Toegepaste Taalwetenschap in Artikelen - Volume 69, Issue 1, 2003

This article deals with the selection of words for curriculum materials, in the light of the choice made in a cdrom on vocabulary learning and a language learning method in primary education. First, some criteria for vocabulary selection are discussed. Next, it is shown that the selection of words feeds on two sources: on the theme in question, and on a word frequency list. Further, examples are given to show that the selection of words is dependent on the medium of instruction and the type of interaction. Finally, the different roles of teachers and those who develop curriculum materials are discussed.

This article surveys corpus research into what might generally be referred to as conventionalism in language use, and discusses its implications for second language teaching methodology. After an introductory section with traditional and more recent views on the idiomatic and formulaic nature of language use, Section 2 presents a survey of corpus-based case studies into preselected types of lexical patterning like idioms and collocations. Section 3 presents the cruder statistical approach of automatically assessing the frequency of recurrent combinations in texts. The results suggest that conventionalism extends far beyond the traditionally recognised patterns, and might be the basic combinatory principle underlying the composition of written and oral texts. After a short section with some evidence that conventional sequencing is also a feature in learner output, the concluding section (5) argues that to do justice to the phenomenon of conventionalism in language use, teaching methodology should be essentially text-based.

This study seeks to investigate the relationship between typological universals and second-language acquisition. The question is addressed whether a specific universal, i.e., the hierarchy of expletives (Travis 1984), shapes the interlanguage systems of L2-learners. Data were elicited from 59 learners of Dutch as a second language (23 NSs of Turkish and 36 NSs of German). To test subjects' knowledge of Dutch expletive constructions, two written tests were administered: a grammaticality judgement task and a correction task. Two hypotheses were formulated. First, a prediction was made concerning the order of acquisition: subjects would acquire unmarked constructions before marked ones, such that the hierarchy of expletives was mirrored. Second, it was hypothesized that German learners would have relatively fewer problems with the two less marked constructions than Turkish learners, since the former have similar structures in their L1, while the latter cannot be familiar with such constructions from their L1. The findings provided some support for both hypotheses. The acquisition of the majority of constructions conformed to the universal. Furthermore, German learners showed better performances for two most unmarked constructions than did Turkish learners.

In the early stage of Dutch first-language acquisition, conjugation is thought to be applied to particle verbs indicating movement (e.g., hij gaat weg/he goes away) rather than to causative particle verbs (e.g. Jas openmaken/coat open-make) (Jordens, 2000). Here, we validate this hypothesized relation between semantics and morphology using spontaneous speech-data from two different groups of children: children with a normal language development and children with a Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Utterances from both groups were compared for finiteness (i.e., conjugation) of particle verbs of the two semantic classes 'movement' and 'causation'. The results indicate that finiteness of particle verbs is indeed determined by the semantics of the verbs. Furthermore, we conclude that young SLI-children prefer to use the less complex structure of particle verbs of movement to causative particle verbs.

This paper focuses on a specific form of indirect speech act such as 'Can you reach the salt?' or 'Will you close the door?'. Such indirect requests are frequently used in our daily conversations. As the term itself reveals, the main focus of speech act studies has been on spoken language, so it is high time to look at sign language as well. From the literature, it appears that indirect requests are often formed as yes-no questions. In Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT), a special non-manual marking, 'eyebrows raised' and 'head forward', marks yes-no questions. This article investigates if indirect requests in NGT are also formulated as yes-no questions and how they are marked.

This study seeks to investigate the effect a computer-based intervention program can have on the spelling skills of Dutch dyslexic or poor second-language learners of English in secondary education. The program, named Remedioom, aims at improving English spelling skills by making pupils explicitly aware of the internal structural patterns in English words through a visual mode. This visual manner of presenting English vocabulary is based on Van Berkel's (1999) theory on how children learn English as a foreign language. The results indicate that effects are indeed greater for children receiving intervention by means of Remedioom than for those who receive intervention through a traditional paper-and-pencil method. However, the visual mode itself does not appear to cause these effects, but rather the mere structural approach, which moves away from the focus on meaning as adopted in a paper-and-pencil method. Indeed, an auditory-based computer program, with which Remedioom was also compared, produced similar significant results when related to the results of the pupils in the paper-and-pencil condition.

A CI (Cochlear Implant) is a medical device that electrically stimulates the hearing nerve in the cochlea (inner ear). Combined with actively training the hearing, it allows Cl-patients to hear again. In my research, I approached the model underlying the training programme linguistically, to see which theories on speech perception could also apply to the speech perception of CI-patients. Specifically, I examined their speech perception on phoneme level using VC-word lists. With the goal of contributing to an effective hearing training, I have tried to answer the following questions:- which phonemes are particularly difficult for patients?- what kind of confusions are made between phonemes?Mainly based on the literature on hard-of-hearing and normally hearing people, some hypotheses and a research question were formulated. Data-analysis was used to further investigate these hypotheses. A number of significant differences in difficulty were found between different phoneme categories, as well as patterns in the confusion of phonemes. It was found, for example, that long vowels are easier to perceive than short vowels and that for consonants a division can be made between plosives and fricatives on the one hand and nasals and approximants on the other, the latter group causing more problems. The research results are now being used for training CI-patients in Leiden.

Foreign-language reading occupies a major place in Dutch secondary education and the diagnosis of specific reading comprehension problems is important to help students improve their reading. Therefore, it is interesting to see if and how these problems can be identified by means of a diagnostic test. On the basis of a literature study, seven factors were hypothesised to contribute to FL reading comprehension problems: vocabulary knowledge, syntax knowledge, understanding explicit information, understanding implicit information, understanding relations and structure, world knowledge and monitoring skills. These factors were tested in an experimental diagnostic test that was administered to 449 students, together with a general test of FL reading comprehension. The results show that linguistic factors such as vocabulary knowledge and syntax knowledge are strongly related to FL reading comprehension, whereas non-linguistic factors such as world knowledge and monitoring skills are only weakly related. The study also shows that individual students' reading problems are due to different combinations of factors.

>According to socio-cultural psychologists, children learn by interacting with their environment and the people that surround them. For this, evidence is found in descriptions of children interacting with their caregivers. This view of learning through interaction is widespread in educational research, though evidence of learning through interaction in the educational context is still lacking. In this study, Conversation Analysis was used to explore interaction in individual help-dyads during math lessons to obtain more insights into the practice of classroom interaction. Four patterns of conversational moves by the teacher are found that prevent the pupil from being able to show full understanding of the task. The discussion part of this article focuses on the question whether and in what way Conversation Analysis of classroom interaction can contribute to the theory building of learning through interaction.

The typological and lexical similarities between the major Scandinavian languages Danish, Norwegian and Swedish as well as a feeling of economic, political and cultural togetherness, facilitate direct interscandinavian communication. Communication participants use their own languages, both in speaking or writing and in decoding what is said or written. This specific situation is called semicommunication. There are, however, problems in semicommunication, too. The pronunciation of Danish has changed strongly over time, and English has strengthened its position as a global lingua franca. The question of how well Scandinavians really understand one another is, therefore, an interesting one. Research has shown that Norwegians have a better understanding than other Scandinavians. This can be accounted for by their language's intermediate position. Another explanation is the linguistic variation in Norway, making Norwegians more experienced in interpreting small differences between language variants. In my MA-thesis, I have focussed on the differences as regards Norwegian language variation experience between the smaller and more experienced Nynorsk group and the bigger and less experienced Bokmål group. Both groups' understanding of written Swedish was tested. A Danish control group took the same test. Results show that the Norwegian group in general had few problems understanding written Swedish. A difference between the Nynorsk group and the Bokmål group, however, could not be found.

This study examins the variability of the fundamental frequency of the voice (SD FO), as an indirect measure of physiological arousal, reflecting the intensity of emotions. The Subjective Unit of Distress (SUD) was applied to assess (a) the success of the experimental manipulation of stress, and (b) the validity of SD F0 as a stress measure. Twenty-five female participants suffering from a Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia participated. They relived an experience from the past and read a story aloud in both a stress triggering and a neutral condition. The increases in SUD, accompanied by decreases in SD F0, indicated that the experimental manipulation of stress was effective and validated the SD F0 as a stress marker. Hence, a new indirect physiological measure for the determination of stress was developed.

This study focuses on the analyses of chat logs from chat conversations in which elementary school pupils ask help from their tutors. Starting from the initial observation that chat room communication and telephone conversation have certain obvious similarities I use results of conversation analysis studies into telephone conversations (Schegloff, Hopper, Houtkoop-Steenstra) to research the patterns of chat interaction. This provides me with the opportunity to have a detailed look into the sequence of chat conversations.As regards the theoretical framework of the interaction analyses, it is an interesting finding that technical possibilities of the medium have an influence on the way in which the interaction by participants is structured. For instance, there is less need to go through an identification-frequency in chat communication than there is in telephone conversation. At the same time, the nature of the medium seems to influence the conversation subjects and the way in which the conversation participants interpret an interaction contribution. A pupil who is familiar with commercially available chat software, for instance Microsoft Messenger, has a tendency to bring up informal conversation instead of asking for help.