Dissertations / Theses: 'Non-native speakers of English'

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Paetzold, Gustavo Henrique. "Lexical simplification for non-native English speakers." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2016. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/15332/.

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Lexical Simplification is the process of replacing complex words in texts to create simpler, more easily comprehensible alternatives. It has proven very useful as an assistive tool for users who may find complex texts challenging. Those who suffer from Aphasia and Dyslexia are among the most common beneficiaries of such technology. In this thesis we focus on Lexical Simplification for English using non-native English speakers as the target audience. Even though they number in hundreds of millions, there are very few contributions that aim to address the needs of these users. Current work is unable to provide solutions for this audience due to lack of user studies, datasets and resources. Furthermore, existing work in Lexical Simplification is limited regardless of the target audience, as it tends to focus on certain steps of the simplification process and disregard others, such as the automatic detection of the words that require simplification. We introduce a series of contributions to the area of Lexical Simplification that range from user studies and resulting datasets to novel methods for all steps of the process and evaluation techniques. In order to understand the needs of non-native English speakers, we conducted three user studies with 1,000 users in total. These studies demonstrated that the number of words deemed complex by non-native speakers of English correlates with their level of English proficiency and appears to decrease with age. They also indicated that although words deemed complex tend to be much less ambiguous and less frequently found in corpora, the complexity of words also depends on the context in which they occur. Based on these findings, we propose an ensemble approach which achieves state-of-the-art performance in identifying words that challenge non-native speakers of English. Using the insight and data gathered, we created two new approaches to Lexical Simplification that address the needs of non-native English speakers: joint and pipelined. The joint approach employs resource-light neural language models to simplify words deemed complex in a single step. While its performance was unsatisfactory, it proved useful when paired with pipelined approaches. Our pipelined simplifier generates candidate replacements for complex words using new, context-aware word embedding models, filters them for grammaticality and meaning preservation using a novel unsupervised ranking approach, and finally ranks them for simplicity using a novel supervised ranker that learns a model based on the needs of non-native English speakers. In order to test these and previous approaches, we designed LEXenstein, a framework for Lexical Simplification, and compiled NNSeval, a dataset that accounts for the needs of non-native English speakers. Comparisons against hundreds of previous approaches as well as the variants we proposed showed that our pipelined approach outperforms all others. Finally, we introduce PLUMBErr, a new automatic error identification framework for Lexical Simplification. Using this framework, we assessed the type and number of errors made by our pipelined approach throughout the simplification process and found that combining our ensemble complex word identifier with our pipelined simplifier yields a system that makes up to 25% fewer mistakes compared to the previous state-of-the-art strategies during the simplification process.

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Hewings, Martin John. "The English intonation on non-native speakers." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.511650.

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It is widely assumed, first, that errors of English intonation by learners represent a significant barrier to effective communication and, second, that these errors result from differences between the intonation systems of English and the learners' mother tongues. However, little work has been done to establish the extent of the errors, their characteristics, or their origin. This study compares intonation in a corpus of recordings from 12 adult native-speaker informants and 12 adult learners of English, four each from Korea, Greece and Indonesia. The main data analysed are 24 parallel readings of a scripted dialogue. Findings are checked against intonation choices in samples of spontaneous speech from the same informants. The descriptive and interpretative apparatus used is the "discourse intonation" model outlined in Brazil (1985a). Comparison focuses on the functional oppositions recognised in this model, realised in the systems of prominence, tone, key and termination. Excluded from the comparison are the phonetic implementation of these categories, such as the typical shape of falling or rising tones, and other non-systemic features. The main findings of the study are that the native and non-native informants generally make the same intonation choices to achieve the same communicative goals. Differences are seen to arise from the non-natives' lack of proficiency in English, their lack of awareness of the role of intonation in social conventions, and the influence of prior teaching. Implications of these findings for teaching intonation are discussed.

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Nymeyer, Kayla Marie. "Parameters that Affect the Comfort Levels of Native English Speakers Communicating with Non-Native English Speakers." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2015. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5770.

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This study explores how native English speakers (NESs) are affected by the backgrounds of non-native English speakers (NNESs) when it comes to being comfortable interacting with then in English. Speech samples of 12 NNESs were gathered from the Level Achievement Tests conducted at Brigham Young University's English Language Center. There were six speakers who spoke Spanish as their first language (L1) and six speakers who spoke Chinese as their L1. In each L1 group, there were two Low proficiency speakers, two Mid proficiency speakers, and two High proficiency speakers. The speech samples were included in a Qualtrics survey which was completed by 122 American NES participants. The NES participants listened to each speech sample and rated their comfort level interacting with each NNES speaker in six different communication situations categorized as either formal or casual. The results were statistically analyzed in order to determine the effect of proficiency level, L1, and communication situation on NES comfort levels in NNES interactions. High proficiency speakers were rated significantly higher than Mid proficiency speakers which were in turn rated higher than Low proficiency speakers. Spanish L1 speakers were rated higher than Chinese L1 speakers. The more casual communication situations were ranked higher than the more formal communication situations. A statistical analysis of the interaction between proficiency level and L1 revealed that Spanish L1 speakers were strongly preferred at higher proficiency levels but Chinese L1 speakers were preferred at lower proficiency levels. These results suggest that Spanish L1 speakers have a greater need to be higher than Low proficiency while Chinese L1 speakers have a greater need to achieve High proficiency. NNESs who anticipate being in formal situations should also aim for High proficiency.

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Cheng, Winnie, and 鄭梁慧蓮. "Intercultural communication between native and non-native speakers of English." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2002. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B29711629.

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Cheng, Leung Wai-lin Winnie. "Intercultural communication between native and non-native speakers of English /." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 2002. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B24873287.

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Borden, David S. (David Scott). "Non-Native Speakers of English and Denominal Regularization." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1994. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc279230/.

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The purpose of this study was to determine whether nonnative speakers of English have access to specifically-linguistic constraints governing past tense morphology. Forty non-native speakers of English rated the naturalness of 29 exocentric, or headless, verbs in a partial replication of Kim, Pinker, Prince, and Prasada (1991) which looked at the same phenomenon in native speakers. Nonnative speaker performance was similar to the 40 subject native speaker control group. A correlation also existed between length of residence and subject ratings. The results imply that non-native speakers have access to the rules governing past tense morphology although not as completely as native speakers.

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Im, Jiyon Michelle. "Native English speakers' perceptions of intelligibility in the extended discourse produced by non-native speakers." [Ames, Iowa : Iowa State University], 2007.

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Yeh, Ellen. "Parental Involvement in Non-Native English Speakers' Postsecondary Enrollment." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1400070424.

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Sacak, Begum Sacak. "Hypertext Reading Strategies of Advanced Non-Native English Speakers." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1534161093520165.

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Huang, Lan Fen. "Discourse markers in spoken English : a corpus study of native speakers and Chinese non-native speakers." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2011. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/2969/.

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This thesis explores the use of discourse markers (DMs) in the speech of Chinese non-native speakers (NNSs) of English and native speakers (NSs), using corpus methodologies, the 'Linear Unit Grammar' analysis (Sinclair and Mauranen 2006) and text-based analyses. It reports that the DMs for analysis, 'like', 'oh', 'well', 'you know', 'I mean', 'you see', 'I think' and 'now', occur more frequently in the dialogic genres than in the monologic genres extracted from the three corpora, SECCL, MICASE and ICE-GB. The co-occurrence of DMs is taken as evidence to determine the categories for discussion with the suggested functions being secondary interpretations. Surprisingly, there are similarities in the use of DMs between Chinese NNSs and NSs. For the differences, some require NSs to become more tolerant and inclusive of the versions of English and some require pedagogical interventions for the Chinese NNSs. This thesis demonstrates that the use of DMs correlates with the genre, context, type of activity and identity of the speaker. All such factors affect the speakers' choice of a DM to use when giving priority to discourse organisation, fluency, the engagement of the listeners, the construction of the speaker‟s persona and the creation of solidarity.

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Suntornsawet, Jirada. "The intelligibility of Thai-accented English pronunciation to native and non-native speakers of English." Thesis, University of York, 2017. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/22126/.

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World Englishes (Kachru, 1985) and English as an International Language (EIL) are grounded in the concept of multiplicity. Such proliferation of non-native varieties of English leads to several controversies including the intelligibility of its speakers. Although the concerns have been continuously addressed in EIL research, the focus was mainly toward major ESL accents. Thai English language educators know very little about the scenario of Thai English in relation to its use in international settings. This study explored the macro-sociolinguistic characteristics of Thai English of which the underlying investigation: what level of Thai accentedness in English pronunciation can be considered intelligible to international users of English and what pronunciation features instances result in intelligibility failure, was undertaken. Thai-accented English spontaneous speech with different levels of accent was measured for overall intelligibility using a transcription task performed by the listeners from a variety of different L1 backgrounds. Intelligibility level was measured by the accurate transcription of the recorded speech while the errors in transcription were phonetically analysed to ascertain which phonological features of Thai English led to a decrement in intelligibility. With the concept of Lingua Franca Core (LFC) (Jenkins, 2000), these features must be the focus in teaching English for communicative purposes. Analysis of the results revealed that the interaction between level of accent and intelligibility affected the different L1 groups in a diverse manner, especially non-native speakers. The salient features identified as posing the highest threat to international intelligibility were cluster simplification, consonant devoicing, lack of final consonant released, and fully stressed unstressed vowels. This research also discovered that intelligibility predictors as gained from subjective methods as questionnaires displayed an unstable correlation to the actual intelligibility as measured by the objective tests.

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Wynne, Hilary Suzanne Zinsmeyer. "The phonological encoding of complex morphosyntactic structures in native and non-native English speakers." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:39fd5b76-2099-4f42-a428-e4c2df39685d.

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Theories of phonological word formation (e.g. Selkirk 1980, 1986; Nespor & Vogel 1986; Lahiri & Plank 2010) assume that prosodic units are not isomorphic with syntactic units. However, the prosodic status of compounds remain uncertain, at least in so far as language planning and phonological encoding is concerned. Theories are not transparent about the prosodic status of compounds: although a noun-noun compound in English consists of two lexical words (and therefore two prosodic words), it can also act as a single prosodic item by exhibiting main stress on the first unit and carrying inflection. Thus the question remains controversial - should these items be treated as a single prosodic unit, similar to a monomorphemic word, or as two distinct units for the purpose of post-lexical representation? Recursive word formation may suggest that compounds are a single unit. Psycholinguistic evidence measuring speech onset latency in native speakers of Dutch and Portuguese also shows compounds being treated as single prosodic units (Wheeldon & Lahiri 1997, 2002; Vigario, 2010). Although recent studies have produced evidence for the prosodification of compounds in native speakers, little is known about the process in non-native speakers. Our research questions are as follows: what is the post-lexical planning unit in English, and how do non-native fluent speakers of English plan these units for the purpose of phonological encoding? To investigate our hypotheses, we focus on the phonological encoding of compounds with and without encliticisation, for native and non-native speakers of English. In a series of delayed priming tasks, we found overwhelming evidence that reaction times reflected the total number of prosodic units in the target sentence. In online tasks, however, speech latencies only reflected the size of the first prosodic unit. Taken together,these results suggest that, despite containing two lexical and prosodic words, English compounds are planned as single prosodic units, exhibiting encliticisation and reaction times similar to those of monomorphemic words. As shown by the results in this study, this naming paradigm has proved extremely beneficial for eliciting data about the structure of prosodic units in speech production. Not only was it successful for native speakers of Dutch, European Portuguese, and English, we also found that it was easily implemented into a study of post-lexical encoding in non-native speakers of English.

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Stein, Marcela. "The academic writing experience of non-native speakers of English /." Full text available online, 2008. http://www.lib.rowan.edu/find/theses.

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Sollid, Helena. "Attitudes To Swearwords : Gender Differences among Native and Non-native Speakers of English." Thesis, Mid Sweden University, Department of Humanities, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-8526.

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Alameen, Ghinwa. "The use of linking by native and non-native speakers of American English." [Ames, Iowa : Iowa State University], 2007.

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Koyama, Tetsuharu. "Universals in perceived politeness: Comparison of native and non-native speakers of English." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/278766.

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Notwithstanding its significance as a communicative apparatus for social interaction, the general mechanism of politeness has been less clear partly because a wide variety of realization patterns of politeness strategies exist across cultures and languages. Researchers who are sensitive to the cultural and linguistic diversities of communication styles have claimed that politeness varies in its conceptualization and practices across cultures and languages, whereas linguists in pragmatics have assumed that politeness is a part of a universally rational communication system that operates in the same way for any language user. This study attempts to investigate the universal mechanism of politeness presumably built into any language system. At the same time, potential cross-cultural differences in values assigned to politeness are explored to determine what interferes with people's universal competence in perceiving politeness. In comparing native and nonnative speakers of English, people's judgments of politeness and other notions closely related to politeness were assessed for several speech act types in English. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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Morris-Adams, Muna. "Coherence and understanding in informal conversations between native and non-native speakers of English." Thesis, Aston University, 2008. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/15357/.

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This study investigates informal conversations between native English speakers and international students living and studying in the UK. 10 NNS participants recorded themselves during conversations with native speakers. The audio-recordings were transcribed and a fine-grained, qualitative analysis was employed to examine how the participants jointly achieved both coherence and understanding in the conversations, and more specifically how the NNSs contributed to this achievement. The key areas of investigation focused on features of topic management, such as topic initiations, changes and transitions, and on the impact which any communicative difficulties may have on the topical continuity of the conversations. The data suggested that these conversations flowed freely and coherently, and were marked by a relative scarcity of the communicative difficulties often associated with NS-NNS interactions. Moreover, language difficulties were found to have minimal impact on the topic development of the conversations. Unlike most previous research in the field, the data further indicated that the NNSs were able to make active contributions to the initiation and change of topics, and to employ a range of strategies to manage these effectively and coherently. The study considers the implications which the findings may have for teaching and learning, for second language acquisition research, and for non-native speakers everywhere.

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Guo, Xiaotian. "Verbs in the written English of Chinese learners : a corpus-based comparison between non-native speakers and native speakers." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2006. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/871/.

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This thesis consists of ten chapters and its research methodology is a combination of quantitative and qualitative. Chapter One introduces the theme of the thesis, a demonstration of a corpus-based comparative approach in detecting the needs of the learners by looking for the similarities and disparities between the learner English (the COLEC corpus) and the NS English (the LOCNESS corpus). Chapter Two reviews the literature in relevant learner language studies and indicates the tasks of the research. The data and technology are introduced in Chapter Three. Chapter Four shows how two verb lemma lists can be made by using the Wordsmith Tools supported by other corpus and IT tools. How to make sense of the verb lemma lists is the focus of the second part of this chapter. Chapter Five deals with the individual forms of verbs and the findings suggest that there is less homogeneity in the learner English than the NS English. Chapter Six extends the research to verb–noun relationships in the learner English and the NS English and the result shows that the learners prioritise verbs over nouns. Chapter Seven studies the learners’ preferences in using the patterns of KEEP compared with those of the NSs, and finds that the learners have various problems in using this simple verb. In this chapter, too, my reservations about the traditional use of ‘overuse’ and ‘underuse’ are expressed and a finer classification system is suggested. Chapter Eight compares another frequently-occurring verb, TAKE, in the aspect of collocates and yields similar findings that the learners have problems even with such simple vocabulary. In Chapter Nine, the research findings from Chapter Four to Chapter Eight are revisited and discussed in relation to the theme of the thesis. The concluding chapter, Chapter Ten, summarises the previous chapters and envisages how learner language studies will develop in the coming few years.

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McGuire, Michael Larson-Hall Jenifer. "Formulaic sequences in English conversation improving spoken fluency in non-native speakers /." [Denton, Tex.] : University of North Texas, 2009. http://digital.library.unt.edu/permalink/meta-dc-11024.

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Carrol, G. "Found in translation : a psycholinguistic investigation of idiom processing in native and non-native speakers." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2015. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30651/.

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Idioms, as highly familiar word combinations, are processed quickly by native speakers, but are problematic for non-native speakers even at high levels of proficiency. In this thesis I explore the representation of idioms in the monolingual and bilingual lexicons. In a series of studies I investigate how native and non-native speakers of English process English idioms and idioms translated from another language. In Study 1 I used a lexical decision task to test how much an expected word is primed following the first part of an idiom, e.g. on the edge of your… seat. English native speakers and Chinese-English bilinguals were tested using English idioms and translations of Chinese idioms (e.g. draw a snake and add… feet). In Study 2 I presented the same materials in short passages to allow for more natural presentation and used eye-tracking to investigate the reading patterns for all items. I also compared figurative and literal uses of the same items to see how easily non-native speakers were able to process non-compositional meaning in the L2. In Study 3 I used the same methodology (eye-tracking of idioms used in short sentence contexts) with a higher proficiency group (Swedish-English bilinguals), with much shorter, less predictable idioms (e.g. break the ice/bryta isen) and included a set of idioms that exist in both L1 and L2. All three studies point to the same conclusion: that even in an unfamiliar translated form, the expected lexical combination was facilitated (idioms showed faster processing than control phrases), but only the highest proficiency participants also showed evidence that they were able to process the figurative meanings without disruption. Congruent items show no additional advantage, hence it is clearly L1 knowledge of what words ‘go together’ that drives the effect in translation. In Study 4 I extended this by contrasting idioms with other types of formulaic phrase: literal binomials (king and queen) and collocations (abject poverty). All types showed faster reading compared to equally plausible control phrases. I then used formulaic component words in separated contexts to see whether any lexical priming effects are observed when the formulaic frame is compromised. Only idioms showed evidence of a formulaic advantage in this condition, while binomials showed evidence of semantic priming and collocations showed evidence of disruption. Importantly, different factors relevant to each formulaic type show an effect on how they are processed, e.g. idioms were driven by predictability, while binomials were driven more by the strength of semantic association between component words. The results overall provide a valuable new perspective on how formulaic units are represented in the mental lexicon. The fact that faster processing is seen for translated forms shows that idioms are not processed as unanalysed whole units, since L1 influence must be contingent on the individual words activating translation equivalent forms. This also shows that non-native speakers do not show fundamentally different processing in their L2 than native speakers, and ‘known’ word combinations are processed quickly regardless of the language of presentation. Compared to idioms, other formulaic types also show fast processing in canonical forms, but are more variable in whether or not the component words also show lexical priming in non-formulaic contexts. Formulaicity therefore exists at multiple levels of representation, encompassing lexical, structural and conceptual properties of word combinations.

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Bergqvist, Thérèse. "Compliment responses among native and non-native English speakers : Evidence of pragmatic transfer from Swedish into English." Thesis, Stockholm University, Department of English, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-36990.

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The study of appropriateness in language use is part of pragmatics, and how speakers give and respond to complements is a source of data in such studies. Compliments are strategies to explicitly or implicitly ascribe qualities that are mutually appreciated by the speaker and the addressee of a compliment. When individuals from different cultures interact in conversations, including the giving and receiving of compliments, and their behaviour is based on different conventions, it may lead to misunderstandings. Earlier studies (Cedar, 2006 & Sharifian, 2005, 2008) suggest that pragmatic transfer can cause cross-cultural misunderstanding. Second language users seem to transfer first language pragmatic rules into second language domains. This study will examine whether pragmatic transfer occurs in Swedish as first language into English as a second language in compliment responses. It will be assumed that pragmatic conventions are influenced by both linguistic and social norms. A Discourse completion task was used in order to obtain the data. The Discourse completion task consisted of one questionnaire in English, and one translated into Swedish, with situations where a compliment was given and the participant was instructed to imagine him/herself in that situation and give their most probable response to that compliment. The results showed that there was no significant difference between compliment responses given in Swedish and those given in English by native Swedish speakers. Thus, pragmatic transfer could have occurred. The Swedish participants’ compliment responses were also compared to compliment responses of Scottish English L1 speakers. The results are discussed in relation to other studies of pragmatic transfer in compliment responses, and suggestions for future research are considered.

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Fourali, Chahid El-Hak. "A cognitive analysis of discourse processing in native and non-native speakers of English." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1987. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10019654/.

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This study establishes a quantitative and qualitative difference in the pattern of text processing of native and non native speakers of English. The psychological nature of this difference is explored in five studies. They reveal the following influences. 1 - Non-native speakers are disadvantaged when text processing relies on mental operations which are based on schema representations of the language e.g. assumption, evaluation and interpretation. They are not disadvantaged when processing is based on mental operations more related r to ability like deducing and inferring. A test of these five mental processes was constructed especially for this investigation. 2 - The study also reveals that native speakers benefit almost twice as much from repeated presentations of the same text. The improvement, however, is limited to certain types of test items. 3 - The processing difference between native and non-native speakers of English was elucidated when analysed in terms of the current expert/novice paradigm. Factors and strategies which differentiate expert learners from novices were also seen to differentiate between native and non-native speakers of English. 4 - The contribution of ability to text processing is studied under a condition of varying relationship between past experience and learning content. The results show that learners' performance is quantitatively and qualitatively different when faced with schema related as against schema unrelated texts. A reciprocal function is observed when the non-schema relevant group compensates for lack of past experience by making use of deductive reasoning. On the other hand, learners in the schema relevant condition make minimum call upon this ability. 5 - The generality of the influence of cognitive group membership (e.g. identical native language, similarity of past experience) was tested by comparing the processing patterns of 'A' level students doing the same science subject (physics) with students doing an arts subject (history). The results support the hypothesis of differential approaches to learning associated with subject discipline. The findings are discussed in the context of positive attempts to improve the processing performance of students operating in a non-native language.

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Hantrakul, Chanpen Steffensen Margaret S. "English tense and aspect usage in controlled written discourse by non-native speakers." Normal, Ill. Illinois State University, 1990. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ilstu/fullcit?p9101113.

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Thesis (D.A.)--Illinois State University, 1990.
Title from title page screen, viewed November 4, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Margaret S. Steffensen (chair), Irene T. Brosnahan, Ronald J. Fortune, Ronald S. Halinski, Bruce W. Hawkins. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-150) and abstract. Also available in print.

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Arden-Close, Christopher. "The language of chemistry lectures to non-native speakers of English." Thesis, University of Southampton, 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.256367.

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Kennedy, Elizabeth Anne. "The oral interaction of native speakers and non-native speakers in a multicultural preschool : a comparison between freeplay and contrived NS/NNS dyads." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28082.

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While researchers generally recommend a 1:1 ratio of native speakers (NSs) to non-native speakers (NNSs) be maintained in multicultural preschool classrooms, these- ideal proportions are often unrealistic in regions where populations reflect high concentrations of ethnic groups. In these areas, where enrolments usually consist of a majority of NNSs, pedagogical modifications may be necessary to ensure second language learners are exposed to sufficient amounts of 'meaningful target language input' which is considered essential for second language acquisition (Krashen, 1979). This study investigated the effects of deliberate pairing on NSs and those NNSs who had low English language proficiency (L) in one multicultural preschool where NNSs outnumbered NSs by 3:1. Four NS subjects were videotaped, employing a multiple baseline design, as they interacted with their peers during a math game activity time. The effects of the treatment on four interactional measures were analysed using Ruvusky's statistic. Results, as predicted, indicated significant differences for three of the four measures. When deliberately paired, both NSs and NNSs(L) took more turns, and NSs uttered significantly more directives to their NNS(L) peers than they did during the freeplay situation. -Deliberate pairing of NSs and NNSs(L) has been shown to be a successful technique for exposing NNSs(L) to increased levels of target language input in this multicultural preschool. Implications for teachers are outlined and the role of NSs in multicultural classrooms is discussed.
Education, Faculty of
Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of
Graduate

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Fahad, Ahmed K. "Understanding How Power and Identity Work in Interactions between Native and Non-Native English Speakers." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1490698649076512.

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McGuire, Michael. "Formulaic sequences in English conversation: Improving spoken fluency in non-native speakers." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2009. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc11024/.

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Native speakers often ignore the limitless potential of language and stick to institutionalized formulaic sequences. These sequences are stored and processed as wholes, rather than as the individual words and grammatical rules which make them up. Due to research on formulaic sequence in spoken language, English as a Second Language / Foreign Language pedagogy has begun to follow suit. There has been a call for a shift from the traditional focus on isolated grammar and vocabulary to formulaic sequences and context. I tested this hypothesis with 19 L2 English learners who received 5 weeks of task-based instruction and found substantial progress in oral fluency only for the experimental group. Differences between pretest and posttest oral fluency were examined by looking at the learners' speech rate and their mean length of run. Subjective evaluation of fluency by 16 native English judges confirmed the calculated measures.

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Sanders, Lisa Diane. "Speech segmentation by native and non-native speakers : behavioral and event-related potential evidence /." view abstract or download file of text, 2001. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p3018392.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2001.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 215-239). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

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Plejert, Charlotta. "To fix what’s not broken : repair strategies in non-native and native english conversation." Doctoral thesis, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för språk och kultur, 2004. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-20811.

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The thesis investigates conversations involving native speakers and non-nativespeakers of English. The non-native speakers partaking in the study have a welldeveloped knowledge of the foreign language. The study is particularly concernedwith the function and interactional relevance of repair strategies that interlocutorsemploy when they talk to each other. The results of the analyses highlight issuessuch as participants’ self-representations as competent speakers, the notion “nonnativeness”,and language learning, relating to current developments within conversationanalytic research on second/foreign language conversations. Comparisonsbetween non-native and native speakers are made, highlighting similarities as wellas di¡erences in participants’ use of repair strategies. The study adopts a conversation analytic framework but is also in¤uenced bystudies of second/foreign language acquisition. Conversation analytic research has,until recently, dealt with conversations involving non-native speakers who have alimited or intermediate command of the second/foreign language. Repair behavioursof advanced foreign language users are thus a little investigated area. Whereasnon-native speakers with limited experience in using the second/foreign languageoften employ repair in order to solve problems that are related to their linguisticknowledge, such as ¢nding or knowing words and constructing utterances that areunderstandable in the context in which they occur, this thesis shows how an increasedknowledge of the foreign language involves a shift in focus as repair is carriedout, i.e. repair is used to address problems of a linguistic as well as of a socialnature. Since an increased knowledge of a foreign language is accompanied by an increasein the range of jobs that repair strategies do, “doing repair” is an importantpart of the development of non-native speakers’ interactional and linguistic competence.

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Stevenson, Bill. "Peer Correction by Non-native Speakers of English in Oral Group Work." PDXScholar, 1994. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4918.

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This research is observational and descriptive. Its primary purpose is to provide data on the extent to which, and how, Non-Native Speakers (NNSs) of English engage in error correction of their peers when participating in classroom oral group work. In addition, it shows to what extent these learners self-correct their own errors in the same situation. The over-arching focus of the study is to examine the role of second language learners to determine whether they possess the potential to play a more active and productive part in their own language learning. Nine beginning level adult university ESL students are the subjects of this research. They were placed in small groups and asked to perform specified classroom tasks designed to generate maximum oral interchange among the participants. The ensuing discussions provided the basis for the data which were collected via tape recording each group's proceedings. The data samples were listened to and coded per an error typology and any correction that took place. The data were then statistically analyzed via SYSTAT. The findings are consistent with the results of other research and indicate that while many errors are not treated, a significant number of them are corrected clearly and accurately. These results lend credence to the idea that second language learners may have much more to learn from each other than they think, and that they do have the potential to play a greater role in their own language learning. Much more research is indicated in order to better understand the multi-faceted phenomenon of second language learner error and its treatment.

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Cribb, V. Michael. "Coherence in the extended spoken discourse of non-native speakers of English." Thesis, University of Reading, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.493811.

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In day-to-day interactional discourse, disturbances in coherence can usually be resolved relatively quickly through collaboration and negotiation between interlocutors. When speakers are required to produce extended discourse in the form of an extended turn (i.e. short monologue), however, there is an additional requirement to package their utterances that the interlocutor can integrate them into the on-going discourse and construct a meaningful, coherent representation of the text. For non-native speakers, this additional burden means that any miscues in the construction of the utterances or in their contextualisation, can lead to disturbances in coherence and a loss of meaning.

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Juknevičienė, Rita. "Lexical Bundles in Non-Native Speaker and Native Speaker Written English." Doctoral thesis, Lithuanian Academic Libraries Network (LABT), 2011. http://vddb.laba.lt/obj/LT-eLABa-0001:E.02~2011~D_20110307_144834-16208.

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The study presents a contrastive analysis of learner language which is represented by written English of the Lithuanian EFL learners and native speakers of English. The material for the study comes from three corpora of learner language: two Lithuanian corpora consist of student essays written by first-year students and third-/fourth-year students of English Philology while the native speaker corpus is a selection of argumentative essays from the LOCNESS corpus. The study involves structural and functional analyses of lexical bundles retrieved from the three corpora. The findings of the study show that written English produced by the learners of the lower proficiency levels bears more features typical of spoken English. As the level of proficiency increases, the number of verbal bundles gives way to bundles incorporating noun and prepositional phrases which are more characteristic of the written variety of the language. As regards the distribution of lexical bundles across the functional types, the study proves that the Lithuanian learners pay more attention to discourse organization and expression of stance while in the native speaker material the proportion of referential lexical bundles, used to express propositions, is much more prominent. The study also involves an analysis of phrasal expressions recurring in the lexical bundles. The conclusions and implications of the research may be particularly useful to the practice of ELT/EFL in Lithuania while certain insights of... [to full text]
Disertacijoje aprašomas gretinamasis leksinių samplaikų tyrimas lietuvių gimtosios kalbos vartotojų ir gimtakalbių anglų kalbos vartotojų rašytinėje anglų kalboje. Tyrime naudoti trys skirtingų kalbos mokėjimo lygių vartotojų anglų kalbos tekstynai: pirmakursių studentų ir vyresniųjų kursų studentų, kurių gimtoji kalba – lietuvių, rašiniai, bei anglų gimtosios kalbos vartotojų, t. y. įvairių Didžiosios Britanijos ir JAV universitetų studentų rašiniai. Leksinių samplaikų struktūrinė analizė parodė, jog žemesnio mokėjimo lygio mokinių kalboje dažniau pasitaiko veiksmažodinių samplaikų, o aukštesnio lygio mokinių kalboje – vardažodinių. Tai rodo, jog žemesnio mokėjimo lygio mokinių kalba artimesnė sakytinei anglų kalbai, kuriai būdingos veiksmažodinės leksinės samplaikos. Kylant kalbos mokėjimo lygiui, mokinių rašytinėje kalboje randasi daugiau vardažodinių leksinių samplaikų, kurios dažnesnės rašytiniame diskurse. Funkcinė leksinių samplaikų analizė atskleidė, jog kylant mokinių kalbos mokėjimo lygiui nuosekliai kinta ir tam tikrų kalbos funkcijų raiška: žemesnio lygio mokiniai daugiau dėmesio skiria diskurso organizavimo ir autoriaus pozicijos raiškai, o aukštesnio lygio mokinių kalboje dažnesni referentiniai pasakymai, perteikiantys teksto propozicinį turinį. Leksinių samplaikų analizė pagal jose realizuojamus frazinius junginius atskleidė lietuvių gimtosios kalbos vartotojams būdingų frazinių junginių vartojimo ypatumų. Tyrimo išvados ir taikomoji vertė siejamos su anglų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

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Ben, Said Selim. "Attitudes towards accented speech : a comparative study of native and non-native speakers of American English /." Available to subscribers only, 2006. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1203549911&sid=13&Fmt=2&clientId=1509&RQT=309&VName=PQD.

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Hultfors, Pär. "Reactions to non-native English : native English-speakers' assessments of errors in the use of English made by non-native users of the language. Part 1, Acceptability and intelligibility." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 1986. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-87618.

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Hammonds, Phillip Edward. "Directive speech acts in conflict situations among advanced non-native speakers of English." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/252893.

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This study investigates tasks in which international graduate students who are non-native speakers of English must use a second or foreign language (L2) in simulated conflict and stressful situations with native speakers. In particular, the study examines conflicts where the non-native speaker (NNS) must issue a directive to a native speaker (NS) in order to achieve an important outcome or avoid unwanted or even dangerous consequences. Unlike previous studies which place equal or no emphasis on the consequences of the directive under investigation, this study focuses on the perlocutionary effect that the speaker anticipates as a result of the utterance of a directive. Although this is an empirical study, it also critically examines the directive as a macro or discursive speech act colored by the relationships Power, Distance and perceived Consequences of the speaker based on the context of the situation in which it is uttered. The analysis of the data reveals that most advanced NNS have difficulty in high stakes situations based on a comparison of their directives to NS directives, supporting the hypothesis that the encoding of power in a directive is essential to the NNS as well as to the NS in attaining or avoiding some important result. The qualitative evidence further suggests that an important source of this difficulty is the constant awareness that even the advanced NNS is still a NNS and this produces a diminished sense of power relative to NSs.

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Sheppard, Samantha. "NATIVE SPEAKERS' REALIZATIONS OF WORD-INITIAL FRICATIVE + CONSONANT CLUSTERS IN ENGLISH NON-WORDS." OpenSIUC, 2014. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1448.

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This study examines the role of voiceless and voiced fricatives as the first consonant in word-initial true consonant clusters and adjunct clusters. Specifically, this study sought evidence to determine whether the lack of voiced fricatives, such as /z/ and /v/, in English word-initial true and adjunct clusters is due to an active ban or an accidental gap in the language's phonotactics. This study also looked into whether the voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ is the only fricative that can play the role of adjunct segment in word-initial adjunct clusters, or whether other fricatives, such as the voiced alveolar fricative /z/, or the voiceless and voiced labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/ could also be adjunct segments in word-initial adjunct clusters. Fourteen native English speakers were asked to pronounce a list of non-words containing word-initial clusters with /s/, /f/, /z/, and /v/ as the first consonant and /r/, /l/, /n/, /k/, and /g/ as the second consonant. The clusters were chosen to represent different voicing statuses and places of articulation for the first consonant in the cluster, in addition to differing sonority distances between the first consonant and the second consonant of the word-initial cluster. The native English speaker productions were recorded and acoustically analyzed in order to determine the exact pronunciations each speaker used for each target cluster. The results were then statistically analyzed to reveal patterns. Results showed that the lack of voiced fricatives as the first consonant in word-initial position of true clusters in English is due to an accidental gap, due to the relatively numerous correct productions of such clusters. The the lack of voiced fricatives as the first consonant in word-initial position of adjunct clusters in English, however, is due to an active ban, due to the difficulty that the native English speakers had in correctly producing such clusters. This study also concluded that while /s/ is the only adjunct segment in English, /f/ could also play that role.

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Jansson, Hanna. "Native Swedish Speakers’ Problems with English Prepositions." Thesis, Örebro University, Department of Humanities, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-958.

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This essay investigates native Swedish speakers’ problems in the area of prepositions. A total of 19 compositions, including 678 prepositions, written by native Swedish senior high school students were analysed. All the prepositions in the material were judged as either basic, systematic or idiomatic. Then all the errors of substitution, addition and omission were counted and corrected. As hypothesised, least errors were found in the category of basic prepositions and most errors were found in the category of idiomatic prepositions. However, the small difference between the two categories of systematic and idiomatic prepositions suggests that the learners have greater problems with systematic prepositions than what was first thought to be the case. Basic prepositions cause little or no problems. Systematic prepositions, i.e. those that are rule governed or whose usage is somehow generalisable, seem to be quite problematic to native Swedish speakers. Idiomatic prepositions seem to be learnt as ‘chunks’, and the learners are either aware of the whole constructions or do not use them at all. They also cause some problems for Swedish speakers. Since prepositions are often perceived as rather arbitrary without rules to sufficiently describe them, these conclusions might not be surprising to teachers, students and language learners. The greatest error cause was found to be interference from Swedish, and a few errors could be explained as intralingual errors. It seems as if the learners’ knowledge of their mother tongue strongly influences the acquisition of English prepositions.

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Liu, Yue. "Teacher comments and students' risk-taking : native and non-native speakers of American English in basic writing." Virtual Press, 1999. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1159150.

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This comparative case study examines how writing teachers comment on basic writing students' papers, how students respond to these comments, and how students take risks in their revising process. Four U.S., four ESOL basic writing students, and four basic writing teachers participated in the study. Three writing samples of the students' choices including drafts, revisions, and final papers were collected, coded, and analyzed to see the amount of risk-taking. Students were asked to complete the Daly and Miller's Writing Apprehension Test along with a Demographic Information Check Sheet. Each student was interviewed three times: once for each writing sample, and each teacher was interviewed once. The study revealed that students in the study appreciated teachers' written comments on their multiple-draft papers, and that teachers' comments, particularly the ones on content and organization, did help improve their writing ability and motivated these students to take risks in trying new ideas in revision. The ESOL writers tend to take fewer risks and regard revision as making lexical changes because of their unfamiliarity with the English usage and writing conventions, while the U.S. writers take more risks and view revision as a recursive process with different levels of attention.The main purpose of the study was to find out what major factors motivated students' risk-taking in their revisions so that writing teachers will be able to provide comments that motivate students to become better writers. This study will contribute to the understanding of what students really think of teachers' written comments.
Department of English

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Shirvani, Shahenayati Zahra. "A Comparison of Native and Non-Native English-Speaking Teaching Assistants." Thesis, North Texas State University, 1987. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc330776/.

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The purposes of this study were to determine whether differences existed between the communication styles and teaching effectiveness, respectively, of native and non-native teaching fellows, as perceived by their undergraduate students. In addition, the study sought to determine whether a positive correlation existed between the final grades and the communication styles and teaching effectiveness, respectively, of native and non-native teaching fellows as perceived by their undergraduate students. In order to carry out the purposes of this study, six hypotheses were tested concerning the perception of native and non-native undergraduate students toward the communication style and teaching effectiveness of teaching fellows in North Texas State University.

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Miner, Sarah Lynne. "Reading Idioms: A Comparative Eye-Tracking Study of Native English Speakers and Native Korean Speakers." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2018. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/7334.

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This quantitative study used eye-tracking technology to compare the attentional focus of 32 native English speakers and 26 native Korean speakers at the university level as they read idiomatic and literal phrases within well-formed sentences. Results revealed that native Korean speakers read both literal and idiomatic sentences slower than native English speakers. Additionally, native Korean speakers read idiomatic sentences slower than literal sentences, whereas native English speakers did not show a significant difference. Variables relating to language socialization, language development and idiom knowledge were also investigated to find which variables were correlated with reading measures. Of the variables tested, idiom knowledge was the only one that had significant effect on reading measures. These findings suggest that Korean speakers take longer to process English idioms as lexical units, though idiom familiarity seems to mitigate this effect.

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Fujita, Kyoko. "Roles of native and non-native teachers in English education in Japan : teachers' and students' perceptions." Thesis, McGill University, 2005. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=98923.

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This study explores issues related to native and non-native English speaking teachers in the context of Japanese English education, specifically in public junior high school settings in relatively rural areas of Japan. The study mainly asks Japanese teachers of English, assistant language teachers employed in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme, and students about their perceptions of the roles of native and non-native teachers in their English classrooms. These stakeholders seem to have preconceived assumptions about the roles of native and non-native teachers. These include native teachers as opportunity providers and motivators and non-native teachers as facilitators. These fixed roles in the stakeholders' perceptions of the roles of native and non-native teachers may prevent them from expanding their possibilities and may reinforce the existing distinction between native and non-native speakers. Implications for policy makers and stakeholders include the need to adopt a perspective of English as an international language into the goals of Japanese English education to value collaborative teaching and reconceptualize the roles of Japanese English teachers and assistant language teachers in classrooms.

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Chien, Shou-Chun. "Attitudes towards varieties of English by non-native and native speakers : a comparative view from Taiwan and the UK." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2018. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/8932/.

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Attitudes towards varieties of English have long been at the forefront of sociolinguistic research. Whilst most of these studies have concentrated on native varieties of English, in recent years, research has turned to non-native varieties that arose as English became the lingua franca across the globe. Research has demonstrated that whilst native varieties are generally viewed as being of a higher status, non-native varieties are sometimes considered more positively in terms of social attractiveness, or ‘solidarity’. However, in recent years, non-native speakers have begun to outnumber native English speakers, thus attitudes towards these speakers may be changing. This study contributes to research on attitudes towards native and non-native varieties of English by conducting a comparative investigation of the attitudes of 317 Taiwanese nationals living in Taiwan and 147 British nationals living in the UK towards different English accents. Online questionnaires utilising both direct (e.g., Likert scales and multiple-choice questions) and indirect (e.g., verbal guise test) methods were employed to examine Taiwanese and British attitudes towards varieties of English. The study examined seven varieties as categorised according to Kachru’s (1992a) three concentric circles: the Inner Circle: Australian English, General American English and Standard Southern British English; the Outer Circle: Indian English; and the Expanding Circle: Japanese English, Spanish English and Taiwanese English. Four key findings emerge from the study. First, both direct and indirect techniques of evaluation demonstrate that both Taiwanese and British respondents largely favour English varieties of the Inner Circle and the Outer Circle over those of the Expanding Circle. Second, the indirect attitude measurements of the verbal guise test demonstrate that both groups prefer the variety of General American English in terms of both status and solidarity. Third, the research found that a number of social variables (e.g., gender, occupation) had a significant effect on speaker evaluations. Fourth, although Taiwanese and British participants were very capable of distinguishing whether a speaker was native or non-native, there were generally no significant correlations between a speaker’s ability to identify different English varieties and their having a favourable attitude towards these. Overall, the findings demonstrated that Taiwanese and British people predominantly share similar attitudes towards varieties of English. Nevertheless, when the effects of the social variables and speaker identifications are considered, native and non-native speakers’ perceptions of different varieties of English might differ. These findings contribute to the understanding of the similarities and differences between native and non-native speakers’ attitudes towards varieties of English in the context of an increasingly globalised world and the rise of the non-native speakers of English therein.

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Akbas, Erdem. "Commitment-detachment and authorial presence in postgraduate academic writing : a comparative study of Turkish native speakers, Turkish speakers of English and English native speakers." Thesis, University of York, 2014. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/7083/.

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This thesis reports an exploratory and contrastive corpus study examining two phenomena in postgraduate academic writing: expressing commitment/detachment and signalling authorial presence in dissertations. More specifically, the overall purpose of the study is to investigate how postgraduate academic writers from particular contexts build their academic stance and voice by employing a range of linguistic items that could be identified as hedges, boosters and authorial references. The corpus consists of a total of 90 discussions sections of master’s dissertations, 30 from Turkish L1 writers, 30 from Turkish writers of English and 30 from UK English L1 writers. A range of items, discourse functions and roles were determined during the pilot study via Nvivo 9. Then, the whole corpus was searched and analysed via WordSmith 5.0 based on the linguistic item list signalling certainty/doubt or authorial presence. In order to address two crucial phenomena in dissertation writing of postgraduates represented by three groups, both quantitative and qualitative approaches were adapted. Three key findings are as follows: 1. The postgraduates polarised: they either frequently qualified their level of commitment or else they seemingly intentionally withheld their commitment from what they asserted. The tone of writing adopted by the Turkish L1 writers differed markedly from that of the English L1 & L2 writers, as evidenced by their use of linguistic signalling expressions; the English L1 and L2 writers preferred to sound more detached from their knowledge claims, compared with the Turkish L1 writers. Therefore, the findings emphasise the importance of the language factor in expressing commitment-detachment across groups. 2. The authorial references included two broad categories: (1) Explicit authorial references (I and we-based pronouns); (2) Implicit authorial references (passive and element-prominent constructions speaking for the author). The Turkish L1 writers and the Turkish writers of English (from Turkish culture) appeared to construct less personal academic prose compared with the English L1 writers. This seems to reflect a broader cultural difference. 3. In terms of the authorial roles identified in relation to the accompanying verbs, the postgraduate writers tended to appear in their discourse most frequently as (1) Research Conductor, followed by (2) Discourse Creator & Participant; then (3) Opinion Holder. The rhetorical role indicating the membership of the postgraduates to a community (either academic or institutional), (4) Community-self, was the least frequent role adopted by the postgraduates in their discussion sections. It is recommended that, in order to raise postgraduates’ awareness about the writing conventions and practices in their disciplines, they should be provided with the standards required with respect to style via modelling from previous successful dissertations completed in their field. This is suggested as particularly important for ‘novice’ writers.

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Baskova, Irina Mikhailovna. "Preparing Non-Native English Speakers for the Mathematical Vocabulary in the GRE and GMAT." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2017. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/6684.

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The purpose of this study was to develop vocabulary materials to aid non-native English speakers, specifically Russian speaking test-takers, in their preparation for the mathematical sections of the General Record Examination (GRE) and the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) in terms of English mathematical vocabulary. GRE and GMAT preparation materials and practice tests published by the Educational Testing Service, Kaplan, and Barron's were analyzed with the help of computer software. This data was then used to determine which key words to include in the vocabulary tool, which is now available on Quizlet (www.quizlet.com). The developed materials were further proofread by competent mathematics and English language professionals and assessed with the help of a questionnaire administered to them. The rationale of the materials development and the procedures used for the process are described in detail in this thesis project.

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Beinhoff, Bettina. "Establishing identity through accent : attitudes of non-native speakers towards foreign accents of English." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.608821.

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Deng, Xinyu. "An English text generation system for intermediate non-native speakers based on corpus analysis." 京都大学 (Kyoto University), 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/136004.

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Cummings, Victor. "Speech and writing : an analysis of expository texts composed by native and non-native speakers of English at the City University of New York /." Access Digital Full Text version, 1990. http://pocketknowledge.tc.columbia.edu/home.php/bybib/10938783.

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Isaacs, Talia. "Towards defining a valid assessment criterion of pronunciation proficiency in non-native English speaking graduate students." Thesis, McGill University, 2005. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=98938.

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This exploratory, mixed-design study investigates whether intelligibility is "enough," that is, a suitable goal and an adequate assessment criterion, for evaluating proficiency in the pronunciation of non-native English speaking graduate students in the academic domain. The study also seeks to identify those pronunciation features which are most crucial for intelligible speech.
Speech samples of 19 non-native English speaking graduate students in the Faculty of Education at McGill University were elicited using the Test of Spoken English (TSE), a standardized test of spoken proficiency which is often used by institutions of higher learning to screen international teaching assistants (ITAs). Results of a fined-grained phonological analysis of the speech samples coupled with intelligibility ratings of 18 undergraduate science students suggest that intelligibility, though an adequate assessment criterion, is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for graduate students to instruct undergraduate courses as teaching assistants, and that there is a threshold level (i.e., minimum acceptable level) of intelligibility that needs to be identified more precisely. While insights about the features of pronunciation that are most critical for intelligibility are inconclusive, it is clear that intelligibility can be compromised for different reasons and is often the result of a combination of "problem areas" that interact together.
The study has some important implications for ITA training and assessment, for the design of graduate student pronunciation courses, and for future intelligibility research. It also presents a first step in validating theoretical intelligibility models which lack empirical backing (e.g., Morley, 1994).

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Luyen, Pham Phuong, and n/a. "An investigation of the difficulties experienced by non-native speakers of English in academic listening." University of Canberra. Education, 1991. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20060818.163103.

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For many students, listening to academic lectures is one of the hardest listening skills (Lebauer, 1988). There are various possible reasons for this: the jargon and specialised words of the field that are used; also the language that is used is often at a more formal level; the lecture situation which is unidirectional with the listener having little role to play, and no control of the oral message; the expectations that the listener is assumed to have in listening to lectures which depends on many factors such as attitude, motivation, linguistic knowledge and world experience. Trying to find an answer to where difficulties lie is the purpose of this study, with the focus on the type of problems that post-graduate non-native students of English might have had during their study in a native English academic environment. Chapter one presents the purpose and significance of study, and deals with a few problems in the history of the teaching of listening in Vietnam. Chapter two looks at the different developments in understanding the listening processes in general and listening to lectures in particular. Chapter three studies difficulties that non-native speakers of English may face in lecture listening. Chapter four mentions some of the recommendations that the study implies.

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Torres, Julie West. "Speaking up! Adult ESL students' perceptions of native and non-native English speaking teachers." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2004. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4681/.

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Research to date on the native versus non-native English speaker teacher (NEST versus non-NEST) debate has primarily focused on teacher self-perception and performance. A neglected, but essential, viewpoint on this issue comes from English as a second language (ESL) students themselves. This study investigated preferences of adults, specifically immigrant and refugee learners, for NESTs or non-NESTs. A 34-item, 5-point Likert attitudinal survey was given to 102 students (52 immigrants, 50 refugees) enrolled in ESL programs in a large metropolitan area in Texas . After responding to the survey, 32 students volunteered for group interviews to further explain their preferences. Results indicated that adult ESL students have a general preference for NESTs over non-NESTs, but have stronger preferences for NESTs in teaching specific skill areas such as pronunciation and writing. There was not a significant difference between immigrants' and refugees' general preferences for NESTs over non-NESTs based on immigration status.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Non-native speakers of English'

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