<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">
<rdf:Description rdf:about="https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/items/show/385">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[ADULT L2 ACQUISITION OF REFLEXIVE VERBS IN RUSSIAN AND POLISH]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:abstract><![CDATA[From previous research, perceptual saliency and morphophonological and morphosyntactic regularity significantly contribute to a successful acquisition of morphemes (Goldschneider &amp; DeKeyser 2001). This pilot study investigates if and to what extent these features are predictors in the acquisition of reflexive verbs in adult L2 Polish and Russian. Despite these languages being closely related, their reflexive verbs differ dramatically. Polish uses a particle siẹ that has a high sonority value and can be freely placed in a sentence. Russian uses a reflexive affix which is placed directly after the finite verb ending and has two phonetically reduced variants -sja and -s’ that depend on the phonological context.   In this pilot study, we hypothesized that i) perceptual saliency (understood as higher sonority and a prominent position in a sentence) facilitated perception and sentence repetition; ii) morphosyntactic regularity and predictability positively affected written production. Two groups of Dutch first-year students learning Russian and Polish respectively as L2 at the University of Amsterdam were recruited. Russian and Polish native speakers served as controls. In order to test perception/comprehension and (re)production of reflexive verbs in L2, a sentence repetition task (SRT) was used. The task consisted of 15 target sentences and 10 distractors for each language (syllable length: 17–22), and was administered in e-prime. The sentence position of the target structure and semantic categories of reflexive verbs were controlled. In order to test written production, a sentence translation task (STT) was developed that contained 15 Dutch items. For the controls, accuracy in both tasks was at ceiling. The Dutch-L2 groups performed significantly worse. The accuracy scores on target structures in SRT were better in Polish (61% vs. 40%). In the STT, the Russian L2 students outperformed the Polish L2 participants (84% vs. 58%). The results of this study support the idea that perceptual saliency and morphophonological uniformity affect perception and (re)production, while morphosyntactic regularity and predictability (boundness) is relevant for written production.]]></dcterms:abstract>
    <dcterms:publisher><![CDATA[International Burch University]]></dcterms:publisher>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[2015-07]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:extent><![CDATA[2883]]></dcterms:extent>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/items/show/386">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH COMPOUNDS AND THEIR CORRESPONDENTS IN ALBANIAN LANGUAGE]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:abstract><![CDATA[Contrastive analysis or contrastive linguistics is related to the field of applied contrastive studies which predicts and clarifies the difficulties in the process of second language acquisition.  It is also claimed that a comparison of different levels between the mother tongue and the target language (phonology, morphology, syntax, lexis, culture) would identify points of difference or difficulty and provide results that would be important in language teaching. This paper aims at describing and analyzing the similarities, dissimilarities, and identities between the English and Albanian compounds by form and meaning. Considering the fact that the dissimilarities are the main cause of difficulty in the learning of the second language or a foreign language, the paper will look at the most common errors Albanian university students make whilst translating compounds from Albanian to English and vice versa. The research presents a combined methodological design, both quantitative and qualitative approach. Correspondingly, English and Albanian grammar books were used as the primary sources in this contrastive study. The research also included the conducting of a test run questionnaire and the subsequent analysis of its results. Consequently, the results gave some insightful ideas or indications regarding implications in teaching and learning compounds in an ELT context.]]></dcterms:abstract>
    <dcterms:publisher><![CDATA[International Burch University]]></dcterms:publisher>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[2015-07]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:extent><![CDATA[2892]]></dcterms:extent>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/items/show/387">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION MODEL AS A FOUNDATION FOR READING ACADEMIC ARTICLES IN THE ISRAELI ACADEMIA]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:abstract><![CDATA[A firm mastery of target language vocabulary is crucial for academic reading performance. Therefore, teachers should equip learners with tools that would help them understand and learn lexical items.To this end, we propose a graded instructional model, which combines strategies for decoding the meaning of novel words as well as learning and retaining them. In order to understand an unfamiliar word a student is encouraged to either guess it or consult a dictionary. Following lexical deciphering, the teacher assists the student in selecting the most frequent and useful words to be learnt. The learning process requires explicit focus on novel words. First, the learner copies the new word into his notebook alongside its dictionary definition and the context it was used in. Next, the student creates a keyword association which helps him retain the word. The learner then attempts to learn it using his preferred perceptual learning style. Since   long-term retention of vocabulary requires multiple repetitions in varied contexts spaced at increasingly larger intervals, the teacher provides the learner with plentiful opportunities at novel vocabulary reinforcement. In addition, testing vocabulary progress guarantees further encounters with the target words. The graded vocabulary instruction model may be successfully integrated in versatile pedagogical frameworks aimed at lexical expansion.]]></dcterms:abstract>
    <dcterms:publisher><![CDATA[International Burch University]]></dcterms:publisher>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[2015-07]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:extent><![CDATA[2890]]></dcterms:extent>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/items/show/388">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[ORGANIZATIONAL-PEDAGOGICAL CONDITIONS OF FORMING PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE OF TEACHERS]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:abstract><![CDATA[This article highlights the issues of development of teachers’ professional competence, the necessity of cooperation and experience exchange between teachers, and the correlation of personal interests with the requests and needs of the state and society. The author considers the main means of the development of competence of the teacher (entry into communication, the establishment of friendly relations with the participants of the educational process, creation of an enabling environment), given the emphasis to the role of external factors on the development of professional competence of teachers.]]></dcterms:abstract>
    <dcterms:publisher><![CDATA[International Burch University]]></dcterms:publisher>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[2015-07]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:extent><![CDATA[2898]]></dcterms:extent>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/items/show/389">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[INVESTIGATING THE INFLUENCE OF STUDENTS’ PROJECT-BASED ENGAGEMENT ON THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS AND THEIR ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE ESP COURSE]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:abstract><![CDATA[Research has shown that learner-centered classrooms are very effective. Engaging students in various classroom activities leads towards better learning outcomes. Moreover, project-based activities can have a positive influence on the students’ engagement and dedication towards a language class. Accordingly, this study will investigate the influence of project-based language learning on students’ achievements and attitudes towards the ESP course. The participants in this study were sixty students from the Faculty of Languages Cultures and Communication at South East European University (SEEU), in Tetove, attending ESP for Communication Sciences (1) and (2) courses. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used for the data collection. The administered instruments were: group projects, student questionnaires, unstructured interviews with the students and process observation. The results confirmed that the students showed more positive attitudes towards ESP classes, after they participated in group projects. They became more motivated and more enthusiastic during their classes. The students improved their critical and creative thinking skills; they productively participated in teamwork and they were able to give constructive criticism. It can be hypothesized that engaging the students in group projects helps in lowering the affective filter, by which the students’ input increases and they show greater academic achievements.]]></dcterms:abstract>
    <dcterms:publisher><![CDATA[International Burch University]]></dcterms:publisher>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[2015-07]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:extent><![CDATA[2894]]></dcterms:extent>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/items/show/390">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[JAPANESE CASE MARKER DE IN COPULAR SENTENCES: ESSIVE OR LOCATIVE?]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:abstract><![CDATA[In this paper I will discuss two constructions of the Japanese verb aru ‘be’. In one construction, aru occurs with a copular complement marked by the particle de, obtaining a sentence-ending pattern known as N-dearu. In the other construction, aru expresses the happening of a dynamic event and may occur with a de-marked locative adjunct encoding the physical place of the event. By analyzing these two constructions I will single out a ‘predicative’ function of the case marker de, and show that when functioning as a support item in nominal predications and in other copular sentences, aru retains its original nature as a locational verb and consequently assigns a locative-like grammatical case (marked with de) to the second argument of its clause. In this instance of strong localism, a grammatical split of the locative marker de happens so that de ends up marking a number of different surface cases. In the conclusion I will propose that the particle de in predicative function should be acknowledged to be an ‘Essive’ case marker.]]></dcterms:abstract>
    <dcterms:publisher><![CDATA[International Burch University]]></dcterms:publisher>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[2015-07]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:extent><![CDATA[2902]]></dcterms:extent>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/items/show/391">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[MAKING STUDENTS MORE ACTIVE IN LEARNING THE PASSIVE]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:abstract><![CDATA[Why are students of English so reluctant to use the passive voice? The answer to this question may lie in the fact that students find it artificial, even pretentious, partly because it really does tend to be overtly wordy and cumbersome. Moreover, a point often overlooked is that the Croatian language “favours” the active structure as more natural both in informal and formal discourse, which is why students often find it difficult to adopt the passive voice as characteristic of the English language. Also, both for learners of English and native speakers of the language, the passive structure may be felt as contrary to the more common subject-verb-object (or S-O-V) order of syntactic constituents in the transitive sentence, employed profusely in the majority of Indo-European languages.  Nonetheless, not only is it expected of the students to appreciate the passive, but also to use it competently. A great deal of academic English courses focus on formal communication; which makes the passive of key importance to understanding the type of language prevalent in EAP. This type of discourse is essential to studying English at university level, in the authors’ case ESP in the field of international relations and diplomacy, where study materials abound with passive structures.   The aim of the paper is to show that the passive is fairly simple and easy both to understand and apply in independent production since it follows a set of formulaic instructions with little or no exceptions to the rule. It will look into examples of texts such as newspaper articles, legislation, professional literature, etc., and provide various activities used as a springboard for the acquisition of passive structures.]]></dcterms:abstract>
    <dcterms:publisher><![CDATA[International Burch University]]></dcterms:publisher>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[2015-07]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:extent><![CDATA[2891]]></dcterms:extent>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/items/show/392">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[The Role of Cognitive Mechanisms and Semantic Motivation in Business English Idioms Acquisition: An experimental study]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:abstract><![CDATA[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.    Keywords: Idiomatic expressions, Business English, cognitive mechanisms, conceptual metaphor, semantic motivation, language acquisition]]></dcterms:abstract>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[2015-05-05]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:extent><![CDATA[2813]]></dcterms:extent>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/items/show/393">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[Apology in Use]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:abstract><![CDATA[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 face-supportive 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.      Keywords: interlanguage pragmatics, speech acts, discourse completion task, role-play data, apology strategies]]></dcterms:abstract>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[2015-05-04]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:extent><![CDATA[2815]]></dcterms:extent>
</rdf:Description><rdf:Description rdf:about="https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/items/show/394">
    <dcterms:title><![CDATA[Are future foreign language teachers prepared to educate the gifted and talented in schools in Herzegovina?]]></dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:abstract><![CDATA[The aim of this study was to contribute to advancement of foreign language teaching and to direct attention to exceptional children as a group of students very often neglected in the elementary and high-school educational system in Herzegovina-Neretva canton. Data are collected using reflection and we attempt to answer the question whether the future foreign language teachers, upon completion of their foreign language-teacher education, feel prepared to work with the gifted and talented. The results suggest that work with gifted and talented children should be included in FL-teacher education in the future.    Keywords: language teaching, talented students, Herzegovina canton]]></dcterms:abstract>
    <dcterms:date><![CDATA[2015-05-03]]></dcterms:date>
    <dcterms:extent><![CDATA[2814]]></dcterms:extent>
</rdf:Description></rdf:RDF>