Age-Related Differences in the Motivation of Learning English as a Foreign La...inventionjournals
The effects of age on language acquisition is one of the predominant topics in linguistics and second language acquisition (Pérez, 2007). These effects have led to the coining of the critical period hypothesis, which states that one’s capability to learn a second language are only high if one’s age falls within the critical period range and diminishes as one’s age moves away from the critical period (Torres, 2009). In this light, this study aims at finding the age related differences in one’s motivation to learn English as a second language (Pérez, 2007). From the findings of the study, one’s age directly affects his or her motivation to learn English such that younger learners had more motivation to learn the second language as compared to the older learners (Uribe, Gutiérrez & Madrid, 200 8). This effect is attributed to the inactivity of the neuromuscular mechanism in one’s brains beyond the age of 20, which affects one’s ability to process and understand L2 (Uribe, Gutiérrez & Madrid, 2008). The poor language learning techniques of the older adults is also another major cause of the low motivation to learn English as a second language (Torres, 2009). Children engage in more interactions with adults and friends as compared to adults, which is perceived as one of the main factors why children learn a second language faster as compared to adults. The interaction helps them to discover new vocabulary, new ways of pronunciation and new grammar rules, which builds their language faster as compared to adults (Peal & Lambert, 1962). Generally, it can be argued that the younger an individual is the higher the motivation to learn English as a second language at the University of Guayaquil. It can also be argued that the age of an individual directly determines his or her determination to learn English as a second language regardless of the period of exposure to the language (McBride, 2009).
During early childhood, a child has no problem in acquiring two languages, if this happens in a typical context.
However, a delayed exposure to the second language (L2), or insufficient or distorted L2 input, may cause persistent difficulties in L2 acquisition.
Maria Luisa Lorusso and Andrea Bigagli explain.
www.dyslexia-international.org
Age-Related Differences in the Motivation of Learning English as a Foreign La...inventionjournals
The effects of age on language acquisition is one of the predominant topics in linguistics and second language acquisition (Pérez, 2007). These effects have led to the coining of the critical period hypothesis, which states that one’s capability to learn a second language are only high if one’s age falls within the critical period range and diminishes as one’s age moves away from the critical period (Torres, 2009). In this light, this study aims at finding the age related differences in one’s motivation to learn English as a second language (Pérez, 2007). From the findings of the study, one’s age directly affects his or her motivation to learn English such that younger learners had more motivation to learn the second language as compared to the older learners (Uribe, Gutiérrez & Madrid, 200 8). This effect is attributed to the inactivity of the neuromuscular mechanism in one’s brains beyond the age of 20, which affects one’s ability to process and understand L2 (Uribe, Gutiérrez & Madrid, 2008). The poor language learning techniques of the older adults is also another major cause of the low motivation to learn English as a second language (Torres, 2009). Children engage in more interactions with adults and friends as compared to adults, which is perceived as one of the main factors why children learn a second language faster as compared to adults. The interaction helps them to discover new vocabulary, new ways of pronunciation and new grammar rules, which builds their language faster as compared to adults (Peal & Lambert, 1962). Generally, it can be argued that the younger an individual is the higher the motivation to learn English as a second language at the University of Guayaquil. It can also be argued that the age of an individual directly determines his or her determination to learn English as a second language regardless of the period of exposure to the language (McBride, 2009).
During early childhood, a child has no problem in acquiring two languages, if this happens in a typical context.
However, a delayed exposure to the second language (L2), or insufficient or distorted L2 input, may cause persistent difficulties in L2 acquisition.
Maria Luisa Lorusso and Andrea Bigagli explain.
www.dyslexia-international.org
Applied Linguistics 2014 354 418–440 Oxford University Pr.docxfestockton
Applied Linguistics 2014: 35/4: 418–440 � Oxford University Press 2014
doi:10.1093/applin/amu012 Advance Access published on 4 June 2014
Exceptional Outcomes in L2 Phonology:
The Critical Factors of Learner Engagement
and Self-Regulation
1
ALENE MOYER
1
School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, College of Arts and Humanities,
University of Maryland
E-mail: [email protected]
A number of studies attest to the late language learner’s ability to attain native-
like outcomes in morphology and syntax, with accent often the only linguistic
hint of their non-native status. Nevertheless, some do end up sounding native-
like despite a late start. This article explores possible explanations for ’excep-
tional’ outcomes in L2 phonology, specifically, whether such learners’ abilities
are due to innate talent, a metacognitive learning approach, a certain social-
psychological orientation, or specific kinds of experience. Various learners
profiles are compared, an argument is made for learner engagement and
self-regulation, and areas for future research are outlined.
INTRODUCTION
It is no exaggeration to say that those beyond early childhood who aim to
master a new language begin at a vastly different starting point than those who
begin at birth. The second language acquisition (SLA) literature is replete with
theories and hypotheses about why this is so, ranging from neuro-cognitive to
social to psychological explanations including first language (L1) interference,
affective ‘filters’ of one sort or another, the decreasing accessibility of an innate
language acquisition device, social and cultural barriers to assimilation, etc.
(see Bley-Vroman 1989). What is certain is that at least one language is already
in place as a knowledge base, which can imply greater metalinguistic aware-
ness, yet may also be detrimental insofar as L1 cues and patterns are already
salient (see Hansen 2004 for second language, or L2; Kuhl et al. 2008 and
Strange and Shafer 2008 for L1). The first language(s) may limit what the
learner notices in L2, and what she or he is therefore able to emulate at the
level of performance.
According to Selinker (1972), just 5–10 percent of adult language learners
can expect to reach a native-like level, but even this low threshold may be
somewhat ambitious for phonological fluency. Nevertheless, some late lear-
ners do attain a level that can be described as native, or native-like, for some
series of perception-based and/or production-based tasks (e.g. Ioup et al. 1994;
Bongaerts et al. 1995; Moyer 1999). This fact begs two questions that have long
fascinated SLA scholars: (i) What makes a successful language learner?
1
(ii) Why
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/applij/article-abstract/35/4/418/2887856
by University of California, Santa Cruz user
on 04 January 2018
-
%
to
,
1
2
does phonology uniquely challenge so-called ‘late’ language learners in comparison
with other aspects of la ...
Directions
Length: ~3-4 typed, double-spaced pages (approx. 750-1000 words)
Content: The reviews will follow a summary/response organization. The following questions should help guide your review:
Summary:
· General comments: The goal of this part of your review is to demonstrate your comprehension of the study. As such, assume your target audience is non-experts in SLA research. Avoid highly technical details and jargon, opting instead for more accessible language and descriptions, i.e., “your own words.” There should be no need for any quotes in this summary.
· Content: Your summary should address the following questions:
· What were the goals of the study? What were the researchers hoping to find out as a result of the study? What were the gaps/limitations in our understanding that they were hoping to address? (Note: You do not need to summarize their entire literature review, but should provide some basic background to contextualize the study.)
· How did they attempt to address the research questions? Summarize the methodology employed. Who were the participants? What data-collection methods/instruments were used? What was analyzed, compared…?
· What were the key findings? (Note: No need to discuss detailed statistical findings. Simply summarize the important findings). How did the researcher(s) interpret these findings in relation to their research questions and previous research discussed in their literature review?
Response:
· General Comments: The goal of this part of your review is to demonstrate your intellectual interaction with the research you have read.
· Content: Your response should address the following questions:
· What new terms or concepts have you learned from this article? (Don’t just list terms/concepts, but briefly explain them.)
· How do the findings relate to your own experience with and/or ideas about language acquisition? Any surprises? Confirmations? Anything about which you remain skeptical? (If relevant, how do findings relate to other course readings or discussions?)
· What questions has this study—the methodology, the findings, etc.—raised for you? What do you suspect might be the answer to your questions?
Applied Linguistics 2014: 35/4: 418–440 � Oxford University Press 2014
doi:10.1093/applin/amu012 Advance Access published on 4 June 2014
Exceptional Outcomes in L2 Phonology:
The Critical Factors of Learner Engagement
and Self-Regulation
1
ALENE MOYER
1
School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, College of Arts and Humanities,
University of Maryland
E-mail: [email protected]
A number of studies attest to the late language learner’s ability to attain native-
like outcomes in morphology and syntax, with accent often the only linguistic
hint of their non-native status. Nevertheless, some do end up sounding native-
like despite a late start. This article explores possible explanations for ’excep-
tional’ outcomes in L2 phonology, specifically, whether such learners’ abilities
are d.
R021 Kilborn, K., & Ito, T. (1989). Sentence processing strategies in adult b...Takehiko Ito
R021 Kilborn, K., & Ito, T. (1989). Sentence processing strategies in adult bilinguals. In B. MacWhinney & E. Bates. (Eds.), Cross-linguistic studies of language processing. New York : Cambridge University Press. pp.257-291.
GENDER AND IDENTITY ISSUES IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION.docxResearchWap
Extensive language acquisition is determined by a level of dexterity in the four language skills namely speaking, listening, reading and writing. Listening and speaking, in this order, have been described as the most important two as language transcends the semiotic, that is the language for communication, and role. Language is both a sociological and political tool that influences man more than man does it; in it, a person’s worldview is determined to the extent that language is consciousness so that such things as art especially the literary kind become a production of this consciousness at the same time a product of it. Disciplines like anthropology, sociology, psychology, economics, history, etc., invest much time in the study of language as the latter bear upon any deep human-related study. As a result, bridge disciplines have sprung up over the last few decades such as sociolinguistics and so on.
However, it is the application of language studies in things like marketing, advertisement, social media strategies, programming, etc., that inform the surging call for more diverse language-related studies. One of such is on the issues of gender and identity in second language acquisition.
APPLYING ANALYTIC TECHNIQUES TO BUSINESS1APPLYING ANALYTIC T.docxRAHUL126667
APPLYING ANALYTIC TECHNIQUES TO BUSINESS
1
APPLYING ANALYTIC TECHNIQUES TO BUSINESS
2Applying Analytic Techniques to Business
3/16/2020Introduction
Ford Motor is a company that has its original situation in the United States of America. The company has its core business as producing motor vehicles; the company is the Fourth highest producer in the world. The company came to existence in the year 1903, with the present state being one of the companies with a production rate of higher standards compared to its competitors. The company has produced motor vehicles not only in the United States of America but the whole world consisting of diverse brands. Throughout the years, the firm has created different development techniques planned for supporting the general target of keeping up the upper hand in the market. The organization's development is bolstered by different escalated techniques that incorporate market improvement, item advancement, and market entrance. There likewise exist conventional methodologies that steer Ford's business seriousness. Even though there have been a few nonexclusive procedures, cost administration remains the hugest power behind the automaker's prosperity.
Ford’s Operations
The Ford Motor Company has an extensive list of their products and administrations which incorporate autos and substantial business vehicles just as car financing administrations. Their engines include minimal effort vehicles that are created to pull in a more extensive client extend, extravagance autos, trucks, transports, and Motorsport vehicles. Their blend of items and administrations guarantees that the firm can contend well in the vehicle business. Through advancement, the organization has likewise added to a superior situation by creating vehicles that sudden spike in demand for less fuel, hydrogen, and power along these lines empowering the association to acquire clients in recent years.
The firm effectively executes its commitments to its outer clients who buy their vehicles just as its inward clients who comprise of staff in different divisions and who depend on various offices to encourage the smooth progression of their day by day obligations. For the outside clients, the vehicles they buy must satisfy specific guidelines dependent on the details for which they are fabricated. For example, the extravagance vehicles ought to be in a situation to give solace and security dependent on the base market models, simplicity of route, and saving money on fuel utilization. While such principles are structure qualifiers, the firm should endeavor to think of more request champs that recognize their extravagance vehicles from those of contenders. To accomplish this, ford had created a technology that aimed at producing their products with diverse differentiation compared to their competitors.
Ford prior concocted advancements that set their items apart from others. For instance, it built up the EcoBoost suite of advances that decreased the s.
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Applied Linguistics 2014 354 418–440 Oxford University Pr.docxfestockton
Applied Linguistics 2014: 35/4: 418–440 � Oxford University Press 2014
doi:10.1093/applin/amu012 Advance Access published on 4 June 2014
Exceptional Outcomes in L2 Phonology:
The Critical Factors of Learner Engagement
and Self-Regulation
1
ALENE MOYER
1
School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, College of Arts and Humanities,
University of Maryland
E-mail: [email protected]
A number of studies attest to the late language learner’s ability to attain native-
like outcomes in morphology and syntax, with accent often the only linguistic
hint of their non-native status. Nevertheless, some do end up sounding native-
like despite a late start. This article explores possible explanations for ’excep-
tional’ outcomes in L2 phonology, specifically, whether such learners’ abilities
are due to innate talent, a metacognitive learning approach, a certain social-
psychological orientation, or specific kinds of experience. Various learners
profiles are compared, an argument is made for learner engagement and
self-regulation, and areas for future research are outlined.
INTRODUCTION
It is no exaggeration to say that those beyond early childhood who aim to
master a new language begin at a vastly different starting point than those who
begin at birth. The second language acquisition (SLA) literature is replete with
theories and hypotheses about why this is so, ranging from neuro-cognitive to
social to psychological explanations including first language (L1) interference,
affective ‘filters’ of one sort or another, the decreasing accessibility of an innate
language acquisition device, social and cultural barriers to assimilation, etc.
(see Bley-Vroman 1989). What is certain is that at least one language is already
in place as a knowledge base, which can imply greater metalinguistic aware-
ness, yet may also be detrimental insofar as L1 cues and patterns are already
salient (see Hansen 2004 for second language, or L2; Kuhl et al. 2008 and
Strange and Shafer 2008 for L1). The first language(s) may limit what the
learner notices in L2, and what she or he is therefore able to emulate at the
level of performance.
According to Selinker (1972), just 5–10 percent of adult language learners
can expect to reach a native-like level, but even this low threshold may be
somewhat ambitious for phonological fluency. Nevertheless, some late lear-
ners do attain a level that can be described as native, or native-like, for some
series of perception-based and/or production-based tasks (e.g. Ioup et al. 1994;
Bongaerts et al. 1995; Moyer 1999). This fact begs two questions that have long
fascinated SLA scholars: (i) What makes a successful language learner?
1
(ii) Why
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/applij/article-abstract/35/4/418/2887856
by University of California, Santa Cruz user
on 04 January 2018
-
%
to
,
1
2
does phonology uniquely challenge so-called ‘late’ language learners in comparison
with other aspects of la ...
Directions
Length: ~3-4 typed, double-spaced pages (approx. 750-1000 words)
Content: The reviews will follow a summary/response organization. The following questions should help guide your review:
Summary:
· General comments: The goal of this part of your review is to demonstrate your comprehension of the study. As such, assume your target audience is non-experts in SLA research. Avoid highly technical details and jargon, opting instead for more accessible language and descriptions, i.e., “your own words.” There should be no need for any quotes in this summary.
· Content: Your summary should address the following questions:
· What were the goals of the study? What were the researchers hoping to find out as a result of the study? What were the gaps/limitations in our understanding that they were hoping to address? (Note: You do not need to summarize their entire literature review, but should provide some basic background to contextualize the study.)
· How did they attempt to address the research questions? Summarize the methodology employed. Who were the participants? What data-collection methods/instruments were used? What was analyzed, compared…?
· What were the key findings? (Note: No need to discuss detailed statistical findings. Simply summarize the important findings). How did the researcher(s) interpret these findings in relation to their research questions and previous research discussed in their literature review?
Response:
· General Comments: The goal of this part of your review is to demonstrate your intellectual interaction with the research you have read.
· Content: Your response should address the following questions:
· What new terms or concepts have you learned from this article? (Don’t just list terms/concepts, but briefly explain them.)
· How do the findings relate to your own experience with and/or ideas about language acquisition? Any surprises? Confirmations? Anything about which you remain skeptical? (If relevant, how do findings relate to other course readings or discussions?)
· What questions has this study—the methodology, the findings, etc.—raised for you? What do you suspect might be the answer to your questions?
Applied Linguistics 2014: 35/4: 418–440 � Oxford University Press 2014
doi:10.1093/applin/amu012 Advance Access published on 4 June 2014
Exceptional Outcomes in L2 Phonology:
The Critical Factors of Learner Engagement
and Self-Regulation
1
ALENE MOYER
1
School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, College of Arts and Humanities,
University of Maryland
E-mail: [email protected]
A number of studies attest to the late language learner’s ability to attain native-
like outcomes in morphology and syntax, with accent often the only linguistic
hint of their non-native status. Nevertheless, some do end up sounding native-
like despite a late start. This article explores possible explanations for ’excep-
tional’ outcomes in L2 phonology, specifically, whether such learners’ abilities
are d.
R021 Kilborn, K., & Ito, T. (1989). Sentence processing strategies in adult b...Takehiko Ito
R021 Kilborn, K., & Ito, T. (1989). Sentence processing strategies in adult bilinguals. In B. MacWhinney & E. Bates. (Eds.), Cross-linguistic studies of language processing. New York : Cambridge University Press. pp.257-291.
GENDER AND IDENTITY ISSUES IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION.docxResearchWap
Extensive language acquisition is determined by a level of dexterity in the four language skills namely speaking, listening, reading and writing. Listening and speaking, in this order, have been described as the most important two as language transcends the semiotic, that is the language for communication, and role. Language is both a sociological and political tool that influences man more than man does it; in it, a person’s worldview is determined to the extent that language is consciousness so that such things as art especially the literary kind become a production of this consciousness at the same time a product of it. Disciplines like anthropology, sociology, psychology, economics, history, etc., invest much time in the study of language as the latter bear upon any deep human-related study. As a result, bridge disciplines have sprung up over the last few decades such as sociolinguistics and so on.
However, it is the application of language studies in things like marketing, advertisement, social media strategies, programming, etc., that inform the surging call for more diverse language-related studies. One of such is on the issues of gender and identity in second language acquisition.
APPLYING ANALYTIC TECHNIQUES TO BUSINESS1APPLYING ANALYTIC T.docxRAHUL126667
APPLYING ANALYTIC TECHNIQUES TO BUSINESS
1
APPLYING ANALYTIC TECHNIQUES TO BUSINESS
2Applying Analytic Techniques to Business
3/16/2020Introduction
Ford Motor is a company that has its original situation in the United States of America. The company has its core business as producing motor vehicles; the company is the Fourth highest producer in the world. The company came to existence in the year 1903, with the present state being one of the companies with a production rate of higher standards compared to its competitors. The company has produced motor vehicles not only in the United States of America but the whole world consisting of diverse brands. Throughout the years, the firm has created different development techniques planned for supporting the general target of keeping up the upper hand in the market. The organization's development is bolstered by different escalated techniques that incorporate market improvement, item advancement, and market entrance. There likewise exist conventional methodologies that steer Ford's business seriousness. Even though there have been a few nonexclusive procedures, cost administration remains the hugest power behind the automaker's prosperity.
Ford’s Operations
The Ford Motor Company has an extensive list of their products and administrations which incorporate autos and substantial business vehicles just as car financing administrations. Their engines include minimal effort vehicles that are created to pull in a more extensive client extend, extravagance autos, trucks, transports, and Motorsport vehicles. Their blend of items and administrations guarantees that the firm can contend well in the vehicle business. Through advancement, the organization has likewise added to a superior situation by creating vehicles that sudden spike in demand for less fuel, hydrogen, and power along these lines empowering the association to acquire clients in recent years.
The firm effectively executes its commitments to its outer clients who buy their vehicles just as its inward clients who comprise of staff in different divisions and who depend on various offices to encourage the smooth progression of their day by day obligations. For the outside clients, the vehicles they buy must satisfy specific guidelines dependent on the details for which they are fabricated. For example, the extravagance vehicles ought to be in a situation to give solace and security dependent on the base market models, simplicity of route, and saving money on fuel utilization. While such principles are structure qualifiers, the firm should endeavor to think of more request champs that recognize their extravagance vehicles from those of contenders. To accomplish this, ford had created a technology that aimed at producing their products with diverse differentiation compared to their competitors.
Ford prior concocted advancements that set their items apart from others. For instance, it built up the EcoBoost suite of advances that decreased the s.
Apply the general overview of court structure in the United States (.docxRAHUL126667
Apply the general overview of court structure in the United States (Fig. 1.2) to your local community. (Critical Thinking Question 1)
Constitutional rights of the accused is, of course, a controversial topic. The crime control model, in particular, decries letting the obviously guilty go free on "technicalities," whereas the due process model emphasizes basic rights. What common ground do these two approaches share? Where do they disagree most?
.
Apply the Paramedic Method to the following five selections.docxRAHUL126667
Apply the Paramedic Method to the following five selections
1) As a means of providing scientists with appropriate tertiary data, the conference is intended to serve as a communication medium for everyone involved in the manipulation and dissemination of research findings.
2) The decision by the managers was that the committee for road improvement would cease its activity for the duration of the term.
3) From the beginning, the writing of this research article was marked by reluctance.
4. . If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
5.. Four score
and seven
years ago
our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure.
.
Application of Standards of CareDiscuss the standard(s) of c.docxRAHUL126667
Application of Standards of Care
Discuss the standard(s) of care to which the parties will be held in this case scenario. How will the standards of care and your state’s Nurse Practice Act be applied in the courts if the case is sued?
Case Scenario
SK, age 61, went to the hospital with what she thought was a bad cold, and was admitted with a diagnosis of pneumonia. Following admission, she became increasingly feverish and short of breath, but her family’s calls for help went unanswered. In fact, her daughter was unable to find anyone when she went to the nurses’ station looking for help. The patient eventually stopped breathing, and someone finally responded to the family’s desperate and frantic calls for help. SK was successfully resuscitated, but sustained brain damage due to oxygen deprivation. She was left unable to walk, talk, or care for herself.
Because of nurse understaffing in the hospital, her assigned RN had not assessed her often enough and did not monitor her oxygen level. There were 41 other patients on this unit. Although the hospital’s own staffing standards called for five registered nurses and two licensed practical nurses to staff this unit, only three registered nurses were on duty. Records for the unit in question indicated that the hospital failed to meet its own staffing standards for 51 out of 59 days before this incident.
.
Application of the Nursing Process to Deliver Culturally Compe.docxRAHUL126667
Application of the Nursing Process to Deliver Culturally Competent Care.
Research the literature for an appropriate professional article that discusses the health care needs of your selected cultural group.
It should include 5-7 pages within the body of the paper with 3-5 references (at least two articles/book references).
Papers must follow
APA format
7th edition format, and include a title page, citations, and reference pages.
View the
APA Sample Template
APA Sample Template - Alternative Formats
.
Submit the paper in the drop box provided in Blackboard.
View
Formal Paper Rubric
for grading criteria.
Need help with Blackboard?
Review the
Submitting Assignments tutorial
.
Formal Paper Resources
Formal Paper Resources
Formal Paper Resources
Below are helpful resources to assist you with completing the Formal Paper.Click on each link to view.
Dreams from Endangered Culture
- With stunning photos and stories, National Geographic Explorer Wade Davis celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the world's indigenous cultures, which are disappearing from the planet at an alarming rate.
Photos of Endangered Cultures
- Photographer Phil Borges shows rarely seen images of people from the mountains of Dharamsala, India, and the jungles of the Ecuadorean Amazon. In documenting these endangered cultures, he intends to help preserve them.
The Danger of a Single Story
- Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
Theories & Models
Cultural Competence Project
Giger and Davidhizar
Giger and Davidhizar - Alternative Formats
Madeleine M.
Leninger
- Transcultural Nursing Culture Care Theory
Resource Library
You can also revisit
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
- Office of Minority Health
Log in and c lick on the
ToolKit - Resource Library
tab
The Resource Library has many useful descriptions and examples of models to use for your Formal Paper.
*NOTE:
Wikipedia is not a source to be used in any of the generated work; using it will result in a “zero” for the assignmen
.
Application Ware House-Application DesignAppointyAppoi.docxRAHUL126667
Application Ware House-Application Design
Appointy
Appointy allows users grow and manage their business in one and easy to use user interface.
The software helps users schedule online customers daily anywhere and at anytime,
Improve productivity and it enables business manage their staff in multiple locations.
Appointy helps organizations attract more customers through online marketing channels such as facebook and twitter.
Advantages of Saas
Accessibility SaaS can run on any OS regardless of its Mac OS, Blackberry Tablet Os,
Cost reduction and quick commissioning; due to the amount of money saved, there are no initial licensing costs.
Scalability; It is not necessary for an organization to purchase more service space or software licenses.
Updates; Saas providers update software and hardware and this has saved on time and workload for the consumer.
Saas is easily accessible and can run on any operating system regardless of its Mac OS. Besides, it is highly accessible and a user only requires an internet browser to begin their operations.
Saas providers update their software and hardware which saves on time and workload fro the consumer. The software is centrally on the server and new functions and update are implemented more frequently and efficiently.
Saas software is associated with cost reduction and quick comissioning,one of the major benefits o using Saas is the amount of money that culd be potentially saved.
3
Disadvantages of Saas
Data security risks; businesses are required to keep their information private as the provider is the one storing the company data.
Termination of service; Businesses can lose their data and files if the provider terminates their services for reasons such as lawsuits and bankruptcy.
Performance challenges; Software on local machines may run faster compared to Saas being hosted in a remote data centre.
Limited Applications; Saas relies on multiple software solutions.
Saas is associated with limited applications, a number of business that use SaaS grow daily and there are software applications that do not offer a hosted platform, the company will have to be hosted on site especially if it relies on multiple software sources.
Software in local machines are likely to run at a faster speed when compared to Saas that is hosted inn remote data centre.
Organizations are likely to face data security risks since data is stored by a provider.
4
Advantages of An in-house customized software
Users of the program will find the custom-made program more friendly.
The organization is provided with a greater control, which is crucial if the business ha some specific needs that an average commercial product can fulfill.
It also makes the interface more easy to use and provides easy accessibility to knowledgeable support.
The organization is likely obtain support from individual who have developed the software at hand.
customized software is more efficient,as it can cover every aspect of the business without the.
Application of the Belmont PrinciplesFirst, identify your .docxRAHUL126667
Application of the Belmont Principles
First, identify your research topic, including the key concepts you hope to investigate, any relationship you will look for between or among them—if anticipating a quantitative study—and who you anticipate as the target population.
RESEARCH TOPIC: Application of The Cognitive Psychology in Mental Illness or Trauma
Then, briefly identify how you would apply the three Belmont principles (beneficence, justice, and respect for persons) when you conduct your study.
Your post will be assessed based on the following:
· A thorough and high-quality post will apply one or more of the Belmont principles to all of the following elements of a research design:
o How one samples and recruits participants.
o How one collects data from those participants.
o How one manages, organizes, and conducts analyses of the data.
o How one reports the findings.
· An acceptable but lower quality post will apply at least one of the Belmont Principles to at least two of the design elements.
· A low-quality post will apply a Belmont principle to only one design element.
· An unacceptable post will not apply any Belmont principles to any design elements.
.
APPLE is only one of the multiple companies that have approved and d.docxRAHUL126667
APPLE is only one of the multiple companies that have approved and declared a stock split, the most recent one on a 4-for-1 basis last August 28, 2020. Analyze and explain:
(i) What is a stock split;
(ii) Why do you think that APPLE has approved this stock split decision;
(iii) How has that the stock split affected APPLE’s stocks’ value;
(iv) What is the APPLE’s current dividend payout ratio;
(v) How do you think that the APPLE’s dividend payout ratio may affect to the stocks’ value.
This exercise assesses the following learning outcomes:
(i) the evaluation of the dividend payout ratio,
(ii) the trade-off between paying dividends and retaining the profits within the company,
(iii) the purpose and procedure related to stock repurchases, and
(iv) the evaluation and advice on a firm going from private to a public company.
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Appliance Warehouse Service Plan.The discussion focuses on the.docxRAHUL126667
Appliance Warehouse Service Plan.
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Testing Plan
The main reason for the testing plan is to validate and verify the information from the main source or the end to end target warehouse. The two major testing plans for include program testing and acceptance testing (Lewis, 2017). The plan should verify the following, the business required documents, ETL design for the documents, sources to target on the mapping process and the data model for the source and the target schemas. The documents that are considered are meant for the ETL development process in the testing plan. The testing plan is meant further for the supervisors or the quality analysis team to confirm that the work is concerning the objective of the organization. The process of testing might also include the configuration management system and the data quality validation and verification process.
Implementation Plan
The plan for the implementation of the systems is the same as the process that is considered during the development process of the entire system to meet the goals of the organization. The steps to consider for the whole plan of the implementation include the analysis and the enhancement requests, the writing of very simplified and new programs, restructuring of the database, analysis of the program library and its cost, and the reengineering of the test program. The first phase parallels the analysis phase as the parallel strategy is considered for the entire process, which entails the analysis phase of the SDLC. The steps two to four process entails the combining and the construction activities that are done on a new system majorly on a small scale. The last step is meant to parallel the testing that is commonly done during the implementation process. The testing process ensures that the process is free of risk as a quality assurance process (Liang & Hui, 2016).
Training Plan
The training plan should be made up of a training matrix in which it will guide them to know who needs the training what they need from the training and why they want the training not forgetting when they need the training(Kwak,2016). The matrix will allow for the planning and the preparation for the training avoiding scrambling when the due date for the training comes around. The requirements are automatically updated when the employees get done with the first training before transferri.
Applicants must submit a 500 essay describing how current or future .docxRAHUL126667
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Select one of these companies and review their latest Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows.
Suggest at least two (2) advantages and two (2) disadvantages of companies accumulating cash hoards.
Provide a rationale for your suggestion.
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Appcelerator Titanium was released in December 2008, and has been st.docxRAHUL126667
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What are some advantages to using Appcelerator Titanium?
Though Appcelerator is reasonably priced, why do some mobile app developers feel that the bugs don’t make it worth the effort?.
How is Appcelerator different from other mobile application developers?
- apa
- 2 pages
- zero plagiarism
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APA Style300 words per topic2 peer reviewed resources per to.docxRAHUL126667
APA Style
300 words per topic
2 peer reviewed resources per topic
Topic 1: Communicating Research
What are some possible ways you can communicate your research findings?
Topic 2: Considering the Audience
What do you need to consider when communicating to different audiences?
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Ape and Human Cognition What’s theDifferenceMichael To.docxRAHUL126667
Ape and Human Cognition: What’s the
Difference?
Michael Tomasello and Esther Herrmann
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
Abstract
Humans share the vast majority of their cognitive skills with other great apes. In addition, however, humans have also evolved a
unique suite of cognitive skills and motivations—collectively referred to as shared intentionality—for living collaboratively,
learning socially, and exchanging information in cultural groups.
Keywords
apes, culture, cognition, evolution, cooperation
Surely one of the deepest and most important questions in all of
the psychological sciences is how human cognition is similar to
and different from that of other primates. The main datum is this:
Humans seemingly engage in all kinds of cognitive activities that
their nearest primate relatives do not, but at the same time there is
great variability among different cultural groups. All groups have
complex technologies but of very different types; all groups use
linguistic and other symbols but in quite different ways; all
groups have complex social institutions but very different ones.
What this suggests is that human cognition is in some way bound
up with human culture. Here we argue that this is indeed the case,
and we then try to explain this fact evolutionarily.
Similarities in Ape and Human Cognition
The five great ape species (orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees,
bonobos, humans) share a common ancestor from about 15 mil-
lion years ago, with the last three sharing a common ancestor
from about 6 million years ago (see Fig. 1 for a picture of chim-
panzees). Since great apes are so closely related to one another
evolutionarily, it is natural that they share many perceptual,
behavioral, and cognitive skills.
Great ape cognitive worlds
Many different studies suggest that nonhuman great apes (here-
after great apes) understand the physical world in basically the
same way as humans. Like humans, apes live most basically in
a world of permanent objects (and categories and quantities of
objects) existing in a mentally represented space. Moreover,
they understand much about various kinds of events in the
world and how these events relate to one another causally (see
Tomasello & Call, 1997, for a review). Apes’ and other
primates’ cognitive skills for dealing with the physical world
almost certainly evolved in the context of foraging for food.
As compared with other mammals, primates may face special
challenges in locating their daily fare, since ripe fruits are pat-
chy resources that are irregularly distributed in space and time.
Other studies suggest that great apes understand their social
worlds in basically the same way as humans as well. Like
humans, apes live in a world of identifiable individuals with
whom they form various kinds of social relationships—for
example, in terms of dominance and ‘‘friendship’’—and they
recognize the third-party social relationships that.
Apply what you have learned about Health Promotion and Disease P.docxRAHUL126667
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Develop a case study and a plan of care, incorporating current mobile App technology:
Select a population. Define your population by gender, age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, spiritual need, and healthcare need. Apply concepts learned in course to identify healthcare needs specific to the population and access to care (Utilize your textbook Chapters 1-25, and identified Websites). Also use at least two references within the five years.
Develop a case study for a patient in your chosen population.
Define a provider level of care that includes telehealth, alternative therapies, and mobile App technology discussed in this class. Describe how telehealth could impact the care delivery of this patient.
Hint: Concise, condensed information, with specifics and details about population and unique needs with a plan for meeting these needs should be considered. Incorporate the content you have learned in this course.
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APA formatCite there peer-reviewed, scholarly references300 .docxRAHUL126667
APA format
Cite there peer-reviewed, scholarly references
300 - 350 words
Write a negative construct on the usefulness of decision making, leadership effectiveness, and employee morale challenges as they impact organizational change.
***Introduction and conclusion not needed***
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APA formatCite 2 peer-reviewed reference175-265 word count.docxRAHUL126667
APA format
Cite 2 peer-reviewed reference
175-265 word count
Read
and
respond
to the following discussion posts. Be constructive and professional with your thoughts, feedback suggestions or question(s).
Respond to the following:
Crystal Irwin
12:13 PM
Hello Ms. Chimera & Class,
Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to academics and the professional world. Thanks to my experience as a financial ops generalist, I have gained great communication skills. I am responsible for contacting vendors to address or fix any issues we may have with the service or product. I have also completed training on effective communication at my current job. This training was helpful being that I have to regularly speak with offenders family members as well. Another one of my strengths is that I am very reliable. My previous supervisor would always assign me extra duties when she had a deadline to meet because she knew that I would make sure it was done by the deadline. An academic weakness that I have is writing papers, I tend to procrastinate when it comes to having to write them. I have found that the writing center is very helpful. The university's library is helpful when having to do research. I have used the citation generator numerous times in the past to help with citations. If you have trouble with citations, this is a good resource or tool to use.
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APA formatCite at least 1 referenceWrite a 175- to 265-w.docxRAHUL126667
APA format
Cite at least 1 reference
Write
a 175- to 265-word response to the following:
How does employee motivation impact organizational behavior? Provide details.
What do you believe has the biggest impact on employee motivation? Why?
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apa format1-2 paragraphsStep 1 - Read the Information Belo.docxRAHUL126667
a
pa format
1-2 paragraphs
Step 1 - Read the Information Below
Leadership is the ability to influence others to achieve organizational goals. Organizations spend billions of dollars each year to improve the leadership skills of their employees. Leadership skills are needed within organizations to execute the vision, mission, and strategic goals of the organization.
Visit the MindTools Web site and complete the short
Leadership Skills
exercise. Explore your strengths and areas for growth.
Step 2 - Post a Response
Respond to the following.
What are your strengths?
Where do you have opportunities to grow your leadership skills?
Based on your assessment results, propose three things you can do to improve your leadership skills.
.
Welcome to TechSoup New Member Orientation and Q&A (May 2024).pdfTechSoup
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Students, digital devices and success - Andreas Schleicher - 27 May 2024..pptxEduSkills OECD
Andreas Schleicher presents at the OECD webinar ‘Digital devices in schools: detrimental distraction or secret to success?’ on 27 May 2024. The presentation was based on findings from PISA 2022 results and the webinar helped launch the PISA in Focus ‘Managing screen time: How to protect and equip students against distraction’ https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/managing-screen-time_7c225af4-en and the OECD Education Policy Perspective ‘Students, digital devices and success’ can be found here - https://oe.cd/il/5yV
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Synthetic fiber production is a fascinating and complex field that blends chemistry, engineering, and environmental science. By understanding these aspects, students can gain a comprehensive view of synthetic fiber production, its impact on society and the environment, and the potential for future innovations. Synthetic fibers play a crucial role in modern society, impacting various aspects of daily life, industry, and the environment. ynthetic fibers are integral to modern life, offering a range of benefits from cost-effectiveness and versatility to innovative applications and performance characteristics. While they pose environmental challenges, ongoing research and development aim to create more sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives. Understanding the importance of synthetic fibers helps in appreciating their role in the economy, industry, and daily life, while also emphasizing the need for sustainable practices and innovation.
Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology:
Ethnobotany in herbal drug evaluation,
Impact of Ethnobotany in traditional medicine,
New development in herbals,
Bio-prospecting tools for drug discovery,
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Reverse Pharmacology.
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How to Split Bills in the Odoo 17 POS ModuleCeline George
Bills have a main role in point of sale procedure. It will help to track sales, handling payments and giving receipts to customers. Bill splitting also has an important role in POS. For example, If some friends come together for dinner and if they want to divide the bill then it is possible by POS bill splitting. This slide will show how to split bills in odoo 17 POS.
1. Applied Psycholinguistics 31 (2010), 413–438
doi:10.1017/S0142716410000056
Cross-linguistic evidence for the
nature of age effects in second
language acquisition
ROBERT DEKEYSER
University of Maryland at College Park
IRIS ALFI-SHABTAY and DORIT RAVID
Tel-Aviv University
Received: February 18, 2008 Accepted for publication: May 18,
2009
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE
Robert DeKeyser, Department of Linguistics, University of
Maryland, 3215 Jimenez Hall, College
Park, MD 20742. E-mail: [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Few researchers would doubt that ultimate attainment in second
language grammar is negatively
correlated with age of acquisition, but considerable controversy
remains about the nature of this
relationship: the exact shape of the age-attainment function and
its interpretation. This article presents
two parallel studies with native speakers of Russian: one on the
acquisition of English as a second
language in North America (n = 76), and one on the acquisition
of Hebrew as a second language in
Israel (n = 64). Despite the very different nature of the
2. languages being learned, the two studies show
very similar results. When age at testing is partialed out, the
data reveal a steep decline in the learning
of grammar before age 18 in both groups, followed by an
essentially horizontal slope until age 40. This
is interpreted as evidence in favor of the critical period. Both
groups show a significant correlation
between ultimate attainment and verbal aptitude for the adult
learners, but not for the early learners.
This is interpreted as further evidence that the learning
processes in childhood and adulthood not only
yield different levels of proficiency but are also different in
nature.
Age effects in (second) language learning are widely
acknowledged, but their
exact nature remains controversial, in particular, the concept of
a critical period
for second language acquisition (SLA). In about the last 15
years, numerous
arguments against the critical period hypothesis (CPH) have
been formulated: a
few studies have failed to find a clear correlation between age
of acquisition and
ultimate attainment; many more researchers accept the negative
correlation as a
fact, but they argue that it is attributable to a confound between
age of acquisition
and one or more other variables, such as length of residence,
age at testing, the
nature of the input received as a function of age, the extent to
which education
was provided in the second language (L2) or the first language
(L1), the (lack of)
motivation to integrate fully with the L2 society, or simply the
amount of practice
4. attainment throughout the life span (Bialystok & Hakuta, 1999;
Bialystok &
Miller, 1999; Hakuta, Bialystok, & Wiley, 2003) or even a
stronger negative
correlation in adulthood than in childhood or adolescence
(Birdsong & Molis,
2001). Therefore, these researchers argue, the decline as a
function of age, which
has been documented in dozens of studies, should not be
interpreted as a critical
period effect (a sharp decline within a relatively short period of
time, attributable
to inevitable biological and psychological changes, leveling off
quickly once that
period of time is over, and affecting only very particular kinds
of learning, in this
case the learning of aspects of a second language). It instead
reflects a broader
phenomenon of maturationally determined cognitive decline that
is largely the
same throughout the life span, but perhaps accentuated at
certain stages of life
by changes in people’s socialization patterns (see also Birdsong,
2004, 2005,
2006). For various methodological criticisms of these studies
purporting to show a
decline throughout adulthood, see DeKeyser (2006), Long
(2005, 2007, chap. 3),
and Stevens (2004).
Other researchers have countered that the well-documented
decline as a function
of age is a maturational phenomenon affecting (second)
language learning more
than other cognitive functions, and takes places in a period of
roughly 10 to 15
5. years, starting possibly at birth, becoming clearly visible from
around age 6 for
certain aspects of language and with certain test formats, and
leveling off in late
adolescence. As evidence for this viewpoint, they point to
qualitative differences
in learning processes before and after this critical period, such
as a differential role
of aptitude (DeKeyser, 2000; Harley & Hart, 1997, 2002), or
simply the shape of
the age of acquisition–ultimate attainment function, which, at
least in a number of
studies, appears to show a steep decline during a limited number
of years, but not
thereafter (e.g., Flege, Yeni-Komshian, & Liu, 1999; Johnson,
1992; Johnson &
Newport, 1989, 1991; Lee & Schachter, 1997; cf. DeKeyser &
Larson-Hall, 2005;
Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003).
The issue remains far from resolved for a number of
methodological reasons.
The quantitative evidence (i.e., about how much of the L2 is
learned as a function
of age of acquisition) used on either side of the debate is often
less than ideal,
Applied Psycholinguistics 31:3 415
DeKeyser et al.: Cross-linguistic evidence for the nature of age
effects in SLA
because of very narrow operationalizations of ultimate
attainment (most often
grammaticality judgments) and insufficient documentation or
6. analysis of potential
confounding variables (especially length of residence, age at
testing, the nature of
the immigrants’ social networks in L1 and L2, the amount of
use of L1 and L2
at various stages of development, and various affective and
social–psychological
variables).
The qualitative evidence (about how L2 learning takes place at
different ages),
in contrast, is rather limited so far (few researchers have
focused on qualitative
distinctions) and has been subject to a number of criticisms as
well. DeKeyser
and Larson-Hall (2005) mention differential reliance on aptitude
at different ages
and differential age effects on the learning of structures
characterized by differ-
ent levels of salience as potential examples of (somewhat
indirect) evidence for
qualitative age differences, that is, differences not just in
learning outcomes, but
also in learning mechanisms involved at different ages.
Systematic research on the
relationship between age and salience has not been carried out
so far, however,
and the finding of different predictive validity of aptitude at
different ages (e.g.,
DeKeyser, 2000; Harley & Hart, 1997, 2002) has been
questioned because of
the instruments used. Bialystok, for instance, argued that the
Modern Language
Aptitude Test (MLAT; Carroll & Sapon, 1959; used by
DeKeyser, 2000) “aside
from being almost 50 years old . . . investigates a narrow and
7. almost parochial
definition of language aptitude” (2002, p. 484); presumably her
criticisms would
apply to the Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery (PLAB;
Pimsleur, 1966; used
by Harley & Hart, 1997) as well, as this test was published only
a few years after
the MLAT and has largely the same ingredients and the same
predictive validity
(see, e.g., Carroll, 1981). Bialystok does not suggest any
alternatives, however,
nor is any test available at this point that is generally agreed to
be a more valid
measure of language learning aptitude than the MLAT or
PLAB.1
In addition to issues of sampling and instrumentation, several
further method-
ological problems cannot be ignored. One is that different
aspects of language
(e.g., phonology vs. morphosyntax, or even at a much more
fine-grained level,
regular inflection vs. irregular inflection) may show different
age of acquisition–
ultimate attainment functions. There may be “multiple
windows” (multiple critical
periods) for different aspects of language, some closing before
others or showing
a steeper decline than others (for early mentions of this idea,
see, e.g., Schachter,
1996; Seliger, 1978); some aspects of language may also be
more sensitive to
variables such as length of residence or level of education than
to age of acquisi-
tion (see especially Flege et al., 1999). Simply generalizing to
all of “language”
8. would be unfruitful (Eubank & Gregg, 1999, p. 66). In contrast,
“it would be
premature to exclude factors other than ‘linguistic competence’
from the agenda
of maturational constraints” (Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003,
p. 559); one may
have to distinguish aspects such as the capacity “to construct
narratives, to produce
and understand metaphor, to accommodate to another’s speech,
to persuade . . . ”
(Schumann, 1995, p. 60). All of this also implies the necessity
of cross-linguistic
research, given that different native languages and target
languages differ con-
siderably in the frequency (or absence) of a wide variety of
phenomena, such as
phonemic use of tone, irregular inflectional morphology,
agreement patterns within
the noun phrase or between the noun phrase and the verb phrase,
morphological
Applied Psycholinguistics 31:3 416
DeKeyser et al.: Cross-linguistic evidence for the nature of age
effects in SLA
marking of marked semantic distinctions, and wh-movement, to
name just a few.
Therefore, it is important to look at both the acquisition of the
same L2 by speak-
ers of very different L1s and the acquisition of very different
L2s by speakers of
the same L1. Thus far, only the former comparison has been
made in the CPH
literature on the acquisition of grammar (Bialystok & Miller,
9. 1999; Hyltenstam,
1992; McDonald, 2000; Sorace, 1993).
Another problem is the inherent relationship between three
important predictors
of ultimate attainment–age of acquisition, length of residence,
and age at testing.
In most studies, there is a moderate to strong correlation
between these three
variables (age at testing = age of acquisition + length of
residence, so if length
of residence varies little, age of acquisition and age at testing
will be strongly
correlated; if age at testing varies little, age of acquisition and
length of residence
will be strongly correlated). Stevens (2006) argues that the
linear dependence
between age of acquisition, length of residence, and age at
testing is very hard to
disentangle, and can only be resolved through longitudinal data,
or by measures
of quantity of exposure not expressed in units of time, or by
positing nonlinear
relationships. Simply ignoring one of the three variables does
not work, unless
“two of the three variables can be regarded as indexing the same
causal phenomena
or if one of the variables is unrelated to the dependent variable”
(p. 680). Length
of residence is taken into account in most studies, and turns out
to be unre-
lated to most dependent measures, provided that length of
residence is more than
5 years, and that the dependent measures index basic
grammatical proficiency
(not purisms, collocations, etc.); it is therefore not much of a
10. problem in most
studies. The most problematic variable is age at testing, which
is often not taken
into account despite its sometimes high correlation with age of
acquisition.
Finally, the evidence is only as good as the sample. Sample
sizes in CPH
studies, at least the ones focusing on the acquisition of
grammar, have typically
varied around 50, which is very small if the sample needs to be
divided up into
different age of acquisition ranges, and if a correlation, and
especially a partial
correlation or regression equation, needs to be computed for
each subsample, as
is typically the case. Of more importance, the qualitative nature
of the sample,
especially with respect to socioeconomic and educational
diversity, monolingual or
bi-/multilingual background, and relative size of different age
of acquisition groups
in the sample, often leaves much to be desired in terms of
representativeness. In
this area of research, almost every sample has been one of
convenience, which
typically means a much higher percentage of highly educated
participants than
in the population at large, and sometimes knowledge of one or
more L2s before
immigration. Moreover, a number of studies with an otherwise
respectable number
of participants have had few in the critical age range of 12–18;
a few teenage
participants more or less within the subsample of “early
acquirers” (often defined
11. as those who immigrated before age 16 or 18) may lead to large
differences in the
age of acquisition–ultimate attainment correlation for that
sample, as the decline
as a function of age is expected to be most noticeable between
the ages of about 12
and 18, depending on the nature of the outcome variable and the
L1–L2 difference.
This alone may explain the rather large difference in the value
for this correlation
in studies with otherwise very similar results, such as Johnson
and Newport (1989)
and DeKeyser (2000).
Applied Psycholinguistics 31:3 417
DeKeyser et al.: Cross-linguistic evidence for the nature of age
effects in SLA
From this short literature review, it is clear that, in order to
make solid progress
in investigating the CPH, we need to
1. distinguish morphosyntax from phonology or the lexicon,
perhaps even different
elements of morphosyntax;
2. conduct separate analyses (whether they be correlations,
partial correlations, or
regression analyses) per age group;
3. carry out studies with more subjects than has usually been the
case, to ensure
enough statistical power for these separate analyses;
12. 4. conduct more research on qualitative age differences, for
example, on whether
aptitude plays a different role at different ages; and
5. design more cross-linguistic research for purposes of
generalization. Only when
learners with different L1 backgrounds learn the same L2, or
when learners of the
same L1 background learn different L2s and their data are
collected and analyzed
in the same way, preferably in the same study, is it possible to
assess to what
extent the nature of target language structures or the nature of
L1–L2 differences
interacts with age effects.
In this article, we report on a research project on the acquisition
of L2 grammar
that was designed to meet most of these goals. Data were
collected from native
speakers of Russian who acquired either English as an L2 in
North America or
Hebrew as an L2 in Israel (∼150 participants). Results were
analyzed separately
for different ranges of age of acquisition, and the role of
aptitude was investigated
in each group to test for qualitative differences. As stated
above, different aspects
of language should all be investigated; this does not necessarily
have to happen in
one and the same study. It does seem important, however, to
have a good sampling
of one area, in this case morphosyntax, so that some
generalization to at least that
aspect of language is possible, but not to the lexicon,
pragmatics, or pronunciation,
13. of course.
Another limitation of this study is that no detailed information
was collected
about participants’ use of L1 and L2 from immigration to the
time of testing.
Although L1 and L2 are obviously in complementary
distribution, their relative
frequency tends to correlate with age of acquisition (see
especially Bylund, 2008,
2009; Jia & Aaronson, 2003; Montrul, 2008), and the degree of
L2 acquisition
tends to correlate with the degree of L1 attrition (see especially
Köpke & Schmid,
2004; Schmid, 2006), it is virtually impossible to get good
measures of quantity
and quality of input from immigration to the time of testing
without a longitudinal
study (and a longitudinal study, in turn, is almost impossible to
carry out with the
number of subjects required for statistical reasons).
The following hypotheses were tested:
Hypothesis 1: For both the L2 English and the L2 Hebrew
group, the slope of the age
of arrival–ultimate attainment function will not be linear
throughout the life span,
but will instead show a marked flattening between adolescence
and adulthood.
Hypothesis 2: The relationship between aptitude and ultimate
attainment will differ
markedly for the younger and older arrivals, with significance
for the latter only.
14. Applied Psycholinguistics 31:3 418
DeKeyser et al.: Cross-linguistic evidence for the nature of age
effects in SLA
These hypotheses require that a cutoff point be established
between early and
late acquirers. It also seems prudent to make a further
distinction between rel-
atively young adults and middle-aged acquirers (who, of course,
by the time of
testing, may already be senior citizens). Ideally, with an
extremely large number
of subjects, one could let any observed discontinuities in the
age of acquisition–
ultimate attainment function serve as cutoff points. In practice,
however, the only
alternative (cf. DeKeyser & Larson-Hall, 2005) is to choose
empirically motivated
cutoff points, even if these remain somewhat arbitrary.
Although age 12 was often
mentioned as a turning point in early literature (e.g., Lenneberg,
1967) and it
has been used in some recent studies (e.g., Abrahamsson &
Hyltenstam, 2008;
McDonald, 2006), a number of studies by researchers with
otherwise very different
views on age issues, for example, Bialystok and Hakuta (1994),
Johnson and New-
port (1989, 1991), and DeKeyser (2000), show that the steep
decline in ultimate
attainment continues through adolescence. An arbitrary cutoff at
age 12 would
therefore seriously underestimate the age of arrival–ultimate
attainment correla-
15. tion among early learners and overestimate it among later
learners. Furthermore,
as middle-aged and senior citizens are likely to perform less
well on a variety of
tests for independent reasons, it is important that the results for
participants over
50 years old at the time of data collection, that is, roughly over
40 years old at the
time of immigration, are analyzed separately. In this study, we
decided to analyze
three separate data slices: <18, 18–40, and >40.
RATIONALE FOR THE CROSS-LINGUISTIC RESEARCH
PROJECT
English and Hebrew are typologically very different languages,
particularly in the
area of morphology, and therefore ideally suited for this type of
cross-linguistic
research.
Hebrew is a Semitic language that is considered to be
morphologically rich
because it expresses many notions morphologically, and it
offers a wide array of
structural options to express these notions. Nouns and
adjectives are obligatorily
inflected for gender and number, for example,
ha-maxbar-ot ha-adum-ot
“the-notebook-s, Fm Pl the-red, Fm Pl”
“the red notebooks”
Verbs are obligatorily inflected for gender, number, person, and
tense in past
and future tenses, for example,
16. ha-maxbér-et ne’elm-a
“the-notebook-Fm 3rdSg. disappear-ed, Fm 3rdSg.”
“the notebook disappeared”
In present tense, verbs are inflected like adjectives and nouns.
Prepositions,
a closed-class category, incorporate pronominal information in
their obligatory
inflection for gender, number, and person, for example, lax “to-
you, Fm.” In
addition, numerals agree with nouns in gender, although the
agreement system is
Applied Psycholinguistics 31:3 419
DeKeyser et al.: Cross-linguistic evidence for the nature of age
effects in SLA
opaque and hard to learn (Ravid, 1995b). Finally, Hebrew marks
gender, number,
and person optionally on genitive nouns and accusative verbs
side by side with
syntactic constructions expressing the same notions.
Hebrew has two basic word orders: subject–verb–object (SVO),
with ei-
ther a lexical or pronominal subject and a lexical verb (or a
copula), for
example,
dan hevin et ha-inyan
“Dan understood Acc the-matter”;
and a predicate-first word order, expressing existence,
17. possession, and modal
meanings, typically containing a less “verbal” predicate and
often subjectless, for
example,
kday le-xa la-vo
“better to-you to-come”
“you’d better come over” (Berman, 1980; Ravid, 1995a).
Word order is not rigid, given the rich agreement systems in
Hebrew, which marks
thematic and syntactic roles clearly and transparently.
In contrast, English is an SVO language with strongly
grammaticized rather than
pragmatically determined constraints on word order (Thompson,
1978). This is
partially attributable to its impoverished system of grammatical
inflection. Case is
morphologically distinguished only in pronouns and in genitive
phrases; subjects
and direct objects occur as bare noun phrases with no overt case
marking, whereas
datives and oblique objects and adjuncts are marked by
prepositions rather than
by inflections.
Another facet of its lack of grammatical inflection is that
English has almost
no marking of agreement for gender, number, or person; the
only exceptions are
subject–verb concord with the verb be and third person present-
tense marking by
final -s. As a result, ordering of constituents is the major
indicator of grammatical
relations. Even postverbal elements are fairly strictly ordered,
18. because nothing
can be interspersed between the verb and its direct object, and
locatives typically
precede temporal adverbials (Berman, 1999). One clear
exception to this morpho-
logical sparseness is that English marks comparative and
superlative values on
adjectives through morphology (e.g., slower, biggest), although
this inflection is
restricted to short adjectives, usually of Germanic origin.
Russian, the L1 in both studies, is a Slavic language with very
rich inflectional
morphology, but does not use articles. Nouns, adjectives, and
pronouns have six-
case inflectional paradigms for singular and plural. Noun
declension, in addition
to case, marks gender (masculine and neuter, and two feminine
declensions) and
number, with adjectives agreeing for gender, number, and case
with the nouns, for
example,
bel-aja sten-a
“white Fm Sg wall Fm Sg”
“white wall”
Applied Psycholinguistics 31:3 420
DeKeyser et al.: Cross-linguistic evidence for the nature of age
effects in SLA
o bel-oj sten-e
“about white Fm Sg Prep wall Fm Sg Prep”
“about white wall”
19. Russian verbs are organized into numerous verb classes varying
in degree of
regularity, two main conjugational patterns differing by the
thematic vowel in
the inflections, and two conjugational paradigms (nonpast and
past). The nonpast
paradigm includes six forms: first, second, and third person
singular and plural.
Past tense has three forms for masculine, feminine, and neuter,
and one for the
plural. The system of tenses is very simple: present, past, and
future.
Russian has SVO word order as a neutral default setting;
however, word order is
flexible and primarily reflects topic–comment structure, with
the theme introduced
at the beginning of the sentence and the rheme at the end.
Questions do not require
any verb fronting.
Data collection and analyses were carried out completely in
parallel for the two
target languages. The same aptitude test in Russian was given to
the two groups,
and the same kind of grammaticality judgment test was used for
both, except that
it was necessary, of course, to develop different test items to
measure the specific
learning outcome in the two languages. Results for the two
groups are therefore
presented separately.
STUDY 1: RUSSIAN IMMIGRANTS ACQUIRING ENGLISH
IN NORTH AMERICA
20. Method
Participants. The participants in this study were 76 Russian-
speaking immigrants
above the age of 18, who had acquired English as a second
language (ESL).2 They
were living in Chicago, New York, or Toronto. The minimum
length of residence
in North America was set at 8 years to make sure that ultimate
attainment levels had
been reached. This is a conservative cutoff point, given that no
age effect studies on
the acquisition of morphosyntax have reported length of
residence effects beyond
even the first 5 years; it is also higher than in most age effect
studies, equaled
only by Flege et al. (1999) and surpassed only by Abrahamsson
and Hyltenstam
(2008), Ball (1996), Birdsong and Molis (2001), and DeKeyser
(2000). The age
of acquisition varied from 5 to 71 (see Table 1).
These immigrants varied widely in educational background, but
the vast ma-
jority had college degrees and white-collar jobs; a few even had
graduate de-
grees. Some had attained varying levels of proficiency in one or
more languages
(Ukrainian, Polish, Georgian, Tajik, Uzbek, Armenian,
Romanian, Italian, French,
German, Yiddish, or Hebrew) before emigrating; a few had
started learning one
or two languages (Polish, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese,
Latin, or He-
brew) after immigrating into North America and learning
21. English. One had lived
in Israel and spoken Hebrew for 15 years before moving on to
Canada. None,
however, had had substantial English teaching or substantial
experience using
any Germanic or Romance language before emigrating from the
(former) Soviet
Union.
Applied Psycholinguistics 31:3 421
DeKeyser et al.: Cross-linguistic evidence for the nature of age
effects in SLA
Table 1. Descriptive statistics for the participants in
North America (n = 76)
Minimum Maximum Mean SD
AOA 5 71 32.54 18.01
LOR 8 28 11.71 4.03
AAT 19 79 43.93 17.74
GJT score 104 198 150.76 27.32
APT score 5 36 22.58 7.39
Note: AOA, age of acquisition; LOR, length of residence; AAT,
age
at testing; GJT, Grammaticality Judgment Test; APT, aptitude
test.
Instruments
Grammaticality Judgment Test (GJT). A 204-item test was
administered to all
participants to assess their proficiency in ESL. This instrument
22. was an adapted
and shortened version of Johnson and Newport’s (1989) test,
largely similar to
the DeKeyser’s (2000) adaptation, but with a few extra items to
ensure a better
representation of the definite article, a category absent in
Russian (Chesterman,
1991; Lyons, 1999, Wexler, 1996). The first four items were
training items not
counted in the analysis.
Aptitude test. Participants’ aptitude was assessed by means of
verbal sections of
the Russian version of the Inter-University Psychometric
Entrance Test (National
Institute for Testing and Evaluation, 2001). This version of the
test was designed
for Russian-speaking college applicants in Israel, and is
comparable to the verbal
Scholastic Aptitude Test in the United States. This instrument
was chosen because
it fulfilled the four major requirements of being (a) a test of
aptitude, (b) in the
participants’ native language, (c) at the right level of difficulty,
and (d) usable
for both parts of our study in Israel and in North America (no
cultural bias was
detected in the content of any of the items). The two parts of the
test used in this
study were sections 3 and 5 (KR-20 reliability = 0.76 for
section 3 and 0.71 for
section 5, 0.85 for the total of the two), each consisting of 19
multiple-choice items
(testing definitions, analogies, and verbal reasoning). For the
purpose of this study,
aptitude means verbal aptitude in the way it is usually
23. understood in educational
psychology, a broader construct than the “modern language
learning aptitude” that
most SLA research on aptitude focuses on and that is measured
by tests such as the
MLAT or PLAB (granted, of course, that there are strong
correlations between L1
proficiency, verbal aptitude/intelligence, foreign language
aptitude, and SLA, in
ways that are still poorly understood, but in all likelihood
because certain aspects
of L1 proficiency and foreign language aptitude are a function
of verbal aptitude
in the broader sense; see, e.g., Hulstijn and Bossers, 1992;
Humes-Bartlo, 1989;
Skehan, 1986, 1990; Sparks, Patton, Ganschow, Humbach, &
Javorsky, 2006).
As is the case in all verbal aptitude tests, knowledge of the
language tested is a
factor in the test used here, but there is evidence that this factor
played no more
role in this Russian version of the test than in the original test:
confirmatory factor
Applied Psycholinguistics 31:3 422
DeKeyser et al.: Cross-linguistic evidence for the nature of age
effects in SLA
analysis and multidimensional scaling have shown the
dimensional structures
of tests to be equivalent across the Russian and the original
Hebrew versions
(Allalouf, Bastari, Sireci, & Hambleton, 1997), and where there
24. is differential
item functioning for the two versions, it is clearly because of
problems of trans-
lation/adaptation for specific items and not for lack of construct
validity for the
test as a whole (Allalouf, Hambleton, & Sireci, 1999). In other
words, …
Applied Linguistics 2014: 35/4: 418–440 � Oxford University
Press 2014
doi:10.1093/applin/amu012 Advance Access published on 4
June 2014
Exceptional Outcomes in L2 Phonology:
The Critical Factors of Learner Engagement
and Self-Regulation
1
ALENE MOYER
1
School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, College of Arts
and Humanities,
University of Maryland
E-mail: [email protected]
A number of studies attest to the late language learner’s ability
to attain native-
like outcomes in morphology and syntax, with accent often the
only linguistic
hint of their non-native status. Nevertheless, some do end up
25. sounding native-
like despite a late start. This article explores possible
explanations for ’excep-
tional’ outcomes in L2 phonology, specifically, whether such
learners’ abilities
are due to innate talent, a metacognitive learning approach, a
certain social-
psychological orientation, or specific kinds of experience.
Various learners
profiles are compared, an argument is made for learner
engagement and
self-regulation, and areas for future research are outlined.
INTRODUCTION
It is no exaggeration to say that those beyond early childhood
who aim to
master a new language begin at a vastly different starting point
than those who
begin at birth. The second language acquisition (SLA) literature
is replete with
theories and hypotheses about why this is so, ranging from
neuro-cognitive to
social to psychological explanations including first language
(L1) interference,
26. affective ‘filters’ of one sort or another, the decreasing
accessibility of an innate
language acquisition device, social and cultural barriers to
assimilation, etc.
(see Bley-Vroman 1989). What is certain is that at least one
language is already
in place as a knowledge base, which can imply greater
metalinguistic aware-
ness, yet may also be detrimental insofar as L1 cues and
patterns are already
salient (see Hansen 2004 for second language, or L2; Kuhl et al.
2008 and
Strange and Shafer 2008 for L1). The first language(s) may
limit what the
learner notices in L2, and what she or he is therefore able to
emulate at the
level of performance.
According to Selinker (1972), just 5–10 percent of adult
language learners
can expect to reach a native-like level, but even this low
threshold may be
somewhat ambitious for phonological fluency. Nevertheless,
some late lear-
ners do attain a level that can be described as native, or native-
27. like, for some
series of perception-based and/or production-based tasks (e.g.
Ioup et al. 1994;
Bongaerts et al. 1995; Moyer 1999). This fact begs two
questions that have long
fascinated SLA scholars: (i) What makes a successful language
learner?
1
(ii) Why
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to
,
1
2
does phonology uniquely challenge so-called ‘late’ language
learners in comparison
with other aspects of language? This article merges both
questions by examining
several reasons why some late learners are particularly
successful in the realm
28. of accent.
Scovel (1988) famously asserted that age effects in L2
phonological acquisi-
tion are directly related to neuro-muscular or perceptual skill
development,
rather than affective factors. His argument was based on two
important prem-
ises: (i) phonology uniquely relies on neuro-muscular faculties
for both per-
ception and production; (ii) affective factors could not
reasonably restrict
phonology, yet have no effect on other aspects of language
ability. Indeed,
shifts in neuro-muscular flexibility and or cognitive
mechanisms have long
been assumed responsible for the relative difficulty of learning
a new sound
system given that phonology relies on both speech-motor
control and audi-
tory-perceptual neural networks. On the other hand, phonology
also holds a
unique connection to one’s sense of self, or identity, and
therefore speaks to
more than just neuro-cognitive and neuro-muscular constraints.
29. Moreover, it
is undeniable that target language experience shapes one’s
approach to acqui-
sition over the long term, and thus the likelihood of native-like
attainment.
Evidence confirms correlations between accent ratings and a
host of individual
factors, among them: length of residence (LOR) in the target
language country,
age of onset/first exposure, and both quantity and quality of
experience in the
target language, not to mention motivation and attitudes (e.g.
Purcell and
Suter 1980; Thompson 1991; Bongaerts et al. 1995; Elliott
1995; Flege and
Liu 2001; Diaz-Campos 2004; see also Moyer 2013).
In sum, numerous cognitive, social, and psychological factors,
both intrinsic
and extrinsic in nature, point towards a possible understanding
of exceptional
outcomes. In a sense then, the phenomenon of exceptionality
signifies a nexus
for the two dominant paradigms of SLA: a decidedly cognitive
or psycholin-
30. guistic approach on the one hand, and on the other hand, a
largely sociolin-
guistic perspective focused on the ‘whole person’. This article
argues that
the mysteries of exceptional learning, so rare in L2 phonology,
cannot be
explained by either one or the other, but resides at the
intersection of both
realms. What can explain the fact that some L2 learners, despite
a
late start, end up sounding native-like? Are we to understand
them as ‘phono-
logical geniuses’ with extraordinary, innate talents?
Alternatively,
do they have special ways of utilizing input, or can they
somehow access
linguistic resources in unusual ways? What accounts for their
extraordinary
success?
With these questions in mind, I first describe what is generally
implied by
‘exceptionality’ in L2 phonology, then present case studies
which suggest a
31. number of common characteristics of their approach to language
learning. In
so doing, the relevance of both self-regulation and engagement
with the target
language become clear. I conclude by suggesting that the
fascination with
some as-yet-determined special talent obscures the need for an
integrated
examination of the cognitive, social, and experiential factors
that co-vary
A. MOYER 419
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paper
a
b
the
,
Elliott 1995;
Flege and Liu 2001;
Purcell and Suter 1980;
Thompson 1991;
paper
with age. The research on exceptionality calls for a dynamic
view of learner
32. engagement with the target language over time in order to
understand the
ways that exceptional learners make the most of the available
input, and take a
flexible approach, responding to the circumstances at hand.
EXCEPTIONALITY IN L2 PHONOLOGY
To clarify, ‘exceptional’ refers to those who defy the Critical
Period Hypothesis
(Lenneberg 1967); they sound native-like even though their
exposure to the
target language comes after age 9–10 years (the critical period
for phonology is
arguably even earlier, but 9–10 years is a relatively common
yardstick in the
research, in keeping with Lenneberg’s original hypothesis). So,
which specific
skills or skill sets are implied when we talk about
exceptionality, or native-like-
ness, in phonology? By and large, we mean the ability to
perceive and/or
produce new sounds like a native speaker would, verified
through relevant
tasks which are often isolated or decontextualized (see Levis
33. and Moyer 2014).
Kuhl’s 2007 study on American and Japanese adults confirmed
that this is
challenging owing to L1 category salience. Her American
listeners could ac-
curately pinpoint the acoustic differences between /r/ and /l/
while her
Japanese listeners could not owing to this contrast’s absence in
Japanese.
Further distinctions based on subtle features like vowel quality,
aspiration,
and voice onset time (e.g. the difference between /I/ and /E/ or
/d/ and /t/)
can also be difficult to detect if they are irrelevant in L1. This
is likely more
difficult when L1 and L2 features overlap, but are not quite the
same, as Flege
and Hillenbrand (1987) have shown for the English vs. French
versions of the
phoneme /u/. Instruction and experience can bridge this gap for
both produc-
tion and perception (e.g. Flege and Hillenbrand 1987; Rojczyk
2011), even
long-term (e.g. Sereno and Wang 2007), but mastery eludes
most L2 learners,
34. it seems, and even the untrained ear can detect the difference
between native
and non-native speech. As shown in Major (2007), listeners
completely un-
familiar with the language in question can accurately separate
native controls
from non-native speakers, which suggests that there is
something unique, and
highly salient, about a non-native accent.
Accent is not just a matter of phonetic or segmental precision.
To sound
‘native-like’ the learner must control a number of different
features that op-
erate in conjunction with one another, including tempo, rhythm,
pause, junc-
ture, pitch patterns, and intonation. Pickering and Baker (2014)
confirm that
judgments of accentedness rely on sentence stress (prominence),
pause place-
ment patterns, speech rate, and tone choice. (They also point
out, however,
that such judgments are prone to listener background variables
such as native/
35. non-native status and attitudes towards the speakers’ presumed
backgrounds.)
While tests of such ability are limited to isolated words or
phrases, as noted,
some do include a complex range of tasks including
spontaneous speech,
which allows for greater confidence in deeming a given learner
as ‘exceptional’
(see Moyer 2013). Few such cases have been examined in depth,
however.
420 EXCEPTIONAL OUTCOMES IN L2 PHONOLOGY
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yrs
.
due
due
,
-
--
-
--
,
,
36. In my own research I have come across enough such learners to
draw a few
parallels between them. Interview data from Moyer 2004 study
of immigrants
to Berlin shed light on the unique profiles of two Turkish men
whose families
had immigrated to Germany by the time both were 4 years old.
Both should
have ended up sounding native according to the Critical Period
Hypothesis, but
only one consistently did across all tasks. Their stories revealed
very different
attitudes towards the language and culture—one very positive
and the other
quite conflicted. The first one, Ahmet, says he learned German
‘on the street’ as
a young child and ‘absolutely’ wanted to sound German. He has
‘countless’
German friends and acquaintances. The other, Korech, describes
his accent as
‘noticeable’ and his contact with Germans as minimal. He
reports a completely
different orientation: he consciously aligned his social activities
with his core
37. Turkish self-concept throughout his life, choosing to avoid
using German at
home, and failing to make permanent friends with any German
schoolmates.
His discomfort with German culture was a strong motif
throughout his
interview.
In a 2007 study on attitudes and accent, I similarly describe the
backgrounds
of two English as a Second Language (ESL) learners of
differing L1 backgrounds
who were judged to sound native for the majority of
pronunciation-centered
tasks, including extemporaneous speaking. They had a number
of things in
common which reflect not just attitudes, but experience, and
future intentions
vis-à-vis the target language and culture: both had immigrated
to the USA by
age 5 years and had at least 13 years residence; both intended to
stay at least five
more years, had a strong and consistent desire to sound native, a
strong level of
38. comfort with American culture, and used English consistently
among native
speaker friends in multiple, socially oriented contexts. There
were others who
also enjoyed an early start with English (by age 5 years), but
without all of these
experiential and psychological benefits, and their accent ratings
were not on par
with these two.
These data, coupled with evidence from other studies, suggest
that age of
onset (AO) by itself is not a sufficient explanation for
attainment. The question
is whether truly exceptional attainment is a function of multiple
factors, and
whether these factors derive from a unitary source, such as the
neuro-cognitive
realm. The discussion above suggests otherwise, namely, that
experience and
orientation are central to this outcome. In order to better
understand this phe-
nomenon, we now look more closely at several case studies.
EXCEPTIONAL LEARNER PROFILES
39. Looking at the L2 phonology literature, several learners have
been deemed
exceptional for their production in pronunciation tasks, so let us
consider
the factors associated with their success, namely, self-professed
neuro-
cognitive ‘talents’ or aptitudes, social and psychological
orientation, and L2
experience.
A. MOYER 421
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four
--
five
-
five
Ioup et al. (1994) describe two American speakers of L2 Arabic
who com-
pleted a series of tasks, including free speaking. The one they
single out as
exceptional is Julie, who had lived in Egypt for 26 years at the
time of data
40. collection. Julie could not speak Arabic when she moved to
Cairo after marry-
ing an Egyptian. She acquired Arabic completely without
instruction, and it
had long since become her primary language at home. From the
beginning of
her immersion, Julie wrote down observations about the
language, and appre-
ciated explicit feedback on her errors (p. 77). Julie reported that
she set out to
mimic, rather than analyze, the accent of native speakers (with a
self-described
talent for mimicry, she reported ‘no problems’, even with
Arabic pharyngeals
and uvulars). By Ioup et al.’s account Julie had no noticeable
foreign accent,
which they attribute to her cognitive/metacognitive approach.
Another lear-
ner profiled (to a lesser extent) in this study is Laura, also an
American living in
Cairo and married to an Egyptian. Laura had studied standard
Arabic for years
and had taught it to other learners in the USA. She moved to
Cairo to make
41. greater strides in her oral fluency as she pursued doctoral work
in Arabic. At
the time of data collection, Laura had lived in Cairo for 10
years. Eight out of
13 Egyptian listeners rated both Julie and Laura as native
speakers, despite
their different paths to advanced attainment (Julie’s ratings
were higher on
average). Only a few points of vowel quality and intonation
were noticeable to
several judges, but otherwise, both passed as native speakers
‘more often than
not’ according to the authors (p. 80). Julie and Laura were also
able to dis-
criminate regional accents in Arabic with 100 percent accuracy,
outperforming
the native speaker judges at 85 percent accuracy. This suggests
that both Laura
and Julie had ‘a good ear’, and possibly some innate talent
indicative of unu-
sual cognitive flexibility (p. 91). In the case of Julie
specifically, they also note
that she was outgoing, and thus had access to ‘abundant
comprehensible input
42. and error feedback’ (ibid.).
A number of Nikolov’s (2000) learners of English (N = 13), and
learners of
Hungarian (N = 13) in Hungary were rated as native-sounding
on both read-
aloud tasks and extemporaneous speech. All started learning the
language in
question at the age of 15 years or later. Some were married to
native speakers,
and most were professionals working in Hungary (including as
teachers), thus
the author assumed a high level of motivation. Nikolov also
ascribes to them a
genuine pride in their achievement, noting:
Language is either a part of their profession or they have very
strong
integrative motivation to become bone fide residents of the
target
language country. . . . All of the successful participants try to
find
chances for improving their second language proficiency, they
are
outgoing characters and like to socialize. All are avid readers in
the
target language, listen to the media and try to feel at home in
the
culture as well as in the language. (p. 116)
43. One of the most successful learners acquired Hungarian without
any instruc-
tion, and another who sounded native in English had spent only
one semester
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%
%
abroad in an English-speaking country, but spent time
mimicking radio
announcers. (Judges, who ranged widely in age, confirmed that
their ratings
were based on pronunciation, intonation, and overall fluency,
that is, lack of
hesitation and false starts, for their ratings.) The common thread
among these
learners is a proactive approach: all said they wanted to sound
native, and all
sought ways to improve their fluency through communicating
with native
44. speakers, as well as engaging in more receptive activities such
as watching
TV, viewing films, and reading in the target language.
From among their NNS participants living in Ireland (mean age
of onset of
22.5 years) who completed a film-retelling task in English,
Muñoz and
Singleton (2007) pay special attention to two learners, the first
named Elena.
Originally from Spain, she is married to an Irishman, and claims
many (in fact,
only) English-speaking Irish friends. Elena had consciously
avoided Spanish
speakers since her arrival, and only speaks her native tongue
when visiting
with family members. She discusses her conscious efforts to
improve her
English, but also believes she has inherited a special aptitude
for languages.
Marga, another participant, similarly cites a persistent desire to
master all lin-
guistic aspects of English, but describes her drive as predicated
on a love of the
language as opposed to an overt desire for cultural affiliation.
45. Both Marga and
Elena continuously monitor their own progress and fluency,
even after having
reached a high level of fluency, and they still endeavor to
improve their
English, in particular through social interaction. The authors
describe both
learners as having a ‘thirst’ for becoming native-like.
Another case of an exceptional learner who was consistently
rated as native
for all production tasks is singled out in Moyer 1999. This late
learner’s scores
were actually better on average (across all tasks combined) than
any of the
actual NS controls. He had studied German just five years
(beginning at age 17
years)—far less than most of his peers in the study—and
describes himself as
‘self-taught’ for the most part. Before embarking on a 2-year
study abroad
experience, he spent hours listening to exchange student friends
from
Germany in an effort to ‘absorb the sounds’ of the language. He
had no prob-
46. lems assimilating linguistically and culturally while living in
Germany those 2
years. His narrative echoes a common theme among exceptional
learners in
that he cites a ‘fascination’ with the target language and its
culture.
Molnár (2010) also discovered several Polish learners of
German who
arrived in Germany after age 11 years, and had received no
special training,
yet rated on par with native speaker controls on read-aloud and
free speaking
tasks. Through a (very limited) background survey, Molnár
ascertained that
these learners primarily used German in their daily lives, had no
anxiety vis-à-
vis foreign language learning, described themselves as
‘extroverts’, and placed
the highest possible importance on sounding native. The learner
with the best
ratings had studied linguistics, English, and German language
pedagogy, had
resided in-country for 18 years, and had also learned several
other languages
47. while in German high school. In contrast to the others, she
seldom used her
native language.
A. MOYER 423
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i.e.
,
-
``
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two
``
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two
In a 1993 study, Major focuses on a group of American women
living in
Brazil. All had immigrated between the ages of 22 and 35 years,
were married
to Brazilians, raised their children speaking Portuguese, and
were employed as
ESL teachers. All completed read-aloud and extemporaneous
48. speaking tasks.
While most were forthcoming about their failure to acquire
fluent
Portuguese despite a very long residence (20–35 years), one
woman had
resided in-country 12 years and was convinced that she could
pass for
native. Major’s analysis of her Voice Onset Time (VOT) values
confirmed
this. She was untutored, but made a point of mentioning that she
‘carefully
paid attention to linguistic forms and pronunciation and took
mental notes of
things, which later became part of her competence’ (p. 472).
She also reported
‘feeling Brazilian’, unlike her counterparts. The others had
obvious American
accents, and reported feeling ‘strongly’ American. In fact, she
had absorbed
Portuguese so fully that her English had traces of Portuguese
VOT patterns,
and when visiting the USA, she was continually asked whether
she was
American (p. 472). Importantly, Major’s study leads him to
49. conclude that
both L1 and L2 are ‘dynamic, fluid entities and can vary over
time’ (p. 475);
this woman’s English pronunciation later reverted to a
decidedly
American version after she moved back to the USA and
disavowed her
Brazilian identity.
Finally, I mention Dora, a learner of German profiled in Moyer
2004. Dora
was a Polish-born immigrant living in Berlin with a self-
described intense
motivation to sound like a native speaker. She fell within the
native range
for several pronunciation tasks, including extemporaneous
speaking. In her 6
years in residence, Dora’s approach to accent was to mimic
others and to focus
on the phonetic features that are still problematic for her,
indicating a meta-
linguistic awareness. She described her social network in Berlin
as limited, but
made an effort to positively reconstruct her negative encounters
as a foreigner
50. in Germany to maintain her deep personal attachment to the
language.
Despite limited opportunities to interact in German, Dora kept
an upbeat atti-
tude and a firm commitment to the language. (Another late
learner with near-
native ratings overall similarly expressed ease with new
experiences in general
and cultural adjustments in Germany, and both she and Dora
said they
avoided personal contacts with other speakers of their native
language.)
Dora felt herself fully ‘at home’ in Germany, even if she did not
see herself
as German.
Considering all of these learners’ profiles, a constellation of
factors emerges;
some cognitive, some affective or psychological in nature, and
some experi-
ential. For example, nearly all expressed a deep sense of
personal connection to
the language and a metacognitive approach, regardless of the
amount of inter-
51. personal contact and/or formal instruction available to them.
They make the
most of the resources at hand, with some going so far as to
distance themselves
from those who share their native language in an effort to reach
their goal of
becoming native-like. Table 1 summarizes the factors explicitly
mentioned by
the learners and/or researchers.
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six
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Cognitive factors
� Self-described talent/aptitude: Several participants said it was
not hard for
them to learn languages (or the language in question, even if
other ones
had been difficult). For the most part, however, this was not
explicitly
asked by the researchers, thus there is little to conclude about
the rele-
vance of this factor.
� (Meta)cognitive approach: Nearly every exceptional learner
mentioned self-
monitoring, imitation of native speakers, attention to difficult
phonologi-
cal features, and explicit concern for pronunciation accuracy. In
general
terms, a cognitive approach is indicative of practice, reasoning,
note-
taking, analyzing, etc., and the metacognitive level involves
76. planning,
goal-setting, reflection, and evaluation (Oxford 1990).
Psychological factors
� Pride in L2 attainment: Several expressed enjoyment of, and
appreciation
for, their own progress in the target language although in some
cases (e.g.
Muñoz and Singleton 2007) these very advanced learners
continued to
view their attainment critically, which likely reflects their drive
to
improve.
� Strong identification with L2: This construct represents an
integrative orien-
tation towards the language and/or culture, with these learners
typically
immersed in social activities via close social networks. Many
also cited an
intention to stay in-country for the foreseeable future, or
permanently.
� Desire to sound native: Most expressed this overtly and
described their
efforts to achieve this goal, even having already reached an
unusual
level of attainment.
� Socially outgoing: These exceptional learners had a proactive
approach to
language acquisition, endeavoring to make contacts, and
describing them-
selves as uninhibited, outgoing, extraverted, and willing to take
risks.
77. Experiential factors
� L2 use across multiple domains: All of the learners
mentioned L2 use in the
home environment with family and friends. They also enjoy
reading,
listening to the radio, and watching TV and films, in addition to
socializ-
ing. In other words, the target language has permeated all levels
of their
lives; it does not just serve perfunctory or limited purposes.
� Length of residence of 8+ years: Of those who had long-term
residence, most
had resided 8 years or more, but Length of residence (LOR) was
incon-
sistent across learners, with the lowest cited at 2 years (LOR
figures were
not provided in all of the studies cited).
� Significant formal study of the language: Some had many
years (i.e. 5+ years)
formal instruction in the language but others had none at all.
� Early age of onset: This factor does not apply to any since
they are con-
sidered ‘exceptional’—all were exposed to the language after
the age of
10–11 years.
426 EXCEPTIONAL OUTCOMES IN L2 PHONOLOGY
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,
,
yrs.
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Several patterns are noteworthy here. First, every ‘exceptional
learner’
attests to at least one item in each of the three categories:
cognitive, psychological,
experiential, but the psychological realm stands out with greater
description
(possibly because it was easier to ascertain by …