondents mentioned other changes, such as supporting ELLs better in the content areas, knowing the importance of visuals and vocabulary and incorporating language objectives in their lessons. The answer to question 4 by 100% of the candidates was unified. They answered being granted membership to a professional organization in TESOL. Question 5 asked the participants if and in what ways they felt a part of a professional support network. A majority of 40% stated feeling so through supportive, caring, and available professors in the program. 30% felt so through the online discussions among their colleagues in the online classes. Another 30% mentioned by receiving professional membership to an organization, going to a conference, and accessing the field leaders. 20% felt supported by their mentor teacher and another colleague attending the same program. 10% mentioned feeling so through all the information provided, strategies, and methods covered throughout the program.

777

 Professional Support Networks in TESOL

Table 3. Summary of graduating candidates’ opinions on their experiences in the program Question 1: Please describe how the course work in the program prepared you as an ESOL teacher.

N=10

It helped me better understand my ESOL students.

4 (40%)

I learned strategies like scaffolding, graphic organizers, grammar teaching.

3 (30%)

I learned how to plan lessons for ESOL students.

3 (30%)

I learned how to implement ESOL standards in my teaching.

2 (20%)

I enjoyed reflecting on my practice and learned from experience.

2 (20%)

I learned how to do differentiation for ESOL students.

1 (10%)

Question 2: Please describe an area(s) in the course work that may be further improved. Nothing to say/All expectations met.

3 (30%)

Grammar class is intense, grammar textbook is confusing.

2 (20%)

Separate course load work from novices in TESOL program suggested.

1 (10%)

More focus on teaching writing needed.

1 (10%)

More clear discussion exercises (in the online platform) suggested.

1 (10%)

For field hours in each class, a form with dates and hours would help.

1 (10%)

Question 3: Compare yourself to “you” before and after being enrolled in the program. What changes have you observed professionally in your teaching? I am more attentive to the culture and needs of ESOL students and families.

5 (50%)

I can collaborate with other educators/other ESOL teacher in my school.

2 (20%)

I can provide more differentiation for ESOL students.

2 (20%)

I can better support ESOL students in content areas like math, science, etc.

1 (10%)

I am more aware of the need for visuals and vocabulary.

1 (10%)

I can write language objectives in my lesson planning.

1 (10%)

Question 4: Did the program grant you membership to a professional organization and/or conference participation? … Yes.

10 (100%)

Question 5: Did you feel as part of a professional support network while in the program? If so, in what ways? Supportive, caring, and available professors

4 (40%)

Discussions (in the online classes) and online resources

3 (30%)

Professional membership, conference, access to leaders in the field

3 (30%)

Attending program with a colleague and mentor teacher who is a colleague

2 (20%)

Program providing abundance of information, strategies, methods support

1 (10%)

Question 6: Please indicate how the program can further assist you professionally even after your graduation. Continuing communication and collaboration among professors and colleagues

3 (30%)

Keeping graduates abreast of trainings and professional developments in ESOL

3 (30%)

Providing a letter of recommendation

2 (20%)

Certifying me to serve my own ELLs rather than another certified teacher

1 (10%)

I can support the program by being a mentor or host teacher for future cohorts.

1 (10%)

778

 Professional Support Networks in TESOL

The final question asked about the ways the program could assist the participants even after their graduation. This question was included because the authors had made sure that they would follow up with the graduates for two years after their completion of the program in the grant terms. 30% stated that the program administration and professors could assist them after graduation by continuing communication and collaboration with them, 30% mentioned by keeping abreast of professional development opportunities, and 20% mentioned by providing a letter of recommendation. One participant mentioned getting her certification would already be the help she needed to serve her ELLs. Another participant interestingly offered her support by being a mentor or host teacher for the grant program’s future cohorts. According to the nexus analysis approach, all the program data, including the two sets of open-ended questionnaires administered to the participants, should point towards change. Some change has already been seen among the participants, who mentioned noticing a change in themselves before and after the program participation. Considering these findings, the authors further conceptualize the professional support networks for ESOL teachers and think about any changes or additions to what is presently offered in the program. The following section discusses all of these findings regarding the nexus analysis of the study and makes further conclusions about enhancing ESOL teacher education via professional support networks that can be observed and applied in other states and countries than NYS and the U.S.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION This study reported on a-year-long program study investigating how to strengthen professional development for ESOL teachers. The main research question was: What are key local entities governing professional development of teachers of English to speakers of other languages (ESOL), and in what ways do they render professional growth in connection with the graduate program of study? Figure 1. A professional growth network (or nexus) in NYS

779

 Professional Support Networks in TESOL

Using a sociolinguistic field study method of nexus analysis (Scollon & Scollon, 2004), the researchers’ year-long data collection and analysis through ethnographic means showed the key entities in a professional growth nexus. This nexus is summarized in Figure 1. Accordingly, these multimodal professional networks are abundant in NYS, but before this study, access to these networks may have been limited for ESOL teachers and teacher candidates, challenging their career advancement. In the present study, the program participant teachers were positioned at the center – or heart- of the professional growth network. As the grant program started and continued, multidirectional communication was observed among these entities, the participants, and the chapter’s authors as investigators. In New York State, mainly Departments of Education (DOEs), colleges or IHEs, district administrators and schools, mentor teachers, professional organizations in the field and centers for teacher development, and online resources constitute these professional support systems. All of these critical entities seem to emphasize the following for continuous professional growth. Teachers, especially content area teachers serving ESOL students, need to and can access these professional networks. Through a grant program made possible by an umbrella education agency, collaboration and co-teaching between mainstream and ESOL teachers are possible. Through another micro-grant by the college, these future ESOL teachers gained memberships to a professional organization in the field and joined their professional activities such as attending a conference and meeting other education professionals. Before the study, this could have posed a challenge to teachers-in-training or teacher candidates, because of time and financial concerns. They could find it difficult to be actively involved with continuous professional development due to their course loads and high demands from their full-time jobs. However, when the grant program embedded these requirements within the program itself, even though the grant from the state and the college were the researchers’ own choice, the program participants instantly accessed these resources. As they have also pinpointed in the open-ended questionnaires, receiving professional memberships, attending a conference and gaining access to the leaders in the field, feeling collegiality, and being a part of reflective practice as argued by Crookes (2003) were valuable experiences in their clinically-rich training. Among other reasons, these helped the participants feel the support of a professional growth network. All in all, this study showed that it is important for college educators and teacher trainers to help teachers get more involved in working with professionals, because not only this would enhance their formal teacher education but also help them remove the feeling of isolation that the teaching practice brings (Crookes, 2003). Growing the professional network in multimodal ways, that is, by including online resources such as the ones shown in Figure 1, the online courses and assessments required for the program of study, and remote teaching and learning as needed would help create a sense of community and belonging in the profession of teaching ESOL students. Such professional support in ESOL and bilingual teacher education will help the teachers and teachers-in-training and transform the learners and their multilingual/multicultural lives with improved education and various opportunities for “languaging” (Swain & Watanabe, 2013; García, 2009). As some of the respondents mentioned in the open-ended questionnaire, program participant teachers became more aware of the language and cultural needs of ESOL students and their families, they can plan their lessons better for their English language learners, and they can differentiate for them and use language standards in their teaching now. These are positive changes brought about by the program as the nexus analysis method had forecasted in the last stage of the analysis. Such positive outcomes of any teacher development group, or professional support network, were also mentioned earlier by Ramírez-Verdugo (this volume), Gerdeman, Garrett, and Monahan (2018),

780

 Professional Support Networks in TESOL

Siciliano (2016), Eun (2011), Vescio, Ross, and Adams (2008), Laferrière, Lamon, and Chan (2006), Chan and Pang (2006), and Oliphant (2003). While the researchers were able to see the program candidates’ professional growth and the changes within them, they were also involved in this research as participant investigators. Nexus analysis predicts changes in time within all actors in the nexus, so what has changed within the researchers themselves? Throughout the year-long data collection and analysis, the researchers received constant feedback from important actors in the nexus. State and city education agencies, program participant teachers themselves, their mentor teachers, and school administrators proved to be an important means to the ends. The researchers have learned how to support their program and its participants further financially, professionally, and emotionally. For instance, through networking with various college offices, they have been able to provide financial support for the upcoming Cohort and sponsor professional memberships for the participants to another international professional organization for two years. At the time of finalizing this paper, a historic event, the pandemic of Covid-19, occurred worldwide. All schools, colleges, businesses, and government agencies were closed. As the program directors, the authors quickly made decisions and accommodated the program candidates in various ways in this challenging situation. They provided the participants with opportunities to do virtual tours of ESOL programs and classes for their clinical hours. The participants could access many online lesson videos, conduct observations, and create logs of their observation hours. For the school visits, which would happen physically in the school buildings if they were open, participants were granted the flexibility to do virtual lesson observations. They met with the authors, as field supervisors, on a Zoom virtual platform used for education (Guzman, 2020), and presented their lesson online as if they would teach it in their classroom. The authors were also able to provide their candidates with various remote teaching resources they would need in the switch to multimodal teaching times. In the informal interviews with the teachers, they reported attending mandatory professional development sessions in their schools to use the same remote teaching systems, such as Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams, in a unified way with the rest of their school. This study has some limitations. Although the analyses resulted in a tight-knit nexus of professional growth for ESOL teachers, the researchers mainly focused on the entities within and in direct connection to their institution. Ideally, other institutions and multimodalities should also be focused on themselves and in much detail. For instance, employment schools of teachers-in-training, their structural organization, autonomy, and collegiality (Crookes, 2003) could be studied as unique cases. In different parts of the world where English is taught as a foreign and second language, challenges to ongoing professional development and availability of professional support networks surrounding local and visiting teachers can be studied. Another way of studying these issues could be taking professional support from the viewpoint of umbrella organizations in any state or country and investigating their viewpoints and discourses about reaching out to teachers needing professional support. As such, an investigation would be reversing what has been done in this paper, and instead of working from micro to macro networks, it would work from macro to micro-entities. Another limitation beyond this paper’s scope is the program participants’ views and advocacy regarding their ESOL students, mostly immigrants, and their families. The open-ended questionnaire results showed that the present study trainees now have a greater awareness of ESOL students’ challenges and the culture of their family backgrounds, parallel to what Oliphant (2003) mentioned earlier as a positive outcome of belonging to a teacher support group. However, delving into English language learners’ cultural backgrounds and their families’ involvement concerning the trainees’ teaching practice would be a topic for another chapter.

781

 Professional Support Networks in TESOL

Despite these limitations and challenges, the grant programs investigated in the study and endeavors will continue as long as the chapter authors have the support of their institution and umbrella organizations in providing the best professional growth opportunities to the program participant teachers, who examined their beliefs and practices about teaching and learning so that they can better understand those beliefs and practices (Farrell, 2015). Just like in the ecological approach to professional learning communities (Laferrière et al., 2006), the participants in the study had many “opportunities for reflective and collaborative learning for sustained growth within their own local context” (p. 78), which was the nexus of professional growth within their grant program. Overall, as research in the literature has put forth, professional support networks, which included the participants and researchers themselves, seemed to help improve instructional effectiveness and increase student learning (Vangrieken et al., 2017; U.S. Department of Education, 2014; Wei et al., 2009). They also helped reinvent the researchers expand their knowledge base (Richards & Farrell, 2015), helped overcome the isolation of the teacher participants, their schools, and the researchers’ as educators by providing enrichment opportunities through peer exchange and cooperation, teacher professional development, and the greater political force that comes through collaboration (Ramírez-Verdugo, this volume). The chapter authors want to leave the readers with some food for thought on their opportunities and experiences of enhancing teacher education with the discussion questions below.

POST-READING DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. What are professional growth opportunities available to you or the participants in your teacher education program? 2. How could you identify the areas and entities of support, now or in the future, and put yourself or your trainees in contact with them in the network?

REFERENCES Brown, S., & Kappes, L. (2012). Implementing the common core state standards: A primer on “close reading of text.”. Aspen Institute. http://www.aspendrl.org/portal/browse/DocumentDetail?documentI d=1396&download Chan, C. K. K., & Pang, M. F. (2006). Teacher collaboration in learning communities. Teaching Education, 17(1), 1–5. doi:10.1080/10476210500527899 Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (1999). Relationships of knowledge and practice: Teacher learning in communities. In A. Iran-Nejad & P. D. Pearson (Eds.), Review of research in education (pp. 24–305). American Educational Research Association. Crookes, G. (2003). A practicum in TESOL: Professional development through teaching practice. Cambridge University Press. Danielson, C. (2013). Enhancing professional practice: A framework for teaching (2nd ed.). ASCD.

782

 Professional Support Networks in TESOL

Echevarría, J., Vogt, M. E., & Short, D. (2000). Making content comprehensible for English language learners: The SIOP model. Allyn and Bacon. Eun, B. (2011). A Vygotskian theory‐based professional development: Implications for culturally diverse classrooms. Professional Development in Education, 37(3), 319–333. doi:10.1080/19415257.2010.527761 Farrell, T. S. C. (2015). Language teacher professional development. TESOL Press. García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st Century: A global perspective. Basil/Blackwell. Gerdeman, D., Garrett, R., & Monahan, B. (2018). Teacher professional learning through teacher network programs: A multiple case study investigation. American Institutes for Research. Guzman, K. (2020, April 24). Zoom for education: Top 10 frequently asked questions [Blog post]. Zoom blog: Education how tos. https://blog.zoom.us/zoom-for-education-top-10-frequently-asked-questions/ Jacob, A., & McGovern, K. (2015). The mirage: Confronting the hard truth about our quest for teacher development. The New Teacher Center. Laferrière, T., Lamon, M., & Chan, C. K. K. (2006). Emerging e‐trends and models in teacher education and professional development. Teaching Education, 17(1), 75–90. doi:10.1080/10476210500528087 Oliphant, K. (2003). Teacher development groups: Growth through cooperation. In G. Crookes (Ed.), A practicum in TESOL: Professional development through teaching practice. Cambridge University Press. Ramírez-Verdugo, M. D. (this volume). International teacher education network: Innovation, research, and good practices. In M. D. Ramírez-Verdugo & B. Otcu-Grillman (Eds.), Interdisciplinary approaches toward enhancing teacher education. IGI Global. Richards, J. C., & Farrell, T. S. C. (2005). Professional development for language teachers. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511667237 Roy-Campbell, Z. M. (2013). Who educates teacher educators about English language learners? Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, 52(3). https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol52/iss3/4 Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. W. (2004). Nexus analysis: Discourse and the emerging internet. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203694343 Siciliano, M. D. (2016). It’s the quality not the quantity of ties that matters: Social networks and self-efficacy beliefs. American Educational Research Journal, 53(2), 227–262. doi:10.3102/0002831216629207 Swain, M., & Watanabe. (2013). Languaging: Collaborative dialogue as a source of second language learning. In C. A. Chapelle (Ed.), The encyclopedia of applied linguistics. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (2006). PreK-12 English proficiency standards. TESOL International Association Press.

783

 Professional Support Networks in TESOL

U.S. Department of Education. (2014). The future ready district: Professional learning through online communities of practice and social networks to drive continuous improvement. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology. https://tech.ed.gov/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Section7-FutureReadyDistrictBrief-Final.professionaldevelopment Vangrieken, K., Meredith, C., Packer, T., & Kyndt, E. (2017). Teacher communities as a context for professional development: A systematic review. Teaching and Teacher Education, 61, 47–59. doi:10.1016/j. tate.2016.10.001 VanRoekel, D. (2008). Professional development for general education teachers of English language learners: An NEA policy brief. Washington, DC: NEA. Vescio, V., Ross, D., & Adams, A. (2008). A review of research on the impact of professional learning communities on teaching practice and student learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(1), 80–91. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2007.01.004 Wei, R. C., Darling-Hammond, L., Andree, A., Richardson, N., & Orphanos, S. (2009). Professional learning in the learning profession: A status report on teacher development in the United States and abroad. National Staff Development Council.

This research was previously published in Interdisciplinary Approaches Toward Enhancing Teacher Education; pages 33-49, copyright year 2021 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

784

785

Chapter 37

Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis:

Poetry as a Humanistic Practice Jawad Golzar https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0268-391X Herat University, Afghanistan Mir Abdullah Miri https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7392-3277 Herat University, Afghanistan

ABSTRACT Meaningful literacy has tremendous yet untapped potential to engage language learners in significant ways. This study explored the EFL students’ poetry writing in terms of gender, poetic features use, degree of emotionality, language learning, and therapeutic effects. During the times of global crisis, the researchers recruited two EFL students who had a meaningful literacy project as a course requirement. After analyzing the two poetic pieces considering linguistic measures, the two participants were interviewed to investigate students’ reported experiences with writing poetry. The analysis revealed that the participants expressed positive attitudes toward poetry writing as it helped them share their inner thoughts and feelings despite sociocultural constraints. It was also found that poetry writing helped the participants improve their target language, feel emotionally relieved, serving as psychological therapy. The study proposed several pedagogical implications related to L2 expressive pedagogy that can be incorporated into second writing education curriculums.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch037

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

INTRODUCTION The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed education. Teachers are required to teach online to maintain education systems. On the other hand, students have been challenged by the use of digital media for writing (Alawdat, 2020), and they have struggled with intense anxiety, fear, and frustration. Literature as a social practice (Allington & Swann, 2009) and creative writing as a suitable classroom task (Smith, 2013) play an intermediary role to support students’ learning during the psychological trauma, provide them space for expressing themselves freely, and making meaningful connections with their lived experiences. Smith (2013) claimed that creative writing could respond to the language learning process’s main challenges by opening up opportunities to work on form and vocabulary used in a meaningful way. Following Kim’s (2018) argument, poetry writing is often used in creative writing studies. Poetry writing as an expressive genre is valued because it empowers writers to express their inner thoughts and emotions. It also allows writers to incorporate their personal endeavors and experiences into their texts (Lida, 2012). This is a response to dehumanized language classrooms (Kramsch, 2006). Thus, there is an exigency facing teachers to explore and highlight “the tangible benefits” of expressive poetic writing in the context of second language studies (Hergenrader, 2016, p. 5). Kim and Park (2019) claimed that integrating poetry writing into second language teaching improves students’ understanding and individual expressions. “On a deep level, every human being wishes to express and explore the meaning of their own lives” (Hanauer, 2012, p. 112). The expressive discourse can also be ideologically empowering as the “self” moves from innermost and unvoiced meaning to shared meaning, leading to a particular behavior at the end (Kinneavy, 1971). According to Burnham and Powell (2014), “personal is rhetorical, a site of invention and a catalyst for change” (p. 119). Some researchers (Iida, 2020; Shen et al., 2018; Kim, 2018; Iida, 2016; Alharfi, 2015) have conducted empirical studies to investigate how ESL/EFL learners’ express emotions of fear through poetry writing or the experiences of L2 students writing autobiographical poetry in English. However, English learners in Afghanistan are often considered recipients of literary texts; they read the poem but never write in the poetry genre (Miri, 2016). The current study of L2 expressive writing in times of global crisis was also conducted in Afghanistan, where no study exists to specifically explore the students’ L2 poetic writing. Afghan English teachers had to transform their traditional face-to-face courses into online classes during the disruptive time (e.g., COVID-19 pandemic), share the courses’ content in digital format, and implement a suitable instructional design. Overall, they explore every possibility of engaging their students in different meaningful literacy practices, such as writing poetry. However, online and in-class teaching differs in terms of “how teachers design their lessons and the type of tasks that students need to do” (Alawdat, 2020, p. 94).

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY This study investigates how male and female adult EFL college students express their emotions through L2 writing poetry during the times of crisis and how the practice contributes to their language learning. The authors will specifically investigate: •

786

How do Afghan EFL students express themselves through L2 poetry writing during the times of global?

 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis



What textual and literary characteristics have they used in their poems?

This study is significant due to numerous reasons. First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no published research exploring EFL/ESL learners’ emotions through writing poetry during the pandemic. Second, it opens avenues for pedagogical approaches for L2 writing. It also adds to the body of literature on integrating poetic writing into the L2 curriculum. It helps teachers of English by responding to the call for understanding how the use of expressive poetic writing and rhetoric spurs critical awareness among L2 learners during times of global crisis. There is a cultural assumption in Afghanistan that poetry writing is an inner talent, and the participants might show resistance toward expressing themselves in emotional writing about the pandemic (Shukri, 2014). The implications of this can be implemented into various contexts worldwide because the findings are not exclusively bound to the Afghan context; the authors will provide practical guidelines for expressive poetic writing into L2 teaching and curricula.

LITERATURE REVIEW The global crisis has dramatically changed literacy’s demarcations. Literacy encompasses a wide range of abilities to recognize, make sense of materials, and communicate the meaning in daily life, opposed to its traditional view of the ability to read and write. In language education, teachers facilitate the meaningmaking process and support students to better understand the world around them. Hanuaer (2012) noted, This individualized making of sense through physically embodied representational and symbolic resources makes us present to ourselves in our environments. From a philosophical perspective, our individualized sense-making is who we are and how we experience and understand the world. Basically, to be human means to make meaning of the world we live in (p. 107). Hanauer’s (2012) meaningful literacy approach is fundamentally grounded on deeper understanding and positioning of language learners within the learning process. He addressed each language learner as a socio-culturally contextualized person with a wealth of wide and valuable personal experience. Moreover, he argued that the students’ inner worlds affect their teachers’ pedagogical decisions. Besides, Hanauer (2012) and Pishghadam et al. (2013; 2016) maintained that language learning develops how a student views, construes, senses, and expresses his or her personally meaningful insights to a larger audience. Besides, he considered language learning as a process that engages meaningful interactions with constituents of personal experience, identity and self-image. He further argued that teachers should persistently attempt to explore ways to make language learning a meaningful, contextualized and individualistic activity for students. This process includes incorporating “the language learner’s memory, experiences, feelings, beliefs, history, and social environment” (Hanauer, 2012, p. 109). In this sense, language learners are empowered when they express their personal experiences and emotional state in a second language. They gradually shape a positive perception of the language they possess and are expressed in. Learning transfer is about the effects that a person’s learning in a context has over his/her performance and learning in another context (Bigge & Shermis, 1992). In this respect, literacy transfer theory supports-poetic writing which contributes to developing specific literacy skills that can be transferred in other forms of writing in second language learning (Hanauer, 2011). For example, Iida (2012) conducted 787

 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

research to explore the effects of poetic writing on academic prose. The study revealed that a significant fluctuation existed in the use of linguistic features when comparing the results of pre-and post-tests. It showed that poetic writing positively influenced learners’ writing performance in the post-argumentative essay. Iida (2011) also explored the poetic identity of college students when writing English Haiku. The research revealed that the learners expressed their voices in the poems by reflecting their emotional concerns when they thought about their lived experiences. Exploring the extent of literacy transfer, some literacy skills were found to transfer very little. However, identifying letter-sound relationships and the basic vocabulary is transferred without any difficulty than mindful strategies (Mikulecky et al., 1994). The main rationale for teaching a specific genre is to allow students to understand the rules of the game and how to play it (Devitt, 2014). Thus, literary genres are essential to support L2 students in promoting their English language literacy skills. However, Kramsch (2006) stated that the learning process is decontextualized, and the learner is not counted as an individual human being with a wealth of lived experiences in language classrooms. In that respect, Hanauer (2010) suggested that teachers could humanize EFL/ESL teaching spaces by reconsidering every individual language learner as the most important participant in the learning process. Similarly, Alharfi (2015) found that ESL students perceived writing poetry as an effective activity that places students in the language learning process center. Hanauer (2010) noted, “learning a language is a significant, potentially life-changing event. It is also an event that involves the whole human being, beyond just intellectual abilities” (p. 105). In a similar vein, exploring the students’ figurative language use, Kramsch (2009) argued that subjectivity plays a significant role in language learning, engrossing students artistically and emotionally in a set of cognitively demanding tasks. For instance, Hanauer (2020) examined ways of addressing the effects of family loss and traumatic events related to Holocaust through a poetic autoethnography task. Such meaningful literacy created a model to explore challenging personal events. According to Yang (2020), life writing as meaningful literacy empowered EFL students to develop agentive writer identities such as enhancing their self-efficacy, establishing forming a new writing habit, and honing this type of writing skill.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK This study’s scope is limited to exploring emotionality exclusively and poetic features suggested by Hanauer (2010), as well as intervention therapy and scaffolding L2 Learning. This framework narrowed the focus to investigate emotionality parameters, poetics features, therapeutic effects, and L2 learning support in the poetic texts and used to create the interview protocol. Emotionality is the most appealing component of L2 expressive writing, especially during a global crisis or a disruptive event. Poetry embraces the writers’ emotional responses to an experience. L2 Poetic writing is an effective approach to understand, observe, and witness a problem (Hanauer, 2012). Iida (2016) argued that L2 poetry writing offers tremendous potentials to explore traumatic events as learners reflect their emotional responses about their traumatic experiences, communicate their feelings, and add their voices to the poetic piece. Therefore, poetic writing empowers L2 learners to ponder deeply, reconstruct noteworthy personally emotional events, and grasp the meaning of specific life experiences. Alharfi (2015) found that most EFL students in his study reported positive readiness to express and reflect their personal feelings when writing a poetic piece. “This willingness was challenged by the inherited poetry writing rules and by the culturally situated assumptions, such as the notion that poetry writing is an innate gift, and poetry writing has rules that should be respected” (p. 1). Some students also find 788

 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

Figure 1. Poetry writing analysis framework

poetry writing difficult to express their extremely emotional stories meaningfully, exercising a sense of ownership and authorship (Alharfi, 2015; Alosaimi, 2014). Addressing this issue, Iida (2016) suggested that it will be effective if teachers grant students the freedom to select the topics when writing poetry. Emotionality is grounded on and expressed through creative use of poetic devices. Another concept employed in our conceptual framework is poetic feature. Hanauer (2010), within the L2 poetry corpus in his study, found that L2 advanced writers had enough aptitude to use poetic features to explore and express their personal feelings and experience. The corpus study revealed that imagery, especially the visual type, is the most frequently used poetic feature that L2 students developed when writing a poem. It also revealed that “shortness of the poems and easiness of the vocabulary does not inhibit the presence of poetic features, personally significant topic, or presence of expressed emotion” (Hanaeur, 2010, p. 52). The use of some poetic features has some effects on the cognitive process of information. For instance, alliteration improves memory recall (Lea et al., 2008). Taken all together, poetic use of language enhances learners’ motivation and supports vocabulary learning (Sandhaug, 2018) and expressive writing, in general, can decrease stress level and improve mental and physical wellbeing (Pennebaker, 2018). Poetry writing, therefore, offers great potentials to release emotional tensions; brings about therapeutic effect in shaping mood (Hancı-Azizoglu & Alawdat, 2020; Czernianin, 2016). Iida (2020) stated, “it may be so unfortunate, but nowadays more and more people all over the world experience and suffer from traumatic events ... it dramatically changes their lives and trauma caused by such accidents stays longer in their hearts” (p. 13). Poetry writing can be served as an intervention therapy in a disruptive time (Hancı-Azizoglu & Alawdat, 2020). Poetry therapy is “the use of language, symbol and story in therapeutic, educational, and community-building capacities” (Mazza, 2012, p. 1434). Pennebaker and Chung (2011) argued that expressive writing on personal experience produces more positive psychophysiological upshots than writing about an impersonal subject matter. “This identity is of great importance because mainly on it the therapeutic effect rests” (Czernianin, 2016, p. 135). Besides this effect, DiMenichi et al. (2019) indicated that the tendency to write about specific past traumatic experiences may have led to fluctuations in neural activation during the learning process. Considering the above potentials, Lorenz (2020) explored the connection between the Concept of Poetry Therapy and its actual practice. She studies the advantages of the Creative Interactive Poetry Therapy Model (CIPT) within a group-based intervention program for students’ wellbeing and empowerment. The process requires students to write a poem, read it aloud in the group, and then share the feedback. The study revealed that this process is effective for learners since the poems express inner feelings and

789

 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

the soul and influence both readers and listeners, supporting students’ wellbeing and expanding their self-understanding and worldview. Poetic writing is considered a literacy practice, intended to provide necessary scaffolding to meaningful and real-life experiences for L2 learners (Hanauer, 2014). “Ultimately, learning a language is about widening one’s expressive resources and positioning oneself in a multicultural and multilingual world. In this sense, poetry writing encourages multilingual writers to focus on a particular experience, creates an anxiety-free and safe niche, and develops meta-cognitive processes and insights over the shared experiences (Travagin et al. 2015). “Poetry writing is also a simple way of achieving these aims and personalizing the language” (Hanauer, 2014, p. 114). Obied (2016) also investigated the language learning experiences of bilingual refugee students from Afghanistan and Somalia. He also examined the cross-cultural potentials that poetry offers for bilingual children. According to Obied (2016), poetry helped them use their lived experiences, express their emotions, bring their knowledge about the world in the classroom. Ultimately, Hancı-Azizoglu and Alawdat (2020) modeled, “[poetry] writing as an innovative method to use in educational and health settings to allow creating novel experiences into language learning phases” (p. 235). That being the case, meaningful literacy instructions can yield positive outcomes for both teachers and students. Cahnmann-Taylor and Hwang (2018) conducted research to explore qualities coupled with teacher identity’s poetic habits. They have used the term creative limitation by adding an ‘l’ to the beginning of imitation, making it (l)imitation. They claimed that imitating other poetic pieces limits creativity. Their study revealed that teachers exhibited creative (l)imitation, surprise, and dialogic collaboration. Creative (l)imitation enriches their identities associated with, evolving from their old poetic writings to shape a new prospect self as it asks for both imitating the others’ forms and providing creative limits, which encourages learners to find their own linguistic space. According to these authors, poetic writing cultivates surprising elements in second language learning. It positively transfers perceptions of language learning since learners played with words in poetic writing and astonish each other by exploring the links between “language, culture, and place.” Moreover, meaningful literacy instruction provides dialogic collaboration between teachers and students inside the classroom. Their study suggested that these qualities spur emotional and linguistic understandings, motivating teachers to recognize themselves as “co-learners” and collaborative decipherers of meaning. Putting all this together, poetry writing as a meaningful literacy practice may offer great potentials to have students express their emotions, use poetic features, improve L2 learning, and make meaning during times of global crisis. Therefore, the authors examine the ways L2 students expressed themselves using poetic features, degree of emotionality they exerted, and the perceived benefits of such writing in terms of language learning and emotional healing.

METHODOLOGY Participants of the Study The participants in this study were two Afghan EFL students, Lida and Ali (pseudonyms), undergraduate English majors at Herat University, Afghanistan. Anonymization was significant in this research because the participants shared sensitive and personal information, so the researchers used pseudonyms to protect the identity of the participants.

790

 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

The participants took an online writing course, offered during the spring semester of 2020. The course was designed to develop college students’ meaningful literacy and creative writing skills. In the Afghan context, EFL students are given a passive role as recipients of poems rather than as active and creative writers of poetry due to the banking model of education (Miri, 2016). Using purposeful sampling, the researchers chose the two participants conveniently based on the study scope, the nature of the topic, research questions, and the timeline.

The Poetry Course Finding poetry as a useful mediatory tool to bring students’ innermost feelings up to the surface, the instructor, one of the researchers’ colleagues, integrated writing poetry into his writing course. He assigned his students to write a short poem to express their feelings about the pandemic and the trauma they or their close relatives were inflicted by. The instructor began with this prompt: I want you to return to the solitude of your personal room where you find the true yourself without the burden of social life tensions, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and let the memories of the beloved, the significant other, the one you love pass through your mind. Use your mind’s eyes to see that person, his/her unique look, pain, distress, tinges of hope, and behold the situation, place, the panic, the illness, the monster. Now get the pen and put the words on the paper, use sensory descriptions (see, hear, taste, smell, touch), adjectives, the literary devices you learned to express your true emotions at the moment, describe your world, and picture these memories in words.

Data Collection and Analysis The collected data in this research derives from students’ poetry writing and interviews. This research is also based on both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The quantitative data focused on numeric results from Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count. It allowed the researchers to depict the differences between the linguistic features each participant used to express his or her emotions through poetry. However, the qualitative data used in this research is based on interviews. It provided the authors with the opportunity to collect in-depth information about the participants’ reported experiences concerning expressing emotions through poetry during times of global crisis. The participants then were interviewed to explore how poetry writing as a meaningful literacy practice supported their L2 learning and led to psychological therapy in a disruptive time. The interview data was transcribed verbatim. The researchers used thematic analysis to code the data, compare codes, identify meaningful connections among them, and categorize them into salient themes. Considering the framework Hanauer (2010) proposed in his book, entitled “Poetry as Research,” the researchers used textual and literary measures, particularly emotionality and poetic features. The poems’ emotionality is measured by a computational linguistic analysis website called the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). This linguistic analysis is limited to the following linguistic dimensions: personal pronouns (I, me, my), social words, positive emotions, negative emotions, and emotional tone. This analysis allowed the researchers to identify the emotive lexicons and the degree of intervention therapy extend. Furthermore, to identify the poetic features and compare gender expression, the researchers used textual analysis by careful readings of the poems in terms of meaning and literary devices.

791

 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

In order to ensure the trustworthiness of our research, the researchers used consensus and member checking. We shared a summary of the interview results with them to secure participant validation, seeking if they concurred with the interpreted results.

LINGUISTIC AND LITERARY ANALYSES OF THE POEMS This section presents the textual and literary analyses of the two poems. It specifically presents the degree of emotionality, poetic features, and students’ intended meaning. The two poetic pieces are about COVID-19 during the 2020 global pandemic, which drastically changed millions of students’ lives, especially the way they learn and caused emotional tensions. The participants expressed their emotions about relevant lived experience, incorporating poetic features as shown below.

Emotionality Use The two poetry pieces, by Lida and Ali, were analyzed by Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) 2015 software program to identify the degree of emotionality, personal and social levels. The linguistic analysis of the poem written by one of the female students showed the following results in percentile: I-Words (9.8), social words (4.9), positive emotions (3.7), negative emotions (4.5), and emotional tone (14.5). The poem was comprised of 245 words in total (see appendix 1). Lida’s poem shows her personal and most emotional moment she experienced during times of global crisis. She used first person pronouns and related adjectives twenty times in her poem. For instance, in the following lines, she repetitively used I-words: I supposed the situation would never cease There was a brief silence when I was alone in my room Then I started thinking about future Taking shelter in her solitude, Lida experiences the moment of frustration when pondering about this pandemic, and then she reflects upon how her life has changed dramatically and imagines what future holds for her and her family. Additionally, Lida incorporates some social words, including family, improvement, education, people, etc. in her poem because she tends to show the significance of such elements to build her life and understand her worlds. She also accommodates particular emotive lexicons to demonstrate positive and negative emotions. She uses words such as life, peace, chance, shining, beauties, wealth, health, prayer, and hope for establishing positive feelings and moods. However, she demonstrates negative emotions by using words like dark, inconsolable, destroyed, perturbed, tired, feeble, darkest, trouble, wrecked, tragic, etc. The emotional tone driven from word choice, context, plot, and content was negative and sad, but it eventually changes to positive and optimistic at the end of the piece. Table 1 shows LIWC dimensions and the related percentile. The linguistic analysis of the second poem, which was written by a male student, revealed the following results in percentile: I-Words (1.1), social words (6.5), positive emotions (4.3), negative emotions (8.7), and emotional tone (1). This poem was comprised of 88 words (see appendix 2).

792

 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

Table 1. Linguistic analysis of the first poem LIWC Dimension

The First Poem

Average for Personal Writing

I-Words (I, Me, My)

9.8

8.70

Social Words

4.9

8.69

Positive Emotions

3.7

2.57

Negative Emotions

4.5

2.12

Emotional Tone

14.5

38.60

Ali’s poem demonstrates his deeply socioemotional standing over the issue of the pandemic in society. He uses only one possessive adjective at the end of his poem to shape the resolution he intended to propose (e.g., this changed my visage about the truth of life). He also uses several social words, such as world, people, power, home, bond, and life. Furthermore, negative lexicon use outweighs the positive one. Ali accommodates negative emotions by using words like seized, bewildered, senselessly, painfully, unnerved, descript, savagely, hurt, and so forth. Nonetheless, positive emotive lexicons include words such as dears, facilities, bonds, sweethearts, etc. Based on the content and word choice, the emotional tone used in Ali’s poem is serious. Table 2. Linguistic analysis of the second poem The Second Poem

Average for Personal Writing

I-Words (I, Me, My)

LIWC Dimension

1.1

8.70

Social Words

6.5

8.69

Positive Emotions

4.3

2.57

Negative Emotions

8.7

2.12

Emotional Tone

1.0

38.60

Comparing the two pieces in terms of degree of emotionality, personal and social levels, Lida sets and adopts a much higher emotional tone in her poem compared to Ali yet less than average value. It demonstrates the manifest of her feminine identity. However, the second poem had a much higher weight in expressing negative emotions (8.7). Considering the average for personal writing, the two poems gained higher values in positive and negative emotions. Personal words level is also comparatively high in the first poem, whereas social words percentile is higher in the second poem. In this sense, Lida expresses her personal feelings toward the trauma more, but Ali gives vent to his inner thoughts less reflectively as he geared them toward connecting to and addressing societal issues.

Poetic Features Use The two poems were carefully read and analyzed in terms of meaning and literary devices. The study found that Lida tries to develop a simple plot in the first poem, a transfer from distress to hope and ends with a resolution. For instance, Lida starts the poem by presenting the settings as “dark and inconsol-

793

 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

able” during times of global crisis and infusing a sad mood. For instance, in her poem, she wrote, “the virus has come and destroyed our life,” “perturbed the human soul,” and “feel like being in a hole.” She demonstrates that the virus has a destructive effect on her life and the lives of others, bothers all the people who harbored horrible feelings of being entrapped and that they are not able to escape. Lida then expresses her feelings about the problem and how she is terrified of being diagnosed as a suspect to COVID-19. She wrote, My illness suddenly became more serious It was the darkest time, I couldn’t endure Luck was a chance, but trouble was sure Eventually, Lida resolves the issue by praying and maintain a positive attitude. She wrote, Finally, I could defeat the virus by prayer and hope I got to be positive and didn’t say nope Now, I try not to think about stupid stuff Observing hygiene might be enough. This participant also uses several literary devices to bring about a pointed and distinct effect, transfer the key message, and support readers’ comprehension on a deeper level. For example, she uses personification and added the attribution of a personal characteristics to something non-human. The pandemic is personified as an armed enemy who destroyed education and improvement in line 8: “Annihilate education and improvement.” The writer also uses a metaphor comparing herself to a wrecked ship and about to be drowned by stormy waves in line 16: “[I]was looking wrecked and turbulent.” However, Ali, the other participant, began with quick exposition, infusing a sense of danger using alliteration “An evil came suddenly, seized the split world seamlessly.” The repetition of /S/ sound puts forward the image of a snake hissing in this line, and it connotes threat and trick. In line 3, the writer personifies the disease as a snake creeping slowly and dragging all the loved ones deep in water. It demonstrates a horrible image of losing family members and friends. Similarly, in line 5, greed is personified as an auctioneer who voraciously increases prices in society. He indirectly shows the authorities, companies, traders, salespersons boosted the prices unreasonably. The student then contradicts and uses oxymoron to demonstrate a rhetorical point, “unnerved wits.” He criticizes the socioeconomic conditions and the pandemic aftermath. The student then personifies home as an older person who is very feeble, unable to function well. He also expresses that family relationships are dreadfully and drastically affected by the pandemic. Ultimately, he has an immediate resolution at the end of his poem, indicating his view toward life’s truth changed to a modest one. In this line, he uses assonance to add a musical effect and emphasize the meaning. He resolves the issue by modifying his belief toward the real meaning of human existence: to be humble, harmless, good-hearted humans alike.

Perceptive Analysis Towards L2 Poetry Writing This section presents the qualitative findings that emerged from the interview data. The study revealed that both participants have positive perceptions of writing L2 poetry. They reported that everyone can be a poet. For example, Ali argued, “poetry writing is not an inner talent. It is a skill and we all can be 794

 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

skilled at it if we want and practice.” He added that treating writing as a skill can encourage individuals to write poetry. Similarly, Lida asserted that writing poetry is achievable if the writers do not see themselves confined to conventional literary terms and styles. According to Lida, “poetry is not a difficult and fixed genre, which requires writers to use particular diction, length and format” (Personal Communication, September 18, 2020). She pointed out that, unlike many of her former high school teachers, she thinks that L2 poetry writing does not require the writers to follow specific rules. Besides, both of the participants argue that whether the readers consider their writing as poetry or not they are proud of the poems because they feel a sense of ownership. Ali even stated, “I’m proud of my poem and I’m ready to sing it like a song” (Personal Communication, September 19, 2020).

Cultural Constraints and Expressing Emotions Ali, the male participant in our study, argued that expressing emotions is not common among men in Afghanistan. He reported: Expressing emotions for men is mostly girlish in my context. I did not write my poem in a way that the readers recognize my identity as a male, as a man, and as an Afghan because if they identify, it may depict my weaknesses. Instead, I tried to direct the readers’ attention to consider developing countries in general. (Personal Communication, September 19, 2020) On the other hand, Lida did not hide her identity in her poem. She not only wrote a longer poem but also used a more first-person point of view. She has intentionally used words, such as my family, feeble, mom, prayer, and God to depict her gender identity, religious identity, and cultural identity.

L2 Poetry for Leveraging Language Learning Both participants claimed that writing poetry can help them improve their language skills, especially grammar and vocabulary. Lida stated that she had to look up different words in the dictionary when she wanted to figure out what rhyming word to use in her poem. She stated, “In addition to checking the correct pronunciation of the words, I had to pay attention to their meaning and use, which boosted my vocabulary size” (Personal Communication, September 18, 2020). However, Ali did not find himself so much engaged with rhyming because he said not all poems should have rhymes (Personal Communication, September 19, 2020). Besides, the female participants stated, “Because students need to think about the different grammatical structures while writing poetry, this cognitive process contributes to improving their writing skill” (Personal Communication, September 18, 2020). According to her, in her case, she had to think about the different sentences to types she needs for writing her poem.

Poetry Writing for Improving Students’ Mental Wellbeing The results showed that expressing feelings toward COVID-19 through poetry helped the participants to feel relieved. Ali stated that because he had no one to share his words and feelings regarding the pandemic, writing the poem allowed him to present his emotions and feel better. The female participants also claimed: 795

 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

When I started writing the poem, I didn’t know that I would feel better by the end of my poem. I think it was because while writing the poem, I had to think logically about this trauma. As a result, with trust in God, I felt better, overcame my stress, and resolved my unintended fear. (Personal Communication, September 19, 2020) Additionally, the participants stated that poetry writing allowed their voices to be heard. For example, Ali related poetry writing to confiding to close friends. He noted, “poetry writing is similar to imparting secrets trustfully.” Thus, he could express his emotions of fear, anxiety and loneliness toward the traumatic incident. The results also yielded that the participants showed resilience both in their poems and mentioned in their interviews. For instance, Ali pointed out that he resolved the issue by transforming his self-perception and worldview to a humble and harmless human being. Likewise, the female participant sought support and inspiration from a spiritual source and her personal endeavor.

DISCUSSION The two poems’ linguistic analysis indicates that the female student crafted a more personal viewpoint using “I, Me, My” pronouns a lot, setting a more emotional tone than her male counterpart. She also adapted a lengthy narrative style to express her personal experience, begin with exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. In a similar vein, females are more prone to be emotionally responsive and sensitive to be influenced by environmental factors and possess great potentials to bring their inner emotions and thoughts to the surface, resulting in having greater impacts on female participants compared to their male counterparts (Seipp & Schwarzer, 1996; Zeidner, 1998). On the contrary, Shen et al. (2018) found that expressive writing is beneficial for both female and male students regardless of gender. Besides, Reinhold et al. (2018) noted that expressive writing would be more productive if implemented more extensively and more focused intervention. Moreover, they found that older and female participants got more advantage from such an intervention. However, Ali used a short-condensed form to express his personal understanding of the subject matter, covering up his emotions through alteration and metaphors, less use of personal words, and more social ones. This finding is consistent with the ideas of Shen et al. (2018) who claimed that the socialization processes often impact the way males manage their emotions. Following such condensed poetry, writing style demonstrates that free gender expression is hindered by sociocultural dispositionality dictated to a man in the Afghan context. The public also views the free expressions of emotions by men as taboo. If men do, they would be subject to humiliation; therefore, they suppress and do not communicate their personal feelings in daily talks so often (Alharfi, 2015). Both participants in our study express a positive attitude toward poetry writing in English language. This finding corroborates the idea of Hanauer (2012), who states, “the moment when you express your innermost thoughts and experiences in a second language is a powerful one, and one that can qualitatively change a student’s perception of the new language that they are using” (p. 110). These two students’ L2 writing poetry negates “the perception that only professional, accomplished and first language English speakers write poetry” (p. 111). Students’ perception of the quality of a written poem, its emotionality and the instructor’s positive response influence students’ artistic evaluation of their piece and others’ (Hauer & Hanauer, 2017). According to Alharfi (2015), when ESL/EFL students are asked to write a 796

 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

poem, they feel they are translating their own emotions from their native language to the target language. The participants in his study also noted that lack of vocabulary and choosing appropriate lexical items to express their feelings made it difficult to write poetry in the English language.

CONCLUSION This study demonstrates that writing poetry leverages English language learning in different ways. First, students have to look up the dictionary; find appropriate words when they want to incorporate poetic features. According to Alharfi (2015), “this lack of vocabulary knowledge could be an opportunity for language teachers who want to use poetry writing as a means of developing students’ [vocabulary knowledge]” (p. 74). Moreover, using language in a poetic way supports students’ vocabulary learning (Sandhaug, 2018). Obied (2007) also argues that it is important for students to learn the natural rhythms used in the target language and know poetry writing. Second, the two EFL students in this study had to think of grammatical structures, so such an effort improves their writing skills. This form of creative writing provides ample opportunities for learners to improve their knowledge of language form (Smith, 2013) and writing craft and reflective skills (Cronin & Hawthorne, 2019). Additionally, “The bilingual students’ writing shows their growing ability to make connections between sound and sense and be able to write ‘in tune’ with a text” (Obied, 2007, p. 50). This study also shows that writing poetry could help EFL students feel relieved during times of crisis. They both search for the sources to soothe their fears and anxiety while demonstrating resilience. However, if this internal drive to write a poem is loaded by engaging in a communication forum and developing emotions, it is more beneficial than just writing. It helps the poets feel relaxed and provides social support as they connect to others in the community (Alvarez & Mearns, 2014). Similarly, Rickett, Greive, & Gordon (2011) found that their “participants responded enthusiastically, and each group demonstrated an increase in wellbeing over the course of their workshop, moving them from medium to low risk on the K10, [Kessler Psychological Distress Scale]. Participants enjoyed the challenge of writing and the companionship of other group members” (p. 265).

Pedagogical Implications for L2 Writing Education Exploring EFL/ESL students’ poetry writing, the emotionality and poetic features, the effects of such intervention on students’ mental wellbeing, the study proposes several pedagogical implications for teachers and policymakers. First, it will be more effective if teachers incorporate expressive writing tasks, such as poetry writing into their writing curriculum since EFL/ESL students can find a magical space to express their voices and emotions (Miri & Hung 2020), especially during times of crisis or a traumatic event. This meaningful literacy task can be done through writing and bonding with others when sharing their poetic pieces and interpretation. It helps them find a balance in their daily lives, a convenient and economically suitable method anywhere, even without a psychological counselor (Shen et al. 2018). Second, writing poetry provides a golden opportunity for teachers to make the learning process meaningful for the students in an under-resourced context and connect the existing expressive tasks and materials to their lived experiences. Simultaneously, it helps students negotiate to mean enthusiastically and improve their English language skills (word knowledge, grammar, writing, etc.). Finally, after incorporating poetry writing in L2 writing education, the teachers can also create a corpus 797

 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

that helps verify hypotheses about language use and paralinguistic features such as culture, values, and emotions. Moreover, it serves as a rich resource for studying and analyzing poetry.

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS Considering our study’s purpose and the nature of our research questions, this study’s results cannot be generalized to a larger population. Besides, the study has a few limitations. First, the current study merely examined the emotionality and poetic features used in the poem, while there are rooms to examine the poems from different perspectives. Future researchers can explore more textual and literary characteristics of a poem, such as lexical frequency profile, lexical category, thematic organization, and text size (see Hanaeur, 2010). Other researchers could also explore the meaningful relationship between the two constructs of intervention therapy and scaffolding L2 learning. Furthermore, in our study, we did not investigate the different poetry writing stages, which warrant further investigation. Finally, due to some sociocultural constraints in the Afghan community, the male participant did not express his emotions freely resulting in writing a comparative shorter poem which to some degree limited a thoroughly linguistic analysis.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT This research was supported by Herat University, Afghanistan, and Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran.

REFERENCES Alawdat, M. (2020). Multilingual writing in digital world: The necessity for reshaping teaching. In E. B. Hanci-Azizgolu & N. Kavakli (Eds.), Futuristic and linguistic perspectives on teaching writing to second language students (pp. 84–101). IGI Global. Alharfi, A. M. (2015). Using poetry to express emotions in Arabic and English as a second language (Master’s thesis, Indiana University of Pennsylvania). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Allington, D., & Swann, J. (2009). Researching literary reading as social practice. Language and Literature, 18(3), 219–230. doi:10.1177/0963947009105850 Alosaimi, M. S. (2014). A consciousness-raising exercise in meaningful literacy: ESL female teachers’ perspectives and recommendations (Master’s thesis, Indiana University of Pennsylvania). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Alvarez, N., & Mearns, J. (2014). The benefits of writing and performing in the spoken word poetry community. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 41(3), 263–268. doi:10.1016/j.aip.2014.03.004 Bigge, M. L., & Shermis, S. S. (1992). Learning theories for teachers (5th ed.). HarperCollins.

798

 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

Burnham, C., & Powell, R. (2014). Expressive pedagogy: Practice/theory, theory/practice. In G. Tate, A. R. Taggart, K. Schick, & H. B. Hessler (Eds.), A guide to composition pedagogies (pp. 111–127). Oxford University Press. Cahnmann-Taylor, M., & Hwang, Y. (2019). Poetic habits of mind in TESOL teacher preparation. Language and Education, 33(5), 399–415. doi:10.1080/09500782.2018.1540634 Chamcharatsri, P. B. (2013). Emotionality and second language writers: Expressing fear through narrative in Thai and English. Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching, 5(1). Advance online publication. doi:10.5070/L25115703 Cronin, C., & Hawthorne, C. (2019). ‘Poetry in motion’ a place in the classroom: Using poetry to develop writing confidence and reflective skills. Nurse Education Today, 76, 73–77. doi:10.1016/j. nedt.2019.01.026 PMID:30771613 Devitt, A. (2014). Genre. In G. Tate, A. R. Taggart, K. Schick, & H. B. Hessler (Eds.), A guide to composition pedagogies (pp. 146–162). Oxford University Press. DiMenichi, B. C., Ceceli, A. O., Bhanji, J. P., & Tricomi, E. (2019). Effects of expressive writing on neural processing during learning. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 13, 389. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2019.00389 PMID:31803032 Hanauer, D. I. (2010). Poetry as research: Exploring second language poetry writing. John Benjamins. doi:10.1075/lal.9 Hanauer, D. I. (2011). The scientific study of poetic writing. Scientific Study of Literature, 1(1), 79–87. doi:10.1075sol.1.1.08han Hanauer, D. I. (2015). Measuring voice in poetry written by second language learners. Written Communication, 32(1), 66–86. doi:10.1177/0741088314563023 Hancı-Azizoglu, E. B., & Alawdat, M. (2020). Expressive multilingual writing: A transformational healing skill for a pandemic challenge. In E. B. Hanci-Azizgolu & N. Kavakli (Eds.), Futuristic and linguistic perspectives on teaching writing to second language students (pp. 235–250). IGI Global. Hauer, L. M., & Hanauer, D. I. (2017). Evaluating second language student poetry: A study of Instructors. The Journal of Literature in Language Teaching, 6(1), 7–20. Hergenrader, T. (2016). Making space for creative writing research in the academy. Journal of Creative Writing Studies, 1(1), 6. Iida, A. (2011). Revisiting haiku: The contribution of composing haiku to L2 academic literacy [Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University of Pennsylvania]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Iida, A. (2012). The value of poetry writing: Cross-genre literacy development in a second language. Scientific Study of Literature, 2(1), 60–82. doi:10.1075sol.2.1.04iid Iida, A. (2016). Exploring earthquake experiences: A study of second language learners’ ability to express and communicate deeply traumatic events in poetic form. System, 57, 120–133. doi:10.1016/j. system.2016.02.004

799

 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

Iida, A. (2020). “I feel like I can’t avoid dying”: A poetic representation of a survivor’s traumatic experience in the great east Japan earthquake. Qualitative Inquiry, 1–14. doi:10.1177/1077800419897695 Kim, K. M. (2018). A humanized view of second language learning through creative writing: A Korean graduate student in the United States. Journal of Creative Writing Studies, 3(1), 7. Kim, K. M., & Park, G. (2019). “It is more expressive for me”: A translingual approach to meaningful literacy instruction through sijo poetry. TESOL Quarterly, 54(2), 281–309. doi:10.1002/tesq.545 Kramsch, C. (2006). Preview article: The multilingual subject. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 16(1), 97–110. doi:10.1111/j.1473-4192.2006.00109.x Lorenz, D. (2020). My unique poem is me: Our poems are universal. A creative interactive poetry Therapy inquiry. Journal of Poetry Therapy, 33(4), 252–264. doi:10.1080/08893675.2020.1803617 Mikulecky, L., Albers, P., & Peers, M. (1994). Literacy transfer: A review of the literature (Technical Report TR 94-05). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, National Center on Adult Literacy. Miri, M. A. (2016). Integrating writing activities in the English Department literature courses at an Afghan university (Master’s thesis, Indiana University of Pennsylvania). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Miri, M. A., & Hung, B. P. (2020). Contextualizing second language writing in literature courses: Locality of pedagogy for innovative practices. In E. B. Hanci-Azizgolu & N. Kavakli (Eds.), Futuristic and linguistic perspectives on teaching writing to second language students (pp. 287–306). IGI Global. Obied, V. (2007). ‘Why did I do nothing?’ Poetry and the experiences of bilingual pupils in a mainstream inner-city secondary school. English in Education, 41(3), 37–52. doi:10.1111/j.1754-8845.2007.tb01163.x Pishghadam, R., Adamson, B., & Shayesteh, S. (2013). Emotion-based language instruction (EBLI) as a new perspective in bilingual education. Multilingual Education, 3(9), 1–16. doi:10.1186/2191-5059-3-9 Pishghadam, R., Jajarmi, H., & Shayesteh, S. (2016). Conceptualizing sensory relativism in light of emotioncy: A movement beyond linguistic relativism. International Journal of Society, Culture & Language, 4(2), 11–21. Reinhold, M., Bürkner, P. C., & Holling, H. (2018). Effects of expressive writing on depressive symptoms— A meta‐analysis. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 25(1), e12224. doi:10.1111/cpsp.12224 Rickett, C., Greive, C., & Gordon, J. (2011). Something to hang my life on: The health benefits of writing poetry for people with serious illnesses. Australasian Psychiatry, 19(3), 265–268. doi:10.3109/103 98562.2011.562298 PMID:21682627 Sandhaug, C. (2018). “Ten fat sausages”: Poetic sense units, vocabulary chunks, and language acquisition in young learners. In S. L. Kleppe & A. Sorby (Eds.), Poetry and Pedagogy across the Lifespan: Disciplines, Classrooms, Contexts (pp. 187–209). Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-90433-7_10 Seipp, B., & Schwarzer, C. (1996). Cross-cultural anxiety research: A review. Stress, Anxiety, and Coping in Academic Settings, 13-68.

800

 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

Shen, L., Yang, L., Zhang, J., & Zhang, M. (2018). Benefits of expressive writing in reducing test anxiety: A randomized controlled trial in Chinese samples. PLoS One, 13(2), e0191779. doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0191779 PMID:29401473 Shukri, N. A. (2014). Second language writing and culture: Issues and challenges from the Saudi learners’ perspective. Arab World English Journal, 5(3), 190–207. Smith, C. (2013). Creative writing as an important tool in second language acquisition and practice. The Journal of Literature in Language Teaching, 2, 12–18. Travagin, G., Margola, D., & Revenson, T. A. (2015). How effective are expressive writing interventions for adolescents? A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 36, 42–55. doi:10.1016/j. cpr.2015.01.003 PMID:25656314 Zeidner, M. (1998). Test anxiety: The state of the art. Springer Science & Business.

ADDITIONAL READING Baikie, K. A., & Wilhelm, K. (2005). Emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 11(5), 338–346. doi:10.1192/apt.11.5.338 Chan, Z. C. (2017). Poetry writing and artistic ability in problem-based learning. International Journal on Disability and Human Development: IJDHD, 16(1), 37–44. doi:10.1515/ijdhd-2016-0003 Fisher, T. (2017). Writing not writing: Poetry, crisis, and responsibility. University of Iowa Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt20q247r Hanauer, D. I. (2021). Mourning writing: A poetic autoethnography on the passing of my father. Qualitative Inquiry, 27(1), 37–44. doi:10.1177/1077800419898500 Lepore, S. J., & Smyth, J. M. (2002). The writing cure: How expressive writing promotes health and emotional wellbeing. American Psychological Association. doi:10.1037/10451-000 Patrick, L. D. (2016). Found poetry: Creating space for imaginative arts-based literacy research writing. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 65(1), 384–403. doi:10.1177/2381336916661530 Pennebaker, J. W. (2018). Expressive writing in psychological science. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(2), 226–229. doi:10.1177/1745691617707315 PMID:28992443 Peskin, J., & Ellenbogen, B. (2019). Cognitive processes while writing poetry: An expert-novice study. Cognition and Instruction, 37(2), 232–251. doi:10.1080/07370008.2019.1570931 Wilson, A., & Dymoke, S. (2017). Towards a model of poetry writing development as a socially contextualised process. Journal of Writing Research, 9(2), 127–150. Yang, S. (2020). Meaningful literacy and agentive writer identity. MEXTESOL Journal, 44(4), 1–15.

801

 Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Emotionality: It is a measure to assess someone’s degree of emotions toward a stimulus. Emotions: A natural intuitive feeling driving from an individual’s interactions with various sources. Expressive Writing: It is a writing genre that encourage students to express their inner thoughts and emotions. Meaningful Literacy: The ability that one can make sense of things using personal resources in surround environment. Poetic Features: The literary components that writer can incorporate to write a poem such as imagery, rhyme, metaphor, alliteration, etc. Poetry: A literary work which allows writers to express their feelings and ideas in an aesthetic style. Wellbeing: The state of feeling and experiencing a high quality of life.

This research was previously published in Rhetoric and Sociolinguistics in Times of Global Crisis; pages 131-151, copyright year 2021 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

802

Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

APPENDIX 1 Lida’s Poem It’s a dark and inconsolable time The virus has come and destroyed our life It perturbed the human soul We all feel like being in a hole I supposed the situation would never cease Disheartened and thought that there is no peace CORONA smeared the environment Annihilate education and improvement One day I felt so tired and feeble I had to study, but wasn’t able I wondered whether I was infected with the virus My illness suddenly became more serious It was the darkest time, I couldn’t endure Luck was a chance, but trouble was sure I was sitting at home brooding over it And was looking wrecked and turbulent It was a tragic time for my family They were frightened. And tried to help me I decided to keep quarantine myself Mom said you would be cured, don’t annoy thyself There was a brief silence when I was alone in my room Suddenly I heard a sound of gun like a boom! It made me feel afraid. And I was shivering I started looking at moon as it was shining Then I started thinking about future I was eager to see the beauties of nature I wondered why some people think about wealth When there is nothing more important than health Finally, I could defeat the virus by prayer and hope I got to be positive and didn’t say nope Now, I try not to think about stupid stuff Observing hygiene might be enough.

803

Second Language Expressive Writing in Times of Global Crisis

APPENDIX 2 Ali’s Poem An evil came suddenly, seized the split world seamlessly People bewildered and unaware of the epizootic senselessly As it slithers slowly, drown all the dears deeply As its power so high, some of us got it painfully The greed puts a hammer on the prices prissily Lack of the facilities, unnerved wits weatherly Jobs gone, homes decrepit, bonds hurt desperately Rich and poor both are served unwontedly The evil swallowed the sweethearts savagely This changed my visage about truth of life Be a humble, harmless, good-hearted human alike

804

805

Chapter 38

Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning Jon Bakos Indiana State University, USA

ABSTRACT This chapter examines processes of language variation and change that take place in all languages, with a focus on English. Sociolinguists have observed that demographic and social variables such as where someone is born, their age, gender, and socio-economic status can be relevant to how they speak. However, contemporary work indicates that there is more to how someone speaks than a few checkboxes on a survey. Who does a speaker feel empathy with and want to emulate? How does a multi-faceted sense of personal identity affect how a person speaks? How might a second language (L2) learner’s sense of belonging affect their own realization of English? These are some of the questions that this chapter seeks to address.

WHAT IS SOCIOLINGUISTICS? Sociolinguistics is defined as the study of the relationship between language and society. Coulmas (2013, p. 11) claims that “the principal task of Sociolinguistics is to uncover, describe and interpret the socially motivated” choices an individual makes. This inquiry can take many forms, including ethnography, the acoustic examination of dialect features, and pragmatic study of norms, styles, and social dynamics within and between groups. Sociolinguistics has many areas of interest. One central tenet of language is that for every aspect of it that has been discussed in this book, those elements will undergo variation and change over time. No parts of language are static, and throughout its existence, virtually every part of English has been revised and updated. Phonetically, sounds such as the velar fricative /x/ have been lost, and the entire system of English vowel pronunciation has adjusted through the Great Vowel Shift. Morphologically, English has lost the distinction between strong and weak nouns (as well as most of its case system). Even syntactic DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch038

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

variation is possible, with many varieties of Appalachian English allowing double modal forms (“I might could do it.”), despite syntactic rules expressly saying that this should not be possible. Changes in language over time and variations between groups have consistently confounded prescriptivists and grammarians, with one of the first known examples by Gerald of Wales, cited in Bailey (1991, p. 19): …in the southern parts of England … the speech is nowadays purer than elsewhere. It may be that it retains more of the features of the original language and the old ways of speaking English, whereas the northern regions have been greatly corrupted by the Danish and Norwegian invasions (Gerald of Wales, 1193 [1984]:231). And yet, despite over 800 years of intervening time since Gerald’s complaints over the ailing state of the language, English has soldiered on, continuing to evolve and bifurcate considerably. With the knowledge that variation is inevitable and constant, sociolinguistics thus aims to better understand and describe such changes as best as possible. Further, as English and other languages have grown to have multiple varieties, dialects, and accents, it is vital to observe that these are not simply questions of pronunciation and word formation – an individual’s personal identity and sense of self can be connected to their use of dialect. A common stereotype in the United States is that of “Southern hospitality”- that residents of the Southern states are friendly, warm, and inviting. But this can also carry over to a Southern accent itself – simply speaking in this manner can signal someone as friendly, warm, and inviting, even if they are nothing of the sort! This can mean that dialect perceptions and dialect usage can both be a strong part of performing personal identity – directly connecting to someone’s mental self-representation. The chapter will begin by considering isolated variables that have been shown to be relevant in sociolinguistic research, and then focus on a few particular studies that have demonstrated a greater complexity and interconnectedness of factors relating to one’s dialect and sense of self. The Labov and Eckert studies are two more groundbreaking works of the 20th Century, while the examination of forms of like and of language use by immigrant communities shows more contemporary research that may be more directly relevant to the concerns of L2 English speakers.

REGIONALITY Where you are from can often be a key factor in how you speak, and this is true the world over. Historically, there have been two elements involved in making groups of people speak differently from one another – isolation and time. Before automobiles and planes, natural barriers such as mountain ranges and bodies of water could effectively separate cities and countries from one another, cutting off communication. Over the course of centuries of separation, even groups that spoke the same language would begin to drift apart linguistically, adapting local norms and customs that were distinct from others. With limited contact from outsiders, dialects and language forms would not mix, and gradually come to have less and less in common with each other. Sometimes the crucial boundaries can be surprising – for example, Sibata (1969) found that decades-old school district boundaries in Japan were having an effect on modern dialect distribution. Even in the present-day United States with modern transportation and digital communication, most people are still going to spend the majority of their day communicating with the people nearest to them, in the same speech community. That is, the other people that live in their city or state, that they see on 806

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

a day-to-day basis. Members of the same speech community will often share common dialect features, especially in their pronunciations of words. One such example is called The Northern Cities Shift (NCS), which is a way of speaking commonly found in United States cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo. The Northern Cities Shift is a rearrangement of the low and mid vowels in a speaker’s system. The NCS is described as a Chain Shift (Labov, Ash, & Boberg, 2006) due to the fact that the features of the shift occur in a sequence (or “chain”), as illustrated below in Figure 1. Most typically, the first link of the chain is the tensing and raising of the speaker’s /æ/ vowel, moving it more closely into /e/ territory, or even higher, closer to /ı/. Sometimes this results in a gliding diphthong, where a word like dad might be pronounced closer to /dı-æd/. Figure 1. The Northern Cities Shift

With /æ/ vacating its position on the vowel chart, the chain typically continues next with the /ɑ/ vowel fronting toward the empty space left by /æ/. This makes words that usually contain /ɑ/ such as Don and hot start to sound closer to Dan and hat. As the chain continues, the /ɔ/ vowel moves into /ɑ/ territory, the /ɛ/ vowel moves into /ʌ/ territory, and /ʌ/ can drift toward /ɔ/. The end result is a complete rearrangement of the speaker’s low and mid vowels, compared to more standard varieties of American English. As mentioned, one of the primary impactors of the NCS is where someone is from. The NCS appears most strongly in the largest Northern cities, and is less likely to appear in rural areas of the North (Gordon, 2001). The NCS also has quite definable regional boundaries – not reaching further west than Minneapolis and further east than central New York, and not extending far south below Chicago except for an outpost in St. Louis (Labov, Ash, & Boberg, 2006). However, there is more to dialect than simply location. The NCS tends to be predominantly used by White Americans, and there is also evidence that its use is stronger in young women than with other

807

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

speakers (Labov, Ash, & Boberg, 2006). We will see later in the chapter that its usage is affected by a great many things, but for now, we should consider a few factors that have been mainstays of sociolinguistic research.

DEMOGRAPHICS Beyond where someone lives, there are other aspects of identity and personality that will affect how someone speaks, such as their age, ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status.

Age Often, speakers of a language will speak differently depending on their age. Reasons for this can easily be interpreted – younger people may want to stand out as different from their parents, while their parents may be focused on sounding professional and adult-like. A frequent pattern related to age is called agegrading, a hypothetical distribution of which can be seen in Figure 2. Figure 2. Age grading hypothetical example

In Figure 2, we can see what is essentially a reverse-bell curve – a behavior used frequently by younger people in their 20’s, that tapers off as they age into their 40’s, but then returns as speakers reach their 60’s and 70’s. Tagliamonte (2012) observes this distribution with behaviors like swearing – adolescents swear liberally so as to earn covert prestige with their friends – that is, violating societal rules and norms to build a defiant reputation. However, as the same speaker reaches adulthood, their concerns shift toward raising children, and building professional acclaim in the workplace. As such, these adults are more

808

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

concerned with acquiring overt prestige, that is, building a reputation by obeying social expectations and rules. Toward this end, they stifle usage of curse words and swears. Then, as the speaker reaches retirement age and no longer needs to be concerned with workplace decorum, they return to the speech of their youth and swear much more frequently. Importantly, age grading is most typically not a factor of a particular generation or group – the expectation would be that with an age graded pattern, most people would follow it and adjust as they age in real time.

Ethnicity Some dialects (and languages) are strongly associated with particular ethnic groups – for example, Yiddish with the Jewish community, Hawaiian and Hawaiian Creole with that Native communities in Hawai’i, and African American English (AAE) with African American communities throughout the United States. Proficiency with these language and dialects can often serve as a strong in-group/out-group marker. AAE, for example, has dozens of systematic features that encompass all levels of language – a few of which are shown below: (a) habitual be + verb-ing e.g. I always be playing ball. (b) intensified equative be e.g. She be the diva. (c) resultative be done e.g. She be done had her baby. (d) -3rd sg. -s absence e.g. She run everyday. (e) ain’t for didn’t e.g. I ain’t go yesterday. (Examples from Wolfram, 2004) Notice that just these five examples encompass alternate uses of the copula, morphological variation, and lexical variation. This level of complexity can serve an important function – no novice could ever hope to imitate the dialect correctly, and would unavoidably make obvious mistakes unless they had spoken it for years. Dialect can thus serve as a litmus test for group membership – without full mastery of its forms, a speaker may only tangentially be considered a member of the local community.

Gender One formalized effort to describe how women talk differently from men was that of Robin Lakoff’s Language and Woman’s Place in 1975. Lakoff pointed out several features of women’s speech, some of which included: (a) Hedges: Phrases such as sort of, kind of, it seems like (b) Empty adjectives: divine, adorable, gorgeous (c) Super-polite forms: Would you mind... ...if it’s not too much to ask… Is it o.k. if...? 809

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

(d) Apologize more: I’m sorry, but I think that... (e) Speaking less frequently (f) Avoid curse language or expletives Lakoff’s work has been the subject of criticism in more recent years for being essentialist and framing women’s speech as a “gender deficit” or sign of weakness or deference. Eckert (1989) instead argued that differences in speech attributable to gender were like more attributable to differences in power dynamics, with many of the forms that Lakoff observed being more a factor of women being suppressed by society, rather than any sort of innate characteristics. Sex and gender will be a visible factor in the studies later in this chapter.

Other Variables Depending on the study and the community involved, there may be many other relevant demographic variables to sociolinguistic work. A respondent’s occupation, level of education, L1 and L2 background, religion, and cultural heritage may all be relevant to better understanding their speech and identity. To illustrate this, this chapter will now examine individual studies, focusing on the unique composition of each community that was studied.

MARTHA’S VINEYARD One of the more crucial studies in the present era of Sociolinguistics is William Labov’s work in Martha’s Vineyard, The Social Motivation of a Sound Change (Labov, 1963). Martha’s Vineyard is a small island off the Southern coast of Massachusetts, which at the time of his research in 1962 had two main industries: fishing and tourism. Labov’s work was an important contribution to the field, because while it was understood that the demographic factors discussed above, like age and gender were important to understanding how people speak, Labov argued in this paper that they were insufficient by themselves to describe speech and identity. He began the paper by considering such factors individually, and used this to show that with just these alone, he had an incomplete picture. He argued that additional elements of islander life and culture had to be taken into account to better describe the relationship of the residents’ speech with their local identity. At the time that Labov conducted his fieldwork on the island, its population was estimated at 5,563. As of 2010, it has roughly tripled to 16,535 (United States Census, 2010). The island had three main ethnic demographics – “Chilmarkers” – White descendants of early colonial settlers on the island, largely concentrated around the Chilmark areas, another group that descended from Portuguese settlers, and a third group of Native Americans. Dialectally, Labov was interested in a regional pronunciation of the /aɪ/ and /aʊ/ diphthongs, which islanders would commonly produce with a centralized /ə/ onset, making tide sound more like /təɪd/ or toide, and loud sound more like /ləʊd/ or lowed. Early in the paper, he notes that there is some phonological conditioning involved in the usage, such that the /əɪ/ and /əʊ/ variants are more likely to appear prior to alveolar stops, so that words like night and out would have a high likelihood of being pronounced /nəɪt/ and /əʊt/, while words like five and ground would most likely be said as /faɪv/ and /ɡraʊnd/. It would have been possible to have this be the stopping point in the research – arguing that the variant 810

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

is the result of a phonological rule that favors particular environments. However, Labov continued to examine the data, looking for finer details. He found that in addition to phonology, there were relevant demographic variables in play that affected the speech of Islanders. In general, younger people tended to avoid the centralized forms, while older residents used them more strongly. White residents and those of Portuguese descent centralized more than the Native Americans. Fishermen also more commonly had the regional variant than other professions. And as above, any one of these things on its own could have painted a partial picture of speech on Martha’s Vineyard. But Labov observed instead that, more relevant than any of these variables (but derived from them) was a resident’s sense of personal investment in the island. Martha’s Vineyard in 1962 was at a point of transition – historically, it had been a whaling community, but whaling was extinct as an industry. The island had instead moved to fishing. But the economy was changing again, with the island becoming a tourist destination for the citified well-to-do. As such, residents were feeling pressure. Some felt a desire to identify with the Vineyard’s history – especially the Chilmarkers who had been living there for hundreds of years. The Portuguese residents felt a similar pull – for decades they had been marginalized as a minority, but by 1962, they had begun to be accepted and to take on positions of power within the local government. Finally able to assert an Islander identity, they were strongly motivated to do so. By contrast, the Native population was largely restricted to a small region of the Vineyard, and had not been able to become significant players in its politics. Labov argued that in the past, Islanders had been able to stand out from those on the land by using whaling terminology. This unique jargon served as a means of asserting local identity and setting themselves apart from the mainland. However, as discussed, whaling was no longer a functioning industry, which meant that it could no longer serve as a distinction. So instead, centralizing of /a/ diphthongs rose to take its place, serving as a marker of local membership. Chilmarkers and Portuguese residents were thus able to employ it to show their status, and with fishing as the industry most directly connected to the island’s past, fishermen used the accent as well. Labov’s finding that older residents centralized more heavily also fit – these were people who were either of working age (as fishermen), or those who had retired from the profession. However, many younger residents were not yet fishermen, and further, had no desire to be. Instead, they worked in the Vineyard’s burgeoning hospitality industry, mingling with affluent mainland guests. These Islanders instead were more interested in the mainland – wanting to move away to major cities. This desire was visible in their speech – the Islander accent was used as a way to stand out from the mainland, which was precisely the opposite of what these young residents wanted. So, rather than embrace the Vineyard’s regional speech, they stifled it – aiming to emulate the people they one day hoped to become. As such, Labov’s work in Martha’s Vineyard demonstrates important truths about language and sociolinguistic research. Though a respondent’s age, ethnicity, and profession were separately a part of how they spoke, the truly relevant variable – personal investment in the island, was built from all of these. Speakers with high investment used their speech to showcase their strong individual connection to the Vineyard, while those with low investment worked to hide this connection and to speak more like those from the mainland.

811

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

JOCKS AND BURNOUTS Another study that showed similar results was that of Penelope Eckert, who studied the speech of high schoolers in Livonia, Michigan during the 1980’s. Livonia is a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, which for several decades was a city in decline. During the 1950’s and 60’s, the city was the seat of the American auto industry, home to “the Big Three” - Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. The city was home to both automotive manufacturing and supplemental industries such as steel plants, metal stamping companies, and oil refining. Detroit was also a thriving commercial hub, with large department stores such as Hudson’s and Crowley’s as fixtures of the downtown. In 1967 and beyond, however, the city was shaken by racial tensions and rioting, that led to it being synonymous with “White Flight.” Wealthy Whites in the city left it in droves, relocating en masses to the suburbs and leaving much of Detroit abandoned to blight. At its peak at the 1950 census, it had a population of 1.85 million. By 1980, this had dropped to 1.2 million, and as of 2010, was below 700,000 (United States Census, 2010). Thus, when Eckert began her work in Livonia in the mid-80’s, Livonia was a wealthy (and largely White) suburb of deprived (and largely Black) Detroit. Though Livonia is on the southern border of 8 Mile Road that is seen as the boundary with Detroit (and thus the name of the movie by Eminem), the suburb is far enough west to be outside of the city proper, with Redford and Dearborn Heights serving as buffer zones. Dialectally, Detroit is one of the epicenters of the Northern Cities Shift, discussed above. The NCS has been observed to follow a pattern of hierarchical diffusion – that is, it tends to spread outward to the nearest centers of highest population first. Livonia, being only 20 miles away and having a population of over 104,000 as of 1980 (United States Census, 1980), would have been a very likely site to observe the shift. Although her goal was not exclusively to study dialect features, Eckert, similar to Labov, was interested in how high schoolers’ use of the NCS was relevant to their presentation of identity. Eckert conducted her fieldwork over the course of three years of interacting with Michigan high schoolers – observing social interactions and how the students organized themselves. She comments that much of this social structuring is a part of becoming young adults: “As adolescents move away from the family, they seek to replace an ascriptive identity based on place in the family with one based on their characteristics as individuals in relation to a broader society” (Eckert, 1988, p. 187). These young students are thus re-centering their identities beyond simply being their parents’ children. Although she describes a great many social groups and cliques such as athletes, socialities, “preppies,” she believes that these largely coalesce into two major factions, which the students have labeled “Jocks” and “Burnouts.” In a similar fashion to the islanders on Martha’s Vineyard, she describes Jocks as students who have bought into school activities and the promise that high school offers: restricting one’s freedom as a youth in order to have greater opportunities as an adult. Although the term “jock” often denotes athleticism, Eckert uses it to describe any sort of student who has chosen to orient their social and personal life around the school. Thus, student council members, athletes, and science club members would all fall under the Jock mantle. She observes that membership in this group is partly a factor of socio-economic status – students who plan to continue on to college or have aspirations of wealth have an incentive to focus on school – good grades, extracurricular activities, and strong letters of recommendation are all strong stepping stones towards a university and a white-collar future (note that this is precisely an example of earning overt prestige, as discussed earlier). In contrast, students who have chosen not to orient themselves around their high school are labeled as “Burnouts.” Eckert again observes that this choice is largely socio-economic – students who do not 812

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

see themselves going to college in the future do not see the school’s bargain as worth their while. This is not to say that they do not envision careers for themselves, but they see themselves working in factories, machine shops, or as tradespeople. For them, being in school is actually a limitation – instead of honing skills and mingling with their potential employers, they are trapped in a place full of people they do not like, learning skills they will never need to pad college applications they will never send. Crucially, the emptying-out of Detroit following the riots meant that the city’s affluent managerial class fled, but its industry and blue-collar workers did not. Burnouts, wanting to associate with exactly that group, thus have a much stronger incentive to orient their identities around Detroit, rather than the school, or Livonia at all. In his 1959 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman describes three main ways that one asserts and performs a personal identity that are relevant to Eckert’s work – appearance, setting, and manner (Goffman, 1959). These boil down to how one looks, where one goes, and how one acts. Central to Goffman’s thesis is that personal identity requires upkeep – one cannot simply be a Jock by playing one game of football. Instead, being a Jock or Burnout necessitates regular maintenance – and Eckert mentions that there are also “In-betweens” that are not strongly allied to either pole. But for those invested in fully playing the roles, all three elements that Goffman describes are crucial. For Jocks, they must dress well and groom well, looking clean and professional. Varsity jackets for athletes are a prime way of showing school buy-in. They must regularly attend school functions, which can involve playing on teams, being in band or choir, going to dances and games – and again, doing so consistently to maintain social standing and ties. For Burnouts, similar work is required, but for a different audience. Their upkeep is to associate themselves with Detroit – which obviously necessitates frequent visits. Because the city in the 80’s was associated with crime, this also meant that Burnouts needed a harder edge to be taken seriously while in the city (and to not be seen as Jocks). This meant dressing less primly, and could also entail drug and alcohol use (hence, “burning out”). Thinking back to above, Burnouts were thus focused more on covert prestige – working to appear hardened and streetsmart, rather than proper and bookish. With these social considerations in mind, it is evident that Jocks and Burnouts had strong incentive to act differently from one another – like the older fishermen compared to the younger service staff on Martha’s Vineyard, the two groups of high schoolers had differing aspirations, with different audiences that have contrasting expectations to live up to. In addition to how they dressed (appearance) and where they spent their time (setting), how they acted (manner) was vital in setting themselves apart. And, like in Martha’s Vineyard, Eckert found that part of establishing these contrasting identities was accomplished by dialect features, specifically in their usage of the Northern Cities Shift. Due to Livonia’s earlier-mentioned proximity to Detroit, the majority of its residents used some element of the NCS in their speech. However, as described above, the NCS is a chain shift, which can happen in stages. The first steps of the shift involve fronting and raising of /æ/ (for example, pronouncing pan more like /pıæn/), but later stages also include the backing and lowering of /ʌ/ (pronouncing done more like /dɔn/), which is the variable Eckert focused upon. These later links in the chain allow for gauging the strength of a speaker’s accent – someone with raised /æ/ but centralized /ʌ/ would show the NCS, but less intensely than someone who raised /æ/ and also backed /ʌ/. Like in Martha’s Vineyard, Eckert observed that single demographic variables did yield information, but incompletely. Historically, the NCS has been found to be most prominent in young women (Labov, Ash, and Boberg, 2006), and overall more so with women than with men. Eckert did indeed conclude that younger women used the backed /ʌ/ variant more frequently than men. However, she found that

813

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

a better measure was a student’s social affiliation. While both Jocks and Burnouts use the NCS form of /ʌ/, she observed that Burnouts of both genders do so more consistently, with girls at the forefront. Why should this be? The answer can be seen in our discussion of Detroit – for Burnouts, Detroit is their endgame – they are working to build social and professional circles there, and to distance themselves both from their Jock peers and from Livonia itself. Part of how they can construct their identity to signal allegiance with Detroit is to more heavily use the accent associated with it, that of the Northern Cities Shift. Jocks, on the other hand, have the opposite incentive, and show the weakest use of the feature. Eckert’s work illustrates that social identity is conglomeration of many factors, with how one speaks being central. Burnouts put their accent to use as a means of asserting who they are, and to show that being connected to Detroit is a central part of their persona. Just like when we talked of Southern hospitality being internalized with Southern speech, the same effect happens with the high schoolers in Eckert’s work – they are associating core personality traits with minor phonetic variations in how someone speaks.

LIKE, LEXICAL ITEMS LIKE “LIKE” Sociolinguists are interested in more than just pronunciation, however. While accents are a potent means of asserting one’s identity, there are other linguistic elements that can make an equally strong statement, with word choice being especially meaningful. Just as with pronunciation, lexical items can vary in their usage by region (pop vs. soda vs. coke), and by age, sex, socio-economic status, and more. And as you have probably guessed by now, any one of those variables on its own is probably not enough to explain the whole story. One thing that is common for words of English is that they will have multiple meanings and connotations. As we have seen in earlier chapters, words may often function as different parts of speech when modified by morphemes, as with happy – happiness. However, morphology may not always be present to signal the different usages, as with the word well, which can function as many parts of speech: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f)

Noun: She threw coins in the well. Verb: Water welled up from the ground. Adjective: The doctor told him he was well, and no longer contagious. Adverb: We are doing well at this task. Discourse marker: Well, I’m not sure about that. Exclamation: Well? When are we going to know?

In these cases, except for the verb form, there is little morphology to indicate which part of speech is being referred to, and the listener must do so from context. However, most of these usages are part of standard varieties of English, and do not require much nuance to acquire. While the noun and verb forms are fairly infrequent, they are also quite unambiguous, meaning that anyone that needs to learn them should have little difficulty. However, another word that appears similar is like. As an instructor, it is valuable to be aware of some of the many variants of like, since many of them are non-standard, and some of them are stigmatized. At the same time, like is also extremely frequent in all of its forms, and usages such as the quotative form have been observed in many countries where English is spoken, including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom (Tagliamonte & D’Arcy, 2005; Tagliamonte & Hudson, 1999). Some forms 814

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

are more likely to be used by certain age groups, and other forms depend on particular syntactic constructions in order to function. Looking at some of the scholarship related to the study of like can offer insights into possible methods of teaching such a multi-variate word. In its most basic form, like is a transitive verb, describing enjoyment. As a transitive verb it takes a direct object, the thing that the subject likes. Syntactically it thus appears as: NP like(s) NP: The cat likes tuna. Like also has other standard uses, such as functioning as a comparative. This takes on a different syntactic structure: NP VERB(s) like NP: That cloud looks like a dog. Another comparative form has its own construction: Like NP, NP: Like the Empire State Building, this building is very tall. Like can also be used to frame an example of something, which is again done by using a few possible forms: NP like NP: Buildings like the Empire State Building are very tall. Although these versions of like can take some time to master, they are largely standardized throughout most varieties of English, and their usage does not vary by age, gender, or any other sociolinguistic variables. However, there are two further uses of like that have a more complicated history. These are quotative like and discourse marker like. The discourse marker form was famously parodied in Frank Zappa’s 1982 song Valley Girl: Like, oh my god! (Valley girl) Like, totally! (Valley girl) Encino is, like, so bitchin’ (Valley girl) There’s, like, the Galleria (Valley girl) And, like All these, like, really great shoe stores The discourse marker form came to be stigmatized, seen as bad speech being used by air-headed young women in California (“Valley Girls”), although it is used much more widely in the present day. Another form of like that has received considerable study in Sociolinguistics is the quotative form, which is used to describe what someone else has said. It is often referred to as quotative be like, because its usage depends on being paired with the copula: 815

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

NP BE like [Quotation]: He was like “Why are we leaving so early?” Quotative like essentially replaces use of verbs like say or tell, both for direct quotes and paraphrases: She said “It’s time to go.” She was like, “It’s time to go.” She told me it was time to go. She was like, “Time to go.” Sometimes it can be used with all or go: She was all like “It’s time to go.” She goes like “It’s time to go.” Singler (2001) notes that there are other forms that have served the same function, such as goes and be all, although all has fallen out of more recent usage: She was all “It’s time to go.” She goes “It’s time to go.” Several sociolinguistic studies have examined quotative like as a marker of identity, particularly among young people. One such work was by Cukor-Avila (2002), who was examining the African American population of Springville (a pseudonym), a small town in Texas. She observed that the be like form was basically non-existent for adults born before 1970 in the city, but that it was being used more regularly by adolescents, as shown below in Table 1. Based on the interviews with Springville residents speaking African American Vernacular English (AAVE), the table represents the total number of quotative tokens in the data. These were then grouped as either the say/said quotative, be like, go, “Zero” (using nothing to introduce a quote) and “Other.” As can be seen in Table 1, quotative be like forms were almost non-existent for speakers born before the 1970’s, with Bobby as the only Post-WWII user of the form, but at much lower rates than the Post1970 group. Further, the be like tokens appeared to be coming at the expense of say/said, whose rates were decreasing in the younger group to compensate. This trend is even more visible when the data are tracked over time, as shown below in Table 2. Cukor-Avila divided the data into Early, Middle, and Late periods that corresponded to interviews conducted between 1995 and 1999. The change over time is clearly visible here, with usage of be like rising from 7.3% in the Early period to 24.6% in the Late, with an accompanying decline in say/said. Cukor-Avila argued that this change was an example of hierarchical diffusion, with the be like form spreading from major urban centers of Texas and reaching rural Springville as a prestige variant for younger speakers. Cukor-Avila observed that the use of quotative be like was in this case motivated by a combination of several factors – age, ethnicity, and a distinction between urban and rural communities. The young African-Americans in Springville were drawn to use the quotative form because, like in Martha’s Vineyard and in Livonia, they wanted to emulate who they saw as the prestigious group, those in major cities. Since young, urban African Americans were using the form, the youth in Springville were particularly motivated to acquire it, which is part of why Cukor-Avila believed its use was increasing so quickly. Older Springville residents would likely see little incentive to speak like citified youth, and would probably also be having minimal contact with them, and so would not be likely to use quotative be like.

816

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

Table 1. Overall distribution of dialogue introducers for Springville AAVE speakers Speaker

Born

Tokens

Say/Said

Be Like

Go

Zero

Other

Post-1970 Brandy

1982

592

68.6%

14.7%

1.4%

6.8%

8.6%

Samantha

1982

231

61.0%

18.6%

0.4%

10.8%

9.1%

LaShonda

1981

156

66.0%

6.4%

1.3%

17.3%

9.0%

Sheila

1979

256

71.5%

10.2%

2.0%

9.0%

7.4%

Rolanda

1978

25

52.0%

12.0%

4.0%

8.0%

24.0%

Lamar

1976

86

62.8%

none

4.7%

23.3%

9.3%

Post-WWII Travis

1965

75

86.7%

none

none

2.7%

10.7%

Vanessa

1961

361

93.4%

none

none

3.6%

2.5%

Bobby

1949

321

75.4%

0.9%

0.6%

20.6%

2.5%

Pre-WWII Lois

1941

42

90.5%

none

none

7.1%

2.4%

Slim

1932

100

91.0%

none

1.0%

4.0%

4.0%

Pre-WWI Mary

1913

256

69.1%

none

none

26.6%

4.3%

Wallace

1913

653

76.6%

none

0.2%

17.5%

5.8%

Audrey

1907

49

83.7%

none

none

8.2%

8.2%

(from Cukor-Avila, 2002, p. 12)

Table 2. Quotatives over time for three Springville African American teenagers Tokens

Say/Said

Be Like

Go

Zero

Other

Early

303

71.9%

7.3%

2.3%

5.9%

12.5%

Middle

434

69.6%

11.5%

0.5%

9.9%

8.5%

Late

342

61.4%

24.6%

1.5%

7.9%

4.7%

(from Cukor-Avila, 2002, p. 14)

MIRPUR PAHARI Entwined with the discussion of language identity is the study of language attitudes and language regard, that is, whether speakers think of how they speak in a positive or negative light. As we have seen in the earlier studies, someone’s opinion of dialect can have a strong effect on who they wish to emulate. Other examples of this can easily be found when looking at studies of migration – Evans (2004), for example, observed that Appalachians who relocated to southeastern Michigan were quickly acquiring the dominant NCS form. Although NCS was different from their own dialect, the Appalachians appeared to build rapport with locals in the area due to racial and professional similarities, and were adopting the local speech as well.

817

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

These studies, however, have primarily considered migrants who were moving from communities that both shared the same L1. Much more directly related to ESL teaching is, what has tended to happen when someone or a community is integrating into a group that does not share the same language. Work such as Fishman (1972) and Veltman (1983) has often described a three-generation pattern for linguistic assimilation in the United States: Generation 1: Native speakers of their heritage language, who arrive to the country and learn English Generation 2: Born in the United States, and very often do not acquire the heritage language Generation 3: Born in the United States, and basically have no connection to the heritage language and/ or culture – assimilated to the United States This is of course oversimplified, but is a useful model to begin with. Possible reasons that the second generation does not acquire the heritage language can include the children having no interest in it, but also their parents not wanting to teach them their native language, fearing it will hold them back from opportunities in the States. Motivations for preserving or rejecting the language and customs of the family’s native country can be many – since language is a crux of personal identity, speakers may wish to maintain their L1 to maintain their sense of who they are, and to preserve relationships. If their native language is a part of their religion, this may be an additional incentive to hold onto it and pass it to their children. And conversely, if the language is stigmatized or outright banned, speakers may be forced to hide their knowledge of it or never speak it in public. One study that considers these concerns is Lothers and Lothers (2012), which examines the Mirpuri population of England – a group of roughly half a million that has relocated from Pakistani-administered Kashmir to Yorkshire, England. The Mirpuri community arose in the UK following the construction of the Mangla dam in the Mirpur district of Kashmir during the 1960s. The completion of the dam in 1966 and subsequent flooding of much of the region created a diaspora, at the same time as England was having a labor shortage in its textile industry. Many Mirpuri relocated, and while they initially would make frequent return visits to their homeland, British immigration laws became more strict during the 1970’s, which prompted the Mirpuri to simply remain in England. This also made it prudent to relocate entire families to the UK, rather than worry about not being able to return. Lothers and Lothers were working with the Mirpuri community in 2003, roughly 30 years after most of the migration, with an interest in seeing how the Mirpuri language (Mirpur Pahari, a branch of Punjabi) was faring, both in its usage, and in its perception by the community. Did they see speaking the language as an essential part of their culture, or was the community perhaps on the three-generation assimilation pattern? The researchers noted that the Mirpuri maintained connections with their homeland in ways that were unusual for immigrant communities – one of which being arranging marriages between UK-born children and Mirpuri who remained in the homeland. This was seen as a way of maintaining conservative Muslim values, and also served as a means of increasing the size of the UK-based group. Plus, it also meant there was steady influx of new arrivals from the homeland to preserve linguistic and cultural norms. Lothers and Lothers point to earlier research by Reynolds (2002) which suggested that other Punjabi communities in the UK were actively working to promote the use of their language. The focus of their research was to better understand the Mirpuri community’s sense of their language and its future. Before discussing their results, let us first consider some of their questions in detail, as an

818

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

example of how sociolinguists design and frame ethnographic research (from Lothers & Lothers, 2012, Appendix D.2). They began with the following demographic questions:

Questions About Pothowari/Mirpuri Name: ___________________________ First language: ________________ Gender: □ Male □ Female Age: _____ Birthplace: ____________ Family: ____________ Marital status: □ Unmarried □ Married Other: _____________ # of children: _______ Education: ____________ Can you read? □ Yes □ No If so, in what language? _____________ Where have you lived? Place(s): __________ __________ __________ __________ Years: __________ __________ __________ __________ Where did your family live in Pakistan? __________________ When did your family come to England? __________________ Have you returned to Pakistan from England? _____________ For how long? _____ Such questions allow for sociolinguists to determine if they have balanced, representative sample from the community – ideally one that includes an even balance of gender, age, and other relevant variables. Such questions can also serve as an early warning that a speaker might not be appropriate for the study. For example, if a respondent commented that their family had not lived in Pakistan, they might not actually be Mirpuri. Because some of the later questions ask about printed materials in Mirpuri Pahari, the researchers needed to ask about literacy skills as well, which can be an issue when conducting fieldwork. After asking for demographic information such as the respondents’ age and sex, they gave questions that provoked longer responses: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Where else do other Mirpuri speakers live? _______________ Do young people gladly speak Mirpuri? □ Yes □ No Do you think kids will grow up to speak Mirpuri? □ Yes □ No Do you want your children to grow up to speak Mirpuri? □ Yes □ No Do you think it is a good thing to use Mirpuri? □ Yes □ No

These questions focused primarily on the speakers’ attitudes toward Mirpuri Pahari, and their opinion of its future. Questions 2-3 ask about the speaker’s perceptions – is the language being used by young people, and if so, do they speak it happily? Questions such as 4 and 5 address the speaker’s own beliefs – do they think the language should be used, and is it something that should be passed on to the next generation? 6. In your family, what language do you use with... a. grandparents ________________ b. parents ________________ c. brothers/sisters ________________ d. children ________________ 819

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

7. What language do your children (or children in your family) speak with each other? _______________________________________________________ a. If not Mirpuri, can your children understand Mirpuri? □ Yes □ No 8. Outside your family, what language do you use with...? a. neighbors _____________ b. shopkeepers _____________ c. people at the mosque _____________ d. friends _____________ e. other _____________ These questions address a few different points, one of which is an attempt to gauge the speaker’s social network, or group that the speaker interacts with day-to-day. A high network score for a speaker would indicate that they had many connections within the local community, including friends, family, and co-workers. If speakers with a high network score were reporting that they regularly used Mirpur Pahari, this would suggest that the language was circulating widely. Conversely, if a speaker were fluent, but isolated, this would mean that their knowledge of Mirpur Pahari was not greatly affecting the larger community (for more on social networks, see Milroy (1980)). Questions 6 and 8 focus on this especially, seeking to know who the speaker interacts with in Mirpur Pahari on a regular basis. This is crucial toward assessing the vitality of the language – if speakers are fluent but never using the language (for example, only speaking English), their fluency is going to fade, and the language will not be an active part of the culture. On the other hand, if it is broadly used in several contexts, the language is likely to continue being spoken. Question 8 looks to see if Mirpur Pahari is being compartmentalized – sometimes multilingual communities will assign languages to specific contexts, such as the workplace or the home. Sanchez (2005) observed this behavior in Aruba, where Spanish, Dutch, and Papiamentu (a local Creole dialect) are spoken. There, Spanish is used in the workplace, Dutch is used in schools, and Papiamentu appears in the home and daily life. Questions 6 and 7 also assess the longevity of the language within the community – if speakers reported that they only used Mirpuri Pahari with their grandparents and elders, this would suggest that the threegeneration pattern described above might be occurring, where the language was not being passed on. With regard to the questions that Lothers and Lothers classified as Language Vitality, the Mirpuri responses are shown in Table 3. This suggests that those surveyed were generally optimistic about the future of the language, with the majority of respondents believing that younger people were learning Murpuri Pahari and were generally pleased to use it. As far as the questions about attitudes, the responses toward the language were overwhelmingly positive, as shown in Table 4. Table 3. Responses to language vitality questions Question

Yes

Some

No

NR

Total

2. Do young people gladly speak Mirpuri?

21 (68%)

3 (10%)

7 (22%)

2

33

3. Will children grow up to speak Mirpuri?

22(71%)

1 (3%)

8 (26%)

2

33

(Lothers and Lothers, 2012, p. 6)

820

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

Table 4. Responses to attitudes questions Question

Yes

No

NR

Total

4. Do you want your children to speak Mirpuri?

28 (90%)

3 (10%)

2

33

5. Is it a good thing to speak Mirpuri?

29 (91%)

3 (9%)

1

33

(Lothers & Lothers, 2012, p. 7)

The vast majority of respondents expressed positive attitudes towards using the language, both for themselves and for their children. Later questions asking whether they would be interested in seeing print and other forms of media in Mirpur Pahari were also treated positively. Table 5. Language use in the community Used MP

Used MP

6a. w/ grandparents

32 (97%)

8a. w/ neighbors

16 (49%)

6b. w/ parents

30 (91%)

8b. w/ shopkeepers

18 (55%)

6c. w/ siblings

23 (70%)

8c. In mosque

18 (55%)

6d. w/ children

18 (55%)

8d. w/ friends

13 (40%)

7a. among children

8 (24%)

(Lothers and Lothers, 2012, pp. 8-9)

Table 5 shows the results of questions 6-8 that examined social network. In Table 5, it is visible that usage is skewed toward older generations, but that children are still being regularly engaged in the language by adults. In Question 8, the language does not appear to be isolated to a specific context, used roughly half the time in most contexts (receiving competition from English, Urdu, and other varieties of Punjabi). Lothers and Lothers (2012) overall found that the Mirpuri were generally enthusiastic about using Mirpur Pahari, although they do comment that the enthusiasm is to some degree stronger than the reality. Nonetheless, they show evidence that a simple three-generation trajectory toward assimilation into a culture is not inevitable. However, they note that the Mirpuri have taken unusual measures that promote the sustainability of their enclave, such as having frequent contact with their homeland, and by employing arranged marriages to maintain a regular population of new arrivals who bring fresh connection to Mirpur, and of course, to Mirpur Pahari.

IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS A central theme of this chapter is that speakers of a language will seek to emulate the speech of those they admire, and to distance themselves from people they do not want to be like. Or, as with the Native population of Martha’s Vineyard, they may feel barred from participating in the community and not believe they are able to emulate another group. These considerations apply both for a speaker’s L1 and for any other languages they speak. As a learner constructs their linguistic competency in an L2, they are also constructing a personal identity that employs the L2. This may overlap significantly with their

821

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

personality when speaking their L1, but it may not be identical. Yun (2009) observed that bilingual Korean children who spoke English would apply English for particular situations, like swearing or insulting other children. Abugharsa (2014) had similar findings with bilingual Arabic-speaking children in the United States, where they were more likely to use Arabic in more Arab contexts. Switching between languages in such a fashion (and sometimes even mid-sentence) is referred to as code-switching. English language learners (ELLs) may have a strong tendency to code-switch – it can be easier if a learner does not know a particular word, but it can also be a way to maintain identity. One point for a language teacher to be aware of is that most elements of dialectal pronunciation will be opaque to second language learners. They will almost certainly not recognize subtle changes in phonemes and allophones, which is part of why this chapter did not dwell on them. As an example, many dialects of the United States can be differentiated by their pronunciation of the /ɔ/ and /ɑ/ vowels. Regions such as the Northern Cities and the South tend to produce them distinctly, while much of the rest of the country will say them as a single sound (usually /ɑ/), in what is called the caught/cot merger. Again, ELL students will probably not perceive such a minor difference, but it can help their teachers to be knowledgeable of the area’s regional pronunciations and local slang. Many dialect features are salient to native speakers and learners alike – for example, the tendency in the South to monophthongize /aɪ/ before voiced consonants and word-finally, making a word like “guide” be pronounced closer to [ɡɑd]. English language learners will be very likely traveling or engaging with media that uses multiple dialects, and teachers can use their knowledge of language to answer these students’ questions and help them perceive differences. It is crucial as an instructor to be aware that as a student is acquiring the elements of language discussed earlier in this book such as vocabulary and grammatical constructions, they are also acquiring a re-evaluation of personal, cultural, and possibly familial identity. ESL materials often describe a learner’s motivation in two ways: • •

Instrumental: a learner is motivated by a specific, functional goal such as getting a job, passing a test, or entering college Integrative: a learner is motivated by wanting to operate within a culture, with an emphasis on daily life – carrying on conversation, doing business, or running a home.

However, learning a language is about more than simply carrying out tasks. If the learner is an immigrant, when they leave the classroom, they are weighing considerations such as those addressed by the Mirpuri, and deciding how much of an influence they want both English and their native language to continue to have on their own life, and the lives of their children. If they willingly chose to emigrate, they may be eager to allow new elements of speech and culture into their lives. But if they are a refugee, they may perhaps see this decision as forced upon them by their circumstances. They may feel frustrated to be struggling with a new language that their children are acquiring easily, or they may have had a professional identity in their home country that they lack the proficiency to maintain in English. As teachers of linguistically and culturally diverse learners, our job is to help our students add to themselves without taking away. We should apply our knowledge of language and linguistics to help them acquire a new language, while always remembering the full weight and multiplicity of what they are truly learning.

822

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Can you think of other types of language or behaviors that are age-graded? Discuss ways that someone might talk or things they might do that are connected to a particular stage of life. 2. What are some ways that people around you signal their regional identity? How does someone make it obvious that they are a local? 3. In your own academic environment, are there social groups similar to the Jocks and Burnouts described by Eckert? How do people around you signal their social allegiance to a particular group? 4. Who are some celebrities that have built their on-camera personalities around overt prestige? How do they signal this? What about celebrities that have built their reputation upon covert prestige? Can you think of anyone that has changed strategies? Was the change successful? 5. What are some genres of music that depend strongly on use of a particular dialect or regional style? Why is that dialect so crucial to the genre? What tropes or stereotypes is it evoking?

EXERCISES 1. A frequent find on social media are “You Know You’re From …” lists, that will detail all the ways you know that you are from the North, the South, or a particular province or city. Often they will include a mix of local things – landmarks you have visited, meals you have had, oddly-pronounced cities that you know how to say correctly. What would such a list look like for where you are now? Try and identify ten things that are unique to the area (they do not have to all be linguistic). 2. Use the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) to perform some searches. 3. If you use the Chart function when searching for a word, the corpus will display for you which contexts (Spoken, Newspaper, Academic, etc.) it appears in most frequently, and how often it has been used over time. This can show you several things: how commonly-used the word is, if there are certain environments it appears in more frequently, and how its usage is faring over time. For this exercise, search for five words that are synonyms of good (awesome, amazing, etc.). For each one, answer the following questions: a. How many occurrences (tokens) of it appear in the corpus? b. In which context is it used the most? c. Is its usage over time rising, falling, or steady?

d. Were you surprised by any of your results? e. Did you have cases where your word had another possible meaning? 4. Consider the country that you are in – where are the major regions that you could identify based on their regional accent? For each, describe some characteristics of how the people in that region speak.

823

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

5. Lexical items vary greatly with dialects of English, and especially between countries. Can you match these British and American terms?

6. Think about where you live right now and consider the following questions: a. Can you tell someone is from here based on how they speak? b. How would you describe the way that people here speak? c. How would you describe the way that people here act? Consider your own answers to these questions, and then ask them to three local people who are from the area. How much agreement is there?

REFERENCES Abugharsa, A. (2014). Arabic-English code-switching in young Libyan children in the US (Doctoral dissertation). Oklahoma State University. Bailey, R. W. (1991). Images of English. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. Coulmas, F. (2013). Sociolinguistics: The study of speakers’ choices. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139794732 Cukor-Avila, P. (2002). She say, she go, she be like: Verbs of quotation over time in African American Vernacular English. American Speech, 77(2), 3–31. doi:10.1215/00031283-77-1-3

824

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

Eckert, P. (1988). Social structure and the spread of linguistic change. Language in Society, 17(2), 183–207. doi:10.1017/S0047404500012756 Eckert, P. (1989). The whole woman: Sex and gender differences in variation. Language Variation and Change, 1(3), 245–267. doi:10.1017/S095439450000017X Evans, B. (2004). The role of social network in the acquisition of local dialect norms by Appalachian migrants in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Language Variation and Change, 16(2), 153–167. doi:10.1017/ S0954394504162042 Fishman, J. (1972). The Sociology of language. Rowley, MA: Newbury. Gerald of Wales. (1984). The journey through Wales and the description of Wales (L. Thorpe, Trans.). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books. (Original publication 1193) Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York, NY: Anchor Books. Gordon, M. J. (2001). Small-town values, big-city vowels: A study of the Northern Cities Shift in Michigan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Labov, W. (1963). The social motivation of a sound change. Word, 19(3), 273–209. doi:10.1080/0043 7956.1963.11659799 Labov, W., Ash, S., & Boberg, C. (2006). The atlas of North American English: Phonetics, phonology, and sound change. Berlin: Mouton/de Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110167467 Lakoff, R. T. (1975). Language and woman’s place. New York: Harper & Row. Lothers, M. & Lothers, L. (2012). Mirpuri immigrants in England: A sociolinguistic survey. SIL Electronic Survey Report, 2012 (12), 1-33 Milroy, L. (1980). Language and social networks. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Reynolds, M. (2002). Punjabi/Urdu in Sheffield: Language maintenance and loss and development of a mixed code. In P. Gubbins & M. Holt (Eds.), Beyond boundaries: Language and identity in contemporary Europe (pp. 145–162). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters Ltd. doi:10.21832/9781853595578-012 Sanchez, T. (2005). Constraints on structural borrowing in a multilingual contact situation (Doctoral dissertation). University of Pennsylvania. Sibata, T. (1969). Methods in linguistic geography. Tokyo: Chikumashobo. Singler, J. V. (2001). Why you can’t do a VARBRUL study of quotatives and what such a study can show us. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, 7, 257–78. Tagliamonte, S. (2012). Variationist sociolinguistics: Change, observation, interpretation. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Tagliamonte, S., & D’Arcy, A. (2005). When people say, “I was like...”: The quotative system in Canadian youth. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, 10(2), 257-272.

825

 Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

Tagliamonte, S., & Hudson, R. (1999). Be like et al. beyond America: The quotative system in British and Canadian youth. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 3(2), 147–172. doi:10.1111/1467-9481.00070 United States Census. (1980). General Population Characteristics: Michigan. Retrieved from https:// www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1980/1980censusofpopu80124uns_bw.pdf United States Census. (2010). Profile of general population and housing characteristics: 2010. Retrieved from https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml Veltman, C. (1983). Language shift in the United States. Berlin: Mouton. doi:10.1515/9783110824001 Wolfram, W. (2004). The grammar of urban African American vernacular English. In B. Kormann & E. Schneider (Eds.), Handbook of Varieties of English (pp. 111–132). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Yun, S. (2009). The socializing role of codes and code-switching among Korean children in the U.S. (Doctoral dissertation). Oklahoma State University. Zappa, F. (1982). Valley Girl [Recorded by Frank Zappa]. On Ship Arriving too Late to Save a Drowning Witch. California: Barking Pumpkin Records.

This research was previously published in Applied Linguistics for Teachers of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners; pages 403-424, copyright year 2019 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

826

827

Chapter 39 Translanguaging and Digital Technologies in the Realm of Language Learning Anastasia Olga Tzirides https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8641-206X University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

ABSTRACT In the globalized world that we live in, people communicate by using not only their primary language, but all the languages they know complemented by the use of multimodal elements, like images, videos, emoticons, memes, and more. This idea of using the whole linguistic and semiotic repertoire for communication is called translanguaging. This chapter focuses on the notion of translanguaging and explores its implementation in relation to digital tools. It offers an evolution of the definition of translanguaging, and it continues by analyzing it as a theoretical and pedagogical approach. It also explores, based on the literature, the way that translanguaging can be practically implemented in educational practice and in combination with digital technologies. This chapter provides cases and examples of digital translanguaging, and it concludes by determining the gaps in the literature and the potential future steps in this area. This chapter published as an Open Access Chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and production in any medium, provided the author of the original work and original publication source are properly credited.

INTRODUCTION The focus of this chapter lies in the intersection of translanguaging, as an emerging theory of communication and language learning, and the potential that new digital technologies present in the field of second/foreign language learning. The goal of this chapter to review the literature regarding these topics and to determine potential research gaps in the area. Thus, this overview outlines the characteristics of translanguaging as an emerging pedagogical theory for language learning and analyzes cases where it is used in combination with digital technologies. The objective is to distinguish the qualities of the digital tools with regard to their possibility for implementation as part of the translanguaging approach in order DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch039

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Translanguaging and Digital Technologies in the Realm of Language Learning

for the contemporary digital student to achieve successful learning outcomes. The question that guides this review is the following: What role do digital tools play in the implementation of translanguaging theory and practice in second/foreign language learning educational settings (informal and formal)?

DEFINING TRANSLANGUAGING The concept of language can be defined as a set of features and structures that form a regulated entity, such as English, French, Greek, etc., which is connected to specific nations and their identity (Makoni and Pennycook, 2007; García and Wei, 2018). According to García & Wei (2014, 2018), this definition of language is a social construction that serves nations and governments worldwide. It is considered mostly a European creation (Makoni and Pennycook, 2007) and it intends to promote monolingualism in the context of Foucault’s (1972) notion of governmentality by establishing orders and values in languages. Through this lens of defining language, Haugen (1956) and later Weinreich (1974) suggested the term bilingual for a person and the phenomenon of bilingualism for the situation when someone knows and uses two languages alternately. Subsequently, Lambert (1974) identified two types of bilingualism, subtractive and additive. The former refers to the phenomenon when a person uses a second language and they start substituting their first language, producing a monolingual being who uses only the second language (Lambert, 1974). The latter type, that of additive bilingualism, concerns the learning and use of a second language that is added to the person’s linguistic repertoire without any influence on the first language (Lambert, 1974). In the 21st century and the globalized world that we live in, the way that people communicate cannot be related to the way bilingualism was described above (García, 2009; García and Wei, 2018). In contemporary society, people relocate more easily and more often, comparing to previous centuries, information travels from one point of the earth to the other within seconds through the use of technologies, and services have been automatized and accelerated (García, 2009). In this context, people can no longer stay as passive recipients and the circumstances require them to be active participants, designers, and meaning-makers of the social world (Kalantzis and Cope, 2012; Cope and Kalantzis, 2013). The way of communicating has changed. It includes multimodal features, linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, and spatial, that are interconnected to each other and integrated into everyday media and practices (Cope and Kalantzis, 2013). Cook (2001) and Cummins (2005) recognize through recent research that people make use of their whole linguistic repertoire to understand the world around them. Therefore, language cannot be conceptualized only as the semiotic way of communicating in a country, as defined earlier (García and Wei, 2018). Language should refer to the ability of people to communicate with each other in any possible way, by using any available element of their own communicative repertoire, which, according to Cope & Kalantzis (2013) and García & Wei (2018), can include linguistic (words, sounds, structure, etc.) and multimodal (audio, images, videos, gestures, etc.) elements and their combination. People in the modern world are responsible for selecting the right elements from their broad language system in order to achieve successful and meaningful communication (García and Wei, 2018) and this should be taken into consideration during the conceptualization and structure of language learning and instruction. Through this lens, bilingualism goes beyond Lambert’s types of additive and subtractive and it becomes dynamic (García, 2009; García and Wei, 2014). As García (2009) argues, dynamic bilingualism concerns the holistic linguistic and multimodal system that a person possesses, which includes a collection of distinguishable features that are constantly activated for potential use and these features are not 828

 Translanguaging and Digital Technologies in the Realm of Language Learning

distinguished corresponding to separate named languages, such as English or Spanish (García, 2009; García and Wei, 2014, 2018). Dynamic bilingualism connects closely with the idea of translanguaging (García, 2009; García and Wei, 2018). Translanguaging, as established by Ofelia García (García, 2009, 2018; García and Wei, 2014, 2018), refers to the construction of a unique integrated system that comprises formal linguistic features, such as words, linguistic structures, etc., as well as multimodal elements, like gestures, images, sounds and more, which are all used appropriately and according to the person’s decision of what is suitable for every situation in order to achieve a successful communication. The emphasis of translanguaging is not on the features, but on the person, who is the agent and meaning-maker that selects the features to be used by his/hers dynamic repertoire to communicate and make sense of the world (García, 2009, 2018; García and Wei, 2014, 2018). Similarly, Canagarajah (2012) has come up with the term translingual practices to describe the dynamic language and semiotic relationships of one’s repertoire that interact with each other and form new practices, meanings, and grammars. This notion is very close to translanguaging (García and Wei, 2014), although Canagarajah (2012) didn’t use the same term, because he claimed that translanguaging was a cognitive definition in the beginning and didn’t include multimodal ways of communication, but García & Wei (2014) counter-argue about that by providing the definition mentioned above. Jørgensen (2008) has used the term polylingualism, while Pennycook & Otsuji (2015) the word metrolingualism to address the same idea of using languages as adaptable resources within social, cultural, political, and historical contexts (Vogel and García, 2017). All these terms are related to translanguaging, but the difference appears in the fact that translanguaging has also an underlying moral and political act objective, to achieve a transformation of social action through the construction of meanings in alternative ways (García and Wei, 2014). Moreover, other scholars like MacSwan (2014) stand for the definition of language as standardized language, and thus, they support the idea of code-switching (alternate use of named languages in speech) instead of translanguaging and they promote the idea that each language has a distinct grammar. On the other hand, Otheguy, García, & Reid (2015) suggest that there are only one common grammar and one language that is unique for each person and they are responsible for selecting the appropriate features to be used based on the social information of the context and not by grammar. Finally, there is another set of scholars who argue against the utility of the term translanguaging, since with the decline of the idea of standardized languages, the terms of bilingualism are not necessary and only the term ‘languaging’ should be accepted (Makoni and Pennycook, 2007). Nevertheless, García & Wei (2014) suggest that the term should stay as it is, because translanguaging should be recognized alongside that of societal bilingualism, where bilingual and multilingual people possess complex linguistic repertoires and they are asked to make decisions on feature selections in order to interact in schools and in society, in general. Also, as Mignolo (2000, p.229) claimed, people “cannot avoid ‘being born’ in one or more language(s)”. Thus, translanguaging is an orientation to communication that recognizes the way bi/multilingual people communicate in a world of named languages. It does not require however that the term bilingualism is abandoned. (Vogel and García, 2017).

829

 Translanguaging and Digital Technologies in the Realm of Language Learning

TRANSLANGUAGING PEDAGOGY In the contemporary multilingual world that we live in, translanguaging is omnipresent and it is considered necessary in order to communicate and make sense of everything around us (García, 2009), thus, it is necessary to explore its presence in education. A pedagogy through the lens of translanguaging recognizes the students as they naturally are and it doesn’t try to conform them with linguistic rules based on the formal named language of the school (García and Wei, 2018). On the contrary, it promotes and makes use of the dynamic and multimodal linguistic and semiotic repertoire of the students from the first day of school (García and Wei, 2018). It respects both the formal language, as the medium of instruction, and the linguistic and semiotic repertoire of learners as a way of making meaning and being engaged in learning (García and Wei, 2018). This idea of respecting and incorporating students’ previous experience in learning and instruction relates with Emdin’s (2016) notion of reality pedagogy. Emdin (2016) sets as a goal for this kind of pedagogy to intersect teaching with each students’ cultural and emotional background. Specifically, regarding language use, Emdin (2016) suggests that educators should implement activities and create situations in the classroom where code-switching occurs, and students can see and use their own proper language for school content and in the school’s context. Following the same view, García, Johnson, & Seltzer (2017) contend that translanguaging pedagogy consists of three main elements: stance, design, and shift. Stance refers to the necessity for teachers to understand and accept learners with their whole repertoire in the process of making meanings (García, Johnson, and Seltzer, 2017). Design concerns the consideration of translanguaging when designing lessons and assessments and, finally, shift relates to the change of linguistic practices taking into account the way learners are making meaning (García, Johnson and Seltzer, 2017). Moreover, García & Wei (2018) suggest that translanguaging pedagogy can be used in education in two ways, as a scaffold, and in a transformative manner. As a scaffold, translanguaging pedagogy relates to the Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1978) and is used to help students understand the language used at school and in academic texts and add new linguistic features to their repertoire by making them purposeful (García, 2009; García and Wei, 2018). An example of translanguaging as a scaffold would be to use a language the student understands or visuals and gestures in order to help them in understanding what is being taught in the class (García, 2009; García and Wei, 2018). Digital translation and technological tools are usually helpful in implementing translanguaging pedagogy this way (García and Wei, 2018). Furthermore, through a transformative manner, translanguaging can promote a change in the relation of two or more languages, cultures, and histories by placing multilingual and multicultural students in the center of education, and not as an addition to the formal curriculum and the formal school language (García and Wei, 2018). The latter idea of transformative translanguaging comes in accordance with Nieto (1994) idea of multicultural education. Nieto (1994) conceptualized multicultural education as a space where diversity is respected and used as the foundation of school activities. In such a setting, students are not distinguished by their specific language and culture, but differences are appraised and promoted in everyday life activities (Nieto, 1994). Similarly, Delpit (2006) suggests that language and culture differences in schools should be acknowledged and appreciated. She argued that these attributes are part of students’ self-identities and notions of family and community and therefore, educators should not ignore them (Delpit, 2006). She claimed that instructors should support learners in adding new features, that of the official school language, to

830

 Translanguaging and Digital Technologies in the Realm of Language Learning

their own linguistic repertoire, while respecting the linguistic and cultural characteristics of different people and communities (Delpit, 2006). García (2009) and García & Wei (2014) mention that in schools translanguaging is already being used by students to understand and co-create meanings and to promote inclusion of all students, having as ultimate consequence learning and bi/multilingual acquisition. In fact, García (2009) states that language learning is often achieved through meaningful peer interaction and translanguaging, without the intervention of a teacher or the focus on language structures and official forms. Through a pedagogy, that carries the characteristics of translanguaging, reality and multicultural pedagogy as described before, students are embraced by teachers and schools for what they really are, and they augment their self-confidence, which encourages them to act and design meanings that lead to their learning and their overall development as citizens of the world in the 21st century (Nieto, 1994; Delpit, 2006; García, 2009; Emdin, 2016; García and Wei, 2018).

TRANSLANGUAGING IN EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE For language learning through the translanguaging approach, neither is it intended to obtain proficiency through simple communication and interaction using the targeted language, which is comprised by the communicative language teaching approach, nor by learning the linguistic structures, also known as the grammar-translation method (García and Wei, 2014). Translanguaging focuses on the creation of new language practices that are integrated into the linguistic repertoire of the learner through complex communication between bi/multilingual students (García and Wei, 2014). In classrooms, “natural translanguaging” (Williams, 2012) or “pupil-directed translanguaging” (Lewis, Jones and Baker, 2012) is very common when learners are working in groups and use linguistic and multimodal resources, that are not the same as the formal school named language, in order to understand the content and complete the tasks. The interaction that is utilized in the translanguaging approach corresponds with Vygotsky’s ideas (1978) of social interaction with the context to achieve knowledge acquisition and meaning making (García and Wei, 2014). Translanguaging assists in the extension of the Zone of Proximal Development (Lantolf, 2000) which involves tasks and concepts that learners cannot achieve by themselves, but they have the potential to acquire through the appropriate social interaction with peers (Slavin, 2003; Brown, 2014), which in this case is translanguaging (García and Wei, 2014). Finally, applying translanguaging among students and using their home languages, as Swain & Lapkin (2000) state, benefits task completion and understanding, it assists to focus on vocabulary and grammar, and it ameliorates social communication among students. On the other hand, translanguaging can also be deployed by teachers to achieve improved instruction and student learning in bilingual settings (García and Wei, 2014). Williams (2012) names this “official translanguaging”, while Lewis, Jones, & Baker (2012) call it “teacher-directed translanguaging” and they all refer to planned instructional practices implemented by teachers that leverage translanguaging to achieve more profound explanations of topics and discussions, as well as the utilization by students of their whole linguistic and semiotic repertoire to express thorough understanding of topics. Official or teacher-directed translanguaging constructs on learner’s language practices having as a goal to cultivate new meanings and language practices, in which are also included the practices of the formal school academic language. Translanguaging, when planned by teachers, is also considered a practice of differentiated instruction, since it allows all students to be involved in the learning process and it ensures that 831

 Translanguaging and Digital Technologies in the Realm of Language Learning

they participate in meaningful and collaborative interactions (García and Wei, 2014). In such a setting, teachers are not the center of the classroom, but they act as facilitators who organize the instruction through project-based or collaborative learning that involves translanguaging. In the figure below, they are presented some translanguaging strategies for content and language learning, suggested by García & Wei (2014), based on the intentions that teachers have when using them: Table 1. Translanguaging strategies for content and language learning (García and Wei, 2014) Instructional goal

Suggested strategies

Differentiation and adaptation

Translation

Background knowledge building

Collaborative dialogue Collaborative grouping Reading multilingual texts Multilingual audio/visual resources Project learning Thematic units Research

Deepen understanding, develop and extend new knowledge, critical thinking

All the above Inner speech Multilingual writing

Cross-linguistic transfer and metalinguistic awareness

Word walls Sentence starters Cognates Comparing multilingual texts Multilingual vocabulary inquiry Multilingual syntax/ Morphology inquiry

Cross-linguistic flexibility

Alternating languages and media Translating Translanguaging in writing Translanguaging in speaking

Identity investment and positionality

Same as all the above

Interrogate linguistic inequality

Same as all the above

This framework requires the teacher to be aware of the knowledge skills and sensibilities that the learner has in relation to the home language in order to engage in strategies that enhance the target language. The teacher needs to shift paradigms and put the learner, their personality, and knowledge in the center in order to achieve more successful learning outcomes. The suggested activities in the above table work as a basic framework for teachers working in the translanguaging pedagogy approach by encouraging the interrogation of issues of comparability and cross-linguistic meaning-making. Finally, it is worth mentioning that the implementation of translanguaging in educational spaces, especially formal settings, does not come without issues (García and Wei, 2014). One of the main challenges in applying translanguaging officially in schools is to accept it as an established approach to learning, with translanguaging products having equal value to outputs of the formal academic language (García and Wei, 2014). Based on this challenge, findings suggest that translanguaging is not compatible with the current standardized assessment and language policy and thus, supporters of these assessment types are skeptical towards translanguaging (García and Wei, 2014). Also, the literature suggests that

832

 Translanguaging and Digital Technologies in the Realm of Language Learning

teachers tend to follow the traditional social norms regarding language teaching and do not utilize or promote translanguaging approaches in formal education (García and Wei, 2014). This occurs despite the possibility of having translingual assessments that can be adaptive to the complete linguistic repertoire of the students, through the potential offered by advanced digital technologies. Thus, students could choose their way of responding that is not restricted to one language (García and Wei, 2014). Moreover, formative assessment offers a possibility to implement translanguaging in assessment during the instructional and learning process and not at the end of it (García and Wei, 2014). Nevertheless, all these options are not considered by those who are accountable in making the decisions about school practices and assessments, and thus, there is still a lot to be done to accept translanguaging in formal education practice (García and Wei, 2014).

DIGITAL TRANSLANGUAGING: CASES AND EXAMPLES Having referred previously to the potential of advanced digital technologies in implementing translanguaging in education by García & Wei (2014), this section intends to outline the ways that technologies are used for translanguaging through suggested practices, as well as based on research implementations in the recent years. Celic & Seltzer (2012) have created a guide for teachers with strategies about using translanguaging in schools. As one of their approaches, they promote the use of the Internet as a multilingual resource (Celic and Seltzer, 2012). Specifically, they argue that the Internet can be utilized to learn content and conduct research using both the first/home language of bilingual students and the language of the school, as well as by finding images, watching videos, and listening to audio in any language regarding topics related to the research activity (Celic and Seltzer, 2012). Moreover, Celic & Seltzer propose that translation tools on the Internet can be used by students to make sense of words, phrases, sentences, sounds between the first and the school language and vice versa (Celic and Seltzer, 2012). In addition, they claim that websites and images on the web can be used for visual support in meaning-making (Celic and Seltzer, 2012). McCaffrey & Taha (2019) reflect on the use of smartphones by recent refugees in the US that use them as translanguaging media for meaning-making and overcoming complex situations in the new land, such as language barriers and cultural differences. The refugees of the past 5 years are people who are digitally literate in most cases. They use smartphones and they are active online as part of their life for practical, social, and psychological reasons (McCaffrey and Taha, 2019). However, despite being digitally literate, in most of the countries that host refugees, there is still a broadly accepted stance towards monolingualism and the definition of language as a structured system connected to identities and nations (McCaffrey and Taha, 2019). These refugees are using translanguaging in everyday situations since frequent relocation has transformed them into experts of the approach (Canagarajah, 2013), as they try to adapt and make sense of the world moving across places and named languages (McCaffrey and Taha, 2019). In this context, smartphones came to add extra elements to their linguistic and semiotic repertoire through the simultaneous and combinatorial use of linguistic, textual, visual, audio, and video media (McCaffrey and Taha, 2019). Thus, smartphones constitute the necessity of formal language instruction easily surmountable, and the communicative manners of refugees able to be revalorized in the host country communities (McCaffrey and Taha, 2019). Some of the most prominent uses and features of smartphones that are exploited by refugees include the GPS function for orienting 833

 Translanguaging and Digital Technologies in the Realm of Language Learning

and driving, machine translation applications, such as Google Translate and Microsoft Translator for curiosity, and on-the-spot translation (McCaffrey and Taha, 2019). However, as McCaffrey & Taha (2019) contend, machine translation comes with some deficits, such as wrong or confusing results that decelerate communication, and in the cases that this occurs interpersonal and translingual communication is being privileged. Finally, they propose that a change in countries and stakeholders’ mentality is needed to accept the translanguaging of refugees, which is often facilitated by smartphones and digital technologies, in order to expand the horizons of integration and alignment between refugees and the citizens of each country (McCaffrey and Taha, 2019). On a similar basis, Kulavuz-Onal & Vásquez (2018) reflect on the use of translanguaging practices in an online Facebook group that was initially created as a means to practice English as a second language (ESL) between Arabic-speaking and Spanish-speaking participants. They found that students and teachers used various types of communication apart from English, such as the Spanish and Arabic language, for organizational purposes, to create a climate of mutual support and to demonstrate intercultural awareness (Kulavuz-Onal and Vásquez, 2018). As a consequence, Kulavuz-Onal & Vásquez (2018) agree with the view of Wilson & Peterson (2002) about online communities, since they all value the use of digital technologies and social media. They state that these are spaces where new forms of communicative, linguistic, and cultural patterns emerge, such that described by the notions of translanguaging (García and Wei, 2014) and translingual practices (Canagarajah, 2012), and they become possible based on the affordances provided by the online social spaces (such as multimodality, communication with multiple people at the same time, augmented meaning negotiation, instant or delayed interaction). Another example of the use of translanguaging in a self-directed online language learning environment is provided by Ho (2018). In her study, she explains how adult students use their complete linguistic and semiotic repertoire, that is formed by their life and mobility experiences, to learn reading and writing of Chinese through the use of Memrise, an online platform that offers online courses with videos of native speakers, flashcards, games and other resources for language learning. The main contribution of this study, as mentioned by the author, is the provision of an example-case that reflects on the need for a mentality change in the field of applied linguistics and language learning in order to recognize and accept multimodality and translanguaging as a way of communicating and learning in complex and diverse contexts (Ho, 2018). Moreover, this case presents that digital technologies provide a space for the creation of new sign-making practices, placing learners as knowledge producers and not just passive knowledge recipients depending on the setting they are in (Wei and Ho, 2018). Additionally, Vogel, Ascenzi-Moreno, & García (2018) analyze the use of machine translation, based on the Google translate service, for classroom writing activities by Chinese speakers who have resettled in the United States. As a result, they argue that the linguistic repertoire of students is being enhanced by technological advances, like machine translation, and the definition of translanguaging is expanded through this integration (Vogel, Ascenzi-Moreno and García, 2018). Thus, the combination of the linguistic and semiotic repertoire of students, which includes the use of technology, should be recognized and supported by teachers in educational spaces (Vogel, Ascenzi-Moreno and García, 2018). Concluding with the cases of translanguaging use in digital and online spaces, Schreiber (2015) studied the digital linguistic and semiotic practices produced on Facebook by a Serbian hip-hop artist and university student with the intention to construct his online identity in communities worldwide. It was found that the artist used various translingual practices, like diverse forms of Serbian and English, integrated with images, videos, and music in his interactions online to achieve communication (Schreiber, 2015). The author concludes by presenting again the necessity to change the view towards translanguaging 834

 Translanguaging and Digital Technologies in the Realm of Language Learning

practices (linguistic, semiotic, and digital) that are prominent outside official classrooms and recognize them as acceptable communicative forms in formal settings, too (Schreiber, 2015). The following table presents a summary of the above-mentioned cases, their characteristics, and outcomes. Table 2. Summary of Digital Translanguaging Examples Digital Translanguaging cases & examples Researchers/Creators (Year) Celic & Seltzer (2012)

Schreiber (2015)

Ho (2018)

Objective Creation of teacher guide about translanguaging strategies in schools

Study the digital linguistic and semiotic practices produced on Facebook by a Serbian hip-hop artist

Explain how adult students use translanguaging to learn reading and writing of Chinese through the use of Memrise

Tool/Device used

Outcome(s)

• Internet as a multilingual resource • Web-based translation tools • Websites and images

(Not a research study)

• Facebook

• Extensive use of various translingual practices by the artist in online interaction for communication achievement • Necessity to change the view towards translanguaging practices that are prominent informally and recognize them as acceptable communicative forms in formal settings, too

• Memrise: online language learning platform

• Need of a mentality change to recognize multimodality and translanguaging as a way of communicating and learning • Digital technologies provide a space for the creation of new sign-making practices

• Internet • Facebook group

• Observed use of translanguaging patterns • Digital technologies and online spaces offer the potential for translanguaging to thrive

Kulavuz-Onal & Vásquez (2018)

Explore the use of translanguaging practices in an ESL online Facebook group

Vogel, Ascenzi-Moreno, & García (2018)

Explore the use of machine translation for classroom writing activities by Chinese speakers who have resettled in the United States

• Google Translate

• Students’ linguistic repertoire enhanced by technological advances • The definition of translanguaging is expanded through this integration

McCaffrey & Taha (2019)

Explore the use of smartphones as translanguaging media for communication by refugees

• Smartphones • Online machine translations applications • GPS

• Translanguaging is facilitated by smartphones and digital technologies. • Need of mentality change to accept translanguaging.

835

 Translanguaging and Digital Technologies in the Realm of Language Learning

CONCLUSION Translanguaging is a recent pedagogical approach and practice that is starting to make its step in the formal education domain. Although it is broadly present in informal communicative and educational settings, its establishment in formal settings is being viewed with some skepticism. In this context, the new digital tools that emerge and are used in learning situations make the application of translanguaging more feasible and efficient. The literature shows that there are possibilities to promote and implement translingual practices in learning by using various available digital tools, such as multimodal media, machine translation, social media, and search engines. Nevertheless, these tools are not currently created for this purpose and they might present some challenges in the implementation. Thus, there is a need for technology designers to incorporate in their applications the ideas of translingual practices. Moreover, in the current cases and examples where translanguaging is applied, researchers and instructors have tried to use it as a practice to showcase its usefulness and effectiveness. These cases were not intending to examine the proper way of utilizing the available digital tools in order to achieve the utmost learning outcomes in contexts where translanguaging is appraised and promoted. Therefore, a literature gap that emerges is the research of the suitable and most beneficial way of exploiting the available digital tools in the context of translingual learning. Similarly, as mentioned before, the new digital tools that are being created need also to shift their view of language use and meaning making and aim to promote the use of the holistic linguistic repertoire of users. As a consequence, there is still a lot to be researched in order to achieve the acceptance of translanguaging as a valid way of learning and communicating. However, the advancement in technologies and the increasing implementation of online tools in everyday life can lead to greater results and the longed-for shift in the view of translanguaging as an acceptable learning practice in educational settings and beyond.

REFERENCES Brown. (2014). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching: A course in Second Language Acquisition (6th ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, Inc. Canagarajah, S. (2012). Translingual Practice: Global Englishes and Cosmopolitan Relations. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203073889 Canagarajah, S. (2013). Negotiating translingual literacy: An enactment. Research in the Teaching of English, 48(1), 40–67. Celic, C., & Seltzer, K. (2012). Translanguaging: A CUNY-NYSIEB Guide for Educators. Available at: www.cuny-nysieb.org Cook, V. (2001). Using the first language in the classroom. Canadian Modern Language Review, 57(3), 402–423. doi:10.3138/cmlr.57.3.402 Cope, B. & Kalantzis, M. (2013). “Multiliteracies”: New literacies, new learning, Framing Languages and Literacies: Socially Situated Views and Perspectives. doi:10.4324/9780203070895

836

 Translanguaging and Digital Technologies in the Realm of Language Learning

Cummins, J. (2005). A proposal for action: Strategies for recognizing heritage language competence as a learning resource within the mainstream classroom. Modern Language Journal, 89(4), 585–592. Delpit, L. (2006). Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. The New Press., doi:10.2307/358724 Emdin, C. (2016). For white folks who teach in the hood— and the rest of y’all too: Reality pedagogy and urban education. Beacon Press. Foucault, M. (1972). Archeology of Knowledge. Pantheon. García, O. (2009). Education, multilingualism and translanguaging in the 21st century. In Multilingual Education for Social Justice: Globalising the local. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan. Available at: https:// ofeliagarciadotorg.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/education-multilingualism-translanguaging-21stcentury.pdf García, O. (2018). Translanguaging in the Crossroads of Civilization. In R. Tsokalidou (Ed.), SìдaYes (pp. 15–19). Gutenberg Press. Available at https://ofeliagarciadotorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/ roula-sidayes.pdf García, O., Johnson, S. I., & Seltzer, K. (2017). The Translanguaging Classroom: Leveraging Student Bilingualism for Learning. Caslon Inc. García, O., & Wei, L. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education. Palgrave Macmillan UK., doi:10.1057/9781137385765 García, O., & Wei, L. (2018). Translanguaging. In C. Chapelle (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics (pp. 1–7). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., doi:10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal1488 Haugen, E. (1956). Bilingualism in the Americas: A Bibliography and Research Guide. University of Alabama Press. Ho, W. Y. J. (2018). Translanguaging in Online Language Learning: Case Studies of Self-Directed Chinese Learning of Multilingual Adults. University College London. Available at: https://discovery. ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10044705/ Jørgensen, J. N. (2008). Polylingual languaging around and among children and adolescents. International Journal of Multilingualism, 5(3), 161–176. doi:10.1080/14790710802387562 Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2012). New Learning. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/ CBO9781139248532 Kulavuz-Onal, D., & Vásquez, C. (2018). “Thanks, shokran, gracias”: Translingual practices in a Facebook group. Language Learning & Technology, 22(1), 240–256. Lambert, W. E. (1974). Culture and Language as Factors in Learning and Education. In Cultural Factors in Learning and Education. Bellingham, WA: 5th Western Washington Symposium on Learning. Available at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED096820

837

 Translanguaging and Digital Technologies in the Realm of Language Learning

Lantolf, J. P. (2000). Introducing Sociocultural Theory. In J. P. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural theory and Second Language Learning. Oxford University Press. Lewis, G., Jones, B., & Baker, C. (2012). Translanguaging: Developing its conceptualisation and contextualisation. Educational Research and Evaluation, 18(7), 655–670. doi:10.1080/13803611.2012.718490 MacSwan, J. (2014). Grammatical theory and bilingual code-switching. MIT Press. Makoni, S., & Pennycook, A. (2007). Disinventing and Reconstituting Languages. Multilingual Matters. McCaffrey, K. T., & Taha, M. C. (2019). Rethinking the Digital Divide: Smartphones as Translanguaging Tools Among Middle Eastern Refugees in New Jersey. Annals of Anthropological Practice, 43(2), 26–38. doi:10.1111/napa.12126 Mignolo, W. (2000). Local histories/global designs: Coloniality, subaltern knowledges, and border thinking. Princeton University Press. Nieto, S. (1994). Affirmation, Solidarity, and Critique: Moving Beyond Tolerance in Multicultural Education. Multicultural Education, (Spring), 1–8. Otheguy, R., García, O., & Reid, W. (2015). Clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied Linguistics Review, 6(3), 281–307. doi:10.1515/ applirev-2015-0014 Pennycook, A., & Otsuji, E. (2015). Metrolingualism: Language in the city. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315724225 Schreiber, B. R. (2015). “I am what I am”: Multilingual Identity and Digital Translanguaging. Language Learning & Technology, 19(3), 69–87. Retrieved November 16, 2019, from http://llt.msu.edu/issues/ october2015/schreiber.pdf%0AOctober Slavin, R. (2003). Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice (7th ed.). Allyn and Bacon. Swain, M., & Lapkin, S. (2000). Task-Based Second Language Learning: The Uses of the First Language. Language Teaching Research, 4(3), 251–274. doi:10.1177/136216880000400304 Vogel, S., Ascenzi-Moreno, L., & García, O. (2018). An Expanded View of Translanguaging: Leveraging the Dynamic Interactions Between a Young Multilingual Writer and Machine Translation Software. In J. Choi & S. Ollerhead (Eds.), Plurilingualism in Teaching and Learning (pp. 89–106). Taylor & Francis Ltd. doi:10.4324/9781315392462-6 Vogel, S., & García, O. (2017). Translanguaging. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education (pp. 1–21). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.181 Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in Society. Harvard University Press. Wei, L., & Ho, W. Y. J. (2018). Language Learning Sans Frontiers : A Translanguaging View. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 38, 33–59. doi:10.1017/S0267190518000053

838

 Translanguaging and Digital Technologies in the Realm of Language Learning

Weinreich, U. (1974). Languages in Contact, Findings and Problems. Mouton. Williams, C. (2012). The National Immersion Scheme Guidance for Teachers on Subject Language Threshold: Accelerating the Process of Reading the Threshold. The Welsh Language Board. Wilson, S. M., & Peterson, L. C. (2002). The anthropology of online communities. Annual Review of Anthropology, 31(1), 449–467. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085436

This research was previously published in Digital Pedagogies and the Transformation of Language Education; pages 137-148, copyright year 2021 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

839

840

Chapter 40

Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia Natalia Dmitrievna Galskova Moscow Region State University, Russia

ABSTRACT The development of linguodidactics as a science, its object, subject, research tasks, and axiological senses are justified by synthesizing the reflexive analytical and empirical components of methodological knowledge in foreign language teaching. As this science accumulates multiple knowledge, it is proved to study both the interaction of phenomena such as language, consciousness, culture, society, and processes of teaching a foreign language, mastering this language as part of educational process, using the language as a means of communication, (self)-knowledge, and (self)-development. Emphasis is placed on both describing linguodidactics research areas through addressing its notion “professional language personality” and interpreting content-specific and innovative features of the contemporary sociocultural model of students’ linguistics education and its essential structural elements, including the value of this education, its purpose, content, and methods, as well as students’ communication activities, their involvement in the system of social relations, and educational outcomes.

INTRODUCTION Undoubtedly, development of linguodidactics, or theory of FLT (foreign language teaching) mostly determines the quality of foreign language learning for university graduates. Nowadays, this science is steadily increasing its research potential in the area of FLT, enhancing its research interests via determination of new scientific approaches, in particular, in the field of the content and language integrated learning in the system of university education. Definitely, the main purpose of linguodidactics is production and systematization of reliable knowledge about FLT and foreign language education. The basic problems of this science can be represented as two research groups. The first one deals with the structure and the history of scientific methodological knowlDOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch040

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

edge, principles, forms and methods; the other one provides a possibility to use the acquired knowledge in the educational context. Thus, the scientific methodological knowledge obtained by linguodidactics at its every development stage is an object and product of the cognitive process. The latter is interpreted as a specific scientific activity targeted at producing, generalizing and systematizing the scientific knowledge within linguodidactics, including its integration into particular concepts, approaches, models, FLT techniques, and into the educational process. Consequently, it leads to the statement that linguodidactics as the theory of FLT is a product of scientific and methodological cognition, with a cluster of scientific concepts about foreign language learning and teaching as linguodidactics’ main research object. It is worth elaborating on these issues in the context of integrated curriculum, attempting to consider the evolutionary and innovative type of the science and the related cognitive process.

LINGUODIDACTICS: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS Linguodidactics as a Result of the Scientific and Methodological Knowledge The process of the scientific and methodological knowledge is characterized by complexity and versatility, which can be explained by the fact that an object of the linguodidactic research (teaching a foreign language and foreign culture, acquisition of a foreign language or culture in the educational context, language education) is diffusive by its nature. It is hard to define this process precisely, it cannot exist beyond human activity. Therefore, the object can be described only on the basis of the synthesis of reflexively analytical and empirical components of methodological knowledge, with general theoretical concepts justified by linguodidactics, being inseparable and providing specific “technological recipes” for the educational practice. Methodological historiography assumes this kind of knowledge to have evolved from the absolutely empirical knowledge (2-nd part of the 19th century) to the knowledge of complex processes aimed at developing foreign language capabilities in humans outside the natural language context (21st century). Historically, evolution concerned the concept of foreign language methodology: from methodological guidelines (lists of language learning techniques, grammar phenomena described in explanatory notes for curricula or in the preface of study books) to particular methodology (30s of the previous century), resulting in the general methodology of FLT and to pedagogical science, or applied pedagogy (60s of the previous century), and consequently (late 20th century), to the methodological science, including linguodidactics as its integral part. It reflects the overall framework of methodology and results from the specific scientific activity aimed at production and systematization of scientific theory and applied knowledge of FLT and language education. The described evolutionary process of methodology is influenced by a number of factors, ranging from the social order to the development level of the methodological science and its history. For more than a century and a half of its history the concept of foreign language methodology has evolved gradually (Mirolyubov, 2002). Similarly, the evolution has touched upon the following issues: • •

Ideas of scientists and educationalists about regularities of foreign language learning and language education; Field of science research: from solving exceptionally organizational and technological problems to methodological grounds of language education, its values and attitudes; 841

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia





• •



Level of scientific and methodological (theoretical) knowledge, and, consequently, cognitive resources of methodological knowledge, including the knowledge of complex processes of developing human abilities for interpersonal and intercultural foreign language communication in the educational environment; Understanding the essence of the “foreign language command” concept: from foreign language knowledge (19th century) to verbal skills (first half of the 20th century), then to verbal skills and skills of international communication (second half of the 20th century), and finally at present – to the ability to communicate at the interpersonal and intercultural levels, readiness (communicative, psychological etc.) for authentic communication in a foreign language and cognition through learning this language; Values of this science: from the language and general educational values (late 19th middle 20th centuries) to practical significance of foreign language learning (second half of the 20th century) and to the tangible culturally integrating value (late 20th century to the present); Target orientation of foreign language learning: from students’ intellectual development via language learning (19th century – early 20th century), better understanding of their native tongue (middle 20th century), from foreign language verbal skills to verbal communication in a foreign language (second half of the 20th century), and eventually, to the development of the poly/bicultural language personality (late 20th century to the present); Content of the “teaching and learning object” concept: from the system of the target language (19th century), i.e. the phenomenon aimed at the relationships between an individual, language and culture, to problems of foreign language learning and foreign culture.

The latter statement needs commenting. The definition of linguodidactics as a teaching and learning object allows us to call foreign language education the “linguocultural education” (Galskova, 2014), as it implies comprehension and perception of different social realities through foreign-language texts, and consequently, it leads to a better understanding of culture, national language, national identity, elimination of illusions, concerning the self - sufficiency of national identity. However, Safonova (2017) argues that it is not related to understanding for the sake of understanding, perception for the sake of perception. Linguocultural education is destined to become the “culture-bearing basis” to develop the learner’s personal traits and characteristics, necessary for effective intercultural interaction in today’s polycultural and plurilingual world. It should be mentioned that the 20th century, especially its 2nd part, is determined by intensive and hard work of methodologists at substantiating the object-subject area of methodology and its scientific status, clarifying terminology of the science, reasoning the methodological experiment, using methods of mathematical statistics to calculate obtained results etc. As early as 1980s, scientists wrote that “the breakthrough in methodology generated offshoots from the general methodology… historical methodology…, experimental methodology…, comparative methodology…, methodology of computer-assisted language learning” (Gez, Lyahovitskiy, Mirolyubov, Folomkina & Shatilov, 1982). These offshoots as the result of the internal methodology differentiation confirm the intensive development of this science. From the 80s of the previous century this process in methodology has fueled the development of linguodidactis (theory of education) and methodology (technology of education), methodology as the theory and methodology as the technology of education and personal development (Gorlova, 2010), methodology and technology of language education (Passov, 2010), etc. 842

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

Thus, we can emphasize that a variety of components in methodology and different principles determining these components should not be confused, because pluralism about truth in modern science has been a rule, rather than an exception. This idea is supported by Fedotova (1992): “Unlike classical epistemology, the truth now can be interpreted as characteristics of a technique for doing some activity with an object, rather than reproduction (a kind of “mould”) of the object in knowledge. Due to the fact that such techniques can be numerous in quantity, this leads to the conclusion about truth pluralism, which excludes truth monopoly”. Nevertheless, when it comes to the technology of FLT, it represents a certain “cluster of techniques in behalf of a teacher and students, which provides achievement of educational goals in terms of language learning and language command” (Shchukin, 2008) or the elaborated system of interaction between a teacher and students for planning, organizing and implementing the educational process of language learning with the inevitable pre-planned outcome. Thus, dichotomy of the methodological science into linguodidactics and methodology is inevitable, as it reflects “multilevelness” of the scientific and methodological knowledge. It exists in the educational discourse as two interrelated and non-exclusive levels, i.e. theoretical and empirical. However, it seems quite complicated to establish boundaries between theoretical and empirical aspects of the science under study, which, in its essence, is a theoretical and applied science, which integrates data of scientific reflection and practical analysis of language and culture teaching. At the theoretical level, the focus is on the knowledge about all essential features of linguodidactic and methodological phenomena. This level is correlated with the ideals and norms of methodological research, its philosophical background, and is linked with the ideal (pre-planned) system theory, model, concept. The other level is associated with the actual linguistic educational field and description of its constituent parts. In terms of the empirical level of the scientific and methodological cognition in linguodidactics, it deals with creating the foundation for primary theoretical understanding of those methodological phenomena, for confirmation or departure of the obtained theoretical regularities by using such research operations as observation, experiment, experiential learning. It is obvious that the scientific and methodological knowledge results from comparing the empirical data obtained at a certain level with the general theoretical statements and abstract constructs, determined at the theoretical level. Firstly, the empirical level enables checking scientific validity of the theoretical results and generalizing the empirical knowledge at a higher level compared to the methodological theory as a whole. Secondly, the empirical level contributes to introducing into the real educational practice target, content and technological aspects of FLT obtained at the theoretical level. Conclusively, the scientific and methodological cognition is distinguished by great complexity; the scientific and methodological knowledge obtained in this process is not only summed up. It is organized into a philosophically organic system which is expressed in particular methodological concepts, approaches, educational models and technologies. Consequently, linguodidactics as the theory of FLT and learning is expected to rely on data of language philosophy, linguistics, psychology, theory of intercultural communication, theory of language command and psycholinguistics in order to validate methodological statements, which make the foundation of the sociocultural language educational model, and reveal actual regularities of building this model aimed at encouraging students to learn foreign languages and cultures. Based on linguodidactic regularities and general didactic concepts, technology or methodology of FLT provides specific organizational and technological solutions, which make an effective contribution 843

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

to learning foreign languages and culture. Therefore, linguodidactics and technology of FLT can be considered as a single whole, but they do not correlate with each other as theory and practice, because either of them represents an independent research area. Let us illustrate the logic of interaction between theory and technology of FLT by the example of developing students’ foreign language communicative competence, based on the theoretical model (Khomyakova, 2011), which is relevant to non-linguistic universities. The given model stipulates that student education should reflect the occupational domain and social context of their future professional activity. Due to this, the main purpose of FLT is to develop the integral professional communicative personality in a future specialist. Nevertheless, according to the given theoretical model, professional education is defined as a sequential process of interaction between the students and the teacher within the framework of the specially organized educational space that simulates professional and social contexts of certain specialist activity. Such a theoretical model requires teaching-in-context technologies of two types: 1) technologies that model learner’s individual intellectual activity; 2) technologies that model learner’s intellectual and social activity as a complex. The former can include solution to a professional task/case study, comment on authentic documents, professional writing, writing a final qualification thesis. The latter group of technologies implies modeling professional communication domains, i.e. business games etc. However, if it is necessary to enhance curriculum integration, it is advisable to turn to content and language integrated learning. However, linguodidactics indicates that similar integration has the potential of an approach (interdisciplinary), a principle of educational content planning (integrated), an educational technology (interdisciplinary). The latter can be classified in accordance with the established educational integration levels and linguodidactic principles of bilingual education (Salekhova, 2008) as it follows: • • •

At the level of interdisciplinary relations – integrated classes with bilingual didactic elements introduced in the language and professional content; At the level of didactic synthesis – building bilingual curricula with the focus on professional content and development of integrated courses; At the general didactic level of integration on the basis of professional training course – developing the content of a course in a foreign language.

Consequently, the FLT can use various options and integration technologies with allowance for the revealed and established in linguodidactics links and relations between integrated elements and educational subjects. In this regard, foreign language as an educational subject has great prospects and opportunities. In conclusion, it should be emphasized that today’s linguodidactics is not only a holistic logical system of scientific concepts, methods and techniques of the scientific and methodological cognition. It is also powerful and reliable experimental foundation for verifying hypotheses. As a whole, this allows the modern methodology to put forward its own theoretical propositions and to implement them in particular tangible technological solutions.

Linguodidactics as a Specific Research Activity In late 20th century methodology evolved not only as a theory, but as a specific form of human activity aimed at production and theoretical systematization of this knowledge. It is known this science refers to liberal arts, which studies a humanitarian aspect of the human life. Ushakov (2008) states that “no matter 844

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

how specific or local the areas of the humanitarian cognition might be, they are inevitably rooted in the ground of the human life. This complicated world makes the foundation of any humanitarian research, even if it is blurred” (Ushakov, 2008). That is why the subject of humanitarian cognition is “humanly significant and considerable material, personality dimensions of objects, their “destiny” (“Philosophy of social and human sciences”, 2008), whereas the object is “the space of human meanings, values, which emerge during culture acquisition” (“Philosophy of social and human sciences”, 2008, p. 129). Therefore, linguodidactics focuses on objective regularities of public development, science development; it takes into account axiological correlations that exist in the society and education, individual interests, needs and abilities. It is commonplace that objects of the research activity in linguomethodology are “actual phenomena and cognition results in language teaching or learning, fixed in the sign system, and expressed in the tangible form (research theses, monographs, curricula etc.)” and a set of “all factors and phenomena, related to language education” (Galskova, 2014). With all types of analysis and generalization of the scientific and methodological knowledge, linguodidactics fulfills three main functions. The first function is to analyze, classify and systematize scientific concepts and categories, correlated with linguocultural education, and to organize the concepts and categories into a system or a theory. The second function is to interpret, to explain and to comprehend particular facts of foreign language education. The third function is to forecast the future of this science and the whole methodological system (short-term and long-term perspectives). Due to its complexity and diversity, linguodidactics has a vast field for its further research. As was stated above, it can cover a range of problems to study: • • • • •

Regularities in evolution of linguodidactics, its ideals, its standards; Methodology of language education, its values, goal setting, language education planning and implementing; Regularities in the process of scientific and methodological cognition; Regularities in building, implementation and quality assessment of the sociocultural model in the area of language learning; Planning, implementation and quality assessment of the methodological system for FLT.

Undoubtedly, most linguodidactic problems are philosophically determined, because only this science could provide a theoretical foundation for FLT. According to Khaleeva (1989), linguodidactic research is related to substantiating “content components of education, teaching, learning in their inextricable link with the nature of language and communication as a social phenomenon that determines the productive essence of verbal texts based on mechanisms of social interaction between individuals” (Khaleeva, 1989, p. 199). Awareness of these problems diversifies methodological research through analyzing: • •

Language as an object of learning/teaching in a variety of educational conditions and mechanisms, nature of language, historical and culturological errors, substantiation of factors that determine language command etc.; Individual abilities to learn foreign languages, personal experience, emotions, feelings, values etc.

845

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

It can be seen that linguodidactics demands a higher level of abstraction, which, in its turn, needs more intense theoretical reasoning of all the factors that influence language teaching and learning in a particular historical period of science and society development. Modern linduodidactics deals with a broad range of knowledge about foreign language learning and teaching in linguistic and non-linguistic universities. For instance, it comes to development of methodological approaches to building the system of continuing education in the field of foreign languages, substantiating the concept of differentiated instruction and assessment in linguistics and the concept “Language for specific purposes”, based on continuous personal development. Apart from these issues, it is worth noting such achievements in linguodidactics as description of linguodidactic features of professional discourse in various social and, in particular, professional domains; solutions to the problems related to professional communicative behavior; development of effective computer-aided technologies for FLT and learning aimed at building foreign language communicative and intercultural communicative competencies etc. Researchers in the field scrutinized the structure of professional competencies for various occupations and their components: 1) foreign language communicative competence, which is a complex integrative and linguodidactic phenomenon; 2) intercultural communicative competence as an aptitude for productive social and professional interaction with people of different languages and cultures; 3) professionally important competencies which allow university graduates of linguistic and non- linguistic universities to be competitive in fulfilling their professional duties. Reportedly, today’s sociocultural context of education and language education, emergence of “mass polycultural communities” (Sledzevskiy, 2003) has modified linguo-ethno-sociocultural communicative space of human interaction (Prokhorov, 2017), has contributed to FLT through rejecting absolutization and exaggeration of knowledge and social requirements for learners’ behavior in favor of a new system of values, which includes the following categories: initiative, creativity, independence, ability to scrutinize, self-realization, self-actualization, readiness for innovative activity, aptitude for technological innovations etc. In addition, a new reality produced new slogans (“Life-long learning”, “Learn a language but not learning it”, “Ability to surf information flows” etc.) and gave new features to language education. All these processes have led to a variety of studies in linguodidactics. In particular, these studies influenced the theory of language personality with its complex structure (abilities, competencies, personality, values and attitudes) complex belonging to a certain culture, i.e. national, regional, religious, social and others” (Shchepilova, 2017). Hence, a change in linguodidactic research principles is noticeable in content and technology aspects of FLT and language education, as well as the shift of the language education strategy to creating conditions for personal development of a learner in four major directions can be clearly seen: firstly, formation of humanistic values, motives, personal attitudes; secondly, self-identification (civil, ethnic, human identity); thirdly, competencies and aptitudes for interpersonal and intercultural communication, cognition, self-knowledge and competence enhancing; fourthly, personality qualities needed at the present time (tolerance, creativity, open-mindedness, sociability, responsibility, mobility, critical thinking etc). The given strategic directions are relevant to solving problems of content and language integrated learning, reasoning specifics of its goals and content. It can definitely be stated that the scientific and methodological research have all the features of the scientific cognition and production of scientific knowledge. The latter is determined by the accumulated amount of scientific data in the area of FLT, by evolution of the scientific methodological knowledge, by a rise in the proving capacity of the knowledge at the expense of more complicated research and experiments in the area of FLT. 846

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

Providing common trends in the style of scientific thinking, any paradigm defines research goals, and eventually affects methodological concepts and technologies of language teaching, which are presented in models of FLT and language education. Having a variety of models in the history of methodology it is possible to outline four types of scientific paradigms: comparative, 2) system-structural, 3) communicatively pragmatic, 4) anthropocentric. Structurally each paradigm has its own methodological approach and model at a certain period of its development (Table 1). Table 1. Correlation of scientific paradigms, approaches and educational models No. 1.

Scientific Paradigm

Main Approaches to Language Teaching

Methodological Model

Comparative

Linguistic

Linguistic

2.

System-structural

Linguistic Conscious

Linguistic / Level-based

3.

Communicatively pragmatic

Communicative Culture-centric

Communicative Intercultural

4.

Anthropocentric

Communicative-activity Culture-centric Axiological

Communicative Intercultural Axiological

As it is known, the modern methodology classifies different typologies of approaches to FLT, which determine a strategy of language teaching and choosing a teaching method that helps implement this strategy (Shchukin, 2008). For instance, in regard to the main teaching object there are the following approaches: linguistic, verbal, verbal-activity; in regard to the way of teaching there are direct, conscious, activity (communicative activity) approaches; in regard to educational goals there are competence and intercultural approaches. The present paper makes an attempt to classify approaches to FLT in the context of axiological priorities of linguodidactics determined within the framework of diverse linguodidactic paradigms. As Table 1 shows, all approaches are divided into linguistic (the first half of the 20th century) and conscious (middle 20th century), communicative (the second half of the 20th century), culture-centric (at the turn of the centuries), and now the dominant approaches are axiological and value-based, apart from communicative and culture-centric ones. Each group of approaches has its specific methods. For instance, the group of linguistic approaches includes translation, direct and indirect ones; the group of conscious approaches covers consciously pragmatic, consciously comparative ones etc. The group of communicative approaches represents communicatively cognitive, communicative, communication-based, cognitively communicative methods etc. All the approaches presented in the table are classified with allowance for axiological priorities of methodology at each stage of its development. In the context of culture-centric approaches the axiological object is a human ability to communicate interculturally, whereas in the axiological approaches the object is an ability and readiness (communicative, psychological etc.) for authentic communication in a foreign language, (self) cognition in a foreign language, awareness and acceptance of values. The model of FLT represents a system of main psychological, educational and methodological regularities of a learning process; it enables outlining the plan of interaction between a teacher and students. Conventionally, the core structural elements of this system are goals, content, methods, educational

847

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

process, its subjects and results. All the listed elements are interrelated, inter-substantiated, they have specific content determined by a “style of scientific (methodological) thinking” (paradigm) and by methodological approaches accepted in the structure of a paradigm. Thereby the comparative and the system-structural methodological paradigms, dominant up to the 70s in the previous century, resulted into linguistic and conscious approaches implemented through a linguistic and a level-based models of FLT. The linguistic model is based on the results of the careful language comparative analysis in order to reveal similarities and differences of language phenomena, with the emphasis on interference and transposition processes, acceptance of behaviorist paradigm of language acquisition, issues of language command and steady development of skills to use typical structures, whereas the level-based model of language learning is built within the framework of the system-structural paradigm, “accurately following the structure of language and its identity, where the system-structural components dominates” (Karaulov, 1987); this model has such properties as complexity and multiplicity. Apart from language knowledge and verbal skills, it includes verbal skills in four language domains. However, although the system-structural paradigm, which dominated in the national methodology up to the 80s in the last century, proclaimed the urgency of practical usage of a foreign language, it failed to solve this problem completely. Only within the communicatively pragmatic paradigm methodologists increasingly turn to “procedural” methodology, which implies language acquisition in its function as a communication tool, actually in the conditions of organic correlation between its linguistic, psychological and social aspects. As it is known, communicatively pragmatic ideas evolved in methodology till late 90s of the last century. These ideas prepared the ground for a new anthropocentric paradigm coming into the methodological professional cognition. This paradigm directed the linguodidactic research into the individual ability and readiness for communication in a foreign language by using its language and sociopsychological aspects. The structure of the anthropocentric paradigm creates intercultural and axiological approaches developed with allowance for a human-based component. The given approaches focus on the logic of learner’s personal development as a product and as a agent of a particular linguo-ethnic culture, as a subject of cognition and as a subject of interpersonal and intercultural communication. The communicative approaches are targeted at developing a foreign language communicative competence, modeled like a communicative competence of a native speaker, whereas the intercultural approaches are targeted at developing the intercultural communicative competence, which is unequal to the competence of a native speaker. It represents an organic synthesis of communicative and intercultural competencies, and it is related to the analysis of the following: • •

Global language view determined by adopting an amount of knowledge about the universe through a language; Conceptual view of the world determined by understanding a different social reality.

The main mechanism of intercultural approaches is the “dialogue of cultures” (Bibler, 1989), which means individual acquisition of culture through a language and language acquisition through culture and adoption of the language as a phenomenon of culture. The dialogue of cultures takes place in the mind of a culture agent. Human perception of a different world and its elements is always reflected in individual interpretations and concepts through individual’s cultural norms, views and perceptions. Nowadays the dialogue of cultures is based on at least three principles: firstly, recognition of equality and significance of different languages and cultures, linguistic and cultural rights of various ethnic groups, members of social subcultures; secondly, understanding historical and cultural roots and sociocultural 848

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

profiles of language communities (native and foreign); thirdly, knowledge of ethics of interpersonal and intercultural communication (Safonova, 2017). When it comes to the axiological approaches, they are prospective and promising linguodidactic areas. The main function of any education (including language education) is to acquaint a learner with general human values, to outline value-meaning vectors, to formulate a need of learning/ studying as a tool of changing the world and self-realization in the social, professional and personal fields, an individually motivated attitude to one’s own education, its level and quality, in particular in the area learning foreign languages and culture. It is worth noting that linguodidactics and related research have a poly-paradigmatic character at the given period. However, the anthropocentric paradigm with its philosophical nature dominates the whole socially humanitarian field, adding new categories to linguodidactics. i.e. “subjectivity”, “language view of the world”, “conceptual view of the world”, “language personality”, “competence” and other categories. Being quite extensive, this paradigm comprises approaches and models, which obviously acquire features of independent paradigms, e.g. learner-centered, intercultural and socially developing approaches have more and more features of scientific paradigms in the modern methodology. In a nutshell, a scientific paradigm, an approach to FLT and a model of FLT are interrelated and inter-substantiated categories of linguodidactics. Acceptance of each scientific paradigm determines historical landmarks of this science, dynamics and peculiarities of various methodological models/ concepts, foreign language approaches, and reflects dynamics of the methodological cognition, such as an ability of a person to practice a foreign language: from language to the linguocultural experience.

Specifics of the Modern Model of Language Education This section of the chapter is devoted to description of the modern sociocultural educational model in the area of foreign languages. It should be taken into account that describing such a model we assume that this model is different by its structure and content parameters from the methodological model in the same way as two interrelated concepts “foreign language teaching” and “foreign language education” are different from each other. Education, being an integral part of language education and one of the optimal ways of its gaining, integrates foreign language learning and foreign language command, and represents “certain social systematized technology” (Serikov, 2008) or “space and time for interaction between a teacher (or teaching device) and learners, aimed at studying learning materials on behalf of a learner, getting a learner acquainted with culture, with all this contributing to personal development” (“Pedagogical dictionary”, 2008). Therefore, methodological (organizational and technological) system is related to such categories as “teaching”, “learning”, “content and organization of education”, “interaction between a teacher and learners”, “educational technique”, “methods and forms” of delivering foreign language knowledge, skills and competencies of professionally oriented communicative, cognitive and research activity in a foreign language to learners. Language education fulfills axiological, culture-integrating, culture-creating and human-identifying functions, which leads to the following: •

Entering the area of linguoeducational values and meanings;

849

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

• • •

Broadening the mind of learners through cognition of a different language system, different values, and contributing to better awareness of one’s “roots”, “sources”, similarities with the different, rather than contradictions to the different; Developing socially significant qualities and personality features in learners, acquiring knowledge, cognitive skills and methods in interpersonal and professional aspects; Finding systemic relations between all social institutes and all subjects of all complicated processes and phenomena, such as foreign language education, FLT and culture, intercultural and interpersonal communication, cognitive, professional activity in a native or a foreign language.

Generally, the axiological focus of language education actualizes values of personality as a whole (personality is considered as a verbal subject, a subject of communicative, cognitive, research and professional activity, a subject of culture and inter(poly) cultural communication, a subject of self- and polycultural cognition, a subject of morality responsible for human interaction). Therefore, the language educational model is clearly targeted not only at high quality language training, but also at changes of their motivation, attitudes and, consequently, their values. The content of language education is a specially selected system that consists of elements of the linguocultural experience. It comprises language knowledge, skills, methods of cognitive and research activity, relevant competencies, personal qualities, personal experience, which in total within the given requirements enable a learner to use a foreign language as a means of intercultural and interpersonal communication, as a means of personal development in the occupational field, and a means of self-cognition. Moreover, gaining this experience is possible only on condition of students’ intensive independent cognitive activity, their intellectual creativity, and through using strategies of independent research and “discoveries”. Therefore, two essential linguodidactic imperatives are expected to be the following:1) focus on personal and emotional perception of a foreign language and culture by learners; 2) learners’ monitoring their individual linguocultural experience, comparison of this experience with knowledge and feelings that learners have. The introduction of language education into the system of social relations has certain features. It can be implemented through professional-oriented (cognitive, creative, research, etc.) activities of the students, which facilitate their independence and ability to act in a real socio-cultural context using a foreign language they learn at university. Thus, a new linguistic model is designed to create conditions for the holistic development of the student personality, to help them understand a multidimensional socio-cultural picture of the world and achieve their own learning outcomes. The cumulative learning outcome is another important element of the socio-cultural model which implies the ability of a university graduate to act in the problematic situations of professional communication using the target language. In these terms, the educational result is associated with the development of a number of social and professional competences, motives and personal values. Moreover, the modern educational process is featured by such characteristics as interactivity and dialogue, authenticity and productivity, awareness and creativity and multimedia and multisensory characteristics. Let us describe them in more detail. Interactivity implies the withdrawal from repetition and frontal forms of work in favor of interaction and teamwork of subjects of the educational process, and dialogue requires a shift from teaching to learning, which encourages educational, communicative, research and creative activities of students. Authenticity bridges the gap between academic communication and social interaction and assists in conceiving the language as a myriad of contextual meanings and values rather than a system of signs. 850

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

Productivity requires, first of all, independent and effective use by the students of the target language to solve social problems and professional tasks relying on their personal and linguistic experience, secondly, the ability to act in the real socio-cultural context and, thirdly, self-realization and self-actualization of the students. Awareness is associated with students’ self-esteem and self-reflection, and creativity with the conditions for the creative activities of students to help them use the studied language and acquire new knowledge. Finally, multimedia feature requires the use of multimedia, e-learning facilities and collaborative electronic networks in the educational process and multi-sensory feature implies taking into account speech, cognitive and non-cognitive personality traits as well as on the emotional qualities of the student’s personality. The combination of the above mentioned characteristics of the educational process determines its quality, i.e. compliance with educational standards set by the state. The implementation of these qualities in educational practice depends on a number of circumstances, including, first of all, the quality of the implemented methodological system, i.e. the degree of interrelation and interconnection of organizational, managerial, teaching and learning activities; interdependence of motives and objectives of a FLT and learning, of educational content and organizational solutions in teaching and learning; and the effectiveness of psychological, pedagogical and operational (technological) techniques in the context of the given socio-cultural model of professional language education. The conclusion can be made that today’s educational process related to foreign language learning should be aimed at the student’s personality, his real needs and motives and it should introduce sociocultural and individual programs of development as well as the notion of multidimensional “cultural identity”. Its quality is largely guaranteed by the ability of a teacher to stimulate the student’s independent activity. At the same time, in accordance with the socio-cultural model, the main roles of the participants in the educational process change in the following way: from the teacher delivering the information and the student receiving it - to the most effective educational process, which requires the interaction of its participants/subjects, the interest of students in learning the language and a high degree of their independent work, self-control and self-esteem. Thus, socio-cultural educational model formed in the context of the latest concepts of linguodidactics related to the content of language education, is featured by the following: • • •

The transition of the goal of learning a foreign language from developing language, speech and communication skills to creating favorable conditions for the development of students’ ability for self-organization and self-education, cognition and communication; The withdrawal from the spontaneous learning activities of students in favor of their language learning directed by the teacher with students’ gaining the experience of independent professional problem solving using a foreign language; The transition from the content unrelated to real life situations to the context of solving actual professional problems.

Traditions and Innovations in Modern Linguodidactics As shown earlier, acquiring methodological knowledge is a complex and controversial process as a result of which new knowledge is not simply accumulated. It is included into a holistic system of linguodidactics terminology, and each element of this system gets its rationale and its place. This process of methodological knowledge accumulation is thoroughly described in several monographs (Gez & Frolova, 2008; 851

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

Mirolyubov, 2002). It should be noted though that all concepts and methods of FLT, which developed in different historical periods, do not deny completely the rational methodical thought. Therefore, modern technologies of FLT have “traces” of previous eras. In the history of methodology there is only one fact that testifies to a radical change in the teaching methods. This change was due to the introduction of communicative language learning to replace the translation method, but the confrontation of the two methods did not last long and ended with a kind of compromise. Thus, any innovation in language education is to some extent based on the traditions, approaches and elements of the previous methodology. For example, speaking about teaching professional subjects in a foreign language, it should be mentioned that at certain historical stages of the national education development, most lectures at universities were given by overseas lecturers, and those who graduated with honors were sent for a two-year internship abroad at public expense (after the death of Nicholas I). Teaching foreign languages for special purposes developed in Russia as an independent methodological field in the 80s of the last century and came into the Russian educational space from abroad. In this respect, we should mention the following facts. Firstly, Russian methodology traditionally distinguishes two autonomous educational fields, with one of them regarding language learning as an academic major, i.e. language learning at language departments and linguistic universities. The other field is related to learning languages for special purposes, which is usually included in the curriculum of non-linguistic universities. Each of these fields has its own specific features. However, they are closely interrelated. In fact, a foreign language is always learnt by students for the purpose of its practical use in their future professional life. Secondly, this field of education has deep historical roots in the national system of education. This is referred to the professionalization of FLT, which has been developing in Russia since the second half of the last century, and teaching special subjects in a non-native language for students, i.e. bilingual education which was introduced in Russia in the 40s of the last century. Thus, the history of education development shows that in Russia the principle of the pragmatic value of the skills acquired by future specialists in the course of a foreign language has always been one of the important principles of goal-setting in the field of professional education. This follows, for example, from the goals set in the middle of the nineteenth century, as quoted by Mirolyubov (2002, p. 26), and which demonstrates the focus on learning a foreign language in terms of professional skills development. It is well known that the slogan “Innovations into life!” became the main slogan of the current stage of production, entrepreneurship, and social development. Innovations today have become the domain even in the areas that are traditionally recognized as resistant to drastic changes. Among these areas is education, which still remains traditional. Due to this fact, methodological concepts in language education develop along an evolutionary path, without denying the rational ideas of the past. At the same time, the educational field is always focused on the development and search for new approaches, methods and ways of FLT. However, the system of language education should respond adequately to the challenges of the 21st century and to the new system of values generated by those challenges. In other words, it should train the specialists who will not only perform well in their professional field but will also take initiatives to update it, act independently, strive for innovative activities, demonstrate willingness for self-realization, self-actualization and changes in the way of thinking. This is due to the fact that modern socio-cultural innovative context of language education gives much importance to such personal qualities of a modern specialist as the following: the ability to think critically and evaluate information; the ability to show the 852

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

initiative and focus on developing new competencies; the ability to search information in various sources, including international ones; the willingness to introduce organizational and social innovation; creativity. To sum up, the system of language education in higher educational institutions is always open to innovative processes, i.e. the integrated activities which inevitably lead to qualitative changes in the goals, conditions, content, means, methods and forms of activities, as well as the changes in the system of management of academic staff and cognitive-communicative activities of students. To be more exact, innovations in language education are characterized by the following notions: • • • • •

Novelty determined by the search and adoption of a fundamentally new solution to the relevant problem of professional language education; Relevance due to social needs in high-quality language training for university graduates; Effectiveness that is revealed in a qualitatively new state of language education and educational technologies used; Optimality, i.e. the achievement of the desired educational result within minimal time and minimal mental and emotional efforts of all subjects of the educational process; Orientation to the future (prospects), forcing to review language education in terms of individual and social needs in relation to language and professional training.

It would seem logical that the innovative ideas and approaches are identified by the degree of their capacity to initiate the emergence and promotion of linguistic didactic innovations both at the organizational and substantive level of the system of higher educational institution and at the conceptual level. So, at the organizational and substantive level the system should attain interdisciplinary and integrative qualities. At the conceptual level, signs of innovation can be found, as suggested by the experts in didactics (Khutorskoy, 2009), at least in two areas: 1) in relation to the personal development of subjects of language education and 2) in relation to the structural elements of the educational system in foreign languages. Now let us dwell on the problem of innovativeness at organizational and substantive level and associate this problem with such qualitative characteristics of language education as an interdisciplinary feature and pragmatism. The former relies on two important principles: the principle of integration and the principle of interdisciplinarity, ensuring close relationship of a foreign language with knowledge and skills in the field of professional disciplines. Experience has shown that a foreign language as an academic subject has a large career guidance resource, and it is characterized by different options for realizing these principles. For example, universities introduce training technologies using professional discourse to form and improve foreign professional and communicative competence. An integrative nature of education at university implies the introduction of a foreign language in teaching special subjects. Under this option, the non-native language is a genuine means of learning and communication, a tool enabling students to improve their general and specific competencies. In this case, the main forms of education are the following: lectures and seminars in a foreign language on professional subjects with the involvement of overseas guest lecturers or Russian teachers of special subjects with the extensive experience abroad; student conferences in a foreign language, internships in the country of the language learnt at university, etc.

853

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

The innovativeness of the integrative approach consists in abandoning the disciplinary approach to language learning in favor of the so-called subject-language integration which can be characterized as follows: • • •

The focus of education on the approximation and mutual enrichment of three areas: special, professional and language; Socially oriented nature of knowledge, skills and abilities acquired by students in this process; Integration into the real context of students’ life.

It should also be noted that integration largely determines the focus of the system of higher education on the innovativeness of the university. It enables universities to: • •

Create favorable conditions for the rapprochement and mutual enrichment of three areas: special, professional and FLT; Teach students to use a foreign language as an interdisciplinary medium, allowing them to improve their language training, to obtain additional information from different areas of a foreign language, to acquire professional and special knowledge.

However, there are problems associated with the status of each academic discipline and the withdrawal from “narrow-subject” orientation on part of the teachers. Another problem is connected with the professional competence of a foreign language teacher who should see the student as an active subject “having his preferences and values and characterized by a peculiar palette of his motivational preferences” (Tareva & Galskova, 2013, p.35). The third feature of language education is pragmatism, or practical orientation, which regards teaching a foreign language for specific purposes as a link between special and language training and professional experience. It aims at developing students’ ability to use the language independently and effectively to solve personal and professional problems. A pragmatic feature of language education puts in the first place the students’ need to obtain knowledge with the help of a foreign language they learn, which makes it important to use interactive learning technologies, informational authentic materials, etc. Their main purpose is to bridge the gap between the cognitive abilities of students and their level of foreign language communicative competence and to develop the complex of interrelated parameters that characterize each of the students as language and socio-psychological personality. The prerequisites for their successful performance in educational practice are as follows: • • •

854

Designing the content of teaching foreign languages based on a thorough analysis of typical situations of everyday and professional communication and the rules of successful communication in these situations; Taking into account different motives and various professional and communicative needs of specialists in a certain field (Polyakova, 2011), their individual cognitive styles, etc; Developing courses that vary in their goals, content and professional and pragmatic focus, including additional educational programs that provide flexible language training depending on the field of specialists training.

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

It should be remembered that any language at university is studied for the purpose of its practical use primarily in the professional field. Therefore, it is difficult to agree with those methodologists who argue that language training at a non-linguistic university has obligatory professional features (Dikova, 2014). Any study of a foreign language has special objectives, takes place in special conditions and is targeted at special groups of students. Therefore, it is impossible to teach a foreign language at a language university without focusing on a specific major and future profession of graduates, that is, without taking into account special goals and innovative models of language learning.

CONCLUSION At present, linguodidactics generates innovative ideas and largely relies on accumulated scientific and practical experience. It should be focused on professional and communicative needs of the students and their social and cultural status. It is well known that, depending on their personality, students perceive the world differently and express their ideas differently speaking about different things. Studies show that university students majoring in linguistics have good imagination, like to discuss various concepts and ideas and moral values, show interest in various language phenomena, actively work on speech structures, pay attention to the cohesion and coherence of their speech and are willing to be involved in creative tasks that require their imagination and predictive abilities. Students majoring in law and economics tend to be more interested to talk about their projects and practical solution of economic and legal problems. Students majoring in engineering are different from the humanities students. On the one hand, they are more willing to work with graphic and symbolic data, study engineering solutions to technical problems, and on the other hand, they are more interested in understanding linguistic phenomena and logic of the language they learn than the humanities students. In addition, the professional communication of specialists in engineering differs in many respects from that of the humanities students. In the study of humanities great attention is paid to national traditions, various schools and concepts, while studies of physics, mathematics and engineering are based on universal principles and laws and do not vary in the universities of different countries. Specialists in nature science, mathematics and engineering use in their professional communication a universal scientific discourse featured by formulas, graphs, tables, etc. All these factors make it important to use innovative technologies that are aimed at developing students’ skills to fill the lacunae in the language using special skills and non-verbal symbols (formulas, graphs, etc). Therefore, it is obvious that students today need innovative technologies for language learning taking into account their interests and preferences. Today, there is an increased interest in learning a foreign language among future chemists, physicists and mathematicians, which can be explained by the intention of the Russian scientists to integrate into world science and improve their international rankings by reporting on the results of their research and developments at Russian and international conferences and publishing the results of their research in the articles written in a foreign language, both in the national and international journals. Thus, it can be concluded that taking into account modern priorities and trends in the development of linguodidactics as a science, integrated teaching of foreign languages and professional disciplines is designed to ensure a qualitative increase in the effectiveness of the educational process, which is expressed in the development of such personal qualities of students as innovative thinking and readiness for the advancements in the professional sphere, independence and initiative position. This approach, firstly, requires modeling innovative and creative educational environment in which students have the 855

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

opportunity to express their initiatives, to satisfy their social, professional and individual needs, to use creative approaches in learning a foreign language related to the substantive content of their professional training, and, secondly, enhances the pragmatic nature and contextuality of teaching foreign languages by involving students in the situations of unforeseen complexity that requires their independent decisionmaking (Tareva & Galskova, 2013) and encouraging students to use a foreign language as a tool for their personal and professional communication.

REFERENCES Bibler, V. S. (1989). Kul’tura. Dialog kul’tur (opyt opredeleniya) [Culture. Dialogue of cultures. Experience of defining]. Problems of Philosophy, 6, 31–42. Dikova, E. S. (2014). Osobennosti mezhkul’turnoj professional’noj kommunikativnoj kompetencii vypusknikov neyazykovogo vuza [Specific aspects of professional communicative competence of nonlinguistic higher education institutions]. In E. G. Tareva (Ed.), Mezhkul’turnoe inoyazychnoe obrazovanie: lingvodidakticheskie strategii i taktiki - Intercultural foreign language education: linguodidactic strategies and tactics, (pp. 70-71). Logo. Fedotova, V. G. (1992). Klassicheskoe i neklassicheskoe v social’nom poznanii [Classical and neoclassical features in social cognition]. Social Sciences and Modern Times, 4, 45-54. Filosofiya social’no-gumanitarnyh nauk. (2008). [Philosophy of social and human sciences]. Academical Project. Galskova, N. D. (2014). Lingvodidaktika [Linguodidactics]. Moscow: IIU MGOU – Informational publishing administration of Moscow Region State University. Gez, N. I., & Frolova G. M. (2008). Istoriya zarubezhnoj metodiki prepodavaniya inostrannyh yazykov [History of foreign methods of teaching foreign languages]. Academy. Gez, N. I., Lyahovitskiy, M. V., Mirolyubov, A. A., Folomkina, S. K., & Shatilov, S. F. (Eds.). (1982). Metodika obucheniya inostrannym yazykam v srednej shkole [Methods of teaching foreign languages in secondary school]. High School. Gorlova, N. A. (2010). Metodika obucheniya inostrannomu yazyku [Tendencies of development of foreign languages teaching methods]. Moscow City Pedagogical University. Karaulov, Y. N. (1987). Russkij yazyk i yazykovaya lichnost’ [The Russian language and language personality]. Science. Khaleeva, I. I. (1989). Osnovy teorii obucheniya ponimaniyu inoyazychnoj rechi: (Podgotovka perevodchikov) [Basics of the theory of teaching foreign speech recognition (teaching interpreters and translators)]. Higher School. Khomyakova, N. P. (2011). Kontekstnaya model’ formirovaniya inoyazychnoj kommunikativnoj kompetencii studentov neyazykovogo vuza (francuzskij yazyk) [Contextual model of shaping foreign language communicative competence of non-linguistic students (the French language)]. Synopsis of thesis for a doctoral degree in Pedagogical Sciences. 856

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

Khutorskoy, A. V. (2009). Pedagogicheskaya innovatika [Pedagogical innovation studies]. Academy. Mirolyubov, A. A. (2002). Istoriya otechestvennoj metodiki [History of Russian methods of teaching foreign languages]. Stupeni, Infra. Passov, E. I. (2010). Metodika kak teoriya i tekhnologiya inoyazychnogo obrazovaniya [Methods of teaching foreign languages as the theory and technique of foreign language education], Book 1. Publishing House of Yelets. Pedagogicheskij slovar. (2008). [Pedagogical dictionary]. Academy. Polyakova, T. Y. (2011). Napravleniya modernizacii sistemy podgotovki po inostrannomu yazyku v inzhenernom obrazovanii [Trends of modernizing the system of teaching a foreign language as a part of education in the engineering field]. Priority trends in teaching foreign languages. Bulletin of Moscow State Linguistic University, 12(618), 9-18. Prokhorov, Y. E. (2017). Diskussionnyj dialog o dialoge kul’ture. In L. G. Vikulova, &E.G. Tareva (Eds.), Dialog kul’tur. Kul’tura dialoga: Chelovek i novye sociogumanitarnye cennosti [Polemic monologue on dialogue of cultures. Dialogue of cultures and culture of a dialogue: Man, and new socio-humanistic values: multi-authored monograph] (pp. 7-16). NEOLIT, Moscow. Safonova, V. V. (2017). Principy kommunikativnogo obrazovaniya v kontekste dialoga kul’tur I civilizacij [Principles of communicative education in the context of dialogue of cultures and civilizations]. In L. G. Vikulova, &E.G. Tareva (Eds.), Dialog kul’tur. Kul’tura dialoga: Chelovek i novye sociogumanitarnye cennosti [Polemic monologue on dialogue of cultures. Dialogue of cultures and culture of a dialogue: Man, and new socio-humanistic values: multi-authored monograph] (pp.99-123). NEOLIT. Salekhova, L. L. (2008). Didakticheskaya model’ bilingval’nogo obucheniya matematike v vysshej pedagogicheskoj shkole [Didactic model of bilingual teaching of mathematics in higher school of pedagogy]. Synopsis of thesis for a doctoral degree in Pedagogical Sciences. Serikov, V. V. (2008). Obuchenie kak vid pedagogicheskoj deyatel’nosti [Teaching as a type of pedagogical work]. Academy. Shchepilova, A. V. (2017). Nekotorye problemy podgotovki specialista po mezhkul’turnoj kommunikacii: otbor uchebnoj literatury i ocenivanie kompetentnosti [Some issues of teaching an intercultural communication expert: choosing course books and evaluating competence]. In Man and new socio-humanistic values (pp.168-201). NEOLIT, Moscow. Shchukin, A. N. (2008). Lingvodidakticheskij ehnciklopedicheskij slovar’ [Linguodidactic encyclopedic dictionary]. AST-Astrel Khranitel. Sledzevskiy, I. V. (2003). Dialog kul’tur i civilizacij: ponyatie, realii, perspektivy [Dialogue of cultures and civilizations. Concept, fundamentals, prospects]. Abstract of the presentation. Retrieved from: https:// www.gorby.ru/activity/conference/show_69/view_13099 Tareva, E. G., & Galskova, N. D. (2013). Innovacii v obuchenii yazyku i kul’ture: pro et contra [Innovations in teaching language and culture: pro et contra]. Inostranniye yaziki v schkole, Foreign languages at school, 10, 2-8.

857

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

Ushakov, E. V. (2008). Vvedenie v filosofiyu i metodologiyu nauki [Introduction to philosophy and methodology of science]. KNORUS.

ADDITIONAL READING Galskova, N., Levchenko, M., Shabanova, V., & Skitina, N. (2018). Multicultural Language Education as an Imperative of Modern Educational Policy in the Field of Foreign Languages. Astra Salvensis - review of history and culture, year, 7(Special Issue), 797–805. Ghasemi, B., & Hashemi, M. (2011). ICT: New wave in English language learning/teaching. Procedia: Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15, 3098–3102. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.04.252 Marsh, D. (2002). Content and Language Integrated Learning: The European Dimension - Actions, Trends and Foresight Potential. Cambridge University Press. Olgren, C. H. (1998). Improving learning outcomes: The effects of learning strategies and motivation / C.H. Olgren. In C. Gibson (Ed.), Distance learning in higher education: Institutional responses for quality outcomes (pp. 77–95). Reinecke, W. (1985). Linguodidaktik. Zur Theorie des Fremdsprachenerwerbs. Leipzig: VEB Verlag Enzyklopaedie. Wallace, M. J. (1991). Training Foreign Language Teachers: A Reflective Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Approach: A certain theoretical and methodological concept used as a way of considering and interpreting how to teach a foreign language. Foreign Language Teaching (FLT): A social and systematized technology for the transfer and acquisition of foreign language knowledge, skills, abilities, as well as the ways of communicative and cognitive activity via the language under study. Innovative Process in Foreign Language Learning: An integrated interaction of the subjects of education that leads to qualitative changes in goals, conditions, content, ways, methods of teaching a foreign language. Learning Environment: A set of external and internal conditions of students’ evolution with a foreign language and culture of its native speakers and awareness of students’ native language and native culture. Linguistic Model of Teaching: An interdependent integrity of basic elements of the educational process (the value of education, its purpose and content, the type of communication of the subjects in an educational process, the methods of education and learning outcome), and the methods of their formation which are intrinsic to a particular type of society. Linguodidactics: A branch of science studying the patterns of students’ evolution with a new language and culture in conjunction with their native language and culture.

858

 Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

Scientific Picture of Methodology: A system-based overview of scientific and methodological knowledge (concepts, theories, teaching methods, approaches and models of FLT) gained at a certain historical stage of developing linguodidactics and educational practice. Subject-Integrated Teaching: Organization of the educational process based on the principles of multidisciplinarity (close relationship of a foreign language with knowledge and skills in the field of professional disciplines) and interdisciplinarity. Technology (Methodology) of FLT: A set of teaching techniques, methods, cooperative methods of teachers and students, ensuring that goals of teaching and mastering a foreign language are met.

This research was previously published in Examining Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) Theories and Practices; pages 1-20, copyright year 2020 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

859

Section 4

Utilization and Applications

861

Chapter 41

English Sounds in Context: The Pronunciation of Phonemes and Morphemes Caroline Wiltshire https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3336-3436 University of Florida, USA

ABSTRACT The chapter takes the reader from the concrete phonetic descriptions of sounds, found in Chapters 11 and 12, to the use of these sounds in English. As in every language, sounds are influenced by their context. A large part of phonological description of a language is an effort to describe how the “same” sound is pronounced differently in different contexts, both phonetic and morphological. The chapter provides the phonemes of English, which are the distinctive units of sound, and examples of how they vary in context. It also illustrates the variation of English morphemes in context, by providing examples of allomorphy. Some implications of variation in context for teaching English are discussed.

WHAT IS PHONOLOGY? Phonology is the branch of theoretical linguistics which focusses on the sounds of spoken languages, both in specific languages and cross-linguistically. Within a specific language, we seek to explain the system that speakers use to produce and interpret the sounds of that language, while cross-linguistically, we look for patterns that are systematic and shared. These patterns can involve not only individual consonants and vowels, but also larger units, such as syllables, which group both consonants and vowels together, or stress, which affects entire syllables, and smaller characteristics, such as voicing or rounding, which are just one component of the production of an individual consonant or vowel. While phonetics investigates the physical properties of sounds (production, acoustics, perception), phonology considers the use of sounds to encode meaning in a linguistic system. For example, phonology finds that each language organizes a wide variety of phonetic sounds into a smaller system of phonemes, the units which are able to make a contrast in meaning in a language; each phoneme may have a range of pronunciations in DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch041

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 English Sounds in Context

different phonetic contexts. These phonemes are combined to spell out the morphemes, or meaningful units of a language (see Chapters 2 and 3), but phonemes can systematically change when morphemes are added together to build words. Thus, both phonemes and morphemes can be pronounced with a variety of phonetic realizations, depending on context. Phonology seeks to discover the patterns governing these changes.

CONTRAST IN ENGLISH SOUNDS Increased phonetic sophistication has allowed us to distinguish a vast variety of phonetic sounds used in English. However, not all of these phonetic sounds and distinctions do equal work in English, or in any language. Phonology begins with the study of which sounds are capable of making a meaningful difference between words, and organizing these sounds into distinct phonemes. The idea goes back to Saussure (1916/1959), who argued that the role of sounds in language is to make contrasts among words: “Phonemes are characterized…simply by the fact that they are distinct” (p. 119). Changing one phoneme changes the meaning of a word; for example, the words pat and bat are identical except for the initial sounds, which are therefore responsible for indicating the difference in meaning between the two words. Such pairs of words are called “minimal pairs”: words that differ in only a single sound but differ in meaning. Thus the definition of the phoneme, as in Swadesh (1934, p. 117) is based on its ability to distinguish meaning in minimal pairs: “the phoneme is the smallest potential unit of difference between similar words recognizable as different to the native [speaker]”. Some examples are provided in (1), following the convention that phonemes are provided inside slanted brackets / /, while the phonetics are provided in square brackets [ ]. The appearance of special phonetic diacritics, such as [ ͪ ̃ ̆ ] will be explained shortly; none of them is responsible for a contrast in English. (1) Some minimal pairs and phonemes of English

Note that both vowels, such as /ɪ, ʊ, æ, ɛ/, and consonants, such as /p, b, m, n/, are phonemes, and furthermore, that a contrast between two words in a minimal pair can be made by the sounds at the beginning (could vs. good), end (sun vs. sum) or middle of a word (pit vs. put); all are equally valid as proof of the phoneme’s ability to make a difference between words. Finally, note too that spelling, particularly English spelling, does not always correctly reflect the contrast in sound (as in hiss vs. his), so minimal pairs are based upon the phonetic transcription rather than the spelling.

862

 English Sounds in Context

THE PHONEME INVENTORY OF ENGLISH Every language has an inventory of sounds that can make a contrast in meaning (that is, the phonemes), and the Tables 1 and 2 present minimal pairs to show the sounds that make a contrast in English. The sets of phonemes are usually different for different languages, and may even be slightly different in different dialects of the same language. A crucial part of learning a new language is learning which sounds are capable of making differences in meaning. To show the inventory of consonant phonemes in American English, Table 1 below is organized by the phonetic characteristics of the sounds (this chart follows Hayes 2009). Along with each phoneme is provided a sample word in which that phoneme appears, with the letters used for the phoneme in question underlined. Table 1. The consonant phoneme contrasts in English Bilabial

Labio Dental

Dental

Alveolar

PostAlveolar

Palatal

Velar

stop (-voice)

/p/ pill

/t/ till

/k/ kill

stop (+voice)

/b/ bill

/d/ dill

/ɡ/ gill

affricate (-voice)

/ʧ/ chill

affricate (+voice)

/ʤ/ Jill

nasal

/m/ mill sum

/n/ nil sun /f/ fill

/θ/ thin1

/s/ sill

/ʃ/ shill

fricative (+voice)

/v/ villa

/ð/ this

/z/ Zillow

/ʒ/ vision

/l/ Lynn

approx..

/ɹ/ rill

Glottal

/ŋ/ sung

fricative (-voice)

lateral approx..

LabioVelar

/h/ hill

/j/ yell

/w/ will

In most cases, the words form a minimal pair/triplet/etc. with other similar sounds on the chart. There are a few exceptions, however, where a non-identical word is used because a word changed in only the relevant sound does not happen to exist in English; the methods for proving that phonemes are distinct in such cases, using similar words, are discussed in a later section (Methods). The vowel system of American English can be plotted similarly, as in Table 2 (again based on Hayes 2009). The system includes vowels with a single quality (monophthongs) and vowels that are followed by a high offglide, approximately either [ɪ] or [ʊ] in quality (diphthongs). The diphthongs that begin with an upper mid /e/ or /o/ are included in the table, while the diphthongs that begin with a lower vowel are listed below it, as the two parts of these latter diphthongs differ in both height and front/back.

863

 English Sounds in Context

Table 2. The vowel phoneme contrasts in English Front Unrounded

Central Unrounded

upper high lower high

/i/ beat /ɪ/ bit

upper mid lower mid

/eɪ/ bait /ɛ/ bet

/ɚ/ Bert /ə/ abbot

low

/æ/ bat

/a/ hot, father2

diphthongs:

/aɪ/ bite, /aʊ/ bout, /ɔɪ/ Coit

Back Unrounded

Back Rounded /u/ boot /ʊ/ foot

/ʌ/ but

/oʊ/ boat /ɔ/ bought

These tables present a fairly common set of consonant and vowel contrasts used in many varieties of English, although even within American English there are some dialectal differences. For example, the vowel in bought is given above as /ɔ/, but for many Americans there is no contrast between this vowel and that of hot (Labov, Ash, and Boberg, 2008). In fact, a pair of words that is a minimal pair in some dialects, cot vs. caught, may have identical pronunciations in others, with both cot/caught pronounced as [kʰăt]). For the consonants, some dialects have a distinction (not included above) between the voiced labio-velar approximant /w/ as in will or witch and a voiceless labio-velar fricative /ʍ/ as in which (Hayes, 2009). That is, even within a system like American English, there may be variations; if we look further afield, to British, Irish, Australian, and other varieties of English, we will find other minor points of difference in the inventory of contrasts. However, overall, the system of phonemes for most varieties of English includes about 40 contrasts: 23-24 consonants and 16-17 vowels. As discussed in the next section, each phoneme is produced in a variety of ways, depending on its phonetic context, so that the number of sounds used in English is much larger. The phonemic system organizes all these sounds into those that are meaningfully distinct vs. those that are merely contextual variants. When transcribing English, the level of detail depends on the purpose. For native speakers of English, a phonemic transcription is enough, as speakers know how to pronounce each phoneme in context. For non-native speakers, or when comparing different varieties of English, more phonetic detail is required to show the specifics of pronunciation for those lacking the phonemic rules or for those with different rules.

NON-CONTRASTIVE SOUNDS IN ENGLISH How each phoneme is pronounced phonetically often varies depending on the phonetic context in which it is pronounced. Therefore, what we consider to be the same phoneme in a language can be a whole set of phonetically different sounds, in different phonetic contexts. These different pronunciations of the same phoneme are called its “allophones”, the variant pronunciations of a phoneme in context. Because they are different pronunciations of the same phoneme, they do not make a contrast even though they are phonetically distinct; these phonetic variants cannot be used to make a contrast in a minimal pair. Generally, each allophone of a phoneme occurs in a different context. This is described as a “complementary distribution” because the distribution of the allophones complements each other. For example, the phoneme /t/ in English is pronounced one way word-initially, with a different sound between vowels, and with a third sound word-finally. Each of these pronunciations of /t/ is one of its allophones, and the

864

 English Sounds in Context

three allophones are complementary as they each occur in a distinct context (a sound cannot be both word-initial and word-final, for example). Because the sounds are in complementary distribution, they cannot make a contrast in a minimal pair because they cannot appear in the same position in a word. Allophones of the same phoneme are representatives of that same phoneme, and native speakers of a language tend to hear them as the phoneme, rather than hearing the phonetic differences among allophones. In addition to having its own inventory of phonemes, each language has its own system for pronouncing the allophone in different contexts. These rules are automatic for native speakers of a language, so much so that when learning a new language, speakers tend to follow the allophonic rules of their first language, even though that may not be appropriate in the new language. While replacing one phoneme with a different phoneme results in a different word (or no word at all), using the wrong allophone for the context is more likely to result in a non-native accent. Learners need to be aware of both these possible errors, if they want to avoid them.

EXAMPLES OF ALLOPHONES IN ENGLISH Allophonic variation is found in both consonants and vowels, and can be caused by the immediate phonetic context (the surrounding consonants or vowels), by a sound’s position in the word or syllable, or by whether it is in a stressed or unstressed syllable. This section will provide several examples of allophonic variation that are common in most varieties of English, including the aspiration of voiceless stops (/p t k/), the velarization of /l/ syllable-finally, and shortening and nasalization of vowels. First, the phonemes /p,t,k/ each have at least two allophones, based on their position in a syllable at the beginning of a word. In absolute word-initial position of a one-syllable word, a /p t k/ phoneme is pronounced with a following puff of air, called aspiration, as [pʰ tʰ kʰ], but after an /s/, these phonemes are pronounced with an unaspirated allophone, as [p t k], as shown in the words in (2). (2) Two allophones each for /p, t, k/:

In each word pair across a row, the only difference between the word is whether it begins with a /p t k/ or with an /sp st sk/. The two allophones of each voiceless stop are in complementary distribution in these examples. For example, in word-initial position where the aspirated [pʰ] is used), the unaspirated [p] would not be used (*[pæt]),3 and likewise after /s/, where [p] is appropriate, the [pʰ] allophone

865

 English Sounds in Context

would sound wrong to native speakers (*[spʰæt]). These allophones cannot be used to make a contrast or change in meaning, because they both are allophones of the same phoneme /p/. A lack of knowledge of the rules of allophonics leads to speakers mispronouncing words in ways that at best sound like a foreign accent (e.g., [spʰæt]), and at worst can lead to misunderstandings. For example, [pæt] with an unaspirated voiceless [p] sounds more similar to the English word bat than to pat, since phonetically the [p] sound is closer to the expected allophone of /b/ than of /p/ in word-initial position; in American English, the voiced stop /b/ is unaspirated and weakly voiced in word-initial position in bat, while the voiceless stop /p/ is strongly aspirated word-initially in pat. A second example of a phoneme and its allophones is the lateral phoneme /l/, which has different allophones at the beginning and end of syllables. In syllable-initial and word-initial position, the /l/ is pronounced as the alveolar lateral approximant [l], as in the examples on the left below. In syllable and word final position, however, it is pronounced with a secondary velarization, meaning that the back of the tongue is raised towards the velum at the same time as the tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge. This results in the sound transcribed phonetically as [ɫ], as in the examples on the right. Two syllable words appear in the data below with the IPA symbol [ʹ] appearing before the syllable which has main stress. (3) Two allophones of the phoneme /l/ = [l, ɫ]:

The two environments are complementary, as the /l/ is either syllable-initial or syllable- final, so the two allophones [l] and [ɫ] cannot appear in the same context nor be used to distinguish word meanings. That is, we cannot make a minimal pair contrasting the two sounds in word-initial position, because we find only [l] there; likely we cannot make a minimal pair contrasting the two in word-final position, because there we find only [ɫ]. Complementary distribution of two sounds guarantees that we cannot make the sounds contrast with each other in a minimal pair. Likewise, consonants may have multiple allophones. In the examples for /l/ above, a closer inspection reveals that the /l/ has a dental place of articulation in wealth [wɛɫ̪θ] and filthy [ʹfɪɫ̪θi], where /l/ appears before an interdental fricative /θ/; [ɫ̪] is another allophone of /l/ in a very specific context. The phoneme /l/ has yet another allophone, which occurs when /l/ is pronounced after a voiceless stop in word-initial position. This is the position in which the voiceless stop is usually aspirated. In this case, the aspiration of the initial stop carries over onto the /l/, making it into a voiceless [l̥]; a circle below a normally voiced symbol indicates that it is voiceless. This pattern affects not only the lateral approximant, but the other approximants /w j ɹ/ as well, as shown below. The symbol for the voiceless palatal approximant is [j̊] here, as a circle below the segment would be hard to see.

866

 English Sounds in Context

(4) As seen in these examples, entire groups of phonemes often have allophones following the same pattern. For example, all the approximants (/l, ɹ, j, w/) have voiceless allophones after voiceless stops (/p, t, k/) at the beginnings of syllables, and all the voiceless stops (/p, t, k/) have aspirated allophones initially and unaspirated allophones after /s/. Groups of sounds that share phonetic properties pattern together in having the same kinds of allophones in the same positions. The descriptions of the positions that provide the context for the allophones, such as being before or after voiceless stops, also often refer to groups of sounds that share phonetic properties. These groups provide the basis for writing phonological rules (see Chapter 14). As mentioned above, not only consonants but also vowels have allophones. In English, vowels are longer before voiced consonants in the same syllable and shorter before voiceless consonants in the same syllable. In the data below, the short version of the vowels is marked with a diacritic mark over the vowel, as in [ĕ] (some of the data is from Hayes, 2009, p. 22). (5) Two allophones for each vowel before voiced and voiceless consonants:

Across each row, the word-final consonants in each pair above differ only in voicing, as in the [f] vs. [v] of safe vs. save, and that difference between consonants results in a predictable difference in the length of the vowels. While examples are provided for only six vowels here, every vowel in English follows this pattern of having two allophones (so far), a shorter and a longer version. In American English, vowels also show allophonic variation based on whether the following consonant is oral or nasal. Vowels are pronounced with a nasalized allophone when they appear before the nasal consonants [n, m, ŋ] in the same syllable. Thus, for a vowel such as [i], we have three allophones: short

867

 English Sounds in Context

[ĭ] before voiceless consonants, [i] before voiced oral consonants, and nasalized [ĩ] before voiced nasal consonants. The data below shows that the same pattern holds for other vowels in English. (6) Three allophones of each vowel before voiceless, voiced and nasal consonants:

In each row, the final consonant differs only in whether it is voiceless, voiced, or a nasal consonant, while each vowel differs in being shortened in the first column, and nasal in the final column. Thus every vowel in English has at least three allophones, shortened, nasalized, and plain, depending on the consonant that follows it syllable-finally. The realization of a phoneme as a particular allophone depends on phonetic context alone. As we have seen, this context can be the immediate neighboring sound, the consonants or vowels nearby, or the position in the syllable or word. In (7) are provided a summary, with /æ/ standing for any vowel. (7) Summary of some examples from English:

With each phoneme having several allophones, it is clear that a detailed phonetic transcription will include hundreds of sounds. While some differences between sounds are capable of making a contrast between words ([pʰ] vs. [b]), others are predictable variations of the same phoneme in context ([pʰ] vs. [p]).

METHODS FOR FINDING PHONEMES/ALLOPHONES This section will explain the methods of determining phonemes and allophones from speech data. The examples above have illustrated the primary method for demonstrating that two sounds represent distinct phonemes: the existence of minimal pairs. Such pairs provide immediate confirmation that two sounds are capable of making a difference in meaning, and hence make a contrast between words, which means they must be allophones of distinct phonemes. Sometimes languages do not provide exact minimal pairs for a contrast. In Table 1, there are a few consonantal phonemes whose example words do not match the general pattern of “__ill” used for most to provide minimal pairs. In the case of the phoneme /ŋ/, the gap results from the systematic absence of this sound from word-initial position in English (and many languages), which means that English speak-

868

 English Sounds in Context

ers would reject a word like *[ŋɪɫ]. To contrast this sound with the other nasal consonants in English, a minimal pair using the word-final position (sum/sun/sung) was provided in Table 1 instead. For other sounds, as in the case of the phoneme /j/, the lack of a word “yill” in English is merely an accidental gap, one which might be filled in later if such a word were invented or borrowed. Whether the gap is accidental or motivated by the system, we can instead use a “near-minimal pair” or “analogous pair” as a proof of two sounds being distinct, i.e., allophones of different phonemes. Analogous pairs are two words that contain the suspiciously similar sounds in locally similar contexts, although the entire word may not be otherwise identical. For example, the two sounds [ʒ] and [ʤ] are very similar phonetically, differing only in manner of articulation (fricative vs. affricate), but otherwise both voiced post-alveolars. It is difficult to find a minimal pair in English for the two sounds, partly because the sound [ʒ] is relatively rare, but we can find a near-minimal pair in pleasure [ʹpl̥ɛʒɚ] and ledger [ʹlɛʤɚ]. The sounds of interest appear in very similar environments, between the same vowels [ɛ__ɚ], and preceded by a lateral, with the only difference being the initial [p]. We can also note that the words sound wrong if we replace one phone with the other: *[pl̥ɛʤɚ] and *[lɛʒɚ] are not possible pronunciations of pleasure and ledger, supporting the argument that the two sounds belong to distinct phonemes /ʒ/ and /ʤ/, rather than the two sounds being mere allophonic variants of the same phoneme. When there are no minimal pairs, near-minimal pairs can provide evidence of phonemic status. It is important to be careful that the context is truly analogous, however. While a phonetic transcription of American English reveals that there are different vowels in cub [kʰʌb] vs. come [kʰʌ̃m], this pair of words cannot be used to argue that there is a phonemic difference between the vowels /ʌ/ and /ʌ̃/, because the words do not provide an analogous context. The difference between the two vowels is that one is oral and one is nasal, and the difference between the two words is also that one ends in an oral consonant /b/, while the other ends in a nasal consonant /m/. The difference in the vowel sounds (oral vs. nasal) might be directly related to the difference in context (oral vs. nasal). A phonemicist should conclude then, that the pair of words is not analogous and the pair of sounds bears further investigation. Only when the context for the sounds is similar, as in pleasure and ledger, do we feel confident in concluding that the two sounds under examination belong to distinct phonemes, even though the language does not provide minimal pairs. When we lack both minimal pairs and near-minimal pairs, however, we then investigate whether sounds are allophones of the same phoneme. As in the examples above, cross-linguistic analysis has generally found that allophones of the same phoneme are phonetically similar to each other. For example, the allophones discussed thus far differ in aspiration, nasality, velarization, length, and voicing. Pairs of sounds that are similar to each other and might be allophones of the same phoneme are called “suspicious pairs” (Pike, 1947, p. 75); in the absence of a minimal pair or analogous pairs proving two similar sounds to be distinct, we are suspicious that they may be allophones of the same phoneme. One way to support the conclusion that sounds belong to the same phoneme is by examining the phonetic contexts in which each sound occurs. For example, the [l] occurs at the beginning of syllables and words, while the velarized [ɫ] occurs at the ends of syllables and words. Conversely, the velarized [ɫ] never occurs at the beginning and the plain [l] never at the end. These statements describe a “complementary distribution”: where one sound is found, the other is not. When two phonetically similar sounds are in complementary distribution, they are likely allophones of the same phoneme. They cannot be used to make a minimal pair, because the sounds cannot be pronounced in the same context to make a contrast. For example, English cannot make two contrasting words such as [lup] versus [ɫup] meaning something different, because English speakers do not pronounce [ɫ] word-initially and would not allow *[ɫup] at all. 869

 English Sounds in Context

Although the phoneme itself is something more abstract than any of its allophones, which are actual phonetic sounds, we usually name the phoneme with the symbol of its most common allophone, especially if that allophone seems to be the one least affected by its phonetic environment. For example, we consider the vowel phonemes of English to be oral rather than nasal, because the nasalized vowels occur only before nasal consonants in the same syllables, while the oral ones occur when various other sounds, or nothing at all, follows. The context is often responsible in straightforward ways for the allophonic variation, as when vowels are pronounced with nasalization before a nasal consonant; the vowel anticipates the production of the nasal, which involves lowering the velum to allow air out the nose. While the contexts for the nasalized vowel allophone can be simply described, the contexts for the oral allophone cannot; it is often called the “elsewhere” allophone, meaning it occurs wherever the other allophones do not. The name of the phoneme can also be chosen because it is the simpler allophone, either phonetically (plain [l] is a less complex articulation than velarized [ɫ]) or even typographically (/p/ is often used without any examination of whether the [p] allophone is more common or less affected than [pʰ]). There is one type of allophonic distribution not yet discussed which does not involve complementary distribution, called free variation. The term is used when a phoneme can be pronounced more than one way in the same context, without affecting the meaning. An example would be the pronunciation of word-final voiceless stops in English, illustrated below for the phoneme /p/. The phonetic symbols [p˺] and [p˚] indicate an unreleased and released consonant, respectively, and either can be used word-finally for the /p/: (8) Word-final /p/

Note that this is a pattern for any instance of the phoneme /p/, which can always be pronounced as either [p˺] or [p˚] word-finally, without changing the meaning. Truly free variation is rare; often the choice of allophone is conditioned by something non-phonological, like wanting to emphasize or disambiguate a word. Free variation is also distinct from the case of a single word having more than one pronunciation, like the word either, which may be pronounced as [iðɚ] or [aɪðɚ]. There are two differences that distinguish the two pronunciations of either from a case of free variation. The first is that these variant pronunciations are not part of a general pattern (or part of only a very small pattern, including neither). The second is that the two vowel sounds that alternate, [i] and [aɪ], are known to occur in minimal pairs (e.g., beat vs. bite), so that these two vowels belong to two different phonemes and can make a contrast. Sounds in a true free variation, on the other hand, are allophonic and do not contrast. In a case of a word having more than one phonemic pronunciation, such as either, we generally consider these two pronunciations to be merely a fact that must be memorized about the individual word. One final situation that arises in a phonemic analysis is the finding that sometimes two phonemes have the same allophone in a specific phonetic context, which means that in that particular context, there is no contrast between the two phonemes. A commonly cited example is from American English, where the /t/ and /d/ phonemes in intervocalic position are both pronounced in casual speech as the flap [ɾ], when the following syllable does not have stress.

870

 English Sounds in Context

(9) Flapping in American English

The loss of contrast between two phonemes in a specific environment is called neutralization. Because of this neutralization between /t/ and /d/, we can find that a single pronunciation like [bɛɾɪ̃ŋ] can be ambiguous between the words betting and bedding, which have different phonemic representations /bɛtɪŋ/ and /bɛdɪŋ/. To summarize the procedures, the investigation of the phonemic system of a language involves first looking for minimal and analogous pairs of words. If such pairs of words can be found, they show that sounds are allophones of distinct phonemes. If such a pair of words cannot be found for a suspicious pair of sounds, then the pattern of distribution for each sound is examined, to determine whether two sounds can be described as being in a complementary distribution, characteristic of allophones of the same phoneme. The exercises will provide a set of data for practice of those methods.

MORPHEMES AND ALLOMORPHS The second type of variation in context involves morphemes (the minimal meaningful unit of language, including roots, prefixes, and suffixes; see Chapters 2 and 3). The pronunciation of a morpheme can also change in the new contexts that result from combining morphemes to make words. Parallel to the term “allophone” for different pronunciations of the same phoneme, different pronunciations of the same morpheme are called its “allomorphs”. For example, the regular plural suffix, spelled –s/-es, is pronounced differently depending on the final sound of the singular word it is added to; after voiceless stops it is [s], after voiceless fricatives it is [ǝz], and after other sounds, like nasals, voiced stops, or vowels, it is [z], as illustrated in (10). (10) Allomorphs of plural morpheme

871

 English Sounds in Context

This allomorphy is based on the phonetic context, as the suffix is pronounced differently after different sounds. As with phonemes and their allophones, we often consider the elsewhere allomorph to be the original form of the morpheme; in this case the plural morpheme would be /-z/, because the allomorph [-z] appears in more kinds of environments, while the other two allomorphs occur in narrowly defined environments. The same allomorphy is found for other suffixes that are spelled -s, such as the third-person singular verb suffix, the possessive, and the contracted form of auxiliary verbs is and has. (11) Identical allomorphy for other morphemes

Like the allophonic realizations of a phoneme, this is a regular pattern that is applied by native speakers without conscious awareness. Unlike the allophones, however, morphophonemic alternations typically replace one phoneme with another. That is, /s/ and /z/ are normally separate phonemes, and as we saw above, they can be used to distinguish words with different meanings (e.g., sip [sɪ̆p] vs. zip [zɪ̆p]). However, in the context of allomorphy, the two sounds are realizations of the same morpheme (the present tense, the possessive, etc.) and indicate the same meaning.

872

 English Sounds in Context

A morpheme may have distinct allomorphs because adding it to a base brings sounds in contact with each other so that they affect each other, as above, or because the resulting word has a new stress pattern, and stressed sounds are pronounced differently. This chapter will discuss several other examples of allomorphy in English, including the past tense suffix -ed, vowel laxing (nation/national, sane/sanity), and velar softening (critic/criticize, legal/legislation). While there are some exceptions (irregular past tense forms), the usual (regular) past tense in English is formed by adding a suffix spelled -ed to a verb form. Although the spelling is consistent, the pronunciation is not. As shown in the data below, the regular past tense is pronounced in three distinct ways: as [t], [d], and as [əd]. Examine the data below to see the distribution of these three allomorphs. (12) Past tense spelled -ed

The forms in casual speech show the results of the allophonic rule of flapping; the careful speech form is also provided to indicate the final phoneme of the verb in order to make the conditioning of the allomorphy clearer. The allomorph [t] appears after voiceless consonants (/p, k, f, θ, s, ʃ, ʧ/), while the allomorph [əd] appears after the alveolar stops (/t/d/) and the flap that is their allophone. The allomorph [d] appears in what we call the elsewhere case. That is, it appears in all other contexts, such as after all of the vowels and after voiced consonants (/b, ɡ, v, ð, z, ʒ, m, n, ŋ, ɹ, l/) except /d/. The allomorphy resembles that of the plural and other suffixes spelled –s, which also have three variants: a voiceless one [s] after voiceless consonants, one with a vowel after sibilants [əz], and a voiced one [z] elsewhere. However, in the case of the past tense, which is pronounced with an alveolar stop (t/d), the allomorph with a vowel occurs after verbs ending in an alveolar stop or flap; in the case of the plural suffix which consists of a sibilant (-s), the allomorph with a vowel occurs after forms ending in sibilants. It is not just suffixes that have allomorphs: prefixes and roots can have them as well. There are many ways to create new words in English by adding various prefixes and suffixes. Some of the suffixes tend to cause a change in the vowel quality of the original word. Consider the data below, in which the addition of various suffixes causes the vowel in the base word to change in quality from [eɪ] to [æ]; the vowels which change are underlined in the spelling of the word. In English, the spelling of the vowels usually stays the same, despite the change in sound to a different phoneme. Note that the longer words

873

 English Sounds in Context

are marked not only with [ʹ] before the syllable with primary stress, but also with [ˌ] before a syllable with secondary stress. (13) Vowel laxing in the base

This is a case where it is not the suffix that shows allomorphy, but rather the root or base word, where one phoneme is replaced by another in the morpheme. We can prove that [eɪ] and [æ] can make a contrast in English by minimal pairs like bait [beɪt] vs. bat [bæt], so that they do belong to distinct phonemes, but we see that the vowel [eɪ] in the first column is replaced by the vowel [æ] in the second, where a suffix (-al, ity, -ic, etc.) has been added to the stem. Thus, the same morpheme, with the same meaning, has two allomorphs, or two pronunciations (nation has [neɪʃə̃n -] and [næʃən-]) depending on whether or not it bears a suffix. There are a large number of suffixes that can cause allomorphy, although certainly not all do. Yip (1987) discusses cases in which suffixes that begin with i- or a- cause shortening: -ic, id, ish, ity, ify, itude, icide, ison, itive, ifer, atory, ative, acy, able. These suffixes change a variety of vowels in the base, and there are some regular patterns to the changes. As above, if the unsuffixed base word has the vowel [eɪ], the allomorph that appears with the suffix has [æ]. Other pairs include [aɪ]-[ɪ], [oʊ]-[a], [i] - [ɛ] as below (some examples from Yip, 1987, p. 465). (14) Base allomorphy with suffixation for various vowels in stems

874

 English Sounds in Context

Many phonologically triggered allomorphic variations are very productive; that is, if speakers add the morpheme to a new word, they follow the generalizations about which allomorph is appropriate. Linguists have tested this using “wug” tests (Berko, 1958), which present speakers with fictitious words (such as “wug”) and ask them to make plurals or past tenses, etc. How speakers produce the new combinations of morphemes gives us evidence about how productive (or not) an allomorphic alternation is. Berko’s (1958) research on English speaking children aged 4 to 7 showed they were still learning the plural allomorphy, as they could correctly use the [-s] and [-z] forms most of the time, but did not extend the [-əz] allomorph reliably to new cases like “gutch” or “niz”. Adults, on the other hand, predictably and productively used all three allomorphs with the new forms provided. Not all morphological alternations are equally productive. While the different allomorphs of the past tense and plural suffixes, for example, are extremely productive, the vowel allomorphy in (13) and (14) has some exceptions (e.g., obesity keeps the vowel of obese), and most speakers do not extend the allomorphy to new words. Another example of allomorphy with limited productivity is traditionally known as “velar softening” (Chomsky & Halle, 1968). In this allomorphy, the two velar stops in English, /k/ and /ɡ/ can alternate due to suffixation; a stem-final /k/ alternates with /s/, while a stem-final /ɡ/ alternates with /ʤ/ before certain suffixes. (15) Velar softening in base

875

 English Sounds in Context

The allomorphy of the plural and the past tense was very productive; native speakers of English would follow the generalizations above when making the plural or past of a new word (wugz, wugged). The velar softening allomorphy is partly productive, but only for Latinate words with the suffix –ity; Pierrehumbert (2006) found that educated speakers did tend to follow the electric-electricity pattern for invented words like interponic-interponicity. However, other instances of velar softening were only sporadically productive. Some allomorphy examples are in between the two extremes, being moderately productive, and possibly applied to new words by native speakers. An example of this is the alternation in the words that end in /–f/ in the singular, changing to a final /–v/ in the plural (Hayes, 2009, p. 193); many very common words show this alternation, as below. (16) Stem allomorphy in plurals (Hayes, 2009, p. 193)

876

 English Sounds in Context

Note that again the allomorphy is in the base words, not the suffix. The usual result of attaching the plural suffix to a word ending in a voiceless sound like [f], as we saw earlier, would be to use the allomorph [s] for the plural. However, here we see that the base word in the plural has a [v] and attracts the [z] allomorph for the plural, the usual after a voiced consonant. The set of words with this allomorphy seems to be learned, since there are plenty of words ending in [f] which do not follow this pattern, but instead behave normally with no change to the base while taking the [s] plural allomorph. (17) Plurals for final [f] without allomorphy (Hayes, 2009, p. 194)

Furthermore, the allomorphy in (16) applies when forming the plurals only, not before other suffixes, even if they sound identical to the plural -s. We saw, for example, that the possessive suffix ‘s follows the same pattern of allomorphy as the plural, but the possessive forms of words like wife takes the usual allomorph [-s] in the possessive (forming wife’s [wăɪfs]); in fact, all forms ending in /f/ follow the usual allomorphy in the possessive, even though their plurals end in [vz]. Despite the limitations on the allomorphy of (16), it does still seem to be somewhat productive in the sense of being applied to new words. Berko (1958) found that the adults, tested on the novel form heaf, generated two plurals: 58% preferred

877

 English Sounds in Context

heafs, while 42% said heaves (1958, p. 162), which suggests that a good number of speakers apply the allomorphy of wife/wives to new forms, while others follow the general pattern.

IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS Knowledge of the English phonemes and of common allophonic and allomorphic variations can be applied to teaching English learners. In order to teach English pronunciation, comprehension, reading and spelling, it may be helpful for teachers to understand some of the common allophonic and allomorphic variations in English; this section provides some of the applications of the information and concepts above. For native speakers of English, the allophonic generalizations described in this chapter are below the level of consciousness. This is true of allophonics in general; native speakers have acquired the patterns of their first language through implicit learning, and automatically follow them without being aware of or able to articulate them. When learning a second language, speakers may transfer the patterns of their first language, causing difficulties in learning to perceive or produce the new language. Major (2008) notes that while transfer does not explain all the errors that L2 learners make, knowledge of the differences between the L1 and L2 systems can lead to valid predictions about which sounds and structures are likely to cause problems for learners. For example, it is common for speakers to substitute a sound from their L1 for a similar sound in their L2; Spanish speakers may produce their [r] for English [ɹ], and Hindi speakers tend to use their retroflex [ʈ ɖ] for English alveolar [t d]. The allophonic systems may also play a role; for example, French speakers would use an [l] at the end of words, where English speakers would expect [ɫ], while word-initially, French speakers would tend to use an unaspirated (and dental) [t̪] rather than the expected [tʰ] in English. Learners may also fail to differentiate two sounds that are phonemes in English because those sounds are only allophones in their L1s; for Korean speakers, the /s/ vs. /ʃ/ distinction of English may be difficult because Korean has only an /s/ phoneme with a palatalized allophone. Differences in phonemic systems can also affect comprehension, as they may interfere with accurate perception. Major (2008) points to how perception can interfere in L2 learning, especially for sounds that are similar to but not identical with L1 sounds; L2 sounds that are completely new are easier to learn than L2 sounds that are similar to, and may easily be mistaken for, L1 sounds. When learning a second language, learners generally use both implicit and explicit learning. Research has shown that explicit teaching of pronunciation can be successful for second language learners (Levis & Wu, 2018). When pronunciation and perception issues result from transfer, a teacher can use an understanding of phonemics to help pinpoint issues causing learners to sound non-native, and to improve their accents. In order to improve intelligibility in English, teachers need to be aware of the phonemic differences, especially those which bear a heavier information load. Some contrasts are very important in making speech intelligible, while others do not bear much information load (Jenkins, 2002); for example, the difference between /p/ and /b/ is used to contrast hundreds of words, while the phonemes /θ/ and /ð/ make very few contrasts. Jenkins argues for perfecting the more important contrasts first, in order to improve intelligibility. While not all learners of English can or want to acquire a native accent, improving pronunciation can also help learners to avoid judgements associated with non-native accents. Research has shown that speakers with non-native accents may face discrimination or negative judgements; Lev-Ari and Kaysar (2010), for example, found that accented speech was judged less credible than speech with a native accent. For those learners who do want to sound more native-like, control of the allophonic variation 878

 English Sounds in Context

is important. Applying knowledge of English allophonics can improve pronunciation teaching, while applying the methods of phonemics to understand the learner’s L1 system can help provide teachers with an understanding of the issues their language learners face or the prior knowledge they bring from their L1 phonemics. Allophonic differences are rarely, if ever, represented in spelling cross-linguistically, so learners need teachers who are able to explain them. Allomorphic differences are represented in some languages, but English generally favors spelling a stem morpheme in the same way in all words despite its distinct pronunciations. For example, in legal vs. legislation; the leg- morpheme has the [l] pronounced the same in both words, but the ‘e’ and ‘g’ are pronounced differently in the two words ([liɡ] vs. [lɛʤ]), due to the vowel laxing and velar softening mentioned above. For prefixes and suffixes, some allormorphs are spelled differently, but not all. For example, the plural suffix is spelled –s, regardless of whether it’s pronounced [s] or [z], although the [əz] allomorph is generally represented as –es. The possessive morpheme, on the other hand, is always spelled -’s despite having the same allomorphy. Understanding how morphemes vary in context can help learners to recognize the same morpheme when it is used with different pronunciations, improving comprehension, and to pronounce a new combination of morphemes correctly when reading it for the first time, improving pronunciation.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Which type of change in phonological context are L1 English speakers more likely to notice: allophonic or allomorphic? Why? 2. Is there a need to teach allomorphy that is not very productive? Are there any advantages or disadvantages to doing so? 3. Can a learner’s L1 phonemic system (phonemes and allophones) be helpful in learning the system of phonemes and allophones of English as a second language? How? 4. Can a learner’s L1 morphemic system be helpful in learning allomorphy in English as a second language? How? 5. What advantages and disadvantages does a teacher who speaks English as a second language have in teaching the allophones and allomorphs of English? How might these advantages or disadvantages affect students who are learning English pronunciation?

EXERCISES 1. /t/ in American English The description of the three allophones of /t/ in American English in the chapter was not complete. In the data below, you will find three allophones of /t/: [tʰ], [t], and [ɾ]. Note that syllables that have stress are preceded by the symbol [ʹ]. Use the stress information to give a better description of where the [tʰ], [t], and [ɾ] allophones occur (the data is not organized for you).

879

 English Sounds in Context

2. t vs th in Indian English Some varieties of Indian English have the following pronunciations:

What do these words prove about their system of phonemes and allophones for the sounds spelled t vs th? Is their pronunciation likely to cause any difficulties for speakers of American English? 3. [ð] in Spanish vs. English English has the sound [ð] as a phoneme distinct from similar sounds [d] and [θ], as proven by minimal pairs such as den [dɛ̃n] vs. then [ðɛ̃n] or ether [iθɚ] vs. either [iðɚ]. Apply the phonemic methods to determine whether [ð] is an allophone of a distinct phoneme in Spanish, by looking for minimal pairs or complementary distribution with [d̪] in the data below (the ̪ indicates that the sound is dental rather than alveolar).

Given your findings, does the fact that English and Spanish have some of the same phonetic sounds help your Spanish speakers to learn English as a second language? Can you use your knowledge of the Spanish phonemic system to help? 4. Examine the data below verbs and nouns, and determine the patterns of sound and stress change for each pair.

5. //in-// English has a morpheme //ɪn-// meaning ‘not’, which can be found in adjective pairs as in the data below (based on the data in Peng, 2013, pp. 101-102).

880

 English Sounds in Context

a. This morpheme has several allomorphs, and the data is organized based on which allomorph appears in the words. Determine the basis for the different allomorphs: in which context does each allomorph appear? b. The spelling of the prefix sometimes changes when added to different roots, making it harder for learners to recognize it as the same prefix or to apply it to new forms without understanding how it changes in new contexts. When does the spelling accurately reflect the allomorphy? When does the spelling differ from the pronunciation? c. Could an understanding of this allomorphy help you to explain the //in-// prefix to learners of English?

REFERENCES Berko, J. (1958). The child’s learning of English morphology. Word, 14(2-3), 150–177. doi:10.1080/0 0437956.1958.11659661 Chomsky, N., & Halle, M. (1968). The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper & Row.

881

 English Sounds in Context

De Saussure, F. (1959). Course in general linguistics [1916] (C. Bally & A. Sechehaye, Eds., BaskinW., Trans.). New York: McGraw Hill Book Company. Hayes, B. (2009). Introducing phonology. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. Jenkins, J. (2002). A sociolinguistically based, empirically researched pronunciation syllabus for English as an international language. Applied Linguistics, 23(1), 83–103. doi:10.1093/applin/23.1.83 Labov, W., Ash, S., & Boberg, C. (2008). The atlas of North American English: Phonetics, phonology and sound change. The Hague: Walter de Gruyter. Lev-Ari, S., & Keysar, B. (2010). Why don’t we believe non-native speakers? The influence of accent on credibility. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(6), 1093–1096. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2010.05.025 Levis, J., & Wu, A. (2018). Pronunciation – Research into practice and practice into research. The CATESOL Journal, 30(1), 1–12. Major, R. C. (2008). Transfer in second language phonology: A review. In J. Hansen Edwards & M. Zampini (Eds.), Phonology and second language acquisition (pp. 65–94). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. doi:10.1075ibil.36.05maj Peng, L. (2013). Analyzing sound patterns: An introduction to phonology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139043168 Pierrehumbert, J. B. (2006). The statistical basis of an unnatural alternation. Laboratory Phonology, 8, 81–107. Pike, K. L. (1947). Phonemics. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. Swadesh, M. (1934). The phonemic principle. Language, 10(2), 117–129. doi:10.2307/409603 Yip, M. (1987). English vowel epenthesis. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 5(4), 463–484. doi:10.1007/BF00138986

ADDITIONAL READING Davidson, L. (2011). Phonetic and phonological factors in the second language production of phonemes and phonotactics. Language and Linguistics Compass, 5(3), 126–139. doi:10.1111/j.1749-818X.2010.00266.x Díaz, B., Baus, C., Escera, C., Costa, A., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2008). Brain potentials to native phoneme discrimination reveal the origin of individual differences in learning the sounds of a second language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(42), 16083–16088. doi:10.1073/pnas.0805022105 PMID:18852470 Eckman, F. R. (2004). From phonemic differences to constraint rankings: Research on second language phonology. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 26(4), 513–549. doi:10.1017/S027226310404001X Gray, S. H., Ehri, L. C., & Locke, J. L. (2018). Morpho-phonemic analysis boosts word reading for adult struggling readers. Reading and Writing, 31(1), 75–98. doi:10.100711145-017-9774-9 PMID:29367806

882

 English Sounds in Context

Hillenbrand, J., Getty, L. A., Clark, M. J., & Wheeler, K. (1995). Acoustic characteristics of American English vowels. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 97(5), 3099–3111. doi:10.1121/1.411872 PMID:7759650 Jenkins, J. (2000). The phonology of English as an international language - New models, new norms, new goals. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Stuart, M. (1999). Getting ready for reading: Early phoneme awareness and phonics teaching improves reading and spelling in inner‐city second language learners. The British Journal of Educational Psychology, 69(4), 587–605. doi:10.1348/000709999157914

ENDNOTES 1



2



3



The contrast could be illustrated using a word thill that fishermen might recognize, but as that is not in common use, the word thin appears in Table 1 instead to provide a context that is analogous (see section on Methods). The common symbol /a/ is used here for the low non-front unrounded vowel, which in most varieties of American English can vary phonetically from a central unrounded lower-mid vowel (IPA [ɐ]) to a back low vowel (IPA [ɑ]). The asterisk before the phonetic data is used to indicate that this form would be ungrammatical or inappropriate.

This research was previously published in Applied Linguistics for Teachers of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners; pages 303-324, copyright year 2019 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

883

884

Chapter 42

Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English Gulsat Aygen Northern Illinois University, USA

ABSTRACT The goal of this chapter is to introduce the connection between morphology and syntax, using inflectional morphemes and functional words that mark specific inflectional categories on the verb. The chapter identifies and discusses four major inflectional categories marked on the verbs, namely, tense, aspect, mood, and voice from a descriptive linguistics approach. This approach provides a much more systematic and simple presentation of how English marks these less-commonly understood and potentially confusing concepts. The chapter first reviews the basic terminology and concepts relevant to the topic and presents a concise survey of both the traditional and the more recent theoretical analyses of English tense, aspect, mood, and voice. Further, it explains and exemplifies the recent analysis of tense, aspect, mood, and voice markers as a demonstration of how they can be taught accurately and in a pedagogically simpler way.

WHAT IS MORPHO-SYNTAX? Morphemes are not a topic of study for only morphology; they are also a topic of syntax. The subfield of linguistics that studies morphemes as the units of both morphology and syntax is called morpho-syntax which is also defined as the study of grammatical categories or linguistic units whose properties are definable by both morphological as well as syntactic criteria (Li, 2009, p. 169). Thus, the term morphosyntax is often used to emphasize the sentence-level along with the word-level functions of morphemes. As we have seen in previous chapters, morphemes may be derivational or inflectional. Derivational morphemes make new words when they are attached to other words. They change the meaning and sometimes the part of speech of the word. Inflectional morphemes, on the other hand, add grammatical meaning, such as number, tense, aspect, etc. They cannot change the part of speech of the word they are attached to. They are very important in syntax, the study of the structure of phrases and sentences. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch042

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

We call the part of speech of a given word its syntactic category. The syntactic category of a word may be a noun, a pronoun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb, a preposition, or a conjunction. These categories may be easily identified using two linguistic criteria: inflectional properties and/or syntactic properties (Aygen, 2016, pp.13-14). Inflectional properties refer to the inflectional morphemes that can attach to the word, and syntactic properties refer to the location of the word in the sentence, including what can surround it. Here is an example of how we identify the part of speech, that is, the syntactic category of a word, using linguistic criteria: What is the part of speech/syntactic category of the word goat? • •

Inflectional properties: goat can be pluralized with the inflectional morpheme {-s} or the possessive morpheme {’s}, both of which can attach only to nouns: goats, goat’s. Syntactic properties: goat can appear after an article which flags a noun: a goat, the goat.

Based on the above information, the syntactic category of the word goat is a noun. We could have thought about the meaning of the word goat, yet relying on meaning may not always give us the correct answer. Meaning is useful but not sufficient and not always reliable to identify the syntactic category of a word. Especially for ELLs with diverse linguistic backgrounds, a given word may not be a familiar one. The part of speech is given before the meaning of a word in the dictionary, and one would end up having to memorize the meaning and the part of speech instead of understanding how a part of speech can be identified in linguistic context. Unlike meaning, the syntactic properties or the inflectional properties, however, are always detectable.

INFLECTIONAL AND SYNTACTIC PROPERTIES OF VERBS As noted, we can identify the part of speech of any word using inflectional and syntactic properties instead of relying on its meaning. With inflectional and syntactic properties, one can identify the verb and its inflectional markers even if one does not know the meaning of the verb. Meaning can be derived within semantic context whereas inflectional morphemes such as tense, aspect, voice, or mood can be identified within linguistic context. Because verbs mark inflectional categories, we will focus on identifying verbs in this chapter. Verbs have been traditionally defined as expressions of events, states, processes, or actions, but this definition refers only to the meaning of verbs. Linguistically, verbs can be identified by the inflectional morphemes of tense, aspect, and mood. For instance, in the sentence She has been dancing for hours, has is a verb because it marks present tense and perfect aspect1, been is a verb because it marks both progressive and perfect aspect, and dancing is a verb because it marks progressive aspect. All three verbs inflected with present perfect progressive mark indicative mood, as we will see in this chapter. In terms of syntactic properties, verbs appear after the subject of the sentence and within the predicate. Grammatically, verbs are categorized as content verbs, linking verbs, and function verbs also known as helping or auxiliary verbs. Content verbs are those that express a meaning, such as dance in the example above. Function verbs do not have a specific meaning: they just carry some grammatical information, such as has and been above. Linking verbs link the subject to the rest of the sentence, which we call the subject complement. Linking verbs, such as [BE], [SEEM], [LOOK], [TASTE], [APPEAR], have some grammatical and some content meaning. Their meaning might be one of identity as is the case 885

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

with the verb [BE]. In the sentence She is a professor, the subject and the subject complement refer to the same entity. We could even imagine an equal sign “=” in place of is in the sentence. Linking verbs may also connect the subject with its property, relation or position, as in The students seem confused, where confused is a temporary property, that is, a quality of the students. In the verb complex, which consists of all the verbs of a given sentence, there must be at least one verb. This main verb is either the content verb, as in She dances, or the linking verb, as in She is a dancer. However, there may also be auxiliary verbs accompanying the main verb. For instance, in the sentence She has been dancing for hours, has been dancing is the verb complex. Has and been are auxiliary verbs and dancing is a content verb. Some inflectional morphemes are marked only on verbs; therefore, their presence helps us identify verbs. Tense, aspect, voice, and mood are such inflectional categories marked on verbs. Tense, aspect, voice and mood are considered inflectional categories in syntax because a complete clause is defined by the existence of a subject and a verb marked with one or more of these categories. To have a complete sentence, some languages require one, others more than one of these categories to be present in the clause. The sample exercise below includes all four steps involved in the identification of verbs, verb types, and verb complexes (VCs), using linguistic tools: (1) My friend bakes cupcakes every Sunday. (i) Find the verb; (ii) explain how you know that it is a verb; (iii) identify the verbs in the verb complex (VC); (iv) identify the type of the verb(s). A typical answer would be: i. bake is the verb. ii. It is a verb because of its inflectional and syntactic properties: a. Inflectional properties: it is inflected with the third person singular subject agreement morpheme in the present {-s}; it can be marked with the past tense morpheme {-ed}, baked, or it can carry the aspect morpheme {-ing}, baking. All these morphemes can attach only to verbs. b. Syntactic properties: it can appear after the subject and before the object. My friend = subject; bakes= verb; cupcakes = object iii. Bake is the only verb in the verb complex. iv. Bake is a content verb because it has semantic content, i.e. non-grammatical meaning. Once English learners are equipped with these linguistic tools to identify verbs in verb complexes, they will be ready to identify morpho-syntactic markers of all inflectional categories in English.

Tense Tense is the grammaticalization of time, or basically, the reference to the time when an event happens, or a state holds. She does yoga includes an event, She is a yogi refers to a state, and both are in the present. The syntactic category that marks tense is the verb. The traditional and commonly adopted understanding of tense categorizes it as absolute versus relative tense. In the traditional approach, absolute tense refers to the evaluation of the event time, which is the chronological time an event occurs, with reference to 886

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

the speech time, which is the time of a given utterance. Any event or state preceding the speech time refers to the past, those including the speech time refer to the present, and those following the speech time refer to the future. Relative tense refers to a time in relation to a contextually determined temporal reference point rather than the speech time. It is a concept developed to distinguish present perfect from the past tense: She has read Shakespeare. vs. She read Shakespeare. Under the traditional approach to tense, Reichenbach’s (1947) notions of speech time and event time are used to analyze absolute tense, and reference time is used for relative tense. Reference time, also known as relevance time, can be best understood in a sentence with past perfect: I had washed the dishes when he came. The dish-washing event is not determined with respect to the speech time; instead, its reference time is the time he came, that is “his arrival.” Such a distinction helps to distinguish between past tense and present perfect (Comrie, 1985). In She has washed the dishes, the reference time overlaps with the speech time and it is now. In She washed the dishes, the relevance time is in the past, that is before the speech time. However, this traditional approach to tense presents a complicated and conceptually confusing picture of the inflectional system of English because reference/relevance time is more relevant for aspect rather than tense. It also causes most, or almost all, pedagogical material for teaching English to be misleading. English Language Learners (ELLs) get confused with the terminology and never learn the distinction between tense and aspect. Understanding the difference between tense and aspect makes it much easier to see the simple and mathematically elegant tense and aspect system of English. Furthermore, students who speak languages which have much stronger differentials between tense and aspect than in English, or those whose mother tongues have no tense and utilize aspect instead, such as in Mandarin Chinese, can have a harder time adapting to or understanding this type of conflation of tense and aspect. In the approach adopted in this chapter, there is no need to distinguish between absolute and reference time because what used to be defined as “contextual temporal reference” is, in fact, the inflectional category of aspect, which will be discussed after tense. The three types of tense are defined with respect to their distance from the speech/utterance time, which is always the present/now. If an event or state refers to a time before the speech time, it is in the past and if an event or state refers to a time after the speech time, it is in the future, and if an event or state time includes the speech time, it is in the present. It is important to understand that the time span for the present is not restricted to the speech time: it may include the day, the week, the month, the year, the century, even the millennium which includes the speech time, as in We still do not do anything to protect the environment in this millennium. If we assume that time is linear, the following diagram (Aygen, 2016) would mark each tense: (ET= Event Time; ST=Speech Time): Past _______ET__________________ST___________________________ Present ___________________________ST/ET________________________ Future ___________________________ST______________ET___________ An ELL needs to know where to look in the sentence to identify the tense of the sentence. Tense is morphologically marked on the first verb in the verb complex (VC). If there is only one verb in the VC, then it is marked on that verb:

887

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

There is nothing redundant in language. Whenever we observe two structures seemingly serving the same purpose, there is, in fact, a difference in how they function. In this case, we use [BE+ going to] if we intend to do something, or if we are sure about what is about to happen, based on evidence or other information. We use will when we make a decision on the spot: As an answer to the question What would you like to drink?, we tend to say, I will have a cup of coffee, unless we have been thinking or dreaming about that cup of coffee for a while! Because it marks intentionality, [BE going to] indicates a stronger probability of the event to take place. For instance, at job interviews, in an answer to the question regarding his/her contributions to the company, the candidate who uses [BE going to] will impress the interviewer more than the candidate who uses [will] simply because, the use of [will] implies a decision made on impulse, whereas, [BE going to] implies contemplation on the topic in advance. When the auxiliary verb [BE] in [BE going to] is inflected in the past, it implies a past intention to do something which in fact did not happen: •

She was going to swim in the lake, but it rained, so she couldn’t.

It is important that English language learners practice enough material to acquire the habit of focusing on the very first verb in a verb complex to identify the tense without getting distracted by markers of other inflectional categories, such as aspect. The exercise below demonstrates the steps necessary to identify the tense of a VC in a sentence: (2) I have never had a chocolate soufflé before. (i) Find the verb complex (VC); (ii) find the verb that marks tense; (iii) identify the tense marked on the verb. A typical answer would be: i. Have … had is the verb complex. Never is not part of it because it is not a verb. ii. Have is the first verb and marks the tense. iii. Have is marked with the present tense.

888

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

Sentences in context, such as a paragraph from an article or a story can be used to practice identifying the tense on the verb in each clause.

Aspect In a traditional approach, aspect is considered a kind of tense as discussed above. Regardless of the closeness of the concepts in terms of referring to the general idea of time, identification of aspect as a separate inflectional category is a more accurate description of how language works. Therefore, the more recent approach to inflectional categories proposes a clausal structure in which inflectional categories tense, aspect, voice and mood are considered as separate functional heads in syntax (Aygen, 2004; Chomsky, 2005; Travis, 1991, among others). A functional head such as tense has a syntactic function and contributes to the clause with a grammatical meaning. A lexical head, on the other hand, is the word that determines the syntactic category of a phrase, such as the noun cat being the head of the noun phrase the cat. Aspect may be grammatical or lexical. Aspect defined as “the different ways of viewing the internal temporal consistency of a situation” (Comrie, 1976, p. 3), is lexical aspect. Lexical aspect focuses on the different types of aspect that the meaning of a verb indicates and can be learned by understanding the meaning verbs denote. There are four aspectual classes of lexical aspect: states, activities, accomplishments, and achievements (Vendler, 1967). States, also known as statives, are verbs that refer to unchanging states of being, such as know or contain. Activities, also known as dynamic verbs, express actions, such as walk or give. Accomplishments refer to verbs that include the beginning of an activity and a result state: cooking dinner. Achievement verbs, on the other hand, describe actions that occur instantly, as in They spotted the car. These categories of verbs are distinguished with respect to their grammatical behavior. For instance, stative verbs and achievement verbs cannot occur in the progressive aspect and be marked with {-ing} in English because they do not have duration; that is, they occur over a period of time: The sentence *He is being tall (stative) is ungrammatical3. However, verbs of activity and verbs of accomplishment can occur in the progressive aspect marked with{-ing}: She is walking (activity) / fixing the car (accomplishment). Grammatical aspect is categorized as perfective and imperfective. Languages may mark perfective and imperfective aspect independently of tense. Perfective aspect corresponds to complete actions, states, and events, and the imperfective to progressive nature of actions or events. “Perfectivity indicates the view of the situation as a single whole, without distinction of the various phases that make up that situation, while the imperfective pays essential attention to the internal structure of the situation” (Comrie, 1976, p.16). Both perfective and imperfective aspects are marked on and/or by verbs. The lack of any aspect marking on the verb is referred to with the term “simple” before the tense of a sentence, such as simple present, simple past and simple future. The term “simple” basically refers to the absence of aspect marking. These events are single, yet they are not perfective because perfective also entails a “perfection” or “completion” of the event. After all, the term “perfect” comes from Latin perfectus, and its passive participle form perficere which means “completed.” The concept of grammatical aspect that this chapter focuses on refers to the morpho-syntactic marking of aspect on verbs. In English, morpho-syntactic marking consists of the choice of the auxiliary verb [BE] vs. [HAVE] and the form of the verb that follows, with the present participle{-ing} vs. the past participle marker {-ed/en}.

889

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

In brief, grammatical aspect in English is analyzed as a grammatical marker of a completed event or action (perfect) and or ongoing event or action (progressive). Once we know which tense is marked on the first verb of the verb complex, we can move on to identify the three types of aspect English marks morpho-syntactically: progressive, perfect, and perfect progressive. Some examples of these three types of aspect are as follows:

Progressive Aspect Progressive aspect refers to ongoing events or states. Note that the event or state might be ongoing in any one of the three tense categories: past, present, or future. We represent progressive aspect on a time line with a bold wavy line. Its location depends on the tense marked on the verb complex. What matters for identification of aspect is that it is ongoing, not when or in which tense it is ongoing. ST refers to the speech time, ET event time, and ET2 to the time of the second event.



They were dancing at 2 o’clock. ◦◦ Speech time = now ◦◦ at 2 o’clock = ET2; ET2 is what intersects with an ongoing event at some point. They were dancing before and after 2 o’clock, but when the speaker saw them, it was 2 pm. ◦◦ Paraphrase: At the time you saw them, they were dancing.



They are dancing. ◦◦ Speech time/now = or includes ET ◦◦ Paraphrase: Right now, they are dancing.



They will be dancing when you see them. ◦◦ Speech time = now ◦◦ Paraphrase: At the time you see them in the future, they will be dancing.

If we take a closer look at the verb complexes of the sentences above, we can identify the grammatical marking of progressive aspect in all tenses: were dancing (past), are dancing (present), will be dancing (future). They all have • •

the auxiliary verb [BE], which is marked with any tense, and followed by the main verb that ends in the morpheme{-ing}.

We can combine these two observations into a simple formula for the morpho-syntactic marking of the progressive aspect in English:

890

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English



[BE] verb+ing This formula states that

• • •

the progressive aspect requires the auxiliary verb [BE] followed by the main verb carrying the morpheme {-ing}in the verb complex. Because tense is marked on the first verb, [BE] will carry the tense as the first verb of the verb complex: [BE] in the past = was/were; [BE] in the present = am/is/are; [BE] in the future = will be.

What tense [BE] carries does not depend on aspect. The progressive aspect in English requires two verbs to be present in the verb complex: the auxiliary verb [BE] and the main verb marked with the progressive morpheme {-ing}. ELLs should focus on identifying the morpho-syntactic markings of progressive aspect separate from tense in sentences. Many other languages mark aspect in different ways, requiring students whose L1s mark in such ways to require additional practice. Understanding what tense is and how it works requires a lot of practice with finding the components of the formula [BE] verb+ing in VCs. Breaking down the elements of a VC allows us to identify each separate English verb and its inflectional markers. Following is such an exercise: (3) They were playing with the therapy dogs when the doctor walked into the therapy room. (i) Find the verb complex marked with the progressive aspect; (ii) identify the progressive aspect formula. A typical answer would be: i. were playing is the verb complex that is marked with the progressive aspect. ii. were is the [BE] and playing is the verb+ing component of the progressive aspect formula.

Perfect Aspect Perfect aspect refers to events or states that are complete. In a verb complex marked with the perfect aspect, the event or state is completed by a given time, which is known as the reference or relevance time. We can paraphrase the meaning of perfect aspect emphasizing the duration and the result or outcome of that duration rather than the event time or the event itself. The outcome depends on the context but it is always a result of the event that is complete. In the perfect aspect, the completion time of an event or state overlaps with one of the three tenses: past, present, or future. On the time line, we represent perfect aspect with a bold, double line. ET2 represents the time by which the event or state is completed. Speech time is always now.



They had danced for three hours when you arrived.

891

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

◦◦ ◦◦

when you arrived = ET2 Paraphrase: By the time you arrived, they had danced for three hours.

A possible outcome: They were tired when you came.



They have danced for three hours. ◦◦ Speech time/now = ET2 ◦◦ Paraphrase: Until now, they have danced for three hours. A possible outcome: They are tired now.



They will have danced for three hours by the time you arrive. ◦◦ The time you arrive = ET2 ◦◦ Paraphrase: You will arrive at a specific time in the future and by then, they will have danced for three hours.

A possible outcome: They will be tired by then. If we take a closer look at the VCs of the sentences above, we can identify the grammatical marking of perfect aspect in all tenses: had danced (past), have danced (present), will have danced (future). They all have • •

the auxiliary verb [HAVE] which marks any tense followed by the main verb that ends in the past participle morpheme{-ed/en}.

We can combine these two observations into a simple formula for the morpho-syntactic marking of perfect aspect in English: •

[HAVE] verb+ed/en. This formula states that

• • •

the perfect aspect requires the auxiliary verb [HAVE] followed by the main verb carrying the morpheme {-ed/en} in the verb complex. Because tense is marked on the first verb, obviously, [HAVE] will carry the tense: The auxiliary verb [HAVE] carries the tense markers as the first verb of the verb complex: [HAVE] in the past = had; [HAVE] in the present = have/has; [HAVE] in the future = will have.

However, what tense [HAVE] carries does not depend on aspect, as we noted above. The perfect aspect in English requires two verbs to be present in the verb complex: [HAVE] and the main verb marked with the past participle morpheme {-ed/en}.

892

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

Perfect aspect is difficult even for native speakers of English, most of whom cannot tell the difference between past tense and perfect aspect without significant training. The reason for this common nativespeaker confusion is that both forms would appear with a content verb marked with {-ed}. Therefore, additional practice, such as the one below, focusing on complex sentences with both simple past tense and perfect aspect would be useful. (4) They had played with the therapy dogs until the doctor walked into the therapy room. (i) Find the verb complex marked with the perfect aspect; (ii) identify the perfect aspect formula in that verb complex. A typical answer would be: i. had played is the verb complex that is marked with the perfect aspect. ii. had is the [HAVE] and played is the verb+ed/en component of the perfect aspect formula.

Perfect Progressive Aspect The perfect and the progressive aspects can combine to form the perfect progressive aspect in English. The perfect progressive refers to the completion of an event or a state that is, was, or will be in progress at the time of another event, ET2 or point in time. The location of the ET2 with respect to the speech time also marks the tense. The perfect progressive is represented with a bold curly line that includes the ET2 in the following diagrams:



They had been working for three hours when you arrived. ◦◦ When you arrived = ET2 ◦◦ Paraphrase: When you arrived, they had done three hours of work, and they were still working. A possible outcome: They were tired, yet they still continued working.



They have been working for three hours. ◦◦ Speech time = ET2 ◦◦ Paraphrase: They started working three hours ago, and they are still working now. A possible outcome: They are/must be tired, yet they are still working.



They will have been working for three hours by the time you arrive. ◦◦ The time you arrive = ET2 ◦◦ Paraphrase: You will arrive at a specific time in the future and by then, they will have worked for three hours, and they will still be working.

893

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

A possible outcome: They will be tired, but they will still continue working. If we take a closer look at the VCs of the sentences above, we can observe that the grammatical marking of the perfect progressive aspect is the result of the combination of the requirements for perfect and progressive aspects: had been working (past), have been working (present), will have been working (future). Requirements of the perfect aspect are met: • •

the auxiliary verb [HAVE] followed by the main verb that ends in the past participle morpheme{-ed/en} The verb inflected with the past participle morpheme{-ed/en} here is the verb [BE] as been. Requirements of the progressive aspect are met as well:

• •

the auxiliary verb [BE] followed by the main verb that ends in the morpheme{-ing} as V+ing. A handy observation that can be used as a linguistic tool to identify perfect progressive is the following:



the verb [BE] serves two purposes: satisfies the first requirement of progressive aspect and the second requirement of perfect aspect.

Therefore, if a verb complex is in the perfect progressive, the second verb will always be been. Another useful tool is to remember that the perfect progressive aspect in English requires three verbs in the verb complex: • • •

[HAVE], which carries the tense, been which satisfies the two requirements observed above, and the main verb +{-ing}

We can combine these two observations into a simple formula for the morpho-syntactic marking of perfect progressive aspect in English: [HAVE] been verb+ing. This formula states that the perfect progressive aspect requires three verbs in the verb complex: the auxiliary verb [HAVE] followed by been, and the main verb carrying the morpheme {-ing}. As the first verb in the verb complex, the auxiliary verb [HAVE] carries the tense markers as the first verb of the verb complex: •

[HAVE] in the past = had; [HAVE] in the present = have/has; [HAVE] in the future = will have.

As noted earlier, the tense that [HAVE] carries is completely independent from aspect. To understand this distinction, it is essential that ELLs practice with the components of the formula [HAVE] been verb+ing in VCs. The following is such an exercise: (5) They had been playing with the therapy dogs when the doctor walked into the therapy room.

894

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

(i) Find the verb complex marked with the perfect progressive aspect; (ii) identify the perfect progressive aspect formula in that verb complex. A typical answer would be: i. had been playing is the verb complex that is marked with the perfect aspect. ii. had is the [HAVE] and been is the verb+ed/en component of the perfect aspect formula. been is the [BE] and playing is the verb+ing of the perfect aspect formula.

Tense and Aspect Interaction The following table (Table 1), adapted from Aygen (2016), demonstrates how tense and aspect interact. The aspect column begins with what we call “simple aspect.” “Simple” refers to single or recurrent events. It is not a category of grammatical aspect, but we call it simple to express the lack of any aspect marked morpho-syntactically and to distinguish it from overtly marked aspect forms. Some linguists regard this category part of a “habitual” aspect, but the reality of “habitual aspect” is controversial because the habitual nature of some events is not manifested as a grammatical aspect. In English, it is expressed by one of the two modal auxiliaries, namely, “used to” or “would” but it is not an aspect marked morphosyntactically as an inflectional morpheme. Table 1, which is a very useful tool to utilize in in-class exercises, as well as take-home assignments, represents both our naming system for inflectional categories tense and aspect, and the formulae that represent the morpho-syntactic markings of these two categories on the verb complex. In this naming system, we go down the left column that represents aspect and then move horizontally to the three corresponding tense types, and we name the tense and aspect of a given verbal complex. The formulae in the aspect column do not include the tense carried by the first verb in the verb complex. A sentence with a single verb in the verb complex would be named simple past, simple present, or simple future. Progressive aspect marked with the auxiliary [BE] and v+ing may interact with tense horizontally and be named past progressive, present progressive, and future progressive. Perfect aspect marked with the auxiliary [HAVE] and v-ed/en may interact with tense horizontally and be named past perfect, present perfect, and future perfect. Finally, perfect progressive aspect marked with the auxiliary [HAVE], been, and v+ing may interact with tense horizontally and be named past perfect progressive, present perfect progressive, and future perfect progressive. A common confusion caused by the traditional approaches to tense and aspect is due to the use of this naming system without distinguishing aspect from tense. This conflation causes an erroneous understanding of the inflectional system in English. This naming system is not only a tense system; it is a combination of tense and aspect. Therefore, the tense of a given sentence can never be “present perfect!” “Present” is the name of the tense, and “perfect” is the name of the aspect. Additionally, L1s of the students may mark tense and/or aspect differently or even not mark them. Therefore, it would be useful to fully understand the system with exercises such as the following: (6) When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice. (i) Find the VCs; (ii) identify the tense and aspect formula in each VC.

895

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

Table 1. Tense/aspect system of English Aspect

Past

Present

Future

___X___Now___ V+ed It snowed

______X/Now_____ V (s) It snows

_____Now_____X will V It will snow or Am/is/are going to +V It is going to snow

was/were V+ing It was snowing

am/is/are V+ing It is snowing

will be V+ing It will be snowing

had V+ed It had snowed

has/have V+ed It has snowed

will have V+ed It will have snowed

had been V+ing It had been snowing

has/have been V+ing It has been snowing

will have been V+ing It will have been snowing

Simple [V] Single or recurrent events Progressive [BE] V+ing Continuous event Perfect [HAVE] V+ed (Past participle) Completed events Perfect Progressive [HAVE] been V+ing (Present participle) Events that have taken place until a certain time and still goes on during that time (adapted from Aygen, 2016)

A typical answer would be: i.

ask is the verb complex of the subordinate clause and are … looking is the verb complex of the main clause. ii. ask is not marked for aspect; therefore, it is “simple aspect;” ask is the first and only verb to mark tense, and since it has no overt marking, it is in the present tense: simple present. are is the [BE] and looking is the verb+ing of the progressive aspect formula; are is marked as the present tense form of [BE]: present progressive.

Voice The third inflectional concept to be discussed is voice. Voice refers to alternations in a verb’s argument structure. Argument structure is the information carried within the grammatical meaning of a verb regarding what kind of arguments (i.e. subjects and objects) a verb requires and what semantic roles those arguments play in the sentence. Voice is considered a morpho-syntactic category of the verb, just like tense, and aspect.

Active vs. Passive Voice English marks two basic types of voice: active voice and passive voice morpho-syntactically.4 Typically, active and passive voice are defined based on the semantic roles of the subject of a sentence. The semantic

896

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

role of nominal arguments functioning as subject or object are determined by the verb of the sentence. The subject of a sentence may play many different roles depending on the verb used. As a grammatical category, voice indicates whether the subject has the semantic role of an agent, a doer, or a patient, the one that is affected by the action denoted in the verb, a recipient, the beneficiary from the action, or an experiencer, the one who experiences something. Active voice is observed in sentences where the subject is an agent. For instance, in The carpenter made a bookcase, the subject of the sentence, the carpenter, is the agent because the carpenter is the one enacting the making of the bookcase. Passive voice is observed when the subject of a clause is the patient, not agent. In A bookcase was made by the carpenter, the subject of the sentence, the bookcase, is the patient, not the agent/doer of the action. The bookcase did not make itself! In English, the active versus passive voice distinction is relevant only if the verb is a transitive verb, that is, if it has at least one object. Remember that we have an agent subject and a patient object in active sentences and a patient subject in passive sentences. When the verb is transitive, it has both an agent subject and a patient object, and this would constitute an active voice, as in He ate a banana. The agent/ subject, he, enacts the action, ate, of the object/patient, banana. If the verb loses its subject, then the logical object which serves the semantic role of patient serves as the subject of the sentence and constitutes the passive voice, as in A banana was eaten. The subject/ patient, banana, does not enact the action because it does not eat itself. If the verb is intransitive, that is, if it does not have any objects, we do not talk about voice because there is only a subject in the sentence, and the subject of intransitives can be neither an agent nor a patient. They can have the semantic role of experiencer. This is the case with the intransitive verb [SLEEP], for instance. In The guest slept for six hours, the guest is the subject and the experiencer of the act of sleeping at the same time.

The Morpho-Syntactic Markers of Voice The semantic roles of arguments of a verb, that is, whether it is an agent, a patient, or an experiencer, may be used to teach voice by pairing them with the syntactic role of those arguments: agentive subject and patient object in active voice, patient subject in passive voice, etc. However, semantic roles are only part of what voice is. Voice is an inflectional category, and as such, it is overtly marked morpho-syntactically on the verb complex of a sentence. Secondly, it is much easier to observe and identify voice on overt markers of the verb rather than relying on only semantic roles. In a passive voice sentence, the transitive verb is morpho-syntactically marked as a passivized one in the verb complex. The morpho-syntactic markers of the passive voice are very well defined. They are different from the typical tense-aspect markers on non-passive verbs, and non-passive verbs include intransitive verbs, verbs without any objects as well as transitive verbs. Consider the following passive sentences on the left, and compare them with the ones on the right:

The following observations can be made on the passive verb complexes above:

897

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

(i) The passive VC appears to begin with the auxiliary verb [BE] in all passive sentences. (ii) The auxiliary verb [BE] differs only in terms of which tense and aspect it is marked with: is, was, is/was being, has/had been, will/would be. (iii) The passive VC appears to end with the past participle form of the main verb in all passive sentences: discussed. These observations are formulized as [BE]tense/aspect v+ed/en (Aygen, 2016).

Other Indicators of Passive Voice Outside the VC, there is another indicator of passive voice: the subject of the passive verb is the logical subject of the active verb. For instance, “the topic” in the sentences above is the object of the active verb discuss and the subject of the passive verb [BE] discussed. Furthermore, the logical agent of the sentence appears in a by-phrase, if it appears at all. •

The cake was baked by a famous chef.

The Auxiliary Verb [BE] and Participles We have already established that the auxiliary verb [BE] is a marker of progressive aspect when it is followed by a verb in the present participle, verb+ing; however, it is a marker of the passive voice when followed by the past participle, verb+ed/en.

It is important to know that not all [BE] + past participle (PP) forms are passive voice constructions because the linking verb [BE] may be followed by a past participle verb functioning as an adjective. That is, past or present participles may become independent words that function as adjectives and follow the linking verb [BE]. Consider the examples below on past participles (in the left column) and present participles (in the right column) functioning as adjectives:

The examples above have either the present or the past participle following the linking verb [BE], and the sentence makes sense either way. Secondly, we can use another linking verb [SEEM] interchangeably with [BE]. Thirdly, the present or past participle express a quality of the subject rather than an action. A property of passive sentences we have noted above is that they allow by-phrases to indicate who the agent/doer of the action is, as in The beach is destroyed [by the storm]. However, the linking verb [BE]+past participle structures do not allow such by-phrases, as in She is married. We cannot say *She

898

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

is married by a priest. This property of passives will help us distinguish them from the linking verb [BE] + past participle structures. Based on such independent evidence, we know that such participles are now used as adjectives, and they follow the linking verb [BE]. The passive participles follow the auxiliary verb [BE]. Active voice is the default voice marked with the tense-aspect inflectional morphemes represented in the tense-aspect system earlier in this chapter. If a transitive verb in the verb complex exhibits the tense and aspect morphemes in that system, the sentence is in the active voice. •

The participants have discussed the topic for a long time. ◦◦ Have is an auxiliary verb that marks the present tense and the perfect aspect ◦◦ discussed is a transitive verb with the direct object, the topic, and it is marked with the second component of perfect aspect, {-ed/en} in the sentence. At this point, it is useful to review the various kinds and functions of [BE] in English:

1. [BE] is a linking verb when it is the main verb. It can be followed by a subject complement that gives information about the subject. She is a dancer. She is here. Past participles that are lexicalized as adjectives may be subject complements, as well: She is tired. 2. [BE] can be a regular auxiliary verb: a. It appears as a component of progressive aspect when followed by a verb+ing: She is washing the dishes. b. It appears as a component of passive voice when followed by a verb+ed/en: She was questioned by the police. Distinguishing VCs marked with the passive voice formula would help ELLs learn the structure better because the passive voice structure can easily be seen to be violating typical English patterns, not simply modifying them. Following is a sample exercise: (7) “Smoking kills you. If you are killed, you have lost a very important part of your life.” (Brooke Shields) (i) Identify the verb complexes of each clause; (ii) identify the voice of each sentence; (iii) specify how that voice is marked. A typical answer would include the three verb complexes: i.

kills is the only verb in the VC of the first sentence; are killed is the verb complex of the if-clause; have lost is the VC of the last clause. ii. The first sentence is in the active voice. The if-clause is in the passive voice, and the last clause is in the active voice. iii. The first sentence is active because (a) the verb is a transitive verb with the object you; (b) the verb is marked with the regular simple present tense.

899

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

The verb in the if-clause is passive because: (a) the verb does not have an object; (b) the VC manifests the formula of the passive voice: are is the present tense form of [BE], and killed is the past participle form v+ed. The third VC have lost is in the active voice because: (a) the verb is a transitive verb with the object a very important part of your life; (b) the verb complex is marked with a regular tense-aspect: present perfect.

Mood The fourth inflectional category included in this chapter is mood. Mood is also a complex concept discussed by syntacticians, semanticists, and philosophers. Mood is basically the grammaticalization of the general intent of the speaker. In the syntactic literature, there is a functional head, the content of which is semantically defined as mood. Some researchers proposed a specific imperative mood head (Rivero & Terzi, 1995); others proposed the highest functional head, the Complementizer head (C), in the sentence (Aygen, 2004), or one of the higher heads as the one that represents the mood of the clause (Rizzi & Cinque, 2016). In these contemporary syntactic approaches, mood is represented by a syntactic functional head in syntax and its own morpho-syntactic markers in morphology. English marks three basic mood categories in English: indicative, imperative, and subjunctive.

Indicative Mood Indicative mood, also known as declarative mood, is used in statements about facts. A fact is generally described as a statement consistent with reality as we perceive it. Reality, or the actual world, is what we believe to be true about the world. The simple reason we expect to be understood when we communicate with others is that we assume that everyone believes in the same reality or world. Because the indicative mood expresses a fact about reality, it is said to refer to the realis (Palmer, 1986, pp. 20-27, 70, 83). Consider the sentence below: •

I will see you in class next Tuesday.

The speaker of this sentence assumes that the world will remain as we know it until next Tuesday; the class will not be cancelled next Tuesday; both she or he and his/her audience will be alive to meet, and so on. English language marks such statements that refer to reality, or the actual world, on the verb complex as indicative mood. This sentence and the vast majority of the sentences in this chapter are in the indicative mood. This generalization excludes a few sentences in the subjunctive and imperative mood in the content of the chapter and the example sentences in the sections on imperative or subjunctive mood. The morpho-syntactic markers of the indicative mood are the tense and aspect markers on the verb complex: She dances/danced/is dancing. The VC of statements in the indicative mood is always morpho-syntactically marked with the tenseaspect inflections described in the section above. For instance, in the sentence I will see you in class next Tuesday, the VC will see is morpho-syntactically marked with the future tense and simple aspect, a tense-aspect combination from the chart above, as expected from a sentence in the indicative mood.

900

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

The rule of the thumb to identify the morpho-syntactic marking of indicative mood is to observe a verbal complex (VC) marked with the tense-aspect system in the chart above. Following is an exercise that combines the tense, aspect, and indicative mood exercises: (8) I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this is not it. (i) Find the VCs; (ii) identify the tense, aspect, and (iii) mood marked in each VC. A typical answer would be: i. have had is the VC of the first clause and is is the VC of the second clause. ii. have is the first verb, and it is in the present tense. Have had is marked with [HAVE] verb+ed; therefore, it is in the “perfect aspect.” The tense and aspect of the first clause is present perfect. Is is the first and only verb to mark tense, and it is the present tense form of the linking verb [BE]. It is not marked for any aspect. Therefore, it is in the simple form. The tense and aspect of the second clause is simple present. iii. The mood of both clauses is indicative because their VCs are marked with the typical tense-aspect combinations for English.

Imperative Mood Imperative mood refers to a request or a command. The word “imperative” comes from Latin imperare which means “to command.” In fact, in most languages, the word for imperative comes from a word that means “to command” in that language: Greek prostaktiki from prostazo, “to command”; Turkish emir kipi, “command mood”; Hebrew civuy, “to command.” Following Searle (1975), it is commonly accepted that the imperative is used by the speaker to get the hearer to do something. As observed by Wilson and Sperber (1988), when the speaker gives permission or advice, the speaker may not necessarily be getting the hearer to perform an act, just like an imperative not ensuring the act to be carried. For instance, a parent may say, •

You may clean your room tomorrow.

However, this does not mean that the kid will ever clean her or his room. In any case, regardless of the meaning of the sentence above, not every sentence asking the hearer to perform an act is in the imperative mood: the sentence above is in the indicative mood. This is another example of how the meaning of a structure may mislead us in determining the inflectional category of the sentence. The meaning of the sentence may overlap with or be understood as a kind of order or command, but its mood category cannot be determined based on its meaning. Another example of such contradiction between the meaning of a sentence and its mood is discussed by Birjulin and Xrakovski (2001) who define imperative sentences as semantically conveying the idea that the speaker informs the hearer that s/he wishes some action (by a certain agent) to be caused by this very information. Not all directives are structured as an imperative, either. For instance, •

You are going to do as I say.

901

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

The meaning of the sentence above can be interpreted as an order, but its mood is the indicative, not the imperative! Instead of getting distracted by meaning, it is safer to look at the morpho-syntactic markers of the imperative mood. The imperative is the simplest type of mood in terms of morpho-syntactic marking because the VC of a sentence in the imperative mood is never marked with the tense-aspect system discussed above5. Morphologically, the verb does not appear with any morpheme; it appears in its bare form. Syntactically, sentences in the imperative mood allow only the second person “you” as the subject and that subject is usually omitted from the sentence. •

(You) help yourself/yourselves. The subject is not omitted only if it needs to be focused:



You do it, not Sarah!

As argued in Davies (1986), and von Fintel and Iatridou (2017), compound sentences may have an imperative mood marked on the first VC, and an indicative mood marked on the second VC. Consider the compound sentence below: •

Get a job, and you won’t have to live with your parents ever again.

The first clause Get a job exhibits both properties of an imperative: there is no overt subject, and there is a bare verb as would be expected in imperative mood. The second verb complex [won’t have to live] exhibits properties of an indicative: it has the future tense marker “will,” followed by the modal “have to” and the verb. It has an overt subject “you.” The verb in the imperative mood, unlike the indicative mood, has no tense or aspect marker; it appears in its bare form, and the subject is always the second person “you”: Dance here! The rule of thumb to distinguish imperative mood from indicative mood is to look for tense or aspect markers on the verb complex. If there is any tense or aspect marker involved in the VC, the sentence is in the indicative; if not, the imperative mood. Following is an example with separate sentences marked as indicative or imperative mood: (9) “Do not take life seriously. You will never get out of it alive.” (Elbert Hubbard) (i) Find the VCs; (ii) identify the mood marked in each verb complex. A typical answer would be: i. do…take is the VC of the first clause and will … get out is the verb complex of the second clause. ii. do…take has no overt tense/aspect marker; there is an implied subject “you”, and the [DO] is used for emphasis to accompany the negative “not”; therefore, it is in the imperative mood. will … get out is marked with the future tense marker “will,” and the bare form of the verb “get out” and no aspect marker; therefore, it is marked with the simple future tense. Just like any other tense + aspect combination demonstrated in Table 1, this verb complex marked with simple aspect and future tense is in the indicative mood. 902

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

In brief, the two morpho-syntactic markers of the imperative mood are (i) the verb in its bare form with no tense-aspect or subject-verb agreement morphology, and (ii) the subject in the second person, whether it is an overt or an understood subject.

Subjunctive Mood Subjunctive mood refers to events and states out of the real or actual world, and it is considered an irrealis mood. Unlike the indicative mood that expresses facts about reality, the subjunctive mood expresses irrealis meanings that are not facts (Crystal, 1985, pp.79-80). Irrealis meanings include uncertainty, prediction, obligation, or desire. Subjunctive mood expresses wishes, suggestions, and contrary-tofact conditionals. These sentences express hypothetical events or states that are contrary to the factual world. They are expected to be interpreted in a possible world, not the actual world in which facts are interpreted. We assume another world among an infinite number of possible worlds in which what we say is true. In those worlds we express probability, improbability, and impossibility. Consider the following sentence: •

If he has integrity, he will tell the truth.

We do not know if he has integrity. We assume a possible world in which he has integrity, and if he has it, then we expect him to tell the truth. In English, subjunctive mood is used in three different types of structures: wish-constructions, counterfactual conditionals, and structures with subjunctive verbs or adjectives.

Wish Constructions Wishes refer to events and states the speaker wants to be true in the present or the past, and it is actually impossible to make them come true. Therefore, the events or states the speaker wishes for are contraryto fact ones, that is, improbable or impossible ones. English marks the verb complex of such events and states different way than it would mark real or possible events/states. Present wishes are marked with the past tense: •

They wish they were young now so that they could run as they used to. ◦◦ The temporal adverb now signals the present, but the verb were is marked with the past tense. ◦◦ Meaning: They are not young, and they cannot run as they used to. Past wishes are marked with the past tense and perfect aspect:



She wished she had asked for help at the beginning of the semester when she failed the first quiz. ◦◦ The temporal phrase at the beginning of the semester signals the past, but the verb complex had asked is marked with the past perfect. ◦◦ Meaning: She did not ask for help.

It is not only the tense and tense-aspect combinations that flag a subjunctive mood in wish constructions; the subject-verb agreement loses the singular-plural distinction, and it is neutralized as plural. 903

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

Neutralized means that it will have one form regardless of the number on the subject, and in this case, that form will always be plural: •

I wish I were an astronomer. ◦◦ The first-person pronoun I is singular, but the verb were is in the plural. ◦◦ Meaning: I am not an astronomer.

Understanding how English marks the unreal nature of wishes takes practice with example sentences. Following is such an exercise with a sentence expressing a wish in the subjunctive mood: (10) I wish I had answers to all grammar questions now. (i) Identify the VC of each clause; (ii) identify the mood of the sentence; (iii) specify how that mood is marked; (iv) give the meaning of the sentence. A typical answer would be: i.

wish is the only verb in the VC of the main clause; had is the only verb in the VC of the subordinate clause. ii. The complete sentence is in the subjunctive mood. iii. wish is marked in the present tense; now is a temporal adverb that marks the present; however, the verb of the subordinate clause had is marked in the past tense. The presence of the verb wish in the present tense followed by a verb in the past tense in the subordinate clause is a marker of the subjunctive mood. iv. I do not have answers to all grammar questions.

Counterfactual Conditionals Conditionals refer to sentences in which there is a condition stated in an if-clause for the then-clause to be true. Note that then need not appear at the beginning of the consequent clause; its use is optional, and we mark this optionality by putting it within parentheses. •

“If it is far away, (then) it is news. If it is close at home, (then) it is sociology.” (James Reston) English conditionals have three structures:

(i) Probable condition (ii) Improbable condition (iii) Impossible condition The first type, probable condition, refers to possible events: •

904

If we take measures, then we will prevent a financial crisis.

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

◦◦

In this sentence, if the if-clause happens to be true, then the then-clause becomes true as well. Because it is still possible for us to take measures, and it is possible to prevent a crisis. This condition is still in the indicative mood, not in the subjunctive mood because it is still possible to prevent the crisis. Probable condition is also called non-counterfactual because it is not contrary-to-fact, and there is a possibility for the event prevent a financial crisis to be a fact.

In the probable condition, the if-clause is always in the present tense, and the then-clause is in the future tense. The probable condition may also have modals instead of the future will, as in If we do not want a financial crisis, then we must take measures. If we have present tense in both the if-clause and the then-clause, whenever the event in the if-clause happens, the event in the then-clause also happens. This type of a probable condition is referred to as zero conditional6. Zero conditional is usually used for scientific facts as in, Ice becomes liquid if you heat it. The second type of English conditionals, improbable condition, refers to improbable events or states: •

If I were rich, (then) I would help the poor. ◦◦ Meaning: I am not rich; therefore, I cannot help the poor. In improbable conditions, the subjunctive is marked with the following:

(i) The verb in the if-clause is marked in the past tense and when the verb is [BE] the subject-verb agreement is neutralized as the plural, just like the present wish-constructions discussed above. (ii) The verb complex in the then-clause is marked with a modal implying the past and a bare verb: would/could/should + Verb. The third type, impossible condition, refers to impossible events or states, and is in the subjunctive mood: •

If they had rejected the project, (then) they would not have invited us to a meeting. ◦◦ What the impossible condition above states is that they did not reject the project and they invited us to a meeting. In impossible conditions, the subjunctive is marked with the following:

(i) The verb in the if-clause is marked in the past tense and perfect aspect. (ii) The verb complex in the then-clause is marked with a modal implying the past and a verb in the perfect aspect: would/could/should have +verb+ed/en Mixed conditionals are a subset of the impossible conditions. Mixed conditionals refer to present result of a past condition: •

If you had called her earlier, (then) she would not be angry with you now. In mixed conditionals, the verb complexes are marked as follows: 905

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

(i) The verb in the if-clause is marked in the past tense and perfect aspect. (ii) The verb complex in the then-clause is marked with a present conditional such as would/could + Verb In brief, the second and third types of conditionals, namely, the improbable conditions and the impossible conditions including mixed conditionals, are contrary-to fact conditionals. They are also called counterfactuals because they can no longer be true, and they belong to the subjunctive mood7. The following exercise illustrates how counterfactual conditionals are marked as subjunctive mood: (11) “If she were right, (then) I would agree with her.” (Robin Williams) (i) Identify the VCs of each clause; (ii) identify the type of the conditional and the mood of the complete sentence; (iii) specify how that mood is marked; give the meaning of the sentence. A typical answer would be: i.

Were is the only verb in the verb complex of the if-clause; would agree is the VC of the main/ then-clause. ii. The conditional is the improbable condition, and the complete sentence is in the subjunctive mood. iii. Were is marked in the past tense; would agree is marked with would +verb; both of these are properties of the improbable if-then sentences. The subject is in the singular, but the verb were is marked with the plural; this is a typical marker of the subjunctive mood. iv. Meaning: She is not right, and I do not agree with her.

Subjunctive Verbs or Adjectives English has a set of verbs and adjectives that require a subsequent subordinate/complement clause to be in the subjunctive mood8. Some of these verbs are [DEMAND], [REQUIRE], [INSIST], and some adjectives are important, essential, necessary. Subjunctive verbs and adjectives do not allow the verb in the subsequent subordinate/embedded clause to be marked with any “tense, aspect, or subject-verb agreement” marking. The lack of any such inflectional marking is how language flags the unreal nature of the content.

In a declarative sentence with a non-subjunctive verb or a non-subjunctive adjective, the verb in the subsequent subordinate/complement clause would have the relevant tense and subject-verb agreement markers: •

I hope that she is on time.

But such inflectional markers make the sentence ungrammatical if the verb is subjunctive such as [DESIRE]:

906

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

• •

Incorrect: *I desire that he will be on time. Correct: I desire that he be on time.

It is important to learn the subjunctive verbs and adjectives that forbid the presence of any inflectional morphemes on the verb, at least the most commonly used ones such as the verbs suggest, demand, and insist, or the adjectives essential, imperative, and important. Although learning these verbs and adjectives by heart is a possible way to remember them, it is better to understand how they differ from other verbs that require a subjunctive subordinate/complement clause. Why they exhibit this property has been discussed by syntacticians with some convincing arguments although we still do not have definitive answer to that question (Aygen, 2004 & 2006). Another attempt at explaining the difference between subjunctive and non-subjunctive verbs is a conceptual one: verbs that select the indicative mood and those that select the subjunctive mood are different. For instance, [HOPE], an indicative-selector verb is different from [DESIRE], a subjunctive-selecting one. It is possible to hope as long as one still believes there is a chance of satisfaction. In other words, the domain of hope is what is known to be possible in the actual world. On the other hand, [DESIRE] calls for the subjunctive because one desires for states of affairs that are not only unrealized yet but also not likely to be realized. The domain of desire is not what is necessarily possible in the actual world. This also explains why there are no tense markers on the subjunctive because subjunctive events do not occur in real time (Stanescu, 2018). Subjunctives always involve the ought to component; that is why, they are commonly verbs of commands or verbs of permission, such as [ASK], [ADVISE], [DECIDE], [DECREE], [FORBID], [PROHIBIT], [ORDER], [SUGGEST], and more. Still, attempts to explain the difference through meaning do not always suffice. Morpho-syntactic markers are still the most reliable tools along with other syntactic accounts of the subjunctive in the linguistic literature.

How Subjunctives Are Marked Morpho-Syntactically: A Summary English marks subjunctives outside of reality, or outside of the actual world, in three ways morphosyntactically: (i) by not using the expected tense-aspect system and the subject-verb agreement on the verb complex. Verbs in the subjunctive mood may lack any tense, aspect, or subject-verb agreement marker, regardless of the person or number properties of the subject: I insist that she be on time. (ii) by using unexpected tense and subject-verb agreement markings, as is the case in wish-constructions: I wish I were rich now. Now refers to the present, but the verb is in the past; furthermore, the subject is in the singular, but the verb is marked with the plural. (iii) by using a specific tense+aspect morpho-syntactic marking on the verb complex of the if-clause and a modal+aspect marking on the verb complex of the consequent clause to mark the contraryto-fact or impossible nature of the event in two types of conditionals: a. Improbable condition: If she were sick, then she would not come to class. The speaker is certain that she is not sick because she is in class. b. Impossible condition: If she had not rejected the proposal, then someone else would have. The speaker is certain that she rejected the proposal and the if-clause is false; that is, she did reject the proposal. 907

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

The morpho-syntactic marking of subjunctive mood is an area in which ELLs are particularly vulnerable. After a lot of emphasis on the use of tense and aspect markers for all indicative sentences, it is quite challenging to understand that another mood category requires the lack of them. Additionally, the fact that subjunctive verbs and adverbs are not as commonly used does not help, either. Even native speakers of English speaking any dialect of English are confused with the subjunctive unless they go through extensive formal training or unless they are keen readers. The only way one can fully overcome this challenge is by observing the morpho-syntactic marking of the subjunctive mood in clauses with subjunctive verbs or adjectives. Following is a sample exercise: (12) His mother insisted that he have a normal life. (i) Identify the VC of each clause; (ii) identify the mood of the complete sentence; (iii) specify how that mood is marked. A typical answer would be: i.

insisted is the only verb in the VC of the main clause; have is the only verb of the VC of the subordinate clause. ii. The complete sentence is in the subjunctive mood. iii. insist is a subjunctive verb; have is not marked with tense or subject-verbal agreement morphemes. The subject he is in the singular, but the verb have is not marked for the singular “has”; both insist and the lack of subject-verb agreement on have are typical markers of the subjunctive mood.

IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS This section aims to provide future teachers and learners of English with pedagogical material and linguistic tools to teach the morpho-syntactic markers of tense, aspect, mood, and voice in their classes through the use of the analytical thinking skills rooted in scientific inquiry. Although the distinction of learners and teachers is made to clarify the roles in this chapter, the learning environment in the classroom includes the teacher not as an omnipotent authority figure but as an obviously more experienced and knowledgeable guide who “teaches” in his/her performance as a fellow-learner while participating in the learning process. Therefore, the use of “we” rather than “you” for all tasks, activities, and discussions in class is recommended. The model teacher all teachers aspire to would be the one who makes teaching a tool for advanced learning, one who would know how to learn from the students and make what s/he learns from the students obvious by talking about it explicitly. Creating an encouraging learning environment is important for teaching in general, but it is a lot more important when teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students. Those fortunate enough to work with students with diverse backgrounds have an opportunity to learn more from their students, allowing the development and refinement of their own linguistic and teaching skills. When students observe a teacher as a role model who knows how to learn as well as how to teach, and when the teacher makes use of this unique opportunity of having a class full of students with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds by acknowledging it as a privilege and learning from them, students

908

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

are truly empowered. Empowered students perform and participate more enthusiastically and become better learners themselves.

Teaching Morpho-Syntactic Markers of Tense, Aspect, Mood, and Voice Adopting a descriptive linguistics approach rather than traditional approaches to grammatical issues as discussed above allows us to observe and identify the systematic and simple way English marks inflectional categories such as tense, aspect, voice, and mood. Application of this linguistics approach to the design of the teaching material and the pedagogical techniques used in classrooms aims to help students acquire two sets of skills: analytical/linguistic skills to improve competence and self-monitoring/editing skills to improve performance. These two skills are interdependent. Improving the performance of ELLs depends on their competence on such topics. In this context, performance includes not only actual language production in speech and writing, but also extends to peer- or self-monitoring, and finally peer- or self-editing. Peer- or self-monitoring and peer- or self-editing skills are particularly important because they allow ELLs to continue to learn/teach themselves and to improve their performance beyond the formal education period. Finally, adopting a linguistic approach will prevent any discrimination against any language that ELLs may speak as L1.

Learner Training Learner Training refers to analytical/linguistic skills training exercises to teach how to learn from language itself at large, and how to identify inflectional properties of verbs or how such properties are marked on the verb(s) for our purposes. Such skills can easily be acquired by mimicking some basic steps of scientific inquiry: Begin with a hypothesis, that is, a proposed explanation made based on limited evidence. It is a starting point for further evidence. At this point, students make use of what they already know or think they know about the topic. For instance, while identifying verbs, the basic meaning of verbs or anything else students know about verbs may serve the purposes of a hypothesis, such as the traditional definition of verbs as words for actions. This approach does not exclude definitions based on meaning, but it limits the use of such definitions to a basic stepping stone. Step 1. Making observations: observing patterns of where and how such markers appear and function. Step 2. Making generalizations: deriving rules or formulae to describe where and how they appear and function. Step 3. Making comparisons: comparing English to other languages in terms of where or how such markers appear or if they appear at all. When necessary, it involves comparing one structure in English with another one in English. End with a conclusion, that is, a decision reached by reasoning based on evidence. For instance, the conclusions for the analytical skills exercises in this chapter will include the identification of any morphosyntactic marker or part of speech by observing its form, location, and function, or FLF. Form refers to what additional endings or different forms a word, or for our purposes, a verb may have; Location refers to where that form appears with respect to other words in a sentence; and Function refers to the purpose the verbs serve in the sentence. 909

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

In scientific research, it is essential to test the findings to make sure they are reliable. For our purposes, the conclusion or results of all three steps are tested with new sentences.

Making Observations We recommend sparing the first week of classes and/or a class each week to demonstrate and practice the process of scientific inquiry so that ELLs acquire and enhance the analytical skills to learn from language itself. These learner-training exercises can be used for any topic in designing curricular activities. We can have ELLs practice the process first in small groups, then as a class. The major goal is to make this process a part of the linguistic skills of learners so that they can keep learning and teaching themselves as they produce language verbally or in written work.

Making Generalizations In this approach, performance is expected to keep improving through this interaction between conscious efforts of increasing competence as well as performance and making the connection between performance and competence conscious. The secondary goal of these learner training exercises is to give the teacher a chance to observe the weaknesses and strengths of the students and make generalizations in order to fine-tune the syllabus and the curriculum accordingly. Such observations and generalizations also contribute to confirming the language proficiency level of the students.

Making Comparisons The last step of these analytical-skills exercises includes the comparison of English to different languages. Having a class discussion on these differences is important to raise the consciousness of both teachers and learners regarding the rich linguistic variation observed across languages. Teachers learn what strengths or weaknesses to expect from the negative and positive transfer from L1 of their students, and students are empowered in the process and understand the universal nature of language. In time, with cumulative experience in such comparative discussions in class, a teacher would improve his/her own skills in identifying individual students’ problems with certain aspects of English. ELLs should observe and identify morpho-syntactic markers of inflectional categories in actual sentences in context from reputable sources appropriate for their levels. To meet the needs of specific groups of learners, the source can be determined based on the proficiency levels of learners. One such source for intermediate or advanced learners could be articles from The New Yorker magazine, among others. Beginner level sources can be original work written for audiences with limited lexicon, such as paragraphs from age-appropriate short stories, such as Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Purloined Letter,” or Oscar Wilde’s “The Happy Prince.” For novice teachers, the internet is a source of many original short stories for FL/L2 students. Using high-interest materials to bridge background knowledge and the new material introduced is recommended. Once the observations, generalizations, and comparisons are made, it becomes easier to identify not only tense, aspect, voice, and mood but also other inflectional categories, and even other linguistic properties. The inquiry process discussed here can be adapted to any grammatical or linguistic topic to be taught to ELLs. Teaching material to be used at this point should be designed to help student learn: 910

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

(i) what to look for and where to look to find tense, aspect, voice, or mood; (ii) how to compare the observations made with the properties of first language(s); (iii) how to monitor peers and oneself in language production; and (iv) how to edit others’ and/or one’s own writing.

Sample Learner Training Case Study: Teaching Verbs We will first apply this approach to teach/learn verbs as a morpho-syntactic category and move on to teaching/learning morpho-syntactic markers of inflectional categories on verbs. Individual sentences instead of paragraphs will be used in this section. It is important to note that example sentences are selected in such a way that they focus on the specific challenges as well as morpho-syntactic dependencies. We will then illustrate how tasks targeting analytical/linguistic and peer- or self-monitoring/editing skills can be designed for in-class activities. The analytical exercises are not the only possible ways to present the material. Many other techniques including, but not limited to, flowcharts, word games, puzzles, and competitions would also be very useful at all levels. However, analytical/linguistic exercises are unique in that they will help ELLs acquire the skills “to learn from language itself.” While adopting the material in this chapter for beginners and/or K-12 students, it would be helpful to •





Break down everything into smaller steps: ◦◦ Earlier in the chapter, we used the steps that refer to types of that category within each inflectional category. With beginners and K-12 students, one could work with each type of tense without aspect, that is simple tenses, in separate steps while introducing subject-verb agreement markers involved with the present tense. Students can first be asked to identify the tense on the first verb, and then be encouraged to observe the fact that changing the subject may affect the form of the verb. Secondly, it would be easier to study form, location, and function in different steps. Prioritize the most crucial to less crucial understandings: ◦◦ For instance, it is crucial to understand that tense is marked on the first verb, not necessarily on the last verb, as is commonly assumed, or that {-ing} does not represent tense. However, understanding the contexts in which will-future vs. be going to future is used is not as crucial for this level since the major goal at this level is to produce language for clear communication rather than mastering nuances, which is part of the goal for intermediate and advanced learners. Prioritize the more regularly encountered structures in terms of clear communication to the less regularly encountered: ◦◦ For instance, perfect progressive aspect is not encountered as regularly or often as progressive or perfect, or mixed conditionals are not as common as other types of conditionals.

Furthermore, teachers may choose to start somewhere strategic within each inflectional category rather than following the pattern presented early in the chapter. Almost all example sentences in this chapter are affirmative non-interrogative sentences, but teachers may use interrogative or negative sentences, as well.

911

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

For all in-class exercises, small group discussions leading to a class discussion is assumed as the basic model. It is essential that teachers give clear instructions on how a small group operates, including how students within the groups elect: • • • •

A note taker to take notes of the discussion in the group A time keeper to make sure the tasks are done in a timely manner A discussion leader within the group who also presents the group’s findings to the class A monitor who observes language use and takes note of shortcomings and/or errors to report to the group and the class.

These roles switch among the members of the group with each exercise. Nobody specializes in any role, and everyone plays each role at different times. The teacher walks around the classroom to monitor and help students as they do group discussions. We can now proceed with the examples of analytic skills exercises that may be adopted as learnertraining or content-training exercises in class.

Teaching Verbs The major component of teaching material consists of sample sentences and proper tasks assigned to small groups of learners. Depending on the level of proficiency of the learners, simple or more complex sentences may be used. The basic instruction consists of activating what the learners already know about verbs by guiding them through the steps of scientific/linguistic inquiry. At all levels, it is essential to address the specific challenges that adult second and foreign language learners face when they encounter the linguistic properties of English. These challenges often lie in the differences between the linguistic properties of the learners’ L1 and the target language, English. Teachers can specifically make use of the comparison step of the examples given below to increase their own understanding of what transfers from other languages will be brought to class. This step will also make learners conscious of what they are transferring from their L1s. Grammar terms or linguistic terminology may be introduced to intermediate and advanced students. For beginners and K-12 students, it is essential that we not introduce terminology until they acquire said analytical skills, learn what to look for, and where to look to find them. The next section demonstrates how an analytical approach to identify any object of study, language related or not, can help mimic the basic steps of scientific inquiry and raise consciousness of the similarities and differences between English and other languages.

Analytical Skills Exercise for Beginner/K-12 Students For beginners and K-12 learners, before getting involved with the metalanguage to discuss these topics, the analytical/linguistic approach can be demonstrated in a context outside language. Paintings or pictures that depict, for example, a variety of birds in their natural habitat can be projected on a screen or distributed to the students. Alternatively, there can be small group discussions followed by a class discussion based on everyone’s observations in their lives regarding birds. The task is to learn how to identify birds and come up with a systematic way to identify them, using their forms, locations, and functions. The students are guided through the thinking process to accomplish 912

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

this task by asking the relevant questions and inviting them to ask such questions to themselves before attempting to work on any task. Such guidance will help them come up with a hypothesis. 1. What is to be identified? A: Birds What kind of birds do we know? A: A sparrow, a dove, a hawk, an eagle, a goose, a chicken, a turkey, etc. 2. What are some properties of birds that we know of? (FORM) A: The answers will help construct a “hypothesis” such as animals with wings, feathers, and only two feet are birds. What are wings for? What are beaks for? In other words, what functions do these overt features serve? (FUNCTION) A: Wings to fly, beaks to feed and eat, etc. 3. Based on what we know about them, where should we look for them? (LOCATION) A: On trees, in bushes, on roofs, in backyards, on electric wires, in or near ponds, on farms, fields, etc. Now that everyone knows what to look for and where to look for them, they can formulate a hypothesis and can be guided to mimic the steps of scientific inquiry. At this point, there is no need to use the term “hypothesis”, and steps 1 & 2 can be combined as a short cut: What do we already know? (Hypothesis): Animals that have feathers, beaks and two legs and that can fly are birds, and their most common living habitat consists of trees, roofs, forests, etc. Step 1: Observe: Observe kinds of birds (form). Results may include the following or more: chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, hawks, eagles, sparrows, seagulls, etc. Their colors differ but no observation could be made on what determines their color. Step 2: Generalize: Where do we look to find them? Generalize location: Where do birds live? Identify if there are differences in terms of kinds of birds and where they appear. Look for the smaller birds in bushes, backyards, trees, but for larger domesticated ones on farms, wild ones near ponds, or in forests. Generalize function: What do birds do? Birds fly. Are there any birds that do not fly? Chickens, or other farm birds? Step 3. Compare: Compare birds in the U.S. to birds in other parts of the world in terms of where or what kind of birds appear or if they appear at all. Results may include the following or more: There are birds that do not fly in other parts of the world: Ostriches in Australia, penguins in Antarctica, among others. Conclusion: How can we identify and classify birds? Birds can be identified and classified based on their size (FORM), their habitat (LOCATION), and whether they can fly or not (FUNCTION).

913

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

The teacher wraps up the discussion summarizing what the students have done using the first- person plural since the teacher participates in the learning process. We have asked ourselves the questions what, where, and how. The answers we have given have taught us how to identify and classify birds using certain criteria: form, location, and function. We can apply the same methods to English sentences and identify verbs. The teacher can now introduce basic grammatical terms and ask the students to use their analytical skills to analyze verbs linguistically.

Basic Verb Study Activities for Beginner/K-12 Students The teacher briefly presents the connection between verbs and actions and states by using pictures or by acting some verbs for the students to identify, as in the game Charades. Students in small groups are assigned multiple tasks. The goal is to use verbs not in isolation but in a linguistic context as commands or in a non-linguistic context as in acting them: • •

Each group prepares a list of verbs to be used as commands. Groups take turns in giving the commands to the rest of the class, and all students have to do whatever command is given. Each group takes turns and each verb can be used only once in a class time. Charades for verbs: Each group prepares a second list of verbs which they act for the other students in class to identify which word it is with correct spelling and pronunciation. One group performs, the other groups take a few minutes to discuss the answer and the first group that answers correctly wins.

Analytical/Linguistic Skills Activities for Beginner/K-12 Students The task is to identify verbs in sentences. Students are asked to underline all verbs in given sentences. In this example, we will use only one sentence. Multiple sentences are necessary for the students to observe the patterns. Guidance questions and tips may include the following: (i) What do you think is the verb based on all that you know about verbs (hypothesis)? (ii) Now, find further evidence that it is really the verb. Where does the evidence come from? From its appearance (form), where it is located (location), and what it does (function). Form-location-function, FLF can be used as an acronym. We looked for birds in the bushes and forests, and we described what they look like. In brief, appearance or form, location, and function were the key elements. These key elements can be used in grammar as well. To identify verbs, we can do the same: we describe them to identify their form and we identify their function by observing the differences in their forms, and we look for their location in the following sentence(s): •

Her cat ate the fish.

Hypothesis/the proposed explanation: (students will tend to describe verbs based on their meaning): verbs are words for actions or states; simply put, for things that happen. Therefore, ate looks like a verb. 914

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

Meaning provides a good hypothesis or a proposed explanation. However, it is not sufficient, and we need more evidence to make sure that the words we guess are verbs are indeed verbs. Look for FLF, which can be used to identify any art of speech or any morpheme.

Form, Location, and Function Teacher gives guiding questions to help students find the verb in the sentence, observe the differences in its form, and determine the location and function: (i) What did her cat do? Eat the fish. Which word in the answer is the verb? Eat. Which word in the original sentence is the verb? Ate. How are they different? Ate is the past tense form of eat (form); therefore, it marks tense (function). (ii) Who ate the fish? Her cat. Her cat must be the subject, the one who did the eating! Ate as the verb follows the subject, her cat, (location). In small groups, she students observe patterns and generalize: verbs appear after the subject and they tell us when that event happened or will happen. That is, they seem to have a job in the sentence: verbs mark the time of the event, namely, tense! Finally, students compare English verbs to verbs in other languages: e.g., Verbs appear between the subject and the object in English. Japanese verbs appear after the object. Chinese Mandarin verbs are like English in that they appear between subjects and objects, but they do not carry tense. Conclusion: How can we identify verbs? By their location and function as well as their different forms: In English, verbs are parts of speech that are located after the subject, and they are carriers of tense. At every step of the exercise, small group representatives report to the class, the class agrees on the answers, and then groups move on to the next tasks.

Analytical Skills Activities for Intermediate/Advanced Students Multiple sentences with either third person singular or other subjects can be given to help the students observe the subject-verb agreement on verbs when the subject is the third person singular in the simple present. • •

She bakes cookies for her kids every Sunday. /I bake cookies for my kids every Sunday. She baked chocolate chip cookies last Sunday. / I baked chocolate chip cookies last Sunday.

Task #1: Observe: (i) the form(s) of the verbs, that is, the endings that appear at the end of verbs, (ii) the location of verbs: with respect to what comes before or after them, and (iii) their function. Answers: (i) bakes and baked. They may appear with {-s} or {-ed},{-s}; (ii) I and she are subjects; verbs follow subjects, there may be more than one verb in the VC; (iii) different endings mark time of the event. Task #2: Generalize: Verbs follow the subject, they may appear with different endings, which mark tense; verbs carry tense. Task #3: Compare: Where do verbs occur in your native language? Before the object or after the object? 915

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

Some examples from different languages and the English literal translation: English – SVO language - verbs follow the subject and precede the object: She loves him. Japanese – SOV language – verbs follow the subject and the object: She him loves. Arabic – VSO language – verbs precede the subject and the object: Loves she him. Malagasy – VOS language – verbs precede the object and the subject: Loves him she. Conclusion: Words that follow the subject, and function to carry tense with endings such as {-ed} are verbs in English. At every step of the exercise, small group representatives report to the class, the class agrees on the answers and then groups move on to the next tasks.

Analytical/ Linguistic Skills Activities on the Structure of the Verb Complex in English – Intermediate or Advanced The same approach can be used to get advanced students to observe the maximum number and types of verbs and their order English allows in a verb complex. In English, we find the verb after the subject and before the object. We call all the verbs in a sentence a verb complex (VC). There may be more than one verb in VCs, and the kind(s) of verb we find may be different. Observe all possible variations and describe the different types of verbs in VCs. Finally, describe the maximum number of verbs and the order in which they appear in a VC in English. After additional instructional activities on types of verbs, sentences would be given to the students to work on as small groups. Depending on what the students already know, such sentences may include some or all possible structures. A sentence with a linking verb illustrates that linking verbs can be the main verb in the VC, just like content verbs: •

My friend is a good baker. Another sentence may have an auxiliary verb in addition to a content verb:



My friend is baking cupcakes now. The following one would have both modal and regular auxiliary verbs in addition to a content verb:



My friend must have baked cupcakes.

A more challenging sentence could be used to illustrate the maximum complexity English allows with two regular auxiliary verbs, one modal auxiliary and one content verb: •

My friend must have been baking cupcakes. Tasks designed mimic the steps in scientific inquiry:

Task #1: Observe the verbs in each VC in each sentence (FLF). Task #2: Generalize and classify which verbs can appear in VCs and in which order. 916

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

Advanced: Describe the maximum complexity English allows in a VC and the order in which they can occur. Task #3: Compare what is allowed in a VC in other languages you know. Conclusion: If there is one verb in the VC, it is either a linking verb or a content verb. These are the main verbs. If there are two, one of them is a modal or regular auxiliary verb. If there are three verbs, either two auxiliaries or one modal and one auxiliary verb accompany the content or linking verb.

Sample Analytical/Linguistic Skills Training Case Study: Teaching Tense The analytical/linguistic skills acquired while working on the English verb can be transferred to any other topic, including tense. Students can be given the task of identifying the tense in the VC of given sentences. For Beginner and K-12 students, a simplified version of the tense - aspect system given earlier can be used to introduce the concepts with plenty of examples, preferably humorous sentences accompanied by cartoons. Furthermore, using [BE] as a linking verb, [DO], and [HAVE] as content verbs, among the examples of simple present/past/future would lay the grounds for introducing [BE], [DO], and [HAVE] as auxiliary verbs later on.

Analytical/Linguistic Skills Activities on Tense for Beginner/K-12 The teacher presents sentences in which content verbs are inflected in present, past, and future with many verbs. It is advisable to include [BE] as a linking verb, [DO] and [HAVE] as main verbs as well as other content verbs to lay the grounds for the future study of the same verbs used as auxiliary verbs in a follow-up exercise. The sentences exhibit a contrast between the third- person singular subject and other subjects to let the students observe the subject-verb agreement properties of English in the present tense. For the initial exercise: • • •

I walk/She walks to school every day. The journalist talks to the lawyer every day. SpongeBob lives in a pineapple all his life. For follow-up exercises, we include [BE], [DO], [HAVE] and other tenses:

917

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

The first activity mimics the steps of scientific inquiry, and the students are asked to observe the sentences given by the teacher to generalize how present tense is marked on verbs. The guiding questions focusing on FLF, that is, form, location, and function will help students construct a hypothesis: What are the different forms verbs appear in? What part of the verb changes or has additional form (location)? What endings correspond to present tense (function)? Are they sometimes accompanied by other verbs? Does the form of the verb change when we change the subject? Tasks designed mimic the steps in scientific inquiry: Task #1: Observe the verbs and their endings in each sentence (FLF). Task #2: Generalize and classify the different forms of the verb and their functions. Task #3: Compare the different forms of verbs that mark tense in other languages you know. Conclusion: The verb marks the present tense with {-s} if the subject is the 3rd person singular; some verbs have different forms, etc. Small group representatives present their observations, generalizations and the results are confirmed with a class discussion. The students are given a cloze test where the verbs of the sentences are deleted. They are instructed to work in small groups to find the correct answers. The correct verbs with their morpho-syntactic markers are given in a list that includes verbs with incorrect tense of the given sentences. The verbs may be scrambled to challenge the students. A simple version is illustrated below: The scrambled verb list: ckilde, vlies, blcemi, ilwl, vldie ikcl, lsmcib • • •

Squidward _________ in an Easter Island head under the sea. The puppy _________ the turkey a minute ago. The doctor ________ the stairs tomorrow.

There are many cloze test generators on the Internet, including those that would scramble the words to be used as hints.

Analytical/Linguistic Skills Activities on Tense for Intermediate/Advanced For intermediate and advance learners, working on examples including all auxiliary verbs as well as content and linking verbs would be the target. The teacher introduces the three types of tense and the irregular verbs that change in form with tense. The example sentences include the forms of verbs marking tense not only with content verbs but also with auxiliary verbs. Some sample sentences are given below: • • • • • •

918

I am not lazy; I am waiting for an inspiration. Your secret is safe with me because I was not listening to you. Has she recognized you at the party? We would have described the scene if she had asked us to. Nobody will have to die of cancer in 2020. The first writing system seems to have been invented in 4000 BC in the Middle East.

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

Tasks for all levels are the same in that they mimic the steps in scientific inquiry. However, the content material differs. The guiding questions that will help students construct a hypothesis are the following: How do we identify and classify tense? How is tense marked (form)? Where is tense marked (location)? What kinds of tense are there (function)? Task #1: Observe the changes on the verb marked with tense in each VC in each sentence (FLF). Task #2: Generalize and classify tense markers. Advanced: Students are given example sentences and asked to describe and discuss the more complex cases: tense difference between was going to vs. is going to; lack of tense on modals despite the use of would as past, etc. Task #3: Compare the tense markers in other languages you know. The conclusion would have to include the observation that tense is always marked on the first verb and the first verb only; regardless of how complex the VC might be! Students may be challenged by including modals and expecting them to observe that modals do not mark tense.

Sample Analytical/Linguistic Skills Training Case Study: Teaching Aspect The major task is identifying the aspect in the verb complex (VC) of given sentences and using the tense-aspect system efficiently and correctly in speech and writing.

Analytical/Linguistic Skills Activities on Aspect for Beginner/K-12 The teacher presents the progressive aspect first and focuses on it by using the tense-aspect system and other visual material introduced earlier. With the use of level-appropriate sentences, such as those below, the continuous nature of events and states is explained. • • •

I am dancing/She is dancing/They are dancing now. I am cooking/Bob is cooking/Bob and Harry are not cooking dinner. Many people are playing video games right now.

The significance of looking for FLF is reminded since students need to learn where to look for what and determine its function. The guiding question to help students construct a hypothesis is the following: Does the event or state denoted by the verb continue or not? Task #1: Observe what verbs appear, what ending is always observed on the content verb, and what other verb appears in VCs in each sentence. What grammatical meaning do the additional verb and the ending you observe on the content verb seem to add? (the progressive aspect) Task #2: Generalize and classify progressive markers. Task #3: Compare the progressive aspect markers in other languages you know. The conclusion will include the generalization that there is always the auxiliary verb [BE] marked with some tense and a content verb marked with {-ing}. 919

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

Additionally, visual material depicting continuous actions may be used to elicit answers that use progressive aspect from the students. Small groups may compose short stories telling a series of continuous actions interrupted by the arrival of other characters in the pictures or video clips with no sound.

Analytical/Linguistic Skills Activities on Aspect for Intermediate/Advanced The teacher reviews the progressive and presents the perfect aspect as well as the perfect progressive aspect, using the tense – aspect system introduced earlier as well as many sentences similar to the following to include another event that interrupts an ongoing/continuous event: • • • • •

Some dancers were performing on the streets when I was in Paris. My husband was already washing the dishes when I arrived. My cats were sleeping when I arrived home. Many have never gone to school, yet they have managed to live fulfilling lives. We had been sleeping for hours until we heard the turbulence announcement.

In small groups, the students are asked to observe the sentences above with the following guiding questions that will help the students construct a hypothesis: Does the event or state continue or is it over? Or has it been going on until a moment in time? Did it stop or did it not stop and was it continuing at that moment as well? What verbs appear in the VC? What changes in the form of the main verb do you observe? What is the function of the ending and the presence of another verb? (form, location, function) Task #1: Observe all types of aspect in VCs in each sentence: continuing and complete actions and states. Task #2: Generalize and classify all aspect markers. Task #3: Compare what you have observed with the aspect markers in other languages you know. The conclusion will include the observation that perfect aspect is marked with the auxiliary verb [HAVE] in any tense and the content verb marked with {-ed/-en}, the past participle. As for the perfect progressive, the requirements for both aspect types are met and the result is such that the second auxiliary verb is always in the past participle form “been:” has been practicing, had been practicing, will have been practicing, etc. In terms of comparisons with other languages, observations will differ based on the L1s of participating students. If they do not have aspect marked in their languages, they may be invited to explain how else the continuous nature of events is expressed. English does not allow all verbs to be marked in the progressive aspect. Corresponding verbs may be elicited from students in their L1s to start the conversation on how some languages may have internal reasons not to mark certain inflectional categories while others may. For instance, the verb want is never marked with the progressive aspect in English. Despite all the logical explanations based on the meaning of the verb want that English grammarians or linguists have come up with to explain this property of English, the explanations are not universally valid. Many other languages, including Turkish, do mark such verbs with the progressive. It is essential that such properties of English not be assumed to be universal or required properties of human language because it is simply not true, to begin with. Perhaps more importantly, while teaching students with diverse backgrounds, making such incorrect 920

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

remarks or assumptions would alienate the students, if not insult them. Of course, teachers may and should continue to emphasize the universal nature of language while talking about universal concepts in grammar. However, contrary to general assumptions, some basic concepts such as tense or aspect are not universal, nor are all parts of speech. As a follow-up exercise, once the perfect aspect is covered, the common mistake of identifying the tense in both sentences as past tense has to be addressed. A pair of sentences that would make the difference obvious, such as the ones below, may be used and discussed in class: • •

I walked to school yesterday. I have walked to school today to get some exercise.

Sample Analytical/Linguistic Skills Training Case Study: Teaching Voice Analytical/Linguistic Skills Activities on Voice for Beginner/K-12 The teacher briefly presents the basic concept of voice, providing many examples from both active and passive voice and explaining that the difference can be observed in the answers to these two questions: Who does what? Or what is done by whom? It would be necessary to explain that only verbs with objects may be passivized in English. The sentences used are restricted in terms of tense and aspect. All tenses in the simple and progressive aspect would be the target at this level. Future progressive may be omitted since it is not as commonly used as others. Pictures or other visual material may be used to accompany the sentences given: • • •

The puppy eats a bone every day. / A bone is eaten (by the puppy) every day. The puppy ate a bone yesterday. / A bone was eaten (by the puppy) yesterday. The puppy will eat a bone tomorrow. / A bone will be eaten (by the puppy) tomorrow. For follow-up exercises:

• •

The cat is eating a fish now. / A fish is being eaten (by the cat) now. The cat was eating a fish then. / A fish was being eaten (by the cat) then.

Students are given the task of identifying the voice in the VC of given sentences and then using passive voice correctly in the follow-up tasks. Guiding questions that will help students construct a hypothesis are the following: Who is the doer? Who is the receiver of an action? What is the subject? Is the subject the doer? What auxiliary verb is used in passive sentences? What form of the verb is used in the passive sentences? Task #1: Observe FLF in VCs in each sentence. Which auxiliary verb appears regularly in the passive VCs? What ending appears where regularly in the passive VC? What seems to be the function of these two constants in passive VCs? Task #2: Generalize and classify passive voice markers. Task #3: Compare what you have observed with the passive voice markers in other languages you know. 921

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

The conclusion will include observations that can be summed up as [BE] v+{-ed/-en}. Many languages use different kind of markers for the passive voice. In some languages, including Latin, Swedish, and Turkish, passive voice is marked only on the verb as an ending, and in others, within the verb, as in Austronesian languages. Secondly, in some languages, passive voice has different functions, and they are named differently, as well. In several Southeast Asian languages, a form of passive voice indicates that an action is undesirable or unpleasant, and it is called the adversative passive. In Japanese, it is called the indirect passive. If there are students with L1s that have different kinds of passives, they should be encouraged to share that knowledge with the class to emphasize the universal nature of voice changes with language specific variation. For instance, the property of English and many other languages which allows only transitive verbs with objects to be passivized is not a universal property, either. Turkish, among others, allows impersonal passives, which passivize intransitive verbs to function as forbidding actions or imposing rules. Follow-up task may include pictures, or other visual material may be used to elicit passive voice sentences.

Analytical/Linguistic Skills Activities on Voice for Intermediate/Advanced The teacher presents many sentences in the active and passive voice, using all tense and aspect combinations with a focus on the most commonly used ones in the verb complexes. • • •

The carpenter made a bookcase. / A bookcase was made by the carpenter. The students have filed a complaint. / A complaint has been filed. The faculty will discuss the final exam policy. / The final exam policy will be discussed.

The guiding questions that will help students construct a hypothesis are: What marks passive voice in the verb complex? What else is different in the passive voice when compared to the active voice version of the same sentence? What auxiliary verb is used in passive sentences? What form of the verb is used in the passive sentences? Furthermore, by giving examples of questions asked in the active or passive voice, the students are given a chance to observe if the answer changes based on the voice or not. Task #1: Observe voice of VCs in each sentence as active, passive, or not relevant. Task #2: Generalize and classify passive voice markers. What type of verbs can be passivized? What kind of verbs do not interact with voice? Task #3: Compare what you have observed with the passive voice markers in other languages you know. The conclusion will include the generalization that the auxiliary [BE] inflected in any tense followed by a past participle marks the passive voice in English. Follow-up task or assignment: Newspaper headlines are collected and discussed in terms of voice. Are they in the passive or active voice? Does it matter? How does the meaning change if at all? Small group exercise: Does the answer to the question change if it is in the active or passive voice? Come up with questions and answers, and discuss them.

922

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

Sample Analytical/Linguistic Skills Training Case Study: Teaching Mood Mood is a complicated topic for both native or non-native speakers of English. Therefore, even at the intermediate and advanced level, a lot of time needs to be spent on tasks focusing on each mood type. With the subjunctive mood, each sub-category deserves a separate set of tasks to thoroughly understand the concept and to learn how to use them in speech and writing.

Analytical/Linguistic Skills Activities on Tense for Beginner/K-12 The teacher presents the idea of mood without using the actual terminology unless necessary. A video clip from an animation movie, such as SpongeBob may be shown. Follow-up questions would address how real the characters, events, or the settings are in what they watched to introduce the idea of the real-world events and unreal events. A teacher leads a discussion on what type of sentences are used to report or talk about real events, putting example sentences on the board. A second discussion is done on unreal events. Students contribute to the discussion on wishes, dreams, maybe even conditionals. Examples of each generated by the teacher in collaboration with the students are written on the board. Finally, the students are asked if commands are real or unreal events, guiding them to see that they belong to a separate category. Sentences, such as the following in the indicative and imperative moods can be given as examples for the students to observe analytically and look for FLF – form, location, function: • • • •

Come here! Help me! Have some cake! I came here last week. They are helping the students today. Lucky people will have some cake this afternoon.

Students are given the task of identifying the tense in the VC of sentences they are given in class or they hear on the video or in any other source provided in class, depending on whether the teacher wants to adopt an integrated-skills approach and incorporate listening among the activities. The example sentences written on the board may serve as a guiding list or may be included in the tasks. The goal is to have students observe that commands are the easiest to identify since the verb does not change its form, and the subject does not appear but it is always “you.” The second outcome is to understand that all sentences they have studied so far are in the indicative/declarative or imperative mood. Guiding questions to help students construct a hypothesis are: Is it real, not real or is it a command? Students use analytical skills and look for FLF: Task #1: Observe the form of the verbs, what endings appear if any and where, what important component of a sentence seems to be missing in some sentences, and whether you understand what the missing component is even if you do not see/hear it. What grammatical meaning do some sentences seem to add in terms of the attitude or point of view of the speaker? (mood) Task #2: Generalize and classify the two categories of sentences in terms of what kind of markers they have or do not have in their VC or in the sentence. Task #3: Compare the progressive aspect markers in other languages you know. 923

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

Conclusion will include the generalization that in the first group, there is no subject, the verb has no endings, and this form seems to function as a command (imperative). The second set of sentences are the ones we have been using because they have subjects, and their VCs are marked for tense, or tense and progressive aspect. As a follow-up exercise, to lay the grounds for the subjunctive mood to be taught in the future, students are given speech context in the form of prompts to decide which type of mood they would be expected to use. For instance, the prompts may include the following: • • • •

I wish I … The other day, something happened. If it rains, I … The house must be clean, and the snacks must be ready before guests arrive for the birthday party. You are in charge. Make your two friends work and help you by telling them what to do.

Analytical/Linguistic Skills Activities on Tense for Intermediate/Advanced The teacher introduces the relevant terminology as needed. The basic idea of the three categories of mood are presented with examples, and the students contribute to the discussion by giving examples and contexts in which each mood would be used. The students are asked to discuss, identify, and classify morpho-syntactic markers of each type of mood separately in different in-class exercises as well as group assignments, mimicking the scientific inquiry steps of observe, generalize, and compare, or simply put, FLF - Form, Location and Function. They are expected to observe and generalize their observations to include the following: 1. The form of the verb is the simplest in the imperative, and the subject is always the second person. It may or may not be overt. 2. All sentences represented on the tense-aspect system presented earlier are in the indicative/declarative mood even when they are interrogatives or negative sentences. These are considered part of the real world. 3. Counterfactual conditionals, wish-constructions, and sentences with subjunctive verbs and adjectives are in the subjunctive mood. These belong to the unreal world/the irrealis. Subjunctives are marked in unexpected ways in the sense that (i) the subject-verb agreement may be what we would consider ungrammatical in declaratives (e.g., wish constructions and conditionals), (ii) the verb may carry tense that does not belong to the sentence, (e.g., wish) (iii) the verb may lack all tense aspect or subject-verb agreement markers (e.g., subjunctive verbs and adjectives). Subjunctive verbs and adjectives are often the most difficult ones to understand for students with diverse backgrounds. Knowing how to use them is part of the criteria in classifying an ELL as an advanced speaker in most qualification exams. Subjunctive mood is the most difficult mood to comprehend. Although subjunctive verbs and adjectives belong to a restricted set and one can memorize them all, one cannot actually understand how they work without learning how to identify them in authentic material in English. Therefore, it is essential to have the students mimic the scientific inquiry steps to acquire the analytical/linguistic skills so that they can observe how subjunctive mood can be detected and how this mood affects the morpho-syntactic markers on verbs. 924

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

Other tasks, assignments, and assessment models may also be used. For instance, conditional structures need to be understood as a subcategory of the subjunctive. Students may be asked to prepare a group performance or presentation on a given theme such as the environment where they are required to use the conditional structures in their presentations. Finally, once all inflectional markers are covered, an exercise where students can identify all morphosyntactic markers on the VC would be very useful. Sentences in context, such as a paragraph from an article or a story rather than isolated sentences can be used for students to identify the verb complex and the tense/aspect/voice/mood marked on the VC in each clause. We cannot overemphasize the significance of comparing how English marks inflectional categories to L1s of students. Many languages from various language families code inflectional categories differently. Some mark the relevant concepts lexically instead of grammatically. Some mark aspect but do not mark tense, as in Mandarin Chinese. Others mark tense but not aspect, as in the case of Khmer. Some others mark neither tense nor aspect, as in Indonesian. Some mark tense on prepositions not on verbs, as is the case in Titan (Aygen & Bowern, 2000). Adopting a linguistic approach that does not discriminate against any language would help contextualize the systematic ways English marks tense, aspect, voice, and mood on the verb complex without alienating or disparaging the different linguistic coding of these concepts in other language families.

Teaching (Self-) Monitoring and (Self-) Editing Skills at all Levels Training ELLs to learn how to monitor and edit their own language performance takes time as well as a systematic approach. The tasks for all levels are the same, but the content will differ at each level and in each class. The training begins with the teacher as the primary role model. As the teacher continues to monitor the students, students observe how the teacher monitors and provides feedback to them. Then they are asked to start monitoring and editing their peers. Once they acquire the skills for monitoring, they are asked to start self-monitoring. Every phase of training is introduced in addition to the earlier phases. The same process is relevant for editing written work. Firstly, for every class, the teacher identifies a major grammatical concept, such as an inflectional category of tense, aspect, voice, or mood and posts it on the board at a prominent, regular location reserved for grammar. This topic serves as the area of focus for that class or that week. Students are reminded of these areas of focus and in time, they learn to look at the relevant part of the board to remember what to pay attention to when they speak, write, monitor, or edit. As the primary monitor, the teacher observes students in their small group discussions as well as class discussions in terms of their performance regarding that grammatical concept, takes notes of individual and common problem areas, and provides feedback to the students in the form of written notes to individual students and as part of the class discussion at the end of each class. For editing, the teacher demonstrates how editing is done on sample student writing or any writing done on the board by the students, as well as providing feedback on any written work students submit as an assignment. This practice provides a model for the students. Secondly, the teacher asks the students to assign one student to monitor the discussions held within small groups every time there is a small group discussion. A different student within each small group takes over this responsibility every time a new task is assigned, allowing each student to take a turn. That student observes all the speech errors related to the a grammatical/linguistic topic of the day in that group and takes notes. At the end of the class, those students are given a chance to report to the whole class the major areas of mistakes they have observed. Then, the teacher writes those areas on the board and reviews, encouraging participation from all students in the class. In small groups, the spokesperson 925

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

for the group changes with each task as well. In that way, each student gets to present the small group findings to the class and gets a chance to receive feedback on his/her language performance. Thirdly, in-class writing related tasks include pair-editing before submitting the final version to the teacher. In pairs, students are asked to edit each other’s writing samples while communicating with each other. Students are trained to focus on specific grammatical issues as well as other concerns related to writing. Larger writing projects involving individual students, pairs, or groups are presented to the whole class. During those presentations, students listening to the presentations are asked to monitor the performance of the speakers by filling out an evaluation form that includes grammatical performance on specific topics, such as correct use of tense, aspect, voice, or mood, depending on the topic of focus. Finally, students are asked to monitor themselves, edit their own work, and submit their areas of difficulty to the teacher regularly. Advanced students may also be asked to include a section on how they plan to address their problem areas. This procedure allows teachers to focus on the areas of student confusion. In conclusion, although the teaching of grammar overtly/directly has long become almost obsolete in L2/FL teaching, as well as in teaching writing at various levels of education, it is possible to incorporate grammatical instruction from a descriptive linguistics perspective in ELL curriculum by incorporating or embedding it in a content-based integrated skills model. Adopting a descriptive linguistics approach does not exclude all traditional approaches, such as defining grammatical concepts with their meaning, but limits their use as a beginning point for further linguistic analysis. In such a model, authentic material and major themes can be used to initiate real-world based language performance in all areas of language skills, namely, speaking, listening, writing, and reading. What is proposed in this chapter is that a linguistic approach to describing how English works morpho-syntactically within such a model would empower ELLs in the following ways: •

• • •

This approach would guide learners and teachers alike in the steps of analytical thinking. Such analytical skills adopted to language are in fact linguistic skills in addition to being a type of critical thinking. At any level of education and at any age group, learners are capable of mimicking scientific inquiry and acquiring these skills. What differs is how we design and present tasks to help them acquire these skills across levels. Once acquired, these skills allow ELLs improve their English by themselves beyond formal training. These skills would help ELLs establish a connection between competence and performance that cannot be expected to be perfected only through performance. Such conscious efforts to analyze and compare morpho-syntactic properties of English with any other language would allow for the speakers to systematically benefit from positive transfer and reduce the effects of negative transfer. Being engaged in conversation and discussions with ELLs on such comparisons would help language teachers become better teachers as well. An English teacher who is aware of such comparisons can design better curricula based on all the shortcomings and strengths of students with specific native language backgrounds, providing a student-centered instruction beyond what is generally provided to ELLs.

The linguistic approaches proposed in this chapter may be adopted to teach not only the morphosyntactic concepts discussed in this chapter, but also the topics related to other areas of applied linguistics that are challenging for language learners (Aygen, 2019).

926

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Suppose your curriculum is constrained by time limitations and you need to make a choice between the following options. Which one would you choose, and why? What are some strengths and shortcomings of each? What other options can you think of? a. Adopt the traditional approach, such as using “meaning” to teach a part of speech or inflectional categories. b. Adopt a descriptive linguistics approach, use “meaning” as a hypothesis building tool, and design tasks on one of these topics to help students acquire analytical skills so that they can learn “to learn from language itself” and utilize those skills to learn the other topics as well. c. Other options? 2. One tense may be used to express a time reserved for another time, as may be observed in the examples below: a. We leave for Cancun next week. b. In the novel, she surprises him with a brand-new car. How would introduction of such uses in addition to the regular uses of tense contribute to the performance of ELLs? 3. Perfect aspect is sometimes simply described as “what happens before another event,” and the progressive as “what is/was happening when some other event interrupts or interrupted it.” How would such descriptions combine to define the perfect progressive? What are some major shortcomings and strengths of adopting such descriptions to teach aspect to ELLs, as opposed to adopting the linguistic approach of morpho-syntactic markers? In other words, would definitions based on such aspect meanings or morpho-syntactic markers provide a better representation and understanding of aspect for ELLs? Can you think of a hybrid or a different type of approach? 4. Students are commonly encouraged to use the active voice in their writing. This advice is rooted in an article on the relationship between politics and the English language: “Never use the passive where you can use the active” (Orwell, 1946, p. 139). How would you teach the contexts in which passive voice is required vs. contexts in which passive voice usage has discriminatory implications? Make use of the examples below: a. Lawyer of the man charged by sexual violence: I understand that the sweater was removed. b. News headline: A woman was attacked vs. A man attacked a woman. c. Rules are not made to be broken. 5. How would the following examples challenge the given instructions regarding passive voice? How can you use these examples to teach active verb’s indirect objects becoming the passive verb’s subject using analytical/linguistic skills? What new generalizations do you need to make after observing these phenomena about passive voice? How would you revise the given instructions to include the previously overlooked phenomena in the passive voice sentences? Instruction 1: To transform an active voice sentence into a passive voice, active subjects and direct objects are reversed. Example 1: The client was given a second package by the manager. Hint 1: What has taken the place of the active subject in Example 1? Instruction 2: In passive voice, the subject (S) is the receiver, in active voice, however, S is the doer. 927

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

Example 2: The teacher received the packages. Hint 2: Who is the receiver? Who is the doer? 6. How would teaching the concepts “actual world” and “possible world” help learners distinguish indicative mood as opposed to subjunctive mood?

EXERCISES 1. We have discussed helping learners acquire or develop analytical and linguistic skills to identify the verb in given sentences, such as the following: a. “Art is the signature of civilization.” (Beverly Sills) b. The artist is signing the exhibition catalogues. Come up with your own sentences in pairs such as the two above to design a task that will focus on the properties of the linking verb [BE] as opposed to the auxiliary verb [BE]. List guiding questions you would use to introduce the task to ELLs. Your guiding questions are expected to help them construct a hypothesis and mimic the steps of scientific inquiry. Finally, ask your students if their L1s have an equivalent for the linking verb [BE], which is commonly called the copula in other Indo-European languages. Inform your students that some dialects of American English, such as most of African American dialects do not use the linking verb [BE] in their grammar, just like some other languages, such as, Japanese, Korean, and Turkish do not have an overt linking verb [BE]. In anticipation of such students omitting the linking verb [BE], design a follow-up task that will include a cloze test where students fill in the blanks with appropriate verbs. 2. Suppose some of your students come from L1s that do not have grammatical tense. Come up with your own sentences such as those below to design tasks to introduce the concept of tense to students. a. I usually play tennis, but I played video games last week. b. She is here now, but she was in Paris last year. Ask your students how they would indicate that the event in a sentence is in fact a past event or a future event in their L1s. Have them give examples to the class and invite others to contribute with their questions or contributions in terms of how their language marks or does not mark tense. To help the students acknowledge the universal nature of this concept, think of additional ways English and many other languages mark the time of an event or a state in ways other than grammatical tense. 3. We have not focused on the syntactic properties of modals in this chapter. Observe the following sentences to compare modals and regular auxiliary verbs, and identify the (ir)relevance of tense with modal verbs: a. Couldn’t you have helped your friend? b. Are some linguists working for Hollywood? c. I have baked cakes many times, haven’t you? d. I can overcome this challenge, I must overcome it, and I will overcome it. e. Students can’t do better on quizzes unless they have enough time.

928

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

Making use of the sentences above or sentences of your own, design a task that will focus on the differences and similarities between regular auxiliary verbs and modal auxiliary verbs. List guiding questions you would use to introduce the task to ELLs. 4. The function of the {-ing} morpheme in English is often very confusing for ELLs at any level. For beginners, the difference between present tense and progressive aspect is lost due to the incorrect assumption that {-ing} marks present. This difference may be observed in the sentences below: a. I am dancing at the party now. b. I was dancing at the party yesterday. c. I will be dancing at the party. Making use of the sentences above or sentences of your own, design tasks for beginner-level learners that will focus on the difference between present tense and progressive aspect in terms of what they mean and a following one in terms of how they are marked on the verbs. List guiding questions and describe non-linguistic tools, such as visual material you might want to use. 5. The function of the {-ing} morpheme in deriving gerunds and participles in English is very confusing, as well. The terminology used does not help either because a participle with {-ing} is called a present participle misleadingly implying that {-ing} marks the present tense, although it does not. The following pair of sentences illustrate the use of a gerund and a participle: a. Dancing is so much fun. b. She is a true dancing queen! Making use of the sentences above or sentences of your own, design a task/tasks for intermediate/ advanced students, and focus on the difference between gerunds and participles with {-ing}. Try not to use the term “present.” 6. The function of the “past” participle forms of the verb is just as confusing. The{-ed/-en} morpheme may appear on verbs to mark the perfect aspect or the passive or even used as an adjective as illustrated below: a. I have broken my promise. b. This vase is broken. c. The novel is about broken hearts. Making use of the sentences above or sentences of your own, design a task for intermediate or advanced learners that will focus on the difference among these three functions of the {-ed/-en} morpheme. 7. We have seen that the choice of an auxiliary verb determines the aspect of a verb complex although the ending on the content verb also pairs up with a specific auxiliary: a. I have seen that movie. I am watching another one right now. Making use of the sentence above or sentences of your own, design a task/tasks that will address the differences between [BE]/[HAVE] and the auxiliary verb [DO], focusing on aspect.

929

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

8. Passive voice is marked morpho-syntactically on the verb complex: [BE] verb + {-ed/-en} as may be observed below: a. In this chapter, inflectional categories are explained very well. Making use of the sentence above or sentences of your own, design a task/tasks to focus on the seemingly contradictory nature of the auxiliary verb [BE] in the present tense and the “past” ending on the participle in the sentence above. 9. Mood is a difficult inflectional category to teach. Think of a way to correlate the lexical meaning of the word mood and the grammatical meaning of the word mood as we have used it in this chapter: a. I am not in the mood to make the impossible possible. A dialogue to use both meanings in the same sentence: b. Wife: Help me reboot this computer! c. Husband: I am not in the mood to deal with your imperative mood today! Design a task/tasks for Beginner or K-12 ELLs to focus on the similarity to help them understand what grammatical mood is and how language marks different kinds of mood. 10. Almost all sentences in this chapter are in the indicative mood. Excluding the example sentences in the sections on imperative mood and subjunctive mood, there are a few sentences in the subjunctive and in the imperative moods in the content of this chapter. Find those sentences.

REFERENCES Aygen, G. (2016). English grammar: A descriptive linguistic approach (3rd ed.). Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt. Aygen, G. (2019). Word choice errors: A descriptive linguistics approach (with Sarah Eastlund). New York, NY: Routledge. Aygen, G., & Bowern, C. (2000). Titan’s tensed prepositions. In A. Okrent, & J.P. Boyle (Eds.), Proceedings of the Chicago linguistics society (pp. 35-48). Chicago: Chicago Linguistics Society. Birjulin, L. A., & Xrakovski, V. S. (2001). Imperative sentences: Theoretical problems. In V. S. Xrakovski (Ed.), Typology of imperative constructions (pp. 3–50). Munchen: Lincom Europa. Comrie, B. (1976). Aspect. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Comrie, B. (1985). Tense. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139165815 Crystal, D. (1985). A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics (2nd ed.). New York: Basil Blackwell. Davies, E. (1986). The English imperative. Beckenham: Croom Helm.

930

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

Hamm, F., & Bott, O. (2018). Tense and aspect. In Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab. Stanford University. Li, T. (2009). The verbal system of the Aramaic of Daniel: An explanation in the context of grammaticalization. Leiden: Brill. doi:10.1163/ej.9789004175143.i-200 Palmer, F. R. (2012). Mood and modality. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Portner, P. (2018). Mood. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Rivero, M. L., & Arhonto, T. (1995). Imperatives, V-movement and logical mood. Journal of Linguistics, 31(2), 301–332. doi:10.1017/S0022226700015620 Searle, J. R. (1975). Indirect speech acts. In P. Cole & J. L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics: Vol. 3. Speech acts (pp. 59–82). New York: Academic Press. Stanescu, O. (n.d.). The subjunctive in that-clauses. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/15279111/ THE_SUBJUNCTIVE_IN_THAT_COMPLEMENTS_1._On_the_concept_of_modality Vendler, Z. (1967). Linguistics in philosophy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. von Fintel, K., & Iatridou, S. (2017). A modest proposal for the meaning of imperatives. In A. Arregui, M. L. Rivero, & A. Salanova (Eds.), Modality across syntactic categories (pp. 288–319). Oxford, UK: Oxford Scholarship Online. Wilson, D., & Sperber, D. (1988). Mood and the analysis of non-declarative sentences. In J. Dancy, J. M. Moravcsik, & C. C. W. Taylor (Eds.), Human agency, language, duty and value. Philosophical essays in honor of J.O. Urmson (pp. 77–101). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Zanuttini, R., Pak, M., & Portner, P. (2012). A syntactic analysis of interpretive restrictions on imperative, promissive, and exhortative subjects. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 30(4), 1231–1274. doi:10.100711049-012-9176-2

ADDITIONAL READING Alexiadou, A. (2014). Active, middle, and passive: The morpho-syntax of voice. Catalan Journal of Linguistics, 13, 19–40. doi:10.5565/rev/catjl.153 Aygen, G. (2004a). Finiteness, case, and agreement: Clausal architecture. Occasional Papers in Linguistics, 23. Cambridge: MIT. Aygen, G. (2004b). T-to-C and overt marking of counterfactuals: Syntactic and semantic implications. In C. Bowern (Ed.), Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics 10 (pp. 1–17). Cambridge: Harvard Linguistics Department. Aygen, G. (2006). Finiteness and the relation between agreement and nominative case. In C. Boeckx (Ed.), Agreement Systems (pp. 63–98). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi:10.1075/la.92.06ayg

931

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

Butt, M. (2003). The light verb jungle. In G. Aygen, C. Bowern, & C. Quinn (Eds.), Papers from the GSAS/Dudley House workshop on light verbs (pp. 1-49). Cambridge: Harvard Linguistics Department. Kemmer, S. (1993). The middle voice. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi:10.1075/tsl.23 Kitazume, S. (1996). Middles in English. Word, 47(2), 161–183. doi:10.1080/00437956.1996.11435951 Levin, B. (1993). English verb classes and alternation: A preliminary investigation. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Orwell, G. (1946). Politics of the English language. Horizon: London. Retrieved from https://faculty. washington.edu/rsoder/EDLPS579/HonorsOrwellPoliticsEnglishLanguage.pdf Reichenbach, H. (1947). Elements of symbolic logic. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. Rizzi, L., & Cinque, G. (2016). Functional categories and syntactic theory. The Annual Review of Linguistics, 2(1), 139–163. Retrieved from linguist.annualreviews.org. doi:10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011415-040827 Schafer, F. (2009). The causative alternation. Language and Linguistics Compass, 3(2), 641–681. doi:10.1111/j.1749-818X.2009.00127.x

ENDNOTES 1



2



3



4

5



6



932

Actually, has is marked with the third person singular subject-verb agreement in the present tense. Although agreement is another inflectional marker on the verb, it is excluded from this chapter because English does not have a rich morphology of subject-verb agreement. The properties of modals are beyond the scope of this chapter; however, it is worth noting that other modal auxiliaries, such as “must,” “may,” or “should” are also used with a bare verb, but they do not belong to a tense category. They do not mark tense and have different grammatical meanings, such as permission, obligation, ability, possibility, and so on. Ungrammatical sentences or other forms are marked with an asterisk at the beginning of that form. In English linguistics, there are other manifestations of voice, which we will exclude from the discussion for the purposes of this chapter. For interested readers they are listed here: (i) Causative and anti-causative alternation requires the analysis of transitive verbs as cause + intransitive verbs, and John broke the vase is analyzed as causative and The vase broke as anti-causative (Levin, 1993; Schafer, 2009). (ii) Reflexive alternation refers to reflexive verbs observed in body-care verbs (Kemmer, 1993): John washed and combed every morning. (iii) Middles refer to verbs that do not allow agentive by-phrases, such as This book reads easily (Alexiadou, 2014; Kitazume, 1991). In appropriate contexts, indicative could also function as an order: You are doing the dishes tomorrow, not me. The reason why this sub-type of probable condition is considered a zero conditional or almost a non-conditional is because we can replace the if with when or whenever, and the sentence would still be true, and the logical implication between the two clauses is preserved.

 Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

7



8



See Aygen (2004) for a discussion on conditional inversion and how we can only get a counterfactual reading when the auxiliary verb is inverted and if is deleted in inverted conditionals. For instance, we can say If he finished the work on time, we will throw a party for him, which is not a counterfactual. However, once we invert the conditional as Should he finish the work on time, we will throw a party for him, the only available interpretation is that of probable condition. See Aygen (2016) for a complete list of such verbs, adjectives, and even nouns that create sentences in the subjunctive mood.

This research was previously published in Applied Linguistics for Teachers of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners; pages 128-178, copyright year 2019 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

933

934

Chapter 43

Advertising With Humour:

A Pragmatic and Semantic Investigation Lorena Clara Mihăeş University of Bucharest, Romania Manuela Epure https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1405-0389 Spiru Haret University, Romania

ABSTRACT The present chapter considers verbal humour used in advertising as a rhetorical device. To understand humour, one needs to make inferences by resorting to background knowledge (the domain of pragmatics), and to knowledge of the linguistic code (the domain of semantics). This endeavour examines a series of successful marketing campaigns for ROM, a Romanian chocolate bar brand, and tries to analyse the humorous elements they feature from a pragmatic and semantic perspective. Dwelling on ingrained prejudices and stereotypes, the advertisements for the Romanian chocolate bar have managed to attract attention by humorously exaggerating and sometimes by shocking the audience, compelling them to take action and share their opinions on the advertised matters on various websites. This strategy, which employs humour extensively, has turned out to be successful and, as a consequence, the brand’s sales have dramatically increased.

INTRODUCTION Advertisements have long become part of our daily life. Whether we walk in the street, watch TV, go to a movie or surf the internet, numberless adverts will pop up in front of our eyes, trying to direct our attention to this or that product. In fact, they are so numerous that we tend to overlook most of them and can hardly remember anything two minutes afterwards. That is, unless there is something memorable about them, maybe if they make us smile for at least a brief second. No wonder, then, that many advertisements often feature humorous language as the ‘it’ factor that will draw attention upon the product they promote. This is no news. As early as the 1500s, pub signs used visual puns to attract customers, DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch043

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Advertising With Humour

but humour has begun to be widely incorporated into promotional campaigns in the modern meaning of the word with the advent of broadcasting, at the beginning of the 20th century (Gulas & Weinberger, 2006). Academic research on humour in advertising has subsequently emerged, more often than not for pragmatic reasons, trying to measure its persuasive power and influence upon the customers’ buying choices (Unger, 1996; Beard, 2007; Dynel, 2009). Still, many researchers maintain that its effectiveness remains uncertain (Weinberger & Gulas,1992; Forabosco, 2011), while some prominent figures in the advertising industry, such as Claude Hopkins, the grandfather of modern advertising, goes as far as to advise marketers against using humour, maintaining that people would not buy from clowns (Hopkins, 1966). It is even claimed that, sometimes, humour is so engaging and distractive that the opposite effect is achieved: people remember the joke, but fail to associate it with the targeted product (Sternthal & Craig, 1973; Martin, 2007). One thing remains, however, sure: humour enhances liking and creates bonds with the audience. Therefore, to overlook its importance may be as bad as to overrate its persuasive force. The present chapter is more interested in the theoretical mechanisms behind humour as a rhetorical vehicle rather than in trying to devise ways to measure its effectiveness. It, therefore, goes the linguistic path and leaves the latter aspect to the marketers. To understand humour, one needs to make inferences by resorting to background knowledge (the domain of pragmatics), as well as to knowledge of the linguistic code (the domain of semantics). The chapter will consider the marketing campaigns of a Romanian chocolate bar brand and will try to analyse the humorous elements from a pragmatic and semantic perspective. The focus will solely be on verbal humour. Situational humour triggered by visual stimuli is more a matter of semiotic analysis, which does not constitute the province of the present endeavour.

BACKGROUND What makes us laugh? What is humour, after all? What are the conditions that a discourse should meet in order to be considered funny and humorous? The definitions are numberless, and, most probably, one which is all-encompassing does not exist (Weinberger & Gulas, 1992). The nature of definitions varies according to the vantage point from which humour is defined. Seen as a type of communication, it is believed to engender a positive emotional reaction (Crawford, 1994; Romero & Cruthirds, 2006; Hurren, 2006). This type of approach, however, leaves out the traits and characteristics which make a piece of discourse humorous. As a matter of fact, for a text to be humorous, it needs to communicate incongruous meanings, which will trigger amusement in the audience (Gervais and Wilson, 2005; Martin, 2007; Banas, Dunbar, Rodriguez, & Liu, 2011). Initially, the word humour was used in connection with any of the four bodily fluids (or humours), which were thought to determine physical disposition and temperament (sanguine, melancholic, choleric and phlegmatic). The word took on a new meaning in the late Middle Ages, when Ben Jonson wrote the Comedy of Humours, which emphasised comic and odd character traits. The genre became even more successful in the seventeenth century, when it evolved into the comedy of manners. In the following two centuries, the word gained popularity and was used to refer to a sort of Romantic individual eccentricity, but without any critical intention, as we usually understand the term today (Larkin-Galiñanes, 2017). The modern usage of the word humour encompasses a variety of nuances, such as wit, comic, laughter, comedy, or jesting. Sometimes, scholars draw clear distinctions between various nuances, as does, for instance, Freud, who differentiates between comic, which needs two people, and wit, which involves

935

 Advertising With Humour

three participants (in Matte, 2001). Speaking about the use of humour in advertising, Stern (1996) contends that laughter would be a better term to describe the audience’s response to stimulus advertisement. There have been various attempts at providing a taxonomy of humour, many of them sharing a tripartite quasi identical classification. Attardo (1994) clusters several types of humour around three big categories: (1) cognitive (Incongruity and Contrast); (2) social (Hostility, Aggression, Superiority, Triumph, Derision, Disparagement), and; (3) psychoanalytical (Release, Sublimation, Liberation, Economy). Gulas and Weinberger (2006), too, divide the bulk of theories on humour into three large categories: (1) cognitive-perceptual (including the incongruity theories); (2) superiority (affective-evaluative theories), and; (3) relief. The first cognitive-perceptual category (see also Bateson, 1953; Koestler, 1964; Nerhardt, 1977) understands humour as a discrepancy between the listener’s expectations and what the joke turns out to be about (its resolution), resulting in playful confusion. Boyd (2004) sees the joke’s resolution as a twist in perspective, from a previous serious standpoint, to play. In a commercial for Pepsi-Cola, a truck carries boxes, but these are suspended in the air, without touching the bottom of the truck - this is because, we find out, the Pepsi in question is Pepsi light. In the light of Cook’s theories (1994) regarding the disruptive character of literary texts in connection to well-established patterns (the so-called world-schemata), humour, too, can be conceived as schema disruptive, though Marszalek contends that humorous fiction “often stops ‘half-way’ - it triggers schema disruption, but does not necessarily lead to schema refreshment” (Marszalek, 2013, p. 401). Superiority (or disparagement) theories, attributed to Aristotle and Plato, rely on feelings of superiority of the joke teller over the listener. Gruner (1997) argues that superiority is a necessary ingredient, even in situations when humour appears to be harmless; therefore, it includes a certain form of aggression towards the listener’s naivete or stupidity. Though less common than the first type of humour, the second type was found in 30 percent of humorous TV advertisements (Speck, 1991). In an example of the kind, the Episcopal Church promotes its compassion for the congregants in a playful, self-deprecating manner, disparaging its own origins. The advert, depicting Henry the VIIIth, reads: “In a church started by a man who had six wives, forgiveness goes without saying” (Gulas & Weinberger 2006, p. 30). Gulas and Weinberger (2006) conclude, however, that pure disparagement humour does not exist, but is always accompanied by incongruity and sometimes relief elements as well. The third category (arousal and relief) was initially used to describe a certain kind of laughter in small children (Rothbart, 1973), to be later on generalised for all types of humour (Morreall, 1983), as being a form of homeostatic mechanism, by means of which physiological tension, usually caused by fears, is vented. McGhee’s conclusion that “greater amounts of induced arousal are associated with increased enjoyment” (McGhee, 1983, p. 19) is also backed by Speck’s findings (1987) that 36 percent of humorous TV adverts employ arousal-safety mechanisms. In fact, many marketers thrive on playing out dramatic scenes and then building the arousal and safety response in the audience. In an advert for Wrigley Orbit chewing gum, a distressed hen looks at a fried egg it seems to have just laid, while the advert reads: Don’t let lunch meet breakfast. Speck (1987) pleads for an integralist view of humour and contends that it is multidimensional (all three aforementioned dimensions play their own part in humour response), opining that all humour is a way of coping with perceptual, cognitive and evaluative anomalies in a discourse, whose perceptual order is, thus, restored as a function of humour. Indeed, each of the three categories lays emphasis on a different aspect of humour which elicits amusement: the cognitive framework addresses irony and

936

 Advertising With Humour

surprise, whereas superiority and relief theories accentuate the antagonistic social relationships between the joke teller and the jokee (Ferguson & Ford, 2008).

HUMOUR IN ADVERTISING THROUGH A LINGUISTIC LENS The Pragmatics and Semantics of Humour Humour is regarded as a universal characteristic of all cultures (Apte, 1985; Lefcourt, 2001). As such, it has constituted a luring and versatile object of study for various fields, from linguistics to psychology, sociology, philosophy, communication studies or marketing, to mention just a few. Freud (2003 [1905]), for example, described the psychological mechanisms of jokes as being similar to those of dreams and the unconscious. What makes us laugh is what is regularly repressed in more serious conversation. The present chapter will look at humour from a pragmatic and semantic perspective. There have been several attempts at describing humour as a linguistic phenomenon. Verbal humour came to the attention of linguists as early as 1985, when Victor Raskin put forward the Semantic Script Theory of Humour, which was built on script (frame, scenario, schemata) overlapping and opposition. Schema theory pertains to cognitive science and describes “culture-based, conventionalized knowledge” (Taylor, 1995, p. 89). A script is “a predetermined, stereotyped sequence of actions that defines a well-known situation” (Schank & Abelson, 1977, p. 41). In the joke “‘Is the doctor at home?’ the patient asked in his bronchial whisper. ‘No,’ the doctor’s young and pretty wife whispered in reply. ‘Come right in.’” (Raskin, 1985, p. 100), ‘doctor’ and ‘lover’ scripts overlap and oppose each other. Humour is triggered by the punchline, at the end of the joke, when the audience gives up the initial script (“patient”) for the secondary, opposing one (‘lover’). In other words, humour is achieved when the listener is manipulated into activating a certain script as offering a plausible interpretation, and then giving it up for another one in the light of the new reading. Raskin’s theory was later to become the General Theory of Verbal Humour (Attardo & Raskin, 1991; Attardo, 2001). The General Theory of Verbal Humour proposes six knowledge resources: script opposition (e.g., real/unreal, actual/non-actual, normal/abnormal, possible/impossible); logical mechanisms (e.g., puns, faulty logic, false analogies); situation; target (the “butt” of the joke); narrative strategy; language (Attardo, 1994). Raskin’s and Attardo’s theories are embedded in semantics and pragmatics, as well as cognitive studies. One of the best ways to understand humour is to place it in the context of language in use, namely of pragmatics. A humorous utterance is a speech act which “must be decoded and comprehended in the context of rules of language, rules of conversation, the speaker’s intentions, and other dimensions of the social situation” (Long & Graeser, 1988, p. 35). According to Grice (1991), successful communication is based on a contract between the speakers involved in a communicative act. His Cooperative Principle (henceforth CP) states that: “Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.” (1991, p. 26). The CP is enforced by the four maxims of conversation: 1. Maxim of Quantity (or Informativeness): The amount of information exchanged during a conversation shall be in accordance with the purpose of the conversation; too much or too little information may lead to breaking this maxim. 937

 Advertising With Humour

2. Maxim of Quality (or Truthfulness): The speakers’ contribution to the conversation shall be genuine, not spurious. 3. Maxim of Relation (or Relevance): The speakers’ contribution to the exchange shall be relevant. 4. Maxim of Manner (or Clarity): The speakers’ contribution shall be clear and efficient, while obscurity and ambiguity shall be avoided. In many situations, however, these maxims are not observed. There are several ways in which a maxim can be broken (Grice, 1991, p. 30): 1. Opting Out: A speaker clearly states at a certain point that he will no longer cooperate. 2. Violating a Maxim: An unostentatious act sometimes done to mislead the interlocutor (lying is an example in point). 3. A Clash: Observing one maxim may lead to breaking another. 4. Flouting: A participant breaks a maxim but he wants the interlocutor to deduce the necessary implicatures in order to restore conversational cooperation. Implicatures are suggested meanings which are not explicitly expressed or strictly entailed by the utterance. Thus, humour may be considered to fall into the category of maxim flouting. However, Raskin (1985) contends that the joke-telling mode of communication abides by a different set of maxims from Grice’s bona-fide type of communication: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Maxim of Quantity: The amount of information shall be in accordance with the joke requirements. Maxim of Quality: Only what is compatible with the world of the joke shall be said. Maxim of Relation: Only what is relevant for the joke shall be said. Maxim of Manner: The joke shall be told efficiently.

At the same time, Raskin (1985) admits that in bona-fide communication, when the hearer establishes for sure that his interlocutor violates the communicative principle, his first hypothesis is that the interlocutor is making a joke (hence the oft-used utterance: Are you kidding?). This entails that, after bona-fide communication, humour is regarded as the next most acceptable form of communication by our society (Rakin, 1985). Speaking within the same CP framework, Attardo (1994), too, sees humour as non bona-fide communication, yet jokes are still cooperative as they bring about “subversion of the maxims to achieve socially desirable effects” (p. 287). Goatly (2012) adds another ingredient to this pragmatic description of humour: short-term violation of CP. He opines that the breaking of the maxims should be recognised almost instantaneously if the joke is to work and cooperation to be restored. Therefore, jokes can be considered delayed flouts. They are different from lying, where non-observance of maxims is indeterminate (Attardo, 1994). Finally, many researchers consider humour to be an instance of figurative language (Ritchie, 2005; Brône, Feyaerts & Veale, 2006).

Humour in Advertising: The Case of the ROM Chocolate Bar In their analysis on the impact of humour on advertising, Weinberger and Gulas (1992) reach some conclusions: (1) humour attracts attention; (2) humour does not impede comprehension; (3) in terms of persuasion, humorous ads do not seem to offer an advantage over non-humorous ones; (4) humour does 938

 Advertising With Humour

not increase product credibility; (5) humour enhances liking; (6) audience factors (gender, age, race) affect humour response, and; (7) humour works better for existing rather than new products, and for low-involvement and feeling-oriented products. Humour seems to be efficient to a certain degree, but it relies on a peripheral route to persuasion, not on a central one (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). While the central route is based on the recipient’s assessment of the logical argumentation he is presented with, the peripheral route relies more on the receiver’s mood and emotional involvement. Forabosco (2011) identifies at least five parameters which describe the connection between humour and advertising and, therefore, their compatibility: (1) similarity in the type of language they both employ (a whole range of rhetorical devices); (2) contiguity (they are adjacent in many respects); (3) continuity (the whole advertising text can be perceived as being humorous); (4) integration (humour and advertising, when used together, form a unitary text, which cannot be split without spoiling the intended message), and; (5) full integration (when the product is an indistinguishable part of the advertising text). The last parametre counterattacks the possible negative effect of humorous advertising, which makes the customer focus his attention on the joke and not on the product. Forabosco (2011) contends that once humour and the brand are perceived as one, the positive effect associated with humour will be transferred to the product, urging the prospects to take action and buy. A Romanian brand which has based its commercial campaigns on humour is ROM (obviously a clipping from Romania), a traditional Romanian chocolate bar. The chocolate bar was created in 1964, under the communist regime, and has managed to pass the test of time even in the capitalist era that has emerged after 1990. In the last years, faced with a fierce international competition, the brand has preserved its market position by resorting to clever marketing strategies. For ROM, humour seems to have been a lucky streak. The chocolate’s campaigns speak about national pride while sometimes making fun at certain national prejudices from various perspectives. The first attempt to reposition the product on the market was in 2005, when a ROM commercial featured Ceausescu, the Romanian dictator. The commercial tried to link the past with the present in an amusing manner. A young girl, dressed in a very modern outfit, is pulled back in time while eating a ROM chocolate bar. She finds herself in a communist factory, precisely during one of Ceausescu’s working visits. He notices the girl and tells her that such an attire is not to be tolerated, so a woman takes her away, dresses her in an ugly uniform and gives her a push on the corridor of the same school she came from, where everybody is staring at her. “ROM - Strong sensations since 1964” is the slogan that concludes the advert. Humour, in this situation, is based on the opposition actual/non-actual. The first script instantiated is that of a schoolgirl in the modern times, when it is normal to wear a short skirt. The second one is triggered by the girl’s eating a ROM chocolate bar, which sends her into the past. The girl is rebuked by Ceausescu himself and taken away to be “properly” dressed in a uniform. The cultural incongruity of the two scripts and the punchline at the end (eating ROM causes strong sensations, such as sending you in the communist epoch) give rise to humour in this commercial. The same idea is exploited in yet another ROM commercial from the same campaign. The ad shows a long-haired youngster eating a ROM bar in front of a cinema. This time, the past intrudes upon the present: two guys pull the young man into a communist car, blindfold him and take him into a room in the eighties, where a comrade tells him: “Rocker, the party wants you to have your hair cut”. After he has his hair cut by the two guys, he is driven back from where he was taken. The ad is based on the same opposition actual/non-actual, with the non-actual scenario triggered by the young man’s eating the ROM bar. Both ads try to present funny scenes from communism to the new generation, dwelling on the idea that strong sensations from the ‘64 continue to exist (on condition you eat ROM, obviously). 939

 Advertising With Humour

In 2011, McCann Erickson, the American global advertising agency, struck it lucky and won two Grand Prix at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, for best product (re)launch and best brand building, with the American ROM publicity campaign. At the time, ROM was in financial trouble, especially because it did not appeal to the young people. Its target was represented only by their nostalgic parents, who had been introduced to the brand during the communist regime. In a period when many Romanians were contemplating the idea of immigration and patriotism was practically dead, McCann Erickson bet on the Romanians’ national pride and tried to challenge their national ego. The agency strategy was to replace the old wrapping represented by the Romanian national flag with the American flag overnight, without any prior announcement. They relaunched the new “americanised” ROM in shops. In the TV commercial, an American with a ROM bar in his hand tells the audience in English, with subtitles in Romanian, that this is not the same ROM - it is much better. Then, he explains why it is so: because the Romanian flag has been replaced “for you, so that you can eat it anywhere in the world and be proud”. The new ROM, we are told, comes now “With the American flag. With the taste of coolness”. Although there is no direct criticism of the Romanians, the subversive frame which is activated is one in which the Romanians do not stand up to the Americans, so they indirectly become the butt of the joke. By flouting the maxim of quality (or truthfulness), the ad prompts the audience to deduce the necessary implicatures: an ad cannot disparage its own public, by implying that they are not good or “cool” enough. Therefore, the ad should have been interpreted as a practical joke. Yet, many people failed to get the irony - if it was advertised on TV, it had to be serious! People got very inflamed and wrote thousands of messages and posted them on the campaign website, on the YouTube channel, and on blogs. People’s reaction was backed by a smart marketing campaign. Under the slogan “We want Authentic ROM back”, a video clip, claiming to be user generated, features a man in a car speaking to the camera: “I live in Romania, I drive a Romanian car and I eat the most traditional Romanian chocolate bar, ROM. Then why the f*** am I speaking English?” In this case, laughter is triggered by the contradiction between the speaker’s patriotism (he enjoys Romanian things) and his sudden realisation that he is speaking in English. Humour is based on the fact that the first part of the discourse arouses expectations which are not fulfilled: the listener expects the speaker to conclude his line of argumentation in a different manner, maybe by adding a stronger argument in favour of Romanian things, while his speaking in English actually goes unnoticed. The speaker’s own indignation at the language he uses suggests his being forced to adopt the American way. The clash between the two schemata - the ‘Romanian’ schema, represented by the country, the car, the chocolate bar, and the ‘American’ schema, represented by the English language and the ROM wrapping - creates the humorous gist of the advert. In the second stage of the campaign, ROM returned to its original wrapping, admitted that everything was a joke, and, thus, managed to increase its market share. A new step in repositioning ROM on the market was to look at some stereotypes related to Romanians and exploit them in a funny way. Romanians are said to be smart and talented, but they apparently lack the motivation to finish what they have started. Under the slogan “ROM gives you the kick to finish what you have started”, the marketing campaign included a TV ad, a website titled The Museum of Uncompleted Passions, where users posted their stories, and a real museum, in a café, where artists, bloggers, celebrities and Facebook fans brought various objects which told the story of their unfinished activities. The TV ad begins with a man crossing a half-finished zebra while a car driving through the unfinished part almost runs over him. The voiceover comments: “We, Romanians, have a special gift: we begin things but we do not finish them”. As a further illustration to this, the camera moves to a young skinny man who is told by the voiceover, as a continuation of the initial commentary, that he had taken 940

 Advertising With Humour

up bodybuilding but then gave it up. To this, the young man replies by flexing his muscles: “Are you kidding? Look at my muscles!” In the next scene, the voiceover rebukes a young girl sitting in front of a computer in an office: “you begin working and, ten minutes later, you are on Facebook”. The girl tells him that she is actually preparing a presentation, but on her computer screen one can see the Facebook page. Both scenes are instances of irony. According to Grice, irony is an example of conversational implicature (1991). He also contends that irony involves pretence, which is intended to be recognised, but which is not announced as such because it would spoil the effect. The maxim of quality is violated in both cases, as both youngsters lie, but the situation is as such at the discourse level that the listener infers the true meaning: both characters do not like to finish thing they begin. The voiceover finally adds that it is ROM that gives you the kick to finish what you have begun. The commercial ends with the young man furiously throwing away objects from his fitness apparatus, obviously determined to continue his bodybuilding program. In 2013, McCann Erickson devised another campaign, starting from the well-known confusion between Bucharest and Budapest. Many celebrities and personalities are known to have made this confusion throughout time. The campaign, under the name Bucharest Not Budapest, was initiated as an animation, whose stated purpose was to end the confusion between the two capitals, apparently with no connection to the ROM chocolate bar: “Bucharest is the capital of Romania. If you think Budapest is, then, my friend, you are a citizen of Wrongaria” (see References). Humour is again achieved by breaking the maxim of quality (there is not such country as Wrongaria), but the viewer correctly understands it as a pun - a combination between Hungary and wrong. The commercial spot name some “very famous geographically impaired people”, among which king of pop Michael Jackson, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Lenny Kravitz, or the 400 Athletic Bilbao supporters, who did not bother to check Wikipedia and made the confusion. It is only at the end of the commercial that we find out that its purpose is not to promote some touristic destination or some nation branding, but to advertise the chocolate bar. ROM has set out to eliminate the confusion: “The Bud and the Buch might sound similar, but the Pest is different from the Rest”. The commercial, which was uploaded on Youtube, gathered hundreds of commentaries in less than a day because it stirred many discussions on a topic that touched national pride. The same year, ROM launched two new products - ROM sandwich and ROMToff - and a new campaign: Revenge is sweet. Starting from the Romanians’ inveterate conviction according to which some big Romanian inventions have been stolen by foreigners who have kept the merits, the advert tries to settle the score in a funny manner. It can be interpreted using Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Principle (1978), which states that Grice’s maxims of conversational efficiency are not violated without a reason. One reason is people’s desire to maintain their positive face (i.e., the desire to be highly regarded by the others). The speaker in the advert apparently wants to preserve Romanians’ positive face (including his own), at any cost. He begins by claiming that Romanians have had the best ideas, but others have always taken advantage of them: Petrache Poenaru invented the fountain pen, but the French patented it; a Romanian invented the flying backpack, but the Americans took the idea and called it a jetpack; a Romanian invented the jet plane, but others took the glory for it. When there was nothing else to be taken, they have taken Romanian history and now Vlad the Impaler is now Dracula and makes good money for Hollywood, while oina, the Romanian national sport has been stolen and become baseball. The speaker breaks two of Leech’s maxims (1983). By contending that some of the best inventions in the world are Romanian, he breaks the maxim of modesty, which states that one should minimise praise of self. He goes on by breaking the approbation maxim, which requires that dispraise of other should be minimised. The commercial ends with the slogan That’s enough!, adding that it is high time the Roma941

 Advertising With Humour

nians take over foreigners’ successful ideas and make them our own. That is why ROM has taken the British best idea - the biscuits - and ‘Romanianised’ them with the authentic taste of ROM. Following the same apparently revengeful attitude, the speaker urges Romanians to sign the online petition, which asks the Americans to begin their baseball games by singing the Romanian national anthem. Humour in this commercial arises from the speaker’s exaggerated desire to augment his positive face, and, by inference, of the entire nation. The latest ROM campaign dwells on the Romanians’ prejudices and bets on humour once more. A first video clip, named Paranoia, laughs at the prejudices the Romanians believe that foreigners have about them and shows a foreign tourist in Romania taking some pictures. He is interrupted by a Romanian who asks his opinion about the country. To the tourist’s retort: “It’s amazing here. You can do so much with so little”, the Romanian gets annoyed and begins a conversation in which he keeps interpreting innocent retorts as innuendoes about the shortcomings of the Romanians: ‘So we are poor.’ ‘No, you are very resourceful people.’ In Romanian, to his girlfriend: ‘Ce zice asta?’ (En. ‘What does he say?’) Girlfriend, in Romanian: ‘Zice ca ne descurcam.’ (En. ‘He says we are quick-witted.’) To the foreigner: ‘So we are thieves.’ The foreigner: ‘That’s not what I’ve said.’ The man: ‘So we are liars?’ ‘No, man. There’s been a misunderstanding.’ ‘Oh, so you think we are…’ Girlfriend, in Romanian, interrupting him: ‘Hai, ia cu ROM, lasa…’ (En. ‘Leave him alone, have a ROM instead…’) The man, suddenly in a much happier mood, to the foreigner: ‘Want some?’ “ROM softens prejudices” is the slogan that ends the commercial. The joke here is based on the opposition real/unreal, namely on the conflict between speaker’s meaning and the addressee’s meaning, in an avalanche of clashing scripts. Every time the foreigner says something apparently innocuous, the Romanian deduces prejudice-related implicatures. Thusly, implicatures and presuppositions are used to achieve a humorous effect. The header ‘little’ in ‘doing so much with so little’ activates the ‘poverty’ script. When this scenario is dismissed, the header ‘resourceful’ activates the ‘thief’ script. This is dismissed, too, just to be replaced by the ’liar’ schema. The cascade of scripts stops sharply, just when a new script is about to be activated by the header ‘misunderstanding’ (most probably ‘stupidity’ script). 942

 Advertising With Humour

As part of the same campaign, another TV commercial titled This is Romania! speaks about the Romanians’ self-prejudices. A young man goes through a series of mishaps and every time he blames his country for what goes on in his life. If in the first scene, his exclamation ‘This is Romania!’ when driving his car over road full of holes seems somehow to fit the stereotype (Romania is known to have bad roads), the situation gets ever more hilarious with every scene. When his girlfriend leaves him, he indignantly tells his cat: ‘This is Romania!’, as if only in Romania girls deserted their boyfriends. He obviously does not observe the maxims of quality (there must be another reason for his girlfriend’s decision, one he does not like to acknowledge) and of relation (his comment is not relevant for the situation). The ensuing two scenes show the young man as a player in what appears to be a football match where nobody pays any attention to him, and when he looks at his thinning hair in the mirror. In both cases, he utters the same remark: ‘This is Romania!’. By expressing indignation at his country for things which obviously have nothing to do with it, he actually taps into national prejudices in an amusing manner. The last scene presents him in the street while it starts raining. As he says out loud “Incredible! This is Romania!”, a young man sticks a ROM bar into his mouth and his mood suddenly lightens up.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS One aspect that merits further investigation is the translation of verbal humour, which is often regarded as an instance of untranslatability (Diot, 1989). Connected to the present discussion of humour used in advertisements, a point can be made about the translation of some of ROM commercials. ROM has a series of street banners, as part of the marketing campaign ROM softens prejudices. They all include jokes which are both language-dependent and culture-bound, and tackle stereotypes related to Romanians. ‘Cine e roman şi a ratat bacul?’ ‘Un om care a ȋntârziat ȋn port’, reads one ad (En. ‘Who is Romanian and has missed the bac?’ ‘A man who arrived late in the harbour’). The joke here relies on the polysemy of the Romanian word ‘bac’, which is both the short for ‘baccalaureate’ and ‘a boat’. Another ad reads: ‘Who is Romanian and loves seeds?’ ‘An ordinary gardener’. The stereotype that is touched upon here refers to the gypsies’ love of sunflower seeds and the prejudice of certain foreigners that all Romanians are gypsies. Another interesting path to follow would be to analyse the use of humour in advertising slogans. A slogan such as Carlsberg’s “Probably the best beer in the world” is ironical in a certain way (any producer would say that his product is the best, not probably the best), but, by hedging the assertion by means of the detensifier probably, Carlsberg increases its brand trustworthiness and credibility, precisely because it seems ready to admit its flaws (but, of course, it does not). This is an example of how self-directed irony and humour can, in fact, create the opposite effect. Finally, a semiotic analysis of humour in advertising would shed light on the effectiveness of visual performance when combined with language or when used independently.

CONCLUSION Humour is not rare in advertising. According to one estimate (Speck, 1987), 52% of the American national ads were found to rely on humour and the percentage is now probably higher. Romanian advertisements, too, often employ humour as a marketing strategy. Yet, there are many examples of funny advertisements 943

 Advertising With Humour

in which the joke is remembered, but not the product. Such an example is an ad which depicts two men dressed in white, most probably working in a mental institution, carrying a priest against his will on a tower. They give the priest a push over the balcony and, while watching him falling down, one of the men says: ‘I told you he’s a priest, but you kept saying: it’s Batman, it’s Batman’. Everybody knows the ad, but they fail to associate it with the product (Altex, a Romanian chain which sells home appliances). This is probably because the connection of the ad with the brand comes only in the end (‘If you got tired of having others telling you what the movie was about’), and it is obscure, anyway (owing your own TV set would not confuse you about the plot of a movie). ROM is a fortunate exception, as it manages to put its message across in an unambiguous and entertaining manner. In its case, humour managed to draw attention upon a brand which had almost fallen into oblivion. By shocking the audience sometimes, the strong marketing message it conveys in a humorous package has managed to create controversy around the brand and has aroused curiosity. This chapter has looked at humour from the vantage point of pragmatics and semantics, two important linguistic tools which can shed light on how humorous effect is achieved. The case of ROM advertising campaigns is a felicitous example of how humour, when smartly used, increases the product’s market share.

REFERENCES Apte, M. L. (1985). Humor and Laughter: An Anthropological Approach. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Attardo, S. (1994). Linguistic Theories of Humor. Berlin, NY: Mouton de Gruyter. Attardo, S. (2001). Humorous Texts: A Semantic and Pragmatic Analysis. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110887969 Attardo, S., & Raskin, V. (1991). Script theory revis(it)ed: Joke similarity and joke representation model. Humor, 4, 293–348. Autentic, R. (2017). ROM Potoleşte prejudecăţile “Paranoia” [YouTube]. Retrieved from https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=U3pz4L3JRBA Banas, J. A., Dunbar, N., Rodriguez, D., & Liu, S.-J. (2011). A review of humor in educational settings: Four decades of research. Communication Education, 60(1), 115–144. doi:10.1080/03634523.2010.496867 Bateson, G. (1953). The Position of Humor in Human Communication. In H. von Foerster (Ed.), Cybernetics (pp. 1–47). New York: Macy Foundation. Beard, F. K. (2007). Humor in the Advertising Business: Theory, Practice and Wit. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Boyd, B. (2004). Laughter and Literature: A Play Theory of Humor. Philosophy and Literature, 28(1), 1–22. doi:10.1353/phl.2004.0002 Brône, G., Feyaerts, K., & Veale, T. (2006). Introduction: Cognitive linguistic approaches to humor. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 19(3), 203–228. doi:10.1515/HUMOR.2006.012

944

 Advertising With Humour

Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cook, G. (1994). Discourse and Literature. The Interplay of Form and Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Crawford, C. B. (1994). Theory and implications regarding the utilization of strategic humor by leaders. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 1(4), 53–68. doi:10.1177/107179199400100406 Diot, R. (1989). Humor for Intellectuals: Can It Be Exported and Translated? The Case of Gary Rudeau’s In Search of Reagan’s Brain. Meta, 34(l), 84–87. doi:10.7202/002570ar Dynel, M. (2009). Add humour to your ad: Humour in advertising slogans. In M. Dynel (Ed.), Advances in Discourse Approaches (pp. 201–226). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Ferguson, M. A., & Ford, T. E. (2008). Disparagement humor: A theoretical and empirical review of psychoanalytic, superiority, and social identity theories. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 21(3), 283–312. doi:10.1515/HUMOR.2008.014 Forabosco, G. (2011). Notes on humour and persuasion in advertising and legal discourse. In M. Dynel (Ed.), The Pragmatics of Humour across Discourse Domains (pp. 353–364). Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. doi:10.1075/pbns.210.22for Freud, S. (2003). The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious. London: Penguin Books. (Original work published 1905) Gervais, M., & Wilson, D. S. (2005). The evolution and functions of laughter and humor: A synthetic approach. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 80(4), 395–430. doi:10.1086/498281 PMID:16519138 Goatly, A. (2012). Meaning and Humour. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/ CBO9780511791536 Grice, P. (1991). Studies in the Way of Words. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Gruner, C. R. (1997). The Game of Humor. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. Gulas, C. S., & Weinberger, M. G. (2006). Humor in Advertising: A Comprehensive Analysis. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. Hopkins, C. (1966). My Life in Advertising & Scientific Advertising. London: McGraw-Hill Education. Hurren, B. L. (2006). The effects of principals’ humor on teachers’ job satisfaction. Educational Studies, 32(4), 373–385. doi:10.1080/03055690600850321 Koestler, A. (1964). The Act of Creation. New York: Macmillan. Larkin-Galiñanes, C. (2017). An Overview of Humour Theory. In S. Attardo (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Language and Humor (pp. 4–16). New York: Routledge. Leech, G. (1983). Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman Group Limited.

945

 Advertising With Humour

Lefcourt, H. M. (2001). Humor: The Psychology of Living Buoyantly. New York, NY: Kluwer Academic. doi:10.1007/978-1-4615-4287-2 Long, D. L., & Graesser, A. C. (1988). Wit and humor in discourse processing. Discourse Processes, 11(1), 35–60. doi:10.1080/01638538809544690 Marszalek, A. (2013). “It’s not funny out of context!” A cognitive stylistic approach to humorous narratives. In M. Dynel (Ed.), Developments in Linguistic Humour Theory (pp. 393–422). Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company; doi:10.1075/thr.1.18mar Martin, R. A. (2007). The psychology of humor: An integrative approach. Burlington, MA: Academic Press. Matte, G. (2001). A psychoanalytical perspective of humor. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 14(3), 223–241. doi:10.1515/humr.2001.001 McGhee, P. E. (1983). The Role of Arousal and Hemispheric Lateralization in Humor. In P. E. McGhee & J. Goldstein (Eds.), Handbook of Humor Research: Basic Issues (pp. 13–37). New York: SpringerVerlag. doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-5572-7_2 Morreall, J. (1983). Taking Laughter Seriously. Albany: State University of New York Press. Nerhardt, G. (1977). The Operationalization of Incongruity in Humor Research: A Critique and Suggestions. In A. J. Chapman & H. C. Foot (Eds.), It’s a Funny Thing, Humour (pp. 47–51). Oxford: Pergamon Press. doi:10.1016/B978-0-08-021376-7.50013-9 Pebunenet. (2010). Reclama Batman Batman... EPIC! [YouTube video]. Retrieved from https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=gAaFsVmD6DI Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 19, 123–205. doi:10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60214-2 Raskin, V. (1985). Semantic Mechanisms of Humour. Netherlands: Springer. Ritchie, D. (2005). Frame-shifting in Humor and Irony. Metaphor and Symbol, 20(4), 275–294. doi:10.120715327868ms2004_3 Romautentic. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.romautentic.ro/ Romero, E. J., & Cruthirds, K. W. (2006). The use of humor in the workplace. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 20(2), 58–69. doi:10.5465/amp.2006.20591005 Rothbart, M. K. (1973). Laughter in young children. Psychological Bulletin, 80(3), 247–256. doi:10.1037/ h0034846 PMID:4731735 Schank, R., & Abelson, R. (1977). Scripts, Plans, Goals and Understanding. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum. Speck, P. S. (1987). On Humor and Humor in Advertising. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Texas Tech University. Speck, P. S. (1991). The Humorous Message Taxonomy: A Framework for the Study of Humorous Ads. Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 13(1-2), 1–44. doi:10.1080/01633392.1991.10504957

946

 Advertising With Humour

Stern, B. (1996). Advertising Comedy in Electronic Drama: The Construct, Theory and Taxonomy. European Journal of Marketing, 30(9), 37–59. doi:10.1108/03090569610130034 Sternthal, B., & Craig, C. S. (1973). Humor in Advertising. Journal of Marketing, 37(4), 12–18. doi:10.2307/1250353 Taylor, J. (1995). Linguistic Categorization: Prototypes in Linguistic Theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Unger, L. S. (1996). The potential for using humor in global advertising. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 9(2), 143–168. doi:10.1515/humr.1996.9.2.143 Weinberger, M. G., & Gulas, C. S. (1992). The Impact of Humor in Advertising: A Review. Journal of Advertising, XXI(94), 35–59. https://www.bucharestnotbudapest.com doi:10.1080/00913367.1992.106 73384

ADDITIONAL READING Alexander, R. (1997). Aspects of Verbal Humour in English. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. Boxer, D., & Cortés-Conde, F. (1997). From bonding and biting: Conversational joking and identity display. Journal of Pragmatics, 27(3), 275–295. doi:10.1016/S0378-2166(96)00031-8 Ermida, I. (2008). The Language of Comic Narratives. Humor Construction in Short Stories. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110208337 Forabosco, G. (1992). Cognitive aspects of the humour process: The concept of incongruity. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 5(1-2), 9–26. doi:10.1515/humr.1992.5.1-2.45 Graby, F. (2001). Humour et Comique en Publicité. Paris: Management et Société. Martin, R. A. (2007). The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Academic Press. Monnot, M. (1981). Selling America: Puns, Language, and Advertising. New York: University Press of America. Nash, W. (1985). The Language of Humour. London: Longman. Partington, A. (2006). The Linguistics of Laughter. A Corpus-Assisted Study of Laughter-Talk. Oxon: Routledge Studies in Linguistics. Ritchie, G. (2004). The Linguistic Analysis of Jokes. London: Routledge.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Cooperative Principle: A description of how people should achieve effective communication in a conversation.

947

 Advertising With Humour

Humour: A message evincing certain incongruities, verbal skill or ingenuity which can cause amusement. Pragmatics: The study of language in use. Prejudice: Preconceived judgements, opinions or convictions about certain facts. ROM Chocolate Bar: A chocolate bar brand owned by Kandia Dulce, the largest Romanian producer of sweets, established in 1948. Script: A cognitive repository of commonsense conventionalised knowledge about a certain concept. Semantics: The study of meaning in language.

This research was previously published in The Role of Language and Symbols in Promotional Strategies and Marketing Schemes; pages 178-192, copyright year 2019 by Business Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

948

949

Chapter 44

Phonetic Fossilization:

Is It a Matter of Perfection or Intelligibility? Aicha Rahal University of Gafsa, Tunisia

ABSTRACT Fossilization is a common linguistic phenomenon among learners. It presents an obstacle that hinders the process of learning and prevents learners from acquiring the target language. The present chapter explores this phenomenon. It gives an overview of the theory of interlanguage and the concept of fossilization. The chapter presents the history of pronunciation teaching. It also reviews a previous study on pronunciation problems and fossilized errors that face learners of English as a second or a foreign language. The present chapter also raises an important question. It attempts to show the matter behind this linguistic phenomenon. There seems to be different views. Some researchers claim that phonetic fossilization is a matter of intelligibility. Other researchers state that achieving perfection in pronunciation is preferable. Another trend of researchers assumes that fossilization cannot be applied to the multilingual context.

INTRODUCTION In second language acquisition, it has been claimed that L2 learners develop a unique linguistic system, different from both the first language and the Target Language (TL). This linguistic system is called approximative system (Nemser, 1971), idiosyncratic dialects or transitional dialects (Corder, 1971) and Interlanguage (IL) (Selinker, 1972). The present study mainly focuses on the theory of IL. This linguistic system should be developed to reach the TL. However, previous observations (Kahraman, 2012; Smaoui & Rahal 2015; Rahal, 2016) have demonstrated that L2 learners’ IL systems often become fossilized and L2 learning process makes no further progress toward the TL. Fossilization can be temporary or permanent. The former refers to persistent errors that are destabilized after corrective feedback and exposure to L2 environment. The latter refers to stable and fixed errors in learners’ IL over a period of time.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch044

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Phonetic Fossilization

Fossilization is a linguistic phenomenon that hinders the process of learning and prevents learners from acquiring full level of competence. Many researchers studied fossilization (Han, 2004, 2005), the process of fossilization (Heath, 1998), causes of fossilization (Han, 2005; Wei, 2008), mainly biological factors (Liu, 2012), cognitive factors (Liu, 2012) and psychological factors of fossilization (Chen, 2009), as well as ways to overcome fossilization (Zheng, 2010; Demirezen, 2010; Li, 2009; Qian & Xiao, 2010; Smaoui & Rahal, 2015). The aim of the present chapter is to address the problem of phonological fossilization by reviewing previous studies on pronunciation errors and persistent phonological errors. It is an attempt to understand this linguistic obstacle.

Interlanguage The word interlanguage (IL) was advanced by Larry Selinker in 1972 in his eponymous paper Interlanguage. It is a central notion in the field of second language acquisition. Stern (1983) states: The concept of Interlanguage was suggested by Selinker in order to draw attention to the possibility that the learner’s language can be regarded as a distinct language variety or system with its own particular characteristics and rules. (as cited in Tanaka, 2000, p.1) IL is seen as a unique linguistic system, independent in its own right. It differs from both the native language and the target language, but “linked to both native language and the TL by interlangual identifications in the perception of the learner”, as Tarone states (2006, p. 749). This means that IL has some characteristics both from the native language and the target language. Selinker (1972) argues, “the sets of utterances from learners of a second language are not identical to the hypothesized corresponding sets of utterances which would have been produced by a native speaker of a target language had he attempted to express the same meaning as the learner” (p.214). Thus, IL is a type of language produced by non-native speakers in the process of learning a second language or a foreign language. IL also refers to “psychological structure latent in the brain” which is activated when one attempts to learn a second language (Selinker, 1972, p.34).

Fossilization The concept of fossilization was introduced by Larry Selinker in 1972. It is defined as the “linguistic items, rules, and subsystems which speakers of a particular NL will tend to keep in their IL relative to a particular TL, no matter what the age of the learner or amount of explanation and instruction he receives in the TL” (p.215). In his explanation of this linguistic phenomenon, Selinker (1992) states: Fossilization includes those items, rules, and sub-systems that second language learners tend to retain in their interlanguage while in the process of acquiring a particular target language, and that will only be eliminated with considerable effort for the majority of second language learners, regardless of explanation or instruction. From the definitions cited above, we can say that fossilization is a stage in which learners cannot make any further progress in their IL towards the TL. And this is clearly cited in Selinker’s (1996) definition, 950

 Phonetic Fossilization

where he points that it is “a process whereby the learner creates a cessation of interlanguage learning, thus stopping the TL from developing, it is hypothesized in a permanent way…” (as cited in Han, 2004, p.15). Han (2004) describes fossilization as the “phenomenon of non-progression of learning despite continuous exposure to input, adequate motivation to learner, and sufficient opportunity for practice” (p.13). Thus, learners fail to achieve native-like competence. Fossilization is the phenomenon of nonprogression of learning L2. According to Ellis (1985), fossilization can be an error or a correct target language form. He believes, “If, when fossilization occurs, the learner has reached a stage of development in which feature x in his interlanguage has assumed the same form as in the target language, the fossilization of the correct forms will occur. If, however, the learner has reached a stage in which feature y still does not have the same form as the target language, the fossilization will manifest itself as error” (as cited in Zheng, 2010, p.148). Fossilization is regarded as a stage in which there is no correspondence between “feature X” and the target language form. It refers to the non-change in learners’ transition from L1 and L2. Ellis (2004) states that fossilization is part of IL process which occurs at a certain point in the IL development (as cited in Fauziati, 2011, p.25). Selinker (1993) argues that fossilization is characterized by some aspects. First, it refers to permanent cessation in the process of learning “far from the target language” (p.16). Second, persistent linguistic features hinder learners from making any progress towards the target norms, “no matter what learners do in terms of further exposure to the TL” (p.17). It is clear, therefore, that this concept has been studied and interpreted by many researchers and scholars. They used many terms to refer to fossilization, such as cessation of learning, persistent nontarget-like performance, learning plateau, backsliding, etc. However, most of them agree that it refers to the inability to fully acquire target language features. It is important to note that there is another term used by Pennington (1999) to refer to fossilization. It is “diminishing returns”, which means that at an advanced level, there is less progress in learners’ linguistic system. He states that “most adult learners will hardly be able to improve their productive and receptive competence of a new sound system without explicit instruction” (p.428). However, based on the direct accessibility hypothesis, adult learners learn both first and second language by setting parameters to Universal Grammar (UG). It is seen that UG can be used in the first language, it also can be applied to the L2 learning. This shows the impossibility of the occurrence of the phenomenon of fossilization. To support this argument, Ritchie (1978) tested the operation of the Right Roof Constraint (RRC). He used a grammaticality judgement test. Based on the results, it was found that the RRC is operating. This result shows that UG is accessible to L2 learners. In a similar vein, there is another study that supports this view. Otsu and Naoi (1986) claim that L2 learners have direct access to UG. They conducted a study on Japanese learners of English as a second language. The aim of the study is to test the operation of the Subject-Dependency Principle in the L2. The participants were 11 female teenagers who had studied English for two years. The subjects were asked to transform 12 declarative sentences that have relative clauses into questions. The findings demonstrated that most of the participants formed the questions correctly. It is clear, therefore, that they were guided by UG (as cited in White, 1989).

951

 Phonetic Fossilization

Fossilization and Neurological Considerations It seems that the brain could not function during fossilization. According the Shafaei (2010), fossilization has cognitive, neurological and socio-affective causes. A the neurological level, “fossilizations create certain chemical changes in the chemistry of human brain by generating electrical transactions which work contrary to the neuro-cognitive processes of phonemes and sounds underlying L2 perception and production” (p.378). Han (2004) also suggested many causes of fossilization. These include environmental, cognitive and neuro-biological factors. Neuro-biological causes involve changes in the neural structure of the brain, age, decrease of cerebral plasticity for implicit acquisition, lack of talent and neutral entrenchment (p.29). Lannerberg (1967) argues that after puberty learners cannot acquire full level of proficiency because “the unilateral function of brains makes the natural language acquisition disappear” (cited in Huang, 2009, p.76). Learners’ nerve system which is situated in the left hemisphere of the brain will be restricted. The restriction of the brain will cause interlanguage fossilization. It seems that when fossilization occurs, the left hemisphere of the brain which is devoted to language development stops to function and learners cannot make any progress to reach the TL. According to the critical period hypothesis, language fossilization is inevitable in those individuals who are learning a language beyond this critical period. Similarly, Scovel (1969) states that there is a clear relationship between lateralization and second language acquisition. He argues that after youthhood, second language learners cannot master nativelike pronunciation because “the brain looses its plasticity and lateralization is accomplished” (as cited in Ipek, 2009, p. 159). Based on the lateralization hypothesis, when this plasticity disappeared, native-like L2 learning would become impossible. Johnson and Newport (1989) also points to the onset of puberty as an important moment in terms of the loss of an ability to acquire native-like L2 competence. It seems that the brain stops to function when fossilization occurs and fossilization happens when the brain ceases to function. Han (2006) uses the terms ‘explanans’ and ‘explanandum’ (pp.4-5) to show that fossilization is not only a ‘process’ but also a ‘product’. It is a stage in the process of learning. It occurs when the brain does not function. It is also the result of the brain’s loss of plasticity.

Phonological Fossilization Phonological Fossilization refers to the persistence of phonological rules in learners’ IL. This type of fossilization can be result from the incorrect acquisition of L2 pronunciation. For instance, the consonant /θ/ represents a problem for Chinese students because it does not exist in their first language. Therefore, Wei (2008) argues that it is difficult for Chinese learners to pronounce / θ/. They replace it with /s/. They say /snk/ instead of /θnk/.

Definition of Perfection Perfection means nativeness. Achieving perfection in pronunciation means acquiring native-like speaker. According to Routledge Dictionary of Languages and Linguistics, “Native speaker refers to a representative ideal speaker/ listener of a linguistic community” (p.785). The use of the word “ideal” means perfection. It refers to people who have expertise the target pronunciation. The Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics also defines this notion, stating that “many people do, however, develop ‘native-like’ command of a foreign language, and in bilingualism one has the case of someone who has a native command of 952

 Phonetic Fossilization

two languages” (p. 322). This indicates that people can master full level of proficiency in pronunciation and they can reach the level of native speakers. However, Selinker (1972) assumes that second language learners cannot achieve native-like competence. They can only achieve ‘attempted learning.’ That is they can “express meaning, which he may already have, in a language which he is in the process of learning” (p.210). According to Selinker (1972), there is a small percentage of 5% can succeed in reaching full level of proficiency.

Definition of Intelligibility Intelligibility has been recognized as the most important aspect of communication and the crucial aspect of L2 speech (Abercrombie, 1949; Crawford, 1987; Nelson, 1982). According to Kenworthy (1987), intelligibility means understandability, that is “being understood by a listener at a given time in a given situation” (p.13). Similarly, Derwing (2010) states that intelligibility refers to the products of “actual understanding” (p.29). Nelson (1982) also notes that “being intelligible means being understood by an interlocutor at a given time in a given situation” (p.59). According to Morley (1991), “Intelligible pronunciation is an essential component of communication competence” (p. 488). Based on the definitions cited above, it seems that most of the researchers agree that intelligibility refers to the extent to which speaker’s speech is understood by a listener (Munro & Derwing, 1995). However, this definition veils the complexity of this term. In this context, Bamgbose (1998) claims that intelligibility is an umbrella term. It includes the three-level system, namely intelligibility, comprehensibility, and interpretability. He further describes it as “a complex of factors comprising recognizing an expression, knowing its meaning, and knowing what that meaning signifies in the sociocultural context” (p. 11). Some researchers (e.g. Munro & Derwing, 1995) suggested a hierarchy of importance: intelligibility, comprehensibility, with accentedness the least important consideration. It seems, therefore, that intelligibility is the focal goal behind teaching pronunciation.

HISTORY OF PRONUNCIATION TEACHING In the early period of English language teaching, the beginning of 1800’s, pronunciation was neglected. The dominant theory was Grammar Translation Method because the main aim of language learning and teaching was to read and write (Celcia-Murcia et al., 1996; Lightbown & Spada, 2006). With the foundation of the International Phonetic Association, pronunciation began to be taught through different techniques, such as imitation and intuition. In the late 1800’s, pronunciation gained a special place in language instruction and it was centered on the Direct Method (Celcia-Murcia et al., 1996). In this period, students tried to imitate their teachers to acquire the target rules and forms. The arrival of Audio-lingualism gave a crucial place to pronunciation because the main interest of language instruction moved to listening and speaking skills (Lightbown & Spada, 2006). Students started learning sounds through listening and practicing minimal pairs (Larsen-Freeman, 1986). In the 1960s, the situation changed and teaching pronunciation began to decline. The main importance was given to teaching grammar and vocabulary. Some researchers discussed the issues behind the decline of pronunciation teaching. Morley (1991), for instance, argued that the reason is due to teachers who are not satisfied with the principles and methods used to teach this skill.

953

 Phonetic Fossilization

The emergence of the two humanistic approaches, the Silent Way and the Community Language Teaching, gave an important place to pronunciation. This period is known by its call for a change in the ways and methods of teaching pronunciation. This change was voiced by many researchers, such as Bowen, (1972); Smith and Rafiqzad, (1979); Stevick etal., (1975). After that, pronunciation took its place again in 1980s and especially with the arrival of the communicative approach. It became the center of classroom instruction (Levis, 2007; Setter and Jenkins, 2005). Morley (1991) noted that the 1980’s witnessed a “renewed interest in pronunciation teaching principles and practices” (p.487). The arrival of the communicative approach paved the way for the emergence of ‘intelligibility’ which had a high priority in language teaching and learning. Pronunciation gained its importance and became an integral part in language teaching (García-Lecumberri and Gallardo, 2003; Pennington, 1996; Fraser, 2006).

Pronunciation Problems That Face Learners of English There are a number of studies that investigated pronunciation problems that face learners of English as a second or a foreign language. Naama (2011), for instance, has analyzed errors made by Yemeni University students in English consonant-clusters system. Five categories of consonant clusters have been investigated, namely initial-consonant clusters that are made up of two consonants, initial-consonant clusters which are made up of three consonants, final consonant clusters which are made up of two consonants, and final consonant clusters that are made up of three and four consonants. The first category shows that 26 of 45 students were unable to pronounce the initial-consonant clusters which are made up of two consonants. They inserted the short vowel /i/ in pronouncing them. For instance, they say /pilei/ for play. The second category also shows that they tend to insert the vowel /i/ in words such as /spilendid/ for “splendid” and /ispired/ for “spired.” The third category demonstrates that most of the students do not pronounce the final consonant cluster /-kt/ correctly. They pronounce it as /pikid/.They have not yet acquired the rule that the /-d/ sound has to be pronounced /t/ if it is preceded by the voiceless sound /k/.The fourth and fifth categories show that no one could pronounce the final consonant clusters that are made up of three or four consonants. For example, no one could pronounce the word “sixths” correctly. The subjects tend to insert a short vowel among the four consonant clusters like /siksi/. According to Naama (2011), the mother tongue is the major cause of interlingual phonological errors of Yemeni University students. Another reason beyond making errors in English consonantclusters is the absence of using teaching aids. Students have to listen to cassettes, videos, etc. Naama (2011) also states that incompetent instructors affect students’ pronunciation. Hassan (2012) also studied the pronunciation problems of Sudanese learners of English. The aim of the study was to identify the errors of pronunciation among English learners and their major reasons. The participants were all the students of English at the Sudan University of Science and Technology. The results of the study showed that many Sudanese learners did not pronounce the following consonants /p, v, ð, θ/. Some Sudanese learners mispronounced /a, e, i, o, u/ sounds. They pronounced / dʒ / instead of /ʒ/ and / ∫ / in place of /t∫/. The results suggest that the main reasons of the errors were the difference between the sound system of both languages, Arabic and English, mother tongue interference, insufficient practices and inconsistency of English vowels. Along the same line as Hassan, Pal (2013) conducted a study on mother tongue interference on spoken English. The study identified the sounds of Hindi that affected the acquisition of English pronunciation. The participants were Indian learners, and Hindi is their mother tongue. The findings showed Hindi 954

 Phonetic Fossilization

learners of English faced different pronunciation problems, namely fricative sounds, plural markers, consonants clusters, vowel sounds which have different spellings and words which display sound and spelling disparity. The results of the investigation also indicated that errors resulted from L1 interference. Similarly, Maniruzzaman (2005) has conducted a study on phonological errors made by Bengali learners of English. He tried to identify the major problems and show the factors behind them. The results revealed that Bengali learners committed errors in pronouncing monophthongs, diphthongs and consonants. Monophthongal errors include mispronunciation of long vowels, mispronunciation of contrastive vowels and the schwa sound. Diphthongal errors include omission of the first part of monophthongs. Consonant errors involve the use of Bengali bilabial stops in place of English labio-dental fricatives, the use of Bengali alveolar retroflex stops in place of English alveolar plosives and the use of Bengali dental stops in place of English inter-dental fricatives. Moreover, O’Connor (2003) reported that there are many pronunciation problems faced Arab learners of English. These problems involve consonants and vowels. Consonant difficulties include the confusion between /f/ and /v/, /b/ and /p/ and / t ∫ / and / dʒ /. They also replaced / ŋ / by / ŋk/ and / ŋg/. Vowel difficulties include the confusion between /i/ and /e/ sounds, /ʌ/ and /ɔ/ sounds, /ɔ: / and /ʌ/ or /ɔ/ sounds. Arab learners also did not make the distinction between /æ/ and /a: / sounds. Further, they replaced /3:/ by /ʌ/ and /e/ and / iə, eə, ʊə/ by / i:, ei, u: /. Tahereen (2015) also conducted a study on the problems in teaching pronunciation in Bangladesh. The results showed that the students tend to use local accents in pronouncing English. For instance, students from Chittagong, Sylhet and Nookhali are confused between /e/ and /ae/. They also use /f/ or /c/ sounds in place of /p/ because they are influenced by the dialect of Dhaka. Furthermore, Lin (2014) investigated pronunciation variations that face learners of English as a second language. The study focused on the major problems in English articulation of five groups, namely Vietnamese, Japanese, Arab, Chinese and Spanish speakers of English. The results demonstrated that the first group has a problem with the pronunciation of final consonants. The second group added vowels to English words that end with consonants. The third group tended to insert a vowel sound when the stems have onset consonant clusters. The fourth group pronounced short vowels in place of long vowels. The fifth group has a problem in pronouncing these sounds: /f/, /v/ and /r/.

STUDIES ON FOSSILIZED PHONETIC ERRORS, CAUSES, AND SOLUTIONS Fossilization is one of the obstacles that prevent learners from reaching the target language and achieving a full level of proficiency. Researchers tried to study this linguistic obstacle. Some of them focused on investigating phonetic fossilization. Another trend of researchers attempted to identify the major causes and the possible solutions.

Phonetic Fossilization Considerable amount of second language researchers has focused on studying phonological fossilization. Demirezen (2008) has studied many fossilized vowel sounds. He examined the fossilized pronunciation of the /æ/ phoneme. He claimed that this phoneme represents a problem for Turkish English language students. The findings showed that Turkish learners pronounced /ʌ/ sound in place of /æ/ sound because the latter does not exist in Modern Standard Turkish. Demirezen (2005a) further conducted a study on 955

 Phonetic Fossilization

the fossilized pronunciation of /v/ and /w/ sounds. The result showed that Turkish teachers and trainees mispronounced the /w/ sound as /v/ sound. This should be due to mother tongue interference. Moreover, Demirezen (2005 b) studied the /ɔ/ and /ow/ sounds of Turkish students of the English language. He claimed that these sounds have always been a fossilized mistake. According to the researcher, Turkish students “do not give the required lip rounding in its articulation” (p.73). The causes of this problem are the absence of pronunciation teaching method and the absence of courses in phonetics, phonology and intonation. Furthermore, Demirezen (2010) conducted a study on the difficulties in articulating the schwa sound. The study was conducted at Hacettep University, Ankara. The subjects of the study were 81 students. The findings indicated that the schwa sound is a fossilized sound in the speech of Turkish students. It was replaced by the /e/ and /ʊ/ sounds. The result also showed that the fossilization of the schwa sound can be attributed to NL interference and the lack of awareness. The studies cited above demonstrated the existence of phonetic fossilization in the speech of the subjects. However, they do not clarify the methodology. In other words, they do not show how they reached the findings. It is difficult to prove the existence of fossilization without studying learners’ IL overtime. Researchers need to show non-change in learners’ linguistic systems. These studies also provide a number of fossilized sounds. The question is whether these sounds can affect communication and lead to confusion between the interlocutors. According to Jenkins (2000), some of the above sounds do not represent a problem of comprehensibility and understandability. She summarizes the main features of pronunciation which are necessary for intelligibility, as follows: 1. Consonant sounds except voiced/voiceless th and dark l 2. Vowel length contrasts (e.g. the difference between the vowels in ‘pitch’ and ‘peach’) 3. Restrictions on consonant deletion (in particular, not omitting sounds at the beginning an in the middle of words) 4. Nuclear (or tonic) stress production/placement Similarly, Baker and Farr (1997) studied the fossilized pronunciation of French speakers of English. The subjects were 14 students. They were divided into two groups: Control group and experimental group. The aim of the study was to show the role of instruction in destabilizing fossilization. The findings of the first group showed that 28.6% of the subjects maintained the same level of pronunciation, 28.6% of them did not show improvement over the ten week period and 42.8% of them showed improvement in their pronunciation. The findings of the second group showed that the pronunciation of 71.4% of the participants improved and 28.6% of them maintained the same level of pronunciation over the ten week period. Therefore, the experimental group showed more improvement in their pronunciation. However, control group showed the existence of fossilization. Based on the findings, it seems that L2 environment is one way to fight fossilization. Baker and Farr’s (1997) study conducted a cross-sectional approach to show the existence of fossilization and a corrective feedback approach to show the role of instruction in rehabilitating fossilization. However, the cross sectional approach is used to examine errors from a single point in time. It is an insufficient tool for studying the development of the process of learning. The need for further longitudinal studies and pretest-posttest experimental studies is therefore evident. Hişmanoğlu (2007) also conducted a study on the fossilized pronunciation of the /ɔ:/ and /ɔ/ sounds. The participants were Turkish learners of English. The study showed that Turkish learners tended to 956

 Phonetic Fossilization

pronounce /oʊ/ in place of the /ɔ: / and /ɔ/ sounds. Based on the results, the fossilized sound is due to mother tongue interference. The researcher proposed the audio-articulation method to avoid persistent errors. He gave an example of a lesson plan to help Turkish learners get rid of their fossilization. Similarly, Kahraman (2012) carried out a study on the fossilized pronunciation of the vowel phoneme /æ/ and the ways to overcome this. Based on the findings, most Turkish learners of English articulated /æ/ sound as /e/. They were also confused between the mid-back unrounded vowel phoneme /ʌ/ and the front low spread vowel /æ/. Kahraman (2012) also proposed the audio-articulation method to remedy fossilization. In studies of Tunisian English students, Rahal (2014) conducted a research on the fossilized pronunciation of the schwa sound. The participants of the study were 5 English students from the department of English of Gafsa, Tunisia. The findings of the study showed that the subjects fossilized the /e/, /ɔ: / and /a: / sounds in place of the schwa sound. The results also revealed that fossilization is due to L1 interference, inconsistency of English vowels and lack of knowing the production of English phonetics. Though the findings of this study showed that Tunisian students have a problem with articulating the schwa sound, a few additional issues need to be taken into consideration. First, the period of the longitudinal study was rather short. Therefore, the study did not provide any evidence for long-term changes. The persistent errors can be destabilized. So we can speak about temporary fossilization or stabilization. Second, the study indicated that Tunisian students fossilized some sounds in place of the schwa sound. However, it did not elaborate more on where the problem is because the schwa sound has a family: Is the problem with the Schwi, the schwu, or the schwr. Finally, the results did not provide a clear explanation of the factors behind fossilization. Similarly, Smaoui and Rahal (2015) studied the fossilized pronunciation of the /3:/ sound in the speech of intermediate Tunisian English students. The participants of the study were 10 students from the department of English of Kairouan, Tunisia. The results showed that most of the subjects fossilized the /ɔ: / sound in place of the /3:/ sound. Based on the findings, fossilization can be attributed to the effect of French sounds, limited exposure to L2 environment and lack of practice. The researchers proposed the audio-articulation method to remedy fossilization. Recently, Rahal (2016) has conducted a study on the fossilized pronunciation of Advanced Tunisian English students. The participants of the study were 20 students from the English department of Kairouan. The researcher used an eighteen-month longitudinal study to try to show the existence of fossilization. Based on the results, the subjects made a number of errors in times 1, 2 and 3. The longitudinal study showed that there are errors that disappeared and there are a number of errors that repeated in times 2 and 3. The findings also showed that phonetic fossilization is the result of a number of factors, including mother tongue interference, effect of French sounds, inconsistency of English vowels, limited exposure to L2 environment, insufficient corrective feedback and insufficient knowledge of the production of English sounds. According to the results, fossilization can be remedied by the use of dictionaries to check the phonetic transcription, the adoption of new teaching methods, the integration of technology in teaching pronunciation and sufficient corrective feedback. Although Smaoui and Rahal (2015) and Rahal (2016) investigated Tunisian students’ ILs longitudinally, the studies still have their limitations. They investigated segmental features of pronunciation and they neglected supra-segmental features. Both features play an important role in creating the global sounds of a language. The studies also focused on the effect of interference from first language on learners’ pronunciation. That is they studied fossilization from the psychological perspective. But, in the literature, 957

 Phonetic Fossilization

there are also the sociolinguistic uses of the word interference which refers to language contact and the effect of one language on the acquisition of the other. It is worth noting that the studies cited above have demonstrated that L2 learners fail to achieve native-like competence and their persistent errors remain in their IL systems overtime. However, some researchers (e.g. Fauziati, 2011; Ricard, 1986) argue that learners’ linguistic system can stop developing at a certain stage but after treatment learners can master target forms or rules. Ricard (1986) states that “students who have been speaking English for years can go beyond fossilized pronunciation habits” (p.249). This means that learners’ IL can be characterized by a momentary halt and fossilization can be destabilized. Demirezen and Topal (2015) also studied fossilized pronunciation errors from the perspective of Turkish teachers. The participants were 30 teachers from different universities in Turkey. According to the results, most of the subjects considered that persistent pronunciation errors are rehabilitable. They also agreed that trainings are important to help learners overcome fossilization.

Causes of Fossilization and Ways to Remedy Fossilization Another literature of fossilization has tried to identify the major causes of fossilization and the possible solutions to overcome it. Graham (1990) conducted a study on de-fossilizing persistent pronunciation errors. The participants of the study were six Asian engineers and scientists. The researcher proposed a course of 15 class sessions. This model of treatment is based on learners themselves and the corrective feedback given to them. Based on the findings, it seems clear that the participants showed improvement in their pronunciation. Like Graham (1990), Murphy (1991) believes that overcoming pronunciation errors relies on learners themselves. He states that “improvement in pronunciation depends up significant commitment of both time and energy from learners themselves” (p.95). This means that learners’ awareness and engagement can help them avoid fossilized pronunciation. According to Valette (1991), giving appropriate and accurate input can save learners from fossilization. The input is of three types: Teacher input, recorded input and student input. For teacher input, proficient teachers should teach beginning classes to help them acquire accurate linguistic input. Recorded input involves the use of videos as an effective way to avoid fossilization. Learners should listen to videos by native speakers to master target sounds. Listening is a way to be in contact with natural language. Student input is manifested in communicative interaction between students to master TL rules. Based on the above studies, we can argue that learners’ awareness is important to avoid fossilization. In this respect, Tahereen (2015) states that “Learners’ awareness is very important in developing good pronunciation” (p.13). However, teachers should also be aware of their students’ pronunciation problems. If teachers are aware of these problems, they will adopt the appropriate teaching method to deal with fossilized errors. Valette (1991) argued that recorded input like videos is important in helping learners’ overcome fossilization. A question that should be raised is whether the integration of internet resources can help students to destabilize their fossilized pronunciation. Some researchers (for example Lui, 2012) believe that the dominance of technology can affect student-teacher interaction. It minimizes communicative interaction in the classroom and without teachers’ correction; learners acquire incorrect sounds and rules. Wei (2008) also conducted research on the factors of fossilization and the possible suggestions to avoid this phenomenon. The researcher mentioned Selinker’s five processes as the main sources of fos958

 Phonetic Fossilization

silization. The study suggested three solutions to reduce this obstacle. These include the selection of the appropriate strategy for learners’ performance, sufficient input and natural exposure to TL environment. Furthermore, Xinguang and Xiuquin (2015) conducted a study on the causes of the fossilized errors made by Chinese college students and the possible solutions to overcome them. The subjects were 180 students from the University of Jinan in China. The findings showed that fossilization is attributable to various factors. It can be the result of lack of interest, insufficient teaching methods, mother tongue interference and the transfer of training. Based on the results, fossilization can be remedied by both teachers’ and learners’ effort. Learners should cultivate themselves with the TL culture and teachers should choose good teaching methods that are appropriate for their learners. Zheng (2010) also proposed a model of instruction for destabilizing fossilization. The researcher noted that the model consisted of five curriculums. First, teachers should understand the needs of students to select the appropriate teaching materials and strategies. Second, testing learners’ proficiency is important to know their levels. Third, motivating learners is also necessary. Fourth, teachers should adopt learning strategies that combine attitude, approaches and techniques to improve learners’ language learning. Fifth, teachers should develop learners’ language competence and pragmatic strategies. Zheng’s (2010) study suggested a pedagogical model for overcoming fossilization. This model has its strengthens. It takes into account the needs of learners. It also gives an important key to help learners overcome fossilization which is motivation. However, the literature of fossilization still needs empirical studies to show the effectiveness of such methods or techniques in rehabilitating fossilized errors. In other words, researchers should move from theory to focus on experimental investigation. It is worth mentioning that the identification of the causes behind fossilization can help teachers to draw the suitable teaching methods and to use the appropriate materials. Based on the studies reviewed so far, there has been a general agreement on the role of pedagogy in stabilizing fossilized errors. However, there are also other activities that can help learners to overcome their fossilized errors. Eliasi (2013) perceived repetition as one way to reduce fossilization. Other researchers (e.g. Malmeer and Araghi, 2013) showed the significant role of extensive reading in avoiding fossilization. Although the literature reviewed so far has demonstrated that researchers tried to study the phenomenon of fossilization, its causes and the solutions to avoid this linguistic obstacle, an important question needs to be studied. Trying to know the problem behind phonetic fossilization can help both teachers and learners understand it and try to find solutions to overcome it.

WHAT IS THE MATTER BEHIND PHONETIC FOSSILIZATION? As mentioned above, fossilization refers to the cessation of learners’ linguistic system overtime. It occurs when learners acquire non-target norms. The raised question revolves around the problem behind fossilized phonetic errors. Some researchers see that this linguistic phenomenon is a matter of intelligibility. Maniruzzaman (2005), for instance, states that the replacement of phonemes leads to huge confusion and misunderstanding between the listener and the speaker. Researchers (Celcia-Murcia et al., 1996; Jenkins, 2000; Seidlhofer, 2001) have emphasized the centrality of intelligibility as a key component in communication. They claimed that intelligibility is the most important goal of pronunciation teaching. Ur (1996) supports this view and he states that “the aim of the pronunciation is not to achieve a perfect imitation of native accent, but simply to get the learner to pronounce accurately enough to be easily and comfortably comprehensible to other (component) speakers” (p.52). 959

 Phonetic Fossilization

Achieving perfection in pronunciation and phonetics seems to be preferable. Some linguists, such as Thornbury, Harmer, Cook, Marianne, Donna and Janet argue that most of the teachers and learners want to be perfectionist or try to be like the natives. But it is not desirable. In this case, intelligibility can be more important. Hawlader (2011) agrees that “high goal of achieving perfection in pronunciation” (p.275) is not important. Teachers and learners should concentrate more on making their speech clear and intelligible to the interlocutor. According to Morley (1991), the “notions of perfection and nativelike pronunciation” are type of “imposing and perpetuating false standards” (p.499). Smith and Rafiqzad (1979) say that “the native speaker was always found to be among the least intelligible speakers” (p. 395). Morley (1991) further states that the aim of pronunciation should be changed from ‘perfection’ pronunciation to more realistic aims, such as developing functional intelligibility, communicability, increased self-confidence, the development of speech monitoring abilities and speech modification strategies for use beyond the classroom (p. 500). It seems that most of the researchers agree that perfection is not necessary for intercultural communication. Most of them argue that intelligibility is the real goal behind identifying learners’ pronunciation problems and studying learners’ fossilized errors. There is a need for understandability. Rahal (2016), for instance, studied fossilized phonetic errors in the speech of Tunisian English students. She gave examples of fossilized sounds that present a problem in communication. One of these examples is the use of short /i/ in place of long /i: /. She states that if the speaker pronounces the “i” in “live” as long /i: /, the listener will understand “leave” not “live”. This creates a huge confusion. Seidlhofer (2005) argues that teaching Standard English is not very realistic, given that it is not a language variety easy to define. She argues that “in terms of numbers of speakers and domains of use, an insistence on Standard English as the only option for all purposes is… difficult to justify” (p.159). The raised question paves the path for another deep and crucial question: Is there Standard English nowadays? This question opens a debate between monocentrists (e.g. Selinker) and pluralists (e.g. Kachru). According to pluralist, there is no fossilization. All learners’ errors are varieties of English. They are ‘innovation’ to use Jenkins’ term. However, monocentrists believe in the existence of error and fossilization.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS Future research should move to practice to show how such fossilized sounds cause problems of communication. There is also a pressing need for empirical studies to measure intelligibility and to identify the exact persistent sounds that impede communication. Further, there is a need for classroom activities to raise learners’ awareness on the importance of pronunciation. Teachers and learners should understand that “pronunciation is not an optional extra for the language learner, any more than grammar, vocabulary or any other aspect of language is. If a learner’s general aim is to talk intelligibly to others in another language, a reasonable pronunciation is important” (as cited in Maniruzzaman, 2005, p.1).

960

 Phonetic Fossilization

CONCLUSION The present chapter tries to review and clarify some key concepts in psycholinguistics and in second or foreign language acquisition. It presents the theory of Interlanguage and the phenomenon of fossilization. It also tries to show fossilization in the branch of phonetics. Based on the study results, the history of teaching pronunciation shows that this skill was not given its real place. In some periods, there was a total decline and neglect of pronunciation in classroom instruction. This seems to be one of the main reasons behind the occurrence of pronunciation problems and phonetic fossilization. Pronunciation should be an integral component of the teaching curriculum like the other skills. It is worth mentioning that a considerable amount of studies have been conducted to show the existence of persistent phonetic errors. Former studies showed that intelligibility is a central goal of pronunciation teaching. It seems that there is no need for native-like speaker. Learners need to produce intelligible pronunciation to facilitate communication. The study still has its limitations. It needs more empirical investigations to study this linguistic issue and to provide more examples of how fossilized sounds can lead to misunderstanding and confusion between the interlocutors.

REFERENCES Abercrombie, D. (1949). Teaching pronunciation. English Language Teaching, 3(5), 113–122. doi:10.1093/ elt/III.5.113 Bamgbose, A. (1998). Torn between the norms: Innovations in world Englishes. World Englishes, 17(1), 1–17. doi:10.1111/1467-971X.00078 Bowen, J. D. (1972). Contextualizing Pronunciation Practice in the ESOL Classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 6(1), 83–94. doi:10.2307/3585862 Bussman, H. (Ed.). (1996). Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. London: Routledge. Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M., & Goodwin, J. M. (1996). Teaching pronunciation: A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages. New York: Cambridge University Press. Chen, C. L. A. (2009). First Language Influence and Fossilization in Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition. Columbia University Working Papers in TESOL & Applied Linguistics, 9(2), 65–67. Corder, S. P. (1967). The significance of learner’s errors. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 5(4), 161–170. Crawford, W. W. (1987). The pronunciation monitor: L2 acquisition considerations and pedagogical priorities. In J. Morley (Ed.), Current perspectives on pronunciation: Practices anchored in theory (pp. 101–121). Washington, DC: TESOL. Crystal, D. (Ed.). (2008). Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Hong Kong: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. doi:10.1002/9781444302776

961

 Phonetic Fossilization

Demirezen, M. (2005a). Rehabilitating a fossilized pronunciation error: The /v/ and /w/ contrast by using the audio articulation method in teacher training in Turkey. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 1(2), 183–192. Demirezen, M. (2005b). The / ɔ/ and /ow/ contrast: Curing a fossilized pronunciation error of Turkish teacher trainees of English language. Journal of Arts and Sciences, 1(3), 71–84. Demirezen, M. (2008). The /æ/ and /ʌ/ phonemes as fossilized pronunciation errors for Turkish English language teachers and students: Undoing the fossilized pronunciation error. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 4(2), 73–82. Demirezen, M. (2010). The principles and application of the audio-lingual pronunciation rehabilitation model in foreign language teacher education. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 6(2), 127–147. Demirezen, M. (2010). The Order of Consonant Fossilization of the English Language Consonants for Turkish English Teachers and Students. E-Proceedings of the International Online Language Conference. Demirezen, M., & Topal, I. H. (2015). Fossilized Pronunciation Errors from the Perspectives of Turkish Teachers of English and their Implications. Procedia: Social and Behavioral Sciences, 199, 793–800. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.613 Eliasi, A., & Vahidi Borji, H. (2013). Task repetition and noticing as a route to semester-long destabilization: A cross-sectional study of Iranian EFL learners’ oral output. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 2(3), 21–28. doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.3p.21 Fauziati, E. (2003). Interlanguage errors in English textbooks for junior high school students in Surakarta. TEFLIN Journal, 14(2), 1–10. Fauziati, E. (2011). Interlanguage and error fossilization: A study of Indonesian students learning English as a foreign language. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(1), 23–38. doi:10.17509/ijal.v1i1.97 Fraser, H. (2006). Helping teachers help students with pronunciation: A cognitive approach. Prospect: A Journal of Australian TESOL, 21, 80-94. García-Lecumberri, L., & Gallardo del Puerto, F. (2003). English FL sounds in school learners of different ages. In G. Mayo & L. García Lecumberri (Eds.), Age and the acquisition of English as a foreign language (pp. 115–135). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Graham, J. (1990). Changing fossilized speech: What does it take? Paper presented at the 1990 San Francisco TESOL Convention, San Francisco, CA. Han, J., Yu, B., & Zhang, W. (2012). The effect of Chinese dialects on English pronunciation of high school students in China. Journal of Teacher Education, 1(3), 225–230. Han, Z. (2004a). What is fossilization? In Fossilization in Adult Second Language Acquisition (pp. 12–23). Toronto: Multilingual Matters. Han, Z. (2004b). Behavioral reflexes and causal variables. In Fossilization in Adult Second Language Acquisition (pp. 25–42). Toronto: Multilingual Matters.

962

 Phonetic Fossilization

Han, Z.-H., & Odlin, T. (2006). Studies of Fossilization in Second Language Acquisition. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Hassan, S. I. (2012). Pronunciation Problems of Sudanese Learners of English (Published M.A. Thesis). Open University of Sudan. Hişmanoğlu, M. (2007). The /ɔ:/ and /oʊ/ Contrast as a fossilized pronunciation error of Turkish learners of English and solutions to the problem. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 3(1), 98–115. Howlader, M. R. (2010). Teaching English pronunciation in countries where English is a second language: Bangladesh perspective. ASA University Review, 4(2), 233–244. Huang, Q. (2009). Probe into the internal mechanism of interlanguage fossilization. English Language Teaching, 2(2), 75–77. doi:10.5539/elt.v2n2p75 Ipek, H. (2009). Comparing and contrasting first and second language acquisition. English Language Teaching, 2(2), 155–163. doi:10.5539/elt.v2n2p155 Jenkins, J. (2000). The Phonology of English as an International Language. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Johnson, J., & Newport, E. (1989). Critical period effects in second language learning: The influence of maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second language. Cognitive Psychology, 21(1), 60–99. doi:10.1016/0010-0285(89)90003-0 PMID:2920538 Kahraman, A. (2012). Defosilization of /æ/ phoneme pronunciation of non-native EFL teachers. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 3(3), 379–385. doi:10.4304/jltr.3.3.379-385 Larsen-Freeman, D. (1986). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Levis, J. (2007). Computer technology in teaching and researching pronunciation. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 27, 184–202. doi:10.1017/S0267190508070098 Li, D. (2009). Activating strategies to fossilization for English learners in China. English Language Teaching, 2(4), 75–77. doi:10.5539/elt.v2n4p75 Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2006). How languages are learned. London: Oxford University Press. Lin, L. (2014). Understanding pronunciation variations facing ESL students. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 4(1), 16–20. Lui, Y. (2012). On fossilization of non-English majors’ speaking ability in multimedia assisted English class. Paper presented at the International Conference on Education Technology and Computer, China. Retrieved from http://www.ipcsit.com/vol43/037-ICETC2012-T1045.pdf Maniruzzaman, M. (2005). Phonetic and phonological problems encountered by the Bengali speaking EFL learner: How can they be overcome? Dhaka: Department of English at East West University. Morley, J. (1991). The pronunciation component in teaching English to speakers of other languages. TESOL Quarterly, 25(3), 481–520. doi:10.2307/3586981

963

 Phonetic Fossilization

Munro, J., & Derwing, M. (1995). Foreign accent, comprehensibility and intelligibility in the speech of second language learners. Language Learning, 45(1), 73–97. doi:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1995.tb00963.x Naama, A. (2011). An analysis of errors made by Yemeni University students in the English consonantsclusters system. Damaxus University Journal, 27(3), 145–161. Nelson, C. (1982). Intelligibility and non-native varieties of English. In B. B. Kachru (Ed.), The other tongue: English across cultures (pp. 58–73). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. Pennington, M. C. (1996). Phonology in English language teaching: An international approach. London: Longman. Pennington, M. C. (1999). Computer aided pronunciation pedagogy: Promise, limitations, directions. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 12(5), 427–440. doi:10.1076/call.12.5.427.5693 Rahal, A. (2014). The fossilized pronunciation of the schwa sound in the speech of Advanced Tunisian English learners: Problem and causes. International Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies, 1(1), 1–6. Rahal, A. (2016). Phonetic Fossilization in the Speech of Advanced Tunisian English Students: The English Department of Kairouan as a case study (Unpublished MA thesis). Faculty of Letters and Humanities of Kairouan. Ritchie, W. (1978). The Right Roof Constraint in an adult-acquired language. In W. Ritchie (Ed.), Second language acquisition research: Issues and implications. London: Academic Press. Selinker, L. (1972). Interlanguage. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10, 203–230. Selinker, L. (1992). Rediscovering Interlanguage. London: Longman Group UK Limited. Selinker, L. (1996). Fossilization: What We Think We Know. London: Longman Group UK Limited. Setter, J., & Jenkins, J. (2005). State-of-the-art review article. Language Teaching, 38(1), 1–17. doi:10.1017/ S026144480500251X Smaoui, Ch., & Rahal, A. (2015). The Fossilized Pronunciation of the /3:/ Sound in the Speech of Intermediate Tunisian English Students: Problem, Reasons and Suggested Solution. International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies, 3(1), 70–79. Smith, L. E., & Rafiqzad, K. (1979). English for cross-cultural communication: The question of intelligibility. TESOL Quarterly, 5(3), 371–380. doi:10.2307/3585884 Stevick, E., Morley, J., & Wallace Robinett, B. (1975). Round robin on the teaching of pronunciation. TESOL Quarterly, 9(1), 81–88. doi:10.2307/3586016 Tahereen, T. (2015). Challenges in teaching pronunciation at tertiary level in Bangladesh. International Journal of English language & Translation Studies, 3(1), 9-20. Retrieved from http://www.eltsjournal.org Ur, P. (1996). A course in language teaching: practice and theory. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Valette, R. M. (1991). Proficiency and the prevention of fossilization. Modern Language Journal, 75(3), 325–328. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4781.1991.tb05363.x

964

 Phonetic Fossilization

Wei, X. (2008). Implication of IL fossilization in second language acquisition. English Language Teaching, 1(1), 127–131. doi:10.5539/elt.v1n1p127 White, L. (1986). Implications of parametric variation for adult second language acquisition: An investigation of the ‘pro-drop’ parameter. In V. Cook (Ed.), Experimental approaches to second language acquisition. Oxford, UK: Pergamon. Xiao, Z., & Qian, M. (2010). Strategies for preventing and resolving temporary fossilization in second language acquisition. English Language Teaching, 3(1), 180–183. Xinguang, S., & Xiuquin, X. (2015). A study of fossilization in Chinese college students’ English learning. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 2(1), 54–60. doi:10.14738/assrj.21.678 Zhang, F., & Yin, P. (2009). A Study of Pronunciation Problems of English Learners in China. Asian Social Science, 5(6), 141–146. doi:10.5539/ass.v5n6p141 Zheng, Y. (2010). On some models of instruction for overcoming fossilization in English learning. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 1(2), 148–150. Retrieved from http://ojs.academypublisher.com/ index.php/jltr/article/viewFile/0102148150/1659

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Fossilization: A key concept in interlanguage theory. It refers to permanent stop in learning. Intelligibility: The ability to understand and to be understood by a listener in a situation. It can refer to understandability. Phonetic Fossilization: Refers to pronunciation errors that become permanent, stable, and fixed in learners’ IL overtime. Phonetics: The science of the production of sounds. It deals with how consonants and vowels are produced and pronounced. It involves studying the place and the manner of articulation of consonants and the description of vowels in terms of the height of the tongue, part of the tongue, and lips rounding.

This research was previously published in Psycholinguistics and Cognition in Language Processing; pages 244-265, copyright year 2018 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

965

966

Chapter 45

Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity: The Case of Loanwords in Turkish and English Muhlise Coşgun Ögeyik Trakya University, Turkey

ABSTRACT Marked and unmarked language forms can be distinguished with the level of simplicity or complexity denotations of the forms. Unmarked target language forms may create little or no difficulty, even if they do not exist in the native language of the learner, while marked forms can be relatively difficult for language learners. In addition to the notions of markedness/unmarkedness, there has also been an emphasis on similarity and dissimilarity between the items of first (L1) and second languages (L2). Along with similarity or dissimilarity of L1 and L2 forms, the level of difficulty may vary enormously in different language-specific procedures. In this chapter, therefore, it is intended to build an understanding of the recognized pronunciation and orthographic problems of similar loanwords in both Turkish (L1 of the participants) and English (L2).

INTRODUCTION Knowing two languages means recognizing two ways of speaking, writing, listening, and reading in both L1 and L2. The syntactic, lexical, semantic, or phonetic similarities of two languages, predominantly phonetic similarity, may make language learners be familiar with the linguistic information of the target language skills easily. It may also be presumed that phonetic similarity between languages can promote the pace of learning or acquiring the target language; however, contrary to intuitive expectations, phonetic similarity may raise difficulty in discovering and appreciating the identical sounds in both native language and target language (Gass, 2013). Additionally, orthographic similarity between two languages

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch045

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity

may also be both promoting and obstructing for L2 learners. In both cases, difficulty may arise from the potential resemblance causing interference from L1 representation, namely cross-linguistic influence. Considering the similarities and dissimilarities of L1 and L2, this chapter primarily highlights the case of loanwords in Turkish as L1 and English as L2 by taking the Markedness Differential Hypothesis –MDH- and Speech Learning Model–SLM- as references to interpret the issue. For depicting the probable troubles and facilities of loanwords, the outputs of the advanced level language learners of English have been examined. Some sets of the loanwords gathered and evaluated in terms of pronunciation and orthographic rules have been classified and presented in the chapter. The purpose of focusing on the mentioned issue is to raise the awareness of foreign language –FL- practitioners and FL learners.

BACKGROUND The impact of L1 on L2 and the notion of interference while learning a foreign language have been one of the chief concerns of the scholars in the field of L2 language education. The remarkable views have been the core of discussions, and the field courses to train L2 learners have been designed by taking these views into account. Among such views, cross-linguistic influence (CLI), for illustration, insists that using data from L1 or L2 has a considerable influence on L2 learning. CLI was used by Kellerman and Sharwood (1986) to refer to the phenomena such as language transfer- positive and negative transfer-, interference, and borrowing. Positive transfer is the experience which makes learning easier and may occur when both L1 and L2 have the identical form, whereas negative transfer, known as interference, is the use of L1 pattern or rule which leads to an error or inappropriate form in L2 (Richards & Schmidt, 2002). CLI can be noticed at all linguistic levels, whether phonological, lexical, syntactical, or semantic. By comparing groups of learners with different L1 backgrounds learning English as L2 and by clarifying more complex ways beyond simply formal similarities among individual items, Ringbom (2006) distinguished between different types of cross-linguistic similarity relations which refer to items and systems, form and meaning, L1 and L2 transfers, and perceived or assumed similarities. Depending on such distinguished points, it can be noted that the abundance of similarity among language items may foster promising results in language learning process. Conversely, dissimilar points among languages may lead to obscurity and difficulty in comprehension and production levels. The degree of difficulty in this sense can be explained through marked and unmarked items of any language (Ortega, 2009); and the models offered to describe the occurrence are Markedness Differential Model and Speech Learning Model.

MARKEDNESS DIFFERENTIAL HYPOTHESIS AND SPEECH LEARNING MODEL The rate of second or foreign language learning is affected by various features of both native language (L1) and target language (L2). Since some linguistic features are simpler or more basic in relation to others, such features are explained with the degree of markedness and unmarkedness. The notion of markedness that is known to interact with L1 influences (Ortega, 2009) derives from Chomsky’s theory of Universal Grammar (UG) which distinguishes the rules of a language as core or periphery (Ellis, 2008). While core rules are governed by universal principles, peripheral rules are controlled by parameters which are language specific features. The degree of markedness of a feature can also vary within certain 967

 Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity

core rules depending on the parameter setting involved (Ellis, 2008). By referring to Eckman’s (1977) Markedness Differential Hypothesis (MDH), which is based on phonological theory of markedness, Gass (2013) argues that one way to think of markedness is that an unmarked form, whether phonological or syntactic, is more common, more usual in the world’s languages than a marked one. Ellis (2008) restates MDH and explains the degree of difficulty an L2 learner has on the basis of a comparison of L1 and L2 as following (p.386): 1. Those areas of L2 that are different from L1 and are relatively more marked than in L1 will be difficult; 2. The degree of difficulty associated with those aspects of L2 that are different or more marked than in L1 corresponds to the relative degree of markedness associated with those aspects; 3. Those areas of L2 that are different from L1 but are relatively more marked than L1 will not be difficult. In the above comparison by Ellis (2008), the degree of difficulty between L1 and L2 items is pointed out. In that case, how such difficulty between L1 and L2 is applied to phonology needs to be observed. If language sounds are more common to many languages, they are classified as unmarked ones; but if they are not, they are labeled as marked ones. How does it apply to L2 learning situation? It can be supposed that if the sounds are unmarked, they are learnt before marked ones. Along with the MDH, some other theoretically derived hypotheses such as the Structural Conformity Hypothesis which addresses the role of markedness in terms of marked and unmarked structures (Ellis, 2008), the Similarity Differential Hypothesis which claims dissimilar sounds being acquired faster than similar sounds, and the Ontogeny Phylogeny Hypothesis which is intended to capture phonological relationships between L1 and L2 (Gass, 2013) seek for account of the three general characteristics of L2 phonology. The specific claims are given below (Gut, 2009: 25): 1. The presence of L1 phonological features in the learners’ speech 2. The tendency for learners to substitute unmarked forms where the target language requires marked forms 3. The occurrence of unique phonological forms in the learners’ L2 production, including those found in L1 acquisition. These focused characteristics on L1 and L2 phonological features are interrelated with the notion of transfer, either positive or negative. The similarities between L1 and L2 can facilitate L2 learning, since learners do not look for differences but for similarities as basic cases (Ringbom, 2007). However, according to Speech Learning Model -SLM- proposed by Flege (1995), in addition to the notion of markedness and unmarkedness, the more distant an L2 sound is from L1 sound, the more learnable the L2 sound is. In other words, it is stated that if L2 sounds are similar to L1 sounds, they are not easily perceived by L2 learners; since learners do not classify them as different, they do not set up a contrast theory. Although similarity of the sounds in L1 and L2 can make it easier for learners to comprehend and produce in L2, those similar sounds are categorized as marked sounds. At the lexical level, similarity can be explained in terms of linguistic transfer. In the storage of lexical items, cross-linguistic similarities of both L1 and L2 have influences on learners’ perception and production progress (Rignbom, 1987; Gabrys-Barker, 2006; Jarvis 968

 Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity

& Pavlenko, 2008). Lexical storage by the use of similarities can be reported as positive lexical transfer derived from the availability of translation equivalents in both languages by mapping the existing semantic representations in L1. In other words, if the degree of lexical similarity between L1 and L2 is greater, learners store those words quickly; but if the phonetic similarity of the words is greater, learners face difficulties while producing such words in L2. The implication is that similar sounds between L1 and L2 in production can be evaluated in markedness/unmarkedness category. As a result of the similarity of speech sounds at lexical level, one of the areas of the research interest has been loanwords and their properties in L2 learning process.

CATEGORIES OF LOANWORDS IN TERMS OF MARKEDNESS/ UNMARKEDNESS AND SPEECH LEARNING MODEL Loanwords are the lexical items borrowed from a foreign language into another language. The literature pertaining to loanwords specifies that phonological and semantic linguistic alterations take place during the process of borrowing (Kay, 1995; Tsujimura, 1996; Major, 2008; Beel & Felder, 2013). Such alterations are attributable to the nature of the differences of sound systems of both languages. In other words, since loanwords might have different sounds from the ones in the phonology of the recipient language, they undergo phonological adaptations to make the lexical item be more native and less foreign because of the impact of similarity and markedness on L2 acquisition (Major, 2008). Despite the linguistic alterations, similarities of loanwords in phonological and semantic aspects help learners discover and learn such words beforehand. Cross-language similarities of loanwords have the facilitative advantages on learners of L2 and they treat loanwords as great sources in language learning (Ringbom, 2007). In this respect, regarding the vocabulary learning in general and loanwords in particular, the question debated is whether the impact of L1 on L2 yields positive results or not: if the transfer is positive, the result is positive; but if negative, the impact causes to erroneous output. On account of the phonological and semantic similarities, loanwords seem to be supportive catalysts for learners during language learning process. When the prior knowledge benefits the learning task, positive transfer occurs by applying the previous performance and knowledge to subsequent learning (Brown, 2007). Hence, corresponding words in L1 and L2 as cognates are effective tools for building vocabulary knowledge. However, as abovementioned, if L2 sounds are similar to L1 sounds or L1 sounds are adapted to loanwords, it is not always easy to perceive those sounds and to classify them as different (Flege, 1995). Accordingly, negative transfer occurs due to habitual manners for the sound system in L1. Therefore, in this chapter, the purpose is to evaluate the effect of the perceived cross-linguistic phonetic similarity on the case of learning English words that are classified as loanwords in Turkish regarding the theories of markedness/unmarkedness and Speech Learning Model (SLM). SLM deals with how the perception and production of sounds in L2 are influenced by L1. Before presenting the research data, building an understanding of the adaptation of loanwords in Turkish is intended in the following section.

Adaptation of Loanwords in Turkish Turkish is a language in which many loanwords have been borrowed from other languages. The number of loanwords in Turkish has rapidly increased because of language contact situations such as trade, politics, communication, education, and etc. While adapting the loanwords to the reception language, the 969

 Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity

phonological features of this language are followed as adaptation strategies. Beel and Felder (2013:5) describe three main strategies when applying a loanword from English to Turkish phonology: substitution, deletion, and epenthesis: •





Substitution is the adaption process that a language uses by substituting one phoneme (speech sound) with another more familiar phoneme. For example, the English loanword mathematics, which is phonetically written as [mæθmædɪks], is pronounced by native Turkish speakers as matematik, phonetically written as [mʌtɛmʌtik]. However, since [θ] does not exist in Turkish phonology, native Turkish speakers will substitute the unfamiliar [θ] with the more familiar [t]. Thus, rather than pronouncing mathematics as [mæθmædɪks], native Turkish speakers will pronounce it as [mʌtɛmʌtik]. Deletion is the adaptation process of entirely removing a sound that makes a word too difficult to pronounce. Turkish has borrowed the word apartment from English, but native Turkish speakers have trouble while pronouncing it correctly due to the consonant cluster nt that occurs at the end of the word. By using the process of deletion, Turkish speakers adapt apartment from its original pronunciation [әpɑɹtmɛnt] to [ɑpɑɹtmɑn] by completely removing the final [t]. This simple consonant removal allows the elimination of a consonant cluster, thus conforming to the established Turkish syllable structure allowance. Epenthesis which is the most common loanword coping strategy among Turkish speakers is the process that inserts a vowel to make a word more pronounceable. Like deletion, epenthesis is generally used to break up consonant clusters that give native Turkish speakers extreme difficulty in the word’s pronunciation. For example, the Turkish language borrowed the word graffiti, phonetically [gɹәfidi], from English. Though English phonology and syllable structure allow English speakers to place consonants [g] and [ɹ] next to each other, Turkish speakers find this combination almost impossible to pronounce without adaptation. Thus, Turkish speakers will modify the pronunciation by inserting a vowel in between the consonant clusters [g] and [ɹ] resulting in the final pronunciation [gɪɹafiti].

The study of Beel and Fedler (2013) reveals that adaptations of loanwords are based on the systematic phonological rule vowel harmony in Turkish. In this perspective, through close adaptation strategies, the loanwords in Turkish still have phonological and semantic similarities with the ones in English; that is, Turkish shares cognates with English. Thus, such sound-meaning correspondences can be evaluated on bases of both positive/negative transfers dichotomy and markedness/unmarkedness dichotomy within the framework of SLM. Some research studies carried out to show the effect of cognates in L1 on the process of L2 vocabulary learning concluded that similarity between L1 and L2 makes it easy to learn L2 (August, et al., 2008; Ringbom, 2007). Some other studies focus on the measurable progress in perception and production concluded that perception and production play equal roles in the word-loaning process through adaptation (Chiyuki & Kenstowicz, 2009; Broselow, 2009). In another study by Arabski (2006), it has been concluded that L1 and L2 similarity comes into contact through transfer or borrowing. In a study carried out to verify the types of lexical transfer by Celaya and Torras (2001), it was elucidated that adults and adolescents draw on L1 more than children in language learning process which combines L1 and L2 coinages. Likewise, Major (2008) claimed that advanced learners have more difficulty in producing similar sounds, while beginning learners show difficulty in producing new sounds. Regarding the results 970

 Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity

of the studies, it can be presupposed that positive transfer from L1 is a constructive catalyst for learning L2 vocabulary, and the perception and production through the similarity of L1 and L2 cognates can be evaluated on unmarkedness dichotomy.

PURPOSE The analysis in this section to build an understanding of the recognized phonological, semantic, and orthographic circumstances in both oral and written products presents the effect of the perceived crosslinguistic similarity/dissimilarity on the base of the Speech Learning Model (SLM). Based on this purpose, answers have been sought to the following research questions: 1. How does L1 influence the oral performance of Turkish learners of EFL at the phonological level? 2. How does L1 influence the oral performance of Turkish learners of EFL at the semantic level? 3. How does L1 influence the written performance of Turkish learners of EFL at the orthographic level? 4. How does L1 influence the written performance of Turkish learners of EFL at the semantic level?

Method The research that is descriptive in nature was carried out through classroom observation reports and written products of the participants who were 46 fourth year student teachers attending the English Language Teaching Department (ELT) at a Turkish university. They were exposed to English for twelve years –two years at primary education, six years at secondary education, and four-year intensive courses at BA level. They were between upper-intermediate and advanced linguistic levels. All participants were exposed to consent process wherein they allowed their work to be published.

Data Collection and Analysis Written products were collected randomly through the exam papers of the curriculum courses for corpus collection. The topic was not concern of the corpus; merely random loanwords used by the participants were recorded. Qualitative analyses were used to evaluate the collected data. One source is the corpus of the oral products recorded during English courses for five weeks. The other source is the corpus collected by the use of hand-written documents taken from various ELT course exam papers of the participants. In both data sets, only the loanwords were sampled.

FINDINGS The oral and written data of loanwords which were classified according to positive/negative transfer and unmarkedness/markedness dichotomies are displayed in separate tables and evaluated qualitatively.

971

 Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity

Table 1. Similarity of loanwords at phonological level

Oral Performance at Phonological Level

Positive Transfer/ Unmarkedness Loanwords and English-Turkish Correspondences

972

Actor-aktör Actress-aktris Africa-Afrika Alarm-alarm Album-albüm America-Amerika Anonym-anonim Archeologist-arkeolog Argot-argo Arena-arena Aristocracy-aristokrasi Arithmetic-aritmetik Artist-artist August-ağustos Bacteria-bakteri Bank-banka Basketball-basketbol Bureaucracy-bürokrasi Cacao-kakao Cactus-kaktüs Calcium-kalsiyum Caricature-karikatür Catalog-katalog Characteristic-karakteristik Chocolate-çikolata Civil-sivil Coffee-kahve Commission-komisyon Complex-kompleks Composition-komposizyon Copy-kopya Corridor-koridor Costume-kostüm Credit-kredi Cristal-kristal Critic-kritik Diplomatic-diplomatik Economy-ekonomi Electronic-elektronik Emperor-imparator Faculty-fakülte Federation-federasyon Feminist-feminist Festival-festival Function-fonksiyon Graphic-grafik Hotel-otel Monologue-monolog Passport-pasaport Picnic-piknik Politics-politika Phonetics-fonetik Physics-fizik Radiation-radyasyon Rational-rasyonel Reception-resepsiyon Reform-reform Refuse-refuze Rehabilitation-rehabilitasyon Restoration-restorasyon Speculation-spekülasyon Stabilization-stabilizasyon

Strategy-strateji Sweater-süeter Symmetry-simetri Tanker-tanker Taxi-taksi Telecommunicationtelekomünikasyon Television-televizyon Tennis-tenis Telepathy-telepati Telephone-telefon Terror-terör Terrorism-terörizm Test-test Thermal-termal Toast-tost Tone-ton Transformation-transformasyon Transportation-transportasyon Transit-transit Tropical-tropik Variation-varyasyon Volcanic-volkanik Whisky-viski

Negative Transfer/ Markedness Loanwords and English-Turkish Correspondences Address-adres Agent-acenta Accessory-aksesuar Aquarium-akvaryum Allergy-allerji Alphabet-alfabe Alcohol-alkol Alcoholism-alkolizm Amateur-amatör Analysis-analiz Abnormal-anormal Antique-antik Apartment-apartman Archeology-arkeoloji Assistant-asistan Atmosphere-atmosfer Baggage-bagaj Balcony-balkon Biography-biyografi Biology-biyoloji Cafeteria-kafeterya Capacity-kapasite Capital-kapital Captain-kaptan Carbondioxide-karbondioksit Category-kategori Champion-şampiyon Chimpanzee-şempanze Club-klüp Coalition-koalisyon College-kolej Communism-kominizm Compartment-kompartıman Conference-konferans Concert-konser Corner-korner Cousin-kuzen Crisis-kriz Culture-kültür Detective-detektif Decoration-dekorasyon Dynamite-dinamit Dialog-diyalog Dozen-düzine Empathy-empati Encyclopedia-ansiklopedi Energy-enerji Energetic-enerjik Filter-filtre Garage-garaj Gas-gaz Generator-jeneratör Geology-jeoloji Guarantee-garanti Grammar-gramer Hypermarket-hipermarket Icon-ikon Ideal-ideal Idealism-idealizm Ideology-ideoloji Image-imaj Internet-internet Industry-endüstri Inflation-enflasyon

International-enternasyonel Legal-legal Liter-litre Journal-jurnal Material-materyal Mathematics-matematik Medium-medyum Meteorology-meteoroloji Million-milyon Modern-modern Muslim-müslüman Objective-objektif Operation-operasyon Original-orijinal Pajamas-pijama Paragraph-paragraf Parameter-parametre Pedagogy-pedegoji Performance-performans Philology-filoloji Photography-fotoğraf Pizza-pizza Practical-pratik Profile-profil Professor-profesör Psychiatry-psikiyatri Psychology-psikoloji Regime-rejim Restaurant-restoran Romantic-romantik Schizophrenia-şizofreni Semester-sömestr Specific-spesifik Socialist-sosyalist Sociology-sosyoloji Special-spesiyal Speaker-spiker Station-istasyon Statistics-istatistik Style-stil Sultan-sultan Supermarket-süpermarket Surprise-sürpriz Symbol-sembol Sympathy-sempati Symposium-sempozyum Tactic-taktik Technology-teknoloji Telegraph-telgraf Textile-tekstil Theory-teori Tolerance-tolarans Tour-tur Tourism-turizm Traffic-trafik Train-tren Transfer-transfer Uniform-üniforma University-üniversite Vitamin-vitamin Visa-vize Zoology-zooloji

 Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity

Table 2. Correspondences of loanwords at semantic level in oral performance

Oral Performance at Semantic Level

Positive Transfer/ Unmarkedness Abnormal Accessory Actor Actress Address Africa Agent Alarm Album Alcohol Alcoholism Allergy Alphabet Amateur America Analysis Anonym Antique Apartment Aquarium Archeologist Archeology Arena Argot Aristocracy Arithmetic Artist Assistant Atmosphere August Bacteria Baggage Balcony Bank Basketball Biography Biology Bureaucracy Cacao Cactus Cafeteria Calcium Capacity Capital Captain Carbondioxide Catalog Category Champion Characteristic Chimpanzee Chocolate Civil Club Coalition

Caricature Coffee College Commission Communism Compartment Complex Composition Concert Conference Copy Corner Corridor Costume Cousin Credit Crisis Cristal Critic Culture Decoration Detective Dialog Diplomatic Dozen Dynamite Economy Electronic Empathy Emperor Encyclopedia Energetic Energy Faculty Federation Feminist Festival Filter Function Garage Gas Generator Geology Grammar Graphic Guarantee Hotel Hypermarket Icon Ideal Idealism Ideology Image Industry Inflation

Negative Transfer/ Markedness International Internet Journal Legal Liter Material Mathematics Medium Meteorology Million Modern Monologue Muslim Objective Operation Original Pajamas Paragraph Parameter Passport Pedagogy Performance Philology Phonetic Photography Physic Picnic Pizza Politics Practical Professor Profile Psychiatry Psychology Radiation Rational Reception Reform Refuse Regime Rehabilitation Restaurant Restoration Romantic Schizophrenia Semester Socialist Sociology Speaker Special Specific Speculation Stabilization Station Statistics

Strategy Style Sultan Supermarket Surprise Sweater Symbol Symmetry Sympathy Symposium Tactic Tanker Taxi Technology Telecommunication Telegraph Telepathy Telephone Television Tennis Terror Terrorism Test Textile Theory Thermal Toast Tolerance Tone Tour Tourism Traffic Train Transfer Transformation Transit Transportation Tropical Uniform University Variation Visa Vitamin Volcanic Whisky Zoology

-

-

973

 Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity

Table 3. Similarity of loanwords at orthographic level

Written Performance at Orthographic Level

Positive Transfer/ Unmarkedness Loanwords and English-Turkish Correspondences

974

Actor-aktör Africa-Afrika Alarm-alarm Album-albüm America-Amerika Anonym-anonim Argot-argo Arena-arena Arithmetic-aritmetik Artist-artist Bank-banka Basketball-basketbol Cacao-kakao Cactus-kaktüs Cafeteria-kafeterya Calcium-kalsiyum Catalog-katalog Category-kategori Characteristic-karekteristik Chocolate-çikolata Civil-sivil Coffee-kahve Complex-kompleks Composition-komposizyon Copy-kopya Costume-kostüm Credit-kredi Crisis-kriz Cristal-kristal Critic-kritik Diplomatic-diplomatik Economy-ekonomi Electronic-elektronik Energy-enerji Faculty-fakülte Federation-federasyon Feminist-feminist Festival-festival Function-fonksiyon Gas-gaz Hotel-otel International-uluslararası Internet-internet Legal-legal Material-materyal Modern-modern Operation-operasyon Original-orijinal Passport-pasaport Picnic-piknik Pizza-pizza Politics-politika Phonetic-fonetik Radiation-radyasyon Rational-rasyonel Reception-resepsiyon Reform-reform Refuse-refuze Restoration-restorasyon Romantic-romantik Station-istasyon Statistics-istatistik Strategy-strateji Sultan-sultan

Supermarket-süpermarket Tactic-taktik Tanker-tanker Taxi-taksi Telecommunicationtelekomünikasyon Television-televizyon Tennis-tenis Telephone-telefon Test-test Thermal-termal Toast-tost Tone-ton Tour-tur Tourism-turizm Traffic-trafik Train-tren Transformation-transformasyon Transportation-transportasyon Transfer-transfer Transit-transit Tropical-tropic University-üniversite Variation-varyasyon Visa-vize Vitamin-vitamin Volcanic-volkanik

Negative Transfer/ Markedness Loanwords and English-Turkish Correspondences Actress-aktris Address-adres Agent-acenta Accessory-aksesuar Allergy-allerji Aquarium-akvaryum Archeologist-arkeolog Aristocracy-aristokrasi Alphabet-alfabe Alcohol-alkol Alcoholism-alkolism Amateur-amatör Analysis-analiz Abnormal-anormal Antique-antik Apartment-apartman Archeology-arkeoloji Assistant-asistan Atmosphere-atmosfer August-Ağustos Bacteria-bakteri Baggage-bagaj Balcony-balkon Biography-biyografi Biology-biyoloji Bureaucracy-bürokrasi Capacity-kapasite Capital-kapital Captain-kaptan Carbondioxide-karbondioksit Caricature-karikatür Champion-şampiyon Chimpanzee-şempanze Club-klüp Coalition-koalisyon College-kolej Commission-komisyon Communism-kominizm Compartment-kompartıman Conference-konferans Concert-konser Corner-korner Corridor-koridor Cousin-kuzen Culture-kültür Detective-detektif Decoration-dekorasyon Dynamite-dinamit Dialog-diyalog Dozen-düzine Empathy-empati Emperor-imparator Encyclopedia-ansiklopedi Energetic-enerjik Filter-filtre Garage-garaj Generator-jeneratör Geology-jeoloji Graphic-grafik Guarantee-garanti Grammar-gramer Hypermarket-hipermarket Icon-ikon

Ideal-ideal Idealism-idealism Ideology-ideoloji Image-imge, imaj Industry-endüstri Inflation-enflasyon Liter-litre Journal-jurnal Mathematics-matematik Medium-medyum Meteorology-meteoroloji Million-milyon Monologue-monolog Muslim-müslüman Objective-objektif Pajamas-pijama Paragraph-paragraf Parameter-parametre Pedagogy-pedegoji Performance-performans Philology-filoloji Photography-fotoğraf Physics-fizik Practical-pratik Profile-profil Professor-profesör Psychiatry-psikiyatri Psychology-psikoloji Regime-rejim Rehabilitation-rehabilitasyon Restaurant-restoran Schizophrenia-şizofreni Semester-sömestr Specific-spesifik Socialist-sosyalist Sociology-sosyoloji Special-spesiyal Speaker-spiker Speculation-spekülasyon Stabilization-stabilizasyon Station-istasyon Statistics-istatistik Style-stil Surprise-sürpriz Sweater-süeter Symmetry-simetri Symbol-sembol Sympathy-sempati Symposium-sempozyum Technology-teknoloji Telegraph-telgraf Telepathy-telepati Terror-terör Terrorism-terörizm Textile-tekstil Theory-teori Tolerance-tolerans Uniform-üniforma Whisky-visky Zoology-zooloji

 Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity

Table 4. Correspondences of loanwords at semantic level in writing

Written Performance at Semantic Level

Positive Transfer/ Unmarkedness Abnormal Accessory Actor Actress Address Africa Agent Alarm Album Alcohol Alcoholism Allergy Alphabet Amateur America Analysis Anonym Antique Apartment Aquarium Archeologist Archeology Arena Argot Aristocracy Arithmetic Artist Assistant Atmosphere August Bacteria Baggage Balcony Bank Basketball Biography Biology Bureaucracy Cacao Cactus Cafeteria Calcium Capacity Capital Captain Carbondioxide Catalog Category Champion Characteristic Chimpanzee Chocolate Civil Club Coalition

Caricature Coffee College Commission Communism Compartment Complex Composition Concert Conference Copy Corner Corridor Costume Cousin Credit Crisis Cristal Critic Culture Decoration Detective Dialog Diplomatic Dozen Dynamite Economy Electronic Empathy Emperor Encyclopedia Energetic Energy Faculty Federation Feminist Festival Filter Function Garage Gas Generator Geology Grammar Graphic Guarantee Hotel Hypermarket Icon Ideal Idealism Ideology Image Industry Inflation

Negative Transfer/ Markedness International Internet Journal Legal Liter Material Mathematics Medium Meteorology Million Modern Monologue Muslim Objective Operation Original Pajamas Paragraph Parameter Passport Pedagogy Performance Philology Phonetic Photography Physic Picnic Pizza Politics Practical Professor Profile Psychiatry Psychology Radiation Rational Reception Reform Refuse Regime Rehabilitation Restaurant Restoration Romantic Schizophrenia Semester Socialist Sociology Speaker Special Specific Speculation Stabilization Station Statistics

Strategy Style Sultan Supermarket Surprise Sweater Symbol Symmetry Sympathy Symposium Tactic Tanker Taxi Technology Telecommunication Telegraph Telepathy Telephone Television Tennis Terror Terrorism Test Textile Theory Thermal Toast Tolerance Tone Tour Tourism Traffic Train Transfer Transformation Transit Transportation Tropical Uniform University Variation Visa Vitamin Volcanic Whisky Zoology

-

-

975

 Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity

As displayed in Table 1, the loanwords which have almost equivalent phonetic features in L1 and L2 were transferred from Turkish to English under the influence of positive transfer and were assumed to be unmarked words. But the ones which are classified as marked were influenced negatively from the transfer due to similar L1 correspondences in L2. As seen in Table 2, no loanwords were exposed to negative transfer and categorized at markedness level regarding the meaning transfer. This situation indicates the positive influence of cross-linguistic features in semantic level. Since all loanwords listed in the table have the same correspondences in L1, the participants did not have any difficulty while they were communicating orally with those words at semantic level. In Table 3, the loanwords that are classified as marked/unmarked and positive/negative transfer in written products of the participants are listed. The loanwords in Turkish which have close resemblance in English were inscribed in correct form in English. The participants did not assess them as marked; therefore, positive transfer emerged as a result of close orthographic features of the words. However, the more complicated or diverse from Turkish forms the words were, the more marked they were for the participants. Since the participants did not establish new perceptual categories for the loanwords phonetically similar to those in Turkish, they did not process orthographic representation in English. In this respect, the phonetic similarity of loanwords, unless they are very identical to the ones in English, resulted in negative transfer; the participants made spelling mistakes. As seen in Table 4, no difficulty in written performance at semantic level emerged. In other words, positive transfer is predominant at meaning level. Such an outcome is consistent with the oral production of the participants at semantic level. The positive influence of the similarity of Turkish loanwords was helpful for the participants while performing the written tasks. Table 5. Relativity of perception and production of loanwords Classification of Performance levels Oral performance at phonological level

Oral performance at semantic level

Written performance at orthographic level

Written performance at semantic level

976

The Cross-Linguistic Influence

Evaluation of Cross-Linguistic Similarity on the Base of the Perception and Production of Learners

Positive transfer/ Unmarkedness

Learners’ perception and classification of L2 sounds as not different from L1 sounds in oral production

Negative transfer/ Markedness

Learners’ perception of L2 sounds as similar as L2sounds and violation of L2 pronunciation in oral production

Positive transfer/ Unmarkedness

Learners adopt appropriately the loanwords in L1 that have same semantic components in L2 in oral performance at L2 semantic level

Negative transfer/ Markedness

No deviation appears from L1 loanwords into L2 as negative transfer and at markedness level

Positive transfer/ Unmarkedness

Learners’ successful insertion of L1 graphemes almost equivalent to L2 graphemes in written performance

Negative transfer/ Markedness

Learners’ failure in spelling the loanwords in L1 because of similar sounds and graphemes

Positive transfer/ Unmarkedness

Learners adopt L1 loanwords to L2 effectively at semantic level

Negative transfer/ Markedness

No deviation from L2 semantic components of loanwords at semantic level

 Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity

In terms of cross-linguistic influence, the corpus displays the predominance of L1 influence on loanword procedure. The distinction can be made between explicit and implicit cross-linguistic influence as a result of the perceived similarity of the loanwords in both Turkish and English. When the loanwords in both languages are pronounced exactly the same, no deviation appeared in the oral productions of the participants; however, when they detected pronunciation similarity between the two language loanwords, those loanwords were exposed to negative transfer and classified in markedness dichotomy. Likewise, in the written productions of the participants, the difficulty appeared at orthographic level. L1 similarity led to negative transfer and was evaluated in markedness dichotomy; still, the loanwords having almost the same orthographic characteristics were evaluated in unmarkedness dichotomy and created no difficulty due to positive transfer. At semantic levels of both oral and written productions, the participants faced no difficulty in terms of adopting the meaning of loanwords to contextual usage; that is, the similarity of the loanwords assisted the participants to use the words appropriately. It is apparent that the semantic relatedness of the loanwords in both Turkish and English prevented them from making semantic errors.

SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS In this chapter, the research strategy is to predict the probable difficulties the student teachers of English faced while applying pronunciation and orthographic rules of the loanwords in both Turkish and English. The purpose is to question the validity of the theories, Markedness Differential Hypothesis and Speech Learning Model by evaluating the data on the base of these theories. The findings display the competing influences of similar Turkish and English loanwords on learners’ oral and written products in terms of phonological and semantic representations. The results indicate that if the similarity of the loanwords is almost equal at phonological level in both Turkish and English, it facilitates the use of their corresponding in English. In written performance, the extent of the similarity also influences learners’ transcribing ability in English. Almost equal similarity creates no difficulty and can be treated as effective tools for positive transfer. Conversely, the level of the diverse orthographic forms of the loanwords from English, despite the close orthographic similarity, leads to erroneous transcribing. Another result of the study is that the similarity of the loanwords in Turkish and their correspondences in English facilitates the appropriate use of those words in oral and written communication at semantic level. In this respect, resemblance of the loanwords in L1 and L2 facilitates or obstructs the language usage of learners depending on the degree of similarity. The results also indicated that the ignorance of the exact dissimilarity and relatively similarity of speech sounds on the surface level leads to negative transfer and results in marked category. However, the convergence in meaning level facilitates appropriate semantic transfer in both oral and written performances of L2 learners. According to Speech Learning Model, the greater the perceived phonetic divergence between L1 and L2 speech sounds, the more likely learners will be able to distinguish the difference between L1 and L2 sounds; but the phonetic convergence of the lexis in the two languages obstructs learners’ awareness of the discrepancy of the sounds. The results of the present analysis supports the idea put forward by this model. The results, as consistent with the studies by Chiyuki and Kenstowicz (2009) and Broselow (2009), also suggest that the degree of perception and production of the sounds display significant equal roles while adapting loanwords.

977

 Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity

The research report also sought answers to the research questions through building an understanding of the competing differences and similarities between Turkish and English phonological and semantic features of the loanwords. The question “How does L1 influence the oral performance of Turkish learners of EFL at the phonological level?” and “How does L1 influence the oral performance of Turkish learners of EFL at the semantic level?” can be held in two perspectives: positive transfer/unmarkedness perspectives and negative transfer/markedness perspectives. The participants did not perceive and classify the L2 sounds of some loanwords as diverse from their corresponding L1 sounds, since L1 knowledge influenced oral production positively. The participants seem to have recognized those sounds as unmarked ones. As Ringbom (2007) emphasizes learners, consciously or not, do not look for differences, but they look for similarities wherever they can find them. However, in markedness level, the participants perceived the L2 sounds as identical to the L1 sounds and violated the phonological rules in English. On the other hand, at semantic level, the participants adopted the loanwords in the English context appropriately, since those words have the same semantic correspondences in Turkish, and all participants valued them as unmarked. This indicates the constructive influence of positive transfer from L1 in oral performance of the participants. As for the question about the written performance “How does L1 influence the written performance of Turkish learners of EFL at the orthographic level?, the markedness/ unmarkedness problem emerges in different ways from oral performances. The loanwords that have similar L2 graphemes were inserted successfully, and positive transfer from L1 encouraged the participants to use them appropriately in their written products. However, the participants failed to spell some loanwords that were more complicated and diverse at orthographic level in L2. Those deviations seem to have been perceived as marked by the participants. They mapped the loanwords into the existing semantic representation of Turkish. The fourth research question on the semantic level in writing performance “How does L1 influence the written performance of Turkish learners of EFL at the semantic level?” sought answers to the question whether the participants faced any difficulty while transferring semantic knowledge from Turkish into English. It was found out that the semantic correspondence of the loanwords both in Turkish and English promoted the participants’ performance level and no deviation appeared. This research report has consistent results with the other studies carried out to indicate the issues that cause to negative transfer of loanwords by introducing the phonological, morphological, semantic changes (Kay, 1995; Simon-Maeda, 1995; Tsujimura, 1996). When marked structure appears in L2, it interacts with negative transfer and results in erroneous forms (Jarvis & Pavlenko, 2008). The studies mostly emphasize the alteration of loanwords from another language in L1 which leads to errors. As noted in the findings section, the oral performance at phonological level supports the hypothesis of Speech Learning Model which focuses on how the perception and production of sounds in a second language are influenced by L1. The findings from written productions at orthographic level supports Markedness Differential Hypothesis which claims that the differences between L1 and L2 components are more marked and creates difficulty due to negative transfer. In this respect, the results of this research study support the claims of these two models for phonological and orthographic loanword outcomes in L2 which are influenced by L1 similarity. The competing influences of similarity and difference between L1 and L2 sound systems and orthographic systems of loanwords lead to both negative and positive transfer from L1 and are perceived as marked and unmarked. However, the semantic correspondence of the loanwords in L1 and L2 leads to positive transfer and is identified as unmarked in learning process. Considering the influence of L1, both negative and positive transfers of form and merely positive transfer of meaning are likely to occur in description.

978

 Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity

CONCLUSION This descriptive analysis is a sample diagnostic study. The proposed models to distinguish the difficulties in both oral and written productions of L2 learners could be used in L2 educational settings to raise awareness on L1 and L2 similarities and dissimilarities. Based on the findings, it would be possible to conclude that the features of L1 has both facilitative and debilitative effects on L2 language learning process. When two languages share a number of loanwords, it gives learners a start in vocabulary learning by raising their confidence. But in some cases, as in loanword transfer, it is difficult to establish the extent of facilitative and debilitative effects. When loanwords in L1 have similar sounds in the phonology of L2, they undergo both negative and positive transfer. Cross-linguistic influence does not introduce facilitative changes. This occurrence is attributable to dominant negative transfer. The data in this study show that loanword phonology in L1 does not always conform to L2 phonology. Thus, those elements are perceived as not diverse from L1 and pronounced in the same manner as in L1. In meaning level, they do not create difficulty for L2 learners; instead, due to the universality of meaning, learners easily and positively transfer L1 knowledge. At orthographic level, as a result of different spelling features, learners have difficulty and make negative transfer. Since they do not perceive the loanwords as different, adaptation of loanwords creates difficulties in L2.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS The focus of this chapter is to display and discuss some controversies emerging from cross-linguistic influence in terms of loanwords. The research process has been limited with Turkish- as L1- and English –as L2-. Thus, the models discussed in this chapter could be used for future research opportunities in different L1 and L2 contexts with different age groups and genders. To have a detailed description of the instances, longitudinal studies are suggested for further studies. In addition, it would be useful to design a treatment process for exploring the reasons of negative transfer and make learners notice their errors attributable to negative transfer. After treatment process, the developmental stages need to be recorded and evaluated. Moreover, as for further research concerns, cross-linguistic influences can be considered beyond phonological and orthographic levels; and innovative studies would be carried out to report decision making processes of language learners while transferring L1 knowledge into L2.

979

 Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity

REFERENCES Arabski, J. (2006). Language transfer in language learning and language contact. In J. Arabski (Ed.), Crosslinguistic influences in the second language lexicon (pp. 12–21). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. August, D., Carlo, M., Dressler, C., & Snow, C. (2008). The critical role of vocabulary development for English language learners. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 20(1), 50–57. doi:10.1111/j.15405826.2005.00120.x Beel, R., & Felder, J. (2013). Phonological adaptations of English loanwords in Turkish. Other Undergraduate Scholarship. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/eml_undergrad_schol/2 Broselow, E. (2009). Stress adaptation in loanword phonology: Perception and learnability. In Phonology in perception (pp. 191–234). New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Brown, D. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education. Celaya, M. L., & Torras, M. R. (2001). L1 influence and EFL vocabulary: do children rely more on L1 than adult learners? In Proceedings of the 25thAEDEAN Meeting. University of Granada. Chiyuki, I., & Kenstowicz, M. (2009). Mandarin loanwords in Yanbian Korean II: Tones. Language Research, 45(1), 85–109. Ellis, R. (2008). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Flege, J. (1995). Second-language speech learning: theory, findings and problems. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: issues in cross-language research (pp. 233–273). Timonium, MD: York Press. Gabrys-Barker, D. (2006). The interaction of languages in the lexical search of multilingual language users. In J. Arabski (Ed.), Cross-linguistic influences in the second language lexicon (pp. 144–166). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Gass, S. M. (2013). Second language acquisition. New York: Routledge. Gut, U. (2009). Non-native Speech: a corpus-based analysis of phonological and phonetic properties of L2 English and German. Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang. doi:10.3726/978-3-653-01155-5 Jarvis, S., & Pavlenko, A. (2008). Crosslinguistic influence in language and cognition. London: Routledge. Kay, G. (1995). English loanwords in Japanese. World Englishes, 14(1), 67–76. doi:10.1111/j.1467971X.1995.tb00340.x Kellerman, E., & Sharwood, S. (1986). Crosslinguistic influence in second language: an introduction. Oxford, UK: Pergamon. Major, R. C. (2008). Transfer in second language phonology. Phonology and Second Language Acquisition, 36, 63-94. Ortega, L. (2009). Understanding second language acquisition. London: Hodder Education.

980

 Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity

Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. (2002). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics (3rd ed.). London: Longman. Ringbom, H. (1987). The role of the first language in foreign language learning. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Ringbom, H. (2006). The Importance of different types of similarity in transfer studies. In J. Arabski (Ed.), Cross-linguistic influences in the second language lexicon (pp. 36–45). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Ringbom, H. (2007). The importance of cross-linguistic similarities. Language Teaching, 31(9), 3–5. Simon-Maeda, A. (1995). Language awareness: Use/misuse of loan-words in the English language in Japan. The Internet TESL Journal, 1(2). Retrieved from http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/ Tsujimura, N. (1996). An introduction to Japanese linguistics. Oxford, UK: Blackwell publishing.

This research was previously published in Psycholinguistics and Cognition in Language Processing; pages 49-67, copyright year 2018 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

981

982

Chapter 46

A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research Toluwase Victor Asubiaro https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0718-7739 University of Ibadan, Nigeria & Western University, Canada Ebelechukwu Gloria Igwe University of Ibadan, Nigeria

ABSTRACT African languages, including those that are natives to Nigeria, are low-resource languages because they lack basic computing resources such as language-dependent hardware keyboard. Speakers of these lowresource languages are therefore unfairly deprived of information access on the internet. There is no information about the level of progress that has been made on the computation of Nigerian languages. Hence, this chapter presents a state-of-the-art review of Nigerian languages natural language processing. The review reveals that only four Nigerian languages; Hausa, Ibibio, Igbo, and Yoruba have been significantly studied in published NLP papers. Creating alternatives to hardware keyboard is one of the most popular research areas, and means such as automatic diacritics restoration, virtual keyboard, and optical character recognition have been explored. There was also an inclination towards speech and computational morphological analysis. Resource development and knowledge representation modeling of the languages using rapid resource development and cross-lingual methods are recommended.

INTRODUCTION The inclusion of countries in the information society is importantly determined by their ability to access, create, and use information on the global information highway. Most prominent in the global report on measuring the information society is the annual report of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) which is pivoted on gadget and infrastructure-focused metrics such as internet use, telephone DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch046

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

penetration, mobile telephone use, access to computer and other ICTs, broadband access, mobile signal availability, internet bandwidth size and internet traffic. Recent reports show that developing countries, which also belong to the have-nots in the digital divide, are improving on the ITU’s information society metrics, though questions arise about the impact of the recorded progress on the developing countries’ socio-economic development. Studies have suggested that the problem of inequalities in access to information have continued, even in the information era and despite the progress made by the developing countries as reported in the annual Measuring the Information Society reports of the ITU. Jansen and Sellar (2008) for instance, noted that, “… despite all the advances made in promoting access” through “… ICT and internet -the same familiar inequalities persist”. Perhaps, the present metrics and efforts at bridging the digital divide do not include the most important type of access to information, which is in the mothers’ language of the developing countries. The importance of information access in the mothers’ languages of the developing countries on bridging the digital divide has been expressed by earlier researchers using different terms and concepts. In explicit terms, Yu (2002), stated that “…barrier to digital participation is language”. Adegbola (2017) described access to information in languages that are spoken by the local population of the developing countries as “the last six inches” of the digital divide bridge. Osborn (2010) recommended glocalization which is “the adaptation of digital information and contents to the local modes of communication, culture and standards”, with much emphasis on provision of services and content creation in local languages (language access) as a panacea to bridging the digital divide. Borgman (2000) in “thinking locally, acting globally”, suggested the development of customized or human-centered information systems that is dependent on age, expertise, language and other socio-demographic characteristics of individuals. These studies and others have recommended that language access to information is sacrosanct to bridging the digital divide. Languages that are spoken by the countries in the have-not of the digital divide are regarded as resource-scarce languages. Resource-scarcity for languages in the digital age is used in tandem with other terms such as low-resource, resource-poor, under-resourced, resource-limited and resource-constrained to describe the dearth of computer resources such as large and accurate text and speech corpora, analytical tools (part-of-speech (POS) tagger, chunking systems, parsers, stemmers, lemmatizers syllabicators), inputting tools (keyboards, speech-to-text systems) and knowledge tools (models, machine translation (MT) models, computational grammar, morphology rules, etc) for the natural language processing (NLP) of such languages. NLP refers to the interdisciplinary field that draw knowledge from computer science, artificial intelligence, linguistics, statistics, and machine learning, and it focuses on analyzing and studying human languages (text and speech) with the aim of developing computer programs that can process human languages in human-like format. Availability of resources for a language, and subsequently the intensity of its NLP research, strongly correlates with the availability of digital application and contents for and in the language. Better still, languages in the have divide of the digital world have plenty of resources and relatively high number of NLP research than those in the have-nots. One of the gaps in literature is the review of NLP research of the Nigerian languages to evaluate the progress in bridging the digital language divide. This book chapter, therefore, provides a state-of-the-art review of the developments that have been made on the NLP of Nigerian languages by thematically analyzing the content of publications on the NLP of the languages. Nigeria is the most populous African country with over 200 million population and 400 indigenous languages, though only four (Hausa/Fulani 29%, Yoruba 21%, Igbo 18% and Ijaw 10% (CIA, 2016)) of the languages are spoken by over 78% (153 million people) of the population. Nigeria is also caught 983

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

in the conundrum of one of the realities of globalization called “multilingualism by English” (Rehbein 2015), a situation where indigenes of developing countries learn and speak English language apart from their mothers’ language because it is regarded as the elites’ language.

Objectives and Contributions of the Book Chapter The objective of this book chapter is to provide an up-to-date overview of research on the NLP of Nigerian languages by reviewing relevant journal articles and conference proceedings. Aims of the study include identifying Nigerian languages that have been studied in NLP research and the extent to which the languages have been studied. This study provides an insight into the extent to which these languages have developed in the information age, beyond the rhetoric about their resource scarcity. Presently, studies only report the unavailability of NLP research on the Nigerian languages and scarcity of resources for the NLP of the languages, this research intends to fill the research gap on “what NLP research has been done” on Nigerian languages.

METHODOLOGY Study Design This study is a state-of-the-art review, which is aimed at providing a descriptive narrative on the Nigerian languages NLP research. This study employed a systematic and comprehensive search of the literature, this is imperative so that this review will present an accurate state-of-art review of the languages NLP. To achieve this, a systematic search of literature from three online search engines was carried out. It is acknowledged that ignoring other sources of literature is a limitation of the study. Potential sources of harvesting grey literature such as white papers, dissertations, theses, seminars etc on Nigerian languages are the institutional repositories of Nigerian universities, they were not considered because studies have shown that most (85%) of the academic libraries in Nigeria do not have full functional library websites (Asubiaro, 2017) that can host online repositories and in fact only about 10% of the libraries own online repositories (Kari & Baro, 2016). This study relied on evidence from journal articles and conference proceedings, which are available and indexed online. Synthesizing knowledge from journal articles and conference proceedings alone is acceptable because the core of research in Computer and Information Sciences are published in journal articles and conference proceedings. Many studies have considered journal articles and conference proceedings as data source for studying scholarly communication patterns in Computer and Information sciences (e.g. Asubiaro, 2019; Kim & Jeong, 2006; Fiala & Tutoky, 2017). This study included only the top ten most popular Nigerian languages (Eberhard, Simons & Fennig, 2018) (details on Table 1 below).

Search Strategy for Retrieving Relevant Articles Google, Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus search engines were searched for relevant publications. A structured query which included the ten Nigerian languages, Natural language processing and computer related terms such as digital and electronics was implemented for searching each of WoS and Scopus. The WoS and Scopus queries included Boolean operators “AND” and “OR” between keywords and 984

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

Table 1. Top 10 languages in Nigeria by population from the Ethnologue S/N

Language

No of speakers

1

Hausa

48,300,000

2

Igbo

27,000,000

3

Yoruba

39,500,000

4

Ibibio

5,470,000

5

Ijaw

2,000,000

6

Kanuri

7,862,500

7

Ebira

1,820,000

8

Efik

2,400,000

9

TIV

4,000,000

10

Fulfulde

7,610,000

wild cards (asterisks *) on terms like electronic to capture variants terms like electronics and electronically. Unlike WoS and Scopus that accepted one complex query, several queries were repeated for each of the ten languages on the Google search engine. Google search engine was searched to complement the shortcomings of the WoS and Scopus which have been reported in past studies to be biased against publications from Africa (Nwagwu, 2008). The details of the search queries and number of articles retrieved are displayed on Table 2 below.

Identifying Relevant Articles and Quality Assessment After searching the three search engines, 586 articles were retrieved (without counting duplicates) and were subjected to cleaning and quality assessment. The first round of screening was aimed at removing irrelevant articles, this was done by reading the title, abstracts and/or full texts of the retrieved articles, only 178 articles were identified to be relevant to NLP of the Nigerian languages after the first screening. The second round of screening was intended to conduct quality assessment, this was achieved by carefully reading the full text of all the 178 articles and applying inclusion criteria. The following inclusion criteria were applied: • • • •

Article must either be a conference proceeding or journal article, The full text of the article must be available and accessible online, The article must discuss the NLP (relevance) of at least one of the Nigerian languages. The methodology of the publication must be relevant to computation of at least one of the Nigerian languages.

Only 101 articles were included in the study after the quality assessment step. 15 additional relevant articles were found by searching the references of the 101 articles. All the 116 articles were reviewed. The articles were classified and discussed under the major themes that were identified in the articles.

985

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

Figure 1. Literature search and quality assessment process

Table 2. Queries posed to the search engines and the number of results returned Database

Query

No of results

Scopus

TITLE-ABS-KEY (((”natural language processing”) OR (”information” AND (”retrieval” OR “storage” OR “processing” OR “extraction”)) OR “comput*” OR “corpus” OR “machine” OR “automatic*” OR “electronic*” OR “internet” OR “web” OR “digit*”) AND (”yoruba” OR “hausa” OR “igbo” OR “fulfulde” OR “ijaw” OR “Ibibio” OR “ebira” OR “tiv” OR “kanuri” OR “efik”))

427

Web of Science

TS= (((“natural language processing”) OR (“information” AND (“retrieval” OR “storage” OR “processing” OR “extraction”)) OR “comput*” OR “corpus” OR “machine” OR “automatic*” OR “electronic*” OR “internet” OR “web” OR “digit*”) AND (yoruba OR hausa OR igbo OR fulfulde OR ijaw OR Ibibio OR ebira OR tiv OR kanuri OR efik))

185

Google

“natural language processing” AND lang “Information retrieval” AND lang “information processing” AND lang “information extraction” AND lang “information storage” AND lang Computer AND lang Corpus AND lang Electronic AND lang Automatic AND lang Internet AND lang Web AND lang Digital AND lang

Hausa-14 Ibibio-13 Igbo-37 Yoruba-74

986

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

THE REVIEW The result of the knowledge synthesis of the research on Nigerian languages’ NLP of is presented on Table 3. The most popular research areas are morphological analysis, alternatives to language-dependent keyboard and speech analysis. The first three themes on the Table 3 constituted 67.24% of all the articles. The analysis shows that speech language technology is the most active research area, with Ibibio, Yoruba and Hausa featuring more. The research areas with the second and third highest number of articles are he computational morphology and development of alternatives to language-dependent computer hardware keyboards respectively. Papers on these research areas are reviewed succinctly in this section. Table 3. A description of the NLP research landscape Languages Hausa

Ibibio

Igbo

Yoruba

others

Total number of Articles

Speech analysis

5

12

0

20

0

37

2

Computational morphology

5

0

11

7

0

23

3

alternatives to language-dependent hardware keyboard

3

1

6

11

3

18

4

Others

S/N 1

Total

Classification

13

1

8

23

2

26

14

25

61

5

Alternatives to Language-Dependent Keyboard Inputting texts of Nigerian languages into the computer is one of the problems that the NLP research have attempted to solve. Currently, there are no language-dependent computer hardware keyboards that accommodate the Nigerian languages’ alphabets. This theme covers all the categories of research which have attempted at providing alternatives to language-dependent hardware keyboards. The first group of studies is the automatic diacritics restoration (ADR) research which is concerned with automatically restoring diacritics on the texts of the Nigerian language that have been originally inputted without diacritics. Another category of research focused on the optical character recognition (OCR) for Nigerian languages, which converts images of Nigerian languages’ texts into textual computer readable formats. Another alternative is the development of virtual keyboards for the Nigerian languages, which are available for major Nigerian languages such as Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, however, they are not convenient for typing large volume of texts and most of them are poorly implemented (Enguehard & Naroua, 2009). ADR remains the most popular, effective and efficient alternative to hardware keyboards for many reasons. The implementation of diacritics restoration does not require the use of language-dependent keyboards which are currently not available. Secondly, it is economically and ergonomically friendly, unlike the virtual keyboards. Thirdly, it does not require special training like some virtual keyboards. With the ADR, texts of the Nigerian languages can be typed with the conventional keyboards while the ADR system automatically appends the appropriate diacritics on the alphabets. Three methods of automatic restoration of diacritics have been implemented for the Nigerian languages, which are: at the grapheme, syllabic and word levels. One of the earliest studies on ADR is De

987

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

Pauw, Wagacha, & De Schryver, (2007) which applied memory-based machine learning approach at the grapheme and word-levels and considered Yoruba as one of its languages of interest. The study noted that the accuracy of grapheme and word-level diacritics restoration for other languages like Gıkuyu, Kıkamba, Sesotho sa Leboa, Czech, Romanian and Vietnamese was reasonably high, while the results for Yoruba was low. Scannell, (2011) presented a follow-up to the De Pauw et al., (2007) by applying the Naïve Bayes machine learning approach to the word and grapheme-levels’ diacritics restoration problem, by considering fifty-five African languages including Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. The results of the study showed a significant improvement, especially on the trigram model which performed better. Another word-based diacritic restoration research for Yoruba text is Adegbola & Odilinye, (2012) which considered trigrams and produced better results than the De Pauw et al., (2007). Orife, (2018) is a more recent study which focused on ADR as a language translation problem at word-level and applied sequence-to-sequence neural MT approach, this study created a more state-of-the-art computing method and reported better results than the earlier studies. Another ADR method is at the syllabic level, which was used in Oladiipo, Odejobi, Adagunodo, & Olubode-Sawe, (2017) and Oladiipo, Odejobi, & Adagunodo, (2017), focusing on Yoruba texts. The advantage of this method is its potential for solving “the twin challenges of resource scarcity and contextual insufficiency for tone mark restoration in Yorùbá text” (Oladiipo et al., 2017) by incorporating syllabication and concatenation of syllables based on probability modelling. With this method, the possibility of restoration tone marks on out-of-vocabulary (OOV) texts is higher and because more syllables are modelled with fewer words, insufficiently contextual words are captured. Studies on diacritics restoration of Igbo texts have all used word-based methods, apart from Scannell, (2011). For instance, Ezeani, Hepple, & Onyenwe, (2016, 2017) applied the word-based methods using the maximum estimation of bi-grams and trigrams and later, five machine learning classification algorithms -Linear Discriminant Analysis(LDA), K Nearest Neighbors(KNN), Decision Trees, Support Vector Machines (SVC), and Na¨ıve Bayes (MNB). The DTC performed best, followed by KNN while the unigrams and bigrams produced the best models for prediction. Ezeani, Hepple, Onyenwe, & Enemuoh, (2018a, 2018b) and Ezeani, Onyenwe, & Hepple, (2018) used the embedding models for diacritics restoration of Igbo texts. Two classes of word embeddings models were used: projected from the English embedding space and trained with Igbo bible corpus. Few studies such as Ekpenyong, Udoinyang, & Urua, (2009) focused on the ADR of Ibibio language by applying the dictionary look-up and morphological analysis methods. In another study, Ekpenyong, Inyang, & Umoren, (2016) worked on the modelling of Ibibio tonal pattern using the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) for ADR. OCR is another alternative to language-dependent computer hardware keyboard for inputting texts, only Yoruba language has featured in OCR research. Research in this category include Oladayo, (2015) and Ajao, Olawuyi, & Odejobi, (2018) which used correlation and template matching techniques, and KNN respectively.

Computational Phonology, Speech Synthesis and Related Studies This theme presents studies that are related to analyzing speech sounds of the Nigerian languages. Research in this category includes studies on computational phonology, text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis and automatic speech recognition (ASR). While Ibibio and Yoruba languages feature more prominently in this section, all the research on Ibibio also fall under this theme. Analysis of speech sounds of the Nigerian languages require the consideration for tonality in addition to the duration or phone features 988

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

to cater to their linguistic peculiarity. This is often necessary for the phoneme pattern (pronunciation dictionary, letter or TTS modelling), prosody pattern (phrase break and accents, pitch accents, boundary tones), vowel duration pattern and, pitch modelling. Earliest studies on the TTS and ASR of Yoruba started with Connel & Ladd, (1990) which modelled the fundamental frequencies of Yoruba tones. Other early studies were undertaken in Odéjobí, Beaumont, & Wong, (2004) and Ọdẹ́jọbí, Beaumont, & Wong, (2006) which presented a model for the analysis, design and computing of TTS intonation for Yoruba language using a combination of relational tree (RT) and fuzzy logic (FL) technologies. A duration model for Yoruba TTS was presented in Ọdẹjọbí, Wong, & Beaumont, (2007) as a follow-up to Ọdẹ́jọbí, Beaumont, & Wong, (2006). Ọdẹjọbí, Wong, & Beaumont followed up their previous studies with Ọdẹjọbí, Wong, & Beaumont, (2008) which integrated the intonation and duration aspects of speech signals in its TTS system for Yoruba language. The system for TTS was based on RT for multi-dimensional waveform representation which integrated a framework that supported the independent implementation of intonation, duration and intensity. The RT and stem machine learning (Stem-ML) models were executed for the TTS where the Stem-ML method was reported to perform better for Yoruba language. More recent studies applied artificial neural network (ANN), a machine learning approach to TTS modelling. ANN and FL were employed by Àkànbí & Odéjobí, (2011) in a system that integrated the phone and tonal aspects of vowel speech sounds in Yoruba language. The FL method provided more accuracy on the test set, with fewer text size with requirements for experts’ knowledge. Other studies such as Afolabi, Omidiora, & Arulogun, (2013) and Adetunmbi, Obe, & Iyanda, (2016) focused on TTS for Yoruba using the syllable-based methods. The fundamental frequency contour of Yoruba language was modelled by van Niekerk & Barnard, (2012, 2013, 2014) by predicting the syllable of pitch targets for pitch realization. A strong correlation between the pitch level and pitch change was established for predicting the pitch targets. Next to Yoruba language is Ibibio which recorded the highest number of studies on ASR and TTS. The earliest studies on the computation of Ibibio phonology, such as Gibbon, Urua, & Ekpenyong, (2005) focused on resource development by creating an experimental TTS prototype for Ibibio Language that included the tone–relevant morphophonemic and morphosyntactic contexts and the linguistic TTS component, a tone–oriented parsing and tagging system. Another pioneer research also developed speech corpus for TTS and speech synthesis (Ekpenyong, Urua, & Gibbon, 2008). With the challenge of resource-scarcity which subsisted, other related studies on Ibibio have specially considered its low-resource situation by creating models that are efficient and useful for resource development. For instance, Ekpenyong, Urua, Watts, King, & Yamagishi, (2014) employed a statistical parametric model and unsupervised learning of the relationship between acoustics of Ibibio sounds and their linguistic features using limited resources (a description of the resources is presented in Ekpenyong, Urua, & Gibbon, (2008)). Other related studies on Ibibio include Ekpenyong & Inyang, (2016) which presented a method for modelling the Ibibio tone pattern for mining Ibibio speech corpus. Similarly, hybrid of FL and neural network (adaptive neuro-fuzzy Inference System) was used for modelling Ibibio speech prosody to improve synthetic speech quality (Ekpenyong, Inyang, & Udoh, 2016, 2018), the modelling of prosody features was undertaken to relate all the variations of prosodic features based on their structure, meaning and context of spoken languages. Ekpenyong & Udoh, (2013) also designed an intelligent fuzzy logic based (FL-B) framework for modelling prosody in Ibibio. Coombs (2013) focused on computing the phonological structure of Ibibio language’s high tones processes using Hidden Markov’s Model (HMM).

989

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

Next to Yoruba and Ibibio languages with the highest number of TTS and ASR articles is Hausa. Gauthier, Besacier, & Voisin, (2016a, 2016b) worked on reducing the word error rate in ASR systems for Hausa language, with a focus on the vowel length contrasts (long and short). The Multilayer Perceptrons (MLP), an application which is based on neural network, for feature extraction in place of the traditional MelFrequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) was recommended for employed by Vu & Schultz, (2013) for the ASR of Hausa because its “features proved to be a high discriminative power and very robust against speaker and environmental variations”. The MLP was applied to extract acoustic models of Czech, Vietnamese and Hausa, also regarded as the target languages, while source languages were English, French, German, Spanish, Bulgarian, Croatian, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai. Another relevant study is Luka, Frank & Onwodi (2012) which applied pattern recognition ANN model to the development of an ASR system for Hausa language. The speech analysis has been applied to problem solving in some of the NLP studies. One of the applications of TTS in Yoruba is Adeyemo & Idowu, (2015) which designed text to speech usability interface in Yoruba for the visually impaired. The speech engine was used to transform texts into speech through various processes including text, phonetic, prosodic analyses, and speech generation, which generated smooth and natural sounding speech. Another application of TTS was reported in Schlippe, Djomgang, Vu, Ochs, & Schultz, (2012) and Schlippe, Ochs, Vu, & Schultz, (2012) which created a cleaned manual speech dictionary using the rule-based method for Hausa language. Schlippe, Djomgang, et al., (2012) proposed a Language Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition (LVCSR) system for Hausa. The studies developed an ASR system from a large speech of Hausa language text corpus using the Rapid Language Adaptation Toolkit (RLAT). A system that supports distance education which integrated a search engine in extensible mark-up language (XML) and TTS technologies in Yoruba language was developed by (Ogwu, Talib, & Odejobi, 2006). A similar educative tool was implemented by Abdulkareem & Edet, (2016).

Computational Morphology and Related Studies Computational morphology is sacrosanct to the accomplishment of many NLP tasks such as ASR, automatic language identification, MT, TTS computations, information extraction, automatic speech synthesis, spell checking, automatic summarization, and information retrieval (Iheanetu et al., 2017). This section focuses on computational morphology and related studies such as stemming, lemmatization and part-of-speech (POS) tagging. Igbo language has the highest number of studies in this section, followed by Hausa and Yoruba. The most comprehensive computational morphology of Igbo language is Iheanetu et al., (2017) which used the data-driven approach to compute an exhaustive list of all the morphological structures of Igbo language. The data-driven method employed in this study was considered for computing the morphology of Igbo language because high accuracy was achieved with smaller corpus size, unlike the more popular unsupervised learning method which is more expensive and requires bigger corpus size which is not available for Igbo. The major setback for the data-driven method is the agglutinative nature of Igbo language, which makes it almost impossible to account for all morphological structures of the language. Other studies such as Iheanetu & Adeyeye, (2013) focused on computing the reduplication processes in verbs with prefixation, adverbs, prepositions, numerals, underived nominal words and ideophones of the Igbo language morphology. One study which have worked on stemming Igbo language is Enemuoh, Hepple, Onyenwe, & Ezeani, (2017) which developed “a method that can be used to detect 990

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

morph-inflected words in a target language via alignment with a source language”, in this case, Igbo was set as the target language while English was the source language. Other studies have focused on the POS tagging of Igbo language, mostly developing methods that can achieve high accuracy and perform morphological decomposition so that OOV words can be correctly tagged automatically. Onyenwe et al., (2018) focused on the fundamentals, using manual POS tagging of Igbo corpus. Others such as Onyenwe, Hepple, & Uchechukwu, (2016) focused on the computational modelling of the morphological processes through morphological reconstruction and transformationbased learning methods of Igbo words so that POS tagging can be more accurate by increasing the chances of correctly tagging OOV words. The morphological reconstruction and transformation-based learning algorithm was also applied to Igbo POS systems in Onyenwe, Hepple, Uchechukwu, & Ezeani, (2015) and Onyenwe, Hepple, Chinedu, & Ezeani, (2019) to identify words that were likely incorrectly tagged so that human experts can accept, reject, or suggest tags. Onyenwe & Hepple, (2016) focused on improving the accuracy of POS taggers for Igbo language by incorporating the morphological analysis of morphologically-complex words (which are potentially sparsely used) into their stem and associated affixes, without considering their grammatical functions. The morphological reconstructions to their roots was successfully used to predict the tags of the OOV words by training the computer to learn the pattern of the morphological features of the known tags. A paradigm is the bootstrapping method which employs dual methods of cross-lingual and monolingual projections (Ikechukwu, Ebele, Godwin, & Ignatius, 2019). The cross-lingual method was used to automatically create an initial ‘errorful’ tagged corpus for a target resource-scarce language via word-alignment, using a parallel corpus between Igbo and English languages for the experiment. English language, a resource-rich language, was used as the source language, while Igbo, a resource-scarce language, was the target language. The monolingual method was applied to clean the induced noise from the initial cross-lingual method. This method proved useful for inducing the POS tags of resource-scarce languages. Hausa recorded the highest number of articles in this section, after Igbo language. Hausa was considered as part of the project to develop morphological analyzer for resource-scarce languages by Kulick & Bies, (2016), it relied on existing reference texts for the morphological analysis of Hausa language. Crysmann, (2017) focused on reduplication in Hausa within the context of grammar by analyzing the feature structure of reduplicates using the integrative approach which combines syntactic, semantic and morphological knowledge. The framework which was termed the Head-driven Phrase Structure (HPSG) is based on the premise that “meaning representations are built up in tandem with syntactic analysis” (Crysmann, 2012). Studies such as Bimba, Idris, Khamis, & Noor, (2016) has worked on stemming of Hausa texts through affix-stripping using manual identification of stems and root words and creation of lexical database for reference look-up. Furthermore, the porter’s stemming algorithm for English was modified for Hausa language by Bashir & Rozaimee, (2015). Salifou & Naroua, (2014) for designing a spell corrector for Hausa language using the dictionary look-up method. Studies on Yoruba language focused mostly on different levels of computational analysis of Yoruba morphology, covering certain of parts of speech and length of words. The most comprehensive study of Yoruba computational morphology is Adegbola, (2016) which proposed a pattern-based unsupervised method for computational analysis of Yoruba morphology by clustering the morphological patterns in the language. The study used Yoruba corpus of about 210,000 words, 14,670 unique tokens and 1,282 representative clusters of morphological patterns. Earlier studies which worked on certain parts of Yoruba morphology include Finkel & Odejobi, (2009) which focused on the computational analysis of Yoruba verbs morphology using the KATR formalism. Oyinloye & Odejobi, (2015) worked on computing the 991

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

morphological processes of monosyllabic and polysyllabic Yoruba verbs using the finite state automata (FST). The results of the study suggested that FST-based methods produced better results than KART for the computational morphological analysis of Yoruba. Eludiora & Ayemonisan, (2018) provided a computational morphological analysis of two to five letter Yoruba words using FSA. And lastly, POS tagger for Yoruba was developed by Ayogu, Adetunmbi, Ojokoh, & Oluwadare, (2017) using the Conditional Random Fields (CRF) and improved first-order hidden Markov model (HMM) that was improved with affix-derived information and use of Laplace and Kneser-Ney smoothing techniques.

Others Research areas in which few studies have been recorded are presented on Table 4. The high number of research areas in NLP with little research also indicates that few has been done on the Nigerian languages. For instance, MT is an important research area which requires complex computation, whereby information from a language to another is translated without compromising the meaning and sentence structure of the target language. The most basic level of MT is at word-level, complex levels are at concept, phrase, sentence, and discourse levels. According to the information on Table 4, about 90% of research on MT was recorded on Yoruba language, and the studies were mostly at word-level. Table 4. The minor classifications of the NLP literature Studies

Method

Scope

Languages covered

Machine Translation 1

Safiriyu, Akindeji, & Isau, (2015)

Rule-based

Pronoun

Yoruba to English

2

Olufunminiyi & Adebayo, (2013)

Rule-based

words

Yoruba to English

3

Agbeyangi, Eludiora, & Popoola, (2016)

Rule-based

numerals

Yoruba to English

4

Akinadé & Ọdẹ́jọbí, (2014)

context free grammar model

numerals

Yoruba to English

5

Oladayo, (2014)

numerals

Yoruba to English

6

Ninan, Iyanda, Elesemoyo, & Olamide, (2017)

numerals

Igbo to Arabic

7

Pourdamghani, Ghazvininejad, & Knight, (2018)

common alignment links

numerals

Yoruba

8

Adegbola, Owolabi, & Odejobi, (2011)

Word vector

words

Yoruba to English

Resource development and Capacity Building 1

Adegbola, T., Owolabi, K., & Odejobi, T. (2011).

Capacity building

Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa

2

Dagba, Aoga, & Fanou, (2016

Manual

speech corpus

Yoruba language

Constraint Handling Rule Grammars (CHRG)

Noun phrases

Yoruba

Computational Grammar 1

Adebara & Dahl, (2016)

2

Adebara, (2016)

3

Crysmann, (2015a)

4

Crysmann, (2015b)

Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG)

Hausa

Lexis and Lexical Analysis 1

Enguehard & Mangeot, (2014)

Dictionary

XML format

Hausa-French

continues on following page

992

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

Table 4. Continued Studies

Method

Scope

Languages covered

2

Asubiaro, (2013)

Stop words

Information Entropy

3

Ng’ang’a, (2010)

Dictionary

electronic

Igbo

Text normalization

Dictionary look up

Hausa

4

Maitama et al., (2014)

Yoruba

Narrative Computation 1

Ninan, Ajíbádé, & Odéjobí (2016)

2

Ninan & Odéjobí (2013)

3

Ninan & Odéjobí, (2012)

Folktales

Yoruba

Language Identification 1

Asubiaro, Adegbola, Mercer, & Ajiferuke, (2018)

Character trigrams

Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba

2

Selamat & Akosu, (2016)

Word-length information

Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and Tiv

Sentiment Analysis and Feature extraction 1

Orimaye, Alhashmi, & Eu-gene, (2012).

sentiment lexicon and absolute polarity score

Yoruba

2

(Bashir, Rozaimee, & Isa, 2017)

Feature extraction for text summarization

Hausa

Entity Typing 1

Huang, May, Pan, & Ji, (2016)

2

Huang et al., (2017)

3

Lu et al., (2016).

Word embedding

Hausa and Yoruba

Entity and events recognition

Entity Discovery and Linking (EDL)

Hausa

Document similarity

n-grams models

Igbo

Document Modelling 1

Ifeanyi-Reuben, Ugwu, & Adegbola, (2017)

2

Ifeanyi-Reuben, Ugwu, & Nwachukwu, (2017)

3

Asubiaro, (2015)

Heaps’ and Zipf’s model

4

Bashir, Rozaimee, & Isa, (2017)

Text summarization

Yoruba Feature extraction

Hausa

Information Retrieval 1

Asubiaro (2014)

Diacritics effect on retrieval

Yoruba

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION This book chapter provides an overview of the NLP literature on the ten most popular Nigerian languages, highlighting NLP areas that were covered and languages that have been studied. This review reveals that only four Nigerian languages (Hausa, Ibibio, Igbo and Yoruba) have been significantly studied in the published NLP studies. While in-depth study of Hausa language was not recorded in any of the research themes that were identified, other three languages recorded remarkable progress in few research areas. There is a significant progress around speech analysis, especially TTS, of Ibibio language; while tones of the language have been analyzed and TTS has been applied to its ADR. Igbo language NLP centered

993

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

around morphological analysis, POS tagging, and ADR. Other highlight of the Igbo NLP research is the application of word embedding and POS tagging in ADR development; morphological deconstruction has also been applied to enhancing the accuracy its POS tags and morphological stemming. Most in-depth Yoruba language NLP studies focused on ADR, computational morphology, and speech analysis (TTS/ ASR). Few studies were also recorded on the NLP of these languages outside the major research areas that were mentioned. Yoruba language NLP was the most widely studied with pockets of research on areas such as MT, document modelling, language identification, computational morphology, computational grammar, entity typing and sentiment analysis. Hausa language also recorded few studies on computational grammar, computational morphology, entity typing and language identification. Some studies on TTS/ASR, language identification and computational morphology of Igbo language was also recorded. An emerging interesting research method is the cross-/multi-lingual methods which was applied to the POS tagging of Igbo language through word alignment (Ikechukwu, Ebele, Godwin, & Ignatius, 2019). These methods have also been applied to entity typing (Lu et al., 2016), ASR (Vu & Schultz, 2013) and MT, through word alignment (Pourdamghani, Ghazvininejad, & Knight, 2018). The cross-/multilingual methods depend on knowledge representation of source language (a resource-rich language) for the annotations of similar resources in a target language (a low resource language). Another interesting emerging method is the rapid development of resources, which is language-independent and optimized for low-resource languages (this method was used for creating Hausa morphological analyzer in Kulick & Bies, (2016)). It is recommended the researchers of the NLP of Nigerian languages should employ these cost-effective, language-independent methods for creating knowledge representation models and annotated resources for the languages. Similarly, research areas where few or no studies have been recorded are potential areas that intending NLP researchers of Nigerian languages can consider to study.

REFERENCES Adebara, I. (2016). Using Womb Grammars for Inducing the Grammar of a Subset of Yorùbá Noun Phrases (Master of Science). Simon Fraser University. Retrieved from http://summit.sfu.ca/item/17390 Adebara, I., & Dahl, V. (2016). Grammar Induction as Automated Transformation between Constraint Solving Models of Language. KnowProS@IJCAI 2016, 7. Adegbola, T. (2016). Pattern-based Unsupervised Induction Of Yorùbá Morphology. Proceedings of the 25th International Conference Companion on World Wide Web - WWW ’16 Companion, 599–604. 10.1145/2872518.2890563 Adegbola, T. (2017). Bridging the Last Six Inches of the Digital divide. Nigeria Computer Society Conference. http://www.ncs.org.ng/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Bridging-the-Last-Six-Inches-of-theDigital-Divide-Tunde-Adegbola.pdf Adegbola, T., & Odilinye, L. U. (2012). Quantifying the effect of corpus size on the quality of automatic diacritization of Yorùbá texts. In Third Workshop on Spoken Language Technologies for Under-Resourced Languages, (pp. 48–53). Cape Town, South Africa: International Speech Communication Association.

994

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

Adegbola, T., Owolabi, K., & Odejobi, T. (2011). Localising for Yoruba: Experience, Challenges and Future Direction. Conference on Human Language Technology for Development, 7-10. Adetunmbi, O. A., Obe, O. O., & Iyanda, J. N. (2016). Development of Standard Yorùbá speech-to-text system using HTK. International Journal of Speech Technology, 19(4), 929–944. doi:10.100710772016-9380-2 Adewole, L. B., Adetunmbi, A. O., Alese, B. K., & Oluwadare, S. A. (2017). Token Validation in Automatic Corpus Gathering for Yoruba Language. FUOYE Journal of Engineering and Technology, 2(1), 4. doi:10.46792/fuoyejet.v2i1.85 Adeyemo, O. O., & Idowu, A. (2015). Development and integration of Text to Speech Usability Interface for Visually Impaired Users in Yoruba language. African Journal of Computing and ICT, 8(1), 87–94. Afolabi, A., Omidiora, E., & Arulogun, T. (2013). Development of Text to Speech System for Yoruba Language. Innovative Systems Design and Engineering, 4(9), 1–8. Agbeyangi, A. O., Eludiora, S. I., & Popoola, O. A. (2016). Web-Based Yorùbá Numeral Translation System. IAES International Journal of Artificial Intelligence, 5(4), 127–134. doi:10.11591/ijai.v5.i4. pp127-134 Ajao, J. F., Olawuyi, D. O., & Odejobi, O. O. (2018). Yoruba Handwritten Character Recognition using Freeman Chain Code and K-Nearest Neighbor Classifier. Jurnal Teknologi Dan Sistem Komputer, 6(4), 129–134. doi:10.14710/jtsiskom.6.4.2018.129-134 Àkànbí, L. A., & Odéjobí, O. À. (2011). Automatic recognition of oral vowels in tone language: Experiments with fuzzy logic and neural network models. Applied Soft Computing, 11(1), 1467–1480. doi:10.1016/j.asoc.2010.04.018 Akinadé, O. O., & Ọdẹ́jọbí, Ọ. A. (2014). Computational modelling of Yorùbá numerals in a numberto-text conversion system. Journal of Language Modelling, 2(1), 167. doi:10.15398/jlm.v2i1.83 Asubiaro, T. (2013). Entropy-Based Generic Stopwords List for Yoruba Texts. International Journal of Computer and Information Technology, 02(05), 1065–1068. Asubiaro, T. (2014). Effects of diacritics on Web search engines’ performance for retrieval of Yoruba documents. Journal of Library and Information Studies., 12(1), 1–19. Asubiaro, T. (2017). An Assessment of the Cyber Presence of Academic Libraries in Nigeria. African Journal of Library Archives and Information Science, 27(1), 65–76. Asubiaro, T. (2019). How Collaboration Type, Publication Place, Funding and Author’s role affect Citations Received by Publications from Africa? A Bibliometric study of LIS research from 1996 to 2015. Scientometrics, 120(3), 1261–1287. Advance online publication. doi:10.100711192-019-03157-1 Asubiaro, T., Adegbola, T., Mercer, R., & Ajiferuke, I. (2018). A word-level language identification strategy for resource-scarce languages: A Word-Level Language Identification Strategy for ResourceScarce Languages. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 55(1), 19–28. doi:10.1002/pra2.2018.14505501004

995

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

Asubiaro, T. V. (2015). Statistical Patterns of Diacritized and Undiacritized Yorùbá Texts. International Journal of Computational Linguistics Research, 6(3), 77–84. Ayogu, I. I., Adetunmbi, A. O., Ojokoh, B. A., & Oluwadare, S. A. (2017). A comparative study of hidden Markov model and conditional random fields on a Yorùba part-of-speech tagging task. 2017 International Conference on Computing Networking and Informatics (ICCNI), 1–6. 10.1109/ICCNI.2017.8123784 Bashir, M., Rozaimee, A., & Isa, W. M. W. (2017). Automatic Hausa LanguageText Summarization Based on Feature Extraction using Naïve Bayes Model. World Applied Sciences Journal, 35(9), 7. doi:10.5829/idosi.wasj.2017.2074.2080 Bashir, M., & Rozaimee, A. B. (2015). A Word Stemming Algorithm for Hausa Language. IOSR Journal of Computer Engineering, 17(3), 25–31. Bimba, A., Idris, N., Khamis, N., & Noor, N. F. M. (2016). Stemming Hausa text: Using affix-stripping rules and reference look-up. Language Resources and Evaluation, 50(3), 687–703. doi:10.100710579015-9311-x Borgman, C. L. (2000). From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure: Access to Information in the Networked World. MIT Press. Chavez, C., Terceiro, A., Meirelles, P., Jr., & Kon, F. (2011). Free/Libre/Open Source Software Development in Software Engineering Education: Opportunities and Experiences. Forum de Educacao Em Engenharia de Software (CBSoft’11-SBES-FEES), 8. CIA. (2016). The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/ library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ni.html Connel, B., & Ladd, R. (1990). Aspects of pitch realisation in Yoruba. Phonology, 7(1), 1–29. https:// doi-org./ doi:10.1017/S095267570000110X Coombs, A. L. (2013). High tone processes in Ibibio. Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics Acoustical Society of America, 19, 060232–060232. doi:10.1121/1.4800734 Crysmann, B. (2012). HaG — A Computational Grammar of Hausa. In M. R. Marlo, N. B. Adams, C. R. Green, M. Morrison, & T. M. Purvis (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 42), (pp. 321–337). Academic Press. Crysmann, B. (2015a). Representing morphological tone in a computational grammar of Hausa. Journal of Language Modelling, 3(2), 463. doi:10.15398/jlm.v3i2.126 Crysmann, B. (2015b). Resumption and Extraction in an Implemented HPSG of Hausa. Proceedings of the Grammar Engineering Across Frameworks (GEAF) 2015 Workshop, 65–72. 10.18653/v1/W15-3309 Crysmann, B. (2017). Reduplication in a computational HPSG of Hausa. Morphology, 27(4), 527–561. doi:10.100711525-017-9306-y

996

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

Dagba, T. K., Aoga, J. O. R., & Fanou, C. C. (2016). Design of a Yoruba Language Speech Corpus for the Purposes of Text-to-Speech (TTS) Synthesis. In N. T. Nguyen, B. Trawiński, H. Fujita, & T.-P. Hong (Eds.), ACIIDS 2016: Intelligent Information and Database Systems (pp. 161–169). doi:10.1007/9783-662-49381-6_16 De Pauw, G., Wagacha, P. W., & De Schryver, G.-M. (2007). Automatic diacritic restoration for resourcescarce languages. International Conference on Text, Speech and Dialogue, 170–179. 10.1007/978-3540-74628-7_24 Eberhard, D., Simons, G., & Fennig, C. (Eds.). (2018). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (twentyfirst). Dallas, TX: SIL International. Ekpenyong, M., Inyang, U., & Udoh, E. (2018). Unsupervised visualization of Under-resourced speech prosody. Speech Communication, 101, 45–56. doi:10.1016/j.specom.2018.04.011 Ekpenyong, M., & Udoh, E. (2013). Intelligent Prosody Modelling: A Framework for Tone Language Synthesis. Academic Press. Ekpenyong, M., Udoinyang, M., & Urua, E.-A. (2009). A Robust Language Processor for African Tone Language Systems. Georgian Electronic Scientific Journal: Computer Science and Telecommunications, 6(23), 1–11. Ekpenyong, M., Urua, E.-A., Watts, O., King, S., & Yamagishi, J. (2014). Statistical parametric speech synthesis for Ibibio. Speech Communication, 56, 243–251. doi:10.1016/j.specom.2013.02.003 Ekpenyong, M. E., & Inyang, U. G. (2016). Unsupervised mining of under-resourced speech corpora for tone features classification. 2016 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), 2374–2381. 10.1109/IJCNN.2016.7727494 Ekpenyong, M. E., Inyang, U. G., & Udoh, E. O. (2016). Adaptive Prosody Modelling for Improved Synthetic Speech Quality. In Z. Vetulani, H. Uszkoreit, & M. Kubis (Eds.), Human Language Technology (Vol. 9561, pp. 16–28). Challenges for Computer Science and Linguistics., doi:10.1007/978-3-319-43808-5_2 Ekpenyong, M. E., Inyang, U. G., & Umoren, I. J. (2016). Towards a Hybrid Learning Approach to Efficient Tone Pattern Recognition. In L. Rutkowski, M. Korytkowski, R. Scherer, R. Tadeusiewicz, L. A. Zadeh, & J. M. Zurada (Eds.), Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing (Vol. 9692, pp. 571–583)., doi:10.1007/978-3-319-39378-0_49 Ekpenyong, M. E., & Udoh, E. (2014). Tone modelling in Ibibio speech synthesis. International Journal of Speech Technology, 17(2), 145–159. doi:10.100710772-013-9216-2 Ekpenyong, M. E., Urua, E.-A., & Gibbon, D. (2008). Towards an unrestricted domain TTS system for African tone languages. International Journal of Speech Technology, 11(2), 87–96. doi:10.100710772009-9037-5 Eludiora, S. I., & Ayemonisan, O. R. (2018). Computational Morphological Analysis of Yorùbá Language Words. Academic Press.

997

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

Enemuoh, C., Hepple, M., Onyenwe, I., & Ezeani, I. (2017). Morph-Inñected Word Detection in Igbo via Bitext. Proceedings of the 55th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, 4. Enguehard, C., & Mangeot, M. (2014). Computerization of African languages-French dictionaries. Collaboration and Computing for Under Resourced Languages in the Linked Open Data Era, 121–128. Enguehard, C., & Naroua, H. (2009). Evaluation of Virtual Keyboards for West-African Languages. Language Resources and Evaluation, 5. Ezeani, I., Hepple, M., & Onyenwe, I. (2016). Automatic Restoration of Diacritics for Igbo Language. In P. Sojka, A. Horák, I. Kopeček, & K. Pala (Eds.), Text (Vol. 9924, pp. 198–205). doi:10.1007/9783-319-45510-5_23 Ezeani, I., Hepple, M., & Onyenwe, I. (2017). Lexical Disambiguation of Igbo using Diacritic Restoration. Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Sense, Concept and Entity Representations and Their Applications, 53–60. 10.18653/v1/W17-1907 Ezeani, I., Hepple, M., Onyenwe, I., & Enemuoh, C. (2018). Igbo Diacritic Restoration using Embedding Models. Proceedings of the 2018 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics. 10.18653/v1/N18-48008 Ezeani, I., Hepple, M., Onyenwe, I., & Enemuoh, C. (2018b). Multi-task Projected Embedding for Igbo. TSD 2018: Text, Speech, and Dialogue, 285–294. Ezeani, I., Onyenwe, I., & Hepple, M. (2018). Transferred Embeddings for Igbo Similarity, Analogy, and Diacritic Restoration Tasks. In Proceedings of SemDeep-3, the 3rd Workshop on Semantic Deep Learning, (pp. 30–38). Association for Computational Linguistics. Fiala, D., & Tutoky, G. (2017). Computer Science Papers in Web of Science: A Bibliometric Analysis. Publications, 5(4), 23. doi:10.3390/publications5040023 Finkel, R., & Odejobi, O. A. (2009). A computational approach to Yorùbá morphology. Proceedings of the First Workshop on Language Technologies for African Languages - AfLaT ’09, 25. 10.3115/1564508.1564514 Gauthier, E., Besacier, L., & Voisin, S. (2016). Speed Perturbation and Vowel Duration Modeling for ASR in Hausa and Wolof Languages. INTERSPEECH, 3529–3533, 3529–3533. Advance online publication. doi:10.21437/Interspeech.2016-461 Gauthier, E., Besacier, L., & Voisin, S. (2016a). Automatic Speech Recognition for African Languages with Vowel Length Contrast. Procedia Computer Science, 81, 136–143. doi:10.1016/j.procs.2016.04.041 Gibbon, D., Urua, A., & Ekpenyong, M. (2005). Problems and solutions in African tone language Text– To–Speech. MULTILING 2006 ISCA Tutorial and Research Workshop (ITRW), 6. Hassan, S. T., Abolarinwa, J. A., Alenoghena, C. O., Bala, S. A., David, M., & Farzaminia, A. (2017). Intelligent sign language recognition using enhanced fourier descriptor: A case of Hausa sign language. 2017 IEEE 2nd International Conference on Automatic Control and Intelligent Systems (I2CACIS), 104–109. 10.1109/I2CACIS.2017.8239041

998

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

Huang, L., May, J., Pan, X., & Ji, H. (2016). Building a Fine-Grained Entity Typing System Overnight for a New X (X = Language, Domain, Genre). Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.03112 Huang, L., May, J., Pan, X., Ji, H., Ren, X., Han, J., Zhao, L., & Hendler, J. A. (2017). Liberal Entity Extraction: Rapid Construction of Fine-Grained Entity Typing Systems. Big Data, 5(1), 19–31. doi:10.1089/ big.2017.0012 PMID:28328252 Ifeanyi-Reuben, N., Ugwu, C., & Adegbola, T. (2017). Analysis and Representation of Igbo Text Document for a Text-Based System. International Journal of Data Mining Techniques and Applications, 6(1), 26–32. doi:10.20894/IJDMTA.102.006.001.005 Ifeanyi-Reuben, N., Ugwu, C., & Nwachukwu, E. O. (2017). Comparative Analysis of N-gram Text Representation on Igbo Text Document Similarity. International Journal of Applied Information Systems, 12(9), 1–7. doi:10.5120/ijais2017451724 Iheanetu, O., & Adeyeye, M. (2013). Finite state representation of reduplication processes in Igbo. 2013 Africon, 1–6. doi:10.1109/AFRCON.2013.6757772 Iheanetu, O. U., Nwagwu, W. E., Adegbola, T., & Agarana, M. C. (2017). Corpus-size Quantification for Computational Morphological Analysis of Igbo Language. Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering and Computer Science, 6. Ikechukwu, E. O., Ebele, G. O., Godwin, E. A., & Ignatius, M. E. (2019). Bootstrapping Method for Developing Part-Of-Speech Tagged Corpus in Low Resource Languages Tagset- A Focus on an African IGBO. International Journal on Natural Language Computing, 8(1), 13–27. doi:10.5121/ijnlc.2019.8102 Jansen, R., & Sellar, M. (2008). Sustainable Access: An International Perspective. In D. Charbonneau (Ed.), Global Information Inequalities: Bridging the Information Gap (pp. 3–18). doi:10.1016/B9781-84334-361-5.50001-8 Kari, K. H., & Baro, E. E. (2016). Digital Preservation Practices in University Libraries: A Survey of Institutional Repositories in Nigeria. Preservation. Digital Technology & Culture, 45(3), 134–144. doi:10.1515/pdtc-2016-0006 Kim, S.-J., & Jeong, D. Y. (2006). An analysis of the development and use of theory in library and information science research articles. Library & Information Science Research, 28(4), 548–562. doi:10.1016/j. lisr.2006.03.018 Kulick, S., & Bies, A. (2016). Rapid Development of Morphological Analyzers for Typologically Diverse Languages. Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation, 2551–2557. Lu, D., Pan, X., Pourdamghani, N., Chang, S.-F., Ji, H., & Knight, K. (2016). A Multi-media Approach to Cross-lingual Entity Knowledge Transfer. Proceedings of the 54th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, 54–65. 10.18653/v1/P16-1006 Luka, M. K., Frank, I. A., & Onwodi, G. (2012). Neural_Network_Based_Hausa_Language_Speech_Recognition. International Journal of Advanced Research in Artificial Intelligence, 1(2), 6.

999

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

Maitama, J. Z., Haruna, U., Gambo, A. Y., Thomas, A. B., Idris, N. B., Gital, A. Y., & Abubakar, A. (2014). Text Normalization Algorithm for Facebook Chats in Hausa Language. The 5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technology for The Muslim World (ICT4M). 10.1109/ ICT4M.2014.7020605 Ng’ang’a, W. (2010). Towards a Comprehensive, Machine-readable Dialectal Dictionary of Igbo. Proceedings of the Second Workshop on African Language Technology. Ninan, O. D., & Odejobi, O. (2012). Towards a Digital Resource for African Folktales. Istanbul, Turkey: Association for Computational Linguistics. Ninan, O. D., Ajíbádé, G. O., & Odéjobí, O. A. (2016). Appraisal of Computational Model for Yorùbá Folktale Narrative. Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum Fuer Informatik GmbH. doi:10.4230/oasics. cmn.2016.14 Ninan, O. D., & Odéjobí, O. A. (2013). Theoretical Issues in the Computational Modelling of Yorùbá Narratives. Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum Fuer Informatik GmbH. doi:10.4230/oasics.cmn.2013.153 Ninan, O. D. (2017). Computational Analysis of Igbo Numerals in a Number-to-text Conversion System. Journal of Computer and Education Research, 5(10), 241–254. doi:10.18009/jcer.325804 Nwagwu, W. (2008). Online journals and visibility of science in Africa: A role for African social science citation index. In Proceedings of the Conference on Electronic Publishing and Dissemination: “Putting African Journals On Line: Opportunities, Implications and Limits” (pp. 2–14). Dakar, Senegal: Academic Press. Ọdẹ’jọbí, Ọ. A., Wong, S. H. S., & Beaumont, A. J. (2007). A fuzzy decision tree-based duration model for Standard Yorùbá text-to-speech synthesis. Computer Speech & Language, 21(2), 325–349. doi:10.1016/j.csl.2006.06.005 Ọdẹ’jọbí, Ọ. A., Wong, S. H. S., & Beaumont, A. J. (2008). A modular holistic approach to prosody modelling for Standard Yorùbá speech synthesis. Computer Speech & Language, 22(1), 39–68. doi:10.1016/j. csl.2007.05.002 Odejobi, O. A. (2008). Recognition of Tones in YorÙbÁ Speech: Experiments With Artificial Neural Networks. In B. Prasad & S. R. M. Prasanna (Eds.), Speech, Audio, Image and Biomedical Signal Processing using Neural Networks. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-75398-8_2 Odéjobí, O. A., Beaumont, A. J., & Wong, S. H. S. (2004). A Computational Model of Intonation for Yorùbá Text-to-Speech Synthesis: Design and Analysis. In P. Sojka, I. Kopeček, & K. Pala (Eds.), Text (Vol. 3206, pp. 409–416). Speech and Dialogue. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-30120-2_52 Ọdẹ́jọbí, Ọ. A., Beaumont, A. J., & Wong, S. H. S. (2006). Intonation contour realisation for Standard Yorùbá text-to-speech synthesis: A fuzzy computational approach. Computer Speech & Language, 20(4), 563–588. doi:10.1016/j.csl.2005.08.006 Ogwu, E. J., Talib, M., & Odejobi, O. A. (2006). Text-to-speech processing using African language as case study. Journal of Discrete Mathematical Sciences and Cryptography, 9(2), 365–382. doi:10.1080 /09720529.2006.10698085

1000

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

Oladayo, O. (2015). Yoruba Language and Numerals’ Offline Interpreter Using Morphological and Template Matching. TELKOMNIKA Indonesian Journal of Electrical Engineering, 13(1). Advance online publication. doi:10.11591/telkomnika.v13i1.6782 Oladayo, O. O. (2014). Yoruba Language and Numerals’ Offline Interpreter Using Morphological and Template Matching. IAES International Journal of Artificial Intelligence, 3(2), 64–72. doi:10.11591/ ijai.v3.i2.pp64-72 Oladiipo, A. F., Odejobi, O. A., Adagunodo, E. R., & Olubode-Sawe, F. O. (2017). Tone Mark Restoration in Standard Yoruba Texts: A Proposal. INFOCOMP Journal of Computer Science, 16, 8–19. Oladiipo Asahiah, F., Ajadi Odejobi, O., & Rotimi Adagunodo, E. (2017). Restoring tone-marks in standard Yorùbá electronic text: Improved model. Computer Science, 18(3), 305. doi:10.7494/csci.2017.18.3.2128 Olufunminiyi, E., & Adebayo, S. (2013). Intelligent System for Learning and Understanding of Yoruba Language. International Journal of Computer and Information Technology, 2(5), 5. Onyenwe, I., Hepple, M., & Uchechukwu, C. (2016). Improving Accuracy of Igbo Corpus Annotation Using Morphological Reconstruction andTransformation-Based Learning. Actes de La Conférence Conjointe JEP-TALN-RECITAL, 2016(11), 1–10. Onyenwe, I., Hepple, M., Uchechukwu, C., & Ezeani, I. (2015). Use of Transformation-Based Learning in Annotation Pipeline of Igbo, an African Language. Proceedings of the Recent Advances in Natural Language Processing. Onyenwe, I. E., & Hepple, M. (2016). Predicting Morphologically-Complex Unknown Words in Igbo. In P. Sojka, A. Horák, I. Kopeček, & K. Pala (Eds.), Text (Vol. 9924, pp. 206–214). doi:10.1007/9783-319-45510-5_24 Onyenwe, I. E., Hepple, M., Chinedu, U., & Ezeani, I. (2018). A Basic Language Resource Kit Implementation for the Igbo NLP Project. ACM Transactions on Asian and Low-Resource Language Information Processing, 17(2), 1–23. doi:10.1145/3146387 Onyenwe, I. E., Hepple, M., Chinedu, U., & Ezeani, I. (2019). Toward an Effective Igbo Part-of-Speech Tagger. ACM Transactions on Asian and Low-Resource Language Information Processing, 18(4), 1–26. doi:10.1145/3314942 Orife, I. (2018). Attentive Sequence-to-Sequence Learning for Diacritic Restoration of Yor\`ub\’a Language Text. Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.00832 Orimaye, S. O., Alhashmi, S. M., & Eu-gene, S. (2012). Sentiment analysis amidst ambiguities in youtube comments on yoruba language (nollywood) movies. Proceedings of the 21st International Conference Companion on World Wide Web - WWW ’12 Companion, 583. 10.1145/2187980.2188138 Osborn, D. (2010). African Languages in a digital age; Challenges and opportunity for indigenous language computing. Human Sciences Research Council, Cape Town. Oyinloye, O. A., & Odejobi, O. A. (2015). Issues in Computational System for Morphological Analysis of Standard Yorùbá (SY) Verbs. Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering 2015.

1001

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

Pourdamghani, N., Ghazvininejad, M., & Knight, K. (2018). Using Word Vectors to Improve Word Alignments for Low Resource Machine Translation. Proceedings of the 2018 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies, 524–528. 10.18653/v1/N18-2083 Rehbein, B. (2015). Globalization, Capitalism and Social Inequality. In A. Lenger & F. Schumacher (Eds.), Understanding the Dynamics of Global Inequality (pp. 149–157). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-662-44766-6_7 Safiriyu, I. E., Akindeji, O. A., & Isau, O. A. (2015). Computational modelling of personal pronouns for English to Yorùbà machine translation system. 2015 SAI Intelligent Systems Conference (IntelliSys), 733–741. 10.1109/IntelliSys.2015.7361222 Salifou, L., & Naroua, H. (2014). Design of A Spell Corrector For Hausa Language. Academic Press. Scannell, K. P. (2011). Statistical unicodification of African languages. Language Resources and Evaluation, 45(3), 375–386. doi:10.100710579-011-9150-3 Schlippe, T., Djomgang, E. G. K., Vu, N. T., Ochs, S., & Schultz, T. (2012). Hausa large vocabulary continuos speech recognition. The 3rd Workshop on Spoken Language Technologies for Under-Resourced Languages (SLTU 2012), 11–14. Retrieved from http://www.research-karlsruhe.de/pubs/SLTU2012Schlippe_Hausa.pdf Schlippe, T., Ochs, S., Vu, N. T., & Schultz, T. (2012). Automatic Error Recovery for Pronunciation Dictionaries. 13th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, 4. Retrieved from https://www.csl.uni-bremen.de/cms/images/documents/publications/Interspeech2012Schlippe_DictFilter.pdf Selamat, A., & Akosu, N. (2016). Word-length algorithm for language identification of under-resourced languages. Journal of King Saud University - Computer and Information Sciences, 28(4), 457–469. doi:10.1016/j.jksuci.2014.12.004 Sonnenburg, S., Braun, M. L., Ong, C. S., Bengio, S., Bottou, L., Holmes, G., & LeCun, Y. (2007). The Need for Open Source Software in Machine Learning. Journal of Machine Learning Research, 8, 2443–2466. Sosimi, A., Adegbola, T., & Fakinlede, O. (2015). A Supervised Phrase Selection Strategy for Phonetically Balanced Standard Yorùbá Corpus. In A. Gelbukh (Ed.), Computational Linguistics and Intelligent Text Processing (Vol. 9042, pp. 565–582)., doi:10.1007/978-3-319-18117-2_42 Tucker, R., & Shalonova, K. (2005). Supporting the Creation of TTS for Local Language Voice Information Systems. INTERSPEECH-2005, 453–456. van Niekerk, D. R., & Barnard, E. (2012). Tone realisation in a Yoruba speech recognition corpus. Workshop on Spoken Language Technologies for Under-Resourced Languages, 1–7. van Niekerk, D. R., & Barnard, E. (2013). Generating Fundamental Frequency Contours for Speech Synthesis in Yoruba (F. Bimbot, C. Cerisara, C. Fougeron, G. Gravier, L. Lamel, F. Pellegrino, & P. Perrier, Eds.). Academic Press.

1002

 A State-of-the-Art Review of Nigerian Languages Natural Language Processing Research

Van Niekerk, D. R., & Barnard, E. (2014). Predicting utterance pitch targets in Yorùbá for tone realisation in speech synthesis. Speech Communication, 56, 229–242. doi:10.1016/j.specom.2013.01.009 Vu, N. T., & Schultz, T. (2013). Multilingual Multilayer Perceptron For Rapid Language Adaptation Between and Across Language Families. In F. Bimbot, C. Cerisara, C. Fougeron, G. Gravier, L. Lamel, F. Pellegrino, & P. Perrier (Eds.), INTERSPEECH 2013 (p. 5). Retrieved from https://www.isca-speech. org/archive/interspeech_2013 Yu, P. K. (2002). Bridging the Digital Divide: Equality in the Information Age. Cardozo Arts and Entertainment, 20(1), 1–52. doi:10.2139srn.309841

This research was previously published in Developing Countries and Technology Inclusion in the 21st Century Information Society; pages 147-167, copyright year 2021 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

1003

1004

Chapter 47

Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy: Examining How Teachers Engage ELL Knowledge, Interests, and Struggles in Social Studies Classrooms Kevin Russel Magill Baylor University, USA

ABSTRACT This chapter examines the work of successful, self-identifying critical social studies teachers who demonstrated (or a desire to adopt) a humanizing pedagogy and linguistically responsive practice in support of their mainstream English language learning (ELL) students. The author proceeds by outlining some of the challenges ELLs face, some of the linguistic theories in their support, and how social studies disciplinary skills (inquiry and dialogue) can exist as a part of linguistically supportive social studies pedagogy. The teachers in this critical case study successfully incorporated supportive disciplinary, linguistically, and culturally responsive pedagogical approaches to social studies teaching. However, because the teachers had little linguistic training, the author argues they could have benefited from formally incorporating supportive language practices in their everyday pedagogies.

INTRODUCTION This chapter explores how three self-identifying critical social studies teacher worked to incorporate pedagogies that honored student culture, included student language literacy, and supported their interrogation of disciplinary knowledge. The teachers utilized critical inquiry and dialogical learning to center the rich linguistic experiences students brought with them to the classroom. Teachers and students conducted inquiries that revealed some of the tensions that exist within relationships of power related to culture, social studies, and civics. Subsequent dialogue uncovered ways these topics were internalized and together the classes troubled cultural, linguistic, and curricular domination. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch047

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

Policy attending to the demographic imperative and the experiences of ELL students has historically focused less on culture and student experience and more on grammar and increasing test scores (García, Arias, Murri, & Serna, 2010; Rodriguez, 2012; Salinas, Naseem-Rodriguez & Blevins, 2017). As a result, many cultural aspects vital to the language learning experiences for non-English speakers are often neglected in favor of dominant white middle class codes of power (Giroux & McLaren, 1994). Often policy encourages teachers to disregard existing language and culture in order to achieve social capital associated with English (Bourdieu, 1987; Magill & Rodriguez, 2015; Ovando, 2003). Many teachers adopt these perspectives, understanding assimilationist or reductive practices to be in the best interests of students (Delpit, 2006; Gay, 2010; Valenzuela, 1999). Pedagogical approaches commonly result in the problematic “discount[ing] [of] the home languages and cultural understandings” of language learners and their communities (Garcia & Kleifgen, 2010, p. 2). Understanding the linguistic and cultural needs of ELL students is central to developing meaningful experiences for them in formal schooling. However, many pedagogical approaches and educational philosophies are inconsistent with what the field has suggested are best linguistic practices. Learning a new language requires a learning partner or teacher who can support many different aspects of language acquisition. Research suggests that students should learn a new language by applying their first language (L1) linguistic schema to disciplinary skills and content. Further, language learners require an educational environment in which they can creatively examine their own culture in school (Cummins, 2005; Darder, 2016). As a technical aspect of practice, schooling experiences should also attend to grammar, morphology, and phonology (Harper & de Jong, 2004). Unfortunately, teachers commonly believe that eliminating a student’s first language (L1) will result in developing language skills in the second language (L2). Rather, when a language learner begins using (L2) with elements of (L1) or using (L2) with logical errors, they are actually demonstrating linguistic improvement in (L2). Further, students see no reduction in (L1) skills as they develop skills in (L2). As Chomsky (2015), Krashen (1981), Cummins (2001), and others note, restricting access to (L1) and home culture actually limits a student’s ability to learn a second language (Rodriguez, 2012). Students possess the innate ability to understand commonalities in language structures and therefore have the requisite experiences to develop skills in (L2), which means when students apply the schema of (L1) to (L2), they are utilizing their biological and language learning skills (Krashen, 1985). The process allows language learning to occur naturally if supported by a native speaker. Several other practices, typically associated with the disciplinary learning, have been shown to potentially support the development of linguistic skills and the inclusion of student culture. Critical dialogue and critical disciplinary inquiry, for example, have demonstrated potential to foster a student’s disciplinary, linguistic, and cultural needs when paired with an appreciative teacher stance (Bomer, 2017; Salinas, Fránquiz & Naseem-Rodriguez, 2016; Subedi, 2008). Students are able to work creatively, independently, and in groups to utilize their language skills to create and share new knowledge (Salinas & Blevins, 2014; Subedi, 2008). Applying knowledge and skills for real world implications helps language learners build bridges between culture, content, and language (Cruz & Thornton, 2009). Similarly, the practices support student development of a “critical awareness.” Through disciplinary experiences like inquiry and dialogue, students are able to make authentic and meaningful connections to the real world. Therefore connections made between content, experience, language, and individualized critical social interrogation is key when working with ELL students (Freire, 2000; Siegel, 2006). Lastly, understanding power, particularly how power situates one’s culture, is foundational a language learner’s experience (Portes, Salas, Baquedano-López, & Mellom, 2013). Language shapes the 1005

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

way humans understand their relationship to the world and reality (Foucault, 2012; Freire & Macedo, 2005; Rodriguez & Magill, 2017). Language serves as a tool of social relation, cultural negotiation, and human interaction as an inseparable part of the educational experience (Toriello, 2008). Unfortunately, linguistic experiences often appear ubiquitous, reflecting the ways power, and therefore the ways culture is organized. This complicates how language is learned and internalized (Macedo, Dendrinos & Gounari, 2016). Revealing the relationships between power, language, culture, and the disciplines might provide a valuable instructional approach. The approach requires a teacher adopts an ideological framework that meets the students where they exist culturally and linguistically (Rodriguez & Magill, 2015).

Language Chomsky (2015) famously developed a theory of universal grammar in which he argues that all humans have the innate ability to learn language because each language has a common structure. The somewhat revolutionary idea suggests that language learners should be able to develop (L2) if offered the appropriate opportunities, frameworks, and experiences to negotiate (L1) and (L2). Therefore, the onus falls on the teacher to cultivate content and environment that will allow students to access a second language (Moje, 2008). Krashen (2003) suggests part of this process involves offering students access to the innate nature of universal grammar by providing “comprehensible input” or linguistic experiences where they can use their understandings of (L1) to access (L2). He claims that students can access many meanings in (L2), perhaps despite not being able to comprehend all (L2) language structures. Krashen (2003) further argues that for maximal language acquisition to occur, students require low anxiety linguistic experiences bridging (L1) and (L2). Meaningful interactions in the target language would therefore occur without discouraging (L1) use. We might consider a teacher’s utilization of low stress interactions and encouragement of code-switching as part of a “sympathetic” language leaning partnership. Cummins (1979) suggests the linguistic schema found in (L1) is the default structure by which a learner understands the world. Taking away the (L1) language is to negate the learner’s experiences and identity. To do so would be to erase all students’ linguistic experiences and placing them several grade levels behind their first language peers. Instead, supporting student access to (L2) through (L1) values the knowledge and skills students have and increase the likelihood that (L2) will be accessed through their existing schema. Therefore, a sympathetic ELL teacher would support the (L1) skills a students’ already possess and encourage them to apply (L1) linguistic schema to experiences in a new language. Making cognitive and academic connections between (L1) and (L2) rather than simply developing linguistic structures in (L2) is vital to the foundationally human ways students develop both with and beyond language (Rodriguez, 2012). Such linguistic experiences might include providing examples of (L1) usage in (L2) (Cummins, 2000). Effective teacher disposition and practice would therefore benefit from this advanced linguistic research, appropriately providing the types of language supports needed for acquisition and engagement. Language learning is a continual process that takes place in all types of classrooms in all subject areas. Further, language learner experiences with (L1) will vary greatly. Therefore, teachers should be trained to understand the linguistics and the pedagogical practices that support language learning. If we believe language or literacy to be one’s ability to interact with the world, then the experiences students have in classrooms, and the pedagogical approaches teachers take, are important to note (Freire, 2000). The educational climate and linguistic supports for a student will vary significantly among schools, which makes it difficult to implement supportive policy and to understand the linguistic experiences 1006

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

students have (Goslin, 2003). Students are most often not receiving ideal linguistic supports because, as Waters and LeBlanc (2005) note, ELL, refugee, and immigrant students “are by definition, people who are ‘imagined’ to be . . . nonmembers” and are expected to disregard their experiences in favor of the dominant culture (p. 458). When students understand themselves or when teachers position them as non-members, these students naturally develop angst when experiencing a new language or culture. Spinelli (2008) takes issue with the way schools label and identify students suggesting an inappropriate number of language learners students are “misidentified as learning disabled when their problems are due to cultural and or linguistic differences” (p. 101). Many similar misunderstandings have led some educators to believe students are incapable of complicated academic work. Most often these issues are related to the teacher’s limited pedagogical and cultural competency (Gort, 2006; Magill & Rodriguez, 2015; Valencia, 2010). Experiencing racism is likely a reality for most English language learners and the traumatic experience that will undoubtedly affect a student’s educational experience (Attinasi, 1997; Magill & Rodriguez, 2015; Rodriguez & Magill, 2016). Therefore, Fránquiz et al. (2011) note that it is vital for teachers to develop, “a deep understanding of the historical and continued effects of race and racism [which] can promote a deeper understanding of how radicalized experiences impact assumptions about bilingual learners” (p. 280). Understanding the social realities of students allows teachers to more adequately provide opportunities to interrogate inequitable structures with students as part of a living curriculum (Rodriguez, 2008). When teachers do not understand language or culture, their pedagogical approach tends to focus on aspects of formal grammar and drill and kill pedagogical practices. Many so-called “scientific approaches” to language, such as phonemic awareness, have dominated curriculum to the determent of students (Rodriguez, 2012). The experiences are not meeting the standard of meaningful, low anxiety, or culturally supportive instruction. As Harper and de Jong (2004) suggest, “sheer exposure to English in classroom settings is not sufficient; to develop the advanced language skills necessary to communicate for academic purposes, students need metalinguistic awareness that enables them to attend to grammar, morphology, and phonology as well as content” (as cited in Salinas, Naseem-Rodriguez & Blevins, 2017, p. 2898). Some teachers believe a low-anxiety learning experience means removing meaningful or rigorous experiences from the curriculum. Teachers sometimes suggest removing the rigor is to “protect students from embarrassment, refraining from asking them difficult questions or completing the students answers for them” (Cruz & Thornton, 2009, p. 271; Salinas, Naseem-Rodriguez & Blevins, 2017; Szpara & Ahmad, 2007). However, ELL students require meaningful opportunities to interrogate curriculum and experience through their engagement in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Instead of sheltering language-learning students, Bunch (2013) argues that teachers can support them by helping “purposefully enact opportunities for the development of language and literacy in and through teaching the core curricular content, understandings, and activities…” (p. 298). Skills and discipline-based practices such as inquiry and dialogue provide opportunities for language learners to interact with the world, race, and racism. Teachers can help students interrogate cultural artifacts or lived experiences by incorporating them into reading, writing, and speaking opportunities to helping them apply their oral and written language skills to curriculum. Inquiry and dialogue provide possible means of interrogating core curricular content because they require interpretation (Janzen, 2008). When done effectively, critical inquiry and dialogue provide personalized opportunities to read, write, and speak about meaningful topics in (L2). Language learners are commonly able to engage with complex power relations by collaboratively engaging in lessons that center authentic lived experience 1007

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

and include supportive language practices (DeVillar & Faltis, 1991; Cummins & Sayers, 1995). Additionally, inquiry and dialogue require that a student engage in cooperative learning efforts to attend to the power relations inherent to educational experience (Rodriguez, 2012). When students are able to interrogate power, language, and culture in these ways, evidence suggests that bi-literacy is a readily attainable goal for students (Cummins, 1999). How and why this occurs in some classrooms, however, remains relatively unexamined, particularly in social studies classrooms (Jaffee, 2016; Thornton 1991; Salinas 2006).

Inquiry Often the richness of students’ histories is not included in the curriculum. What is often presented in social studies classrooms reflects the cultural perspectives of the teacher and hegemony, so the ability to conduct inquiry and make decisions about one’s own experiences is vital to a positive classroom experience, particularly for ELLs (Rodriguez & Magill, 2017; Terzian & Yeager, 2007). Language hegemony works to empower those whose culture is represented in the curriculum, offers cultural capital to language learners whose first language is English and prioritizes knowledge based on English language assumptions (Gramsci, 1971; Kitchin, 2005). Other examples of language hegemony include the homogeneous writing conventions of Standard English, the constant policing of spoken English, and the general use of (L1) simply as a bridge to English (Shannon, 1995). When hegemonic rules are imposed and students are unable to engage in personal interpretations of disciplinary elements, “some…respond . . . with suspicion, cynicism, and sometimes outright cognitive resistance” (Van Sledright 2008, p. 128). Inquiry is a unique practice with the potential to support ELL students. When critical, such inquiry often includes the incorporation of cultural interpretations with disciplinary knowledge. The approach offers a space for students to critique the dominant disciplinary narratives by telling counter narratives that represent the cultural and linguistic experiences of students (Salinas & Blevins, 2014; Salinas, Fránquiz, & Reidel, 2008). Further, critical inquiry helps students develop the skills needed to access academic language (Huerta & Spies, 2016). Conducting inquiry is a very personal experience that individualizes learning by having students make choices about what sources are relevant to a particular narrative. Further, students can interpret sources based on their own schema. Critical inquiry provides space for students to examine the artifacts and identity-affirming texts that they value. Inquiry involves making interpretive choices for analysis and action. The choice empowers an ELL to interpret based on his or her cultural, linguistic, and cognitive understandings. Further, inquiry artifacts like primary sources can be rich with information without being too difficult or abstract for students to interrogate if teachers instruct students how to engage in historical thinking (Barton, 2011; Seixas & Peck, 2004). Social studies scholars note the value of including primary source cultural artifacts for helping students develop knowledge, produce content, and increase cultural understandings (Cruz & Thornton, 2009; Salinas, Fránquiz, & Reidel, 2008; Weisman & Hansen, 2007). Such artifacts, or identity texts (Cummins, 2001), help teachers “provide students the opportunity to share experiences related to culture, language and knowledge” (Weisman & Hansen, 2007, p. 180). Fránquiz and Salinas (2011) suggest teachers can include non-threatening and meaningful primary sources for interrogation, which will allow them to understand individualized student interpretations of historical significance. This helps students to conduct inquiries that empower them as knowledge creators in the subject they are studying. In social studies, inquiry and storytelling can be “a cultural act that teaches students about the nature of understanding, and about their role in making historical knowledge” (Stearns, Seixas, & Wineburg, 1008

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

2000, p. 3). Students can begin to develop the skills necessary to “counteract misinformed assumptions in the wider world” (Salinas, Fránquiz & Naseem-Rodriguez, 2016). Such misinformed assumptions might include portrayals of a student’s culture or the neutrality or objectivity of textbook knowledge. Importantly, inquiry allows students to interrogate materials through their own cultural schema, helping them to reveal and understand their lived experience. Linguistic and cultural identity is affirmed when personal histories, cultural artifacts, and similar materials are included and interrogated. Student engagement in more critical examinations of citizenship through inquiry helps support active and engaged citizenship makes and content more comprehensible, which is important because ELL student identities are constantly in flux, shifting between conscious and unconscious self-conceptualization and assumptions (Fanon, 2008; Flannery & Hayes, 2001; Flores & Benmayor, 1997; Sheared & Sissel, 2001; VanPatten, 1990). Scholars suggest civic inquiry experiences have the potential to reveal identity, critically interrogate society, and promote agency (Jaffee, 2016). Applying inquiry to notions of agency, empathy, and moral judgment, enriched the linguistic, civic, and skill based inquiry experiences for ELLs. Fránquiz and Salinas (2011) noted attending to issues of identity and agency could by a valuable ELL experience. When students applied historical thinking skills to civil rights issues, such as the Chicano movement and US immigration, they were able to use their (L1) schema to access the formal curriculum in (L2). Therefore, civic inquiry can play an important role in the “becoming” of ELL students by helping to reveal identity, foster membership, and activate agency (Choi, 2013; Freire, 2000; Salinas, 2006). Civic and cultural identity comprises one’s social existence and is learned through connectedness to community and others (Atkins & Hart, 2003; Ryan & Deci, 2003). For some, citizenship and identity are informed by things like “[border] crossings, invasions, [and] lines of defense” (Rosaldo, 1997, p. 33). Importantly, when asked about their civic educations, Latin@ and English language-learning students, for example, noted feeling monitored and portrayed as lesser citizens, while their white counterparts discussed economics and voting (Bondy, 2014). The alienation is important to note because civic identity is developed through personal reflections and discussions about the political, economic, and social interactions that students have in and beyond school (Levinson, 2012). Engaging in civic inquiry helps students “examine, challenge, and rethink civic membership, identity and preparation” (Salinas, 2016, p. vii). When students feel confident in their civic identity and membership, they begin to develop civic agency. Inquiry helps students name and analyze the political issues that situate their lives. Further, it can help them engage as citizens when they actualize their inquiry research (Garcia et al., 2015; Levin, 2016; Rodriguez & Magill, 2017b; Washington, 2014).

Dialogue Despite its transformational possibility dialogue often occurs in classrooms based on hegemonic and English perspectives and rules (hooks, 2014). Communicating outside these rules is common for many students from cultures where English is not the first language or in cultures that do not ascribe to hegemonic rules of writing and discourse. Testemonio, for example, is an important cultural storytelling device for many Latin@ communities (cf. Menchu, 1984). Testemonio often includes community knowledge, understandings, and individual interpretations that convey information in ways hegemony understands as illegitimate. Further, social capital gained from adopting hegemonic language, confers membership and privilege, which extends into finance, politics thereby transforming cultures (Bourdieu, 1987). It acts as a form of colonization affecting both students and people around the world (Fanon, 2008). The social capital manifests in the relationships of power present in social interactions and is maintained 1009

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

through cultural practices associated with language (Fairclough, 2015; Fowler, 1979). Normalized assumptions about a student’s language and cultural background ensure a “societal discourse of racism and xenophobia” (Del-Teso-Craviotto, 2009, p. 431). All children recognize and learn these codes of power whether they are consciously or unconsciously aware of them (Fanon, 2008). Teachers often re-inscribe linguistic codes of power having been conditioned to be unaware of the linguistic power they might assert. Siegel (2006) analyzed “language ideologies” in discourse and found that “critical awareness” lead to more diverse interpretations and discussions in language instruction. Magill (2017) similarly found that a teacher’s ideology and critical reflexivity, or his or her understandings of how power exists in a given context, would inform how his or her pedagogy unfolds. The ontological posture a teacher takes and the language ideology he or she adopts is therefore vital for supporting students as empowered social agents (Magill, 2017; Smith & Rodriguez, 2011). Scholars believe dialogue helps teachers and students reveal identity, foster membership, promote agency, and challenge linguistic hegemony (Abowitz & Harnish, 2006; Subedi, 2008). Ultimately dialogue takes many forms in classrooms; however social students scholars argue dialogue, deliberation, and discussion are skills vital for existing as a citizen in a democracy (Hess, 2004; Parker, 2003). These skills help students access group understandings to attend to issues of common concern by authentically, subjectively, and objectively exchanging cultural and disciplinary experiences (Rodriguez & Magill, 2015; Soder, 1999). Further, language and disciplinary skills tend to increase when students have empathetic intellectual discussions (Brooks, 2009; Conklin, 2007). The democratic nature of dialogue allows for students to examine aspects of their language and cultural development through shared interaction (Freire, 2000; Rodriguez, 2008). Subedi (2008) suggests in her study of cross-cultural and critical dialogical frameworks that teacher dialogue is an important part of the role “teachers play . . . in shaping the nature of knowledge students learn in social studies classrooms” (Subedi, p. 417). Teachers “provided a safe, open forum for his students to discuss their worldviews and critique the official knowledge” (p. 15). Similarly, dialogical practices offer bilingual students spaces for cultural understandings to emerge. The knowledge gleaned from these integrations provides teachers valuable insights into student lives and experiences (Rodriguez et al., 2005; Weisman & Hansen, 2007). Applied critically, dialogue has the potential to help teachers engage with and “acknowledge the enormous multiplicity of forms in which people from different cultures . . . [can understand and] enact pedagogical communicative relations” (Burbules, 2000, p. 262). When teachers acknowledge the multiplicity of dialogical approaches, they are supporting their ELL students’ access to information important to develop and value their identities. As mentioned, student culture is present in dialogical interactions and valuing their approach will likely have an impact on student feelings of inclusion (Bondy, 2014). Critical dialogue is a helpful approach to supporting cultural inclusion by troubling the ubiquitous “societal discourse of racism and xenophobia” that all children recognize and learn (Subedi, 2008, p. 431). Therefore, interactions for ELLs might be supported by Paulo Freire’s (2000) suggestion that personal and community transformation occurs through dialogical critique (Luke & Freebody, 1999). Revealing the social power of language through dialogue is vital for mastering the word to engage with the world (Freire, 1995).

1010

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Humanizing Pedagogy, Linguistically Responsive Teaching, Inquiry, and Dialogue In developing the conceptual framework for this study, I attempted to center the ways the self-identifying critical social studies teachers understood and embody linguistically supportive practices and culturally responsive humanizing pedagogies through their use of inquiry and dialogue. Teachers demonstrating a humanizing pedagogy “respect and use the reality, history, and perspectives of students” and are aware of their “relationship with students as knowers and active participants in their own learning” (Bartolomé, 1994, p.173). Other aspects of a humanizing pedagogy include attending to “the cultural, spiritual and linguistic dimensions of everyday life.” Further, a humanizing pedagogy is “grounded in a critique of the material social relations and practices associated with contemporary [social] formations” (McLaren & Jaramillo, 2010). Not only does a humanizing pedagogy include a critical awareness, but it unfolds in “the mutual vulnerability [that develops an] intimacy and reciprocity” (Kwenda, 2003, p. 70). Second, the framework for this study attends to linguistically responsive teaching. Students bring a wide variety of linguistic experiences to classrooms and therefore require different forms of linguistic support. A linguistically responsive teacher validates and affirms the home language and culture of students through their pedagogical practices. Pedagogical practices may look different across settings, but might include opportunities for students to utilize language in many ways without fear of judgment, the inclusion of student chosen artifacts, curriculum and topics, and the opportunity to engage in authentic intellectual work. Linguistically responsive teaching can act as a bridge between the traditional curriculum and the promotion of acceptance, achievement, and empowerment for language learners (Hollie, 2009, p. 26; Jaffee, 2016; Lucas & Villegas, 2010). Further, a linguistically responsive teacher would value the linguistic funds of knowledge, or the ways linguistic experiences emerge from student experiences at home, in peer interactions, and in other relationships that inform the knowledge students bring with them to classrooms (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005). Linguistically responsive pedagogy mirrors multicultural teaching approaches. Scholars suggest teachers need to be able to work with students from many different backgrounds and must be willing and able to embody culturally relevant, responsive, sustaining and revitalizing pedagogies in support of their students (Gay, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 1995; McCarty & Lee, 2014; Paris, 2012). Teachers who take a critical or multicultural approach are able to understand relationships of power and are therefore able to support students’ unique linguistic and cultural needs. Multicultural scholarship suggests that teachers should meet students where they are to accommodate students above school structures (Cochran-Smith, 2004; Milner, 2010). Linguistically responsive teaching in social studies would also support student opportunities to read, write, listen, and discuss oral and written language in various ways. Further, students would feel supported and encouraged to use their English productively and would be offered educational activities that maximize their interactions with others in English (Cruz & Thornton, 2009). Third, the framework for analysis includes the skills of the social studies discipline, inquiry, and dialogue, which can be utilized in support of language, civic, and skills-based development in linguistically and culturally responsive ways (Salinas, Fránquiz & Naseem-Rodriguez, 2016; Subedi, 2008). Research suggests that inquiry and dialogical practices focusing on critique and inclusion can support how ELL populations experience more meaningful scholastic engagement (Gutman, 2007). When students engage in critical inquiry, they are able to tell counter stories that affirm their linguistic, cultural, and spiritual 1011

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

dimensions. Further, the academic experiences of ELL and immigrant populations are improved when teachers attend to student “membership, identity, and [creative] engagement” of citizenship (Abowitz & Harnish, 2006, p. 666; Salinas, 2006). By dialogically problem posing, those involved in the community are internalizing one another’s spirit and in doing so, the teacher and student are mutually humanized (or an authentic community experience toward mutual freedom) (cf. Freire, 2000; cf. Hegel, 1977). Lastly, I utilized Cruz and Thornton’s (2009) framework for working with ELLs in social studies classrooms as an additional analytical lens for this study. The authors suggest five things teachers should be doing with their language-learning students. First, they argue social studies teachers should be offering students various opportunities to read, write, listen, and discuss through oral and written language. Second, they believe students should be supported and encouraged to use their English productively. Third, they suggest teachers should construct activities that maximize opportunities for ELLs to interact with others in English. Forth, they mention that teachers should focus student attention to patterns of English language structure. And fifth, they discuss that teachers should give ELLs opportunities to notice their errors and to correct their English (Cruz & Thornton, 2009).

METHODS Given the research framing for this study, I examined how social studies teachers understand the relationship between language, inquiry, dialogue, cultural responsiveness, and social studies instruction. To this end I posed the following research question for this study: how do self-identifying critical social studies teachers utilize dialogue and inquiry to attend to the knowledge, interests, and struggles of ELL and immigrant students? I developed a multiple site critical case study to compare the relationships between how dialogue, power, and pedagogy exist across research sites. My goal was to determine the how and why of critical social studies teacher praxis as they attend to social justice issues with ELL and immigrant students. I endeavored to allow experiences to emerge through the presentation of data rather than by simply illuminating participants’ interpretation (Merriam, 1998).

Data Gathering I collected data by engaging in direct observations, holding semi-structured interviews, collecting artifacts, and having dialogical interactions with my participants. I took field notes of several lessons taught by the self-identifying critical social studies teachers and I created portraits of the teachers engaged in a demonstrative lesson in an effort to highlight what I believed to be an accurate representation of their practice. I recorded both in-classroom and null interactions the to determine how and why the teachers felt about and interacted with students and how they attended to social justice issues. I also attempted to understand better how the teacher’s own interpretations of practice affected his or her teaching. To achieve this goal, I collected artifacts, or lesson plans, handouts, journals, classroom art, and posters that helped stimulate classroom dialogue and inquiry sessions. These artifacts helped confirm my analysis by establishing more meaningful conclusions about those ideological factors affecting the teacher’s approaches to culture, dialogue, inquiry, and linguistic development (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). The collected artifacts helped me track data to its source to make connections between sites (Erlandson et al., 1993). Also included in my analysis were weekly teacher journals, which further allowed analysis of teacher intention and interpretation. Informal artifacts and interactions helped further illuminate power 1012

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

beyond what might be evident in formal interviews and direct pedagogical observations. Understanding and interpreting these data were vital to contextualizing how oppression was reproduced or addressed, how power was rendered visible or invisible, and how language hierarchy informed classroom interactions and pedagogical practices such as inquiry, relation, and critical dialogue (Agostinone-Wilson (2013); Smitherman-Donaldson & van Dijk, 1988).

Data Analysis I utilized a constant comparative approach, noting similarities, differences, categories, concepts, and ideas to ensure that participant voices and ideas were emerging within the patterns and themes discussed in the findings (Glaser & Strauss, 1965; Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña, 2013). Interview transcripts, field notes, and artifacts were coded based on the observable relationships between language, inquiry, dialogue, skills, power, and social studies instruction. Codes were narrowed based on their relationship to the conceptual framework (e.g., humanizing pedagogy and linguistically responsive teaching). The constant comparative nature of the case analysis allowed me to contrast the different types of data and discern those trends that emerged across context (Creswell, 2002; Stake, 2005). In presenting the data, I attempted to provide thick descriptions and illuminate data that adds credibility and demonstrates transferability of the study findings so readers will be able to follow my process and relate to the analysis (Merriam, 2009; Stake, 1995). I sought to create individual portraitures of the ways the teacher experiences illuminated pedagogical possibility.

Context and Participants The participating teachers in this study were purposefully selected because they self-identified as “critical” or “social justice oriented” and taught courses with high percentages of culturally diverse, ELL, and immigrant students. The participants in this study included Travis, Andres, and Cinthia. Each teacher participant attended the same secondary social studies teacher education program separated by a few years each. The program had an explicit focus on urban schooling and critical interpretations of the social studies disciplines. Each participant teacher took a course in language acquisition, but none were formally trained as a bilingual educator. The language learners in their classes had a working knowledge of English. During the study, Travis identified as a “White” Male who was a second-year teacher in a mid-sized school district (approximately 9,500 students). Originally from Arizona, he began his work as a teacher in Texas. The school district in which he worked was a farming community outside a large southwestern city. His newly developed “early college high school” was located in an area experiencing diverse growth and included an interesting conservative/liberal and White/Latin@ demographic makeup. The school was noteworthy in that it embraced the mandated discourses and pressures of a heavy-handed accountability system, which included testable outcomes, but generally, administrators were not constantly monitoring teachers. Travis taught Government and World Geography. He was familiar with French and Spanish but did not speak either fluently. Travis’s largely Latin@ student population consisted of current ELLs who demonstrated high achievement in the traditional sense, students who were no longer classified as ELLs, a few immigrant students with fairly high English language proficiency, and several mainstream students. Many of his students would speak in Spanish during their group work, which he supported.

1013

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

Cinthia identified as a Chicana civic rights activist. She was in her sixth year of teaching during this study in a medium sized district (approximately 9,000 students) in a rural farming area. Cinthia taught World Geography, World History, Government, and Economics in an area that, like Travis’s school, was experiencing significant and diverse population growth. The area was changing because the large urban city to the West was experiencing rapid growth and people were being pushed into this community. The school at which Cinthia worked was a self-paced high school designed to support students who had been unsuccessful at more traditional high schools. Her largely Latin@ student population took many of their social studies courses together. Cinthia was raised near the geopolitical border between Mexico and Texas and was raised to be bilingual in English and Spanish. She suggested this identity and her proximity to the border led her to understand the power associated with language, wealth, and political power from an early age. She also noted that she became wary of certain relationships, describing the faulty “historical narratives” and “hypocrisies” that existed in many social studies educational experiences. Additionally, Cinthia was considered by those in her community to be a successful teacher-leader who could connect with students across many cultural divides. Therefore, she was supported by her administration and given the latitude to teach her social studies courses largely as she saw fit. Andres identified as a Chicano and was in the in the last semesters of his professional development sequence when this study occurred. He acknowledged the “power” associated with curriculum and pedagogy and suggested one of the most important things he would need to achieve was the neutralization of that power. Andres grew up in Central Texas and is currently teaching in a large Central Texas city. He is fluent in English and Spanish. For this study his teaching experiences included leading World History, United States History, and Ethnic Studies courses with a large number of ELL or formerly classified ELL students. The district he worked in included a largely Latin@ population in large urban school district (approximately 86,000 students). Over the course of two semesters, Andres had one cooperating teacher that was very supportive of his approach to teaching and one who was not. (Please note that the teachers in this study were working with students in secondary classrooms. The students described in this study were largely Latin@, advanced language learners, and conversationally fluent in English. Cinthia and Andres spoke Spanish fluently. Travis had only a limited working knowledge of Spanish.)

FINDINGS Solutions and Recommendations Findings from this case study demonstrate that effective and critical social studies teachers are able to attend to the knowledge, interests, and struggles of their ELL students by engaging in counter storytelling, humanizing pedagogy, and linguistically responsive teaching to develop meaningful lessons with/ for ELL students. Dialogical education and inquiry in particular helped to facilitate critically conscious understandings of the world that helped students see power relationships that ordered social life. These experiences were foundational to developing communal solidarity between teachers and students (Macedo, 1998; Magill, forthcoming; Subedi, 2008; Freire & Shor, 1987). Discussions also revealed the power behind many intersectional ideas of membership and identity as citizens. The approach allowed students to engage with the curriculum in ways more relevant to them (cf. Subedi, 2008). Together classes were collectively able to examine cultural knowledge, student interests, and community struggles through 1014

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

participation in critical inquiry and group dialogue. The approaches proved important practices for developing social studies skills and helping students access new linguistic, cultural, and civic experiences. Further they utilized social studies disciplinary knowledge and focused on linguistically supportive approaches (Rodriguez, & Guberman, 2005; Weisman & Hansen, 2007).

Travis In the past, several students in Travis’s class had mentioned feeling monitored and blamed for what many believed to be social problems such as joblessness, crime, and a drain on public recourses. The following classroom comment prompted Travis to conduct a series of civics lessons in his geography class focused on helping his students understand and critique power (The class had been discussing caste, bureaucracy, and Greek citizenship): Latina Student: In India and China and Greece, it’s like the US. . . . I mean I get to go to this school but there are not a lot of people like me that can’t. Like, my family doesn’t get to make a lot of the choices that affect us. We [my family] didn’t know about this school, but people [the student later mentioned it was a counselor] helped me, but not everyone can. Lots of kids can’t do what we did. I feel like the system is against us. [The student later suggested that she was referring to Latin@s.] Travis suggested this student’s interpretation is “one reason teachers need to examine citizenship and culture across the social studies content areas.” He mentioned that his students would benefit from “researching and discussing” the ways students were being situated in alienating and unfair ways. He suggested students do not always have access to these approaches to lessons in all their classes, particularly ones that focus “only on skills.” Travis decided to develop lessons where his students would examine the ways borders, space, and economics are related to civic identity and power. Travis then provided students with primary and secondary sources to help them understand the relationships between NAFTA, the border, and those directly affected by the policy. Students were given documents critiquing NAFTA, globalization, and the economic relationship between the US and Mexico. He asked students to consider the relationships of power by conducting a group inquiry into the sources. Travis offered the students several articles with topics ranging from worker perspectives, policy analysis of NAFTA, community statistics, and information on the nature of maquiladoras to name a few. Unfortunately, he did not include the perspective of those benefiting financially on the Mexican side of the border. Therefore the documents importantly noted US economic imperialism, but neglected those Mexicans complicit in this exploitation. The students read their articles together in small groups and took notes about and discussed power, citizenship, and empathy. I observed students reading and then discussing the articles in groups. In the first group, two Latin@ language-learning students were reading the policy analysis. Student: I am so depressed that my buying things is supporting slavery. Student 2: They [Maquiladora workers] can’t even afford what they make and then the US is like, Mexicans are the problem.

1015

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

After students read all the articles and the primary and secondary sources with their groups, they began to discuss the issues associated with NAFTA. Students importantly demonstrated empathy for those affected by the globalization policy and their role in perpetuating the unequal conditions. Subsequently, the class engaged in a whole group dialogue centered on the human implications of NAFTA. Travis: What can the focus on families tell us about on the impact of NAFTA? Student: The thinking about this is not right. The US tries to get stuff cheaply, but the family gets hurt [referring to the article]. There were major changes in conditions from the beginning of Maquiladoras to now. The income tax rate and low pay by the border makes them do it [use the Maquiladoras]. Student 2: It’s the lowest bidder and that hurts workers and other people in the area. The students instantly identified with some of the relationships of power associated with space, economics, and culture. Travis then asked students to reflect on their inquiry experience and write about how they believe NAFTA affects people’s lives and told them they would be discussing their writing. Many students were code switching, which meant they were discussing experiences by having conversations in both English and Spanish. After the class had a discussion, Travis asked students to come back together for a whole group discussion. One student shared a personal story about his life: [Conditions are] not fair today because they put us [Latin@s] down. There were no jobs for us and my dad had injuries when he was working and [his employers] didn’t want to take him to the hospital because he was not a citizen. They thought they would get in trouble because he doesn’t have papers. Travis: “So laws, the way we are seen and the way things are done keeps us from feeling like citizens? So what do you want to do about it?” Student: I guess we will have to organize and teach people about this stuff. Travis and the students began a class discussion that demonstrated their complex analysis of NAFTA and citizenship in relation to their own lives. Travis then asked students to take out their homework and further analyze the relationship between space and power. He referred them to their previous work, which had discussed the ways physical space changes the nature of geography. Students took out graphic organizers, or handouts to help them organize information, where they recorded these ideas. Travis then asked students to incorporate their experience and inquiry into an analysis they could share in a discussion. Travis: How do the walls or barriers affect life—what are three that you can think of based on this lesson? Think about your readings. Student: Physical. Like the Mexico/US border wall. Travis: Good—what is another? I think you could have also written down cultural or environmental; that would have worked too [students have a graphic organizer and write these additional notes down]. These things are affected by NAFTA too. 1016

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

Student 2: Economic walls. Travis: Yes like workers versus bosses or NAFTA—like in the readings. Any other things they discussed in the readings, or that you can think of? Student 3: Language barrier? Travis: Yes. Good. Language certainly exists differently in different spaces. And there is different power with the different languages. Travis: Which of these “walls” did you think was the best use to describe NAFTA? Student: Probably economic, but there are also lots of stuff about people, like, political, and environmental examples from the readings. Travis: Yep. I think that’s probably true. So what does this mean for citizenship? Student: People only caring about your countries, but the Mexican workers are making stuff for the US so . . . yeah. Travis: Yeah, I think you got it. Geography is used to exploit workers sometimes. All these geographic elements play a role in who is seen as citizen and how they are treated. There is supposedly “free trade” but in many ways, lowering the taxes like [student] said earlier, makes it less free or equitable for workers. Like we talked about last week, some people are not seen as part of the group and are not given privileges—in this case economic ones. Some people are not seen as citizens, and some people, like in this country, are seen as second-class citizens. As a result of their reading, inquiry, and dialogue, students had uncommon linguistic experiences by having critical conversations about identity, personal experiences, and elements of the social studies curriculum. Regarding agency, Travis did ask his class what they could do in support of others; however this question was left in isolation. Though through the series of civic lessons, Travis was able to lead students through an inquiry and dialogue that facilitated students’ utilization of their cultural experiences, language/disciplinary skills, and civic interpretations to understand the complex relationships between NAFTA, power, and geography. The skills associated with this experience are foundational to both language learning and social studies skills. Student analysis revealed that many of them had firsthand knowledge of the tensions associated with the social discourse around Latin@s. Their inquiry, reading, analysis, and discussion helped students come to uncommon understandings about the highly political and ideological issue. Students began to be able to articulate that the border represents more than the demarcation of states, and also that there are human consequences of NAFTA, power, and economic structures that often go untroubled. The class realized that power, privilege, wealth, language, and citizenship differ and that they affect one’s relationship to geographical space.

1017

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

Cinthia Teachers utilize the knowledge and perceptions students bring to the classroom to support students develop their knowledge, skills, and civic engagement. A student in Cinthia’s class mentioned that he felt “like a second-class citizen” going into privileged and white spaces. He continued, “I tried to go vote but didn’t.” Cinthia recalled him sharing, “I feel weird doing these things because white people do them and when I come by they look at me like I’m a thug.” The student had just turned 18 and had not voted because he felt like he could not understand the process. He found the voting experience panoptic (like he was being watched) and foreign. Cinthia shared, “He’s an undocumented kid and I realized he understood democracy only as voting and not necessarily being a socially active citizen. He couldn’t do the thing he felt made him a citizen.” Therefore, Cinthia suggested, “It is our job [as social studies teachers of commonly marginalized students] to advocate for them on things that they can’t advocate for themselves.” Cinthia suggested part of her job is to help students like hers to develop the skills and agency to take agency in their lives by “learning counter stories” and talking about those things, like voting, that can help them “achieve their goals.” In a lesson following this experience, Cinthia asked students to engage in historical thinking and inquiry to trouble how citizenship was understood and to help them develop counter narratives and use their civic agency to attend to those things limiting their access to democracy. She began the lesson by projecting a 1960s segregation sign and asked students to answer the question, “Why does the sign say, no dogs, Negros, and Mexicans?” The students remained quiet. She then asked, “What was going on at this time, the year is on the picture?” Students continued to look puzzled, so she decided to explain some historical context around segregation at different points in history. She handed out some questions and different primary source documents asking students to analyze them in groups. The sources were designed to complicate the monolithic civil rights narrative that African Americans were the oppressed group. She gave examples of how the Germans, Irish, Chinese, and others were also historically marginalized. She then focused particularly on counter narratives of Latin@s, because of her student population. Her questions was designed to have students discuss why Mexicans and other Latin@s were not well represented in civil rights discourse. Cinthia asked the students to discuss what they were thinking in small groups. Students were very engaged and, as they moved back to whole group discussion, shared about what they found in the historical documents and how this related to their own identity, membership, and agency: Student: Civil rights: they only talk about it as a black thing. I didn’t even know about this. Cinthia: So what do you think? Student 2: Just like everything else, they [white people] don’t like us. Student 3: I get this, because when I go into white places, I still feel like they don’t like me. Cinthia: So, how does this affect civil rights and citizenship? Student: We aren’t citizens all the time. Student 3: I can’t vote. And I feel like I don’t belong in some places. 1018

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

Student 4: It is [conditions are] still not fair today. There were no jobs for us and my dad had injuries when he was working and [his employers] didn’t want to take him to the hospital because he was not a citizen. They thought they would get in trouble because he doesn’t have papers. Cinthia: So laws, the way we are seen and the way things are done keeps us from feeling like citizens? So what do you want to do about it? Student 2: Fight back. Cinthia: How? Student 3: We need more power; we will not be minorities soon. We can get together like the [group] did in the protest downtown. Cinthia: That’s right and I want you to remember you are a citizen if you are part of a community, no matter who or what you look like or where you come from. Student 2: We can come together and change the system so it is better for everyone. Cinthia: One of the ways you do that is by understanding the history and talking about it. Cinthia’s students had all experienced some sort of marginalization in the mainstream classroom that led them to her class. She mentioned that her “students are often unwilling to share or participate in other spaces because they did not see themselves culturally represented in other classrooms.” Therefore, her instruction focused on content that valued lived experiences by communally engaging in counter storytelling, humanizing pedagogy, and by utilizing linguistically responsive pedagogy. The students’ reading, inquiry, and dialogue represented a valuable intersection between these developmentally appropriate approaches and the skills and dispositions found in the social studies curriculum. Furthermore, the students demonstrated personal connections to social analysis, which informed how they understood the relationship between citizenship and power. Like Travis’s teaching, Cinthia’s social studies’ teaching was based around notions of civic identity, inclusion, and agency. She notes that it is important to include these approaches as part of her pedagogy because her students live “oppression” as part of everyday life. Like Rosaldo (1997) she discussed how her students experience “[border] crossings, invasions, [and] lines of defense” (p. 33). Therefore, Cinthia suggested that a teacher hoping to attend to his or her students must recognize and incorporate the tensions across experience to engage with those historical realities that have “left students or communities with scars,” by reading, and engaging in inquiry and dialogue, students had uncommon linguistic experiences interrogating the social studies curriculum through critically informed historical conversations about identity and lived experience. Cinthia argued that supporting students who are positioned in certain ways, such as ELLs, immigrant students, and other students that have been marginalized, requires teachers to take critical approaches to their pedagogies. She suggests that civics teaching helps her support students as they develop the agency to transcend certain barriers such as language, racism, and lack of support. Cinthia takes a linguistically relevant pedagogy toward teaching suggesting, “they already know. My students already know. I need to help them understand that they know and help them apply their understandings to some sort of subject or action.” Her approach involves a deep understanding of social studies content knowledge, linguistically 1019

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

responsive approaches, and critical interpretations of citizenship. In particular, she was able to support students in developing a counter story to the marginalization they felt in certain spaces. Cinthia argued, “social studies are great ways to teach about language, identity, agency, and citizenship critically.”

Andres Some teachers utilize the curriculum as a way of including student identity and promoting transformational action. Andres suggested working with ELLs in social studies classrooms should be about helping students critique power and do something about the way they are socially positioned. To him, this meant developing lessons that would help them understand their own powerful and valuable culture and to transform society in some way. He suggested inquiry was important to this goal because it has the power to include “marginalized voices . . . traditionally excluded from curricula”. To Andres, it is the responsibility of a teacher to render student culture and identity visible by critiquing “whose history, story, and experience prevails in the school setting” so students can understand their often unequal social positioning and how to “overcome it.” He suggested his approach works in contrast to the “oppressive subtractive schooling (cf. Valenzuela, 1999) that ELLs experience.” Andres believes cultural representation of groups like the Aztecs perpetuate unequal social relations of ELLs and Latin@s in general. He demonstrated superior content knowledge and an understanding of the cultural identities of his students, which allows him to suggest that portrayals of Aztecs in textbooks paint a picture of a “savage bloodthirsty people.” He argued that these portrayals become part of the fabric of our society and said the following: Whether it be in the news or in media, students can dissect situations. . . . Here’s where history becomes a marker of race, class, and gender and they become markers of citizenship, which are very surface level. So [as teachers] we can trouble the script—these [Latin@ students/ELLs] are fully complicated human beings. . . . If you accept this [narrative of bloodthirsty Aztec] it becomes easier to accept colonization. Andres began his lesson by attempting to humanize the Aztecs by addressing the tragic effects on their culture because of their unfortunate contact with Europeans. He began his lesson by having all of his students stand up. He mentioned, “The numbers worked out perfectly for a visual representation”—the 28 students in his class represented the 28 million Aztecs at the most populated part of their civilization. Andres passed out a card to each student with a year. He then asked students to follow along with the timeline he had projected on the board. He noted an event every 25 years and asked students take a seat when their year was discussed. Every student that was seated represented 1 million deaths. Andres then showed and explained how many of the Aztec symbols now exist as part of North and Central American culture. The class then had a short conversation: Student 1: Why don’t they talk about this as murder? Andres: I think some people do, but why do you think many people do not? Student: Because it makes the people in charge look bad.

1020

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

Andres: Yes, you are probably right. My question for you is why don’t the textbooks talk about the Aztecs as people? When I was taught this stuff, all we learned about was human sacrifice. The Aztecs had a rich and vibrant culture. Students did many of the things you are doing today. Student 2: The flag you showed us—it was really interesting how different people come together. [Andres had shown them the Mexican flag and noted the Aztec legend.] Andres: All sorts of examples like this are probably part of what many of us still do today. Andres then asked students to trouble the dominant narrative of the “aggressive and technologically inferior Aztecs” by supporting their engagement in an inquiry project. Andres mentioned: I chose these particular documents because I wanted to humanize the Aztecs. So there’s one [document] on the training of Aztec students, one on the type of schooling experience they had, and there’s another one about one of the Aztec kings who was famed to have been fascinated with astronomy. Those things all don’t fit the [dominant] narrative. Andres utilized documents and artifacts that directly dispelled the stereotypes he had mentioned in our interview. As students conducted inquiry into primary sources, they began to realize some of the cultural markers that traditional curriculum typically leaves out of the textbooks. Next, Andres used this lesson to discuss what he understood to be contemporary resistance to oppression in the form of the Dakota Access Pipeline protest. He mentioned to students that many First Nations people are still resisting the European colonization today. The class then read about the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and conducted an inquiry into the protest site. The critical inquiry (cf. Salinas & Blevins, 2014) embedded the historical content the students had discussed with the Aztecs into a contemporary manifestation, which critiqued socio-historical norms about identity, power, and citizenship. Through the “critical” historical inquiry, the Andres supported students in drawing more deliberate and conscious parallels between oppressed peoples. In this case, the new understandings were applied to the Dakota Pipeline protests. Andres then asked students, “What can we do to help out these people? They are continuing to protest while being pushed out by private security and police.” Students responded that they would like to send supplies to the protesters. Andres organized a provisions drive at the university and school. He then attended the protest over his holiday break at the request of his students. The students felt a sense of agency and ownership over the curriculum and that they had supported a group of people that were fighting against oppression like they do in their everyday lives.

DISCUSSION, IMPLICATIONS, AND CONCLUSION The participating teachers importantly demonstrated that they attended to many of the five principles outlined by Cruz and Thornton (2009) for social studies teachers working with ELLs. Three of Cruz and Thornton’s (2009) principles were widely used by the focal teaches. First, students were afforded the opportunity to read, write, listen, and discuss oral and written language in various ways. Second, students were supported and encouraged to use their English productively. Third, the teachers constructed activities that maximized opportunities for ELLs to interact with others in English. Beyond this, the par1021

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

ticipating teachers demonstrated that social studies teaching and disciplinary practices such as dialogue and inquiry could support their efforts to embody a humanizing pedagogy and develop non-hegemonic knowledge to increase social capital and critical knowledge. However, the teachers rarely focused student attention to patterns of English language structure, nor did they often give ELLs opportunities to notice their errors and to correct their English (Cruz & Thornton, 2009). I argue three major findings emerged from this study that can help us understand how self-identifying critical social studies teachers attend to the knowledge, interests, and struggles of their ELL and immigrant students. First, I suggest teachers engage in dialogue and inquiry situated within the disciplines as a form of culturally and linguistically responsive counter storytelling. Second, I believe social studies teachers trouble civic norms in the curriculum that limit their ELL students’ identity, membership, and agency by engaging in humanizing and linguistically responsive pedagogies that help students examine and work through the social oppression they observe. Third, I argue that though critical social studies teachers demonstrate their ability to adopt culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogies, support for language learning could be improved by formally attending to the linguistic patterns and structures that order English language within their lessons. Therefore, though the teachers were highly successful, they could have benefited from additional linguistic training. The teachers in this study utilized inquiry, dialogue, and culturally relevant topics to support student access to language and content. The approach allowed them to develop lessons supporting student exploration of culturally relevant topics that aligned with, but troubled the formal curriculum. Inquiry and dialogue also helped students critically discuss issues of linguistic and cultural power. Such practices allowed the class to jointly transform the curriculum as a community of cultural learners. Specifically topics such as the Dakota Access Pipeline, Latino Civil Rights history, and critiques of NAFTA provided artifacts for analysis that helped the teachers provide linguistic and culturally relevant experiences. The topics presented a way of critically contextualizing power, identity, language, culture, and membership for the ELL students. When examining these types of topics through inquiry, dialogue, and culturally relevant curriculum, teachers were better able to include the cultural and linguistic strengths of students. Teachers utilizing these practices were also able to facilitate experiences with disciplinary skills, which provides a vehicle for applying (L1) schema to (L2) language learning experiences. Teachers engaged in counter storytelling through inquiry and dialogue that put forth narratives that aligned with students’ worldviews, though this is not what is often presented to them in formal curriculum. Similarly, counter storytelling demonstrated a humanizing pedagogy that was a linguistically responsive and culturally revitalizing approach to social studies teaching (McCarty & Lee, 2014). Additionally, teachers supported students by suggesting their experiences and cultures, though not included in many textbooks, were valuable. Second, each of the teachers in this study troubled hegemonic and incomplete definitions of who is a citizen and what civic action looks like. Through their inquiry and dialogue, teachers and students were able to examine citizenship through issues of race, power, and politics, which made their social studies instruction more inclusive. Teacher efforts resulted in students’ developing an increased sense of agency and membership in the de-colonization of the normed knowledge of the traditional curriculum. Teachers and students jointly created spaces where they could explore identity, membership, and agency. Through their discussions and inquiry they became informed social actors who reframed what it meant to be a citizen in a pluralistic society. As students shared personal experiences, the classes were able to discuss the way society positions some people unfairly and how they can organize to disrupt the social relations of production. Critical social studies teachers achieve this by valuing the lived experiences of students 1022

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

and incorporating them into their content. The incorporation of student experiences as civic curriculum is part of a critical social studies teacher’s humanizing pedagogy and linguistic responsive teaching. Critical social studies teachers also teach civics to develop a community of learners, which in this study, revealed that the teachers value their roles as sympathetic language and culture learning partners. Third, despite the participating social studies teachers’ engagement in humanizing pedagogy and linguistically responsive teaching, they did little formally to address English language structures beyond discourse and inquiry. The teachers did not, for example, often give students opportunities to notice the errors and correct their English. Teachers were not negligent, but were simply unaware of the many linguistically supportive strategies they might employ in support of their students’ language learning. However, teachers did demonstrate many strategies that helped students access material and develop linguistic competencies. Therefore, the critical social studies teachers were able to make content accessible without reducing rigor by activating prior knowledge, offering opportunity to practice and develop their oral language skills, and by supporting the structures for students to conduct inquiry. Students were able to have meaningful linguistic, cultural, civic, and disciplinary experiences through their interactions, inquiry, and dialogical experiences. Ultimately, the teachers did possess a pedagogical approach necessary to support students, but they could have done more to incorporate linguistic learning strategies into their teaching. I argue conceptual shifts in policy, perspective, cultural, and linguistics competencies to more appropriately support ELL and immigrant students are necessary in social studies education. However, all teachers might be trained in linguistics and approaches that will more completely support English Language Learners. Despite my critique, the teachers in this study did offer meaningful opportunities for ELLs to experience comprehensible input within the social studies (Krashen, 2003). The teachers did an exceptional job of helping students’ access print materials by including visuals, paraphrasing and restating, offering opportunities for group work, engaging in cooperative learning, all while using social studies academic language (Cummins, 2001). The study demonstrates that social studies teachers who adopt a humanizing pedagogy and linguistically responsive practices are particularly effective in supporting their ELL students despite (perhaps) limited training in support of ELLs. Teachers were able to engage with students in counter storytelling, inquiry, and dialogue as linguistically and culturally responsive pedagogy. The methods used were able to help the teachers incorporate the knowledge that students valued into their lessons. The approaches proved helpful pedagogical tools for students to examine, challenge, and engage with relevant topics. Student engagement and their critical analytical skills increased by participating in these efforts. Teachers were able to authentically bring themselves to the experiences with students. This was very important for teachers as they endeavored to attend to real material concerns of students. Teachers with humanizing and linguistically responsive pedagogies also developed solidarity with students by attending to the alienation they face as language learners (cf. Magill, 2018). It is in these pedagogical postures and approaches that we might begin to understand the value in centering the knowledge, interests, and struggles of English Language Learners in social studies classrooms.

REFERENCES Abowitz, K. K., & Harnish, J. (2006). Contemporary discourses of citizenship. Review of Educational Research, 76(4), 653–690. doi:10.3102/00346543076004653

1023

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

Agostinone-Wilson, F. (2013). Dialectical research methods in the classical Marxist tradition. New York, NY: Peter Lang. Atkins, R., & Hart, D. (2003). Neighborhoods, adults, and the development of civic identity in urban youth. Applied Developmental Science, 7(3), 156–164. doi:10.1207/S1532480XADS0703_6 Attinasi, J. (1997). Racism, language variety, and urban minorities. In A. Darder, R. Torres, & H. Gutiérrez (Eds.), Latinos and education: a critical reader. New York, NY: Routledge. Bartolomé, L. I. (1994). Beyond the methods fetish: Toward a humanizing pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 64(2), 173–195. doi:10.17763/haer.64.2.58q5m5744t325730 Barton, K. (2011). From learning narratives to thinking historically. In W. Russell (Ed.), Contemporary social studies: An essential reader. Charlotte, NC: Information Age. Bunch, G. C. (2013). Pedagogical language knowledge: Preparing mainstream teachers for English learners in the new standards era. Review of Research in Education, 37(1), 298–341. doi:10.3102/0091732X12461772 Bomer, R. (2017). What Would It Mean for English Language Arts to Become More Culturally Responsive and Sustaining? Voices from the Middle, 24(3), 11–15. Bondy, J. M. (2014). “why do I have to pledge the U.S. flag? it’s not my country!”: Latina youths rearticulating citizenship and national belonging. Multicultural Perspectives, 16(4), 193–202. doi:10.1080/ 15210960.2014.952300 Bourdieu, P. (1987). What makes a social class? On the theoretical and practical existence of groups. Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 32(1), 1–17. Burbules, N. C. (2000). The limits of dialogue as a critical pedagogy. In P. Trifonas (Ed.), Revolutionary pedagogies: cultural politics, education, and the discourse of theory (pp. 251-273). New York, NY: Routledge. Brooks, S. (2009). Historical empathy in the social studies classroom: A review of the literature. Journal of Social Studies Research, 33(2), 213–231. Chomsky, N. (2015). Syntactic structures. Martino Publishing. Cochran-Smith, M. (2004). Walking the road: Race, diversity, and social justice in teacher education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Choi, Y. (2013). Teaching social studies for newcomer ELLs: Toward culturally relevant pedagogy. Multicultural Perspectives, 15(1), 12–18. doi:10.1080/15210960.2013.754640 Conklin, H. G. (2007). Methods and the middle: Elementary and secondary preservice teachers’ views on their preparation for teaching middle school social studies. RMLE Online, 31(4), 1–16. doi:10.1080 /19404476.2007.11462047 Creswell, J. W. (2002). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

1024

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

Cruz, B. C., & Thornton, S. J. (2009). Social studies for English language learners: Teaching social studies that matters. Social Education, 73(6), 271–274. Cummins, J. (1979). Linguistic interdependence and the educational development of bilingual children. Review of Educational Research, 49(2), 222–251. doi:10.3102/00346543049002222 Cummins, J. (1999). Biliteracy, empowerment, and transformative pedagogy. In J. V. Tinajero & R. A. DeVillar (Eds.), The power of two languages (pp. 9–19). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power, and pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. doi:10.21832/9781853596773 Cummins, J. (2001). HER classic reprint: Empowering minority students: A framework for intervention. Harvard Educational Review, 71(4), 649–676. doi:10.17763/haer.71.4.j261357m62846812 Cummins, J. (2005). A proposal for action: Strategies for recognizing heritage language competence as a learning resource within the mainstream classroom. Modern Language Journal, 89(4), 585–592. Cummins, J., & Sayers, D. (1995). Brave new schools: Challenging cultural illiteracy through global learning networks. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press. Darder, A. (2016). Culture and power in the classroom: Educational foundations for the schooling of bicultural students. Boulder, CO: Paradigm. Delpit, L. (2006). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York, NY: The New Press. Del-Teso-Craviotto, M. (2009). Racism and xenophobia in immigrants’ discourse: The case of Argentines in Spain. Discourse & Society, 20(5), 571–592. doi:10.1177/0957926509106411 Denzin, N., & Lincoln, Y. (2005). The SAGE handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. DeVillar, R. A., & Faltis, C. J. (1991). Computers and cultural diversity: Restructuring for school success. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Erlandson, D., Harris, E., Skipper, B., & Allen, S. (1993). Doing naturalistic inquiry: A Guide to Methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Fairclough, N. (2015). Language and power. New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Fanon, F. (2008). Black skin, white masks. New York, NY: Grove press. Flannery, D., & Hayes, E. (2001). Challenging adult learning: A feminist perspective. In V. Sheared & P. S. Sissel (Eds.), Making space: Merging theory and practice in adult education (pp. 29-41). Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey. Flores, W. V., & Benmayor, R. (1997). Latino Cultural Citizenship: Claiming Identity, Space, and Rights. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Foucault, M. (1976). The archaeology of knowledge. New York: Harper & Row.

1025

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

Fowler, R. (1979). Language and control. Boston, MA: Routledge & K. Paul. Fránquiz, M. E., Martınez-Roldan, C., & Mercado, C. (2011). Theoretical and pedagogical possibilities in the teaching of Latina/o children’s literature in multicultural contexts. In S. Wolf, K. Coats, P. Enciso, & C. A. Jenkins (Eds.), Handbook of Research on children’s and young adult literature (pp. 108–120). New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum, Taylor and Francis Group. Fránquiz, M. E., & Salinas, C. S. (2011). Newcomers to the U.S.: Developing historical thinking among Latino immigrant students in a central Texas high school. Bilingual Research Journal, 34(1), 58–75. do i:10.1080/15235882.2011.568831 Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th Anniv. Ed.). New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic. Freire, P., & Macedo, D. (2005). Literacy: Reading the word and the world. New York, NY: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203986103 Freire, P., & Shor, I. (1987). Pedagogy for liberation: Dialogues on transforming education. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey Publishers. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-18574-0 García, E., Arias, M. B., Murri, N. J. H., & Serna, C. (2010). Developing responsive teachers: A challenge for a demographic reality. Journal of Teacher Education, 61(1-2), 132–142. doi:10.1177/0022487109347878 Garcia, A., Mirra, N., Morrell, E., Martinez, A., & Scorza, D. (2015). The Council of Youth Research: Critical Literacy and Civic Agency in the Digital Age. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 31(2), 151–167. doi:10.1080/10573569.2014.962203 García, O., & Kleifgen, J. A. (2010). Educating emergent bilinguals: Policies, programs, and practices for English language learners. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Giroux, H., & McLaren, P. (1994). Between borders: Pedagogy and the Politics of Cultural Studies. New York, NY: Routledge. Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory. London, UK: Weidenfield & Nicolson. González, N., Moll, L., & Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of knowledge: theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. Gort, M. (2006). Strategic codeswitching, interliteracy, and other phenomena of emergent bilingual writing: Lessons from first grade dual language classrooms. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 6(3), 323–354. doi:10.1177/1468798406069796 Goslin, D. (2003). Engaging minds. Motivation and learning in America’s schools. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci (Q. Hoare & G. N. Smith, Eds., HoareQ.SmithG. N., Trans.). New York, NY: International Publishers.

1026

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

Gutmann, A. (2004). Unity and diversity in democratic multicultural education: Creative and destructive tensions. In J. A., Banks, (Ed.), Diversity and citizenship education: Global perspectives. New York: Jossey-Bass. Harper, C., & de Jong, E. (2004). Misconceptions about teaching English language learners. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 48(2), 152–162. doi:10.1598/JAAL.48.2.6 Hegel, G., Miller, A., & Findlay, J. (1977). Phenomenology of spirit. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. Hess, D. (2004). Discussion in the social studies: Is it worth the trouble? Social Education, 68(2), 206–212. Hollie, S. (2009). Becoming a culturally responsive teacher: Sharroky Hollie explains how culturally and linguistically responsive teaching can enhance learning for all students. ESL Magazine, (71), 26. hooks, B. (2014). Teaching to transgress. New York, NY: Routledge. Huerta, M., & Spies, T. G. (2016). Science inquiry and writing for ELLs: A gateway for building understanding and academic language. Science Activities: Classroom Projects and Curriculum Ideas, 53(1), 24–32. Jaffee, A. T. (2016). Community, voice, and inquiry: Teaching global history for English language learners. Social Studies, 107(3), 1–13. doi:10.1080/00377996.2016.1140626 Janzen, J. (2008). Teaching English language learners in the content areas. Review of Educational Research, 78(4), 1010–1038. doi:10.3102/0034654308325580 Kitchin, R. (2005). Commentary: Disrupting and destabilizing Anglo-American and English-language hegemony in Geography. Social & Cultural Geography, 6(1), 1–15. doi:10.1080/1464936052000335937 Krashen, S. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning. New York, NY: Pergamon Press. Krashen, S. D. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. Torrance, CA: Laredo. Krashen, S. (2003). Explorations in Language Acquisition and Use. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Kwenda, C. V. (2003). Cultural justice: The pathway to reconciliation and social cohesion. In What holds us together: Social cohesion in South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC Publishers. Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465–491. doi:10.3102/00028312032003465 Levin, S. J. (2016). Student As Citizen: Teaching Critical Civic Literacy Skills In The Library. Knowledge Quest, 44(5), 28. Levinson, M. (2012). Diversity and Civic Education. In D. Campbell, M. Levinson, & F. D. Hess (Eds.), Making Civics Count: Citizenship Education for a New Generation (pp. 224–236). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. Macedo, D. (1998). English only: the tongue-tying of America. In H. S. Shapiro & D. E. Purpel (Eds.), Critical social issues in American education (pp. 261–272). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

1027

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

Macedo, D., Dendrinos, B., & Gounari, P. (2016). The hegemony of English. London, UK: Taylor and Francis. Magill, K. R. (2018). Intellectual Solidarity and the Struggle for Critical Education. Manuscript in preparation. Magill, K. R. (2017). Understanding the relationship between critical pedagogy and social studies: dialectics, agency, and solidarity. Doctoral dissertation. Magill, K. R., & Rodriguez, A. (2015). Hope, Rage and Inequality: A Critical Humanist Inclusive Education. International Journal of Progressive Education, 11(1), 6–27. McCarty, T., & Lee, T. (2014). Critical culturally sustaining/revitalizing pedagogy and Indigenous education sovereignty. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 101–124. doi:10.17763/haer.84.1.q83746nl5pj34216 McLaren, P., & Jaramillo, N. (2010). Not Neo-Marxist, Not Post-Marxist, Not Marxian, Not Autonomous Marxism: Reflections on a Revolutionary (Marxist) Critical Pedagogy. Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies, 10(3), 1–12. Menchú, R. (1984). I... Rigober ta Menchú. Index on Censorship, 13(5), 18–20. doi:10.1080/03064228408533778 Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation: Revised and expanded from qualitative research and case study applications in education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education: Revised and expanded from case study research in education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Miles, M. B., Huberman, M. A., & Saldaña, J. (2013). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications. Milner, H. R. (2010). Start where you are, but don’t stay there, understanding diversity, opportunity gaps, and teaching in today’s classrooms. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. Moje, E. B. (2008). Foregrounding the disciplines in secondary literacy teaching and learning: A call for change. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(2), 96–107. doi:10.1598/JAAL.52.2.1 Ovando, C. J. (2003). Bilingual education in the United States: Historical development and current issues. Bilingual Research Journal, 27(1), 1–24. doi:10.1080/15235882.2003.10162589 Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97. doi:10.3102/0013189X12441244 Parker, W. (2003). Teaching democracy: Unity and diversity in public life. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Portes, P. R., Salas, S., Baquedano-López, P., & Mellom, P. J. (Eds.). (2014). US Latinos and education policy: Research-based directions for change. New York, NY: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315796826 Rodriguez, A. (2008). Toward a transformative teaching practice: Criticity, pedagogy and praxis. International Journal of Learning, 15(3), 346–352. doi:10.18848/1447-9494/CGP/v15i03/45669

1028

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

Rodriguez, A. (2012). Bilingual education, Jim Cummins and the possibility for change. Journal of Linguistic Studies, 17(3), 89–107. Rodriguez, A., & Magill, K. R. (2015). Student as Value Based Product: Reconceptualizing the Subjective Nature of Education. Texas Education Review. Special Issue: Neoliberalism in Education., 3(2), 55–69. Rodriguez, A., & Magill, K. R. (2016). Diversity, Neoliberalism and Teacher Education. International Journal of Progressive Education, 12(3), 7–23. Rodriguez, A., & Magill, K. R. (2017). Beyond a value based education. In Imagining Education: Beyond the Logic Of Global Neoliberal Capitalism. Charlotte, NC: Information Age. Rodriguez, A., & Magill, K. R. (2017b). The Ties that Bind: Neoliberalism, the Citizen and Education. In A. Rodriguez & K. Magill (Eds.), Imagining Education: Beyond the Logic and Learning in Neoliberal Capitalism. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Rodriguez, H., Salinas, C., & Guberman, S. (2005). Creating opportunities for historical thinking with bilingual students. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 18(2), 9–13. Rosaldo, R. (1997). Cultural citizenship, inequality, and multiculturalism. In Latino cultural citizenship: Claiming identity, space, and rights (pp. 27–38). Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2003). On assimilating identities to the self: A self determination theory perspective on internalization and integrity within cultures. In M. R. Leary & J. P. Tangney (Eds.), Handbook of self and identity (pp. 253–272). New York, NY: Guilford Press. Salinas, C., & Blevins, B. (2014). Critical historical inquiry: How might pre-service teachers confront master historical narratives? Social Studies Research & Practice, 9(3), 35–50. Salinas, C. (2006). Educating Late Arrival High School Immigrant Students: A Call for More Democratic Curriculum. Multicultural Perspectives, 1(8), 20–27. doi:10.120715327892mcp0801_4 Salinas, C. (2016). Foreword. In W. Journell (Ed.), Teaching social studies in an era of divisiveness: The challenges of discussing social issues in a non-partisan way. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Salinas, C., Fránquiz, M., & Reidel, M. (2008). Teaching World Geography to late arrival immigrant students: Highlighting practice and content. Social Studies, 99(2), 71–76. doi:10.3200/TSSS.99.2.71-76 Salinas, C., Naseem-Rodriguez, N., & Blevins, B. (2017). Emergent bilinguals in the social studies. In M. Manfra & C. Bolick (Eds.), The Wiley handbook of social studies research. Malden, MA: WileyBlackwell. doi:10.1002/9781118768747.ch19 Seixas, P., & Peck, C. (2004). Teaching historical thinking. In A. Sears & I. Wright (Eds.), Challenges and Prospects for Canadian Social Studies (pp. 109–117). Vancouver, CA: Pacific Educational Press. Shannon, S. (1995). The hegemony of English: A case study of one bilingual classroom. Linguistics and Education, 7(1), 175–200. doi:10.1016/0898-5898(95)90022-5 Siegel, J. (2006). Language ideologies and the education of speakers of marginalized language varieties: Adopting a critical awareness approach. Linguistics and Education, 17(2), 157–174. doi:10.1016/j. linged.2006.08.002

1029

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

Smith, M. D., & Rodriguez, A. (2011). A Critical Foundation for Bilingual Education. The Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 9(2), 186–198. Smitherman-Donaldson, G., & van Dijk, T. A. (Eds.). (1988). Discourse and discrimination. Kappan, 1(80), 568-570. Sheared, V., & Sissel, P. A. (2001). Making space: Merging theory and practice in adult education. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey. Spinelli, C. G. (2008). Addressing the Issue of Cultural and Linguistic Diversity and Assessment: Informal Evaluation Measures for English Language Learners. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 1(24), 101–118. doi:10.1080/10573560701753195 Stake, R. E. (2005). Qualitative case studies. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed.; pp. 443–466). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Stearns, P., Seixas, P., & Wineburg, S. (2000). Knowing, teaching & learning history: National and international perspectives. New York, NY: New York University Press. Subedi, B. (2008). Fostering critical dialogue across cultural differences: A study of immigrant teachers’ interventions in diverse schools. Theory and Research in Social Education, 36(4), 413–440. doi:1 0.1080/00933104.2008.10473382 Szpara, M. Y., & Ahmad, I. (2007). Supporting English language learners in social studies class: Results from a study of high school teachers. Social Studies, 98(5), 189–195. doi:10.3200/TSSS.98.5.189-196 Lucas, T., & Villegas, A. M. (2010). The Missing Piece in Teacher Education: The Preparation of Linguistically Responsive Teachers. National Society for the Study of Education Yearbook, 2(109), 297–318. Luke, A., & Freebody, P. (1999, October 26). Further notes on the Four Resources Model. Reading Online. Retrieved from www.readingonline.org/research/luke freebody.html Terzian, G., & Yeager, E. A. (2007). ‘That’s When We Became a Nation’: Urban Latino Adolescents and the Designation of Historical Significance. Urban Education, 42(1), 52–81. doi:10.1177/0042085906294027 Toriello, F. (2008). Lettera a una professoressa quarant’anni dopo: una lettura interculturale. In G. Abbate (Ed.), Don Milani. Tra scuola e impegno civile. Naples, Italy: Luciano Editore. Thornton, S. J. (1991). Teacher as curricular-um instructional gatekeeper in Social Studies. In J.P. Shaver (Ed.), Handbook of research on social studies teaching and learning. New York, NY: McMillan. Valencia, R. R. (2010). Dismantling contemporary deficit thinking: Educational thought and practice. New York, NY: Routledge. Valenzuela, A. (1999). Subtractive schooling: U.S.-Mexican youth and the politics of caring. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. VanPatten, B. (1990). Attending to content and form in the input: An experiment in consciousness. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, (12), 287–301. doi:10.1017/S0272263100009177

1030

 Humanizing and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy

Van Sledright, B. A. (2008). Narratives of nation state, historical knowledge & school History education. Review of Research in Education, (32), 1–38. Washington, E. Y. (2014). The Evolution of a Civic Educator. In Leaders in Social Education. Rotterdam: Sense. Waters, T., & LeBlanc, K. (2005). Refugees and education: Mass public schooling without a nation-state. Comparative Education Review, 49(2), 129–147. Weisman, E. M., & Hansen, L. E. (2007). Strategies for teaching social studies to elementary level ELLs. Education Digest, 73(4), 61–65.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Code Switching: Moving between languages or linguistic variety in conversation. Counter Storytelling: Alternative narratives used to trouble what are commonly understood as monolithic factual stories, designed to expose, analyze, and challenge narratives and privileged characterizations (from critical race theory). Critical Reflexivity: The ability to understand how one’s actions and being exist within the social relations of production and the process of neutralizing that power. Culturally Relevant, Responsive, Sustaining, and Revitalizing Pedagogy: Pedagogy that is designed to include and respond to student culture and to actively help student culture to thrive. Language Hegemony: Language practices that support ruling class logic and power. Linguistic Funds of Knowledge: The language skills and knowledge that students bring with them to class and allow them to function as part of their home culture. Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy: Pedagogical practices that respond to, and value, the languages and language needs of students in a given classroom. Schema: The cognitive representation of one’s patterns of thought and behavior. Social Capital: The relationships, knowledge, skills, dispositions, actions, and/or privileges that afford someone the power to produce or reproduce inequitable social relationships or change their social relationships.

This research was previously published in the Handbook of Research on Engaging Immigrant Families and Promoting Academic Success for English Language Learners; pages 333-360, copyright year 2019 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

1031

1032

Chapter 48

Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach Petra Daryai-Hansen University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Samúel Lefever University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland Inta Rimšāne Rezekne Academy of Technologies, Rēzekne, Latvia

ABSTRACT This article will present findings from the DELA-NOBA project. During the project, quantitative and qualitative data from the participating teachers from pilot schools in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Sweden were collected to investigate the participating teachers’ attitudes, knowledge and skills and experiences of using language awareness activities in teaching. Based on teacher cognition as theoretical and methodological framework, the authors will present data from the teachers’ survey at the beginning of the project, the teachers’ interim survey and the focus group interviews at the end of the project.

INTRODUCTION Within educational research, there is a consensus that teachers are the main key to student learning. This of course also applies to the field of plurilingual education. Haukås, for instance, claims that “the language teacher is the key facilitator of learners’ multilingualism” (Haukås, 2016, p. 2) and Lasagabaster and Huguet emphasize in respect to learners’ attitudes towards language diversity:

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch048

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach

Language attitudes are learnt and, therefore, educators play a paramount role in their formation to such an extent that attitudes formed under educator influence may be extremely difficult to change (Lasagabaster & Huguet, 2007, p. 1). This article will present findings from the three-year Nordplus Horizontal Project Developing the Language Awareness Approach in the Nordic and Baltic Countries (DELA-NOBA, 2013-2016; for a detailed presentation of the project see Daryai-Hansen, Layne & Tonello, 2018). In the DELA-NOBA project, the Language Awareness Approach is defined as one of three main approaches within the field of plurilingual education. In French the approach is called “Eveil aux langues” (Candelier, 2003). In English, different terms have been proposed, among others “Awakening to languages”, “Plurilingual Language Awareness” and “Language Awareness through a pluralistic approach”. In this article, the term Language Awareness (LA) is used, but the authors stress the fact that in this project the pupils’ language awareness is not developed based on a singular approach, “taking account of only one language or a particular culture, and dealing with it in isolation” (Candelier et al., 2007, p. 7), e.g. Standard French in the French classroom. The DELA-NOBA project developed the pupils’ language awareness through a pluralistic approach, i.e. “using teaching/learning activities involving several (i.e. more than one) varieties of languages or cultures” (ibid.). In the project a diversity of languages that normally are not taught at schools were included, among them the students’ first languages (for a more elaborated definition of the LA approach see Daryai-Hansen, Layne & Tonello, 2018, and Candelier & Kevran, 2018). The project established a collaboration between nine researchers and thirteen primary and secondary school teachers from schools in the seven participating Nordic and Baltic countries. The participating teachers and schools were chosen by the researchers. In the first year, the teachers implemented and evaluated existing LA teaching activities in their lessons. Based on their experiences, they created in the second year new teaching activities for the Nordic/Baltic context in order to increase their pupils’ language awareness through a pluralistic approach (the project’s teaching materials are collected on the project’s website: http://www.delanoba.com). As regards the teachers, the DELA-NOBA project can be characterized as a longer professional development project, i.e. “a process by which, alone and with others, teachers ... acquire and develop critically the knowledge, skills and emotional intelligence essential to good professional thinking, planning and practice.” (Day, 1999, p. 4; Borg, 2015). The DELA-NOBA project collected data from both students, parents and teachers, and in this article the focus is on the teacher data. During the project, quantitative and qualitative data from the participating teachers were collected through the use of written questionnaires and focus group interviews. Based on teacher cognition as the theoretical and methodological framework, findings from the teachers’ pre-survey, interim survey and focus group interviews at the end of the project are presented in order to investigate the participating teachers’ attitudes, knowledge and skills with regard to the implementation and development of LA activities. The following questions are addressed: What was the teachers’ starting point? How did the teachers’ attitudes, knowledge and skills develop based on their experiences during the project, and how can the interplay between the students’ learning and the teachers’ professional development be characterized? In the following sections a discussion of how the field of teacher cognition was applied in our project is presented along with an explanation of the research design and methodological approach. This is followed by a discussion of the main findings from the prequestionnaire, the interim questionnaire and the final focus group interviews.

1033

 Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach

TEACHER COGNITION The field of teacher cognition, the groundwork for which was laid in the late 1990s (Borg, 2003), directs the attention from teaching practices (What are teachers doing?) and students’ learning processes (Is this working?) to the “complexity of teachers’ mental lives” (Borg, 2003; Henriksen, 2014). The field is, as Borg points out, substantiated by the assumption that “teachers are active, thinking decision-makers who make instructional choices by drawing on complex, practically-oriented, personalised, and contextsensitive networks of knowledge, thoughts, and beliefs” (ibid., p. 81). In his ground-breaking article from 2003, Borg reviews 64 studies and concludes that “the study of teacher cognition is generally characterised by a multiplicity of labels” (Borg, 2003, p. 83). The “definitional confusion” in Eisenhart et al.’s (1988, as cited in Borg, 2003, p. 83) terminology, is still striking today, even in respect to the main research interests within the field. In 1997, Borg recapped nine central concepts: teachers’ “beliefs, knowledge, theories, attitudes, images, assumptions, metaphors, conceptions, perspectives” (Borg, 1997, as cited in Borg, 2003, p. 82). In 2015, the list is reduced: Borg and Sanchez talk about “teachers’ beliefs, knowledge, skills and attitudes” (Borg & Sanchez, 2015, p. 188) and cement the main research questions of the field as follows: “What teachers think, believe, know, and feel” (Borg & Sanchez, 2015, p. 190). In respect to these condensed enumerations two main questions can still be raised: • •

“Knowledge” corresponds to “to know”, “beliefs” to “to believe” and “attitudes” to “to feel”, but can “skills” be reduced to “to think”? The concept of skills generally covers a wide range of different abilities e.g. to observe, to analyse, to interpret and to compare. What is the relation between beliefs, knowledge and attitudes? Borg (2003) refers to Grossman et al.’s study in the late eighties, which states that “while we are trying to separate teachers’ knowledge and belief about subject matter for the purposes of clarity, we recognize that the distinction is blurry at best” (Wilson & Shulman, 1989, as cited in Borg, 2003, p. 86). The same might be true for attitudes and beliefs, taking the view that beliefs build on knowledge and attitudes.

In this article the authors focus on knowledge, attitudes and skills as three key concepts both in teacher cognition and plurilingual education (see Daryai-Hansen, Layne & Tonello, 2018, and Candelier & Kevran, 2018), but emphasise that the different components “in the mind of the teacher […] are inextricably intertwined” (Verloop et al., 2001, as cited in Borg, 2003, p. 86) and that the strength of the field can be explained by the fact that teacher cognition has been defined as “an inclusive term” (Borg, 2003, p. 86). Teachers’ attitudes, knowledge and skills are constructed based on their experiences. In 1997, Borg distinguished between four interrelated arenas of experiences: the teachers’ own schooling, their professional pre-service and in-service coursework, the teachers’ classroom practice and the contextual factors of their classroom practice (Borg, 1997, as cited in Borg, 2003, p. 82). The field of teacher cognition highlights the clashes teachers experience between the theory-based knowledge they are confronted with in their coursework and the experience-based knowledge they acquire through their ongoing classroom practices (cf. Daryai-Hansen & Henriksen, in press), which are highly influenced by the contextual factors and the teachers’ own schooling. The DELA-NOBA project tried to narrow the gap between theory and practice by adhering to the characteristics that, according to Borg and Sanchez, are particular for successful teacher cognition projects: the project was pedagogical-driven, practical, reflective, exploratory, collaborative on different levels 1034

 Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach

(collaboration between teachers, between researchers and between researchers and teachers) and ongoing for three years (Borg & Sanchez, 2015, p. 186). The project contributed to the teachers’ professional development by developing both their theory-based knowledge and their experience-based knowledge, since the teaching materials were theory-grounded and implemented in the teachers’ respective teaching contexts. This interplay between theory, practice and context in this professional development project can be visualized as follows in Figure 1. All DELA-NOBA teachers self-initiated their participation in the project. This most likely had consequences for the research findings: the teachers almost certainly agreed to take part in the project because they had a positive attitude towards plurilingual education. This general interest probably had an influence on their professional development. Nevertheless, the authors assumed – based on teacher cognition research – that the different contextual factors on the macro-level such as ongoing school reforms, time pressure and curricula demands would have an impact on the respective teachers’ development of attitudes, knowledge and skills. Figure 1. The interplay between theory- and experienced-based knowledge and the micro- and macrolevel in professional development projects

LITERATURE REVIEW Only a few studies have investigated teacher cognition in respect to multilingualism and plurilingual education (for the distinction between plurilingualism and multilingualism see e.g. Council of Europe, 2014). As Haukås (2016) states, “Given the important role of the language teacher in promoting learners’ multilingualism, research focused on teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about multilingualism and multilingual pedagogical approaches is surprisingly scarce” (p. 2). To our knowledge, no teacher cog-

1035

 Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach

nition study has so far been carried out among longer plurilingual education professional development projects investigating teacher cognition in respect to language awareness through a pluralistic approach. Most of the existing studies focus on specific language teachers: e.g. English teachers’ plurilingual awareness (Jakisch, 2014; Otwinowska, 2014), teachers of English as a second language (Ellis, 2004) and teachers of students’ second foreign languages beliefs about multilingualism (Haukås, 2016; Gutierrez Eugenio, 2014; Heyder & Schädlich, 2014). Some studies explore a wider context: De Angelis (2011) integrates teachers of various subjects and focusses on their beliefs concerning immigrant children’s language learning. Griva and Chostelidou (2012) investigated foreign language teachers’ beliefs on multilingualism, Bernaus, Furlong, Jonckheere and Kervran (2011) studied foreign language teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward content-based learning and plurilingualism and Lasagabaster and Huguet (2007) explored teacher trainees’ attitudes towards several languages in European bilingual regions. Many studies focus on a specific national context, e.g. Greece (Griva & Chostelidou, 2012), Poland (Otwinowska, 2014) and Australia (Ellis, 2004). Some studies feature a transnational perspective, e.g. Lasagabaster and Huguet’s (2007) large-scale European investigation and two studies within projects financed by the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML): the Language Educator Awarenessproject (Bernaus, 2005; Bernaus & Moore, 2007) and the Plurilingualism and pluriculturalism in content teaching-project (CONBAT+, Bernaus et al., 2011). The methodological approach in the above studies is primarily quantitative and based on questionnaire studies (Bernaus, 2005, Bernaus & Moore, 2007, Bernaus et al., 2011, De Angelis, 2011; Gutierrez Eugenio, 2014; Heyder & Schädlich, 2014; Lasagabaster & Huguet, 2007). Some of them include qualitative focus group interviews (Haukås, 2016), interviews (Ellis, 2004; Jakisch, 2014) or language biographies (Ellis, 2004). To our knowledge, only Otwinowska (2014) and Griva and Chostelidou (2012) combined a quantitative and a qualitative approach using both questionnaires and focus group interviews. In general, the above-mentioned studies conclude that teachers and students have positive attitudes towards multilingualism, but that plurilingual education is not integrated in teaching due to the teachers’ lack of knowledge. As Haukås (2016) summarizes in her review of four studies: … teachers in all countries have positive beliefs about multilingualism and think that multilingualism should be promoted, but they do not often foster multilingualism (i.e. make use of learners’ previous linguistic knowledge) in their own classrooms. Teachers do not feel competent at doing so (p. 4). Our study investigates the question of how the primary and lower-secondary foreign language teachers’ attitudes, knowledge and skills in respect to plurilingual education develop as they implement and evaluate existing LA teaching materials (including the CONBAT+ materials, see Daryai-Hansen, Layne & Tonello, 2018), and develop their own teaching materials in collaboration with other teachers and researchers within a professional development project. The following questions underpinned our research: What was the teachers’ starting point with regard to language awareness? How did the teachers’ attitudes, knowledge and skills develop based on their experiences during the project, and how can the interplay between the students’ learning and the teachers’ professional development be characterized?

1036

 Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY Thirteen primary and lower-secondary school teachers from schools in seven Nordic and Baltic countries participated in the DELA-NOBA project: one teacher each from Ecole de Vähä-Heikkilä (Finland), Fridaskolan (Sweden), Hraunvalla School (Iceland) and Tartu Veeriku School (Estonia); two teachers from Vilnius Šviesos Elementary School (Lithuania) and three teachers from Malta Secondary School (Latvia) and Randersgades Skole (Denmark). Furthermore, an upper-secondary school in Lithuania participated: Vilnius S. Nėris Gymnasium, represented by one teacher. Our study investigates the thirteen participating teachers from a transnational Nordic-Baltic perspective. A wide range of research methods have been used within teacher cognition research such as action research, questionnaires, lesson recordings, lesson observations, lesson notes, teacher journals, individual/ group interviews, document analysis, tests, and visual artifacts (use of photos and drawings) (Borg & Sanchez, 2015). The DELA-NOBA project combined a quantitative with a qualitative approach. In order to explore the teachers’ knowledge, attitudes and skills in regard to the LA approach, the primary methods of data collection chosen were questionnaires (Ng & Brown, 2012) and semi-structured interviews with teacher focus groups (Gladman & Freeman, 2012). In addition, evaluations of lesson activities were used, but due to budget restrictions no other methods of triangulation such as recordings and lesson observations were integrated. At the onset of the project, participating teachers were given an open-ended pre-questionnaire which asked them to describe their views and teaching practices in their own words. Halfway through the project the teachers were given another open-ended interim questionnaire which asked them to reflect on the objectives of the project and their experiences of working with LA activities thus far. Finally, at the end of the project, the teachers participated in national (in Latvia) and transnational semi-structured focus group interviews where they discussed their language awareness development and that of their pupils and other outcomes of the DELA-NOBA project. The open-ended, qualitative nature of these data collection methods allowed the participants to freely express themselves and elaborate on their attitudes, knowledge and skills, both individually and in cooperation with their colleagues. These methods were chosen because they are considered to provide a richer, deeper understanding of teachers’ views and classroom practices than quantitative research methods (Lichtman, 2006). The questionnaires and focus group interviews were conducted in English. The Latvian teachers were given the opportunity to be interviewed in their national language because they were not comfortable with being interviewed in English. The focus group interviews were conducted by three of the participating researchers in the project and were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data from the interviews were coded and then grouped together according to emerging themes (Silverman, 2006). The findings from the pre-questionnaires and interim questionnaires of the teachers and the final focus group interviews will be discussed in the following sections.

FINDINGS FROM THE PRE-QUESTIONNAIRE In 2013, prior to the first DELA-NOBA workshop in Reykjavik, a questionnaire for the teachers was developed based on previous surveys from the Ja-Ling and the FREPA projects (see Daryai-Hansen, Layne & Tonello, 2018, and Candelier & Kevran, 2018). The pre-questionnaire had 14 items. In this

1037

 Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach

article the focus is on seven items that contribute to an understanding of the teachers’ knowledge, attitudes and skills in respect to the field of study: 1. Language awareness and language biographies: Previous experience Have you been involved in any language awareness or language biography projects before taking part in this one? If yes, please give a short description of the projects 2. Objectives with regard to your language teaching/learning a. Can you describe your objectives with regard to your language teaching/learning: What should your students learn in your opinion? b. In general, in your class, do you establish links between languages, e.g. between the school language(s) and the language you teach, between the language you teach and other languages or between language varieties? If yes, why? If not, why? c. If yes, between which languages? And how? 3. Do you address the following questions in your language classes? (For the questions see Table 1) 4. Describe in a few words your interest in this project. The qualitative content analysis of the items shows that almost none of the teachers had specific knowledge and experiences within the field of language awareness. The teachers described themselves as passionate language teachers and most of them stressed that they implement an integrated didactics approach in their foreign language teaching, establishing links between the foreign language they teach and the language of schooling or other foreign languages taught at school. Their interest in the project was, according to their answers, primarily grounded in their general interest to exchange experience in teaching foreign languages and to collaborate with teachers from other Nordic-Baltic countries. Furthermore, most of the teachers said that they wanted to get access to new, contemporary ideas, strategies, materials, practices and approaches in respect to learning and teaching foreign languages as illustrated by the following remarks: “to gain inspiration and new ideas I can use in my language teaching”, “to find out more about contemporary strategies in learning and teaching foreign languages”, and “to learn about new teaching materials”. Specific aspects that are central to the language awareness project were only mentioned by three teachers. One teacher was specifically interested in the use of language biographies, and another teacher wanted “to find out ways you can better use other languages in teaching e.g. English as a foreign language.” Only one of the 13 participating teachers used the term ‘language awareness’ in the first questionnaire: I find all measures to increase teachers’ and learners’ language awareness of great importance. Students’ awareness of a language will help simplify the learning process. I look forward to spreading good practice on how to help the students get the tools to solve the code, see the connections between different languages and use different strategies in their learning process. All the participating teachers knew English. Furthermore, they expressed having knowledge of 22 languages in total (Table 1).

1038

 Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach

Table 1. Teachers’ linguistic resources in the DELA-NOBA project: 22 languages (without English)

Although the teachers were asked – in adherence with the LA approach – to include any and all knowledge of languages, even if the knowledge consisted of only a few words, only a few teachers did so. Most of them listed languages they knew at a level roughly corresponding to A2 or higher in the Common European Framework of Reference language level descriptions (CEFR). Even though most of the teachers didn’t acknowledge limited language knowledge as a linguistic resource and their answers seemed to suggest that their experiences and knowledge within the field of language awareness were very limited, the teachers’ interest in learning about new approaches in general was promising. One teacher described her interest in the project in the questionnaire as follows: “It seems interesting. I haven’t thought about it, but now it seems interesting.” An additional question in the pre-questionnaire asked teachers whether they dealt with aspects in their teaching that can be considered related to the LA approach. The results show that some of the teachers integrate some of the aspects to a certain extent (Table 2). This is especially the case in the Baltic countries (main differences between the Baltic and Nordic findings are highlighted in bold), where some of these aspects are declared to be part of the curriculum. In summary, the results from the pre-questionnaire suggest that, although the teachers had limited knowledge and experience in working with language awareness, they showed considerable interest in learning about the LA approach and cooperating and learning from language teaching colleagues in other countries.

FINDINGS FROM THE INTERIM SURVEY A second questionnaire was given to the teachers in September 2014 before the second project workshop after they had implemented existing LA activities in their teaching. The teachers were asked to answer three questions about their opinions regarding the project so far: •

Reflect on the overall aims and objectives of the project. Have your opinions about language awareness and language awareness activities changed since the beginning of the project? In what way?

1039

 Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach

• •

Briefly describe your experiences of working with language awareness in schools up until now (e.g. positive experiences, difficulties, unexpected outcomes). Do you have suggestions for developing language awareness activities which are particularly suitable for the Nordic and Baltic countries?

Table 2. Do you address the following questions in your language class? Do you address the following questions in your language class? Nordic teachers (N), n=6 Baltic teachers (B), n=7

Not at all B

To some extent

N

B

Yes, this is part of the curriculum

N

B

N

Which language or languages do the pupils know?

0

0

4

5

3

1

What is a language?

0

0

1

3

6

3

What makes languages different from one another?

0

0

1

3

6

3

Whether dialects are languages? Why or why not?

0

4

3

2

4

0

Do animals have a language, why do you think so?

4

6

2

0

1

0

How do people learn languages?

0

2

7

1

0

3

What is a word?

0

1

1

2

6

3

What would pupils like to investigate if they were language researchers?

2

6

4

0

1

0

The qualitative content analysis of the interim survey shows a clear development in terms of teachers’ attitudes, knowledge and skills. In many of the answers the teachers’ focus is on the pupils and their interaction with language awareness aspects. Based on the description of their pupils’ experiences, the teachers demonstrated their own changing attitudes and growing awareness in respect to the LA approach, as can be seen through these comments: “LA is a normal way of thinking for the students because they are curious about words in other languages”, “I have observed their [pupils’] desire to absorb new words, their willingness to look for linguistic similarities and differences, their ability to share personal linguistic experiences as well as pupils’ interest in language autobiographies”, and “I have been surprised by pupils’ interest in languages and dialects, their comprehension of links between languages and cultures, their activity, willingness to cooperate and ability to share personal experience.” The idea of being surprised about the approach, its impact and the students’ and parents’ interest in the project is reflected in several answers. One teacher wrote that the DELA-NOBA project was “different from all the other projects we did at school”. Another teacher stressed that she “hadn’t expected that the students and parents would have been that interested in the project.” Two teachers explicitly emphasized their own learning process as evidenced by these comments: “I have recognized that the project is useful, relevant, interesting for me and the students” and “I have also changed and I think that is the beginning of my LA.” Furthermore, two teachers pointed out contextual factors that made integration of the LA approach difficult. One teacher found it difficult to find the time to integrate the activities in her class and another teacher emphasized that the materials did not match their national standards.

1040

 Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach

In the second stage of the project, teachers were given the task of creating new LA activities specifically aimed at the Nordic and Baltic contexts. In so doing they reflected on their experiences of using the existing activities and what needed to be considered when developing new activities. The teachers’ suggestions illustrated a growing understanding and development of knowledge and skills, as exemplified by these teachers’ comments: “The activities were either too long or too short”; “The existing language awareness activities [...] grasp only few subjects (mostly geography, biology and foreign languages)”; “more physical activity [is needed]”.

FINDINGS FROM THE FINAL FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWS At the final workshop nearing the end of the DELA-NOBA project, two transnational focus group interviews were conducted face-to-face with the participating teachers (in English). Each group consisted of 4 to 5 teachers from the Nordic and Baltic countries. In addition, a national focus group interview was conducted with the three teachers from Latvia (in Latvian). In each of the interviews the same set of open-ended questions were used to explore the participating teachers’ beliefs at the end of the project regarding the following main topics: • • • • •

The teachers’ language awareness development in terms of knowledge, attitudes and skills Their pupils’ language awareness development in terms of knowledge, attitudes and skills Integration of all students in the school community Outcomes of the Nordic-Baltic cooperation Obstacles and difficulties

The teachers’ responses were coded and analysed using a qualitative analysis approach. The findings from the transnational focus group interviews are presented in the next section, including some findings from the national focus group interview in Latvia.

LA Development of Teachers and Pupils Upon completion of the project the teachers who participated overwhelmingly believed that LA activities had resulted in positive outcomes, both for their pupils and for themselves. They experienced a growing awareness of how working with LA activities impacted on their pupils’ language awareness development, as well as their own. The teachers found it particularly enlightening to see the growing interest of their pupils in languages in general and their enthusiasm for learning about a variety of languages, not just English. The teachers also noticed that the pupils’ self-esteem and confidence increased as a result of working with LA activities. When children successfully deciphered language clues and learned new words, they became more motivated and confident to learn more about new languages. One teacher expressed her pupils’ positive attitudes and increased confidence in this way: The children were happy and proud to use their knowledge in all their languages – they were so proud to see the words … and they were counting the languages, “Oh you see, we know so many languages…”. They felt proud of it.

1041

 Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach

Teachers also noted how pupils’ creative use of language, for example by using words from a variety of languages, motivated and encouraged them to experiment with language use. The teachers also gained an understanding of how LA activities could benefit minority pupils: [LA activities made it possible for children] to share things about their culture and family history as a good thing, as something that makes them special in a good way. Sometimes the kids, I think they try to…they don’t want to be different, so they don’t always share their story, but in this case they did, and that was nice. Equally important, the teachers saw how their pupils became more curious and increased their knowledge about languages and linguistic aspects. Through the LA activities the pupils began to notice similarities and differences between languages and develop their listening, pronunciation and writing skills, as explained by this teacher: Children’s language skills increased. Many skills … listening, reading, writing. They tried to write in different alphabets …, they expanded their vocabulary, they tried to pronounce these words, listen to … YouTube or … online dictionaries, tried to pronounce them themselves. The pupils also developed their analytical and language decoding skills. The teachers were surprised at how even young pupils began to notice language structure and morphological differences and were able to make educated guesses based on them: The youngest ones are 6. And they are really clever though, because they noticed similar words… they were trying to use different strategies to figure out what the words [meant]. Pupils also gained knowledge about language families and connections between languages. Some of them became aware of their own family language backgrounds for the first time: They try to get an insight into their own family history, the history of the languages in their family. Some of them were really surprised, as they have so many languages in the background of their own family. Now this was the chance to stop and analyse a little bit. That was great for some of them. The teachers experienced how pupils became more aware of the variety of languages in their environment. One teacher used LA activities to draw pupils’ attention to issues such as trade and mobility between countries. She asked pupils to think about the languages in their environment and how that may relate to international trade and commerce: They tried to count how many languages [they see], for example in the shops, in the packaging, on the kitchen shelves, so they did this study, how many languages did they recognize around them. Another teacher mentioned that her older students were becoming adept at picking up slang expressions by listening to films. Other teachers said that pupils were also gaining knowledge in other areas such as geography, cultural information, social history, and social-political concepts such as democracy, republic, constitution. 1042

 Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach

All the teachers felt that working with LA activities was a positive and learning experience for themselves as well as their pupils. They expressed positive attitudes towards working with a variety of languages, especially lesser-known ones. Similar to the pupils, they learned new words, began to notice differences and similarities between languages and learned to decode words with limited knowledge of the language, as noted in this teacher’s comment: I learnt that I could do the activities with foreign languages that I didn’t know, even though I didn’t know all the words, and that was okay. ...at the beginning I felt like I had to know all the words, but I accepted that it was okay to find out together and guess and try.

Integration of Language Minority Pupils in the Baltic Countries The teachers were not in consensus with regard to the use of LA activities for integrating pupils of varied backgrounds. Some of the teachers felt there was a lack of interest in migrant languages, perhaps because of little contact with or exposure to them. Teachers from the Baltic countries, in particular, were critical towards the integration of LA activities in their curricula, despite the fact that the results from the prequestionnaire showed that some main aspects of the LA approach were already part of their curriculum. They believed – and this was confirmed in the national focus group interview in Latvia – that there was considerable difference between the Nordic and Baltic contexts with respect to migrant languages and that the LA activities therefore were better related to the Nordic context. They felt that integration of pupils with diverse language backgrounds was not a relevant issue because, currently, immigration is almost non-existent in their countries. According to them, pupils with a Russian background make up the primary minority group in their countries and these pupils have integrated insofar as they speak the local languages. There is very little language diversity in the schools other than that of neighbouring languages, for example Polish. However, the teachers recognized that this situation could change, and they may have to deal with immigrant issues in the future. Although in some cases language minority speakers in the Baltic countries attend separate schools, the teachers stressed that all students in their countries must take the state examinations in the official (local) language, which puts pressure on these minority language students to attend the state schools and learn the local languages. Nevertheless, there is still a tradition of language segregation in the Baltic regions which hinders the move towards linguistic and cultural integration of all students in schools.

Other Outcomes of the Project One of the positive outcomes of the Nordic-Baltic project was – as already mentioned by the teachers in the pre-questionnaire – the opportunity for cooperation between teachers at the school level. The project gave the teachers a chance to borrow ideas and learn from each other, and at the same time become more aware of their own country or school situations. On the other hand, teachers also faced difficulties with implementing the LA activities and integrating them into the curriculum. All the teachers agreed that a lack of time hindered them, making it difficult to work with language awareness to the extent they would have liked. Some of the teachers were unhappy with the lack of interest in LA shown by their fellow teachers. Despite their efforts, it was difficult to involve other teachers in the LA activities in their schools and convince them of their value: 1043

 Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach

We have to talk to other teachers and tell them about language awareness, how important it is, even if you have no children from other countries (in your classroom), it’s good to have this language awareness. Another challenge mentioned by some teachers was that of raising awareness of a variety of languages, not only of ‘high status’ languages, such as English. Other teachers experienced, on the other hand, that pupils were sometimes disappointed when the activities called for working with English because they found other languages such as the Baltic languages, French or Spanish more remote and hence more exciting. However, despite the challenges faced by the teachers in the project, they were committed to the importance of increasing pupils’ language awareness. Also, in the national focus group interview, the Latvian teachers emphasized how the LA activities “really work and raise students’ interest and motivation to learn about other languages/cultures. They help the pupils analyse different cultural processes in the world; they create interest in other cultures”. The majority of the teachers intended to continue using LA activities in their teaching to encourage and motivate pupils to be more aware and creative in their language use and lay the groundwork for becoming better language learners. Some teachers voiced the view that LA activities should be integrated at the macro level in the curriculum, for instance one hour per week, where pupils work with languages across the curriculum and where other languages, for example minority languages, which are normally not part of the curriculum, be integrated.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The DELA-NOBA project investigated the development of teachers’ knowledge, attitudes and skills in respect to plurilingual education, more precisely, in respect to language awareness activities that are based on a pluralistic approach. The project collected data from thirteen primary and lower-secondary foreign language teachers in seven Nordic and Baltic countries at three stages: 1) before they implemented LA activities, 2) after they implemented existing LA activities, 3) and after they developed and implemented new LA activities based on their experiences with the existing teaching materials. Data was collected with written questionnaires and focus group interviews. Borg and Sanchez talk about the “transformative power” (2015, p. 189) of teacher research projects. The DELA-NOBA project results show that the teachers’ attitudes, knowledge and skills in respect to language awareness activities changed and developed as a result of the project. The pre-questionnaire showed that only a few teachers had previous knowledge about the LA approach. At the end of the project, the results of the questionnaires and focus group interviews indicated a positive increase in teachers’ knowledge and skill in using LA activities. During the course of the project the participating teachers learned a great deal about language awareness; how it emerges in different ways and on different levels, and how it can impact both teachers and pupils. Teachers’ attitudes, knowledge and skills seem to have changed as a result of the DELA-NOBA project. Through the project the participating teachers gained a clearer understanding of how pupils’ interest in languages can be tweaked by LA activities and enable them to adopt decoding strategies which will boost their confidence in working with new languages. The teachers’ attitudes towards LA activities, although positive from the onset, were reinforced as a result of the positive outcomes they experienced through the project. A major force in the transformative process was the teachers’ gradual realization of the value of language awareness for themselves as well as their students. The teachers were pleasantly surprised to experience how interested students and their parents were in the approach and to see their students’ development of knowledge, skills and attitudes with 1044

 Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach

regard to language awareness. Finally, through their cooperation with colleagues from other countries, the teachers received new ideas and experiences which positively impacted their attitudes, knowledge and skills and increased their commitment to working with the LA approach in the future. Interestingly, our research results do not show major differences between the teachers in the different countries. Differences between the Baltic and the Nordic teachers only became apparent twice in our data: in the prequestionnaire concerning the topics that are part of the curriculum and in respect to the integration of migrant languages in the LA approach. The variation in context between the Nordic and Baltic countries with regard to immigration and linguistic diversity raises a very important question: Does it makes sense to integrate activities that are based on language awareness through a pluralistic approach in classrooms that are not pluralistic, i.e. where there are no “plurilingual pupils”? Of course, one of the objectives of the approach is to acknowledge minority students’ language resources. But the approach is equally important for working with majority students or students who have no or limited experience with language diversity. The goal of language awareness is to prepare these students to meet the world: to provide them with knowledge about a variety of languages, not only those that are part of the formal curriculum; to train their analytical and linguistic skills and-last but not least– to open their minds and spark their curiosity about other languages and cultures. From this perspective, the LA approach might be even more important for the pupils in the Baltic countries then for those in the Nordic countries where language diversity seems to be more commonplace. Teachers’ attitudes, knowledge and skills are constructed based on their experiences. In 1997, Borg distinguished between four interrelated arenas of experiences: the teachers’ own schooling, their professional pre-service and in-service coursework, the teachers’ classroom practice and the contextual factors of their classroom practice (Borg, 1997, as cited in Borg, 2003, p. 82). The DELA-NOBA project focussed on three of the four arenas: the project offered the teachers new experiences and an opportunity for professional development through the interplay between the classroom practice and theory-based knowledge that was mediated during the project workshops. Furthermore, the contextual factors of the teachers’ experiences were taken into account. However, the project unfortunately did not investigate what Borg calls “the teachers’ apprenticeship of learning” (Borg, 2006), i.e. the teachers’ own schooling experiences with regard to plurilingual education. As part of the project, students’ language autobiographies were collected. It may have also been beneficial to explore the teachers’ language autobiographies. Who are these teachers? Why were they interested in participating in a plurilingual education project? Did they have teachers who facilitated their plurilingualism and developed their experiences with language diversity? Methodologically it has to be noted that there is a risk for bias in the presented data. The data in the project was not anonymized and was collected in a project where teachers and researchers cooperated closely with each other. Teachers may therefore have been less critical of the project and its outcomes. From a professional development perspective, it is noteworthy that some of the teachers stress the lack of interest in LA shown by their fellow teachers and the need for curricular changes. Borg (2015) suggests that continuing professional development […] can achieve positive and sustained impacts on teachers, learners and organisations when: • • • • •

it is seen by teachers to be relevant to their needs and those of their students teachers are centrally involved in decisions about the content and process of CPD collaboration and the sharing of expertise among teachers is fostered CPD is a collective enterprise supported by schools and educational systems more broadly expert internal and/or external support for teachers is available 1045

 Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach

• • • • • • •

CPD is situated in schools and classrooms CPD is recognised as an integral part of teachers’ work inquiry and reflection are valued as central professional learning processes teachers are engaged in the examination and review of their beliefs student learning provides the motivation for professional learning CPD is seen as an ongoing process rather than a periodic event there is strategic leadership within schools. (Borg, 2015, p. 3)

Our project lived up to most of these criteria, however collaboration and the sharing of expertise among teachers was primarily fostered within the project. Nor can the project be characterized as a collective enterprise broadly supported by the participating schools and the Nordic-Baltic educational systems in general. In order to have a greater impact on the participating teachers, schools and the Nordic-Baltic societies more widely, future projects should aim for greater collaboration and sharing of expertise among teachers within schools, involve the heads of the schools and contribute to future development of curricula for plurilingual education.

REFERENCES Bernaus, M. (2005). Questionnaire results. LEA workshop [Powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from http://slideplayer.com/slide/3348878/ http://archive.ecml.at/mtp2/LEA/presentation/Questionnaire%20Results.pps Bernaus, M., Furlong, A., Jonckheere, S., & Kervran, M. (2011). Plurilingualism and pluriculturalism in content-based teaching: A training kit. Council of Europe Publishing. Retrieved from http://www. ecml.at/tabid/277/PublicationID/69/Default.aspx Bernaus, M., & Moore, E. (2007). In-service and pre-service language teachers’ beliefs about plurilingualism and pluri-interculturalism in schools. Retrieved from http://archive.ecml.at/mtp2/lea/results/ Questionnaire/report_quest.pdf Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do. Language Teaching, 36(2), 81–109. doi:10.1017/S0261444803001903 Borg, S. (2006). Teacher cognition and language education: Research and practice. London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. Borg, S. (2015). Teaching for Success. Contemporary perspectives on continuing professional development. London, UK: British Council. Borg, S., & Santiago Sanchez, H. (2015). Teacher research: Looking back and moving forward. In S. Borg & H. Sanchez (Eds.), International perspectives on teacher research (pp. 185–193). London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Candelier, M. (2003). Evlang- l’éveil aux langues à l’école primaire. Bruxelles, Belgium: De Boek Duculot.

1046

 Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach

Candelier, M., Camilleri-Grima, A., Castellotti, V., de Pietro, J., Lörincz, I., & Meissner, F. … Noguerol, A. (2007). CARAP, Cadre de Référence pour les approches plurielles des Langues et des Cultures. Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe. Council of Europe. (2014). Council of Europe language education policy. Retrieved from http://www. coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Division_en.asp Daryai-Hansen, P., Layne, H., & Tonello, E. (2018). Special Issue on Developing Language Awareness Through a Pluralistic Approach: The Case of the Baltic and Nordic Countries. International Journal of Bias, Identity and Diversities in Education, 3, x–xvi. Daryai-Hansen & Henriksen, B. (2017). Lærerkognition som centralt udgangspunkt for lærernes praksisnære professionsudvikling – en ny efteruddannelsesmodel. Studier i læreruddannelse og -profession, (2), 34-61. Day, C. (1999). Developing teachers: The challenges of lifelong learning. London: Falmer Press. De Angelis, G. (2011). Teachers’ beliefs about the role of prior language knowledge in learning and how the influence teaching practices. International Journal of Multilingualism, 8(3), 216–234. doi:10. 1080/14790718.2011.560669 Ellis, E. M. (2004). The invisible multilingual teacher: The contribution of language background to Australian ESL teachers’ professional knowledge and beliefs. International Journal of Multilingualism, 1(2), 90–108. doi:10.1080/14790710408668181 Gladman, A., & Freeman, D. (2012). Focus Groups. In R. Barnard & A. Burns (Eds.), Researching language teacher cognition and practice. International case studies (pp. 68–89). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. doi:10.21832/9781847697912-006 Griva, E., & Chostelidou, D. (2012). Multilingual competence development in the Greek educational system. FL teachers’ beliefs and attitudes. International Journal of Multilingualism, 9(3), 257–271. do i:10.1080/14790718.2011.626857 Gutierrez Eugenio, E. (2014). Assessing L3 teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism: Building, fine-tuning and validating a trilingual questionnaire. WoPaLP, 8. Retrieved from http://langped.elte.hu/WoPaLParticles/W8GutierrezEugenio.pdf Haukås, Å. (2016). Teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism and a multilingual pedagogical approach. International Journal of Multilingualism, 13(1), 1–18. doi:10.1080/14790718.2015.1041960 Henriksen, B. (2014). Lærerens faglige udvikling. In D. Fristrup, H. L. Andersen, S. S. Fernández, & B. Henriksen (Eds.), Fremmedsprog i gymnasiet. Teori, praksis og udsyn (pp. 245–249). Frederiksberg, Sweden: Samfundslitteratur. Heyder, K., & Schädlich, B. (2014). Mehrsprachigkeit und Mehrkulturalität – Eine Umfrage unter Fremdsprachenlehrkräften in Niedersachsen. Zeitschrift für Interkulturellen Fremdsprachenunterricht, 19(1), 183–201. Jakisch, J. (2014). Lehrerperspektiven auf Englischunterricht und Mehrsprachigkeit. Zeitschrift für Interkulturellen Fremdspraachenunterricht, 19(1), 202–215.

1047

 Teachers’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills in Respect to the Language Awareness Approach

Lasagabaster, D., & Huguet, A. (Eds.). (2007). Multilingualism in European bilingual contexts. Language use and attitudes. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Lichtman, M. (2006). Qualitative research in education: A user’s guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Ng, J., & Brown, J. D. (2012). Questionnaires. In R. Barnard & A. Burns (Eds.), Researching language teacher cognition and practice. International case studies (pp. 30–47). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. doi:10.21832/9781847697912-004 Otwinowska, A. (2014). Does multilingualism influence plurilingual awareness of Polish teachers of English? International Journal of Multilingualism, 11(1), 97–119. doi:10.1080/14790718.2013.820730 Silverman, D. (2006). Interpreting qualitative data. London, UK: Sage.

This research was previously published in the International Journal of Bias, Identity and Diversities in Education (IJBIDE), 4(2); pages 28-42, copyright year 2019 by IGI Publishing (an imprint of IGI Global).

1048

1049

Chapter 49

Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds With Social Justice and Inclusive Critical Literacy Practices Shadrack Gabriel Msengi Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, USA

ABSTRACT This case study is an investigation of cultural and linguistic diverse perspectives among parents, children, teachers, and teacher candidates. Survey and interview data were collected and analyzed to determine how these diverse perspectives affect teachers’ application of culturally responsive literacy practices to develop a community of learners. Findings suggest that teachers and teacher candidates knew little about their students’ diverse backgrounds. Their participation in the study and initial discussions among teachers, teacher candidates, children, and parents had a positive effect on experienced and novice teachers’ knowledge of students. This knowledge included the ability to begin planning and managing instruction, as well as determining appropriate assessments and instructional strategies. Findings also suggest ways these teachers could engage students, families, and teachers in social justice practices.

BACKGROUND AD PURPOSE A growing number of students with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds signals the need for ways of building a supportive learning community. A diverse learning community can be valuable in implementing culturally responsive strategies that allow for social justice (Freire, 1970/1993; Gay, 2010; Irvine, 2009). Advocates of social justice propose that students who have a culture and/ or language that DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch049

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

is different from the mainstream should be treated with human dignity, both in and beyond classrooms. They all deserve the same opportunities to question, explore, and negotiate knowledge acquired from their own cultures and that of others (Carlisle, Jackson, & George, 2006). Many studies focus on a deficit model of children who are culturally and linguistically diverse. However, there are limited research studies that have explored practical strategies for supporting children, parents, teachers, and especially teacher candidates, as they collaborate to enable each child to succeed in school (Lai, McNaughton, Amituanai-Toloa, Tana, & Hsiao, 2019; Baecher, Artigliere, Patterson, & Spatzer, 2012). Also, there is still a significant number of teachers who are unprepared to teach culturally and linguistically diverse learners (Hadjioannou, Hutchnson, & Hockman, 2016; Baecher, et. al., 2012). Studies have indicated that those who are considered prepared are likely to perceive minority children as deficient rather than asset (Wynne, 1999; Shapiro & MacDonald, 2017). Right now, many US schools are experiencing a growing number of students whose primary language is not English and whose academic language proficiency in English is limited. It also happens that the curriculum chosen for these students does not reflect these learning needs (Cummins, Mirza, & Stille; 2012; Dobinson & Buchori, 2016). This misalignment between schools’ curriculum and population is also generating a strong purpose and significance to new case study research about building a diverse learning community. For example, a study by Msengi & McAndrews (2016) on determining lexical meaning found that teachers and students had different interpretation of conceptual meanings of words and phrases. This is an indication of the need for additional research not only on areas of language but also culture, supporting the idea that individuals’ culture is communicated through language (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005, 2010) The focus for this qualitative case study was to identify the linguistic and cultural perspectives of parents, children, and teacher candidates in ways that suggest common foundations for developing a diverse learning community. In this study, the researcher was not only looking at how participants applied language as a tool for teaching and learning academic content through linguistic sub areas such as phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics (Davies & Elder, 2004) but also was concerned with participants’ cultural perspectives during interactions. Cultural perspectives are not only ways of thinking about competence in communication, understanding, and appreciation of other cultures, but also how they function in a variety of settings (Marek, 2019; Bucholtz & Hall, 2005, 2010). Cultural linguistic competence is the ability to identify commonalties across culture and language for the purpose of functioning effectively in a variety of settings (Carlisle, Jackson, & George, 2006). Building a community of learners is particularly significant for schools with students from culturally and linguistically diverse. In a learning community, individuals use language in their daily lives to express and receive information, to create and interpret meanings, and to establish and maintain social and interpersonal relationships (Kramsch, 1994, Msengi & McAndrews, 2016). It is not enough for language learners to just know the structure of the language and vocabulary, but also be able to use the target language as a tool to create and represent meaning in a social setting (Carlisle, et. al., 2006) as they work together. Child development studies argue that culture shapes families’ expectations of what children can and should know and do at various ages (Parlakian & Sanchez, 2006). That way family beliefs become part of children’s ways and means of communication, affecting their skills, motivation, and excitement about language (Parlakian & Sanchez, 2006; Maschinot, 2008). Similarly, in classrooms, students import basic patterns from their families to their assigned learning communities (Diaz-Rico, 2014). In these cases, teachers should recognize these familial patterns as they teach cognitive academic

1050

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

language proficiency to all students (Ladson-Billings, 1994, Lee, 2007). Teachers can help students use cognates in their native language to understand English words. For instance, the Spanish word manos that denotes “hands” carries a connotative meaning for the English word manipulate. The method of engaging diverse students in a learning community relies heavily on guided oral discourse, where the teacher must respond to students’ ideas as they emerge, as well as guide individual learners and the class along productive paths of inquiry (Slotta & Najafi, 2010). A positive learning community supports diverse students’ capabilities as participants in activities that respect diverse zones of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978). Such a community is characterized by feelings of safety among participants who willingly ask questions and take risks in solving problems. It includes respect for diverse ideas, skills, experiences, and responsibility for their own and others’ learning. No community of learners is free of differences. However, classrooms can become places where students can be themselves and where their ways of knowing, thinking, and expressing themselves are valued. The language used in these communities is expected to reflect students’ cultural identities such as social class, religion, gender, and family background (Wlodkowski & Ginsberg, 1995). Willis (2000) identified and discussed five knowledge bases for teachers who successfully implement culturally responsive instruction. These knowledge bases include self-knowledge, cultural knowledge, linguistic knowledge, culturally informed teaching knowledge, knowledge of multicultural materials, literacy methods, and homeschool relationships which may ultimately and likely lead to social justice practices for all students. In a social justice classroom, teachers consciously and reflexively blend content and processes to enhance equity across multiple social identity groups, foster critical perspectives, and promote social action (Bell, 1997; Cochran-Smith, 2004; Freire, 1970/1993;Weissglass, 2004). Teachers who apply social justice principles in their classrooms treat all students with fairness, respect, dignity, and generosity (Carlisle, Jackson, & George, 2006). Such teachers are aware and mindful that social justice is not just being nice to students or about giving them a pat on the back. Instead, they challenge, confront, and disrupt misconception based on race, social class, gender, and other social and human differences by drawing upon the talents of all students. They also provide all students with the resources necessary to fulfill personal and academic potentials that generates cultural capital for negotiating the world through critical thinking (Willis, 2000).

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK This case study borrows specific notions from theories of critical literacy, social justice, funds of knowledge, sociocultural linguistic, culturally relevant and responsive teaching. Teachers apply these notions interchangeably as lenses when teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students. Critical literacy theory. This theory has become increasingly popular in schools and recognizes literacy as a social, cultural, and political process (Reidel & Draper, 2011; Riley, 2015). Critical literacy approaches increase students’ opportunities to learn, think and respond to instances of injustice, expand identities, and participate in communities in service of social change (Riley, 2015). The teaching of literacy is viewed as a social process that can either foster or inhibit the empowerment of students based on language and culture (Bloome & Talwalker, 1997). The goal for teaching literacy is to prepare teachers with the ability to enhance critical perspectives in and between students as well allow teachers to foster robust literacy skills that address social justice inside and outside classrooms.

1051

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

Social justice theory. Social justice theory advocates that all students should be treated with human dignity, that all are worthy of the same educational opportunities, and that the contract they enter into with schools must honor their sociocultural advantages and disadvantages (Lopez, 2019). It respects students questioning, exploring, and negotiating knowledge acquired from their own cultures and that of others. Teachers can create a non-threatening classroom environment from which students can freely engage and explore ideas and assertively resist daily challenges during class discussion and beyond (Todres, 2018). Funds of Knowledge. Funds of knowledge refer to the accumulated and culturally developed knowledge and skills that are essential for family existence and social practices (Lin, 2006; Moll, Amanti, Neff & Gonzalez, 1992). The concept of “funds of knowledge” is based on a simple premise that individuals are competent and have knowledge, and their life experiences have given them that knowledge. Instruction must be linked to students’ lives, and that details of effective pedagogy should be linked to local histories and community contexts (Gonzales, Moll & Amanti, 2005). Historically, literacies valued in school concentrated on those aligned with the official knowledge accepted by the mainstream dominant culture, which ignored students’ out-of-school funds of knowledge (Lazer, Edwards & McMillon, 2012; Moje, Ciechanowski, Kramer, Ellis, Carrill & Collazo, 2004). Sociocultural linguistic theory. This theory focuses on the historical factors in people’s experiences. The level of cultural influences affects individual way of thinking about culture. The sociolinguistic perspective focuses more on the language aspect of interaction and communication (Tracy & Morrow, 2017). Language plays a pivotal role in shaping and transforming people’s identity in sociocultural contexts (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005, 2010). It determines who they are, the reasons for their being in relation to those around them. Culturally Relevant and Responsive Teaching. Culturally relevant and responsive teaching is a pedagogy grounded in teachers’ displaying cultural competence with skill in teaching in a cross-cultural or multicultural setting (Gay, 2010; Diller & Moule, 2005; Kim & Hinchey, 2013). It refers to the attributes and extent of this match, such as whether methods and materials are “responsive to the language, literacies, and cultural practices of students across categories of difference (Paris, 2012; Curwin & Lynda, 2003). Teachers enable each student to relate course content to his or her cultural context (Scherff & Spector 2011). Gay (2010) has identified characteristics of culturally relevant teaching as validating and affirming, comprehensive, multidimensional, liberating, empowering and transformative. The goal here is to infuse culturally relevant instruction that includes appropriate selection of materials, strategies, assessment, and language use.

STUDY RATIONALE This current case study identified the perspectives of parents, children, and teacher candidates from diverse backgrounds to guide the design and implementation of instruction that is culturally and linguistically responsive. The understanding and infusing the theoretical frameworks of social justice, funds of knowledge, and culturally relevant and responsive teaching would allow teacher candidates to target relevant issues related to each child’s identity, needs, and voice. Additionally, children would be able to find avenues to make deep connections to their lives and participate in collaborative dialogue and critique as they engage in their daily lives. Such knowledge could further provide useful implications for teacher candidates about how to support English language learners in classrooms as they develop their own identities to cope with various obstacles that were likely to impede teaching and learning. A 1052

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

few studies have focused on diverse cultural and linguistic perspectives of parents, children, and teacher candidates. This research adds the aspect of language and culture and extends the previous study Msengi & McAndrews (2016) which was about teacher, parents, and children’s shared understanding of conceptual linguistic items (words, phrase, etc.) during instructions. This study addressed two research questions: 1) What were the cultural and linguistic perspectives of, parents, children, and teacher candidates during instruction? 2) How could teacher candidates build a community of learners by implementing effective cultural and linguistic practices in classrooms?

RESEARCH DESIGN Data collection and analysis followed case study methodology (Yin, 2002) This case study has integrated the data in a holistic and unified manner by utilizing multiple sources of data collection including observations, interviews, surveys, and field notes in naturalistic settings as suggested by Yin (2002). Yin suggests six common sources of evidence for case studies: documentation, archival records, interviews, survey, direct observation, participant observation and physical artifacts to aid triangulation. Following Yin’s common data collection tools, this study utilizes surveys, interviews, field notes, teacher candidates lesson reflections, and debriefing. The purpose is to understand various conditions about classroom instructions for diverse learners (Creswell, 2018) versa vis building a theory. That way teacher education programs can gain insights on ways to understanding cultural and linguistic assets of students to inform instruction. Context. This case study was situated at one Midwest university and its surrounding public and private middle and high schools in the US. The study focused on one cohort of teacher candidates who were enrolled in a disciplinary literacy course in the fall of 2018. This was their final course before they were, again, enrolled in the mandatory field practicum. While taking the disciplinary literacy course the teacher candidates spent time observing and teaching at least three times during a one-hour teaching event. Then in the spring of 2019, they were required to complete a five-week teaching field experiences. It was during that time when each candidate was also required to document their teaching and student learning and successfully pass the mid and final evaluation known as the Candidate Preservice Assessment of Student Teaching (CPAST) for pedagogy and disposition. Each candidate was paired with an experienced, influential cooperating teacher who oversaw and mentored them (Farrell, 2008). This cooperating teacher was also responsible for introducing them to parents, with whom teacher candidates were expected to communicate at least twice per semester. Participants. Participants for this study were a cohort of 22 which included 7 parents, 7 children (grades 6-12), 7 corresponding teacher candidates, and one university faculty. The university faculty was also a supervisor. Toward the end of the fall 2018 semester, the researcher contacted the cooperating teachers and informed them that preservice teachers had consented to participate in the study. Cooperating teachers were also asked to assist in identifying at least two English language learners and their corresponding parents. Then parents who were contacted and requested to participate in the study agreed and signed the consent and assent forms. While all the teacher candidates were from the US; the faculty, children and parents were originally from Mexico, Africa, and Middle East. Parents were fluent in languages such as Spanish, Swahili, and Arabic. The teacher candidates were selected from the disciplinary literacy class with a total of 25 middle and high school preservice teachers. The selected teacher candidates were assigned to teach middle or high school class ranging between 25 and 30 in terms of class size. They were 1053

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

each supported by a cooperating teacher and a university supervisor who were involved in providing evaluation feedback on lesson drafts, observation of teaching, and dispositions for professional growth. These evaluations took place in alignment with the (CPAST). The university supervisor made at least three site visits. The first visit provided the opportunity for introductions; the second visit was a three way conference where the university supervisor met with each the teacher candidate and, cooperating teacher met to discuss about the teacher candidate’ s progress and provide feedback on their teaching performance. A similar conference was conducted during the third visit which was also considered as the candidates’ final exam. During these visits, the researcher, who was also a supervisor and mentor spent time observing, interviewing, and administering surveys. The survey was conducted towards the end of the course. The names listed in the chart below are pseudonyms. Table 1. Study Participants Demographics. Child

Grade

Parent

Teacher Candidate

1.

Igbo

6

Yondasa

Mr. Martin

2.

Sarah

10

Biante

Ms. Lawson

3.

Nahumu

7

Malita

Ms. Gordon

4.

Jerrica

8

Siima

Ms. Swales

5.

Navaro

6

Rodriguez

Mr. Zelle

6.

Gilead

9

Masato

Ms. Anderson

7.

Asman

11

Moodi

Ms. Kellerman

DATA COLLECTION Data collection were primarily qualitative in nature, reflecting the desire to understand the cultural and linguistic perspectives of parents, their children, and the teacher candidates. The data were collected between January and April of 2019 as indicated on Table 2 below: Table 2. CPAST Schedule February 18, 2019 Introduction and first observation

March 25, 2019 (Midterm)

April 22, 2019 (Final)

Second observation, feedback, and debriefing during three-way conference

Third and final observation, feedback, and debriefing during the three-ways conference. Survey distributed via e-mail and return stamped envelopes

Surveys: Out of the twenty survey questions 10 of those asked about the triad’s cultural perspectives and the other 10 sought information about linguistic perspectives. The survey items were based on a six-point Likert type scale ranging from Very Frequently to Never (6=Very Frequently, 5= Frequently, 4=Occasionally, 3=Rarely, 2= Very Rarely, 1= Never). Each category of the survey had an open comment option. A sample item from the Mastery subscale of linguistic perspectives were such as “My teacher finds ways to communicate with me in my native language (for Children)” or “My child’s teacher finds

1054

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

ways to communicate with my child in his/her native language (for parents)” Or “I find ways to communicate with my student’s family in their native language (for Teacher Candidates)” Other representative survey questions on the subscales asked whether the teacher made effort to encourage the child to speak, read, and write on his or her native language, find way to communicate with the child’s family, and felt comfortable sharing the child’s culture in class. Cultural perspectives items had statements such as “My teacher values my culture (for Children)’, or My child’s teacher values/includes my child’s culture (for Parents)” or “I value my student and his or her culture (for Teacher Candidates)”. Other statements were about whether the teacher connected the materials to the child’s culture, made effort to understand the parent’s background, incorporated materials from the child’s culture, discussed about bias, and always strived to know the child’s interest. Interviews: The interview question were an extension of the survey question intended to add more details to the survey questions. Although parents were also asked to fill out a survey, their responses did not yield useful information, especially in relation to classroom teaching and learning. Their responses were based on their experience from teacher- parent meetings/ orientations, and phone calls either from home or school as initiated by either a teacher or a parent. Parents were interviewed by either phone or in person. The interviews with parents focused on the areas such as communication between themselves and the teachers, interaction during instruction, and knowledge about how their culture was shared during these interactions. Field Notes: At different times, especially during class observation, the researchers spent time taking field notes using three columns. During the process, the researcher jotted down the nature of interaction between each of the teacher candidates with children as manifested through the activities/strategies used to learn about, their strengths and areas that needed improvement as guided by the research question(s). Although all children in each selected class were observed, the focus was to observe the one student selected for the study. Teacher Candidates Lesson Reflections: The teacher candidates’ reflections were intended to provide additional information to support the survey data. Teacher candidates were asked to reflect on their teaching after every class session, especially in the areas they believed they did well and areas that needed improvement or support. Debriefing: During debriefing the researcher, who was also a supervisor, engaged teacher candidates in informal conversations to discuss about their progress. Again, teacher candidates were asked about the areas that they felt they performed well and the areas that they would have done differently during instruction, interactions with cooperating teachers and parents.

DATA ANALYSIS After the survey data collection, a simple calculation such as means of each of the 10-survey response from each category of cultural and linguistic perspectives was performed for each subgroup (i.e., parent, child, and teacher candidate). Simple bar charts were generated to identify the trends and exceptions. Data from interviews, observation, reflections, and debriefing were also rendered vital for understanding the linguistic and cultural issues as informed by each study participant. The contents of each data set collected followed the content analysis tools, paying attention to the contextual meaning as informed by each of the data collection tool (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005; Kondratch, Wellman & Amundson, 2002). This data analysis approach was used as the basis for identifying patterns to understanding the triads 1055

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

perspectives, while believing that looking at such specific pieces of data would help form general conclusion as driven by cultural and linguistic variables. Guided by the two research questions, the results section, which is divided into three sections, summarizes, and compares the data on cultural and linguistic perspective as shared by each of the seven parents, teacher candidates. Section one and two presents responses and interpretation of cultural and linguistic perspectives. Section three, which is centered on research question two, discusses and suggests ways to build communities of learners by implementing effective cultural and linguistic practices while improving and strengthening collaboration among the three constituents.

Results Research Question 1: What are the cultural and linguistic perspectives of families and children, and teacher candidates during instruction? To reiterate, teacher candidates and the children responded to the survey questions that explored their cultural and linguistic perspectives when interacting during instruction, using 10 categories of statements on cultural perspectives (See Figure 1, and 3) and the other 10 categories on linguistic categories (figure 2, 4). Children Cultural Perspectives: Based on the finding, children responses indicated the mean scores between 1.5 and 3.4 on the Likert of 1 (Never) as lowest and 6 (Frequently) as highest. Areas of strength were on statements such as teacher candidates valued children’s culture and incorporated cultural materials during instruction. Areas that received lower rating indicated that teacher candidates rarely connected the children culture to real life situations and how affected their current life, knew little about children interest and background (nationality) and rarely discussed issues about cultural bias. Pertaining to children perspectives on culture, it was not clear whether they were referring to American culture or own cultures from their countries of origin. Interestingly, regarding culture, for Ashman, a grade 11 student and Igbo grade 6 thought “own culture” meant Black Lives Matter or Martin Luther King Holiday. Figure 1. Children

1056

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

Children’s Linguistic Perspective: Children’s responses on linguistic perspectives ratings indicated the mean score between 1.4 and 5 on the Likert of 1 (Never) as lowest and 6 (Frequently) as highest. The strength was on responses such as the child understood the teacher during instruction, efficiently reads and writes, comfortably asks questions, and shared ideas. The weak areas with lower rating were: the teacher candidates were not aware of the child’s home language, never had the desire to learn the language, rarely encouraged the child to use the home language, very rarely connected to children’s family, and never provided opportunity to share the child’s home culture. Other areas were scored as weak indicated that the teacher candidates never used language to modify lessons nor did they provide constructive feedback. It should be noted that some children interviews revealed that teachers did not use or attempt to learn the child’s language because they were not from the children’s countries of origin. One of the children (Asman) also thought it would be impossible to talk about culture in science subjects such math, biology, physics, or chemistry. When children were asked about their beliefs, one of them, Sarah, responded, “my belief is Christianity, born and raised here, however, I know that I am from Africa” another child, Nahum responded “my culture is African and American influence”. Regarding holidays that were celebrated, one of the children (Jerrica) said, “we celebrate normal American holidays”. Asman also, shared about using language, “my belief is to prioritize school over work at this age and time. I do not bother thinking about what language I am using. Most children who responded to open-ended survey questions referenced Martin Luther King, Jr. and Black Lives Matter in their responses about culture, contrary to how parents viewed their homeland culture. Figure 2. Children

Teacher Candidates Cultural Perspectives: Teacher candidates’ responses on their cultural perspectives (self-rating) indicated mean scores between 2.5 and 3.5 on the Likert scale of 1 (Never) as lowest and 6 (Frequently) as highest. The strength on children responses indicated the teacher candidates discussed issues regarding bias, connected to child’s culture, knew the family background, valued the child’s culture, knew the children’s interest, and discussed global events. The weak areas that received lower rating on were “includes global event on lesson” which was rated as “Very Rarely”.

1057

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

Figure 3. Teacher Candidates

Teacher Candidates Linguistic Perspective: Children’s responses on linguistic perspectives indicated the mean score between 1.4 and 4.5 on the Likert of 1 (Never) as lowest and 6 (Frequently) as highest. The strength on the teacher candidates’ responses indicated the they modified lessons based on the child’s needs, provided constructive feedback, made comfortable for the child to ask questions, shared ideas and own culture, as well, the child efficiently wrote and read. The weak areas that received lower rating on the Likert Scale were knowing or learning the child’s language, encouraging the child to use home language, and connecting to the child’s parent. Figure 4. Teacher Candidates

1058

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

Teacher Candidate Interviews: Perspectives from the teacher candidates suggested that some of them thought children being from other countries automatically spoke different languages while others never noticed any differences between the native speakers and the English Language Learners (ELL). By not noticing any sign of being an ELL, they assumed they were meeting the needs of each student. When asked whether they could apply any specific strategies learned in their college class, one teacher candidate, Ms. Lawson said, “my cooperating teacher has neither shared any teaching strategy for ELLs or informed me that Sarah was from another country and that she was an English language learner. In addition, Ms. Lawson reported that her cooperating teacher never arranged a meeting with Sarah’s parents. It was evident that Ms. Lawson mostly relied on her cooperating teacher for directions. When asked about children’s identities based on each child’s countries of origin and culture, another teacher candidate, Ms. Anderson responded, “it is difficult to know about every culture in the classroom. Although some of these children do not speak, when they write they use big vocabulary”. Mrs. Anderson also said, “I think all children are the same both culturally and linguistically because they are all fluent in English with no accent.” Parent interviews on cultural and linguistic perspectives: As mentioned earlier, parent survey responses did not yield useful data since they did not have direct classroom experiences as children and the teacher candidates. Instead, they were interviewed on cultural and linguistic issues experienced during teacher parent meetings, orientations, and phone calls either home or schools. During interviews, they were asked about whether the teacher was interested in learning about the child’s culture and linguistic background. Based on this question, it was evident that the teacher candidates never showed interest in the child’s culture or language. As Malita put it: “my child, whom I believe speaks fluent English, was pulled out for language services, which I feel the service did not support his learning. It made my child feel inferior and not valued compared to peers. When asked about the kind of support the child received for using his culture as a strengths, Malita said, “Although I had regular communication about grades and meetings with Ms. Gordon, I feel Nahum’s, cultural or linguistic background were neglected.” Another parent, Rodriguez, reported that his child, Navarro, was used as a translator to assist other children whom they shared the same language, still Navarro had never heard Ms. Zelle acknowledging his language during instruction. Responses from interviews and survey demonstrated that Ms. Zelle rarely connected the materials to neither Mexican nor Arabic or African culture during regular instructions. As Rodriguez recalled “hearing that Navarro was considered as confusing when participating in a class activity, I thought about taking him to another school where I felt teachers would be more respectful and supportive”. Rodriguez continued, “After taking Navarro to a different school, now I feel she is more accepted despite the lack of additional social and academic services such as language therapy by a therapist”. Siima (parent) was asked about what the teacher thought about Jerrica (daughter) ability and work ethics, she noted that Ms. Swales (teacher) compared Jerrica being quite as having a bad attitude, someone who did not like to respond, or ask questions and uncooperative in a group setting. Although quiet and uncooperative, Jerrica was also perceived as using big vocabulary when writing and wrote complex sentences. Observational Data: The observation data provided additional information on how teacher candidates interacted with children who were selected for the study. For instance, in Ms. Anderson’s science class, she clearly introduced the lesson topic, goals, and objectives, which was learning about naming parts of human body. She asked Gilead (student) to construct a simple question using body parts vocabulary. When Gilead was unable to construct a simple sentence, she ignored him and moved to the next student. Also, in Ms. Gordon’s math class Nahum was asked to define the word “polynomial”. When 1059

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

Nahum gave a wrong response to the question Ms. Gordon simply said “no” and moved on, instead of prompting Nahum with additional questions or praising Nahum for attempting to respond. In Ms. Kellerman’s history class, Asman was asked to work with a partner to construct a timeline for historical events, however, Ms. Kellerman kept teaching and never followed up. Instead Asman and his peer were left working individually. Debriefing and lesson reflections: Debriefing sessions provided teacher candidates with opportunities to reflect on their instruction. For instance, Ms. Swales, Jerrica’s teacher shared, “the debriefing session afforded me the opportunity to evaluate my teaching. I was able to think about ways to differentiate my instruction and make it meaningful and relevant to all learners as well as enable them to interact with peers”. Also Mr. Martin, Igbo’s teacher shared, “I have learned to value my ELLs. Now, I realize that I should pay more attention to where the students come from and what they know. They should not be deemed as failures when they do not respond to questions immediately. For instance, Igbo was always quiet, I now realize that he is just receptive vs, expressive. I also understand that I should think more what Igbo can do to improve where he needs the most as I crate a safe learning environment.” The professor reminded teacher candidates about the importance of learning how to transfer knowledge and apply instructional strategies learned from their college courses. It may happen that the students did not want to share ideas orally for unknown reasons could write or visually represent ideas. Regarding interacting with parents, teacher candidates (Mr. Martin) shared that they rarely could contact parents’ as they relied more on their cooperating teachers. Question 2: How could teacher candidate’s build a learning community by implements effective cultural and linguistic practices in classrooms? A strong community of learners is where consensus is reached in every important decision made during teaching and learning. The community attempts to break down cultural, ethnic, and racial barriers through a focus on beliefs that all students, parents, and teacher candidates share, especially when there is lack of shared understanding. The debriefing sessions brought dialogues about what should be done to implement effective practices for building a diverse learning community. The dialogue themes aligned with what was observed, interviews, and survey responses. For example, surveys and interviews indicated that teacher candidates knew that children in their classes were different. It was intentional that they were not specific in identifying cultural and linguistic issues faced by children and their corresponding parents. It also seemed that the teacher candidates were not mindful of the children’s culture and language experiences during lesson planning. This was evident through children’s rating on teachers’ knowledge about culture especially when they were asked whether they encouraged children to share their culture. Also, during a three-way conference, Mr. Zelle compared Navarro’s being quiet as having a bad attitude or Navarro’s not responding to questions was thought to be a sign of being uncooperative when working with his peers in groups. Consequently, during the debriefing, teacher candidates such as Mr. Zelle was eager to find how she could help Navarro to be more successful when he is interacting with peers. Evidently, teachers may not know all the cultures but must remember that cultural differences have enormous impact on classrooms, and mentors/supervisors must begin to help teacher candidates begin to acknowledge and resist from the unfortunate stereotypes of blaming the children (Kim and Hinchey, 2013). It was evident from Mr. Zelle that the experience acquired from during the practicum was beneficial to his professional growth. As he expressed,

1060

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

I was eager to get in touch with parents, but I always felt I did not have a sense of advocacy. Nevertheless, I now understand the importance of asking the how to go about questions. Indeed, when teaching, knowing each child’s background knowledge is particularly important for making connection to new knowledge. I will now continue with this discovery journey to employ and combine what my children are learning at school with what I am learning, along with what they have learned and know from their homes and communities Again, based on the data, it is important for teacher candidates to be equipped with more cultural and linguistic strategies to inform instruction. As they dialogue and learn from each other, they should also think and respond to instances of injustice, expand identities, and participate in communities and service of social change as proposed within the critical literacy and social justice theories (Riley, 2015; Lazer, Edwards & McMillon, 2012; Stepanek, 2000). For instance, during the debriefing, the faculty shared practical ideas for building a learning community by urging teacher candidates to acknowledge each child’s strengths and needs, create a class atmosphere that empowers every students through peers or group activities, understand children cultural identities or funds of knowledge as represented by each child or shared by the child’s parents. In a learning community, children should be encouraged to apply the six literacy modalities of expressive (reading, writing, visually representing) and receptive (listening, reading, and viewing) to communicate information (Msengi & McAndrews, 2016). The literacy modalities, when aligned with literacy strategies, would provide opportunities for communication based on each member’s strengths and needs. For example, strategies Frayer Model, Using Realia, Demonstration, Role Play, Venn Diagram, Group Discussion, Think Pair Share can allow participants, especially in a classroom setting, using each of these literacy modalities as they learn and share knowledge. When discussing these approaches critical to teaching and learning, Ms. Kellerman revealed, Now I realize that students learn in different ways, and as a teacher I need to recognize and reflect that. By teaching and using multiple strategies I will be able to allow students, as individual or in group to process information through multiple modalities. For instance, the Think-Pair-Share strategy manages to combine the three modalities, because students are writing, listening, and sharing. By speaking and using their own languages to make sense of the learning, students are in incorporating new information into prior knowledge, whether a student is an ELL or native speaker. This debriefing session provided multiple avenues for teacher candidates to rethink and reevaluate their experiences during practicum, as they began to realize the importance of a shared understanding not only among themselves, but also through collaboration with children and parents for richer knowledge.

DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION, AND IMPLICATION It has been noted that there is a lack of shared understanding among the triads in certain variables such as child’s identity, language, interest and cultural values and background that may have important implications for in service teacher programs. For instance, when teacher candidates thought they valued children’s languages and culture, neither children nor parents provided evidence for the claim. Again, when teacher candidates thought some of the children were deficient, children and their corresponding parents believed that children had potentials and could be resourceful to peers. Also, the data indicated that some children believed they were knowledgeable about the mainstream culture and felt they were a part of it already. As Kim and Hinchey (2013) indicated, when students think they are normal, they 1061

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

are identifying themselves as member of the community—the culture in which they are so completely immersed—but are not aware of this identification. Too often teachers neglect the potentials that students and their families have that can contribute to instructions and use these potentials as sources of knowledge gained from home and the wider communities (Lin, 2006; Soltero-González & Reyes, 2012). When students are unaware that their teachers have low expectation of their abilities, this mismatch can be devastating to school achievement. This research raised concern that children may not understand that teachers view them as deficient. Without being aware of their own biases, a teacher is likely to view diverse children in the lenses of low expectations (Wynne, 1999). Teacher candidate need to be equipped with strategies to understand children’s culture and their histories as represented by their parents. Also, they must be prepared on how to provide instruction that align with children expectations and needs. The studies on teachers’ low expectations have been well documented (Msengi, 2007) and it is surprising that, in teacher education programs, this issue is not well addressed. Teacher candidates must also seek the opportunities to interact with parents as prospects for their professional growth and acknowledge that diverse students are bright and potentials. As this study demonstrates, parents had concerns that they never shared their culture with teachers or teacher candidates. It is therefore important that teacher education program put emphasis on instructional practices that meet the need of culturally and linguistically diverse children such as ways to work directly with culturally diverse parents and the community at large. It is evident that ELL students spend more time with peers than parents all year round, but also it would be a missed opportunity if parents do not communicate their expectations to their children (Parson & Shim, 2019). While some children never spoke more than one language, some of the parents indicated that they spoke more than five languages. Even though the children never spoke their parents’ languages, they comprehended and may have had experiences coupled with teacher expectations that were indirectly impacted by their home culture and teacher expectation (Good & Nichols, 2001). Again, children may not be aware how the home culture impacted their interactions and perception about how the teacher candidates and their parents viewed them. The implication here is that teachers and students be involved in critical discussion be encouraged to draw examples from their home and community experiences. A successful community of learners is the one that engages a classroom as a learning community through discourse, where teachers must respond to student ideas as they guide them to be productive member of the learning community (Slotta & Najafi, 2010). A positive learning community supports diverse learner and engages students based on their level of expertise and comfort. Members feel safe and willingly ask questions and can make mistakes without being considered deficient. When teachers take on a role as learner, they can come to know their students and their families in new ways based on their needs, interests, and personal motivations (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005), thereby creating culturally responsive and more meaningful opportunities for student’s learning (Riley, 2015; Jewitt, 2008; Moje, et. al., 2004). As with any study of this type, there are limitations of this study and the conclusion can be considered tentative and cannot be due to limited participants (teacher candidates, children, parents). The data collected were mainly from a few numbers of teacher candidates. Also, it cannot be determined whether parents and children responses were referring to teacher candidates or their cooperating teachers. For instance, during the interview, teacher candidates were addressed as teachers. It is likely that children may not have specified which teacher they were referring to, nor did the researcher make these distinctions in the survey. In future it would be interesting to add the cooperating teachers as participants in the study to find if their responses would be different or like those of the teacher candidates. Despite 1062

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

the limitations, these findings are beneficial to teachers, teacher educators, and researchers as they add to the literature on creating culturally and linguistically inclusive classroom. According to Garcia, Johnson, and Seltzer (2016), teachers need to build on, legitimize, and extend the rich linguistic and cultural resources that learners bring to the classroom, as well encourage reflective practices and critical conversation about language, race, identity and power in the classroom. Diverse students and their families should be considered as asset to the classroom rather than as a deficit (Pugach, 2008). Inservice programs, should provide teacher candidates with objectives that focus on ways to work with parents while completing their field placements. Data driven instruction and consistent teacher parent interaction would benefit the triads. Inservice teacher programs need to equip teacher candidates with skills to teach, engage, identify cultural relevant materials, and recognize that three ways communication is effective and can have a positive impact in building stronger learning communities that supports, value and respects each other’s’ cultural and linguistic knowledge (Kim & Hinchey, 2013; Gay, 2002, 2010; Irvine, 2002; Beckett, 2011) The conclusion extends previous work and creates an enhanced awareness by providing insights on the ways to implement practices that can allow the triads to be part of the learning community. This case study has averted from blaming neither of the study participants due to discrepancies in their responses. However, it underscores that, the in-service programs should focus more on equipping teacher candidates to become culturally responsive practitioners, with skills necessary to build learning communities that are culturally and linguistically diverse. Then each member of this community will simultaneously be part of the discourse. Such communally constructed discourses influence not only the group dynamic but also the individual identities of group members (Bakhtin, 1998). That way they can build a community of learners that considers every member as an asset rather than a deficit (Heath, 2012; Shapiro & MacDonald, 2017). Indeed, there must be a shift amongst mainstream teachers in every disciplinary content, change teachers’ ways of thinking, reflect on self and others such as children and parents, and be more aware with the recognition that students are or may inevitably be culturally and linguistically diverse. This qualitative case study moves one step further, that identifying teacher candidates, parents and children cultural and linguistic perspectives is crucial in building a learning community. Although findings in this case study is based on a small number of participants, it gives light on what parents, children, and teacher candidates on the field should do either during instructions or when interacting with parents. Addressing cultural and linguistic issues during in-service programs would provide practical tool to help empower and encourage collaboration among the players, especially teacher candidates as they enter their teaching professions and strive to build a successful community of learners with social justice.

REFERENCES Baecher, L., Artigliere, M., Patterson, D. K., & Spatzer, A. (2012). Differentiated instruction for English language learners as “variations on a theme”: Teachers can differentiate instruction to support English language learners. Middle School Journal, 43(3), 14–21. doi:10.1080/00940771.2012.11461807 Bakhtin, M. K. D. (1998). The Dialogic Imagination. University of Texas Press. Bell, K. (2011). Culturally relevant teaching and the concept of education. Retrieved on November, 26, 2019 at https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ960327.pdf

1063

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

Bell, L. A. (1997). Theoretical foundations for social justice education. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell, & P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook (pp. 3–15). Routledge. Bloome, D., & Talwalker, S. (1997). Critical discourse analysis and the study of reading and writing. Reading Research Quarterly, 32(1), 104–112. doi:10.1598/RRQ.32.1.7 Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (2005). Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 7(4–5), 585–614. doi:10.1177/1461445605054407 Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (2010). Locating identity in language. In C. Llamas & D. Watt (Eds.), Language and identities (pp. 18–28). Edinburgh University Press. Carlisle, L. R., Jackson, B. W. & George, A. (2006). Principles of Social Justice Education: The Social Justice Education in Schools Project. Equity & Excellence in Education, 39, 55–64. DOI: . doi:10.1080/10665680500478809 Cochran-Smith, M. (2004). Defining the outcomes of teacher education: What’s social justice got to do with it? Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 32(3), 193–212. doi:10.1080/1359866042000295370 Creswell, J. W. (2018). Qualitative inquiry & research design: choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). Cummins, J., Mirza, R., & Stille, S. (2012). English language learners in Canadian schools: Emerging directions for school-based policies. TESL Canada Journal, 29(6), 25–48. doi:10.18806/tesl.v29i0.1121 Curwin, D., & Lynda, A. (2003). A missing link: Between traditional aboriginal education and the western system of education. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 27(2), 144–160. Davies, A., & Elder, C. (Eds.). (2004). Handbook of Applied Linguistics. Willey Blackwell. doi:10.1002/9780470757000 Diller, J., & Moule, J. (2005). Cultural competence: A primer for educators. Thomson Woodsworth. Dobinson, T. J., & Buchori, S. (2016). Catering for EAL/D Students’ Language Needs in Mainstream Classes: Early Childhood Teachers’ Perspectives and Practices in One Australian Setting. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 41(2), 32–52. doi:10.14221/ajte.2016v41n2.3 Farrell, T. S. C. (2008). Here’s the Book. Go Teach the Class, 39(2), 226–241. Freire, P. (1970/1993). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans.). Continuum. Gay, G. (2000). Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice. Teachers College Press. Gay, G. (2010). Culturally Responsive Teaching (2nd ed.). Teachers College Press. Gonzalez, N., Moll, L. C., & Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms. Routledge. Good, T., & Nichols, S. (2001). Expectancy effects in the classroom: A special focus on improving the reading performance of minority students in first-grade classrooms. Educational Psychologist, 36(2), 113–126. doi:10.1207/S15326985EP3602_6

1064

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

Hadjioannou, X., Hutchinson, M. C., & Hockman, M. (2016). Addressing the Needs of 21st- Century Teachers Working with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners. The CATESOL Journal, 28(2), 29. Hsieh, H., & Shannon, S. E. (2005). Three Approaches to Qualitative Content Analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277–1288. doi:10.1177/1049732305276687 PMID:16204405 Irvine, J. J. (2009). Relevant: Beyond the Basics. Teaching Tolerance. Jewitt, C. (2008). Technology, literacy, learning: A multimodal approach. Routledge. Kim, Y., & Hinchey, P. H. (2013). Educating English language learners in an inclusive environment. Peter Lang Publishing, Inc. doi:10.3726/b12736 Kondracki, N. L., Wellman, N. S., & Amundson, D. (2002). Content analysis: Review of methods and their applications in nutrition education. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 34(4), 224–230. doi:10.1016/S1499-4046(06)60097-3 PMID:12217266 Kramsch, C. (1994). Context and culture in language teaching. Oxford University Press. Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dream keepers. Jossey-Bass Publishing Co. Lai, M. K., McNaughton, S., Amituanai-Toloa, M. Meola, T.,Tuner, R. & Hsiao, S. (2009). Sustained Acceleration of Achievement in Reading Comprehension. Academic Press. Lazer, A. M., Edwards, P. A., & McMillon, G. T. (2012). Bridging literacy and equity: The essential guise to social equity teaching. Teacher College Press. Lee, P. (2007). Middle school ELL and LD teachers’ perceptions of the importance of reading methods (Doctoral dissertation, Kansas State University, 2007). K-State Research Exchange. Lin, G. (2006). Culturally contested pedagogy: Battles of literacy and schooling between mainstream teachers and Asian immigrant parents. State University of New York Press. Lopez, J. (2019). (Re)Imagining Education for the Immortal Child: Why Theory in Education for Social Justice? Equity & Excellence in Education, 52(2–3), 283–297. doi:10.1080/10665684.2019.1684858 Marek, M. W. (2019). The Meta-Cultural Perspective: Communication, Understanding, Engagement, Appreciation, & Competence. Academic Press. Maschinot, B. (2008). The changing face of the United States: The influence of culture on child development. Zero to Three. Moje, E. B., Ciechanowski, K. M., Kramer, K., Ellis, L., Carrillo, R., & Collazo, T. (2004). Working toward third space in content area literacy: An examination of everyday funds of knowledge and discourse. Reading Research Quarterly, 39(1), 38–70. doi:10.1598/RRQ.39.1.4 Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of Knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31(2), 132–141. doi:10.1080/00405849209543534 Msengi, G. S. (2007). Family, child, and teacher perceptions of African American adult assistance to young readers. School Community Journal, 16-17.

1065

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

Msengi, G. S., & McAndrews, S. L. (2016). Third space theory: Teacher, do you think I share space with only my family? What about you and others? Learning for Democracy, An International. Journal of Democracy, 6(2), 59–81. Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(93), 93–97. doi:10.3102/0013189X12441244 Parlakian, R. & Sanchez, S. Y. (2006). Cultural influences on early language and literacy teaching practices. Academic Press. Parsons, M. W., & Shim, J. M. (2019). Increasing ELL Parental Involvement and Engagement: Exploration of K-12 Administrators in a Rural State. English Language Teaching, 12(10), 29–43. doi:10.5539/ elt.v12n10p29 Pugach, M. (2008). Because teaching matters. An introduction to the professional. John Wiley & Sons Inc. Reidel, M., & Draper, C. A. (2011). Reading for Democracy: Preparing Middle-Grades Social Studies Teachers to Teach Critical Literacy. Social Studies, 102(3), 124–131. doi:10.1080/00377996.2010.538758 Riley, K. (2015). Enacting critical literacy in English classrooms: How a teacher learning community supported critical inquiry. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 58(5), 417–425. doi:10.1002/jaal.371 Roberts. C. A. (1994). Transferring literacy skills from l1 to l2. The Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students, 13, 209-221. Scherff, L., & Spector, K. (2011). Culturally relevant pedagogy. Rowman & Littlefield Education. Shapiro, S. & MacDonald, M.T. (2017). From deficit to asset: Locating Discursive Resistance in a Refugee-Background Student’s Written and Oral Narrative. Academic Press. Slotta and Najafi. (2010). Knowledge communities in the classroom (3rd ed.). International Encyclopedia in Education. Soltero-González, L., & Reyes, I. (2012). Literacy practices and language use among Latino emergent bilingual children in preschool contexts. In EEarly Biliteracy Development: Exploring Young Learners’ Use of Their Linguistic Resources Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Stenhouse, L. (1975). An introduction to curricular research and development. Heinemann. Stepanek, J. (2000). Mathematics and Science Classrooms: Building a Community of Learners It’s Just Good Teaching. Department of Education. Stewart, T. (2013). Will the new English curriculum for 2013 work? Readers’. Forum. Todres, J. (2018). The Trump Effect, Children, and the Value of Human Rights Education. Human Rights Education, 56(2), 331–343. Tracy, D., & Morrow, L. (2017). Lenses on reading: Introduction to theories and models (3rd ed.). Guilford Press. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Thought and Language. MIT Press.

1066

 Developing a Community of Learners From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

Wellington, J. (2015). Educational Research: Contemporary issues and practical approaches (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury Academics. Willis, A. (2000). Critical issue: Addressing literacy needs in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. Retrieved April 5, 2005, from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/reading/ li400.htm Wlodkowski, R. J., & Ginsberg, M. B. (1995). Diversity and motivation: Culturally responsive teaching. Jossey-Bass. Wynne, J. T. (1999). The elephant in the living room: Racism in school reform. American Research Association Conference. Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Yin, R. K. (2002). Case study research: design and methods. SAGE Publications.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Cooperating Teacher: A certified teacher in a public or private school who is assigned to mentor, provide teaching experience through supervision, observation, and evaluation and giving feedback for professional growth. Cultural Perspectives: Are world views that individuals have about one’s native environment or group of people based on one’s own social standards. Culturally Responsive Practices: Using background experiences, cultural knowledge, and world diverse views, to make teaching and learning more pertinent to diverse group of learners. Funds of Knowledge: Prior experiences that represent cultural and language that is important for the learner to be able to connect to new concepts. Learning Community: A group of individuals who work toward well communicated shared goals and every group member is held accountable for the outcome or anticipated outcome as they all maintain social and interpersonal relationship. Linguistic Perspective: Is understanding the role of linguistics aspects such as morphology pragmatics, semantics and syntax in literacy development and interaction. Literacy Practices: Using the literacy modalities of reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and visually represents aligned with appropriate literacy strategies during teaching and learning based on each learner’s strengths and needs. Parent: Is a biological or legal guardian of a student. Teacher Candidate: A student who has completed courses in his or her respective major and admitted in teacher preparation program for field or practicum experience as a requirement for successfully completing the teacher preparation program. Social Justice: Value and afford everyone the opportunity to reflect and engage in making positive change for the benefit of all that are involved as they collaboratively work together. University Supervisor: A liaison between the university and the school and /classroom who observes and provides feedback to a teacher candidate on lesson drafts, observation of teaching, and dispositions for professional growth. This research was previously published in Designing Culturally Competent Programming for PK-20 Classrooms; pages 60-78, copyright year 2021 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global). 1067

1068

Chapter 50

‘To Know Is to Love?’:

Language Awareness and Language Attitudes in a Barbadian Classroom Chloe Walker https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5475-7592 The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados

ABSTRACT This chapter explores the relationship(s) between language awareness and language attitudes among second year students at High School X, a prestigious secondary school in Barbados. The analysis of data from a mixed-methods case study reveals findings which suggest that students exhibit moderate levels of language awareness, low levels of ‘active’ language awareness, and high levels of ‘passive’ language awareness. Further, the students hold ambivalent feelings toward Bajan dialect, positive feelings toward Standard English unanimously, and view Standard English as superior to Bajan. Based on these findings, the chapter considers the most effective place(s) for use of non-standard varieties in Barbadian classrooms, particularly stressing their potential to improve students’ language awareness in the social and power domains. The chapter also supports an integrative approach to the teaching of Standard English based on the socio-linguistic complexities of the Barbadian context.

INTRODUCTION Language is one of the most important components of a country’s social and political economy. At present, proficiency in written Standard English remains a significant concern for most countries in the Caribbean region. The Caribbean has often reported poor results in the English components at both the secondary schools’ entrance and exit levels (Craig, 1999, p.4). Craig (1999) cites CSEC English A statistics from the CXC Annual Reports on Administration of the Examinations 1993-1997, which indicate passes ranging from 29% to 35% in the 1990s (p.28). More recent data from across the region indicates that 67% of students received passes in English A in 2017 and 71% in 2018 (CXC, 2018, p.7).

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch050

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

Thus, although significant improvements have been made over the last decade, there is still some work to be done in helping students become proficient in Standard English. Moreover, Craig (1999) warns that these figures may not even reflect the full picture as many students are not entered for the examination due to their poor performance throughout secondary school. This chilling reality is a serious cause for concern, as it is critical that Caribbean students can communicate effectively and express themselves clearly in the standard variety. Poor proficiency also poses a threat to the development of students’ critical reading and thinking skills, as virtually all the intellectual stimuli used in schools are written in Standard English. To remedy this situation, Craig (1999) proposes increased language awareness as one of the main solutions to the problems of Standard English proficiency (p. 6). He argues that explicit awareness of the language features of both the students’ vernacular and Standard English may increase language acquisition skills in the latter. Underlying the discourse of language awareness and language proficiency in the Caribbean are ideas surrounding language attitudes. Several authors (Ball (2011), Rickford (1997), Bartens (2001), Paraide (2002), Larre (2009) have highlighted the largely negative attitudes toward non-standard varieties, mother tongues and home languages in formal education systems. The “subtext” of language attitudes in education demands an investigation into the ways in which various language varieties (creole, dialect and standard) are perceived by students. Language attitudes are important—not just because they inform beliefs and practices in language use but also because they form part of the social and power domains of language awareness (Garett & James, 1991, p.5). These domains are concerned with the functions of language within the everyday interactions of a society and the socio-economic/political decisions that dictate the hierarchal ranking of language varieties. As such, the students’ language attitudes are critical for a robust understanding of their overall language awareness and add to the contextual appreciation of their competence in written Standard English.

The Barbados Language Situation Despite the official status of Standard English in the English-speaking Caribbean, most of the population speaks some form of dialect of English or Creole as its primary language (Allsopp, 1998, p.3). Roberts (1992) characterized the Barbadian language situation using the metaphor of a “fabric”. He explained that several important factors have contributed to the “levelling” and “homogenization” of language in Barbados (p.16); namely, that Barbadian slave populations were sustained through natural increase so that there was a greater tendency toward English, and less toward African languages (as compared to Jamaica, for example). Roberts also notes that Barbados had no post-emancipation Asian immigration, nor did it shift hands from any European master other than the British. Moreover, Burrowes and Allsopp (1983) highlight some of the basilectal Barbadian Creole features found in the early texts; the absence of initial unstressed syllables, reduction of final consonant clusters, nasalization, palatization and the replacement of sounds. Further, they outline some of the evidence which has been identified by other researchers as forming part of the Creole residue in contemporary Bajan; absence of plural marking on nouns, absence of case marking on pronouns, possession by juxtaposition, zero copula in adjectival predicates, unmarked past tense, the continuative “da”, “fo/for” complementizer, unchanged word order for questions, and unmarked passives (p.41). Other basilectal features include pluralizing ‘dem’, pleonastic pronouns, zero copula in nominal predicated locative copula, copula ‘been’ in adjectival predicates, unmasked person and number agreement, anterior ‘been’, and universal ‘no’negator (p.42). 1069

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

Craig (1972) articulates one of the most significant features of language use in the Caribbean; the “fiction of the mother tongue”, where language education programmes assume that Standard English is the first language of the learners. Unfortunately (or perhaps as a result), the socio-linguistic controversy concerning the “real” first language of the students has been coupled with poor results in primary and secondary exit examinations (Craig, 1999, p. 20). However, it is important to acknowledge that performance in Standard English examinations does not exist in a vacuum. Rather, it is informed by several sociocultural, linguistic, political, and economic factors. As such, an examination of language and education in the Caribbean needs to consider “language” in the full context of education, including the language attitudes, the levels of language awareness and the points of convergence (if any) between the two. As such, the chapter aims to investigate language attitudes and awareness in a Barbadian classroom. In so doing, it considers the most effective place(s) of non-standard varieties, particularly stressing their potential to improve the students’ language awareness in the social and power domains. The chapter also supports an integrative approach to the teaching of Standard English, owing to the socio-linguistic peculiarities of the Barbadian context.

BACKGROUND Language awareness is defined as “explicit knowledge about language, and conscious perception and sensitivity in language learning, teaching and language use….” (Association for Language Awareness n.p.). Garrett and James (1991) explored the varying domains of language awareness; namely, the affective, power, cognitive, performance, and social domains. Firstly, in the affective domain, language is made personal and intimate. The authors referenced studies on language awareness in suggesting that language awareness influences language attitudes and develops attention, curiosity, and sensitivity in learners. Meanwhile, the power domain can be used to alert students to hidden meanings in the media and other powerful avenues of communication. With the cognitive domain, students are made to develop an awareness of patterns, units, and rules of language. The cognitive domain also involves an examination of words and meaning, and lessons about both the functions and forms of language. The performance domain is somewhat contentious as there are concerns about whether explicit knowledge of the grammar improves students’ command of the language. Thus far, nothing conclusive has been found since other factors may significantly impact performance. Finally, the social domain helps to foster improved relations between groups by alerting them to global dialects and languages, particularly in today’s multicultural and multilingual world.

Language Awareness: A Socio-Linguistic Perspective Ali (2011) investigates the significance of developing students’ critical language awareness by explicitly teaching the procedures of critical discourse analysis in a university course. By the end of the course, she reported that the students’ critical thinking and motivation levels had increased. Ali suggested that language awareness is both mental and internal, and that it helps the students to develop their own learning strategies (p. 29). Further, she defined critical language awareness as that which focuses on language and society, such that students are more aware of language as a communicative and socio-cultural construct. She concluded by suggesting that it is the teacher’s duty to provide opportunities for critical language awareness, and that the classroom is the best place to offer these opportunities (p. 31). Ali’s paper is 1070

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

valuable as it stresses the highly socio-cultural element involved in language generally, and in language awareness, specifically. Moreover, Hawkins (1991) argued for more emphasis to be placed on the social domain of language awareness. He contended that the core of a language awareness programme is to establish a connection between how the students communicate and their wider socio-cultural environment. This offered an alternative view of the pervasive approach to language awareness by Caribbean scholars, which is to highlight the cognitive and performance domains of language awareness. Notwithstanding, the differences between the language situations in the UK and the Caribbean, Hawkins’ suggestion is worth consideration. Additionally, Kachru (2006) also made a claim for language awareness as part of the curriculum. She stressed the power dynamic involved in language learning, specifically the sociopolitical considerations surrounding which English is fit to be taught. Further, in examining the features of Caribbean and American Creole and the role of creole in the American and Jamaican education systems, S. Allsopp noted that in Jamaica, a system of “transitional bilingualism” was introduced in 2001, where students and teachers were encouraged to use whichever language was necessary to fulfill their needs. There, the students were also given the opportunity to pattern the teachers’ codeswitching from Creole to standard, depending on the situation (p. 26).

Language Awareness in the Caribbean Context Craig (1999) identified the development of language awareness as one of the prerequisites of English language teaching in the Caribbean (p. 6). His theory is based on the notion that students can increase language acquisition and literacy if they are explicitly aware of the nature, characteristics and peculiarities of their own language and differences between “an English-related vernacular” (p.5) and Standard English. He advised that language awareness must be based on contrasting “our language” (related vernaculars) with Standard English from the initial stages of primary education. Additionally, Craig (1999) opined that language awareness should be used to motivate students to learn the standard, since motivation is based on perceptions of contrasts and appropriateness of place and time (p. 43). Similarly, Bryan (2010) reinforced many of Craig’s ideas as she stated, “…language awareness as a principle evolved over a period of time, as the realization that many children were entering school as bi- and multi-lingual learners seeped into the consciousness of language teachers” (p. 85). She also noted the significance of overlapping and relevant terms, such as “metalinguistic awareness”, “linguistic awareness”, “knowledge about language”, and “language study”. To illustrate the use of language awareness in actual Caribbean classrooms, Bryan reported on information collected from a study conducted by the literacy coordinator on her Grade 5 class. She observed three important elements in the use of language awareness in the Jamaican classroom, namely: “… the use of children’s intuition, the role of the teacher, and the potential of local content and culture for language study” (p.93). Direct and comprehensive attempts at building language awareness in the Caribbean’s educational system may be found in the CAPE Communication Studies Syllabus. According to the syllabus (CXC 2010), the aim of Communication Studies is to: Build students’ awareness of the centrality of language to the normal functioning of human beings and their ability to operate in the Caribbean linguistic environment and beyond…through the development of their language awareness and communicative competencies. The fact that communication is a complex set of processes to which language is central informs this programme of study (p.3).

1071

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

However, it must be noted that it is designed for students at the sixth form level. Thus, most Caribbean students are never exposed to the contents of the syllabus. Moreover, this dictates that a de-facto prerequisite for the course is the successful completion of the CSEC English (A) course. Essentially, then, this means that students must have already reached a high level of proficiency in Standard English in order to embark on a systematic programme of language awareness. Attempts at improving language awareness in the Caribbean have also been manifested in official national policy. In drafting a proposal for the policies and procedures relating to language within the education system in Trinidad and Tobago, Robertson (2010) referred to language awareness as “a pivotal consideration” (p.35). He defined the concept as, “…the knowledge of, and sensitivity to language, the way it works and the way in which it influences human behaviour” (p.35). However, he focused on the importance of language awareness on the stakeholder and policymaker levels, stressing that it allows for intelligent and informed decision making. Robertson also referenced van Lier’s (1995) definition of language awareness which points to the role of language in social life and the ways in which power is established through language, as well as the relationship between language and culture. He listed some of the benefits of awareness as knowledge of the nature of language, the functions of various languages in society and the potential of each language to meet educational needs, among others (p.37). Similar to Craig, S. Allsopp (2010) suggested that contrastive grammar analysis and general language awareness should be integral components of any Standard English curriculum in the Caribbean, “providing students with contrastive analysis including rules of syntax, phonetics and vocabulary, as well as examples and practice in distinguishing between the two languages” (p.44). Moreover, in the sample curriculum she has created, S. Allsopp focused on awareness, based on one of three of Siegel’s Creole or Non-Standard Dialect education programmes (p.56). One of the most important tenets of this programme is that the teacher explicitly studies Creole and standard forms of English. She quoted Siegel in stating “the focus is on helping students acquire the standard by focusing on how its structure and use are different from their own varieties” (p.45). However, a programme of this nature may be hard to implement, as it requires teachers to actively study the vernacular, and as Simmons-McDonald (2006) suggested, the negative attitudes of many educators toward Creole has been a major obstacle to overcome (p.121). Questions of socio-cultural language awareness strike at the core of the Caribbean challenge. The Standard English/Vernacular dichotomy is very much a socio-cultural discourse. The superior/inferior dynamic compounds the challenge many students face as their home language is often seen as “low class” and socio-linguistically inferior to school language. Thus, any attempt at improving Standard English acquisition in the Caribbean through language awareness and the use of the vernacular must be accompanied by a culturally sensitive curriculum which grapples with language attitudes.

Language Attitudes Toward the Mother-tongue in Education Language attitudes may be defined as, “any affective, cognitive or behavioural index of evaluative reactions toward different language varieties or speakers” (Ryan & Howard, 1982, p.7). Ball’s UNESCO review presented a case fully in support of the extensive use of the mother-tongue in education, primarily in the early years. He referenced several projects and agreements made by UNESCO in support of “the pedagogical imperative of using a child’s own language as the medium of instruction, at least in the early years of formal schooling” (p.38). Ball contended that many students are denied this right at the expense of their cognitive and educational development. Most importantly, he highlighted the international linguistic rights of children, which include schooling in their languages (if so desired), access to 1072

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

the language of the larger community and the national education systems, intercultural education that promotes positive attitudes to minority and indigenous languages and access to international languages. By this token, the policy makers and governments of the Caribbean have been denying many of the region’s children the human right to mother-tongue-based education. However, according to Craig (1999), they may have been able to allow this by erroneously labelling Standard English as the first language of most of the population (p.100). Similarly, Bartens (2011) examined several approaches toward promoting minority Creole languages. She reiterated the importance of adopting a descriptive view of language, quoting DeCamp (1971) in stating, “a Creole is inferior to its corresponding standard language only in social status” (p.28). She argued that this has led to a situation of auto-odi in Creole speakers where they are contemptuous of the very language they speak. Consequently, the primary issue to overcome in a ‘pro-Creole language in education’ policy is the changing of attitudes and perceptions of the speakers themselves. Craig (2006) argued that although there have been quick and significant changes in the roles of language varieties in the Caribbean in the last few decades, there has been very little corresponding reexamination of the use of vernaculars in education (p. 99). He contended that the reason Creole and other vernaculars have not been used in an official capacity is because of the community’s dualistic attitude to Creole, where they both embrace Creole as a critical part of their identity and resist attempts which they believe may prevent their children from acquiring the Standard. His conclusion was to strike a balance between the rights of parents and the benefits of mother-tongue-based instruction. In the US context, Larre (2009) highlighted Malcolm’s ABC’s of bi-dialectal education: Accept students’ home dialect, Bridge to Standard English, Connect to students’ home environment. Larre warned that while attempting to help students acquire the Standard, teachers must be careful not to demonize the students’ home language. As such, words like “wrong”, “incorrect” and “bad” should be avoided. In his own words, “rather than telling students that non-standard dialects are wrong, teachers should emphasize that people use different dialects for different situations; in some instances (such as a job interview) Standard English is preferred, while in others (such as talking to a friend) the non-standard dialect is preferable” (p.15). Unfortunately, such words of condemnation are often typical in Caribbean schools. Thus, the approach recommended by Larre would effectively constitute a much-needed paradigm shift in attitudes toward dialects and standards. Essentially, it promotes an equal relationship between the two language varieties which, in turn, may significantly increase students’ linguistic self-esteem. Larre’s emphasis on cultural responsiveness and sensitivity is both refreshing and necessary. Similarly, Reed (1973) also argued that in the ESD classroom, a process of “de-brainwashing” is required to change students’ often negative perceptions of their language. De-brainwashing seeks to remove notions of inferiority of language in the students’ minds. She opined that this de-brainwashing is facilitated mainly through contrastive grammar analysis, which seeks to differentiate the structures of the students’ mother tongue from those of Standard English. ESD also includes the integration of the students’ home language and culture into the curriculum, by using Black folklore as resource material (p.288). In the Caribbean, a 2005 study conducted by the Jamaica Language Unit of The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus sought to assess the view of Jamaicans toward Jamaican Creole or “Patwa”. The study reported generally positive views toward “Patwa”, and many participants believed both English and “Patwa” should be taught in schools (n.p.). Further, participants indicated that they usually spoke “Patwa” with friends and family but spoke English with strangers and colleagues. The findings were divided into seven categories: profile of the sample, language awareness, government/public use, 1073

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

language use and social stereotypes, education, writing in a standard form and education. The language awareness section evaluated the respondents’ classification of their primary language and with whom they spoke each language. Most participants reported that they spoke both English and “Patwa”, while a significantly lower number of respondents chose only one or the other. Further, the majority said that they spoke Standard English to friends and co-workers, while approximately a quarter spoke English with everyone. A significant minority spoke the standard with friends, family only, or with no one at all. With regard to “Patwa”, over 60% reported that they spoke it with friends and family only, while approximately 30% said they spoke it with everyone, 3% with strangers and co-workers, and 5% not at all. This study is useful as it confirms many theories about the population’s language usage and preferences. However, what is surprising is the fact that most participants supported the use of “Patwa” in education. This runs contrary to the theory that most Caribbean people are duplicitously contemptuous of Creole and prefer not to have it integrated into the formal curriculum. Notwithstanding, Winer (2012) argued that despite the changes in attitude toward Caribbean English Creole, there has been very little progress in the educational systems (p.120). She opined that the reasons for Creole’s limited use in education have been less linguistic and more to do with the social, political and cultural make-up of the region. Winer also argued that since independence, Caribbean linguists have advocated for the recognition of Creoles as legitimate languages. As evidence, she highlighted Cassidy and Le Page’s (1967, 1980) Dictionary of Jamaican English, Allsopp’s (1996) Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage and the Trinidad and Tobago language policy. She also contends that in the post-independence state, educational success was inextricably tied to command of Standard English, even though educators have encouraged bi-dialectism as the ultimate goal in education (p.122).

Investigating Language Awareness Context of the Study High School X1 is a co-educational secondary sixth form school for students aged 11 to 18, with a roll of approximately 1,050 students. It is in an urban district of Barbados. Since its inception, the school has earned a reputation as one of the most prestigious high schools in the country. It records stellar performances in the Caribbean Examinations Councils’ (CXC) Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE). In fact, since 2013, High School X recorded a minimum of 75% passes at the CSEC level and 70% passes at the CAPE level annually. Moreover, the subjects associated with English language, namely English (A) and English (B) at CSEC and Communication Studies at CAPE, have recorded particularly commendable results. As such, the conclusion was made that students generally have a high proficiency in Standard English. As one of the top ranked schools in the country, competition for entry is extremely high. Typically, students who enter the school received a mark of 80% or above in both Language Arts and Mathematics in the Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination (Common Entrance), an annual test administered by the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation to all students at the end of primary school to allocate them to places in a secondary school. The Language Arts paper tests the students’ knowledge of syntax, semantics and morphology in the form of vocabulary exercises, word choice, parts of speech, error recognition, comprehension, spelling and punctuation. Students placed at High School X typically receive a grade ‘B’ or above on their Composition papers.

1074

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

Methodology This study employed a mixture of purposive and cluster sampling techniques. The sample comprised 48 students: 21 males and 27 females. Of those 48, 11 students were 12 years of age, 36 were 13 years old and one student was 14 years old. The study sought to answer two questions: ‘What is the level of language awareness among second year students at High School X?’ and ‘What are the students’ attitudes toward Standard English and Bajan Dialect?’ To answer these research questions, two surveys and two writing samples were used. The first questionnaire elicited the students’ basic and biographical information, literacy habits, language attitudes and knowledge of key terms relating to language The second questionnaire tested the students’ ability to differentiate between Standard English and Bajan (Dialect), identify Bajan features and explain Standard English and Bajan idiomatic expressions, as well as their morphological knowledge in Standard English. The study employed an integrative model of language attitudes, with particular focus on interpretive and sense making processes, reporting behaviors, and communicative behaviors (Giles & Marlow, 2011, p.184) as its main approach to analysis. It also used a holistic approach, combining both functionalist and formalist features (Duvfa, 1994, p.20) in its analysis of language awareness.

Findings Overall, the students demonstrated a moderate level of language awareness. However, two types of language awareness were discovered over the course of the study: “active”, and “passive” language awareness. Active language awareness refers to the explicit articulation of key terms and definitions relating to language. Contrastingly, passive language awareness involves the application of “deep knowledge” of language to answer questions and identification of differences and errors. The students showed a moderate, low level of active language awareness and a high level of passive language awareness. Moreover, the students showed ambivalent attitudes toward Bajan and unanimously positive attitudes toward Standard English. Comparatively, students felt that Standard English was superior to Bajan. This disparity suggests that much work still needs to be done in the Caribbean education system to neutralize language attitudes and sensitize students to the parity of grammar principle. Further, their ambivalent attitudes warrant an introduction and/or stronger focus on the social and power domains of language awareness in Caribbean education systems, so that student are conscious of the power dynamics which inform how language varieties are perceived by members of any given society. Ideally, students should be able to distinguish between the linguistic notion of parity between languages, and the socio-economic and political forces which dictate that one language is “good” and the other is “bad”. Such a consciousness may be instrumental in changing the ambivalent attitudes toward Bajan and the sense of superiority of Standard English which virtually all the students surveyed hold.

Levels of Language Awareness The data suggested that the notion of language awareness itself is complex and there may be two distinct types of language awareness which the students possess to varying degrees. The first type, which the researcher has called “active” language awareness, refers to the individuals’ ability to directly and explicitly define and explain important terms and concepts related to language. This type of language

1075

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

awareness is concerned with the articulation and expression of ideas, so that the participant is readily able to state what a concept means or entails. On the other hand, there is also “passive” language awareness, which involves the application of that knowledge of language concepts and rules. This type of language awareness focuses on the use of knowledge, rather than on its description. Simply put, the distinction between the two is that passive language awareness relates to articulation, while active language awareness concerns itself with application. As such, the data revealed very differing results for the two types of awareness. The Association for Language Awareness (ALA) defines language awareness as “explicit knowledge about language and conscious perception and sensitivity in language learning, language teaching and language use” (ALA, n.d.). As such, two concepts arise from this definition: explicit knowledge and sensitivity. It is apt, therefore, to relate these concepts to active and passive language awareness. That is, active language awareness is closely aligned with ideas of ‘explicit knowledge’ such that one can directly articulate that knowledge. Contrastingly, “sensitivity” relates more closely with the subconscious knowledge that is applied in passive awareness.

Active Language Awareness Generally, the students demonstrated low levels of active awareness, evaluated mainly through the results from questionnaire one, section D, where students were asked to define and explain several terms. More specifically, the first question asked the students to define “language”. Generally, their responses provided knowledgeable answers indicating some awareness of what broadly constitutes a language. Many students used the words “speech” and “communication” in their definitions and generally they captured the essence of language. Admittedly, this was quite a difficult question, one which even experienced linguists struggle to answer. The students’ definitions included: “a form of speech”, “what makes an individual or country unique”, “what we use to communicate with other people and a way of identification”, and “a way of speaking; different people use different languages”. Quite notably, most students linked language exclusively with speech. This suggested a conceptualization of language that comprised phonetics and phonology, a connection which was also evidenced in other parts of the study. Further, it suggested an understanding that language is primarily speech and that writing is a secondary medium of communication. Additionally, when asked to define “Standard English”, virtually all of the students used the words “proper” or “correct”. For example, “English which is used with the correct uses of grammar”, “speaking with proper use of words and good sentence structure”, “English spoken properly, for example, ‘Have you seen my new boat’” and “English which contains correct grammar and punctuation”. This strongly suggests that students not only view Standard English in a positive light, but they believe it to be the prescriptive superior form of the language. Reed (1973) alludes to this superiority complex when she advocates for a necessary process of “de-brainwashing” in any language awareness programme, to convince students against the inferiority of their home language (p.287). Further, the students also emphasized speech and pronunciation in their definitions of Standard English, reminiscent of their views of language, generally. Some of the responses stated that Standard English is, “pronouncing every word correctly which is being spoken”, “a formal way of speech”, “seen as the formal and polite way speaking” and “speaking and pronouncing from the dictionary”. The students were also asked to define “Bajan (Dialect)”. In contrast to their definitions of Standard English, these responses were much more varied. Answers were replete with words such as “broken”, 1076

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

“shortened”, “slang” and “negative” and generally it was expressed that dialect was easier, more informal and “broken”. In short, most answers were prescriptively negative. For example, they referred to Bajan as “broken down English words, pronounced badly”, “bad English people choose to speak”, “kind of like standard and it is not that perfect and is very easy”, “when you shorten the words making them sound different and speak in an unruly fashion” and “broken English with very bad pronunciation”. Such responses suggested not only a low level of awareness but also reinforced the positive/negative attitude toward Standard English and Bajan, respectively. Though student attitudes toward the language varieties will be discussed later, it is appropriate to delineate some of the consequences of their low levels of awareness of the nature of dialect. As noted earlier, Garrett and James (1991) suggest that language awareness may be divided into five domains: the affective, social, power, cognitive and performance (p.5). Consequently, the students’ lack of awareness has particularly serious implications for the power domain. Recall that the power domain is concerned with alerting students to issues underlying which languages are chosen in official capacities, why there are chosen and by whom. Such an awareness would afford the students an important understanding of the fact that language varieties are constructed as ‘good’ and ‘bad’, not because of the grammatical composition of the language itself but because of socio-political factors that ascribe ‘elite’ status to one variety and ‘rotten’ status to the other, in order to reinforce systems of power by those in power. The idea, then, is for students to be aware of the struggles at play behind our perceptions of language varieties and to remove some of their ‘innocence’ and ‘naivety’ about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ languages. One gets the sense that students believe that certain language varieties are treated as ‘broken’ because they are inherently so, without any knowledge of the entirely man-made construct that creates a linguistic hierarchy in society. The next section of the questionnaire asked students to explain the similarities, if any, between Standard English and Bajan. The responses generally reflected those given in the two previous sections. Surprisingly, however, despite articulating several similarities when defining them separately, fifteen (15) students stated that there were no similarities. The implication of this is that students are not actively aware of the nature of both language varieties, even though when probed, they are able to explain the similarities. Notwithstanding, many students stated that they were similar in that they were both languages, or that they were varieties of the same language, except for a few differences in pronunciation. This finding is particularly relevant to Garret & James (1991) social domain of language awareness, which they argue helps to alert people to global dialects and languages, a key feature of today’s multicultural and multilingual world. When students are unaware of the nature of language varieties, especially their own, it becomes even more difficult to understand the global network of dialects and creoles of which theirs is but one part. In the Caribbean context, this knowledge is even more useful as the similarities between the region’s creoles form an important layer in understanding its social and political history. The formation of creoles and dialects, though unique in each territory, is itself a shared phenomenon around the Caribbean and a critical component of its history and culture. Moreover, as Barbadian students, this lack of knowledge speaks to a wider socio-cultural and historical gap in the students’ education. Language is inextricably imbedded in our individual lives and social systems and the bidialectal dichotomy of Standard English and Bajan Dialect is intertwined into our every action. Our students should therefore have at least a basic understanding of the peculiarities of each. Additionally, the responses to whether there were differences between the two saw 34 students answer in the affirmative, while nine students felt that there were no differences. Many of the answers, like those in the similarities section, highlighted differences in formality and pronunciation. Although the responses showed some level of language awareness, the students’ preoccupation with phonetic differ1077

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

ences showed a lack of knowledge about the phonological, morphological and syntactical differences between the varieties. In the final question by which the students’ active language awareness was assessed, they were asked to define the term “grammar”. Some of the responses showed quite a high level of awareness, including, “… like the rules in English” and “the rules for speaking and writing a language”. However, some answers were much vaguer: “the way you write something”, “the way you use spelling and punctuation”, and “the use of punctuation and verb tenses”. Interestingly, many of the students felt that grammar was a subject, something to be taught or leant. This association is likely because the study of language structure is often labelled “grammar” in the lower levels of primary school. As such, this highlights a lack of awareness of the broad concept of grammar as “the mental system that allows human beings to form and interpret sounds, words, and sentences of their language” (Archibald & O’Grady, 2012, p. 5). These authors list the components of grammar as: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. However, several definitions of grammar also equate it with syntax. Thus, one can conclude that the students generally have low levels of active language awareness. That is, they had great difficulty in accurately defining “grammar”, as well as “Standard English” and “Bajan (Dialect)” and explicating the similarities and differences between the two. This result is hardly surprising based on the lack of language awareness which pervades Caribbean classrooms. To remedy this, language awareness should be integrated into curricula and explicitly taught in classroom. These findings support Craig’s (1999) suggestion that “…vernacular-speaking learners of English need a strong conscious awareness of the formal linguistic characteristics of both their own language and the English they are attempting to learn” (p.7). Further, Allsopp (2010) contends that contrastive grammar analysis and general language awareness should be integral components of any Standard English curriculum in the Caribbean, “providing students with contrastive analysis including rules of syntax, phonetics and vocabulary, as well as examples and practice in distinguishing between the two languages” (p.44). Consequently, there is a critical distinction to be made between active and passive language awareness, as this binary has important implications for the present analysis and for future policy considerations. As such, an aim of CAPE Communication Studies “…to build students’ awareness of the centrality of language to the normal functioning of human beings and their ability to operate in the Caribbean linguistic environment and beyond” (p. 3) may be scaled down to fit the needs of primary school students. Such a syllabus would include not only Craig’s (1999) recommendations but could also use the already established template of Communication Studies as a guide. There seems to be no obvious (educational) reason why language awareness should not form a key part of Language Arts syllabi across primary, secondary, and tertiary levels in the region. One of the most notable features of the students’ responses was their treatment of language as synonymous with speech. The consensus amongst most students seemed to be that language was limited to pronunciation and the way things are said. This finding may best be explained within the context of the students’ understanding of language and communication and their association of communication primarily as oral communication. Indeed, much of communication is done via oral media. However, with the dominance of social media as a written platform, this response is still somewhat confusing, notwithstanding the fact that social media represents a social platform of both speech and writing elements. That is, one may assume that, as teenagers in 2014, the students spend a considerable amount of time texting, chatting, messaging and otherwise informally communicating with each other via written expressions. It is therefore surprising that they would associate language so closely with speech.

1078

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

Passive Language Awareness The questions in questionnaire two, sections B-G were primarily used to assess the students’ passive language awareness. Overall, the students recorded high levels of passive language awareness. Section B asked students to indicate whether ten statements were written in Standard English or Bajan (Dialect). The students’ performance was excellent in this section, as one student received a perfect score, 34 students received between eight and nine out of 10; seven students received between six and seven, one student received 5, and two students earned scores of less than three. These scores demonstrate that most students were able to differentiate between Standard English and Bajan. However, it is unclear whether the students actively identified the Bajan statements as such or whether they noticed that some features were not Standard English. In other words, the students may have been able to identify the features as ‘non-Standard’ and therefore Bajan by a simple process of elimination, rather than actively identifying the features of the statement as definitively Bajan. Another important consideration is that their performance may be because of several years of practice with these kinds of exercises, for example, in preparing for Common Entrance Examinations. In section C, students were required to identify the Bajan feature and translate the sentences into Standard English. Again, students performed well in this section: with 27 students earning scores of nine or 10; 13 students receiving scores of seven or eight out of 10; two earned scores of five and six, and three received scores of less than three. On the surface, these scores may suggest a good understanding of Bajan and a keen ability to perform contrastive grammatical analysis; however, quite similar to the previous section, these scores may be attributed to the students’ ability to identify what they refer to as “incorrect grammar”. That is, since in their definitions of Bajan many students expressed that it was improper English, their ability to identify Bajan features may be lodged in their identification of it as incorrect English. It may then have been more of an exercise in error recognition than in Bajan identification. The next section tested the students’ knowledge of idioms in Bajan. The students performed moderately well, indicating that their cultural awareness of Barbadian language meaning was fairly high. The results showed that nine students received a very good score, 10 students a good score, 10 received a satisfactory score, 10 a weak score, and two students provided very little response. These results indicated that there is a fairly high level of cultural language awareness among the students. This finding is very pleasing in light of Ali’s (2011) emphasis on the socio-cultural aspect of language, where she contends that language awareness should include an understanding of the link between language and society (29). Similarly, Larre (2009) stresses the importance of a “culturally responsive” approach to language awareness in the classroom which includes a high level of consideration given to students’ cultural and linguistic background (p.14). Section E evaluated the students’ knowledge of idiom in Standard English by asking them to explain the meaning of idiomatic expressions. Seventeen students were able to explain the meaning of nine of the10 idioms correctly; 16 students explained seven or eight, five students explained five or six idioms, while six students gained scores of less than 4. One student gave an extremely limited response. Once again, this indicates a high level of awareness of idiom, in addition to the syntactic awareness established in sections B and C. Further, this may be the result of a significant focus on these areas in the primary schools’ language arts programmes, which manifests itself in the students’ performance.

1079

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

Student Attitudes toward Standard English and Bajan One of the key features of the students’ responses was an unanimously positive attitude toward Standard English. As previously mentioned, when asked to define Standard English, each of the students described it using positive words, particularly “proper” and “correct”. This finding may be used as a basis of motivation for getting students to learn Standard English. That is, since the students have already developed value-based assessments of language varieties (with a concept of Standard English as very desirable), this can be used to motivate the students to reach competency in its written and oral forms. The onus, however, would be on the teacher to transform these ideas of “proper” and “correct” into the discourse of “formal” and “appropriate/ acceptable”. Overall, the students showed mixed and ambivalent attitudes toward Bajan but consistently positive attitudes toward Standard English. As such, the data concerning Standard English reflected the predictions given in the literature. However, the students’ feelings toward Bajan ranged from positive to negative – often from the same student. The students seemed to be conflicted and unsure about how they felt about Bajan or whether Bajan was inferior to Standard English. The data was extracted from questionnaire one, sections C to E. In section C, the students were asked whether there were good and bad ways to speak, whether some languages were better than others, how they referred to Bajan and to generally explain their views on Standard English and Bajan. Their responses were used to summarize their overall feelings toward Bajan. Their responses to those questions may be summarized as: 21 or 45% positive; 10 or 21% negative, and 11 or 23% ambivalent views. These results, though somewhat surprising, show that twice as many students feel more positively toward Bajan than negatively. The ambivalent feelings, which accounted for roughly the same number of students with negative feelings, referred to those students who expressed both negative and positive feelings in their responses. These responses closely mirror those reported in the Jamaica Language Unit’s (2005) study, which assessed the views of Jamaicans toward Jamaican Creole or ‘Patwa’. The study reported that most participants supported the use of “Patwa” in education, contrary to the commonly held assumption (Craig 1999, 2006; Devonish 1983) that Caribbean people are contemptuous of non-standard forms and prefer not to have Creole integrated into the formal curriculum. More specifically, the first question asked whether there were good and bad ways to speak. The questions were deliberately open-ended in order elicit full and un-influenced responses from the students. Here, 25 students (58%) answered “yes”;15 students (35%) answered “no”, and three students (7%) failed to answer. When asked to elaborate, the results were quite interesting. The students were first asked to give an example of a bad way to speak. Of the 25 students, 12 listed Bajan (Dialect) or Creole as an example; 11 students said that cursing or being rude or impolite was “bad”. Two students did not respond. This showed that for about half the students, “bad” language was a social etiquette rather than a linguistic question; therefore, they listed cursing and impolite remarks as bad. The other half of students felt that bad language was Creole/ Bajan (Dialect). This shows that some students still have a negative perception of Bajan, such that their awareness of language does not extend to the concept of language equality. To counteract this, Bartens (2001) reiterated the importance of adopting a descriptive view of language, quoting DeCamp (1971) in stating, “a creole is inferior to its corresponding standard language only in social status” (p.28). Further, the students’ comparative view of the varieties runs contrary the principle of grammar parity. When asked to list “good” ways to speak, the results reflected the same pattern. Of the sample,

1080

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

13 students felt that Standard English was a good way to speak; nine identified giving compliments or speaking politely, and two felt that using Bajan was good. The question of whether they felt some languages were better than others was deliberately designed to assess their comparative feelings toward Standard English and Bajan. The results showed that 17 students felt that some languages were better than others, while 30 students did not feel that some languages were better. The implication of this is that many students have a descriptive, equality-based theory of language. This assertion runs contrary to many of their very prescriptive definitions of both Standard English and Bajan later in section D. Interestingly, though the students exhibited some positive feelings toward Bajan, they still seem to view it as comparatively inferior to Standard English. For example, when asked to define the two terms, even those students who earlier stated that using Bajan was good expressed that Standard English was “proper” or “correct” and that Bajan was “incorrect”. Furthermore, when asked which language variety they thought was better, most students choose Standard English. As such, though much progress has been made in students’ perception of Bajan, work still needs to be done in promoting the parity of grammars philosophy and the linguistic equity of language varieties. This confusion and ambivalence reflected the largely contradictory attitudes toward Bajan in the wider society. Many people seem to be unsure about how they feel toward Bajan and what its place should be in society and education (Craig, 2006; Devonish, 1983). On the one hand, they embrace and practice it widely as their primary language of communication in their homes and communities. Indeed, in their most intimate and personal moments, many Barbadians use Bajan to express themselves. Therefore, in that sense, it is viewed positively. However, at the same time, the popular discourse on Bajan (Dialect is that it is broken English or slang. Accordingly, even when people feel positively about Bajan, they may speak of it in a way that suggests negative views. Notwithstanding, the results showed that of the 17 students who felt that some languages were better than others, 13 felt that Standard English was the better of the two, while four students thought that Bajan was better. This indicated that of those who have a prescriptive view of language, the vast majority believe Standard English to be superior. One way to use this perception as an advantage is to convert the students’ notion of superiority to one of formality. For example, Larre (2009) suggested “rather than telling students that non-standard dialects are wrong, teachers should emphasize that people use different dialects for different situations; in some instances (such as a job interview) Standard English is preferred, while in others (such as talking to a friend) the non-standard dialect is preferable” (15). The idea then, is for students to think of language varieties in terms of a continuum from less formal to more formal, instead of a hierarchy of good and bad. The final section asked students whether they referred to Bajan with any of the following terms: “broken”, “bad”, “slang”, or “rotten”. Results for this section showed that 44 (94%) students had referred to Bajan in negative prescriptive ways, while 3 (6%) stated that they had not. This suggested an overwhelmingly negative connotation of Bajan, even though many of the students articulated that they did not view it negatively overall.

1081

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS There are several recommendations for further study which may be used for comparative analysis to support and/or contradict these findings. Moreover, based on the data collected, suggestions for Barbadian educational curricula and syllabuses have also been included. Language Awareness: •

As high levels of passive language awareness were recorded among the students, continued efforts should be made in stressing the passive language awareness component of Language Arts curricula. As low levels of active language awareness were recorded among the students, this component should be evaluated in order to determine whether it is necessary for increased competence in Standard English. A more deliberate programme of language awareness (particularly passive awareness) should be introduced into primary and secondary school syllabi. These programmes may be patterned after the CAPE Communication Studies syllabus and/or serve as precursors. A programme of language awareness at both the primary and secondary level focusing especially on the social and power domains of language, should be integrated into curricula to sensitise students to the power dynamics and social relevance of language varieties.

• • •

Language Attitudes • • •

The students’ home language, a non-standard dialect (in most cases), should be treated with dignity and respect in the classroom and acknowledged explicitly by teachers. Home languages should also be celebrated for their cultural heritage and used more prominently in engagement with music, literature, and performance in the classroom. Careful attention should be paid to issues around student confidence and dignity regarding the use of home language. A shift in language attitudes ultimately contributes to shifts in the ways in which students view their language and by extension, the ways in which they view themselves. This may also (hopefully) contribute to improve proficiency and performance in the long term.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS The following constitute areas in which future research is recommended: • • •

1082

There is need for a comprehensive examination of students’ speaking habits, in order to test their oral competence in Standard English and juxtapose their oral and written competence. Another useful study would be one that evaluates the students’ ability to name and explain features in both Standard English and Bajan, as an example of the depth of their language awareness. An in-depth study should also be carried to investigate the students’ socio-economic, educational, and linguistic backgrounds to account for the factors which led to their written competence in Standard English in the absence of language awareness.

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

• • •

A similar study should be carried out at other Barbadian schools, with ranking both in the middle and at the bottom in terms of academic performance and level of written competence in Standard English. A similar study should also be carried out in other parts of the Caribbean with different language situations, such as Jamaica or St Lucia, to compare the results. Although the role of the teacher and related concepts of teacher education and teacher language awareness were outside the scope of this study, it is nonetheless an important consideration for this research area.

CONCLUSION Since Bajan (Dialect) shares several linguistic similarities with Standard English (such that it is not even considered a ‘creole’), and based on the ease with which the students were able to identify the Bajan features and translate them into Standard English, one has to carefully assess the role that the mother tongue should play in a context like Barbados. Two questions arise: ‘is the integration of the mother tongue in the classroom necessary for competence in Standard English?’ and, ‘what role should the mother tongue play?’ Reed (1973) suggested that the mother tongue should be used as a bridge to the Standard English. Further, Craig (2006) laments that its current role in the Caribbean is reduced to entertainment, identity assertion and self-esteem. Craig suggests here that this “reduction” is actually a very important component of this appropriate use of the mother tongue in Caribbean education. Further, the mother tongue may be used to highlight pertinent issues in the power and social domains. The central point is to warn against the degradation and tabooing of the mother tongue. It should be confronted, referenced, and celebrated in the classroom as it reflects a significant part of the students’ identity and plays a critical role in their lives. Another role of the mother tongue may be its use in code switching for the purpose of giving and explaining examples, and in cases of contrastive grammar analysis. In such cases, it may be necessary and beneficial to use the mother tongue. As such, the role of the mother tongue in Barbadian classrooms may be to improve the students’ language awareness in the social and power domains, as well as to provide a bridge to Standard English. Issues of whether the focus on Standard English should be concerned primarily with oral, or written competency still abounds. One suggestion is that oral competency should be stressed first, as Bajan (Dialect) is largely an oral variety and as a result, the students’ oral skills are much more developed than their written skills. Such an observation is certainly valid and may provide one of the answers to the region’s competency issues. Perhaps it is apt to begin with a comprehensive focus on gaining oral competency in Standard English, followed by an aural awareness, then reception of Standard English, followed finally by written production. The acquisition of skills would therefore follow this order, speaking, listening, reading and writing. Certainly, these varying methods have important considerations for the teaching approaches used in the classroom. What is being suggested, therefore, is that an integrative (Roberts, 1983), multi-dimensional and eclectic approach be taken to the teaching of English as a second dialect in Barbados and the Caribbean. Some of the highlights of this approach include the use of home language to promote confidence, teacher training in the home language and the “quasi-bilingual situation” promotion of creative work in the home language, and the creation of folk literature in the home language.

1083

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

REFERENCES Ali, S. (2011). Critical Language Awareness in Pedagogic Context. English Language Teaching, 4(4), 28–35. doi:10.5539/elt.v4n4p28 Allsopp, R. (1972). The Problem of Acceptability in Caribbean Creolized English. Proceedings from The UWI/UNESCO Conference on Creole Language and Educational Development. Allsopp, R. (1996). Dictionary of Caribbean English usage. Oxford University Press. Allsopp, R. (1998). Language for Togetherness: What Can a Caribbean Dictionary Do? Journal of Education and Development in the Caribbean, 2, 37–48. Allsopp, S. (2010). Assisting Creole-English and Non-Standard dialect speaking students in learning Standard English. U of Wisconsin-River Falls. Association for Language Awareness. (n.d.) Language awareness. http:// language awareness.org Ball, J. (2011). Enhancing learning of children from diverse language backgrounds: Mother-tongue based bilingual or multilingual education in the early years. UNESCO. Bartens, A. (2001). The rocky road to education in Creole. Estudios de Sociolinguistica, 2(2), 27–56. doi:10.1558ols.v2i2.27 Bryan, B. (2010). Between two grammars: Research and practice for language learning and teaching in a Creole-speaking environment. Ian Randle Publishing. Caribbean Examinations Council. (1992). Statement from the English panel on candidates’ performance in the English examinations. Caribbean Examinations Council Western Zone Office. Caribbean Examinations Council. (2010). Caribbean advanced proficiency examination communication studies syllabus. Caribbean Examinations Council. Caribbean Examinations Council. (2012). Report on candidates’ work in the secondary education certificate examination: English A. Caribbean Examinations Council. Caribbean Examinations Council. (2013). Report on candidates’ work in the secondary education certificate examination: English A. Caribbean Examinations Council. Caribbean Examinations Council. (2018). Report on candidates’ work in the secondary education certificate examination: English A. Caribbean Examinations Council. Craig, D. (1992). Toward a description of Caribbean English. In K. Braj (Ed.), The other tongue (pp. 198–209). U of Illinois Press. Craig, D. (1999). Teaching language and literacy: Policies and procedures for vernacular situations. Education and Development Services Inc. Craig, D. (2006). The use of the vernacular in West Indian education. In H. Simmons-McDonald & I. Robertson (Eds.), Exploring the boundaries of Caribbean Creole languages (pp. 99–117). UWI Press.

1084

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

DeCamp, D. (1971). The study of pidgin and creole languages. In D. Hymes (Ed.), Pidginization and Creolization of Languages (pp. 13–59). Cambridge University Press. Devonish, H. (1983). Towards the establishment of an institute for Creole language standardization and development in the Caribbean. In L. Carrington (Ed.), Studies in Caribbean Language (pp. 300–316). Society for Caribbean Linguistics. Garrett, P., & James, C. (1991). The scope of language awareness. In C. James & P. Garrett (Eds.), Language awareness in the classroom (pp. 4–20). Longman Group. Giles, H., & Marlow, M. L. (2011). Theorizing language attitudes, existing frameworks, an integrative model, and new directions. Annals of the International Communication Association, 1(35), 161–197. doi:10.1080/23808985.2011.11679116 Hawkins, E. (1991). Foreign language study and language awareness. Language Awareness, 8(3), 124–142. Larre, S. (2009). English as a second dialect: A handbook for teachers. University of Victoria Press. O’Grady, W., & Archibald, J. (2012). Contemporary linguistic analysis: An introduction (7th ed.). Pearson. Paraide, P. (2002). Cultural practices: A link to formal learning practices. The Pidgins and Creoles in Education (PACE) Newsletter, 13. Reed, C. (1973). Adapting TESL approaches to the teaching of written Standard English as a second dialect to speakers of American Black English Vernacular. TESOL Quarterly, 7(3), 289–307. doi:10.2307/3585677 Rickford, J. (1997, March). Using the vernacular to teach the standard. Paper presented at the California State University Long Beach Conference on Ebonics, California State University. Roberts, P. (1992, August). The fabric of Barbadian English. Studies in Caribbean language II: Papers from the 9th Biennial Conference of the Society for Caribbean Linguistics. Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, University of the West Indies. Robertson, I. (2010). Language and language education policy. Ministry of Education, Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Ryan, E., & Howard, G. (1982). Attitudes toward language variation. Edward Arnold. Simmons-McDonald, H. (2006). Vernacular instruction and biliteracy development in French Creole speakers. In H. Simmons-McDonald & I. Robertson (Eds.), Exploring the Boundaries of Caribbean Creole Languages (pp. 119–147). University of the West Indies Press. The Jamaican Language Unit. (2005). Language attitude survey of Jamaica: Data analysis. Author. Tinkel, T. (1991). Language awareness and the teaching of English language in the upper secondary school. In P. Garrett & C. James (Eds.), Language awareness in the classroom (pp. 98–132). Longman. Winer, L. (2012). Teaching English to Caribbean English Creole-speaking students in the Caribbean and North America. In S. Nero (Ed.), Dialects, Englishes, Creoles and education. LEA Publishers.

1085

 ‘To Know Is to Love?’

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS English as a Second Dialect: An approach to the teaching of Standard English in contexts where a non-standard variety of English is the students’ home language. Language Attitudes: Individuals’ feelings toward differing varieties of a language. Language Awareness: Active and passive knowledge of the linguistic components of a language. Language Education: Approaches to the teaching and learning of a language. Mother Tongue: The language or language variety spoken in the home and community and usually learned by children as their first language. Non-Standard Variety: A variety of a language, which is primarily spoken, and has not been codified for use in official settings. Standard English: The variety of English recorded in dictionaries and grammars and which is used in official contexts. Vernacular: The language or language variety spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region.

ENDNOTE 1



A pseudonym

This research was previously published in Transformative Pedagogical Perspectives on Home Language Use in Classrooms; pages 66-84, copyright year 2021 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

1086

1087

Chapter 51

Working With Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children From Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds Karen Garrido-Nag Gallaudet University, USA James McCann Gallaudet University, USA

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY An increasing number of deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) children live in homes where languages other than English or American Sign Language (ASL) are used. This chapter reviews issues of culture and linguistic diversity when working with D/HH multilingual learners (DMLs) from identification and early intervention through school entry. The authors will provide two case studies to explore the issues of service delivery to DMLs and their families: 1) Ji-Hun, who appears to use several spoken languages, including Korean, Japanese, and English, and 2) Ana, who is a recent immigrant to the USA and appears to use ASL, spoken Spanish, and spoken English. The discussion of these two case studies will encompass some cultural differences, including 1) openness to engagement with providers, 2) cultural beliefs about hearing loss, 3) community systems and familiar support, 4) perceptions of systems and authorities. The case studies presented are not based on actual clients but are drawn from the clinical experiences of the authors.

INTRODUCTION According to National Center for Education Statistics (2019), English language learners (ELLs) account for 9.5% of all the students who are enrolled in public schools. The most recent data available from the Gallaudet Research Institute Annual Survey (Gallaudet Research Institute, 2013) indicated that 18.3% DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch051

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Working With Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children From Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

of deaf or hard-of-hearing (D/HH) children in public schools were identified as ELLs. Furthermore, 35% of the families in the Gallaudet Research Institute survey reported using a language other than English or American Sign Language (ASL) in the home, suggesting that identification of ELLs for the purposes of the No Child Left Behind initiative reporting may underestimate the number of D/HH children in multilingual environments. Even though these statistics indicate a significant proportion of D/HH children are D/HH multilingual learners (DMLs), compared to the hearing multilingual population, very little information is available about how to provide appropriate services that account for their diversity. Furthermore, the literature on service provision to DMLs may be obscured by philosophical issues related to communication modality. It is well documented that children who are D/HH are at risk for poor language, social-emotional, and academic outcomes (Spencer & Marschark, 2010). The primary risk factor is not the hearing loss itself, but the lack of an accessible language (Knoors & Marschark, 2014; Lederberg, Schick, & Spencer, 2013). Children living in the U.S. who come from households where English is not the primary language face a more challenging task because they may need to negotiate English, ASL, and the spoken and/or signed language(s) which they use in the home. Linguistic and cultural diversity has implications for service delivery from diagnosis through transition to post-secondary settings. Pediatric hearing loss is estimated to affect 5-15% of the population (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 2016). One percent of school-age children with an individualized education program (IEP) receive services based on a code related to hearing loss (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2016; U.S. Department of Education, Office for Special Education, 2019). More than 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents (Mitchell & Karchmer, 2004), and 35-40% have other conditions/ disabilities (Gallaudet Research Institute, 2010; Yoshinaga-Itano, Sedey, Coulter, & Mehl, 1998). Almost 45% of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who work in a school setting regularly serve children with hearing loss. Early Hearing Detection and Intervention programs have significantly decreased the age at which childhood hearing loss is diagnosed and early intervention services can be initiated (Gaffney, Green, & Gaffney, 2010; Yoshinaga-Itano, 2003). The younger age of diagnosis and subsequent early intervention have shown promising results for developmental outcomes. However, no known studies specifically on outcome measures for DMLs exist. Upon the diagnosis of hearing loss, families face a decision in determining the communication modality (Table 1) they will use with their children (Decker, Vallotton, & Johnson, 2012). Parents receive and must consider this new information while still processing the emotional response to the diagnosis (Stredler-Brown, 2010). The selection of a communication approach is stressful to families, and they report valuing accurate, impartial, and respectful information (Meadow-Orlans, Sass-Lehrer, & Mertens, 2003). With earlier age of diagnosis, the historical debate of the correct approach is being replaced with the notion of parental informed choice. Informed choice includes the provision of comprehensive, meaningful, relevant, and evidence-based information, so that parents are empowered to make decisions for their children (Moeller, Carr, Seaver, Stredler-Brown, & Holzinger, 2013; Young et al., 2006). For families from developing countries, attitudes and cultural beliefs towards disability play an important role. There may be a delay in acceptance of a disability, and in the case of hearing loss, hearing technology that may draw further attention to the disability (Olusanya, Luxon, & Wirz, 2004). Counseling services for families should consider diverse cultural orientations. Furthermore, new opportunities to acquire and develop a variety of skills mean that commitment to a single approach is not necessary. Families report a desire for their children to develop skills and flexibility to choose what is best for them in a variety of contexts (Wainscott, Sass-Lehrer, & Croyle, 1088

 Working With Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children From Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

Table 1. Educational/communication choices in pediatric cases Communication Modality

Definition and Use in Practice

Total communication

Philosophy of educating children with hearing loss that incorporates all means of communication (i.e., formal signs, natural gestures, fingerspelling, body language, listening, lipreading and speech). While in philosophy total communication supports the use of all the necessary means, in practice it frequently becomes speaking and signing at the same time.

ASL/English bilingual

Philosophy of education supporting development of both ASL and English (written and/or spoken) as separate, but equal languages.

Bimodal-bilingual

Philosophy supporting acquisition of at least one oral language and at least one sign language.

Auditory/oral

Approach that focuses on acquisition of spoken and written language.

Cued speech

Visual mode of communication that uses handshapes and placements in combination with the mouth movements of speech to make the phonemes of a spoken language look different from each other. It is usually considered an auditory/oral approach, as the goal is to develop the spoken language.

Listening and spoken language

Approach that uses primarily audition provided by a hearing aid or a cochlear implant (CI) for understanding speech and learning to talk.

Augmentative alternative communication

System of communication that uses supports or alternatives to spoken or signed languages including devices, whether low- or high- technologies, for individuals who have motor, cognitive, and/or social limitations that limit their acquisition of sign/spoken language.

2008, as cited in Sass-Lehrer, 2017). The Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (2007, 2013), the Joint Committee of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (2008), the Council on Education of the Deaf, and an international panel of experts in the field (Moeller et al., 2013) advocate for providing families with unbiased, but evaluative information to make an informed choice and then following up with services that support their choice. When there is a language used in the home besides English or ASL, decisions regarding language choice and communication preference are more complex. The choice involves consideration of sign, spoken English, and signed or spoken languages of the home (Leigh & Crowe, 2015). Families must consider the purposes of each of the languages to which the child will be exposed. When a child transitions from home-based to school-based services, the philosophy of the program will drive communication opportunities at school, where the child will spend most of their day. The parents may choose to align their home-based approach with the school’s approach, or they may choose to continue with the strategies they have been using at home. For DMLs, the maintenance of spoken or signed language(s) of the home becomes a center issue for decision making. The family may ask professionals for input. Service providers should listen carefully to the family’s concerns and goals for home communication. They counsel the family on the benefits of multilingualism, along with realistic expectations given their child’s access or lack of access to the languages in their environment. For a child who has limited access to spoken language, it may not be realistic to use the spoken language of the home. Also, without efforts on behalf of the parents to use the child’s communication system, there is risk of the child losing his/her bond with the family. When working with DML children, it is important to have a good profile of all the languages they use. Standardized assessments are a common assessment strategy. While many assess English language skills, they are not normed on a multilingual sample, which makes scores difficult to interpret. A limited number of assessments of Spanish exist. Very few tests have been developed to assess languages other than English and Spanish, including ASL. Translations of tests which are designed to assess English skills may be attempted by SLPs who are bilingual in the target language, or through an interpreter. The

1089

 Working With Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children From Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

challenge with translated tests is cultural bias toward a mainstream American approach to assessment. Furthermore, by translating, items may increase or decrease in complexity and thereby not assess what they are intending. Working with DMLs requires flexibility to use standardized assessments in a meaningful way, so interpretation does not lead to inaccurate conclusions. The use of supplemental and/or alternate strategies should also be considered. These may include parent report/interview, portfolio assessment, observation in natural settings, and dynamic assessment. Dynamic assessment has been shown to differentiate normal hearing ELL children with typically developing language from ELL children with language disorders (Kapantzoglou, Restrepo, & Thompson, 2012; Pena, Gillam, & Bedore, 2014). Dynamic assessment also has utility with the assessment of a child’s ASL acquisition (Mann, Pena, & Morgan, 2014), making it a promising approach for DMLs. While assessment provides practitioners with a child’s current language abilities, progress monitoring of growth is important. Little information is available about how to monitor language growth in the early years even for monolingual children (Gillam & Justice, 2010). The most frequently reported language assessment tools used by professionals working with D/HH children compare a child’s language development to same age peers at a single moment in time and are not suitable to measuring incremental changes over brief periods (Gillam & Justice, 2010; Luckner & Bowen, 2006). Monitoring a DML’s language acquisition requires consideration of the entire language system and the purposes each serves. The two case studies in the following section have very different backgrounds, but hearing loss is a common factor.

CASE 1 Questions for the Reader 1. When and where is it appropriate to use an interpreter when working with DML families? 2. How valuable are standardized testing materials for DML cases? 3. How should a monolingual therapist work with multilingual families?

Description of the Case Ji-Hun Kim is a two-year and eight-month-old multilingual (Korean, Japanese, and English) male who attends a preschool early intervention program five days a week. He has congenital severe to profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. His case followed the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing’s “1-3-6” goals; his loss was detected via universal newborn hearing screening at birth, diagnosed with audiologic measures appropriate for a three-month-old child, fitted with binaural hearing aids soon after, and enrolled in early intervention services by six months of age. Currently, he has binaural amplification, hearing aid on the left ear, and CI on the right ear that was activated at 20 months of age. The family requested a comprehensive evaluation to assess if Ji-Hun could be transitioned to a regular preschool.

Background Information Ji-Hun is the only child of immigrant parents and lives in the Washington DC metropolitan area. The household is multigenerational, with parents and maternal grandparents. The mother, Mrs. Kim, speaks 1090

 Working With Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children From Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

mostly Korean with some English and the grandparents speak solely Korean. The father, Mr. Kim, speaks Korean, Japanese, and has some conversational skills in English. The family owns several small shops in the area, and all are involved in running their businesses. Both parents are college educated in Korea. Ji-Hun was born in a local hospital which provided newborn hearing screening according to the District of Columbia-Maryland-Virginia law. Upon failing the newborn hearing screening, the family was referred for follow-up at the audiological clinic in the hospital. The clinic is fully equipped for pediatric testing and is closely tied to a local representative for the Infant and Toddler program for families with infants and toddlers who are D/HH. There were no reports of complications during pregnancy or delivery. Ji-Hun did not pass his newborn otoacoustic emissions hearing screening, when it was first administered. A follow-up screening was done just before being discharged from the hospital. He did not pass the rescreen on both ears, and the nurses made an appointment with the audiological clinic for evaluation. The nurses used a telephone interpreter to explain to the mother and grandparents the results of the screening and subsequent appointment. The follow-up appointment was scheduled three weeks after Ji-Hun’s birth. A severe to profound hearing loss was diagnosed that day, and hearing aid fitting was scheduled at three months of age. During the same meeting, the parents were connected with the local infant-toddler program representative, who then proceeded to make an in-home appointment for an evaluation. At this point, the parents were hesitant to have strangers come to their house, until it was further explained through an interpreter that the team of professionals that would work with them would help assist in the use of the hearing aids and the development of Ji-Hun’s listening skills. Ji-Hun was fitted with binaural hearing aids at four months of age. At this point, a team comprised of an SLP and a teacher of the deaf worked with the family and Ji-Hun in developing his listening and language skills. The team also worked on counseling the parents regarding communication options, educational options for the future, and participation in group settings where the child had access to D/ HH peers and adults as language, communication, and cultural models. The family expressed that they wanted a CI for Ji-Hun. It was explained to the family that at Ji-Hun’s age hearing aids would provide him access to sounds and language until he could become a candidate for implantation. The family decided they wanted to use sign-supported speech, primarily focusing on language access through auditory means, but using some signs to aid in understanding of key concepts. A Korean-English interpreter was present the first few weeks of the sessions, until Mrs. Kim expressed, through her husband, wanting communication to be done via written English and would no longer need an interpreter. Intervention sessions were conducted in spoken English; coaching was established through written communication. Mr. and Mrs. Kim and Ji-Hun’s grandparents continued to communicate with Ji-Hun in Korean and Japanese. Mr. Kim did switch back and forth between Korean and English with some routines in Japanese. At 20 months of age, Ji-Hun’s CI was activated on the right ear. All throughout this time, both the SLP and teacher continued to counsel the family on use of signs to support language development. The family was very resistant on the use of sign and expressed that they thought it would stop Ji-Hun from listening. It was explained to the family that the use of two modalities does not hinder the development of one or the other. The visual reinforcement, thru signs, increased Ji-Hun’s access to language. The mother and grandmother initially communicated with Ji-Hun only in spoken English, even though they did this with great difficulty. It was emphasized to the family that the use of Korean is natural and would aid in developing Ji-Hun’s language skills. Although they were offered a Korean therapist and/or teacher, the family refused. The family established a good connection with the SLP and teacher of the

1091

 Working With Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children From Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

deaf and did not want to introduce changes to the intervention team. At 24 months of age, a reevaluation was conducted at the request of Ji-Hun’s parents for consideration of transition to a regular preschool.

Findings of the Evaluation Ji-Hun’s speech and language skills were assessed in Korean, English, and Japanese even though Mr. and Mrs. Kim only wanted the evaluation to be conducted in English. The team had to explain to his parents that Ji-Hun is multilingual, and his language and speech skills would be best measured in all languages that are used at home and in the community. Knowing his strength in one language would help in determining Ji-Hun capacity for progress. Most of the tests used are normed for monolingual speakers of each language and not necessarily for bi/multilingual speakers. In order to assess Ji-Hun’s skills, the following tests were used: • • • • •

Rosetti Infant-Toddler Language Scale (English and Korean) Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-2 (English) Assessment of Phonology and Articulation for Children (Korean) The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (English, Korean and Japanese) Audiological testing.

Audiology Electrophysiological testing was conducted at two months for diagnosis and prior to CI implantation that established the diagnosis of bilateral severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss. Behavioral observation audiometry (BOA) was also conducted before and after hearing aid fitting at four months of age. Visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA) was conducted pre- and post-CI fitting at 20 months of age. For the transition evaluation at 24 months, conditioned play audiometry (CPA) was used. During all three testing situations BOA, VRA, and CPA, the parents were able to observe their child, hear the stimuli, and see their child’s responses. This establishes for parents a better sense of what their child is hearing and the importance of moving forward with amplification and confirmation of the electrophysiological test results. These three testing conditions also provided information on how a child is able to attend to auditory stimulation and measure the benefits of amplification. Table 2. Aided thresholds for Ji-Hun obtained via BOA at age 4 months of age, VRA at age 20 months and play audiometry at age 24 months Method BOA

Age 4 months

Threshold (dB HL) 250 Hz

500 Hz

1000 Hz

2000 Hz

4000 HZ

40

50

50

50

60

VRA

20 months

40

40

50

50

50

CPA

24 months

20

20

25

25

25

1092

 Working With Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children From Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

Language Ji-Hun’s communication was assessed using the Rossetti Infant-Toddler Scale (Rosetti, 2006). It is designed to track development in children over the period birth to 36 months. Information is obtained via caregiver report, clinician observation, and clinician elicitation. The scale assesses preverbal and verbal areas of communication and interaction including interaction-attachment, pragmatics, gesture, play, language comprehension, and language expression. Testing was conducted in both Korean (with an interpreter) and in English. Skills in interaction-attachment, pragmatics, gestures, and play were within normal limits in the Rossetti scale. The results of the testing for language comprehension and language expression were as follows: •



Language Comprehension: Ji-Hun’s language comprehension skills were solid at the 12-15 months’ range, with scattered skills in the 15-18 months’ range, indicating a 37% delay. Ji-Hun was reported and/or observed to: Look at person saying child’s name, perform a routine activity upon verbal request, follow one-step commands during play, respond to “give me” command, identify three body parts, and choose two familiar objects upon request. Ji-Hun benefited when speech was presented with gestures/signs. Ji-Hun appeared to have more scattered skills at 18 months of age, when he was tested in Korean, with his parents reporting that he could understand at least 50 words and complete two requests with one object. Ji-Hun was neither reported nor observed to find familiar objects not in sight, understand meaning of action words, and understand the command “sit down and come here” without gestures. Comprehension was supported with gestures and simple signs. Language Expression: Ji-Hun’s language expression skills in English were solid at the 12-15 months’ range, with scattered skills at the 15-18 months’ range, indicating a 37% delay. Ji-Hun was reported and/or observed to: Say 15 meaningful words, ask for more, imitate words, and imitate environmental noises. Ji-Hun was neither reported nor observed to use two-word phrases and use new words regularly. Ji-Hun’s language expression skills in Korean were higher than his English skills demonstrated by having more of a scatter at the 18-21 months’ range. He imitated two-word phrases and had started to use two-word phrases spontaneously. He was also reported to be using sentence-like intonational patterns once in a while.

Phonology Two tests were used to assess Ji-Hun’s articulation and phonology: 1. The Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-2 (Goldman & Fristoe, 2000), which assesses the child’s production of English consonant sounds in single words and in sentences. This test was attempted to assess consonants in various word positions. However, testing could not be completed, as JiHun could not name or imitate names of most of the stimulus pictures. Based on progress reports, parental report, and observation of Ji-Hun’s one-word productions and vocalizations, Ji-Hun’s phonemic repertoire included /p, b, m, k, l, h/ and his vowel repertoire included most vowel sounds when he imitated. However, spontaneous production of vowels tended to be turned into a schwa /ə/. His syllable shapes were primarily consonant-vowel (CV) and CVCV. Ji-Hun would also talk,

1093

 Working With Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children From Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

using a wide variety of sounds and intonations. Ji-Hun’s speech intelligibility was on average rated at 50%. 2. Assessment of Phonology and Articulation for Children (Kim, Pae, & Bak, 2007), which assesses the child’s production of Korean consonant and vowel speech sounds in single words and connected speech, as well as phonological processes. Ji-Hun’s phonemic and vowel repertoire mirrored that of his English productions. However, Ji-Hun had longer utterances with some CVC words in Korean aside from CV and CVCV. Ji-Hun’s speech intelligibility in Korean was on average rated at 75% by his parents. Ji-Hun used gestures to communicate including waving, pointing, and leading with his hand, and bodily gestures, such as indicating going to the bathroom and wanting to eat. Figure 1 shows the phonemic overlap between Korean and English. Figure 1. Overlap in Korean and English consonants and vowels

Vocabulary The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (Fenson et al., 2007) are parent report instruments which capture important information about children’s developing abilities in early language, including vocabulary comprehension, production, gestures, and grammar. The infant form (level I) was used to assess Ji-Hun’s vocabulary inventory (Table 3). Ji-Hun performed at less than the 1st percentile for all three languages he uses. However, he performed better in Korean than in English. He had a few words in Japanese that he used but these words were mostly related to specific routines he engaged in with his father. Table 3. Infant form level 1 results for Ji-Hun Understands

Understands and Says

Percentile

Korean

50

30

Where do you live, Nasser < (4) St: > I live in Business Bay < (5)

(1)

1477

 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition

In this example, the teacher poses the question quickly on line 1 and line 4 to give the students practice in speaking correctly and quickly like a native speaker, without hesitating. This technique is more useful in allowing the students to ask and answer fluently, such as on lines 2 and 5.

Repetition Technique The Repetition Technique has two different types. The first one is the teachers’ repetition of the entire utterance of the student. This type may either be referred to the teacher’s acceptance of the student’s answer (Sharpe, 2008), enable learners to disagree or agree with the teacher when reports back their answers (Verplaetse & Hall, 2000), or change the intonation to bring student’s attention on the errors (Shrum & Glisan, 2009). The second type is the teachers’ partial repetition of the students’ utterances by the teacher. With this type, the grammatical form of students’ utterances can be reinforced (Chaudron, 1988; Freed, 1881; Inan, 2014; Saville-Troike, 2006), or the students can correct their mistakes on their own. These types utilize to extend learners’ contribution, prove the instructional speech is understood by the students (Verplaetse & Hall, 2000), and confirm that the utterance of the student is concordant with the educational stream (Inan, 2014; Saville-Troike, 2006). They also clarify the misunderstood speech of the learner (Freed, 1881; Verplaetse & Hall, 2000; Inan, 2014; Saville-Troike, 2006). Full repetition technique is presented in the following example. Example 4: Tr: Does she drink coffee Tr: So now is it a question Sts: Yes (3) Tr: Ok, how do I say yes Sts: Yes she does (5) Tr: Yes she does or (6) Sts: No she doesn’t (7) Tr: No she doesn’t (8)

(1) (2) (4)

In Example 4, the full repetition technique is used on lines 6 and 8 to show that the learners’ answers are grammatically correct on lines 5 and 7. This technique encourages the students to use the language precisely, such as on line 7.

Intonation Technique The Intonation Technique enables the teacher’s meaning to be understood. Falling tone and rising tone of the teachers’ voices may indicate ask a question, agree or disagree with learners’ answers, or praise them (Harmer, 2007). It also provides students with a good idea about the teacher’s attitude from their explanation (Kelly, 2001). It facilitates comprehension of the content taught (Harmer, 2007). It portrays the accent and the rhythm of English Language (Kelly, 2001). Example 5 illustrates the usage of this technique.

1478

 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition

Example 5: St: Does she drinks (1) Tr: Drinks (2) St: No drink (3) Tr: Ok, so take off s because DOES here Tr: I don’t need s (5) Tr: Does she drink coffee (6) Tr: So now is it a question (7) Sts: Yes (8)

(4)

In Example 5, the teacher uses a raising intonation technique on the word “does” on line 4. This is done to enable the students to focus on the function of “does” and clarifies the reason for omitting “s”. This technique helps the students to use “does” through their answer on line 8.

Length of Utterance Technique The Length of Utterance Technique works as a way of correcting the errors of learners. This technique increases usage with the beginner students and decreases gradually with more advanced ones (Chaudron, 1988). It also facilitates the understanding of the topic to the students. This technique attracts the learners’ attention to comprehend a particular meaning or situation in the linguistic form (Gass & Selinker, 2008). This is showed in example 6. Example 6: St: Where are you live Tr: Where are you live St: Where you (3) Tr: [where do:::::: (4) st: [you live (5) Tr: Hiba ask Ali about live St2: Where do you live

(1) (2)

(6) (7)

In Example 6, the teacher lengthens the auxiliary verb “do” on line 4 to draw the student’s attention to using this auxiliary verb and to correcting his mistake on line 1. This technique works effectively on the learning process, as is shown in the student’s answer on line 7.

Paraphrasing Technique The Paraphrasing Technique enables learners to know the contextual meaning of sentences or clarify the meaning. Since it constructs the language without ambiguity, it is a useful technique for students whose level is under basic level (Chaudron, 1988). Additionally, this technique works for extending or summarizing information. Therefore, the Paraphrasing Technique moves the discourse onwards (Jarvis & Robinson, 1997). The following example illustrates this technique.

1479

 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition

Example 7: Tr: in this sentence, the plane took off, ((refers to the blackboard)) where is the main verb Tr: Is it the verb took or the verb took off (2) St: took off (3) Tr: ok why TOOK OFF the verb (4)

(1)

In Example 7, the teacher on line 2 paraphrases his question on line 1. The reason for this is to make the question more comprehensible for the students in a way that enables them to answer easily. In this case, this technique works as a clarification of the teacher’s question through determining the area that the students should focus on. The positive impact of this technique is clear in the student’s answer on line (3).

Strategies: How Teachers Talk There are various studies and references related to the manner Teachers talk in the ESL classroom. Some of them are listed below: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Explicit Correction Strategy Recast Strategy Elicitation Strategy Question Strategy Elaboration Strategy

Explicit Correction Strategy The Explicit Correction Strategy brings the student’s attention to the mistakes without providing the hint to correct it by themselves. The teacher corrects the mistakes immediately (Sicola, 2009). Hence, this strategy improves the accuracy of students’ language production and the comprehensible language input (Verplaetse & Hall, 2000). The following example clarifies this strategy. Example 8: Tr: Where did it fall (1) St1: In the grass (2) Tr: In the grass (3) Tr: It fell on the ground (4) Tr: Can you say on the ground St1: On the ground (6) Tr: Wonderful, good gir:l (7)

(5)

In this example, the teacher uses explicit correction strategy on line 5, in order to bring the student’s attention to the error of using the preposition on line 2. This strategy impacts positively on the student’s learning through enabling him to notice the error and process the correct form in his mind on line 6.

1480

 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition

Recast Strategy The Recast Strategy provides Implicit and Explicit Correction (Verplaetse & Hall, 2000). This strategy has two types: Full Recast reformulates the whole incorrect speech, and Partial Recast reformulates a single erroneous portion of the students’ utterances (Benati et al., 2013). The teacher uses these two types in order to promote the learners’ linguistic learning (Elhami & Roshan, 2016). Full recast strategy can be illustrated in example 9: Example 9: Tr: Why they were not happy (1) St2: because the kite no any wind (2) Tr: there was no any wind (3) Tr: So the kite could not flight (4) St2: There was no any wind so the kite could not flight

(5)

In Example 9, a full recast strategy is provided by the teacher on line 3 and line 4 in order to improve the grammatical structure in the learners’ speech. This strategy works positively to clarify the meaning of the student’s utterance in terms of the grammatical structure. The student realizes the understandable forming of his sentence and repeats it on line 5.

Elicitation Strategy The Elicitation Strategy is adopted by the teacher to “Elicit a verbal response” (p.101) through posing a question. This strategy is divided into six types; first, Confirm: the learners are asked to confirm the assumption of the teacher. Second, Inform: the teacher checks the knowledge of learners through highlighting the missing information. Third, Repeat: the learners are asked to repeat their preceding utterance. The repetition can be the entire utterance or a specific part of it. Fourth, Agree: students are required to agree with the assumption of the teacher. In this case, the suggestion is “self-evidently true” (p. 107). Fifth, Clarify: the learners are asked to clarify uncertain reply that derived from their proceeding utterance. Sixth, Commit: the teacher aims to get a verbal response from the students and asks commitment for an additional exchange (Tsui, 1992). Inform Elicitation is demonstrated in the below example from Usman, et. al. (2018): Example 10: T: Sandwich is a countable noun. Sandwiches for more than one. Sandwich only for one. Do you see more than one sandwich? (2) Ss: Just two. (3) T: So you will say? (4) Ss: Sandwiches. (5) T: Sandwiches. (6)

(1)

In example 10, the teacher elicits the learners’ correct usage of grammatical rules related to the countable noun on lines 2 and 4. This indicates the awareness of students in using the grammar structure

1481

 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition

correctly in their talking. Therefore, inform elicitation helps students to discover the rules by themselves instead of providing them.

Question Strategy The Question Strategy is a form of Question and Answer strategy (Sharpe, 2008). This is divided into four styles. The first one Yes/No Question: requires negation or confirmation to the teacher’s statement. The second one Wh-Question: seeks for supplying missing information. The third one Alternative Question: asks students to choose the correct answer from two or more options. The fourth one Exclamatory Question: shows teacher’s surprise, disapproval, or pleasure about learner’s utterances (Tsui, 1992). These types bring students’ attention to the topic, assess their progress, develop verbal responses and guide learners to get specific information. They also facilitate language production of learners, correct content relates to learners’ responses, and simplifies instructions to get a clear topic (Verplaetse & Hall, 2000). Example 11 shows such uses of yes/no question: Example 11: Tr: Do you like football, Heba (1) St2: No I am not (2) Tr: No I don’t (3) St2: I see (4) Tr: Em..... do you like bananas (5) St3: Eh.... yes I am bananas (6) Sts: Hahahaha (7) Tr: Yes I do (8) Tr: I am not a banana (9) St3: Yes I do (10) Tr: Do you eat apples, Ahmed (11) St4: Yes I.... eat apples (12) Tr: Yes I eat apples is a long answer or Tr: Yes I do is a short answer (14)

(13)

In Example 11, a yes/no question strategy is utilized by the teacher on lines 1, 5 and 11 to measure the students’ knowledge of using the simple present tense. This strategy helps the students to practice the tense through confirming with yes/no answers, such as on line 12. However, some students are unable to create a correct grammatical answer with yes/no questions, such as on lines 2 and 6. This does not mean that this strategy does not work with them, but they are incompetent in using the tense properly in a way that fits with this type of question.

Elaboration Strategy The Elaboration Strategy provides explanation, and what students need about language (Blum-Kulka & Snow, 2002). This strategy utilizes “when a teacher decides to expand on a statement made by a learner or to explain its significance to the rest of the class” (Marczak and Hinton, 2015, p. 73). It improves students’ comprehension of grammar rules (Chaudron, 1982). Elaboration strategy also works as improvement of 1482

 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition

the learners’ comprehension through providing them with knowledge which enables them to recognize and use the grammatical structure (Chaudron, 1982). Since these strategies facilitate Language Input (Chen, 2016; Verplaetse & Hall, 2000), the quality of Teacher talk plays an essential role in the success of the teaching process (Stern, 1983). This quality is measured by the usefulness and appropriateness of teacher’s language on learners (Harmer, 2007). The following example shows the usage of this strategy. Example 12: Tr: While just using to start (1) St2: [just start (2) Tr: Yeah, start few days ago (0.5) (3) Tr: For example, oh jerry have you eat an apple yet (.) oh no I have just eaten much Tr: The effective is still seeming there (5) St3: We put just before past participle (6) Tr: Yes, the just goes before past participle (7) Tr: For example, I have just bought this car (8)

(4)

In Example 12, an elaboration strategy is used on lines 3, 4, 5 and 8 to clarify the use of the word “just” in the present perfect tense. This clarification works by simplifying the complexity of the “just” and extending the comprehensible input of the students regarding this tense. This effective strategy helps the students to use the word “just” accurately, such as on line 6.

CLASSROOM INTERACTION Classroom interaction follows the Initiation, Response and Feedback (IRF) pattern. Teachers focus on Initiation and Feedback. Teachers act as ‘Leaders’, in the Initiation pattern, by starting the verbal exchange, asking a question to the learners. The teachers act as ‘Evaluators’ of learners’ responses in the Feedback pattern. However students act as ‘Followers’ in the Response pattern (Cook, 2008; Sharpe, 2008). Feedback is divided into two sections: The Positive Feedback and the Negative Feedback. The Positive Feedback comprises of repeating the students’ correct responses and praising them (Chaudron, 1988). The Positive Feedback by the teacher arrays the interaction (Sert, 2015). It assures that information from each student in the classroom meliorates the immediate speech goals. Negative Feedback relies on the explanation of syntax and shapes a correct response (Chaudron, 1988). Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) considered IRF pattern as an instrumental model to analyze classroom language. They identify IRF exchanges as the pioneer of discourse pattern in most classes. Conversation Analysis (CA) is a theory that is based on this model. Scaffolding adjacency pairs, the first and the second pairs alternatively constrained, are the crux of CA. The speech in each adjacency pair depends on another, for example, a question is followed by a response and the response anticipates either acknowledgement or another question (Shegloff & Sacks, 1973). The importance of IRF pattern is to promote classroom talk and Language Acquisition (Schegloff, 1982). It empowers learners produce sentences correctly (Verplaetse & Hall, 2000). It also refines teachers to guide and direct the topic flow (Sharpe, 2008). Through IRF pattern, teachers not only boost learning space for the grammatical competence (Sert, 2015), but also provide learners Sociolinguistic Competence through enabling them to produce appropriate sentences in a social environment (Verplaetse & Hall, 2000). 1483

 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition

‘The Next Speaker Selection’ Procedure augments that a student is selected by the teacher and questioned. Then, another student is asked to continue the Conversational Sequences. It occurs in the Initiation Criteria of the teacher that extends the sequences of the IRF exchanges (Seedhouse, 2004). This procedure is called as ‘Turns-Allocation’ to students that encourages them to participate in the classroom interaction process (Mortensen, 2008). ‘Turn-Management’ Procedure is also used in the class by the teacher. It enables teachers to direct their talk if it should be continued or not. Teachers with this procedure also determine the grammatical form that should be used by the students while answering to questions (Seedhouse, 2004; Walsh, 2011). This procedure recuperates students to use the second language in their talk and progresses the process of Language Acquisition (Mortensen, 2008). Sacks et al. (1974) continue that ‘Turn-Management’ procedure is the teachers’ power in the class because they deal with all levels of students’ talk that are classified different from common talk. The next example from Alkhazraji (2018) illustrates the usage of this procedure: Example 1: Tr: What do you think is going to happen in the end (1) Tr: Do you think they were all happy in the end, Rana (2) St3: Yes (3) Tr: Yes they were (4) Tr: Why (5) St3: he got down (6) Tr: who did get down (7) St3: Super Duck got down (8) Tr: Good boy, excellent (9) In this example, the teacher succeeds in managing learner’s speech direction and the questions’ forms. The student is directed to utilize simple past tense in their responses. This conversation management is done by teacher’s questions in lines 2 and 7 and also by the correction feedback of the teacher in line 4. This kind of feedback is provided because the student does not give a specific verb in her answer.

ROLES OF TEACHER TALK The speech of the instructor is the exemplary source of input for second language learners (Chen, 2016) because it creates a language environment for the LSRW skills of the students. It aids and better facilitates acquisition of the second language (Nunan, 1991). This means that Rephrasing, Repetition, Pause, Recast and Slower Speech techniques used by teacher, helps to improve students’ understanding and improved acquisition of the second language (Chaudron, 1988; Verplaetse & Hall, 2000). Besides, the interaction between the teacher and the students is used to expedite comprehension of the topic (Ellis, 1985). This interaction environment in the class is considered a major element of language acquisition (Verplaetse & Hall, 2000). Chaudron (1988) illustrates that with interaction process; students can imitate teachers’ language and acquire it correctly. This process also extends the speech communication between the teacher and students. Zhang (2012) continues that Teacher Talk reforms the students’ speech in terms of syntax and vocabulary. 1484

 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition

Therefore, the quality of Teacher Talk is indispensable for language teaching (Stern, 1983). It is measured how the appropriateness and usefulness of the teachers’ language is for the students. Many researchers such as (Setiawati, 2012; & Wang, 2014) underline the strong relationship between the quality of Teacher Talk and increasing language input. Also, Khany and Malmir (2017) point out that the quality of teacher Talk impacts on the quality of Teaching and Learning process. For this, Walsh (2002) confirms that “Teachers’ ability to control their use of language is at least as important as their ability to select appropriate methodologies” (p.3).

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CHAPTER This chapter contributes to promoting the teaching and learning process in terms of Grammar Acquisition. It introduces teacher talk as a way of improving the acquisition of grammatical rules given that “[g] rammar is the heart of language” (Saaristo, 2015, p. 279) and should be acquired naturally. It projects that the quality of Teacher Talk is the crux factor in the second language acquisition. This chapter also does not link teachers to the use of a particular approach, such as an explicit or implicit approach, but rather they can be autonomous in their teaching. They can use different techniques, strategies and procedures in their talk to facilitate the learning process, enable students to master grammatical rules and extend learners’ comprehension. This chapter will be of essential interest to second language teachers, supervisors, teacher trainers, pre-service teachers and instructors who specialize in TESOL/TESL/TEFL. It will help them facilitate second language acquisition. This chapter has also influenced the researcher in various ways. From the subject knowledge perspective, the researcher obtained knowledge about how Teacher Talk impacts directly on improving learning. From the research skills perspective, although the researcher carried out several studies beforehand by employing different approaches, conversation analysis is a new and distinctive structural method that developed her already existing abilities and knowledge.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS Since, this critical review study focuses on the effect of Teacher Talk on English Grammar learning, it does not have a chance to focus on all issues related to this topic. Further studies can be conducted in the same area but in a new stream. For example, when and how Grammar Instruction should be utilized? How many times should the sentence structures of learners be corrected by the teacher? Does this mean to provide learners the rules only? Highlighting these areas can add novel direction of the outcomes. It is evident that a great attention should be given these areas for further studies. These are noticeably futuristic topics for teacher talk in the second language classroom.

CONCLUSION This chapter reviews a collection of the studies that deal with English Grammar teaching and Teacher Talk. The main purpose of this chapter is to shed more light on the quality, characteristics, and manner of Teacher Talk in teaching of grammar. It aims to develop Teaching and Learning process through 1485

 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition

framing with the post-method pedagogy. This chapter focuses on the importance role that Teacher Talk plays in Grammar Acquisition. This importance lies on helping students to acquire new grammatical forms, allows them to correct their own work either in writing or speaking, enables English language to be learned and used naturally, it also guides the students to express their notions in a simple way in order to avoid misunderstanding, and it enables them to avoid interruption that may occur in their talk or communication with other people. Further, this chapter explores the role of techniques and strategies used for Teacher Talk in the second language comprehension and the classroom interaction. It is the culmination of grammar lessons taught by English teachers in the classroom. It is also an explanation of the Grammar Instruction through Teacher Talk and the manner students understand them. Besides, it portrays the positive impact of Teacher Talk on Grammar Acquisition. This explores an innovative method through which grammar can be taught as the foundation of second language acquisition.

REFERENCES Adair-Hauck, B., & Donato, R. (1994). Foreign language explanations within the zone of proximal development. Canadian Modern Language Review, 50(3), 532-557. doi:10.3138/cmlr.50.3.532 Al-Mekhlafi, A., & Nagaratnam, R. (2011). Difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in an EFL context. International Journal Of Instruction, 4(2), 69–92. Alakawi, K. (2017). Post method pedagogy and ESL/EFL teachers: Educating for change. Riga: Lap Lambert Academic Publishing. Alkhazraji, A. (2018). Analyzing the impact of teacher talk on English grammar learning: With correlation to the procedures in classroom interaction. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 9(5), 1109-1115. doi:10.17507/jltr.0905.27 Azar, B. (2007). Grammar-based teaching: A practitioner‘s perspective. TESL-EJ, 11(2), 1-12. Retrieved from www.tesl-ej.org/ej42/a1.pdf Benati, A., & Lee, J. (2008). Grammar acquisition and processing instruction. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. doi:10.21832/9781847691057 Benati, A. G., Laval, C., & Arche, A. (2013). The grammar dimension in instructed second language learning. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Blum-Kulka, S., & Snow, C. E. (2002). Talking to adults: The contribution of multiparty discourse to language acquisition. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. doi:10.4324/9781410604149 Bochner, S., & Jones, J. (2003). Child language development. London: Whurr Publishers. doi:10.1002/9780470699126 Borg, S. (1999). The use of grammatical terminology in the second language classroom: A quality study of teachers’ practices and cognitions. Applied Linguistics, 20(1), 95–124. doi:10.1093/applin/20.1.95 Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do. Language Teaching, 36(2), 81-109. doi:10.1017/s0261444803001903 1486

 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition

Boyadzhieva, E. (2016). Learner-centered teaching and learner autonomy. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 232, 35-40. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.10.008 Breen, M., & Candlin, C. (2001). The essentials of a communicative curriculum in language teaching. In D. Hall & A. Hewings (Eds.), Innovation in English Language Teaching (pp. 9–26). London: Routledge. Brophy, J. (1999). Perspectives of classroom management: Yesterday, today and tomorrow. In H. Freiberg (Ed.), Beyond behaviorism: changing the classroom management paradigm (pp. 43–56). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching (4th ed.). White Plains, NY: AddisonWesley Longman. Caderonello, A., Martin, V., & Blair, K. L. (2003). Grammar for language arts teachers. New York: Pearson Education. Can, N. (n.d.). Post-method pedagogy: Teacher growth behind walls. Proceedings of the 10th Metuelt Convention. Canale, M., & Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics, 1(1), 1-47. doi:10.1093/applin/i.1.1 Carter, R., & Nunan, D. (2001). The Cambridge guide to teaching English to speakers of other languages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511667206 Celce-Murcia, M. (2001). Teaching English as a second or foreign (3rd ed.). Boston: Heinle and Heinle. Celce-Murcia, M. (2007). Rethinking the role of communicative competence in language teaching. In Intercultural language use and language learning (pp. 41–57). New York: Springer. doi:10.1007/9781-4020-5639-0_3 Celce-Murcia, M., & Hilles, S. (1988). Techniques and resources in teaching grammar (10th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. Celce-Murcia, M., & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999). The grammar book: An ESL/EFL teacher’s course (2nd ed.). Boston: Heinle & Heinle. Chaudron, C. (1982). Vocabulary elaboration in teachers’ speech to L2 learners. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 4(02), 170–180. doi:10.1017/S027226310000440X Chaudron, C. (1988). Second language classrooms (6th ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139524469 Chen, H. (2016). In-service teachers’ intelligibility and pronunciation adjustment strategies in English language classrooms. English Language Teaching, 9(4), 30. doi:10.5539/elt.v9n4p30 Chen, M. (2014). Postmethod pedagogy and its influence on EFL teaching strategies. English Language Teaching, 7(5). doi:10.5539/elt.v7n5p17 Chomsky, N. (1986). Knowledge of language. New York: Praeger.

1487

 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition

Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2011). Research methods in education (7th ed.). London: Routledge. Cook, V. J. (2008). Second language learning and language teaching (4th ed.). London: Hodder Education. Creswell, J. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Cullen, R. (1998). Teacher talk and the classroom context. ELT Journal, 52(3), 179–187. doi:10.1093/ elt/52.3.179 Derakhshan, A., & Torabi, M. (2015). The Implications of communicative language teaching: Teachers perceptions in the spotlight. International Journal of English Language and Literature Studies, 4(4), 203-211. doi:10.18488/journal.23/2015.4.4/23.4.203.211 Doughty, C. J., & Williams, J. (1998). Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition (4th ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Elhami, A., & Roshan, A. (2016). Types of recasts (full and partial) and grammatical structures by basic level EFL Iranian learners. International Journal of English Linguistics, 6(3), 176. doi:10.5539/ ijel.v6n3p176 Ellis, R. (1985). Understanding second language acquisition (4th ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Ellis, R. (2001). Form-focused instruction and second language learning. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Ellis, R. (2001). Introduction: Investigating form-focused instruction. Language Learning, 51, 1–46. doi:10.1111/j.1467-1770.2001.tb00013.x Ellis, R. (2002). Grammar teaching-practice or consciousness-raising? In J. Richards & W. Renandya (Eds.), Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice (pp. 167–174). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511667190.023 Ellis, R. (2006). Current issues in the teaching of grammar: An SLA perspective. TESOL Quarterly, 40(1), 83. doi:10.2307/40264512 Ellis, R., Loewen, R., Elder, S., Erlam, R., Philp, J., & Reinders, C. (2009). Implicit and explicit knowledge in second language learning, testing and teaching. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Ellis, R., & Sheen, Y. (2006). Reexamining the role of recasts in second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28(04). doi:10.1017/S027226310606027X Ezzi, N. A. (2012). Yemeni teachers’ beliefs of grammar teaching and classroom practices. English Language Teaching, 5(8). doi:10.5539/elt.v5n8p170 Ferguson, C. (1977). Baby talk as a simplified register. In C. Snow & C. Ferguson (Eds.), Talking to children; Language input and acquisition (pp. 209–235). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Freed, B. (1981). Foreigner talk, baby talk, native talk. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 1981(28). doi:10.1515/ijsl.1981.28.19

1488

 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition

Garrett, T. (2008). Student-centered and teacher-centered classroom management: A case study of three elementary teachers. Journal of Classroom Interaction, 43(1), 34–47. Gass, S. M., & Selinker, L. (2008). Second language acquisition: An introductory course (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge of Taylor and Francis Group. Hall, J., & Verplaetse, L. (2000). Second and foreign language learning through classroom interaction. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. doi:10.4324/9781410605498 Harmer, J. (2007). How to teach English. Harlow: Pearson Longman. Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching (4th ed.). Pearson Education Limited. Henzl, V. (1979). Foreign talk in the classroom. IRAL Journal, 17(2), 159–167. Hinkel, E., & Fotos, S. (2002). New perspectives on grammar teaching in second language classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Hutchby, I., & Wooffitt, R. (1998). Conversation analysis: Principles, practices and applications. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Hymes, D. (1972). On communicative competence. In J. Pride & J. Holmes (Eds.), Sociolinguistics (pp. 269–293). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. Inan, B. (2014). Teacher revoicing in a foreign language teaching context: Social and academic functions. Australian Journal Of Teacher Education, 39(9). doi:10.14221/ajte.2014v39n9.5 İnceçay, G. (2010). The role of teacher talk in young learners’ language process. Procedia: Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(2), 277–281. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.010 Jarvis, J., & Robinson, M. (1997). Analysing educational discourse: An exploratory study of teacher response and support to pupils’ learning. Applied Linguistics, 18(2), 212–228. doi:10.1093/applin/18.2.212 Jaworski, A., Coupland, N., & Galasinski, D. (2004). Metalanguage: Social and ideological perspectives. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110907377 Johnson, B., & Christensen, L. (2014). Educational research; Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed approaches (7th ed.). SEGE Publications. Kelly, G. (2001). How to teach pronunciation. Pearson ESL. Khany, R., & Malmir, B. (2017). The development and validation of an English language teacher talk functional scale. Iranian Journal Of Language Teaching Research, 5(2), 37–52. Knight, P. (2001). The development of EFL methodology. In C. Candlin & N. Mercer (Eds.), English language teaching in its social context (pp. 147–166). London: Routledge. Ko, M., & Wang, T. (2008). Teacher talk in grammar instruction: A sociocultural perspective. The International Journal of Learning: Annual Review, 15(5), 271-280. doi:10.18848/1447-9494/cgp/v15i05/45766 Krashen, S. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

1489

 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition

Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Oxford, UK: Pergamon Press. Krashen, S. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. Oxford, UK: Pergamon Press. Krashen, S. (1993). Comments on Stephen D. Krashen’s “teaching issues: Formal grammar instruction”. The effect of formal grammar teaching: Still peripheral. TESOL Quarterly, 27(4), 722. doi:10.2307/3587405 Krashen, S. D., & Terrell, T. D. (1983). The natural approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. Oxford, UK: Pergamon. Kumaravadivelu, B. (1994). The postmethod condition: (E) merging strategies for second/foreign language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 28(1), 27-47. doi:10.2307/3587197 Kumaravadivelu, B. (2001). Toward a postmethod pedagogy. TESOL Quarterly, 35(4), 537. doi:10.2307/3588427 Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003). Beyond methods: Macrostrategies for language teaching. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006). Understanding language teaching: From method to postmethod. Lawrence. Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Techniques & principles in language teaching (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Marczak, M., & Hinton, M. (2015). Contemporary English language teaching and research. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Mart, Ç. (2013). Teaching grammar in context: Why and how? Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3(1). doi:10.4304/tpls.3.1.124-129 Masouleh, N. (2012). From method to post method: A panacea! English Language Teaching, 5(4), 6573. doi:10.5539/elt.v5n4p65 McMillan, J., & Schumacher, S. (2010). Research in education: Evidence- based inquiry (7th ed.). Boston: Person. Mortensen, K. (2008). Selecting next speaker in the second language classroom: How to find a willing next speaker in planned activities. Journal Of Applied Linguistics And Professional Practice, 5(1), 55–79. doi:10.1558/japl.v5i1.55 Nassaji, H., & Fotos, S. (2004). Current developments in research on the teaching of grammar. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 24. doi:10.1017/S0267190504000066 Nassaji, H., & Fotos, S. (2011). Teaching grammar in second language classrooms. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203850961 Nazari, N. (2013). The effect of implicit and explicit grammar instruction on learners’ achievements in receptive and productive modes. Procedia: Social and Behavioral Sciences, 70, 156–162. doi:10.1016/j. sbspro.2013.01.051 Nunan, D. (1991). Language teaching methodology: A textbook for teachers (9th ed.). New York: Prentice Hall.

1490

 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition

Nunan, D. (2003). Methodology. In D. Nunan (Ed.), Practical English lannguage teaching. New York: McGrow-Hill. Oinam, S. (2017). Student- centered approach to teaching and learning in higher education for quality enhancement. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 22(6), 27-30. doi:10.9790/0837-2206132730 Peng, Y. (2017). A survey of grammar instruction from scholastic perspective. English Language Teaching, 10(5), 76–80. doi:10.5539/elt.v10n5p76 Poolsawad, K., Kanjanawasee, S., & Wudthayagorn, J. (2015). Development of an English communicative competence diagnostic approach. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 191, 759-763. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.462 Prabhu, N. (1990). There is no best method-why? TESOL Quarterly, 24(2), 161-176. doi:10.2307/3586897 Rezaee, M., & Farahian, M. (2012). An exploration of discourse in an EFL classroom: Teacher talk. Procedia - Social And Behavioral Sciences, 47, 1237-1241. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.06.806 Richards, J. (1985). The context of language teaching. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Richards, J., & Reppen, R. (2014). Towards a pedagogy of grammar instruction. RELC Journal, 45(1), 5–25. doi:10.1177/0033688214522622 Richards, J., & Rodgers, T. (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511667305 Richards, J., & Rodgers, T. (2014). Approaches and methods in language teaching (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. Saaristo, P. (2015). Grammar is the heart of language: Grammar and its role in language learning among Finnish university students. In J. Jalkanen, E. Jokinen & P. Taalas (Eds.), Voices of pedagogical development – Expanding, enhancing and exploring higher education language learning (pp. 279-318). Dublin: Research Publishing. doi:10.14705/rpnet.2015.000296 Sacks, H., Schegloff, E., & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turntaking for conversation. Language, 50(4), 696–735. doi:10.1353/lan.1974.0010 Savage, K., Bitterlin, G., & Price, D. (2010). Grammar matters. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Saville-Troike, M. (2006). Introducing second-language acquisition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Scheffler, P., & Cinciala, M. (2010). Explicit grammar rules and L2 acquisition. ELT Journal, 65(1), 13–23. doi:10.1093/elt/ccq019 Schegloff, E. (1982). Discourse as interactional achievement: Some uses of “uhhuh” and other things that come between sentences. In D. Tannen (Ed.), Analyzing discourse, text, and talk (pp. 71–93). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. Schegloff, E., & Sacks, H. (1973). Opening up closings. Semiotica, 8(4). doi:10.1515emi.1973.8.4.289

1491

 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition

Seedhouse, P. (1997). Combining form and meaning. ELT Journal, 51(4), 336–344. doi:10.1093/ elt/51.4.336 Seedhouse, P. (2004). The interactional architecture of the language classroom: A conversation analysis perspective. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Seedhouse, P. (2005). Conversation analysis as research methodology. In K. Richards & P. Seedhouse (Eds.), Applying conversation analysis (pp. 251–266). Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/9780230287853_15 Sert, O. (2015). Social interaction and L2 classroom discourse. Edinburgh University Press. Setiawati, L. (2012). A descriptive study on the teacher talk at EYL classroom. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(2), 33-48. doi:10.17509/ijal.v1i2.83 Sharpe, T. (2008). How can teacher talk support learning? Linguistics and Education, 19(2), 132–148. doi:10.1016/j.linged.2008.05.001 Shrum, J., & Glisan, E. (2009). Teacher’s handbook (4th ed.). Boston: Heinle Cengage Learning. Sicola, L. (2009). No, They won’t “just sound like each other”: NNS-NNS negotiated interaction and attention to phonological form on targeted L2 pronunciation tasks. Berlin: Peter Lang. Sinclair, J., & Brazil, D. (1982). Teacher Talk. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Sinclair, J., & Coulthard, M. (1975). Towards an analysis of discourse: The English used by teachers and pupils. London: Oxford University Press. Smith, M. (1993). Input enhancement in instructed SLA. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 15(2), 165-179. doi:10.1017/s0272263100011943 Stern, H. (1983). Fundamental concepts of language teaching (9th ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Thornbury, S. (1999). How to teach grammar (1st ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Tsui, A. (1992). A functional description of questions. In M. Coulthard (Ed.), Advances in spoken discourse analysis (pp. 89–110). London: Routledge. Usman, B., Ayouni, N., Samad, I., & Fitriani, S. (2018). Teachers’ elicitation: Inviting students to speak. Edulite: Journal of English Education, Literature and Culture, 3(1), 51-65. doi:10.30659/e.3.1.51-65 Uysal, H., & Bardakci, M. (2014). Teacher beliefs and practices of grammar teaching: Focusing on meaning, form, or forms? South African Journal of Education, 34(1), 1–16. doi:10.15700/201412120943 Walsh, S. (2011). Exploring classroom discourse: Language in action. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203827826 Wang, H. (2014). Teacher talk and language output. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 8(5), 1545–1547.

1492

 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition

Wang, H. (2014). The analysis of teacher talk in “learner-centered” teaching mode. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 8(4), 1172–1174. Wang, S. (2010). The significance of English grammar to middle school students in China. Journal Of Language Teaching And Research, 1(3). doi:10.4304/jltr.1.3.313-319 Wanphet, P. (2016). Analyzing EFL classroom talk during class opening: Topic shift and negotiation. Discourse and Interaction, 9(2), 95-120. doi:10.5817/di2016-2-95 Widdowson, H. G. (1990). Grammar and nonsense and learning. In H. G. Widdowson (Ed.), Aspects of language teaching (pp. 79–98). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Willis, D. (2003). Rules, patterns and words. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Wong, J., & Waring, H. (2010). Conversation analysis and second language pedagogy: A guide for ESL/ EFL teachers. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203852347 Zhang, J. (2009). Necessity of grammar teaching. International Education Studies, 2(2). doi:10.5539/ ies.v2n2p184 Zhang, P. (2012). Interactive patterns and teacher talk features in an EFL reading class in a Chinese university—A case study with communicative teaching method. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2(5). doi:10.4304/tpls.2.5.980-988

ADDITIONAL READING Çakır, İ. (2011). Problems in teaching tenses to Turkish learners. Theory And Practice In Language Studies, 1(2), 123–127. http://doi:10.4304/tpls.1.2.123-127 Carter, R., & McCarthy, M. (2006). Cambridge grammar of English. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Ellis, R. (1993). Talking shop: Second language acquisition research: how does it help teachers? An interview with Rod Ellis. ELT Journal, 47(1), 3-11. http://doi:10.1093/elt/47.1.3 Emmer, E., & Stough, L. (2001). Classroom management: A critical part of educational psychology, with implications for teacher education. Educational Psychologist, 36(2), 103-112. http://doi:10.1207/ s15326985ep3602_5 Fotos, S., & Ellis, R. (1991). Communicating about grammar: A task-based approach. TESOL Quarterly, 25(4), 605-628. http://doi:10.2307/3587079 Long, M. (1983). Linguistic and conversational adjustments to non-native speakers. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 5(02), 177–193. doi:10.1017/S0272263100004848 Mazeland, H. (2013). Grammar in conversation. In T. Stivers & J. Sidnell (Eds.), The handbook of conversation analysis (pp. 475–491). Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.

1493

 The Influence of Teacher Talk in English Grammar Acquisition

Mehan, H. (1979). Learning lessons: Social organization in the classroom. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. doi:10.4159/harvard.9780674420106

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS CA: Refers to conversation analysis. CLT: Refers to communicative language teaching. ESL: Refers to English as a second language. FoF: Means focus on form. IRF: Refers to initiation, response, and feedback. LSRW: Means listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.

This research was previously published in English Language Teaching in a Post-Method Paradigm; pages 66-106, copyright year 2019 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

1494

1495

Chapter 72

The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English John Rothgerber Indiana University, USA

ABSTRACT This chapter will provide the language teacher with an introduction to the theory behind the challenges and problems that learners from a variety of language backgrounds face as they learn to pronounce the sounds of English. The primary focus will be on the influence of the first language in second language phonological acquisition. This will include an overview of the role of perception of non-native sounds, as well as a consideration of phonological representation in the mental lexicon and articulatory constraints, all of which can have an effect on difficulties that learners encounter as they learn to pronounce English sounds. Attention will be given to the various components that make up the phonological system, including segmentals, suprasegmentals, phonotactics, and phonological processes. This theoretical understanding will then be applied to pronunciation instruction within the classroom by addressing what teachers can do to maximize the effectiveness of instruction.

PRONUNCIATION DIFFICULTIES AND PHONOLOGICAL THEORY Second language (L2) learners face countless challenges in their efforts to acquire a new language, not least of which is the necessity to perceive and produce an entirely new sound system. Through research in the field of L2 phonology, researchers have started to develop an understanding of the causes behind learner pronunciation problems. The way that non-native sounds are perceived, stored in the mental lexicon, and articulated can all introduce challenges that learners encounter as they learn to pronounce English sounds. By understanding these challenges and their causes, language instruction can be better guided to help learners succeed.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch072

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

It is first useful to conceptualize the processes by which speech is both perceived and produced. What happens from the time a series of speech sounds is detected by the ear to the time it is recognized as a word with a specific meaning? And, conversely, what happens from the time a word is selected from the mental lexicon to the time it is produced by the vocal apparatus? The following is an adapted information-processing model proposed by Ramus et al. (2010), here reduced in scope to focus on the points relevant for the current chapter. In perception, speech undergoes several steps of processing which convert it to more abstract levels of representation. First, speech enters the ear and travels to the primary auditory cortex as an acoustic representation. This step of acoustic processing occurs for all sounds, not only speech, and the acoustic representation can be thought of as a way of encoding sound for the brain to understand. Following that, speech then undergoes speech-specific processes that assign it to more abstract levels of representation. For example, a speech segment that has the relevant formant properties (resonance peaks that determine the type of vowel) might be assigned to the phonetic category for the English tense vowel [u], as in soup [suːp] or loop [luːp]. There may be several such levels of abstraction. As the speech stream continues, the phonological representation is continuously checked for matches against the mental lexicon. The mental lexicon can be thought of as the brain’s storehouse of words, and for a particular word it stores information on the sound, meaning, and written form of that word. Once a satisfactory match has been found, then the perception process has finished. Production occurs in the opposite direction. First, a word is selected from the mental lexicon, usually based on meaning, and its phonological representation is activated. This representation then undergoes processing at several levels to convert it into an articulatory representation. The articulatory representation guides the articulation of the vocal apparatus as it produces the speech sounds. For example, the articulatory representation of the English tense vowel [u] determines, among other things, the position of the tongue in the mouth and the shape of the lips. The relevance of such a model to the current chapter is that pronunciation problems can originate at any step in both the perception and production processes, as well as in representation in the mental lexicon. Each of these areas will be addressed in detail.

Perception At first thought, it might seem counterintuitive that a problem perceiving a sound could result in a problem pronouncing that sound. However, if a sound cannot be perceived, then its existence might not be evident to a learner. For example, if a learner perceives the phoneme /θ/ as being the same as /s/, such that the words math /mæθ/ and mass /mæs/ sound the same, then the learner may assume that these are homophones and pronounce them identically. However, taking a step back, we must first address the question of why a learner might perceive these different segments as being the same. In 1957, Liberman, Harris, Hoffman, and Griffith published the findings of an experiment which demonstrated that listeners tend to perceive sounds of the same category as more similar, and those of different categories as more different. In the first part of the experiment, participants were asked to listen to synthetic speech sounds and label them as /b/, /d/, or /ɡ/. Researchers manipulated properties of each sound’s formants, which are resonance peaks that occur in human speech and are important for identifying sounds. Specifically, they varied on a continuum each sound’s second formant transition, which is one of the primary cues that English listeners use to distinguish /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/. The results showed that, even though the sounds were varied in gradual steps, participants made very abrupt categorization 1496

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

changes, which resulted in three clearly-defined groups with sharp boundaries. In the second part of the experiment, participants completed an ABX discrimination task with the same sounds used in the first part. In a typical ABX discrimination task, three sounds are played in sequence, such that the first sound (A) is different from the second (B), and the third (X) matches either A or B. Participants are required to select which sound X is closest to. If a particular sound pairing is difficult for participants to discriminate, then they should have lower accuracy scores. The results of the second experiment by Liberman et al. showed that participants had more trouble discriminating the target sounds when they were of the same segment category (as measured in the first part of the experiment) than when they were of different categories, even when the second formant transition values were equally spaced. In other words, a good example of /b/ and a bad example of /b/ (where “bad” refers to having second formant transition values quite different from the norm) were more difficult to tell apart than a bad example of /b/ and a bad example of /d/, despite the acoustic differences being the same between them. The findings by Liberman et al. (1957) led them to propose the concept of categorical perception. This describes the phenomenon whereby stimuli are perceived as belonging to distinct categories. Stimuli belonging to one category are perceived as being more similar to each other, and stimuli belonging to separate categories as more different from each other, even though they may be equidistant on a continuum. Categorical perception is not limited to speech sounds. Very young children can readily establish visual categories, such as dog or cat, after being shown enough stimuli (Harnad, 1987). This raises the question of how perceptual categories for sounds are formed in the mind. It turns out that segment categories are language-specific; within the first year of life, categories are formed based on the L1 of the infant. In a classic study, Werker and Tees (1984) investigated whether or not infants with English-speaking parents could discriminate stop contrasts which are not contrastive in English. One contrast, from the Interior Salish language of Thompson from British Columbia, was of the glottalized velar and uvular stop phonemes /kʼ/ and /qʼ/. English, having only the back stop /k/, lacks this contrast. The second contrast was the Hindi unaspirated retroflex and dental stop contrast /ʈ/ - /t/, which is also absent in English. To measure whether infants could discriminate these sounds, Werker and Tees used a “head turn” experimental paradigm, in which infants were conditioned to turn their heads towards a display when they heard a particular sound being played. The results showed that English infants between six and eight months old could discriminate both contrasts with high accuracy, but from about ten months old, this ability was almost completely lost. Such inability to discriminate these contrasts persists into adulthood for English native speakers. Hindi infants, on the other hand, maintained the ability to discriminate the Hindi stop contrast. By around ten months old, it seems that infants develop perceptual categories based on their L1 and lose the ability to be universal discriminators. So far, we have seen that listeners of a language perceive speech sounds as belonging to distinct categories. These categories are language-specific and form within the first year of life. Now, to tie this into L2 phonological acquisition, consider the example of an adult native speaker of Japanese who is learning English. Such learners are well-known to have problems pronouncing the English /l/ - /ɹ/ contrast. Where might such problems originate? A body of research has shown that L1 Japanese learners of English actually have great difficulty perceiving the difference between the English phonemes /l/ and /ɹ/ in listening (Goto, 1971; Mochizuki, 1981; Sheldon & Strange, 1982). Japanese has only a single liquid consonant, the tap /ɾ/, which is different from both the English /l/ and /ɹ/. This suggests that learners may be perceiving /l/ and /ɹ/ as members of the same L1 category. Even though /l/ and /ɹ/ have quite different acoustic characteristics and sound noticeably different to English native speakers, they may sound like members of the same category to L1 Japanese learners, albeit poor examples of that category. 1497

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

Therefore, problems that L1 Japanese learners have pronouncing /l/ and /ɹ/ may be caused by their inability to perceive them in the first place. If words such as light and right are perceived as being the same, then they may be stored in the mental lexicon as homophones. Cutler and Otake (2004) found evidence in support of this. They tested L1 Japanese learners of English using a lexical decision task with priming. In this task, participants were asked to decide whether a word that they heard was a real English word or not, and the time that it took them to respond was measured. After hearing one word of a /l/ - /ɹ/ minimal pair such as light - right, participants were faster to respond to the second word in the pair when it was played. Light primed the participants for right (and vice versa), even though native speakers did not show such a priming effect. This suggests that learners may have been associating light and right in their mental lexicons, a conclusion which is supported by further research (Ota, Hartsuiker, & Haywood, 2009). That, in turn, could lead to both words being pronounced the same. Much research centered on segmentals (individual consonants and vowels) has supported the idea that non-native sounds that resemble native phonetic or phonemic categories are difficult to perceive, both for naïve listeners (those not learning the language) and learners. In addition to Japanese, evidence for the difficulty of English /l/ - /ɹ/ has also been gathered for other languages that lack the contrast, such as Korean (Ingram & Park, 1998) and Cantonese (Henly & Sheldon, 1986). Further studies have looked at English voiceless stops for L1 Spanish learners (Flege & Eefting, 1987), the English /m/-/n/ contrast in syllable-final position for L1 Brazilian Portuguese learners (Kluge, Rauber, Reis, & Bion, 2007), and the English /p/-/b/ contrast for L1 Arabic learners (Ota et al., 2009), among many others. Best (1995) proposed the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM) to account for patterns of crosslinguistic speech perception in naïve listeners. The PAM states that non-native segments will be assimilated to the closest native segment categories, although the goodness of fit may vary. When there is a one-to-one mapping of non-native segment to native category, listeners do not have much difficulty in discriminating the non-native segment. However, when two non-native segments are mapped to a single native category, discrimination becomes difficult, as in the case of /l/ and /ɹ/ for L1 Japanese listeners. In addition, when non-native segments do not resemble native segments at all, such as Zulu click contrasts for native English speakers, then discrimination remains strong, since there is no interference from native segment categories (Best, McRoberts, & Sithole, 1988). Flege (1995) proposed the Speech Learning Model (SLM), in part to account for the role of categorical perception in L2 phonological acquisition. Flege postulated that L2 learners have only a single perceptual space in which phonetic categories are established for both the L1 and L2. That is, learners do not create an entirely new set of perceptual categories when they begin acquiring an L2 in the way that infants do for their L1. Instead, L2 categories have to be fit into the L1 perceptual space as best as possible. The SLM makes predictions for which L2 sounds will be more difficult to acquire. If a learner can distinguish at least some of the phonetic differences between a sound in the L1 and the L2, then it is possible for a new category to be formed. This is not guaranteed, though. The greater the differences are between the L1 and L2 sounds, the more likely it is that a new category will be created. However, if a contrast is not easily discerned, then the L2 sound will be mapped onto an L1 category, even if it is not a good fit. Even if a new category is established for an L2 sound, it might not be the same category as that of a native speaker, since it might be based on different acoustic features. Acquisition proceeds as more input leads to more clearly defined L2 categories. Production, in turn, reflects the properties of the established phonetic categories. To illustrate, the SLM can be applied to make predictions about the acquisition of the /l/ - /ɹ/ contrast by L1 Japanese learners of English. English /l/ is actually more acoustically similar to Japanese /ɾ/ than 1498

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

is English /ɹ/ (Aoyama, Flege, Guion, Akahane-Yamada, & Yamada, 2004). Therefore, according to the SLM, learners will have more difficulty developing a new category for English /l/ than English /ɹ/. They will tend to map English /l/ onto the L1 category /ɹ/, while for English /ɹ/, since it has more differences from Japanese /ɾ/, they will be more likely to form a new category. In a longitudinal study of Japanese children learning English in the US, Aoyama et al. (2004) found support for this. The learners showed improvement on /l/ - /ɹ/ discrimination over time, and in production, they showed greater improvement on /ɹ/ than on /l/. This suggests that new category development was occurring more for /ɹ/ than /l/; since /l/ resembled the L1 category, it may have been mapped onto that category, even though it represented a poor example of that category. The focus so far has been on the perception of segmentals. Indeed, much of the research on categorical perception has focused on consonant and vowel segments. The PAM and the SLM, for example, only make explicit mention of segment categories. However, speech perception and production are comprised of much more than just the individual phones that make up the speech sequence. In the following paragraphs, consideration will be given to other aspects of speech perception. As will be seen, problems in L2 perception can develop in relation to any aspect of the perceptual system, and these problems in turn might lead to problems in production.

Suprasegmentals Suprasegmentals are features of speech which are added over the segment and can exist beyond it at the level of syllable, word, or utterance. They include stress, accent, and tone. As with segmentals, suprasegmentals are language-specific; different languages use different suprasegmental features, often in a way that is contrastive. One common way of classifying languages is on whether they use tone (e.g., Mandarin), stress (e.g., English), or pitch accent (e.g., Japanese). Suprasegmentals can also be used to convey details such as emotional state or pragmatic information. In English, for example, rising intonation can change “open the door for me” from a command into a request. Because suprasegmentals can rely on much different cues than segmentals, such as pitch and duration, it is not immediately clear whether or not learners will demonstrate the same perceptual difficulties as they do with segmentals. Dupoux, Sebastián-Gallés, Navarette, and Peperkamp (2008) investigated this by looking at how L1 French learners of Spanish perceived stress. In Spanish, stress is lexically contrastive, such that /ˈbebe/ “(s)he drinks” and /beˈbe/ “baby” have different meanings. Stress is indicated on a vowel by higher pitch, longer duration, and higher amplitude. French, however, does not have contrastive stress (nor does it have contrastive tone or pitch accent), and it also does not make use of pitch, duration, or amplitude in a contrastive manner. Therefore, if L1 suprasegmental phonology is constraining perception, L1 French learners of Spanish should have trouble discriminating words that differ only on stress. The results of the study by Dupoux et al. (2008) support that interpretation; L1 French learners seemed to suffer from stress “deafness” which prevented them from accurately discriminating lexical stress contrasts. The perception of tone by learners from non-tone languages has also been extensively studied. Over 70% of the languages in the world have lexical tone, including languages of Asia, West Africa, and Europe (Yip, 2002). Hallé, Chang, and Best (2004) compared the categorization and discrimination of tones by Mandarin listeners and French listeners. Mandarin is a tone language while French is not. Mandarin listeners performed better in both identification and between-category discrimination of tones than did French listeners. Hallé et al. concluded that Mandarin listeners treat tones quasi-categorically, much like vowels, while French listeners perceive them simply as nonlinguistic variations in speech melody. 1499

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

Wayland and Guion (2003) similarly investigated the discrimination of Thai tones by both naïve English listeners and L1 English learners of Thai. The learners were better able to discriminate Thai tones than the naïve listeners, but they did not perform as well as native listeners. Furthermore, Eliasson (1997) compared L1 Mandarin and L1 Hindi learners of Swedish in both perception and production. Hindi is not a tone language and uses pitch only for intonation, while Swedish is a tone language, albeit quite different from Mandarin. Swedish has only one tone which conveys information about morphological derivation, rather than being a property of root words as in Mandarin. Overall, L1 Hindi learners had more problems in identification, discrimination, and production of Swedish tone than did L1 Mandarin learners, suggesting that learners from a tone language can more readily acquire tone in a new language. However, L1 Mandarin learners still showed some difficulty, which is likely due to the very different nature of tone in Swedish. Together, these studies show that the perception of tone is influenced by the nature of the L1. English lexical stress has also received a lot of attention in research. Stressed syllables in English typically have higher pitch, longer duration, and higher amplitude, while unstressed syllables often have reduced vowels. An example is the minimal pair permit /pərˈmɪt/ (verb) and permit /ˈpɛrmɪt/ (noun). Stress is important for speech segmentation, and trochaic stress patterns (strong – weak) seem to be preferred in English (Yu & Andruski, 2010). Archibald (1992, 1993) investigated the perception and production of English lexical stress by L1 Polish and L1 Spanish learners. Both Polish and Spanish are also stress-based languages, but the rules governing placement of stress are different from English. Archibald found that both groups of learners seemed to transfer stress patterns from their L1. L1 Polish learners, for instance, tended to both produce and perceive stress on the penultimate syllable, such that when they heard the word maintain /meɪnˈteɪn/ spoken by a native speaker, they incorrectly indicated stress on the first syllable. As with segmentals, the studies on suprasegmentals presented here again point to the influence of the L1 on the perception of non-native speech. In some cases, as with L1 French learners of Spanish or L1 Hindi learners of Swedish, the absence of the target suprasegmental feature in the L1 seemed to cause severe problems in perception. In cases where the L1 and L2 share the same suprasegmental feature but rely on different cues or rules in realizing it, such as with L1 Polish learners of English, learners showed L1 influences in perception.

Phonotactics Phonotactic constraints are language-specific constraints that determine where segments can occur within a syllable and which segments can occur together. For example, the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s last name contains a consonant cluster in the onset of the first syllable that is not allowed by English phonotactics, /dv/, even though each of these phonemes is present in English. Languages vary greatly in syllable structure and the types of consonant clusters that are permitted. English allows certain onset clusters of three consonants, such as in street, while Japanese does not allow any complex consonant clusters at all. The effects of phonotactic constraints on foreign words can be seen through loanword adaptation—the process by which foreign words are adapted into a language. Illicit consonant clusters can be repaired by the insertion of epenthetic vowels, by the deletion of certain consonants, or by the mutation of consonants into allowed clusters. In Japanese, the preferred strategy is vowel epenthesis, so that the Japanese

1500

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

loanword for the English street is sutoriito /sutoriːto/. The epenthetic vowel used most often in Japanese is /u/, although /o/ is used after alveolar stops /t/ and /d/. The question arises of where in the phonological system vowel epenthesis is occurring. It is possible, for example, that speakers have difficulty producing illicit consonant clusters as in the name Dvořák, so vowel epenthesis occurs to aid production (in English, a schwa is inserted to form /dəvɔːrʒɑːk/). However, it is also possible that vowel epenthesis is occurring at the perceptual level, such that listeners perceive a vowel even when it is absent in the acoustic input. Dupoux, Kakehi, Hirose, Pallier, and Mehler (1999) investigated this in a series of experiments designed to reveal the perceptual nature of epenthetic vowels. In one experiment using a vowel identification task, Japanese listeners were auditorily presented with non-words that varied in the degree to which a vowel occurred in a consonant cluster. The non-words ranged from no vowel being present in the acoustic signal, as in /ɛbzo/, to a full vowel being present, as in /ɛbuzo/, with four steps in between. Participants were trained in vowel recognition and then asked to listen to each stimulus and respond by indicating whether or not they perceived a vowel in the target position. The results showed that, on average, participants perceived a vowel for all stimuli at a high rate, even when there was no vowel in the acoustic signal (/ɛbzo/). Another experiment using an ABX discrimination task supported these results by showing that Japanese listeners had a high error rate in discriminating pairs of words such as /ɛbzo/ and /ɛbuzo/. Therefore, Dupoux et al. concluded that vowel epenthesis is occurring at the perceptual level, rather than simply being a mechanism to aid articulation of unfamiliar contrasts in production. Although phonotactic constraints such as vowel epenthesis seem to occur in the perceptual system, it is not clear how they interact with categorical perception. Phonotactics are not addressed in the PAM or the SLM, which are focused only on the categorization of individual segments independent of context. One possibility is that phonotactic constraints apply after segments have been categorized, while another possibility is that they apply concurrently with categorization. Dupoux, Parlato, Frota, Hirose, and Peperkamp (2011) conducted a series of experiments on this topic which compared native speakers of Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese. Similar to Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese does not allow consonant clusters in certain environments, such as in /ɛbzo/. However, while the preferred epenthetic vowel in Japanese is /u/, it is /i/ in Brazilian Portuguese (in each case, the preferred epenthetic vowel is the shortest vowel in the language). Dupoux et al. (2011) created stimuli for a vowel identification task similar to that used in Dupoux et al. (1999) by excising the vowels in steps from pairs of words such as /ɛbuzo/ and /ɛbizo/. If vowel epenthesis occurs after categorization, then coarticulatory effects of the preceding consonant (the way in which a consonant changes to reflect the vowel that follows) should not be relevant, since they will be lost at the categorization stage. However, if Japanese listeners are more likely to perceive a vowel when it has been excised from /ɛbuzo/ and Brazilian Portuguese speakers when it has been excised from /ɛbizo/, this indicates that epenthesis is occurring together with categorization. Results indicated that the latter was occurring: Japanese listeners perceived more /u/ vowels in /ɛbzo/ when the sound had been created from /ɛbuzo/ rather than /ɛbizo/, and Brazilian Portuguese listeners showed the opposite pattern. Overall, the results from Dupoux et al. (2011) suggest that phonotactic constraints apply during categorization. This is not easily compatible with current models of categorization, which focus only on segments in isolation.

1501

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

Phonological Processes A phonological process (formally represented by a phonological rule) is a language-specific process that causes speech to change in some way as it moves from one level of mental representation to another. For instance, a particular phoneme may systematically change in production when it occurs within a certain context, possibly in order to make articulation easier. One such case is regressive assimilation of place of articulation in English (Darcy, Peperkamp, & Dupoux, 2007). The coronals /t/, /d/, and /n/ typically change their place of articulation in natural speech when followed by a labial or velar segment to match that segment. Therefore, the /t/ in the word hot /hɑt/ will assimilate the labial place of articulation if followed by bread /brɛd/ to form [hɑp̚brɛd] in production, while the same /t/ in hot /hɑt/ will assimilate the velar place of articulation if followed by glue /ɡluː/ to form [hɑk̚ɡluː]. One task of the listener’s phonological system is to reconstruct the underlying segment in order to aid word recognition. However, because phonological processes are language-specific, it is possible that an L2 learner may encounter difficulties in perception due to the influence of L1 phonological processes. Darcy et al. (2007) addressed the influence of L1 phonological processes on L2 perception by looking at patterns of assimilation in both L1 French learners of English and L1 English learners of French. French differs from English in that it does not have the regressive place assimilation process just described. Instead, it has regressive voicing assimilation, which is a process that occurs within obstruent clusters. When the voicing features (voiced or voiceless) of two obstruents in sequence do not match, the first obstruent will assimilate the voicing feature of the second. For example, the /t/ in botte /bot/ (boot in English) becomes voiced in production when followed by grise /ɡriz/ (grey in English) to form [bodɡriːz]. If the English regressive place assimilation process were applied to this word pair rather than the French voicing assimilation process, it would result in the illicit *[bokɡriːz]. Conversely, if the French voicing assimilation process was applied to the English hot glue, it would result in *[hɑdɡluː]. The question that Darcy et al. addressed, then, is whether or not learners tended to apply their L1 phonological processes in L2 perception. In the experiment, both L1 French learners of English and L1 English learners of French listened to the same L2 word twice, first in isolation and then followed by another word in the context of a sentence, and had to decide whether or not the words had the same form. The target words in the sentential context were varied to reflect both place assimilation and voicing assimilation. The results showed that lower-proficiency learners from both L1s tended to respond based on the L1 assimilation process. For example, L1 French learners of English tended to respond that a word such as hot [hɑt] was of the same form in isolation as in *[hɑdɡluː], but was different from the form in [hɑk̚ɡluː], unlike English native speakers. Higher-proficiency learners, however, tended to respond more based on the L2 process, which suggests that L2 phonological processes can be acquired.

Perception vs. Production So far, we have focused exclusively on the importance of perception in understanding the difficulties that learners might have in pronouncing the sounds of their L2. Indeed, much of the research on L2 phonological acquisition has focused on the role of perception. One aspect of this that must be addressed, however, is to what extent perception actually relates to production. Is it possible for a learner to produce a sound that cannot be perceived? And, conversely, is it possible that a sound can be perceived but not produced? A number of studies have addressed the relationship between perception and production (Llisterri, 1995; Peperkamp & Bouchon, 2011; Schmitz, Díaz, Fernández Rubio, & Sebastián-Gallés, 2018; see 1502

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

Flege, 1999 for a review). The general consensus seems to be that there is a relationship between perception and production, but it does not account for all of the observed findings. For example, Sheldon and Strange (1982) reported on the perception and production of the English /l/-/ɹ/ contrast by L1 Japanese learners. While advanced learners still had problems with perception, they were able to produce the contrast quite well. How could they produce a contrast that they could not perceive? Conversely, how might it be possible for a learner to hear a sound that they cannot produce accurately? In the following paragraphs, these points will be addressed through a consideration of both the way that words are encoded in the mental lexicon and how sounds are articulated by the vocal apparatus.

Mental Lexicon Models of perception such as the PAM and the SLM imply that a distinction cannot be made in the mental lexicon for a contrast that is not perceived. For example, if an L1 Japanese learner of English perceives light and right as the same, then both words will be represented the same way in the mental lexicon, which will, in turn, cause them to be produced the same. Pallier, Colomé, and Sebastián-Gallés (2001) investigated L1 Spanish L2 Catalan early bilinguals to determine how Catalan minimal pairs were lexically encoded. Catalan contains vowel contrasts, such as /e/-/ɛ/, that are absent in Spanish. Previous research showed that L1 Spanish L2 Catalan early bilinguals have difficulty discriminating this contrast and assimilate both vowels to the Spanish /e/ (Pallier, Bosch, & Sebastián-Gallés, 1997). To investigate underlying lexical representations, Pallier et al. (2001) used a lexical decision task with repetition priming. In this task, participants hear a series of words and non-words and have to decide whether each is a real word or not. There is a repetition effect such that if a participant hears the same word twice in near succession, they will respond more quickly. However, this repetition effect does not occur for minimal pairs. Therefore, if an L1 Catalan speaker hears /netə/ and /nɛtə/ in near succession, there will not be a repetition effect, since these words have different lexical representations. Pallier et al. found, however, that L1 Spanish L2 Catalan bilinguals did have a repetition effect for such minimal pairs, which indicates that they were encoded as homophones in the lexicon. They concluded that a difficulty in perceiving an L2 contrast will lead learners to encode word pairs with that contrast as homophones in their mental lexicons. However, it does not always seem to be the case that a contrast cannot be represented in the mental lexicon if it cannot be perceived (Cutler, Weber, & Otake, 2006; Darcy, Daidone, & Kojima, 2013; Darcy et al., 2012; Weber & Cutler, 2004). Cutler et al. (2006) investigated the English /l/-/ɹ/ for L1 Japanese learners of English. As previously discussed, this contrast is difficult for this learner group to perceive, even at advanced proficiency levels. In their experiment, Cutler et al. presented participants with a set of pictures and used an eye-tracking device to record which pictures they looked at. Two of the pictures showed objects which started with similar syllables, such as rocket and locker. Participants were then instructed to look at one of the pictures (e.g., “Look at the rocket.”) When told to look at the rocket, participants also had an initial tendency to look at the locker. However, importantly, when instructed to look at the locker, they did not look at the rocket. Cutler et al. interpreted this asymmetry to mean that learners had encoded the /l/-/ɹ/ distinction in the lexicon, but their phonetic processing was unable to discriminate the two sounds; the asymmetry was due to one of the sounds, /l/, being dominant and therefore easier to process. If some L1 Japanese learners of English have successfully represented the /l/-/ɹ/ contrast in their mental lexicons, that might account for the findings by Sheldon & Strange (1982) that learners could 1503

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

produce the contrast despite not being able to perceive it. However, the question of how a contrast could be lexically encoded without being perceived must still be addressed. Weber and Cutler (2004) suggested that metalinguistic or orthographic knowledge might be the mechanism by which perception could essentially be bypassed. In other words, learners might be aware that the first syllables of rocket and locker must be different because they are written differently, even though they cannot hear the difference. This orthographic knowledge might then be incorporated into the lexical representation of rocket. Through articulatory rehearsal, learners might be able to differentiate between the two sounds in production (although not necessarily in a way that is native-like), despite perception still eluding them (Sheldon & Strange, 1982).

Articulation Articulation refers to how the components of the vocal system, including the lungs, vocal cords, tongue, and so on, physically operate to produce sound. Although much of the recent research on the influence of the L1 phonological system in L2 acquisition has focused on perception, the role of articulation has also received some attention. Honikman (1964) proposed the articulatory settings theory, which argued that a speaker’s articulatory system was defined by the characteristics of sounds in the L1. The theory predicted difficulty in articulating L2 sounds that were absent in the L1. Some evidence in support of articulatory transfer comes from a study by Hurtado and Estrada (2010), who looked at the production of Spanish vibrants—the alveolar tap /ɾ/ and the alveolar trill /r/—by L1 English learners. These two Spanish phonemes are absent in English and are particularly difficult to articulate. The Spanish trill /r/ even presents challenges for L1 Spanish speakers and is one of the last segments to be acquired in L1 acquisition (Hurtado & Estrada, 2010). In their study, Hurtado and Estrada analyzed advanced learners’ speech for accurate productions of the vibrants. They found that learners produced both the tap and the trill, but the phonological context played an important role. Accurate vibrants were produced less often when immediately following another alveolar consonant than when following a velar consonant, bilabial consonant, or vowel. This suggests that articulation was easier when the tongue tip—the primary articulator in both the tap and trill—was not involved in the articulation of the previous sound. Such results are not accounted for by purely perceptual models, which do not address such specific differences based on phonological context. Colantoni and Steele (2008) highlighted the importance of including articulatory constraints in L2 phonological models. They looked at the production of the French uvular fricative /ʁ/ and the Spanish tap /ɾ/ by L1 English intermediate and advanced learners of each language. For each of the target phonemes, they determined through analysis whether learners had mastered features of voice, length, and manner. The phonemes were varied for context: word initial, word final, intervocalic, and preceding a consonant. The results showed a large degree of variation in mastery, depending on both the feature in question and the context. For example, for advanced learners of French, they had mastered manner in intervocalic contexts, but not voice or length, and in word final contexts, they had mastered voice and length, but not manner. Colantoni and Steele concluded that current models of perception are too general to account for such a wide variety of patterns in production. Instead, learners’ problems seemed to be due to the inability to coordinate the different articulatory gestures. The focus throughout this chapter has been on how the phonological system of a learner’s L1 can influence the perception and production of the L2. Difficulties in perception can occur in relation to segmentals, suprasegmentals, phonotactics, and phonological processes, and these in turn can cause 1504

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

inaccurate representations in the mental lexicon. Other factors, however, may also affect the way that words are represented in the mental lexicon, such as the orthography of a language or metalinguistic knowledge of phonology. Finally, difficulties in articulating sounds not present in the L1 can also result in production problems. Together, these factors present a picture of the challenges that a learner faces when attempting to learn how to pronounce sounds in an L2.

IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS This section will address some of the implications that L2 phonological research has for teaching pronunciation to learners. The focus here will be on practical advice that teachers can implement within the pronunciation classroom to enhance instruction. Four main points will be addressed which highlight the importance of perception practice, explicit instruction, communicative production, and understanding learner problems.

Perception Practice Given our understanding that L2 learners can fail to accurately perceive elements of speech, such as segmentals and suprasegmentals, it is clear that pronunciation instruction should have some focus on improving the perception of difficult sounds. In more traditional pronunciation instruction, learners might practice repeating words after the teacher, but this type of instruction is clearly limited if learners are not accurately hearing the target sounds. By improving perception, the underlying forms of words that learners store in their mental lexicons might become more accurate, and this in turn will lead to improved pronunciation. At least for some contrasts, such as the /l/-/ɹ/ contrast for L1 Japanese learners of English, experimental evidence has shown that training in perception can have a positive effect on pronunciation (Bradlow, Pisoni, Akahane-Yamada, & Tohkura, 1997). What specifically can teachers do to practice perception? Perhaps the most straight-forward method is the use of minimal pairs that differ only in the target sound; students can practice listening and matching one member of a minimal pair to its corresponding picture. However, minimal pairs are somewhat limited in their use since it can be difficult to find pairs for certain contrasts, such as lexical stress, and because learners may not be familiar with both members of the pair. Darcy (2018) suggests using pairs of words, where one member of the pair is real word and one is a pseudoword, that differ only in the target sound, such as /strit/ and */strɪt/ for street. Learners are asked to identify which word in the pair matches a picture. Such an activity can be implemented through a PowerPoint slideshow with audio recordings of the word pairs. Once learners are comfortable with words in isolation, more variety can be introduced by including words within sentences, words spoken by different speakers, or words spoken at a faster rate. For more advanced practice, and particularly for practice of suprasegmentals such as intonation and sentence stress, learners can listen to recordings of natural speech. They can focus on the rhythmic nature of sentence stress by doing clapping activities while listening, or draw contour lines in the air to match intonation patterns. Shadowing is a good all-purpose activity to help with speaking fluency and also pronunciation. To do shadowing, learners listen and repeat after a recording with a very short delay. Shadowing is particularly effective in pronunciation practice when learners are instructed to focus on one particular feature, such as word stress.

1505

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

Explicit Instruction and Feedback Explicit instruction in both segmentals and suprasegmentals has been reported to have a positive effect on pronunciation, particularly comprehensibility (Gordon, Darcy, & Ewert, 2013; Saito, 2011; Thomson & Derwing, 2014). As discussed in regards to the mental lexicon, explicit instruction may help learners bypass limits in perception in order to construct accurate mental representations. Explicit instruction is instruction that focuses the learner’s attention on the form of sounds and describes how those sounds are produced in as much detail as is appropriate (this is determined by both the learner population and the degree of phonetics training that the teacher has had). This goes hand-in-hand with perception practice, and the two should be closely linked in the classroom. A resource book such as Celce-Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin (2010) is invaluable, both because it provides a detailed description of English phonetics in an easy-to-understand way, and because it includes diagrams that can be shown to students to help them visualize the positions of the vocal organs. For consonants, learners should be taught at least the place and manner of articulation for each sound, and for vowels, the relationship between tongue placement, lip rounding, and vowel sound. For suprasegmentals, learners should be taught at least word stress and vowel reduction (as a pair, given their connected nature), sentence stress, and intonation, preferably in that order. If priority must be given to either segmentals or suprasegmentals, then it is recommended to focus on suprasegmentals (Gordon et al., 2013). Instruction in suprasegmentals seems to have a greater effect on comprehensibility, and in the experiences of this author, many students seem completely unaware of the principles of English suprasegmentals. English orthography can be both a help and a hindrance in pronunciation instruction. When there is a clear difference in the written alphabet that reflects a sound contrast, such as with the letters l and r, then this can help students realize that these sounds are not the same. However, there are many sound contrasts in English that are not reflected in orthography. For example, both bath /bæθ/ and bathe /beɪð/ are written with th, but the underlying phoneme is different. At the least, students should be told that the English alphabet does not always offer trustworthy information when it comes to pronunciation. For a highly motivated group of learners, the teacher may find it helpful to introduce the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for English sounds. Even a basic overview of the IPA can be enough to show learners that there are more sounds in English than are indicated via the alphabet. Finally, explicit corrective feedback is an essential component of pronunciation instruction, especially when paired with explicit instruction (Darcy, 2018). Feedback should be explicit, meaning that the teacher should clearly identify the error and its correction. By doing so, learners understand that their pronunciation is being corrected and not the meaning of what they were saying. Explicit feedback should ideally target problems that learners have already received instruction in, so that learners are able to draw on their own understanding of the error and what should be done to correct it.

Communicative and Repetitive Production Pronunciation practice that is done only through highly controlled activities may not lead to clear improvements in spontaneous speech (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010). This is evident to any teacher who has given learners a pronunciation drill that seems to lead to improvement, only for learners to immediately revert to their old habits once the drill is finished. Learners may be able to make use of more attentional resources during controlled activities than during spontaneous speech, and controlled activities may not 1506

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

present the same pressure on the articulatory system that highly varied, rapid speech does. Therefore, it is important to also devote practice time to more open, communicative tasks so that learners have an opportunity to put what they have learned into action in a way that reflects actual use. Celce-Murcia et al. (2010) have developed a communicative framework for pronunciation instruction that aims to integrate communicative activities into instruction. According to the framework, learners first receive explicit instruction in the target feature and do perception practice. Then, learners practice production in a series of activities that gradually become less restrictive. They might begin this with a controlled activity where they ask set questions to a partner and record the answers, and then move on to a less restrictive information gap activity. Eventually, learners engage in open conversation which involves producing the target structure in some way. One challenge of communicative production activities, however, is that learners might lose focus of the goal of pronunciation and instead focus their attention on meaningful communication alone. To address this, Gatbonton and Segalowitz (2005) proposed the ACCESS methodology, where ACCESS stands for Automatization in Communicative Contexts of Essential Speech Segments. This methodology is not targeted specifically at pronunciation instruction, but it can easily be integrated. While the focus of ACCESS remains on communicative production, it aims for the automatization of the targeted language feature through repetition. Communicative activities should be “genuinely communicative,” meaning learners must communicate in order to share information that is used to complete some task. These activities should also feature considerable repetition of the target feature. For example, if learners are practicing question intonation, they might do an interview roleplay where one learner interviews the other about a topic of interest, and later the results of the interview are presented to the class. Such an activity has repetition of the target feature (asking a variety of questions) and a goal (present the findings to the class). Throughout such an activity, the teacher emphasizes to learners that their focus should be on the target feature, and the teacher also provides explicit corrective feedback. In this way, learners stay focused on the goal of pronunciation while also communicating freely.

Understanding Learner Problems Pronunciation instruction may seem to pose an exceptional challenge for teachers, particularly in contexts where learners are from mixed L1 backgrounds. Each learner may have very different strengths and weaknesses, and this may leave a teacher feeling that they do not know where to begin. Nevertheless, perhaps the most important tool that a teacher can bring to a classroom is the awareness that there are patterns and generalizations to be found in the problems that learners encounter in pronunciation. One goal of this chapter has been to highlight the possible ways that the L1 may influence L2 pronunciation. Using this knowledge, teachers can be better informed about underlying causes of learner problems and how best to overcome them. It is unreasonable to expect a teacher to learn the phonological system of the L1 of every learner in a class. However, there are several ways that teachers can put to use an understanding of L2 phonology. First, by simply being aware of learners’ L1s, teachers can begin to recognize patterns that occur frequently. For example, it probably will not take long in the classroom to realize that low-proficiency L1 Arabic learners of English have problems with the /p/-/b/ contrast, or that L1 Japanese learners of English struggle with vowel reduction. Noticing these patterns and recognizing that they are likely due to L1 influence can greatly assist teachers in targeting areas in need of practice, both for the current group of learners and for future learners. In addition, it can be very helpful to administer diagnostic checks to 1507

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

learners at the beginning of a course. A typical diagnostic involves the learner being recorded as they read a passage (after being given time to practice). One such diagnostic can be found in Celce-Murcia et al. (2010). A perception diagnostic can also be given by having learners listen and match one word from a word/pseudoword pair to a picture for a variety of sounds. Finally, learners themselves can be a great resource in determining problem areas in perception and production. Through experience and selfevaluation, they may have a good sense of their own weaknesses of which they can inform the teacher. Of course, any such self-reports from learners should be verified, since there is a possibility that they have misunderstood some aspect of English pronunciation. By incorporating perception practice, explicit instruction and feedback, communicative and repetitive production, and an understanding of learner problems, it is possible for teachers to approach pronunciation instruction in a way that is theoretically grounded and best suited to helping learners overcome the particular challenges that they face. The importance of pronunciation instruction in aiding L2 phonological acquisition cannot be overstated, and the overview of research presented in this chapter demonstrates that more so than ever before, teachers have the knowledge at their disposal to target learner problems and maximize the efficiency of instruction.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Think back on your own experiences learning an L2. Were you aware of any sounds that were difficult to perceive? If so, what drew your awareness to those sounds? 2. What expectations might the typical L2 learner have for pronunciation instruction? How might these expectations differ from what has been discussed in this chapter? 3. It can be challenging to teach pronunciation to a group of learners from mixed L1 backgrounds, since each learner might have different strengths and weaknesses. However, what advantages might such a situation offer? 4. Learners often have different goals for how they want to sound in an L2. They may want to sound like a native speaker, or simply speak in a way that is comprehensible, or even maintain an accent as part of their identity. How will such differences affect pronunciation instruction? 5. Some teachers report that they do not have enough time to devote to pronunciation instruction in the classroom. How might pronunciation be integrated into other skills to overcome this?

EXERCISES 1. Mandarin does not have a distinction between tense and lax vowels, while English does (/i,e,u//ɪ,ɛ,ʊ/). Mandarin vowels more closely resemble English tense vowels. What predictions can you make about how L1 Mandarin learners will perceive such English vowels? 2. Japanese does not have a distinction between tense and lax vowels, but it does have a distinction between long and short vowels. In general, English tense vowels are longer in duration than lax vowels, although this is not the primary cue that native speakers use to distinguish the two. Do you predict that L1 Japanese learners will perceive a difference between English tense and lax vowels? 3. Spanish phonotactics does not allow consonant clusters that begin with /s/ at the beginning of words. For example, the Spanish cognate of the English word stable is estable. What do you predict that a 1508

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

low proficiency level L1 Spanish learner of English will perceive when they hear the word strong, and how will they produce it? 4. Japanese has lexical pitch-accent, which is indicated solely by a change in pitch on a particular syllable. English, on the other hand, has lexical stress, which is indicated by increased pitch, duration, and amplitude on the stressed syllable and vowel reduction on unstressed syllables. What problems do you predict that L1 Japanese learners of English will have with English lexical stress? 5. German has both voiced and voiceless stops, but there is a phonological process that results in stops being devoiced when they occur at the end of a word. For example, the German words Rad ‘wheel’ and Rat ‘council’ are homophones. Do you predict that L1 German learners of English will have difficulty distinguishing between the English words rod and rot?

REFERENCES Aoyama, K., Flege, J. E., Guion, S. G., Akahane-Yamada, R., & Yamada, T. (2004). Perceived phonetic dissimilarity and L2 speech learning: The case of Japanese /r/ and English /l/ and /r/. Journal of Phonetics, 32(2), 233–250. doi:10.1016/S0095-4470(03)00036-6 Aoyama, K., & Guion, S. G. (2007). Prosody in second language acquisition: Acoustic analyses of duration and F0 range. In O.-S. Bohn & M. Munro (Eds.), Language experience in second language speech learning (pp. 281–297). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi:10.1075/lllt.17.24aoy Archibald, J. (1992). Transfer of L1 parameter settings: Some empirical evidence from Polish metrics. Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 37(3), 301–340. doi:10.1017/S0008413100019903 Archibald, J. (1993). The learnability of English metrical parameters by adult Spanish speakers. IRAL: International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 31(2), 129. Best, C. T. (1995). A direct realist view of cross-language speech perception. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience. Issues in cross-language research (pp. 171–204). Timonium, MD: York Press. Best, C. T., McRoberts, G. W., & Sithole, N. M. (1988). Examination of perceptual reorganization for nonnative speech contrasts: Zulu click discrimination by English-speaking adults and infants. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance, 14(3), 345–360. doi:10.1037/00961523.14.3.345 PMID:2971765 Bradlow, A. R., Pisoni, D. B., Akahane-Yamada, R., & Tohkura, Y. I. (1997). Training Japanese listeners to identify English /r/ and /l/: IV. Some effects of perceptual learning on speech production. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 101(4), 2299–2310. doi:10.1121/1.418276 PMID:9104031 Celce‐Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M., & Goodwin, J. M. (2010). Teaching pronunciation: A course book and reference guide (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Colantoni, L., & Steele, J. (2008). Integrating articulatory constraints into models of second language phonological acquisition. Applied Psycholinguistics, 29(3), 489–534. doi:10.1017/S0142716408080223

1509

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

Cutler, A., & Otake, T. (2004). Pseudo-homophony in non-native listening. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 115(5), 2392. doi:10.1121/1.4780547 Cutler, A., Weber, A., & Otake, T. (2006). Asymmetric mapping from phonetic to lexical representations in second-language listening. Journal of Phonetics, 34(2), 269–284. doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2005.06.002 Darcy, I. (2018). Powerful and effective pronunciation instruction: How can we achieve it? The CATESOL Journal, 30(1), 13–45. Darcy, I., Daidone, D., & Kojima, C. (2013). Asymmetric lexical access and fuzzy lexical representations in second language learners. The Mental Lexicon, 8(3), 372–420. doi:10.1075/ml.8.3.06dar Darcy, I., Dekydtspotter, L., Sprouse, R. A., Glover, J., Kaden, C., McGuire, M., & Scott, J. H. G. (2012). Direct mapping of acoustics to phonology: On the lexical encoding of front rounded vowels in L1 English-L2 French acquisition. Second Language Research, 28(1), 5–40. doi:10.1177/0267658311423455 Darcy, I., Peperkamp, S., & Dupoux, E. (2007). Bilinguals play by the rules. Perceptual compensation for assimilation in late L2-learners. In J. Cole & J. I. Hualde (Eds.), Laboratory phonology 9 (pp. 411–442). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Dupoux, E., Kakehi, K., Hirose, Y., Pallier, C., & Mehler, J. (1999). Epenthetic vowels in Japanese: A perceptual illusion? Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance, 25(6), 1568–1578. doi:10.1037/0096-1523.25.6.1568 Dupoux, E., Parlato, E., Frota, S., Hirose, Y., & Peperkamp, S. (2011). Where do illusory vowels come from? Journal of Memory and Language, 64(3), 199–210. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2010.12.004 Dupoux, E., Sebastián-Gallés, N., Navarrete, E., & Peperkamp, S. (2008). Persistent stress ‘deafness’: The case of French learners of Spanish. Cognition, 106(2), 682–706. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2007.04.001 PMID:17592731 Eliasson, S. (1997). Tone in second language acquisition. In R. Hickey & S. Puppel (Eds.), Language history and linguistic modeling (Vol. 2, pp. 1273–1289). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Flege, J. E. (1995). Second language speech learning. Theory, findings and problems. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience. Issues in cross-language research (pp. 233–277). Timonium, MD: York Press. Flege, J. E. (1999). The relation between L2 production and perception. In J. J. Ohala, Y. Hasegawa, M. Ohala, D. Granville, & A. C. Bailey (Eds.), Fifth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (vol. 2, pp. 1273-1276). Berkeley, CA. Flege, J. E., & Eefting, W. (1987). Production and perception of English stops by native Spanish speakers. Journal of Phonetics, 15, 67–83. Freeman, M. R., Blumenfeld, H. K., & Marian, V. (2016). Phonotactic constraints are activated across languages in bilinguals. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 702. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00702 PMID:27242615 Gatbonton, E., & Segalowitz, N. (2005). Rethinking communicative language teaching: A focus on access to fluency. Canadian Modern Language Review, 61(3), 325–353. doi:10.3138/cmlr.61.3.325

1510

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

Gordon, J., Darcy, I., & Ewert, D. (2013). Pronunciation teaching and learning: Effects of explicit phonetic instruction in the L2 classroom. In J. Levis, & K. LeVelle (Eds.). Proceedings of the 4th Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference (pp. 194-206). Ames, IA: Iowa State University. Goto, H. (1971). Auditory perception by normal Japanese adults of the sounds “l” and “r.”. Neuropsychologia, 9(3), 317–323. doi:10.1016/0028-3932(71)90027-3 PMID:5149302 Hallé, P. A., Chang, Y. C., & Best, C. T. (2004). Identification and discrimination of Mandarin Chinese tones by Mandarin Chinese vs. French listeners. Journal of Phonetics, 32(3), 395–421. doi:10.1016/ S0095-4470(03)00016-0 Harnad, S. (Ed.). (1987). Categorical perception: The groundwork of cognition. New York: Cambridge University Press. Henly, E., & Sheldon, A. (1986). Duration and context effects on the perception of English /r/ and /l/: A comparison of Cantonese and Japanese speakers. Language Learning, 36(4), 505–522. doi:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1986.tb01036.x Honikman, B. (1964). Articulatory settings. In D. Abercrombie, D. Fry, P. MacCarthy, N. C. Scott, & J. Trim (Eds.), In honour of Daniel Jones (pp. 73–84). London: Longman. Hurtado, L. M., & Estrada, C. (2010). Factors influencing the second language acquisition of Spanish vibrants. Modern Language Journal, 94(1), 74–86. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4781.2009.00984.x Ingram, J. C., & Park, S. G. (1998). Language, context, and speaker effects in the identification and discrimination of English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese and Korean listeners. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 103(2), 1161–1174. doi:10.1121/1.421225 PMID:9479769 Kluge, D. C., Rauber, A. S., Reis, M. S., & Bion, R. A. H. (2007). The relationship between the perception and production of English nasal codas by Brazilian learners of English. Proceedings of Interspeech, 2007, 2297–2300. Lai, Y. H. (2010). English vowel discrimination and assimilation by Chinese-speaking learners of English. Concentric: Studies in Linguistics, 36(2), 157–182. Liberman, A. M., Harris, K. S., Hoffman, H. S., & Griffith, B. C. (1957). The discrimination of speech sounds within and across phoneme boundaries. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 54(5), 358–368. doi:10.1037/h0044417 PMID:13481283 Llisterri, J. (1995). Relationships between speech production and speech perception in a second language. In Proceedings of the 13th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (Vol. 4, pp. 92-99). Stockholm, Sweden: Royal Institute of Technology/Stockholm University. Mochizuki, M. (1981). The identification of /l/ and /ɹ/ in natural and synthesized speech. Journal of Phonetics, 9, 283–303. Morrison, G. S. (2002). Perception of English /i/ and /ɪ/ by Japanese and Spanish listeners: Longitudinal results. In G. S. Morrison, & L. Zsoldos (Eds.), Proceedings of the North West Linguistics Conference 2002 (pp. 29-48). Burnaby, Canada: Simon Fraser University Linguistics Graduate Student Association.

1511

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

O’Dell, M., & Port, R. (1983). Discrimination of word‐final voicing in German. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 73(S1), S31–S31. doi:10.1121/1.2020331 Ota, M., Hartsuiker, R. J., & Haywood, S. L. (2009). The KEY to the ROCK: Near-homophony in nonnative visual word recognition. Cognition, 111(2), 263–269. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2008.12.007 PMID:19230869 Pallier, C., Bosch, L., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (1997). A limit on behavioral plasticity in speech. Cognition, 64(3), B9–B17. doi:10.1016/S0010-0277(97)00030-9 PMID:9426508 Pallier, C., Colomé, A., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2001). The influence of native-language phonology on lexical access: Concrete exemplar-based vs. abstract lexical entries. Psychological Science, 12(6), 445–449. doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00383 PMID:11760129 Peperkamp, S., & Bouchon, C. (2011). The relation between perception and production in L2 phonological processing. Proceedings of Interspeech, 2011, 161–164. Ramus, F., Peperkamp, S., Christophe, A., Jacquemot, C., Kouider, S., & Dupoux, E. (2010). A psycholinguistic perspective on the acquisition of phonology. In C. Fougeron, B. Kühnert, M. d’Imperio, & N. Vallée (Eds.), Laboratory phonology 10: Variation, phonetic detail and phonological representation (pp. 311–340). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Saito, K. (2011). Examining the role of explicit phonetic instruction in native-like and comprehensible pronunciation development: An instructed SLA approach to L2 phonology. Language Awareness, 20(1), 45–59. doi:10.1080/09658416.2010.540326 Schmitz, J., Díaz, B., Fernández Rubio, K., & Sebastian-Galles, N. (2018). Exploring the relationship between speech perception and production across phonological processes, language familiarity, and sensory modalities. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 33(5), 527–546. doi:10.1080/23273798.2 017.1390142 Sheldon, A., & Strange, W. (1982). The acquisition of /r/ and /l/ by Japanese learners of English: Evidence that speech production can precede speech perception. Applied Psycholinguistics, 3(3), 243–261. doi:10.1017/S0142716400001417 Thomson, R. I., & Derwing, T. M. (2014). The effectiveness of L2 pronunciation instruction: A narrative review. Applied Linguistics, 36(3), 326–344. doi:10.1093/applin/amu076 Wayland, R., & Guion, S. (2003). Perceptual discrimination of Thai tones by naive and experienced learners of Thai. Applied Psycholinguistics, 24(01), 113–129. doi:10.1017/S0142716403000067 Weber, A., & Cutler, A. (2004). Lexical competition in non-native spoken-word recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 50(1), 1–25. doi:10.1016/S0749-596X(03)00105-0 Werker, J. F., & Tees, R. C. (1984). Cross-language speech perception: Evidence for perceptual reorganization during the first year of life. Infant Behavior and Development, 7(1), 49–63. doi:10.1016/ S0163-6383(84)80022-3 Yip, M. (2002). Tone. New York: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139164559

1512

 The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

Yu, V. Y., & Andruski, J. E. (2010). A cross-language study of perception of lexical stress in English. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 39(4), 323–344. doi:10.100710936-009-9142-2 PMID:20033291

ADDITIONAL READING Bohn, O.-S., & Munro, M. J. (2007). Language experience in second language speech learning: In honor of James Emil Flege. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins. doi:10.1075/lllt.17 Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2005). Cross-language speech perception. In D. B. Pisoni & R. E. Remez (Eds.), The handbook of speech perception. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. doi:10.1002/9780470757024.ch22 Strange, W., & Shafer, V. (2008). Speech perception in second language learners. The re-education of selective perception. In J. G. Hansen Edwards & M. L. Zampini (Eds.), Phonology and second language acquisition (pp. 153–191). Philadelphia: John Benjamin. doi:10.1075ibil.36.09str

This research was previously published in Applied Linguistics for Teachers of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners; pages 361-379, copyright year 2019 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

1513

1514

Chapter 73

Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2:

Sensitivity to Phonological Awareness and Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences in L2 English Elena Theodosis Kkese https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3701-9253 Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus

ABSTRACT Phonological awareness is the conscious awareness that oral language can be subdivided into subcomponents, including words, syllables, rhymes, and sounds. Its importance has been identified in the development of children’s literacy in L1, especially in terms of spelling, writing, and reading. Phonological awareness is of special importance for L2 acquisition as well, suggesting a strong correlation between this metalinguistic proficiency and literacy. This chapter examines this relation in young adults who are already literate in the L1 by providing an overview of the understudied area of L2 phonological awareness and its connection to spoken and written literacy. It is argued that phonological awareness influences spoken and written literacy skills given that L2 English users transfer L1 phonological awareness skills to the target language. In this context, the author suggests that instruction should be provided in the form of short, fun activities matching the interests of the young L2 adults.

INTRODUCTION Discovering the processes that enable acquisition of a second language (often referred to as L2) has always been a challenging task for researchers, educators, and language users. An L2 may refer to any subsequent language learned in addition to the mother tongue(s). Acquiring an L2 implies that adult language learners have already acquired their first language (L1), which may influence them during the L2 acquisition, and they are often expected to draw on this knowledge while acquiring the target language. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch073

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

They further possess general knowledge about the world, communication strategies, and knowledge of how language works in general, which are factors affecting the acquisition of an L2. This chapter is concerned with the development of oral and written literacy in alphabetic languages, in other words, the skills, abilities, and knowledge that are needed for spelling, writing, and reading to develop (Justice & Pullen, 2003). The emphasis is on young adults learning an L2 in a new orthography and how phonological awareness can aid them in this endeavour, even though the chapter has larger implications for L1 and L2 populations across different orthographies. Becoming literate in a language involves mastering the code that refers to the skill of matching graphemes to the phonemes they represent. Given that language is code-based, decoding and recoding are necessary for reading and writing (Fricke, Bowyer-Crane, Haley, Hulme, & Snowling, 2013; Krijnen, van Steensel, Meeuwisse, Jongerling, & Severiens, 2019; Lems, Miller, & Soro, 2017). As a consequence, literacy development depends on several factors, such as oral language, phonological awareness, and letter knowledge. However, for the context under investigation, the relationship of literacy to phonological awareness is considered to be the most suitable predictor of literacy development in both the L1 and L2. It is argued that knowledge of the grapheme-phoneme correspondences, also referred to as alphabetic knowledge (Lems, Miller, & Soro, 2017), is of particular importance for literacy acquisition to reach an advanced level. When considering the learning and teaching of the English as an L2, the question that emerges is how L2 users develop phonological skills in the target language. Also, a further question is whether these skills have already been developed in the L1, including the knowledge of the L1 phonological system, and whether this knowledge can be transferred to the L2 (Anderson, 2004). A number of studies emphasize the relationships between L1 and L2 literacy skills (Abu-Rabia & Siegel, 2003; Abu-Rabia & Siegel 2002; Shimron & Sivan, 1994). Literacy skills in L2 English seem to be related to literacy skills in the L1 despite the use of different orthographies as in the case of L1 Arabic, Hebrew, and Mandarin, which are languages that use a different script and have diverse phonological representations when compared to L2 English. Studies of literate adult L2 learners from non-alphabet and alphabet L1 languages emphasize the same need, which is the need of instruction in the phoneme-grapheme correspondences of written L2 English (Strucker, 2002). Literate adults in an alphabetic language have developed their reading skills and behaviors in the L1 and are aware that written language can represent speech. They also have exposure to written speech outside the L2 classroom, and most of them may not face major difficulties when reading English because they are more familiar with the English alphabet compared to non-alphabet L2 learners. However, the present chapter examines both alphabetic L1 and L2 languages pointing to the need of longitudinal, cross-language studies on systems that employ different orthographies.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Phonological Awareness Phonological awareness refers to the understanding that words consist of smaller parts, and it is one of substantial metalinguistic skills that allow conscious thought about language. Dixon, Chuang, and Quiroz (2012) define phonological awareness as “the ability to analyze and manipulate units of sound in speech” (p. 372). According to Castles and Coltheart (2004), this ability seems to involve conscious processing since “[t]he “awareness” component of the term is as important to the definition as the “phonological” component, for the skill is proposed to involve, not simply unconsciously discriminating speech-sounds, 1515

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

but explicitly and deliberately processing and acting upon them” (p.78). Thus, phonological awareness consists of multiple elements, including syllable awareness, onset-rime awareness, and phonemic awareness. Syllable awareness is the ability to perceive and manipulate language at the syllable level (McBride-Chang, Bialystok, Chong, & Yanping, 2004). Onset-rime awareness involves the ability to divide syllables into onsets and rimes and to identify which words alliterate or rhyme. Lastly, phonemic awareness is the knowledge that the spoken word consists of successive speech sounds and the ability to manipulate these sounds (van Bon & van Leeuwe, 2003, p. 195). In terms of literacy development, phonemic awareness is thought to be the most complex and important phonological skill as it is a predictor of readiness for reading in both L1 and L2 learners (Torgesen & Mathes, 2000; Troia, 2004) compared to onset-rime awareness (Foy & Mann, 2003; Geudens, 2006). Research suggests that generally, phonological awareness develops from larger to smaller units, with phonemic awareness being the last to develop. Children first become aware of larger units (words, syllables, rimes, and onsets) and then proceed to smaller and more abstract units (phonemes) (Goodrich & Lonigan, 2014). Moreover, research has indicated that these three levels (syllable, onset-rime, and phonemic) are related. Specifically, onset-rime awareness and phonemic awareness may be related, but these are also independent abilities (Carroll, Snowling, Hulme, & Stevenson, 2003; Foy & Mann, 2001, 2003). Awareness of syllables and rimes develops spontaneously without instruction (Foy & Mann, 2001), but phonemic awareness does not. Phonemic awareness develops through literacy acquisition or explicit instruction. Several studies comparing literate and illiterate adults indicate that the latter cannot perform phonemic awareness tasks even if their performance on tasks referring to implicit phonological awareness and rhyming is comparable to that of literate adults (Morais, Cary, Alegria, & Bertelson, 1979; Tarone & Bigelow, 2005). What is more, onset-rime awareness seems to be more strongly related to speech perception than phonemic awareness, which in turn is more strongly related to vocabulary and letter knowledge (Foy & Mann, 2001). In the following sections, the relation between phonological awareness and the development of L1 and L2 literacy will be examined.

Phonological Awareness and the Development of L1 Literacy Phonological awareness is closely connected to literacy, especially with reference to the development of the skills of spelling, writing, and reading. According to Homer (2002), when children learn a language, they go through different stages of language acquisition that permits them to “actively construct their own knowledge” (p. 152). Understanding the written text becomes feasible by matching graphemes to phonemes. Olson (1999), commenting on the relationship between speech and writing, proposed that when readers learn to read, besides sounding out the graphemes facilitated through the knowledge of the corresponding phonemes, they gain segmentational knowledge through exposure to print, and, as a result, “phonological form is represented, perceived or brought into consciousness” (p. 93) (see also Espinas, Wang, & Li in this volume). Moreover, phonological awareness seems to be of crucial importance when learning to read and/ or write in any alphabetic writing system (Ehri, 2004; Troia, 2004). English uses an alphabetic writing system in which letters represent sounds (grapheme-phoneme correspondences). Nonetheless, the grapheme-phoneme relation in English is not that direct in certain cases since it may contain elements that are not directly related to their “phonological value” (Pennington, 1996). Such cases may refer to different classes of lexical items (Kkese, 2020). One category involves homophones or homonyms that are words with the same pronunciation but of different spelling and meaning (i.e., write, right, wright). 1516

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

A second category is homographs referring to words pronounced and spelled identically but which differ in meaning (i.e., set: put down/group of matching items). A third category may be heterographs involving words that have the same pronunciation and meaning but differ in spelling (i.e., theatre/theatre). Another category is heteronyms that have the same spelling but different meaning and pronunciation (i.e., desert: abandon/expanse of arid land). Further categories may be words containing Latin and Greek spellings (i.e., Latin: datum/data, Greek: criterion/criteria), archaic spellings (i.e., programme), and silent letters (i.e., gh in night, light, right). By using the alphabetic principle (Liberman, Shankweiler, & Liberman, 1989; Troia, 2004), English language users can break words into sounds, identify them and put them together again. Phonological awareness allows English language users to work with the print system to understand grapheme-phoneme correspondences and the way they represent the spoken word. An example of phonemic awareness with reference to written text is thinking about the word that is produced when the first sound of “fish” is replaced with the first sound of “day” resulting in “dish”. Foy and Mann (2001), who studied preschool children between the ages 4-6, suggested that there is a clear relationship between phonological awareness, specifically phonemic awareness, and early reading ability. Their study examined rhyme awareness, phoneme awareness, articulatory skill assessment (articulation errors), analysis of speech perception, vocabulary as well as letter and word knowledge. Their findings highlighted the associations of spoken language tasks and the several aspects of phonological awareness, even though phonological representation was not the only contributor to children’s skills when it involved reading. Attempting to write words should involve children practicing saying words slowly, one sound at a time, which is the skill that allows segmenting words by individual phonemes (O’Connor, Notari-Syverso & Vadasy, 2005). When children figure out what sounds a word consists of, it becomes easier for them to decide which letters to use in order to write it down. If more time is devoted to written spelling, students are less likely to experience reading difficulties (Stanovich, 1986; Vellutino, Scanlon, Sipay, Small, Pratt, Chen, & Denckla, 1996). Also, sight words can be very useful since children may attempt to write some high-frequency words from their exposure to words in the classroom. In this manner, the teacher can help students practice phonemic analysis in a meaningful context and can combine instruction about conventions and print purposes (Scanlon & Vellutino, 1996, 1997; Snow & Juel, 2005). Several stage theories, attempting to identify different stages of orthographic awareness, have been proposed concerning spelling development (Ehri, 1986; Gentry, 2000; Henderson, 1985) in an effort to explain how children learn to spell. Gentry’s model (2000) distinguishes between five stages, in the pre-communication (3-5 years old, examples: bBP=monster, TX=This is my house), the semiphonetic (5-6 years old, examples: mtr=monster, e=eagle), the phonetic (6-7 years old, examples: mostr=monster, egl=eagle), the transitional (7-9 years old, examples: monstur=monster, eegel=eagle), and the conventional stage (10-11 years old, examples: moster, eagle). Although these stages develop sequentially, spelling ability improves over time, which implies that a range of spelling competences can be expected at any age (Gentry, 2000). Another influential stage theory was proposed by Ehri (1986), who distinguished only three stages, namely the semiphonetic (corresponding to Gentry’s pre-communication stage), the phonetic (corresponding to Gentry’s semiphonetic stage), and the morphemic stage (corresponding to Gentry’s phonetic stage). A third influential stage theory was suggested by Henderson (1985), who supported a life-long approach to spelling development. This theory involved five stages, namely the preliterate, the letter-name spelling, the within-word pattern, the syllable juncture, and the derivational principles stage. This last stage continues throughout life as vocabulary continues to build. Knowing

1517

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

the different stages of spelling development can assist teachers of literacy to compel development with their instruction. Although stage theories indicate a general description of spelling development, the importance of phonological awareness should not be neglected (Treiman & Bourassa, 2000). Phonological awareness seems to influence spelling development, as emphasized by Griffith (1991) who distinguished its three functions. The first function refers to the fact that children can learn grapheme-phoneme correspondences due to phonological awareness that can help to produce accurate spellings. The second function is using phonological awareness skills to segment a word into its phonemes while spelling a word. Lastly, phonological awareness facilitates the spelling memorization of certain word patterns that can be very useful for the reading process. Consequently, performance in spelling seems to affect reading and performance in reading seems to affect spelling (Bradley & Bryant, 1985; Ehri, 2000; Morris & Perney, 1984). Phonological awareness is necessary in order to use phonics knowledge, namely an understanding of the phoneme and grapheme relationships in a language, when spelling, writing, and reading effectively. When readers experience weaknesses in phonological awareness, they tend to be poor spellers (Cassar, Treiman, Moats, Pollo, & Kessler, 2005). It seems, therefore, that there is a strong correlation between phonological awareness and spelling since spelling errors are usually phonetically accurate (Kamhi & Hinton, 2000). More straightforward phonological awareness tasks such as separating words into phonemes can be a strong predictor of spelling ability (Nation & Hulme, 1997). On the other hand, more complex phonological awareness tasks such as producing a word without a specific letter depend on visualizing a word and moving around letters, both of which involve the skills and strategies used in spelling (Ball, 1997). Nonetheless, spelling difficulties may not be merely the result of phonological awareness, since there are other factors that may interfere with the development of spelling ability (Clarke-Klein, 1994). Examples may involve speech sound awareness and knowledge about basic orthographic rules. An understanding of phonological awareness is of crucial importance for becoming a literate language user in both the L1 and L2. Phonological awareness seems to be the most common difficulty for students who have problems when reading because of the non-direct grapheme-phoneme correspondences of English, the limited academic experiences, or reading disabilities such as dyslexia. The next section deals specifically with the importance of phonological awareness with reference to the acquisition of the L2.

Phonological Awareness and the Development of L2 Literacy Phonological awareness allows language learners to understand the alphabetic principle as well as to improve in terms of reading and writing (Bialystok, 2006; Stanovich, 1986) by facilitating growth in the printed word recognition. Thus, the question that emerges is whether phonological awareness can be transferred across languages. Bialystok (2002) argues that “if phonological awareness transfers across languages, then bilingual children who speak languages that differ in their accessibility to phonological structure may benefit by transferring metalinguistic understanding of one language to their other language” (p. 185). The emphasis of the present chapter is on young adults who are already literate and educated in an alphabetic language and are learning English as the L2. The limited research on L2 phonological awareness of adults suggests that it consists of explicit knowledge just like L1 phonological awareness (Kennedy, 2012; Kennedy & Blanchet, 2014; Kennedy, Blanchet & Trofimovich, 2014; Kennedy & Trofimovich, 2010; Moore, 1997; Ramírez-Verdugo, 2006; Venkatagiri & Levis, 2007; Wrembel, 2011, 1518

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

2013, 2015). However, several authors have acknowledged that L2 phonological awareness also entails implicit knowledge, which cannot be verbalised (Alves, 2009; Ellis, 2004; Mora, Rochdi, & Kivistö-de Souza, 2014; Piske, 2008). L2 users already have the system of the L1 available that may be transferred to some extent to the target language. Therefore, they do not start from a blank slate-state. Consequently, an accurate perception of the phonological system of the L2 implies the restructuring of the pre-existing L1 neural connections with reference to the perceptual and articulatory L1 settings to accommodate to the L2 (Ellis, 2002). It is also suggested that speech acquisition depends on the speaker’s motoric skills and it involves a high degree of fluency. Therefore, L2 users can benefit from explicit instruction on phonological awareness and conscious effort in order to perceptually and articulatorily accommodate to the L2. This suggests that phonological awareness is necessary during the initial stages of L2 acquisition. What is more, L2 phonological awareness seems to form a continuum with one end representing lower-level awareness and the other a more profound understanding of the phonological system of the L2. It is influenced by literacy development (i.e., could be used to assess literacy achievement, predict future literacy skills) and could be transferred to L2. With reference to bilingualism, Bialystok (2006) suggests that phonological awareness can be used to predict the reading proficiency levels, which can be extended to both the L1 and L2. The use of phonological information by L2 readers seems to be also influenced by the L1 orthographic properties. This implies that L2 users of alphabetic L1 backgrounds may rely more on phonemic information while L2 users of logographic L1 backgrounds may depend more on holistic visual cues (Akamatsu, 1999; Hamada & Koda, 2008, 2010; Koda, 1990, 1999). As a result, L2 users of alphabetic L1 backgrounds “have the skill to assemble phonemes in order to access lexical representations in memory” (Yamashita, 2013, p.53) when reading a text, which allows them to segment and manipulate phonemes needed for alphabetic literacy (Koda, 2005). With reference to writing, this could also assist spelling (and vice versa) because through sound spelling, language learners can become more attuned to each sound comprising a word (Catalado & Ellis, 1990). On the other hand, logographic symbols may stand for either morphemes or syllables (Perfetti, 2003) and logographic literacy may not involve the same degree of analysis as in the alphabetic literacy. This means that logographic literacy may depend more on holistic visual cues without segmentation (Koda, 2007). Hold and Dodd’s study (1996) addressing phonological awareness and reading suggests that these skills are closely related. In their study, L2 English users from Hong-Kong, mainland China, and Vietnam performed poorly in terms of phonological awareness and nonword decoding due to the lack of phonological experience in L1. This indicates that L1 transfer is effective when the written input processing is similar in the two languages but not when it is dissimilar (Hamada & Koda, 2010; Holm & Dodd, 1996). Geva and Siegel (2000) explained this in terms of the Script Dependent Hypothesis about alphabetic languages, which states that differences in orthographic complexity between languages may require different processing pathways. Phonological awareness seems to be also linked to spelling skills in the L2. Studies by Kkese (2010, 2018, 2020) have indicated that most of the spelling errors produced by L2 English users of Cypriot Greek (CG) are the outcome of transfer from L1. Examples may involve the word “glasses” normally pronounced as /ʝa’ʎa/ in the L1 but spelled as “yuaya” in the L2 and the word “xylophone” pronounced as /ˈzaɪləfəʊn/ in the L2 but spelled as “ksilofonoe”. Nonetheless, spelling instruction seems to be absent in the L2 classroom context since it is believed that it is a skill that will develop on its own through incidental learning during reading only in the context of a sustained reading program and in an L2 context (Kkese, 2020; Krashen, 1993; Sok, 2014). Therefore, spelling in the L2 is rendered a matter of secondary importance in literacy teaching despite its essential role when it comes to “the school context, career 1519

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

progression, and identity formation as in the case of the social networks that the reader judges the writer solely on their literacy skills” (Kkese, 2020, p. 95). The strong correlation between phonological awareness and spelling skills indicates that L2 users may encounter difficulties perceiving specific L2 phonemes since they do not attend to the acoustic cues or set of cues (e.g., vowel duration, consonant duration, consonant voicing, first formant transition, formant structure, vowel-inherent spectral change) necessary for their identification since these may differ from their L1. Even though acoustic cues are available for both the L1 and L2 users, the latter category lacks adequate perceptual skills when it comes to attending such cues in the L2. Specifically, L2 users exhibit some degree of L1 influence on their weighting of acoustic cues in perception (Holliday, 2010; Kkese, 2016). Phonological awareness also seems to be related to L2 pronunciation. Mora et al. (2014) suggest a positive relationship between the participants’ accurate production of L2 Voice Onset Time (VOT), which is an important cue for the perception of voicing and aspiration in plosive consonants (Kkese, 2016), and their ability to mimic L2 accented L1. Baker and Trofimovich (2006) argue that a strong correlation exists between self-perception and accurate production of L2 vowels. Further, Kennedy and Trofimovich (2010), as well as Kennedy, Blanchet, and Trofimovich (2014), indicate a relation between the depth of explicit L2 phonological awareness and L2 pronunciation. A positive relation between L2 and speech perception has also been suggested with reference to plosive consonants in L2 English by CG users (Kkese, 2016; Kkese & Petinou, 2017). This may be attributed to the fact that the specific class of phonemes may be absent or realized differently in two languages. Specifically, in the study conducted by Kkese (2016), CG users of L2 English experienced difficulties with the voiced plosive consonants /b d g/ in the target language. The two auditory tasks presented to the participants involved minimal pairs at the word and sentence level. The first task was a two-alternative forced task in which participants had to circle the word they could hear; the second was a words-in-sentences task in which they had to fill in two gaps in the same sentence involving a minimal pair. Performance was significantly better with reference to voiceless plosive consonants compared to their voiced counterparts at the word-initial position (i.e., pacing-basing, towering-dowering, crammer-grammar), word-medial position (i.e., calipers-calibers, sighting-siding, lacquered-laggard), and word-final position (i.e., tripe-tribe, squat-squad, broke-brogue). These difficulties may be the outcome of VOT cues since the VOTs are more difficult to produce in the lead voicing region (voiced plosive consonants). Venkatagiri and Levis (2007) also suggest a relationship between the ability to manipulate segments accurately and L2 comprehensibility. A correlation between phonological awareness and L2 pronunciation may have a twofold explanation, that is, L2 pronunciation is increased due to phonological awareness and/or phonological awareness is the cause for the more native-like or improved L2 pronunciation. This implies that more accurate L2 pronunciation may depend on whether learners are able to pay attention to less salient features.

CLASSROOM APPLICATIONS In an effort to assist the development of literacy skills in the L2, teachers should emphasize the importance of phonological awareness by explicitly and systematically teaching and exposing language learners to this interrelation between literacy skills and phonological awareness. Nonetheless, the age and proficiency level of students must be kept in mind so that they will be motivated to undertake the activities designed to help them develop both their phonological awareness skills and literacy in the target 1520

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

language. Given the fact that the emphasis of this chapter is on young adults, teachers have to adjust the materials, techniques and approaches to this specific group by including adult-relevant materials and by addressing both letters and sounds to teach grapheme-phoneme correspondences. Young adults should be aware of the connection between phonological awareness activities and their long-term goals in the L2 while the most suitable tasks may be segmenting and blending. Therefore, short activities should be included in each lesson. Authentic materials addressing language learners’ goals, needs, and interests are suggested to draw students’ attention. Usually, the problems in an L2 classroom are the outcome of a lack of instruction (Saito, 2012). The quote from a language user summarizes these deficiencies in an accurate manner, “It’s not that no one ever taught me how to read before; it’s just that they never took me back far enough. They didn’t know what I didn’t know” (Podhajski, 1998, p. 1). This implies that language users have some skills with reference to phonological awareness and specifically phonemic awareness, but generally L2 adult beginning readers and intermediate readers have limited phonemic awareness (Kruidenier, 2002; Read, 1988). The Teaching Tip below provides a step-by-step example of “how to” teach phonological awareness to develop spoken and written literacy skills in the L2. Table 1. Teaching Tip Elena works with young adult L2 learners of English from a variety of L1 linguistic backgrounds at a university level teaching linguistics and English academic writing classes. All her classes employ English as the language of instruction even if the language is not the L1 of most students. The L1 of the majority of students is CG but in the same classroom more L1s can be encountered (i.e., Russian, Arabic, Filipino, English, Vietnamese, etc.). During sessions, Elena and her students spend some time working explicitly on phonological awareness, more specifically on words and syllables, onset-rime segments, and individual phonemes in an effort to help the students appreciate the many-to-one correspondences of English and how these may differ compared to their L1. This can be achieved by making direct references to the latter or by asking students to contribute with reference to the way their L1 works on the phonological and orthographic levels. Areas of focus are all the English phonemes, but special attention is given to the most problematic sounds in L2 English for her students who speak CG as their L1, namely, L2 plosive, fricative, and nasal consonants as well as vowels (i.e., monophthongs and diphthongs). The specific tasks Elena formulates for developing phonological awareness are usually realized as warm-up exercises before reading, spelling, writing or vocabulary instruction or sometimes distributed at the production stage (especially the writing tasks). These may involve oral as well as written exercises, in which the former refers to pre-recorded tasks pronounced by a variety of L1 English speakers. The words Elena selects aim at helping the young L2 adults find the tasks interesting and worth undertaking. Most of the words involved are low-frequency words, utilized so that the students are not able to predict them easily (i.e., calipers-calibers, mettlesome-meddlesome, lacquered-laggard). Low-frequency words cannot be identified on the basis of fewer perceptual features, unlike high-frequency words. Also, words may involve pop culture jargon and slang (e.g., social media lingo, school-yard epithets and surfing terms) that young adults find particularly interesting. In the past week, the guiding objectives for Elena’s introductory phonology lessons were: • Ensure that the student has a basic acquaintance with the study of English phonology • Equip students with a sound competence in dealing with phonemic representations, which is one of the key linguistic analytical skills that are necessary for many other modules. In order to identify the difficulties met by students and help them improve their L2 perceptual abilities, Elena uses a warm-up activity involving minimal pairs in which students have to listen and report back what they have heard. To achieve this objective, Elena has developed different speech perception tasks taking into consideration the L2 sounds that are usually problematic for her students. These sounds are in most cases presented as minimal pairs at a word or sentence level. According to Hyman (1975), the presence of minimal pairs in a language provides evidence for the existence of phonemic contrast in the language under question. In the first part of the activity, Elena focuses on word level. She asks her students to listen to a spoken stimulus consisting of the target word and at least another word (minimal pair) and select what they hear from the response set that involves orthographic representations. Examples involving minimal pairs are contrasted in word-initial, -medial, and -final position. Students must circle the word they hear from a two-alternative forced-choice task as illustrated below: 1. (a) pillow (b) billow 2. (a) touting (b) doubting 3. (a) clamorous (b) glamorous

continues on following page 1521

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

Table 1. Continued Responses to this task are collected by Elena, who informs students that they will return to these toward the end of the class. Students then listen to the lecture prepared by Elena, which introduces them to the phonology of English, emphasizing both consonants and vowels. Soon after, Elena provides examples for further practice with the L2 phonological system emphasizing on speech perception as well as IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription. Next, ten minutes before the end of the class, Elena gives back the minimal pair test and asks the students to compare their answers with a partner. Finally, Elena corrects the task together with the students in an attempt to identify the most problematic sounds. As is expected, the most difficult sounds are plosive consonants given that in the CG dialect, voiced plosive consonants are absent or realised differently (Kkese, 2016; Kkese & Petinou, 2017) (see chart below). Vowels constitute another area of difficulty due to the simple five-vowel system of the L1 and the fact that vowel length is not a contrastive factor. IPA charts for L1 CG and L2 English plosive consonants Bilabial

Alveolar

Velar

L1 CG

ͫ b p p ͪ:

n

d t t ͪ:

ᵑg k k ͪ:

L2 English

pb

td

kg

For the next session, Elena plans to distribute a second minimal pair task. The new task will involve sentences containing minimal pairs rather than isolated words. In this way, she can investigate the effect of context and whether students depend on this to cope with the task needs. To this end, the students will listen to a series of unconnected declarative sentences and fill in the missing word(s) based on what they hear. Two gaps will be included in each sentence using minimal pair words. Here the target words, which would normally be missing, are underlined: 1. If we disburse their bonuses, maybe the angry crowd will disperse. 2. The unheated subject went unheeded at the meeting. 3. As a territorial delegate, Steve occupied a delicate position. The minimal pair task provides an opportunity to use real words in isolation without any linguistic context and/or environmental cues. For the task involving sentences, even though unconnected sentences will be used, the sentential context (syntax and semantics) will be available to help the students in identifying the correct words or type of words based on what it could make sense in the blanks constructing meaning from the test itself. So, what exactly did Elena accomplish by engaging her students in these tasks? We already know that as a teacher of L2 university students with a CG linguistic background, Elena is highly aware that she needs to modify the general objectives of her module descriptors to meet the needs of her students. The drive for this is the fact that CG students have learned to spell English by rote given the emphasis of the approaches and methods used in the classroom context. Therefore, when confronted with phonological awareness tasks, their ability to spell gets in the way leading them to draw on the letters in a word rather than the sounds. This can be attributed to the L1, which is obviously much more transparent compared to English. Since CG students have learned to rely on grapheme-phoneme correspondences for literacy in the L1, they transfer these skills in the L2 as well. Nonetheless, in English not all phonemes are represented by a single letter, and similar speech sounds in terms of place and manner of articulation may be a major source of confusion while speech sounds may be coarticulated in connected speech and, as a consequence, may not be pronounced separately. Given that these skills were not adequately developed during early childhood, L2 users may struggle with phonological awareness that will unavoidably affect literacy skills resulting in inaccurate decoding of new, unknown words, mispronunciation of words, poor spelling, and difficulty remembering or recalling new words. In order to deal with all these challenges, Elena has developed the abovementioned phonological awareness tasks that she has linked to literacy skills in order to assist her students to become more efficient L2 users. She uses this type of tasks in most of her classes and not necessarily to the classes which focus on phonology. When the module does not involve phonology teaching, these tasks can be very short (5-10mins) and the teacher can collect and correct her students’ answers after class. The rationale for this type of tasks is to encourage students to focus on the sounds in a word. Consequently, if the students cannot hear the sounds, they will not be able to map the correct graphemes to phonemes, which is a prerequisite for L2 (and L1) literacy acquisition.

Strategies and Assessment of Phonological Awareness In order to address the needs of their students, namely the need to recode and decode the L2, teachers must have a good understanding of learners’ phonological awareness knowledge especially in the L2 context in which students bring another well-established language system in class (i.e., their L1). At the university level, most students already have a good awareness of how to divide words into syllables, how to identify and make words rhyme, and how to select individual sounds in words in their L1 and probably

1522

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

in the L2 as well. Consequently, teachers need to observe students over time in a variety of activities in order to be able to develop an accurate idea of what students know and what they need to learn. Short activities should occur at the word, syllable, rhyme, and phoneme level and should involve the skills of segmenting, blending, deleting, and substituting as these are key components of phonological awareness. Teachers should provide ample opportunities so that students are able to explore the relationship between words and sounds in the L2. This can be achieved through daily spelling, writing, and reading activities, including short speech perception tasks as the ones mentioned in the teaching tip. Chard and Dickson (1999) suggest that phonological awareness skills form a continuum of complexity. More specifically, activities such as rhyming songs and sentence segmentation are less complex, occupying the less complex end of the continuum but complexity can increase when students have to segment words into onsets and rimes and blend onsets and rimes into words (Chard & Dickson, 1999). Table 2 provides some examples of activities that promote phonological awareness. Table 2. Examples of activities that promote phonological awareness Complexity level

Less complex ↑ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ↓ More complex

Activity type

Example

Write the missing rhyming word that makes sense

The black cat is very _______

Identify the words that rhyme (final word with the same sounds)

Matt, pat

Identify the word with the odd sound in a set of written words that rhyme

man, can, fan, pan, look

Fill in the blanks with the words you can hear at the beginning, middle or end of an utterance

______ is spoken in the UK / Our team ____ _____ game and lost three games / The students noted down in their notebooks the sentences they had learned by ____.

Identify the initial, middle or final letter (not sound) of the words

shore, ashore, ash

Identify the number of syllables in the word

nose, shoulder, fingertips

Identify whether the words pronounced as minimal pairs or sets are the same or different

sit, seat

Identify the initial, middle or final sound (not the letter) of words

man-tan, tanning-tapping, tan-tap

Distinguish or mix the phonemes, syllables, and onset-rime in words or word parts

m-an, man

Produce writing

Interactive or independent

Through the abovementioned tasks, teachers can facilitate the development of phonological awareness and help students to record their oral language on paper by becoming aware of how sound patterns work in the L2. Research suggests that instruction spanning over 90 hours can lead to improved literacy skills, emphasizing the important role of phonological awareness in literacy acquisition and especially spelling and word recognition (Durgunoğlu & Öney, 2002). However, lengthy phonological awareness instruction may not be feasible in most L1 or L2 classroom contexts. Phonological awareness instruction can be effective even if it may involve shorter periods of time when it makes explicit how learners can apply phonological skills to spelling, writing, and reading tasks, and enables them to grasp how the alphabetic

1523

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

system works in English by helping them spell, write, and read words in several ways. Consequently, phonological awareness can be a key component to spelling, writing, and reading instruction, but there is obviously much more that needs to be taught to allow learners acquire spelling, writing, and reading competence. Teachers can emphasize tasks that require students to manipulate spoken units larger than phonemes, gradually moving to tasks requiring phoneme manipulation, which are more challenging.

Connecting Reading and Writing to Phonological Awareness To help students focus on the sounds of the L2, teachers can work with L2 learners on reading and writing activities. Even if the emphasis of phonological awareness is on oral language, the connection to print is also important. Reading activities can involve read-alouds in which sections of a text may be read while students listen for specific features of language. Another type of activity involves shared reading in which the teacher reads the text out loud several times and, once students are familiar with the story, they address different aspects of phonological awareness together. Writing instruction can also be very useful for young adult L2 users since phonological awareness is developed through meaningful and frequent writing. In shared writing, the teacher and students work together to write a story or a message. The teacher models how writing works while students contribute to the composition of the story or message. The teacher can help students by providing examples using rhyme analogy to spell a word, segmenting the sounds and writing a letter for each, and saying the polysyllabic words syllable by syllable. With time, students become more willing to contribute to the discussion, following the teacher’s example, and gradually develop advanced levels of phonological awareness. In interactive writing, on the other hand, the teacher and the students produce a text together or “share a pen”, while in independent writing, students write a text on their own. These different types of writing provide opportunities for students to explore sounds and words in everyday writing activities relying on grapheme-phoneme correspondences to express their ideas. By segmenting sounds into words on their own, L2 learners become more efficient writers, spellers, and readers.

CONCLUSION The aim of this chapter was to give an overview of the understudied area of L2 phonological awareness and its relation to spoken and written literacy. Although phonological awareness in the L1 has been widely studied, awareness about the L2 phonology has received scarce attention. Nonetheless, phonological awareness has a very important role in language acquisition and the development of literacy in both the L1 and L2. When it comes to L2 acquisition, this strong correlation is evident irrespectively of the age of the L2 users suggesting that explicit and systematic instruction to phonological awareness can benefit students who are English language learners (Grabe, 2009; Lane & Pullen, 2004). This implies that phonological awareness can have a positive impact on developing literacy and specifically the skills of spelling, writing, and reading. When teaching phonological awareness to young adults it is important to expose them to graphemeto-phoneme correspondences. Teachers should observe their young adult L2 students over time in a range of tasks in order to be able to address their needs. Perception tasks such as auditory blending, auditory segmenting, and phonemic manipulation can help students acquire L2 literacy skills. Specifically, these perception tasks should require young L2 adults to blend words that are presented in segmented form, 1524

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

segment words into their individual sounds, and become aware that sounds could be added, deleted, or moved around in words. Instruction of young L2 adults may be quite challenging and literacy skills may take longer to acquire than children, but it can also be rewarding as teachers see their students becoming efficient spellers, writers, and readers in the target language. Further studies on phonological awareness and literacy acquisition should focus on the creation and comparison of consciousness-raising activities in order to investigate the effects of explicit and systematic instruction on L2 phonological awareness. By emphasizing the link between L2 phonological awareness and literacy, this chapter has contributed to the understanding of L2 phonological awareness and to L2 acquisition in general. Nonetheless, there are still several questions to be answered, suggesting that L2 phonological awareness and its links to literacy development can be a very promising area in the study of the acquisition of any language that is learned subsequent to the mother tongue. Discussion Questions 1. Discuss the extent to which adult L2 students who have received L2 phonetics and phonology instruction indicate a different degree of L2 phonological awareness. In what ways do you consider phonological awareness to be related to L2 pronunciation accuracy? 2. Reflect on the ways L2 teachers of English could differentiate instruction in order to provide extra practice for decoding and acquiring literacy skills in the target language to adult users from backgrounds with different orthographies than the alphabet of their L1. 3. Considering what you have learned in this chapter, how would you approach working with L2 adult English learners who never had the benefit of formal instruction? Would you advise them to first learn to read and write in their L1 or in English? Why? You may also want to consult the chapter by Minuz, Hazendar, Peyton, and Young-Scholten, which discusses working with pre-literate adults in more detail.

REFERENCES Abu-Rabia, S., & Siegel, L. S. (2002). Reading, writing, orthographic, phonological, syntactic and memory skills of bilingual Arabic-English speaking Arab children in Canada. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 31(6), 661–678. doi:10.1023/A:1021221206119 PMID:12599919 Abu-Rabia, S., & Siegel, L. S. (2003). Reading skills in three orthographies: The case of trilingual Arabic–Hebrew–English-speaking Arab children. Reading and Writing, 16(7), 611–634. doi:10.1023/A:1025838029204 Akamatsu, N. (1999). The effects of first language orthographic features on word recognition processing in English as a second language. Reading and Writing, 11(4), 381–403. doi:10.1023/A:1008053520326 Alves, U. K. (2009). Conciência dos aspectos fonético-fonológicos da L2. [Awareness about the phonetic-phonological aspects of the L2] In R. Lamprecht (Ed.), Consciência dos sons da língua: Subsídios teóricos e práticos para alfabetizadores, fonoaudiólogos e professores de língua inglesa [Awareness of speech sounds: Theoretical and practical resources for literacy instructors, speech therapists, and English language teachers] (pp. 201–231). Porto Alegre, Spain: EDIPUCRS.

1525

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

Anderson, R. (2004). First language loss in Spanish-speaking children: Patterns of loss and implications for clinical practice. In B. Goldstein (Ed.), Bilingual language development and disorders in SpanishEnglish speakers (pp. 187–212). Baltimore, MD: Brookes. Baker, W., & Trofimovich, P. (2006). Perceptual paths to accurate production of L2 vowels: The role of individual differences. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 44(3), 231–250. doi:10.1515/IRAL.2006.010 Ball, E. W. (1997). Phonological awareness: Implications for whole language and emergent literacy programs. Topics in Language Disorders, 17(3), 14–26. doi:10.1097/00011363-199705000-00004 Bialystok, E. (2002). Acquisition of literacy in bilingual children: A framework for research. Language Learning, 52(1), 159–199. doi:10.1111/1467-9922.00180 Bialystok, E. (2006). The impact of bilingualism on language and literacy development. In T. Bhatia, & W. Ritchie (Eds.), The handbook of bilingualism (pp. 577–601). Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. doi:10.1002/9780470756997.ch22 Bradley, L., & Bryant, P. E. (1985). Rhyme and reason in reading and spelling. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. doi:10.3998/mpub.7194 Carroll, J., Snowling, M., Hulme, C., & Stevenson, J. (2003). The development of phonological awareness in preschool children. Developmental Psychology, 39(5), 913–923. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.39.5.913 PMID:12952403 Cassar, M., Treiman, R., Moats, L., Pollo, T. C., & Kessler, B. (2005). How do the spellings of children with dyslexia compare with those of nondyslexic children? Reading and Writing, 18(1), 27–49. doi:10.100711145-004-2345-x Castles, A., & Coltheart, M. (2004). Is there a casual link from phonological awareness to success in learning to read? Cognition, 91(1), 77–111. doi:10.1016/S0010-0277(03)00164-1 PMID:14711492 Catalado, S., & Ellis, N. (Eds.). (1990). Learning to spell, learning to read. Bristol, UK: The Palmer Press. Chard, D. J., & Dickson, S. V. (1999). Phonological awareness: Instructional and assessment guidelines. Intervention in School and Clinic, 34(5), 261–270. doi:10.1177/105345129903400502 Clarke-Klein, S. M. (1994). Expressive phonological deficiencies: Impact on spelling development. Topics in Language Disorders, 14(2), 40–55. doi:10.1097/00011363-199402000-00006 Dixon, L. Q., Chuang, H., & Quiroz, B. (2012). English phonological awareness in bilinguals: A crosslinguistic study of Tamil, Malay and Chinese English-language learners. Journal of Research in Reading, 35(4), 372–392. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9817.2010.01471.x Durgunoğlu, A. Y., & Öney, B. (2002). Phonological awareness in literacy acquisition: It’s not only for children. Scientific Studies of Reading, 6(3), 245–266. doi:10.1207/S1532799XSSR0603_3 Ehri, L. C. (2004). Teaching phonemic awareness and phonics. In P. McCardle, & V. Chhabra (Eds.), The voice of evidence (pp. 153–186). Baltimore, MD: Paul Brookes.

1526

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

Ehri, L. C. (1986). Sources of difficulty in learning to spell and read. In M. Wolraich, & D. Routh (Eds.), Advances in developmental and behavioral pediatrics (pp. 121–195). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Ehri, L. C. (2000). Learning to read and learning to spell: Two sides of a coin. Topics in Language Disorders, 20(3), 19–36. doi:10.1097/00011363-200020030-00005 Ellis, N. C. (2002). Reflections on frequency effects in language processing. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24(2), 297–339. doi:10.1017/S0272263102002140 Ellis, N. C., Natsume, M., Stavropoulou, K., Hoxhallari, L., van Daal, V. H. P., Polyzoe, N., ... Petalas, M. (2004). The effects of orthographic depth on learning to read alphabetic, syllabic, and logographic scripts. Reading Research Quarterly, 39(4), 438–468. doi:10.1598/RRQ.39.4.5 Ellis, R. (2004). The definition and measurement of L2 explicit knowledge. Language Learning, 54(2), 227–275. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9922.2004.00255.x Foy, J., & Mann, V. (2001). Does strength of phonological representations predict phonological awareness in preschool children? Applied Psycholinguistics, 22(3), 301–325. doi:10.1017/S0142716401003022 Foy, J., & Mann, V. (2003). Home literacy environment and phonological awareness in preschool: Differential effects for rhyme and phoneme awareness. Applied Psycholinguistics, 24(1), 59–88. doi:10.1017/ S0142716403000043 Fricke, S., Bowyer-Crane, C., Haley, A. J., Hulme, C., & Snowling, M. J. (2013). Efficacy of language intervention in the early years. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 54(3), 280–290. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12010 PMID:23176547 Gentry, R. (2000). A retrospective on invented spelling and a look forward. The Reading Teacher, 54(3), 318–333. Geudens, A. (2006). Phonological awareness and learning to read a first language: Controversies and new perspectives. LOT Occasional Series, 6, 25–43. Geva, E., & Siegel, L. (2000). Orthographic and cognitive factors in the concurrent development of basic reading skills in two languages. Reading and Writing, 12(1), 1–30. doi:10.1023/A:1008017710115 Goodrich, J. M., & Lonigan, C. J. (2014). Lexical characteristics of words and phonological awareness skills of preschool children. Applied Psycholinguistics, 36(6), 1509–1531. doi:10.1017/S0142716414000526 Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a second language: Moving from theory to practice. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Griffith, P. L. (1991). Phonemic awareness helps first graders invent spellings and third graders remember correct spellings. Journal of Reading Behavior, 23(2), 215–233. doi:10.1080/10862969109547737 Hamada, M., & Koda, K. (2008). Influence of first language orthographic experience on second language decoding and word learning. Language Learning, 58(1), 1–31. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9922.2007.00433.x Hamada, M., & Koda, K. (2010). The role of phonological decoding in second language word-meaning inference. Applied Linguistics, 31(4), 513–531. doi:10.1093/applin/amp061

1527

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

Henderson, E. (1985). Teaching spelling. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Holliday, J. J. (2010). Inter- and intra-L1 differences in L2 speech perception. Talk given at the INTERSPEECH 2010 Satellite Workshop on Second Language Studies: Acquisition, Learning, Education and Technology. Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan. September 22, 2010. Holm, A., & Dodd, B. (1996). The effect of first written language on the acquisition of English literacy. Cognition, 59(2), 119–147. doi:10.1016/0010-0277(95)00691-5 PMID:8681508 Homer, B. (2002). Literacy and metalinguistic thought: Development through knowledge construction & cultural mediation. In J. Brockmeir, M. Wang, & D. Olson (Eds.), Literacy, narrative and culture (pp. 266–282). London, UK: Curzon Press. Hyman, L. M. (1975). Phonology: Theory and analysis. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston. Justice, L., & Pullen, P. (2003). Promising interventions for promoting emergent literacy skills: Three evidence-based approaches. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 23(3), 99–113. doi:10.1177 /02711214030230030101 Kamhi, A. G., & Hinton, L. N. (2000). Explaining individual differences in spelling ability. Topics in Language Disorders, 20(3), 37–49. doi:10.1097/00011363-200020030-00006 Kennedy, S. (2012). Exploring the relationship between language awareness and second language use. TESOL Quarterly, 46(2), 398–408. doi:10.1002/tesq.24 Kennedy, S., & Blanchet, J. (2014). Language awareness and perception of connected speech in second language. Language Awareness, 23(1-2), 92–106. doi:10.1080/09658416.2013.863904 Kennedy, S., Blanchet, J., & Trofimovich, P. (2014). Learner pronunciation, awareness, and instruction in French as a second language. Foreign Language Annals, 47(1), 79–96. doi:10.1111/flan.12066 Kennedy, S., & Trofimovich, P. (2010). Language awareness and second language pronunciation: A classroom study. Language Awareness, 19(3), 171–185. doi:10.1080/09658416.2010.486439 Kkese, E. (2010). Issues in L2 acquisition of spelling: When spelling tests are simply not enough. In P. Pavlou (Ed.), Research on English as a foreign language in Cyprus (pp. 223–257). Nicosia, Cyprus: University of Nicosia Press. Kkese, E. (2016). Identifying plosives in L2 English: The case of L1 Cypriot Greek speakers. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang AG. doi:10.3726/b10379 Kkese, E. (2018). Assessing L2 writing in the absence of scoring procedures: Construction of rating scales in a Cypriot-Greek EFL in-class context. Journal of English Education, 3(2), 46–56. doi:10.31327/ jee.v3i2.809 Kkese, E. (2020). L2 writing assessment: The neglected skill of spelling. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Kkese, E., & Petinou, K. (2017). Perception abilities of L1 Cypriot Greek listeners –Types of errors involving plosive consonants in L2 English. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 46(1), 1–25. doi:10.100710936-016-9417-3 PMID:26965243

1528

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

Koda, K. (1990). The use of L1 reading strategies in L2 reading: Effects of L1 orthographic structures on L2 phonological recoding strategies. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 12(4), 393–410. doi:10.1017/S0272263100009499 Koda, K. (1999). Development of L2 intraword orthographic sensitivity and decoding skills. Modern Language Journal, 83(1), 51–64. doi:10.1111/0026-7902.00005 Koda, K. (2005). Insights into second language reading. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139524841 Koda, K. (2007). Reading and language learning: Crosslinguistic constraints on second language reading development. Language Learning, 57(1), 1–44. doi:10.1111/0023-8333.101997010-i1 Krashen, S. (1993). The power of reading. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited. Krijnen, E., van Steensel, R., Meeuwisse, M., & Jongerling, J. (2019). Exploring a refined model of home literacy activities and associations with children’s emergent literacy skills. Reading and Writing, 1–32. doi:10.100711145-019-09957-4 Kruidenier, J. (2002). Research-based principles for adult basic education reading instruction. Washington, DC: National Institute for Literacy. doi:10.1037/e561252012-001 Lane, H. B., & Pullen, P. C. (2004). Phonological awareness assessment and instruction: A sound beginning. Boston, MA: Pearson Education. Lems, K., Miller, L. D., & Soro, T. M. (2017). Building literacy with English language learners: Insights from linguistics (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Publications. Liberman, I. Y., Shankweiler, D., & Liberman, A. M. (1989). The alphabetic principle and learning to read. In D. Shankweiler, & I. Y. Liberman (Eds.), Phonology and reading disability: Solving the reading puzzle (pp. 1–33). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. McBride-Chang, C., Bialystok, E., Chong, K., & Yanping, L. (2004). Levels of phonological awareness in three cultures. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 89(2), 93–111. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2004.05.001 PMID:15388300 Moore, H. (1997). Learning pronunciation and intonation of Japanese through drama by beginning language students: A case for reflective journals. Japanese Association of Language Teachers Journal, 19(2), 235–269. Mora, J. C., Rochdi, Y., & Kivistö-de Souza, H. (2014). Mimicking accented speech as L2 phonological awareness. Language Awareness, 23(1-2), 57–75. doi:10.1080/09658416.2013.863898 Morais, J., Cary, L., Alegria, J., & Bertelson, P. (1979). Does awareness of speech as a sequence of phones arise spontaneously? Cognition, 7(4), 323–331. doi:10.1016/0010-0277(79)90020-9 Morris, D., & Perney, J. (1984). Developmental spelling as a predictor of first grade reading achievement. The Elementary School Journal, 84(4), 441–457. doi:10.1086/461375 Nation, K., & Hulme, C. (1997). Phonemic segmentation, not onset-rime segmentation, predicts early reading and spelling skills. Reading Research Quarterly, 32(2), 154–167. doi:10.1598/RRQ.32.2.2

1529

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

O’Connor, R. E., Notari-Syverson, A., & Vadasy, P. F. (2005). Ladders to literacy: A kindergarten activity book (2nd ed.). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brooks. Olson, D. R. (1994). The world on paper. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Olson, G. A. (1999). Toward a post-process composition: Abandoning the rhetoric of assertion. In T. Kent (Ed.), Post-process theory: Beyond the writing process paradigm (pp. 7–15). Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. Pennington, M. (1996). Phonology in English language teaching. London, UK: Addison Wesley Longman Limited. Piske, T. (2008). Phonetic awareness, phonetic sensitivity and the second language learner. In J. Cenoz, & N. H. Hornberger (Eds.), Encyclopedia of language and education Vol. 6: Knowledge about language (pp. 155–166). New York, NY: Springer Science. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_146 Podhajski, B. (1998). Reading through common sounds. Linkages: Linking Literacy and Learning Disabilities, 5(1), 1–3. Ramírez-Verdugo, D. (2006). A study of intonation awareness and learning in non-native speakers of English. Language Awareness, 15(3), 141–159. doi:10.2167/la404.0 Read, C. (1988). Phonological awareness and adult readers. A final report to the US DOE. Madison, WI: Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Saito, K. (2012). Effects of instruction on L2 pronunciation development: A synthesis of 15 quasiexperimental intervention studies. TESOL Quarterly, 46(4), 842–854. doi:10.1002/tesq.67 Scanlon, D. M., & Vellutino, F. R. (1996). Prerequisite skills, early instruction, and success in first grade reading: Selected results from a longitudinal study. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews, 2(1), 54–63. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1098-2779(1996)2:13.0.CO;2-X Scanlon, D. M., & Vellutino, F. R. (1997). A comparison of the instructional backgrounds and cognitive profiles of poor, average and good readers who were initially identified as at risk for reading failure. Scientific Studies of Reading, 1(3), 191–215. doi:10.12071532799xssr0103_2 Shimron, J., & Sivan, T. (1994). Reading proðciency and orthography: Evidence from Hebrew and English. Language Learning, 44(1), 5–27. doi:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1994.tb01447.x Snow, C. E., & Juel, C. (2005). Teaching children to read: What do we know about how to do it? In M. J. Snowling, & C. Hulme (Eds.), Blackwell handbooks of developmental psychology. The science of reading: A handbook (pp. 501–520). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. doi:10.1002/9780470757642.ch26 Sok, S. (2014). Deconstructing the concept of ‘incidental’ L2 vocabulary learning. Teachers College, Columbia University Working Papers in TESOL & Applied Linguistics, 14(2), 21–37. Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21(4), 360–407. doi:10.1598/RRQ.21.4.1 Strucker, J. (2002, June). NCSALL’s adult reading components study (ARCS). Paper presented at the annual conference of the International Dyslexia Association, Washington, D.C.

1530

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

Tarone, E., & Bigelow, M. (2005). Impact of literacy on oral language processing: Implications for second language acquisition research. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 25(1), 77–97. doi:10.1017/ S0267190505000048 Torgesen, J. K., & Mathes, P. (2000). A basic guide to understanding, assessing, and teaching phonological awareness. Austin, TX: PRO-ED. Treiman, R., & Bourassa, D. C. (2000). The development of spelling skill. Topics in Language Disorders, 20(3), 1–18. doi:10.1097/00011363-200020030-00004 Troia, G. A. (2004). Phonological processing and its influence on literacy learning. In C. Stone, E. Silliman, B. Ehren, & K. Apel (Eds.), Handbook of language and literacy: Development and disorders (pp. 271–301). New York, NY: Guilford Press. van Bon, W. H. J., & van Leeuwe, J. F. J. (2003). Assessing phonemic awareness in kindergarten: The case for the phoneme recognition task. Applied Psycholinguistics, 24(2), 195–219. doi:10.1017/ S0142716403000109 Vellutino, F. R., Scanlon, D. M., Sipay, E. R., Small, S. G., Pratt, A., Chen, R. S., & Denckla, M. B. (1996). Cognitive profiles of difficult to remediate and readily remediated poor readers: Early intervention as a vehicle for distinguishing between cognitive and experiential deficits as basic causes of specific reading disability. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88(4), 601–638. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.88.4.601 Venkatagiri, H. S., & Levis, J. (2007). Phonological awareness and speech comprehensibility: An exploratory study. Language Awareness, 16(4), 263–277. doi:10.2167/la417.0 Wrembel, M. (2011). Metaphonetic awareness in the production of speech. In M. Pawlak, E. WaniekKlimczak, & J. Majer (Eds.), Speaking and instructed foreign language acquisition (pp. 169–182). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. doi:10.21832/9781847694126-013 Wrembel, M. (2013). Metalinguistic awareness in third language phonological acquisition. In K. Roehr, & G. A. Gánem-Gutiérrez (Eds.), The metalinguistic dimension in instructed second language learning (pp. 119–144). London, UK: Bloomsbury. Wrembel, M. (2015). Metaphonological awareness in multilinguals: A case of L3 Polish. Language Awareness, 24(1), 60–83. doi:10.1080/09658416.2014.890209 Yamashita, J. (2013). Word recognition subcomponents and passage level reading in a foreign language. Reading in a Foreign Language, 25(1), 52–71.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Cypriot Greek (CG): Also referred to as Kypriaka, CG is the variety used in Greek-speaking Cyprus that has evolved from Koine. It is considered one of the major Greek dialects commonly used in modern times, along with Pontic and Standard Modern Greek. Decoding: What readers do to sound out words in order to translate written language into oral language.

1531

 Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

Grapheme: The smallest unit of a writing system of any given language such as “b” and “d” in English that can produce distinct words like “big” and “dig”. Onset: The initial consonant sound of a syllable, for instance, the first segment /b/ in “bile” or /h/ in “hunt”. Phoneme: The smallest unit of sound that changes the meaning of spoken words. In the word “if”, there are two, namely /ɪ/ and /f/. Phonemic Awareness: The ability to hear and identify phonemes (individual sounds). Phonological Awareness: The understanding that the oral language consists of words, syllables, onsets, and rimes. Rime: The part of a syllable that includes the vowel and any consonant sounds that come after it, for instance, the two segments /aɪ/ and /l/ in “bile” and the three segments /ʌ/, /n/, and /t/ in “hunt”. Syllable: A word part that contains a vowel sound as in e-vent and/or news-pa-per.

This research was previously published in the Handbook of Research on Cultivating Literacy in Diverse and Multilingual Classrooms; pages 62-81, copyright year 2020 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

1532

Phonological Awareness and Literacy in L2

APPENDIX: SUGGESTED FURTHER READINGS 1. Akamatsu, N. (2003). The effects of first language orthographic features on second language reading in text. Language Learning, 53(2), 207–231. This article examines the influence of L1 orthography on L2 reading speed by fluent L2 readers of different L1 backgrounds. Chinese, Japanese, and Persian L2 users of English were examined in terms of basic processing in L2 reading. The results indicate that Persian L2 users of English performed significantly better due to the fact that both the L1 and L2 are alphabetic languages while L1 Chinese and Japanese are non-alphabetic. This article suggests that a link exists between phonological awareness and literacy skills, and the findings may be relevant to teachers dealing with learners of both alphabetic and non-alphabetic orthographies. 2. Burt, J. S., & Shrubsole, C. S. (2000). Processing of phonological representations and adult spelling proficiency. Australian Journal of Psychology, 52(2), 100–109. This paper focuses on the phonological skills of tertiary level students who were unexpectedly poor spellers compared to their word reading accuracy. Even though there was no phonological deficit, students performed worse when presented with nonwords and/or long, difficult-to-spell words. The results suggest that these difficulties were caused by students identifying and parsing the orthographic input rather than the phonological retrieval. Consequently, students need to stop relying heavily on the orthographic form of words and the way to achieve this is through explicit and implicit practice provided by teachers. 3. Durgunoğlu, A. Y., & Öney, B. (2002). Phonological awareness in literacy acquisition: It’s not only for children. Scientific Studies of Reading, 6(3), 245-266. This article investigates the role of instruction and adult literacy acquisition. The findings suggest that after only 90 hours of instruction, 59 women participating in an intensive adult literacy program improved considerably in letter and word recognition, phonological awareness, and spelling. Specifically, word recognition and spelling were predicted by phonological awareness. This illustrates the need for teachers to dedicate classroom time to short, enjoyable phonological awareness activities to promote learners’ literacy skills. 4. Pinnell, G. S. & Fountas, I. C. (1998). Word matters: Teaching phonics and spelling in the reading/ writing classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. This is an introductory book on literacy and the role of phonological awareness that focuses on L1. The book is based on research as well as the experiences of the authors as teachers of literacy emphasizing what teachers can do to help our students acquire effective writing, spelling, and reading skills.

1533

1534

Chapter 74

Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners Jatnna Acosta University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA

ABSTRACT The growing presence of English language learners (ELLs) in classrooms throughout the country highlights the need for effective strategies in the process of language acquisition. Through the language acquisition process students are able to progress towards becoming fluent in the English language and ultimately perform on the same academic level as their English-speaking peers. The issue arises when ELLs enter the classroom with a language or word gap that places them at an academic disadvantage. Bilingual education is an option that is offered to students seeking to enhance their native language abilities as they acquire the English language. However, bilingual education is limited to the presence of a specific language community and an effective language teacher. This chapter presents the benefits of preserving the mother tongue among ELLs and the strategies necessary to replicate mother tongue preservation with language learners in non-bilingual classrooms.

INTRODUCTION The “language gap”, also known as the “word gap”, relates to the fewer number of words low-income children are exposed to during their language acquisition stage in comparison to children from highincome households (Raz & Beatty, 2018). The level of language exposure children receive during their early years is integral towards the development of their brain structure and ongoing cognitive abilities (Romeo, Leonard, Robinson, West, Mackey, Rowe, & Gabrieli, 2018). According to Jensen (2013), by age four children from low-income families in the United States hear an average of thirteen million words, children from middle-class families hear about twenty six million words, and children from upper-income families hear about forty six million words. The lack of exposure to words during early childhood places children from low-income families at an academic disadvantage as compared to their peers (Jensen, 2013). As students from low-income families progress through school, the language gap DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch074

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners

steadily increases and their inability to meet grade level standards becomes heightened. Therefore, the language gap contributes to the overall academic deficiencies of students from impoverished communities. The passing of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 established the notion of maintaining high expectations for all students by increasing the accountability on schools and teachers to attain grade-level proficiency of all student subgroups in American schools (Good, Masewicz & Vogel, 2010). As mandated by NCLB, standardized tests serve as the determinant of student academic achievement. English language learners (ELLs), as a subgroup, enter classrooms at varying levels of English proficiency with distinct cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Therefore, the NCLB requirement of grade-level proficiency on standardized tests administered in English poses a challenge for ELLs who are developing their English language abilities while navigating proficiency in the academic content (Sanchez, 2017). Teachers of language learners must be able to determine if their underachievement stems from limited language production or limited cognitive ability (De Jong & Harper, 2005). Language plays a pivotal role in the ways in which students both acquire the curriculum and are assessed on it (Sanchez, 2017). Without the proper language abilities, students face increased difficulty when trying to demonstrate grade level proficiency on state mandated exams. ELLs who have the cognitive ability in their native language are presented with the challenge of having to acquire the English language before they are able to make the academic transfer. The presence of the academic achievement gap between ELLs and their English-speaking peers poses issues for education stakeholders as the immigrant population continues to rise throughout the country. According to Garcia (2011), ELLs underperform their English-speaking peers by thirty to fifty percent at almost every grade level as depicted by national and state tests. This chapter addresses the gap in the literature by analyzing the benefits of preserving the mother tongue of ELLs to help bridge the language gap and ultimately close the achievement gap. Mother tongue preservation is a practice most closely associated with bilingual education. However, the option of bilingual instruction is limited to teacher and curriculum availability. Therefore, language learners in non-bilingual classrooms need effective practices and strategies that address their academic needs by way of their cultural and linguistic diversity. This chapter provides a breakdown of the different options of bilingual education available in schools throughout the country. The characteristics and benefits of bilingual education are discussed and addressed throughout this chapter in order to contribute to the understanding of the ways in which native language preservation enhances the educational outcomes of ELLs. Current available research on improving the academic performance of ELLs focuses on developing English proficiency. However, the benefits of preserving the mother tongue with linguistically diverse students are essential to their learning. This chapter seeks to present students’ linguistic diversity as an asset to their learning rather than as a deficit. Garcia (2011) argues that the effective education of ELLs requires teachers showing respect for the cultural and linguistic roots of students by sustaining and utilizing these roots in the processes of teaching and learning. Educators of ELLs require the additional recognition of the ways in which students’ unique linguistic characteristics contribute to their learning and are overall integral to who they are as learners. This chapter begins with a literature review regarding the language gap of English language learners and the role of bilingual education in helping to bridge the gap. The theoretical framework guiding this chapter is the linguistic interdependence hypothesis proposed by Cummins (1979) in which second language acquisition is most effective when the first language is developed. This chapter ends with a summary of solutions and recommendations that non-bilingual classrooms can adopt to improve the academic success of ELLs. Ultimately, this chapter seeks to acknowledge the preservation of minority languages as a necessity for improving the academic 1535

 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners

outcomes of linguistically diverse students throughout the country. Additional readings are provided in order to offer a more holistic understanding of the ways in which the language gap influences the learning of linguistically diverse students throughout the country. This chapter focuses on the United States due to the author’s experience and involvement with the topic being based on America’s educational system.

BACKGROUND English Language Learners The presence of ELLs in mainstream classrooms presents unique challenges for educators. According to Sanchez (2017), five million students throughout the United States, or about one out of every ten public school students, are classified as an ELL. Garcia (2011) states that this large number encompasses both first-generation immigrants and their children. A majority of students classified as ELLs in schools throughout the United States are native-born with immigrant parents and live in households where English is not predominantly spoken. The increased likelihood of ELLs being present in mainstream classrooms throughout the country makes it necessary for teachers to receive explicit professional development that will help meet their academic needs (De Jong & Harper, 2005). In order to effectively teach ELL, classroom teachers require an in-depth understanding of second language acquisition and the role of the first language in learning the second language (De Jong, 2005). The language demands of ELLs must be addressed in order to foster their long-term academic success. Students who speak a language other than English and are not English proficient are classified through language assessments that test their reading, writing, speaking, and listening abilities. At any grade level, students who are classified as ELLs and placed in mainstream classrooms receive English as a Second Language (ESL) services to aid in the development of their overall English proficiency. ESL is an instructional program model that aims to address the language needs of ELLs through statemandated academic instruction by utilizing a specialized curriculum (Honigsfeld, 2009). The format of ESL programs varies by the school and their preferred method. Students receiving ESL services are most likely to follow either the pull-out or the push-in format. Under the pull-out ESL format, students receive their instruction from an ESL teacher in an area outside of their regular classroom (Honigsfield, 2009). The push-in format of ESL is when the instruction is provided inside the students’ regular classroom (Honigsfield, 2009). According to Crookes, Davis, and Clair (1995), mainstream classroom teachers are not properly prepared to work with the growing population of ELLs throughout the country. Therefore, ESL programs are a necessity of the rising linguistically diverse student population.

LITERATURE REVIEW The Language Gap The rise in immigration throughout the country has contributed to the growth of emergent bilingual students present in mainstream classrooms. First and second generation immigrants unable to meet English proficiency standards are provided with targeted ESL instruction in order to help close the language gap between ELLs and their English-speaking peers. Through ESL instruction, teachers of ELLs implement 1536

 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners

standards that emphasize the use of English in social settings, in academic content areas, and in social and cultural norms (Short, 2000). The implementation of the ESL standards with ELLs allows teachers to provide students with the English skills necessary to receive academic content while still developing their language skills (Short, 2000). Johnson (2015) provides research on the word or language gap as presented by Betty Hart and Todd Risley in 1995. According to Johnson (2015), students’ home language abilities plays an important role in their long term academic achievement. Therefore, ELLs experience heightened instances of the language gap because of their limited English proficiency coming into the classroom. Research also identifies the language gap as the ‘vocabulary gap’. Suskind et al. (2016) points out the significant role that early language development plays in the long-term academic achievement of students from low-income households. The study (Suskind et al., 2016) elaborates on the ways in which parents can contribute towards ensuring that students receive the necessary linguistic exposure to ensure that they are adequately prepared for in-school demands and out of school outcomes. The word or language gap concept can have a debilitating effect on low-income and minority families (Raz & Beatty, 2018). When viewing incoming ELLs from the perspective of what they are lacking in terms of language development, educators face the risk of enforcing negative stereotypes that can take away from the students’ potential to grow as learners. Bilingual education promotes biliteracy by implementing a sociocultural approach to literacy (Martinez-Roldan & Malave, 2004). While bilingualism embodies layers of complexities involving linguistic, cognitive and sociocultural perspectives, biliteracy is defined as reading and writing proficiency in two languages (Vaish, 2016). Instead of emphasizing literacy instruction from the perspective of a transmission of skills, bilingual education establishes a transfer of skills amongst languages (Martinez-Roldan & Malave, 2004). Through bilingual education, educators are able enhance the process of language acquisition and instill a sense of confidence in their learners by purposefully utilizing ELL students’ mother tongues as an asset during academic instruction (Yadav, 2014). In a study conducted in order to explore the ideologies surrounding knowledge of the language gap (Antonsen, 2017), structured interviews depicted that different communities of practice hold different levels of expertise on their views on language development. Although parents, teachers, and university faculty all recognize the importance of language development in the early childhood stage, the author of this study (Antonsen, 2017) highlight parents and teachers as relying primarily on their personal experiences in order to base their claims. Therefore, extensive knowledge of the presence of a language gap in the early years of a child’s life becomes rooted on previous encounters. Parents and teachers are then limited to their understanding of the language gap within their social sphere and may not have the necessary knowledge to identify language as a tool for enhancing the overall learning process. In a counter investigation conducted by Sperry, Sperry, and Miller (2018), the ’30-million-word gap’ coined by Hart and Risley is challenged. This study finds that the level of variation in young children’s vocabulary and language development cannot be directly linked to socioeconomic status (Sperry et al. 2018). The authors of this study go on to explain the debilitating consequences of associating children of low socioeconomic status with limited exposure to language input during their early stages. However, Hart and Risley (2003) extend on their notion of the 30 million word gap by emphasizing the fact that children acquire linguistic and socialization skills from within their home before they learn it anywhere else. Parents of emergent bilinguals or ELLs are incapable of providing their children with the necessary English language input prior to their schooling due to their own language limitations. A heavier focus is then placed on the native language proficiency of ELLs in order to determine their cognitive abilities.

1537

 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners

The issue arises when teachers of ELLs neglect to acknowledge mother tongue linguistic abilities in an effort to expedite the process towards English proficiency.

The Mother Tongue and Bilingual Education A qualitative case study of a seven-year old Mexican American student and his family (Martinez-Roldan & Malave, 2004) reflects the ways in which emergent bilingual students begin to develop a negative self-image when their cultural and language identity are minimized in an English-dominant classroom. Yadav (2014) defines the mother tongue as a child’s primary language typically learned during the early years in the home. Yadav (2014) goes on to describe the mother tongue as an integral “part of a child’s personal, social and cultural identity” (p. 573). Emergent bilingual students entering mainstream classrooms are being held to the same academic standards as their English-speaking peers despite their lack of adequate exposure to the language. Therefore, educators neglect ELL students’ mother tongue abilities in order to facilitate the learning of English for the performance on high-stakes tests. However, teachers must find ways to understand and relate to their students’ backgrounds in an effort to increase student achievement. Bilingual education offers ELLs the opportunity to enhance their language abilities with the possibility of then attaining complete biliteracy. Gandara and Escamilla (2017) argue that the history of bilingual education in the United States showcases the preference for teaching English over developing complete bilingualism. Ultimately, effective bilingual programs should strive to view cultural and linguistic diversity as a tool to benefit the academic content learning of emergent bilingual students. In a quantitative study conducted by Stanford University (Goldenberg & Wagner, 2015), the results depicted that students enrolled in bilingual programs at the elementary level show higher instances of attaining long-term English proficiency than students receiving English-only instruction. Goldenberg & Wagner (2015) propose that students are able to develop academic skills in their home language and then transfer to English as they develop their second language proficiency in school. Lindholm-Leary (2005) defines two-way bilingual immersion programs or dual language (DL) programs, a subcategory of bilingual education, as the cohesive academic instruction of ELLs and their native English-speaking peers within the same learning environment. Under DL programs, students receive instruction in two languages. Students who are proficient in each language are brought together to serve as linguistic models for each other as they strive to attain complete biliteracy. However, DL program models also exist where ELLs are grouped together and receive instruction in their native language as well as English. Under such models, students are given the opportunity to preserve their mother tongue while developing English proficiency skills. Developmental bilingual programs are additive in nature as they emphasize students’ cultural heritage as an integral part of the program, whereas transitional bilingual programs are more subtractive due to their ultimate goal to focus solely on English proficiency (Lindholm-Leary, 2005). The two most commonly uses DL program models are the 50/50 model and the 90/10 model. Under the 50/50 DL program model, students receive half of their academic instruction in English and half in their targeted native language throughout the day for all grades of implementation. This program model promotes the inclusion of native English speakers and ELLs in one class setting due to the opportunities for them to learn from each other during their language acquisition process (Gomez, Freeman, & Freeman, 2005). The specific breakdown of the 50/50 DL program model can range from “content area, class period, instructor, day, week, unit, or semester” (Santillana USA, n.d.). Using this model, educators are 1538

 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners

able to help students develop literacy skills in both their primary language and their second language (Gomez et al., 2005). The implementation of the 50/50 DL program model strives to establish complete bilingualism and biliteracy in both native English speakers and ELLs alike. The challenges associated with the effective implementation of the 50/50 DL program model include authentic language assessment, professional development opportunities, and developing curriculum materials to enhance academic instruction (Brisk & Proctor, 2012). The 90/10 DL program model is set up as a gradual decrease in second language content instruction and a gradual increase in English content instruction. Under this program model, 90% of instruction in the content subject areas begins in the second language while the remaining 10% of instruction is in English and in the arts areas (Santillana USA, n.d.). After the initial year, which is typically in Kindergarten, students receive 10% more of their content subject area instruction in English and 10% less in the second language (Santillana USA, n.d.). The ultimate goal of the 90/10 program model is to fully immerse native English speakers in the second language while allowing ELLs to strengthen their native language abilities while working towards English proficiency (Lindholm-Leary, 2005). Eventually, depending on the year of initial implementation, students get to the point where content subject area instruction balances off to 50% in both languages. The challenges associated with the effective implementation of the 90/10 DL program lies heavily on the lack of teachers who are fluent in both instructional languages (Brisk & Proctor, 2012).

The Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis The linguistic interdependence hypothesis combines the developmental interdependence hypothesis and the threshold hypothesis to argue that complete bilingualism and biliteracy are the result of strengthened first language skills during the second language acquisition process (Cummins, 1979). Under the developmental hypothesis, it was presented that successful development of a second language is a result of the foundational skills already developed in the first language (Cummins, 1979). The threshold hypothesis proposes bilingualism and biliteracy correlate with students’ threshold levels of linguistic competence (Cummins, 1979). In a study analyzing the family context of linguistic development (Prevoo, Malda, Emmen, Yeniad, & Mesman, 2015), found that a positive transfer from the first language to the second language was only present when children spoke more of their native language in the family context. This chapter examines the benefits of preserving the mother tongue, which from the linguistic interdependence hypothesis perspective, is an effective method for attaining second language proficiency and ultimately bilingualism and biliteracy of ELLs. The preservation of the mother tongue in the education of ELLs, as presented by this hypothesis, provides amplified opportunities for learning as students are able to make connections and bring their prior knowledge into their new learning. The linguistic interdependence hypothesis promotes the notion of additive bilingualism over subtractive bilingualism (Huguet, Vila, & Llurda, 2000). Additive bilingualism is defined as the ability to acquire a new language without any interference on the development or proficiency in the first language (Huguet et al., 2000). Under additive bilingualism. the preservation of the mother tongue has no negative effect on the second language acquisition process and is in turn a method that places value on the native language preservation. Subtractive bilingualism, on the other hand, promotes the sense that learning a new language undermines or devalues the native tongue (Huguet et al., 2000). Through subtractive bilingualism, students are taught to internalize the dominance of one language over the other. However, the linguistic interdependence hypothesis firmly presents the benefits of bilingual education on the prolonged 1539

 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners

academic success of emergent bilingual students rather than focusing solely on English proficiency. Cummins (1979) presents the linguistic interdependence hypothesis as a rationale for the underachievement of ELLs and the ways in which language inequalities contribute to the achievement gap. Under the linguistic interdependence hypothesis, Cummins (1979) explains the ways in which emergent bilingual students are provided the highest instances of success when value is placed on the preservation of their mother tongue throughout the English language acquisition process. Students who are able to utilize their verbal and cognitive abilities in their native language demonstrate higher instances of understanding when it comes to establishing the transfer to the English language (Prevoo et al., 2015). Therefore, teachers of ELLs are able to see more defined and prolonged academic success of their linguistically diverse students when they are able to integrate their native language into their development of English proficiency skills. The linguistic interdependence hypothesis highlights the ways in which linguistic diversity can be utilized as a tool and resource for learning rather than a hindrance.

MAIN FOCUS OF THE CHAPTER Issues, Controversies, Problems The purpose of this chapter is to review the method of mother tongue preservation amongst ELLs as an employable strategy for bridging the language gap that arises from the lack of English proficiency. As stated by the literature, in order to develop the necessary skills in a second language, ELLs require strong foundational skills in their native language. The presence of strong foundational skills allows for the transfer of knowledge from one language to the other. The linguistic interdependence hypothesis supports the argument that native language proficiency is necessary in order for students to become fully bilingual. The work done by bilingual programs to value students’ cultural and linguistic diversity can be replicated in non-bilingual classrooms for the benefit of ELLs. Bilingual education, although a suitable option for linguistically diverse students, is not available at all schools. In order to have effective bilingual instruction, districts and schools require properly trained bilingual educators who have access to instructional material in both languages. Without the proper training and the proper materials, bilingual teachers are faced with the challenge of not providing students with authentic language experiences that can ultimately hinder their long-term academic achievement. Students who are identified as ELLs can be at varying levels of academic proficiency in both their native language and in English. Rather than viewing language diversity as a limitation, educators have the potential to view it as an asset that can ultimately lead to student academic success. The preservation of the mother tongue through the use of effective language development strategies in non-bilingual classrooms serves as a cognitive and linguistic foundation that can ultimately be transferred to English language learning (Yadav, 2014). The presence of a language gap amongst ELLs portrays the need for establishing a connection between identity and language in order to attain prolonged academic achievement. This chapter examined the literature related to the preservation of the mother tongue with ELLs as it relates to bridging the language gap that exists with this population. The presence of the language gap in ELLs entering mainstream classrooms negatively impacts their academic achievement when teachers are unable to guide them in transferring the knowledge and skills they have in their mother tongue throughout the learning of the English language.

1540

 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners

Research involving bilingualism states that students who are proficient in more than one language have higher metalinguistic awareness than monolinguals (Ter Kuile, Veldhuis, Van Veen, & Wicherts, 2011). Metalinguistic awareness is defined as the intentional manipulation of language and its complex features (Tunmer & Herriman, 1984). Nagy (2007) links heightened levels of vocabulary and reading comprehension to metalinguistic awareness. Therefore, the transfer of knowledge that occurs from one language to another amongst ELLs through the preservation of the mother tongue can be attributed to their increased levels of metalinguistic awareness. In attempting to close the language gap that is present amongst emergent bilinguals, it is important to consider students’ existing banks of knowledge in their native language before attempting to make academic demands in a new language. Nagy (2007) explains the ways in which word learning, as a metalinguistic activity, relies heavily on memory retrieval on the part of the student. Nagy (2007) extends this argument by pointing out that the varying levels of exposure and experience students have with language makes it necessary for teachers to employ metalinguistic abilities into word learning in order to meet the needs of all learners. In order to meet the needs of the growing ELL population throughout the country, mainstream teachers require linguistically responsive preparation in their teacher education programs (Lucas, Villegas, & Freedson-Gonzalez, 2008). Lucas et al. (2008) define linguistically responsive teacher preparation as the knowledge needed on the language acquisition process that is beneficial for the overall academic achievement of students who are not English proficient. At the teacher preparation level, mainstream teachers are not receiving explicit instruction on the ways to manage the presence of ELLs in their classroom. The assumption is made that ELLs in the mainstream classroom will eventually adapt to the classroom setting despite their linguistic diversity. However, research shows that this assumption is incorrect and an inaccurate understanding of the ways in which students acquire a new language and reach grade level proficiency in English (Lindholm-Leary, 2005). The lack of preparation at the preservice teacher stage makes it so that educators are not equipped to handle the linguistic demands of ELLs (Lucas et al., 2008). Mainstream classroom teachers who are charged with the task of teaching ELLs must find ways to navigate students’ language demands while providing them with the academic content they need in order to demonstrate proficiency on standardized tests. Without the linguistic skills to acquire the academic content, ELLs are continuously at a disadvantage as compared to their native English-speaking peers. Therefore, it is important for mainstream classroom teachers to receive the proper tools and training in order to help meet the needs of their linguistically diverse students. The long-term benefits of bilingual education and DL program models for both native English speakers and ELLs have not always been recognized throughout the United States. The passing of the NCLB Act of 2001 and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015 increased the level of accountability placed on districts and schools to depict grade level proficiency of ELLs on standardized tests. Therefore, English-only policies began to become implemented in order to expedite the process of acquiring English proficiency at the expense of emergent bilingual students’ mother tongue preservation. California passed Proposition 227 in 1998, known as the English in Public Schools initiative, in response to the underachievement of ELLs enrolled in bilingual education. Under Proposition 227, the focus of academic instruction was solely in English with the intent of attaining heightened academic success for ELLs at all grade levels (California Department of Education, 2018). Proposition 227 promoted the assumption that mother tongue preservation of emergent bilingual students interferes with their ability to demonstrate grade level English proficiency on high-stakes tests administered at the state level. However, research conducted following the implementation of Proposition 227 demonstrates the significance of allowing ELLs to maintain their native cultures and heritage through mother tongue preservation fostered in bi1541

 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners

lingual education (Goldenberg & Wagner, 2015). Proposition 58, known as the California Non-English Languages Allowed in Public Education Act, was passed in 2016 to repeal the English-only initiative promoted by Proposition 227 (California Department of Education, 2018). Under Proposition 58, ELLs in California are given the option to enroll in bilingual education by shifting the focus from test scores to prolonged academic success (Goldenberg & Wagner, 2015). Ultimately, bilingual education offers long-term benefits for both ELLs and native English speakers who are able to attain complete biliteracy. The use of bilingual education for mother tongue preservation of ELLs poses its own set of issues and challenges. Districts and schools are in high demand for teachers and educators who are fully bilingual and have the necessary skills in both languages in order to prepare students to attain complete biliteracy. In the 50/50 DL program model, teachers require proficiency in English and the second language at all levels of instruction. When teachers are more proficient in one language over the other, this language preference extends to the students and ultimately hinders their ability to become fully bilingual. In the 90/10 DL program model, on the other hand, teachers at the lower grade levels must be more proficient in the second language in order to help develop a solid linguistic foundation for the students to carry with them into future grade levels. Under this same DL program model, teachers will eventually require proficiency levels in both languages in order to honor the 50/50 requirement that comes in the later grades. As it stands, bilingual education is a viable option for students to both maintain proficiency in their mother tongue and develop a second language. With the proper teacher training in both languages, students have the opportunity to establish biliterate status in schools rather than emphasizing monolingual preference. However, the challenge of finding teachers who can truly promote bilingualism in their classrooms is a significant one. When bilingualism is not maintained in bilingual programs, students are left with a lack of adequate preparation in either language. Mother tongue preservation of ELLs in non-bilingual classrooms is uniquely difficult for monolingual classroom teachers. Supporting bilingualism requires basic level understanding of the language acquisition process. Therefore, monolingual classroom teachers are able to provide bilingual support to ELLs without having to speak the second language as long as they are able to learn and implement basic second language acquisition strategies. Through the use of these strategies, emergent bilingual students are able to progress towards English proficiency with no interference to their native language. Comprehensible input is a strategy used under the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model in order to help make academic content understandable to emergent bilingual students (HansenThomas, 2008). Schools throughout the country make use of the SIOP model and other strategies of sheltered instruction in order to provide ELLs with the additional support for them to meet grade level proficiency standards set by the state (Haynes-Thomas, 2008). Through comprehensible input, second language acquisition is incorporated into the teaching and learning of academic subject content areas. Controversy exists regarding the education of ELLs due to the over emphasis on English proficiency over their post-school success. As it stands, ELLs graduate high school with limited opportunities to attain success as depicted by academic achievement on standardized tests, graduation and dropout rates. In a study conducted to find the barriers that stand in the way of the postsecondary success of ELLs (Sharkey & Layzer, 2000) it was showed that emergent bilingual students experience lower level and exclusionary tracking throughout their high school years. Lower level track classes prevent ELLs from having the same quality of education as their native English-speaking peers. Under exclusionary tracking, ELLs are denied the opportunity to enroll in higher level courses that are necessary for college entrance exams. Umansky (2016) conducted a study that showed that emergent bilingual students are more negatively impacted by lower level and exclusionary tracking. Following the study, Umansky (2016) determined 1542

 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners

that the harmful effects of lower level and exclusionary tracking places ELLs at a disadvantage when it comes to their opportunities to experience postsecondary success. Research shows that higher levels of ELLs drop out of high school and lower level of ELLs graduate high school as compared to their native English-speaking peers. Therefore, it is evident that the classroom support being provided to ELLs as decreed by federal policies are more concerned with having emergent bilingual students attain English proficiency in order to pass standardized tests as opposed to preparing them for post-school success beyond high school. The level of academic support ELLs requires additional understanding of the ways in which the growing population can become contributing members of society after high school.

SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The potential harms associated with the presence of the language gap are significant as they relate to students’ educational outcomes. As a subgroup, ELLs face an increased likelihood of experiencing a language gap in the English language because of their limited English proficiency. Similarly, research has shown that children of higher socioeconomic status demonstrate increased language experiences and verbal abilities between the ages of four and six (Romeo et al, 2018). The preservation of the mother tongue with ELLs provides students with the development of necessary skills to serve as a foundation for the language transfer that occurs when becoming proficient in English. Although slightly deviating from the focus of English proficiency, ELLs experience higher educational gains when they are able to progress towards native language proficiency as a resource to their learning. Bilingual education, such as dual language programs, implement practices of mother tongue preservation in order for students to ultimately become fully bilingual and demonstrate biliterate capabilities. Withholding elements of bilingualism in monolingual settings can provide ELLs with heightened academic success (Palmer & Martinez, 2016). Some research-based recommendations for implementing practices of mother tongue preservation with language learners in non-bilingual classrooms include: A) Provide students with multilingual texts in their native language. Give students the time and space to read authentic texts that are either entirely in their native language or bilingual incorporating their native language and English. Include literacy resources that target students’ native languages in order to allow them to develop the necessary skills. The books in their native language will not only allow them to work on their decoding and comprehension skills, but it will also be a show of value for their linguistic and cultural diversity. In a study conducted to explore a multilingual approach to literacy teaching in an urban setting amongst ELLs (Ntelioglou, Fannin, Montanera, & Cummins, 2014), it was found that students experienced increased instances of academic engagement and literacy learning. Placing value in students’ linguistic diversity as it relates to literacy allow students to build in their already existing knowledge banks. The authors of this study emphasized the emotional component of ELLs entering a school environment where they are unsure of whether or not they will be accepted for their cultural and linguistic differences (Ntelioglou, 2014). Allowing students the opportunity to read multilingual texts in their native language establishes what the researchers refer to as ‘identity texts’ where the students become invested in reading because they see some of themselves in what they are reading (Ntelioglou, 2014). 1543

 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners

B) Allow a safe space for bilingual practices such as code-switching, translanguaging, and translating to occur as necessary. Avoid punishing students for reverting to their native language in the classroom. As ELLs progress towards English proficiency, give them the opportunity to use their native language as a tool for learning. Make use of technological resources that can translate the academic content for the overall benefit of the students and their learning. Encourage students to attempt to translate the content on their own first before relying on the use of other tools. However, allow the tools to serve as a support to the students when needed. Translanguaging is defined as an instructional tool or practice that allows students to utilize their multilingual abilities fluidly rather than making separations (Garcia, 2013). Garcia (2013) refers to languaging as the continuous process that allows us to develop individual and collective identities as we engage with the world around us. Emergent bilinguals rely heavily on their ability to navigate their linguistic abilities as they make meaning of instruction material (Garcia, 2014; as cited by Creese & Blackledge, 2015). Creese and Blackledge (2015) point out extensive research on the premise of translanguaging as an instructional approach that brings together the various entities that make up a multilingual learner and thus has the capability of varying distinctly depending on the individual and the social setting. Whereas code-switching conveys the practice of switching from one language to other within a single conversation, translanguaging more fluidly bring languages together in order to make meaning (Park, 2013). Garcia (2009) refers to these practices as dynamic bilingualism in which emergent bilinguals are given the opportunity to use their diverse linguistic abilities as a way of engaging with and understanding the world around them. C) Enhance the curriculum to provide value to bilingualism and biliteracy by implementing culturally and linguistically relevant literature across grade levels. Students should be engaged in a curriculum that is reflective of their cultural and linguistic identities. Through the use of this strategy, educators can aim to provide English language learners with purposeful exposure to multilingual texts for the betterment of their language development and academic performance. By giving students the opportunity to feel validated in the academic curriculum, they will be more invested in their learning and thus demonstrate higher levels of engagement. The rise in culturally and linguistically diverse students in classrooms throughout the United States makes it necessary for schools to become intentional in employing equitable practices that reflect their needs. Scanlan and Lopez (2012) present a study that focuses on providing school leaders with the necessary tools to allow for educational equity and excellence amongst their emergent bilingual students. In this study (Scanlan & Lopez, 2012) culturally and linguistic responsive instruction is at the forefront of curriculum design by bridging the gap between language and academic content. Monolingual classrooms can employ linguistically responsive practices such as “promoting academic English, scaffolding comprehensible input (e.g., making language meaningful and contextualized), fostering social interaction across culturally and linguistically diverse students and native English-speaking students, and explicitly supporting both native language and English language skill development” (Lucas, Villegas, & FreedsonGonzalez, 2008; as cited by Scanlan & Lopez 2012, p.594). D) Encourage ELLs to process academic content in their native language first before requiring them to transfer to English. As needed, give students the opportunity to show their understanding in their 1544

 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners

native language and guide them towards communicating this in English. When applicable, allow students to process information and show their understanding in their native language first and then prompt them towards making the transfer to English. ELLs require additional time in order to make sense of the content that is being taught and doing so in their native language allows them to view their linguistic diversity as a tool rather than a hindrance. Cummins (2008) highlights the ways in which bilingual programs oftentimes embody monolingual instructional practices. More specifically, Cummins (2008) speaks on the ways in which languages are purposely separated in order to adhere to curricular demands as opposed to implemented what he refers to as ‘teaching for transfer’ to maximize the academic potentials of emergent bilinguals. ELLs, in particular, benefit from the opportunity to retrieve the necessary information in their native language in order to find meaning throughout the process of second language acquisition (Cummins, 2008). Activating prior knowledge plays an integral role in the academic achievement of emergent bilinguals. E) Incorporate aspects of students’ cultural and linguistic practices in the classroom. Teachers can purposefully seek to understand students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds and find ways to value these practices in the classroom. By diversifying the classroom community to be more representative of the students, a heightened sense of ownership will emerge. Students will have the overall sense of belonging in the classroom community and become invested in their learning and the learning of others. A study conducted to explore the third spaces of learning that take place when using cultural and linguistic diverse practices in the classroom (Gutiérrez, Baquedano‐López, & Tejeda, 1999) depicted the ways in which effective learning communities use differences to maximize learning. Gutiérrez et al. (1999) elaborate on the concept of third spaces as essential components of learning environments that utilize hybridity and diversity within classroom activities to mirror the complexities students will be exposed to in their day to day lives. Goldenberg (2014) extends the argument that closing the achievement gap in the United States requires us to recognize the opportunity gap that is also present due largely to the lower quality of academic instruction that is provided to culturally and linguistically diverse students by neglecting to reflect their identities in the curriculum.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS Future research is needed to discover the instructional practices and strategies implemented in schools throughout the country that are contributing factors to the low academic achievement of ELLs. By looking into the ways ELLs are currently being taught, researchers have the ability to determine whether or not the practices are linguistically responsive or constraining. Further research should also look into teacher’s level of preparation to work with emergent bilingual students at the preservice stage. Many colleges and universities devote attention to preparing teacher to feel comfortable with instructional strategies that will provide students with the necessary academic content to meet grade level standards set by the state. However, these same colleges and universities require additional preparation on the challenges that arise when teachers are faced with students who have diverse needs that extend beyond the curriculum. Within this realm, research must be conducted on teachers’ comfort level with preparing students who 1545

 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners

are linguistically diverse to acquire the necessary skills to demonstrate grade level proficiency while honoring their mother tongue. Through this research, professional development opportunities can be determined for educators who feel they require additional training. Additional research should target the use of SIOP strategies in ESL settings and the ways in which these can be transferred to mainstream classrooms. Similarly, studies uncovering the overall benefits of bilingual education on students’ long term academic achievement can be conducted. The results of these studies can be used to extend the understanding of the ways in which the strategies of bilingual education can be replicated to non-bilingual classrooms. The research conducted should evaluate the ways in which SIOP strategies and strategies of bilingual education are influential in helping to close the word or language gap amongst ELLs. Extensive qualitative and quantitative research is required in order to determine the ways in which students and educators can successfully allow emergent bilinguals students to maintain the integrity of their mother tongue. The research should look into the academic performance of ELLs on high-stakes tests comparing those who are proficient in their mother tongue and those who are not. The research can then be further extended towards analyzing the overall effectiveness of dual language programs on the preservation of their native tongue.

CONCLUSION The review of literature on the preservation of the mother tongue amongst ELLs conveys the additive holistic advantages of allowing students to feel valued in their culture while immersing themselves in another. Bilingual education throughout the United States provides opportunities for linguistically diverse students to acquire the English language while working towards attaining similar proficiency in a second language. ELLs in mainstream English-only classrooms are charged with the task of meeting state mandated grade level standards that will be measured by high-stakes tests that fail to incorporate the presence of a language gap. The preservation of the mother tongue through bilingual education recognizes the cognitive gains that can be made when emergent bilinguals who are learning English are equipped with the necessary resources to help address said language gap. The strengths of this chapter include the ability to present research-based findings that support the argument for the preservation of the mother tongue amongst ELLs. The information presented in this chapter provides solutions and recommendations for both researchers and practitioners who are invested in doing the work to help close the academic achievement gap that is inherently present between ELLs and their English-speaking counterparts. The limitations of this chapter include the need to conduct in-depth studies to help address the ways in which ELLs are being taught in effective bilingual classrooms and determining ways to replicate these strategies in non-bilingual classrooms. The chapter The purpose of this chapter was to examine the literature surrounding the importance of mother tongue preservation in the teaching and learning of ELLs in non-bilingual classrooms throughout the country. Key characteristics of ELLs and the second language acquisition process depict the underlying need for new direction in the English-only mandates that negatively impact the academic achievement of ELLs. By requiring ELLs and their teachers to focus solely on English proficiency throughout their K-12 schooling, school districts are limiting their opportunities to engage with the curriculum and feel valued in their classrooms. The negative impacts of the language gap add an additional layer to the challenges faced by emergent bilingual students who enter mainstream classrooms having to play catch up with their native English speaking peers in order to demonstrate grade level proficiency on standardized tests. 1546

 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners

Culturally and linguistically diverse students are offered limited opportunities to experience post-school success. Schools throughout the country require more inclusive teaching practices and strategies take into account the benefits of ELLs’ mother tongue proficiency as a solid foundation that will ultimately lead to English proficiency. The negative impact of the word or language gap is affecting the education of the country’s growing diverse population. Emergent bilingual students enter classrooms lacking the academic background knowledge their more affluent peers are granted through opportunity. Socioeconomic status plays a significant role in students’ cognitive abilities at the start of their educational career. Emergent bilingual students who are given the opportunity to develop native language proficiency that can later be transferred towards English content learning show increased academic achievement. These students are able to utilize their native language proficiency as a foundation that can later be used as leverage towards their English proficiency and meeting of grade level standards. The growing presence of ELLs throughout the country is bringing bilingual education to the forefront in public schools. However, bilingual education allows for the possibility of bilingualism and biliteracy. Students are prepared to develop reading and writing skills in reading and writing in both languages of instruction. The shift in emphasis from monolingualism to bilingualism throughout the country makes it possible for ELLs to achieve higher levels of academic success through native language proficiency. Rather than emphasizing the significance of English proficiency, ELLs are given the opportunity to experience higher levels of post-school success through the instruction provided by bilingual education. Mother tongue preservation should not be limited to the instruction provided by bilingual education. Not all students are given access to bilingual education. Therefore, these same practices and strategies can benefit ELLs in non-bilingual settings. As stated throughout this chapter, ELLs benefit greatly from the opportunity to build on the oral language skills they possess in their native language as they move through the second language acquisition process (Lindholm-Leary, 2011). The preservation of the mother tongue with ELLs allows educators to bridge the language gap that exists with this population.

REFERENCES Antonsen, B. L. (2017). The language gap: Ideologies within varying communities of practice. The Journal of Undergraduate Research, 15(1), 2. Retrieved from https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/jur/vol15/iss1/2/ Brisk, M. E., & Proctor, C. P. (2012). Challenges and supports for English language learners in bilingual programs. Commissioned Papers on Language and Literacy Issues in the Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards, 94, 115–122. California Department of Education. (2018). Effects of the Implementation of Proposition 227 on the Education of English Learners, K-12. Retrieved from https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/el/er/prop227summary.asp Creese, A., & Blackledge, A. (2015). Translanguaging and identity in educational settings. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35, 20–35. doi:10.1017/S0267190514000233 Crookes, G., Davis, K. A., & Clair, N. (1995). Mainstream classroom teachers and ESL students. TESOL Quarterly, 29(1), 189–196. doi:10.2307/3587817 Cummins, J. (1979). Linguistic interdependence and the educational development of bilingual children. Review of Educational Research, 49(2), 222–251. doi:10.3102/00346543049002222

1547

 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners

Cummins, J. (2008). Teaching for transfer: Challenging the two solitudes assumption in bilingual education. Encyclopedia of language and education, 1528-1538. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_116 De Jong, E. J., & Harper, C. A. (2005). Preparing mainstream teachers for English-language learners: Is being a good teacher good enough? Teacher Education Quarterly, 32(2), 101–124. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ795308.pdf Gabrieli, J. D. (2018). Beyond the 30-million-word gap: Children’s conversational exposure is associated with language-related brain function. Psychological Science, 29(5), 700–710. doi:10.1177/0956797617742725 PubMed Gándara, P., & Escamilla, K. (2017). Bilingual education in the United States. Bilingual and Multilingual Education, 1-14. Garcia, E. E. (2011). ¡Ya basta!: Challenging restrictions on English language learners. Dissent, 58(4), 47–50. doi:10.1353/dss.2011.0096 García, O., & Wei, L. (2013). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. García, O., & Woodley, H. H. (2009). Bilingual education. The Routledge handbook of educational linguistics. Goldenberg, B. M. (2014). White teachers in urban classrooms: Embracing non-white students’ cultural capital for better teaching and learning. Urban Education, 49(1), 111–144. doi:10.1177/0042085912472510 Goldenberg, C., & Wagner, K. (2015). Bilingual education: Reviving an American tradition. American Educator, 39(3), 28. Gomez, L., Freeman, D., & Freeman, Y. (2005). Dual language education: A promising 50-50 model. Bilingual Research Journal, 29(1), 145–164. doi:10.1080/15235882.2005.10162828 Good, M. E., Masewicz, S., & Vogel, L. (2010). Latino English language learners: Bridging achievement and cultural gaps between schools and families. Journal of Latinos and Education, 9(4), 321–339. doi :10.1080/15348431.2010.491048 Gutiérrez, K. D., Baquedano‐López, P., & Tejeda, C. (1999). Rethinking diversity: Hybridity and hybrid language practices in the third space. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 6(4), 286–303. doi:10.1080/10749039909524733 Hansen-Thomas, H. (2008). Sheltered instruction: Best practices for ELLs in the mainstream. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 44(4), 165–169. doi:10.1080/00228958.2008.10516517 Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (2003). The early catastrophe: The 30-million-word gap by age 3. American Educator, 27(1), 4–9. Retrieved from https://www.bilingualpreschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ The-Early-Catastrophe-The-30-Million-Word-Gap-by-Age-3.pdf Honigsfeld, A. (2009). ELL programs: Not ‘one size fits all’. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 45(4), 166–171. doi:10.1080/00228958.2009.10516539

1548

 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners

Huguet, A., Vila, I., & Llurda, E. (2000). Minority language education in unbalanced bilingual situations: A case for the Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 29(3), 313–333. doi:10.1023/A:1005152305793 PubMed Jensen, E. (2013). How poverty affects classroom engagement. Educational Leadership, 70(8), 24–30. Johnson, E. J. (2015). Debunking the “language gap”. Journal for Multicultural Education, 9(1), 42–50. doi:10.1108/JME-12-2014-0044 Lindholm-Leary, K., & Hernández, A. (2011). Achievement and language proficiency of Latino students in dual language programmes: Native English speakers, fluent English/previous ELLs, and current ELLs. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 32(6), 531–545. doi:10.1080/0143463 2.2011.611596 Lindholm-Leary, K. J. (2005). The rich promise of two-way immersion. Educational Leadership, 62(4), 56–59. Martínez-Roldán, C. M., & Malavé, G. (2004). Language ideologies mediating literacy and identity in bilingual contexts. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 4(2), 155–180. doi:10.1177/1468798404044514 Nagy, W. (2007). Metalinguistic awareness and the vocabulary-comprehension connection. Vocabulary acquisition: Implications for reading comprehension, 52-77. Ntelioglou, B. Y., Fannin, J., Montanera, M., & Cummins, J. (2014). A multilingual and multimodal approach to literacy teaching and learning in urban education: A collaborative inquiry project in an inner city elementary school. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 533. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00533 PubMed Palmer, D. K., & Martínez, R. A. (2016). Developing biliteracy: What do teachers really need to know about language? Language Arts, 93(5), 379. Park, M. S. (2013). Code-switching and translanguaging: Potential functions in multilingual classrooms. Columbia Academic Commons; doi:10.7916/D8HH6JPQ Prevoo, M. J. L., Malda, M., Emmen, R. A. G., Yeniad, N., & Mesman, J. (2015). A context-dependent view on the linguistic interdependence hypothesis: Language use and SES as potential moderators. Language Learning, 65(2), 449–469. doi:10.1111/lang.12099 Raz, M., & Beatty, B. R. (2018). Replacing the “word gap” with nonstigmatizing approaches to early literacy and language building. Pediatrics, 142(6). doi:10.1542/peds.2018-1992 PubMed Romeo, R. R., Leonard, J. A., Robinson, S. T., West, M. R., Mackey, A. P., Rowe, M. L., & Sanchez, C. (2017). English language learners: How your state is doing. nprEd. Retrieved from https://www.npr. org/sections/ed/2017/02/23/512451228/5-million-english-language-learners-a-vast-pool-of-talent-at-risk Santillana, U. S. A. (n.d.). What is Dual Language? Retrieved from https://dual-language.santillanausa.com Scanlan, M., & López, F. (2012). ¡Vamos! How school leaders promote equity and excellence for bilingual students. Educational Administration Quarterly, 48(4), 583–625. doi:10.1177/0013161X11436270

1549

 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners

Sharkey, J., & Layzer, C. (2000). Whose definition of success? Identifying factors that affect English language learners’ access to academic success and resources. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 352–368. doi:10.2307/3587961 Short, D. J. (2000). The ESL Standards: Bridging the Academic Gap for English Language Learners. ERIC Digest. Sperry, D. E., Sperry, L. L., & Miller, P. J. (2018). Reexamining the verbal environments of children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Child Development. doi: PubMed doi:10.1111/cdev.13072 Suskind, D. L., Leffel, K. R., Graf, E., Hernandez, M. W., Gunderson, E. A., Sapolich, S. G., ... Levine, S. C. (2016). A parent-directed language intervention for children of low socioeconomic status: A randomized controlled pilot study. Journal of Child Language, 43(2), 366–406. doi:10.1017/S0305000915000033 PubMed Ter Kuile, H., Veldhuis, M., Van Veen, S. C., & Wicherts, J. M. (2011). Bilingual education, metalinguistic awareness, and the understanding of an unknown language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14(2), 233–242. doi:10.1017/S1366728910000258 Tunmer, W. E., & Herriman, M. L. (1984). The Development of Metalinguistic Awareness: A Conceptual Overview. In W. E. Tunmer, C. Pratt, & M. L. Herriman (Eds.), Metalinguistic Awareness in Children. Berlin: Springer; doi:10.1007/978-3-642-69113-3_2. Umansky, I. M. (2016). Leveled and exclusionary tracking: English learners’ access to academic content in middle school. American Educational Research Journal, 53(6), 1792–1833. doi:10.3102/0002831216675404 Vaish, V. (2016). Biliteracy and globalization. Literacies and Language Education; doi:10.1007/978-0387-30424-3_40 Yadav, M. K. (2014). Role of mother tongue in second language learning. International Journal of Research, 1(11), 572–582. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1. 892.7707&rep=rep1&type=pdf

ADDITIONAL READING Ball, J. (2010). Enhancing learning of children from diverse language backgrounds: Mother tonguebased bilingual or multilingual education in early childhood and early primary school years. Victoria, Canada: Early Childhood Development Intercultural Partnerships, University of Victoria. Berriz, B. R. (2006). Unz got your tongue: What have we lost with the English-only mandates?. The Radical Teacher, (75), 10-15. Carlo, M. S., August, D., McLaughlin, B., Snow, C. E., Dressler, C., Lippman, D. N., ... White, C. E. (2004). Closing the gap: Addressing the vocabulary needs of English‐language learners in bilingual and mainstream classrooms. Reading Research Quarterly, 39(2), 188–215. doi:10.1598/RRQ.39.2.3

1550

 Preserving the Mother Tongue of English Language Learners

DelliCarpini, M. (2010). Success with ELLs. English Journal, 99(6), 93–96. Fry, R. (2008). The role of schools in the English language learner achievement gap. Pew Hispanic Center. Gibson, C. (2016). Bridging English language learner achievement gaps through effective vocabulary development strategies. English Language Teaching, 9(9), 134–138. doi:10.5539/elt.v9n9p134 Mahon, E. A. (2006). High-stakes testing and English language learners: Questions of validity. Bilingual Research Journal, 30(2), 479–497. doi:10.1080/15235882.2006.10162886 Wright, W. E. (2010). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Caslon Pub. Yildiz, Y. (2012). Beyond the mother tongue: The postmonolingual condition. Fordham Univ Press. Zehr, M. A. (2006). Team-teaching helps close language gap. Education Week, 26(14), 26–29.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Bilingual Education: The academic instruction of the core subject areas in more than one language. Biliteracy: The skill to read and write proficiently in two languages. English Language Learners: Students who speak a language other than English and are not proficient in English literacy skills. Language Gap: Students’ lack of exposure to spoken or written words in a certain language as compared to their more affluent peers. Mother Tongue: The native, or first, language of a student who is learning a second language. Preservation: To maintain something for an extended period of time. Proficiency: Having the skills necessary to demonstrate complete understanding in a specific subject area. Second Language Acquisition: The process of learning a second language and becoming proficient in this second language.

This research was previously published in the International Approaches to Bridging the Language Gap; pages 14-31, copyright year 2020 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

1551

1552

Chapter 75

Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru Toru Okamura Komatsu University, Japan

ABSTRACT First of all, this chapter surveys sociolinguistic features with a special emphasis on Japanese on Nauru Island. Second, it considers factors affecting the stability of the Nauruan language and Pidgin English. The cline theory helps to explain the degree of language decline. Both geographical and socio-political factors may account for them. In particular, the living environment is the most influential factor in a decline. This chapter concludes that the cline showing language decline is a valid argument. In Nauru, the Nauruan language on the island is one of the most stable languages today. Pidgin English is positioned in the middle of a continuum. Due to the linguistic dissimilarities between the indigenous language and Pidgin English, both languages can be maintained. The hierarchy of languages in Nauru today should be sustained in order to ensure the maintenance of the indigenous language and Pidgin English.

INTRODUCTION Nauru is the smallest nation republic in the world (21 square kilometers). It is situated just south of the equator near Ocean Island. Germany administered Nauru from 1888 until 1914. The Japanese occupied Nauru in 1942 and remained there for three years. In 1947, a trusteeship was established by Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. In 1968, Nauru became an independent republic. Three main languages are spoken on the island: Nauruan, English and Pidgin English. The latest estimates from the UN’s “World Population Prospects” shows Nauru has a population in the year 2019 of 11,260. There are many different ethnic groups in Nauru. Roughly 60% of Nauru’s population is made up of indigenous Nauruans; almost 25% are from Pacific Islands such as Kiribati and Tuvalu and 8% are originally from Asian countries such as China and the Philippines. The remainder are of European descent. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch075

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

Taking into account these realities and influences, the aim of this paper is to consider the stability and viability of languages spoken in Nauru. The research question examines the kinds of factors that contribute to the decline of a language or languages. This includes the factors that led to a decline in the use of Japanese on the island.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND PREVIOUS STUDIES In August 1942, Japan occupied the island. Japan tried to facilitate a consciousness of membership in the Japanese Empire among the local people and to obtain phosphate for development. The actual situation regarding Japanese language teaching in Nauru during the occupation has never been examined. Thus, Okamura (2002), through interviews, explored in detail this question. Since archival records are insufficient in terms of quantity, interviews were conducted. Six Nauruans were interviewed in order to understand the actual conditions in relation to Japanese language teaching in Nauru. The respondents were grouped according to age and sex. The results reflect the different roles of men and women in wartime. Japanese soldiers who served in Nauru were also interviewed. However, those who were interviewed by the author arrived on Nauru after 1943; so they did not know directly what had happened before then. It is impossible to ask higher-ranking officers because they have all already died or were executed by Allied forces. The “Nauru Tsuushinkai” is a group of Japanese veterans who experienced war in Nauru. There used to be many members in the past, and they organized a meeting each year, but there are fewer than ten members today since many have died, and those who are still alive are too old to actively participate and volunteer in the group. The average age of those interviewed was 83. All of the various interviews were conducted in Japan in March 2000, and in Nauru in June 2000. There is another contact language called Pidgin English. Siegel (1990) is the first scholar to have analyzed the use of the language on Nauru. And Okamura (2007) advanced research a little further with regards to the nature of the language. In 1907, Chinese laborers were first brought to the island in order to dig for phosphate. After that, approximately 1,000 Chinese laborers worked on the island each year. Their contracts were for three years, but they could renew their contracts if they wished. Many of these laborers could speak a form of Pidgin English. Pidgin English was thus introduced to the island through their communication with Nauruan people in the stores, restaurants, and workshops in and around the area of the phosphate mines. Over the years, it developed and changed and is still spoken today. This is based on so-called China Coast Pidgin English. Since then, this version of pidgin has been influenced by several Pacific region forms of Pidgin English such as Tok Pisin and Solomon Islands Pidgin English. It has also been altered at various levels over the years. A great deal of work has been conducted on grammatical descriptions of the indigenous language by Rensch (1993). What seems to be lacking, however, are attempts to explore language maintenance. The following section investigates the current situation regarding the remnants of Japanese in Nauru. It also shows how the use of the indigenous language declined.

THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE IN NAURU (ITS HISTORY AND LEGACY) This section discusses the reasons why the Nauruan language almost became extinct during the years of the Japanese occupation (1942 to 1945). This is an important issue because of the role it played in the 1553

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

decline of the indigenous language, a decline that had already been in effect for many decades as a result of the serious social changes that the island had experienced. It is also useful to keep these issues in mind when we examine today’s Nauruan society. On 23 February 1941, most Chinese and Europeans were evacuated from Nauru by the French destroyer “Le Triomphant”. The evacuation accelerated a decline in the use of Nauruan and Pidgin English. In addition, the Australian Administrator of Nauru Island and four other officials were executed by the Japanese on Nauru Island on 26 March 1943 as shown in the Sydney Morning Herald (20 September 1945). This incident starkly indicated an administrative and linguistic shift from Nauruan to Japanese. Japanization in Asia was one of the central aims of the wartime government in Tokyo. This was to be achieved through the region-wide promotion (forced or otherwise) of the Japanese language and culture. On 26 September 1942 a school was opened on the island in which the Japanese language was taught. Not only young children, but also adults attended the school. On 18 May 1943, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, one of the three major newspapers in Japan today, ran an article about 61 local people who would later graduate from the school on 26 December 1943. Japanese troops opened schools on all the islands they occupied, and Nauru was no exception. The reasons for this were practical as well as being part of imperial Japan’s policy of Japanizing territories that they occupied. Generally, in Micronesian countries, it was expected that the Japanese language would play an important role as a lingua franca in order to deal with the multilingual realities of the western Pacific. It was no wonder that the many Micronesian people recognized this, because most Micronesian languages are mutually unintelligible, even though they all belong to the Austronesian family of languages. The Japanese did not rule Nauru in quite the same way as they did elsewhere in Micronesia, so we cannot place the Nauruan case on the same level. However, considering that Nauruan was not intelligible to Tuvaluan or Kiribati speakers, it seems reasonable to suppose that the Japanese also wanted to introduce Japanese into Nauru. The above policy may account for Japanese behavior in Nauru. Japanese language teaching was also considered to be one way to instill in the local Nauruans a sense of loyalty towards Japan. In June and August 1943, about 1,200 Nauruans were deported to the Truk Islands. This represented about two-thirds of the total Nauruan population. After 1943, Japanese soldiers on Nauru were often tormented by hunger. They thus made a decision to send 600 Nauruans to the Truk Islands in June 1943. However, soon after that, the Japanese made the surprising decision to accept approximately 650 Banabans from Ocean Island. Shortly afterwards, about 600 Nauruans were deported to the Truk Islands in August 1943. Furthermore another 1,200 Japanese soldiers landed on Nauru. All of these developments facilitated a decline in the use of the Nauruan language. Okamura (2019) states that such deportations deprived Nauruans of their traditional culture. It also ironically facilitated a decline in the number of Nauruan Japanese speakers. The deported Nauruans were divided into different groups where they were forced to live and work on tiny Pacific islands building airstrips for the Japanese armed forces. It is said that as many as one-third of the Nauruans deported to the Truk Islands died as a result of the harsh conditions. On the Truk Islands, the Japanese language had been taught even before World War II. As many as 9,000 local people could speak the Japanese language fluently. When World War II broke out, some of the Truk Islanders volunteered to cooperate with Japanese soldiers in their area. Those who were able to speak Japanese could get jobs as interpreters and captains. There are two ways to interpret the Japanese acceptance of Trukese (Chuukese) people as assistants and helpers. One possibility is to assume that the aim was to assimilate and cultivate loyalty to Japan. Another possibility is that they were expected to be fighters on the front line. Or both reasons 1554

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

might be the case. What we need to do is to investigate if the deported Nauruans acquired and maintained the Japanese language more than the local people on Nauru Island. The results will be shown later. Approximately 750 Nauruan survivors returned home to Nauru Island. More than 400 Nauruans had died because of starvation, disease, abuse by Japanese soldiers, and Allied aerial bombardment. The fact that so many Nauruans died also indicates a significant decline in the number of Nauruan speakers. The author of this paper interviewed a Japanese war veteran, who used to be an army surgeon, and who medically examined Nauruan people on the Truk Islands. The aim of this interview was to explore in detail how Nauruan people who migrated to the Truk Islands incorporated Japanese into their everyday lives. A close look at the testimony reveals that Nauruans and Trukese (Chuukese) did not mix freely in their ordinary lives. This is conveyed through both Australian and Nauruan sources. Both Nauruan and Trukese belong to the Austronesian language family but their languages are so different that they cannot understand each other. From this viewpoint one may say that their time on the Truk Islands did not influence or promote the Nauruans’ Japanese language competence. However, one of the veterans mentions in his introduction to the linguistic characteristics of Nauru, that the Japanese language was relatively intelligible to Nauruans because some Nauruans had lived on the Truk Islands and were exposed to Japanese. The Nauruans in the Truk Islands did not have enough opportunities to learn about the Japanese language and culture after 1943 because of the disruptions caused by the frequent Allied bombardment campaigns. During a research field trip, the author asked the Nauruans about their migration experiences, and found that Nauruans who had migrated to the Truk Islands (present day Chuuk State) knew Japanese better than the Nauruans who did not migrate (42.6 percent [58/136] and 44.1 percent [30/68] understanding of the total vocabulary list). Table 1 is based on interviews with a total of 6 Nauruan speakers. Table 1. Gender and Age Composition of Nauru Name

Gender

Age

School

Migration

W. S

M

74

+

-

D. T

M

69

+

-

D. A

M

67

+

+

B. W

F

75

+

-

W. B

F

79

-

+

T. W

F

74

-

+

Source: (Okamura, 2002, p. 66)

Most Nauruans know basic Japanese etiquette, such as how to bow. Garrett (1996, p. 108) points out that most Nauruans who learned the language were men or older boys. They had more extended contact with the Japanese during their time fighting Allied forces together. However, it is believed that the acquisition of Japanese by Nauruan women was much higher than that of men. We have good reasons for determining that women spoke better Japanese than men. For example, they worked for the Japanese via jobs such as cooking, cleaning, and working on plantations. And they were often compelled to work in Japanese social clubs. They used to dance in front of the Japanese for money. So Nauruan women probably had closer contact with the Japanese than Nauruan men. A 2002

1555

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

table that the author created related to the question of whether or not six Nauruan men and women could still remember a total of 112 Japanese vocabulary words. There were no significant differences between men and women. However, Nauruan women knew more vocabulary than Nauruan men when it came to the domains of cooking, cleaning, and nursing. These areas very much required the use of Japanese during the occupation period. It shows that not only at school, but also in the community, did people develop their Japanese skills. Another example could be noticed among Japanese Palauan women. According to Matsumoto (2013, p. 256), they had many opportunities to use informal Japanese in a reciprocal manner during the period of Japanese administration. On the other hand, Nauruan men were more familiar with Japanese in the domains of manual labor and the military. The results reflect the different roles of men and women in wartime Nauru. Table 2 is based on Okamura 2002. Table 2. Language and Gender Male

Female

cooking, cleaning, nursing 1)

35.3% (18/51)

47.1% (24/51)

manual labour and the military 2)

47.1% (24/51)

41.2% (21/51)

Source: (Okamura, 2002, p. 68)

1. kango (nursing), sentaku (washing clothes), ryouri (cooking), souji (cleaning) 2. kassouro (airstrip), taichou (captain), kaigun (navy), hikouki (airplane), heitai (troops) Okamura interviewed some veterans in 2002, who experienced life in Nauru as Japanese soldiers during World War II. The above testimonies show that the soldiers had very limited contact with the local people. However, as the testimony indicates, promoting a sense of loyalty towards Japan was important. The song Momotaro-san was definitely taught to the Nauruans, though Okamura did not record that Nauruans also sang the song on the Truk islands. This was confirmed by the author via an interview. Another favorite song, the Japanese national anthem “Kimigayo”, used to be sung within the school system even after the war had ended whenever the teachers wanted the students to behave properly at school. This practice lasted until the 1980s. Thus even the younger generation still remember the song today. Another account points to contrary evidence indicating why some Japanese kept their distance from the locals. According to the World War Two military tribunal testimony of a “Nanyo” (South Seas) Development Company employee, named Yoshio Ishikawa there were 39 lepers on the island. He was asked to look after the patients by the 67th garrison of the Japanese Imperial Army. The lepers were promised that they would be moved to another Micronesian island in order to receive care in a new sanatorium. They were also told that this decision was supported by the Japanese Emperor. All the patients were so glad that they danced and sang. It was all a lie however. In July 1943, Ishikawa saw them off at the pier without realizing the murder plan that the garrison had in store for them. The boat was towed out to sea, and was then riddled with gunfire. It is said that the Lieutenant ordered some subordinates to kill the lepers because they were afraid of disease spreading. Okamura (2015) mentions that this fact indicates that the Japanese language acquisition by the patients was very limited due to the Japanese intentionally keeping a distance from them. Also it shows how yet more speakers of the Nauruan language were lost as a result of the occupation.

1556

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

After the war, due to the Torokina Death March in the Solomon Islands in September 1945, approximately twenty Japanese soldiers died, and another 400 passed away due to the effects of malarial mosquitoes on Piedu Island and other places. Such tragedies further limited the opportunities for the Nauruans to use Japanese. Some Japanese soldiers survived, and many of them longed to return to Nauru. Thus they returned to the island a few times after the war. This indicates that the Nauruans had some opportunities to communicate with Japanese people who were in Nauru during the war years. However, contact was very limited indeed. Kai (2011, p. 35) examined the Japanese spoken by the elderly Yap people in terms of their oral proficiency and the grammatical aspects. She concluded that the limited exposure to the Japanese language during the occupation period and after 1945 caused a decline in its use. Thus we see the relationship between language maintenance and the Japanese cultural and social function. The Japanese occupation weakened the Nauruan language, but it did not affect Nauruan phonology, morphology and syntax. The indigenous language still maintains typical Austronesian characteristics such as the distinction of inclusive / exclusive first person plural forms and the SVO word order. The same applies to the German language in Nauru. Historically, German was the official school language because Nauru became a German colony in 1888. As a result, some German words were incorporated into the indigenous language. However Germany ceased to be a colonial power at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 following defeat in World War One. The position of the German language in Nauru has therefore returned to the almost non-existent position it had before German imperialism imposed itself on Micronesia in the late 1800s. Even today, some Nauruan men and women still remember certain Japanese words and expressions. There is little likelihood that Japanese will again be taught in any school attended by Nauruans. There is also little need for large numbers of Nauruans to learn Japanese today. The position of the Japanese language in Nauru has therefore returned to the position it was in before Japanese imperialism imposed itself in Micronesia in 1942. It is no longer a living language within the Republic of Nauru. After the war, many Chinese, Europeans and local people formed a shared community, and again the indigenous language, Pidgin English, and English became useful languages among the local people in Nauru. This leads us to the question of what factors caused the decline of the Japanese language on the island. The outcome indicates a language shift away from Japanese and back to Nauruan. The 737 Nauruan survivors who returned home from the Truk Islands and the remaining people on Nauru contributed to the maintenance and survival of the indigenous language mainly because it solidified the Nauruans and united them as a common community. The diversity of the Nauruan language and culture was revived quickly after the end of the Second World War. In the following chapter, another contact language spoken on Nauru, Pidgin English, is addressed.

SOME FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE DECLINE OF NAURUAN AND PIDGIN ENGLISH IN NAURU Present day Nauru is very much a multilingual society. English is important in that it is used in the fields of politics, business and education. In addition, it plays a key role as an international language. Today China Coast Pidgin English is no longer spoken as a living language. It was an important lingua franca between British traders and the Chinese in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Samples of China Coast Pidgin English can be seen in Todd (1984). For example, hi plenti sik means ‘he was very 1557

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

sick’ (p. 62). That now extinct language was brought to the island by Chinese laborers in the years after 1906. The Chinese workers were brought to Nauru to dig phosphate. Each year approximately 1,000 laborers from worked on the island. The contracts were for three years, and they were able to renew their contracts. Today a unique version of Pidgin English is spoken by the local people and the Nauruan Chinese community. Pidgin English on the island has been slightly altered in terms of vocabulary and syntax when compared to original China Coast Pidgin English. There are approximately 200 speakers of the new unique Pidgin English language on the island but no one speaks Pidgin English as their mother tongue (see Okamura 2007). Amongst the Nauruan Chinese community, Cantonese is used as the main means of communication. The language also plays an important role in that it is used not only between Nauruans and the ethnic Chinese community on Nauru but also between the Nauruan Chinese and Kiribati, Tuvaluan and Solomon Islanders. As such, it would be wrong and impractical to prohibit the use of Pidgin and to accept only English and Nauruan. This is because those who speak English as a first language would arguably come to have a disproportionately strong influence on the island, and there is also a related possibility that young Nauruans would choose not to speak the Nauruan language. As the status of English grows in the community, Nauruan and Pidgin English would most likely be looked down upon. The hierarchy of languages is a natural process, but if the government’s language policies are ever based on compulsion and force then there may very well be some risks and consequences. In addition, if all the ethnic Chinese on the island come to speak English fluently, then Pidgin English will be of no use in the community. At present, Nauruan is still at the top of the language hierarchy, Pidgin English is at the edge, and other foreign languages remain in the middle. If we can keep the hierarchy, then both Nauruan and Pidgin English can survive and be maintained. The Nauruan language is spoken by approximately 6000 people. Twelve different tribes used to speak different languages but these languages merged and became one language during the years of German colonization (1888 to 1914). Thus structural and functional ties among the languages should be tolerated and encouraged. Likewise, the idea of returning to a linguistic situation similar to life before contact with the Europeans and the Asians should be discarded. One must also draw attention to the dangers of epidemics, natural disasters and conflict to the life of the island. Nauru is the world’s smallest nation, so problems such as the spread of diseases would be detrimental to the social, economic, and cultural survival of the small republic. Secondly, some observers contend that migration to Australia represents a threat to the maintenance of both Nauruan and Pidgin English. Some Nauruan workers are planning to migrate to Australia because they feel that they can no longer depend on the island’s phosphate industries (the primary industry) to make a living. There are a number of reasons for this. One reason is that, unlike the Greek community in Melbourne and the Chinese community in Sydney, the Nauruan community is too small to be maintained as a viable community in Australia, and dispersion may occur because of economic and demographic factors. It is true that Australia is a multilingual nation and community languages are encouraged in everyday use and in education, but it is doubtful that both Nauruan and Pidgin English would be taught in the school system. Another reason is that English is the de facto national language of Australia and it has benefits in many respects. Many Nauruans already have some knowledge of English and this may cause a decline in the use of both Nauruan and Pidgin English as can be seen among the Australian South Sea Islanders in Queensland (for example, both the Melanesian language and Kanaka English are no longer spoken). Nonetheless Nauru itself is a society in which the indigenous group are dominant as

1558

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

can be seen from its demography. So it would be easier for them to maintain both Nauruan and Pidgin English in Nauru than in Australia. Furthermore, most people realize that a process of Westernization is taking place on the island. For instance, 100% of food products are imported from Australia, though in the past they mainly used to fish for themselves, and eat coconuts. As a further example of Westernization, there are some Queensland and Victorian based curriculums in the school system. It should also be added that religious proselytizing has contributed to a higher frequency in the use of English. However, it is important to bear in mind that those institutional factors play an ambivalent role as previous sociolinguistic studies show. The most important addition to be made to what we have said is how Nauruans themselves could promote their own identity and solidarity. Despite the strong influence of Western countries, they should make more determined efforts to promote community solidarity from the inside in order to strengthen their ethnic and social bonds. Traditional cultures should be respected especially when it comes to the maintenance of language. And Pidgin English should be recognized as a unique historical and traditional characteristic of Nauruan life. As such, it would be desirable if the government could support Pidgin English as one of the important community languages on the island. Pidgin English is mainly used by the ethnic Chinese and the Nauruans who use it to communicate with each other. There are approximately three hundred speakers, and it is mostly spoken in Chineseowned stores and restaurants. Siegel (1990) and Okamura (2007) have discussed its linguistic features and socio-historical background. These are the most comprehensive studies to date. However, these studies do not tell us about its stability in terms of the word order of Pidgin English. Thus it is important to investigate those features in terms of previous linguistic models. The aim of this section is to discuss the rules, relationships, and systems regarding languages that affect their decline and endanger their existence. Special reference is given to Nauruan and Pidgin English. A cline theory will be advanced to explain the degrees of language stabilization and destabilization. In Nauru, Nauruan is one of the most stable languages, and Pidgin English is positioned in the middle of a continuum. The position of the indigenous language and Pidgin English in a continuum of stabilization can be demonstrated by showing contrastive and sociolinguistic approaches historically and structurally in comparison to other pidgins and creoles. Before turning to a closer examination of language decline, a few remarks should be made concerning language structure with regards to Pidgin English. What Okamura (2007) examined makes clear at once that the general point is that Pidgin English today is largely based on China Coast Pidgin English. Pidgin English spoken by Nauruans is similar to that of Pidgin spoken by ethnic Chinese people on the island. Even if there are some disagreements between PE1 (ethnic Chinese speakers) and PE2 (Nauruan speakers), this does not affect the validity of the schema; Pidgin English in Nauru < China Coast Pidgin English. The following table outlines the features of Pidgin English and Tok Pisin. It seems reasonable to suppose that this Pidgin English is derived from China Coast Pidgin English, as can be seen earlier from the discussion about the structure of Pidgin English. The author compares Tok Pisin with Pidgin English in the table below. The reason why the structure of Tok Pisin is shown in table 3 is that it is the most influential version of pidgin in Nauru. Tok Pisin is frequently used on Nauru between local people and Pacific Islanders such as the Solomon Islanders and Papua New Guineans. Table 3 clearly shows that Pidgin English today is largely based on China Coast Pidgin English. For example, the usage of piecee in 9, Table 3 is similar to that of Chinese, or word order numeral+numeral marker+noun. Here is another example (no. 9 in Table 3 below). In Pidgin English final vowels are added onto some words of English origin (killuu for kill). Table 3 is based on Okamura 2007. 1559

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

Table 3. The Features of Pidgin English and Tok Pisin TP

PE1

PE2

1. Distinctions between incl./excl.

+

-

-

2. Predicate marker i

+

-

-(?)

3. Past tense marker bin

+

-

-

4. Future tense marker bambai

+

-(?)

-

5. Existential construction marker i gat

+

-

-

6. Transitive marker –im

+

-

-

7. Preposition long (in)

+

+

+

8. Vowel addition

-

+

+

9. Numeral classifier piecee

-

+

+

10. Adjectival suffix -pela

+

-(?)

-

Source: (Okamura, 2007, p. 84)

What is not so widely understood, however, is how to explain the degree of stability by scoring each contact language and the indigenous language. This point deserves emphasis. The idea is developed a little further by scoring each Pidgin English and Nauruan language. Some factors in the decline of languages in Nauru are discussed. It can be observed that the cline is important in explaining language decline. The same observation applies to languages outside Oceania. It should be added that, from this viewpoint, one may be able to predict risks for an endangered language. The cline theory (in order of importance: Living environment > Political factors > Social factors > Institutional factors > Mass media) helps to explain the degree of language decline. The theory was used in research by this author in 2007, and developed a little further. Both geographical and socio-political factors may account for them. In particular, the living environment is the most influential factor in a decline. The important point to note is that in Table 4 below, the various factors are not listed on the same weight as the cline theory shows. Here the paper shows that both geographical and socio-political factors influence a speaker’s perception of the contact language and the indigenous language. The term “geographical factors” is used to refer to whether or not the contact language is spoken on significant land masses or on islands, and how much the super-stratum language affects the contact language and the indigenous language in a community. The term “socio-political factors” can be defined as the changed socio-political distance between host and immigrant societies. It includes the living environment, political factors, social factors, institutional factors and the mass media. The term socio-political factors is used to refer to the degree of stability. To put it more concretely, political factors indicate whether the contact language is or is not a national (or official) language, and stable or not. The living environment refers to when the living space is not isolated, but has the ability to extend easily into other areas and regions. Social factors refer to a speaker’s low social class at a time when the numbers in a speech community are decreasing. Institutional factors imply the language is not adopted in education and that speakers seldom find ways to advance in a community. Mass media refers to when the language is not used on the television, on the radio or in newspapers, and so it is restricted to speakers’ homes and some non-official domains. One should make clear what is intended by these expressions. The point this paper wishes to

1560

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

make is that there is a cline for these factors. One misses the point if all factors are regarded as having the same importance. The living environment is considered the most influential in a cline. Pidgin English is not used for radio, television and newspapers in Nauru, but it is still alive. Thus the factor is ambivalent in a cline. It would be untrue to say that the mass media factor is equivalent to that of political factors in terms of degree. This factor is less influential than the political ones. If group solidarity collapses, the maintenance of the language weakens. Social discrimination often makes speakers cling more closely to each other, so that the language does not die out among the younger generation. The above cline makes it possible to interpret language decline. Thus geographical as well as sociopolitical factors define how far a person tries to keep his or her mother tongue or contact language. Some languages on the islands are examined below. However, Pidgin English is not dying out because most speakers live in and are concentrated in a tightly-knit community on the island. The area that they live in goes by the unusual name ‘Location’, and this can be seen in any detailed map of Nauru. Their communities are homogeneous and are separated from the dominant group. These places resemble a type of political, social, and geographical island. As such, controlling the political, social, and geographical distance from the dominant group can be key to maintaining each language. Likewise, both Nauruan and Pidgin English have different roles in everyday life. These realities and circumstances help to preserve each language within society. If the society changes drastically then each language will be influenced. Pidgin English should be maintained not only because it assists communication between the indigenous people and the Chinese community, but also because it preserves linguistic diversity on the island. Table 4 shows that Pidgin English speakers often suffer from political and social discrimination at the hands of the dominant group. Haarman (1985) has managed to examine theoretical issues relating to the linguistic ecology model. In his research, Haarman found that there are some key factors that cause languages to decline. These of course include political and social factors. However, the various factors there are listed on the same weight. Thus the author altered Haarman’s theory as the cline theory shows and each language is scored as follows: Nauruan (32 points) > Pidgin English (14 points) Judging from the above, most of us would agree that the results support what is being advanced in this section, showing that Nauruan is one of the most stable languages and that Pidgin English is unstable. The question to consider is what are relations with the contact languages on the islands like. What are their components? First, geographical pressures are weak. Secondly, socio-political pressures are weak, so the speaker’s desire to keep his or her mother tongue or contact language is enormous. Thirdly, the contact language is likely to be preserved because a common code system (English, for example) other than contact languages is lacking. Nauru, as a remote and isolated island, experiences geographical pressures and socio-political pressures that are fortunately weak. These pressures do not bear down on local languages in Nauru to the same extent as elsewhere in the world. Thus Nauruan speakers can try hard to maintain their mother tongue. The contact language is likely to be preserved. Thus the stability of Pidgin English is in the middle of a continuum. This author concludes that the cline showing language decline is a valid argument. There are a number of SIL International related projects (formerly the Summer Institute of Linguistics) in the Oceania region focusing on languages with fewer than 500 speakers. SIL identifies such languages and shares information about the danger of language decline (van den Berg, 2013, pp. 52-53). Numerous 1561

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

studies (for example see Evans, 2009 and Kurebito, 2011) show that there has been considerable interest in the issue of endangered languages in recent years. The cline theory is available for those endangered languages, and can be scored independently. In the following section, this paper aims to show that the structure of Pidgin English is not similar to that of the indigenous language by referring to the linguistic data shown in Table 4 above, and this contributes to the stability of both languages. Table 4. The Degree of Indigenous and Contact Language Stability Today Conditions

N

PE

(1) Dynamic factors • The speakers are more than 1000 • Residential areas are not isolated • Geographically remote from the former colonial power • Most community members are not old • There is not a tendency towards migration as a result of a low unemployment rate

+ + + + +

+ +?

(2) Social factors • The community members are not decreasing • Most speakers reside in an urban area • The community members do not belong to the working class • Most families are not mixed ethnically

+ △ + +

+? +

(3) Political factors • Has a legal right to maintain the speech community • The language is a national language • The language has an official status • The language is adopted in education • The opportunities for social promotion among members of the speech community are not restricted

+ + + + +

-

+ + + + +

+ + + +

+ + + + +

+ +? +

+ + + + + +

+? + + +

+ + + +

+ + + +

(4) Cultural factors • Socio-political tensions between the dominant group and other Pidgin speaking groups are low • The communities’ interests in their cultural and the political organizations can be maintained • The language is not created • The language is used as only a spoken language (5) Psychological factors • The identity of the ethnic community’s members is not sporadic • The language is recognized as a mark of self-identity • The members consider that the language has prestige • The awareness of the need to maintain the language is not low • The frequency of interactive communication with other ethnic groups is low (6) Interactive factors • The means of communications among the community members is mainly conducted through the indigenous language • Pidgin English is used as a stigmatized variety • The language community is not in a subordinate position • The Pidgin speaking group is well known to the dominant group • The use of Pidgin English is restricted to unofficial domains • The use of Pidgin English is not restricted at home (7) Linguistic factors • The structure of the indigenous language is different from that of Pidgin English • The linguistic behavior of the dominant group is not similar to that of the Pidgin English speaking group • The linguistic behavior of the Pidgin English speaking group is not influenced by other Pacific versions of Pidgin or Creole • Pidgin English is subordinate to other versions of Pidgin and Creole (N: Nauruan; PE: Pidgin English)

1562

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

THE STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES First, this section will consider the typological features of Pidgin English with special reference to basic word order. At the same time, one can analyze the Nauruan language to understand the difference between Pidgin English and Austronesian languages. The aims of this section are to identify the word order in Pidgin English in conjunction with an investigation of other Austronesian languages and contact languages, and to discuss its historical background. This section discusses basic word order typology including the other word order characteristics of Pidgin English by considering why Pidgin English is dissimilar to other versions of Pidgin and Creole. Due to the linguistic dissimilarities between the indigenous language and Pidgin English, both languages can be maintained. It is debatable whether or not linguistic dissimilarities can be given as the main reason for the maintenance of the indigenous language. However, it needs further consideration. This relationship can be attributed to the stable social distance between the indigenous community and the ethnic Chinese community on the island. To date, only a few attempts have been made to thoroughly examine the indigenous language of Nauru. Examples include Rensch (1993), who has described Nauruan grammar in detail. Nathan (1973) has researched the origins of the Nauruan language, and Hough (1974) has presented his findings on Nauruan phonology. In addition, Delaporte (1907) published a Nauruan-German, German-Nauruan dictionary. As part of this author’s research activities, this author collected data from the Nauruan Consulate General in Brisbane in 2000 and reviewed the data from the source at the Consulate General again in 2015. The source is a native Nauruan speaker in his late fifties who comes from the Aiwo district in Nauru. The Nauruan language is considered to be one of the Austronesian languages because it contains a number of morphological and syntactic structures, such as the distinction of inclusive/exclusive first person plural forms and the distinction of alienable/inalienable possessions. Other features, on the other hand, are more characteristic of non-Austronesian languages. For example, the concord in pronouns, adjectives and numerals with a very high number of 39 noun classes. This is one of the salient features of non-Austronesian languages or Papuan languages. Of the three languages, the Nauruan language is the most flexible in terms of basic word order. Pidgin English is positioned in the mid range of flexibility, while Tok Pisin can be grouped as the most inflexible among these word orders. Originally, Pidgin English was identical to China Coast Pidgin. Pidgin English is spoken in the Austronesian language world. However, certain typological features are characteristic of certain versions of Pidgin and Creole, not Austronesian languages. This is probably because of geographical and historical reasons. Starting with transitive sentences, the data on transitive sentences reveal that Pidgin English is an SVO pattern as in (1). By observing the frequencies of basic word orders in Tomlin (in Waley, 2006, p. 88), the SVO pattern is found in 42% of the languages in the sample. It could be said that Pidgin English is one of them. Pidgin English is equal to Tok Pisin as shown below. 1. PE: Mi tek shawa. (Okamura, 2007, p. 86) 1sg take shower ‘I take a shower.’ 2. TP: Mi kisim shawa. 1sg take shower ‘I take a shower.’

1563

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

The basic word order of Pidgin English is the same as in versions of Pidgin and Creole spoken in Oceania: Tok Pisin, Bislama, Solomon Islands Pidgin and Torres Strait Creole. Pidgin English has mainly an English lexicon but not much English grammar. The VO pattern is the basic word order in the contemporary Austronesian language family. Similarly, it is the basic word order in proto Austronesian languages as shown in Sakiyama (1986) and Yamamoto (2003). The Nauruan language is no exception. VO type language is stabilized in the world of VO type. The object in the Nauruan language can be placed before and after the verb. 3. N: a ugo Isg shower ‘I take a shower.’ 4. N: ugo na. shower Isg ‘I take a shower.’ Secondly, with regards to adpositions, the data reveal that Pidgin English has a preposition + noun order. Both Tok Pisin and Nauruan have the same order. There are two kinds of prepositions such as pure prepositions and derived prepositions in the Nauruan language (See Rensch 1993, p. 195). The fact that Pidgin English has an SVO pattern, means it can use the order of preposition + noun. This supports Lehmann’s (1986) findings on word order correlations. 5. PE: Mi stop in the otel. 1sg stay P DET hotel ‘I am staying in the hotel’ 6. TP: Mi stap long hotel. 1sg stay P hotel ‘I am staying in the hotel’ 7. N: A ijat hotel Isg p hotel ‘I am staying in the hotel’ Sentence (5) was collected from Nauruan speakers. The preposition in Pidgin English is not very productive. On the other hand, Chinese speakers do not use the preposition very often as shown in the following example (8). The fact that a preposition is often omitted by the ethnic Chinese speakers of Pidgin English can be assumed to be an instance of language economy. 8. PE: Tu gadudu stap otel. two child stay hotel ‘There are two children in the hotel.’ Sentence (5) leads observers to consider that the preposition occurred accidentally. However, the postposition never occurs, so we should conclude that Pidgin English has the order of preposition + noun. It does not go against Lehmann’s (1986) findings on correlations. It is still undergoing change before the stabilization of the preposition in Pidgin English. At the moment, the form of preposition is ‘in’, and Pidgin English coexists with Pacific Pidgin on the island, so the ‘in’ form would be relexified toward the formation of ‘long’, which is well-used throughout Oceania today. That is, through the influx of Pacific Islanders, it is undergoing change towards the stabilization of the preposition.

1564

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

Thirdly, let us take a look at the ordering of pronoun + noun. As can be seen below, Pidgin English follows an order of pronoun + noun (9). The same is true of China Coast Pidgin English as in hi fes luksee olsem chiken ‘his face looks like a chicken (Todd, 1984, p. 62). The main pattern in VO type language is noun + genitive order, so it is not what we expect. The language is SVO order, that can be constructed by a preposition + noun to form a genitive + noun. What Lehmann (1986) had proposed is not reflected here. In fact, as numerous linguists have pointed out, it is common for languages not to be perfectly consistent in following the expected patterns in order to be able to explain the formation of genitive + noun versus noun + genitive. Therefore, no one can say that Pidgin English is an exceptional language. Here it would probably be wise to say that Pidgin English just deviates partially from Lehmann’s framework. It should be added that the linguistic form of the pronoun in Pidgin English is different from that in versions of Pidgin and Creole spoken in Oceania. In Pidgin English, the forms of the nominative, genitive and accusative cases are all the same. In addition to that, there are two ways for showing genitive construction: ‘blong mi’ and ‘mi’. In spite of having contact with Pacific Islanders, including Nauruans and Chinese, for a long period of time, there are no similar word orders in Pidgin English. The unexpected word orders here can be accounted for in terms of a socio-historical influence. Both Nauruans and ethnic Chinese did not mix freely within society in the past (Okamura, 2007, p. 94), so the common word order is not stabilized. Pidgin English keeps the word order of China Coast Pidgin. Example (11) with the form of ‘blong’ was collected by Okamura (2007) from a Nauruan Chinese resident on the island. Another example (10) was collected from Nauruan speakers. 9. PE1: mi T-shat (Okamura, 2007, p. 86) my T-shirt ‘my T-shirt’ 10. PE2: blong mi T-shat (Okamura, 2007, p. 86) my T-shirt ‘my T-shirt’ 11. TP: T-shat bilong mi T-shat POSS me ‘my T-shirt’ There is a possible answer for why genitive construction in Pidgin English differs from that of Pacific Pidgin English. It is probably because Pidgin English received elements directly from China Coast Pidgin. Todd’s (1984, p. 261) data on China Coast Pidgin reveals the possibility that ‘Belong what name?’ means ‘What is your name?’ If we place ‘yu’ instead of using ‘what’, the sentence has the same meaning as in (10). Pidgin English places nouns after proper nouns. 12. PE: Preston papa papa ‘Preston’s father’s father’ The Nauruan language puts genitives before the noun. It has a very strict word order. 13. N: aeo T-shirt my T-shirt ‘my T-shirt’ 14. N: ageo man my husband’s father’s father ‘my husband’s father’s father’ 1565

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

Fourthly, the adjective suffix –fela is not so productive in Pidgin English (15) (Okamura, 2007, p. 84). The element tends to be weakly suffixed, particularly among Chinese speakers. VO languages have a NA order according to Lehmann, but Pidgin English is not consistent with this. The language is SVO, which has prepositions, genitives before nouns, and adjectives before nouns. Again, it goes against Lehmann’s findings on correlations. One thus cannot conclude that Pidgin English is undergoing a change toward the noun + adjective order. Rather, the word order of adjective + noun will be stabilized as in Tok Pisin. It does not require an adjective ending –fela, especially among Chinese speakers. The –fela is optional in Pidgin English at the moment, but, the order will be stabilized due to sustained contact between Pidgin English and other versions of Pacific Pidgin English over long periods of time. 15. PE: big (fela) kumo big (Adj.) pig ‘big pig’ 16. TP: bikpela pik big (Adj.) pig ‘big pig’ 17. N: ikumo ouwak pig big (Adj.) ‘big pig’ As seen in (17) and (18), there occurs two possible word orders in the relationship between the head and the modifier in the Nauruan language. It is very common for Austronesian languages to modify the nominal in two ways as in the Nauruan language. The phrase (18) includes the article bita and the emphatic adverb kor, but it never appears within the phrase (17). This indicates the phrase (17) is an unmarked construction. 18. N: ouwak kor bita ikumo big very DET pig ‘big pig’ This section discusses the linguistic dissimilarities between Pidgin English and the Nauruan language. Firstly, Pidgin English is a member of the VO order type of languages, and is one of two prototypes. This is the second largest such group in the world. At the same time, many versions of Pidgin and Creole as well as the Sino-Tibetan language family share characteristics with this. Though the preposition is unproductive, Pidgin English has a GN and AN order pattern. The characteristics of Pidgin English are quite different from those of the Nauruan language, one of the Austronesian languages. Also, the closest language in terms of similarity is not Pidgins and Creoles but the Sino-Tibetan language family. The Pidgin and Creole languages usually dissemble in ways similar to that of super or substratum languages. For instance, Tolai is one of the Austronesian languages that contribute to form the structure of Tok Pisin. However, the grammatical features of Tok Pisin and Tolai are distinguished from one another. As such, Pidgin English has a lot in common with Chinese. Finally, the structure of Pidgin English does not share a lot in common with the languages of the world. Judging from Matsumoto’s overall framework, how is Pidgin English to be classified into types? Matsumoto (2006, p. 163) classified the languages of the world according to distributions in the type of word order. The results support what was examined in the previous section, showing that the basic word order of Pidgin English is uncommon, and that can be placed into a group of only 1.54%. Pidgin English occupies a minor position. How have these minor groups come about? What is surprising is that the 1566

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

four parameters designated by Greenberg (1966) indicate that both Tok Pisin and Pidgin English are not subject to the above rule. Furthermore Pidgin English deviates from the above rule more than Tok Pisin. Here Pidgin English is referred to in relation to other contact languages and Austronesian languages. Roughly speaking, a few tendencies can be pointed out. Pidgin English versions are mostly all English based versions of Pidgin and Creole, thus the general typological features are similar to one another. Of all the English based versions of Pidgins, Tok Pisin, Solomon Islands Pidgin and Bislama are all closely related in nature. These three languages share similar features because their socio-historical backgrounds can be traced date back to a common origin. Pidgin English has much in common with the above three languages, but we can distinguish Pidgin English from other kinds of Pidgin and Creole in regards to the genitive + noun construction order. Pidgin English also differs from Torres Strait Creole, Fijian Pidgin and Norfolk Creole in that word order. The latter three contact languages can be distinguished from one another, and each language differs in socio-historical background. Pidgin English has a strong tendency towards the same ordering as the Chinese language. Due to sustained contact between Pacific Pidgin English and Pidgin English for long periods of time, Pidgin English shares a lot in common with Pacific Pidgin English. Or, to put it another way, Pidgin English has a strong tendency to follow the same ordering pattern of Pacific Pidgin English. It is one century since Pidgin English arrived on the island of Nauru. There are several reasons for the delay in the expansion of lexicon and syntax. The population of ethnic Chinese in Nauru used to be demographically dominant, but they have decreased in number. Therefore Pidgin English has been greatly influenced by Pacific Pidgin English. At the moment, Pacific Pidgin English has not been affected much. Contact between Pacific Islanders and the ethnic Chinese on the island has been limited, and therefore the contact language has been able to survive. Other word orders are shown below. The question is, does Pidgin English on Nauru share similar features with Pidgin English derived from the Chinese mainland. And how much does Pidgin English have common features with other languages in Oceania? Whether or not we can find these typological connections is questionable. Considering other word orders, Pidgin English is strikingly different from other contact languages in terms of adverb + verb, adverb + adjective, and sentence-initial question words. The evidence is, in principle, compatible with others in terms of basic word order. Thus, the typological characteristics of Pidgin English can be distinguished from one another. There are two main possible answers for why Pidgin English differs from surrounding contact languages. One is that Pidgin English was derived from China Coast Pidgin, and it stabilized on the island. Another possible answer can be attributed to restricted contact between the Chinese and the Pacific Islanders on Nauru Island. We now have to consider typological connections. It was found that Pidgin English has a close relationship with the Chinese language with reference to natural languages. Matsumoto (2006, p. 218) assumed that the Chinese mainland is ‘the utmost changeable or transitional area in terms of word order, and the OV pattern dominates in the northern half, but the VO pattern dominates in the southern half of the Chinese mainland.’ It means that there is a gradual transition between the North and the South. This fact indicates that Pidgin English is originally a product of the VO type language because it used to be spoken in Canton and Hong Kong. According to Matsumoto’s (2006) classification, the Chinese language, some European languages, as well as Pidgins and Creoles are classified as the same type. Hence, Pidgin English should be classified here in a category which shows a VO PR GN AN pattern. 1567

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

Pidgin English only shows this pattern, revealing geographical and historical connections to the Chinese mainland to a large degree. Pidgin English conforms to the type which the Chinese language belongs to, but most versions of Pidgin and Creole are not classified here. For example, Tok Pisin conforms to the European languages’ type. Matsumoto’s classification is somewhat less effective as far as most Pacific versions of Pidgin and Creole are concerned. However, as noted above, because of the dominance of Pacific Pidgin English on the island, we may rather assume that they are undergoing changes that are leading them toward the Pacific Pidgin English type. Chinese people used to bring China Coast Pidgin from China. What needs to be recognized is the above analytic nature of Pidgin English is derived from China Coast Pidgin. Its nature shows signs of typological connections. This is the obvious product of their histories. That is to say that Pidgin English has genetic links to China Coast Pidgin, not the Nauruan language. These linguistic dissimilarities contribute to preventing a merger of two different languages: Nauruan and Pidgin English. Again, it can be said that the isolation of Pidgin speakers from the dominant group can contribute to stabilizing their language and the indigenous language.

CONCLUSION First of all, this paper surveyed sociolinguistic features with a special emphasis on Japanese on the island. Second it considered factors affecting the stability of the Nauruan language and Pidgin English. The cline theory helps to explain the degree of language decline. Both geographical and socio-political factors may account for them. In particular, the living environment is the most influential factor in a decline. This paper has concluded that the cline showing language decline is a valid argument. In Nauru, the Nauruan language on the island is one of the most stable languages today. Pidgin English is positioned in the middle of a continuum. Due to the linguistic dissimilarities between the indigenous language and Pidgin English, both languages can be maintained. The hierarchy of languages in Nauru today should be sustained in order to ensure the maintenance of the indigenous language and Pidgin English. In regards to the results, the typological connections evident in Pidgin English are analogous to the Chinese language, not the Nauruan language, and this contributes to the stability of both languages. From this discussion it also emerged that Pidgin English is not common to Nauruan and all English-based versions of Pidgin and Creole in Oceania. Hence, Pidgin English reflects a tendency to be inconsistent, as both internal and external factors determine the word order of Pidgin English. However, this paper contends that, as a consequence of sustained contact with Pacific Pidgin English, the structure of Pidgin English comes closer to that of Pacific Pidgin English.

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS The abbreviations used in this paper are: PE, Pidgin English; PE1, Nauruan Speakers of PE; PE2, Chinese Speakers of PE; 1568

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

TP, Tok Pisin; N, Nauruan language; 1sg, First singular subject; DET, Determiner; P, Preposition; POSS, Possession; Adj., Adjective

ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author is indebted to some staff members of the National Diet Library in Tokyo for their help in the research for this article. Thanks also to members of The Japanese Society for Oceanic Studies (JSOS), The Center for Australian Studies at Otemon Gakuin University (CAS), and The Center for South Asian Studies Tenri for their valuable comments. Thanks also to a number of Japanese war veterans for agreeing to interviews, the Education Department in Nauru for arranging my interviews with the local people, and the National Archives in Tsukuba, Japan for providing important background information. The earlier version of this paper was in part written in Japanese. The author added more of his own views and insights here. Any errors and shortcomings in this paper are the author’s own.

REFERENCES Comrie, B. (2001). Language universals and linguistic typology (K. Matsumoto & H. Yamamoto, Trans.). Chicago: University of Chicago. (Original work published 1989) Delaporte, P. A. (1907). Kleines Taschenworterbuch Deutsch-Nauru [Small pocket dictionary GermanNauru]. Nauru: Missions-Druckerei. Evans, N. (2009). Dying words: Endangered languages and what they have to tell us. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. doi:10.1002/9781444310450 Garrett, J. (1996). Island exiles. Sydney: ABC Books. Greenberg, J. H. (1973). Universals of language (S. Ando, Trans.). MIT Press. (Original work published 1966) Haarmann, H. (1985). Gengo seitaigaku (M. Waseda, Trans.). Tokyo: Taishuukan Shoten. Hough, D. A. (1974). Summary of Nauruan phonology (Unpublished Manuscript). Pacific Collection, Hamilton Library, University of Hawaii, Manoa Campus. Kai, M. (2011). The Japanese language spoken by elderly Yap people: Oral proficiency and grammatical aspects. Language and Linguistics in Oceania, 3, 23–39. Kurebito, M. (2011). Nihon no kiki Gengo: Gengo hogen no tayosei to dokujisei [Endangered languages in Japan: Linguistic diversity and uniqueness]. Hokkaido University Press.

1569

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

Lehmann, W. P. (1986). On the typology of the relative clauses. Linguistics, 24(4), 663–680. doi:10.1515/ ling.1986.24.4.663 Matsumoto, K. (2006). Sekai gengo eno shiza: Rekishi gengogaku to gengo ruikeiron [A worldwide perspective on languages: Historical linguistics and linguistic typology]. Tokyo: Sanseido. Matsumoto, K. (2007). Sekai gengo no naka no nihongo:Nihongo keitōron no aratana chihei [Japanese language in the world of the languages: A new horizon toward Japanese genealogy]. Tokyo: Sanseido. Matsumoto, K. (2013). Parao nihongo no goyōronteki heni to henka [Pragmatic variation and change in Palauan Japanese]. In T. Okamura & A. Yarapea (Eds.), Oseania no gengo teki sekai [Languages in Oceania] (pp. 220–262). Hiroshima: Keisuisha. Nathan, G. (1973). Nauruan in the Austronesian language family. Oceanic Linguistics, 12(1/2), 479–501. doi:10.2307/3622864 Nauru Tsuushinkai. (1987). Nauru tō: Nauru shubitai no kiroku [Nauru Island: Records taken by a veterans group]. Yamaguchi: Nauru Tsuushinkai. Okamura, T. (2002). Japanese language teaching in Nauru during the occupation. People and Culture in Oceania, 18, 65–75. Okamura, T. (2007). On the degree of contact language stabilization: A contrastive study of Tok Pisin and Nauruan Pidgin. In T. Okamura (Ed.), Language in Papua New Guinea (pp. 77–105). Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo Publishing. Okamura, T. (2015). Senjika no Nauru tō de okita hansen byōsha shudan gyakusatsu jiken to Nantaku shain no shōgen [The wartime massacre of lepers in Nauru and the testimony of a Nanyō (South Seas) Development Company employee Ishikawa]. Nampo-Bunka Tenri Bulletin of South Asian Studies, 41, 93–116. Okamura, T. (2019). Ōshuujin satsugai jiken to Nauru tōmin isō jiken [The role and position of the Nanyō (South Seas) Development Company as viewed with regards to the execution of European prisoners as well as the deportation of Nauruans to the Truk Islands during the Second World War]. Nampo-Bunka Tenri Bulletin of South Asian Studies, 45, 79–95. Rensch, K. H. (1993). Nauru grammar. Canberra: A Publication of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany. Sakiyama, O. (1986). Papua shogo to Ōsutoroneshia shogo no gengo sesshoku: Tokuni gojunn henkani tsuite [Language contact between Papuan languages and the Austronesian language family: with special reference to word order change]. Kokuritsu Minzokugaku Hakubutsukan Kenkyu Hokoku, 11-2, 355–382. Siegel, J. (1990). Pidgin English in Nauru. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 5(2), 157–186. doi:10.1075/jpcl.5.2.02sie Todd, L. (1984). Modern Englishes. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell. Tomlin, R. S. (1986). Basic word order: Functional principles. London: Croom Helm.

1570

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

Van den Berg, R. (2013). SIL and its contribution to Oceanic linguistics. Language and Linguistics in Oceania, 5, 33–70. Venneman, T. (1974b). Theoretical word order studies: Results and problems. Papiere zur Linguistik, 7, 5–25. Whaley, L. J. (2006). Introduction to typology: The unity and diversity of language (T. Ōhori, Trans.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. (Original work published 1997) Yamamoto, H. (2003). Sekai shogengo no chiriteki keitōteki bunpu to sono hensen [Geographical and genealogical word order distribution and its changes]. Hiroshima: Keisuisha.

ADDITIONAL READING Abley, M. (2004). Spoken here: Travels among threatened languages. Portsmouth: William Heinemann Ltd. Crystal, D. (2000). Language death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/ CBO9781139106856 Daniel, N., & Romaine, S. (2000). Vanishing voices: The extinction of the world’s languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dixon, R. M. W. (1997). The rise and fall of languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511612060 Holmes, J., & Wilson, N. (2017). An Introduction to sociolinguistics. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315728438 Lynch, J. (1998). Pacific languages: An introduction. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Mühlhäusler, P. (1996). Linguistic ecology: Language change and linguistic imperialism in the Pacific region. London: Routledge. Trudgill, P., & Hannah, J. (2017). International English: A guide to varieties of English around the world. London: Taylor & Francis Ltd. doi:10.4324/9781315192932 Velupillai, V. (2015). Pidgins, Creoles and mixed languages: An introduction. John Benjamins Pub Co. doi:10.1075/cll.48

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Austronesian Language Family: The family has about one thousand languages, spoken by three hundred million people within and outside the Pacific Basin. China Coast Pidgin English: It was a lingua franca along the coast and was used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its link with Pidgin English in Nauru stems from phosphate mining.

1571

 Preserving the Nauruan Language and Pidgin English in Nauru

Cline Theory: The theory helps to explain the degree of language decline. In particular, in order, the living environment is regarded as the most influential factor in a decline: living environment > political factors > social factors > institutional factors > mass media. Geographical Factors: The term refers to whether or not the contact language is spoken on countries or islands, and how much the super-stratum language affects the contact language in a community. SIL International: The organization is best described with five brief characteristics: (1) international, (2) non-profit, (3) faith-based, (4) focussed on language development, and (5) focussed on capacitybuilding. Socio-Political Factors: The term can be defined as the changed socio-political distance between host and immigrant societies. It includes political factors, living environment, social factors, institutional factors and mass media. Sociolinguistics: It is a term used to describe all areas of the study of the relationship between language and society. Tok Pisin: Tok Pisin is a lingua franca between tribes in Papua New Guinea. It is the language of government, education, business, church and mass media.

This research was previously published in Indigenous Language Acquisition, Maintenance, and Loss and Current Language Policies; pages 103-123, copyright year 2021 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

1572

1573

Chapter 76

Discourse Analysis Soe Marlar Lwin https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3468-5584 Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore

ABSTRACT This chapter introduces discourse analysis as a sub-discipline of linguistics. Relevant concepts from pragmatics, another closely-related sub-discipline, are also discussed within the context of discourse analysis. The chapter begins by explaining the relationship between pragmatics and discourse analysis, and key terms such as “text” and “discourse.” It then examines the distinctions between linguistic and non-linguistic contexts, and situational and sociocultural contexts. To help readers understand the importance of culture in using language to make meanings, the introduced concepts are illustrated with sample authentic texts as well as examples from English and a few other languages. Placing discourse at the core of language teaching and learning, the chapter recommends a discourse-based approach to help ELLs develop not only communicative competence but also intercultural communicative competence. The chapter provides ESOL teachers with knowledge of discourse analysis and the implications of this knowledge for teaching culturally and linguistically diverse learners of English.

PRAGMATICS AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS Pragmatics and discourse analysis are two closely related fields which examine how language is used to make meanings in actual situations of communication. As sub-disciplines of linguistics, both fields acknowledge that our interpretation of the meaning of a piece of language is based on not only our knowledge of vocabulary and grammar rules, but also our knowledge of the world and the environment in which language is used. Consider the following combinations of words: “canola oil”, “olive oil”, and “baby oil”. All of them are what we call noun phrases and have the same form (Modifier + Noun), but the ways we interpret the first two and the last one are different. For “canola oil” and “olive oil”, we interpret them as “oil made from canola” and “oil made from olives” respectively. However, for “baby oil”, we interpret it as “oil especially made for using on babies”, rather than “oil made from babies” because our knowledge of the world tells us that we do not make oil from babies. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch076

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Discourse Analysis

What these examples show is that when we put words together to make meanings and when we interpret language in actual situations of communication, we rely on the meanings of individual words and the structures or patterns in which they are combined, as well as what we think is the probable intention of the speaker/writer by drawing on our knowledge of the world and the environment in which the language is used. In other words, to be able to use language adequately and appropriately, we learn more than the speech sounds or phonemes, morphemes, vocabulary and word meanings, and grammatical structures to combine words into phrases, clauses and sentences in the language. We also learn about, for example, how we use language for a purpose, how we convey that purpose to other users of the language, and how we figure out the intended meaning which may not be transparent from the language form itself. As sub-disciplines of linguistics, pragmatics and discourse analysis focus on the latter – i.e., those aspects of meaning that depend on the communicative intentions of language users and the environment in which the language is used. Specifically, pragmatics studies “the factors that govern our choice of language in social interaction and the effects of our choice on others” (Crystal, 1987, p. 120). Pragmatics can be referred to as the study of “speaker meaning” because it aims to understand how linguistic units relate to the people who use them (Morris, 1938) (see Chapters 8 and 9 for the key concepts commonly used in pragmatics). As illustrated in these chapters, pragmatics explains how the choice of language features depends on the communicative intent of the speaker, what he/she considers appropriate for his/her interlocutor(s) in terms of politeness and the kind of force or effect he/she intends to achieve. For example, to ask for help, the speaker may choose to say: “Would you mind helping me?” or “I need your help.” or “Help!”. Discourse analysis, on the other hand, deals with the linguistic study of text, i.e., how linguistic units are used in actual texts to convey meanings. It focuses on uncovering meanings represented or constructed in texts, and so can be referred to as the study of “text meaning”. It points out the choice of language features made in a text and uses the presence (or absence) of certain language features as evidence to make interpretations or comments about the purpose(s) of the text, the target audience(s), the kind of social relationship (e.g., equal or different power or status) suggested between the text producer and audience, the kind of assumptions made in the text about the audience (e.g., their age, gender, ethnicity, social class, preoccupations, aspirations, etc.), the kind of knowledge about the world the audience needs to be able to fill in “what is not being said overtly, but is assumed to be known” (Gee, 2014, p. 18), and so on. In order to uncover meanings represented or constructed in texts, one of the key elements examined in discourse analysis is the social relationship between participants, or the people involved in the process of interaction and production of texts. Therefore, although the two fields are often regarded as two subdisciplines of linguistics, a solid knowledge of pragmatics is beneficial when doing discourse analysis. In particular, knowledge of pragmatics can be helpful when analysing the choices made by speakers/ writers in relation to hearers/readers when producing texts in a specific context. A sound understanding of speakers’/writers’ choices in their use of language can then facilitate a discourse analyst in interpreting meanings encoded in the texts that are produced for specific intended audience. This chapter provides (future) TESOL/ESOL teachers and practitioners with knowledge of key concepts, such as “text”, “discourse”, and “context”, in discourse analysis, as well as their implications for teaching English to culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Since pragmatics and discourse analysis are closely-related and both are concerned with meaning-making in the actual language use, relevant pragmatics concepts will also be referred to when discussing what discourse analysis is.

1574

 Discourse Analysis

TEXT AND DISCOURSE Some linguists (e.g., Carter, Goddard, Reah, Sanger, & Swift, 2008) use the terms “text” and “discourse” interchangeably to refer to a unit of language above the level of clauses and sentences – i.e., the largest unit of linguistic structure which consists of sentences/clauses. Sentences/clauses are made up of phrases that are formed by combining words. For others (e.g., Widdowson, 2007), “text” refers to the (woven) product or material, as in the original meaning of the word in Latin, whereas “discourse” refers to the (abstract) process leading to the construction of a text. To those linguists who make a distinction between the two terms, discourse means “text in context”, and thus includes text (as the resultant material/product) as well as the factors surrounding the production and interpretation of the text, such as the purpose, participants, situation and process of interaction, etc., each of which plays a role in the construction and interpretation of the meanings in the text. Despite the disparity, a common concern among those who use the terms “text” and “discourse” is to look at language beyond the boundaries of isolated words or sentences. Between the two terms, most of us are more familiar with the term “text” because it is not difficult to find and point to examples of texts. For example, if someone asks, “Show me a text” or “Give me an example of a text”, we can easily point to a page or chapter of a book, a notice on the wall, a blog post, a letter or email message, and the list goes on. There is a plethora of texts around us. It should be noted that a text is not defined by its size or form. While some texts contain a long stretch of language (e.g., a journal article), others are made up of a single sentence (e.g., “Handle with care.” written on a box) or even a single word (e.g., the word “Cashier” above the counter to make payment at a shopping mall). While some texts are carefully-planned and permanent (e.g., a textbook chapter), others are spontaneously-produced and transient unless they are recorded (e.g., a casual conversation you had with your friends over lunch). While some texts are instances of written language, others are spoken. Then what makes a text? To get some answers to this question, compare the two examples below. (A) Soya is a good source of complete protein. Make AAA Travel your first stop. Well, finally, your Year 1 results are here. Even when workers are not paid overtime, they will often work long hours because of job insecurity. (B) Once upon a time there was a mother duck and a father duck who lived in a pond. They had seven baby ducklings. Six of them were beautiful ducklings. The seventh was a really ugly duckling. In Example (A), although each word has meaning and each sentence on its own makes sense, we can hardly interpret the four sentences as a meaningful unit on the whole and would find it difficult to identify it as a text. On the other hand, we almost instantly recognize Example (B) as a text and are able to interpret its meaning as a unified whole. A closer look at the two examples shows what distinguishes them. In Example (B), each word has meaning and each sentence makes sense, and there are links/connections among words within a sentence as well as across sentences. A good way to understand the links is to see if you can fill in the blanks: Once upon a time there was a mother duck and a _____ duck who lived in a pond. ____ had seven baby ducklings. Six of them were beautiful ______. The seventh was a really _____ duckling.

1575

 Discourse Analysis

By filling in the blanks, you will see that links are made through the use of words which are related (e.g., antonyms – “mother” and “father”, “beautiful” and “ugly”) or words which are repeated (e.g., “ducklings”). Repetition of words helps to create a sense of continuity of the topic (i.e., this group of sentences is about ducks and ducklings or a duck family). The use of words which are related (e.g., antonyms) helps to create a web or network of key words used in this group of sentences and assists the reader to interpret it as a meaningful unit as a whole. In fact, the use of certain grammatical features like pronouns (e.g., “They”) also helps to create links by maintaining reference to what is mentioned before or after. In linguistics, the connections or links that exist in a stretch of language and that help to identify it as a text are called cohesion, and the language features that help to establish such links across words and sentences are called cohesive devices. Specifically, the links created through the repetition of words or the use of words which are related in meanings (such as synonyms, antonyms, etc.) are called lexical cohesion. Links established through the use of grammatical features (such as pronouns, conjunctions, etc.) are referred to as grammatical cohesion. Cohesive relationships occur when we depend on or presuppose the interpretation of another element to interpret some element in a set of sentences, and such cohesive relationships within and between the sentences help us to identify the set of sentences as a text (Halliday & Hasan, 1976). Cohesion or its absence is crucial in making judgement on whether the stretch of language can be identified as a unified whole or a collection of unrelated sentences. However, it would be insufficient to explain how a text is formed only based on cohesion or internal textual connections created through the use of various cohesive devices. Consider Example (C) below. (C) Soya is a good source of protein. The rate of protein synthesis is higher during the day. At night, the temperature is the lowest but it becomes the highest in June. Thus, soya can be part of our diet all year round. In Example (C), there are words which are repeated (e.g., “protein”, “soya”), words which are related (e.g., antonyms – “day” and “night”) and conjunctions (e.g., “Thus”). These seem to create links/connections between words and sentences, but it is hard to arrive at an interpretation and make it fit the situation or purpose for which this group of sentences is produced. In other words, the topic keeps shifting – is it about soya or food digestion process or weather/season? Example (C) shows that cohesion or internal textual connections alone cannot ensure that a piece of language makes sense and can be identified as a text. Other meaningful connections not expressed by words and sentences also need to be achieved by relating the piece of language to the purpose and audience for which it is produced and the situation in which it is produced. In Example (C), it is difficult to make such a connection to the purpose, audience, and situation, and so, it is hard to arrive at an interpretation. This kind of connection, which can be achieved only by relating the piece of language to its purpose, audience, and situation for/in which it is produced, is called coherence. Coherence is the process of filling in a lot of “gaps” which exist in the text, creating meaningful connections which are not actually expressed by the words and sentences as we try to arrive at an interpretation which is in line with our experience of the way the world is (Yule, 2010). For those examples with a single sentence (e.g., “Handle with care.” written on a box) or a single word (e.g., the word “Cashier” above the counter to make payment at a shopping mall), we can still identify them as texts because we can relate the particular sentence or word to specific purposes, audiences, and situations for which they 1576

 Discourse Analysis

are produced, and so, we can make interpretations drawing on our knowledge of the world. Similarly, consider a spoken interaction like this: Speaker A: Maggie, your dog is scratching the front door. Speaker B: I have to hand in my assignment by 8 am tomorrow, Paa. In the above exchange, there are no repeated words or words which are related in meaning (e.g., synonyms, antonyms, etc.). It does not contain such grammatical features as conjunctions to express connections, either. Hence, this stretch of language seems to be lacking cohesive devices and cohesiveness. However, we are able to interpret it as a father asking his daughter to take the dog out for a walk and the daughter’s reply to say that she could not because she was busy trying to complete her assignment. We are able to make sense of the exchange because our knowledge of the world (e.g., a dog scratching the front door suggests that it is asking to go for a walk, someone who has to hand in an assignment soon will have little time to spare to do other things than to complete the assignment) helps to draw inferences or fill in the gaps and arrive at the interpretation. We can identify the above conversational exchange as a text as we are able to relate it to factors such as the situation, purpose, and participants of the interaction. In short, to make sense of a stretch of language and call it a text, we do not merely rely on cohesion or the internal links created through language devices. We must also be able to make meaningful connections, e.g., to the purpose, audience, situation, etc., to establish coherence. The presence of cohesive devices in a text facilitates the task of recognizing its coherence. But cohesive devices alone are not sufficient to help readers/listeners to construct the frame of reference and interpret the text. There is an interplay between cohesion and coherence. Once we pay attention to the factors surrounding the production and interpretation of texts, we are dealing with discourse. As a sub-discipline of linguistics, discourse analysis not only examines language features used in a text, but also relates these choices of language features made by the text producer to the factors surrounding the actual use of the text and makes interpretations about what, who, where, when, and why of the text. Like the linguists who specialize in pragmatics, discourse analysts are interested not only in surface meaning (e.g. what people say) but also in underlying meaning (e.g., what kinds of perspectives on the world the writer/speaker is trying to express, reinforce, or impose on the audience, what kind of social relationship is constructed, etc.). Basic questions a discourse analyst asks include (Johnstone, 2018): • • • • • • • • •

Why is this stretch of language the way it is? Why is it no other way? Why are these particular words in this particular order? What is the text about? Who said or wrote it? What motivated the text? Who could be the intended audience? How does the text fit into the set of things people in its context conventionally do with language? What does its medium (or media) of production have to do with what it is like?

Analysis of language features used in a text involves analysis at the word/phrase level, the clause/ sentence level, and the organization of the text as a whole. At the word/phrase level, questions can be 1577

 Discourse Analysis

asked about lexical choices – e.g., whether the words/phrases used in the text are formal or colloquial expressions, technical terms (jargon) or everyday vocabulary, neutral or evaluative lexis, and with positive or negative connotations. Analysis at the clause/sentence level can include questions about types of clause/sentence – e.g., whether they are active or passive, and whether they are declarative, interrogative, imperative or exclamatory. Based on the analysis of language features, interpretations about meanings encoded in the text are made. Discourse analysis pays particular attention to the close relationship or interaction between language features found in a text and the circumstances of producing and interpreting the text. It studies how “contexts shape texts and texts shape contexts” (Johnstone, 2018, p. 8). This brings us to a need to define another important concept – context – in discourse analysis.

CONTEXT Simply put, context refers to the environment or circumstances surrounding the way in which we use language. It is a crucial concept in discourse analysis as it enables us to make inferences. Speakers and writers use language (i.e., they make choices on the organization or structure of a text, and lexical and grammatical features) in relation to their audience and purpose. Likewise, by relating a text to its context we can comment on not only what the text is about, but also who the targeted audience is, what its intended purpose is, what kind of social relationship between writer and reader or speaker and listener is suggested, why the subject/topic is represented in a certain way, etc. For an understanding of how communication and meaning-making occur through the interaction between language and context, we need to acknowledge that “context” is often used as an umbrella term involving a wide range of elements and that it is multifaceted. For example, Hewings and Hewings (2005) first make a distinction between “linguistic” and “non-linguistic” contexts. The linguistic context means the words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs that surround or co-occur with the particular word, phrase, sentence or paragraph under consideration. For example, the linguistic context of the word “distinction” in the earlier sentence will be all the words, phrases, or sentences that come before or after it. Often the linguistic context is more appropriately referred to as “co-text” or the surrounding text. We draw on such surrounding text to construct meanings about a word, phrase, sentence, or paragraph. For the non-linguistic context, Hewings and Hewings (2005) make another distinction between “local situational context” and “wider sociocultural context”. The local situational context includes the physical setting (such as the time and the location), the purpose of communication, and the people (their age, gender, occupation, relative status, etc.) who are involved in the interaction or communication. The wider sociocultural context refers to “the broader background against which communication is interpreted”, and it includes “social and political aspects of language or national groups as a whole, and features of institutional domains” (Hewings & Hewings, 2005, p. 22). When doing discourse analysis, specific language features which can be identified in a text are related to the local situational context by asking questions such as: • •

1578

What kind of information/topic(s) about people/events/ideas is represented, from which/whose angle, how much in-depth, and for what purpose? What kind of social relationships between the writer/speaker and reader/hearer is constructed (e.g., showing familiarity or creating social distance, little or much expression of the writer/speaker’s attitudes and feelings)?

 Discourse Analysis



How are the ideas developed and organized in a text using which mode or channel of communication?

This aspect of discourse analysis is sometimes referred to as the analysis of “register” (Painter, 2001). As an example, compare a recipe written in a cookbook and a spoken interaction between friends who were exchanging recipes as they cooked or watched one of them cook. You will find that different language features are used in the two examples, and such differences reflect (i) the different topics or kinds of information covered in each text, (ii) the different types of social relationships between participants, and (iii) different modes of communication. Similarly, specific language features used in a text can also be related to the wider sociocultural context by asking questions such as: • •

What do we know about certain social occasions, cultural ceremonies or beliefs, visions and missions of a particular institution that helps us to interpret the messages in the text? What ideologies, worldviews or stereotypes (e.g., about gender, power relation, etc.) are underlying or encoded in the text?

So, in doing discourse analysis, evidence of language features found in a text can be discussed in relation to both the local situational context and the wider sociocultural context. An understanding of the distinctions between the local situational context and the wider sociocultural context can also help us to understand the various goals of discourse analysis.

GOALS OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS Discourse analysis is a broad area of inquiry, and the questions discourse analysts ask range from simple ones such as “How are texts structured?” to more complex ones like “How are social actions accomplished?”, “How are identities negotiated?”, and “How are ideologies constructed?” (Waring, 2018, p. 23). Johnstone (2018) discusses the various aspects of discourse analysis by explaining its “descriptive” and “critical” goals.

Descriptive Goals For some discourse analysts, the primary goal of discourse analysis is to describe texts and how they work – e.g., the study of what makes English text cohesive. Halliday and Hasan (1976) is often regarded as a classic study in this area. Subsequently, linguists such as Carter et al. (2008) define discourse analysis as an analysis of “the way texts work across the boundaries of single sentences or utterances to form whole stretches of language” (p. 141), and describe in detail how links/connections among words and sentences are made through the use of various cohesive devices. Example (D) below will be used to illustrate this point. (D) Rabbit

1579

 Discourse Analysis

Rabbits are gnawing animals, feeding on plants and usually living in groups and sheltering in burrows. When they feed, they do not move far from home, so that a short dash can take them to safety. They rely on their good eyesight and senses of hearing and smell to warn them of enemies. They are hunted by many predators, including human beings. Most kinds of rabbits produce a large number of young in the course of a year. Even so, only the European rabbit has become widespread and a pest. Most rabbit species are found in pretty restricted areas, and some are endangered. In some ways rabbits and hares are like rodents, but there are many differences between the two groups. One is that rabbits have four upper incisor teeth. There are two tiny ones behind the big incisors. These are completely covered with enamel, unlike the incisors of rodents, which have enamel only on the outer side. Source: Oxford Children’s Encyclopedia (2004) Those discourse analysts who are interested in describing how links/connections among words and sentences are made through the use of various cohesive devices will identify cohesive devices in Example (D) as in Table 1. Their goal is not to come up with an exhaustive list, but to illuminate how various lexical and grammatical cohesive devices hold different parts of the text together. Table 1. Cohesive Devices Used in (D) Lexical Cohesive Devices

• Direct repetition of key words: (“rabbit”/ “rabbits”) that gives a sense of continuity of the topic. • Meaning relations or structural relations among words used in a sentence or across sentences: e.g., superordinate and hyponyms (“rabbits” – “European rabbits”), superordinate and meronyms (“rabbit” – “eyesight”, “teeth”), synonyms (“kinds”, “species”), antonyms (“tiny”, “big”), words from the same lexical field (“rabbits”, “plants”, “burrows”), words that share the same root/ stem (“feed”, “feeding”). • Collocation: Words/phrases that collocate (“feeding on plants”, “sheltering in burrows”, “hunted by predators”).

Grammatical Cohesive Devices • Pronouns: “they” helps to maintain reference to the same thing, makes the reader refer back to the word “rabbits” in the first sentence. • Ellipsis: “they rely on their good eyesight, (they rely on their) sense of hearing, (they rely on their) sense of smell”     Although these are three different types of senses, the ellipsis helps the reader to see the links that all three senses belong to the rabbits by having to retrieve the information that has been omitted to make sense. • Conjunctions: “and” for addition of information, “when” to indicate temporal connection, “so that” to indicate causal connection, etc. • Determiners: “many”, “most” to help the reader to determine (and the writer to clarify) the quantity of the noun mentioned before.

Another area of focus in discourse analysis whose primary goal is to describe texts and how they work is the analysis of text types. Studies done on this aspect of discourse analysis aim to describe and explain how a group of texts produced for similar social purposes tend to have similar organization or overall structure and lexico-grammatical features (i.e., choices of vocabulary and grammatical patterns). With plethora of texts around us, there have been attempts to categorize them based on certain characteristics shared by a group of texts. Two possible ways (among many) of categorizing texts are (i) based on the

1580

 Discourse Analysis

mode or channel of communication in which a text is produced and (ii) according to the social purpose for which a text is produced. Based on the mode or channel of communication in which a text is produced, a broad distinction can be made between spoken and written texts. However, such a distinction should be used only as starting points to help us explore the complexities of language use, rather than as straightforward binary categories. Between a typical spoken text, such as a spontaneous conversation among friends, and a typical written text, such as a textbook chapter, there are various other types of spoken and written texts which we produce and interpret in our daily lives and which lie somewhere along the continuum of spoken and written texts. For example, spoken texts such as interviews, announcements, news broadcasts, storytelling and political speeches are produced with different degrees of planning for the speaker and different kinds of listener involvement. Such differences in the degree of planning and listener involvement can result in varying amounts of overlaps, pauses, false start and non-fluency features such as fillers (e.g., “er”, “umm”) in different types of spoken texts. Similarly, examples of written texts which are produced with little planning (e.g., a note we scribbled for a family member before we leave home in a rush) will show “speech-like” features such as the use of incomplete sentences. It is also important to note that when we communicate, either in the spoken or written mode, the language we use is typically accompanied by features from other modes of communication – e.g., facial expression, gaze and gestures accompanying our utterances, and images/pictures and different typefaces accompanying and contributing meanings to our writing. Therefore, texts we produce and interpret are more often than not multimodal – i.e., more than one mode of communication is used in a single text, and meanings are constructed through interaction between features from different modes. Increasingly, scholars of discourse analysis pay attention to the use of language along with other multimodal resources in their examination of how texts construct meanings. Whether they are spoken, written, or multimodal, texts can also be categorized according to the social purposes for which they are produced. For example, it is very likely that in your email inbox, you can find considerable variation of language features used in the messages sent by different people for different purposes. Scholars who have attempted to categorize texts in this way often take a functional approach. A functional approach holds the view that the distinctive social purpose of producing a text is what shapes the text’s overall structure as well as choices of vocabulary and grammatical patterns. The term “text types” is used to refer to groupings of texts that are similar in terms of co-occurrence of linguistic patterns and share similar social purposes. Some examples of text types include narrative, recounts, instructions, expositions, explanations (Derewianka, 1990; Paltridge, 1996). Referring again to the example (D), the text can be categorized as an information report with the purpose to define, describe, classify, and document a type of animal, or to provide factual information about rabbits in general, about its features, characteristics, etc. Some language features, which can be highlighted to explain how the use of language contributes to achieving the purpose of the text, include the use of • • • • •

common nouns (e.g., “rabbits”) to give information about rabbits in general; present tense (e.g., “are”) to provide factual information; adjectives that describe features in a relatively factual manner (e.g., “good” eyesight) to provide factual information, rather than “fantastic/wonderful” eyesight; complete sentences, making the text sound relatively more serious and authoritative; and declarative clauses for giving information.

1581

 Discourse Analysis

Table 2 gives an overview of some text types whose social purposes and typical language features have been identified and discussed by scholars interested in this aspect of discourse analysis. Categorizing texts according to the mode or channel of communication in which they are produced and/or their different social purposes is helpful for us to explain (and teach) purposeful use of language in various contexts. It is also helpful for us to understand how a text is constructed by its creator to suit the intended audience and to achieve the intended purpose. However, in the real world, there are very few “pure texts”. Most texts are hybrid – i.e., features of more than one mode or one text type can be combined in a single text. Language users often deliberately manipulate the features typical of a mode or a text type in order to achieve certain effects or for a particular purpose. Moreover, some texts may have only one purpose, but texts potentially have more than one purpose, making it problematic to place a text in one of these categories or only in one category. For example, in order to entice the reader to read on, a text about a recipe can begin with a personal recount of the authors preparing and enjoying the meal before giving the instructions on how to make that dish (e.g., see “Lake Breakfast” http://www.sailingbreezes. com/Sailing_Breezes_Current/Other_Reviews/feasts_afloat.htm) Table 2. An Overview of Text Types, Their Purposes and Typical Language Features Text Type

Social Purpose

Typical Overall Structure () Represents an Optional Element

Typical Lexico-Grammatical Features

Narrative

to put together a series of events, which have a twist, to entertain or to teach a moral lesson

(Abstract), Orientation, Complication, Resolution, Evaluation, (Coda)

Past tense, Specific participants, Quotations/dialogues, Words/ expressions showing personal feelings or evaluation

Recount

to record the particulars of an incident, to retell some past events in a chronological sequence

Orientation, Record of events, (Evaluation)

Past tense, (1st person pronoun), Conjunctions to do with time and sequence

Instruction

to tell how to do/make something

Goal, (Material), Method

Imperatives, Base form verbs, No subject, Factual description, Fewer adj/adv that show personal feelings, Words/numbers showing sequence

Information report

to define, describe, classify and document a subject

General statement/classification, Information about a particular aspect of the subject, General statement rounding off the topic

Present tense, Common nouns/ General participants, Factual and formal description

Explanation

to explain how/why something works in a particular way

Opening statement/phenomena, Sequence of statements/explanations

Usually present tense, Generalized non-human participants, Words showing time or cause-effect relationships

Discussion

to analyse and present different points-of-view of an issue; to take a position and justify it

Issue, Argument, Recommendation/ summing up the position

Usually present tense, Personal pronouns, Modals, Logical connectives/ Causal conjunctions

Critical Goals The aspect of discourse analysis focusing on explaining the text types according to their different social purposes has developed further into what is known as genre analysis. Closely related to the term “text

1582

 Discourse Analysis

type”, but placing the emphasis on the process of producing a type of texts and relating such processes to the wider sociocultural context, the term “genre” is used instead by those whose goal of doing discourse analysis is not only to describe characteristic features of texts, but also to uncover certain ways of using language to achieve specific sociocultural, institutional, and/or disciplinary purposes (e.g. Painter, 2001; Partridge, 1996; Swales, 1990). In this aspect, producing a type of texts is seen as a process of doing a culture-specific (or institution/discipline-specific) social activity which involves the use of language. Besides explaining how texts of each genre share certain typical overall structure, content, and set of vocabulary and grammatical patterns, studies done on this aspect of discourse analysis have helped to understand how a particular culture (or institution or discipline) uses genres as one of the resources to achieve specific social goals. Accordingly, an analysis of genres is seen as providing a window on the cultural (or institution/discipline-specific) ideologies, values, beliefs, and practices of the people who produced them. As an example, we can examine wedding invitations from two different cultures. Below (E) is an example of Myanmar wedding invitations, which I have translated into English without altering the format, organization, or the details. (F) is an example of American wedding invitations found online at http://www.czeckitout.com/wedding/american-wedding-invitations-samples (E)

1583

 Discourse Analysis

(F) Comparing (E) and (F), the wedding invitations from two different cultures, what aspects of the content, overall structure, and choice of words and grammatical patters are similar or shared across the wedding invitations from different cultural contexts? What aspects are different or unique for a particular culture? Those aspects which are similar or shared across cultures will explain why they all can be described as belonging to the same genre (i.e., wedding invitation). At the same time, based on those aspects which are different or unique for a particular culture, interpretations can be made about the different values, beliefs, and norms about social relations held by people from different cultures. It is also important to understand genres as the processes of using language to accomplish social activities which have evolved and will continue to evolve over time. As the society changes, social activities engaged by the people in that society will also change, so will the possibilities and limitations of using language as a resource to accomplish these social activities. As an example, think of how we can book a flight online nowadays and how we had to call or physically visit the airline or travel agent counter to book a flight about 20 or 30 years ago. Then think of the ways language is and was used in each of the two processes. In a more critical sense, discourse analysis aims to find out more than how we use language to make meaning or what a text refers to and what its purpose is. It views language as an ideological instrument, relates texts to broader ideological issues, and looks at how texts can be used to express, reproduce, and impose certain ways of thinking about the world (Widdowson, 2007). In other words, those discourse analysts who take a critical or political perspective (e.g. Fairclough, 1989; van Dijk, 1993; Gee, 2014) view language not merely as a neutral and objective tool for communication but a means to excerpt power over people and reproduce power relations in society. They examine the use (and abuse) of language in relation to underlying social meanings or worldviews encoded in a text, and aim to uncover broader issues such as ideological biases, political and cultural issues, gender inequality, and social hierarchies (van Dijk, 1993). To them, “language-in-use is always part and parcel of, and partially constitutive of, specific social practices” and “social practices always have implications for inherently political things like status, solidarity, the distribution of social goods, and power” (Gee, 2004, p. 28). This aspect of discourse analysis is known as Critical Discourse Analysis, or CDA. CDA can be seen as a departure from the more descriptive goals of discourse analysis, “where the focus has been more on

1584

 Discourse Analysis

describing and detailing linguistic features than about why and how these features are produced and what possible ideological goals they might serve” (Machin & Maya, 2012, p. 5). “Basically, people who ‘do’ CDA are interested in answering the question: How does language express and reinforce power relations between people?” (Lwin & Teo, 2014, p. 61). To answer such questions, detailed and systematic analyses of lexical and grammatical features are conducted on a range of media discourse and political discourse, such as news reports, magazine articles, advertisements, political speeches, etc. For example, through an analysis of quotation patterns, critical discourse analysts reveal bias in news articles and illustrate how “[n]ewspapers have a tendency to quote from authoritative sources in an attempt to make their reports seem credible and reliable” (Lwin & Teo, 2014, p. 61). By interviewing and quoting people in positions of power, such as politicians, CEOs, university professors, and police chiefs, the news reporter can in actual fact be presenting a biased view of the news events and of the world in general. Through a close analysis of who and what is quoted, a critical approach to discourse analysis reveals underlying ideologies of the newspapers and how they enhance the perspectives of the powerful while silencing the voices of the powerless. CDA, as summarized by Fairclough and Wodak (1997), views discourse as a form of social action and addresses social problems.

WHY DISCOURSE ANALYSIS A text can be analysed in a variety of ways. In fact, the terms “discourse” and “discourse analysis” are used not only by linguists but also by people from other disciplines, such as sociology, history, literary studies, communications studies, political science and several other fields in social sciences. However, discourse analysis from a linguistic perspective (i.e., as a sub-discipline of linguistics) primarily aims to uncover how specific language features – such as vocabulary, grammatical patterns, and overall organization – are used in a particular text for a specific purpose and audience. Claims and interpretations made about the meanings constructed in a text are supported with systematic analyses of language features found in the text, so that features used in different texts (or in different parts of the same text) can be compared in relation to the text’s intended purpose and target audience. A fundamental message of discourse analysis is to look at language beyond the boundaries of isolated words or sentences, and recognize the important roles played by both local situational context and wider socio-cultural context in using language to make meanings. By examining what kind of lexical and grammatical choices are made in a text, for what purpose, by whom, and for whom, and discussing the use/lack of certain language features in relation to the surrounding social, cultural or ideological issues, discourse analysis helps us become sensitive to the language used in the texts around us.

IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS Applied linguists with a particular interest in language learning and teaching conduct discourse analysis to help find some answers to questions such as what to teach and how to teach (Waring, 2018). Given that developing communicative competence in a language entails more than learning its vocabulary, mastering its grammar, and appropriating its pronunciation, pragmatics and discourse analysis are integral to learning a language as they deal with how the language is actually used by speakers or writers in various social contexts. Especially with regard to culturally and linguistically diverse learners of English, 1585

 Discourse Analysis

understanding and applying the sets of principles for using the English language appropriately in specific social contexts can be challenging. The set of principles governing how people communicate in social interaction (e.g., how beginnings and endings are signalled, how social status is acknowledged, how politeness and power are conveyed, how the speaker/writer conveys their communicative intent, how the listener/reader has to uncover that intent, etc.) varies from language to language, and from culture to culture.

Use of Cohesive Devices Waring (2018) points out that discourse markers such as “but”, “also”, “anyway”, and “actually” can present grave challenges for English as a Second or Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) learners because they often use these markers literally, overuse or misuse them. Similarly, in their studies of the use of cohesive devices by Chinese EFL learners in their argumentative writing, Yang and Sun (2012) reveal the patterns of incorrect employment of cohesive devices in relation to the learners’ proficiency levels and their writing quality. The findings from their study also show that incorrect use of cohesive devices did occur even in advanced learners’ writing although the quantity decreased. Some examples of the misuse, improper omission or improper addition of cohesive devices by EFL learners which resulted in meaning ambiguity or hindered the coherence of their written texts include the following (Yang & Sun, 2012, p. 36): • •





Reference error: e.g., Good health is very significant to people. With good health, they can feel happy for you are energetic enough to do a lot of things (inconsistency of personal reference). Conjunction error: e.g., Wealth can bring us almost everything we want. On the other hand, much of our happiness comes from wealth (misuse of conjunction). We can enjoy material happiness. And moreover we can appreciate spiritual happiness. (overuse/ improper addition of conjunction). A lot of people no longer feel satisfied with physical contentment, they begin to pursue spiritual happiness (improper omission of conjunction). Substitution/ellipsis error: e.g., He thought that a birthday gift could make his wife happy. He decided to look for an appropriate gift. However, it was an unpleasant experience. He searched from shop to shop. But still he couldn’t find an ideal one. (Readers find it difficult to ascertain for which part “one” substitutes.) Lexical cohesion error: e.g., They are trying their best to preserve their money to become rich. But they don’t really know how to prevent their money. (“Prevent” is misused and should be replaced with “preserve” or “reserve”.)

The knowledge learned from discourse analysis as a sub-discipline of linguistics can help teachers better understand ESL/EFL learners’ misuse, improper omission or improper addition of features such as discourse markers and cohesive devices. In general, teachers can apply the knowledge learned from discourse analysis to helping their culturally and linguistically diverse learners of English develop discourse competence (Riggenbach, 1999; Wennerstrom, 2003). Discourse competence is a major component of communicative competence referring to the understanding of cohesion and coherence in different types of texts and the ability to produce cohesive and coherent texts (Canale & Swain, 1980). It constitutes knowledge of how to use linguistic resources (i.e., linguistic/grammatical competence) as 1586

 Discourse Analysis

well as understanding of social and cultural factors for appropriate linguistic choices (sociolinguistic competence) to produce cohesive and coherent texts.

Text Types and Genres Advocates of a discourse-based approach to language teaching (e.g., Celce-Murcia & Olshtian, 2014) argue that “it is discourse (not grammar, vocabulary, speech acts, or strategies) that should function as the core organizer for language teaching and learning” (p. 427). A discourse-based approach places discourse at the core of language teaching and learning. The approach can be viewed as a development from the communicative language teaching (CLT) movement; however, the emphasis is on whole text, cohesion, coherence, context, text types, and communicative goals such as purpose and audience. It aims to help learners develop knowledge of how to use linguistic resources appropriately to produce extended, cohesive and coherent texts to make meaning and achieve a social goal. The approach postulates that learning of English is facilitated by systematically providing learners with exposure to different text types through the use of sample authentic spoken and written texts as teaching materials, and guiding learners to analyze, compare, and evaluate these samples of texts. The aim is to raise learners’ awareness that language is used to achieve a social goal and that texts produced for different social purposes and/ or different audiences reflect their particular context of use and have distinctive patterns of organization and distinctive linguistic features. Learners are then given opportunities to apply such awareness to their own use of language. In teaching language through discourse, learning depends upon the scaffolded support of the teacher who facilitates learners in examining language features used in authentic examples of spoken and written texts, and the specific contexts in which they are used. In this respect, understanding the characteristics of texts and exploring/analyzing them from a discourse perspective is a worthwhile pursuit for language teachers. For example, knowledge of discourse analysis could help teachers become more critical about scripted dialogues, which are largely based on “idealized” spoken texts, commonly used as ESL/EFL materials. While there are pedagogical purposes for using such texts, especially when dealing with lower level students (e.g., scripted dialogues are easier for students to process), the sense of security evaporates when students are faced with the task of interacting in the target language in authentic social contexts outside the classroom since scripted dialogues rarely reflect the unpredictability, dynamism, or the linguistic features and structures of natural spoken discourse. Burns (2001, 2010) illustrates how many of the materials available commercially for the teaching of speaking often fail to equip second language learners with a fundamental understanding of the nature of authentic interaction by comparing two excerpts about asking directions (see Table 3). In the transcript shown in Table 3, the square brackets indicate overlapping speech and dots indicate pauses per second. Another implication of discourse analysis for teaching ESL/EFL learners is to help them develop an understanding that what is considered to be an obligatory element or a crucial lexical or grammatical feature of a text type or genre produced in English may not be found in a similar text type produced in their first language, and vice versa. For example, just as there are different ways of displaying politeness in different cultures, features which are considered to be crucial to make a narrative good or bad can also be culture- and language-specific. In English narratives, relating a series of events in chronological order is considered necessary but not sufficient. English speakers would expect evaluative comments which convey the storyteller’s attitudes about events and his/her interpretations of characters’ motives and reactions (Labov & Waletzky, 1967). However, in Japanese, less emphasis is given on evaluative 1587

 Discourse Analysis

descriptions since omitting the teller’s emotion or telling without verbalizing the teller’s feelings is preferred (Minami, 2008). Another example of such culture-specific generic feature can be found in Chinese. The discourse patterns of Chinese include explaining the reason why one holds an opinion before stating the opinion, and when making a request, Chinese speakers often give reasons for the request before stating the request itself (Gil & Adamson, 2011). It is, therefore, important for ESL/ EFL teachers to have an understanding of cultural differences in the principles and patterns of language use to avoid mistakenly judging a learner from a different cultural or linguistic background as socially, academically or intellectually deficient when the learner’s use of language mismatches the principles and patterns expected in English. Table 3. Scripted vs Authentic Interaction Scripted Dialogue A: Excuse me. How will I get to the North East Shopping Centre? B: Take a number 9 bus to Westmore street. When you reach Westmore Street, transfer to the number 34 bust at the corner of Walton Road. This bus will take you to the North East Shopping Centre. A: How will I know when I have arrived at Westmore Street? B: The bus driver will let you know if you ask him. A: Thank you.

Authentic Dialogue A: Um…give me an idea how to get to your place… I don’t cos, I don’t um… know it too well round there. I’ll probably be, er… coming by bus…so] B: [right, well, going towards… French street, stay on the bus for, oh…about… the trip takes about twenty minutes by bus] A: [right B: now you go… the bus will go out along St Katherine’s Road… well you just keep on the bus… A: …. mm … hm… B: and it’ll cross over Peters Road which is a fairly major…. A: year, I know Peters….

Intercultural Communicative Competence The knowledge of genre can also be applied when conducting a comparative analysis of texts produced for similar social purposes in different cultures or languages. Through such comparative analyses, teachers can help to raise learners’ awareness of commonalities as well as differences among texts produced for similar social purposes in different cultures or languages. Commonalities among these texts can be highlighted as the typical features characterizing one particular text type or genre and contributing to achieving the text’s social purposes. At the same time, teachers can guide learners to notice those features which are different, and encourage them to reflect on what these differences suggest about the uniqueness, ideology, or value system of a particular culture. For example, Lwin (2010, 2015, 2016) has shown how a comparative analysis of folktales with a similar didactic purpose from different Asian cultures reveals not only their common narrative structures, such as (Tasks → success → reward) and (Tasks → failure → punishment), but also different culture-specific narrative contents, such as characters’ names or kinship terms, the types of food, activities, animals, and so on featured in each tale. Through such comparative analyses, teachers can help culturally and linguistically diverse learners of English recognize the close relationship between language and culture, i.e., how the culture of a country emphasizes what is prevalent in that country or what is collectively perceived as important by its people in and through their use of language. By helping learners develop sensitivity to issues such as social relationship and culture in close connection with using language in a particular context, teachers can help learners to develop not only

1588

 Discourse Analysis

strategies for effective interpersonal communication but also intercultural communicative competence. Intercultural communicative competence involves attitudes of curiosity and openness (to suspend disbelief about other cultures and belief about one’s own), knowledge of social groups, their products and practices, skills of interpreting and relating events from another culture, and the ability to critically evaluate perspectives, practices and products of one’s own and other cultures (Byram, 2000; Chen & Starosta, 2000). When people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds communicate through English, they need to have not only communicative competence but intercultural communicative competence to ensure successful interpersonal and intercultural communication.

Developing a Critical Understanding Last but not least, the knowledge of discourse analysis can also help language teachers to become reflective practitioners who are able to self-evaluate their own use of language in the classroom and examine the implications for teaching and learning (Walsh, 2011). By systematically observing and analyzing the patterns of their own language use in the classroom context (e.g., the ways they use questions, illicit responses, give instructions, provide feedback, etc.), teachers can develop an insight into the classroom as a social event and a better understanding of the important roles language plays for effective teaching and learning. Such an understanding is even more crucial in the TESOL context where English is the subject of study as well as an important tool for teachers to communicate with students about the lesson content, administer discipline, manage interaction, and create opportunities for students’ learning. From a more critical perspective, the knowledge of CDA can also help teachers recognize that issues to do with the relationship between language, culture, and power can be found everywhere, including classrooms. Being an expert adult, the teacher is someone who exerts power and authority over the learners, primarily through the use of language – e.g., in controlling the turns for who gets to speak about what for how long in class, what counts as “relevant” and “valued” answers in learners’ responses and writing, what questions learners can/should ask in class, and whether they can challenge the contents of the teaching materials used by the teacher and so on (Lwin & Teo, 2014). To sum up, knowledge of discourse analysis can be useful for both teachers and learners as it can help them see the use of language in its social context, develop sensitivity to issues such as culture and power that are closely related to the use of particular language features, become more critically aware of the ideologies surrounding the production and interpretation of texts, and be competent to make informed choices in their own language use to construct meanings and social relations.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. View the video available at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyMSSe7cOvA Describe the contexts in which the word “Dude” is used. What do you think the word “Dude” means in each context? How do you arrive at the meaning for each context? 2. Share an example of text and comment on what sort of knowledge and experiences the text requires on the part of the reader to ascribe meaning to the text. By making the reader fill in such knowledge and experience, how does the text structure the reader’s interpretation of the message(s) encoded in the text? The example text can be in any form – a poster, road sign, shop name, advertisement,

1589

 Discourse Analysis

announcement, magazine article, newspaper article, invitation card, comic strip, conversation, social media post, web page, etc. 3. The following claims have been made in the studies which support a focus on text in teaching speaking (e.g., Burns & Seidlhofer, 2002; Burns, 2006). Discuss the relevance of each claim to a specific group of learners that you know. a. If dialogues are to be used, they should also introduce learners to some features of “real-life” discourse. b. Focusing on discourse and text helps students to notice and analyze authentic and appropriate use of language. c. Developing awareness of the discourse features of different texts suggests a consciousnessraising approach, rather than implying that students should follow “recipe” type modes in a slavish fashion. d. Familiarity with the relevant discourse type can influence speech production. Previous experience of the discourse type makes a critical difference in learners’ performance. e. The discourse patterns are readily transferable from L1 to L2. 4. Drawing on your understanding of genre-based pedagogy for teaching speaking, examine the speaking activities used for your students (or a group of learners you are familiar with), and discuss the following questions. a. Are there any activities that are intended to help the learners develop awareness of text types in spoken or written English? b. If yes, in what way(s) do they help the learners to develop this awareness? c. If no, how would you use or supplement these materials to focus on developing the learners’ awareness of different types of spoken or written texts in English? 5. Examine a classroom TESOL textbook from your own teaching context or a library. Find a few examples of activities which are designed using a text/discourse segment. a. Are there any discourse-based activities which you would like to see included in a course you teach? Why or why not? b. To what extent or in what ways do you think a discourse-based approach could benefit your teaching context? c. How would you go about selecting/sourcing for authentic written and spoken texts? d. Do you think there would be any challenges in implementing a discourse-based approach in your teaching context? e. What suggestions could you give to make a discourse-based approach work (more) effectively in your teaching context?

EXERCISES 1. Refer to Text A taken from the book Chimpanzees in the Rain Forest available at the children’s section of a community library. Identify three different types of lexical cohesion and three different types of grammatical cohesion in Text A. Give one example of each of these, and briefly explain how they work as cohesive devices in this text. Text A: Chimpanzees in the Rain Forest 1590

 Discourse Analysis

Chimpanzees are mammals. A mammal is a warm-blooded animal with a backbone. Female mammals give birth to live young and feed them with milk from their bodies. Warm-blooded animals have a body temperature that stays the same, no matter what the temperature is outside. The scientific name for chimpanzees is Pan Troglodytes (PAN TRAH-glow-dite-eez). Pan is the name of a Greek god who was part-man and part-animal. Early travelers to Africa saw wild chimpanzees and thought that this description fit them well. Chimpanzees belong to the primate family along with monkeys and gorillas. All primates are mammals that have a large brain and hands that can grasp and hold objects. 2. Compare Text A with Text B, which is from the webpage of The Great Ape Trust, an organization advocating the conservation of wild lives and a scientific research facility established with the funds raised from the public. How would you explain to your students that the two texts are about the same topic, but of different text types or genres? You may use the following questions to guide your response: a. What would you consider to be the purpose of each text? b. Who do you think is the target audience? c. Identify at least three language features that are used differently in the two texts, and explain how these differences reflect the different purposes or different audiences of the two texts. Text B Not long ago, I spent the morning having coffee with Kanzi. It wasn’t my idea; Kanzi invited me, though he did so in his customary clipped way. Kanzi is a fellow of few words – 384 of them by formal count, though he probably knows dozens more. He has a perfectly serviceable voice – very clear, very expressive and very, very loud. But it’s not especially good for forming words, which is the way of things when you’re a bonobo, the close and more peaceable cousin of the chimpanzee. But Kanzi is talkative all the same. For much of his day, he keeps a sort of glossary close at hand – three laminated, place mat – like sheets filled with hundreds of colorful symbols that represent all the words he’s been taught by his minders or picked up on his own. He can build thoughts and sentences, even conjugate, all by pointing. The sheets include not just easy nouns and verbs like ball and Jell-O and run and tickle but also concept words like from and later and grammatical elements like the –ing and –ed endings signifying tense. 3. John Flowerdew, a renowned scholar in the field of discourse analysis, states: Identity is important in discourse terms because one’s identity is manifested in one’s social practice, an important part of which is discursive practice. As well as individuals constructing their own identities, a large part of identity is constructed by others; by how we are perceived. Identity is therefore a binary construction. 1591

 Discourse Analysis

Discourse in English Language Education (Flowerdew, 2013, p. 184) Bearing in mind the above statement, examine how identities of a celebrity are constructed and manifested through discourse. Specifically, choose a celebrity and examine the construction of his/her identities by analysing (a) his/her social media posts and (b) how this celebrity is perceived by others. For (a), examine what identities the celebrity enacts through his/her social media posts. How does the use of language help to construct those identities? What social values are encoded in the construction of those identities? For (b), interview at least two people who know the celebrity you have chosen. How is this celebrity perceived by them? What identities do they construct for him/her? What do the identities they construct for this celebrity reveal about the social values they hold? Finally, reflect on how discourse has the power to present the celebrity with certain identities, thereby shaping the way you view him/her. 4. Conduct a comparative analysis of texts which have similar purposes but produced in two different cultures or languages, e.g., one in English produced in the North American context and the other in the learners’ first language and native culture. Examples of texts can be: a. Birth announcements b. Anniversary well-wishes c. Obituaries d. Recruitment advertisements e. Match-making advertisements For each text type, examine the overall organization, and specific vocabulary and grammatical patters used in each of the two texts. Are there features that are common in the two texts? How does the use of these features contribute to achieving the text’s social purpose? Are there features that are different in the two texts? What do these features suggest about the uniqueness of a particular language or culture? 5. Complete the Table 4 with examples of discourse which the learners in your own teaching context may need to understand, produce or participate in. Consider each of them in relation to their communicative goals (e.g., purposes, audiences, situations). Table 4. ­ Spoken discourse

When, Where, With Whom, Why

Written discourse

When, Where, For Whom, Why

1592

 Discourse Analysis

Next, consider the text structure, grammatical features and vocabulary typically found in each of them. Based on such understanding, identify ways to help learners develop strategies for effective interpersonal and intercultural communication, i.e. producing and interpreting texts in various social contexts, with sensitivity to issues such as social relationship, culture, and power.

REFERENCES Burns, A. (2001). Analysing spoken discourse: Implications for TESOL. In A. Burns & C. Coffin (Eds.), Analysing English in a global context: A reader (pp. 123–148). London: Routledge. Burns, A. (2010). Teaching speaking using genre-based pedagogy. In M. Olafsson (Ed.), Symposium 2009 (pp. 231-247). Stockholm: National Centre for Swedish as a Second Language, University of Stockholm. Byram, M. (2000). Assessing intercultural competence in language teaching. Sprogforum, 18(6), 8–13. Canale, M., & Swan, M. (1980). Theoretical basis of communicative approaches to second language learning and testing. Applied Linguistics, 1(1), 1–47. doi:10.1093/applin/1.1.1 Carter, R., Goddard, A., Reah, D., Sanger, K., & Swift, N. (2008). Working with texts: A core introduction to language analysis (3rd ed.). London: Routledge. Celce-Murcia, M., & Olshtain, E. (2014). Teaching language through discourse. In M. Celce-Murcia, D. M. Brinton, & M. A. Snow (Eds.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (4th ed., pp. 424–437). Boston, MA: National Geographic Learning. Chen, G. M., & Starosta, W. J. (2000). The development and validation of the intercultural communication sensitivity scale. Human Communication, 3(1), 1–15. Crystal, D. (1987). The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Derewianka, B. (1990). Exploring how texts work. Heinemann Educational Books. Fairclough, N. L. (1989). Language and power. London: Longman. Fairclough, N. L., & Wodak, R. (1997). Critical discourse analysis. In T. A. van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse studies: A multidisciplinary introduction (Vol. 2, pp. 258-284). London: Sage. Gee, J. P. (2004). Discourse analysis: What makes it critical? In R. Rogers (Ed.), An introduction to critical discourse analysis in education (pp. 23–45). New York, NY: Routledge. Gee, J. P. (2014). How to do discourse analysis: A toolkit. Oxon, UK: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315819662 Gil, J., & Adamson, B. (2011). The English language in mainland China: A sociolinguistic profile. In A. Feng (Ed.), English language education across greater China (pp. 23–45). Buffalo, NY: Multilingal Matters. doi:10.21832/9781847693518-004 Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman.

1593

 Discourse Analysis

Hewings, A., & Hewings, M. (2005). Grammar and context: An advanced resource book. London: Routledge. Johnstone, B. (2018). Discourse analysis (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell. Labov, W., & Waletzky, J. (1967). Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In J. Helm (Ed.), Essays on the verbal and visual arts (pp. 12–44). Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. Lwin, S. M. (2010). Narrative structures in Burmese folk tales. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press. Lwin, S. M. (2015). Using folktales for language teaching. English Teaching, XLIV(2), 74–83. Lwin, S. M. (2016). Promoting language learners’ cross-cultural awareness through comparative analysis of Asian folktales. TEFLIN Journal, 27(2), 166–181. Lwin, S. M., & Teo, P. (2014). How do we use language to make meaning? In R. E. Silver & S. M. Lwin (Eds.), Language in education: Social implications (pp. 45–65). London: Bloomsbury. Machin, D., & Maya, A. (2012). How to do critical discourse analysis: A multimodal introduction. London: Sage. Minami, M. (2008). Telling good stories in different languages: Bilingual children’s styles of story construction and their linguistic and educational implication. Narrative Inquiry, 18(1), 83–110. doi:10.1075/ ni.18.1.05min Morris, C. H. (1938). Foundations of the theory of signs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Painter, C. (2001). Understanding genre and register: Implications for language teaching. In A. Burns & C. Coffin (Eds.), Analysing English in a global context: A reader (pp. 167–180). London: Routledge. Riggenbach, H. (1999). Discourse analysis in the language classroom: Vol. 1. The spoken language. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. van Dijk, T. A. (1993). Principles of critical discourse analysis. Discourse & Society, 4(2), 249–283. doi:10.1177/0957926593004002006 Walsh, S. (2011). Exploring classroom discourse: Language in action. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203827826 Waring, H. Z. (2018). Discourse analysis: The questions discourse analysts ask and how they answer them. New York, NY: Routledge. Wennerstrom, A. (2003). Discourse analysis in the language classroom: Vol. 2. Genres of writing. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Widdowson, H. G. (2007). Discourse analysis. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Yang, W., & Sun, Y. (2012). The use of cohesive devices in argumentative writing by Chinese EFL learners at different proficiency levels. Linguistics and Education, 23(1), 31–48. doi:10.1016/j.linged.2011.09.004 Yule, G. (2010). The Study of Language (4th ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511757754

1594

 Discourse Analysis

ADDITIONAL READING Burns, A. (2006). Teaching speaking: A text-based syllabus approach. In E. Usó-Juan & A. MartinezFlor (Eds.), Current trends in the development and teaching of the four language skills (pp. 235–258). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110197778.3.235 Burns, A., & Seidlhofer, B. (2002). Speaking and pronunciation. In N. Schmitt (Ed.), An introduction to applied linguistics (pp. 211–232). New York: Arnold. Carter, R., & Goddard, A. (2016). How to analyse texts: A toolkit for students of English. London: Routledge. Flowerdew, J. (2013). Discourse in English language education. New York, NY: Routledge. Gee, J. P. (2018). Introducing discourse analysis: From grammar to society. New York, NY: Routledge. Goatly, A. (2000). Critical reading and writing: An introductory coursebook. London: Routledge. Hyland, K. (2013). Discourse studies reader: Essential excerpts. London: Bloomsbury. Jones, R. H. (2012). Discourse analysis: A resource book for students. London: Routledge. Reaser, J., Adger, C. T., Wolfram, W., & Christian, D. (2017). Dialects at school: Educating linguistically diverse students. New York, NY: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315772622 Teo, P. (2016). Exploring the dialogic space in teaching: A study of teacher talk in the pre-university classroom in Singapore. Teaching and Teacher Education, 56, 47–60. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2016.01.019 Teo, P., & Ho, C. (2007). Discourse in the modern world: Perspectives and challenges. Singapore: McGraw Hill.

This research was previously published in Applied Linguistics for Teachers of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners; pages 239-261, copyright year 2019 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

1595

Section 6

Critical Issues and Challenges

1597

Chapter 77

An Exploration of the Manipulative Use of Language and Visuals in Advertisements: A Critical Discourse Approach Magret Jongore Bindura University of Science Education, Bindura, Zimbabwe Pinky Phaahla https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5451-8903 UNISA, Pretoria, South Africa Rose Masubelele UNISA, Pretoria, South Africa

ABSTRACT The article presents an analysis of TV advertisements targeted at African audiences. It further foregrounds the use of language and visuals to associate a product to an appropriate solution to social conflicts rooted in oppositional African and Western worldviews. The author applies the critical discourse analysis (CDA) method to the analysis to highlight the use of manipulative language and visuals. The author argues that CDA is an effective tool for analysing both visual and linguistic elements of advertising discourse compared to other discourse analysis methods that focus on either texts or visuals. This article is relevant to the literature on semiotic construction of social discourse as applied in advertising.

INTRODUCTION The article looks at the use of language and visuals of TV adverts using Critical Discourse Approach (CDA). It focuses on selected SABC 1 TV advertising discourse observed in isiNdebele language. The focus is informed by the fact that adverts have long been established in other languages of more extenDOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch077

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 An Exploration of the Manipulative Use of Language and Visuals in Advertisements

sive communication such as English. Therefore, the current focus is on interrogating the new marketing discourse; isiNdebele advertising discourse, seeking to examine how the use of language and visuals in the advert exhibit unequal power relations, ideological inclination and hegemony. The literature that is available on advertising analysis presents us with two broad categories of thinkers, that is, those who understand advertising regarding its linguistic features (the language) and those who emphasise the visual components (or picture) of advertising. The paper insists upon the blended approach to text analysis, a perspective made possible by applying Critical Discourse Approach in the analysis of the target advert. In terms of advert analysis, the likes of Geis (1982); Cook (1992, 1994); Chapman (2001) has been primarily concerned with describing surface features that define the linguistic shape of a prototypical advertisement, advertisers’ creative use of language, the relationship between language and literature, and deceptive strategies used to sell the product, while Van Niekerk and Jenkinson (2011), look at typography and layout in print advertising as elements which speak to advertising. The latter’s perspective is more inclined to the visual approach as more forceful and more appealing to an informed analysis. These two scholars posit that graphic tools in print advertising are robust and are used to arrest the attention of the target market by creating a positive association, a controversy or stimulate some intellectual game. They conclude their observation by pointing out that a message would have already been conveyed by creatively expanding and diversifying the conventional values embedded in certain graphics and basing the adverts on prevailing textual norms and experiences before the message itself has even been read. A brief literature review ricochets the linguistic aspects as important in adverts on one side while the other side insists the visuals are pertinent aspects in adverts analysis. The paper proposes and institutes CDA as a blended approach to advert analysis.

THE LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISING: LEECH (1966) Leech (1966), in his pioneering and comprehensive study on English in advertising, has analyzed in detail different aspects of grammar, vocabulary, discourse and rhyme and rhetoric of advertising. Reference to television illustration, display typography, vocal emphasis, prompt spelling, grammatical solecism, metaphor and paradox and some of the aspects linked to attention value was made. Colloquial, straightforward style and common vocabulary were observed to be connected with readability. Phonological regularities such as alliteration, rhyme and jingle are said to be related to memorability. Frequent use of imperatives and superlatives were seen as connected to selling power. The distinctive property of advertising language was closely identified with the use of clauses, phrases and words as minor sentences, which constitute a different kind of grammar called disjunctive grammar. Leech’s (1966) findings on the language of advertising point to the fact that the linguistic elements of adverts are fundamental to the memorability of the product on offer. In short, the study gives prominence to the semantic composition of adverts at the expense of the visuals. However, Debord (1967) in line with advert linguistic content insists that mediated reality provided through adverts and other media products are deeply distressed by the hegemony of governments and everyday life through mass production and consumption. He further criticizes both the capitalism of the West and the dictatorial communism of the Eastern bloc for the lack of autonomy allowed to individuals by both types of governmental structure. According to the Marxist perspective, Debord postulates that Alienation had gained a new relevance through the invasive forces of the ‘spectacle’ - “a social relation between people that is mediated by images” consisting of mass media, advertisement, and popular culture (Debord, 1967). The 1598

 An Exploration of the Manipulative Use of Language and Visuals in Advertisements

spectacle is a self-fulfilling control mechanism for society. Debord’s analysis developed the notions of “reification” and “fetishism of the commodity” pioneered by Karl Marx and Georg Lukács. Semiotics was also a major influence, particularly the work of his contemporary, Roland Barthes, who was the first to envisage bourgeois society as a spectacle, and to study in detail the political function of fashion within that spectacle. Jappe (1999) objectifies that, Debord’s analysis of “the spectaclist society” probed the historical, economic, and psychological roots of the media and popular culture.

Geis and TV Advertising Discourse In the same vein, Geis (1982), in his research on TV advertising discourse attempts describing how language is used in advertising especially television advertising. Geis focuses on specific linguistic devices that feature most prominently in TV advertising. According to his observation, advertising discourse employs claims such as the word “help” as in phrases like “helps to achieve” and comparatives like “more or less” that are considered impressive because they are indistinguishable from the law such as generic claims of scientists. He concludes that advertisers, in general, tend to prefer vague language rather than a language with explicit empirical consequences and prefer subjective claims to objective claims. Geis’s (1982) findings on how language is used in advertising discourse also echo the sentiments brought to the fore by Leech’s (1966) findings. The studies concur in relaying the fact that language is instrumental in the success or failure of an advert. Their emphasis is on the use of language in adverts. To these authors, what they refer to as an advert is the linguistically crafting of the selling discourse. On the same note is Vestergaard and Schroder’s (1985) work which is preferred in the subsequent section.

Vestergaard and Schroder Perspective on the Language of Advertising. According to Vestergaard and Schroder (1985), advertising takes many forms, but in most of the advertisements, language is of crucial importance. The wording of adverts is, in most cases, carefully crafted to meet particular ends. Vestergaard and Schroder insist that advert analysts should be interested in the morphological characteristics of the language of adverts, and should be vitally concerned with what advertisements do and crucially do not say. Again, Vestergaard and Schroder (1985) see the broadest purpose of adverts either as to persuade or inform receivers regarding their functionality. These two scholars go on to accentuate that the primary function of a persuasive advertisement is to convince the receiver to take a specific action, in other words, the receiver is directly manipulated to change or modify his or her consumerist behaviour. The intended function of the advertisement can only take place if the dialogue fulfils its communicative role. Norins (1966, p. 5) cited in Vestergaard and Schroder (1985, p. 14), posits that advertising is a form of communication. In this communication, language is vital. In the study of communication, the object of study of what goes on between the participants in the communication process is referred to as text. A text can be realised in the form of conversation, a novel, a film or an advertisement. In this perspective, the linguistic component of the advert is viewed as primarily the core component. In the direct function, according to Vestergaard and Schroder (1985, p. 16), language is oriented towards the addressee. Language is used to influence the addressee’s actions, emotions, beliefs and attitudes. Thus, according to these scholars, in advertising the direct function of language can be used to persuade, advice, recommend, exhort, invite, permit, order, compel, warn, and threaten. These are just,

1599

 An Exploration of the Manipulative Use of Language and Visuals in Advertisements

but examples of directive speech acts by Searle (1969, 1971) cited by Vestergaard and Schroder (1985, p. 16). In as far as visuals are concerned, Van Niekerk and Jenkinson (2011), look at typography and layout in print advertising as elements which speak to advertising. Their perspective is more inclined to the visual approach as more forceful and more appealing in adverts. These two scholars posit that graphic tools in print advertising are robust and are used to arrest the attention of the target market by creating a positive association, a controversy or stimulate some intellectual game. They conclude their observation by pointing out that a message would have already been conveyed by creatively expanding and diversifying the conventional values embedded in certain graphics and basing the adverts on prevailing textual norms and experiences before the message itself has even been read. By focusing on the typography used, the scholars compared the text layout and typography of newspaper and cell phone short text messages in South Africa. Van Niekerk and Jenkinson (2011), also take cognisance of the fact that all writing is done in a specific font style and this conveys secret messages through the choice of the typeface used in the adverts, brand names and even packaging of any particular brand. The authors further contend that using the right or appropriate typeface can contribute to the image and sales of the brand. In emphasizing the importance of the visuals in advertising discourse, Van Niekerk and Jenkinson (2011) point out that synergy is the key, not abundance or clutter. In other words, there should be a synergic link between the visuals and the language. These Scholars insist there is a need to focus on one aspect of the product initially to get the attention of the target market. In their emphasis on a separate advert analysis, the scholar’s emphasis as the second recommendation, that there should be at least one idea or concept per advertisement that is ideal. This may be mainly a visual or linguistic idea, for instance, wordplay. These scholars’ emphasis is on the centrality of the striking aspects of the advert. Van Niekerk and Jenkinson (2011) emphasis are that the marketing concept has to fit the visual representation. It can, therefore, be unnecessary to overstress the fact that these two voices like the preceding linguistic voices failed to unify the analysis and treat the visuals and linguistic elements as merely the advertising discourse elements that co-exist for the success of an advert. Having looked at linguistic analysis and visual analysis of the adverts, the paper gives a brief overview of critical discourse analysis as an approach employed in the analysis to ensue.

CRITICAL DISCOURSE APPROACH The blending approach to TV advertising discourse can best be achieved through the use of Critical Discourse Analysis. This blending takes from the linguist’s analysis and the semiologists. Critical discourse analysis (henceforth CDA) refers to an approach to the study of language use and textual practices that focuses strictly on the inter-relationship between language and power. It draws on a range of theoretical resources derived from numerous disciplinary fields (Fairclough & Wodak (1997, pp. 271-80). Critical Discourse Analysis focuses mostly on three central and constitutive concepts: power, ideology and critique. The issue of control in CDA is seen as emanating from the people who would have put to use the discourse in question. Power according to CDA comes from the hierarchies characterizing society. The society institutionalises discourse. Therefore, the power discourse assumes is from how power is deployed in the society. Thus, in discourse use, there are unequal power relations (Fairclough & Wo1600

 An Exploration of the Manipulative Use of Language and Visuals in Advertisements

dak, 1997). Indeed, rather than providing a particular process, CDA can be characterised as a way of approaching and thinking about a problem. Fairclough (1992) constructed a useful framework for the analysis of discourse as social practice. This framework contains a range of different concepts that are interconnected in a complex three-dimensional model. The model observes that texts are a product of the society as much as the society is built around text functionality. The model also shows diagrammatically how interlinked text production and text consumption is in a society. In this model, discourse is not only seen as constitutive but also as constituted. The target advert is a KFC 2014 South Africa Broadcasting Company (SABC 1) TV advert. The analysis endeavors to establish the values, the ideological and cultural relevance of the advert to an African viewership. In this vein, the paper demonstrates how the popular culture and the ideology of the West are projected and deployed in what is termed African languages advert. Provided here is a summary of what ensure in the advert which might work to inform readers on the pertinent language and visual issues raised in the advert analysis. The advert speaks to a typical African sensibility of what a family is which is an extended one. The family decides on a surprise visit to the son who works in an urban area and has established according to the urban life. The woman is left behind to look after the domestic chores. The family relates in a typical African way especially in line with a spur of the moment journey without informing the hosts first. Apart from imposing their visit to the wife who is at home by the time of their visit the visitors fail to appreciate the kind of life exposed to them as experienced by the young married couple. The visitors are not happy about the asserts accrued by the young family and suppose the change evident in the lifestyle of their son is a result of the association of the daughter in-law and the son. The African patriarchal society assumes that women are a thorn in the flesh in line with the life after marriage of any young family. Women are seen as sources of mischief, overspending and distancing the husband from his immediate and extended family. The African Society believes that women are married not by an individual, but for the family. The extended family in an African perspective is supposed to assess and if found suitable approve the wife’s ability to fit in to the husband’s family. The advert in a way shows how young and modern women can cure the disapproving husband’s family through feeding them with KFC a new and appreciated phenomenon. KFC being a meal composed of especially chicken gets the extended family to appreciate, accept and reduce the distance between the family and the daughter in-law. The discussion will start by looking at power enshrined in the advert. Here is the transcript narration of the advert to be discussed.

Mamazala Advert (The doorbell rings uMakoti moves to open the door as a group of visitors composed of two senior women and an older man enter the room even before she says they should come in. They pass through the door towards the lounge leaving her behind holding to the door.) She looks at them as they pass her and says: “Salibonani” ‘Good day!’ (They provide her with no answer, and instead, the group marches past umakoti. “Ngicela lihlalephansingisayolandaukudla” ‘Please have a seat, I will go and get something to eat’. (Here uMakoti addresses the almost seated group) “Yebo.” (All right.) 1601

 An Exploration of the Manipulative Use of Language and Visuals in Advertisements

(Whispering to each other the group starts talking pointing to the TV, the tiles and uMakoti’s hair in a disgruntled manner.) “Bhekani iTV” ‘Look how big that TV is!’ “Bona-keizinwele ‘Look at the hair.’ “UMakoti! Umosh’imali yomntanami ‘uMakoti is wasting my son’s money.’ (UMakoti re-enters the room inviting the visitors to take a pick at pieces of KFC. Suddenly the group of visitors are all smiles and uMamazala quickly invites uMakoti to sit next to her.) “Buya uzohlala la makoti” ‘Come sit next to me.’

Language and Power in ‘Umamazala’ Advert In answering the question ‘What is power?’ Simpson and Mayr (2013) opine that power comes from the privileged access to social resources such as education, knowledge and wealth. They believe that access to these resources provides authority, status and influence, which is an enabling mechanism for the domination, coercion and control of subordinate groups. This observation is further seen as something more than simply dominance from above, but as something ‘jointly produced’ because people are led to believe that dominance is legitimate in some way or other. Simson and Mayr (2013, p. 2) citing Scott (2001) maintain that: …research on power often fall into one of two traditions, the ‘mainstream’ and the ‘second-stream’. The mainstream tradition, the origins of which can be located in Weber’s study ([1914] 1978) of authority in modern and pre-modern states, tends to focus on the corrective power of the state and its institutions. This tradition, essentially view power as dominance, focuses on the varying abilities of actors, such as judicial and penal institutions, to secure the compliance of others, even in the face of resistance or insurgency. According to Foucault (1980), power relations permeate all levels of social life in the private spheres of the family and sexuality as much as in the public spheres of politics, the economy and the law. What is more, power is not only cynical, repressing what it seeks to control? Its relationship, as well as the advantage to discourse and subject, is that it is also productive. Foucault adds that power does not only weigh on us as a force that says no, but it traverses and produces things. Foucault asserts that power induces pleasure which is the power that? makes an individual self-indulgent, forms of knowledge, delivers discourse or the power that also determines the type of language and how it is supposed to be used. What Foucault objectifies is that in uMamazala-uMakoti relationship there is unequal power to this relationship. UMamazala might have power over uMakoti due to the fact proposed by Foucault (1977:27) who insists that power objects of knowledge include political leaders, media houses, and elders in families, pastors, professionals or even motivational speakers. Therefore, in the extended family relationship exposed here, uMamazala is more potent to uMakoti by uMamazalas experience founded in her age. In line with the power possessed by uMamazala which uMakoti lacks, Foucault opines that the people mentioned above that include uMamazala among many maintain certain levels of knowledge which others do not have. This knowledge assumes the authority of truth. This is evident in the way uMamazala and company march into uMakoti’s home and proceed to be seated without being offered the seats. The company did not bother to make some sort of small talk to show that they are visitors to the host before they enter the house. It is uMakoti who follows the group who are already seated to greet them by saying: “Salibonani.” (Good day!) 1602

 An Exploration of the Manipulative Use of Language and Visuals in Advertisements

They do not answer, the group marches past uMakoti instead. After uMakoti sees that the guests are almost seated, she proceeds to offer them some seats. “Ngicela lihlale phansi ngisayolanda ukudla” (Please have a seat, I will go and get something to eat.). This shows how powerful the visitors are. UMakoti cannot afford to ignore the already seated people and not show them that she is uncomfortable that they are seated. This display demonstrates the opaque power relations which characterize the two parties concerned. The relationship and authenticity of the discourse in use are further supported by the fact that power is used to regulate the conduct of others. Thus, power is used to regulate the conduct of the characters in uMamazala advert. The example provided above shows how uMakoti responds to the visitors’ approach and how uMamazala and company react as they enter the host’s home. Furthermore, the uMakoti-uMamazala relationship is an authentic social relationship. On the same note, it is evident that in the above communication process or discourse, there is the power element. According to Millibrand (1983) at an elementary but fundamental level of analysis, social power relationships are characteristically manifested in interaction. Mavesera (2013:36) on the same note, contends that language is entwined in social power in some ways; it indexes strength, expresses power and can challenge authority. For example, in the communication that ensues in this advert, uMakoti, cannot have equal power with uMamazala (mother-in-law). The unequal power relations in the social context exhibited here is supported by how uMakoti succumbs to the dictates of uMamazala’s group. This happens as the visitors pass her on her doorstep without so much taking into consideration her welcoming remarks as she says; Please come in. She further appreciates their presence by saying: “Ngicela lihlale phansi” (Please have a seat). In all the above exchange and communication between uMakoti and the visiting group, uMakoti did not get an opportunity to either acknowledge or deny the visitors’ entrance to her home. Thus, power is not reciprocal between the interlocutors in this instance. Furthermore, Brown and Gilinan (1960) insist that force is realised in the distribution of power and social function, in this vein, the role played by uMamazala demands more energy as compared to that of uMakoti. The social relationship and characters in this context are made possible by the discourse in use which recognises uMakoti –uMamazala relationship and the social power in this relationship as opaque or tilted in favour of uMamazala. On the same note, Kress and Hodge (1979), see an unequal distribution of power as being reflected in language. On this note, in the advert, uMakoti rather begs the visitors to sit down, and the visitors respond by saying: “Yebo.” (All right). The alternative response if uMakoti had power was to say ‘thank you’ to the offer. Due to the opaque power relations in favour of uMamazala, uMakoti takes it as is and delights in serving the company the best she can offer under the circumstances. Furthermore, the opaque power relations between uMamazala and uMakoti is explained by Foucault (1977:27) who clarifies discourse as setting a constitutive relationship between meaning and power in social practice. Every move to meaning-making comes about from a position of strength. The entities in the position of power are the ones who structure the discourse. At the same time, these entities are empowered by the discourse. The topic or what to discuss and objects of knowledge are defined in the discourse. Thus, uMamazala’s group as the more influential figures initiate the talk of uMakotis spending habits where the women say: (Whispering to each other, the group starts talking pointing to the TV, the tiles and uMakoti’s hair in a disgruntled manner), “Bhekani iTV (Look how big that TV is!) Bona-ke izinwele (Look at the hair) “UMakoti! Umosh’ imali yomntanami” (uMakoti is wasting my son’s money.) Here the talk is about the assets in uMakotis’ home not about the visit or where uMakoti has gone. What might be viewed as the state of affairs at this point and time gives power to the group until uMakoti announces that she is back, not empty handed but with a tray full of KFC chicken. The coming of uMakoti 1603

 An Exploration of the Manipulative Use of Language and Visuals in Advertisements

with KFC assigns power to her. The moment she serves her visitors with the chicken she becomes the much-sorted character in the advert. All eyes are on her and the group is all smiles and uMamazala caps it all by inviting her to sit next to her by saying: “Buya uzohlala la makoti.” (Come to sit next to me.) On the notion of unequal power relations reflective in this discourse, Kress and Hodge (1979:77) further posit that language is involved wherever there is contention over and challenge to power. In this advert, glimpses of a problem of power are evident where uMamazala disapproves of the lifestyle of uMakoti saying: “Bhekani iTV.” (Look how big that TV is!) “Bona-ke izinwele.” (Look at the hair.). “UMakoti umosh’imali yomntanami” (uMakoti is wasting my son’s money). As much as uMamazala has the power to complain (when talking to the other members of her group), her ability is limited. The limit is shown in the sense that uMamazala lacks assertiveness as witnessed by uMamazala and her companions whispering disgruntlement instead of saying their misgivings right in uMakoti’s face that she is wasting their son’s money. The group instead back bites uMakoti. Thus, much as they have the upper hand, the group is also aware of uMakoti’s territory that they are in and the fact that what is in this house, that is, the house the group visited, although it might have been bought by uMamazala’s son, belongs to both of them. Therefore, offending uMakoti might not be the best of an idea for the visitors. They might strain their relationship with their son, and the wife might make it impossible for them to visit next time. Thus, in the same breath, Kress and Hodge (1979:77) further point to the fact that, power is shown in the language in use which is either warm, cold or formal or informal depending on the relationship of interlocutors. Therefore, as much as uMamazala has misgivings about what she thinks of uMakoti, she cannot throw her tantrums right in the face of uMakoti. Nevertheless, she has to do it discreetly by talking to the others and showing her emotional disposition through her facial expressions. Notwithstanding that uMamazala can yield power in discourse because she is the mother to the husband of uMakoti, the fact that uMakoti is wife to this same person means she is closer and more influential to the husband because of the social proximity they have as husband and wife. The social contact between mother and son might have been erased by the fact that the son now has his own home. According to the concept of power and distance, be it physical or distance perceived in zones of communication, uMakoti is nearer to her husband for they share the intimate zone while uMamazala and son now share the social zone. Therefore, the power that uMamazala yields in this advert is compromised and reflective in the fact that uMamazala, no matter what she feels for uMakoti, has to play her cards properly to maintain and return her status and power as the mother-in-law. (That is why uMamazala does not have to strain her relationship with uMakoti by throwing insults in uMakoti’s face. Like directly confronting her in saying; uMakoti! Umoshi imali yomntanami ‘Makoti you are wasting my son’s money’). Still, on language and unequal power relations in this advert, the element of togetherness is promoted by empowering the indigenous relationships to articulate reality as realised in society. In this advert, the setting is contextualised to show a typical African setup regarding the hostility and unequal power relations between the mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law. The discourse in use concretises the unequal power relations established and exhibited in the advert.

The Use of the Command in Bhekani iTV ‘Look How Big That Tv Is!’ The imperative is one of the subcategories of the grammatical category of mood. To understand the imperative, we need to find out some essential points about the grammatical mood in general. The 1604

 An Exploration of the Manipulative Use of Language and Visuals in Advertisements

atmosphere is a grammatical category that expresses the relation of the action named by a verb, to the reality, as seen by the speaker. The category of the imperative seems to be a linguistic universal since it is characteristic of both ancient languages and modern ones, as well as of languages belonging to typologically different groups. Here in the Mamazala advert, the command “Bhekani iTV” (Look how big that TV is!) uMamazala is drawing the attention of the group to items that are in the house of uMakoti. The verb is not directly referring to the size of the TV but to how uMakoti spends uMamazala’s son’s money uneconomically on useless and expensive gadgets. Therefore, the command is about uMakoti’s spending nature which is not consistent with the group’s expectations of assets that uMakoti should possess. Thus, the command shows unequal power relations between interlocutors regarding knowledge consistent with the context that the speakers are finding themselves in. In the command, the power relations can be observed in two different ways. In a way, the command signals tension and animosity between uMakoti and the group. The pressure is from the fact that uMakoti is in the form of behaving in manners that are inconsistent with the expectations of the uMamazala group. This perspective gives more power to uMamazala’s group for the group is poised to approve or disapprove uMakoti. Culturally, uMakoti is not expected to show negative feelings or reservations towards her in-laws. The command in a way also assigns power to uMakoti as the interlocutors’ sort of talk in muddled tones instead of directly confronting uMakoti about her uneconomical use of their son’s money. The speakers as a group share the equal power of both knowledge and social disposition in that they view and assign the possession of the big TV as a waste of resources that could have been used for some other purposes. The group exercise limited power in their reservations shown by the way they dislike the idea that uMakoti has such a big TV which is expensive but have to say it in low tones for fear of being heard by uMakoti. Therefore, as much as they talk about uMakoti, they are reasonably aware of the unequal power relations between them and uMakoti within the context that they are operating in. This command at the same time shows how important uMakoti is to their son to make him buy her such an expensive TV. Therefore, in a way the group is acknowledging that uMakoti is more powerful than them regarding their influence on their son, husband to uMakoti. The observation is made with the view that the son has bought uMakoti the TV which comes as a surprise to them as they see it probably for the first time.

Ideological Inclination in Mamazala Advert Ideology is about how an individual interprets reality. It is the lens that one uses to measure between normal and abnormal, right or wrong. It is a belief system that guides an individual in contacting their daily undertakings. Therefore, ideology relates to how individuals interpret and give meaning according to their beliefs, norms, culture and sensibility. The discussion on ideology would start by looking at uMamazala and her group’s take on uMakoti in her modernity projection against the group’s traditional worldview.

uMamazala’s Thinking About uMakoti in African Tradition UMamazala and group think that uMakoti is too smart for their liking. They see uMakoti as an unnecessary expense on their son. Why do they see uMakoti in this light? The answer is simple; uMakoti occupies the space that is inconsistent with a traditional uMakoti of the uMamazala perspective. In uMakoti’s home, there are expensive tiles on the floor, a huge TV that the visitors are failing to comprehend. The 1605

 An Exploration of the Manipulative Use of Language and Visuals in Advertisements

hair that uMakoti has is not what a traditional uMakoti should keep and nourish. The group’s worldview governs uMamazala’s thinking about uMakoti. The group has a definition of uMakoti and a prescriptive description that is inconsistent with this modern uMakoti that they have visited. UMakoti is thus, failing to fit into the visitor’s worldview. The evocative ‘Makoti! Umoshi imali yomntanami’ (Makoti you are wasting my son’s money) talks to a specific people with a specific worldview. The vocative; ‘Makoti! …’ exclaims surprise in how uMakoti is using her husband’s money. There is nothing wrong that uMakoti has committed neither is there any unfairness in the group’s assessment of what uMakoti is all about. In the traditional worldview, uMakoti should have danced to the tune of the husband whom the group believes shares their conventional conservative thinking. UMakoti, according to the group’s perspective, should not have influenced her husband into creating such a house as the host’s. Rather uMakoti should live consistent with the definitions of a home prescribed to her by her in-laws. What the group is failing to appreciate is that their son might as well have changed, given the change in context and location.

uMakoti’s Thinking About Her In-Laws UMakoti observes and thinks about her in-laws as unconventional. Why would the group of visitors sit or even enter her house without being told to do so? Why would they visit without making an appointment? If they had made an appointment probably, uMakoti would have found time to prepare food for them beforehand. Therefore, the visitor’s unplanned visit has to be contained. UMakoti does not want to waste time preparing food for visitors that seem to be already agitated and hostile. Thus, uMakoti’s instinct tells her she has to serve her visitors with a meaty dish which can sooth them and respect her as a befitting host. The worldview that uMakoti subscribes to informs her that such unconventional people can best be treated by being offered fast foods. By offering KFC to the group, uMakoti is aware that she is serving her visitors with a fast food product. UMakoti is equally cognizant that fast foods are not recommended. She, however, is aware that the group’s worldview would not inform them about how cheap and unhealthy the food she is serving them is. She introduced a personal eating habit to a traditional group, which acts unconventionally. Nevertheless, one would instead ask; by whose definition are these people looked at as unconventional. Calling them eccentric is in itself ideological. The description also brings to the fore how the media influences the individuals’ definition of reality. Thus, uMakoti converts the once traditional informed lot to trust in fast foods and consumerist culture.

The Visuals in Mamazala This section discusses the visuals of uMakoti, uMamazala and group, the door and the interior of the house and the KFC advertised chicken. The discussion begins with uMakoti opening the door as the group of visitors walk past her as she holds the door for the visitors to enter.

Makoti Opens the Door for the Visitors The doorknob for Makotis home is not an ordinary cheap one but an exquisite handle. The door is opened from the inside. The colour of the door is white which blends well with uMakotis dress which is also white. Accordingly, www.infojug.com argues that the colour white has always been associated with purity, innocence and freshness. 1606

 An Exploration of the Manipulative Use of Language and Visuals in Advertisements

Figure 1. uMakotis Dress which is white in colour blends well with the interior of her home and makes an illusion of a modern well-kept woman

Thus, the white colour of uMakotis dress might, therefore, be signalling the imminent fresh beginning for the visitors into the new life of consumerism. Consumerism is deplored at first by the visitors but later on, embraced through the consumption of KFC offered by uMakoti. The colour white might be indicating that uMakoti’s way of life is safer and more reliable especially in these changing times of big TVs and expensive tiles. As uMakoti opens the door, the visitors who have resounded the doorbell are presented. Thus, the white colour invites the viewers to infer cleanliness within the environment of uMakoti. Thus, depending on KFC means limited time to kitchen chores. This would leave uMakoti or any other young woman who depend on KFC with ample time to do other chores which include working on the cleanliness of the house and their appearance as well (Figure 1). The other two women have African attires of roughly dull colours most suitable to elderly and mature women. UMakoti opens the door to face four visitors composed of three elderly women and one elderly man from her in-laws. The group of visitors are putting on mature colours that blend well with the visitors’ positions and status as provided in the advert. UMamazala has a blue and white shawl on her shoulders with befitting matching blue headgear for mature women. Both of the other two women have headgears complementing their attires. As uMamazala takes the lead, she is somewhat looking at the new surroundings and seems not happy with what she sees. Instead of uMakoti being in the lead and being able to show her visitors where to sit, she is somewhat left behind. In the case of uMamazala and the other senior lady who follows right behind uMamazala, the visitors seem not to care much about what uMakoti has to say but have placed uMakoti as unworthy of their son. The group of visitors moves to settle down where they look around. The appearance and context showed here show a clash of the worldviews. The visitors are shown in a world that is outside their realm (Figure 2).

1607

 An Exploration of the Manipulative Use of Language and Visuals in Advertisements

Figure 2. Visitors walking past uMakoti

The facial expression of the three women talks of unprecedented surprise of uMakoti’s home that they feel is an undue comfort for uMakoti. The visitor’s display of discomfort is written all over their faces. The discomfort speaks of the visitors’ affiliation to a different worldview. Furthermore, the discomfort as well reflects a different background and belonging to different historical periods of the visitors and uMakoti. The visitors display hopelessness as they whisper to one another. UMamazala seems to have given up where she has intertwined her fingers and placed them on her lap. The other two women who flank uMamazala seem to express their reservations, where they do not want uMakoti to hear them. Thus, they lean forward to show privacy in what they are discussing. The faces of the three women are haggard. The postures show that they are backbiting uMakoti. The poses also indicate that they do not want to divulge to uMakoti how they feel about her. Their stance works towards authenticating their animosity against uMakoti and everything that she stands for (Figure 3). The way the three women express their reservations is seen in their eye contact. The women are confronting a common challenge in the name of uMakoti. The women more than anything else believe that uMakoti is extravagant in her spending. The group’s reservations are erased by the coming back of uMakoti with a tray full of KFC. The moment uMakoti enters and places the tray of coated chicken drumsticks before the group of visitors, their reservations immediately disappear. The reservations are replaced with smiles and an invitation for uMakoti to sit next to uMamazala Buya uzohlala la makoti (Come to sit next to me) (Figure 4). The facial expression of the visitors changes from frowns strains to wide-eyed and bright faces with KFC introduced by the host. The eyes of all the four visitors are wide open with excitement and anticipation for a feast. The man especially looks at the three women and then ahead right through to the viewers as if to source for approval of uMakoti. This is painting an illusion of a sudden trust in uMakoti that was

1608

 An Exploration of the Manipulative Use of Language and Visuals in Advertisements

not there before the presentation of the feast. This posture persuades the viewers to see the presentation of KFC by the host in the advert as exceptionally good and out of the world of the ordinary people who are the visitors (Figure 5).

CONCLUSION The paper has examined the linguistic aspects which project unequal power relations, and ideological inclination of the advert. Of major highlight is the holistic approach facilitated by the use of CDA as an analytical tool. Both language and visual aspects of the uMamazala advert, talk to the ideological, persuasive and unequal power relations exhibited in the advert. Of significant highlight is the facial expressions and posture of the visitors seen as deploying the visitors’ emotional disposition. The disposition of the characters marks their worldview as traditional African. The modest presentation of uMakoti and her confidence in KFC makes her more disposed to the modern Western worldview. Figure 3. Three discussing uMakoti concerning what they think Makoti is doing bad, especially in line with a perceived influence in the world view of the husband evidenced by a change in lifestyle as witnessed by the asserts in the living room

1609

 An Exploration of the Manipulative Use of Language and Visuals in Advertisements

Figure 4. uMamazala discusses her reservations about uMakoti with friends

Figure 5. Buya uzohlala la makoti (Come sit next to me). The mother in-law invites the daughter in-law to come sit next to her as a token of appreciation after offerred KFC seen being held by mother-inlaw in blue.

1610

 An Exploration of the Manipulative Use of Language and Visuals in Advertisements

REFERENCES Brown, R. & Gilman, A. (1960). Style in Language-Linguist Linguine linguist [post]. Inguine. Chapman, A. (2001). Constructing a gendered consumer identity in a pragma linguistic model of advertising discourse, the case of Russian and Polish. Cook, G. (1992). The discourse of advertising. London: Routledge. Dacin, M. T., Goodstein, J., & Scott, W. R. (2002). Institutional theory and institutional change: Introduction to the special research forum. Academy of Management Journal, 45(1), 45–56. Debord, G. (1967). Concept of the Spectacle. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Debord, G. (1967). Society of the Spectacle. marxists.org. Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press. Fairclough, N., & Wodak, R. (1997). Critical Discourse Analysis. In T. A. Van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse as Social Interaction. London: Sage. Faucault, M. (1977). Power / Knowledge. London: Harvest Press. Geis, M. (1982). The Language of Television Advertising. New York: Academic Press. Infojug. (n.d.). Different colors and their meanings. Retrieved from http://www.infojug.com/articles/ different-colors-and-their-meanings.html Jappe, A. (1999). Guy Debord, Concept of the Spectacle. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Jongore, M., Phaahla, P., & Masubelele, R. (2019). A Linguistic Exploration of Indigenous Languages Adverts: A Critical Discourse Approach. International Journal of Translation, Interpretation, and Applied Linguistics, 1(2), 54–64. doi:10.4018/IJTIAL.2019070104 Kress, G., & Hodge, R. (1979). Language as Ideology. London: Routledge. Leech, G. N. (1966). English in Advertising: A Linguistic Study of Advertising in Great Britain. Longmans. Mavesera, M. (2013). Situating African Languages and Literature in the Socio- economic Development of Zimbabwe. South Africa: Pretoria Kiskopie. Millibrand, R. (1983). Class Power and State Power. Verso Publishers. Norins, H. (1966). The Compliant Copywriter. New York: McGraw-Hill. Searle, J. (1969). Speech acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139173438 Simpson, P. (2013). Language, Ideology and Point of View. London: Longman. Van Niekerk, A., & Jenkinson, G. A. (2011). Graphology in print advertising: Iconic functions. Journal for New Generation Sciences, 9(2), 115–134. Vestergaard, T., & Schrøder, K. (1985). The Language of Advertising. Oxford: Blackwell.

This research was previously published in the International Journal of Semiotics and Visual Rhetoric (IJSVR), 4(1); pages 34-48, copyright year 2020 by IGI Publishing (an imprint of IGI Global).

1611

1612

Chapter 78

Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis Eda Başak Hancı-Azizoglu Mediterranean (Akdeniz) University, Turkey

ABSTRACT The human experience in times of crisis is a determinative indicator for the future wellbeing of generations. The lack of empathy and inactive emotional intelligence through all forms of linguistic conduct cause miscommunication and misconduct, which severely underestimates the intellectual potential of human beings. In a world of diversity, emotional intelligence and empathic linguistic power are crucial indicators of civilization and enlightenment. Given a richer understanding of the relationship between empathy and emotional intelligence from a sociolinguistic perspective, this study discusses the significance of including emotional intelligence and empathy in educational and intellectual programs. This study is the framework through which the empathic linguistic power within a society could be a determining power for crisis management and wellbeing at times of turmoil.

INTRODUCTION Language has the power to shape and modify the way people think and perceive the world (DeFranza et al., 2020). Language indeed is far more influential and powerful when it is part of a social act. Depending on the context and variables of the era and time, language can be so powerful that it can transform society as well as it can carry the destructive power to even devastate society. If wrong words are chosen with an inconvenient style, the linguistic code in question could transmit a massive crisis message, which in return forms a domino effect by creating ill-formed chaos within society. “Crises as rhetorical constructs are specialized kinds of communication whereby urgency takes over routine and conventional processes (Kiewe, 2012, n.p.).” It is therefore critical to explore which variables activate empathic emotional intelligence, and how crises are handled among societies through linguistic power. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch078

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis

Viewed from an epistemological perspective, empathy in psychoanalytic practice is described as that aspect of a specialized attentional stance that opens channels of interaction facilitating the formation of a trusting bond and enabling one to gain access to the emotional qualities of another’s experience (Aragno, 2008, p. 713). What’s even more striking, empathy is the only remedy that activates emotional intelligence for civilized societies, and societies that lack empathy and emotional intelligence invite crises for inevitable catastrophic futures. The presence of emotional intelligence in communication styles, and how this linguistic variable is valued in a society is the indicator of whether the individuals within that community show empathy towards each other. The state of self-consciousness about emotions, and the ability to control emotions are critical domains of emotional intelligence to be able to feel empathy (Faye et al., 2011). In the first place, it seems clear that there is a direct correlation between emphatic linguistic power and emotional intelligence and how societies handle crises (Swart et al., 2011). Therefore, this study proposes a framework through which the empathic linguistic power within a society could be a determining power for crisis management and wellbeing at times of turmoil.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH SOCIETIES? I’ve thought a lot about where we’re headed as a society. It seems things are getting worse in so many areas that I wonder whether civility can ever be regained. I’m using the word “civility” in a broad sense, not only to mean good manners, kindness and empathy but how we treat others in a variety of circumstances (Mintz,2020a, para. 1). Baboons are key to understand human evolution (Strum, 2012). Yet, it is not possible to understand why humans stopped evolving while Baboons evolved democratically without using a complex communication method, which is language. It may be the world’s most complicated question as to how baboons achieved to live in a more civilized society than humans when some geniuses among people invented “google” to find instant informative answers for all humanly questions. Within the context of emotional intelligence and empathy, baboons surprisingly have a system for shared decision-making without the privilege of the language people are using. What is far more interesting is that baboons never follow dominant characters, who unkindly dictate to them what to do in their tribes, and this means they have their own language for shunning bullies. In a baboon society, the dominant character who is good at finding resources and food, are often not the most popular figures, and the majority of baboons value kindness and respect when choosing a baboon leader, and they interestingly experience democracy when many communities of people lost their access to democratic privileges (Conradt & Roper, 2007). To illustrate, baboons are not male-dominant societies, where females are oppressed as the less valued secondary gender as it is still the case for human beings. In Baboon families, females can indeed be the head of the family, and they can even be political figures within the tribe to make critical decisions for the tribe’s well-being (Strandburg-Peshkin, 2015; Strum, 2012). Baboons live in this democratic surrounding with their rather limited intelligence and language whereas the unsolvable mystery of how humans are continuously deprived of their basic human rights in an undemocratic world remains the mystery of the artificial modern world.

1613

 Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis

It is often believed that human beings are intellectually superior to all other species on Earth; however, there is something quite wrong with how the code of ethics is exercised among human beings with their higher intellect and communicative skills. In the baboon’s world, there is not a single baby baboon, who dies out of hunger when other baboons are using private jets to have some fresh air in the Maldives. It is also unheard of a single baboon, who wishes to wear a million-dollar worth watch and make a virtual story out of it for getting the most likes on a social media platform. It is not common for baboons to take pictures of their dinner, and tag the food they eat online through their social media accounts with a made-up word “delish” for the already existing adjective delicious underneath. The fact that a considerable number of humans need massive populist approval with strange behaviors of greediness for virtual fame may signify that there is a considerable amount of emotional intelligence deficit among societies. From another perspective, it seems doubtful that human beings are taking advantage of their full intellectual capacity when they fail to understand each other’s feelings without the essence of emotional intelligence in their communication styles. Unfortunately, a disturbing amount of time and energy is wasted in graceless social media postings since the same amount of energy could be used for the sake of other forms of intellectual writing and sharing practices in this information age. But, clearly the majority of the people prefer otherwise. Beyond question, people live in a world of crisis despite how fast people are provided access to information technologies, and the future of the world will continue to repeat the same historical chaos as a desperate pattern of unfortunate events due to lack of empathy and emotional intelligence. Providing social robots an internal model of emotions can help them guide their behavior in a more humane manner by simulating the ability to feel empathy towards others. Furthermore, the growing interest in creating robots that are capable of collaborating with other humans in team settings provides an opportunity to explore another side of human emotion, namely, group-based emotions (Correia et al., 2018, p. 261). Scientists claim that robots will take over most of the jobs that need human power and intellect in the near future, yet they cannot overcome a significant obstacle: Robots do not have emotional intelligence and empathy (Correia, 2018). What is striking, the educational systems do not necessarily focus on students’ emotional intelligence and empathic aptitude, and thereby educate masses of people without this critical skill (Gordon, 2003, Viguer et al., 2017). Until recently, the educational systems focused more on increasing the intelligence quotient (IQ), and created individuals with diplomas of high skilled problem-solving professionals, who could calculate, measure, and finish the job. Yet, the same individuals appeared to honk in the traffic without waiting in the stoplight for a few long seconds, push each other in a restaurant line to get a better table or steal each other’s parking space without shame. The list is surely longer with horrifying examples of offenses. It seems teaching the new generation to solve their own problems through activating their IQ is not enough, and people should also be aware of the anticipated problems that occur as a result of emotional intelligence deficit. Consequently, this study advises policymakers to redesign educational systems by activating students’ emotional intelligence through the best emphatic linguistic practices to avoid future crises.

THE ESSENCE OF LANGUAGE IN TIMES OF CRISIS Astonishingly, the wars and crises are still destroying human civilization in the modern 21st century. The infrastructure of a society and its future developments are often determined by that society’s history (Boschi et al., 2020). Despite the growing importance of the term globalism, the wars never ended 1614

 Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis

in our world despite the fact how it has proven to devolve human civilization (Tracey, 2018). As long as human history is recorded, people continue to fight over racial and belief differences. At times when dissimilarities are rarely not a problem, authorities are good at inventing a conflict scenario for an excuse to take over resources of a far land (Zabeida, 2010). People consume, destroy and vandalize the world faster than ever now. Crises of Mother Earth, and the disasters that nature triggers are preventable up to a certain extent through precautions (Goniewicz et al., 2020; Lu et al., 2020). The unsettling fact is that the devastating cruelness and greed of human beings continue to create more wars and crises on our planet. The catastrophic effects of the past wars through witnessing how innocent civilians are victimized by poor judgments of inhumane commands did not teach our artificially modern and global planet a lesson (Zabedia, 2010). People not only have man-made borders on maps, but they were never able to get rid of the mental borders they created via prejudice and bias over their physical and cultural differences (McCallie, 2020). People ruthlessly continue to prefer creating more crises through fighting and wars and make the planet a chaotic place to live for the new generation. What’s worse, the future well-being of children is never on the top of the list of decision-makers across borders (Didace, 2020). Unfortunately, and quite interestingly, today’s knowledgeable thinkers, intellectuals, and scholars are not the real decision-makers for the planet’s critical decisions despite how they are proven to be the voice of scientific development (Washburn & Skitka, 2018). Scholars often investigate, present their data, discuss, explain yet there are still actual and symbolic monarchies for the final say of the critical decisions without democracy as if people are living in a fairy tale. The communication channels show scenes of continuous vulnerability, inequality, crises, and chaos. The underlying crucial message between the lines is how desperate human beings are each day (Tracey, 2018). Yet, policymakers often let people live in a world of illusion without an action plan for activating the emotional intelligence of people despite recurring crises (John, 2021). When the absence of empathy due to lack of emotional intelligence continues to threaten the wellbeing of the planet, the days indeed have come that people have to buy the most critical life essential, water, in plastic bottles, which will remain on the planet for another 450 years, if not recycled (Whiting, 2018). In some parts of the world, nature-friendly public transportation is underdeveloped, and in some others transportation with a car means risking your life as if you are riding a bumper car in a fair, where no one pays attention to the traffic rules because there are no set consequences (McIlroy, 2020). When a decent shelter need of human beings should not be this complicated in this information and technology age, banks claim that they are doing a favor to offer 30 years-long mortgages with high-interest rates (Muriel, 2020) when an average person can live up to 72.6 years on this planet (United Nations, 2019). Basically, people live in a world of greed as if they can live forever (DeVries, 2020). The advertisements often tell them an underlying psychological and linguistic message to consume it all, whether needed or not to be happier. Children are trained to grow up to be lifetime consumers since they are exposed to the language in the advertisements on all platforms from billboards to radios and televisions that give them the message of buying and consuming relentlessly as the only key for happiness (Pourmoradian et al., 2020). People get used to watching the news about actual cruel wars with empathy deficit (Lanzoni, 2018). The overexposure of this linguistic message is truly missing any empathy: Who cares for crises in remote lands? All of a sudden, an enemy appeared without discriminating on concepts such as race, culture, language, status, power, or wealth. This enemy kills any race of poor and rich, short or tall, beautiful or ugly, famous or introvert without bias. It kills them all in the same vicious yet invisible manner, and who are saved on what type of immunity is still a mystery. Now, all people are fighting with an extremely 1615

 Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis

dangerous enemy, yet they cannot even see it because it is an invisible virus to the naked eye! Without proper equipment and special expertise, people cannot see, touch, or hear the virus, but it is absolutely there to kill anyone. What’s more, people cannot even feel this invisible and destructive power until after the attack, which is often fatal. United Nations Secretary-General claimed on March 23rd, 2020 that people are finally in the same boat to fight against the same enemy with this historical, linguistic, and empathic message as follows: Our world faces a common enemy: COVID-19. The virus does not care about nationality or ethnicity, faction or faith. It attacks all, relentlessly. Meanwhile, armed conflict rages on around the world. The most vulnerable — women and children, people with disabilities, the marginalized and the displaced — pay the highest price…(United Nations, para. 1) A brief but highly intellectual linguistic message is finally there to activate the emotional intelligence of the people. Ultimately, it was clear for millions of people around the world is that globalism does not mean taking a vacation to a foreign land, it is not dining in a restaurant with an eccentric foreignaccented menu of another sophisticated culture. Globalism, therefore, carries a much deeper meaning of a framework through which the policymakers should rather focus on overcoming disagreements through high levels of emotional intelligence and empathy before new crises appear. United Nations Secretary-General summarizes it all for the policymakers in this vital linguistic message: Activate the emotional intelligence of your communities, end wars of any type, and unite in peace to avoid future global crises together.

THE IMPACT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN CRISIS TIMES The life routines, as the way most people experience it, have suddenly changed after the World Health Organization declared a deadly health crisis of COVID-19 on March, 11th 2020 (WHO, 2020). The spreading nature of this pandemic put a major number of at-risk chronic patients’ treatments on hold while the attempt was protecting them from COVID-19, and irreversible harm is reported by neglected patients (Huet et al., 2020; Mauro et al., 2020). Apart from the devastating deadly influence of the virus that caused mass populations of people to lose their lives, the COVID-19 crisis negatively affected people’s mental status by causing severe emotional turmoil. This infectious and fatal virus brought crisis-related stress of fear, anger, despair, anxiety, and depression while regulating emotions, monitoring stress-related feelings and mental stability became challenging for communities (Dai et al., 2020; Duan & Zhu, 2020; Huang & Zhao, 2020; Montemurro, 2020; Zhang et al., Moron & Moron, 2021). In a recent scientific study that investigated the correlation between emotional intelligence and experienced emotional experiences regarding personality and individual differences, people with higher emotional intelligence experienced less sadness, fear, anxiety, and anger during the COVID-19 (Moron & Moron, 2021). Furthermore, people with higher emotional intelligence are better at sharing their feelings while being able to adapt and regulate their emotions depending on their new adapted circumstances (Moron 1616

 Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis

& Moron, 2021; Kong et al., 2019). Clearly, the presence of emotional intelligence is psychologically protecting human beings from trauma when there is already a crisis in place. Since COVID-19 is a health crisis, the main actors that people rely on for survival are physicians and health-care professionals. The critical impact of emotional intelligence and emphatic linguistic power is once again in the picture when people are desperate in hospitals for survival. To illustrate, communication abilities through the use of empathy are demanded skills for today’s physicians regardless of their credentials for patients’ satisfaction and well-being. Proactively, health institutions are conducting surveys with patients to explore the connection between empathy and emotional intelligence. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) highlights empathy as a mandatory skill for having the ability and capacity to treat patients, and emotional intelligence and empathy contribute to increasing the empathic ability of the medical students (Abe et al., 2018). Whether a patient or a healthcare professional, or in some cases both, people can adapt to new surroundings faster through empathy and emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence indeed protects people and smart species of the animal kingdom from hazardous consequences in crisis times (Brooks et al., 2020; Moron & Moron, 2021). In other words, the more one has emotional intelligence, the anticipated level of success from her gets higher, and this is a valuable finding for designing educational and intellectual programs. Emotional intelligence is a set of skills to understand, internalize, process and regulate emotions to be able to adapt to ever-changing circumstances. This means higher levels of emotional intelligence have many advantages in academic and social life. When the whole attention was formerly directed on the term “intelligence” academically, researchers discovered that there is not a single type of “intelligence” that is easy to define. The concept of emotional intelligence initially emerged concerning the concepts of intelligence and personality types as an educational and scientific terminology in the 1990s. Emotional intelligence was first described through four basic indicators. The first one is to receive an accurate message without misconduct precisely. Feeling empathy for other people’s emotions is connecting with them despite conflicts and disagreements, and such an approach filters negative communicative exchanges in advance. From another perspective, understanding one’s own feelings is the source to be able to regulate aggressive communicative styles that often cause unwanted and uncivil behaviors and violence among societies. The second one is the impact of emotions on decision-making activities. If a person’s emotional well-being is not taken into consideration, any decision would bring along dissatisfaction under the influence of confusion due to lack of emotional intelligence. Therefore, the effective use of emotions facilitates to take decisions with contentment and prevents feelings of regret and failure. The third one is understanding emotions, which indeed means sensing and respecting someone else’s feelings without having the actual experience itself. This third notion is the ability to have empathy for other new and unknown situations. The fourth one is to be able to regulate emotions, which is quite helpful in times of crisis when people need to stay away from constant stress and negative thoughts (MacCann et al., 2020; Salovey & Mayer, 1990). Apart from the multiple intelligences concept, researchers associated emotional intelligence with emotion regulating aptitudes and behaviors that are shaped based on personality types, and motivational foundations (MacCann et al., 2020; Bar-On, 2006; Petrides et al., 2007). Through these emotion-based differentiated markers, emotional intelligence is an indicator of success and achievement in personal and social interactions with a higher level of happiness and contentment in the workplace (Amdurer et al., 2014; Coetzee & Harry, 2014; O’ Boyle et al., 2011; Sony & Mekoth, 2016; Joseph et. al., 2015). In parallel with this idea, students with higher levels of emotional intelligence are expected to perform better both socially and academically when faced with real-life problems (MacCann et al., 2019). But, 1617

 Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis

more significantly, students, whose emotional intelligence is activated through efficient lessons that apply to real-life circumstances, are more likely to live a happier life. Leading a happy life with the trait to be able to regulate emotions automatically provides more harmonious and peaceful relationships that make it easier to empathize with other people’s experiences. In the end, it is wiser to learn from other people’s mistakes than making each mistake of one’s own. What’s more, emotional intelligence refers to the degree of the ability that human beings are capable of managing their feelings, which is crucial in times of crisis. By this definition, the failure to give proper attention to emotional intelligence and empathy in educational settings is most likely to change because lack of empathy and emotional intelligence causes crisis through miscommunication and misconduct in societies. The key to this problem is regulating educational systems. Figure 1. The Process Chart of Lack of Emotional Intelligence

Failing to include emotional intelligence and empathy into school curriculums often results in aggressive behaviors even with school-age children, which can later threaten society’s well-being by encouraging to educate students with emotional intelligence and empathy deficit (Lanzoni, 2018). Cognitive behavioral therapy offers people a variety of psychological approaches to change people’s feelings because when these uncontrolled feelings cause trouble, it is no longer only the individual’s problem, and it rather causes a social distraction in a community. In today’s educational systems, the negative impact of not including emotional intelligence and empathy in active curriculums throughout all grades is only dimly understood. In a research study, the relationship between emotional intelligence and empathy is investigated regarding differentiating the behavioral qualities between aggressors and victims of school violence. The concept of empathy is treated as two diverse variables in terms of cognitive and affective empathy. This former study is crucial in determining how empathy can be categorized through linguistic terminology of understanding the feelings of others (cognitive empathy) versus truly experiencing the feeling of others (affective empathy). The findings reveal that victims of school violence can express their emotions, and thereby aware of their emotions, yet they are unable to regulate or control them. That means learning through empathy is required to be part of every child’s life starting from infancy.

1618

 Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis

What is common in aggression and in abusive/neglectful parenting is low levels of empathy. Fostering empathy­-- the ability to identify with another person’s feelings-- can serve as an antidote to aggression and is crucial to good parenting. Poor parenting and aggression cut across all socioeconomic levels of the community and, as such, empathy needs to be fostered in all children (Gordon, 2003, p. 236). In Canada, a transformational parenting program called “Roots of Empathy” is established to break the poor chain of neglectful parenting. This program targets to resolve problems before they occur, and this is the central approach missing from the crisis-related circumstances. From their perspective, poor parenting is likely to be transferred among generations, and their purpose was to redesign parenting skills based on empathic skill development. For this transformation, they investigated the main cause of poor parenting, which happens to be low levels of empathy towards the child. The roots of low levels of empathy start violence and neglect towards children, which often irreversibly harm children. Lack of empathy during childcare showed evidence of causing destructive abusive alterations in a child’s brain composition and function with weakened brain capacity, poor health, inadequacy in forming expressive relationships, and low level of empathy (Gordon, 2003; Nawrocki, 2020). If the fundamental solution is to offer young brains empathic, responsive, and fostering parenting, the same formula should be in place in schools to create nurturing and harmonious societies through the power of empathy.

CAN YOU REDESIGN A SOCIETY WITH MORE EMPATHY? It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe. ~ Muhammad Ali The world is not a fair place for the majority of the world’s children. People still suffer from hunger, wars, inequality, and terror although the world is much more global in this information age. Talking about a contemporary and global society when some of the very basic fundamental problems of societies remain unsolved is both vague and amorphic. Designing a super-smart cyber city in the space when massive numbers of world citizens are accepting to live in a less democratic environment than baboons is a relentless effort. Despite fast trains that can take you anywhere in seconds, people cannot reach out to each others’ minds. It draws attention to the question that asks how it is possible to live with more empathy in a democratic environment that is surrounded by emotionally intelligent communication styles. Given the richer understanding of societies’ major flaws reveals the foremost fundamental drawback in education is miscommunication through lack of empathy and ethics. Ethical rules are for everyone to follow, yet people with low levels of emotional intelligence and empathy prefer to think otherwise and create crises among communities. What seems obvious is that only understanding, naming, or recalling an emotion is not enough for regulating that behavior in times of crisis. On the other hand, aggressors have very low levels for both cognitive and affective empathy (Braun et al., 2015; Barlińska et al., 2013; Decety & Jackson, 2004; Estévez et al., 2019). What’s rather required to advance our understanding of emotional intelligence and empathy is that people don’t have time to experience other people’s mistakes to develop affective empathy. Conversely, it is equally hard for these individuals to activate their emotional intelligence through empathy, if they didn’t already gain these skills in their family or school environments. While it may be the case that we cannot know what it feels like to be a dog or a chimpanzee, it is just as much the case

1619

 Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis

that we cannot know what it feels like to be ‘any’ human other than ourselves (Spunt et al., 2017, p. 103) without empathy and emotional intelligence. People who act unethically generally provide rationalizations for their behavior. Underlying these explanations is the concept of situational ethics where decisions are made in a subjective manner and based on the underlying circumstances (Mintz, 2020b, para. 5). According to Mintz (2020b), ethics is not situational. Creating excuses for breaking the code of ethics is highly likely to repeat similar wrongdoing with another suitable excuse next time. The most problematic part of this message is people who get away from breaking a rule will repeat it again, if society lawfully fails to punish the wrongful behavior. In this way, society will be dysfunctional since the number of people with emotional intelligence and empathy deficit will increase in numbers eventually. The end of this story is either chaos or crises that are irreversible with instant and short-term remedies. This study reveals the necessity to alter society to make it rather immune to a future crisis by enhancing the concepts of empathy and emotional intelligence in educational settings to be able to redesign a society with more empathy.

CONCLUSION The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt The world is truly far more dangerous than before because all the technology, policymakers are often so proud of, could turn the information age into a disaster within minutes when the linguistic power is in the wrong hands. Within the context of wars, countries have always declared reasons to get into disagreements against each other, and they are good at creating an excuse, if they don’t have an actual reason. For decades, scientists remark on the significance of a global world in terms of acting together for the well-being of the planet, yet the voice of the scientific world is often disregarded and gets lost in the world of political power. In this information and technology age, it is hard to talk about “civilization,” when governments do not unite to save the children of this planet from hunger, war, abuse, neglect, and poverty. In all communities, from primitive to civilized, the conflict of interest is a determiner in forming behaviors, and behaviors often reveal the underlying thinking processes of societies. The underlying thinking processes within this context refer to collective motivating elements that cause certain behaviors but not others (Glasman & Albarracín, 2006). What’s more striking, communities develop a shared culture as a result of their collective memory that transfers from one generation to the next. The question of democracy, and how it is interpreted among human beings in comparison to some special animal species can provide fascinating clues on the collective behavior patterns of human beings. Quite interestingly, it has been widely suggested by some researchers that baboons take democratic decisions that respect the majority of their community’s approval while some societies, willingly or unwillingly, live within systems of power abuse. It should be remarked that the freedom of one individual ends when another person’s freedom is in question through the influence of empathy and emotional intelligence, and policymakers are responsible to redesign societies by giving this vital linguistic message throughout all their actions: “Every child should be raised on a banquet of love” (Gordon, 2003, p. 237). Once children are of school age, the single most important thing that we can do to advance pro-social (non-violent) behavior and effective parenting for the next generation is to foster the development of empathy (Gordon, 2003, p. 238). Thus, it is the teachers’, principals’, academicians’, policymakers’, 1620

 Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis

schools’ and media’s responsibility to include emotional intelligence and empathy in school curriculums (Sa et al., 2019) for better functioning, crises-free societies of the future. This empirical study proposed a framework that discloses that the empathic linguistic power within a society could be a determining power for crises management and wellbeing at times of turmoil in terms of the following revelations: • • • •

Designing a crime and crisis-free society is now a beautiful dream, yet it is not impossible. The children are our future, so the smartest approach for a community to live in a peaceful environment is to protect its children despite the challenges of individual circumstances and crises. Parents must be educated on how to raise emotionally intelligent and caring children, and parents who are legally proven to have abused a child in any way must be lawfully forbidden to become a parent again. School programs and curriculums must focus on activating emotional intelligence and empathy as a school culture that will continue to be practiced lifetime in societies Policymakers should realize that crises occur when they disregard the voice of scientists and academicians for political fame.

REFERENCES Abe, K., Niwa, M., Fujisaki, K., & Suzuki, Y. (2018). Associations between emotional intelligence, empathy and personality in Japanese medical students. BMC Medical Education, 18(1), 1–9. doi:10.118612909018-1165-7 PMID:29587725 Amdurer, E., Boyatzis, R. E., Saatcioglu, A., Smith, M. L., & Taylor, S. N. (2014). Long term impact of emotional, social and cognitive intelligence competencies and GMAT on career and life satisfaction and career success. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1447. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01447 PMID:25566128 Aragno, A. (2008). The language of empathy: An analysis of its constitution, development, and role in psychoanalytic listening. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 56(3), 713–740. doi:10.1177/0003065108322097 PMID:18802125 Barlińska, J., Szuster, A., & Winiewski, M. (2013). Cyberbullying among adolescent bystanders: Role of the communication medium, form of violence, and empathy. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 23(1), 37–51. doi:10.1002/casp.2137 Bar-On, R. (2006). The Bar-On model of emotional-social intelligence (ESI) 1. Psicothema, 13–25. PMID:17295953 Boschi, G., Cammarota, C., & Kühn, R. (2020). Opinion dynamics with emergent collective memory: A society shaped by its own past. Physica A, 558, 124909. doi:10.1016/j.physa.2020.124909 Braun, S., Rosseel, Y., Kempenaers, C., Loas, G., & Linkowski, P. (2015). Self-report of empathy: A shortened french adaptation of the interpersonal reactivity index (IRI) using two large Belgian samples. Psychological Reports, 117(3), 735–753. doi:10.2466/08.02.PR0.117c23z6 PMID:26595295

1621

 Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis

Brooks, S. K., Webster, R. K., Smith, L. E., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N., & Rubin, G. J. (2020). The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: Rapid review of the evidence. Lancet, 30460–30468. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20) PMID:32112714 Coetzee, M., & Harry, N. (2014). Emotional intelligence as a predictor of employees’ career adaptability. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 84(1), 90–97. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2013.09.001 Connor, U. (2002). New directions in contrastive rhetoric. TESOL Quarterly, 36(4), 493–510. doi:10.2307/3588238 Conradt, L., & Roper, T. J. (2007). Democracy in animals: The evolution of shared group decisions. Proceedings. Biological Sciences, 274(1623), 2317–2326. doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.0186 PMID:17644505 Correia, F., Mascarenhas, S., Prada, R., Melo, F. S., & Paiva, A. (2018, February). Group-based emotions in teams of humans and robots. In Proceedings of the 2018 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-robot Interaction (pp. 261-269). 10.1145/3171221.3171252 Dai, Y., Hu, G., Xiong, H., Qiu, H., & Yuan, X. (2020). Psychological impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak on healthcare workers in China. MedRxiv., doi:10.1101/2020.03.03.20030874 Decety, J., & Jackson, P. (2004). La arquitectura funcional de la empatía humana. Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews, 3(2), 71–100. doi:10.1177/1534582304267187 PMID:15537986 DeFranza, D., Mishra, H., & Mishra, A. (2020). How language shapes prejudice against women: An examination across 45 world languages. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119(1), 7–22. doi:10.1037/pspa0000188 PMID:32077734 De Vries, M. F. K. (2020). How greedy are you? In The CEO Whisperer (pp. 121–128). Palgrave Macmillan. DidaceD. (2020). Children Rights. Available at SSRN 3603243. Duan, L., & Zhu, G. (2020). Psychological interventions for people affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. The Lancet. Psychiatry, 7(4), 300–302. doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30073-0 PMID:32085840 Estévez, E., Jiménez, T., & Segura, L. (2019). Emotional intelligence and empathy in aggressors and victims of school violence. Journal of Educational Psychology, 111(3), 488–496. doi:10.1037/edu0000292 Faye, A., Kalra, G., Swamy, R., Shukla, A., Subramanyam, A., & Kamath, R. (2011). Study of emotional intelligence and empathy in medical postgraduates. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 53(2), 140–144. doi:10.4103/0019-5545.82541 PMID:21772646 Glasman, L. R., & Albarracín, D. (2006). Forming attitudes that predict future behavior: A metaanalysis of the attitude-behavior relation. Psychological Bulletin, 132(5), 778–822. doi:10.1037/00332909.132.5.778 PMID:16910754 Goniewicz, K., Magiera, M., Burkle, F. M. Jr, & Goniewicz, M. (2020). Prospective study on the potential use of satellite data for disaster prevention, preparedness, and mitigation in Poland. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 35(3), 331–334. doi:10.1017/S1049023X20000321 PMID:32183922

1622

 Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis

Gordon, M. (2003). Roots of empathy: Responsive parenting, caring societies. The Keio Journal of Medicine, 52(4), 236–243. doi:10.2302/kjm.52.236 PMID:14748476 Huang, Y., & Zhao, N. (2020). Generalized anxiety disorder, depressive symptoms and sleep quality during COVID-19 outbreak in China: A web-based cross-sectional survey. Psychiatry Research, 288, 112954. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112954 PMID:32325383 Huet, F., Prieur, C., Schurtz, G., Gerbaud, É., Manzo-Silberman, S., Vanzetto, G., Elbaz, M., Tea, V., Mercier, G., Lattuca, B., Duflos, C., & Roubille, F. (2020). One train may hide another: Acute cardiovascular diseases could be neglected because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Archives of Cardiovascular Diseases, 113(5), 303–307. doi:10.1016/j.acvd.2020.04.002 PMID:32362433 John, P. (2021). Let’s walk before we can run: The uncertain demand from policymakers for trials. Behavioural Public Policy, 5(1), 112–116. doi:10.1017/bpp.2020.27 Joseph, D. L., Jin, J., Newman, D. A., & O’Boyle, E. H. (2015). Why does self-reported emotional intelligence predict job performance? A meta-analytic investigation of mixed EI. The Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(2), 298–342. doi:10.1037/a0037681 PMID:25243996 Sa, B., Ojeh, N., Majumder, M. A. A., Nunes, P., Williams, S., Rao, S. R., & Youssef, F. F. (2019). The relationship between self-esteem, emotional intelligence, and empathy among students from six health professional programs. Teaching and Learning in Medicine, 31(5), 536–543. doi:10.1080/10401334.2 019.1607741 PMID:31075996 Strandburg-Peshkin, A., Farine, D. R., Couzin, I. D., & Crofoot, M. C. (2015). Shared decision-making drives collective movement in wild baboons. Science, 348(6241), 1358–1361. doi:10.1126cience.aaa5099 PMID:26089514 Kiewe, A. (2012, March 12). The Notion of Crisis of Rhetoric. https://mcc.ku.dk/calendar/the_notion_of_crisis_rhetoric/ Kong, F., Gong, X., Sajjad, S., Yang, K., & Zhao, J. (2019). How is emotional intelligence linked to life satisfaction? The mediating role of social support, positive affect and negative affect. Journal of Happiness Studies, 20(8), 2733–2745. doi:10.100710902-018-00069-4 Lanzoni, S. (2018). Empathy: A history. Yale University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv5cgb7s Lu, H., Chen, M., & Kuang, W. (2020). The impacts of abnormal weather and natural disasters on transport and strategies for enhancing ability for disaster prevention and mitigation. Transport Policy, 98, 2–9. doi:10.1016/j.tranpol.2019.10.006 Mauro, V., Lorenzo, M., Paolo, C., & Sergio, H. (2020). Treat all COVID 19-positive patients, but do not forget those negative with chronic diseases. Internal and Emergency Medicine, 15(5), 787–790. doi:10.100711739-020-02395-z PMID:32519136 McCallie, F. (2020). White racism continues in the American South because of past human slavery. Gateway Journalism Review, 49(356), 78–80.

1623

 Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis

MacCann, C., Jiang, Y., Brown, L. E., Double, K. S., Bucich, M., & Minbashian, A. (2020). Emotional intelligence predicts academic performance: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 146(2), 150–186. doi:10.1037/bul0000219 PMID:31829667 McIlroy, R. C., Nam, V. H., Bunyasi, B. W., Jikyong, U., Kokwaro, G. O., Wu, J., Hoai, N. V., Hoque, S., Plant, K., Preston, J. M., & Stanton, N. A. (2020). Exploring the relationships between pedestrian behaviours and traffic safety attitudes in six countries. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 68, 257–271. doi:10.1016/j.trf.2019.11.006 Mintz, S. (2020a, January 16). What is wrong with society? Ethics Sage. https://www.ethicssage. com/2020/01/whats-wrong-with-society.html Mintz, S. (2020b, December 22). Why do good people sometimes do bad things? Ethics Sage. https:// www.ethicssage.com/2020/12/why-do-good-people-sometimes-do-bad-things.html Monitor. (2015, June 22). Democratic decision-making observed in baboon troops. https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/0622/Democratic-decision-making-observed-in-baboon-troops Montemurro, N. (2020). The emotional impact of COVID-19: From medical staff to common people. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 87, 23–24. doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2020.03.032 PMID:32240766 Moroń, M., & Biolik-Moroń, M. (2021). Trait emotional intelligence and emotional experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Poland: A daily diary study. Personality and Individual Differences, 168, 110348. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2020.110348 PMID:32843781 Muriel, I. S. (2020). Mortgage Lending and Economic Wrongdoing During the Spanish Housing bubble. In Anthropological Enquiries into Policy, Debt, Business, and Capitalism. Emerald Publishing Limited. Nawrocki, B. (n.d.). The Correlation Between Complex Childhood Trauma and Adult Empathy Outcomes. Advance online publication. doi:10.1108/S0190-128120200000040007 O’Boyle, E. H. Jr, Humphrey, R. H., Pollack, J. M., Hawver, T. H., & Story, P. A. (2011). The relation between emotional intelligence and job performance: A meta-analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 32(5), 788–818. doi:10.1002/job.714 Petrides, K. V., Pita, R., & Kokkinaki, F. (2007). The location of trait emotional intelligence in personality factor space. British Journal of Psychology, 98(2), 273–289. doi:10.1348/000712606X120618 PMID:17456273 Pourmoradian, S., Ostadrahimi, A., Bonab, A. M., Roudsari, A. H., Jabbari, M., & Irandoost, P. (2020). Television food advertisements and childhood obesity: A systematic review. International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research. PMID:32936062 Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9(3), 185–211. doi:10.2190/DUGG-P24E-52WK-6CDG

1624

 Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis

Sony, M., & Mekoth, N. (2016). The relationship between emotional intelligence, frontline employee adaptability, job satisfaction and job performance. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 30, 20–32. doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.12.003 Spunt, R. P., Ellsworth, E., & Adolphs, R. (2017). The neural basis of understanding the expression of the emotions in man and animals. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 12(1), 95–105. doi:10.1093can/nsw161 PMID:27803286 Strum, S. C. (2012). Darwin’s monkey: Why baboons can’t become human. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 149(S55), 3–23. doi:10.1002/ajpa.22158 PMID:23077093 Swart, H., Turner, R., Hewstone, M., & Voci, A. (2011). Achieving forgiveness and trust in postconflict societies: The importance of self-disclosure and empathy. In Moving beyond prejudice reduction: Pathways to positive intergroup relations (pp. 181–200). American Psychological Association. doi:10.1037/12319-009 Tracey, J. (2018). James Bedell: The Inhumanity of War. Academic Press. United Nations Secretary-General. (2020, March 23). Transcript of the Secretary-General’s virtual press encounter on the appeal for global ceasefire. https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/press-encounter/2020-03-23/transcript-of-the-secretary-generals-virtual-press-encounter-the-appeal-for-globalceasefire United Nations. (2019). World Population Prospects, 2019 [Data set]. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2019_Highlights.pdf Viguer, P., Cantero, M. J., & Bañuls, R. (2017). Enhancing emotional intelligence at school: Evaluation of the effectiveness of a two-year intervention program in Spanish pre-adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences, 113, 193–200. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2017.03.036 Washburn, A. N., & Skitka, L. J. (2018). Science denial across the political divide: Liberals and conservatives are similarly motivated to deny attitude-inconsistent science. Social Psychological & Personality Science, 9(8), 972–980. doi:10.1177/1948550617731500 Whiting, K. (2018, November 2). This is how long everyday plastic items last in the ocean. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/11/chart-of-the-day-this-is-how-long-everydayplastic-items-last-in-the-ocean/#:~:text=But%20it%20takes%20the%20ocean,to%20biodegrade%20 in%20the%20sea World Health Organization. (2019, March 11). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. https:// www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_1 Zabeida, N. (2010). Not Making Excuses: Functions of Rape as a Tool in Ethno-Nationalist Wars. In Women, War, and Violence (pp. 17-30). Palgrave Macmillan. Zhang, J., Wu, W., Zhao, X., & Zhang, W. (2020). Recommended psychological crisis intervention response to the 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak in China: A model of West China Hospital. Precision Clinical Medicine, 3(1), 3–8. doi:10.1093/pcmedi/pbaa006 PMID:32257531

1625

 Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis

ADDITIONAL READING Alawdat, M. (2021). Multilingual Writing in Digital World: The Necessity for Reshaping Teaching. In Futuristic and Linguistic Perspectives on Teaching Writing to Second Language Students (pp. 84-101). IGI Global. Fernández-Abascal, E. G., & Martín-Díaz, M. D. (2019). Relations between dimensions of emotional intelligence, specific aspects of empathy, and non-verbal sensitivity. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1066. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01066 PMID:31156505 Gilet, A. L., Mella, N., Studer, J., Grühn, D., & Labouvie-Vief, G. (2013). Assessing dispositional empathy in adults: A French validation of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, 45(1), 42. Hancı-Azizoglu, E. B. (2021). Bourdieu’s habitus for academicians: Is social justice for academicians only a fancy phrase in the 21st century? In M. Khosrow (Ed.), Research Anthology on Instilling Social Justice in the Classroom (Vol. 1, pp. 1-18). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. DOI: doi:10.4018/978-1-79987706-6.ch001 Hancı-Azizoglu, E. B., & Kavaklı, N. (2021). Rewriting the Future Through Rhetorical Technology. In Futuristic and Linguistic Perspectives on Teaching Writing to Second Language Students (pp. 1–15). IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-6508-7.ch001 Hancı-Azizoglu, E. B., & Alawdat, M. (2021). Expressive Multilingual Writing: A Transformational Healing Skill for a Pandemic Challenge. In Futuristic and Linguistic Perspectives on Teaching Writing to Second Language Students (pp. 235-250). IGI Global. Kavaklı, N., & Hancı-Azizoglu, E. B. (2021). Digital Storytelling: A Futuristic Second-Language-Writing Method. In Futuristic and Linguistic Perspectives on Teaching Writing to Second Language Students (pp. 66-83). IGI Global. Sznycer, D. (2019). Forms and functions of the self-conscious emotions. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 23(2), 143–157. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2018.11.007 PMID:30583948

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Baboons: The species of large monkeys that live in Asia and Africa in complex hierarchical and democratic societies. COVID-19: A deadly and infectious respiratory disease, which was declared to be a pandemic in March 2019. Crisis: A period of intense instability of a catastrophe that causes severe pressure and stress. Emotional Intelligence: The ability to understand, internalize, process and regulate emotions to be able to adapt to ever-changing circumstances. Empathic Education: The ideal educational and intellectual systems that focus on teaching the concept of “empathy” for redesigning more civilized and crisis-free societies.

1626

 Emotional Intelligence and Empathic Linguistic Power in Times of Crisis

Empathic Linguistic Power: The aptitude to use language within a constructive and positive manner by respecting all parties that are involved in the linguistic message. Empathic linguistic power is significantly crucial in times of crisis. Empathy: The aptitude to internalize what another person is feeling without the need to experience it. Redesigning a Society Through Empathy: The action plan that targets improving a society’s shared communication styles through activating emotional intelligence and empathy for a crisis-free world. Sociolinguistics: The scientific discipline that investigates the relationship between societies and language in context.

This research was previously published in Rhetoric and Sociolinguistics in Times of Global Crisis; pages 100-115, copyright year 2021 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

1627

1628

Chapter 79

A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria Asiru Hameed Tunde https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8035-4997 Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, Nigeria Shamsuddeen Bello Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, Nigeria

ABSTRACT The world is currently facing a global pandemic, named COVID-19, which is seriously wreaking a devastating blow on the world healthcare system. Since the first index case was reported in Lagos, Nigeria, in February, the federal and state governments have put measures in place to curtail the spread of the virus in the country. Some of the measures include the constitution of the presidential task force (PTF), provision of isolation and treatment centres for confirmed cases, and pronouncement of lockdown order by the president and some state governors. Amidst these measures, cartoonists (artists, or authors in literary context) have taken to the media to creatively present humorous and satirical depictions of the pandemic and social realities in the fight against it. This study thus analyses the humorous and satirical depiction of the pandemic in the Nigerian context using selected cartoons. These cartoons can be classified as graphic literary texts that can be subjected to different interpretations. The cartoons/texts are selected from the Facebook pages of popular Nigerian cartoonists/authors. A total of 10 cartoons/ texts were randomly selected between March and April 2020. The study adopts two models/theories in interpreting the cartoons: Suls’s incongruity resolution (IR) model operationalizes linguistic tool of lexicalization, re-lexicalisation, and shared sociocultural knowledge to explicate humour and satire in the cartoons, and Structuralism, which requires human behaviour (as represented in texts or cartoons) to be understood in the context of a broad social system (otherwise called structures) in which they exist.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch079

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

The study observed that the cartoons are not just independent texts or images but that they are products of the Nigerian social condition. It equally revealed that the cartoonists have deployed verbal and nonverbal incongruity to present comical images that show beliefs of Nigerians about the pandemic and the level of the country’s preparedness in flattening the curve of the contraction of the virus.

INTRODUCTION AND STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The Corona Virus Pandemic broke out in October 2019 in Wuhan, an emerging business hub in the Republic of China. It is a highly transmittable and pathogenic viral infection that is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Shereen, Khan, Kazmi, Bashir and Siddique, 2020). The disease is codenamed COVID-19 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). Since the outbreak of the virus, many nations of the world are recording deaths and high number of infected persons. Nigeria, being the most populous black nation in the world, recorded its first index case on 27th February 2020. The patient, an Italian who had recently arrived Lagos from Europe, tested positive for the virus. Due to the contact with the index case and a few other persons who had travel history to flash point countries, like the USA and the United Kingdom, the number of infected persons increased steadily to 5, 445 as at 16th May, 2020 with 1320 recovery cases and 172 recorded deaths (PTF, 2020). As at 22nd June 2020, Nigeria has a total of 20, 244 confirmed cases, 6, 879 discharge, and 518 recorded deaths (NCDC, 2020). An initial two-week lockdown was enforced in Lagos, Abuja, and Ogun State, and subsequently some other States of the Federation also enforced lockdown to curtail the spread of the virus. The PTF also encouraged people to maintain social distancing and go on self-isolation if they notice or experience any symptom of the disease. While the lockdowns and curfews, as the case may be in some states, are being enforced, many Nigerians from across the strata have expressed concern about it. The lockdown/ curfews prevents millions of people from conducting their daily business activities. The impact of the outbreak is becoming apparently devastating and this necessitated defiance to the lockdown order by many Nigerians who believed that hunger is in itself a deadly virus. According to recent statistics, Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world; this means that it has significant percentage of its citizens living below the poverty line of one Dollar par day. This reality makes the fight against the pandemic difficult. Similarly, as the number of infection increases in 35 out of the 36 States of the Federation (Cross River has no index record as at 22 June 2020) and the Federal Capital Territory, it further reveals the dilapidated state of the country’s health system. The country is petite of test kits for the virus; medical practitioners are also working under poor conditions that have exposed about a thousand health workers to the virus. There are equally cases of increase in the number of sudden deaths in some States that could either be traced to the virus or other health conditions. This is in addition to the lack of social contract and accompanied trust between the governments (Federal and State) and citizens. All these issues are what prompted cartoonists to pass across messages that expose Nigeria’s state of affairs on the novel Covid-19 pandemic. Since image(s) and language are vital means of communication, subjecting them to an analysis is a scholarly endeavour. These two are comically combined to create cartoons/texts that are essentially important medium of (re)creating ideas and representing people and issues. They are mostly deployed to evoke humorous feelings in the readers (in theatre, this is achieved through presentations of comical characters and events before an audience). In all, the intention is to make the readers understand

1629

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

events and issues from a particular perspective, although there are layers of meaning that can be realized, even those not intended by the cartoonist/author. The study is timely and important as it presents the issues earlier mentioned to the general public with a glint of humour and satire (like in comedies) in order to call the attention of the concerned to have a rethink. Aristotle’s notion of catharsis (purification/cleansing that cause change) can be extended to the impact of cartoons in bringing about the desired change in society. To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, no study has delved into the analysis of cartoons in relation to covid-19 from the Nigerian context. Although several related studies on cartoons have been carried out in Nigeria on political cartoons (Medubi, 2003, Adejuwon & Alimi, 2011, Sanni, 2015, Oluremi & Ajepe, 2016, Akpati, & Adegboyega, 2019); sport (Rinehart & Caudwell, 2018); religious (Anis et al 2012), and other genres, none has been conducted on the novel Covid-19 pandemic especially from linguistic-cum-literary perspective.

UNDERSTANDING CARTOONS AND VISUAL SIGNS Cartoons are humorous and/or satirical graphic representation of events and issues of importance in the society. A cartoon is a creative and critical interpretive text which x-rays the happenings in a society with the aim of informing, criticizing, evaluating and/or evoking reaction to a particular perspective or narration. They are not haphazard but products of synoptic or sequential selection, ordering, structuring, positioning, segmenting, and communication of happenings (Huhn, 2009). Its critical and creative production process is not far removed from that of other literary texts. It utilizes symbols and visual metaphors as essential ingredients. Cartoonist(s) use signs and tropes in the formation, simplification and depiction of complex social and political ideas. According to Meister and Schonert (2009: 11), cartoon “reduces the complexity of its reference domain to the carrying capacity of its medium and to the processing capacity of its senders and receivers”. The processes of production and interpretations are anchored on shared socio-cultural knowledge between the senders and the receivers. This suggests that signs or messages should be understood in the context of a broad social system (as structures forming a whole). Signs, visual metaphors, and words (as dialogue) make up cartoons, but to properly dissect the messages in cartoons there is the need to understand cultural signs. In Semiology (advocated by the French Linguist, Roland Barthes) everything can be regarded as a sign, even fashion (Barthes, 1983). Barthes argues that what we wear, the homes we live in, and even the cars we drive say a lot about our class, gender, identity and race. This form of signification is generally referred to as sign system and often says more about who we are and the condition of things than words can (Davis, 1994). Ferdinand de Saussure regards this sign system as semiotics, the science of the life of signs. Signs are common in cartoons, which explain why they need to be understood in relation to their context of usage. As such, just as we can construct meaning(s) through texts (the written word), we can also derive meaning(s) out of cartoons and other forms of visual images (including fashion). All these can fit into the concept of social semiotics (including language), which generally involves using signs to transmit social signals (Halliday, 1978). In Nigeria, for example, cartoons have become a social signal medium that is used to rebuke, correct, and satirize political actors and social glitches. In this present study, the selected cartoons are used not to inform people per se about the pandemic but to broker information about the disease. The process of brokering entails qualitative semantic enrichment of the information, using symbols and other semantic devices, as well as quantitative reduction of details, in this case, about the 1630

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

novel pandemic. Cartoons are also used, in the case of Nigeria, to correct negative impressions, reveal the extent of the country’s deplorable health care system, and expose the level of poverty, corruption, and the reality of the nation’s economy. The images making up the cartoons are not just creative/aesthetic, like words they inform, inspire and persuade. Cartoonists (generally visual artists) follow principle of composition with intended or sometimes layers of meaning in mind when constructing images. Visual artists and authors are not significantly different in terms of craft; while literary writers use words to craft their message (rhetoric), artists use color and light in their production (visual rhetoric). And just like the literary text, cartoons also have implicit (silences, aporias, blanks) and explicit (clearly stated) meanings. Another important parallel between the two forms is that, while readers have to establish the link between words (captions and dialogue) and visual in cartoons, audience/readers have to equally draw connection between dialogue and perfomative action in drama. Cartoons are closer to poems in terms of craft and aesthetics than to other literary genres such as prose. Cartoonists and poets utilize visual and literary tropes such as symbolism, analogy, irony, and exaggeration in painting characters, settings, and/or events. Poets, however, accord emphasis to tropes that paint mental images of people and places, unlike cartoonists and comic writers that utilize visuals elements. Most cartoons and comic strips incorporate captions, texts, and at times even dialogue, making their meaning even more explicit. Readers are therefore required to come to terms with both the signs/ visuals and captions/dialogue embedded in cartoons; this will enable them to observe, decipher implicit and explicit meanings, and identify the intended audience.

METHODOLOGY AND ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES Doing a cartoon explication of the novel Covid-19 pandemic, this study purposively selected ten cartoons sourced from the Facebook pages of Nigerian renowned cartoonists: Bulama, Ogbeni, Kignsley Mba Kalu, Babakay and Ogbeni. The selected cartoons depict issues relating to bribery, economy, skepticism, poverty, poor health facilities, discrimination, corruption, medical tourism and hunger during the pandemic. The cartoons were meant for the Nigerian audience, hence their appropriateness for this study. The study adopts two theories. The first is Suls (1983) Incongruity Relational Model of Humour, a qualitative data analysis model that utilizes linguistic tools such as denotative and connotative meanings, lexicalization and re-lexicalisation and the shared socio-cultural knowledge of a people to unearth the verbal and nonverbal incongruity in the formation and composition of the cartoons. The theory posits that an object is considered humorous when it harbours some form of incongruity within itself. By implication then the selected cartoons on the Covid-19 pandemic are formed through an assemblage of incongruous, yet meaningful entities. The incongruity in the data are verbal and non-verbal. The incongruity can also be between what an individual expects and what actually occurs (Veale, 2004), or what an object or word literarily denotes and what it is used for in a composition. The second theory is Structuralism, a model that requires human behaviour (as represented in texts or cartoons) to be understood in the context of a broad social system (assemblage of structures) in which they exist. Structuralism relies on the strings of structures making up a whole, in the same way that signifiers (words) come together to make up sentences. In essence (for the model) the selected cartoons are not just independent texts or images; they are rather products of the Nigerian social condition.

1631

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

Analysis of Data The analysis that follows explores the different linguistic and literary resources employed by the cartoonists in the satirization of the Nigerian condition during the Covid-19 pandemic. Some of the satirical and other forms of resources include, the use of parody, denotation and connotation, lexicalization and re-lexicalization, verbal incongruity and non-verbal incongruity, exaggeration, irony, symbolism, analogy, and shared socio-cultural knowledge. Not all the devices listed above can be found in a single cartoon, but they can be found across the ten selected cartoons (Figure 1). Figure 1. Saving the world

Context of the Message The above cartoon depicts an act of saving the world from totally drifting into the gorge of the Covid-19 pandemic that is currently ravaging it. There are three groups of people represented in the image: the first group represents the health workers; the second group are the police while the third group are the saboteurs who are stupid enough to attempt to undermine the fight against the pandemic. Each group is portrayed carrying out an action; the two doctors symbolically represent all the engaged health workers struggling to pull back the world from falling into what looks like an abyss filled with the virus. By implication, the doctors are trying to save the world from being consumed by the deadly Covid-19 pandemic. The two other groups (police and the stupid people in the image) appear a surface below the doctors. They are hidden from the doctors and engaged in one action or the other: while the stupid people are trying to sever the cord in use to pull back the world from falling completely into the hands of the deadly virus, the policeman is seen trying to prevent the stupid people from severing the cord of

1632

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

rescue. Exaggeration is used at two levels in the image: first, the world with all its people and vast land is depicted like a signpost that even emaciated doctors can pull up; second, the cord, despite its limits, is portrayed as strong enough to prevent the world from falling further down the abyss. The cartoonist exaggerates the physical characteristics of the skinny doctors and the cord to illustrate that even little and concerted effort helps in the fight against the virus. By implication, while the doctors are trying to save the world, the stupid people are attempting to undermine their efforts, and the police are struggling to thwart the stupid act of severing the cord and by implication supporting the doctors. In the Nigerian context, part of the measures that were put in place (there is still a level of enforcement) by the Government to contain the spread of this virus was to mandate the people to stay at home, ensure physical distance, and use the facemask. However, due to low literacy level and the lack of social contract between the people and leaders at both the Federal and State level, many Nigerians did not believe that the virus is real and thus failed to conform with the advice of the Government by defying the initial self-isolation measure and subsequently, with the spread of the virus, even the stay at home or lockdown order. There is also the non-observance of the physical distancing measure even in the more cosmopolitan areas of Abuja and Lagos. Ideologically, the cartoonist portrays the medical practitioners and the law enforcement agencies as the groups of people who could help save the situations on the two fronts, as demonstrated by the different layers they occupy in the image. While the doctors at the highest surface continue to provide medical attention to patients who have contracted the virus, the police are to help prevent saboteurs and ignoramus, who believe that the virus is but a hoax by the superpowers, from their inactions. The image satirizes the action of the stupid people with the intention of ridiculing their ignorance. There is also a form of non-verbal incongruity in the assemblage of the entities in the cartoon; the medical doctors do not work with rope in the process of rescuing lives of people (at least its not a popular medical equipment), but the context of the assemblage alongside the police and saboteurs, the position of the participants, dress code, all show significant covert similarities which the readers/audiences have to discover for humour to emerge. The image does not rely on the use of language except the labels to show the humour and satires in the cartoon. The image of the world as a labeled signpost symbolizes a larger concept. The essence is to depict/say so much using a simple symbol and label.

Context of the Message The image in Figure 2 depicts the crown-like spikes image of the deadly virus. This is an implied metaphorical representation of the virus with human legs, hands, nose, eyes, and mouth. The use of red (danger) colour in painting the virus also symbolizes its deadly nature. Another significant symbol in the cartoon is the hourglass sand timer, which represents time and urgency. Dr. Covid-19 is presented at the centre, alongside different people representing different professions. From his utterance, he claims to be on a mission to ‘sanitize’ the land by consuming the weak and evil. He brazenly holds a flag with five inscribed agendas of health, insecurity, corruption, economy, and power supply (of course not by way of hierarchy) written boldly on it. Satirically, these are the areas where Nigerians are seriously in need of the Government. It is, therefore, humorous and ironic if the deadly pandemic that is believed to be responsible for death of thousands of people across the globe when contracted is to help sanitize the land by improving the health sector, deal with the insecurity, reduce corrupt practice, and improve power supply. The cartoonist used the 5 agendas to express his political opinion of leadership failure that is bedeviling the country. 1633

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

Figure 2. Mission to sanitize

There are 7 people depicted in the cartoon, who appear to represent different callings of human endeavour, such as medical doctor, traditional herbalist, soldier, pastor, politician, scientist and a fisherman. They carry objects common to their callings; the equipment symbolizes their take and contributions to the fight against the virus whether positive or negative. Structuralism requires an understanding of the sub-structures making up the whole structure (image). The image depicts a pastor holding a Bible (synonymous to prayers from different faiths), a soldier brandishing a gun (representing the security agencies involved in enforcing the lock-down order as well as the fight against the virus), a fisherman who ordinarily should not feature but whose fishing net represents the concept of isolation (tackle/isolation and cure synonymous to fishing), a traditional herbalist representing the other divide and the agitations for a traditional cure in the country, a doctor with an injection representing all the heath workers on the field and a decorated scientist with a shield, sword, and an honor cord around his neck to symbolize the race for a cure or vaccine. And lastly, while these people are putting different efforts they think could help defeat the virus, a politician is depicted holding a sack of looted funds and declaring that what the virus needs is a bribe. This satirizes the politicians in the country since they are best identified with corrupt practices such as looting and bribery. At the first glance, there is a form of dissonance between the virus’s mission and its context. This type of incongruity is verbal and it manifested by means of language use credited to the virus. In terms of relexicalization, the word ‘sanitize’ has a positive denotation, but in this context, it has been re-lexicalised and used within a negative construct of a pandemic claiming to clean the land by killing those who have health challenges or complications. They are termed as the weak while the evil represents the enemies of the country: bandits, kidnappers and bad leaders in the country. On the other hand, though sanitize should not have been used with consumed which has negative connotation in this context, the two are

1634

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

used as an analogy to help readers view the pandemic and the situation in the country in a different light. The different bubbles credited to the people in the image also represent the varying opinions about the pandemic. The image creates both satire and humour on two grounds; on the first hand, the politician’s utterance in the Nigerian context has in fact become a norm that is socio-culturally shared by cartoonists and the audience of the cartoons. On the other hand, the verbal incongruity in the use of sanitise also creates humour which can be interpreted when one puts together the sub-structures of context, dress code, the labels, and other paralinguistic cues exhibited by medical doctor, scientist, herbalist, soldier, fisherman, politician, and cleric which the cartoonist explore in producing the cartoon. Figure 3. PMB’s Covid-19 test result

Context of the Message The cartoon in Figure 3 comics the practice of Nigerian elites and leaders who are fond of touring the western world on different occasions. Their incessant medical tourism and celebration galore abroad have been acknowledged by poor Nigerians. Just before the outbreak of the pandemic, the Leader of the Federal House of Representative, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, was reported to have celebrated his mother’s birthday in Dubai (UAE). His family members and close allies left Nigeria for Dubai for the celebration. Although this was widely condemned by Nigerians, it was dismissed by him on the ground that there was nothing wrong for him to have celebrated in UAE since it was his money and not the Government’s.

1635

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

Similarly, other public office holders are fond of touring the Western world for accessing quality health system, even Presidents of the country. In 2008, the former President of Nigeria, President Umaru Musa Yaradua spent more than three (3) months in Saudi Arabia receiving treatment. The incumbent President, President Muhammadu Buhari was also in the United States of America for about three (3) months for treatment. All these cases support that claim of medical tourism that Nigerians often embark on. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in Nigeria, and some European countries, the cartoonist takes a swipe at the attitudes of the political elites and the Presidency who embark on health tourism intermittently. In March 2020, the President announced lockdown in some states (Lagos and Abuja) of the country as part of the measures for containing the virus, and advised, just like what other countries of the world did to contain the spread, that people should stay at home and be safe. Therefore, the cartoonist is humorously criticizing the President to also ‘stay home’ and ‘celebrate’ his negative Covid-19 test result in Nigeria. Lexically, the cartoonist agrees with the position of the Presidency that the President’s negative Covid-19 result should be celebrated, YES O! However, the cartoonist emphasizes ‘stay home’ to resonate with the advice of the President and medical professionals on the containment of the pandemic. The ‘stay home’ advise confirms what is on record: that most of the people who were first to have contracted the virus in the country were those with travel history to the flashpoint countries, including some prominent members of the President’s administration such as the Chief of Staff, one of the President’s aide, and some governors. The cartoonist appears to be satirically saying that the President should not go to the United Kingdom in order not to contract the virus while celebrating because the rate of infection is high in the UK. The message is intended to be satirical and humorous; while Nigerians are mandated to stay home, the President should also neither travel abroad to celebrate nor go for medical tourism. Figure 4. Level of reality

Context of the Message The cartoonist uses the Covid-19 pandemic to pass across a message against class difference and its resultant discrimination in the country (Figure 4). The class labeling in the cartoon is meant to depict the figures in line with Barthes’s (1983) fashion system (what he calls semiotic of fashion in his later work). The fashion system allows readers to interpret the identity (in this case class) of people by the way they dress. The dress and labeling therefore exposes exactly what the figures stand for in the Nigerian context. The lineup of the figures, however, contradicts the country’s aged isolation system based on position and wealth, whereby most affluent and privileged individuals reside in flush mansions and

1636

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

isolated government residential areas and layouts far removed from the poor. The figures are mixed-up in the cartoon, with the poor placed side-by-side the rich and educated, and the illiterate alongside the educated and privileged. The cartoonist utilizes irony, in this case, to paint the society as it should be. This ironic lineup is intended to emphasize a political stance against discrimination. Importantly also, this mixed lineup defines the structure of sane societies, one where sub-structures (different classes) must clash and cohere for actual development to take place. In terms of other semiotic resources deployed in the cartoon, the pictorial image of a head of a human with several crown-like spikes denotatively refers to the Covid-19 pandemic; it grins at the other participants in the cartoon to indicate mockery of their present predicament. The image depicts a society (Nigeria) stratified and polarized into several classes, necessitated by education, power, and wealth. This discrimination manifests in all sectors of the country and has been the norm. However, when the Covid-19 pandemic surfaced, it became apparent that it is no respecter of class; everybody can potentially contract it. Based on the background of the nation’s level of discrimination, the cartoonist humorously criticizes the attitude of discrimination that is prevalent among the wealthy and privileged people. Covid-19 has exposed the fact that humans are equal before death. In fact, the first set of Nigerians to contract the disease are the privileged, and that made some Nigerians to take to their Twitter handle to comment about what would have been the fate of the common people if the disease were to be prevalent among them, and/or if the Western countries had not suspended all forms of immigration into their countries. The cartoonist labels the cartoon as the ‘level of reality’ to arrest the attention of all Nigerians to have a rethink about their attitude of discriminating against one another be it on class or religious grounds. While the image appears humorous with the presentation of different class of people on the same pedestal, it is incongruous with what is obtainable in Nigeria because of discrimination in form or another. The cartoon also portrays all the participants as helpless, with their burgeoning eyes, and hands dangling or folded in the face of a potential deadly virus. In terms of denotation, the expression ‘hahahaha’ represents laughter with an intent of mockery, ‘you people’ by default refers to the rich, the educated and the privileged since the poor or the less privileged do not have anything substantial in terms of social goods that can make them discriminate against others. By implication the intended message ridicules the rich, educated and privileged and the interrogative statement in the cartoon, ‘why then the discrimination?’ is a rhetorical question meant to probe their conscience to desist from discriminating others.

Context of the Message In Figure 5, there are three participants being portrayed by the cartoonist. The denotative meaning of the image represents two participants who look like medical practitioners owing to their dress style, colour, and the use of facemasks, which lends credence to Barthes’s (1983) fashion system, and the action of admitting a third participant (who appears to be resisting) into a pseudo-general hospital. The connotative meaning of the narrative in the image is that the cartoonist portrays the ridiculous state of the country’s health facilities, where a general hospital appears like a hut with thatched roof and most likely empty. The image fittingly captures the regretful state of the health institution, symbolized by the general hospital, which is supposed to be the centre of healing and restoration. In the image, the medical actors are depicted using what appears like a provisional or ‘traditional’ stretcher to convey the patient who is a politician to the general hospital.

1637

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

Figure 5. Constituency project

The use of such a stretcher speaks volume of the level of development in the health facilities of the country compared to what is obtainable in other developing countries and even some private health facilities owned by some politicians and expatriates. Similarly, the verbal responses of the actors also support the mockery of the health facility and the corrupt practices of our politicians. The patient, who declares himself as a politician, is strongly against being taken into the general hospital for treatment for no other reason than that the hospital facility is a shadow of itself with relatively nothing good to show in terms of equipment, medicine, and other medical needs. There is, of course, a level of exaggeration in the cartoon, given that even the general hospitals in rural areas have more suitable structures than a thatched hut. The thatched hut is therefore intended to make point, the need to equip the empty structures with personnel, equipment and drugs. In another sense, the cartoonist derides the predicament of the politician who in his characteristic behaviour must have embezzled the money meant for constructing and equipping the hospital for his own selfish gain. The politician in the players represents the country’s politicians and leaders since independence who are being taken to the hospital to also feel, or rather enjoy, the benefit of their project. His (or their) response, ‘NO NO NOO… you can’t bring me here. I’m a politician’, implies that, the place is not befitting of his/their status because he cannot get the right treatment there. That informed the response from the medical practitioners conveying him, who responded that ‘…but that is your project, sir’. The cartoon also exposes the attitudes and belief of a typical Nigerian politician that the general hospital (by its nomenclature) is meant for the poor masses, while they either fly abroad for treatment or are taken to privately owned hospitals for treatment. This attitude of medical tourism is rampant among Nigeria’s public officials, who continuously mismanage allocations meant for developing the health sector and power sector, and other basic infrastructural facilities, which can make the lives of a common man meaningful.

1638

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

Figure 6. Nigeria police force

Context of the Message The image in Figure 6 is titled ‘home truth’. It satirizes what has become a typical characteristic of the Nigeria Police Force. The device is referred to as literary stereotype (used interchangeably with prejudice). It is used to indicate whether a character or what he represents is good or evil. A literary stereotype is deployed in this cartoon to label Nigerian policemen as corrupt by assuming that they all share certain qualities. The image substantiates the corrupt practices of many police men and women depicted in different videos and/or photographs collecting bribe from motorists. This attitude has demeaned the entire Force to the extent that the authorities acknowledged it and have put in different strategies to address the problem. This menace has been largely attributed to the poor remuneration of the police and it was subsequently increased. Yet, the habit of bribery, assault, and extrajudicial killings of un-cooperating individuals remain unabated.

1639

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government at the Federal and State level has taken some decisions, part of which is the lockdown/curfew. Sequel to that there was initial speculation of disbursements of twenty thousand Naira relief fund to be paid by the Federal Government to the poor (what constitutes the poor class remains unresolved) people. The cartoonist leverages on this speculation to satirize the corrupt attitude of some police men who arrest and take bribe from motorists. In the cartoon, the policeman is parodied. Denotatively, the expression of the police man, ‘the government should have at least considered us for the N 20,000 Covid-19 relief fund’, is a lamentation of a person who feels he should have been considered for something, especially given the problematic of who is a poor man in Nigeria, but he was not. The response of his wife is, however, comforting as she assures the husband that the government knows that they will be fine. The husband, in fact, did not understand how they would be fine as assured by the wife. The exchanges implicate that the government is aware of the police unbridled bribery attitude and the fact that the lockdown cannot affect their business. There is, thus, a level of shared understanding between the wife and the readers of the cartoon, who have been victims of police extortion at one point or the other. As for the connotative meaning of the dialogue, the wife’s utterances, ‘they know many vehicles will flout the stay-at-home order’ does not in any way answer the question of the husband/police. The last utterance of the wife, however, clears the husband’s doubts and importantly stresses the fact that the government has been unable (or unwilling) to nip the habit in the bud. The cartoonist satirizes the attitude of many police and the fact that their family members are also aware of this attitude and possibly encourages it just as the wife’s utterances indicate in this cartoon. The wife creatively reformulates or relexicalises the Covid-19 relief fund, which was alluded to in the first utterance to ‘Covid-19 relief bribes’ in the last utterance. This creates humour in the audience. The difference in the phrases lies in the legality of the two; one is legitimate and will be given by the government to cushion the effect of the pandemic on the people while the other is illegitimate and will be given, most likely under duress, by those who are supposed (or not) to be entitled to the relief-fund. This ‘relief bribe’ on the other hand will be collected by those who were ab-initio not entitled to it.

Context of the Message In Figure 7, the cartoonist presents readers with a parody in the manner that the Nigerian leaders surrendered to the virus. They are portrayed with different traditional regalia characteristic of the different ethnic formations in the nation. Barthes’s (1987) fashion system can also be used in the interpretation of the leaders’ identities. In the image, the first person donning a red cap represents the typical cap outfit of the people of the South-eastern region of the country, the second person represents the South-western region, the third with the multi-coloured upright cap represents the Northern region (the Hausa/Fulani), while the last person on the front role is putting on a typical Ijaw round hat. Stereotypically, they are depicted to share greed in common in the way they stash their regalia to the brim with naira. The parodied participants are painted with protruded stomach (synonymous with affluence in the Nigerian context), kneeling and crying with their hands raised, a typical style of punishment that is common with pupils in the nation. Another level of hyperbole is utilized here to show remorse, something similar to a corporal punishment. The cartoonist comics the incapacity of the Nigerian leaders (aware that most of them lack the wherewithal to proffer solution) and, most importantly, their derogation like pupils serving punishment before the Covid-19 Pandemic. The caricatured image of the pandemic is shown holding a cane in front of the leaders serving punishment for not living up to their responsibilities, part 1640

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

Figure 7. Nigerian leaders

of which was to fix the health care system in the country. The image of a dilapidated hospital is shown in the background to reveal the sad condition of the healthcare system. The artist paints the deplorable state of the hospital, with its roof blown off by wind, similar to the way poets utilize tropes to paint an image. So also, the cartoonist seems to be alluding that the money that should have been channeled to fix the healthcare system is stacked in the pockets of the leaders as shown in the image. This saliently suggests that, the problem with the health care sector is caused by the leaders in the country. There is also the shared knowledge of corrupt leadership that the artist tries to allude to in the image. In the context of the current Covid-19 realities, the cartoon seems to be alluding that not even the rich and the politicians are spared from contracting the virus and, clearly, there is no safe haven for the leaders to run to. This evidently explains why they are crying like school pupils since they cannot jet out of the country. The artist substantiates his claim that the leaders are responsible for the rot in the system in the leaders’ utterance, ‘we are sorry sir, we promise to fix it’. The leaders were/are in the position to put the healthcare system in good shape, but unfortunately failed to do so, such that there was nothing substantial to fall back to when the pandemic came knocking on the door.

Context of the Message In Figure 8, the artist uses many symbols to curry home the message of the cartoon. In an attempt to portray the slumping state of the Nigerian economy, the cartoonist uses the word ‘sinking’ as a euphemism to describe the depressed state of the economy instead of more troubling words such as slump (slang for early stages of a recession) and recession. The cartoonist uses personification in the way he attributes sinking to an economy. The image also depicts a floating barrel of oil and small businesses,

1641

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

Figure 8. The sinking economy

intended to represent something catastrophic to a country that heavily relies on oil and SMEs. The waves that the doctors are paddling against symbolize market slumps, earning slumps and economic slump, signifying the beginning of a recession. Symbolism also appears in in the image using the canoe ferrying the people, against the pandemic odd, to possible economic stability. The cartoonist judiciously utilizes labeling to avoid ambiguity. The image relives the current plummeting state of the world’s economy using a local context, as seen in the attire of the scared participants aboard the unstable canoe. The global world economy is affected with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic; businesses are closed and other economic activities. In Nigeria, the major drivers of the economy are Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) and crude oil. Unlike other countries with drivers such as manufacturing, oil, agriculture, and other businesses, the undiversified Nigerian economy was quick to nosedive. In spite of the outcries by economists and public affairs analysts for diversification over the years, the Nigerian government continues to pay lip services to it. The cartoon reveals that the barrel of crude oil and small businesses are already sinking due to the impact of the pandemic, with boarders closed and prices of crude oil falling by the day. There is thus a correlation between the fall in price of crude oil and the sinking Nigerian economic boat. Although there seems to be a level of incongruity in the composition of the cartoon, as evident in the combination of a canoe and medical practitioners who are acting as sailors, the resolution and the humorous aspect of the cartoon is brought to bear with the barrel of oil and small businesses, which are the renown drivers of the Nigerian economy, in a state of flux. It is, however, ironic in the image that only healthcare practitioners are active in safeguarding the canoe which represents the nation’s economy from the ravenous pandemic while the leaders who are supposed to rescue the economy cower in the

1642

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

canoe helplessly. It also reveals that the country’s economy was quick to relapse after just recovering from global recession as shown in the canoe. Figure 9. Hunger virus

Figure 9 depicts the two participants who are represented as Covid-19 and Hunger. They are both carrying a dagger-like flag. One of the participants (Covid-19) is requesting the other (hunger) to “just send them to me this once, I promise I’ll give you the credit”. From the shared contextual knowledge, which the cartoonist assumes the audience/readers shares with him in the context of the pandemic in the country, the participants are depicted as equals by wearing the same garment that makes them look like monsters and also holding daggers. Barely a week (in April 2020) into the lockdown, residents in Abuja, Lagos and Ogun began defying the order leveraging on hunger and lack of basic palliatives to cushion the effects of the lockdown because they could no longer conduct their daily business activities. The cartoonist presents hunger as the bane in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. Hunger is another virus or pandemic which is potentially as deadly as the Covid-19 pandemic. If people do not have what to eat, they will inevitably be forced out by hunger and their interactions while out or commuting from one place to the other will make them vulnerable to contracting the Covid-19 virus. In the image, the artist presents the Covid-19 pandemic persuading Hunger (another virus) to make the people come out so that he can devour them, with the promise of giving Hunger the credit of sending them out. In the background, the people are seen peeping through their window with their door closed. The artist has, through the use of humour, presented the reality in Nigeria in the fight against the Covid-19 virus. While in other nations, their citizens are mandated to stay home, and are offered palliatives in form of food items and money, in Nigeria, these palliatives are not reliable to make the people obey 1643

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

the regulation. It also exposes the level of distrust between the governed and the government; people no longer repose their trust in the government to the extent that many people did not believe that the virus is actually in Nigeria in the first place when the first index case was declared (an Italian) on 27 February 2020. There have been cases where some people believed to have tested positive for the virus and kept in isolation centres protested against the government’s lack of provision of food and attention to their general welfare. Some of these index cases in fact escaped and mingled with other members of the public who have not tested positive for the virus. These shades of interpretations are possible because of the shared social/cultural and economic knowledge that the cartoonist shares with Nigerians. Figure 10. Naira or dollars

The image in Figure 10 parodies the Governor of Kano State, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, over the financial assistance he sought from the federal government to tame the tide of the mysterious deaths recorded in Kano during the pandemic period. The artist mocks the Governor, who has, in recent times, been on the front page of the dailies over alleged misappropriation of some millions of dollars. In a bid to buttress this allegation, the cartoonist exaggerates the physical features of the Governor’s traditional regalia (babbar riga) as one capable of containing 15 billion naira. The President’s disdain for corruption is also exaggerated in the way he casually walks away with the promise ‘to supply all required materials and technical assistance needed’. The label is clear that the context is Kano, with the Sahara at the background. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, Kano State was not part of the first set of States in the country to have recorded cases of contraction of the virus. In fact, Kaduna State was the first in the Northern region to have recorded an index case. Meanwhile, Lagos State, as the epicenter of the pandemic was

1644

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

given the sum of 10 billion naira to tackle the pandemic and control the spread of contraction in the country. Sequel to that, there have been complaints that out of the initial 15 billion naira the Federal Government earmarked to tackle the pandemic, 10 billion was too much for one state alone. In fact, the Kano State Government, while calling on the Federal Government to assist the State, said that the State should get more money than Lagos State because the people in Kano State are not as educated as those in Lagos, and there are more poor individuals in Kano State. This statement sparked several social media comments, one of which is that the Governor is just looking for an avenue to misappropriate the money while he is not being proactive to the mysterious deaths in the State. Based on that background, the cartoonist mocks the Governor who was expecting that the sum of 15 billion in dollars or naira would be given to the State, while the President declared that the Federal Government would supply all required materials and technical assistance needed. This in itself reveals the level of distrust in the system and exposes the corrupt practices by our political office holders in the country.

CONCLUSION The paper has analysed 10 cartoons related to the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria. The cartoonists deploy several comical images and rely on socio-cultural and economic knowledge shared with the Nigerian people to pass across their messages on the state of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. The study revealed that the cartoons show the different intrigues and layers of belief that the Nigerian people have about the pandemic as well as the level of the country’s preparedness in flattening the curve of the contraction of the virus. The study also observed that some Nigerians are still skeptical about the reality of the pandemic which makes them defy the government order regarding the virus. The poor state of the Nigerian public health system and medical tourism that Nigerian politicians and the elite class are incessantly embarking on in Europe is also satirised. The images have revealed the corrupt practices and bribery prevalent among the Nigerian Police Force, the poor state of the economy, hunger and other realities in the fight against the pandemic. These revelations are presented in structures and couched in verbal and non-verbal incongruity to create humour while also exposing some realities in the nation. Like comedy, therefore, cartoons are not just designed for humour sake; they reveal certain truths about the people. They, at times, paint serious political issues and place them on higher pedestals that make humans examine their conscience.

REFERENCES Adejuwon, A., & Alimi, S. (2011). Cartoons as Illustration: Political Process in Nigeria. The Journal of Pan African Studies, 4(3), 57–76. Akpati, C. F., & Adegboyega, S. (2019). A Multimodal discourse study of some online campaign cartoons of Nigeria’s 2015 Presidential Election. IAFOR Journal of Arts and Humanities, 6(2), 69–80. doi:10.22492/ijah.6.2.07 Anis, F., Ashfaq, A., & Mujtaba, A. (2012). Promotion of Hinduism in children through cartoons in Pakistan. Cross-Cultural Communication, 8(1), 86–80.

1645

 A Linguistic and Literary Analyses of Selected Cartoons on the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

Barthes, R. (1983). The Fashion System. Hill and Wang. Davis, F. (1994). Fashion, Culture, and Identity. Chicago University Press. Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as Social Semiotic: the Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. University Park Press. Medubi, O. (2003). Language and Ideology in Nigerian cartoons. In R. Driven, R. Frank, & M. Putz (Eds.), Cognitive Models in Language and Thought (pp. 159–197). Mouton de Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110892901.159 Meister, J., & Schonert, J. (2009). The DNS of Mediacy. In Point of View, Perspective and Focalization: Modelling Mediation in Narrative (pp. 11-40). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmBH. Oluremi, T., & Ajepe, I. (2016). Signifying Cartoons: A pragmatic Reading of Nigeria’s 2015 Political Cartoons. Ibadan Journal of Humanistic Studies, 26(2), 1–33. Rinehart, R. E., & Caudwell, J. (2018). Sport-War Cartoon Art. Media, War & Conflict, 11(2), 223–243. doi:10.1177/1750635217696435 Sani, I., Abdullah, M. H., Ali, A. M., & Abdullah, F. S. (2012). Linguistic analysis on the construction of satire in Nigerian political cartoons: The example of newspaper cartoons. Journal of Media and Communication Studies, 4(3), 52–59. Shereen, M. A., Khan, S., Kazmi, A., Bashir, N., & Siddique, R. (2020). COVID -19 infection: Origin, transmission, and characteristics of human coronaviruses. Journal of Advanced Research, 24, 91–98. doi:10.1016/j.jare.2020.03.005 PMID:32257431 Veale, T. (2004). Incongruity in humour: Root cause or epiphenomenon? HUMOUR: International Journal of Humour Research, 17(4), 419–428.

This research was previously published in the International Journal of Semiotics and Visual Rhetoric (IJSVR), 5(1); pages 28-44, copyright year 2021 by IGI Publishing (an imprint of IGI Global).

1646

1647

Chapter 80

Australian Aboriginal Languages:

Their Decline and Revitalisation Tasaku Tsunoda Emeritus, National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, Japan

ABSTRACT The present chapter describes the decline and revitalisation of Australian Aboriginal languages — also called Australian languages. As preliminaries, it looks at the following: (i) a brief history of Aboriginal Australians, (ii) degrees of language viability, (iii) current situation of Australian languages, (iv) value of linguistic heritage, and (v) methods of language revitalisation. It then describes five selected language revitalisation activities, concerning Warrongo, Kaurna, Bandjalang, Thalanyji and Wiradjuri languages. In particular, it provides a detailed account of the Warrongo language revitalisation activity (in which the author has been participating). It finally examines a problem that is frequently encountered in language revitalisation activities: confusion over writing systems. The entire chapter pays careful attention to the changing political climate that surrounds Australian languages and activities for them.

INTRODUCTION The present chapter describes the decline and revitalisation of Australian Aboriginal languages — also called Australian languages (see Blake (2006) and Dixon (2002) among others). As preliminaries, it looks at the following: (i) a brief history of Aboriginal Australians, (ii) degrees of language viability, (iii) current situation of Australian languages, (iv) value of linguistic heritage, and (v) methods of language revitalisation. It then describes five selected language revitalisation activities, concerning Warrongo, Kaurna, Bandjalang, Thalanyji and Wiradjuri languages. In particular, it provides a detailed account of the Warrongo language revitalisation activity (in which the author has been participating). It finally examines a problem that is frequently encountered in language revitalisation activities: confusion over writing systems. The entire chapter pays careful attention to the changing political climate that surrounds Australian languages and activities for them. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5682-8.ch080

Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIANS2 Archaeological evidence indicates that humans reached what is now Australia more than 53,000 years ago (Flood, 1995, p. 32). At the time of the first British colony at Port Jackson (Sydney) in 1788, the Aboriginal population is estimated to have been from 300,000 up to several times more. There were about 700 different political groups which have been called “tribes” and there are estimated to have been about 250 languages. Over the subsequent centuries, most Aboriginal Australians were dispossessed of their land, and their population reduced drastically, due to massacre (by shooting, poisoning, etc.), introduced diseases such as smallpox, measles and influenza (diseases to which they had no immunity), forced relocation, and so on. (The preceding account is based on Blake (2006, p. 587), Blake and Dixon (1991, pp, 1-2), Dixon (1991a, pp. 235-236) and McGregor (1994, p. xi).)

DEGREES OF LANGUAGE VIABILITY Languages can be classified in terms of the degree of their viability. A number of proposals are put forward for this purpose (Tsunoda, 2005, pp. 10-12). As Tsunoda (2005, p. 9) notes, “the survival of a given language crucially depends on whether or not the children learn it”. In view of this, almost all the classifications consider the factor of the transmission of a language to children, or learning of the language by children, among other factors. For Australian languages, Hudson and McConvell (1984, pp. 29-30) and Schmidt (1990, p. 54) put forward four-level classifications, and they are adopted in Tsunoda (2005, p.13). (a) Strong, healthy, safe, flourishing. Strong languages: the traditional language is still the main, first language for everyone, including children (Hudson & McConvell, 1984). Healthy languages: all generations actively use the language in a wide range of activities (Schmidt, 1990). (b) Sick, weakening. Sick languages: they will pass away soon if they do not receive treatment. Young people may understand a sick language when it is spoken in a simple way and may be able to say only a few words (Hudson & McConvell, 1984). Weakening languages: they are usually spoken by older people, but not fully transmitted to the younger generation (Schmidt, 1990). (c) Dying, moribund. Dying languages: no young people are learning them (Hudson & McConvell, 1984). Dying languages: only a few speakers remain (Schmidt, 1990). (d) Dead, extinct. 1648

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

Dead languages: they are no longer spoken (Hudson & McConvell, 1984). Extinct languages: no speakers remain (Schmidt, 1990). Tsunoda (2005, p. 14) refers to (b) and (c) jointly as “endangered”. Some community members have expressed dissatisfaction with certain terms used by linguists. For example, Cherie Watkins, a Kaurna person of South Australia, expressed her view as follows (Amery, 2016/2000, p. 1). (An account of the revitalisation activity for the Kaurna language is given in the section “Language revitalisation (2): Kaurna of South Australia” below.) Some people have described Kaurna language as a dead language. But Kaurna people don’t believe this. We believe that our language is a living language and that it has only been sleeping, and that the time to wake it up is now and this is what we’re doing. (Cherie Watkins in Warranna Parruna video DECS. 1997) Some linguists have responded to this dissatisfaction. For example, Amery (2016/2000, p. 23) states as follows: “I attempt to avoid labels which work against the interests of Indigenous peoples and to seek neutral or more positive metaphors which will inspire action rather than dismissal”. As another example, Hobson, Lowe, Poetsch and Walsh (2010a, pp. xxvii-xxviii), who are the editors of Hobson, Lowe, Poetsch and Walsh (2010b), state as follows: “As editors ... we were rather insistent about some terminology, in particular to eschew terms like moribund, dead and extinct. Such terms, as applied to their languages, are most often offensive to Indigenous people and are avoided in favour of terms like sleeping ...”. When the views cited above are taken into consideration, terms such as the following may be employed instead. Note that this involves replacement of terms and that it does not affect the classification itself. These terms include “sleeping” and also “dormant” (used by Amery (2016/2000, p. 12) among others). Admittedly, it is difficult to find suitable words for the category (b). (a) (b) (c) (d)

Awake, active, lively. Near-sleepy, near-drowsy, near-tired, near-weary. Sleepy, drowsy, tired, weary. Sleeping, dormant.

It needs to be emphasised that the use of terms such as “sleeping, dormant”, in place of “dead, extinct”, is not necessarily an expression of wishful thinking. A language which was “sleeping” may “wake up” — provided that adequate information about the language, e.g. sufficient written records, is available. See “Language revitalisation (1): Warrongo of Queensland” and “Language revitalisation (2): Kaurna of South Australia” below. However, it will be very difficult for a “sleeping” language to “wake up” if there is no adequate information about the language. In such a case the use of terms such as “dead, extinct” may be unavoidable.

CURRENT SITUATION OF AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGES The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (https://aiatsis.gov.au) (“AIATSIS”), Canberra, Australia, collects and disseminates information about the current situation — among 1649

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

many other things — of Australian languages. In a book published by AIATSIS, Marmion, Obata and Troy (2014, p. xii) state as follows: “about 13 [languages — TT] can be considered strong, ... There appear to be now around 100 languages that can be described as severely or critically endangered, ...” The website “Indigenous Australian languages” (https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/articles/indigenous-australianlanguages; retrieved 19 July 2019) provides similar information: “Only 13 traditional indigenous languages are still acquired by children”, and “Approximately another 100 or so are spoken to various degrees by older generations, with many of these languages at risk as Elders pass away”. In terms of the degrees of language viability listed above, among the 250 or so languages that were spoken in 1788, only 13 languages belong to the category (a). That is, only 5.2% belong to this category. Approximately another 100 or so (i.e. 40%) appear to belong to the category (c). More than half appear to belong to the category (d). Marmion, Obata and Troy (2004, p. 5) add the following comment: “Some of the traditional languages considered to be ‘very strong’ are showing signs of decline”. (They provide a similar comment on p. 8.) This indicates that some of these languages are approaching the category (b). Simpson (n.d.) states that, among these 13 languages, the following six have the largest numbers of speakers: Djambarrpuyngu (4,264 speakers), Pitjantjatjara (3,054 speakers), Warlpiri (2,276 speakers), Tiwi (2,020 speakers), Murrinh-Patha (1,966 speakers) and Kunwinjku (1,702 speakers). These languages are spoken, roughly speaking, in central Australia (in arid areas) or in northern Australia (under intense heat), i.e. the kinds of areas that European settlers tended to avoid. Djambarrpuyngu has the largest number of speakers among Australian languages: 4,264 speakers. Note, however, that even this number is merely fractional when it is compared with the number of speakers of a language like Japanese, which is said to have well over 100 million speakers. Even these “very strong” languages are in a precarious state.

VALUE OF LINGUISTIC HERITAGE Tsunoda (2005, p. 134) states as follows. ..., devoted efforts are being carried out, in many parts of the world, by community members to revitalize (i.e. maintain or revive) their traditional language. Furthermore, a large number of linguists are actively documenting endangered languages and/or assisting language revitalization activities. What makes them so devoted to these efforts? Are such attempts really important? The answer to these questions lies in the value of linguistic heritage, .... Tsunoda (2005, p. 134) classifies the views of these people as follows. (a) Community’s views. (b) Outsiders’ views. (b-i) Language activists’ views. (b-ii) Linguists’ views. As community’s views, Tsunoda (2005, pp. 135-143) lists the following.

1650

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

(a-1) Language as a gift from the ancestral beings. (a-2) Language as a connection to the ancestors and land. (a-3) Language as irreplaceable cultural knowledge, and as a conveyor of culture. (a-4) Language as ethnological skills. (a-5) Language as a determiner of identity. (a-6) Language as a source of pride and self-esteem. (a-7) Language as a source of solidarity. (a-8) Language as a source of sovereignty. (a-9) Beauty of the language. (a-10) For future generations. It is far beyond the scope of the present chapter to discuss and/or illustrate the views cited above (or language activists’ views or linguists’ views). Readers are requested to consult Tsunoda (2005, pp. 134-157). Specific instances of community’s views are cited shortly below and in a few subsections of the section “Language revitalisation (1): Warrongo of Queensland”. Regarding language revitalisation activities in Australia, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies conducted a survey in 2012. Question 19 of the survey asked the following question. 19. What are the goals of this language activity? Please tick all that apply. To increase the number of language speakers To increase the use of the language in the target group To provide support for language speakers to continue to speak their language To help people connect with their language and culture To improve the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people To make decisions about future directions for language work (for example, development of a policy) To record and archive recordings of the language To provide job opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people To increase awareness of the language among the community To promote the language to the general public To ensure the maintenance of the language To revive the language To increase language use within a particular setting To support school language programs (e.g. curriculum development, provision of educational materials, etc.) Marmion, Obata and Troy (2014, p. 29) summarise the responses to Question 19 as follows. Although there may be a perception that language activities are primarily aimed at increasing proficiency levels and speaker numbers, the Language Activity Survey data does not support this assumption. Rather, the survey found that respondents most commonly conduct language activities in order to strengthen people’s connection with their language and culture, to build a sense of identity and wellbeing, and to increase language awareness.

1651

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

This suggests that (a-5) above may be among the most important goals of many (if not all) language activities in Australia. The same may apply to (a-3) as well.

METHODS OF LANGUAGE REVITALISATION Language revitalisation is of two types. (See Tsunoda (2005, p. 201).) (a) Language maintenance: for languages of the category (b) (near-sleepy, near-drowsy, near-tired, near-weary) and for those of the category (c) (sleepy, drowsy, tired, weary). (b) Language revival: for languages of the category (d) (sleeping, dormant). Language revitalisation activities are conducted in many parts of the world. A fair number of methods of language revitalisation have been proposed or practiced. For surveys, see Amery (1994, pp. 143-147, 2016/2000, pp. 19-20) and Tsunoda (2001, p. 8352, 2005, pp. 200-214) among others. Tsunoda (2005, p. 201) lists the following methods. Immersion method (e.g. language nest), neighbourhood method, bilingual method, master-apprentice method, total physical response method, telephone method, radio method, multimedia method, twoway method, formulaic method, artificial pidgin method, place name method, reclamation method, and adoption method. Readers are requested to consult Tsunoda (2005, pp. 202-214) for accounts of these methods, including their merits and demerits. Due to space considerations, these accounts are not given in the present chapter. This classification of methods is only tentative, and so are the labels employed for them. In certain cases, one type of method may be considered a variety of another method. Also, this classification is not mutually exclusive. Two or more types may be combined in one revitalisation program. (See Tsunoda (2005, pp. 200-201).) Five selected instances of language revitalisation activities in Australia are described below: Warrongo, Kaurna, Bandjalang, Thalanyji and Wiradjuri. The activities for Warrongo, Kaurna and Bandjalang are by people who did (or do?) not speak their respective ancestral languages. In contrast, in those for Thalanyji and Wiradjuri, there were speakers left. That for Thalanyji is supported by a language centre, while that for Wiradjuri is carried out at a school. For Warrongo, a detailed account of the activity is given. The author himself is involved in this activity, and it is hoped that this account, based on his first-hand experience, will be useful to those readers who are not familiar with language revitalisation activities. Among the methods listed above, at least the reclamation method is employed in the Warrongo program and in the Kaurna program, and the place name method in the Kaurna program.

LANGUAGE REVITALISATION (1): WARRONGO OF QUEENSLAND Introductory Notes The following account is based on Tsunoda (2004, 2005, pp. 171, 195-196, 212-213) and Tsunoda and Tsunoda (2007, 2010) among others.

1652

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

In Amery’s (2016/2000, p. 19) terminology, “reclamation” refers to revival of an extinct language, utilizing materials recorded earlier when the language was spoken. According to this view, the Warrongo activity employs the reclamation method.

Alf Palmer: “I’m the Last One to Speak Warrongo” As mentioned in Endnote 1, from 1971 to 1974 the author carried out field work three times in and around Townsville, north Queensland, recording several languages. The main focus was on the Warrongo language, on which the late Alf Palmer, the last fluent speaker of the language, provided almost all the data. A major outcome of that field work is Tsunoda (2011) on Warrongo. In the case of languages that seem to have no or little chance of survival, the last speakers often wish, and indeed make every effort, to have their language documented. This heartfelt desire and commitment were best expressed by the late Alf Palmer, who used to say to the author as follows: “I’m the last one to speak Warrongo. When I die, this language will die. I’ll teach you everything I know, so put it down properly”.3 In retrospect, it was Alf Palmer who taught the author the importance of documenting endangered languages. His was perhaps one of the earliest responses to the crisis of language endangerment. It was made twenty years before the publication of works such as Robins and Uhlenbeck (1991) and Hale et al. (1992), which are possibly the first works that urged linguists to pay serious attention to language endangerment. Note also that this response was made by a community member (whose language was seriously endangered), not by a linguist. This shows that the concern for endangered languages and the realisation of the importance of their documentation are neither novel nor invented by the linguistic academia. (The author owes this observation to David Nathan (p.c.).) Recall that one of community’s views on the value of linguistic heritage is the following: (a-10) For future generations. (See the section “Value of linguistic heritage”.) It is clear that Alf Palmer had this view in mind when he tried to teach the author everything he knew.

The Language Revitalisation Activity Starts Alf Palmer, the last fluent speaker of Warrongo, passed away in 1981. About a quarter century after the author’s field work of 1971 to 1974, a few groups of people there, including Warrongo people, started a movement to revitalise their ancestral languages. The author was first approached in April 1998. In March 2000 he visited Townsville (where many Warrongo people live nowadays), after 26 years since his last visit to the area in 1974. The visit was followed by another visit in March 2001.

Warrongo Has a Unique Phenomenon Called Syntactic Ergativity In March 2000 and March 2001, the author had preliminary discussions with a number of people. One day in March 2001, he was having a discussion with Rachel Cummins (who is Alf Palmer’s daughter’s daughter and who became the central figure in the Warrongo language revitalisation activity) and her husband, John Cummins (who is not a Warrongo person, but a Gugu-Yalanji person). Rachel and John have five daughters: Meaghan, Tyrelle, Knomi, Tahlia and Mheelin. They were listening to the discussion. The author described one aspect of the Warrongo language roughly as follows.

1653

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

Warrongo has a phenomenon that linguists call syntactic ergativity. This phenomenon is unique among the world’s languages. It mainly occurs in Australia, in Queensland, and in fact in north Queensland. It occurs in Warrongo, and also Warrgamay, Girramay, Jirrbal, Mamu, Yidiny and Jabugay. Because this phenomenon is unique among the world’s languages, it is a very important part of the cultural heritage — not only for the people of this area, but also for the entire humankind.4 Upon hearing this, Knomi (one of the five daughters) said, “I’m curious”. Later, in June 2001, Rachel said to the author in one of her e-mail messages, “You inspired Tahlia” (another of the five daughters), and also “Tahlia is eager to go to Japan to study with you”. (Tahlia was 17 years old at that time.) The author was truly honoured to hear all this. Unfortunately, however, it is not feasible for Tahlia to come to Japan for study. She does not know the Japanese language. It is difficult to obtain a scholarship. The alternative is for the author to go over to Australia and conduct Warrongo language lessons.

Pride, Self-Esteem, and Interest in the Language The above indicates that the knowledge of the existence of a rare phenomenon in their ancestral language enhanced Warrongo people’s sense of pride, self-esteem, and interest in the language. This will be better appreciated when one considers the fate that Aboriginal Australians have been suffering since the time of the first British colony in 1788 (see the section “A brief history of Aboriginal Australians”). Recall that one of community’s views on the value of linguistic heritage is the following: (a-6) Language as a source of pride and self-esteem. Also, the existence of a unique phenomenon is an instance of the following: (a-10) Beauty of the language.

Warrongo Language Lessons Start In March 2002, the author visited Townsville, accompanied by Mie Tsunoda (his wife), and started Warrongo language lessons. So far, the lessons have been conducted five times — March 2002, August 2002, March 2004, March 2006 and August 2006 — about four or five days each time and with one lesson in the morning and another in the afternoon. One lesson lasted, with breaks, about two hours at longest. All the people who attended the lessons are Warrongo people — except for Mie Tsunoda (a Japanese). Almost all of them are Alf Palmer’s descendants. The number of Warrongo people who attended the lessons varied, ranging from three to about a dozen or more. Their ages were from 9 years old to about 50 years old, and most of them were under 20 years old.

Topics Dealt With The topics that the five rounds of Warrongo language lessons dealt with include the following. (a) (b) (c) (d)

1654

Orthography (or the writing system). Pronunciation. Basic vocabulary and ancestors’ names. Simple sentences. (d-i) Declarative sentences. (d-ii) General questions and special questions. (d-iii) Imperative sentences.

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

(e) Complex sentences: syntactic ergativity. (f) Mini-conversations. (g) Socio-cultural background, e.g. kin terms, patterns of kin-based behaviour, sections, totems, marriage rules, mythology, and naming. As noted above, the Warrongo language lessons were conducted with an interval of four months or two years. Also, often new students joined the class. In view of these, at the beginning of each round of lessons, main points of previous lessons were reviewed. The Warrongo people in the class found the issues in (g) really interesting, and welcomed the inclusion of these cultural aspects in the Warrongo language lessons. They stated that they realised they still retain the traditional patterns of kin-based behaviour, despite the fact that they no longer know the traditional kin system. (They know a couple of kin terms, e.g. yangana ‘mother’.) They stated that they now know why they behave the way they do. The inclusion of the cultural aspects turned out to be a great success. This is in line with the finding reported by Marmion, Obata and Troy (2014, p. 29) (cited in the section “Value of linguistic heritage”): “the survey found that respondents most commonly conduct language activities in order to strengthen people’s connection with their language and culture, ...”.

A Provisional Warrungu Dictionary (Tsunoda, 2003)5 In 2003, the author prepared A provisional Warrungu dictionary (Tsunoda, 2003), and sent 50 copies to Rachel Cummins, who in turn distributed them to other Warrongo people. Fortunately, the dictionary is in demand, and he sent probably 200 additional copies to her. In March 2004, when the author visited Palm Island (northeast of Townsville), where many Warrongo people live, Vivian (Peter) Lenoy indicated to him that he (i.e. Peter) is proud to have a book on his ancestral language in his home. (Vivian (Peter) Lenoy is Alf Palmer’s daughter’s son and Rachel Cummins’ cousin.) Recall that community’s views on the value of linguistic heritage include the following two. No doubt these two views are shared by Vivian (Peter) Lenoy. (a-2) Language as a connection to the ancestors and land. (a-6) Language as a source of pride and self-esteem.

Mie Tsunoda: A Language Teacher, a Linguist and a Painter Mie Tsunoda had been attending the Warrongo language lessons since the first lessons of March 2002, and she had been learning the language. For the lessons of March 2006 and August 2006, she joined the author in teaching. She has an MA degree in Teaching of Japanese as a Foreign Language, and a PhD degree in Japanese Linguistics. She has many years of experience of teaching Japanese. Another area of her expertise is in Japanese paintings. She applied this experience and expertise to the Warrongo lessons. For example, she prepared many picture cards and used them for explaining a basic vocabulary and points of grammar (e.g. the past/present suffix, the ergative suffix, the locative suffix, the dative suffix, and the ablative suffix; see “Formation of more sentences” below). Also, she introduced games into the classes. These methods proved to be very effective. The above shows that a language revitalisation activity will greatly benefit from the participation of someone who has experience of language teaching and someone who has expertise in painting or drawing, 1655

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

in addition to the linguist who documented the language — that is, it will benefit from a combination of various kinds of expertise.

What Has Been Achieved? Introductory Notes Is the Warrongo language revival movement successful? The answer depends on (i) the definition of language revival, and (ii) aim of this movement (see Tsunoda (2005, pp. 169-172)). Rachel Cummins expressed one of the aims of their movement as follows: “I want 50% of the children to speak the language”. So far this goal has not been achieved, and according to this aim the movement is not a success as yet. However, it is important to emphasise the following. Only five rounds of Warrongo language lessons have been conducted so far — with a long interval between them. Under this circumstance it is extremely difficult to learn to speak Warrongo or any language for that matter. The progress is very slow. Nonetheless, the Warrongo language lessons have produced a number of encouraging results, in terms of language proficiency/language use and language awareness. Some of them are described below. First, the results concerning language proficiency/language use include the following. (In accounts of language revitalisation activities, it is important to state what a person achieved at what age. For the present account of the Warrongo language revitalisation activity, the ages of the relevant people were provided by Rachel Cummins and they are cited with her permission.)

Formation of an Imperative Sentence On the 17th March 2002, i.e. on the very first day of the first round of the lessons, the class was practicing the writing system and pronunciation, using a fair number of basic words. The words included the following two. bija ‘Drink’ (offering someone a drink of water (drink-Ø ‘IMP’)) gamo ‘water’ When the class was practicing the word bija-Ø ‘Drink!’, Rachel Cummins (46 years old at that time) uttered the following sentence spontaneously. (1) Rachel Cummins bija-Ø gamo-Ø. drink-IMP water-ACC ‘Drink water!’ (The author added -Ø, the glosses and the translation to (1). A similar remark applies to (4), (9) and (11).) The author had explained individual words and imperative forms of verbs, but he had not taught this particular sentence. Rachel composed this sentence on the basis of what she had learned. Note that (1) has the VO order. Probably Rachel employed the English word order VO (Drink water!). Word order in Warrongo is in general not fixed. For transitive imperative sentences, the OV order is by far the more frequent than the VO order. See Tsunoda (2011, p. 376). Nonetheless, (1) is a perfectly 1656

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

grammatical sentence. It was the first Warrongo sentence spontaneously uttered by a Warrongo person that the author had ever heard in the 28 years since 1974! — the year that he worked with Alf Palmer for the last time. It is important to stress that Rachel Cummins uttered this sentence on the very first day of the first round of lessons.

Use of Warrongo Words After the March 2002 lessons, Rachel Cummins said on a few occasions that Tahlia and Mheelin (Rachel’s daughters) started teasing each other and joking to each other in Warrongo. (Tahlia was 18 years old and Mheelin was 15 years old at that time.) This is the beginning of spontaneous use of Warrongo, although the author did not observe it himself.

Nursery Rhyme “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” in Warrongo On the evening of the 25th March 2006, the day Mie Tsunoda and the author arrived in Townsville, they visited Meaghan Cummins’ house. (Meaghan is Rachel Cummins’ daughter.) A large number of Warrongo people were there to meet them. Kali Kemp sang a Japanese song to welcome them. (Kali is Rachel’s daughter’s daughter. She was 9 years old at that time. She was studying Japanese at a primary school.) Then, a group of Warrongo children, led by Kali Kemp, sang a song in Warrongo to welcome Mie Tsunoda and the author. On the 29th March, Meaghan Cummins (30 years old at that time) wrote the lyrics of the Warrongo song in the author’s field notebook. (2) Meaghan Cummins: “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” in Warrongo gaja binda jarra jina jarra jina jarra jina gaja binda jarra jina ngali mara balga jili walo jawa gajo jawa gajo jawa gajo jili walo jawa gajo ngali mara balga we will all clap hands together. This is a Warrongo version of the English nursery rhyme “Head, shoulders, knees and toes”. (3) Head, shoulders, knees and toes Knees and toes And eyes and ears and mouth and nose Head, shoulders, knees and toes Knees and toes (Retrieved on 29 July 2019 from: https://www.nurseryrhymes.org/head-shoulders-knees-and-toes.html) Meaghan composed these lyrics, consulting A provisional Warrungu dictionary (Tsunoda, 2003) and employing the knowledge she had acquired in Warrongo lessons. It is particularly important to note that these lyrics contain two occurrences of the following sentence.

1657

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

(4) Meaghan Cummins ngali-Ø mara-Ø balga-Ø! 1DU-ERG hand-ACC hit-IMP Literal translation: ‘We (two), hit hands!’ Free translation: ‘Let’s (two) clap hands!’ This shows that Meaghan was already proficient enough to produce a sentence, to be precise, an imperative sentence — in this case, an imperative sentence which means ‘Let’s ...’. The author had already explained how to form imperative sentences (cf. (d-iii) in “Topics dealt with”). However, he had not explained how to form imperative sentences of the “Let’s ...” type. In view of this, it is highly remarkable that Meaghan composed the sentence in (4). Additional comments follow. (i) The lyrics in (2) contain the word gajo. In Warrongo, gajo means ‘white tree ant’, and therefore no doubt gaja ‘head’ was intended. (ii) Warrongo pronouns distinguish between the dual form (for two people) and the plural form (for three or more people), and for the first person, Warrongo has ngali-Ø ‘1DU-ERG’, ‘1DU-NOM’ and ngana-Ø ‘1PL-ERG’, ‘1PL-NOM’. The dual form ngali-Ø is grammatically correct. Nonetheless, if “we all” is intended, the plural form nganaØ would be more suitable than the dual form. When these comments are taken into consideration, (2) can be re-written as follows. (5) “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” in Warrongo: a revision gaja binda jarra jina jarra jina jarra jina gaja binda jarra jina ngana mara balga jili walo jawa gaja jawa gaja jawa gaja jili walo jawa gaja ngana mara balga we will all clap hands together. The lyrics in (5) contain two occurrences of the following sentence. (6) ngana-Ø mara-Ø balga-Ø. 1PL-ERG hand-ACC hit-IMP Literal translation: ‘We (three or more), hit hands!’ Free translation: ‘Let’s (three or more) clap hands!’ The glosses for other words are as follows: gaja ‘head’, binda ‘shoulder’, jarra ‘thigh, upper leg’, jina ‘foot’, jili ‘eye’, walo ‘ear’, and jawa ‘mouth’. Warrongo nouns generally do not distinguish between the singular form and the plural form. Therefore, gaja, for example, can be translated as ‘head’ or ‘heads’. (5) can be translated as follows. (7) head shoulders upper legs feet upper legs feet upper legs feet head shoulders upper legs feet Let’s (three or more) clap hands! eyes ears mouth head mouth head mouth head eyes ears mouth head Let’s (three or more) clap hands! The Warrongo version of this nursery rhyme is a truly remarkable achievement. 1658

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

Formation of More Sentences In March 2006, the fourth round of lessons were conducted. Some of the learners were already proficient enough to produce simple sentences (if not compound sentences) that are correct. One example is (4), composed by Meaghan Cummins (March 2006). Additional examples follow. On the 26th March 2006, the author instructed each student to compose a sentence. The responses included a few perfectly correct sentences, including mini-conversations. For example, Tahlia Cummins (22 years old at that time) wrote as follows. (8) Tahlia Cummins Q wanyo nyinan malanda who sit-PAST creek by --> Who sat by the creek? => Mheelin nyinan malanda (Mheelin is Tahlia’s younger sister.) For the convenience of readers, the Warrongo sentences in (8) can be shown as follows. (9) wanyo-Ø nyina-n malan-da. who-NOM sit-PAST creek-LOC ‘Who sat by the creek?’ Mheelin-Ø nyina-n malan-da. Mheelin-NOM sit-PAST creek-LOC ‘Mheelin sat by the creek.’ As another example, Meaghan (Tahlia and Mheelin’s eldest sister) wrote (10). (10) Meaghan Cummins wanyo yanin Condonngomay railway estatego Who came from Condon to Railway Estate? (“Condon” is the name of the suburb where Rachel Cummins (Meaghan’s mother) was living at that time, and “Railway Estate” is the name of the suburb where Meaghan was living at that time.) For the convenience of readers, (10) can be shown as follows. (11) wanyo-Ø yani-n Condon-ngomay Railway Estate-go? who-NOM come-PAST Condon-ABL Railway.Estate-DAT ‘Who came from Condon to Railway Estate?’ Examples such as (10) and (11) show that learners like Tahlia and Meaghan were proficient enough (i) to use the past tense suffix (-n) and case suffixes (such as -Ø ‘nominative’, -da ‘locative’, -ngomay ‘ablative’ and -go ‘dative’) and (ii) to produce interrogative sentences and mini-conversations. This, too, is a highly remarkable achievement in view of the fact that, prior to March 2006, the Warrongo language

1659

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

lessons had been conducted only three times — March 2002, August 2002 and March 2005 — with a long interval between them. In “Formation of an imperative sentence” to “Formation of more sentences”, examples were given that have to do with language proficiency/language use. A few instances that mainly concern language awareness or a related issue are given below.

Syntactic Ergativity as a Rare and Precious Gem The first round of Warrongo lessons started on the 17th March 2002. On the 20th, the class embarked on study of syntactic ergativity. During the lesson on syntactic ergativity on the 22nd March, the author emphasised that syntactic ergativity is a rare and precious gem, saying to Tahlia and Mheelin (Rachel Cummins’ daughters), “Your great-grandfather handed it to me. I have been keeping it for 30 years. Now, I am passing it to you”. Upon hearing this, Rachel said, “This is like a time capsule”. After the lesson, the class and the author returned to the Cummins’ home. The author said to John Cummins, Rachel’s husband: “We studied syntactic ergativity today. Tahlia and Mheelin did really well. They now know what syntactic ergativity is. They have a gem in their head”. John was very happy and proud of his daughters’ achievement, and his eyes were wet with tears.

Tracy Palmer Studied the Warrongo Dictionary Thoroughly As mentioned in “A provisional Warrungu dictionary (Tsunoda, 2003)” above, in 2003 the author sent 50 copies of A provisional Warrungu dictionary (Tsunoda, 2003) to Rachel Cummins, who in turn distributed them to other Warrongo people. In March 2006, the author found that Tracy Palmer (32 years old at that time) had worked hard through the dictionary. (Tracy Palmer is Alf Palmer’s daughter’s daughter’s daughter. She is Rachel Cummins’ eldest sister’s daughter.) During the lessons of March 2006, there were a few occasions when the author could not recall a Warrongo word. However, on each occasion Tracy showed him where in the dictionary the word was. An example is given in “Warrongo names for young Warrongo boys” below. It was clear that she had studied the dictionary thoroughly and that she had gained a good knowledge of Warrongo vocabulary.

Warrongo Names for Young Warrongo Boys In March 2006, Norris Palmer (11 years old at that time) told the author that he wanted a Warrongo name. (Norris Palmer is Alf Palmer’s daughter’s daughter’s son. He is Rachel Cummins’ younger sister’s son.) There is another Norris Palmer in the family, and the older Norris Palmer is Alf Palmer’s son. He is the young Norris’ mother’s mother’s brother, and he is Rachel’s mother’s brother. Tracy Palmer found the older Norris Palmer’s name in the dictionary: Wilbanyo. The young Norris wanted to adopt this Warrongo name, and his wish was — happily — approved by Meaghan Cummins, Tracy Palmer and other people. That was on the 29th March 2006. (The following account of an anecdote is based on Mie Tsunoda’s (p.c.) observation.) On one day in March 2006, during a break between lessons, the young Norris Palmer and a few other boys were having a chat. The latter probably included Ethan Corporal, Derac Corporal, Ronald Palmer, Michael Wilson and Joshua Wilson. (Ethan and Derac Corporal are Alf Palmer’s daughter’s daughter’s daughter’s sons. They are Rachel’s daughter’s sons. At that time, Ethan was 7 years old and Derac was 6 years old. 1660

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

Ronald Palmer is Alf Palmer’s daughter’s daughter’s daughter’s son, and he is Rachel Cummins’ eldest sister’s daughter’s son. He was 12 years old at that time. Michael and Joshua Wilson are Alf Palmer’s daughter’s daughter’s son’s sons. Michael was 11 years old in 2006. Joshua is probably younger than Michael.) Inspired by Norris Palmer’s adoption of a Warrongo name, another boy indicated that he, too, wanted a Warrongo name. (He may be Joshua Wilson or Michael Wilson, but the author is not certain about this.) Other boys teased him, using one of the words that they had learned in previous lessons: “How about bojimborram for your name?” (Bojimborram means ‘cockroach’.) All the boys roared with laughter. But this anecdote shows that these boys began to use Warrongo spontaneously. The fact that these young Warrongo boys wanted to have a Warrongo name indicates that they began to have an interest in their traditional culture. “Formation of an imperative sentence” to “Warrongo names for young Warrongo boys” looked at some of the results of the Warrongo lessons. These results show that Alf Palmer’s dedicated efforts to have his language documented proved to be truly worthwhile. What he had sowed 30 years ago began to be harvested by his descendants. The following section describes an interesting phenomenon, although it is not a result of the Warrongo language lessons.

Shaqium Palmer Distinguished Two Kinds of r-Sounds: rr and r English (at least Australian English) has just one kind of r-sound. In contrast, Warrongo distinguishes two kinds of r-sounds. One is an alveolar tap ([ɾ], written with rr), and the other is generally a retroflex approximant ([ɻ], written with r). (For further details, see the paragraph (e) of the subsection “Writing system suggested for Warrongo” of the section “Confusion over writing systems”.) Some of adult learners of Warrongo found it difficult to distinguish these two kinds of r-sounds. On the afternoon of the 27th March 2006, the author and a few other people, including Shaqium Palmer (5 years old at that time), visited Aitkenvale Library in Townsville, to examine some materials there. (Shaqium Palmer is Alf Palmer’s daughter’s daughter’s daughter’s son. He is Rachel Cummins’ younger sister’s daughter’s son.) In the car on the way home, the author said to Shaqium as follows. (12) Tasaku Tsunoda Thank you very much for waiting for us. You have been very patient. You have been very good. Yinda jarribara galbin. The above contains the following Warrongo sentence. (13) Tasaku Tsunoda yinda jarribara-Ø galbin-Ø. 2SG.NOM good-NOM child-NOM ‘You are a good child.’ The author said to Shaqium that this sentence means ‘You are a good child’. He repeated the word jarribara. To the author’s surprise, Shaqium said jarribara [ʤaɾibaɻa] voluntarily. He observed the difference between rr (an alveolar tap) and r (a retroflex approximant) and furthermore he pronounced them correctly. Children pick up sounds very quickly, unlike adults. 1661

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

Suggestion for Language Teaching Methodology The Warrongo language lessons and Shaqium Palmer’s acquisition of the two kinds of r-sounds jointly produced a suggestion for language teaching methodology. In 2006, Mie Tsunoda and the author noticed two interesting phenomena. (a) Grammar. Some aspects of the grammar were difficult for children. In contrast, adults found them less difficult, and they were explaining these points to children. (b) Pronunciation. The reverse situation was observed. Adults sometimes had difficulty in those sounds that are absent in English, but children acquired such sounds easily. In view of this, Mie Tsunoda suggested that the following might be a useful strategy for these language lessons. (a)’ Difficult aspects of grammar. Teach them to adults first, and get them to explain these points to children. (b)’ Difficult aspects of pronunciation. Teach them to children first, and then get them to teach the pronunciation to adults. An additional account of the Warrongo language revitalisation activity is given in the subsection “Writing system suggested for Warrongo” of the section “Confusion over writing systems” below.

LANGUAGE REVITALISATION (2): KAURNA OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA Like the Warrongo language revitalisation activity, the activity for the Kaurna language of the Adelaide area, South Australia, employs the reclamation method; see Amery (2016/2000, p. 19). Tsunoda (2005, pp. 211-212) describes the revitalisation activity for the Kaurna language as follows. A detailed account is in Amery (2000). See also McKay (1996: 135–136) and Nathan (1996: 184–202). The last fluent speaker of Kaurna appears to have died in 1929, but the language was documented by the nineteenth century missionaries, Christian Teichelmann and Clamor Schürmann. Attempts have been made to restore the Kaurna language, including sounds, on the basis of the written documents and of the sounds of other Australian languages, and even a CD of the language, including the sounds, has been produced. ... A Kaurna program commenced in the primary section of the Kaurna Plains School (an autonomous Aboriginal school) in 1992, and in two other schools in 1994. Although the children are unable to develop communicative fluency, the program is judged successful by those involved in it on the following grounds. First, it involves students and the wider Aboriginal community in the education process. (Note that in this case Aboriginal people are involved in the education process, ... .) Second, it has created and fostered a sense of identity and pride amongst Aboriginal people. That is, this program has brought about benefits, despite the fact that the language seems unlikely to

1662

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

be restored to its fully viable state. The important thing seems to be re-acquisition of their ancestors’ language – even if the re-acquisition is only partial. It is fortunate that the people who documented Kaurna were German: Christian Teichelmann and Clamor Schürmann. They used a consistent writing system, which is different from the – inconsistent and confusing – English writing system. Had they used the English system, reconstruction of Kaurna might not have been possible. Again, this shows the importance of accurate writing systems ... . For writing systems, see the section “Confusion over writing systems” below. Amery (2010) provides a sequel to Amery (2016/2000). Relevant points in Amery (2010) are cited below, followed by the author’s comments. “The language is now taught to relatively small numbers of students in programs offered at all levels of education from kindergarten to university. ... The majority of students in most courses are nonAboriginal” (Amery, 2010, p. 57). This indicates that non-Aboriginal Australians have taken an interest in the Kaurna language. “We are still at a relatively early stage in the revival of Kaurna, even though it has been taught now for nearly 20 years. The language is spoken to a minimal extent in Kaurna households and in the community, principally a handful of speech formulas and some salient vocabulary” (Amery, 2010, p. 57). This shows that not much progress has been made in terms of fluency. A similar situation is observed in many language revitalisation activities. Marmion, Obata and Troy (2014, p. 44) note as follows: “It may be comparatively easy to increase the numbers of speakers who can say several words and simple sentences. Taking it to the next step, though, to having conversations, even in limited situations, requires a lot of effort and time”. “However, there has been an explosion of naming activity ... Kaurna people ... have ... named numerous organisations, programs and other entities, as well as themselves, their children and their pets” (Amery, 2010, p. 57). This naming activity has gone beyond the Kaurna people, and “many nonIndigenous people want to acknowledge Kaurna land through naming activity” (Amery, 2010, p. 58). It seems that some (or many?) names given are place names. Amery (2010, p. 61) describes the website “Kaurna Placenames” (www.kaurnaplacenames.com; retrieved on 13 August 2019). This activity may be considered an instance of the place name method, one of the 14 methods of language revitalisation, listed in the section “Methods of language revitalisation”.

LANGUAGE REVITALISATION (3): BANDJALANG The activity outlined below employs the adoption method. Tsunoda (2005, p. 213) provides the following account. Eve Fesl, who is the first Aboriginal Australian person to be awarded a Ph.D. degree in linguistics, describes in Fesl (1982) an unusual case of language revival: the revival of a language by means of adoption. Unlike Kaurna people, the people involved gave up the idea of restoring their ancestral language, but instead they adopted another language.

1663

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

Aboriginal languages of Victoria were among the first to be wiped out after colonization. In the mid1970s, Fesl was requested to search for a language of Victoria to revive, only to find none. Fesl then looked for a language which was spoken in a similar – naturally and socially – environment to theirs, that is, a coastal and urbanized area. Finally, Fesl found the Bandjalang ... language of the Lismore area, New South Wales. It still had some speakers, and it was spoken in a similar environment, both naturally and socially. Fesl and the group applied to Bandjalang tribal elders for permission to teach their language in Victoria. Despite a prolonged debate that arose from jealousy in the Bandjalang community, the Victorians finally succeeded in obtaining permission to teach Bandjalang, on the condition that it is taught to Aboriginal children only. The Bandjalang people’s reason is this: “the whites have ripped everything off – we want something for our children first” (Fesl 1982: 50). (For the teaching of Bandjalang in Victoria, see also McKay 1996: 52–53, 150–151). ..., many Aboriginal Australians consider they own their ancestral language – even if they do not speak it. It is in view of this language ownership that Aboriginal Australians of Victoria needed permission from Bandjalang people to teach the language. Regarding this language, Bandjalang people are “language owners”, while those Victorians who learned and use it are “language users”.

LANGUAGE REVITALISATION (4): WANGKA MAYA PILBARA ABORIGINAL LANGAUGE CENTRE AND THALANYJI OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA “Community language centres are a significant feature of the language revitalisation landscape in Australia” (Dixon & Deak, 2010, p. 119). According to Dixon and Deak (2010, p. 119), Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre (Wangka Maya) conducts a wide range of activities for the languages of the Pilbara region of Western Australia, which include the following. (a) Provision of specialists, e.g. linguists. (“The most commonly requested specialists are linguists” (Dixon & Deak, 2010, p. 127).) (b) Training of language workers. (c) Coordination of resource production. (d) Maintenance of an accessible archive. “Wangka Maya has been involved” in a “wide variety of activities” “from language documentation and dictionary making, to publishing adult literature and multimedia learners’ materials that focus on the spoken language” (Dixon & Deak, 2010, p. 126). Dixon and Deak (2010, pp. 121-122) describe the activity for Thalanyji, one of the languages of the Pilbara region, as follows. This language appears to be sleepy/drowsy/tired/weary. Thalanyji, the traditional language of the Onslow area, ... is used fluently by six old people while, among the parent generation, there are varying degrees of use, fluency and comprehension. Children are not learning it as their first language but they are sometimes exposed to Thalanyji when they are with their parents or grandparents. Work to document, promote and learn this language has taken various forms over the past 15 or so years: school programs, formal training programs for language workers (via Pundulumarra Technical and Further Education campus in South Hedland), recording of oral histories, 1664

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

and the production of various children’s resources. The primary linguistic fieldwork was carried out by Peter Austin and included the publication of the first Thalanyji dictionary (1992b). In recent years two very dedicated language workers, Anne and Shirley Hayes, have been working in partnership with Wangka Maya to document Thalanyji and increase their own knowledge of the language. In late 2005 they approached Wangka Maya with an idea to create an ethnobotanical plant book that would showcase both the depth of traditional knowledge surrounding plant use and the Thalanyji language as the vehicle for transmitting this knowledge. Since there were few full speakers left the need to document this knowledge was felt to be a matter of considerable urgency. The language workers coordinated all of the documentation of language and traditional knowledge on this project. They spent many hours listening to the Elders talk about the plants in Thalanyji and using the language to elicit specific information. As a result they demonstrated enormous growth as language speakers and writers over the course of the project. By the time the book was launched in July 2008, one language speaker who was renowned for her shyness in front of crowds of strangers (in any language) had the confidence to get up at the launch and give part of her speech in Thalanyji. There is also much anecdotal evidence that this increase in Thalanyji language use has spread throughout the community, including among children. Likewise the writing skills of the language workers have increased dramatically with the consistent practice that the project afforded. ... The final product, Ngambunyjarri (Hayes & Hayes 2008), is a high-quality production, well placed to showcase the Thalanyji language and traditional knowledge, and guarantee that this knowledge will be available for subsequent generations of Thalanyji people. For many the book has created a sense of pride in Thalanyji language and culture, not only among the Thalanyji people, but also in the broader community. This positive atmosphere will hopefully pave the way for many more future activities to promote the Thalanyji language.

LANGUAGE REVITALISATION (5): WIRADJURI OF NEW SOUTH WALES “Wiradjuri was one of the largest language groupings in New South Wales, being spoken over much of the central southern region of the state”, but “by the early 1900s the children were no longer learning Wiradjuri as their first language. ... However, this is not to say that Wiradjuri is dead. Many Wiradjuri people today know vocabulary from their language and use it in everyday speech” (McNicol & Hosking, 1994, pp. 79-80). Works on Wiradjuri include Hosking and McNicol (1993) and McNicol and Hosking (1994). Wiradjuri may have been sleepy/drowsy/tired/weary in the early 1990s. Maier (2010) describes the teaching of Wiradjuri at Parkes High School, where he is a teacher of social sciences. “Parkes High School is a co-educational public high school with around ten percent of the 700 students being Aboriginal” (Maier, 2010, p. 210). After two preliminary meetings in 2005, which involved the Wiradjuri elder Stan Grant Snr, community members, John Rudder (an anthropologist-linguist) and teachers (including Stephen Maier), “a Parkes Wiradjuri language team was formed ....”, which “consisted of Wiradjuri community members, 1665

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

the school’s Aboriginal Education Officer ..., language teacher, Aboriginal studies teacher and myself (a teacher of social sciences)” (Maier, 2010, p. 211). “Meeting fortnightly the group practised language, learnt new words and phrases and prepared material for use in the school” (Maier, 2010, p. 211). “Beginning in 2006 the language was taught to mostly Aboriginal students across all year groups, 20 minutes each morning ...” (Maier, 2010, p. 211). Teaching of Wiradjuri at Parkes High School continued. For example, in 2008 “all of Year 8 studied Wiradjuri language for three hours a fortnight” (Maier, 2010, p. 213). “The material taught at Parkes High ... has included basic greetings, animals common to the central western region of NSW [New South Wales — TT], people and family names, body parts, numbers and natural features. Students are taught that locative and other nominal suffixes are used on nouns, with past, present, future and command suffixes are used on verbs. By combining noun (actor), verb and noun (object) with appropriate suffixes a variety of sentences can be created. Incorporating pronouns and interrogatives further expands vocabulary and basic conversation can be held. An important aim of the BOS [New South Wales Board of Studies — TT] syllabus and the Parkes High teaching program is to move beyond word lists into communication in the language” (Maier, 2010, p. 213). “At this stage students (and teachers) are still slow when speaking the language and take time processing sentences heard” (Maier, 2010, p. 213). “A significant part of the language program is Wiradjuri culture. Stan Grant stressed from the beginning that language and culture must go together” (Maier, 2010, p. 213). The cultural aspects dealt with seem to include the following: “Wiradjuri country, traditional foods, hunting and gathering practices, tools and weapons, roles of men, women and children, clothing and body adornments, and the significance and relationship with the land” (Maier, 2010, p. 214). An activity started outside Parkes High School as well. “An exciting development here is the establishment of an adult community language group that has met weekly for the past two years. Led by community Elder Geoff Anderson, this group of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal adults practise and learn Wiradjuri language, share knowledge and ideas, and prepare teaching material” (Maier, 2010, p. 214). “Overall the language program has had a very positive effect on the school and wider community. It has raised awareness of Wiradjuri language and culture among the general school population and the town more broadly” (Maier, 2010, p. 214). In the author’s view, one notable feature of the language activity in Parkes is that Wiradjuri people allow non-Aboriginal people (including students, teachers and people in the town) to study the Wiradjuri language and culture. This may be a major cause of the positive effect mentioned above. Recall that Bandjalang people allowed Aboriginal Australians in Victoria to teach the Bandjalang language there on the condition that it was taught to Aboriginal children only. That was in the mid1970s. (See the section “Language revitalisation (3): Bandjalang”.) In contrast, in the 2000s Wiradjuri people allow non-Aboriginal people to study the Wiradjuri language and culture. The reason for this difference is not known for certain. It is possible that the surrounding political climate has changed since the mid-1970s. Five selected language revitalisation activities in Australia were described above. The next section will turn to a problem that is frequently encountered in language revitalisation activities: confusion over writing systems.

1666

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

CONFUSION OVER WRITING SYSTEMS Introductory Notes “Language revitalization activities face a multiplicity of problems” (Tsunoda, 2005, p. 179). These problems and possible remedies for them are discussed in detail in Tsunoda (2005, pp. 180-194). One of these problems is confusion over writing systems. Some of the writing systems used for language revitalisation have inherent problems, and these problems are the source of widespread confusion. This confusion is discussed in Tsunoda (2005, pp. 194-199). The present section expands that discussion and offers suggestions for possible improvement. It should be pointed out at the outset that the issue of writing systems is highly political (for example, see Stebbins (2001) on Sm’algyax of British Columbia, Canada), and sensitivity is required in devising and discussing writing systems (Tsunoda, 2005, p. 195). The present section “Confusion over writing systems” refers to the writing systems used for Warrongo and several other Australian languages. These languages have very similar phonological systems. (See Blake (2006, pp. 587-588) and Dixon (2002, pp. 547-558) for overviews of the phonological systems of Australian languages.) In particular, these languages have the three-vowel system: /a, i, u/. In all the Australian languages that the author has worked on (including those that are not mentioned in the present chapter), the predominant allophone of the phoneme /u/ is [o], rather than [u]. Thus, Tsunoda (2011, p. 76) states as follows: “Grammars of Australian languages generally do not mention the existence of the allophone [o] of the vowel phoneme /u/. However, in Warrongo, [o] is clearly the predominant allophone, as in Jaru (Tsunoda 1981a: 76)”. See Tsunoda (2011, pp. 76, 80-74) for the allophony of /u/ in Warrongo. We shall first look at the suggestions that the author made for the Warrongo language.

Writing System Suggested for Warrongo In March 2001, the author had discussions with Rachel Cummins, the central figure in the movement, and he proposed a writing system for Warrungu, roughly as follows. (The following account is based on Tsunoda (2005, pp. 195-197).) (In 2001, the author was using the letter u, not o, to present the phoneme /u/. For example, he used the spelling Warrungu, not Warrongo. See Endnote 5. The change from u to o will be discussed shortly.) (a) The English writing system is one of the worst in the world. It is inconsistent and confusing. One and the same letter may be pronounced in various ways. Thus, the letter u is pronounced at least in five different ways: (i) put, bull, cushion, (ii) but, cut, (iii) cute, music, (iv) busy, business, and (v) bury, burial. Also, one and the same sound may be written in different ways. Thus, compare jute, sue, fruit, lose, loose, shoe, you and dew among others. The English writing system is really confusing. It is important to be consistent, with one letter for one sound. (b) In addition, Australian languages have sounds that do not occur in English. So, if you apply the English writing system to Australian languages, there will be a big mess. (c) The writing system that the author suggests for Warrungu is the following: a, i, u, b, d, j, g, m, n, ny, ng, rr, r, l, w, y5

1667

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

Jirrbal people use the same system for their language. (Jirrbal is immediately northeast of Warrungu.) At the Kimberley Language Resource Centre in Halls Creek, Western Australia, Jaru people have adopted a system very similar to this. (d) In English, p and b are different sounds. So are ch and j; and k and g. For example, compare pin and bin, chain and Jane, and Kate and gate. However, in Warrungu (and other Australian languages), p and b are not distinguished. For example, bama ‘man’ can be pronounced either [pama] or [bama]. Similarly for the pair of ch and j, and for the pair of k and g. So, for the writing system, either p-t-ch-k or b-d-j-g can be used. Whichever you use, it is important to be consistent. (e) English (at least Australian English) has just one kind of r-sound, as in right and red. In contrast, like many other Australian languages, Warrungu distinguishes two kinds of r-sounds. (See “Shaqium Palmer distinguished two kinds of r-sounds: rr and r” above.) One is similar to the rolled r-sound of Scottish English. It will be written with rr. The other is similar to the r-sound of Australian English. It will be written with r. For example, compare the following pairs of words. marra ‘vine poison’ mara ‘hand’ barro ‘bent, crooked’ baro ‘lower part of the back’ birri ‘close, nearby’ biri ‘the Biri language (of the Bowen-McKay area, Queensland)’ In English, the two words in each pair will be regarded as the same word. However, in Warrungu they are different words. It is important to distinguish these two kinds of r-sounds. There are even words that contain both kinds of r-sounds, e.g. rirra ‘tooth’ and jarribara ‘good’. (f) Some people use dj, e.g. Kudjala (the language of the Charters Towers area, Queensland), bud d is unnecessary; just j is sufficient. (In addition, to be consistent, g can be used in place of k, resulting in Gujala.) (g) About u (i.e. /u/). This can be pronounced either [u] or [o] in Aboriginal languages.6 (h) It is important to be careful with the letter u. One such example is the spelling kutjala (/gujala/). Some people are confused and pronounce it [kaʧala]. As another example, the word jambun ([ʤambun] or [ʤambon]) ‘witchetty grub’ is used for the name of a community near Murray Upper, north of Townsville, Queensland, and for the title of a children’s book. Unfortunately, however, it is spelt jumbun, rather than jambun. (The spelling Jumbun is used, e.g., in Stockley (2010, p. 95).) The author asked a number of Aboriginal Australians from the locality (who did not know this word) to pronounce the spelling jumbun. They all said [ʤamban], and not [ʤambun] or [ʤambon]. This shows that, when confronted with this confusing use of the letter u for both [a] and [u] (or [o]), the learner will not know whether the letter u is intended for [a] or [u] (or [o]). As an additional example, the name of the language of Fraser Island, Queensland is spelt Butchulla. Because of the confusing use of the letter u, one would not know how to pronounce it. [buʧula] (cf. the English word butcher), [buʧala], [baʧula] or [baʧala]? (Rachel Cummins agreed.) The author heard some people say [baʧala]. Then, it can be spelt Bajala, rather than Butchulla. This spelling is far clearer. Also, it is more economical.7 (i) As noted in (g), in Warrungu, [u] and [o] are the same sound. If Rachel thinks [o] is more common than [u], or if people are confused by the letter u, then they can use the letter o in place of the letter u, e.g.: Warrongo rather than Warrungu 1668

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

(j) Someone said that, because her first language is English, it is difficult to get used to this writing system. The author emphasised to Rachel Cummins that it might take a while to get used to this writing system, but that it is better to use this system. If you apply the English writing system to Aboriginal languages, you will have a mess forever. Also, if you teach this writing system to children who have not learned the English writing system, they will learn it quickly. (Rachel Cummins agreed.) (k) The author cannot write any language materials on Warrungu if he is asked to use an Englishbased and confusing system. Rachel Cummins agreed that this writing system is better than the English writing system, saying “This is clear”. In connection with (j), it is relevant to cite the comment by John Giacon (e-mail message of 3 June 2003): Gamilaraay and Yuwaalaraay people of New South Wales consistently use the letter u for the phoneme /u/. As predicted above, “People here, including and perhaps especially children, quickly get used to a consistent spelling system and can read it quite easily”. The author prepared Warrungu language materials employing the writing system shown in (c) above. He used them in the lessons of March 2002, August 2002 and March 2004. However, he noticed that some of the learners were having difficulty with the letter u. On the 26th March 2004, he played the first portion of Tape 72/26 (stories about the protagonist’s travel and about Blue Tongue Lizard; they are shown in Tsunoda (2011, pp. 700-713)). The people in the class unanimously agreed that the sound presented by u is almost always [o], with one exception. The author suggested the letter u be replaced with the letter o, for the following two reasons (Tsunoda, 2011, p. 155). First, in the English writing system, the letter u is pronounced at least in five different ways. Due to this, the use of the letter u for certain Australian languages has caused a serious confusion to some people. Second, the sound presented by u is almost always [o], with only a handful of exceptions. The people in the class, including Rachel Cummins, unanimously accepted this proposal. Mheelin Cummins (Rachel’s daughter; 17 years old at that time) clearly stated that she preferred o to u. Since then, the author has been using o in place of u, e.g. in the Warrongo language materials and Tsunoda (2011). The Warrongo people in the class no longer had the difficulty caused by the letter u. See (2), (8) and (10) above. In connection with the allophone [o] of the vowel /u/, it is relevant to mention the following. (See Tsunoda (2011, pp. 46-47) for details.) In 1972, Rachel Wilson (who is Alf Palmer’s daughter’s daughter, about 16 years old at that time, and who later became Mrs. Rachel Cummins) wrote a letter to the author on behalf of Alf Palmer. The letter starts with a Warrongo sentence. The Warrongo sentence contains the spelling coco. It is intended to present the Warrongo word /gugu/ [koko] ‘language, speech, word’. This shows that, in Rachel Wilson’s observation, the vowel in this Warrongo word is [o], rather than [u]. Rachel Cummins (e-mail of 28 November 2019) confirmed that she had heard [o] in Alf Palmer’s pronunciation of this word. (It should also be pointed out that the Warrongo sentence mentioned above is probably the very first written record of the language ever made by a Warrongo person.)

Other Examples of Problems in Writing Systems Other examples of Aboriginal words spelt in a very confusing way include the following. (i) Birri-Gubba (/birigaba/) ‘the language of the Bowen-McKay area, Queensland; same as biri’. (ii) Murrie (/mari/) ‘man’ in many languages of Queensland, and also (in certain parts of Queensland) ‘Aboriginal Australian(s)’ as against white people. 1669

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

The use of the letters rr for the phoneme /r/ obliterates the phonemic opposition of /rr/ (an alveolar tap) and /r/ (a retroflex approximant) and it fails to present the phonological system of the languages accurately. Also these spellings, e.g. Birri-Gubba, are more cumbersome than, e.g., birigaba. (iii) [boɾgoman] borrgoman ‘the name of Palm Island, Queensland’ Two languages appear to have been spoken on Palm Island. Already in the early 1970s, they belonged to the category (c): Sleepy, drowsy, tired, weary. The author recorded about 60 words, about a half dozen phrases and also three stories about Palm Island (narrated in English). (See Tsunoda (1996).) The name of Palm Island is [boɾgoman]. It involves an alveolar tap ([ɾ]). In a practical orthography, the author spells it borrgoman. In the 2000s he noticed that some people in the locality spelt it Bwgcolman. For example, this spelling was used in the website of Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council. In September 2011, the author had a discussion with Robert Blackley, an Aboriginal Australian who lives on Palm Island. (He was 35 five years old at that time.) He knew the pronunciation [boɾgoman]. The author asked him as follows: “If you did not know the name of Palm Island, would you be able to pronounce Bwgcolman as [boɾgoman]?” He replied that he would not know how to pronounce it. He agreed that, if the spelling borrgoman were used, he would be able to guess how to pronounce it. In a response to the author’s enquiry, Robert Blackley (e-mail of 12 October 2019) stated as follows: Already prior to the discussion held in September 2011, I have changed my view on the phonetic spelling in Australian Aboriginal languages. This is because of my learning the English spellings of Japanese words which I have found to be a much more logical system with little to no ambiguity. So when we spoke about “Bwgcolman” I agreed with you that the spelling was indeed unfortunate. ... I have spoken to many people about a more appropriate spelling but I feel the Island is wedded to the current way and will need a long conversation to discuss any change. Despite Robert Blackley’s repeated efforts, the spelling Bwgcolman is still used in the website of Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council (http://www.palmcouncil.qld.gov.au/about-palm-island; retrieved 15 October 2019). (Furthermore, this spelling is used in a couple of other websites, e.g. in the website of Queensland Government (https://www.qld.gov.au/atsi/cultural-awareness-heritage-arts/communityhistories/community-histories-n-p/community-histories-palm-island; retrieved on 9 August 2019).) As noted above, the information available on the languages of Palm Island is severely limited. The name of Palm Island is no doubt one of the most important words — and possibly the most important word — to the people there. As of 2019, there are people who know the name of Palm Island. However, time may come when no one knows this name. If the use of the spelling Bwgcolman continues, in years to come there may be no one who knows how to pronounce this important word. The reasons for the use of such confusing systems appear to be (i) the lack of linguistic training on the part of people who devised such a system, and (ii) the people’s avoidance or rejection of advice from linguists. For example, the spellings Birri-Gubba and Bwgcolman (and probably Murrie) appear to have been decided on without seeking advice from linguists. One of the most serious sources of the confusion concerns the letter u. An illuminating example is the name of a language of New South Wales that used to be (and still is) spelt Bandjalang, e.g. Crowley (1978) and Fesl (1982).9 It is, however, spelt Bundjalung in some of more recent publications, e.g. Sharpe (1993), McKay (1996, pp. 52-53) and Reid (2010, p. 294). Sharpe (1993, p. 73) states: “We 1670

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

spell it Bundjalung so that the average English speaker will read and pronounce it correctly, as desired by Bundjalung people. In some publications for linguistically trained readers, the name is spelt Bandjalang, but the a is meant to indicate a vowel like that of English bun or lung rather than ban or Lang”. Sharpe notes that this is the community’s wish. Nonetheless, in the author’s view, adoption of the spelling Bundjalung is not advisable. The reasons for this have to do with factors such as the following: (a) accuracy, (b) consistency, (c) learnability, and (d) cultural and linguistic awareness and distinctiveness. They are closely interrelated. (a) Accuracy The argument cited above regarding the pronunciation of the letter u is not convincing. There are at least two reasons for this. (a-1) In many (or most) Australian languages, including Bandjalang itself (see Crowley (1978, pp. 13-14) and Sharpe (Ed.) (1995, p. viii)), the phonetic realisation of the phoneme /a/ is not confined to the vowel of bun ([ʌ]). Its phonetic value varies mainly depending on the preceding consonant, ranging from one similar to that in ban [æ] to the one in palm [ɑ]. The use of the letter u to present such vowels is truly misleading. (a-2) There is no need to use the letter u to present /a/. Three examples follow. (i) In 1998 the author was approached by an Aboriginal organisation in Derby, Western Australia, which was seeking a name for a new building. He recommended the word bandarang, which is the name of a tree species that grows in the area. Note that phonotactically bandjalang and bandarang are very similar: banCaCang. (“C” stands for a consonant.) He requested a couple of average English speakers in Australia to pronounce bandarang, and they pronounced the letter a like that of bun, and not like that of ban. (ii) There is a child care centre in Townsville, Queensland, whose name is Galbiri Child Care Centre. (Galbiri (/galbiri/ is the word for ‘children’ in Warrongo and a few other languages.) People pronounce the letter a like that of bun (not like that of ban) — as was the case with bandarang. (iii) Many Australian languages of north Queensland have the word bama ‘man’, and this word is used in language activities there (cf. McKay 1996, pp. 136-137). It is spelt bama, rather than, say, bumma. (b) Consistency Two examples follow. (i) Ash, Hooler, Williams and Walker (2010, p. 111) give a few Bandjalang phrases and sentences. However, the present author must confess that he does not know which instance of the letter u is intended to present /a/ and which instance of u is intended to present /u/. (ii) Ash, Hooler, Williams and Walker (2010, p. 109) contain a map that shows the names of languages, including Yugambeh, Bundjalung, Gumbaynggirr, Wanarruwa and Darkinyung. Given that the letter u may present /a/ in Bundjalung, the author is not certain how other names of the languages are pronounced. The above is despite the fact that the author is a trained linguist. The situation will be even worse for those learners of Bandjalang who are not trained linguists. The above is also despite the fact that the name of a language is probably the first word to learn when learning a language and it is possibly the most important word in the language. Furthermore, the above is despite the fact that a Bandjalang elder “stresses the importance of young people learning to pronounce language properly” (Ash, Hooler, Williams & Walker, 2010, p. 111). In the author’s view, the use of the spelling Bundjalung does not help to realise this elder’s wish. The following two facts need to be mentioned in this connection. (i) As seen in the section “Language revitalisation (2): Kaurna of South Australia”, the use of a writing system that is consistent (and different 1671

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

from the English system) — the German writing system — for recording a language, which later became extinct, enabled the reconstruction of that language. If the English system had been used, the reconstruction of the language would have been very difficult, if not impossible. (ii) Maaori people (New Zealand) employ their own writing system.10 It is highly consistent and also distinct from the English system. (The author is not a specialist in Maaori, but it is fairly easy for him to work out the pronunciation of written Maaori words.) However, this does not seem to create any confusion among average English speakers in New Zealand. They seem to know that the Maaori writing system is different from the English writing system. The same applies to the Hawaiian writing system and average English speakers in Hawaii. In contrast, this does not seem to apply in Australia. (Teaching of Australian languages at schools, e.g. Parkes High School, may help to rectify the situation.) (c) Learnability It is important to reiterate that “the survival of a given language crucially depends on whether or not the children learn it” (Tsunoda, 2005, p. 9; cited in the section “Degrees of language viability”). Now, recall John Giacon’s comment regarding the use of the letter u by Gamilaraay and Yuwaalaraay people of New South Wales: “People here, including and perhaps especially children, quickly get used to a consistent spelling system and can read it quite easily”. (It is also relevant to note that Shaqium Palmer, a Warrongo child who was 5 years old, observed the difference between rr (an alveolar tap) and r (a retroflex approximant) and pronounced them correctly. Children pick up sounds very quickly, unlike adults. See “Shaqium Palmer distinguished two kinds of r-sounds: rr and r”) In contrast, according to Sharpe (1993), the use of the spelling Bundjalung is due to the community’s wish that the average English speaker would read and pronounce it correctly. That is, the decision to replace Bandjalang with Bundjalung in effect gave priority to average English speakers, not to Bandjalang children who are going to learn the language. The author firmly believes that this is not what Bandjalang people intended. (d) Cultural and linguistic awareness and distinctiveness There has been in Australia a painful lack of understanding of Australian languages (and cultures) on the part of the general public. It is important to make them aware of Aboriginal linguistic (and also cultural) heritage. Tamsin Donaldson (p. c.) points out that average English speaking Australians would not expect to read the German writing system or the French writing system in the way they read the English writing system and that the same expectation should apply to Australian languages. Also, in the author’s view, it is important for Aboriginal Australians to assert their cultural and linguistic distinctiveness. A writing system which is different from the English system may help to foster the sense of this distinctiveness. The adoption of a spelling such as Bundjalung will not assist in any way in raising the public awareness. (This may be indeed another form of cultural assimilation.) It is relevant in this connection to mention the following. The author visited New Zealand in August 2001, in order to learn from Maaori people’s revitalisation activity. He mentioned the spelling change from Bandjalang to Bundjalung, to the linguist Tamati Te Hau, who is a Maaori person, working on the compilation of a dictionary of his tribal dialect. He responded, saying “Why do they bow to English?” (As mentioned above, Maaori people possess their own writing system, which is consistent and also distinct from the English system.) To sum up, it is truly unfortunate that the letter u is used to present the phoneme /a/. The adoption of the spelling Bundjalung, in place of Bandjalang, merely helps to perpetuate the confusion. It does not help Bandjalang children who are going to learn the language. Nor does it help to assert the cultural and linguistic distinctiveness of Bandjalang people.

1672

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

In conclusion, a voice from outside Australia (to be precise, from North America) is cited: “for passing on the accurate pronunciation of names and other cultural information, accurate spelling is crucial” (Dauenhauer & Dauenhauer, 1998, pp. 90-91).

Suggestions Regarding Writing Systems The author suggests the following for Bandjalang people —and for any people for that matter — regarding writing systems. (a) There is no need to “bow” to the language of the people “who have ripped everything off” (cf. the section “Language revitalisation (3): Bandjalang”). (b) Use a writing system that is accurate and consistent — and consequently more economical than the English writing system. Otherwise, the future generations may not know, for example, which instance of the letter u was intended to present the u sound and which instance of the letter u was intended to present the a sound. (c) Then you can say, “We have a writing system that is superior to the English writing system. The English writing system is a mess, but ours is accurate and consistent — and more economical than the English writing system”. (d) Then, Bandjalang children will have a writing system that is much easier to learn. Give priority to Bandjalang children, not to average English speakers. (e) The political climate continues to change. Currently, there may be people who in effect prefer spellings that are inaccurate and inconsistent. However, time may come when people say, “Why did our ancestors bow to the language of the people who had ripped everything off? Why did they give priority to average English speakers, not to us, their descendants? Why didn’t they recognise the importance of accuracy and consistency? Why did they perpetuate the confusion?” (f) When all these are taken into consideration, a writing system that is accurate and consistent is more profitable and beneficial to the group than one that is not.

Language Ownership and Related Issues As mentioned in the section “Language revitalisation (3): Bandjalang”, many Aboriginal Australians consider they own their ancestral language — even if they do not speak it. (See Amery (1994, p. 140, 2000, p. 44), McKay (1996, p. 101), and Nathan (1996, p. 26).) The author respects this language ownership. At the same time, in his view, all the languages of the world are important cultural assets of the entire humankind. (For example, recall that the author stated regarding syntactic ergativity as follows: “Because this phenomenon is unique among the world’s languages, it is a very important part of the cultural heritage — not only for the people of this area, but also for the entire humankind”. See “Warrongo has a unique phenomenon called syntactic ergativity”.) This applies to Bandjalang as well. When dealing with Bandjalang — or any language for that matter —, it is important to consider the entire humankind, not just average English speakers.

Roles of Linguists Regarding linguistics in general, Tsunoda (2005, p. 224) states as follows: “Of all these tasks of linguists, the most urgent ones are no doubt the following two ... (a) to document endangered languages ..., and (b) 1673

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

to benefit the communities by means of research results, e.g. for language revitalization”. In Australia, a large number of linguists have been documenting endangered languages, and probably an increasing number of linguists are participating in language revitalisation activities (see, for instance, the papers in Hobson, Lowe, Poetsch and Walsh (eds.) (2010b)). Regarding language revitalisation activities, one of linguists’ roles is to give advice on a writing system or to develop one (Tsunoda, 2005, p. 225). When confronted by spellings that are not accurate or consistent, linguists adopt at least two different approaches to deal with them. Approach 1. Certain linguists use a/the spelling that the community members like/prefer. This approach is seen in the use of the spelling Bundjalung (not Bandjalang) by Sharpe (1993, p. 73). Similarly, Bundjalung is used by McKay (1996, pp. 52-53) and Reid (2010, p. 294), among others. Approach 2. A clear example of this approach is seen in Dixon (1991b). This concerns the name of the community mentioned in (h) in “Writing systems suggested for Warrongo” above. The name is pronounced [ʤambun] or [ʤambon]. Dixon (1991b, p. 193) acknowledges that some people use the spelling Jumbun. (This spelling is inaccurate and inconsistent.) However, Dixon himself uses the spelling Jambun consistently (pp. 193, 199). (This spelling is accurate and consistent.) Linguists like Sharpe, McKay and Reid among others appear to be in the majority, while Dixon seems to be in the minority. This probably reflects the current political climate that is dominant in the linguistic academia in Australia. Despite this, the author endorses Dixon’s approach, rather than that adopted by Sharpe, McKay and Reid among others. The reasons for this include the following. Reason 1. In the author’s view, it is one of the roles of linguists, as researchers, to disseminate accurate information. To this end, it is a role of linguists to use accurate (and also consistent) spellings, for example. Reason 2. In the author’s view, it is one of the roles of linguists, as researchers, to offer the kind of information that non-linguists do not have (or are unlikely to have). In relation to the confusion over writing systems, it is a role of linguists to offer information such as that given in “Writing system suggested for Warrongo” to “Suggestions regarding writing systems” above, to community members. (Judging by the author’s own experience, it is highly unlikely that community members have such information.) Furthermore, the author considers it his role to disseminate the view expressed in “Language ownership and related issues” above. (Judging by the author’s own experience, it is highly unlikely that community members are aware of the view expressed there.) Reason 3. The surrounding political climate continues to change. (For example, when the author was recording Australian languages in Queensland in the early 1970s, not many Aboriginal Australians there were interested in their traditional languages. In contrast, nowadays (as of 2019) an increasing number of Aboriginal Australians are interested in them. The political climate that surrounds Australian languages has changed.) It is unwise for linguists to give priority to the current political climate, which is likely to change in the future. Reason 4. Recall that, regarding the name of Palm Island, Robert Blackley agrees that the spelling Bwgcolman is unfortunate and that he has spoken to many people about a more appropriate spelling. This shows that it is worthwhile for linguists to talk to community members about problems — if there is any — in writing systems. There may be people who are prepared to listen to linguists’ advice. The author is fully aware that there may be community members who find his remarks in “Other examples of problems in writing systems” and “Suggestions regarding writing systems” intrusive and offensive. (However, there may be community members like Robert Blackley.) He is also fully aware that there may be linguists who find his remarks in “Roles of linguists” intrusive and offensive. (How1674

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

ever, there may be linguists like R. M. W. Dixon.) It seems that, in the current political climate in the linguistic academia in Australia (and possibly in some other countries as well), linguists avoid pointing out or discussing the issues raised in “Other examples of problems in writing systems” and “Suggestions regarding writing systems” (although they are no doubt aware of them). This is not beneficial to community members. It is important to pay attention to the political climate. However, it is also important to consider what is the best eventually.

CONCLUDING REMARKS After the preliminary sections ((i) a brief history of Aboriginal Australians, (ii) degrees of language viability, (iii) current situation of Australian languages, (iv) value of linguistic heritage, and (v) methods of language revitalisation), the present chapter described five selected language revitalisation activities, concerning Warrongo, Kaurna, Bandjalang, Thalanyji and Wiradjuri languages. The activities for Warrongo, Kaurna and Bandjalang employ the reclamation method. That for Thalanyji is supported by a language centre, while that for Wiradjuri is carried out at a high school. The present chapter then examined a problem that is frequently encountered in language revitalisation activities — confusion over writing systems — and offered suggestions to community members and also to linguists. The present chapter provided a detailed account of the revitalisation activity for Warrongo (in which the author has been participating). In view of the fact that only five rounds of Warrongo language lessons were conducted, with a long interval between them, the Warrongo people concerned produced a remarkable achievement. Already in March 2006, some of the learners were proficient enough to produce simple sentences, including mini-conversations. If the author lived in or near Townsville and had conducted Warrongo language lessons, say, every weekend, as of 2019 the Warrongo people might be conducting conversations in Warrongo, even employing syntactic ergativity, a rare and precious gem.

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOL ABL: ablative. ACC: accusative. DAT: dative. DU: dual. ERG: ergative. IMP: imperative. LOC: locative. NOM: nominative. PL: plural. SG: singular. 1: first person. 2: second person. -Ø: zero suffix.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author wishes to express his gratitude to the following people and organisations. Rachel Cummins provided responses to his enquiries, issued permission to cite the ages of the relevant Warrongo people, and confirmed that the author’s account of the Warrongo language revitalisation activity is correct. Robert Blackley provided a response to the author’s enquiry and a comment on a draft of the present chapter. Doug Marmion and Kazuko Obata provided information on the literature and approved the way I cite Marmion, Obata and Troy (2014) in the sections “Current situations of Australian languages”, “Value of linguistic heritage” and Endnote 8. David Nathan supplied information on the literature, and he commented on an earlier version of the present chapter. De Gruyter Mouton issued permission to cite eight paragraphs from Tsunoda (2005) in the sections “Value of linguistic heritage”, “Language revitalisation 1675

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

(2): Kaurna of South Australia”, and “Language revitalisation (4): Bandjalang”. Sydney University Press issued permission for the following: (i) to cite many lines from Amery (2010) in the section “Language revitalisation (2): Kaurna of South Australia”, (ii) to cite four paragraphs from Dixon and Deak (2010) in the section “Language revitalisation (4): Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre and Thalanyji of Western Australia”, and (iii) to cite many lines from Maier (2010) in the section “Language revitalisation (5): Wiradjuri of New South Wales”. University of Adelaide Press issued permission to cite one paragraph and one sentence from Amery (2016) in the section “Degrees of language viability”. The volume editors — Masumi Kai and Toru Okamura — commented on early drafts of the present chapter and also supplied advice and guidance throughout the preparation of the present chapter. Two anonymous reviewers gave helpful comments and suggestions. Needless to say, any error or inadequacy that may remain is the author’s responsibility.

REFERENCES Amery, R. (1994). Heritage and second language programs. In D. Hartman & J. Henderson (Eds.), Aboriginal languages in education (pp. 140-162). Alice Springs, Australia: IAD Press. Amery, R. (2010). Monitoring the use of Kaurna. In J. Hobson, K. Lowe, S. Poetsch & M. Walsh (Eds.), Re-awakening languages: Theory and practice in the revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous languages (pp. 56-66). Sydney: Sydney University Press. Amery, R. (2016). Warrabarna Kaurna!: Reclaiming an Australian language. Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press. Retrieved from https://www.adelaide.edu.au/press/system/files/2019-04/uap-kaurnaebook.pdf Ash, A., Hooler, P., Williams, G., & Walker, K. (2010). Maam ngawaala: biindu ngaawa nyanggan bindaayili. Language centres: keeping language strong. In J. Hobson, K. Lowe, S. Poetsch & M. Walsh (Eds.), Re-awakening languages: Theory and practice in the revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous languages (pp. 106-118). Sydney: Sydney University Press. Austin, P. (1992). A dictionary of Thalanyji, Western Australia. Bundoora, Australia: Department of Linguistics, La Trobe University. Blake, B. J. (2006). Australian languages. In K. Brown (Ed.), Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (2nd ed.; Vol. 1, pp. 585–595). Oxford, UK: Elsevier. doi:10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/02108-8 Blake, B. J., & Dixon, R. M. W. (1991). Introduction. In R. M. W. Dixon & B. J. Blake (Eds.), The handbook of Australian languages. Vol. 4, The Aboriginal language of Melbourne and other grammatical sketches (pp. 1-28). Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Crowley, T. (1978). The Middle Clarence dialects of Bandjalang. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Dauenhauer, N. M., & Dauenhauer, R. (1998). Technical, emotional, and ideological issues in reversing language shift: Examples from Southeast Alaska. In L. A. Grenoble & L. J. Whaley (Eds.), Endangered languages (pp. 57–98). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139166959.004

1676

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

Dixon, R. M. W. (1972). The Dyirbal language of North Queensland. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139084987 Dixon, R. M. W. (1991a). The endangered languages of Australia, Indonesia and Oceania. In R. H. Robins & E. M. Uhlenbeck (Eds.), Endangered languages (pp. 229–255). Oxford, UK: Berg. Dixon, R. M. W. (1991b). A changing language situation: The decline of Dyirbal, 1963-1989. Language in Society, 20(2), 183–200. doi:10.1017/S0047404500016262 Dixon, R. M. W. (1994). Ergativity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/ CBO9780511611896 Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian languages: Their nature and development. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Dixon, S., & Deak, E. (2010). Language centre as language revitalisation strategy. In J. Hobson, K. Lowe, S. Poetsch, & M. Walsh (Eds.), Re-awakening languages: Theory and practice in the revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous languages (pp. 119-130). Sydney: Sydney University Press. Fesl, E. (1982). Aboriginal leadership - language planning. In J. Bell (Ed.), Language planning for Australian Aboriginal languages (pp. 47–53). Alice Springs, Australia: Institute for Aboriginal Development. Flood, J. (1995). Archaeology of the Dream Time: The story of prehistoric Australia and its people (Revised edition). Sydney: Angus & Robertson. Hale, K., Krauss, M., Watahomigie, L. J., Yamamoto, A. Y., Craig, C., Jeanne, L. V. M., & England, N. C. (1992). Endangered languages. Language, 68(1), 1–42. Hayes, A., & Hayes, S. (2008). Ngambunyjarri: Thalanyji plant names and uses. Port Hedland, Australia: Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre. Hobson, J., Lowe, K., Poetsch, S., & Walsh, M. (2010a). Introduction: Re-awakening Australian languages. In J. Hobson, K. Lowe, S. Poetsch & M. Walsh (Eds.), Re-awakening languages: Theory and practice in the revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous languages (pp. xxv-xxx). Sydney: Sydney University Press. Hobson, J., Lowe, K., Poetsch, S., & Walsh, M. (Eds.). (2010b). Re-awakening languages: Theory and practice in the revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous languages. Sydney: Sydney University Press. Hosking, D., & McNicol, S. (1993). Wiradjuri. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Studies. Hudson, J., & McConvell, P. (1984). Keeping language strong: Report of the pilot study for Kimberley Language Resource Centre. Broome, Australia: Kimberley Language Resource Centre. King, J. (2001). Te Koohanga Reo: Maaori language revitalization. In L. Hinton & K. Hale (Eds.), The green book of language revitalization in practice (pp. 119–128). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. doi:10.1163/9789004261723_012 Maier, S. (2010). Establishing a high school language program: The Parkes High School experience. In J. Hobson, K. Lowe, S. Poetsch, & M. Walsh (Eds.), Re-awakening languages: Theory and practice in the revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous languages (pp. 210-215). Sydney: Sydney University Press.

1677

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

Marmion, D., Obata, K., & Troy, J. (2014). Community, identity, wellbeing: The report of the Second National Indigenous Languages Survey. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. McGregor, W. (1994). Introduction. In N. Thieberger & W. McGregor (Eds.), Macquarie Aboriginal words (pp. xi–xxxiii). Sydney: Macquarie Library, Macquarie University. McKay, G. (1996). The land still speaks: Review of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language maintenance and development needs and activities. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. McNicol, S., & Hosking, D. (1994). Wiradjuri. In N. Thieberger & W. McGregor (Eds.), Macquarie Aboriginal words (pp. 79–99). Sydney: Macquarie Library, Macquarie University. Nathan, D. (Ed.). (1996). Australia’s indigenous languages. Wayville, South Australia, Australia: Senior Secondary Assessment Board of South Australia. Reid, N. (2010). English influence on the pronunciation of re-awakened Aboriginal languages. In J. Hobson, K. Lowe, S. Poetsch & M. Walsh (Eds.), Re-awakening languages: Theory and practice in the revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous languages (pp. 293-306). Sydney: Sydney University Press. Robins, R. H., & Uhlenbeck, E. M. (Eds.). (1991). Endangered languages. Oxford, UK: Berg. Schmidt, A. (1990). The loss of Australia’s Aboriginal language heritage. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. Sharpe, M. (1993). Bundjalung: Teaching a disappearing language. In M. Walsh & C. Yallop (Eds.), Language and culture in Aboriginal Australia (pp. 73–84). Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. Sharpe, M. (Ed.). (1995). Dictionary of Western Bundjalung including Gidhabal and Tabulan Bundjalung. Armidale, Australia: Department of Linguistics, University of New England. Simpson, J. (n.d.). The state of Australia’s Indigenous languages - and how we can help people speak them more often. Retrieved on 19 July 2019 from: http://theconversation.com/the-state-of-australiasindigenous-languages-and-how-we-can-help-people-speak-them-more-often-109662 Stebbins, T. (2001). Emergent spelling patterns in Sm’algyax. Written Language and Literacy, 4(2), 163–194. doi:10.1075/wll.4.2.03ste Stockley, T. (2010). Awakening or awareness: are we being honest about the retrieval and revival of Australia’s Aboriginal languages? In J. Hobson, K. Lowe, S. Poetsch & M. Walsh (Eds.), Re-awakening languages: Theory and practice in the revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous languages (pp. 90-100). Sydney: Sydney University Press. Tsunoda, T. (1981). The Djaru language of Kimberley, Western Australia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Tsunoda, T. (1996). Notes on the languages and people of Palm and Magnetic Islands and Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Gengogakurin, 1995-1996, 75–92. Tsunoda, T. (2001). Language endangerment. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (Vol. 12, pp. 8349–8353). Oxford, UK: Elsevier Science. doi:10.1016/B0-08-043076-7/03046-1

1678

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

Tsunoda, T. (2003). A provisional Warrungu dictionary (Vol. 8). Tokyo: Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, University of Tokyo. Tsunoda, T. (2004). Attempt at the revival of Warrungu (Australia): Its cultural and scientific significance. In P. van Sterkenburg (Ed.), Linguistics today - Facing a greater challenge (pp. 267–303). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi:10.1075/z.126.14tsu Tsunoda, T. (2005). Language endangerment and language revitalization. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Tsunoda, T. (2011). A grammar of Warrongo. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. doi:10.1515/9783110238778 Tsunoda, T., & Tsunoda, M. (2007). Study of language change: Language death and language revival The case of the Warrongo language (Australia). In H. Kitano (Ed.), Toonan Ajia-Gooshuu-Ahurika no shoosuuminzoku gengo no bunpoo kijutsu to gengo hen-yoo no kenkyuu: Gengo choosa to rirongengogaku-shakaigengogaku no toogoo o mezashite [Research into grammars of, and, language changes in, minority languages of Southeast Asia, Australia and Africa: Towards a unification of field research and theoretical and socio-linguistics] (Report on the research conducted on a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, No. 17520257, for the academic years 2005 to 2006) (pp. 35-110). Kariya, Japan: Aichi University of Education. Tsunoda, T., & Tsunoda, M. (2010). The revival movement of the Warrongo language of northeast Australia. In J. Dobovsek-Sethna, F. Fister-Stoga & C. Duval (Eds.), Linguapax Asia: A retrospective edition of language and human rights issues: Collected proceedings of Linguapax Asia Symposia 2004-2009 (pp. 12-18). Tokyo: Linguapax Asia.

ADDITIONAL READING Baldauf, R. Jr, & Luke, A. (Eds.). (1990). Language planning and education in Australia and the South Pacific. Clevedon, Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters. Brenzinger, M. (Ed.). (1992). Language death: Factual and theoretical explorations with special reference to East Africa. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110870602 Cantoni, G. (Ed.). (1996). Stabilizing indigenous languages. Flagstaff, Arizona: Northern Arizona University. Dorian, N. C. (1981). Language death: The Life cycle of a Scottish Gaelic dialect. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. doi:10.9783/9781512815580 Dorian, N. C. (Ed.). (1989). Investigating obsolescence: Studies in language contraction and death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511620997 Fishman, J. A. (1991). Reversing language shift. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. Hinton, L. (1994). Flutes of Fire. Berkeley, California: Heyday Books. Reyhner, J., Cantoni, G., St. Clair, R. N., & Parsons Yazzie, E. (Eds.). (1999). Revitalizing indigenous languages. Flagstaff, Arizona: Center for Excellence in Education, Northern Arizona University.

1679

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Adoption Method: A method of language revitalisation whereby a group of people adopt the language of another group. Endangered Language: A language which is no longer strong/healthy/safe/flourishing or awake/ active/lively. Language Ownership: A belief that a group of people own a language. Language Revitalisation: An activity to restore a language towards a strong/healthy/safe/flourishing or awake/active/lively state. Language Viability: Ability of a language to function as a means of communication. Roughly same as language vitality. Linguistic Heritage: Language as a cultural heritage. Reclamation Method: A method of language revitalisation: revival of an extinct language, utilizing materials recorded earlier when the language was spoken. Syntactic Ergativity: A phenomenon in which the intransitive subject and the transitive object are treated in the same way, in contradistinction to the transitive subject, at the syntactic level of a given language. Writing System: A system of letters and symbols used for writing a language.

ENDNOTES

1



2

1680

The author conducted fieldwork in two areas in Australia: in the northeast and in the northwest of the continent. From 1971 to 1974, when he was an MA student at Monash University, Melbourne, he carried out research three times in and around Townsville, Queensland in northeast Australia, recording several languages. The main focus was on the Warrongo language (also spelt Warungu, Warrungu, etc.), on which the late Alf Palmer, the last fluent speaker of the language, provided almost all the data. A major outcome of that field work is Tsunoda (2011) on Warrongo. Alf Palmer passed away in 1981. Upon a request from Warrongo people, in 2000 the author started participating in the revitalisation activity for the Warrongo language and in 2002 he started conducting Warrongo language lessons for Warrongo people. See the section “Language revitalisation (1): Warrongo of Queensland”. In 1975, when he was a PhD student at Monash University, he started field work in and around Halls Creek, Western Australia in northwest Australia, working on several languages. The major outcome is Tsunoda (1981) on Djaru (now spelt Jaru). He has been providing linguistic information to Jaru and other peoples. Terms such as “Australian Aboriginals”, “Australian Aborigines” and “Aboriginal Australians” have been used to refer to the people concerned. However, according to Rachel Cummins (see the subsection “Warrongo has a unique phenomenon called syntactic ergativity” of the section “Language revitalisation (1): Warrongo of Queensland”), the terms “Australian Aboriginals” and “Australian Aborigines” are offensive to some people and the term “Aboriginal Australians” is preferred by them (Tsunoda, 2005, p. 7). The term “Aboriginal Australians” is adopted in Tsunoda (2005) and the present chapter. It is used in many works, e.g. Hobson, Lowe, Poetsch and Walsh (2010b, p. ix).

 Australian Aboriginal Languages

3



4



5



6



7



8

9



10



Note that the late Alf Palmer himself used the expression “this language will die” (in English). It is possible that this expression was not offensive to him. A that time the political climate was different from what it is now. Syntactic ergativity was first reported by Dixon (1972) from Girramay, Jirrbal and Mamu. (They are collectively referred to as “Dyirbal language” by Dixon (1972, p. 23).) See Dixon (1994, p. 143-181) for syntactic ergativity in general and Tsunoda (2011, pp. 431-444) for syntactic ergativity in Warrongo. The author’s earlier writings such as Tsunoda (2003, 2004, 2005) use the letter u to present the phoneme /u/, e.g. Warrungu. However, his recent writings, e.g. Tsunoda (2011) and Tsunoda and Tsunoda (2007, 2010), employ the letter o to present /u/, e.g. Warrongo. For the reason for this change, see the subsection “Writing system suggested for Warrongo” of the section “Confusion over writing systems”. The letters ny, ng and y present a palatal nasal, a velar nasal and a palatal semivowel (not a close front rounded vowel), respectively. See “Introductory notes” above for the phonetic realisation of the phoneme /u/. The spelling Butchulla is used, for example, in the expression “Butchulla descendant” in Marmion, Obata and Troy (2014, p. 32). This is the language that was adopted by Aboriginal Australians of Victoria. See the section “Language revitalisation (3): Bandjalang”. Vowel length in this language is marked by the macron or by reduplication of the vowel; cf. King (2001, p. 27, note 3). The present work employs the latter method.

This research was previously published in Indigenous Language Acquisition, Maintenance, and Loss and Current Language Policies; pages 67-102, copyright year 2021 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

1681

xx

Index

A Active Learning 345, 747, 767, 1252 Active Voice 82, 263-265, 896-897, 899-900, 922, 927 Adjective 40, 84-85, 87, 102, 107, 112, 252-253, 255, 260-261, 266-267, 269-270, 272, 376, 381, 383, 392, 567, 596-598, 609, 793, 814, 880, 885, 898, 906, 929, 1160, 1226, 1277, 1408, 1453, 1458, 1473, 1566-1567, 1569, 1614 Adoption Method 1647, 1652, 1663, 1680 Adverb 84-85, 102-104, 106, 252, 266-267, 270, 272, 310, 609, 733, 814, 885, 903-904, 1160, 1566-1567 Advertising 21, 25, 43, 188, 413, 934-940, 943-947, 1213-1214, 1242, 1246, 1352, 1364, 1597-1600, 1611 Affix 91-92, 252-253, 1451-1452, 1454 Age of acquisition 205, 215-219 Alignment 399, 461, 629-630, 633, 687, 834, 991, 994, 1054, 1265, 1365, 1371, 1377, 1381, 1389, 1435, 1441-1442 allomorph 861, 872-875, 877, 879, 881 Allophone 122-123, 145, 861, 864-868, 870-871, 873, 878, 880, 1667, 1669 American Sign Language (ASL) 623, 1087-1088, 1109 Aramaic linguistic group 1149-1152, 1157, 1163, 1167-1168 Articulation 136, 140, 206, 214, 283, 329, 332, 338, 422, 425-427, 429, 431-432, 456-457, 459-460, 462-464, 467, 527, 866, 869-870, 955-956, 962, 965, 1075-1076, 1092-1094, 1106, 1221, 1271, 1438-1439, 1442, 1496, 1501-1502, 1504, 1506, 1517 associative network 321, 323 Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) 420, 432 Augmented Reality 15, 685, 687, 689-690, 697-701, 703 Austronesian Language Family 436, 1552, 1555, 1564,

1570-1571 Authorship 456, 464-466, 483, 789, 1143, 1226, 1353, 1366 Autism Spectrum Disorders 325, 331, 335 Autonomous Learning 760, 767, 1243

B baboons 1612-1614, 1619-1620, 1623, 1625-1626 Baltic countries 1033, 1037, 1039-1041, 1043-1045, 1111 Bilingual Education 372, 429, 504, 507, 515, 531-532, 769, 777, 783, 800, 844, 852, 1028-1030, 1145, 1243-1244, 1253-1254, 1272, 1324-1325, 1342, 1347-1349, 1534-1535, 1537-1543, 1546-1548, 1550-1551 Bilingualism 152, 431, 453, 493, 514-516, 531-532, 580, 828-829, 837, 952, 1071, 1127, 1166, 1196, 1200, 1211, 1253, 1280, 1303, 1313, 1316-1317, 1324, 1350, 1447, 1449-1450, 1519, 1526, 15371539, 1541-1544, 1547-1548, 1550 Biliteracy 511, 515, 1025, 1066, 1085, 1537-1539, 1542, 1544, 1547, 1549-1551 Binary feature 119 Bivaleny 454 b-learning 747, 749, 765 Blended Learning 747-748, 750-751, 753, 760-761, 764-765, 767, 1190 Bound Morpheme 91, 252-253, 272, 1379 Brain Disfunction 456

C CA 72, 203, 216, 326, 373-374, 415-416, 431, 469, 487, 515-516, 563, 565, 579, 681-682, 698-699, 719, 763, 931, 942, 962, 994, 1025, 1027-1030, 1048, 1153-1155, 1189-1190, 1272-1273, 13491350, 1470, 1483, 1488, 1494, 1510, 1547, 1571, 1611, 1677

 Volume I: 1- 551; Volume II: 552-1109; Volume III: 1110-1681

Index

Cartoons 917, 1628-1632, 1635, 1645-1646 Catalan culture 1276-1277, 1290, 1292 CDA 656, 1584-1585, 1589, 1597-1598, 1600-1601, 1609 China Coast Pidgin English 1552-1553, 1557-1559, 1565, 1571 Chomsky 79-80, 91-92, 99, 117, 119, 144, 151, 283, 321-322, 395, 400, 520, 667, 680, 723-724, 743, 875, 881, 889, 967, 1005-1006, 1024, 1414-1415, 1421, 1449, 1471, 1487 Christianity 300, 397, 1057, 1149, 1153, 1163, 1169, 1451, 1459 circumfix 252, 255 Classroom Communication 503, 1468 cline theory 1552, 1559-1562, 1568, 1572 Clinical Linguistics 324-326, 331, 333, 336, 339-340 CLT 1462, 1466, 1494, 1587 Coarticulation 119 Cochlear Implant 1104, 1109 Code-meshing 503, 505-506, 515, 517 Code-Switching 506, 515, 517, 822, 824, 826, 829-830, 838, 1006, 1544, 1549 Cognitive Linguistics 408, 1456 cognitive prompts 341, 349-351, 353-357, 359, 361 Collaborative Learning 352, 695, 748, 759, 761, 764, 767, 772, 782, 832 communication mediator 627 community engagement 1132 community of learners 771, 1023, 1049-1051, 1053, 1060, 1062-1063, 1066 compensatory hypothesis 348-350, 352-353, 361 Complementary Distribution 90, 145, 861, 864-866, 869-871, 880 computational linguistic technologies 665, 679, 684 Computational Linguistics 611, 665-667, 679, 996, 998-1000, 1002 Computer-Mediated Communication 593-594, 1369, 1371, 1375, 1377, 1386-1388, 1444 Conceptual Framework 356, 769-770, 772, 775, 788789, 1011, 1013, 1196-1197, 1204-1205, 1211, 1215, 1353, 1468 conceptual gap 492, 494, 497, 501-502 Conceptualization 393-394, 396, 399, 495, 548, 624, 636, 828, 1076, 1114-1115, 1158, 1221, 1343, 1345-1346, 1449, 1456, 1458, 1462 conflict management 1390-1392, 1394-1396, 13991400, 1402, 1404 conflicting meanings 155 Conjunction 101, 252, 257, 267-268, 272, 401, 620, 728, 858, 885, 1160, 1348, 1417, 1435, 1563, 1586 Constituent 79, 82-84, 88, 101, 111, 524, 734, 843, 1335

Content And Language Integrated Learning 518-519, 522-525, 527-531, 533, 706, 717, 719, 721-722, 840, 844, 846, 858-859, 1243, 1253, 1283 Content and Language-Integrated Learning (CLIL) 532 content creation 650-652, 983 content word 252, 311 Context Effects 205, 1511 Contrastive Analysis 110-111, 117-118, 145, 151, 1072, 1078, 1196-1197, 1200, 1207, 1211, 1213 contrastive sociolinguistics 1196-1197, 1200-1201, 1205, 1212, 1214-1215 Convergent Thinking 1406, 1416-1417, 1421, 1425 cooperating teacher 1014, 1053-1054, 1059, 1067 Cooperative Principle 934, 937, 947 Coronavirus Pandemic 1133, 1216, 1220, 1225-1227, 1231-1233 corpus language 1158-1160, 1163, 1167 counter storytelling 1014, 1019, 1022-1023, 1031 COVID-19 781, 786, 792, 794-795, 1216-1221, 12231227, 1233-1236, 1612, 1616-1617, 1622-1626, 1628-1633, 1635-1637, 1640-1645 creative subject 1407, 1409, 1411, 1414-1419, 1425 Creative Writing 285, 368, 385, 786, 791, 797, 799801, 1224-1225, 1256, 1410, 1413, 1417, 1419, 1422-1423, 1425 creativity of language 1407, 1412-1413, 1415, 1419, 1425 critical consciousness 1239, 1251, 1256, 1343-1345, 1347, 1349 Critical Discourse Approach 1597-1598, 1600, 1611 Critical Literacy 479, 482, 487, 1026, 1049, 1051, 1061, 1066 Critical Reflexivity 1010, 1031 Critical Thinking 368, 510, 523, 555-556, 563, 692-693, 695, 767, 846, 926, 1051, 1070, 1231, 1237-1256, 1348, 1415-1416, 1423, 1425 CROSS-CULTURAL INTERACTIONS 566, 571 cultural perspective 1049 Culturally Relevant, Responsive, Sustaining, and Revitalizing Pedagogy 1031 Culturally Responsive Pedagogy 471, 479, 488, 490, 1023 Culturally Responsive Practices 1067 Curriculum 360, 369, 479-481, 490, 495, 497, 500, 518, 530, 539, 542, 548, 556, 685-686, 694, 696, 699, 703, 714, 716, 762, 774-775, 787, 797, 830, 841, 844, 852, 910, 926-927, 961, 971, 1007-1009, 1011, 1014, 1017, 1019-1023, 1027, 1029, 1039, 1043-1045, 1050, 1066, 1071-1074, 1078, 1080, 1102-1103, 1112, 1115, 1126, 1130, 1132, 1144, 1146-1147, 1153, 1157, 1162-1163, 1169, 1239xxi

Index

1243, 1253, 1255, 1296, 1332, 1342, 1348, 1351, 1403, 1487, 1535-1536, 1539, 1544-1546, 1651 Cypriot Greek (CG) 1514, 1519, 1528, 1531

D Darwin 278, 321-322, 1625 Data Analysis 52, 383, 553-554, 556, 559-561, 563565, 614, 775-776, 1013, 1028, 1055, 1085, 1179, 1240-1241, 1243, 1249, 1251, 1265, 1437, 1470, 1631 Dawkins 302, 322 Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing Multilingual Learner (DML) 1109 Decoding 206, 328, 338, 477, 1042, 1044, 1264, 1411-1412, 1514-1515, 1519, 1525, 1527, 1529, 1531, 1543 Deep Learning 344-346, 350-351, 353-357, 361, 560, 998 defamiliarization 1406, 1410-1412, 1414-1415, 1425 developed countries 1211, 1320, 1328-1330, 1333 Dialectal Differences 418-419, 426-427, 429-430, 432, 864, 1278 Dialects 80, 90, 132-133, 145, 153, 364, 366, 488, 494, 517, 805-806, 809, 822, 824, 863-864, 928, 949, 962, 1040, 1070, 1073, 1077, 1081, 1085, 1124, 1135, 1150, 1152-1153, 1157, 1160, 1166, 1168-1169, 1196, 1200, 1211, 1215, 1312, 1315, 1323-1325, 1448, 1531, 1595, 1676 dialogism 280-281, 289 Digital Divide 838, 982-983, 994, 1003, 1328 Digital Era 684 Digital Society 593, 671, 673, 675, 678, 684, 1300 Digital Translanguaging 827, 833, 835, 838, 1388 Direct Object 81-82, 94-95, 97, 102, 115, 734, 815, 899 Discourse Analysis 233-235, 243-247, 249, 251, 452, 458-459, 461, 486, 520, 580, 583-585, 594, 640, 650-652, 654-656, 658, 660, 662-663, 667, 680, 684, 1064, 1070, 1114, 1196, 1198, 1202-1204, 1212-1213, 1215, 1217-1218, 1223, 1234-1236, 1271, 1386, 1388, 1492, 1573-1574, 1577-1587, 1589, 1591, 1593-1595, 1597, 1600, 1611 discourse-based approach 1573, 1587, 1590 Discursive Strategy 663 dispositive analysis 233, 238-240, 244, 246-247, 249 dissimilation 119, 128, 141-142, 144 distinctive feature 119, 126-127 divergent thinking 1406-1407, 1415-1418, 1420, 1423, 1426 Dynamic Assessment 429, 431-432, 1090, 1095-1096, 1105-1106, 1108-1109 xxii

E Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) 1109 Early Intervention 431, 1087-1088, 1090, 1107-1109, 1531 Eclectic Approach 1083, 1158-1159, 1163, 1166-1167 Educational System 523, 853, 1047, 1071, 1097, 1115, 1122, 1243, 1276-1277, 1279-1284, 1346, 1348, 1536 EFL Teaching Content 710, 721 E-Learning 680, 697, 747, 765-766, 851, 1156, 1159, 1163, 1167, 1255, 1338-1339 electromagnetic waves 1-2, 8 ELF 364, 368, 491-499, 501, 1372-1373, 1383 Emotional Intelligence 556, 565, 688, 700, 1033, 1402, 1612-1627 emotionality 785, 788-793, 796-799, 802 Emotions 5, 9, 39-40, 42, 56, 182, 300-301, 321, 331, 381, 384-385, 406, 458, 566, 575, 582-584, 586, 588-593, 617, 650, 653-654, 658-659, 667, 676, 785-787, 790-793, 795-798, 802, 845, 1201, 1207, 1216-1217, 1225-1226, 1233, 1246, 1265, 1276, 1394, 1425, 1434-1435, 1599, 1613-1614, 1616-1618, 1622, 1625-1626 Empathic Education 1612, 1626 empathic linguistic power 1612-1613, 1621, 1627 Empathy 250, 288, 309, 497, 556, 584, 591-592, 619, 709, 805, 1009, 1015-1016, 1024, 1183, 1192, 1612-1627 Empty Adjective 376, 383, 392 Endangered Language 452, 1303, 1311, 1317, 1560, 1647, 1680 endocentric 84 English As A Foreign Language 363, 376, 392, 499, 523, 565, 571, 670, 706, 721, 771, 962, 1038, 1190, 1242, 1326, 1528 English As A Lingua Franca 373-375, 491-492, 494, 497-502, 550, 1326, 1338, 1375, 1385-1388 English as a second dialect 1068, 1083, 1085-1086 English As A Second Language 80, 429, 432, 573, 747, 774, 798, 834, 879-880, 951, 955, 963, 1036, 1344, 1346, 1370, 1374, 1376, 1468-1469, 1494, 1525, 1536 English For Specific Purposes (ESP) 500, 518-520, 530, 533, 699, 706, 721, 1202, 1213 English Language Learner (ELL) 418-419, 432, 770, 1059, 1170, 1272, 1551 English Language Learners 108, 143, 268, 274, 516, 574, 579-580, 730-731, 736, 768-769, 773, 775, 780-781, 783-784, 821-822, 878, 887-888, 908, 980, 1007, 1023, 1025-1027, 1030-1031, 1052-

Index

1053, 1059, 1063-1065, 1087, 1107-1108, 11701171, 1190-1192, 1505, 1524, 1529, 1534-1536, 1544, 1547-1551, 1585 English Language Teaching 120, 152, 372, 376, 382, 491, 493-494, 499-502, 531, 553-554, 702, 719, 748, 762, 953, 961, 963-965, 971, 1066, 1071, 1084, 1465, 1468, 1472, 1487-1491, 1494, 1530, 1551 English language teaching research 553-554 English Learner (EL) 1275 English-Medium Instruction (EMI) 532-533 Epenthesis 119, 132-134, 144, 146-147, 882, 970, 1500-1501 ESOL 120, 578, 768-771, 773-777, 779-781, 961, 1103, 1258, 1385, 1573-1574 Essay 276, 278, 282, 291, 382, 384, 389, 482-483, 580, 788, 1247, 1290, 1294-1295, 1420 Ethnocentric 242, 479, 571, 1200, 1339 Ethnography 250, 547, 580, 805, 1202, 1204 executive function 334, 346-347, 361 Expressive Writing 785-786, 788-789, 796-797, 799802, 1230

F female subjectivity 1216, 1232 Fingerspelling 1109 Focus of Attention 667, 684 FOF 1473, 1494 Foreign Language 120, 149, 185-188, 190, 250, 348, 363, 371, 376, 389, 392, 491, 499, 519-533, 536-537, 539-541, 548-550, 556, 564-565, 571, 574, 580, 669-670, 705-713, 716-719, 721, 723, 730-732, 735-743, 762, 771, 827-828, 840-842, 844-859, 912, 949-950, 952, 954, 961-962, 967, 969, 981, 1036, 1038, 1044, 1085, 1113, 1115, 1117-1118, 1120-1121, 1133-1134, 1159, 11701171, 1175-1178, 1180, 1188, 1190-1191, 1193, 1238, 1241-1242, 1244, 1246, 1282-1283, 1286, 1326, 1385, 1486, 1489-1490, 1528, 1531, 1586, 1593, 1655 Foreign Language Culture 721 Foreign Language Teaching (FLT) 858 Foreign Language Teaching Methods 840 foreign markets 183-185, 187-189, 200-201, 203 Fossilization 374, 949-952, 955-965 Fourth Industrial Revolution 65, 77, 685, 700, 703 free morpheme 90-91, 109, 252-253, 272, 328 Function Words 84, 252, 255-257, 260, 271, 309-311, 335, 669, 1201 Funds Of Knowledge 1011, 1026, 1031, 1051-1052,

1061, 1064-1065, 1067, 1345

G gender stereotypes 582-583, 593 gendered writing 1222, 1236 generative creativity 1407, 1412-1413, 1426 geographical factors 1301, 1560, 1572 Global English 362, 364, 374, 492, 494, 498-499, 1326-1327, 1339, 1375 Global North 1320, 1327-1329, 1335, 1337-1339, 1341-1342, 1347 Global South 1320, 1327-1329, 1335, 1337-1339, 1341, 1348 Grammar Acquisition 1464, 1470, 1485-1486 Grammar Instruction 1464-1466, 1472, 1474, 14851486, 1489-1491 Grammar Studies 1149 Grammar-Translation Method 831, 1159-1160, 1163, 1167 grammatical cohesion 1573, 1576, 1590 Grammatical Morphology 340 Grapheme 987-988, 1514, 1518, 1532 Grigorios Barhebraeus 1149, 1155

H Hawaiian Language Revitalization 433, 438, 454 health communication 614, 616-617, 644, 647 hearing aid 1090-1092, 1098, 1102, 1104, 1109 Hearing Impairment 334-336, 340 Heterogeneous 132, 235, 250, 324, 335, 339, 435, 439, 460, 556, 1217, 1222-1224, 1233, 1236, 1242, 1407 Higher Education 250, 504, 518, 521-522, 525, 527, 529, 532-534, 536-539, 546-547, 549-550, 556, 563, 686-687, 697, 706-707, 711-712, 716-718, 720, 747, 763, 765-767, 770, 854, 856, 858, 1113, 1130, 1149, 1157, 1160, 1253-1254, 1322, 13371339, 1357, 1421, 1425, 1458, 1491 Host Country 189, 833, 1209, 1259-1260, 1271, 1275 Hybridity 499, 1332, 1340, 1343-1345, 1348, 13501351, 1384, 1387, 1545, 1548

I Ideology 34, 239, 249, 282, 295, 390, 393-395, 398-401, 433-435, 440-443, 450, 452-454, 459, 466-467, 486, 493, 505, 507, 513, 571, 650, 655, 658, 661662, 680, 1010, 1112, 1146, 1226, 1234, 1293, 1301, 1327, 1339, 1341-1342, 1344, 1347-1348, xxiii

Index

1351, 1413, 1468-1469, 1588, 1600-1601, 1605, 1611, 1646 Imagined Community 1262, 1275 incongruity resolution 1628 Index 76, 317, 333, 405, 410-411, 413, 422-423, 469, 511, 578-579, 581, 648, 719, 965, 1000, 1028, 1072, 1115, 1145, 1198, 1208, 1235, 1298, 1334, 1366, 1371, 1378, 1621, 1626, 1628-1629, 1644 Indicative 90, 207, 411, 413, 428, 480, 568-569, 885, 900-903, 905, 907-908, 923-924, 928, 930, 932, 1356, 1364, 1435 indigenous minorities 1447-1448, 1450 Indirect Object 97-98, 733 Individualized Education Plan (IEP) 1109 Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) 1095, 1109 Inference 157, 309, 312, 345, 408, 570, 612, 942, 989, 1206, 1237, 1241, 1244-1248, 1251, 1256, 1527 Inflectional properties 884-886, 909 Innovative Process in Foreign Language Learning 858 Inquiry-Based Learning 1129 inquisitiveness 1238, 1246-1247, 1256 Integration of Content and Language in Higher Education (ICLHE) 533 Intellectual Disability 324-327, 335, 340 Intelligibility 333, 425, 584, 878, 949, 953-954, 956, 959-961, 964-965, 1094, 1201, 1275, 1372, 1374, 1383, 1385, 1487 Intensifier 376, 383, 385, 392 intercultural awareness 834, 1129-1130 Intercultural Communication 187, 233-234, 239-250, 368, 497, 515, 523, 574, 627, 707-713, 715-721, 843, 846, 848-849, 857, 960, 1196-1197, 12071208, 1214, 1589, 1593 Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) 498, 705, 707, 716, 719, 721, 846, 848, 1239, 1573, 1588-1589 Intercultural Education 247, 514, 516, 548, 721, 1073, 1111-1112, 1115, 1125, 1127, 1144, 1320, 13311332, 1336, 1339 Intercultural Language Education Paradigm 707, 721 intercultural paradigm 705, 707, 710, 716 Intercultural Professional Communication 705, 713, 721 Interlanguage 122-123, 152, 516, 548, 579, 949-952, 961-965, 1372 internal grammar 723, 726-731 Internet-supported face-to-face learning 1159-1160, 1163, 1167 interpreter role 614, 616, 621, 623, 625, 627, 634635, 640 IRF 1483-1484, 1494 xxiv

J Jacob of Edessa 1149, 1154-1155 Jad 1303, 1305-1309

L L2 Imagined Community 1275 L2 Imagined Identity 1262, 1275 L2 Learning 556, 788, 790-791, 798, 878, 949, 951952, 967-969, 1191, 1237, 1239, 1242, 1244, 1250-1251, 1260, 1275 L2 pragmatics 574 Language Acquisition 117, 144-145, 151-152, 274, 338, 369, 373, 454, 495, 501, 511, 513, 516, 548, 573, 576, 579, 581, 669, 680, 726, 731, 743-745, 749, 800-801, 836, 848, 882, 949-950, 952, 961965, 980, 1005-1006, 1013, 1027, 1030, 1069, 1071, 1090, 1097-1098, 1102, 1104, 1201, 1215, 1246, 1260-1261, 1318, 1371, 1385, 1465-1468, 1470-1472, 1483-1490, 1492-1493, 1509-1511, 1513, 1516, 1524, 1527, 1529, 1531, 1534-1542, 1545-1547, 1551, 1556, 1572, 1681 Language as a Deficit 506, 517 Language Attitude 1085, 1304, 1309, 1317-1318, 1403 Language Attrition 1304, 1317 Language Awareness 981, 1032-1033, 1036-1041, 1043-1045, 1047, 1068-1079, 1082-1086, 11101112, 1115-1116, 1122, 1124-1127, 1131, 1134, 1146, 1173, 1183, 1189, 1338, 1475, 1512, 15281531, 1651, 1656, 1660 Language boundaries 503 Language Contact 152, 441, 958, 969, 980, 1166, 1214, 1303, 1315, 1570 Language death 1304, 1316-1317, 1571, 1679 Language Dehierarchisation 1110 Language Ecology 372, 534, 536-538, 547, 1125 Language Education 250, 372-373, 389, 404, 498, 507, 515, 518, 521, 531, 550, 680, 707, 716, 719, 721, 787, 839-842, 845-847, 849-854, 856-858, 967, 1046-1047, 1068, 1070, 1085-1086, 1113, 1115, 1129, 1131-1132, 1134, 1144, 1189, 1191, 1252, 1326, 1548-1550, 1592-1593, 1595 Language Endangerment 449, 1317, 1653, 1678-1679 Language Gap 502, 1171, 1534-1537, 1540-1541, 1543, 1546-1547, 1549, 1551 Language Hegemony 1008, 1031 Language Hierarchies 536, 547, 550, 1110-1111, 11131115, 1121-1122, 1124-1125, 1128 Language Ideology 433-435, 440, 442-443, 450, 453454, 505, 513, 1010

Index

Language Immersion 1120, 1276, 1279, 1281-1284, 1286 Language Impairment 336-340, 428-429, 1106 Language Learning 80, 117-118, 145, 151-152, 269270, 334, 339, 342, 348, 429, 450, 456, 460, 463, 495, 512, 514, 517-519, 522, 530-531, 533, 556, 559, 565, 571-572, 580, 669, 682-683, 723, 730731, 736, 739, 743, 745, 747, 749, 766, 775, 783, 785-788, 790, 795, 797, 800, 805, 827-828, 831832, 834, 836-838, 840-843, 845-846, 848-849, 851-852, 854-855, 858, 953, 959, 963-964, 967, 969-970, 979-981, 1004-1006, 1017, 1022-1023, 1027, 1036, 1070-1071, 1076, 1084, 1099, 1102, 1111-1113, 1116-1118, 1120-1121, 1123-1125, 1127, 1132, 1159, 1171, 1173, 1175-1176, 1180, 1188-1192, 1200, 1202, 1239, 1241, 1255, 12601262, 1273-1274, 1277-1278, 1333, 1338-1339, 1369-1371, 1374-1375, 1384-1389, 1405, 1421, 1466, 1468-1469, 1471, 1473-1474, 1476, 14861489, 1491, 1511, 1526-1527, 1529-1531, 1533, 1540, 1549-1550, 1585, 1593 language normalisation 1278-1280 Language Obsolescence 1304, 1317 Language Ownership 1647, 1664, 1673-1674, 1680 Language Personality 840, 842, 846, 849, 856, 1461 Language Planning 433, 450, 515, 1125, 1276-1281, 1283, 1286, 1288-1289, 1677, 1679 Language Policy 433, 450-453, 499, 506, 513, 531, 535-537, 547-548, 832, 1074, 1112-1114, 1128, 1304-1305, 1325-1326, 1387 Language Practice 439, 449, 502, 1134, 1373, 1383, 1389 language regard 805, 817 language revitalisation 1318, 1647, 1649, 1651-1653, 1655-1656, 1662-1667, 1671, 1673-1677, 16801681 Language Service Providers 183, 186, 190-192, 195, 203-204 Language Strategies 186, 203, 273, 534, 536-539, 547-548, 1103 Language Use 337, 363, 377-378, 380, 382, 385, 389390, 427, 434-435, 440, 450, 453-454, 491, 504506, 508-513, 537-538, 547, 670, 683, 725-726, 738, 788, 798, 806, 821, 830, 836, 912, 1042, 1044, 1048, 1052, 1066, 1069-1070, 1074, 1076, 1086, 1097, 1104, 1124, 1152, 1171, 1173, 1189, 1196-1198, 1200-1201, 1204-1206, 1209, 1211, 1215, 1217-1218, 1236, 1278, 1309, 1315, 1320, 1322, 1326, 1333-1334, 1336, 1376, 1383, 1401, 1403, 1412, 1415, 1427, 1430, 1434, 1441, 1444, 1487, 1528, 1549, 1574, 1581, 1588-1589, 1600,

1634, 1651, 1656, 1660, 1665 language viability 1647-1648, 1650, 1672, 1675-1676, 1680 Languages In Contact 503, 512, 839, 1276-1277, 1282, 1291, 1334 Late Eastern Aramaic 1149-1150, 1152-1163, 11671169 Law Bachelor 705 Le dispositif 233, 238 Learner-Centered Pedagogy 767 Learning Community 767, 772, 1049-1051, 1060-1063, 1066-1067, 1467 learning difficulties 327, 329, 368, 460, 462-463 learning disability 327-329, 335, 338, 462 Learning Environment 75, 350, 358, 429, 511, 556, 700, 706, 750-751, 763-765, 834, 858, 908, 1060, 1264, 1475, 1538 Legal Skills and Methods 685-688, 697 Level of Immersion 674, 684 lexical cohesion 1203, 1573, 1576, 1586, 1590 lexical creativity 1407, 1412-1413, 1415, 1417, 1426 Lexicalisation 1628 Lexicon 85-87, 89, 92, 114, 206, 214, 217, 343-344, 356, 411-414, 430, 432, 793, 910, 980-981, 1109, 1155-1156, 1161-1162, 1164, 1203, 1279, 14951496, 1498, 1503, 1505-1506, 1510, 1564, 1567 Linearity 79, 114, 286, 735 Lingua Franca 363, 371, 373-375, 491-494, 497-502, 536, 548, 550, 1118, 1150, 1168, 1305, 1308, 1326-1327, 1338, 1346, 1372, 1375, 1385-1388, 1554, 1557, 1571-1572 Linguistic Analysis 119, 244, 325, 393, 397-398, 650, 652, 659, 662, 665-670, 672, 678-679, 681, 684, 791-793, 796, 798, 926, 947, 1085, 1157, 1218, 1447, 1600, 1646 linguistic barriers 183, 185, 190, 199-200 Linguistic Creativity 364, 1407, 1410, 1412-1415, 1420-1421, 1424-1425 Linguistic Diversity 189, 362-363, 365, 369-370, 375, 417, 475, 479, 488, 501, 537-538, 549, 574, 1030, 1045, 1087, 1107, 1121, 1127, 1130, 1136, 1144, 1304-1305, 1449, 1535, 1538, 1540-1541, 1543, 1545, 1561, 1569 Linguistic Education 456-458, 460, 462-464, 467, 717 Linguistic Elements 650, 653-656, 658-659, 814, 1279, 1304, 1597-1598, 1600 Linguistic Expressions 297-298, 303-305, 308-309, 312-315, 317, 320, 323, 403, 1311, 1321, 1352 Linguistic Features 196, 304, 365-366, 375-378, 380, 382-385, 388, 392, 484, 503, 566, 652, 666, 788, 791, 829-830, 951, 967, 989, 1150, 1163, xxv

Index

1199, 1201, 1203-1204, 1206-1207, 1211, 1222, 1371, 1386, 1423-1424, 1427, 1437, 1559, 1585, 1587, 1598 Linguistic Funds of Knowledge 1011, 1031 linguistic heritage 1647, 1650, 1653-1655, 1675, 1680 Linguistic Identity 805, 1276-1277, 1284, 1344, 1370, 1373 linguistic landscape 1326, 1352-1353, 1356, 1365-1367 Linguistic Model of Teaching 858 linguistic personality 1447, 1450, 1459 Linguistic Perspective 1049, 1056-1058, 1067, 1146, 1222, 1585 linguistic pluralism 505, 513, 517 linguistic representation 656, 659, 662-663 Linguistic Strategies 393, 397, 586, 658, 1061, 1414 Linguistic Worldview (LWV) 1447-1448, 1451, 1456, 1458, 1462 Linguistically Diverse Learners 118, 153, 275, 566-568, 571-578, 581, 723, 732, 746, 826, 883, 933, 1050, 1065, 1513, 1573-1574, 1585-1586, 1588, 1595 Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy 1004, 1011, 1019, 1031 Linguistic-Discursive Analysis 582 Linguocultural 705, 707, 709-712, 721, 842, 845, 849-850, 1447 Linguoculturology 705, 710, 721 Linguodidactics 520, 840-847, 849, 851, 855-856, 858-859 Linking Adverbial 376, 392 Literacy Practices 471, 473-479, 481-483, 485, 488, 510, 786, 1049, 1066-1067, 1216, 1219-1222, 1228, 1232, 1234, 1387 literariness 1411-1412, 1414, 1419, 1426 Loanwords 130, 966-967, 969-980 Low-Resource Language 982, 1001 LSRW 1484, 1494

M Markedness Differential Hypothesis 145, 150, 966968, 977-978 Maslow 301, 322, 1410, 1422 mass communication and media 1196-1198, 1205, 1208, 1211, 1215 Maxim Of Approbation 934 maxim of modesty 934, 941 maxims of conversation 934, 937 Mean Length of Utterance 326, 340, 424 meaning value 393, 396, 399 meaningful literacy 785-788, 790-791, 797-798, 800-802 xxvi

Media Content 650-653, 664, 671, 1198, 1210 Mental Lexicon 87, 1495-1496, 1498, 1503, 15051506, 1510 Metaphor 33-35, 41-42, 45-47, 50, 53, 77, 234, 358, 394, 406-408, 415, 435, 794, 802, 946, 1069, 1130, 1145, 1301, 1381, 1413-1415, 1417, 1419-1420, 1426, 1441, 1456-1457, 1462, 1598 Metapragmatic Commentary 433-434, 454 metathesis 119, 128, 134, 144 metonymy 1204, 1385, 1415, 1417, 1456-1457, 1462 Michel Foucault 233, 244, 247-248 Minimal Pairs 861-863, 868-870, 874, 880, 953, 1101, 1503, 1505, 1520 minoritised language 1278, 1282 model of language hierarchies 1114 modified road traffic signs 1352-1354, 1356, 1358 Modifier 79, 84, 100-101, 103-104, 106, 109, 114-116, 1566, 1573 Monocentricism 375 Morpheme 90-91, 109, 125, 128, 142, 252-254, 269, 272, 328, 861, 871-875, 879-881, 885-886, 890892, 894-895, 902, 915, 929, 1379 Morphology 142, 155, 182, 215, 252-253, 268-270, 274, 328, 331, 335, 337-338, 340, 365, 424, 726, 814, 881, 884, 900, 903, 932, 983, 987, 990-991, 994, 996, 998, 1005, 1007, 1067, 1074, 1078, 1160, 1279, 1376-1377, 1380, 1470-1471, 1557 Mother Tongue 363, 505, 666, 748, 751, 954, 956-957, 959, 1068, 1070, 1073, 1083, 1086, 1133, 1158, 1305, 1309, 1324, 1472, 1514, 1525, 1534-1535, 1538-1543, 1546-1547, 1550-1551, 1558, 1561 Multicultural Education 485-487, 490, 708, 716, 720, 830, 838, 1027, 1112, 1127, 1320, 1331-1332, 1337, 1339, 1549 multilayer feed forward network 600 multilingual learners 1087-1088, 1105 Multilingualism 370, 433, 450, 475, 488, 497, 500, 514-516, 530, 534-535, 537, 549-550, 837, 984, 1032, 1035-1036, 1047-1048, 1089, 1126, 1130, 1139, 1145, 1200, 1211, 1281-1283, 1324-1326, 1331, 1337-1338, 1346, 1366-1367 Multiliteracies 471, 473-475, 481-483, 486, 488, 836 multimedia learning 341, 347-348, 350-355, 357-361 Multimodality 471, 488, 583, 834, 1367

N Narrative 78, 252, 297-298, 317, 322-323, 326, 338339, 378, 380, 412, 429, 483, 583-584, 588-592, 594, 652, 656-658, 663, 672, 677-678, 680, 684, 796, 799, 937, 984, 1000, 1008, 1018, 1020-1021,

Index

1066, 1108, 1141, 1143, 1145, 1202, 1204, 1214, 1216-1218, 1221-1232, 1234-1236, 1239, 1261, 1269, 1271, 1275, 1413, 1425, 1433, 1442, 1512, 1528, 1581, 1587-1588, 1594, 1637, 1646 Native speech communities 430, 432 natural class 125-128, 138-139, 141 natural language processing 596-597, 611-613, 982984, 1001 Navajo Nation 417-418, 432 Navajo-influenced English 418, 427-428, 432 needs analysis 520, 534, 539-540, 547, 550 Negative Evidence 727, 731, 744, 1382 Negative Transfer 110, 572, 730, 733-734, 926, 966967, 969, 971, 976-979 Neoliberalism 1029, 1229, 1233-1234, 1335, 13401343, 1348, 1350-1351 network of practice 1427, 1434, 1436, 1441, 1445 Neural Networks 44, 595-599, 602, 605, 610-613, 997, 1000 neural parsing 595, 599, 610 Neuro-Developmental Disorders 324, 340 Neuro-Linguistic Programming 685, 697-699, 701-703 Neurolinguistics 456-458, 460-462, 467, 667 New Literacies 360, 486, 488, 836, 1190 New Literacy Studies (NLS) 471, 488, 1191 newly arrived refugee 1263, 1275 nexus analysis 768-769, 772-773, 779-781, 783 Nigerian languages 982-985, 987-988, 992-994 Non-Standard Variety 1086 non-verbal processing 38, 43 Nordic Countries 1032, 1045, 1047, 1111, 1113, 1115, 1124, 1126, 1331-1332, 1337 Nordic societies 1110-1111, 1121, 1125 Noun 82-83, 87, 99, 101, 109-110, 252-255, 258-262, 267-268, 270, 272, 367, 424, 596, 598-599, 602, 609-611, 667, 683, 814, 885, 889, 994, 1100, 1160, 1473-1474, 1481, 1500, 1559, 1563-1567, 1573, 1666 NVivo 554-557, 562-564

O Online Anonymity 582, 585-586 Online Community 19, 1373, 1390, 1395, 1400-1401, 1433, 1443 online tools 827, 836 orthographic transparency 205-207, 218 Otherness 248, 276-277, 279-282, 286-287, 290-291, 293, 515, 1134, 1139

P Passive Voice 82, 263-265, 657, 896-900, 921-922, 927, 930 Patient Advocate 614-615, 621, 635 Peace 302, 393, 399, 654, 662, 792, 803, 1129-1132, 1134, 1139-1148, 1208, 1266, 1616 Pedagogy for EIL 367, 375 Peircean semiotics 405 perceived usefulness 1390-1391, 1394-1396, 13991401, 1403 Perfect Progressive 263, 265, 884-885, 890, 893-895, 911, 920, 927 Philology 1149, 1156-1157 Phonemic Awareness 472, 477, 1007, 1514, 1516-1517, 1521, 1526-1527, 1531-1532 Phonetic Fossilization 374, 949, 955-957, 959, 961, 964-965 Phonetics 153, 325, 332, 335-336, 339, 375, 747-748, 750-754, 762-764, 766-767, 825, 861-862, 882, 930, 949, 952, 956-957, 960-961, 965, 1072, 1076, 1078, 1160, 1377, 1506, 1509-1511, 1525 Phonological Awareness 333, 336, 338, 766-767, 1514-1527, 1529-1533 phonological competence 747, 750, 755-759 Phonology 90, 119-121, 123, 126, 149, 151-153, 206-207, 211, 214-215, 218, 324, 331-332, 335, 339, 341, 343, 365-366, 418, 427, 430, 432, 500, 747-748, 750-754, 762, 766-767, 811, 825, 861862, 882-883, 956, 963-964, 968-970, 979-980, 988-989, 996, 1005, 1007, 1050, 1076, 1078, 1092-1094, 1106, 1160, 1495, 1499, 1505, 1507, 1510, 1512-1513, 1524-1525, 1528-1530, 1557, 1563, 1569 Phonotactics 882, 1495, 1500-1501, 1504, 1508 photo-narrative 1258, 1269, 1271 Pluricentricism 375 plurilingual awareness 1032, 1036, 1048 plurilingual education 1032-1036, 1044-1046, 11101111, 1114-1115, 1124, 1129-1132, 1134, 1139, 1144, 1146 Plurilingualism 534-540, 544, 546-548, 550, 838, 1032, 1035-1036, 1045-1046, 1110-1112, 1114, 1117, 1121-1122, 1124-1125, 1129-1132, 1140 poetic features 785, 788-793, 797-798, 802 Poetry 21, 39, 282, 285-286, 343, 483-484, 785-792, 794-802, 1154, 1226, 1236, 1239 Politeness Principle 934, 941 Polysemy 217, 396, 408, 943, 1424, 1447, 1455-1458, 1462 Positive Evidence 727, 731, 1475 xxvii

Index

Positive Transfer 730, 734, 910, 926, 966-967, 969, 971, 976-979, 1539 practice and pedagogy 491 pragmatic ability 566-568, 571-572, 574 pragmatic divergence 566, 572-573, 579 Prefix 142, 167, 254-255, 268-270, 272, 328, 418, 881 Prejudice 279, 648, 943, 948, 1615, 1622, 1625, 1639 Preposition 59, 85-88, 98-99, 113, 257, 267, 272, 412, 607, 609-610, 724-725, 745, 885, 1160, 1480, 1564-1566, 1569 prepositional object 98 Prestige 403, 507, 805, 808-809, 812-813, 816, 823, 1304, 1323, 1334 Primitive Tribes 1303 Professional Communication 555, 564, 680, 705-707, 709, 711-713, 721-722, 844, 850, 854-856, 1434 Professional Development 389, 521, 722, 768-773, 776, 779-784, 1014, 1033, 1035-1036, 10451046, 1171, 1174, 1184, 1189-1191, 1195, 1536, 1539, 1546 professional development project 1033, 1035-1036 professional growth nexus 772, 780 professional subculture 707, 710-711, 715, 722 professional support networks 768-769, 772, 779, 781-782 Professionally-Oriented Language Learning 518, 533 Professionally-oriented Language Teaching 518 Proficiency 150, 272, 343, 379, 505, 509, 525, 540, 545, 556-557, 565, 571-572, 623, 635, 728, 731732, 783, 809, 822, 831, 910, 912, 952-953, 955, 959, 964, 1013, 1050-1051, 1068-1069, 1072, 1074, 1082, 1084, 1096, 1173, 1175, 1194, 1201, 1214, 1241, 1371-1372, 1377, 1450, 1458, 1469, 1472, 1476, 1503, 1509, 1514, 1519-1520, 1533, 1535-1544, 1546-1547, 1549, 1551, 1557, 1569, 1586, 1594, 1651, 1656, 1660 Pronoun 162-163, 252, 259-261, 272, 331, 365, 367, 380, 418, 424, 428, 452-453, 611, 672, 727, 734735, 739, 741, 885, 904, 1160, 1199, 1227, 1233, 1379, 1381, 1565 propositional structure 1455, 1462-1463 psychological value 297-298, 303-304, 306, 313-314, 317

Q Qualitative Data Analysis Software 553 Quantitative Data Analysis Software 553 Quantitative Research 459, 747-748, 767, 1037, 1546

xxviii

R R software 560 Radial Basis Function 595, 597, 601-602 Raji 1303, 1305, 1310-1314, 1316-1318 reclamation method 1652-1653, 1662, 1675, 1680 recontextualisation 657, 664 Recursion 79, 114, 1413 Redesigning a Society Through Empathy 1627 reduced form 1369-1370, 1378-1382 redundancy effect 341, 347-349, 352-353, 355, 359, 361 reflective competence 1237, 1250 Refugee 658, 660, 790, 822, 1007, 1258-1261, 12631264, 1266-1275 relationship model between linguistic expressions and values 303, 320, 323 re-lexicalisation 1628, 1631 reported discourse 276-277, 287-290 Rewrite and Select story 297 Rewriting Selected Stories 298, 323 Rhetoric 67, 296, 403, 416, 654, 787, 802, 984, 1147, 1153, 1196-1198, 1200-1202, 1205-1208, 12101215, 1226, 1236-1237, 1250, 1256, 1368, 1530, 1598, 1611, 1622-1623, 1627, 1631, 1646 Rime 1532 ROM chocolate bar 938-939, 941, 948

S Satire 387, 1628, 1630, 1635, 1646 Saussurean Semiotics 405 schema activation 341, 350, 355 Schwartz 144, 152, 301-302, 322, 326, 336, 730-731, 745, 1111, 1126 scientific and methodological knowledge 840-841, 843, 845, 859 Scientific Picture of Methodology 859 Scientific Theories 154, 182 Script 55-58, 215, 470, 766, 937, 939, 942, 944, 948, 1020, 1142, 1146, 1150, 1152-1153, 1158, 1160, 1163, 1308-1309, 1354, 1366, 1515, 1519 Second Language 80, 108, 110, 117, 144-145, 151-152, 186-187, 369, 376, 392, 429, 432, 438, 486, 492, 495, 501, 513-514, 524, 538, 547, 550, 556, 567568, 573-574, 576, 580, 669, 680, 683, 726, 731, 743-745, 747-749, 762-763, 766, 774-775, 781, 783, 785-787, 790, 796, 798-801, 805, 822, 828, 834, 836, 838, 878-880, 882-883, 949-953, 955, 961-965, 978, 980-981, 1005-1006, 1027, 1030, 1036, 1103, 1173, 1190, 1201, 1238, 1258, 1260, 1344, 1346, 1370-1372, 1374, 1376, 1384-1386,

Index

1405, 1465-1470, 1472-1474, 1476-1477, 14841490, 1492-1495, 1509-1511, 1513-1514, 1525, 1527-1531, 1533, 1535-1536, 1538-1540, 1542, 1545-1547, 1550-1551, 1587, 1593, 1626, 1676 Second Language Acquisition 117, 144-145, 151-152, 369, 495, 501, 513, 576, 669, 680, 731, 743-745, 749, 801, 836, 882, 949-950, 952, 962-965, 980, 1027, 1030, 1201, 1260, 1371, 1385, 1466, 1470, 1485-1490, 1492-1493, 1509-1511, 1513, 1527, 1529, 1531, 1535-1536, 1539, 1542, 1545-1547, 1551 segmentals 1495, 1498-1500, 1504-1506 SEL 1316 selecting a story 298, 305, 320, 323 Semantic Field 668, 676-677, 682, 684, 1462 Semantics 1, 18-19, 36, 38, 62, 81, 154-156, 182, 206207, 214-215, 324, 328, 335, 340-341, 343, 397, 400, 424, 682, 931, 934-935, 937, 944, 948, 1050, 1067, 1074, 1078, 1160, 1198, 1202, 1448, 1462 semiotic repurposing 1352-1354 Semiotic Resources 433-434, 444, 447, 449-450, 454, 503, 512, 1346, 1354, 1363, 1366, 1637 sensory perception 1-2, 75 Sentence 19, 79-86, 90-93, 95-98, 101-102, 104, 106110, 112-113, 115-117, 134, 252-255, 257-261, 263-268, 270-271, 344-345, 366, 380, 386, 397, 412, 418, 423-424, 427-428, 520, 555, 570, 573, 590, 595-597, 610-613, 657, 667, 683, 724-725, 728-729, 731-735, 739, 741-742, 745, 750, 885-889, 895-906, 908-909, 914-916, 918-924, 927-930, 932, 992, 1059, 1076, 1100, 1203, 1226, 1297, 1326, 1379, 1413, 1426, 1465, 14701471, 1473-1474, 1477, 1480-1481, 1485, 1502, 1505-1506, 1520, 1523, 1564-1565, 1575-1578, 1656-1661, 1669, 1676 SIL International 997, 1561, 1572 situated semiotics 1352-1356, 1365-1366 Skepticism 836, 1240, 1245, 1251, 1256, 1293, 1631 Smes 183-184, 188, 196, 203-204, 1642 Social Capital 1005, 1009, 1022, 1031, 1429, 14421443, 1445 social identification 1206, 1427-1428, 1430-1431, 1433, 1435, 1442 social imagination 393-397, 399 Social Inclusion 456, 458, 460, 462-463 Social Issues 301, 309, 311, 652-656, 658-659, 664, 1027, 1029 Social Justice 331, 484-485, 505, 514, 837, 1012-1013, 1024, 1049, 1051-1052, 1061, 1063-1065, 1067, 1239, 1245, 1340, 1343, 1345, 1347-1348, 1626 social languages 474, 484, 488, 490

Social Meaning 376, 449, 1202, 1354 Social Networks 52, 515, 671, 771, 783-784, 805, 820, 825, 1196, 1208, 1210-1211, 1238, 1242, 1246, 1261, 1285, 1427-1428, 1520 Social Science 59, 554, 561, 647, 661, 698, 766, 963, 965, 1000, 1213, 1256, 1290-1291, 1295, 1491 Social Structure 825, 1290-1291, 1293, 1409, 14111412, 1419, 1445 sociocultural identity 1269, 1347 Sociocultural Pedagogical Model 1237 Sociolinguistic Identity 1258 Sociolinguistics 364, 376, 389, 391-392, 409, 415, 474, 476, 488, 501, 530, 647, 667, 764, 802, 805-806, 810, 815, 824-826, 1126, 1196-1197, 1199-1202, 1204-1206, 1208, 1211-1215, 12351236, 1241, 1256, 1258, 1261, 1275, 1290-1297, 1301, 1316, 1367, 1386, 1388, 1412, 1428, 1462, 1489, 1571-1572, 1627 Sociology Of Language 451, 550, 580, 825, 1128, 1290, 1462, 1488 Socio-Political Factors 1077, 1552, 1560-1561, 1568, 1572 spam e-mails 582-584, 586, 588, 591 Speech Acts 566, 568-571, 574-576, 579-580, 659, 931, 1205, 1587, 1600, 1611 Speech Learning Model 144, 967-969, 971, 977-978, 1498 Speech-Language Assessment of Navajo students 417 Speech-Language Impairment (SLI) 419, 432 SPSS 553-565, 754 Standard English 92, 363-364, 375, 500, 502, 960, 1008, 1068-1086, 1323, 1327 statistical techniques 553, 557, 559, 561 Steam 65, 1129-1132, 1136, 1139-1140, 1144, 1146 Stereotype 806, 943, 1639 stochastic model 297-298, 304-305, 320 strategies in naming 205 strengthening teacher education 768, 772 subalternity 1342, 1347-1348, 1351 Subject-Integrated Teaching 859 Subjectivity 40, 460, 467, 548, 788, 849, 1203, 12161218, 1222, 1225-1226, 1232-1233, 1245, 1351, 1385 subjunctive 900, 903-908, 923-925, 928, 930-931, 933 Suffix 84, 90-92, 142, 252, 254-255, 267-270, 328, 369, 654, 871-874, 876-877, 879, 1452-1453, 1566, 1655, 1659, 1675 suprasegmentals 1495, 1499-1500, 1504-1506 Syllable 109, 126, 129, 131-134, 136-138, 140, 146, 152-153, 209, 221, 271, 329, 333, 750, 865-868, 870, 874, 970, 989, 1093, 1101, 1103, 1499-1500, xxix

Index

1509, 1516-1517, 1523-1524, 1532 syntactic ergativity 1653-1655, 1660, 1673, 1675, 1680-1681 Syntactic Properties 884-886, 928, 1198 Syntax 13, 19, 62, 79-80, 82, 93, 114, 117-118, 151, 189, 324, 326-329, 331, 335, 340-341, 343, 356, 365, 400, 410, 418, 424, 426, 428, 430, 469, 472, 483, 509, 559, 561, 565, 680, 723, 730-732, 736, 738-739, 743, 746, 751, 884, 886, 889, 900, 931, 1050, 1067, 1072, 1074, 1078, 1160, 1382, 1426, 1464, 1470-1472, 1483-1484, 1557-1558, 1567 Syriac Language 1164, 1167 Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) 684, 1196-1197, 1202-1204, 1211, 1213, 1215

T teacher candidate 1054-1055, 1059-1060, 1062, 1067 Teacher Cognition 1032-1037, 1046-1048, 1171-1173, 1189-1190, 1486 Teacher Talk 1464-1470, 1472, 1475-1476, 1483-1486, 1488-1489, 1491-1493, 1595 Teaching And Learning 274, 327, 348, 360, 373-374, 474, 487-488, 490-491, 499, 501, 532, 556, 574, 576, 580-581, 676-677, 686-688, 693, 702, 723, 725-726, 737-738, 770, 772, 780, 782, 838, 842, 846, 851, 954, 1028, 1030, 1050, 1052, 1055, 1060-1061, 1067, 1086, 1103, 1145, 1163, 1246, 1252, 1281, 1386-1388, 1464-1465, 1468-1469, 1472, 1475, 1485-1486, 1491, 1511, 1535, 1542, 1546, 1548-1549, 1573, 1587, 1589, 1623 teaching content 710-711, 715, 721 Technology (Methodology) of FLT 859 Technology in Researches 553 Teleuts 1447-1448, 1450-1453, 1456-1463 text types 1580-1582, 1587, 1590-1591 therapeutic alliance 614, 628, 647 therapeutic communication 614-621, 625, 627, 633634, 639-645 therapeutic mediator 640, 642, 646 therapeutic rapport 614-615, 619-620, 628-629, 637640, 642, 645 Third Space 1065-1066, 1340, 1342-1345, 1348, 1350-1351, 1548 Tok Pisin 1552-1553, 1559-1560, 1563-1564, 15661570, 1572 transdisciplinary approach 362-363, 369-371, 375, 501 Translanguaging 371-372, 503-507, 509-517, 549, 580, 827-838, 1126, 1340, 1345-1347, 1349-1351, 1367, 1369, 1375, 1388, 1544, 1547-1549 translatability 276-277, 282, 290-291 xxx

translation industry 183-184, 191, 193, 196-199, 203 translation movement 1149, 1153 Translation-Grammar Method 1160, 1167 translingual learning 827, 836 Translingual Practice 454, 836 Transnational Feminism 1216, 1220-1221, 1236 tribal languages 1303 Turkish orthography 205 Twitter 40, 45, 308, 313-316, 322, 483, 1208, 1637

U underspecification 119, 126, 128 Universal Grammar 80, 119, 144, 150, 723, 728, 743745, 951, 967, 1006 universal value 297-301, 303, 308, 320-321, 323 University of Salamanca 747, 1149, 1156-1157, 1160, 1162-1164, 1169 University Supervisor 1054, 1067 unmarkedness 966-971, 977-978 Usage frequency of jargons 1390, 1394-1395

V value model 303, 323 value strategy 309, 313, 318, 323 Verb 81-84, 86, 90-92, 94-95, 97, 103-104, 110-112, 115, 129, 134, 255, 259, 261-266, 268, 270, 272, 286, 296, 329, 332, 334-335, 339, 367, 418, 420, 424, 426, 428, 430, 446, 466, 567-569, 596-598, 609, 611, 667, 724, 726, 728, 730, 732, 741, 814815, 872-873, 884-909, 911, 914-925, 927-930, 932-933, 1078, 1100, 1160, 1198, 1313, 14731474, 1477, 1479-1480, 1484, 1500, 1564, 1567, 1605, 1666 Vernacular 435, 449, 816, 824, 826, 1068-1069, 10711072, 1084-1086, 1152, 1169 views of technology 665-666, 671 virtual community 1373, 1427-1428, 1430, 1435, 1442 Visual/Semiotic Elements 1597

W Warrongo 1647, 1649, 1651-1662, 1667-1669, 16711675, 1679-1681 Wellbeing 8, 638, 785, 789-790, 795, 797, 801-802, 1612-1613, 1621, 1651, 1678 word gap 1534, 1537, 1549 Working Memory 53, 334, 338, 341-342, 346-350, 353-359, 361, 391, 1418, 1420-1422, 1424 World Englishes 363-365, 367, 369, 372-373, 375,

Index

494-495, 498-502, 515, 564, 961, 980, 1215, 1326-1327, 1337, 1339, 1372, 1375, 1384-1388 Worldviews 292, 467, 481, 665-667, 670-672, 675, 678-679, 722, 1010, 1022, 1205, 1210, 1579, 1584, 1597, 1607

Writing System 207, 466, 918, 1109, 1516, 1532, 1654, 1656, 1661-1663, 1667-1669, 1671-1674, 1680-1681

xxxi