Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics

6

Authors: Azamat Akbarov & Hadicha Muhiddinova

In the process of teaching language the most important task is to know the peculiarities of interconnection of words. And one of the effective factors of learning and teaching Uzbek as a second language is to conduct specific research on interconnection and interrelation features of words and to compose special dictionaries of the Uzbek language for Russian-speaking students. Meanwhile, the issue of interconnection and interrelation peculiarities of words has been investigated not only by many linguists but by some psychologists as well.One of those prominent psychological scientists is N.I.Jinkinn. According to him, the integration of speech units is divided into two phases. He also relates “the grammar field” with the second phase of speechunitintegration. Furthermore, he points out that in the first phase of this process, words and word forms are spread out in the “speech field”. In the second phase a speaker selects the necessary words for the primary explanation of the idea,which is followed by the correct grammar form, and then collocates with a suitable word [1,45]. For instance, according to N.I.Jinkinn,a noun, an adjective and an adverb do not usually collocate with other words. They are called as lexics, which are spread in the “vocabulary field” but divided into characteristic groups.

8

Authors: Ivan Milošević

This paper aims to explore the possible application of cognitive semantics in the process of teaching and learningBusiness English idioms. The theoretical assumptions of this study are based on the cognitivist view that idioms are, to a certain extent, semantically motivated by cognitive mechanisms, with the conceptual metaphor being the most dominant one. This study is an attempt to test the hypothesis that metaphoric conceptualisation can contribute to a more successful acquisition of idioms, especially in comparison to pure memorisation of the same linguistic expressions. This small-scale experiment was carried out with 20 Business and Economics students divided into the experimental group and the control group. The students in the experimental group were introduced to the semantic motivation of idiom meaning, whereas the control-group students were taught the same idioms in the traditional way. After being presented with the carefully selected idioms in two different ways, the students in both groups were required to do four different types of exercises with a view to testing the semantic motivation hypothesis. As a result, the research findings and the results obtained in this experimental study suggest that the awareness of cognitive mechanism and semantic motivation behind the meaning of idioms can significantly assist students in the process of a somewhat systematic and consistent acquisition of Business English idioms.

8

Authors: Sanja Josifović-Elezović & Svetlana Mitić

Product writing is considered uncreative and unstimulating, as it trains students to model their output according to rules and patterns. The risk students might particularly be exposed to when taught such writing is their memorising complete phrases, the most common grammatical forms and lexis used, and leaving a false impression of having mastered the register and form of selected writing patterns, and improved their linguistic and writing ability in general. Teaching product writing to students whose native culture has proven hesitant in regard to adopting correspondence as standard in certain situations, e.g. when applying for a job, complaining about a faulty product or substandard service, or writing a report to an authority, may prove additionally difficult and the achievements of a course based on it unintended. Most people’s daily experience shows that the culture of cultivated writing is losing the battle with truncated correspondence via e-mail and other electronic media. In light of this, learning to write and utilize such basic forms as applications, complaints and reports may prove beneficial for students’ writing, as well as their general linguistic competence and their adoption of the target culture. This paper presents the results of a writing course administered to first-year English undergraduates as part of a general English language skills course and analyses them in terms of the students’ adoption of the grammatical forms and the vocabulary/register that are required, or most commonly used, in the selected forms. This shows the extent of their real progress, as well as changes in their attitudes toward such writing as representative of the target culture. It also reveals the role the course has had in developing the students’ awareness of learning as a process and of formative assessment, or rather, specific assessment that focused on a product, while emphasizing the relevance of teaching/learning as a process.

9

Authors: Irena Vassileva

Although nobody would deny that academic criticism is an inherent feature of academic communication, most of the existing studies assume that due to the nature of the development of science, collaborative rhetoric is intrinsic to academic discourse and criticism is the exception rather than the rule. In order to check this hypothesis, the present pilot study investigates a sample corpus of 10 book reviews in the field of English applied linguistics that are definitely negative in character. Scientific book reviews not only belong to the basic academic genres, but also possess a functionally determined highly evaluative character, thus being potential carriers of academic criticism. They have, unfortunately, received relatively little attention as yet. The study aims to uncover the argumentation strategies used by review writers in terms of classical Aristotelian argumentation theory.Within this theory the notion of topic plays a crucial role. There are two basic types of topoi: those based on everyday-logic generic premises and those with conventionalised conclusions, whose subgroups are used as a methodological instrument of the analysis. The analysis leads to conclusions concerning the surface expression of the argumentation strategies used by writers, the degree to which criticism is based on objective logic and on subjective personal evaluation, the preference for certain topoi, as well as some general concerns in relation to confrontation in the academia.

9

Authors: Snježana Babić & Tanja Gradečak-Erdeljić

The aim of this research is to establish the relevance of the results from a survey conducted among university students of English and German at the University of Osijek. The survey was construed in order to establish the degree of awareness among non-native users of English on how anglicisms are treated in the context of Croatian and German language systems and what strategies are used to cope with the pervasive influence of English vocabulary. Preliminary results show that English lexical borrowings from the field of IT technology are used very frequently in their communication via computers and mobile phones and the students are rather slow to acquire the suggested Croatian and German equivalents and neologisms in the IT terminology. Three basic strategies of direct borrowing, phonological and morphological adaptation, and neologisms will be researched by applying a questionnaire with both lexical and visual prompts for the students. The goal is to elicit responses that will be analysed and put in the context of whether Croatian and German function as a "language of identification" or a "language of communication" (House, 2003).

9

Authors: Ana Ostroški Anić

The role of metaphor as a basic cognitive mechanism in the construction and retrieval of specialized knowledge has been well studied within cognitive terminological theories (Faber, 2012; Tercedor Sánchez et al, 2012; Temmerman, 2000). However, the results of these analyses have mainly been applied in designing or improving terminological resources, leaving somewhat aside the impact metaphor has on bridging general and specialized knowledge, especially in the acquisition of new knowledge. This paper discusses the role of metaphor as a cognitive process in the conceptualization of certain key concepts in the domain of aviation. A number of terms and their collocations that reflect metaphorical mappings from the source domains the HUMAN BODY and ANIMALS have been extracted out of a corpus of English aviation textbooks and manuals related to the field of air traffic management. Instances of metaphorical conceptual mapping are identified and analyzed both at the conceptual and terminological level. Ana Ostroški Anić is a research assistant at the Department of General Linguistics of the Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics in Zagreb, Croatia. Her research interests lie in the areas of terminology, specialized translation, LSP, phraseology, and cognitive semantics. She has been working on several terminological projects within the Croatian Special Field Terminology (Struna) program.

10

Authors: Goran Schmidt

The paper aims to shed light on how subtitlers cope with metaphor translation. The paper presents the results of a case study on a set of English subtitles of one Croatian movie. Metaphor translation procedures were analyzed using Conceptual Metaphor Theory. There are four basic ways to translate metaphors: a. using the same conceptual metaphor, b. using a different conceptual metaphor, c. using a nonmetaphorical paraphrase; and d. deleting the metaphor. In addition, a non-metaphorical expression can be translated by a metaphorical expression. Metaphors are mental, linguistic, but also cultural entities. Since translation in the contemporary age is recognized as both linguistic and cultural transfer, translating metaphors is at the core of the translation task. Many conceptual metaphors are universal and can be found in (almost) all languages, but some are culturally specific, appearing in just one language (group). This case study shows that the universality of metaphor influences the choice of a metaphor translation procedure, in a way that shared metaphors are mostly translated using the same conceptual metaphor, whereas non-shared metaphors are translated by a different metaphor or a non-metaphorical paraphrase. The paper also explores the ways in which the specifics of subtitling as a constrained type of translation influence the choice of a translation procedure. The results are compared to the results of a previous study, which dealt with the translation of metaphors in literature.

10

Authors: NattapornLuangpipat & WatanaPadgate

This study aims to explore the relationship between English learning achievement and students’ perceived self-efficacy, and the possible factors of the students’ perceived self-efficacy. Some 370 first-year students at Naresuan University were randomly selected to fill in the questionnaires while grades representing students’ learning achievement were collected from the instructors.The collected data was analyzed by Pearson’s Correlation and Multiple Linear Regression. The result of the study showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between English learning achievement and students’ perceived selfefficacy. The factor related to students’ perceived selfefficacy was mainly from vicarious experience, which was somewhat contradictory to the findings ofearlier studies (Bandura, 1986; Kiran&Sungur, 2012; Lent, Brown et al., 1996; Luzzoet al., 1999; Pajares, Johnson &Usher, 2007) Hopefully, the result of this studycan be utilized to improve student performance in English learning through a better understanding self-efficacy and its related factors.

10

Authors: Veronika Kareva

There is no dilemma at present times that language learning means learning how to use the language and not learning to know about the language. Exactly for this purpose, in today’s global world characterized by massification and mobility in the field of education, the Council of Europe - Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), as a universal instrument allowing individuals to have a record of the different elements of their language learning achievement, begins its treatment of language use through the context of communication.Language programs at different institutions organize their work in the way that learners use the general competencies they bring with them, but also develop them further. Nonetheless, successful completion of university language courses does not always mean that the student has mastered the language and can use it for communication. This mostly refers to the cases where the language courses are treated as part of the curricula while the other instruction is in the L1. The fact that students at such institutions are not required to take any standardized English proficiency test put the effectiveness of the complete language program under a question mark. In order to provide evidence that its quality language provision resulted in improved communicative competence for students, the Language Center (LC) of the South East European University (SEEU) in Tetovo, Macedonia, introduced final oral examination as a part of the course grading criteria. The aim of this paper is to determine whether the introduction of the oral examination as a part of the final achievement exam has helped raise student’s awareness of the need to improve their communication skills and thus attain better performance. Participants of the study are 114 students from eight sections, two per level, starting from beginner to upper intermediate, whose final scores will be followed in the last three exam sessions. In addition, individual students will be chosen and their progress followed during three academic terms in order to show the development of their communication skills. The results are expected to be used as an indicator for program evaluation by the University management and external evaluation.

11

Authors: Zorica Trajkova

This paper aims to demonstrate how writers and speakers actively engage readers and listeners within the argumentation through the use of engagement markers as a metadiscourse category. More precisely, it sets out to explore the function and use of engagement markers, i.e. personal pronouns, directives and questions, in three different genres, one written (editorials from newspapers) and two spoken (excerpts from talk shows and closing arguments from trials) in two different languages, Macedonian and English. The analysis is carried out on nine editorials from American and nine from Macedonian newspapers, nine excerpts from American and nine from Macedonian talk-shows, as well as five closing arguments from American trials and five from Macedonian. It is essential for writers and speakers to know how to balance the use of these markers in order to avoid being intrusive and appear more persuasive to the readers and listeners. The research shows that there are differences in the use of the markers in the three genres in both languages. They were most frequently used in the English spoken texts (talk shows and closing arguments) and least frequently in the Macedonian closing arguments. As for their use in editorials, they were used moderately in both languages. So, on the whole, the analysis reveals that the choice of markers within the same genre depends on cultural differences, i.e. the format and perception of the type of text by the different societies. Furthermore, it also shows differences in the choice of markers across the three genres in both languages. Finally, although carried out on a relatively small corpus, this research gives insight into the dialogic nature of argumentation and its impact on the persuasive effect of written and spoken texts in different genres and languages.

13

Authors: Jelena Ilić

There have been many researchers (Holmes, Brown and Levinson, Olshtain, Blum-Kulka, House, Kasper) who have devoted themselves to the analysis of one of the basic units of human linguistic communication - the act of apologizing. An apology, as argued by Holmes (1989), is seen as a facesupportive act. As such, it does not impose on thehearer’s face. It has been understood that the act of apologizing serves as a social goal of maintaining harmony between the speakers, and in order to make it convincing and workable it has to be used with appropriate strategies. Olshtain (1989) claimed that apologies do not differ drastically across languages and therefore it could be said that they are mostly universal. Interestingly enough, what Blum-Kulka, House and Kasper (1989: 21) noticed is that apologies are used with different degrees of intensity. Speakers may use intensifiers or upgraders to increase the power of their apology (‘I’m so sorry’, ‘I’m really sorry’), but they may also use other modality markers such as downgraders to avoid the use of apology and minimize their guilt (ex. I didn’t know you’d be eager to go out tonight.). Moreover, an act of apologizing might not accompany the set of realization patterns typical for apologizing and does not have to coincide with thespeaker’s pragmatic intention. ‘Sorry ‘bout that!’ is an example that one may find in contexts in which a speaker is not apologizing for something s/he did, but s/he is sarcastic or just superficially using the pattern to avoid a sincere apology. In other words, meaning does not have to be tightly connected to the pragmatic intention whatsoever. Still, the aim of this paper will be to analyze the structure of an apology using data-collection instruments, such asthediscourse completion test (DCT), rating scalesand role-plays,inorder to elicitapologetic data produced by non-native speakers who are highly proficient in English andwho are responsible for teaching and guiding young generations. The paper will examine teachers’ apologetic competences as a type of knowledge that everyone needs to acquire, process, develop, use and display on a daily basis. The analysis of teachers’ contextual perceptions and choices of apology strategies openly indicates their socio-pragmatic performance through written and oral tasks, and their pragmalinguistic performance as well.

15

Authors: Azra Jakupi, Neda Radosavlevikj & Milica Matoska

Whether you have been teaching for 20 years or have just started your teaching career, there’s always a possibility you will have a student in your classroom with disruptive behavior. This behavior can go beyond the limits of what is considered to be acceptable in a learning environment. An obvious example of disruptive behavior is when the student verbally attacks, is late for class, experiences angry outbursts, social problems, etc. or simply rebels against something that is happening beyond the classroom door. However, very rarely are we, as teachers, aware of the possibility that the student might be having a mental health crisis. We, the Language Centre at South East European University, have encountered various stressful situations, while at the same time we struggle for balance and try to find appropriate responses for students’ complaints about grades, “unfair” treatment, the policy of the faculty, etc. In an effort to resolve this dilemma, we will conduct research within the Language Centre through interviews with the academic and administrative staff as well as the students and their supervisors. In our presentation, we will present several strategies to deal with stressful situations that affect the entire learning environment, including the teachers themselves, such as: defining the problem, the reason behind it, the time of occurrence, its impact, introducing metacommunication and early communication by setting early expectations, ways to stay calm when responding to a crisis event and setting limits. We will also explore basic principles related to classroom management and a variety of strategies for early intervention in order to create a dynamic learning environment that promotes learning safety.

26

Authors: Fatma Aksoy

The present study was designed to investigate if there is a significant difference among SR clustering, SU clustering and TR clustering of vocabulary presented to Turkish EFL learners, and if there is, which way of presentation would be a more useful tool in a Turkish EFL classroom. A total of 46 preparatory school students, studying at Anadolu University School of Foreign Languages, participated in this study. The participants were required to provide Turkish equivalents of the 15 new words presented in semantic, thematic or totally unrelated sets that they were encouraged to learn through word cards. The data gathered from 37 of these participants were analyzed. The results of the delayed tests revealed that semantically related sets (SR) significantly differed from unrelated and thematic sets, and helped the participants learn and recall more words, while the results of the immediate tests did not yield to a statistically significant difference.