Journal articles on the topic 'Portuguese language – textbooks for foreign speakers – english'

Fifty-six Portuguese speakers born and raised in Brazil produced Portuguese words beginning in one of four plosives, /p b k ɡ/. Twenty-eight of them were monolinguals (controls), and the rest were learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). The learners were also asked to produce English words beginning with one of four plosives, /p b k ɡ/. We measured the plosives’ voice onset times (VOT) to address the following research questions: Do foreign-language learners, whose exposure to native English oral input is necessarily limited, form new sound categories specific to their additional language? Does engaging in the learning of a foreign language affect the phonetics of one’s native language? The EFL learners were found to differ from the controls in their production of Portuguese voiced (but not voiceless) plosives—prevoicing was longer in learner speech. The learners displayed different VOT targets for voiced (but not voiceless) consonants as a function of the language they were speaking—prevoicing was longer in Portuguese. In EFL learners’ productions, English sounds appear to be fundamentally modeled on phonologically similar native sounds, but some phonetic development (or reorganization) is found. Phonetic development induced by foreign-language learning may lead to a minor reconfiguration of the phonetics of native language sounds. EFL learners may find it challenging to learn the pronunciation patterns of English, likely due to the reduced access to native oral input.

The current surge of interest in studies on intonation, in areas ranging from L2 teaching to child language acquisition, finally mirrors the crucial role played by intonation in the whole of human communication through language. In studies on non-native linguistic proficiency, a ‘foreign intonation’ appears as the last stronghold of a non-native accent, consisting in the use, in a second language, of intonation patterns belonging to the first language of the learner. The use of a foreign intonation does not, however, only characterise an accent. Intonation patterns convey specific meanings in each language, and the correspondence between these meanings and specific pitch patterns is often as arbitrary as the correspondence between words and their meanings. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to provide a basis for the comparison of the intonation patterns of (European) Portuguese and (British) English, highlighting potential areas of difficulty for speakers of each of these languages in learning the other, and the reasons for these difficulties. Second, to give support to the view, current in L2 studies, that the learning of L2 intonation cannot be taken for granted, if breakdown in native to non-native spoken communication is to be avoided.

When speaking a foreign language (L2), non-native speakers’ (NNS) speech contains some variable degree of foreign accent (FA) that is perceivable by the native speakers (NS) of that language based on the production of phonetic gestures characteristic of their mother tongue (L1), and that differ from those of the foreign language (L2) in terms of the segmental (vowels and consonants) and prosodic (stress, rhythm and intonation) features. Causes such as neuro-plasticity and length of residence, for example, are claimed to interfere in L2 production. This work aims to analyze how L2 speech rhythm of English is produced by Brazilian Portuguese (BP) speakers and how prosodic variables such as, metric and acoustic correlates, influence FA. This research is based on Barbosa (2006) for the dynamic determination of speech rhythm in addition to Ramus et. al. (1999) and so, on the choice of metrics and segmentation procedures. As for the methods of analysis, phonetic data from twenty BP and four American speakers were collected. Next, the data were segmented into different unit procedures for the purpose of carrying out acoustic and statistical analysis. Results pointed out to a significant difference between L1 and L2 rhythms.

This study aims to explore how much a speaker of English as a foreign language can mask one’s accent by performing voice disguise toward a native-like accent, and what implications it might bring forward. For the Methods, we conducted three experiments, (a) both the native and the foreign groups produced authentic voices, (b) the native group performed authentic voice and the foreign group performed disguised voice, and (c) a group of native listeners of English rated the degree of foreign accent from experiments a and b. The results showed evidence of correlation between the ratings and authentic voices. Nevertheless, they remained somewhat inconclusive for the disguised voice. It may be concluded that the more the Brazilian speaker approaches the L1-English target accent when voice disguising, the harder it is for the listener to recognize his/her L2-English accent.

As the demand for English language skills among non-native speakers globally has grown steadily so too has the number of ‘global textbooks’ for ELT aimed at a world market. Concurrently, critical perspectives of the expansion of English have begun to challenge the view that native speaker contexts ‘own’ English. Based on the aforementioned, and on reflective approaches to culture, our objective is to analyze critically the representations of speakers of English as a second or foreign language offered by two global ELT textbooks, to discuss the issues of essentialization and reproduction of stereotypes about the “non-native” speakers of English and their sociocultural characteristics in the constructed image. To achieve this purpose, we apply a methodology based on a sociocognitive approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (Van Dijk, 2013), the concept of sociocultural knowledge as stated by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), and critical perspectives of culture according to Holliday, Kullman, and Hyde (2004). Our findings indicate that, though the books include ‘non-native’ speakers in an attempt to address multiculturalism, their representation is generic, portraying a reified image of their sociocultural traits and presenting diversity mostly through national labels.

The improvement of second language learners' linguistic performance seems a tortuous process especially for the advanced English learners in China. Although native speakers give their witty sayings and sparkling comments, the majority of Chinese students could only rigidly apply English phrases they have learned from the textbooks very passively. Guided by foreign monographs in English language acquisition, a learner-centred second language teaching material is designed, underpinning the principles of providing authentic input for learners, drawing learners' attention to the linguistic features of input, providing opportunities for learners to communicate in target language, fostering learners' autonomy and offering guidance for autonomic learning. The activities designed in this teaching material have especially catered to the needs of advanced English learners, by providing them with more input resources, more feedback as well as more guidance in self-evaluation and self-learning after class for their further improvement. The material design would enlighten modern textbook compilers in guiding advanced second language learners' autonomic learning.

Learning a foreign language implies a lot more than learning grammar and vocabulary. Language learners should also acquire the necessary social and cultural skills that would allow them to interact within the context where the target language is expected to be used. As a result, EFL teachers face the challenge of selecting and explaining the cultural contents that their students could employ when communicating with other English speakers. Especially the speakers from those countries where EFL learners would more likely travel to either for academic or working purposes. In the case of Spanish EFL learners, the United States of America is among the most popular destinations in this regard. Therefore, exploring to what extend the American Culture is being addressed in EFL textbooks might help educators to improve their own teaching approach. This paper addresses research into the presence of American culture in textbooks used in Spain. The results indicate the limited importance of American Culture in the ELT books used in Spain.. The paper concludes by including some suggestions to address American Culture in the teaching of English as a Foreign Language in Spanish EFL Classrooms.

This study aims to suggest a checklist for teachers and researchers to analyze English as a second or foreign language textbooks from a sociolinguistic perspective. In the literature there is not a checklist or framework by which English textbooks can be evaluated considering the sociolinguistics issues raised in this study. After obtaining expert opinion and a piloting on 8 textbooks used in state schools in Turkey, a checklist consisting 6 criteria was suggested. Then, the check list was applied on the 9th grade English book ReLearn (Karamil & Birincioglu Kaldar, 2019) used in state schools in Turkey to demonstrate how the checklist can be utilized. The findings suggest that from a sociolinguistic perspective, the book in focus occasionally conforms to the sociolinguistic concerns while it needs some qualitative improvements. Improvements in providing genuine speakers of non-native and non-standard accents of English rather than using standard accent vocalizations for the speakers that are depicted as non-natives can be a primary suggestion and at the same time, the textbook should focus on different ways of life and perspectives instead of mostly providing intercultural knowledge such as cities or historic places. Finally, the textbook should pay more attention to the linguistic ecology in Turkey and adjust its contents so as to compensate for the foreign language status of English in Turkey. Accordingly, this study contributes to the literature by providing a checklist to evaluate textbooks systematically with regard to essential sociolinguistic issues and it demonstrates the application of the checklist.

<span lang="EN-US">Teaching compliment expression might be challenging for Indonesian EFL teacher, especially presenting compliment responses in some certain context of situation. The present study aims at investigating the compliment response strategies in some learning resources used by English teachers in Indonesia. The subjects of this study are the two EFL textbooks written by non-native English speakers and the supplementary materials derived from two Youtube channels and two materials from online learning websites created by native English speakers</span><span lang="IN">.</span><span lang="EN-US">The findings revealed accepting was the common compliment response strategy represented in all learning resources. it is also noted that the supplementary materials have various compliment response strategies completed with the meta-pragmatic information on each dialogue. The study implied that the EFL students should be equipped with pragmatic and sociolinguistic information in order to achieve the successful communication. </span>

<span lang="EN-US">Teaching compliment expression might be challenging for Indonesian EFL teacher, especially presenting compliment responses in some certain context of situation. The present study aims at investigating the compliment response strategies in some learning resources used by English teachers in Indonesia. The subjects of this study are the two EFL textbooks written by non-native English speakers and the supplementary materials derived from two Youtube channels and two materials from online learning websites created by native English speakers</span><span lang="IN">.</span><span lang="EN-US">The findings revealed accepting was the common compliment response strategy represented in all learning resources. it is also noted that the supplementary materials have various compliment response strategies completed with the meta-pragmatic information on each dialogue. The study implied that the EFL students should be equipped with pragmatic and sociolinguistic information in order to achieve the successful communication. </span>

This research adopts the methodology of corpus-based analysis and contrastive interlanguage analysis (CIA), using three corpora as the data source to analyze the adverbial connectors used by Chinese EFL (English as a foreign language) learners (i.e., university students in Guangzhou, China) in their written English. Major findings show that Chinese EFL learners have displayed a general tendency to overuse English adverbial connectors in terms of total tokens when compared with native speakers of English, and Chinese EFL learners deviate notably from the native speakers of English in the use of some individual English adverbial connectors. The research explores that Chinese EFL learners’ use of English adverbial connectors might be influenced by L1 transfer, writing handbooks’ and teachers’ instruction, learners’ lack of audience awareness, and lack of stylistic awareness. The research has some implications for language learning: a large collection of learner corpora, a target language's native speakers corpus, a learner's mother language corpus, and corpus software AntConc can complement textbooks in language learners’ deep learning process, constituting a language-based learning environment for human languages with reduced perplexity and increased accuracy.

Grammar rule-based learning is frequently emphasized in traditional English classes in Indonesian primary, middle, and high schools. The test-based education system creates classes that produce a type of English that does not appear to be spoken outside of the classroom. As a result, the students struggle to adjust to English by native speakers in the real world. Those who connect with native speakers must constantly alter their linguistic behavior in areas of language where suitable instruction was not provided. To address this phenomenon, it is important to build a self-created "English Environment" by exposing students to authentic material that is set at their natural level and interest, which will raise their sensitivity and proficiency in the target language. Authentic materials such as writing, essays, short stories, and song lyrics in realistic language can be used in class and English teachers should ideally use a variety of authentic materials in addition to English textbooks to stimulate the natural language learning process, allowing for effective English as a foreign language class. Thus, the article discusses how teachers can use authentic materials effectively in English as a foreign language classes and how authentic materials can help students learn the real context of English.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the understandability of an accounting textbooks written in English and the language learning motivation of international students. Previous research assumed that native speakers of a language and second-language speakers would understand a given accounting text similarly and little attempt has been made to ascertain any individual differences in users’ capacity to read and understand a foreign language. Design/methodology/approach The 107 participants in this study comprised of full-time English as a Second Language postgraduate commerce students studying at a major Australian university. The authors used two-part questionnaire to examine the motivation of participants and the understandability of an accounting textbook using the Cloze test. Findings The results suggest that most international students have difficulty in understanding the textbook narratives used in this study. Furthermore, the results show that students’ motivation to learn a foreign language impacts on the understandability of an accounting textbook. Practical implications This study will help the educators, textbook publishers and students to understand the needs of ESL students. It is expected to provide guidance for authors and instructors to enhance the effectiveness of the accounting courses. Originality/value The accounting literature shows that there have been efforts by accounting researchers to measure the understandability of accounting texts or narratives. This research provided valuable insights of the learning challenges of international students and valuable recommendations to educators and publishers to enhance the delivery.

Textbooks play a crucial role in language teaching particularly in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms since they are considered as an important and primary source of linguistic input. EFL textbooks are expected to develop EFL students’ knowledge, no difference in linguistic or pragmatic competences (Gholami & Mahboobrezaei, 2011). As some scholars believed pragmatics is the fifth skill in language learning, then, it is essential to incorporate it like an integral component of EFL textbooks. However, there exists little knowledge on how well pragmatic perspectives of language are taken into consideration in expanding EFL textbooks generally and Iranian English for specific purposes (ESP) textbooks particularly. In fact, ESP textbooks are written by non-native authors and are considered as unauthentic textbooks. This study, therefore, attempted to explore pragmatic knowledge incorporation into ESP textbooks that have been published for computer engineers by SAMT publication as university textbooks. This study was also an attempt to investigate the frequency and rate of ‘politeness principle’ and ‘irony principle’ from the subcategories of inter-personal rhetoric as the umbrella term in two textbooks in the field of psychology. Book A was an authentic book written by natives for native speakers; however, book B was written by Iranians writers for Iranian university students (SAMT book). This paper then presented some results abstracted from the whole research project. EFL teachers and researchers whose professional and academic interests lie in syllabus design and ESP field may benefit from the findings of the study.

Abstract : This study investigates the use of the sociolinguistic variation in classroom discourse by learners of English as a foreign language. By using qualitative descriptive method, this study finds out that (a) sociolinguistic variation tends to be used more in informal speech than in formal settings; (b) higher English proficiency and frequent interaction with peers in the classroom and with native speakers of English promote the appropriate contextual usage of sociolinguistic variation; and (c) females tend to adopt more formal language style than males. This study also finds that learners’ patterns of sociolinguistic variation closely follow those of their teachers and textbooks, suggesting the necessity of explicit instruction in sociolinguistic variants in classrooms.Keywords : sociolinguistics; sociolinguistic variation; inter-language; language acquisition.

Within a variationist approach for data collection and analysis, this study investigates the acquisition in perception of post-vocalic word-final stops (codas) by speakers of Brazilian Portuguese learning English as a foreign language in a classroom environment. Because codas are illicit in this variety of Portuguese, the hypothesis holds that learners will process this foreign structure as followed by an illusory epenthetic vowel, [i], a manifestation of ‘perceptual foreign accent’. In a forced-choice phone identification task, 51 participants listened to series of English pseudowords and then decided on whether each word ended in a consonant or in a vowel. The statistical results of the experiment indicate that codas are more likely to be perceived in the following cases: (1) in more advanced levels of proficiency, (2) in the context of segments that belong to the class of coronals [t d] and labials [p b], and (3) when the coda consonant is preceded by a lax vowel. The latter as well as the non-significant word size factor contradict the results established in the investigation of the production of this syllabic constituent. To some extent, the results obtained show a correlation between speech perception and production, and support the view that perception precedes production in the development of second language codas.

In this article, we present COPLE2, a new corpus of Portuguese FL/L2, which encompasses written and spoken data produced by foreign learners of Portuguese at the University of Lisbon. Over the past few years we are seeing a substantial growth in the area of learner corpus research applied to other languages besides English. Our aim is to enhance the learning data of Portuguese, a less commonly taught language. We believe that COPLE2 will constitute a good resource for teachers and researchers, since it will provide empirical data to: (i) identify general errors in the learning of Portuguese L2; (ii) develop textbooks and other teaching material targeting specific groups of students; (iii) implement teacher training material by taking into account the analysis of the corrections of the teachers. We will briefly describe the work in progress regarding the constitution and linguistic annotation of this corpus.

The article considers the mechanism ofrepresenting the hidden curriculum in the discourse of EFL textbooks, i.e. the transmission ofsociocultural norms and values of native speakers to foreign students. To do this the authors make a brieftheoretical review of this problem and demonstrate the results of the comparative discourse analysis of two popular textbooks, the one of the pre-globalization age and the present-day one. The authors provide evidence for their idea of the dual role, which English plays today being simultaneously a national language of different English-speaking societies and the global lingua franca. The conducted discourse analysis is based on the analysis of semiotic means, which are used to nominate concepts basic to any society and culture. In the article, the authors demonstrate their own plan of analysis by the example of the "gender" concept. The gender concept shows social and cultural conditionality of distinctions in behavior and the identity of men and women. The comparative analysis of gender markers in the discourse of EFL textbooks reveals a global vector of transformation and distribution ofsociocultural values. Authors state that cultural expansion through English teaching is an instrument of smart power. It is suggested using the mechanism of transmission ofsociocultural norms and values, which is analyzed in the research, to create Russian textbooks for foreign students.

The choice of what materials to use in the language classroom is perhaps one of the most fundamentally important and difficult decisions teachers and those responsible for choosing textbooks are faced with. Authenticity is often seen as a desirable component in the content we select and adapt for our language learners, and it has been shown that authentic materials are more motivating, even for low-level learners (Peacock, 1997). The term authentic is often used to describe materials which were not originally designed for the purpose of language learning, but that were designed to have some purpose within the target language culture, such as a newspaper or novel. An unfortunate consequence of this is that authenticity is still often defined in reference to the target language's ‘native speakers’ or L1 community, particularly in EFL contexts, or what Kachru (1985) would label the Outer Circle communities. In other words, where English is taught as a foreign language, both teachers and students often regard ‘native-speakers’ as being the ideal model and therefore an example of authenticity. For example, Tan (2005) criticises corpora investigations of learner English for holding the view that authentic language use is equivalent to ‘native-speaker’ usages. She goes on to criticise not only corpus research but also textbook publishers for still not taking into account ‘the inextricable link between language and culture’ (2005: 127). In the academic world, culturally embedded notions of authenticity relating to ‘native-speakers’ have been challenged for decades (Smith, 1976). And yet I would argue that in mainstream textbooks and in most EFL language classrooms the native speaker still retains a ‘privileged position’ (Clark & Paran, 2007: 407). As Widdowson (1996: 68) puts it:Authenticity concerns the reality of native-speaker language use: in our case, the communication in English which is realized by an English-speaking community. But the language which is real for native speakers is not likely to be real for learners […] They belong to another community and do not have the necessary knowledge of the contextual conditions which would enable them to authenticate English in native-speaker terms. Their reality is quite different.

Pidgins—their development, disappearance, or subsequent creolisation—are a fascinating phenomenon in the parts of the world that experienced long-term foreign intrusion and its consequences, one of which was contact between two or more linguistic groups, usually of unequal power. Colonisers did not learn the language of the colonised, who often were perceived as inferior, while the colonised people did not or could not master a foreign language in their own country. In most cases, pidgins were a telltale sign of colonialism. Linguists classify these contact languages, which have no native speakers, into major groups named after the dominant base, such as English-, Portuguese-, Spanish-, Dutch-, French-, or Russian-, as well as African-, Asian-, and Austronesian-based.

This study aims to investigate Kuwaiti parents' views and opinions towards introducing native speakers' and international cultures into their children's' EFL textbooks in public schools in the light of recent debates that discuss the relationship between culture and English language teaching. It also intends to explore and discover their perceptions towards the current cultural content being taught in Kuwait public elementary schools. For this purpose, questionnaires were distributed among Kuwaiti parents whom their children study in the government public schools followed by semi-structured interviews to get more detailed and in-depth information about the topic discussed. The findings of this study show that the vast majority had negative opinions and views towards exposing their children to native speaker's cultures for social and religious reasons. One of which is their underlying concern about the negative impacts of native speakers' content on their children's cultural and national identity. However, most of them agreed their children learn EFL through the prism of the international multicultural cultural content to prepare them use the language in different cultural contexts when they grow up. The results also showed that most of them preferred to keep the current ELT syllabus which uses the host cultural content rather than replacing it with the native speakers' one for the same reasons and also in view of growing awareness of the role played by culture in the EFL classroom which propound the nature of the Kuwaiti society of being conservative and cautious.

This study investigates the interrelationship of phonological similarity between L1 and L2, transfer, and markedness as they relate to the acquisition of English /ε/ and /æ/ by native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. Transfer and markedness adequately account for the behavior of poorer learners, but these factors do not explain the rate of acquisition of the two sounds as assessed by global foreign accent: Whereas /æ/ accuracy increased as global accent improved, /ε/ accuracy decreased. It is suggested that phonetic and phonological similarity between L1 and L2 are important factors which motivated overgeneralization or interaction of /ε/ and /æ/ within the inter-language.

The perception of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) mid vowels is mainly investigated by foreign researchers who work with learners of Brazilian Portuguese, native speakers of English or Spanish. In Brazil, this field has been poorly explored. This work contributes to filling this gap by investigating the perception of two Brazilian Portuguese minimal vowel pairs in the group of 103 native Russian speakers and nine French speakers, most of them residing in Brazil. The test has been designed to evaluate the perception of the mid high and low front vowels [e] - [ε], and the mid high and low back vowels [o] - [ɔ]. The test is conducted online and includes 30 trials distributed in three types of tasks: image identification (8 trials), vowel identification (4) and word discrimination (18). It also contains a short sociolinguistic questionnaire. Our findings indicate that native Russian speakers do not differentiate the Brazilian Portuguese mid vowels very well: the mean percentage of the correct answers in the Russophone group was 68%, while in the French group it was 87% and in the Brazilian control group 99%. No correlation was found between the percentage of correct answers and residence time in Brazil or type of language instruction. As next steps, we plan to investigate the differentiation of the Brazilian Portuguese open and close mid vowels by Russophones at the level of production. We also intend to create a training corpus and develop strategies for perception training of the Brazilian Portuguese mid vowels, monitoring their efficiency at different time points.

It is well known that native speakers of English around the globe are by far outnumbered today by speakers of English as a second or as a foreign language (Crystal, 2008). English is thus regularly used as a lingua franca, i.e. an intermediary language used between speakers of various linguistic backgrounds, for transnational and intercultural communication in many domains of life (such as business, diplomacy, higher education, tourism, etc.). The study of conditions of using ‘English as a Lingua Franca’ (ELF), intrinsically connected to the fields of World Englishes and Second Language Acquisition (Schneider, 2012), has come to be a booming sub-field and topic of research in English linguistics over the past few years, as is indicated by the publication of a few textbooks, the establishment of a conference series, and the launch of a scholarly journal (JELF). The focus of these approaches has been on the functions, usage conditions, and practical applications of ELF (Seidlhofer, 2011), and also, though to a lesser extent, on any characteristic structural properties (Dewey, 2007; Jenkins, Cogo & Dewey, 2011; Cogo & Dewey, 2012). Clearly, ELF can be found in a wide range of possible applications and contexts, as Cogo & Dewey (2012: 31) have stated: ‘As a natural phenomenon of sociolinguistic variation, ELF includes all types of communicative events, from the transactional to the interactional, and various possible settings, such as the institutional and the casual.’ It is considered to be independent of the interactants' native-speaker status: prototypically ELF involves communication between non-native speakers of English, but sometimes native speakers participate in such encounters as well. It centrally involves accommodation, negotiation and adjustment of forms to achieve successful communication.

Bilinguals and multilinguals commonly encounter words in their multiple languages which share some linguistic aspects. Among those are interlingual homographs, or words that have the exact same orthography in two different languages. The current study examined, through a semantic judgment task in English with ERP recording, how multilinguals (speakers of Brazilian Portuguese, English and German) accessed the meanings of interlingual homographs that belonged to their dominant and non-dominant foreign languages compared to a control group of Brazilian Portuguese-English bilinguals. The findings demonstrated that multilinguals were slower to respond to the English-German interlingual homographs as compared to control stimuli (no homographs). The results also demonstrated that, when the interlingual homographs were semantically related to their targets in the non-target language, there were significantly more errors and a higher RT than in unrelated conditions. Additionally, only the bilinguals presented the typical N400 effect for unrelated conditions, suggesting that the co-activation of the non-target language due to interlingual homographs modulated this ERP in the multilingual group. Our results provide support for the Bilingual Interactive Activation plus model and suggest that literature findings on interference between first and second languages also hold for second and third languages.

Abstract: This study examined to what extent L1 Brazilian Portuguese (BP) EFL learners are aware of L2 phonotactics and whether there would be a relationship between L2 phonotactic awareness and L2 pronunciation accuracy. The language learners were tested regarding their awareness of L2 onset consonant clusters with a lexical decision task presenting nonword stimuli with legal and illegal onset clusters. L2 pronunciation was measured with a Foreign Accent Rating Task. The results showed that L1 BP participants showed a high awareness concerning L2 phonotactics, not differing from L1 English speakers, t(86)=.20, p =.83. Furthermore, high phonotactic awareness was found to be related to higher accuracy in L2 pronunciation (r= -.46, p <.001). The results suggest that phonotactics should be taught in foreign language classrooms since increasing learners’ awareness might be beneficial for the accuracy of their L2 pronunciation.

Bearing in mind the enormous importance teaching materials have in the language classroom, the paper deals with the analysis of modern approaches to creating foreign language textbooks at the university level. Considering the influence of the English language as a world language in which almost all the latest research and achievements in the field of technical sciences and geology are published, this textbook example is thus based on English as the common language of the largest number of speakers. We believe, however, that it can be further translated into other languages, thus providing students with the opportunity to study the same material in two or more languages, with more success and less cognitive load. Also, it is of great importance that language textbooks go through such academic and practical adjustments that will replace the essential shortcomings of traditional teaching with useful and applicable educational models. Following such goals, the paper tries to: 1) present the importance of developing teaching materials through the principles of visual values, authenticity and scaffolding; 2) clarify and shed light on the essential shortcomings of traditional teaching materials by comparing ESP and CLIL methods, and 3) present practical suggestions for practicing and acquiring the language through three activities adapted to the stated principles.

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper was to examine the extent of non-verbalizable knowledge L1 Brazilian Portuguese (BP) learners of English possess about the segmental inventory of the L2. The study had two aims: i) to determine to what extent L1 BP EFL learners are aware of contrastive and non-contrastive L2 segments, ii) to determine which type of segments present the lowest level of awareness. To the date, little research has been carried out about the non-verbalizable aspect of L2 phonological awareness, most studies having relied on participants’ verbalization of the acquired knowledge (e.g., KENNEDY & TROFIMOVICH, 2010; WREMBEL, 2011). Whereas language learners are frequently taught grammar explicitly, pronunciation of the L2 is rarely addressed in the foreign language classroom. Moreover, phonology is in nature less susceptible to conscious processing than other aspects of L2 learning, making the noticing, and especially the explicit explanation, of phonological aspects difficult. Nevertheless, high L2 phonological awareness is beneficial for L2 pronunciation (KIVISTÖ-DE SOUZA, 2015), making its examination a priority in the foreign language classroom context. The participants of the study were 71 advanced EFL learners and 18 native speakers of American English. Participants performed a perception test which presented English segments spoken by native and non-native speakers. The ability to identify pronunciation deviations in the non-native speaker trials was taken as a measure for phonological awareness. The results showed that the L1 BP participants manifested a significantly lower sensitivity to English segmental phonology than the native English speakers (F[1, 87] = 40.56, p <.001, η2=.31). Pronunciation deviations involving consonants were identified to the greatest extent (52%), whereas the trials involving short-lag VOTs were identified the poorest (33%). The results reveal a need for explicit pronunciation instruction and the employment of consciousness-raising activities in the Brazilian EFL classroom.

In this study, we departed from the assumption that Brazilian Portuguese (BP) speakers of English have the tendency to mispronounce the English retroflex /?/ as the glottal fricative /h/. With the use of a Picture Elicitation L1 Production Task, a Background Questionnaire and an L2 Transcription Perception Task, the following was investigated: (1) Participants’ L1 rhotic production variations in onset position, and possible Cross Linguistic Influence of these productions in their perception of the English glottal fricative /h/; and (2) Participants’ experience with the TL and its correlation with their perception of the English glottal fricative /h/. 13 learners participated in the pilot study and 15 in the experiment. All of them were BP learners of English in different learning levels, with ages ranging from 26 to 42 years old. The data obtained revealed that all of them produced L1 rhotics as glottal fricatives, and more than 70% of them transcribed the words beginning with <h> using <r>. Moreover, results showed that there is a positive correlation between experience with the L2 and correct perception of TL glottal fricative as a rhotic in onset position.

The article deals with one of the most important aspects of translators’ linguistic competence - their phonetics, since interpreters’ good pronunciation is of great practical value, including enunciation of phonemes, lexemes, intonation, articulation, stress placement, and even voice timbre. The novelty of this research consists in the fact that it is one of the few works analyzing typical pronouncing errors of Russian learners of English - mainly interpreters, but also teachers and other students of English - who use their English for various pragmatic purposes. Linguistic literature is replete with textbooks and teaching aids in theoretical and practical phonetics of the English language highlighting theoretical and practical aspects of forming correct pronunciation habits; however, they do not pay sufficient attention to most common pronouncing errors, i.e. stress misplacement, wrong articulation of vowels, diphthongs, consonants, etc., enforced by the interference of Russian phonetic system. The writer of this article analyses most common errors gleaned in the course of his career of a professional interpreter and university lecturer by drawing on his own experience and that of his colleagues - teachers and interpreters. This research seems topical due to the fact that audiences form their first impression of an English teacher or an interpreter by the proximity of his/her pronunciation to that of native speakers. The writer of this article holds an opinion that an interpreter’s pronunciation is his/her “business card,” allowing for the fact, however, that an interpreter does not have to speak without any foreign accent at all, but if the accent is still there it must not jar on native speakers’ ear; the enunciation has to be clear, distinct, pleasant, without obvious phonetic errors affected by the phonetics of the Russian language. Hopefully this article will help some Russian learners of English correct their pronunciation errors in their mastery of the English language, should those errors be taken notice of

The use of English loanwords in different languages has been discussed from various perspectives by several scholars (e.g. Takashi, 1990; Kay, 1995; Takashi Wilkerson, 1997; Smead, 1998; Friedrich, 2002). Although this phenomenon has been regarded as enriching and/or creative by some (e.g. Crystal, 2003; Friedrich, 2002), it has encountered opposition in many parts of the world. Phillipson (1992: 7), for instance, views it ‘as a phenomenon that has offended users of other languages for more than a century.’ He explains how some governments (in France and Slovenia, for example) have adopted measures to prevent the use of loanwords from English. This issue of whether or not the incorporation of loanwords is offensive to the borrowing language became a topic of much debate in Brazil after Projected Law #1676/1999, which aims to limit the use of foreign words (mainly from English) in Brazilian Portuguese (hereafter, BP). As Rajagopalan (2005) explains, many popular movements, politicians, and traditional grammarians have expressed concern that BP is ‘under an imminent threat from English’ (101).Several linguists (e.g. Faraco, 2001) have opposed the proposition, based on issues such as linguistic prejudice and the lack of language expertise of the proponents and supporters of the projected law. Still, the proposition was approved by the Brazilian Senate in 2003. It now awaits further approval by the Chamber of Deputies before a final decision is made. One possible way of investigating whether loanwords are offensive to BP is to approach it from a linguistic perspective. Hence, in the present study, I explore the issue of borrowing by BP speakers through a linguistic analysis of loanwords from English that are currently used as slang in Brazil. The definition of slang used here is that proposed by Eble (1996: 11): ‘an ever changing set of colloquial words and phrases that speakers use to establish or reinforce social identity or cohesiveness within a group or with a trend or fashion in society at large.’

The complex and varied sociolinguistic reality of World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) has important implications for English Language Teaching (ELT). Besides questioning the validity of the ‘native speaker model’, the complexity of Global Englishes raises several issues, both at a theoretical and at an applied level, particularly for teaching. A plurilithic rather than a monolithic (monolingual/monocultural) perspective is called for, one that can make learners aware of the different roles, contexts, linguistic and functional varieties of English, so that they can be prepared to effectively interact with speakers of different Englishes and in English as a Lingua Franca contexts. Communication strategies have been shown to have a particularly significant role in English as a Lingua Franca communication, that is characterized by negotiation and co-construction of meaning; in these encounters, where different linguacultures meet, ELF speakers employ a range of pragmatic strategies to solve, or pre-empt, (potential) non-understandings often drawing on their plurilingual repertoires, too. Communication strategies can thus be said to play a fundamental role in effective communication, particularly in contexts where English is used as an international Lingua Franca. In this light, it would seem important for ELT materials to include activities aimed at raising awareness and promoting practice of communication strategies, so that they can become an integral part of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom practices towards the development of communicative ‘capability’. This article will illustrate a study investigating whether ELT materials addressed at Italian upper secondary school students include activities and tasks related to communication strategies. The examination of textbooks published by Italian and international publishers from the 1990s to 2015 shows that, apart from a few interesting cases, consistent attention has not been given to this important area. Implications for further research on the inclusion of communication strategies in ELT will also be set forward.

Soviet textbooks of foreign languages, in particular English, very accurately reflect those tendencies which affected the evolution of the approach to teaching and its goals, from exchanging information to unidirectional (“addresseeless”) communication that was thematically limited by the realities of a closed society. The material of textbooks changed from original works slightly colored ideologically in the late-1920s towards texts that were completely removed from the realities of countries of the studied languages in the 1930s — 80s. The practice based on “word-for-word translation” methodology resulted in (a) entire lexical spheres having no equivalents in the English-speaking world (e. g. The Moscow News lexicon), (b) incorrect designations of borrowed notions (“currency exchange office” instead of Foreign Exchange), and (c) “reification,” creating notions based on reinterpreted borrowings. All this is fundamentally different from borrowing words together with respective notions under natural conditions (e. g. in émigré communities). Later on, the method of direct borrowing began to be used in Russia and as a result, a significant layer of neologisms was formed in the vocabulary of the modern Russian language. A large portion of the neologisms had equivalents (some of them previously borrowed) and this resulted in a new synonymy with further ousting of one of the synonyms (e. g. tendencija → trend, specialist → ekspert, etc.), or a division of meanings, includ- ing even the formation of words in their own right (messač’< message), etc. An alternative to this tendency can be a conscious attitude to language processes (native speakers’ control of borrowings), which in turn, depend on competence in both contacting languages and, in the last analysis, the organization of education in the country.

The unique aspect of studying other languages is not only the acquisition of basic information, but also the development of communicative competency abilities, which are practical skills required in everyday practice or communication with representatives of foreign-speaking societies. Our present research focuses on the devlopment and implementation of a mixed method of learning for teaching grammatical material in English and German in Bukovyna schools during the first half of the twentieth century. The purpose of our research is to compare the prerequisites for the development and formation of the methodology of teaching English and German grammatical competence in Bukovyna schools between 1932 and 1940, as well as to reveal the peculiarities of the formation of reproductive and receptive grammatical skills in the specified territory and within the defined time for further study of listening, reading, and speaking. Consequently, instructional tactics demonstrated the right selection and organization limits. The development of fundamental grammar abilities is seen as critical in teaching foreign language grammar, since it serves as a foundation of grammatical information. The explanation of grammatical phenomena in German and English was given in the original language, supported by examples from the texts, and strengthened by the completion of exercises. The structure of the grammar appendices, which included extra exercises to reinforce grammatical constructions and the authors' personal explanations of the textbooks in addition to rules and tables, also made a difference in the way the grammatical material of the languages mentioned was taught. The most recent strategy in textbooks at the time was to promote communicating with native speakers (for example, via correspondence), which improved grammatical and lexical mastery of a foreign language. It came to light that acquiring grammatical content using a mixed technique was an approach for producing grammatically and lexically correct spoken speech. Practical application (speaking) demonstrates comprehension of the fundamental principles of grammar and their proper application. Authentic literary reading was essential for developing grammatical knowledge. Translation exercises examined different languages' grammatical structures, with the goal of improving the capacity to use them in context and accurately acquire them when speaking.

The work is devoted to the problem of intensification of teaching Russian as a foreign language in the process of formation and development of the lexical competence of students. The role of educational dictionaries of various types is emphasized. The Experimental Electronic Multilingual Dictionary of Military Terms is presented. It is based on ABBYY Lingvo software for teaching Russian to foreign students of military universities. His vocabulary includes a special vocabulary describing various segments of military activity (weapons, equipment, commands, military life, etc.). For each word there are translations into European languages (boi - English batttle, combat; French combat (m); Portuguese combate) and Asian languages (Laos ; Arabic ; Pashto ). The potential of an electronic multilingual dictionary in the implementation of multicultural and professionally oriented teaching of Russian as a foreign language in a non-linguistic university is identified. The role of the electronic translated multilingual thesaurus in the formation of speech professional competence, which ensures the removal of language barriers in the study of military-technical sciences by foreigners, is determined. The universality of the dictionary is characterized. It was created taking into account those national languages whose speakers receive special education in Russian military universities, and provides opportunities for the redistribution of classroom and independent work of students. Its effectiveness has been proven as a tool for modern interactive, multilingual and multicultural education.

Learning grammar of a foreign language was perceived differently by different methodologists at different times. For a long time, the grammar-translation method used to prevail, when learning a foreign language was reduced almost exclusively to mechanical translation of sentences. Proponents of the communicative approach very often give up grammar altogether, replacing the study of rules with the training of several widespread speech patterns. The article is aimed to suggesting some methods of teaching English grammar at the advanced level as a selected subject for one or two terms. The paper partly uses the method of experimental survey and the descriptive method. The experience of teaching grammar of contemporary English at different levels and constant considerations on this issue allow us to conclude that a certain number of students are interested and motivated to study this aspect of a foreign language. Focusing on the unambiguous strategy of teaching this selective discipline – achieving an advanced level of grammar mastering, there is a need to use different tactics according to the level of different groups. The need to organize distance learning in modern conditions, which has arisen objectively and does not depend on the wishes of the teacher or university, nevertheless allows the teacher to use the advantages and opportunities of contemporary information technologies – videos, audio files, online exercises, online testing and many others. The selection of topics for study is carried out taking into consideration such criteria as the results of the student survey, the performance of the entrance test and the teacher's own experience. In the conditions of distance learning, it is possible to choose a variety of modern English grammar textbooks, videos of native speakers with explanations of grammatical phenomena with or without Ukrainian translation, online grammar exercises, etc. The availability of technological support does not exclude work with a teacher and choice of relevant exercises. These exercises can be divided into combined (to establish ties between theory and practice), basic and recreational. The combination of live communication between students and the teacher with the possibilities of contemporary information technologies makes it possible to achieve the strategic goal of providing motivated students with a high level of English grammar knowledge. Key words. Grammar, advanced study, exercise, strategy, tactics, distant learning.

<span lang="EN-US">Throughout multiples regions around the world, waves of migrants and refugees search for better and safer living conditions. As a result, classrooms are becoming increasingly multicultural and multilingual, with many teachers feeling challenged when faced with this ‘new’ reality. Being English the most commonly shared language around the world, the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom can be a ‘safe’ place where dialogue and intercultural communication are fomented. Not only can it facilitate the integration of migrant/refugee students, but it can also contribute to expanding learners’ (inter)cultural awareness and knowledge of how English may be used by multiple speakers (native and non-native) in diverse settings. In light of this, it is imperative that educators develop more inclusive English-language lessons that help break down barriers and taboos, in terms of language and culture. In order to achieve this, however, it is vital that these issues be developed at the beginning of any teacher training. Bearing this in mind, this paper begins by presenting the concept of English as a Lingua Franca and intercultural communication and follows up by reflecting upon how the traditional EFL classroom should to be reconsidered in light of today’s international role of English. Taking into account the specific growing multicultural/multilingual Portuguese context, the last section of this paper presents how these issues are developed in two pre-service MA programs in English Language Teaching at the University of Lisbon, and also how student teachers have integrated ELF-related activities/resources in their practicum, along with a commentary on their learners’ reactions.</span>

Abstract English tense presents second/foreign language learners with considerable cognitive challenges and, it will be argued, grammars and textbooks are generally inadequate sources of knowledge of the tense system as system. A modified version of Reichenbach's (1947. Elements of Symbolic Logic. New York: Macmillan) tense model is then presented. The original model has been criticized for its inability to deal with temporal relationships in natural text (e. g. Declerck, R. 1986. From Reichenbach (1947) to Comrie (1985) and beyond. Towards a theory of tense. Lingua 70. 305–364; Declerck, R. 2015. Tense in English. Its structure and use in discourse. London: Routledge; Carroll, M., C. Von Stutterheim & W. Klein. 2003. Two ways of construing complex temporal structures. In F. Lenz (ed.), Deictic Conceptualisation of Time, Space and Person, 97–134. Amsterdam: Benjamins). It is argued here instead that speakers employ the limited choices the system provides creatively, to express a wide range of temporal and interpersonal relations in the real world. The tense - aspect and tense - modality interfaces are briefly discussed. A pedagogical Language Awareness approach (Svalberg, A. M-L. 2007. Language Awareness and Language Learning. Language Teaching 40(4). 287–308) is then illustrated, with the theoretical model as mediating artefact providing visual and metalinguistic scaffolding, allowing learners to investigate tense use in context while drawing on both intuitive understanding and conscious knowledge.

Purpose Understanding speech in complex realistic acoustic environments requires effort. In everyday listening situations, speech quality is often degraded due to adverse acoustics, such as excessive background noise level (BNL) and reverberation time (RT), or talker characteristics such as foreign accent ( Mattys, Davis, Bradlow, & Scott, 2012 ). In addition to factors affecting the quality of the input acoustic signals, listeners' individual characteristics such as language abilities can also make it more difficult and effortful to understand speech. Based on the Framework for Understanding Effortful Listening ( Pichora-Fuller et al., 2016 ), factors such as adverse acoustics, talker accent, and listener language abilities can all contribute to increasing listening effort. In this study, using both a dual-task paradigm and a self-report questionnaire, we seek to understand listening effort in a wide range of realistic classroom acoustic conditions as well as varying talker accent and listener English proficiency. Method One hundred fifteen native and nonnative adult listeners with normal hearing were tested in a dual task of speech comprehension and adaptive pursuit rotor (APR) under 15 acoustic conditions from combinations of BNLs and RTs. Listeners provided responses on the NASA Task Load Index (TLX) questionnaire immediately after completing the dual task under each acoustic condition. The NASA TLX surveyed 6 dimensions of perceived listening effort: mental demand, physical demand, temporal demand, effort, frustration, and perceived performance. Fifty-six listeners were tested with speech produced by native American English talkers; the other 59 listeners, with speech from native Mandarin Chinese talkers. Based on their 1st language learned during childhood, 3 groups of listeners were recruited: listeners who were native English speakers, native Mandarin Chinese speakers, and native speakers of other languages (e.g., Hindu, Korean, and Portuguese). Results Listening effort was measured objectively through the APR task performance and subjectively using the NASA TLX questionnaire. Performance on the APR task did not vary with changing acoustic conditions, but it did suggest increased listening effort for native listeners of other languages compared to the 2 other listener groups. From the NASA TLX, listeners reported feeling more frustrated and less successful in understanding Chinese-accented speech. Nonnative listeners reported more listening effort (i.e., physical demand, temporal demand, and effort) than native listeners in speech comprehension under adverse acoustics. When listeners' English proficiency was controlled, higher BNL was strongly related to a decrease in perceived performance, whereas such relationship with RT was much weaker. Nonnative listeners who shared the foreign talkers' accent reported no change in listening effort, whereas other listeners reported more difficulty in understanding the accented speech. Conclusions Adverse acoustics required more effortful listening as measured subjectively with a self-report NASA TLX. This subjective scale was more sensitive than a dual task that involved speech comprehension, which was beyond sentence recall. It was better at capturing the negative impacts on listening effort from acoustic factors (i.e., both BNL and RT), talker accent, and listener language abilities.

The article investigates the use of various technologies for the educational purposes in the process of language teaching by future teachers. Language is the most important means of communication, the existence and development of human society is impossible without it. The current changes in social relations, communication means (the use of new information technologies) require increasing the communicative competence of students, improving their philological preparation. In order they could exchange their thoughts in different situations in the process of interaction with other communicators, using the system of language and speech norms and choosing communicative behavior adequate to the authentic situation of communication. In other words, the main purpose of a foreign language is to form a communicative competence, that is, the ability to carry out interpersonal and intercultural communication between a foreigner to one and native speakers. Educational aspect is an integral part of the educational process. Modern educational technologies that are used to form the communicative competence of a schoolchild in learning another language are the most productive for creating an educational environment that provides a person-oriented interaction of all participants in the educational process. The main aspects of expanding the use of new technologies of productivity and creativity of learning a foreign language(English) by future teachers are identified. The use of technologies in teaching and learning a foreign language by future teachers is seen as a means of clarity and demonstration, of a communicative component of foreign language learning, a means of acquiring and maintaining cultural knowledge, as well as a means of monitoring knowledge and establishing further professional growth. An important role is played by the creation of new products, electronic textbooks and more. The broad perspectives of media technologies in programmed learning as a way of obtaining education in the future are noted.

The article highlights the requirements for the professional competencies of English teachers in EU countries. It is emphasized that one of the most important legal documents, which determines the requirements for competency and professional training of English teachers, is the Guidelines for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). The requirements for an English teacher in EU countries are: compliance with the recommendations and guidelines of the educational programme from top to bottom; use of recommended textbooks and teaching materials, but in fact, teachers can independently develop their own textbooks and manuals, as well as supplement existing ones; development and administering of tests; preparing students for exams. The development of requirements for an English teacher provides a detailed discussion of competencies, in particular: ability to plan educational activities specifically and to perform them in the classroom in accordance with the previously prepared programme; proficiency in flexible adaptation to students’ questions and answers; ability to control the work of students; competency to recognize, analyse and enable students to overcome difficulties in the learning process and to develop their individual abilities. The assessment of English teachers’ competencies in EU countries proves that they must be clearly defined and agreed in a professional standard. It is generalized that in European countries there are different social needs and requirements for an English teacher that is why it is impossible to determine one «ideal set of requirements» for the professional competencies of an English teacher. However, the above mentioned competencies are certainly a guarantee of a positive learning experience and will increase the chances of an English teacher to become successful in professional career. The analyzed requirements for the professional competencies of English teachers, in our opinion, are an attempt to respond to the challenges of modern globalized society in the need for international integration and free communication. We believe that it is advisable for our state to take these requirements into account developing the national professional standards for foreign language teachers

The article is devoted to the didactic potential of mobile applications for learning English as a foreign language by students of non-philology specialities. Since mobile learning acquires complex and systemic features, it is extremely important to investigate specific means that contribute to the implementation of educational tasks and the acquisition of necessary competencies by students getting higher education. The purpose of the article is to review existing mobile applications designed for learning English as a foreign language by Ukrainian students in order to determine their didactic potential. Research methods: the analysis of sources on the topic of research made it possible to understand the state of development of the topic, the main directions of domestic and foreign research on mobile learning; descriptive provided an opportunity to generalize the experience gained during reconnaissance; synthesis of the obtained data contributed to the conclusion of the research concept and its implementation. The didactic potential of mobile applications in learning English as a foreign language is considered. A number of mobile applications offered by Google Play were analyzed, and it was determined that they can be typologically classified according to various characteristics (age of the target audience, level of foreign language proficiency, developer expertise, amount of processed material, number of downloads and the score with which users rated a certain application). The applications that can be logically and naturally introduced into the educational process of students of the 1st year of the elementary and pre-intermediate levels were analyzed. 8 applications were considered. As a result of the research, it was found out that despite the considerable diversity of the analyzed applications, their common feature is the implementation of the “edutainment” concept, in which educational goals are achieved by combining the game form and the educational component of the material under consideration. Application developers pay the most attention to grammatical material and thematic vocabulary. Learned topics can be consolidated with the help of tests, often presented in a game form. An indisputable positive point is that the studied lexemes, grammatical constructions and whole sentences are voiced by native English speakers. Based on the concept of interval repetition, the developers include tools in the applications that allow students to memorize the material as easily and naturally as possible. These can be, for example: a repetition calendar, a reminder system, associative pictures, quizzes, the ability to create word cards by your own, transcription of words in English, examples of the use of polysemantic lexemes in different meanings, accompanied by translation and voiceover in a male or female voice. Both individual and group work is provided in the applications. The function of group English learning can be easily used during classroom classes. Mobile applications are a powerful resource that a teacher can refer to when dealing with specific topics. It is convenient for the student to use mobile applications outside of class time, consolidating information learned from textbooks and expanding it with the help of material provided in the course. However, mobile applications in no way replace the main textbook, being only one of the varieties of didactic material which is modern, relevant and understandable for a modern student of higher education.

In this article, the degree of representativeness of the examples (pairs of lexical units) which illustrate antonymous relations in the English language has been determined, utilizing the method of linguistic interviewing. The article presents the procedure and the results of the psycholinguistic experiment conducted. The peculiarities of the method of linguistic interviewing as a type of psycholinguistic experiment have been defined. A selection of antonymous pairs provided by leading linguists in the area of lexical semantics as illustrative examples in thirteen English-language linguistic works (monographs, textbooks and linguistic encyclopaedias) serves as the material for the experiment. All of the 101 respondents are scholars in the field of linguistics (Candidates and Doctors of Philological Sciences, as well as postgraduate students from the higher educational establishments of Ukraine), and are native speakers of Ukrainian, English being their first foreign language. In the experiment, the respondents were to identify which pairs of lexical items given in the list illustrate the relation of antonymy. Analyzing the results of linguistic interviewing, we were able to determine the pairs of antonyms with the highest and the lowest degrees of representativeness. The research demonstrated that gradable and complementary antonyms, mainly adjectives, have the highest degree of representativeness. In addition, we identified certain correlations with the results of linguistic interviewing conducted earlier, the respondents being linguistics scholars, including university and college professors, who are native speakers of English from five English-speaking countries. References Bruner, J. S., Goodnow, J. J. and Austin, G. A. (1986). A Study of Thinking. NewBrunswick; New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. Cruse, D. A. (1987). Lexical Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kotys, O. (2014). Psykholinhvistychnyi esperyment yak metod doslidzhennia pryrodnoiyikatehorii [Psycholinguistic experiment as a method of investigating a natural category].East European Journal of Psycholinguistics, 1(1), 114–121. Levytskyi, V. V. and Sternin, I. A. (1989). Eskperimentalnyie Metody v Semasiologii[Experimental Methods in Semasiology]. Voronezh: Voronezh University Publishers. Lytvyn, O. L. (2014). Leksychne napovnennia katehorii antonimii (za danymyanhlomovnykh linhvistychnykh prats) [Lexical content of the category of antonymy(based on a selection of English-language linguistic works)]. Nova Filolohiya, 64, 49–54. Lytvyn, O. L. (2015). Doslidzhennia antonimichnykh vindoshen u psykholinhvistychnomueksperymenti [A study of antonymic relations as evidenced in a psycholinguisticexperiment]. Naukovyi Visnyk Skhidnoievropeiskoho Natsionalnoho Universytetu imeniLesi Ukrainky: Filolohichni Nauky: Movoznavstvo, 4(305), 71–75. Rosch, E. H. (1973). Natural categories. Cognitive Psychology, 4(3), 328–350. Rosch, E. H. (1975). Cognitive representations of semantic categories. Journal ofExperimental Psychology: General, 104(3), 192–233.

The paper focuses on the description of strategies for improving the communicative skill of listening at the independent user of English level. One of the key competencies of a modern person is the ability to listen carefully, analyze both surface information and deep implications, perceive a message critically, assess it, and understand the speaker’s intentions and purpose. Depth and completeness of oral speech perception and comprehension depend primarily on the level of communicative skills of listening as a complex of speech, intellectual and compensatory skills. We understand listening skill as a multi-componential skill, the recipient’s ability to consciously and purposefully perceive an oral message with subsequent reproduction and interpretation of it. The communicative strategy in listening is the optimal realization of the speaker’s intentions to perceive, decode and comprehend an oral message through disclosing and understanding its meaningful connections. Learning and communicative strategies are closely connected, because the purpose of teaching a foreign language is forming communicative competence in a foreign language. With the purpose of deep and complete comprehension of oral speech it is worth using strategies aimed at training certain communicative skills of listening. In the process of active listening the independent user of English is supposed to make use of the following strategies: 1) the strategy of identifying the context of conversation; 2) the strategy of recognizing speakers’ intentions; 3) the strategy of clarifying the theme of the message and giving a possible variant of the title to it; 4) the strategy of identifying the genre of the text and its style; 5) the strategy of separating facts and opinions; 6) the strategy of recognizing thoughts and opinions of several members of the discussion, finding common ideas; 7) the strategy of determining the organization of information (chronological, thematic, etc) and finding logical connections between parts of the text; 8) the strategy of identifying details; 9) the strategy of working out the meaning of unknown words from context. The article demonstrates how these learning and communicative strategies are used in the teaching process on the example of exercises in the English textbooks of B1-B2 levels: Choices Upper-Intermediate, Get 200 and Pioneer B2.

Increasing preoccupations and interest manifested for the Romanian language as a foreign language compose a focused and clear expression in the volume “Romanian as a foreign language. Methodology and cultural applicability”, launched at the Turku University publishing house, Finland (2018). The editors, Paul Nanu (Department of Romanian Language and Culture, University of Turku, Finland) and Emilia Ivancu (Department of Romanian Studies of the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań, Poland) with this volume, continue a series of activities dedicated to the promotion of the Romanian language and culture outside the country borders. This volume brings together a collection of articles, previously announced and briefly presented at a round table organized by the two Romanian lectors, as a section of the International Conference “Dialogue of cultures between tradition and modernity”, (Philological Research and Multicultural Dialogue Centre, Department of Philology, Faculty of History and Philology, “1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia). The thirteen authors who sign the articles are teachers of Romanian as a foreign language, either in the country or abroad. The challenge launched by the organisers pointed both at the teaching methods of Romanian as a foreign language – including the authors’ reflections upon the available textbooks (Romanian language textbooks) and the cultural implications of this perspective on the Romanian language. It is probably no accident that the first article of the aforementioned volume – “Particularities of teaching Romanian as a foreign language for the preparatory year. In quest of “the ideal textbook’’ (Cristina Sicoe, University of the West, Timișoara) – brings a strict perspective upon that what should be, from the author’s point of view, “the ideal textbook”. The fact that it does not exist, and has little chances ever to exist, could maybe be explained by the multitude of variables which appear in practice, within the didactic triangle composed by teacher – student – textbook. The character of the variables is the result of particular interactions established between the components of the triad. A concurrent direction is pointed out by the considerations that make the object of the second article, “To a new textbook of Romanian language as a foreign language’’ (Ana-Maria Radu-Pop, University of the West, Timișoara). While the previous article was about an ideal textbook for foreign students in the preparatory year of Romanian, this time, the textbook in question has another target group, namely Erasmus students and students from Centres of foreign languages. Considering that this kind of target group “forms a distinct category”, the author pleads for the necessity of editing adequate textbooks with a part made of themes, vocabulary, grammar and a part made of culture and civilization – the separation into parts belongs to the author – that should consider the needs of this target group, their short stay in Romania (three months to one year) and, last but not least, the students’ poor motivation. These distinctive notes turn the existent RFL textbooks[1] in that which the author calls “level crossings”, which she explains in a humorous manner[2]. Since the ideal manual seems to be in no hurry to appear, the administrative-logistic implications of teaching Romanian as a foreign language (for the preparatory year) should be easier to align with the standards of efficiency. This matter is addressed by Mihaela Badea and Cristina Iridon from the Oil & Gas University of Ploiești, in the article “Administrative/logistic difficulties of teaching RFL. Case study”. Starting from a series of practical experiences, the authors are purposing to suggest “several ideas to improve existent methodologies of admitting foreign students and to review the ARACIS criteria from March 2017, regarding external evaluation of the ‘Romanian as a foreign language’ study programme”. Among other things, an external difficulty is highlighted (common to all universities in the country), namely the permission to register foreign students until the end of the first semester of the academic year, meaning around the middle of February. The authors punctually describe the unfortunate implications of this legal aspect and the regrettable consequences upon the quality of the educational act. They suggest that the deadline for admitting foreign students not exceed the 1st of December of every academic year. The list of difficulties in teaching Romanian as a foreign language is extremely long, reaching sensitive aspects from an ethical perspective of multiculturalism. This approach belongs to Constantin Mladin from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Macedonia, who writes about “The role of the ethical component in the learning process of a foreign language and culture. The Macedonian experience”. Therefore, we are moving towards the intercultural competences which, as the author states, are meant to “adequately and efficiently round the acquired language competences”. In today’s Macedonian society, that which the author refers to, a society claimed to be multiethnic, multilingual and pluriconfessional, the emotional component of an intercultural approach needs a particular attention. Thus, reconfigurations of the current didactic model are necessary. The solution proposed and successfully applied by Professor Constantin Mladin is that of shaking the natural directions in which a foreign language and culture is acquired: from the source language/culture towards the target language/culture. All this is proposed in the context in which the target group is extremely heterogeneous and its “emotional capacity of letting go of the ethnocentric attitudes and perceptions upon otherness” seem to lack. When speaking about ‘barriers’, we often mean ‘difficulty’. The article written by Silvia Kried Stoian and Loredana Netedu from the Oil & Gas University of Ploiești, called “Barriers in the intercultural communication of foreign students in the preparatory year”, is the result of a micro-research done upon a group of 37 foreign students from 10 different countries/cultural spaces, belonging to different religions (plus atheists), speakers of different languages. From the start, there are many differences to be reconciled in a way reasonable enough to reduce most barriers that appear in their intercultural communication. Beneficial and obstructive factors – namely communication barriers – coexist in a complex communicational environment, which supposes identifying and solving the latter, in the aim of softening the cultural shock experienced within linguistic and cultural immersion. Several solutions are recommended by the two authors. An optimistic conclusion emerges in the end, namely the possibility that the initial inconvenient of the ethnical, linguistic and cultural heterogeneity become “an advantage in learning the Romanian language and acquiring intercultural communication”. Total immersion (linguistic and cultural), as well as the advantage it represents as far as exposure to language is concerned, is the subject of the article entitled “Cultural immersion and exposure to language”, written by Adina Curta (“1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia). Considered to be a factor of rapid progress and effectiveness of acquisition, exposure to language that arises from the force of circumstances could be extended to that what may be named orchestrated exposure to language. This phrase is consented to reunite two types of resources, “a category of statutory resources, which are the CEFRL suggestions, and a category of particular resources, which should be the activities proposed by the organizers of the preparatory year of RFL”. In this respect, we are dealing with several alternating roles of the teacher who, besides being an expert, animator, facilitator of the learning process or technician, also becomes a cultural and linguistic coach, sending to the group of immersed students a beneficial message of professional and human polyvalence. A particular experience is represented by teaching the Romanian language at the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. This experience is presented by Nicoleta Neșu in the article “The Romanian language, between mother tongue and ethnic language. Case study”. The particular situation is generated by the nature of the target group, a group of students coming, on the one hand, from Romanian families, who, having lived in Italy since early childhood, have studied in the Italian language and are now studying the Romanian language (mother tongue, then ethnic language) as L1, and, on the other hand, Italian mother tongue students who study the Romanian language as a foreign language. The strategies that are used and the didactic approach are constantly in need of particularization, depending on the statute that the studied language, namely the Romanian language, has in each case. In the area of teaching methodology for Romanian as a foreign language, suggestions and analyses come from four authors, namely Eliana-Alina Popeți (West University of Timișoara), “Teaching the Romanian language to students from Romanian communities from Serbia. Vocabulary exercise”, Georgeta Orian (“1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia) “The Romanian language in the rhythm of dance and hip-hop music”, Coralia Telea (“1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia), “Explanation during the class of Romanian as a foreign language” and Emilia Ivancu (Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań, Poland), “Romanian (auto)biographic discourse or the effect of literature upon learning RFL”. The vocabulary exercise proposed to the students by Eliana-Alina Popeți is a didactic experiment through which the author checked the hypothesis according to which a visual didactic material eases the development of vocabulary, especially since the textual productions of the students, done through the technique that didactics calls “reading images”, were video recorded and submitted to mutual evaluation as well as to self-evaluation of grammar, coherence and pronunciation. The role of the authentic iconographic document is attested in the didactics of modern languages, as the aforementioned experiment confirms once again the high coefficient of interest and attention of the students, as well as the vitality and authenticity of interaction within the work groups. It is worth mentioning that these students come from the Serbian Republic and are registered in the preparatory year at the Faculty of Letters, History and Theology of the West University of Timișoara. Most of them are speakers of different Romanian patois, only found on the territory of Serbia. The activity consisted of elaborating written texts starting from an image (a postcard reproducing a portrait of the Egyptian artist Eman Osama), imagining a possible biography of the character. In the series of successful authentic documents in teaching-learning foreign languages, there is also the song. The activities described by Georgeta Orian were undertaken either with Erasmus students from the preparatory year at the “1 Decembrie 1989” University of Alba Iulia, or with Polish students (within the Department of Romanian Studies in Poznań), having high communication competences (B1-B2, or even more). There were five activities triggered by Romanian songs, chosen by criteria of sympathy with the interests of the target group: youngsters, late teenagers. The stake was “a more pleasant and, sometimes, a more useful learning process”, mostly through discovery, through recourse to musical language, which has the advantage of breaking linguistic barriers in the aim of creating a common space in which the target language, a language of “the other”, becomes the instrument of speaking about what connects us. The didactic approach, when it comes to Romanian as a foreign language taught to students of the preparatory year cannot avoid the extremely popular method of the explanation. Its story is told by Coralia Telea. With a use of high scope, the explanation steps in in various moments and contexts: for transmitting new information, for underlining mechanisms generating new rules, in evaluation activities (result appreciation, progress measurements). Still, the limits of this method are not left out, among which the risk of the teachers to annoy their audience if overbidding this method. Addressing (Polish) students from the Master’s Studies Program within the Romania Philology at the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań, Emilia Ivancu crosses, through her article, the methodological dimensions of teaching Romanian as a foreign language, entering the curricular territory of the problematics in question by proposing an optional course entitled Romanian (auto)biographic discourse”. Approaching contact with the Romanian language as a foreign language at an advanced level, the stakes of the approach and the proposed contents differ, obviously, from the ones only regarding the creation and development of the competence of communication in the Romanian Language. The studied texts have been grouped into correspondence/epistolary discourse, diaries, memoires and (auto)biography as fiction. Vasile Alecsandri, Sanda Stolojan, Paul Goma, Neagoe Basarab, Norman Manea, Mircea Eliade are just a few of the writers concerned, submitted to discussions with the help of a theoretical toolbox, offered to the students as recordings of cultural broadcasts, like Profesioniștii or Rezistența prin cultură etc. The consequences of this complex approach consisted, on the one hand, of the expansion of the readings for the students and, on the other hand, in choosing to write dissertations on these topics. A “tangible” result of Emilia Ivancu’s course is the elaboration of a volume entitled România la persoana întâi, perspective la persoana a treia (Romania in the first person, perspectives in the third person), containing seven articles written by Polish Master’s students. Master’s theses, a PhD thesis, several translations into the Polish language are also “fruits” of the initiated course. Of all these, the author extracted several conclusions supporting the merits and usefulness of her initiative. The volume ends with a review signed by Adina Curta (1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia), “The Romanian language, a modern, wanted language. Iuliana Wainberg-Drăghiciu – Textbook of Romanian language as a foreign language”. The textbook elaborated by Iuliana Wainberg-Drăghiciu (“1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia) respects the CEFRL suggestions, points at the communicative competences (linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic) described for levels A1 and A2, has a high degree of accessibility through a trilingual dictionary (Romanian-English-French) which it offers to foreign students and through the phonetic transcription of new vocabulary units.

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This is a preliminary study in which we investigate the acquisition of English as second language (L2[1]) word stress by native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP, L1[2]). In this paper, we show results of a multiple choice forced choice perception test in which native speakers of American English and native speakers of Dutch judged the production of English words bearing pre-final stress that were both cognates and non-cognates with BP words. The tokens were produced by native speakers of American English and by Brazilians that speak English as a second language. The results have shown that American and Dutch listeners were consistent in their judgments on native and non-native stress productions and both speakers' groups produced variation in stress in relation to the canonical pattern. However, the variability found in American English points to the prosodic patterns of English and the variability found in Brazilian English points to the stress patterns of Portuguese. It occurs especially in words whose forms activate neighboring similar words in the L1. Transfer from the L1 appears both at segmental and prosodic levels in BP English. [1] L2 stands for second language, foreign language, target language. [2] L1 stands for first language, mother tongue, source language.

A society's language reflects its values, norms, and other characteristics and is considered an integral component of these traits. This would be an incomplete language education, despite the fact that it is possible to teach a language without addressing the cultural aspects of the society that speaks it. This study aims to highlight the predominance of inner circle cultural and societal traits in English language education. The evaluation of a global EFL textbook revealed that the majority of the content reflected inner circle cultural characteristics. The efficacy of this method of language instruction is a subject of debate among academics. Critics argue that this approach may perpetuate linguistic imperialism and hinder the development of intercultural communicative competence. However, proponents suggest that a standardised curriculum can provide learners with a solid foundation in the language and facilitate communication with speakers from different parts of the world.

Input-related factors are fundamental for the acquisition of new second language (L2) phones (e.g., Flege et al., 1995). Nonetheless, evidence from instructional settings suggests that, in foreign language contexts, input alone may not be sufficient for the formation of new phonetic categories. In the present study, we investigated to what extent the acquisition of a novel L2 phone (/ð/) is associated with input-related variables and phonological awareness. First language (L1) Brazilian Portuguese speakers of English answered a language background, a phonological self-awareness questionnaire, and completed a paragraph reading task and a phonological awareness test. The recordings were submitted to acoustic analysis and accuracy assessment by Brazilian teachers of English. Linear mixed-effects models revealed that perceived accuracy was predicted by input quality and phonological self-awareness, suggesting that greater interaction with L1 speakers of the target language and heightened phonological self-awareness play an important role in the acquisition of the tested L2 phone.

Dear reader, We are delighted to publish Volume 11, number 2 of the Global Journal of Foreign Language Teaching. This issue aimed to factor in the various aspects of language teaching and learning, as well as factors that affect the process. As such, the reviewers considered aspects such as the mental health of students, the COVID-19 pandemic effects on learning, innovative methods of teaching, and culture . With regards to the aim of this publication, six (6) papers were selected from Algeria, Iran, Portugal and United Kingdom. The selected papers include the following ;“Improving the attendance rate of students with mental disabilities in language teaching: A case study of Japanese”; “Facebook as a learning platform in Algeria during the COVID-19 pandemic”; “Portuguese as a foreign language textbooks: Framing the discourses on the teaching and learning of writing”; “Integrating culture in teaching literary texts and cultural taboos: Foreign language students’ perceptions and attitudes”; “Watching English movies and proficiency development: Advanced learners’ perceptions and strategies”; “Meeting business students’ English language needs in the Algerian tertiary education”. We are pleased to present to our readers this high-standard publication. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all the contributors of this issue. Dear reader, enjoy reading!! Best Regards, Jesus Garcia Laborda, University of Alcala, Spain, Editor-in-chief.