This paper presents CACA (computer-assisted corpus analysis) conducted by using a compiled representative corpus. As a descriptive study, it explores the written communicative events produced by engineers in the pet...This paper presents CACA (computer-assisted corpus analysis) conducted by using a compiled representative corpus. As a descriptive study, it explores the written communicative events produced by engineers in the petroleum industry in Malaysia. Language use is commonly analyzed for competence and performance. Competence is best described as the internalized linguistic knowledge as acquired by the learners while the notion of"performance" is best defined as the external evidence of language competence. Therefore, the core of this paper is reflecting actual language use of the language learners in Malaysia. The data are drawn from a sample corpus compiled from the written communicative events in three companies of the petroleum industry in Malaysia. The methodology applied is fundamental as it tends to investigate the linguistic constitutions in the genre-specific corpus of the professional discourse produced. Computer-based syntactical studies are limited as they require hard work and long hours in order to key-in the data and then there is the complex analytic method of describing the findings. In contrast, this paper will demonstrate an uncomplicated method of analysis and also encourage the use of existing POS (part-of speech) tagging software available online.展开更多
In order to provide English as a foreign language students with effective English language learning approaches, this investigation is focused on how students deal with words when they are doing reading material. It is...In order to provide English as a foreign language students with effective English language learning approaches, this investigation is focused on how students deal with words when they are doing reading material. It is found that most students can use some skills to guess the unknown words in reading materials, such as explanatory analysis skills, syntactic analysis skills, and structural analysis skills, while they have overlooked how these words are organized metaphorically and metonymically. This investigation will provide students with the target language knowledge metaphors and metonymy, examining the impact on computer vocabulary guessing and reading comprehension through teaching the concept of metaphor and metonymy. In this research, the new word-guessing skill based on the knowledge of metaphor and metonymy was applied to word-guessing teaching in reading comprehension of computer material. The research question is studied in this experiment: Can the training of using ways of word-guessing base on the knowledge of metonymy and metaphor promote students' ability of word guessing in reading comprehension of computer material? The results show that students have gradually paid attention to the word-guessing skill in reading process. The skills based on the knowledge of metaphor and metonymy have helped students get the right meaning of the unknown words in computer reading materials. It has really enlarged students' vocabulary and improved their confidence in finishing reading.展开更多
Compared structural approach with communicative approach, the former puts too much emphasis on linguistic knowledge and neglects the language application, while the latter lays too much emphasis on the communicative c...Compared structural approach with communicative approach, the former puts too much emphasis on linguistic knowledge and neglects the language application, while the latter lays too much emphasis on the communicative classroom activities and neglects the systematic study of linguistic knowledge. Both of them cannot meet the requirements of improving the non-English major students' argumentative writing scores. So based on the Lexical Approach theory, taking the College English Integrated Course 4 (LI, 2003) as the main teaching material and lexical phrases as teaching and learning units, this study explores the effectiveness of the Lexical Approach in improving non-English major students' argumentative writing through classroom activities of input, absorption, and output of lexical phrases. The results show that lexical phrases have more effects on students' English competence than single words. They can help to improve the argumentative writing scores and cultivate an interest in learning English independently.展开更多
The paper focuses on amalgamation of automata theory and fuzzy language. It uses adaptive knowledge based abstract framework which uses dynamic neural network framework along with fuzzy automata as Models of Learning,...The paper focuses on amalgamation of automata theory and fuzzy language. It uses adaptive knowledge based abstract framework which uses dynamic neural network framework along with fuzzy automata as Models of Learning, combining the two methodologies the authors develop a new framework termed as Fuzzy Automata based Neural Network (FANN). It highlights conversion of knowledge rule to fuzzy automata thereby generating a framework FANN. FANN consists of composite fuzzy automation divided into "Performance Evaluator" and "Feature Extraction" which takes the help of previously stored samples of similar situations. The authors have extended FANN for Urban Traffic Modeling.展开更多
The requirements of the college English curriculum teaching put forward the teaching objectives to cultivate the English comprehensive application abilities of the students, and improve their cultural qualities and th...The requirements of the college English curriculum teaching put forward the teaching objectives to cultivate the English comprehensive application abilities of the students, and improve their cultural qualities and their abilities of the independent learning, which pointed out the direction for the reform of the college English teaching. The language teaching mode based on the contents of the subject advocates that the knowledge learning and the language learning with the combination of the contents of the discipline, to develop the students' independent learning abilities, is a feasible and effective way to achieve the goal of the college English teaching. To cultivate the students' practical ability of using English is the basic task of the English teaching and learning. But China's current college English education failed to organically and effectively combine the teaching of the language knowledge and the cultivation of the language abilities and the teaching of the knowledge, leading to the existence of the obvious price scissors in the students' language knowledge and the language abilities. Therefore, the key to the reform of the college English teaching is to correctly position the roles of the foreign language teachers, change the classroom teaching into the process of the two-way interaction between the teachers and the students, focus on the cultivation of the students' intercultural communicative competence, so that the students' language knowledge and their language abilities can promote each other, and obtain the coordinative development, to better adapt to the requirements of the times.展开更多
In this paper, we conduct research on the college English teaching emphasis from the cultural migration and transformation ofthinking perspectives. College English has long been in for the college English subject stat...In this paper, we conduct research on the college English teaching emphasis from the cultural migration and transformation ofthinking perspectives. College English has long been in for the college English subject status. However, college English as a multidisciplinary,interdisciplinary research in the field of discipline construction, it seems, are still stay in the linguistics, language knowledge in academiccharacteristics for its stage of development. Reform of basic college English teaching, the teacher is still teaching main body, is the teaching oflanguage knowledge, since teachers play an important role in language teaching, the teacher wants to penetrate cultural knowledge in teachingand we must strengthen their own culture. Under this basis, this paper proposes the novel ideals on the related issues that will be meaningful andinnovative.展开更多
What is the mental realization of our knowledge of the meaning of words? Does the lexical side of our semantic competence depend on the fact that we have dedicated representations of the semantic properties of lexeme...What is the mental realization of our knowledge of the meaning of words? Does the lexical side of our semantic competence depend on the fact that we have dedicated representations of the semantic properties of lexemes or does it arise from world knowledge, encyclopedic information, and non-linguistic categorization? According to meaning eliminativism, lexical concepts have no robust psychological reality and our ability to use the words of a language should not be explained in terms of knowledge of their conventional semantic value, conceived as their array of possible senses. To start, I will briefly explain what meaning eliminativism is and illustrate the key arguments that have been offered in its defense. Then, I will argue that such arguments are not as persuasive as they wish, and I will show that there are convincing theoretical and empirical reasons to maintain that meaning eliminativism is not a plausible claim about the nature of our lexical skills.展开更多
With the spread of English language around the world and its status as an international language, the need for more communication is felt. One pivoting aspect of this communication is the role of culture which can con...With the spread of English language around the world and its status as an international language, the need for more communication is felt. One pivoting aspect of this communication is the role of culture which can contribute to the success of communication at the global level and the co-construction of identities as individuals from different parts of the world get into interactions. Thus, the role of materials developed for learning English, especially the local ones, in the improvement of individuals' intercultural competence is significant. New course books for learning English at Iranian secondary schools entitled Prospect series have been developed recently. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the first and the second books of this series in light of Byram's model of Intercultural Communicative Competence (1CC). Based on this model, ICC consists of three dimensions of attitude, knowledge, skills, and five saviors of knowledge, attitude, discovery, interaction, and critical thinking. To do the evaluation of the course books, the checklist developed based on these five saviors was used to evaluate the tasks for each unit of the books. The evaluation was done separately by each of the researchers in the study and inter-rater reliability showed a high level of Cronbach alpha. The findings indicated that about 90 percent of the activities of Prospect 1 and Prospect 2 lack the skills required for improving English language learners' ICC. They mostly focus on Iranian culture which might have been improved via learners' first language as well. This might imply the need for the adaptation of Prospect series activities in light of ICC so that Iranian English language learners can take advantage of their communication with the rest of the world.展开更多
In recent years, there have been emergent interests in L2 learners' implicit lexical knowledge. Researchers employed psycholinguistic methods to investigate the online processing of formulaic sequences in L2 (idioms...In recent years, there have been emergent interests in L2 learners' implicit lexical knowledge. Researchers employed psycholinguistic methods to investigate the online processing of formulaic sequences in L2 (idioms and collocations) and find evidence for holistic processing of the target linguistic sequences. This paper reviews and comments on lexical bundles and related concepts, trying to make clear this well focused research area in second language acquisition (SLA). Literature is reviewed and criticized on frequency effect in L2 learning, formulaic sequences, and implicit/explicit knowledge/learning, including their theoretical basis, methodology, and conclusion. In this paper, the author argues that sufficient practice, either receptive or productive, can turn explicit knowledge implicit, making it automatically accessed and retrieved. Suggestions on further study in lexical bundles are given.展开更多
文摘This paper presents CACA (computer-assisted corpus analysis) conducted by using a compiled representative corpus. As a descriptive study, it explores the written communicative events produced by engineers in the petroleum industry in Malaysia. Language use is commonly analyzed for competence and performance. Competence is best described as the internalized linguistic knowledge as acquired by the learners while the notion of"performance" is best defined as the external evidence of language competence. Therefore, the core of this paper is reflecting actual language use of the language learners in Malaysia. The data are drawn from a sample corpus compiled from the written communicative events in three companies of the petroleum industry in Malaysia. The methodology applied is fundamental as it tends to investigate the linguistic constitutions in the genre-specific corpus of the professional discourse produced. Computer-based syntactical studies are limited as they require hard work and long hours in order to key-in the data and then there is the complex analytic method of describing the findings. In contrast, this paper will demonstrate an uncomplicated method of analysis and also encourage the use of existing POS (part-of speech) tagging software available online.
文摘In order to provide English as a foreign language students with effective English language learning approaches, this investigation is focused on how students deal with words when they are doing reading material. It is found that most students can use some skills to guess the unknown words in reading materials, such as explanatory analysis skills, syntactic analysis skills, and structural analysis skills, while they have overlooked how these words are organized metaphorically and metonymically. This investigation will provide students with the target language knowledge metaphors and metonymy, examining the impact on computer vocabulary guessing and reading comprehension through teaching the concept of metaphor and metonymy. In this research, the new word-guessing skill based on the knowledge of metaphor and metonymy was applied to word-guessing teaching in reading comprehension of computer material. The research question is studied in this experiment: Can the training of using ways of word-guessing base on the knowledge of metonymy and metaphor promote students' ability of word guessing in reading comprehension of computer material? The results show that students have gradually paid attention to the word-guessing skill in reading process. The skills based on the knowledge of metaphor and metonymy have helped students get the right meaning of the unknown words in computer reading materials. It has really enlarged students' vocabulary and improved their confidence in finishing reading.
文摘Compared structural approach with communicative approach, the former puts too much emphasis on linguistic knowledge and neglects the language application, while the latter lays too much emphasis on the communicative classroom activities and neglects the systematic study of linguistic knowledge. Both of them cannot meet the requirements of improving the non-English major students' argumentative writing scores. So based on the Lexical Approach theory, taking the College English Integrated Course 4 (LI, 2003) as the main teaching material and lexical phrases as teaching and learning units, this study explores the effectiveness of the Lexical Approach in improving non-English major students' argumentative writing through classroom activities of input, absorption, and output of lexical phrases. The results show that lexical phrases have more effects on students' English competence than single words. They can help to improve the argumentative writing scores and cultivate an interest in learning English independently.
文摘The paper focuses on amalgamation of automata theory and fuzzy language. It uses adaptive knowledge based abstract framework which uses dynamic neural network framework along with fuzzy automata as Models of Learning, combining the two methodologies the authors develop a new framework termed as Fuzzy Automata based Neural Network (FANN). It highlights conversion of knowledge rule to fuzzy automata thereby generating a framework FANN. FANN consists of composite fuzzy automation divided into "Performance Evaluator" and "Feature Extraction" which takes the help of previously stored samples of similar situations. The authors have extended FANN for Urban Traffic Modeling.
文摘The requirements of the college English curriculum teaching put forward the teaching objectives to cultivate the English comprehensive application abilities of the students, and improve their cultural qualities and their abilities of the independent learning, which pointed out the direction for the reform of the college English teaching. The language teaching mode based on the contents of the subject advocates that the knowledge learning and the language learning with the combination of the contents of the discipline, to develop the students' independent learning abilities, is a feasible and effective way to achieve the goal of the college English teaching. To cultivate the students' practical ability of using English is the basic task of the English teaching and learning. But China's current college English education failed to organically and effectively combine the teaching of the language knowledge and the cultivation of the language abilities and the teaching of the knowledge, leading to the existence of the obvious price scissors in the students' language knowledge and the language abilities. Therefore, the key to the reform of the college English teaching is to correctly position the roles of the foreign language teachers, change the classroom teaching into the process of the two-way interaction between the teachers and the students, focus on the cultivation of the students' intercultural communicative competence, so that the students' language knowledge and their language abilities can promote each other, and obtain the coordinative development, to better adapt to the requirements of the times.
文摘In this paper, we conduct research on the college English teaching emphasis from the cultural migration and transformation ofthinking perspectives. College English has long been in for the college English subject status. However, college English as a multidisciplinary,interdisciplinary research in the field of discipline construction, it seems, are still stay in the linguistics, language knowledge in academiccharacteristics for its stage of development. Reform of basic college English teaching, the teacher is still teaching main body, is the teaching oflanguage knowledge, since teachers play an important role in language teaching, the teacher wants to penetrate cultural knowledge in teachingand we must strengthen their own culture. Under this basis, this paper proposes the novel ideals on the related issues that will be meaningful andinnovative.
文摘What is the mental realization of our knowledge of the meaning of words? Does the lexical side of our semantic competence depend on the fact that we have dedicated representations of the semantic properties of lexemes or does it arise from world knowledge, encyclopedic information, and non-linguistic categorization? According to meaning eliminativism, lexical concepts have no robust psychological reality and our ability to use the words of a language should not be explained in terms of knowledge of their conventional semantic value, conceived as their array of possible senses. To start, I will briefly explain what meaning eliminativism is and illustrate the key arguments that have been offered in its defense. Then, I will argue that such arguments are not as persuasive as they wish, and I will show that there are convincing theoretical and empirical reasons to maintain that meaning eliminativism is not a plausible claim about the nature of our lexical skills.
文摘With the spread of English language around the world and its status as an international language, the need for more communication is felt. One pivoting aspect of this communication is the role of culture which can contribute to the success of communication at the global level and the co-construction of identities as individuals from different parts of the world get into interactions. Thus, the role of materials developed for learning English, especially the local ones, in the improvement of individuals' intercultural competence is significant. New course books for learning English at Iranian secondary schools entitled Prospect series have been developed recently. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the first and the second books of this series in light of Byram's model of Intercultural Communicative Competence (1CC). Based on this model, ICC consists of three dimensions of attitude, knowledge, skills, and five saviors of knowledge, attitude, discovery, interaction, and critical thinking. To do the evaluation of the course books, the checklist developed based on these five saviors was used to evaluate the tasks for each unit of the books. The evaluation was done separately by each of the researchers in the study and inter-rater reliability showed a high level of Cronbach alpha. The findings indicated that about 90 percent of the activities of Prospect 1 and Prospect 2 lack the skills required for improving English language learners' ICC. They mostly focus on Iranian culture which might have been improved via learners' first language as well. This might imply the need for the adaptation of Prospect series activities in light of ICC so that Iranian English language learners can take advantage of their communication with the rest of the world.
文摘In recent years, there have been emergent interests in L2 learners' implicit lexical knowledge. Researchers employed psycholinguistic methods to investigate the online processing of formulaic sequences in L2 (idioms and collocations) and find evidence for holistic processing of the target linguistic sequences. This paper reviews and comments on lexical bundles and related concepts, trying to make clear this well focused research area in second language acquisition (SLA). Literature is reviewed and criticized on frequency effect in L2 learning, formulaic sequences, and implicit/explicit knowledge/learning, including their theoretical basis, methodology, and conclusion. In this paper, the author argues that sufficient practice, either receptive or productive, can turn explicit knowledge implicit, making it automatically accessed and retrieved. Suggestions on further study in lexical bundles are given.