Odlin reconsiders a question fundamental to many language teachers and educational researchers: How much influence can a learner's native language have in making the acquisition of a new language easy or difficult? Odlin analyses and interprets research showing many ways in which similarities and differences between languages can influence the acquisition of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. While these subjects are beyond the scope of my research, the section on phonetics, phonology and writing systems provides the necessary evidence to understand the effect of the transference of writing patterns from Japanese Romaji to English. This is a suspected cause of many problems. While the age of the book suggests that some of the research could be obsolete, it serves as a reference and a foundational background on the subject of transference in writing patters, even between Asian and English scripts.
Politeness is a hard concept to define, but in the opinion of many scholars such as Leech (1983), Brown and Levinson (1987) and Terkourafi (2004) constitutes one of the most important aspects of human interpersonal communication. In order to at least generally explain how politeness works and how it is achieved in interaction, Geoffrey Leech, in 1983, proposed his Principle of Politeness (PP from now on). Leech takes as his point of departure Grice’s Cooperative Principle and its maxims, and considers them useful when it comes to figuring out the difference between the sense and the force of an utterance, but ineffectual at the level of understanding why people employ politeness when communicating . In general, Leech claims, people tend to make confusion between what he calls “relative politeness” and “absolute politeness”. Moreover, he observes, politeness is culturally bounded as every culture possesses its own concept and degrees of politeness in language use.
Though, earlier research into reading assessment used the product approach, “product approaches to reading have been unfashionable in recent years as research efforts have concentrated on understanding the reading process, and as teachers of reading have endeavoured to improve the way in which their students approach text” (Alderson, 2005, p.5). The product approach has been criticized as it is difficult to address the variation in the product and to measure the product using valid and reliable measures (Alderson, 2005). Consequently, though not as an alternative but as a complementary approach, the process approach to reading assessment gained significance. However, the process approach to reading assessment is quite challenging since “the process is likely to be dynamic, variable, and different for the same reader on the same text at a different time or with a different purpose in reading” (Alderson, 2005, p.3). In spite of the limitations, the process approach offers noteworthy data about how the reader, the text and the context interact and impact the construction of meaning.
Concerning the functions ,they state that there are three functions of vocatives which are the following ones :- 1-Getting someone’s attention. 26- Paul: Hi, Cathy! I've never thought I'd see you here. Cathy: Hi, Paul. I was thinking the same thing about you.
Wesche (1983 ) connects that the type of score report to the nature of of the decision to be made with the test washback. "If the purpose of the test is diagnostic or to evaluate progress in a language training program , detailed scoring grades might be in order". (p.47).Since the emergence of the effect of washback on learning and teaching process, many researchers have tried to study negative or positive aspects of backwash on different teaching methods. Spolsky (1990) it is not an exaggeration to say that the roll of textbooks , authors , publishers , teachers , teaching methodology and scoring and grading , is crucial in the washback process.Much more research is needed in this area. Many researchers need to employ additional ways of looking at the influence of tests on teachers ' methods.The publication of the seminal paper by Alderson and Wall (1993) with the title "Dose washback exist ?"
Teacher language awareness refers to pedagogical implications of teachers’ knowledge about language and can have effects on teachers’ behavior and their decision-making (Andrews, 2007). A teacher who has more knowledge about language can perform better in his/her practices. Wright and Bolitho (1993) believe that a teacher with sufficient language awareness is capable of preparing lessons and activities, assessing and evaluating learners’ performance, adapting / adopting / writing materials, and even designing the syllabus and curriculum for her/his class. A linguistically aware teacher has a powerful and safe position to fulfill different tasks (Wright & Bolitho, 1993). The manifestation of lack of teacher language awareness is obvious in different
In teaching English pronunciation teachers practice some English teaching methods. For the activities, teachers usually ask the students to read aloud a text, pronounce the words, practice some dialogues or ask the students to speak up spontaneously. As we know that in the learning process mistake is common, so feedback should be given by the teachers. Feedback is considered to be one of the most significant factors contributing to learner development (Hattie, 2009). This belief can be viewed as a pillar of the teachers’ cognitions about pronunciation pedagogy.
Corder has dealt with the phenomenon in three of his sources. Corder ( 1967) indicates that the value of errors not only interests linguists but the instructors who are directly involved in students process of learning and the language learners as well adding that although scrutinising those errors will base a better understanding to the nature of language, especially to the learners ' instinctive language system, they shape a remedial foundation to language teaching/learning process. In his article Significance of Learners ' Errors Corder (1974) again touches upon the importance of error analysis stating that those errors expose the problematic parts teachers and textbook designers may find worth observing. He says" errors can tell the teacher how far towards the goal has the learner progressed and consequently , what remains for him or her to learn, so, students ' errors are valuable feedbacks"(Corder, 1974: 125). I his later book Error Analysis and Interlanguage, Corder for one more time reaffirms the usefulness of Error analysis.
In the English learning literature, the development of a positive attitude towards learning could be attributed to Integrativeness, or the genuine desire to learn a new language so that one can communicate with the members of the community who use the language as their medium of communication (Dörnyei, 1998). However, as the world has become more borderless as exemplified by the EU and the ASEAN, other attitudinal factors were conceptually included. The additions were attributed to the changing of concept from ‘English is a second language to learn’ to ‘English as an international language’(Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009). This resulted to the addition of other attitudinal factors that include Direct contact with English speakers (attitude towards actually meeting English speakers and travelling to their countries) ; Cultural interest (appreciation of cultural products from English speaking countries conveyed by the media); Miliu (the general perception of the importance of English in the learners’ friends and family) (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009). From the aforementioned attitudinal factors, the following hypotheses were
This condition is worsened by the fact that some English teachers tend to teach their students using the material presented in the textbooks as it is. This happens firstly because teachers might assume that what is presented in the textbooks is both linguistically and culturally appropriate. Secondly, they might think that culture is a different subject that should be covered by other teachers. This point of view is contradictory to the fact that language and culture are closely intertwined so that the teaching of a language cannot be separated from that of its culture. This paper discusses the close relationship between language and culture and how teachers of English can introduce English culture while at the same time teach the language.