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Motivation versus age variable in secondary-school learners of English language
Aida Terzić
International University Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract:
Motivation is probably the most important factor for successful learning of any kind. This
paper will attempt to explore the process of motivation for English language learning in
secondary school learners considering the variable of age - its application or lack of it
through the learning process itself, relevant factors which affect students, teacher’s role, the
influence of parents, peers, and the environment, and to prove the hypotheses that a)
motivation changes and decreases with the change of age in secondary school learners; and b)
extrinsic motivation is more present than intrinsic motivation at secondary school level. This
research problem will be examined through the method of questionnaire on the sample of 100
respondents – secondary school students (from first grade up to the fourth grade) of High
Commercial School in Travnik. The paper will also attempt to discuss the types of
motivation, types of learners, learners’ age, environment etc. and other learners’ variables,
both through the recent theoretical studies regarding motivation in general (a detailed
description of sources, characteristics and types of motivation), and, also, it will try to present
a practical sample research of a decrease in motivation that starts at the upper-primary level
and tends to decrease through the secondary level.
Key words: Motivation, extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, language learners, age
variable
1. Introduction
Motivation is a key factor in learning process of any kind, and it is certainly one of the
main factors that affect Second Language Acquisition (SLA). It is no wonder, therefore, that
many studies have been dedicated to the exploration of the issue of motivation, its origins and
classifications, as well as to the means and ways of improving it within the classroom. As
Jeremy Harmer (2001) puts it, “at its most basic level, motivation is some kind of internal
drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something.” (p. 51).
Since motivation is obviously an important concept, particularly in language learning
(since this aspect is the major concern of this paper) it seems only logical and sensible to
strive to the further understanding of this concept. There have been many practical studies
reported on the research of motivation and its practical implementation amongst language
learners of various age, but, again, it is the opinion of the author of this paper, that an
important concept such as this one needs to be constantly researched in the light of modern
developments in the field.
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�1.1.Objectives of the study
This paper will attempt to explore the process of motivation for English language learning
in secondary school learners. We will discuss types and sources of motivation, characteristics
of good learners, the variable of learners’ age, environment, peers, siblings and parents,
teacher’s influence, as well as other learners’ variables that relate to extrinsic motivation, as
well as the variables of intrinsic motivation in the recent theoretical studies; and also, we will
attempt to prove our hypothesis that the age variable has a major impact on the change and
decrease of motivation in secondary school learners, as well as the hypothesis that extrinsic
motivation and its incitements in the classroom are more present amongst these learners than
the intrinsic incitements.
1.2.Research questions and hypotheses
As previously stated, we will attempt to research motivation for English language
learning amongst secondary school learners, considering the variable of age, as well as the
importance of extrinsic motivation over intrinsic motivation. The paper will attempt to
answer the two key questions considered here:
a) Motivation changes and decreases with the change of age in secondary school
learners;
b) Extrinsic motivation is more present than intrinsic motivation at secondary school
level learners.
1.3.Scope of the study
The study was conducted with the samples selected from the first, second, third and
fourth grade of students of High Commercial School in Travnik, to explore the variation in
motivation and to explore the dominant motivation in their English language learning. The
data for this study was obtained through the questionnaire administered to the total number of
100 students. Identifying the change and decrease of motivation with the change of age, we
may be able to formulate measures for improvement of their learning motivation, for the
purposes of better learning success. Their type of motivation could be identified at this first
point to assist them through their successful path of learning English.
2. Review of Literature
2.1.What is motivation?
There are many different definitions of motivation, especially in language learning. And it
is no wonder, since we have already ascertained the importance of the concept for any type of
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�successful learning, including language learning. In addition to the previously cited Harmer’s
definition of motivation being a “some sort of internal drive”, Marion Williams and Richard
Burden suggest that motivation is a “state of cognitive arousal” which provokes a “decision
to act” as a result of which there is “sustained intellectual and/or physical effort” so that the
person can achieve some “previously set goal”(Harmer, 2001, p.51).
Gardner (1985), in his socio-educational model, notes that “motivation is perceived to be
composed of three elements…. effort, desire, and affect” (p.10-11) (effort being the time
spent studying the language and the drive of the learner; desire indicating how much the
learner wants to become proficient in the language; and, finally, affect meaning the learner’s
emotional reactions related to language study). Penny Ur (2002), however, believes that the
abstract term “motivation” on its own is rather difficult to define, therefore she stipulates that
“it is easier and more useful to think in terms of the “motivated” learner: one who is willing
or even eager to invest effort in learning activities and to progress.(p. 274)
2.2.Sources of motivation
Now that we have attempted to answer the question of what motivation is, we need to ask
ourselves the following: where does it come from, namely, what are the sources of
motivation? As Jeremy Harmer (2001) argues, “the motivation that brings students to the task
of learning English can be affected and influenced by the attitude of a number of people.” (p.
51). He further offers several sources of motivation: the society we live in; significant others;
the teacher; and the method.
2.3.What makes a good learner?
When it comes to discussing the features or characteristics of good or successful learner,
many studies have been conducted in this field as well. Neil Naiman and his colleagues, in a
classic study of successful language learning, came to the conclusion that the most successful
learners are not necessarily those to whom a language comes very easily (Ur, 2002, p. 275).
They included several areas, or typical characteristics that successful learners display,
including: positive task orientation; ego-involvement; high aspirations; goal orientation;
perseverance and tolerance of ambiguity.
Now that we know what makes a good or successful learner, we will dedicate the
following chapter of this paper to investigating the variable of learners’ age, with the special
focus on the adolescents (secondary school students), since this variable is of the key interest
to this study. Next, the following chapters will further discuss the types of motivation in
general, with the special attention to the features of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, these
being, again, of the key interest to this study.
2.4.The variable of learners’ age
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�The effects of age on SLA have been often investigated by different scholars in the field
of Second Language Acquisition, and many debates have covered this particular issue. And
no wonder, since it is most certainly a major factor in making decisions on how to teach and
what to teach – because, obviously, “people of different ages have different needs,
competences, and cognitive skills; we might expect children of primary age to acquire much
of a foreign language through play, for example, whereas for adults we can reasonably expect
a greater use of abstract thought.”(Harmer, 2001, p.37)
The main focus of this particular study is to try to find out the age effect on English
language learning amongst secondary school learners, where we will try to prove that
motivation changes and decreases with the change of age, as Steven Pinker (1994) points it
out, “acquisition of a normal language is guaranteed for children up to the age of six, is
steadily compromised from then until shortly after puberty, and is rare thereafter”, and further
continues to argue that, “language-learning circuitry of the brain is more plastic in childhood”
(p. 293). This is only one of commonly held views about the variable of age in SLA, where
majority of scholars believe that children learn languages faster than adults do. Also, Muriel
Saville-Troike (2006) argues that there is a “critical period” for first language acquisition,
where children have only a limited number of years when normal acquisition is possible, and
that, after this period, brain loses its plasticity (p. 82).
However, Penny Ur (2002) argues that “given the same amount of exposure to a foreign
language, there is some evidence that the older the child the more effectively he or she
learns”, and she additionally asserts that “probably teenagers are overall the best learners” (p.
286). She continues to argue that teenagers have greater learning potential than young
children, however, it is much more difficult to motivate and manage them. Additionally,
Jeremy Harmer (2001) says that “teenagers, if they are engaged, have a great capacity to
learn, a great potential for creativity, and a passionate commitment to things which interest
them”, and, that it is teacher’s job to “provoke student engagement with material which is
relevant and involving” (p. 39).
When we consider those aforementioned arguments which state that teenagers are, in fact,
the best learners, it inevitably raises the question of why are adolescents often difficult to
manage, disruptive in class and unmotivated to learn foreign languages? Perhaps one of the
reasons lies in the fact that adolescence is the period of “the search for individual
identity….which has to be forged among classmates and friends; peer approval may be
considerably more important for the student….”(Harmer, 2001, p. 39). Perhaps it also has
something to do with the mere boredom they feel, or the problems they bring to class from
outside school. Whatever the reasons may be, this paper will attempt to find out what are
some of the key motivational factors amongst teenage English language learners, and also to
find out to what extent their motivation changes and decreases as they progress through
secondary school and grow older.
2.5.Types of motivation
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�Since the objective of this paper is to investigate the factors that influence secondary
school learners’ English language learning, including the change in motivation through their
age, in the following paragraphs we will discuss the accepted distinctions of motivation.
There have been several distinctions of motivation made in the literature; the first one
being between “integrative”(an interest in learning second language due to learning about or
associating with the people who use it - emotional or affective factors have a great deal) and
“instrumental”(involves concepts of purely practical value in learning second language in
order to increase learners’ career or business opportunities) motivation(Saville-Troike,2006,
p. 86).Additionally, Stephen D Krashen (2002) claims that “for the integratively motivated
performer, interaction for its own sake will be valued… (whereas) for the instrumentally
motivated performer, interaction always has some practical purpose.”
The second major distinction, or classification of motivation, (and perhaps more useful
one for teachers) is the one between “extrinsic” and “intrinsic” motivation (Ur, 2002, p. 276).
Since this paper is primarily concerned with this classification of motivation, we shall further
look into the features of these two types of motivation in the following chapters.
2.6.Extrinsic motivation – features
As the name itself says it, it is a type of motivation which is derived from the influence of
some kind of external incentive. As Jeremy Harmer (2007) puts it, this kind of motivation
“comes from outside the classroom and may be influenced by a number of external factors
such as the attitude of society, family and peers” (p.20), and continues on to saying that
(2001) “it is caused by any number of outside factors, for example, the need to pass an exam,
the hope of financial reward, or the possibility of future travel” (p. 51). So, as we can see,
actually both integrative and instrumental motivations are hereby grouped under the branch
of the extrinsic motivation.
Since it involves incentives that are brought into the classroom from outside, most of
these are inaccessible to the teacher’s influence. There are, however, other external sources
that are directly affected by the teacher, and some of them include success and its rewards (a
desire to get a reward and avoid punishment); failure and its penalties; authoritative demands
(teacher pressure); and tests and competition (to beat their opponents) (Ur, 2002, p. 277-279).
Finally, we could say that “extrinsic motivation comes from the desire to get a reward or
avoid punishment” (Arnold, 2000, p. 14), however, especially for long-term retention; Arnold
argues that learning is most favourably influenced by intrinsic incitements. Majority of
schools, it seems, encourage only extrinsic motivation through their emphasis on teacherdirected classroom, grades, tests and competitiveness, and this leads students to work to
please teachers or authorities, rather than to develop a love of knowledge in independent
minds. In our research, we will try to prove that secondary school learners are generally more
motivated extrinsically, than intrinsically, and we will try to find out which of the extrinsic
incitements have the major influence on the second language learning.
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�2.7.Intrinsic motivation – features
Intrinsic motivation arises from within the individual, which is the urge to engage in the
learning activity for its own sake, and is associated with what has been termed “cognitive
drive” (Ur, 2002, p. 276) – the urge to learn for its own sake, which is very typical of young
children and tends to deteriorate with age. Also, intrinsically motivated person enjoys the
learning process itself or desires to make himself/herself feel better. What most researchers
and methodologists have come to understand is that “intrinsic motivation is especially
important for encouraging success” (Harmer, 2001, p. 51). Besides the desire to learn for the
sake of learning itself, Jeremy Harmer (2007) says that intrinsic motivation can occur within
the classroom as well in the sense that “it is generated by what happens inside the classroom;
this could be the teacher’s methods, the activities that students take part in, or their perception
of their success or failure” (p. 20).
As Jane Arnold (2000) puts it, “with intrinsic motivation the learning experience is its
own reward” (p. 14), and, as already mentioned, intrinsic motivation is better for long-term
retention, where language learners will succeed better when intrinsic forms of motivation are
developed, in which they learn for their own personal reasons of achieving competence and
autonomy. In this paper we will try to prove that the level of intrinsic motivation within
secondary school English language learners does, in fact, deteriorate with age, and that it is
far less present than extrinsic motivation.
3. Research Methodology
3.1.Participants
The research problem will be examined on the sample of 100 respondents – secondary
school students that will include students from first grade up to the fourth grade of High
Commercial School in Travnik. The selected sample has the following features:
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Total number of respondents is 100 students of High Commercial School in Travnik –
economic technician.
The sample includes first grade, second grade, third grade and fourth grade students
Male – female ratio is 43-57.
3.2.Research instrument
The data for the study will be obtained through the method of questionnaire (a 5 point
Likert Scale which was adapted from the original 7-point Likert Scale format of Gardner’s
Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMI), ranged from “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly
Disagree” (Gardner, 1985, p. 177). Additionally, in order to process attained data, we will use
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�exploratory research, descriptive statistics, calculation of questionnaire results, as well as the
analysis and synthesis, all for the purposes of reaching conclusive data that would support our
research objectives and in the end prove our research hypotheses. Data gained in the
questionnaire method will be processed by descriptive statistics: calculation of percentages,
frequencies and graphic representations of gained data.
There were 24 questions in the questionnaire. The questionnaire was composed of two
main parts: the existence and variation (change) and the fluctuation in motivation (items 1-4)
and the factors of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation (items 1-20). The questionnaire format
consists of the following parts:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
General demographic information of students: sex and age (grade).
Students’ motivation variation – the change and decrease in motivation with
the change of age in secondary school learners; as well as the fluctuation in
motivation – the older the students (grade), the more they preferred learning
English in lower grades (when younger).
Factors of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in secondary school level learners’
motivation for the purposes of determining the presence of both types of
motivation and larger significance of extrinsic motivation over intrinsic; also,
to determine which extrinsic motivation factors are more significant.
4. Findings
The findings of the study were divided into three main parts: (1.a.) Students’ motivation
variation – the change and decrease in motivation with the change of age in secondary school
learners; (1.b.) fluctuation in students’ motivation – the older the students, the larger
preference for learning English in lower grades; (2) factors of extrinsic motivation
(subdivided into three subgroups); and (3) factors of intrinsic motivation.
4.1.The level of students’ motivation and variation in motivation; the fluctuation in
students’ motivation according to their age
This part of the research represents the level of motivation of secondary school English
language learners, starting from first grade up to the fourth grade. As we can see, motivation
significantly varies with the change in age of students. First graders have the highest level of
motivation (64%), which significantly drops in second grade (only 28%), then rises up in
third grade again (44%), and falls once more in fourth grade (38%). From the findings, it is
safe to say that motivation for English language learning does in fact changes and decreases
with the change of age in secondary school learners. Graph 1 shows the change in motivation:
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�70,00%
64,00%
60,00%
54,00%
50,00%
44,00%
40,00%
30,00%
40,00%
38,00%
18,00%
20,00%
22,00%
Positive
Neutral
28,00%
24,00%
20,00%
36,00%
Negative
12,00%
10,00%
0,00%
First grade
Second grade
Third grade
Fourth grade
Graph 1 The level of motivation
The second issue examined in this part of the research dealt with the fluctuation in
students’ motivation in learning English. The questionnaire examined the fluctuation in
motivation in relation to the change of students’ age – the students preferred learning English
more in lower grades. First grade students had 30% of positive answers regarding the
fluctuation of motivation (which is acceptable, since they demonstrated the highest level of
motivation); second grade students had 46% of positive answers (which corresponds to the
drop in motivation from the first part); third grade students had 42% of positive answers
(again, corresponding to the slight rise in motivation); and, finally, fourth grade students had
32% of positive answers (which corresponds to yet another drop in motivation). Graph 2
shows the fluctuation in motivation:
70,0%
60,0%
58,0%
50,0%
50,0%
46,0%
40,0%
30,0%
44,0%
42,0%
32,0%
30,0%
Neutral
Negative
20,0%
16,0%
10,0%
Positive
38,0%
12,0%
18,0%
14,0%
0,0%
First grade
Second grade
Third grade
Fourth grade
Graph 2 Fluctuation in motivation in relation to the change of students' age
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�From the presented findings, it is possible to conclude that the motivation for learning
English does in fact changes and decreases with the change of students’ age, which is
additionally supported by the fluctuation in motivation in relation to the change of students’
age. Therefore, we can conclude that our first hypothesis has been proven true.
4.2. Factors of extrinsic motivation
This part of research was concerned with the presence of extrinsic motivation in
secondary school English language learners and the fact that extrinsic motivation is more
present than intrinsic motivation. The questionnaire was divided into three subgroups of
factors that constitute extrinsic motivation: factors outside of classroom;
integrative/instrumental motivation; and factors in the classroom. Here we tried to find out
not only the superiority of extrinsic over intrinsic motivation in students, but also to see
which extrinsic factors constitute the most important incitements in English language
learning. Due to the principle of the economy, we will demonstrate detailed results for factors
that highly influence students’ extrinsic motivation; whereas those factors that do not
contribute significantly will be abbreviated.
The first subgroup of factors (outside of classroom) concerned positive attitudes of the
environment, of parents and siblings regarding learning English. Picture 1 shows the total
percentage of positive attitude of the environment towards learning English for all grades
(from first to fourth), where, as we can see, 50% of students responded positively to the
attitude of the environment towards learning English, which means that students consider this
to be a major factor in their learning:
Attitude of the environment
24,00%
Positive
50,00%
Neutral
Negative
26,00%
Picture1 The total percentage of positive attitude of the environment (1st – 4th grade)
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�Next factor in the questionnaire considered positive attitudes of parents and siblings
regarding learning English. Picture 2 shows the total percentage of positive attitude of parents
and siblings towards learning English for all grades (from first to fourth):
Attitude of parents and siblings
5,50%
8,00%
Positive
Neutral
Negative
86,50%
Picture2 The total percentage of positive attitude of parents and siblings (1st – 4th
grade)
Here, 86,5% of students responded positively to the question of positive attitude of
parents and siblings towards learning English, which also means that this is a factor that
students feel has a major importance for their studies.
To summarize the results, we believe it is plausible to say that secondary school students
are motivated outside the classroom by both the environment and their parents and siblings,
the latter being stronger motivational source (over 80%), whereas the influence of the former
is also significant (50%). In this part of the questionnaire, we can conclude that the factors of
extrinsic motivation outside of the classroom are strongly present in the overall students’
motivation in learning English.
The second subgroup of factors (integrative/instrumental motivation) concerned the
issues of integrative motivation (learns English to understand English books, music, movies
etc.; learns English to make new English-speaking friends); and the issues of instrumental
motivation (learns English to get a better job in the future; learns English for travelling
abroad). From the results of the questionnaire, it is plausible to conclude that students are
highly motivated by both integrative and instrumental factors, former being slightly more
expressed in their motivation.
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�Picture3 shows the total percentage of integrative motivation factors that influence
students’ motivation towards learning English for all grades (from first to fourth), where we
can see that 87% of students answered positively to the questions regarding integrative
motivation factors, which means that they perceive the importance of learning English in
order to integrate into and better understand English-speaking communities. We can conclude
that integrative motivation also constitutes a major factor in learning English amongst
secondary school learners:
Integrative motivation
6,50%
6,50%
Positive
Neutral
Negative
87,00%
Picture 3 The total percentage of integrative motivation factors (1st – 4th grade)
Picture 4 shows the total percentage of instrumental motivation factors that influence
students’ motivation towards learning English for all grades (from first to fourth):
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�Instrumental motivation
4,00%
12,00%
Positive
Neutral
Negative
84,00%
Picture 4 The total percentage of instrumental motivation factors (1st – 4th grade)
Here, 84% of students responded positively to the questions regarding instrumental
motivation factors, which again means that they understand the importance of learning (and
knowing) English for their future careers, travel and various skills and knowledge. Once
more, we can say that instrumental motivation contributes significantly to the overall
extrinsic motivation in learning English amongst secondary school learners.
Again, in order to summarize the results, we can say that students are highly
motivated by both instrumental and integrative motivation factors, and that these factors
contribute highly to their “drive” to learn English. In this part of the questionnaire, we believe
it is plausible to conclude that instrumental and integrative factors of extrinsic motivation are
also strongly present in the overall students’ motivation in learning English.
Finally, the third subgroup of factors (factors in the classroom) concerned the issues
of peer influence (positive attitude of peers; mockery of peers; competition amongst peers);
teacher’s attitude (positive attitude of teacher towards the subject; teacher’s strict demands);
learning only for mark/test; and, finally, learning because of interesting learning materials
(the materials are up to date, adopted to teenagers’ interests etc.). From the results of the
questionnaire, it is plausible to conclude that students are, in the classroom, mostly motivated
by the teacher’s attitude and by their marks, whereas other factors in the classroom do exist,
but do not seem to contribute highly to the level of students’ extrinsic motivation.
As we can see, Picture 5 shows the total percentage of peer influence regarding their
positive attitudes towards learning English; the unwillingness of students to participate in
English classes due to the fear of peer mockery, and, finally, competition amongst peers as an
extrinsic incitement for students:
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�Peer influence
26,00%
Positive
Neutral
50,00%
Negative
24,00%
Picture 5 The total percentage of peer influence (positive attitude; mockery;
competition) (1st – 4th grade)
So, when it comes to the peer influence, according to the results of the questionnaire,
we can conclude that it does exist as a motivational factor within the classroom, but, it is not
the one of major significance to secondary school English learners.
The second factor within the classroom that influences students’ extrinsic motivation
was related to learning because of interesting learning materials (that are up to date,
interesting, adopted to teenagers’ interests etc.). Once more, students did acknowledge the
existence of this factor, but once more did not feel it to be of any significant importance
towards their extrinsic motivation. Picture 6 shows the total percentage of the influence of
learning materials:
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�Learning materials
27,00%
38,00%
Positive
Neutral
Negative
35,00%
Picture 6 The total percentage of the influence of learning materials (1st – 4th grade)
Up to this point of the results, it is plausible to conclude that students do recognize the
factors of peer influence and of learning materials, but that they do not feel these factors have
any major impact onto their extrinsic motivation for learning of English in classroom.
Therefore, it is safe to say that these factors do not contribute significantly to students’
extrinsic motivation. However, the following two factors – teacher’s attitude and demands, as
well as their marks – do quite significantly influence their motivation within the classroom.
First, we will look at the importance of teacher as being a major factor in student’s
motivation. In the questionnaire, the students were asked about teacher’s positive attitude
towards the subject, and if they felt that such attitude helps and motivates them to study
more; and, secondly, they were asked about the influence of teacher’s strict demands on their
motivation. Picture 7 demonstrates the results for all grades regarding teacher’s positive
attitude towards the subject; andas we can see from the results, 69% of students felt that
teacher’s positive attitude towards the subject significantly influences their motivation to
learn English.
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�Teacher's positive attitude
12,00%
Positive
19,00%
Neutral
Negative
69,00%
Picture 7 The total percentage of teacher's positive attitude towards the subject (1st –
4th grade)
Second, the students were asked about the influence of teacher’s strict demands as a
motivational factor, and to what extent did such demands motivate them to learn English.
Picture 8 shows the results for all grades regarding teacher’s strict demands:
Teacher's strict demands
39,00%
44,00%
Positive
Neutral
Negative
17,00%
Picture 8 The total percentage of teacher's strict demands influencing students'
motivation (1st – 4th grade)
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�As we can see from the results, 44% of students responded positively to the issue of
teacher’s strict demands as a factor that influences their own motivation.
To summarize the results, the influence of the teacher on students’ motivation is more
than evident within the classroom. However, students feel that they are more motivated by
the teacher’s positive attitude towards the subject, than by the teacher’s strict demands, even
though they recognize this as an influential factor as well.
Finally, the last significant extrinsic factor within the classroom is students’ marks. In
the questionnaire, the students were asked if they learnt English only for their marks, or when
they have tests, and the total results, shown in Picture 9, are as follows:
Marks/Tests
30,50%
Positive
Neutral
54,50%
Negative
15,00%
Picture 9 The total percentage of students' motivation to learn due to marks or tests (1st
– 4th grade)
Here, as the results demonstrate, 54,50% of students are motivated by their marks,
meaning that they study in order to get a good (or better) mark (tests included).
According to the results of the questionnaire, we believe it is plausible to conclude
that secondary school students are highly motivated extrinsically. As we said earlier, the
objective of this paper is to try to ascertain that this age group is motivated extrinsically more
than intrinsically, but also, to try to ascertain which extrinsic factors are more relevant for
secondary school learners.
From the results of our questionnaire, we can say that students are motivated a)
outside the classroom more by their parents and siblings than by their environment; b) they
are also highly motivated by instrumental and integrative factors; and c) within the classroom
they are mostly motivated by their teacher’s attitude and their marks.From all of the above,
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�we feel it is safe to conclude that our hypothesis on the level of presence of extrinsic
motivation is hereby proven true.
The final part of this paper (and of the questionnaire itself) deals with the existence
and the level of presence of intrinsic motivation amongst secondary school learners of
English. Here, we will try to prove our hypothesis that secondary school students are more
motivated extrinsically than intrinsically. The students were asked questions typically
assigned to the factors of intrinsic motivation (learning for the pleasure of learning itself;
because learning makes me feel good; because I can discover new languages; because I can
improve my skills and knowledge etc.), and the results, displayed in Picture 10, are as
follows:
Intrinsic motivation
24,00%
46,00%
Positive
Neutral
Negative
30,00%
Picture 10 The total percenate of students' intrinsic motivation (1st grade – 4th grade)
As we can see, only 46, 00% of the total sample of students is motivated intrinsically,
which is significantly lower percentage than the factors of their extrinsic motivation.
According to the results of our questionnaire, we can say that students are less
motivated intrinsically than extrinsically and therefore it is plausible to say that our
hypothesis that extrinsic motivation is more present than intrinsic motivation at secondary
school learners is hereby proven true.
5. Discussion and Recommendations
The overall results reveal that the students’ motivation does in fact change with the
change of their age, which answers the research question of what the level of students’
motivation is per each grade. Based on the comparison and assessment of the results, we have
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�discovered that students are more strongly motivated to learn English by the factors of
extrinsic motivation, than by the factors of intrinsic motivation, which also answers our
question of higher presence of extrinsic motivation over the intrinsic one.
Based on the findings of this study, the results are unique for these particular aimed
groups of students, and the study of students in other schools or institutions with largely
different context may yield significantly different results. Future research should also include
more and various schools and institutions. Additionally, this research obtained the data from
100 students, where we included one class of each grade only, and is therefore recommended
that future studies use a larger sample size in order to increase the degree of generalization of
the study, and in order to make the findings more valid and reliable.
6. Conclusion
As the motivation to learn English is one of the most important learning factors, the need
to determine the actual motivational situations of any students’ group is worthwhile. This is
for the benefit of their language-learning effectiveness and proficiency. In conclusion, this
study was conducted to provide some insight into the level and type of motivation of students
in High Commercial School in Travnik. Although the data source of the study may not
represent all other student groups, the author of the paper is still confident that the results will
give a relative representation and be of a great value to authorities or researchers concerned.
References:
I Books and Articles
Arnold, J. (2000). Affect in Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Gardner, R.C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of
attitudes and motivation. London: Edward Arnold Publishers.
Harmer, J. (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching, 3rd Edition. Harlow,
United Kingdom: Pearson Education Limited.
Harmer, J. (2007). How to Teach English. Harlow, United Kingdom: Pearson
Education Limited New Edition.
Pinker, S. (1994). The Language Instinct. New York: Harper Perreinal.
Saville-Troike, M. (2006). Introducing Second Language Acquistion. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Ur, P. (2002). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Williams, M. and Burden, R. (1997). Psychology for Language Teachers. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
18
�II Electronic Sources
Krasher, Stepen D. (2002). Second Language Acquistion and Second Language
Learning. Retrieved from http://testing.greenlitex.com/
19
�
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Motivation versus age variable in secondary-school learners of English language
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Terzić, Aida
Abstract
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Motivation is probably the most important factor for successful learning of any kind. This paper will attempt to explore the process of motivation for English language learning in secondary school learners considering the variable of age - its application or lack of it through the learning process itself, relevant factors which affect students, teacher’s role, the influence of parents, peers, and the environment, and to prove the hypotheses that a) motivation changes and decreases with the change of age in secondary school learners; and b) extrinsic motivation is more present than intrinsic motivation at secondary school level. This research problem will be examined through the method of questionnaire on the sample of 100 respondents – secondary school students (from first grade up to the fourth grade) of High Commercial School in Travnik. The paper will also attempt to discuss the types of motivation, types of learners, learners’ age, environment etc. and other learners’ variables, both through the recent theoretical studies regarding motivation in general (a detailed description of sources, characteristics and types of motivation), and, also, it will try to present a practical sample research of a decrease in motivation that starts at the upper-primary level and tends to decrease through the secondary level. Key words: Motivation, extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, language learners, age variable
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International Burch University
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2016-03-03
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PE English
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Sufiksi perzijskog porijekla u bosanskom jeziku
Amela Šehović & Đenita Haverić
University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Apstrakt:
U radu se istražuje zastupljenost sufiksa perzijskog porijekla u bosanskom jeziku, koji su
općenito manje proučavani u poređenju s npr. sufiksima turskog porijekla. Želi se ukazati na
činjenicu da oni nisu tako malobrojni, kako bi se moglo činiti, ali nisu ni pretjerano
frekventni. Među njima, prisutne su i mnoge samostalne riječi iz perzijskog jezika, koje u
našem jeziku imaju funkciju sufiksa, poput perzijskog kar, koje se u našem jeziku realizira
kao -ćār/-ćer, i perzijskih hane, name i zade, koji se u našem jeziku ostvaruju kao -(h)ana, nama i -zada. Pored njih, zabilježeni su i sufiksi: -dān/-den, -dār/-tār, -stān i -vān/-van, te
sufiks -ane, jedini kojim se izvode prilozi. Cilj rada jeste ukazati i na potrebu njihovog
podrobnijeg osvjetljavanja u kontekstu tvorbenog sistema bosanskoga jezika.
Ključne riječi: sufiksi, bosanski jezik, perzijski jezik, turski jezik
1. Uvod
Mnoge riječi bosanskog jezika izvedene su sufiksima orijentalnog porijekla, među
kojima su zasigurno najzastupljeniji sufiksi porijeklom iz turskog jezikai, i to: sufiksi -džija i lija, koji se dodaju na imeničku osnovu, kao i sufiksi -luk, -suz, -baša. Što se tiče pridjeva, oni
koji se tvore uz pomoć sufiksa turskog porijekla -liii uglavnom su indeklinabilni i ekspresivni.
S druge strane, u bosanskom je jeziku manje proučavana zastupljenost i funkcija
sufiksa perzijskog porijekla. Oni nisu tako malobrojni, kako bi se moglo činiti, ali nisu ni
pretjerano frekventni. Među njima, prisutne su i izvorne riječi iz perzijskog jezika, koje u
našem jeziku imaju funkciju sufiksa, poput perzijskog kar, koje se u našem jeziku realizira
kao -ćār/-ćer, i perzijskih xāne, nāme i zāde, koji se u našem jeziku ostvaruju kao -(h)ana, nama i -zada. No, sve one, zbog česte upotrebe, u perzijskom jeziku mogu dobiti i ulogu
sufiksa. Pored njih, zabilježeni su i sufiksi: -stān, -dār/-tār, -dān/-den (od perz. -dān) i -vān/van (od perz. -bān). Svim navedenim sufiksima izvode se imenice, a jedini sufiks kojim se
izvode prilozi je sufiks -ane od perz. -āne. U nastavku slijedi podrobnija analiza navedenih
sufiksa poredanih abecednim redoslijedom radi preglednosti.
2. Sufiksi perzijskog porijekla
2.1. Sufiks -(h)ana
Sufiks -(h)ana potječe od perzijske riječi xāne – kuća, što se u literaturi ne prepoznaje
kao činjenica te se ovaj sufiks često ubraja u sufikse turskog porijekla (Nikolić, 1972: 133,
1
�Radić, 2001: 79, Ćorić, 2008: 195). S druge strane, Klajn ga tretira kao perzijsko-tursko hane
(2003:39), što također nije potpuno precizno.
U perzijskom je jeziku ova riječ nesumnjivo imenica i služi za tvorbu složenica, ali je
zbog česte upotrebe dobila i ulogu sufiksa u značenju mjesta obavljanja neke radnje ili
općenito lokacije, npr. qahwexāne – kafana, ċāyxāne – čajdžinica (Afšār, 1996: 474). U
bosanskom jeziku ovaj se sufiks uglavnom realizira sa etimološkim h, za razliku od srpskog i
hrvatskog jezika, u kojima je to mnogo rjeđi slučaj.Porijeklo od riječi koja u perzijskom
jeziku označava kuću utjecalo je na razvoj mjesnoga karaktera ovoga sufiksa. U skladu s tim,
primarno tvorbeno-semantičko značenje leksema sa ovim sufiksom je značenje mjesta, i to: a)
ustanova i drugih objekata opće namjene: dershana, đumrukhana, islahana, kiraethana,
kutubhana, menzilhana, musafirhana, tefterhana (defterhana), telegrafhana; b) vjerskih
objekata i prostora: abdesthana – 'posebna prostorija u džamijama i starim bosanskim kućama
gdje se uzima abdest'iii, čifuthana – 'jevrejska bogomolja; sinagoga', gasulhana, muvekithana,
semahana; c) skladišta: barutana – 'zgrada u kojoj se čuva barut, spremište baruta', čulhana,
saručhana, tophana– 'skladište oružja, municije i vojne opreme; arsenal'; d) ugostiteljskih
objekata: kafana (kahvana), mehana (mejhana); e) kuća i prostorija: čifuthana – 'jevrejska
kuća', dembelhana, divanhana, hošafhana, sandukhana, te mjesta za proizvodnju: barutana –
'fabrika za proizvodnju baruta', ćerhana, ćumurana (ćumurhana) – 'jama ili peć u kojoj se
paljenjem drva dobija ćumur, drveni ugalj', tabakhana (tabhana), tarafhana (taraphana),
tophana – 'fabrika za izradu topova' i prodaju čega: ćumurana (ćumurhana) – 'mjesto gde se
prodaje ćumur', edžzahana.
Kao što se može primijetiti, neke od navedenih leksema su polisemične – one mogu
označavati mjesto za skladištenje ali i proizvodnju čega: barutana, tophana; predmet ali i
mjesto za prodaju čega: ćumurana (ćumurhana), na temelju čega možemo konstatirati da u
ovim primjerima dolazi do semantičkog preklapanjaiv.
Rijetko, ovaj sufiks može biti upotrijebljen za tvorbu leksema sa značenjem predmeta:
dabulhana– 'neki od instrumenata (ob. po jedan ili po dva) koji ulaze u sastav vojne muzike
(daulbas ili talambas, bubnjevi i zurle)', džebhana, šešana (šišana) te nekih apstraktnih
pojmova: dabulhana – 'vojna muzika koja se sastoji od daulbasa ili talambasa, bubnjeva i
zurli; općenito, bučna muzika, svirka', mehterhana (mekterhana). Primjeri poput lekseme
dabulhana privlače posebnu pažnju budući da se njom istovremeno označavaju i konkretni
predmeti i apstraktni pojmovi.
U prikupljenom korpusu rijetki su razgovorni i žargonski primjeri, poput lekseme
tarapana.
Lekseme sa ovim sufiksom tvore se od imeničkih osnova, rjeđe od brojnih osnova
stranog porijekla, koje su u našem jeziku leksikalizirane: šešana. Imeničke osnove mogu biti
porijeklom iz perzijskog jezika ili nekih drugih jezika (arapskog, turskog, grčkog, latinskog,
hebrejskog). U prvu grupu spadaju sljedeći primjeri: abdesthana, ćerhana zast., dembelhana
zast., divanhana arhit., hošafhana, mehana (mejhana) – 'razg. pejor.ugostiteljski objekt
neuređenog interijera i skromne ponude jela i pića;birtija', mehterhana (mekterhana) zast.,
šešana (šišana). Drugu grupu čine sljedeće lekseme: barutana (baruthana), čifuthana zast.
pejor., čulhana, ćumurhana zast., ćumurana, dabulhana zast. muz., dershana zast., džebhana
zast., đumrukhana zast., edžzahana zast., gasulhana isl., islahana hist., kafana (kahvana),
kiraethana zast., kutubhana zast., menzilhana hist., musafirhana hist. ekspr., muvekithana,
2
�sandukhana, saračhana, semahana, tabakhana (tabana), tarafhana (taraphana) zast.,
tarapana – '1. razg. ekspr.gužva, metež, gungula 2. žarg.tučnjava, tuča', tefterhana
(defterhana) zast., telegrafhana zast., tophana zast.
Iako su primjeri iz prve grupe manje brojni, zanimljivo je da je među njima nekoliko
leksema koje su i danas dio aktivne leksike u bosanskom jeziku, za razliku od primjera iz
druge grupe, koji su mahom arhaizmi i historizmi.
Osnove na koje se dodaje ovaj sufiks su pune, vrlo rijetko okrnjene: tabhana.
Iz svega navedenog proizlazi da zaključak P. Radića kako u tvorbenom sistemu
srpskog književnog jezika ovaj sufiks ima uglavnom perifernu ulogu (2001: 85) ne vrijedi i za
bosanski jezik, u kojem on ima primjetniji udio.
2.2. Sufiks -ane
Sufiks -ane izveden je od perzijskog -āne, koje uglavnom služi za tvorbu priloga načina,
npr. bozorgāne – veličanstveno. Iako se on u perzijskom jeziku može dodavati i na imenice i
tako obrazovati pridjeve, npr. mardāne – muški, u našem se jeziku njim primarno izvode
prilozi, čime se on izdvaja među sufiksima analiziranim u ovom radu, kojima se gotovo
isključivo izvode imenicev. Specifičnost ovog sufiksa, koji također nije zabilježen niti u
jednoj od konsultiranih monografija (Babić 1986, Klajn 2003, Radić 2001, Vajzović 1999),
jeste da se on dodaje primarno na pridjevske a manje na imeničke osnove. Od pridjevskih su
osnova izvedene lekseme: gaibane, hakikane, halisane, nazićane, usulane, sve od osnova
arapskog porijekla. Izuzetak je leksema nazićane, koja je perzijskog porijekla, kao i prilog
dervišane, koji je izveden od imeničke osnove. Ekspresivan je prilog hakikane, rijetko se
upotrebljava halisane, dok je arhaično usulane. Na temelju rečenog, zaključujemo da u
bosanskom jeziku ovaj sufiks ima perifernu ulogu.
Prilozi izvedeni ovim sufiksom redovno imaju dugouzlazni akcent na prvom slogu
ovog dvosložnog sufiksa.
2.3. Sufiks -ćār/-ćer
Sufiks -ćār/-ćer zabilježen je u rijetkim monografijama (Vajzović, 1999: 158) i
radovima (Pranjković, 2002: 17), ali bez ikakvog dodatnog opisa. Babić bilježi samo sufiks ćār (1986: 103), a ilustrira ga jednim primjerom – leksemom zulumćar. Ovaj je sufiks, u
našem jeziku s dvjema varijantama, postao od perzijske imenice kar, koja označava rad,
posao a služi za tvorbu složenica. Ona u perzijskom jeziku ima i funkciju sufiksa, i to
participskog sufiksa, koji pokazuje vršioca radnje ili nosioca zanimanja, npr. daryākar –
mornar, ali imai značenje nosioca osobine (Afšār, 1996: 876/877), npr. ziyānkār – zijanćer,
štetočina, gonāhkār – grešnik.
U našem jeziku primarno tvorbeno-semantičko značenje ovoga sufiksa je značenje
nosilac osobine (nomina attributiva), atoj grupi pripadaju sljedeće lekseme: đunahćar, hilećar.
Sve su one arhaične. U nomina agentis spada ekspresivno hizmećar, dok se u zijanćer i
zulumćar prepliću navedena dva značenja. Sve su ove lekseme nastale od imeničkih osnova,
uglavnom arapskog porijekla, sa izuzetkom dviju leksema – đunahćar i zijanćer – koje imaju
imeničku osnovu iz perzijskog jezika. Razgovornom stilu pripada ekspresivno zijanćer.
2.4. Sufiks -dān/-den
3
�Sufiks -dān/-den, porijeklom od perzijskog sufiksa -dān, ima perifernu ulogu u
bosanskom jeziku, što može biti objašnjenje zašto nije zabilježen niti u jednoj od
konsultiranih monografija (Babić 1986, Klajn 2003, Radić 2001, Vajzović 1999). U
perzijskom jeziku služi za tvorbu imenica koje u najvećem broju primjera označavaju neke
posude, npr. sormedān – posudica za surmu, odnosno općenito predmete, npr. šamʻdān –
svijećnjak. To je onda preneseno i u bosanski jezik, u kojem primarno označava predmete:
džamadan (džemadan), džuzdan, đulevden, surmedan, šemidan. Neke su od ovih leksema
arhaične: džuzdan, šemidan, a druge označavaju predmete koji pripadaju etnološkoj sferi:
džamadan (džemadan) –'etnol.muškizatvoreniprslukkoji se oblači na anteriju ili košulju i
preklapa se na prsima, izrađen je od čohe ili kadife, a ukrašen gajtanima, srmom i sl.',
đulevden. Jedina leksema koja označava osobu, i to nomina attributiva, je hanedan. Leksema
surmedan ima i svoj sinonim, sa istovjetnim oblikom, proširenim sufiksom turskog porijekla luk: surmedanluk.
Sve su ove lekseme nastale od imeničkih osnova, većinom arapskog: džuzdan,
šemidan i perzijskog porijekla: džamadan (džemadan), đulevden, hanedan, a izuzetno turskog
porijekla: surmedan.
2.5. Sufiks -dār/-tār
Sufiks -dār/-tār zabilježen je u rijetkim monografijama (Vajzović, 1999: 158, Radić,
2001: 104–105) i radovima (Pranjković, 2002: 17), bez ikakvog dodatnog opisa. Ovaj je
sufiks postao od perzijskog sufiksa -dār/-tār, koji je participski sufiks, a uglavnom dolazi na
preteritske osnove i obrazuje imenice koje označavaju vršioca radnje, npr. xarīdār – kupac,
forūxtār – prodavač. Također dolazi na imenice i označava onoga koji nešto posjeduje te
onoga koji nešto čuva, npr. pūldār – bogataš, xa(e)zānedār – rizničar (Afšār, 1996: 515).
U skladu s tim, primarno tvorbeno-semantičko značenje ovog sufiksa i u našem jeziku
je značenje vršioca radnje, bilo da ostvaruje ono što je u osnovi izvedenice ili se time bavi.
Kao historizmi su obilježene sljedeće lekseme: bajraktar (barjaktar), čohodar, haznadar,
muhurdar, serdar, silahdar, arhaizmi su: haberdar – 'onaj koji donosi kakvu vijest,
glas;glasnik, glasonoša,vjesnik' i tahsildar, dok je razgovorna leksema čuvadar.
Značenje nosioca osobine zastupljeno je u arhaizmu hisedar.
Manje je zastupljeno značenje predmeta: džeferdar, haberdar– 'ono čime se što
oglašava (top ili puška kojima se daje znak da što počinje, npr. iftar)'. Ova je izvedenica
poslužila kao osnova za novi derivat – leksemu haberdarka.
Kao što se može primijetiti, u našem su jeziku pretežno zabilježeni primjeri sa
sufiksom -dār. Ipak, neki derivatolozi bilježe isključivo rjeđu varijantu -tār, poput Babića
(1986: 103), i to u riječi barjaktar, dok je u našem korpusu zabilježen još samo jedan primjer
s ovim sufiksom, a to je sandžaktar, sa istim značenjem zastavnika. Općenito, ovaj se sufiks
dodaje na imeničke osnove iz orijentalnih jezikavi, sa rijetkim izuzecima od tog pravila, a to
su lekseme tefterdar (defterdar) i čuvadar. Prva je od imeničke osnove ali iz grčkog jezika,
dok je drugoj osnova glagolska, i to iz bosanskog jezika, od glagola čuvati, po čemu je
klasični primjer hibridne lekseme, koja se javlja u razgovornom stilu bosanskog jezika.
4
�Sve lekseme s ovim sufiksom pripadaju imenicama izuzev lekseme havadar, koja je
pridjevska. I pored toga što je ovaj pridjev arhaičan, tvorbeno je zanimljiva sama činjenica da
od imeničke osnove i ovog sufiksa u našem jeziku nastaje nepromjenljivi pridjev.
2.6. Sufiks -nama
Sufiks -nama nije zabilježen niti u jednoj od konsultiranih monografija (Babić 1986,
Vajzović 1999, Radić 2001, Klajn 2003), što ne osporava njegovu prisutnost u jeziku.
Vjerovatni razlog takvoj praksi je činjenica da se ovaj sufiks mahom pojavljuje u
historizmima i arhaizmima, zbog čega ima perifernu ulogu u savremenom bosanskom jeziku.
No, imajući u vidu činjenicu da u ovom radu istražujemo formante perzijskog porijekla u
tvorbenom sistemu bosanskog jezika, neophodnost uključivanja i sufiksa sa perifernom
ulogom u savremenom jeziku, kakav je sufiks -nama, postaje neupitna.
On je izveden od perz. imenice nāme – pismo, koja služi za tvorbu složenica, ali može
imati i funkciju sufiksa, kada označava neko pisanje ili knjigu koja se odnosi na neku temu,
npr. rezāyatnāme – svjedodžba, uvjerenje, sougandnāme – tekst zakletve (Afšār, 1996: 1112).
Značenje iz perzijskog jezika odredilo je osnovno tvorbeno-semantičko značenje leksema sa
ovim sufiksom u bosanskom jeziku, a to je značenje kakve knjige, dokumenta i sl.
Administrativno-pravnoga karaktera su historizmi: ahdnama, idžazetnama, izunama –
'isl. ovlaštenje koje izdaje šerijatski sudija imamu – matičaru da može obaviti vjenčanje po
šerijatskim zakonima', kanunama, vakufnama, a u značenjskoj vezi s njima su i historizmi
emernama i izunama–'hist. pismena dozvola; ovlaštenje' te arhaizmi šehadetnama i
vasijetnama. Različite vrste knjiga označavaju sljedeće lekseme arhaizmi: jilduznama,
ruznama, sejahatnama, tabirnama. S tim su značenjem blisko povezane i lekseme salnama,
tebriknama. Jedina apstraktna leksema s ovim sufiksom je pejorativni arhaizam tandrnama,
gdje glasovni sastav osnove također doprinosi razvoju pejorativnog značenja.
Osnova na koju se dodaje ovaj sufiks mahom potječe iz arapskog jezika, a u manjoj
mjeri iz perzijskog, turskog i grčkog.
Što se tiče akcenta, imenice izvedene ovim sufiksom redovno imaju dugouzlazni
akcent na prvom slogu ovog dvosložnog sufiksa.
2.7. Sufiks -stān
Još jedan iz plejade malo poznatih sufiksa perzijskog porijekla je i sufiks -stān, koji je
zabilježen u rijetkim monografijama (Vajzović, 1999: 158) i radovima (Pranjković, 2002: 17),
bez ikakvog dodatnog opisa. Kako ovaj sufiks u perzijskom jeziku primarno služi za tvorbu
imenica mjesta i država: npr. golestān– ružičnjak, Hendūstān – Indija, te, u nekoliko
slučajeva, za tvorbu imenica vremena, npr. tābestān – ljeto, i u našem je jeziku primarno
tvorbeno-semantičko značenje leksema sa ovim sufiksom značenje mjesta, i to mjesta na
kojem se nalazi ono što je u osnovi polazišne lekseme: đulistan, kabristan, mezaristan,
odnosno na kojem se prodaje ono što je u njenoj osnovi: bezistan. Osnovu uvijek čine
imenice, i to iz arapskog jezika, sa jedinim primjerom gdje su i osnova i sufiks perzijskog
porijekla: đulistan. I pored malobrojnosti leksema sa ovim sufiksom, treba primijetiti da su
neke od njih vrlo frekventne u bosanskom jeziku, kao aktuelni nazivi pojedinih objekata
(bezistan), dok su druge karakteristične za jezik književnosti (đulistan) i ekspresivan način
izražavanja (mezaristan). Arhaična je leksema kabristan.
2.8. Sufiks -vān/-van
5
�Ovaj je sufiks izveden od perzijskogsufiksa -bān, koji označava vršioca radnje i
nosioca zanimanja, npr. bāġbān – baštovan, pāsbān – policajac. Spominju ga Vajzović (1999:
158) i Pranjković (2002: 17) i za njega navode primjere: baštovan, pehlivan, kojima
Pranjković dodaje i gedžovan (Ibidem). U našem su korpusu dvije imenice izvedene sufiksom
-vān/-van: baštovani sajvan, od kojih prva označava vršioca radnje, a druga, koja je arhaična,
predmet. Što se tiče lekseme pehlivan, smatramo da ona nije izvedena ovim sufiksom budući
da u perzijskom jeziku ona glasi pahlawān– 'heroj, junak; atleta; onaj koji je hrabar, odvažan'
i izvedena je od imenice pahlaw(-ow) – geogr. Partavii i sufiksa -ān.
2.9. Sufiks -zada
Slično sufiksu -nama, ni ovaj sufiks nije zabilježen niti u jednoj od konsultiranih
monografija (Babić 1986, Vajzović 1999, Radić 2001, Klajn 2003), vjerovatno iz istog
razloga kao u prethodnom slučaju – on je u korpusu vrlo malo zastupljen, čak u mnogo
manjoj mjeri u poređenju sa sufiksom -nama. Naime, sufiks -zada se pojavljuje u svega tri
riječi, od kojih su dvije arhaizmi, a osnova im je iz arapskog (haramzada) i turskog
(odžakzada) jezika, ne iz perzijskog. Jedina leksema koja se upotrebljava i danas jest leksema
šeherzada, u čijoj tvorbi učestvuje i osnova i sufiks perzijskog porijekla. Ona se u bosanskom
jeziku upotrebljava kao vlastito ime, a moguće je da je njenoj popularizaciji u funkciji
vlastitog imena doprinijela činjenica da se tako zove junakinja djela 1001 noć. Dakle, i ovaj
sufiks ima perifernu ulogu u savremenom bosanskom jeziku, ali ga svakako uključujemo u
ovo istraživanje formanata perzijskog porijekla u tvorbenom sistemu bosanskog jezika.
Sufiks -zada izveden je od perz. imenice zāde– rođen; dijete, potomak, koja služi za
tvorbu složenica, ali je zbog česte upotrebe dobila i ulogu sufiksa.Uglavnom se upotrebljava
kao dio prezimena, npr. Hasanzāde (Afšār, 1996: 621). Osnovno značenje osobe koja je
rođena, odnosno potomka, utjecalo je i na izvođenje istog tvorbeno-semantičkog značenja
leksema sa ovim sufiksom u bosanskom jeziku.
Na prozodijskom planu, imenice izvedene ovim sufiksom redovno imaju dugouzlazni
akcent na prvom slogu ovog dvosložnog sufiksa.
3. Zaključak
Bosanski je jezik u sufiksalnoj ulozi prihvatio neke samostalne riječi (imenice) iz
perzijskog jezika, koje u tom jeziku mogu služiti za tvorbu složenica, ali zbog česte upotrebe
mogu dobiti i ulogu sufiksa. Takve su imenice: perzijsko kar, koje se u našem jeziku realizira
kao -ćār/-ćer, i perzijsko xāne, nāme i zāde, koji se u našem jeziku realiziraju kao -(h)ana, nama i -zada. Pored njih, zabilježeni su i sufiksi: -stān, -dār/-tār, -dān/-den (od perz. -dān) i vān/-van (od perz. -bān). Jedini sufiks kojim se izvode prilozi je sufiks -ane od perz. -āne. Svi
oni uglavnom su se adaptirali jeziku primaocu, odnosno bosanskom jeziku.
I pored nesumnjive arhaičnosti osnova na koje se dodaju ali i samih sufiksa, njihovo
podrobnije osvjetljavanje predstavlja imperativ za sve koji se bave leksikologijom i tvorbom
riječi bosanskog jezika.
Reference:
6
�Afšār, Ġolāmhoseyn Sadrī; Hakāmī, Nasrūn; Hakāmī Nastaran (1996). Farhang-e
fārsī-ye emrūz (Rječnik savremenog perzijskog jezika). Teheran: Moʼassese-ye Našr-e
kaleme.
Babić, Stjepan (1986). Tvorba riječi u hrvatskom književnom jeziku. Zagreb:
Jugoslavenska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti – Globus.
Ćorić, Božo (2008). Tvorba imenica u srpskom jeziku. Beograd: Društvo za srpski
jezik i književnost Srbije.
Klajn, Ivan (2003). Tvorba reči u savremenom srpskom jeziku. Deo drugi, Sufiksacija i
konverzija. Beograd – Novi Sad: Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva – Institut za srpski
jezik SANU – Matica srpska.
Nikolić, Berislav (1972). „Akcenatske adaptacije stranih reči u savremenom
srpskohrvatskom književnom jeziku”. Književnost i jezik. 2‒3. Str. 133‒135.
Pranjković, Ivo (2002). „Hrvatski i orijentalni jezici”. Zbornik Zagrebačke slavističke
škole. Zagreb: Filozofski fakultet. Str. 16‒28.
Radić, Prvoslav (2001). Turski sufiksi u srpskom jeziku sa osvrtom na stanje u
makedonskom i bugarskom. Beograd: Institut za srpski jezik SANU.
Vajzović, Hanka (1999). Orijentalizmi u književnom djelu: lingvistička analiza.
Sarajevo: Institut za jezik i Orijentalni institut.
i
Vajzović, 1999: 154.
ii
To je kompromisna replika.
Značenja navedenih leksema data su samo za lekseme koje mogu imati dva ili više različitih značenja. Pri
iii
tome, lekseme i njihova tumačenja preuzeti su iz neobjavljenog rječnika riječi perzijskog porijekla u bosanskom
jeziku autorica teksta.
iv
Više o ovome u Radić, 2001: 83.
v
Jedini je izuzetak leksema havadar, o kojoj govorimo u nastavku, u cjelini 2.5.
vi
Najviše je osnova iz arapskog jezika, i to u sljedećim leksemama: haberdar, havadar, haznadar, hisedar,
silahdar, tahsildar, turbedar; iz perzijskog su jezika: čohodar, džeferdar, muhurdar, serdar, a najmanje je
leksema s osnovom iz turskog jezika: bajraktar, sandžaktar.
vii
Parti, istočnoiranski narod, u legendama i pričama opjevan po izuzetnoj hrabrosti, najviše u čuvenom
nacionalnom epu Šahnami.
7
�
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Sufiksi perzijskog porijekla u bosanskom jeziku
Author
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Šehović, Amela
Haverić, Dženita
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
U radu se istražuje zastupljenost sufiksa perzijskog porijekla u bosanskom jeziku, koji su općenito manje proučavani u poređenju s npr. sufiksima turskog porijekla. Želi se ukazati na činjenicu da oni nisu tako malobrojni, kako bi se moglo činiti, ali nisu ni pretjerano frekventni. Među njima, prisutne su i mnoge samostalne riječi iz perzijskog jezika, koje u našem jeziku imaju funkciju sufiksa, poput perzijskog kar, koje se u našem jeziku realizira kao -ćār/-ćer, i perzijskih hane, name i zade, koji se u našem jeziku ostvaruju kao -(h)ana, -nama i -zada. Pored njih, zabilježeni su i sufiksi: -dān/-den, -dār/-tār, -stān i -vān/-van, te sufiks -ane, jedini kojim se izvode prilozi. Cilj rada jeste ukazati i na potrebu njihovog podrobnijeg osvjetljavanja u kontekstu tvorbenog sistema bosanskoga jezika. Ključne riječi: sufiksi, bosanski jezik, perzijski jezik, turski jezik
Publisher
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International Burch University
Date
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2016-03-05
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https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/7321b333cc9b37665b05c4df8b752d1b.pdf
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Pre- service teacher training: motivation, objectives and teaching strategies
Daniela CecicMladinic
Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Abstract:
Trinity College Diploma in TESOL offers a compulsory part of the course titled Unknown
Language Learning Experience. It is an assessed part of the course and it accounts for 20% of
the final mark. Trainees have to write a language journal guided by a semi- structured
questionnaire after observing and participating in four lessons taught in an unknown
language. The main objective of this experience is to introduce teaching methodologies and
activities suitable for total beginners and to show how to write up a lesson plans and do a
contrastive analysis. In 2003 we have organized a course on the island of Gran Canaria
training 24 students from the UK, Australia and Spain. Eleven/twelve years after the
experience, in 2015, we have asked them the very same questions they had to answer back in
2003 in their journals. This action research procedure has proven the validity of the unknown
language experience. The questions we have analysed deal with feeling, motivation, teaching
strategies, objectives and techniques. 100% of them valued the experience as a positive one
and 40% of them stated that they could follow the lesson precisely because only L2 was used.
100% of the trainees said that they have used the same unknown language teaching strategies
since they have considered them as a very useful in language teaching methodology. Due to
the success of the experiment we have done trial experiments from 2011- 2013 at the
University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria with the main aim to implement the Unknown
Language Experience in the core curriculum at the Teacher Training Faculty.
Keywords: L2, TESOL, journal, motivation, ULE
1. Introduction
The current manuscript focuses on the on-going search for an appropriate and eclectic
methodology for the teaching and learning of foreign languages, and, more specifically, on
the practice of reflective teaching and learning as a pedagogical tool for teachers as learners,
in this case for pre-service teachers. Recent investigation projects in the field of foreign
language pedagogy within the research area of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) have
focused on the search for more effective, communicative, student-centred and purposeful
approaches in language learning contexts, as well as greater reflection on the second language
teaching and learning process itself, which has, in consequence, triggered a renewed interest
in teacher and learner beliefs about learning and teaching (e.g. Weimar, 2013; Wright, 2011;
Pollard and Collins, 2005; Stronge, 2002). There is little doubt that a learner’s interpretations
and conceptualizations influence their learning achievements, and this is a premise that will
form the basis of the current study revolving around the pedagogical practice of reflecting on
learning and teaching. Sometimes students’ beliefs do not coincide with those of their
teachers, creating dissatisfaction and lack of interest on both sides and, frequently, these ideas
�are very difficult to change, since these predetermined conceptions as well as misconceptions
mostly consist of both good and bad previous language learning experiences.
Therefore, initial teacher training in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Methodology
might be the perfect opportunity to start developing critical reflection upon successful or
ineffective teaching practice, and it might even be more effective if pre-service teachers
could participate in a foreign language learning context as reflective and critical learners
themselves, in which they can experience those processes or feelings their own future
students might undergo in their own future teaching contexts. In consequence, we propose
that teacher trainees should begin to master their reflective and critical skills during their
initial training in order to further support their on-going professional learning and
development.
2. Literature review
A great number of us have experienced the mismatches highlighted by Van Manen (1995) as
novice instructors and this feeling can, in fact, hamper pre-service teachers because of their
lack of the awareness of the crucial role of reflection in combination with their limited
knowledge about the learning/teaching process. As a response to this, this manuscript aims to
prove the value for trainee teachers of understanding the way Foreign Language (FL)
students learn, those methodologies that help these students learn and how we can enable
them to feel at ease when in a formal learning context. Moreover, we consider that guided
reflection during and after pre-service teaching training should form a compulsory part of
official programmes as a means to further enable trainees to become more effective future
language teachers. SLA research findings have furthered our comprehension of learning and
teaching processes, and consequently we are aware that that there are certain methods and
techniques that might seem to encourage learning, but more is needed to help teachers to be
more successful in their daily teaching practice.
Motivation can be said to be a factor of great importance in language learning and teaching
contexts as well as SLA research, and “[...] provides the primary impetus to initiate L2
learning and later the driving force to sustain the long and often tedious learning process”
(Dörnyei, 2002:65). From the multitude of published research into this complex concept
which affects the learning process, we can confirm that motivation is one of the strongest
pillars when learning a second language. Moreover, Dörnyei also states that “factors
underlying motivation can override the aptitude effect on the individual variability in
language learning achievement“(cited in Öz et al.,2015:3). It would seem logical that the
essential aim of SLA research should be to assist teachers in their daily practice in the
classroom by exploring the role of factors affecting learning such as these. Unfortunately, we
might suggest that some SLA investigation does not contribute much towards teaching
practice unless it includes the multiple cognitive and affective factors affecting learning.
3. Methodology
Croatian was chosen as the unknown language in our ULE research project, and this is due to
the fact that it is so different from Spanish and English. It is an Indio-European language and
therefore it shares some minor similarities in grammar and lexis, but none of these elements
(such as words of Greek or Latin origin) were used by the researcher, on purpose, to show
�that you can understand and participate totally in a foreign language classroom if the context
and methodology are the right one.
Content analysis is a research method that uses a set of procedures to make valid inferences
from a text. (Weber:1990) “Two of those procedures are part of our research: code openended question and identify the intention of the communicator.” (1990:9) Our students by
participating in answering questions and by writing a diary about the experience have offered
us a sound material to be analysed qualitatively as well as quantitatively. We have calculated
the percentages of most frequent answers and examined in detail both diary entries and openquestion answers. We have classified the data into fewer categories by taking into account
common traits among answers. According to Weber, these categories or classifications have
to be reliable, consistent and they have to generate variables that are valid above all.
Since our aim was to prove the validity and usefulness of ULE in teacher training
programmes, we have decided that our research design had to be three-fold: qualitative,
quantitative and mixed. Regarding the qualitative data, we have analyzed the diary entries by
means of content analysis procedures, for the collection of quantitative data we have the
adapted Trinity College London Diploma questions, and with regard to the mixed aspect,
triangulation is present since we have addressed the same research questions by means of
both quantitative and qualitative data. We consider that only one type of research design
would have been insufficient and inadequate, for it would have failed to give a full insight
into the learning/teaching processes and the role of reflection. For us, the problem or the issue
was and is mainly qualitative, since it provided richer data in this case and there seems to be
insufficient research about the inclusion of ULE in teacher training, and we have wanted to
show its validity in order to offer a solid grounding for its implementation within Spanish
teacher training programmes, both in graduate and in postgraduate programmes. In our case,
one of the main objectives was to obtain insights into motivation when teaching or learning a
foreign language and the only approach we could use to investigate this phenomenon was a
qualitative one accompanied by a small scale quantitative design for triangulation purposes.
The nature of the design itself belongs to the social research analysis tradition: “Social
research is the systematic analysis of research questions by using empirical methods (e.g. of
asking, observing, analyzing data.) Its aim is to make empirically grounded statements that
can be generalized or to test such statements” (Flick,2015:10.).
4. Data analysis
Our data are going to be presented in the form of graphs and tables. We have used the
‘Microsoft Excel’, spread sheet software to display and analyse the data. In our case, we have
coded the data and used ‘Excel’ spread sheets to create the graphs and tables that are
presented in this study. We have also used content analysis procedures to analyse our diary
data, which is a method used in qualitative research to illustrate the meaning of analysed
texts. Although at the beginning it concentrated mainly on the frequency of certain words
within the given information.
This research period comprises a span of eleven/ twelve years. The first research experiment
was in 2003 and was carried out for the Trinity College of London students with 23 students
in total. They have participated in an absolute-beginner-level lesson of an unknown language
�(Croatian) and apart from that, they took notes, as well as observed themselves and their
peers in a unique experience of witnessing how we learn foreign languages. Thanks to the
social media we have found ten of them who still kept the original diaries and were willing to
answer the very same questions after more than a decade of the original experiment.
5. Results
Question 1: How have you felt? ( 2003 and 2015 respectively)
For these subjects who were participants in the Trinity College of London D¡ploma training
course from the 2003 research period, only positive feelings such as ‘relaxed’, ‘interested’,
and ‘entertained’ can be perceived in their questionnaire responses. It shows us that positive
feelings correspond to the most frequent in both cases, accounting for almost 50%, and
‘amazement’ and ‘fun’, with approximately 12%, were the same given answers. Once again
in the responses to the same questions obtained from the same subjects in 2015, we have only
positive feelings expressed in the following terms: ‘best part of the course’, ‘very useful’ and
‘memorable’.
�Question 2 :What methods, strategies, activities and teaching techniques were used by the
teacher to help you to make sense?
Here, we can encounter surprising positive responses to this question: the most popular was
‘because you have used only L2 (40%), which was followed by visual aids (35%). The same
responses were offered eleven or twelve years after the original ULE: ‘visual aspects’ (35%)
and ‘body language’ and ‘mime’ represent approximately 20%. In 2015, 40% answered ‘use
of L2’ and the other 60% account for ‘visuals’ and ‘concept checking’.
Question 3: Will you be able to apply any strategies to your own teaching?
In this case, the results are exactly the same as the ones obtained in 2015 as 100% of the
subjects answered ‘yes’ to this question.
Question 4:What do you remember now/ what did you learn?
‘Communication’ and ‘vocabulary’ account for 68% of the given answers in 2003 and it
shows that ‘vocabulary’ and ‘expressions to communicate’ were the most common answers
(between 26% and 42%) in 2014/15. Moreover, 91% state ‘basic vocabulary’ and
‘expressions’.
�With regard to the qualitative data obtained for this research period, we shall present here a
selection of diary entries that match each question asked and the quantitative data described
above. Content analysis of these above-mentioned contributions has revealed semantic
groups and key words. For example, for the first area of feelings as we have mentioned
before, only positive feelings were felt by the subjects: ‘confidence’, ‘excited’, ‘keen’,
‘positive reinforcement’, ‘feeling good’ and empathy. For the second questions, we have
found the following categories: ‘pair work’, ‘scaffolding’, encouraging students to talk’,
‘creating a friendly atmosphere’, ‘the power of gestures and ‘visuals’, VAK’, ‘interaction
patterns’ (teacher- student, student- student), ‘paralinguistics’ and ‘multiple intelligences’.
Some of these former diploma students remember more what they learnt, and other remember
more why they have learnt it. One of them mentions Vygogtsky and his ZPD. The concept of
ZDP is crucial in any learning process and it is related to scaffolding, mainly as it shows how
to be effective teachers. It involves encouragement provided by the teacher, who gradually
lets their students perform more independently.
6. Discussion
We have found out that some students felt uncomfortable at the beginning of the ULE
process, but thanks to encouragement and appropriate teaching strategies they have overcome
those initial negative feelings, as their own future learners might be able to do. Moreover,
being in your learners’ shoes is an unparalleled experience that cannot be replaced by reading
or listening about strategies or techniques that really work. They have reflected upon the
learning process itself on a metacognitive level, and offered some very valid answers to the
questions posed. In addition, they believe that the Communicative Approach is an appropriate
method for learning languages, since it caters for the innate human need to communicate and
to be a member of a group or community. It promotes real contexts and interpersonal or
discoursal features, so it is not surprising that students prefer or benefit most from this kind of
teaching.
The sample diary contributions and open- ended questionnaire answers we have selected once
again confirm the importance of triangulation between quantitative and qualitative data since
when analysing quantitative data; we cannot obtain a full insight into the complex process of
learning languages. In this case, these students mention scaffolding (keep it simple and get
the basics taught first.), learning styles (VAK), and a highly important strategy that any
teacher should use with their students since it ensures solid and sequential progress from
using simple words to complex sentences. This phenomenon is connected to the way we learn
our L1. Additionally, knowing our own learning styles can be beneficial, not only for
language learning but for learning in general. Nowadays, we cannot imagine any lesson
preparation or discussion of competences if we do not mention Gardner. His Multiple
Intelligences theory shows us that all of us are different in the way we approach tasks and
learning, so in class we should cater for all these different kinds of intelligences, ensuring that
our students do learn and, even more importantly, learn to learn more effectively.
7. Conclusions
�The Unknown Language Experience (ULE) seems to be a unique opportunity to develop
reflective criticism towards ones’ own learning and teaching processes. If future teachers
become accustomed to using reflection thanks to the inclusion of reflective practice offered
by participating in a ULE as part of their training, then it is highly probable that they are
going to continue doing it in the future. This experiment should enable them to construct their
own meanings and to determine their level of reflective engagement, and these findings are
going to influence their future teaching and pedagogical abilities. Moreover, this experience
should help them to make appropriate decisions in the classroom and to develop the practice
of critical thinking as well as the active, on-going habit of reflection. According to Ellis,
teacher´s cognition influences highly the way they act, since they hold their own theories
about how to learn languages, but sometimes these beliefs come into conflict with something
that Woods (cited in Ellis, 2012: 12) has called ‘hotspots´.
Due to their participation in the unknown language learning experiment, future teachers have
the opportunity to train their own abilities to assess concepts and (mis)conceptions about
learning and teaching. Reflective thinking is essential for any teacher, no matter the level of
their experience, because if teachers reflect upon the foreign language learning and teaching
process, then they can take control and make decisions which will affect the success of their
own teaching practice. As a result, teachers should become more skilled or able professionals,
and even act as change agents in the educational system.
References:
Dörnyei, Z. (2002). An Introduction to Applied Linguistics, London: Arnold
Ellis, R. (2012). Language Teaching Research and Language Pedagogy. New Jersey, NJ:
John Wiley & Sons.
Flick, U. (2015). Qualitative Inquiry—2.0 At 20? Developments, Trends, and Challenges for
the Politics of Research. Qualitative Inquiry, DOI: 1077800415583296, Retrieved from:
http://qix.sagepub.com/content/21/7/599, last accessed on 30th October 2015.
Öz, H., Demirezen, M., &Pourfeiz, J. (2015). Willingness to Communicate of EFL Learners
in Turkish Context. Learning and Individual Differences, 269–275. doi:
10.1016/j.lindif.2014.12.009, last accessed on 02nd November 2015.
Pollard, A. & Collins, J., (2005). Reflective Teaching: Evidence-Informed Professional
Practice. New York, NY: Continuum Intl Pub Group.
Stronge, J.H. (2002). Qualities of Effective Teachers. Alexandria, VA: Association for
Supervision & Curriculum Development.
Van Manen, M. (1995). On the Epistemology of Reflective Practice. Teachers And Teaching:
Theory and Practice, 1(1), 33-50. DOI: 10.1080/1354060950010104, last accessed on 18th
September 2015.
Weber, R. P. (Ed.). (1990). Basic Content Analysis (No. 49). London: Sage.
Weimer, M. (2013). Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Wright, G. (2011). Student-Centered Learning in Higher Education. International Journal of
Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 23(3), 92-97. Retrieved from:
http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE834.pdf, last accessed on 02nd November 2015.
��
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Title
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Pre-service teacher training: motivation, objectives and teaching strategies
Author
Author
Cecic Mladinic, Daniela
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Trinity College Diploma in TESOL offers a compulsory part of the course titled Unknown Language Learning Experience. It is an assessed part of the course and it accounts for 20% of the final mark. Trainees have to write a language journal guided by a semi- structured questionnaire after observing and participating in four lessons taught in an unknown language. The main objective of this experience is to introduce teaching methodologies and activities suitable for total beginners and to show how to write up a lesson plans and do a contrastive analysis. In 2003 we have organized a course on the island of Gran Canaria training 24 students from the UK, Australia and Spain. Eleven/twelve years after the experience, in 2015, we have asked them the very same questions they had to answer back in 2003 in their journals. This action research procedure has proven the validity of the unknown language experience. The questions we have analysed deal with feeling, motivation, teaching strategies, objectives and techniques. 100% of them valued the experience as a positive one and 40% of them stated that they could follow the lesson precisely because only L2 was used. 100% of the trainees said that they have used the same unknown language teaching strategies since they have considered them as a very useful in language teaching methodology. Due to the success of the experiment we have done trial experiments from 2011- 2013 at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria with the main aim to implement the Unknown Language Experience in the core curriculum at the Teacher Training Faculty. Keywords: L2, TESOL, journal, motivation, ULE
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
International Burch University
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-03-08
Keywords
Keywords.
Article
PeerReviewed
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Designing teaching materials – necessity or luxury?
Dragana Gak & Dubravka Pleše
University of Novi Sad, Serbia and University of Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract:
This paper examines designing language teaching materials as an integral segment of
language courses taught at tertiary level. Firstly, it defines teaching materials and considers
them both as anything that can be used to facilitate the language learning and as authentic
materials specially designed for development of specific skills. Secondly, it discusses reasons
for designing materials as supplement to the materials teachers are provided with. Thirdly,
the authors attempt to present the advantages of the process of producing materials. Material
designing enables teachers to have a control over selection of topic, situations, functions and
skills to be developed. Moreover, it takes into account particular learning environment,
students’ learning needs and their learning experiences, cross-cultural issues and their
influence on development of students’ communication competence.
This is followed by a comparison of experiences in material designing at two faculties,
Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb, and Faculty of
Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad. The language teaching material development
starts at both faculties with identification of the main requirements set by the departments and
the detailed needs analysis of students’ needs which is the foundation of all language courses
preparing students for using language in working environment. This initial stage helps
teachers to select the textbooks and decide on additional material they need. Although
material designing contributes greatly to the relevancy and productivity of language courses,
it goes together with numerous obstacles ranging from technological to financial ones. To
conclude the authors will elaborate on actual examples of materials produced for the courses
they teach.
Keywords: language teaching, materials, design, textbooks, development.
1. Introduction
As the globalization of trade and economy intensifies, English for Specific Purposes
is becoming ever more popular the world over. However, this increase in awarenss regarding
the importance of ESP is set against another tradition, that of the ‘Use of English’ type
courses. Also, as ESP teachers, we are all faced with students with different knowledge levels
and we are expected to cater to their needs as well. Therefore, contents of a tertiary level
English Language course are the subject of some contention.
2. ESP
Since ESP has been around for quite a long time (from the early 1960's), one would
expect the ESP community to have a clear idea about what ESP actually should be. But, that
isn’t so.
�Some describe ESP as simply being the teaching of English for any purpose that could be
specified. Others, however, describe it more precisely as the teaching of English used in
academic studies, or the teaching of English for vocational or professional purposes.
According to Dudley-Evans (1998), ESP can be described as having some absolute and some
variable characteristics:
Absolute Characteristics:
1. ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners,
2. ESP is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar, lexis,
register,
3. ESP uses the underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves.
Variable Characteristics:
1. ESP is usually designed for adult learners,
2. ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students,
3. ESP may use a different methodology from that of General English,
4. Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language systems,
5. ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines.
From this, a logical question arises: 'What is the difference between the ESP and 'General
English' approach?' Hutchinson et al. (1987:53) answer the question: "in theory nothing, in
practice a great deal". At the end of the 20th century, this statement was true and 'General
English' teachers recognized that students had a specific purpose for studying English. Still,
only rarely would a needs analysis be conducted to find out what was necessary to actually
achieve their goals. Today, however, teachers are much more aware of the importance of
needs analysis. Also, the quality and content of teaching materials improved dramatically,
allowing the teacher to select materials which will best satisfy the needs of the students.
Teaching langages at tertiary level is no simple task for a general English teacher. A great
majority of ESP teachers are in no way professionally related to the discipline they teach, so
they are first obliged to familiarize themselves with a whole new set of phrases, terms and
vocabulary. Many ESP teachers readily accept the available textbooks, which might not suit
their purpose fully. If there are no textbooks available for a particular discipline, some ESP
teachers decide to use textbooks, which may be unsuitable for their students.
Dudley-Evans describes the roles a true ESP teacher (Swales, 1998) needs to perform. These
are:
1) ESP Teacher,
2) Collaborator,
3) Course designer and materials provider,
4) Researcher and
5) Evaluator.
The first role as 'ESP teacher' is synonymous with that of the 'General English' teacher. In
order to meet the specific needs of the learners, the ESP teacher must work closely with field
specialists. This collaboration, however, does not have to end at the development stage and
can extend as far as team teaching (Johns et al. (1988)).
Both 'General English' and ESP teachers are often required to design courses and provide
materials. Hutchinson et al. (1987) support materials that cover a wide range of fields,
�arguing that the grammatical structures and strategies of different disciplines are identical.
More recent research, however, has shown that this is not so. Many ESP practitioners are
therefore left with no alternative than to develop original materials.
The process of materials’ design enables teachers to have control over topics selection,
functions and skills to be developed. It also takes into account students’ learning needs and
learning experiences and addresses cross-cultural issues and communication compentence.
As far as the disadvantages are concerned, the whole process is time-consuming, mentally
and physically taxing and the results are quite uncertain. The materials designing teacher is
also at mercy of his/her colleagues and frequently left to his/her own devices.
3. Authentic teaching materials
Most language teachers recognize the value of using authentic materials. There are
two major applications of authentic materials: developing learners' language skills and
helping learners apply these skills in various activities in the outside world. Since ESP is
finaly differentiated from the general English teaching, new resources, discipline specific
texts and other teaching materials have become neccessary. Thus, teachers today are expected
to design and develop their own in-house materials that can cater to the specific needs of the
students. This is a complicated and complex task although it is, at the same time, interesting,
creative and very satisfying.
Teachers are expected to handle many different tasks in the process of creating materials:
conduct needs analysis, formulate goals and objectives, find input materials, or create
activities. There are different methods of developing new teaching resources. Tomlinson
(2003) reports that many of them describe processes which are ad hoc and spontaneous and
rely on an intuitive feel for activities which are likely to “work”.
The process of the development of any EAP course usually starts with the needs analysis,
defined by Hyland (2006, p. 73) as “the techniques for collecting and assessing information
relevant to course design: it is the means of establishing the how and what of a course”. These
techniques can involve surveying students about their goals and backgrounds; consulting
faculty about course requirements and academic tasks; collecting and analysing students’
assignments as well as authentic target texts and so on (Hyland, 2006, p. 78). Learning needs
should also be considered when creating materials. The emphasis, to use Hutchinson and
Waters’s (1987) words, should be on “what the learner needs to do in order to learn”. In other
words, it is essential that materials writers consider the findings of learning research, decide
which of its findings are most relevant and applicable to particular contexts, and then develop
a set of criteria and use them as a basis for developing context-specific materials. This,
according to Tomlinson (2003), can help materials designers clarify their own principles of
language learning and teaching and create more effective and efficient materials.
4. Authentic materials in English for specific purposes
Authentic texts have been defined as “…real-life texts, not written for pedagogic
purposes” (Wallace, 1992). They were written for native speakers and contain “real”
language. The sources of authentic materials used in the classroom are infinite, but the most
common are newspapers, magazines, movies, songs and literature. One of the most useful is
the Internet. Newspapers and any other printed material date very quickly, but the Internet is
�continuously updated, more visually stimulating, interactive and promotes a more active
approach to reading. One of the main ideas of using authentic materials in the classroom is to
“expose” the learner to as much real language as possible. It has been said that by taking a
text out of its original context, it loses it authenticity:
“As soon as texts, whatever their original purpose, are brought into classrooms for
pedagogic purposes they have, arguably, lost authenticity.” (Wallace, 1992)
Even if this is true, the learner is still exposed to real discourse and not the artificial language
of course textbooks, which tend not to contain any incidental or improper examples. They
also produce a sense of achievement. Extracting real information from a real text in a
new/different language can be extremely motivating, therefore increasing students'
motivation for learning by exposing them to 'real' language (Guariento and Morley, 2001).
Such texts also reflect the changes in language use, as well as giving the learner the proof that
the language is real and not only studied in the classroom:
“Authentic texts can be motivating because they are proof that the language is used for reallife purposes by real people.” (Nuttall 1996:172)
One of the aims of authentic materials is to help the student react in the same way L1
speakers react in their first language (L1). The main advantages of using authentic materials
in the classroom therefore include:
- having a positive effect on student motivation;
- giving authentic cultural information;
- exposing students to real language;
- relating more closely to students’ needs;
- supporting a more creative approach to teaching.
The negative aspects of authentic materials are that they can be too culturally biased, often a
good knowledge of cultural background is required. Also, many structures are mixed, causing
lower levels problems when decoding the texts (Martinez 2002).
The use of authentic materials is recommended at advanced levels and with students dealing
with materials from their subject areas (Day & Bamford, 1998; Jordan, 1997; Singhal, 2006).
This is because authentic materials relate more closely to students’ specific needs, exposing
them to “the target language as it is used by the community, which speaks it” (Guariento &
Morley, 2001, p. 347).
5. Needs analysis – central for teaching material designing
According to Brindley (1989), needs do not have of themselves an objective reality
rather, what is finally established as a “need” is a matter of agreement and judgment not
discovery (Lawson, 1979). The needs established for a particular group of students will be an
outcome of a needs analysis project and the perspective of the definition of needs. In order to
conduct a reliable needs analysis, ‘a triangulation of questionnaires, informal discussions
with learners and other lecturers, interviews with ex-students and lecturers, and observation
of former students‘ actual workplace experiences is conducted before the course‘ (Gao,
2007). Learner performance and assignments are appraised during the course and tests results
are analyzed after the course. This amalgamation of pre-course, mid-course and post-course
analyses helps the teacher understand what the students are like at the start, middle and end of
�the course. The combined feedback then serves to inform the teacher as to how the course
should be improved or revised.
6. Comparison of experiences
1. Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering
Coming to the Faculty some13 years ago, the only textbook that was available to me
was from 1972, and although interesting and good at giving basic information about the three
professions, it was completely outdated regarding new methods and techniques. In the
beginning, I made do with texts I downloaded from the Internet, adapted or paraphrased from
various other textbooks, professional articles and other sources. I conducted a sort of needs
analysis, going from one teacher to another and interviewing them about the topics they
viewed as necessary to be covered by my English class. Getting the materials, which could
help in the writing of the textbook, was the next difficult step. Most publishers of
professional and scientific papers, which were supposed to form the basis of the textbook, do
not allow free access to their databases but charge for the downloading of the papers they
publish. Luckily, some of my colleagues were very forthcoming and allowed me to use the
materials they themselves purchased. The writing itself lasted for almost a year and when the
textbooks were finally completed, I asked several colleagues, experts in their fields, to take a
close look at the books and provide feedback. Then the books were tested on two generations
of students who provided additional and invaluable feedback. Only then were the books
presented to the Faculty’s scientific committee for evaluation. The whole process lasted for
more than four years.
2. Faculty of Technical Sciences
The Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad consists of 13 different departments,
each deciding individually on the type of the English courses and the number of classes per
week. Depending on the department, students may have one to nine semesters of English
during their academic studies, which, in itself presents a foreign language teacher with a huge
problem when deciding on the amount and content of materials his/her students are going to
deal with per semester. Also, the Faculty caters to various scientific fields (power
engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, traffic engineering, architecture), all
demanding different kinds of topics and materials. Such diversity poses quite a challenge for
the teachers of English at the Faculty.
However, one of the main challenges is the question of appropriate textbooks and teaching
materials. This is the issue, which has been left to individual teachers to resolve. Different
teachers tackle the problem differently - some use what materals are available or what they
inherited from the previous teachers, others try to design their own courses and write their
own teaching materials and textbooks. Still, the majority combine parts of the existing ESP
textbooks with the teaching materials designed for specific groups of students in accordance
with the future jobs for which the students are preparing.
7. Conclusion
The design of teaching materials is quite a rewarding, satisfying and enlightening
experience but, at the same time a difficult and long-lasting task, demanding in-depth
�knowledge of both the English language and the scientific field for which the materals are
beign designed. It also presupposes the familiarity with basic pedagogical and methodical
principles as well as a good deal of patience and interpersonal and “people skills”, since
collaboration with colleagues is the key to obtaining valid needs analysis results and
materials needed for the writing of the materials. The process itself should follow several predetermined steps and take into accout numerous variables. The materials produced should be
examined and checked by experts in the ESP field for which they were designed before they
are tested on students to avoid possible mistakes. The next step is to try them out on several
generations of students and geet their feedback because only such feedback provides the
opportunity to make necessary changes and adjustments, leading to better and more
appropriate teaching materials.
References:
[1] Brindley, G. P. (1989). The role of needs analysis in adult ESL programme design. In R.
K. Johnson (Ed.), The Second Language Curriculum. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
[2] Day, R., & Bamford, J. (1998). Extensive reading in the second language classroom.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[3] Dudley-Evans, Tony (1998). Developments in English for Specific Purposes: A multidisciplinary approach. Cambridge University Press.
[4] Gao, J. (2007). Designing an ESP course for Chinese University Students of Business.
The Asian ESP Journal, 3(1), 97-106.
[5] Guariento, W. & Morley, J. (2001) Text and Task Authenticity in the EFL Classroom in
ELT Journal 55(4), pp 347-353
[6] Hutchison, T., & Waters, A. (1987). English for Specific Purposes: A learner-centered
approach. Cambridge University Press.
[7] Hutchison, T., Waters, A., & Breen, M. P. (1979). An English language curriculum for
technical students. Unpublished manuscript, Lancaster.
[8] Hyland, K. (2006). English for academic purposes: An advanced resource book. London
and New York: Routledge.
[9] Johns, T. F. & Dudley-Evans, T. (1988). An experiment in team teaching overseas
postgraduate students of transportation and plant biology. In J. Swales (Ed.), Episodes in
ESP. Prentice Hall.
[10] Jordan, R. R. (1997). English for academic purposes: A guide and resource for teachers.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[11] Lawson, K. H. (1979). Philosophical Concepts and Values in Adult Education. Milton
Keynes: Open University Press.
[12] Martinez, A.G. (2002) Authentic Materials: An Overview on Karen's Linguistic Issues,
Retrieved from: http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/authenticmaterials.html
[13] Nuttall, C. (1996) Teaching Reading Skills in a foreign language (New Edition) Oxford,
Heinemann
�[14] Singhal, M. (2006). Teaching reading to adult second language learners: Theoretical
foundations, pedagogical applications, and current issues. SA: The Reading Matrix.
[15] Swales, J. (1988). Episodes in ESP. Prentice Hall.
[16] Swales, J. (1998). Other floors, other voices: A textography of a small university
building. Mahwah, NL: Erlbaum.
[17] Tomlinson, B. (2003). Developing materials for language teaching. London:
Continuum.
[18] Wallace, C. (1992) Reading Oxford, O.U.P.
�
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Designing teaching materials – necessity or luxury?
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Gak, Dragana
Pleše, Dubravka
Abstract
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This paper examines designing language teaching materials as an integral segment of language courses taught at tertiary level. Firstly, it defines teaching materials and considers them both as anything that can be used to facilitate the language learning and as authentic materials specially designed for development of specific skills. Secondly, it discusses reasons for designing materials as supplement to the materials teachers are provided with. Thirdly, the authors attempt to present the advantages of the process of producing materials. Material designing enables teachers to have a control over selection of topic, situations, functions and skills to be developed. Moreover, it takes into account particular learning environment, students’ learning needs and their learning experiences, cross-cultural issues and their influence on development of students’ communication competence. This is followed by a comparison of experiences in material designing at two faculties, Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb, and Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad. The language teaching material development starts at both faculties with identification of the main requirements set by the departments and the detailed needs analysis of students’ needs which is the foundation of all language courses preparing students for using language in working environment. This initial stage helps teachers to select the textbooks and decide on additional material they need. Although material designing contributes greatly to the relevancy and productivity of language courses, it goes together with numerous obstacles ranging from technological to financial ones. To conclude the authors will elaborate on actual examples of materials produced for the courses they teach. Keywords: language teaching, materials, design, textbooks, development.
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The meaning and use of phrasal verbs at C1 level
Djukica Mirkovic
Slobomir P. University, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract:
Despite the fact that phrasal verbs are used in everyday English, foreign learners avoid learning
and using them for their complexity and impossibility to understand the meaning of a phrasal
verb from its separate parts (a verb itself and a particle separately). As a result of that many
learners at C1 level, although being fluent speakers, experience various difficulties using them.
The focus of the paper is placed on the meaning and the use of phrasal verbs and the difficulties
which students find at C1 level of the English language. The analysis in this paper is based on
the phrasal verbs used in the book “Objective CAE” (O`Dell & Broadhead, 2008, Cambridge
University Press).
In this paper we are also interested in finding out why it is so difficult to understand
and use phrasal verbs, the interaction between their meaning and understanding considering
their polysemоus features. The results of this analysis may be useful for all ESL teachers to
help them understand the difficulties their students face when dealing with phrasal verbs,
especially at C1 level. Furthermore, it can be a valuable source for teachers how to introduce
the phrasal verbs to their students and thus help them master phrasal verbs in both spoken and
written discourse.
Keywords: phrasal verb, meaning, use, difficulty, English.
1.
Introduction - What are phrasal verbs and why are they important?
Phrasal verbs are verbs that, unlike ordinary verbs in English, are accompanied by
particular particles, and as such, they function as a whole. The original and primary meaning
of the verb in such use varies, depending on the particle and the number of particles after the
verb. Phrasal verbs are common in informal spoken or written registers (e.g. find out –
discover) (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1996).
Many phrasal verbs can be replaced with another word with the little or no change in
meaning. Mostly, the use of a phrasal verb is less formal, more colloquial and more emotionally
coloured than a word that replaces it. Phrasal verbs are combined with a particle or two (e.g.
come up; come up with) which can be a preposition or an adverb (Thornbury, 2006; Cowan,
2008; McCarthy et al., 2010).
Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1996:434) suggest that native speakers prefer
phrasal verbs over single-verb Latinate counterparts, perhaps because they are simpler and
more “natural” in informal registers. However, each phrasal verb might have a one-word equivalent
�that can possibly help learners, especially those whose languages (e.g. Romance languages) do
not use phrasal verbs.
2.
Grammar of Phrasal Verbs
A phrasal verb is composed of two elements: a verbal element and a particle. A phrasal
verb is the combination of a standard verb such as make or put with one or two particles. The
two main categories of multi-verb verbs consist of a lexical verb plus a particle, a neutral
designation for the overlapping categories of adverb and preposition that are used in such
combinations (R. Quirk: 336). In phrasal verbs a particle is an adverb (eg: put out, set up),
whereas in prepositional verbs a particle is a preposition (eg: depend on, deal with) (R. Quirk:
336). However, there are phrasal-prepositional verbs; verbs with two particles, an adverb
followed by a preposition (eg: put up with, take up on).
2.1.
Transitivity and Intransitivity of Phrasal Verbs
Some phrasal verbs require an object (transitive verbs); others do not take an object
(intransitive).
I was on a crowded bus and by accident bumped into my ex-boyfriend.
Some verbs can be used both with and without an object, but we must be careful about
the meaning, it may change.
The plane had taken off before we came to the airport.
In our culture you should take off your shoes before you enter a house.
Furthermore, some verbs must have two objects. In this case one object comes after the
verb and one after the particle.
I usually associate that concert with my childhood.
Intransitive phrasal verb consists of a verb and an adverb particle and it does not have
an object (O`Dell & Broadhead, 2008:204):
She was brought up in a nice family.
He has just walked out.
Do bad children always get by?
2.2.
Position of the Object
The most important thing to learn about grammar of phrasal verbs is where to place the
object. Should it go before or after the particle? What happens when there are two particles?
�And what happens if the object is a pronoun? The particle can generally either precede or follow
the direct object as below:
She switched off the light.
She switched the light off.
In these two examples above the object is a noun phrase.
If the object is very long, then it usually comes after the particle.
She put away all the unnecessary thing including equipment for sport.
However, if the object is a personal pronoun it must come between the verb and its particle (R.
Quirk: 337).
I`ll plug it in as soon as I enter the room. (Not: I`ll plug in it as soon as I enter the
room.)
3.
The Difficulty of Phrasal Verbs – Analysis of the Phrasal Verbs at C1 Level
Phrasal verbs are one of the most difficult aspects for learners of the English Language.
There are four main reasons for this:
1. In many cases the meaning of the phrasal verb cannot be recognized from its elements,
i.e., it is being used idiomatically.
2. Many phrasal verbs are polysemous; i.e., they have more than one meaning. Many
multi-word verbs carry more than one meaning (McCarthy & O`Dell, 2007:18).
3. There are difficulties with the grammar of phrasal verbs, particularly with the position
of the particles.
4. Three components verbs are often difficult to understand. Such phrasal verb consists of
a verb and two particles. In this situation the object comes last (McCarthy & O`Dell, 2007:8).
Table 1
Phrasal
Verb
1
run over
2
brush
sth/sb off
Example
Definition of the Phrasal
Verb
I ran over a dog on my way home.
Hit sth/sb with a moving
vehicle and injure or kill
them
The lecture ran over so I missed 5.45 train.
Go on after its expected
time
I suggest that we run over the schedule again Read quickly to make
to make sure it`s not going to fail.
sure something is correct
She brushed off the mud from her bag.
Use a brush to remove
something
�The teacher brushed him off and told him to
get back to the test.
She usually warms up the meal when she
gets home.
The tennis player warmed up the spectators
before the match started.
3
warm up
4
fall in
The girl fell into the hole while she was
riding her bike.
She fell into a conversation with a man at the
bar.
5
put on
I decided to put on my best clothes.
Refuse to listen to what
someone says
To heat food that has
already been cooked
To make a group of
people who are going to
see a performance start to
enjoy themselves by
entertaining them for a
short time before the
performance
To accidentally arrive in
a hole
To start doing something,
often without intending
to
To get dressed
To increase in weight
10
come out
with
go in for
My mother put on a lot of weight over
Christmas.
I wanted to go out for a walk but the weather
put me off.
John put off going on holiday for another
month.
Unfortunately she leaned against the horn and
it let off such a noise that her parents were
alerted.
They were so relieved to stop the elopement
that they let them off with a stern warning.
Maria escaped secretly from her bedroom by
letting down a long ladder from the window.
Tom was waiting at their appointed meeting
and she did not want to let him down.
She’s always coming out with the most
outrageous things.
I don’t go in for team sports
11
get up to
What have you been getting up to lately?
To do
12
put up
with
put down
I can’t put up with his rudeness any moreЖ
To tolerate
She put the baby down.
To stop holding sth
6
7
8
9
13
put off
let off
let down
To discourage
To postpone
To drop, release
To make not subject to
punishment or action
To lower
To disappoint
say
like
�put down
put down
put down
14
15
go/come
down
with
turn
down
The police put down the riots with
unnecessary brutality.
The student put her bad grade down to
tiredness. √
To stop sth by force
To think that a problem
or situation is caused by
a particular thing
The student put down her bad grade to
tiredness. ×
Sorry, I won’t be at work today. I think I’ve
come down with the flu.
To fall sick
Jack turned down the radio.
18
He turned her down.
tick
The teacher ticked the names of the students
who had completed the task.
tick off
The teacher ticked off the student for being
late with the project.
cope with How do you cope with stress?
√
How do you cope with it?
×
get
I need to get a battery for my camera.
19
get
together
drop off
16
17
20
21
get on
with
put out
To reduce the noise, heat,
etc. produced by a piece
of equipment by moving
its controls
reject
To make a checkmark
To express disapproval
To manage
To obtain, receive
Why don`t we all get together for dinner?
To meet
The taxi driver dropped us off at the airport.
To be driven somewhere
and left there
To fall asleep
Lying on the ground, the little girl dropped
off.
I get on with all the children in my class.
He put the light out.
Don’t put yourself out!
Don’t put out yourself.
To have a good
relationship
To extinguish, turn off
√ Doing something
× inconvenient in order to
help someone else
The table above shows examples of phrasal verbs from the book “Objective CAE”
(O`Dell F. 2008, Cambridge University Press). Next to each phrasal verb there is a sentence
as an example and definition. Phrasal Verbs under 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 15 and 19 are mostly
transitive (19 is intransitive) and they have multiple meanings, which is likely to confuse or
�frustrate learners, particularly high-level students. 9, 10, 11, 12 and 14 examples of phrasal
verbs refer to the fourth reason for their difficulty – three component verbs. The learner hears
a string of words, each of which they know very well, but which in combination do not make
any sense. The Phrasal Verbs next to numbers 13 and 21 are special in terms of two difficult
reasons for understanding - polysemous feature and position of the object. Learners can be
confused about the position of the object. 16 ad 18 examples refer to the first reason for the
difficulty – their idiomatic meaning. A learner who knows the meaning of these two ordinary
verbs (16 and 18) may have difficulty in understanding the sentences with phrasal verbs with
their idiomatic meaning. Learners should always be focused on the context to decide if the verb
has a different meaning from the one they are familiar with. Phrasal Verb 17 is the only example
which reflects just the problem of the position of the object, considering the fact that personal
pronoun must come before the particle. In the English language there are some verbs
(sometimes called prepositional verbs) that must have the object after the particle, even if it is
a pronoun. It is an exception.
4.
Pedagogical Implications of the Analysis
The analysis of the verbs has proved that there can be some logic employed in order to
demystify the concept of phrasal verbs in both teaching and learning. On the basis of my
knowledge gained from this analysis, I introduced certain changes in the teaching practice of
the phrasal verbs at C1 in my classroom. I realize that if the students are introduced with the
four difficulties framework and taught how certain grammatical and lexical features of phrasal
verbs influence their understanding, the process of their acquisition can be easier. I have made
certain changes in the way how I teach them and how I organize the tasks.
Concerning teaching aspect, I stopped viewing phrasal verbs as a separate unit in the
text in the textbook. I have made a worksheet that exemplifies these four difficulties and also
a list of all of them in the book. The list is given to the students at the beginning of the course,
to be glued at the back of the notebook. So, I use the provided list as a supplementary material
for students and I refer to it every time when we come across a new phrasal verb during the
progress of the course.
The list can be used as the means to organize tasks that urge the students to use phrasal
verbs in the context and engage them in the process of learning:
Task 1: All the students can be asked to provide the examples with all the meanings offered for
each phrasal verb from their life and write them down in the table or on a separate sheet of
paper.
Task 2: They can be used for speaking or writing tasks (to make a story or to tell a story). This
particular task can be raised to a higher level in groups or pairs to make or write the story with
chosen phrasal verbs but to give to each group/pair a different meaning of the chosen phrasal
verbs. By doing that they can see how different meaning of phrasal verbs influence the course
�of the story and they analyze and comment on that. This activity involves higher levels of
thinking skills that would eventually contribute to the higher level of retention of these phrasal
verbs, especially because the students provide the context for them by themselves.
Task 3: One of common demands at C1 level is to transfer formal texts into informal. Informal
texts frequently contain a number of phrasal verbs. An additional list can be made for all of
these phrasal verbs with their formal/academic counterparts. On the basis of this list tasks can
be designed to engage students in producing sentences or texts where they could practice these
phrasal verbs in formal and informal context. For example, the story they created in the Task
2 can be turned into a newspaper article or some other more formal form.
There are other methods proposed by some other authors that dealt with the difficulties
concerning the teaching and learning of phrasal verbs. At lower levels teachers can mime
phrasal verbs so that students guess or understand their meanings more easily. For students at
higher levels, brainstorming synonyms might be a good extension to the activity on acquiring
of phrasal verbs. Students with prominent visual intelligence may have an advantage of
learning to associate actions with specified phrasal verbs. According to Celce-Murcia and
Larsen-Freeman (1996:437), each time a new phrasal verb is introduced or discovered, it
should be written up on a large sheet of paper posted to a wall in the classroom. The learners
label a new phrasal verb appropriately for its separability and transitivity. If possible, the
picture representing the meaning can be pasted. A one-word synonym can also be written next
to the phrasal verb, and where appropriate learners can label the register used. Finally, the
learners should write at least one or two example sentences using the new phrasal verb
5. Conclusion
English is known for its use of many phrasal verbs which is why it is important to learn
them thoroughly. Phrasal verbs are very common in English. Students who are learning English
as a second language with the aim of gaining their Certificate in Advanced English need to
give a great deal of attention to phrasal verbs. It is no easy task. But using a phrasal verb
correctly is not only a matter of knowing its meaning; the learner also has to learn its grammar.
Although phrasal verbs can undoubtedly cause problems for learners, in each context the form
is similar, but the meaning changes. The particular meaning of the phrasal verb often
determines the order of its component parts in a sentence. There are no rules that might explain
how phrasal verbs are formed correctly - all you can do is look them up in a good dictionary
and study their meanings.
References:
Celce-Murcia, M., Larsen-Freeman, D (1996). The Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL Teacher`s
Course, Second Edition. Heinle&heinle Publishers.
�Cowan, R. (2008). The Teacher`s Grammar of English: A Course Book and Reference Guide.
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
McCarthy, M, O`Dell, F, (2004). English Phrasal Verbs in use. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
Quirk, R. et. al. (1985) A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London and New
York: Longman.
Thornbury, S. (2006). An A-Z of ELT. Macmillan
Dictionaries:
Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs. (1997). London-Glasgow, HarperCollins
Publishers.
Longman Phrasal Verbs. (2009). Longman
Oxford Phrasal Verbs Dictionary for learners of English. (2002). Oxford University Press.
The Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs. (2006). Oxford University Press.
�
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Title
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The meaning and use of phrasal verbs at C1 level
Author
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Mirkovic, Djukica
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Despite the fact that phrasal verbs are used in everyday English, foreign learners avoid learning and using them for their complexity and impossibility to understand the meaning of a phrasal verb from its separate parts (a verb itself and a particle separately). As a result of that many learners at C1 level, although being fluent speakers, experience various difficulties using them. The focus of the paper is placed on the meaning and the use of phrasal verbs and the difficulties which students find at C1 level of the English language. The analysis in this paper is based on the phrasal verbs used in the book “Objective CAE” (O`Dell & Broadhead, 2008, Cambridge University Press). In this paper we are also interested in finding out why it is so difficult to understand and use phrasal verbs, the interaction between their meaning and understanding considering their polysemоus features. The results of this analysis may be useful for all ESL teachers to help them understand the difficulties their students face when dealing with phrasal verbs, especially at C1 level. Furthermore, it can be a valuable source for teachers how to introduce the phrasal verbs to their students and thus help them master phrasal verbs in both spoken and written discourse. Keywords: phrasal verb, meaning, use, difficulty, English.
Publisher
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International Burch University
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2016-03-13
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Theoretical review of the inclusive approach of the learning difficulties in the ESL
classroom in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Elma Velić Bešić
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract:
Learning difficulties (LDs) refer to a range of complex and often misunderstood
neurological-based processing challenges. In most cases, these processing cause challenges to
the acquisition of basic skills such as reading, writing and math. Different teaching methods
may need to be applied to compensate for the specific aspects of learning that children find
challenging to a process of learning. In most ESL classrooms, there are no qualified special
needs teachers or teachers who are trained to work with students with learning difficulties.
Even if there are, only a few teachers are trained on how to deal with learning disabilities in
an ESL classroom and there is very little information on the subject. This paper will introduce
the research concerning the difficulties and the education in the inclusive system among the
teachers in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Keywords: inclusion, specific learning difficulties, dyslexia, ADHD, special education,
teacher training
1. Introduction
Children with Disabilities are expected to "fit" within the existing system and in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. During the reforms and strategies for children with disabilities,only theoretical
part of fitting in is alive. Inclusion, the term that everyone is familiar with, is implemented in
2004 and since then, only a few crucial aspects of educational expectations has been
implemented. The main point, apart from children with disabilities, is the schools, where the
inclusion has been implemented.Teachers of any subject, including English as a second
language, have not been prepared nor educated to work with students with disabilities of any
kind. Even after a decade, most of the schools are not equipped and teachers are still not
informed and educated enough. During the research, among the fellow teachers, and working
at the state primary school, I have noticed many aspects of inclusion implemented, but also
many aspects still untouched and superficially used. Yet in 2016, the Inclusion Strategy in the
Una-Sana Canton has been introduced and the seven-year plan of inclusion in this Canton is
planned.
The five-day educational workshops for teachers' assistants, which included more than 300
teachers, were held in 2015, as a part of the Strategy and in 2016, teaching assistants will be
included into the Inclusive classroom. Apart from that, not many educational workshops were
organized nor any other kind of education for teachers who work in Primary or Secondary
schools.
1
�This paper will introduce Learning difficulties in classrooms in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in
the second language inquisition, the teachers' education, and training, and how the difficulties
are seen in their classrooms.
2. Inclusion in numbers
The term Special education or Kids with Special needs, as we call them among us, has
evolved since the introducing of the Inclusion in 2004. Everyone knows about it, everybody
talks about it, but very few actually are familiarized with the terms, definitions, strategies,
accommodation or testing, when it comes to differents kinds of kids with disabilities or
difficulties. Teachers are aware of the situation, the lack of education towards the special
education needs, and there are not enough experts to recognize and help both sides. It is
possible that in every classroom in Bosnia and Herzegovina, one child with difficulty is
present. The fact that the categorization of the children happens only when the disabilities are
visible or when the difficulties are in the severe level, lots of children in primary school are
not ever recognized as those having the difficulties, and some of them even graduate high
school without being categorized or recognized, being labeled as 'bad students' or lazy
ones.According to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) '' Specific learning
disability is ''a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in
understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in
the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations.
'' Learning disabilities are both real and permanent. In the United States of America, every
fifth child has the learning difficulty. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the research analysis of
the Federal ministry of education, about the number of kids with some disability is roughly
made and cannot advocate the right situation in the country.
Table 1: The review of the number of children with disabilities in different cantons in Bosnia
and Herzegovina presented in the Analysis of the Inclusion.
2
�As you can see in the table that the recording of the children with disabilities distinguished
by the cantons and it is not categorized in details or disability areas. Learning difficulties are
not even recorded and probably not even data collected. In the research I conducted among
my fellow teachers, about the difficulties, I have come to the results which confirmed my
starting point of research. In the first poll I had ninety-six teachers from Bosnia and
Herzegovina, randomly selected, where I compared their answers based on the question asked
about the Inclusion or Children with difficulties.
Figure 1: The figure showing the poll results of the question about the school adequacy in
implementing inclusion, by the teachers' opinions.
An interesting fact is that 10.8% of the lowest number on the scale, eight of ten were primary
school teachers, and only two out of ten, from the highest number of the scale, were high
school teachers.
Table 2: The review of the factors which directly affect the at the Inclusion level in the
Primary schools in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina according to the Research of
the Federal ministry of Education
3
�As shown in table 2, only three cantons have the ramp for wheelchairs and are physically
accessible, while others are superficially equipped or not equipped at all.
Figure 2: The review of the schools level where teachers work
The figure above shows where the teachers, who took the poll, work and as shown, most of
the teachers work in the primary school, where again, due to my poll, 64.8% teachers, who
answered the highest number, as to confirm that their school is prepared for the inclusion,
work in primary school, while only 37.2% work in high school. As for those results, the
expert teams, educational seminars and conferences or any other teams for support and
improvement are rare or nonexisting. Only in the Canton Sarajevo the expert team, as well as
teaching assistants and other aspects of support are implemented, while in some cantons
almost nothing of the asked was present.
Table 3: The review of the presence of experts, teams of support and other aspects of
inclusive support in the cantons
In the table above, the professional development for teachers is present in eight cantons. In
the mentioned poll, with randomly picked teachers, as you can see, most teachers are still not
familiarized with the inclusion terms, and teaching children with disabilities. This doesn't
4
�prove that all teachers are not educated enough or informed, but these results still have to be
taken into account and approach to them with care.
Figure 3: The results of the poll about the inclusion and teachers' information and
involvement
In brief, the educational aspect of the implementation of the inclusion has lacked its purpose,
and while numbers show that we can recognize children with disabilities and familiarize with
the terms of the inclusion, the proper teacher training and involvement of the teachers in the
expert teams is inevitable.
2.1. Learning difficulties in ESL classroom
As stated in the previous pages, Learning difficulties are not even included in the research,
and if so they are subjoined to some of the disabilities that are mentioned in the research.
Why do I think this is a huge lapse? Learning difficulties, especially in the second language
acquisition, are the main problem and worry, mostly because they are not being recognized
nor treated fairly. The most common and problematic type of learning difficulty in the second
language acquisition are those that impact the areas of reading. Dyslexia is the term
associated with specific learning disabilities in reading but also difficulty with phonemic
awareness, decoding, phonological processing, spelling, vocabulary, comprehension and
written expression. Dyslexia might be the worst problem for teachers and a silent suffer for
students if the difficulty is not recognized. Also, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD) is a brain-based disorder that results in hyperactivity, distractibility or a
combination of both, with some other characteristics as well. It is also a difficulty that cannot
be seen if not in severe level or could be recognized as badly behaved or negligent child.
Other difficulties, such as Dysgraphia, Auditory Processing Deficit, Visual Processing Deficit
and Dyscalculia, can severely damage child's motivation and school success if not
recognized, treated and helped by the teachers and community. "Learning disabilities are not
a prescription for failure. With the right kinds of instruction, guidance and support, there are
no limits to what individuals with LD can achieve." (Sheldon H. Horowitz, Ed.D., Director of
LD Resources National Center for Learning Disabilities). Most of the students, who have LD
and are not categorized, usually don't participate in school activities or are labeled as bad or
lazy. Very important part of the education of students with LD is the awareness of the
difficulty, education and support of the teacher and community and also self-acceptance, as
being a different learner. Every student is different and every student has its own learning
styles. Being different, students with LD have the difficult time adjusting to teachers' styles
of teaching, subject or environment in which the learning is taking place. ''Apart from having
5
�academic problems, students with LD also have social and career problems later in life. In
addition, families may experience stress related to the social and behavioral problems often
experienced by children with LD ''(Dyson, 2003). Peer rejection and social difficulties are
most significant for children who have both LD and AD/HD (Wiener, 2004) and are of
concern to parents. Early intervention during the first three years of schooling is essential for
children with LD. A primary focus of research over the past two decades has been on the
prevention of reading failure. The early years are the focus for the prevention of reading
difficulties and children who get off to a poor start in reading rarely "catch up" (Lentz, 1988;
Neuman & Dickinson, 2001; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998; Torgesen, 1998; Whitehurst &
Lonigan, 2001).''
Motivation is the main aspect of children's lives. They should believe in themselves, in the
possibility to succeed no matter what kind of difficulty they have or what level of the
difficulty there is. Teachers should be prepared and educated for working with students with
LD in a way to understand them, use different strategies and know how to accommodate and
assess. Usually, the wrong impression is made about the education of teachers due to
recognizing and working with children with LD. Teachers are not obligated to recognize and
diagnose the difficulty, but to recognize symptoms and know how to approach them
professionally. After that, an expert or team of experts should recognize, diagnose and record
the difficulties, if present and help teachers to create and support the child in the best manner.
Also, one more misunderstanding about teachers' education is that the teacher should know
how to create the curriculum and lesson plan right after the difficulty is stated. Every child
with LD is different and it has its own characteristics, which might correlate with other
children and difficulties, but only the experts can characterize and make assumptions and
solutions towards someone's difficulty and way of supporting it. Teachers should be aware of
the difficulties, be educated enough to use different teaching styles, strategies, and methods,
and be considerate and understand different needs of every child. Accommodation is the key
to working with children with LD, where teachers can approach every kid with the different
style or individually, based on the need. "An accommodation is a change or alteration to the
regular way a student is expected to learn, complete assignments or participates in the
classroom" (Alberta Education, 2002, p. 47). Participation in the classroom, based on the
skills and knowledge of a child with LD can be measured by the task appropriate instructions,
towards the subject and the child's possibilities. Teaching instructions, such as differentiation
and individualization can help the child to participate in the activities and task which he is
capable of doing and which are differentiated in such a way that no one could notice his or
her difficulty. Differentiation—one facet of expert teaching—reminds us that these things are
unlikely to happen for the full range of students unless curriculum and instruction fit each
individual, unless students have choices about what to learn and how, unless students take
part in setting learning goals, and unless the classroom connects with the experiences and
interest of the individual (Tomlinson, 1995, 1999). Differentiating the classroom eases the
lesson process for everyone – teacher, because based on what you are differentiating, the
lesson will be successful and for the student because everyone gets what he can do and give
their maximum in every lesson. Individualization has been designed to help students with LD
or any other difficulty in addressing the lesson in different style for better understanding and
assistance. You can use individualization with students who don't have any difficulty in a
6
�way of stations. That's how you can split the content of the lesson, it's pace and methods of
teaching. No matter what furniture is in your room, stations are possible.
The individualization for students with LD can be implemented in many ways, but the best
and most productive one would be with assistive technology, specially developed for learners
with LD. Assistive technology is actually a piece of equipment or system that helps people
work around or compensate for learning difficulties. Assistive technology helps increase the
independence of the person with learning differences. Many times, students with LD rely on
someone to help them do some assignments, such as teaching assistants, siblings, peers or
parents. Using assistive technology can make the students with LD more independent,
individually task oriented and perform activities on their own feeling confident and
successful. "For people without disabilities, technology makes things easier. For people with
disabilities, technology makes things possible (Cardinali and Gordon, 2002). Unfortunately,
many schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina don't have enough financial help to provide such
technology, so teachers usually just use what they have, meaning computers and sometimes
some online exercises. Assessment in the classroom can include observation and reviewing
the student's work, progress and process of learning, monitoring the development and use of
learning strategies and habits, but also understanding what student is capable doing.
Assessing students with LD are based on what he can do and not on what he cannot do. By
assessing, teachers have to think about what do they want to assess – the difficulty of that
student or the hard work he put in that learning despite the difficulty. Understanding one's
own abilities and accepting them as a part of personality, helps teachers to have more
productive and successful lessons, teach every child to his highest potential and carry out the
goals specified in the curriculum. With different strategies, instructions, methods and
assistive technology, teachers can succeed in their intentions and development of their plan.
2.2. Teacher training for the ESL teachers
Among many online courses for teachers and all others, interested in learning difficulties
such as Dyslexia, ADHD or Speech impairment, there are not many courses, seminars or
training for aspiring teachers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During faculty years, teachers don't
get enough information nor exercise and examples to work with children with any disability
or difficulty. Usually, when teachers start working in a school, they familiarize themselves
with terms, methodology, difficulties and other aspects of teaching, struggle for a while and
sometimes never find the right solution for their problem. With the sponsorship of the
American Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the project Face the difficulties and study
with me has been implemented. The main goal of the project is to inform and educate
teachers in the Una-Sana canton about the learning difficulties and provide enough
information about working with students who have some of the difficulty. Hence, teachers
will have opportunities to meet and discuss the possible solutions to problems, exchange
experience, and materials and help each other for better and easier understanding of learning
difficulties. Since the beginning of the project, four teachers have participated in two out of
five workshops. At the end of the project, a handout will be published, as a part of the
educational goals of the project, and it will be of use to all people who want to know how to
teach students with learning difficulties and how to recognize the difficulties
7
�itself.Workshops are being held in the Una-Sana Canton, until the end of the project in august
2017.
The very famous style of learning is the MOOC and very educational and admissible.
Teachers can, throughout MOOC, on many online sites, learn and follow educational
workshops, where they can participate and practically experience the real learning. Such
educational workshop can be found on web pages such as course,edx or future learn, which
offer many different courses on special education and similar titles. A massive open online
course (MOOC /muːk/) is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access
via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as filmed lectures, readings, and
problem sets, many MOOCs provide interactive user forums to support community
interactions among students, professors, and teaching assistants (Wikipedia).
Another kind of educational workshops can be also held at the school where teachers work.
Teachers are obligated to write a research paper every school year and have a presentation in
their school and in their own way and pace, they could research and get information on the
topics they are interested in. Through education and seminars, conferences and courses, lots
of information are offered but also lots of ideas, which seemed impossible suddenly get
closer. Even though many teachers never had the training to work with special needs nor did
they had the training to write lesson plans, many of them still try to support children with
difficulties and help them get the better education. Based on the research I conducted among
30 randomly chosen teachers, results of their involvement and support is shown in the figure
bellow.
Figure 4: Poll results of using lesson plans for children with special needs
As seen in the figure above, 80% of teachers have lesson plans and only 20% don't write
them. 66,7% of teachers said that the Cantonal educational office or school ask them for
special plans while 23,3% are not sure if they do. Another reason why education and
seminars are needed is because of the materials and content of the lesson plans, for different
kinds of difficulties. Many teachers are not sure how to decide how much or how hard should
the content of the lesson be and how to make or write the materials.
8
�Figure 5: The results of the poll about the material used in the classroom for children with
special needs
This all leads to the conclusion that we all need more education and workshops on topic of
special education and specific learning difficulties and that teachers' job would be much
easier if the Ministry of education or other institutions, who are responsible for educational
system, help and support teachers with seminars, workshops, and conferences, on the topic of
special education and needs.
3. Conclusion
Many aspects of inclusion are still untouched and not possible to carry out in most of the
schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Even though there are new strategies and plans for
Inclusive education, the main and most important aspect was not accomplished. Teacher
education! Educating only a few teachers is not the solution, but rather a burden on those
teachers to act and support, while others cannot. Every school should have campaigns,
sharing awareness of disabilities and difficulties, supporting children who have them, and
social raise awareness of other children in the school, as well as parents and community.'' The
inclusion of students with disabilities in the regular education classroom is becoming more
prevalent in today’s schools'' (Winzer, 1998). Schools should be implementing regular
inclusive workshops for children and parents, make possibilities and chances, by providing
children with disabilities the same conditions like everyone else. If the child with the physical
disability never goes on the upper floor of the school or takes lessons in a special room apart
from his peers, then it's not an inclusion but opposite of everything that inclusion stands for.
Taking into account that we have only started with the inclusive reform a few years ago,
Bosnian and Herzegovina schools are not ready to completely implement inclusion in its full
aspects.
Many questions remain concerning toward including students with disabilities. Professional
development is the most important part of the inclusion, if we want to have successful
academic and social model of education . ''Providing teachers with the training and tools
necessary to foster positive attitudes about inclusion is a key step to insuring the success of
inclusion ''(Huber, Rosenfeld, & Fiorello, 2001; Colber, 2010).
As I stated above, learning difficulties are the main concern in the second language
acquisition, due to problems with language as the major difficulty children have. Not
recognizing or dealing with learning difficulties in our classrooms can evolve into enormous
9
�academic and social omissions and problems. We labeled the 'special needs' as something
bad and undervalued, and most of the teachers and children usually act towards it with fear
and prejudices. Most parents, because of that, are frightened to label their children with some
difficulty, even though they won't get the education they deserve. And most children are
more willing to be labeled as 'bad' or 'lazy' but 'special need' because the community made
the negative platitudes and assumptions. Educating teachers to work with children with
special needs, raising awareness with children in school, and also community and adapting
the educational system step by step, towards the best inclusive practices are the next steps
Bosnia and Herzegovina have to make.
References:
Abell, D. J. (2000, November). Differentiation of instruction for disadvantaged gifted
students: A systemic change model. Paper presented at the meeting of the MidSouth
Educational Research Association, Bowling Green, KY.
Alberta Education, ''Students with Special Needs',
2009; (www.albertaeduaction.ca)
Assistive
Technology
for
Children
with
Learning
Difficulties
(http://www.pluk.org/Pubs/ATguide4LD_419k.pdf)
Candace Cortiella, The Advocacy Institute Sheldon H. Horowitz, Ed.D., National Center for
Learning Disabilities: The State of Learning Disabilities Facts, Trends and Emerging
Issues (Third Edition, 2014)
Huber, K. D., Rosenfeld, J. G., & Fiorello, C. A. (2001). The differential impact of inclusion
and inclusive practices on high, average, and low achieving general education
students. Psychology in the Schools, 38(1), 497-504.
Lentz, F.E. Jr(1988), On-task behaviour, academic performance, and classroom disruptions:
Untangling the target selection in classroom interventions, School Psychology
Review, 17 , 243-257;
Tomlinson, C. (1995). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms.
Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Tomlinson, C. (1999). The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners.
Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Winzer, M. (1998). The inclusion movement and teacher change: Where are the limits?
McGill Journal of Education [H.W.Wilson - EDUC], 33(3), 229.
10
�
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3259
Title
A name given to the resource
Theoretical review of the inclusive approach of the learning difficulties in the ESL classroom in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Author
Author
Velić Bešić, Elma
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Learning difficulties (LDs) refer to a range of complex and often misunderstood neurological-based processing challenges. In most cases, these processing cause challenges to the acquisition of basic skills such as reading, writing and math. Different teaching methods may need to be applied to compensate for the specific aspects of learning that children find challenging to a process of learning. In most ESL classrooms, there are no qualified special needs teachers or teachers who are trained to work with students with learning difficulties. Even if there are, only a few teachers are trained on how to deal with learning disabilities in an ESL classroom and there is very little information on the subject. This paper will introduce the research concerning the difficulties and the education in the inclusive system among the teachers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Keywords: inclusion, specific learning difficulties, dyslexia, ADHD, special education, teacher training
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
International Burch University
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-03-20
Keywords
Keywords.
Article
PeerReviewed
PE English
-
https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/38a13a9b0d1b37b61d5f5f74ab7d1101.pdf
a2178d5a6454c31ff377222dd89fb3b3
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Text
Adpositions Derived From Nouns In Iranian Languages
Güneş Muhip Özyurt
Yıldırım Beyazıt Universitesi, Turkey
Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to explore the noun-derived adpositions in Persian language and
other living Iranian Languages in the light of the relevant literature. To accomplish that, first
the existing works that deal this type of grammaticalization will be discussed. Next, seven
languages from the Iranian language family will be examined to reveal how adpositions
develop out of nouns.
Keywords: adposition, noun, grammaticalization, Iranian Languages, Persian
1. Introduction
The present study deals with the adpositions in Iranian Languages that have been derived
from nouns. There is significant research on the theoretical aspects of grammaticalization of
nouns into adpositions as a phenomenon that pervades human languages, which will be
reviewed in the first part of this paper. Yet, as will be discussed, Iranian Languages have not
been paid due attention by the researchers of this pathway of grammaticalization. Thus, the
second part of the paper is an attempt to find out whether noun-derived adpositions in Iranian
Languages adhere to the rules observed in other human languages. To this end, instances of
nouns grammaticalized into postpositions or prepositions in seven Iranian Languages will be
scrutinized. The languages that will be reviewed are Balochi, Pashto, Mazandarani, Talysh,
Zaza, Kurdish and Persian.
2. Literature Review: The Grammaticalization of Nouns into Adpositions
There is no clear-cut definition of an adposition that all linguists agree on and making such a
definition will not be attempted here. However, to make the subject matter clear, it should be
stated that the term adposition in this paper is seen from a functionalist perspective. Svorou
(1994) developed a classification based on function and grouped adpositions, affixes and case
inflections with spatial functions altogether as “spatial grams”. While Svorou’s findings on
the grammaticalization of adpositions are key for the theoretical framework of this paper, her
delineation of the function of adpositions as limited to the expression of spatial relations does
not work for all the instances that will be discussed below. A more comprehensive approach
that is adopted in this study is that of DeLancey (2005) who noted that adpositions “show a
range of rather distinct semantic functions” while adding that one of their major functions is
to express “spatial and temporal relations” (p. 187).
In human languages, adpositions are continuously grammaticalized from other parts of
speech. Verbs and adverbs are two antecedents for new adpositions but nouns provide the
main source (Heine & Kuteva, 2007). The process of change from nouns to spatial
�adpositions was studied by Svorou (1986). According to her, new spatial expressions are
derived not only through the combination of nouns with existing adpositions or case markers
but also with the help of genitive constructions. During the genitive construction phase,
which Svorou (1986) showed to be a step of grammaticalization that was common in many
languages, the prospective adposition acts as the head noun. The semantic motivation here is
to create a part-whole relation between two words where the part actually means the location
beyond the limits of the part. The following desemanticization and phonetic erosion are the
key components of the grammaticalization process and once the noun loses its original form
and meaning to become a true adposition, further grammaticalization into categories such as
case marker is also possible (Heine & Kuteva, 2007).
Svorou’s (1994) comprehensive account of the grammaticalization of adpositions and other
spatial grams based on a broad sample of genetically unrelated languages showed that nouns
do not become adpositions randomly. Instead, clear semantic patterns common to all
languages are observed in the choice of the nouns, from which adpositions are derived. Body
part names, for instance, constitute the noun group most frequently grammaticalized into
adpositions and more often than not, languages adhere to what is called “the anthropomorphic
model” concerning the semantic connection between the source nouns and the derived
adpositions. In the antropomorphic model, the spatial meaning of the noun-derived
adpositions correspond to the location of the source body-part noun in relation to the rest of
the human body. For example, as shown by Svorou (1994), in several languages nouns that
mean “head” have become adpositions that mean “on”. Common paths for deriving
adpositions from human body parts also include nouns that mean “back” becoming
adpositions that mean “behind” and nouns that mean “heart” becoming adpositions that mean
“inside” or “in”. Other noun groups that have a habit of giving rise to adpositions are body
parts based on a zoomorphic model, environmental landmarks such as “field” or “doorway”
and relational object parts such as “top” or “front”.
In addition to the abovementioned comparative accounts, the grammaticalization of nouns
into adpositions has also been scrutinized in works that deal with specific language groups
such as Esseesy’s (2010) detailed study of the Arabic prepositions. As for Iranian Languages,
Svorou (1994) did use examples from the Persian language but some of the most illustrative
instances of nouns grammaticalized as adpositions in this language were not covered by her,
not to mention the mistaken identification of dar “in” as indicating the exterior region (p.
258). Also, Persian is only part of the picture when it comes to the rich inventory of
prepositions and postpositions found in various Iranian Languages.
3. The Iranian Languages
The Iranian language family is a major part of the Indo-European language family and
includes several languages descending from the unattested Proto-Iranian and are currently
spoken in Iran and neighboring countries. They are further divided into Eastern, SouthWestern and North-Western Iranian sub-groups that represent a genealogical divide rather
than a geographical one. The development of Iranian languages can be examined in three
historical stages namely Old, Middle and New Iranian. One of the most noticable changes in
grammar that occured through these stages is the demise of the case declensions in the
�Middle Iranian period, which left adpositions as the only means to express cases and other
semantic relations. Consequently, in the New Iranian period, Iranian Languages have
developed many prepositions and postpositions.
In the following part of this paper, examples of adpositions derived from nouns in seven
living Iranian languages namely Balochi, Pashto, Mazandarani, Talysh, Zaza, Kurdish and
Persian languages will be presented. Though making an exhaustive list of every noun-derived
adposition in every living Iranian language is beyond the scope of this study, the seven
languages reviewed here reflect the geographical distribution as well as the linguistic
diversity of Iranian Language family and adpositions derived from cognate words in different
languages are paid due attention to present an explanatory overview of the
grammaticalization of adpositions in Iranian Languages as a whole.
3.1 Balochi
Balochi is a North-Western Iranian language spoken in Southeastern Iran and Western
Pakistan. Though prepositions do exist in Balochi, they are usually incorporated into
circumpositional phrases where the postposition is the true vessel of meaning (Elfenbein,
1989). Postpositions can also be used alone. There are a number of Balochi postpositions that
are actually oblique forms of body-part nouns:
(1) čukh-ē
dēm-ā (Jahani & Korn, 2009, p. 657)
child-GEN
face-OBL
“in front of the child”
As seen, the preceding noun is in the genitive case, which creates a possessive relationship
with the postposition. The oblique case in Balochi can express the locative so the above
phrase literally means “in the face of the child”. Two other examples of noun-derived
adpositions in Balochi are sar-ā “on”derived from sar “head” and phušt-ā “behind”derived
from phušt “back”. As for phad-ā “behind” derived from phad “foot”, the semantic
motivation is probably “in the footsteps of” i.e. “in the wake of” (Jahani & Korn, 2009).
3.2 Pashto
Pashto is an Eastern Iranian language primarily spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan. David
(2014) estimated a speaker population between 25 and 50 millions. Although dialects do
exist, their differences are superficial and they are mutually intelligible according to Tegey
and Robson (1996), who regarded Pashto a conservative language because it has retained
some archaic linguistic features.
In Pashto, the particle ki is employed as part of a circumposition to express the interior
location:
(2) pə
koṭ-a
ki (David, 2014, p. 310)
in…
room-F.DIR
…in
“in the room”
ki essentially goes back to *kašē, which was the locative form of the Avestan word kasa“armpit”, literally meaning “in the armpit” (Hewson & Bubenik, 2007, p.150). In this case,
the grammaticalization has reached its final phase where the particle can no longer be used
�outside the adpositional phrase and its origin is only discernible to linguists. The source noun
is also unique as there is no other known instance of this particular body-part name evolving
into a locative particle.
The circumposition pə … ki can be combined with several other adpositions to express more
complicated spatial relations. One such adposition apparently derived from a noun is məkh:
(3)
də sinf
pə
məkh
ki
(David, 2014, p.340)
of class
in… face-M
…in
“in front of the class”
When used as a noun, məkh means “face”, perfectly conforming with the antropomorphic
model discussed earlier. Note that in some dialects of Pashto, we also come across sar “head”
in a similarly combined form that means “at the top of, above” (David, 2014, p.315).
3.3 Mazandarani
Mazandarani is a member of the Caspian Languages sub-family of North-Western Iranian
Languages. Its speakers are concentrated in Iran’s Mazandaran Province and number over 3
millions. Although urbanization and proximity to Iran’s cultural and political center have led
to the recent weaking of Mazandarani language by an influx of Persian vocabulary and
grammatical forms, certain elements of Mazandarani resist being replaced such as the
placement of adpositions. (Borjian, 2004) Mazandarani is a postpositional language so the
adpositions follow the noun, which optionally gets an oblique marker. Two postpositions in
Mazandarani have evident nominal origins:
(4) nεfār
sar (Borjian & Borjian, 2007)
shed-DIR head
“on the shed”
(5) kεlum-e
dele (Borjian & Borjian, 2007)
stable-OBL heart
“in the stable”
Example (4) shows another instance of a consistent practice across the Iranian language
family whereby sar “head” and its cognates are adopted as adpositions that mean “on top of”.
The case of dele in (5) is not unique to Mazandarani either. Creating a semantic analogy
between “heart” and “interior” is a widespread practice in human languages and as will be
shown, Iranian languages are no exception.
3.4 Talysh
Spoken as the native language by about 1 million people in the Northern part of Iran’s Gilan
province, Talysh belongs to the Caspian group of North-Western Iranian Languages. It is
divided into southern and northern dialects, which have a low level of mutual intelligibility.
One of the key differences between Talysh dialects are the adpositions. The southern dialect
employs postpositions whereas the northern dialect has a plethora of prepositions,
postpositions and circumpositions that bring together multiple adpositions in complicated
phrases. The selection of Talysh adpositional phrases provided by Stilo (2009) allows for the
�detection of several items that have discernible nominal origins, two of which are shown in
the following examples:
(6) kœ-y
dɪ̈ l-œdœ
house-OBL
inside-in
“in the house”
(7) zœmin-í
sœ
land-OBL on
“on the land”
In (6), dɪ̈ l is simply a reinterpretation of the Talysh noun that means “heart”. As for sœ, Paul
(2011) showed that it is a phonetically eroded version of the word sar “head” and is endemic
to the Anbarani i.e. Northern dialect. Stilo (2009) also reported about adpositional phrases
that contain the word düm “tail” with the spatial meaning “behind”.
3.5 Zaza
A North-Western Iranian language indigenous to eastern Turkey, Zaza is also called Dimili, a
name that is thought to reflect its origin in Iran’s Daylam region that goes back to 12th
century. This language is related to the Caspian Languages that include Mazandarani and
Talysh but it has been geographically isolated from them for centuries (Astarian, 2011).
In Zaza, postpositions dominate as far as spatial and temporal expressions are concerned:
(8) kitabî
sero
(Malmisanij, Uzun & Espar, 2001, p. 464)
book-OBL
on
“on the book”
In the above example, sero is an adposition that has been derived from the noun sere “head”.
Noun-derived adpositions in Zaza, are occasionally used in combination with other
postpositions that complement the meaning:
(9) derse
ra
pey
Lesson
from after
“after the lesson”
The phonetic similarity between pey “after” and pa “foot” may not be clear at first look.
However, considering that the cognates of pa have formed adpositions that mean “behind,
after” in at least two other Iranian languages namely Balochi and Persian, it becomes evident
that the same relationship must also be valid for Zaza. Another postposition in Zaza that
means “after” is dima, which is apparently connected with the noun dim “tail”. Finally,
similar to what is seen in Mazandarani and Talysh, the Zaza noun zərri “heart” has provided
the basis for the emergence of the adposition zərə “inside”, which usually precedes the
postposition di for greater semantic precision:
(10) čente
zere
di (Todd, 2008, p. 81)
bag-OBL inside in
“inside the bag”
3.6 Kurdish
�Kurdish belongs to the North-Western Iranian Languages and is spoken in Eastern Turkey,
Northern Iraq and Western Iran. The northern dialect spoken mainly in Turkey and known as
Kurmanji, is the most widely spoken dialect. McCarus (2009) claimed Kurmanji is hardly
intelligible with the Central and Southern dialects and went so far as to call Kurdish “a cover
term” for a large group of languages.
As Bedir Khan and Lescot’s (1970) study of Kurmanji grammar showed, Kurdish has a rich
inventory of adpositions. In Kurdish, there are a number of fully grammaticalized primary
adpositions that appear alone or in combinations to carry out a variety of case-like functions.
Noun-derived adpositions work together with these primary adpositions to form adpositional
phrases that describe complicated semantic relationships. A noun-derived adposition that is
pervasive in Iranian Languages, namely sar “head” is also one of the widely used
adpositional elements in Kurdish:
(11) di
ser
dîwêr
re
(Bedir Khan & Lescot, 1970, p. 257)
DI head wall-OBL
RE
“over the wall”
In the above phrase, di is a primary adposition with a locative undertone while re implies
motion through or towards something. Their union with a noun creates a new spatial
meaning.
Further instances of adpositions derived from body-part nouns in Kurdish can be found in
adpositional phrases that mean “behind” such as di pişt … da and li duv. As a noun, pişt
means the human back and duv is a tail. There is also du that is obviously an eroded version
of duv. Another Kurdish body-part noun turned into an adposition is kelek that was originally
a word for the side of the human torso and it has formed the phrase li keleke “next to”.
One of the main comitative adpositional phrases in Kurdish has also developed out of a noun.
The noun gal means folk or people. It has formed the prepositional phrase li gal “together
with”. The semantic motivation is apparently “in the group of”.
Interestingly, Kurdish ji … der literally means “out of”, in contrast to the Persian dar “in”. It
should be noted that the two are essentially different words. While the Persian dar is a
descendant of Old Persian antarə “between”, the Kurdish adposition der has developed out of
the noun der “place” that also means “door”. According to Svorou (1994), the creation of
adpositions that describe the outside location from nouns that mean “field” or “doorway” is
one of the common paths of grammaticalization and the Kurdish dar fits this model.
3.7 Persian
Persian is a major member of the South-Western branch of Iranian language family and it not
only enjoys a substantial speaker population of 110 million (Windfur & Perry, 2009, p.418)
but also has the oldest written tradition that goes back to the 10th century, not to mention the
pre-Islamic period. In addition to Iran, it is the official language of Afghanistan under the
name “Dari” and of Tajikistan under the name “Tajik”.
Modern Persian is an almost exclusively prepositional language and has two types of
prepositions. What could be called “genuine prepositions” (Hewson & Bubenik, 2007)
essentially perform case functions. The secondary prepositions, which need the assistance of
a genuine preposition or a genitive construction called “ezafe”, are used to express a broad
�range of spatial, temporal and semantic relations. Two of the secondary prepositions that
refer to the posterior region have been derived from nouns:
(12) pošt-e
derakht
back-GEN
tree
“behind the tree”
(13) donbāl-e
māšīn
after-GEN
car
“after the car”
The Persian noun pošt can mean the back of any object but its original meaning is
anatomical. As discussed above, the cognates of the Persian pošt in Kurdish and Balochi are
also employed as adpositions that mean “behind”. As for donbāl, it has been derived with the
derivational affix –āl that adds a meaning of affinity from donb “tail” (Donbāl, n.d.), which is
a rare alternative form of the noun dom. The cognates of Persian dom in Talysh, Zaza and
Kurdish have also become adpositions that do the same job. Another preposition with a
similar meaning is pay “in the wake of” linked to the noun pā “foot”. This noun is attested in
some Early New Persian texts as pay allowing for the conclusion that the adposition pay
evolved out of this alternative form.
A Persian preposition that is unique concerning its source noun is jalū “in front of”. It
developed from the Turkish word jilav that means a horse halter, a gear that is located in front
of the animal.
Although nouns that mean “face” often give rise to adpositions that mean “in front of” in
other languages (Svorou, 1994), Persian rūy “face” has experienced a different semantic
expansion:
(14)
rūy-e māšīn
face-EZ car
“on the car”
Together with the genuine adposition bar “on”, rūy provides the means for reference to the
space over an object, leaving little need for sar “head”, which still has some adpositional
functions. The spatiotemporal connotation of sar in Persian appears to be more about the
edge or the beginning of something than with the top of it as seen in sarāsar “from one end to
the other”.
In colloquial Persian, the use of the noun-derived preposition tū (inside) to express the
locative case is more common than the use of the primary preposition dar (in). As a noun, tū
is attested more in the medieval poetry than in modern language and means a layer or a
curtain. The declining use of tū as a noun and its tendency to replace dar as the main locative
preposition presents an interesting case of ongoing grammaticalization.
4. Conclusion
The above examples from seven Iranian Languages reveal that the grammaticalization of
adpositions from nouns in this language family has followed a path that is quite similar to
what research shows to have happened in other languages. First of all, the types of nouns that
enter such a process of grammaticalization is in line with Svorou’s (1994) findings. Bodypart nouns, for instance, contribute the most to the creation of new adpositions in Iranian
�Languages just as they do in other human languages. In addition, the semantic motivation in
many of the noun-derived adpositions in the languages examined in this paper fit the
universal patterns such as the antropomorphic model. This is exemplified in the widespread
use of sar “head” as an adposition that means “on”. Finally, the way nouns start off as
adpositions in Iranian Languages verifies Svorou’s (1986) theory about the transition phase
during which the newly derived adpositions are combined with older adpositions or found in
genitive structures as this was the case in several of the above examples.
An additional point revealed by this study is the pervasiveness of cognate adpositions that
fulfill the same semantic role in different Iranian Languages. Concerning that the languages
in question have separated more than two milennia ago and that some of the widespread
cognate adpositions such as sar “head” appear rather new and at an early stage of
grammaticalization, not every similarity can be ascribed to genetic relationship. In other
words, there must have been some form of contact induced grammaticalization at work
during the historical development of the adpositions in Iranian Languages, the details of
which require further research to be uncovered.
References:
Astarian G. S. (2011). Dimlī. In Encyclopædia Iranica, Retrieved from
iranicaonline.org/articles/dimli
Bedir Khan E. D., & Lescot R. (1970). Grammaire Kurde (Dialecte Kurmandji). Paris:
Maisonneuve.
Borjian H. (2004). Mazandaran: Language and People (The State of Research). Iran and the
Caucasus, 8(2), 289-328.
Borjian M., & Borjian H. (2007). Ethno-Linguistic Materials from Rural Mazandaran:
Mysterious Memories of a Woman. Iran and the Caucasus, 11(2), 227-248.
David A. B. (2014). Descriptive Grammar of Pashto and its Dialects. Berlin: De Gruyter
Mouton.
DeLancey S. (2005). Adpositions as a non-universal category. In Frajzyngier Z., Hodges., &
Rood D. (Eds.), Linguistic Diversity and Language Theories (pp. 185-202). Philadelphia:
John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Donbāl. (n.d.). Dehkhoda Lexicon. Retrieved from http://parsi.wiki/dehkhodaworddetaild01811c184f048c7ae81491600388df0-fa.html
Elfenbein J. (1989). Baloci. In S. Rüdiger (ed.) Compendium Linguarium Iranicarum (pp.
350-362). Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert Verlag.
Esseesy M. (2010). Grammaticalization of Arabic Prepositions and Subordinators. A
Corpus-Based Study. Leiden: Brill.
Heine B., & Kuteva T. (2007). The Genesis of Grammar A Reconstruction. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Hewson J., & Bubenik V. (2006). From Case to Adposition: The development of
configurational syntax in Indo-European languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing
Company.
Jahani C., & Korn A. (2009). Balochi. In Windfuhr G. (Ed.), The Iranian Languages (pp.
634-692). New York: Routledge.
�Malmisanij M., Uzun M., & Espar J. I. (2001). Ferhenge Kirmanckî (Zazakî)-Tirkî. İstanbul:
Vate Yayınevi.
McCarus E. N. (2009). Kurdish. In Windfuhr G. (Ed.), The Iranian Languages (pp. 587-633).
New York: Routledge.
Paul D. (2011). A Comparative Dialectal Description of Iranian Taleshi (Doctoral
dissertation). Retrieved from https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/uk-ac-man-scw:119653
Stilo D. L. (2009). Circumpositions as an areal response: The case study of the Iranian zone.
Turkic Languages, 13(1), 3-33.
Svorou S. (1986). On the Evolutionary Paths of Locative Expressions. Proceedings of the
Twelfth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley LinguisticsSociety, 515–527.
Svorou S. (1994). The Grammar of Space. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing
Company.
Tegey H., & Robson B. (1996). A Reference Grammar of Pashto. Washington DC: Center for
Applied Linguistics.
Todd T. L. (2008). A Grammar of Dimili Also Known as Zaza. Retrieved from forumlinguistik.de/de/_3277
Windfuhr G., & Perry J. R. (2009). Persian and Tajik. In Windfuhr G. (Ed.), The Iranian
Languages (pp. 634-692). New York: Routledge.
�
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Adpositions Derived From Nouns In Iranian Languages
Author
Author
Muhip Özyurt, Güneş
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
The purpose of this study is to explore the noun-derived adpositions in Persian language and other living Iranian Languages in the light of the relevant literature. To accomplish that, first the existing works that deal this type of grammaticalization will be discussed. Next, seven languages from the Iranian language family will be examined to reveal how adpositions develop out of nouns. Keywords: adposition, noun, grammaticalization, Iranian Languages, Persian
Publisher
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International Burch University
Date
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2016-03-22
Keywords
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Article
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PE English
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https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/d5dea25b21d3f374035c75e6e7214318.pdf
6c7f0b0755d60461347336b591ecc6d0
PDF Text
Text
PASSENGERS’ SATISFACTION IN COACH TRAVEL IN BOSNIA AND
HERZEGOVINA - STUDY ON PERCEPTION OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
IN SARAJEVO
Adis Ćatić
International Burch University
Bosnia and Herzegovina
adis.catic@hotmail.com
Edin Smajić
International Burch University
Bosnia and Herzegovina
esmajic@ibu.edu.ba
Abstract: Transportation of people was always very important aspect of human life.
Today, there are many ways in which people can travel. This paper was occupied with
coach travel, and passengers’ satisfaction in it in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A coach
is a type of vehicle used for carrying passengers on excursions, touristic journeys and
trips, and on other long distance journeys such as intercity or international bus lines.
The goal of this study was to find out level of passengers’ satisfaction in coach travel
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and what is most important for passengers when they use
coach travel services - is it price, speed, safety, comfort, or something else.
Study was performed on perception of university students in Sarajevo, because they are
representative sample of passengers’ population in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Focus of
the study was on “on board experience”, which is actually experience of passengers
while they are inside of the vehicle. Research clearly indicated what aspects of coach
travel are most important for passengers, and also suggested some proposals that can
make coach travel more competitive and attractive.
Keywords: passengers’ satisfaction, university students, coach travel
1.
Introduction
Coach travel is one of the most important transportation modes in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. Actually, it is important way of transportation of people in most of
developing countries. In developed countries, where air and rail transportation is well
organized, smaller number of passengers uses coach travel services. Anyway, coach
travel finds place in organizing touristic trips, excursions and other kinds of journeys in
every country, no matter is it developed or developing country. Purpose of this study
was to illuminate current situation in coach travel market in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to
find out what aspects of coach travel are most important to passengers and to reach
level of satisfaction of passengers who travel by coach in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Since coach travel is, as we said, one of the most common ways of transportation
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is important to investigate current situation, to analyze
reasons and to reach final conclusion in order to make it more attractive and more
affordable for all segments of passengers. Although this study was focused only on
university students who are studying at any of universities in Sarajevo, conclusions
that were reached during the research can also be applied for some other groups of
passengers.
ICESoS 2016 - Proceedings Book 119
�International Conference on Economic and Social Studies (ICESoS’16)
1.1
Importance and contribution of the study
There are number of reasons that give importance to this research. First of all, this
research clearly showed level of satisfaction of university students/passengers with
coach travel services of Bosnian transportation companies they travel with, or they
have travelled. It is important in order to motivate transportation companies to increase
the level of quality of their services and to try to make users of that services more
satisfied. Other reason of importance of this research is that the research showed what
aspects of coach travel are the most important for university students/passengers. By
this information, transportation companies can focus their efforts to improve especially
those aspects of coach travel that research participants stated as most important.
This research is important because it helps both, transportation companies who provide
coach travel services and passengers who use them at the end. Because coach
travel is one of the most important ways of transportation in Bosnia and Herzegovina
(maybe the most important one), it is crucial thing to make it attractive, affordable,
comfortable and safe. This research gives its contribution to this very important issue.
1.2
Objectives of the study
We can identify several objectives of this research. First of all, objective of the research
was to find out what factors or what aspects of coach travel are most important
for university students/passengers in Sarajevo when they use coach travel services
on intercity lines, international lines, students’ trips and any other kind of journeys by
coach. They were asked to fulfill the survey and to rate importance of specific factors
such as price, crew, safety, etc.
Next, one of objectives of the study was to investigate and to find out level of university
students’ satisfaction with coach travel services of Bosnian transportation companies
they travel with. University students were also asked to give their comments, proposals,
suggestions, critics and experiences (good or bad). These comments were greatly
useful in the process of data analysis and commenting of final results.
Finally, this research was done in order to find out what are the most common problems
that passengers and transportation companies are facing with, and to try to provide
some new ideas, proposals or possible solutions for those problems. There were no
a lot of researches like this in the past in Bosnia and Herzegovina, so this one is very
important in process of illumination of coach travel sector and passengers’ satisfaction
in it in this country.
2.
Literature review
There are number of articles and other kinds of works written about bus and coach
travel. Anyway, there are more articles that are examining issues in public and urban
transportation, and less about coach travel. We already differentiated these two
terms, but in order to get closer to the topic of transportation of people, in this section
we will also review some articles that are focused on bus transportation, urban and
public transport.
Bodiono (2009) was writing about passengers’ satisfaction in public bus transport in
Indonesia. The overall result showed that service quality attributes influences overall
customer satisfaction in using public bus transport. The service quality could be
evaluated and improved by analyzing single attributes but also by analyzing factors
based on several attributes. The overall aim is to make public bus transport an attractive,
satisfied, and marketable mode of transport. (Budiono, 2009)
120 ICESoS 2016 - Proceedings Book
�Regional Economic Development: Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Yusof et al. (2014) investigated factors that are affecting students’ satisfaction towards
bus services in University of Utara, Malaysia. The objective of this study was to explore
factors that influence student satisfaction on bus services in University Utara Malaysia
(UUM). A factor analysis yielded three factors which are attitude of bus driver, reliability
of the buses and facilities of buses. (Zahayu Md Yusof, Masnita Misiran, Lee Pei Pei and
Ho Tian Tian, 2014)
Woldeamanuel and Cyganski (2011) were writing about factors affecting travelers’
satisfaction with accessibility to public transportation. This research is similar to previous
two. Authors state that accessibility to public transportation is one of the important
attributes to assess the effectiveness of a transit system and the integration of
transportation with land use. The level of accessibility can be a determining factor
for users‟ perception and satisfaction with the overall transit system. (Mintesnot
Woldeamanuel and Rita Cyganski, 2011)
Islam et al. (2014) conducted a study about measuring costumers’ satisfaction on
bus transportation. The purpose of the study was to examine the factors measuring
customers’ satisfaction, especially the impact of service quality on customers’
satisfaction in public transportation industry in the university town of Sintok located in
Kedah province of Malaysia. (Rabiul Islam, Mohammed S. Chowdhury, Mohammad
Sumann Sarker and Salauddin Ahmed, 2014) Authors say that service quality attributes
influences overall customer satisfaction in using public bus transport.
In March 2011, Passenger Focus, which is independent national passenger web site,
wanted to get a better understanding of coach passenger needs and experiences
in Great Britain, so it commissioned preliminary research. This included identifying
any improvements which could be made and how complaints were handled. Focus
groups and depth interviews were undertaken with users several transportation
companies in UK. (Coach passengers needs and experiences, 2011) Results indicated
that participants of the survey used the coach because it was significantly cheaper
than other modes. Also, they mentioned other advantages of travelling by coach:
getting a seat is always guaranteed, the seats can be comfortable; coach travel can
be a stress free and relaxing experience and the time can be used to work or read.
(Coach passengers needs and experiences, 2011) Authors claim that coach travel is
one of the most affordable kinds of transportation.
3.
Coach travel overview
In order to define coach travel correctly, it is necessary to define a term “coach”.
Before that, terms “coach” and “bus” have to be distinguished. In Bosnian language
there is no difference between these two terms, but in English language it is important
to differentiate them.
Coaches and buses are both used for carrying passengers from place to place.
The differences between a bus and a coach may be hard to recognize, especially
when coaches are often confusedly referred to as buses and the terms are used
interchangeably. However, buses and coaches differ in service, comfort and pricing.
(Gianino) In American English, the word “bus” may refer to any form of public transport
by road, be it a short ride through New York City or a coast-to-coast marathon. (Bus
and Coach Travel in Europe: Understanding the difference, 2011)
Things are a little different in European English. A “bus route” is essentially a local
service, geared to local traffic. You cannot normally reserve seats in advance. A
“coach service,” by contrast, is usually a longer-distance service, often one where
advance booking is recommended (even if often not absolutely necessary) and
usually operated by a vehicle that has more comfortable seating than you would find
on a local bus service.
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(Bus and Coach Travel in Europe: Understanding the difference, 2011) Unlike transit
buses designed for shorter journeys, coaches often have a luggage hold that is separate
from the passenger cabin and are normally equipped with facilities required for longer
trips, including comfortable seats and sometimes a toilet. (Wikipedia - Coach, 2016)
The term “coach” was previously used for a horse-drawn carriage designed for the
conveyance of more than one passenger, the passengers’ luggage, and mail that is
covered for protection from the elements. (Coach (Bus), 2016) Coach development
could only benefit from the improvement in roads. Before turnpike trusts, coaches had
been un-sprung and any journey in them was very uncomfortable as there was no
suspension. Basically a wooden carriage, aided by four wooden wheels, was used to
move people or produce. (Treuman, 2016)
The world’s first motorized bus went into service on 18 March 1895. Father of it was Carl
Benz. Technically speaking, the world’s first motorized bus was in fact a converted
passenger car model, fitted with what was known as a landau body – a design very
familiar at that time as a carriage body. It was powered by a horizontal single-cylinder
rear-mounted engine with an output of 5 hp. The drive to the rear wheels was provided
by chains. The bus had space for eight people, including the driver. (Mercedes Benz
- first motorized bus) Today’s coaches are equipped with toilets, Wi-Fi, comfortable
seats, air condition, kitchen, fridge, TV and audio systems, and many more things. Buses
and coaches are an integral part of public transport and travel, and key elements in
a sustainable transport system. (The role of bus and coach transport in mobility chain)
Methodology
4.
This study was occupied with university students who are studying in Sarajevo. Reason
for choosing university students for research sample is because they represent
important part of passengers’ population in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They travel from
their home towns to Sarajevo and of course, they use coach travel services. They also
organize student trips and excursions all around Bosnia and Herzegovina and Europe.
One of reasons why university students in Sarajevo were chosen for research sample
is also because they come from almost every part of the country. Because of that,
we assumed that they represent good and realistic sample of student population in
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to the data of Institute of statistics in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
for 2013, there were 33 919 university students in Sarajevo, studying at State University
and other private education institutions. (FB&H, 2013) According to this, at least 0,01%
of student population has had to be investigated. Total number of respondents was
388 which satisfy the minimum requirements of sample size.
Survey was conducted in order to find out what criteria or factors are most important
for university students in Sarajevo when they use coach travel services on intercity
lines, international lines, student trips and excursions. Also, goal of the survey was to
explore level of satisfaction of university students with quality of coach travel services
of Bosnian transportation companies they travel with, or they have travelled. Survey
was divided into three parts. In first part, students were asked to rate specific criteria
(factors/variables) in terms of importance to their travelling experience. There were six
variables explored in this survey:
-
Price and accessibility
Crew inside of the vehicle
Safety during the trip
Comfort, ergonomics and visual look of the vehicle
Equipment in the vehicle
Speed and accuracy
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Inside of each variable, there were several questions to rate them in terms of importance
to university students’ coach travelling experience. Participants were asked to rate
them form 1 – not important to 5 –very important. In second part of survey, students
were asked to rate their level of satisfaction with coach travel services of Bosnian
transportation companies from 1 – very dissatisfied to 5 – very satisfied. Third part of
survey was actually open question for students to give their suggestions, proposals,
experiences and comments. This was very useful in process of interpretation and
commenting of the results.
5.
Results
Quantitative data was collected from university student respondents’ surveys. Data
was analyzed in Microsoft Excel using means and standard deviations, as well as
comparing the means of male and female respondents. Total number of respondents
was 388. Respondents were asked to give their information about gender, age and
current study program. Surveys were collected via online methods using Google
Forms tool for making questionnaires, and via visiting universities, students’ flats and
dormitories.
5.1
Analysis of variables
In the table below, we can see that „speed and accuracy“ variable has the biggest
value of mean (4,213). „Crew inside of the vehicle“ is second with mean of 3,986.
„Safety during the trip“ is on third place with mean of 3,923. „Comfort, ergonomics and
visual look of the vehicle“ has mean of 3,766. Fifht variable is „price and accessibility“
with mean of 3,601. Equipment in the vehicle has the lowest mean (3,189).
Table 1: Analysis of variables
VARIABLES
Price and accessibility
Crew inside the vehicle
Safety during the trip
Comfort, ergonomics and visual look of the vehicle
Equipment in the vehicle
Speed and accuracy
MEAN
3,601
3,986
3,923
3,766
3,189
4,213
ST. DEV.
1,123
0,972
1,060
1,048
1,218
1,046
From these results, we can conclude that speed and accuracy are most important
element of coach travel for unversity students. Speed and accuracy of transportation
companies are factors that can affect some other aspects of life of passengers. If there
are delays in transportation of people, some other obligations and issues can suffer
because of that. It is so important for university students to have fast and accurate
coach travel, especially on regular bus lines (intercity, for example). During touristic
journeys and other student trips, delays can be more accepted than during regular
bus lines.
From the figure below, we can see graphical view of average means and standard
deviations of each of six variable. We can notice that variable with highest value
of mean actually has the second lowest value of standard deviation, and variable
with lowest mean actually has the highest value of standard deviation. This value of
standard deviation for „speed and accuracy“ variable supports reability and validity
issues of the research. Second most important factor for university students is nice and
friendly crew inside of the vehicle. It is important for them to have kind and helpfulness
drivers or tour leaders who will always be communicative.
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Figure 1: Analysis of variables
5.2
Comparative analysis of variables
In this section, data gathered from male and female respondents will be compared
in order to find out what aspects of coach travel are most important for male and for
female university students. As we can see form the table below, speed and accuracy
are the most important factors of coach travel for both, male and female univirsity
students, but this factor is more important for female than for male respondents. We
can also notice that means for females are higher than means of males in each
variable except equipment in the vehicle. That means that five of six factors of coach
travel are more important for female than for male university students.
Table 2: Comparative analysis of variables
VARIABLES
Price and accessibility
Crew inside the vehicle
Safety during the trip
Comfort, ergonomics and visual look of the vehicle
Equipment in the vehicle
Speed and accuracy
Male
3,597
3,916
3,781
3,770
3,229
4,171
Female
3,615
4,073
4,079
3,892
3,158
4,272
In the figure below, we can see graphicall view of average means of male and
female respondents for each variable. Only equipment in the vehicle, which is actually
variable with lowest importance for university students, was more important for males
than for females. We can say that femeale university students are more demanding
kind of passengers than male university students.
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Figure 2: Comparative analysis of variables
5.3
Analysis of university students’ satisfaction in coach travel in B&H
In this section of the study, second objective of the research will be examined. Overall
level of university students’ satisfaction with Bosnian transportation companies they
travel with or they had travelled will be discovered.
In the table below, we can see means and standard deviations of each of six question
regarding university students’ satisfaction with Bosnian transportation companies.
Safety during the trip has the biggest value of mean (3,046) which means that university
students are the mostly satisfied with feeling of safety when they travel by some of
Bosnian transportation companies. Research showed that university students are the
least satisfied with comfort and quality of vehicles in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Table 3: Students’ satisfaction with Bosnian transportation companies
Students’ satisfaction with Bosnian
transportation companies
Comfort and quality of vehicles
Attitude of crew toward passenger
Accuracy in timetable
Safety during trips
Prices of tickets and trips
Generally
MEAN
2,879
ST. DEV.
1,175
2,701
2,899
2,863
3,046
2,892
2,874
1,174
1,169
1,172
1,200
1,234
1,098
In the figure below we can see graphical view of means and standard deviations of
each question regarding university students’ satisfaction with Bosnian transportation
companies. We can see that the biggest value of mean is only 3,046 (safety during
the trips). University students are the least satified with comfort and quality of vehicles.
At the end, according to average mean (2,879) we can conclude that university
students are very little satisfied or neither satisfied nor dissatified with quality of Bosnian
transportation companies.
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Figure 3 Students’ satisfaction with Bosnian transportation companies
5.4
Comparative analysis of university students’ satisfaction in coach travel in B&H
In this section, data gathered from male and female respondents will be compared in
order to find out which of these two groups has higher level of satisfaction with Bosnian
transportation companies. From the table below, we can see that females’ means
have lower values than males’ means in each of six questions regarding university
students’ satisfaction with Bosnian transportation companies. Average mean of males
is 2,953 while average mean of females is 2,790.
Table 4: Comparative analysis of students’ satisfaction with Bosnian transportation
companies
University students’ satisfaction with Bosnian
transportation companies
Comfort and quality of vehicle
Attitude of crew toward passenger
Accuracy in timetable
Safety during trips
Prices of tickets and trips
Generally
Male
2,953
2,838
2,984
2,874
3,188
2,906
2,927
Female
2,790
2,545
2,802
2,847
2,899
2,859
2,787
We can conclude that female university students passengers are less satisfied with
Bosnian transportation companies than male university students passengers. Not only
that, females are also more demanding than males, regarding importance of variables
that were investigated in the main part of research.
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Figure 4 Comparative analysis of students’ satisfaction with Bosnian transportation
companies
6.
Conclusion
After detailed process of analyzing and commenting of collected data, we can
conclude that transportation sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina still needs a lot of
improvements. Focus of the study was on coach travel and passengers’ on-board
experience. After carefull analysis, we can say that research showed that speed and
accuracy are the most important factors that make university students satisfied when
they use coach travel seriveces. Respondents stated that this element of coach travel
has significant importance to their coach travelling experience. Second important
factor which affects their satisfaction is crew inside the vehicle. Behavior of coach
driver or any other member of crew is significantly important for university students.
Feeling of safety during the trip is third most important element of overall travelling
experience of university students. After these elements, we have comfort, ergonomics
and visual look of the vehicle; price of tickets and trips; and equipment in the vehicle.
It is interesting to mention that all variables except equipment in the vehicle are more
important for female respondents than for male respondents, so we can conclude
that female university students are more demanding than males.
When we talk about university students’ satisfaction with Bosnian transportation
companies they travel with or they have trevalled, research clearly indicated that
university students are not so satisfied with domestic coach travel. It is also interesting
to mention that female students are less satisfied than male students in each of
six investigated questions regarding their satisfaction with Bosnian transportation
companies. This research clearly showed what aspects of coach travel transportation
companies should pay attention to.
6.1
Research limitations and recommandations for future studies
This study was occupied with experiences and opinions of university students who are
studying in Sarajevo. Other groups of passengers were not included into this research.
That is exactly first limitation to this study. All results are based only on responds of
university students in Sarajevo who are between 18 and 30 years old. Second limitation
to the study is that university students from other cities were not included in this research.
University students in Sarajevo were chosen to be a sample for the research because
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they come from all parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, not including university
students form other cities in the research is surely one of limitations to this study.
However, according to the number of respondents who participated in the research,
we can freely say that research was effective and successful. In order to investigate
overall level of students’ satisfaction in coach travel in Bosnia and Herzegovina, future
researches should include university students from all other university cities in the
country. Of course, it will demand larger sample of university students. Also, all other
groups of passengers (workers, pensioners) should be included in the research in order
to find out a general level of satisfaction of passengers in Bosnia and Herzegovina and
what criteria are most important for passengers when they use coach travel services.
References
• Budiono, O. A. (2009). Costumer satisfaction in public bus transport - a study of
travelers’ perception in Indonesia.
• Bus and Coach Travel in Europe: Understanding the difference. (2011,
November 23). Retrieved May 8, 2016, from www.eurocheapo.com: http://
www.eurocheapo.com/blog/bus-and-coach-travel-in-europe-understandingthe-difference.html
• Coach (Bus). (2016). Preuzeto 9. May 2016 iz Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coach_(bus)
• Coach passengers needs and experiences. (June 2011). Preuzeto 9. May 2016 iz
Passenger Focus: http://www.transportfocus.org.uk/
• FB&H, I. f. (2013). Higher education in federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Preuzeto
11.
May
2016
iz
http://www.fzs.ba/god_bilteni/Visoko%20
obrazovanje%20u%20F%20BiH%202012-2013.pdf
• Gianino, L. (n.d.). The Differences Between a Bus and a Coach. Retrieved May
8, 2016, from www.ehow.com: http://www.ehow.com/list_7406698_differencesbetween-bus-coach.html
• Mercedes Benz - first motorized bus. (n.d.). Preuzeto 9. May 2016 iz Mercedes Benz:
https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/mercedes-benz/lifestyle/mercedesbenz-magazines/classic-magazine/the-first-motorized-bus-dating-back-to-1895was-a-benz/
• Mintesnot Woldeamanuel and Rita Cyganski. (2011). FACTORS AFFECTING
TRAVELLERS’ SATISFACTION WITH ACCESSIBILITY TO PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.
Association For European Transport and Contributors .
• Rabiul Islam, Mohammed S. Chowdhury, Mohammad Sumann Sarker and
Salauddin Ahmed. (2014). MEASURING CUSTOMER’S SATISFACTION ON BUS
TRANSPORTATION. American Journal of Economics and Business Administration .
• The role of bus and coach transport in mobility chain. (n.d.). Preuzeto 9. May
2016 iz Bus and Coach Travel:http://www.busandcoach.travel/download/
promotional_material/en/Bus%20and%20Coach%20in%20the%20mobility%20
chain.pdf
• Treuman, C. N. (2016). Coaches 1750 to 1900. Preuzeto 9. May 2016 iz The
History Learning Site: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/britain-1700-to-1900/
transport-1750-to-1900/coaches-1750-to-1900/
• Wikipedia - Coach. (2016). Preuzeto 8. May 2016 iz Wikipedia, the free
encyklopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coach_(bus)
• Zahayu Md Yusof, Masnita Misiran, Lee Pei Pei and Ho Tian Tian. (2014). Factors
affecting students’ satisfaction towards bus services in University. Research
Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology .
128 ICESoS 2016 - Proceedings Book
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PASSENGERS’ SATISFACTION IN COACH TRAVEL IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA - STUDY ON PERCEPTION OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN SARAJEVO
Author
Author
Catic, Adis
Smajic, Edin
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Abstract: Transportation of people was always very important aspect of human life. Today, there are many ways in which people can travel. This paper was occupied with coach travel, and passengers’ satisfaction in it in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A coach is a type of vehicle used for carrying passengers on excursions, touristic journeys and trips, and on other long distance journeys such as intercity or international bus lines. The goal of this study was to find out level of passengers’ satisfaction in coach travel in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and what is most important for passengers when they use coach travel services - is it price, speed, safety, comfort, or something else. Study was performed on perception of university students in Sarajevo, because they are representative sample of passengers’ population in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Focus of the study was on “on board experience”, which is actually experience of passengers while they are inside of the vehicle. Research clearly indicated what aspects of coach travel are most important for passengers, and also suggested some proposals that can make coach travel more competitive and attractive.
Date
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2016-04
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
H Social Sciences (General),HD Industries. Land use. Labor
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PDF Text
Text
Attitudes Toward Humanities and Social Sciences and Their Relationship
With English Competence
Hakan Aydoğan & Azamat Akbarov
Mugla Sıtkı Koçman University/Turkey & International Burch University/Bosnia and
Herzegovina
Abstract. Humanities and social sciences are mostly regarded as ''soft sciences''. Females
have greater interest in them compared to males. Because linguistic (in this paper, English
language studies) belongs to both humanities and social sciences, the present study aims to
examine the relationship of students' estimates of English competence and their attitudes
toward humanities and social sciences. The sample consists of 157 participants (88 females
and 69 males).Who are at tertiarry level in Turkey. The obtained results reflect no gender
differences in students' attitudes toward English and Turkish language; however, significant
gender differences were found in their attitudes toward literature, psychology, sociology and
pedagogy. Participants' attitudes toward humanities and socal aciences were in significant
relationships with all aspects of self-reported English competence. In addition, self-reported
grammar skills were the best predictor of attitudes towards the English language.
Keywords: English competence, humanities, social sciences, gender differences.
INTRODUCTION
Humanities and social sciences differ from the group of natural science in terms of their
inputs and outputs. Humanities and social sciences study human phenomena and social
interactions while natural sciences study natural objects/processes (Huang & Chang, 2008).
The first group of disciplines sometimes use statistical procedures borrowed from natural
sciences. In this way; they become more reliable, objective and valid. Jones, Champman and
Woods (1972) stated that natural sciences can be classified as ''hard science'', whereas
humanities and social sciences are in fact ''soft sciences''.
There are some gender differences in interest in social sciences and humanities. A metaanalytic study conducted by Su, Rounds and Armstrong (2009) showed that female students
have more interest in arts and social sciences in relation to male students. On the other hand,
males like engineering, mathematics and science. Females want to help other people and like
�to work with people instead of things (Jones, Howe, & Rua, 2000). Hence, women have more
positive attitudes toward humanities and social sciences compared to men.
Humanities include languages, literature, arts, etc. Social sciences include: psychology,
sociology,
pedagogy,
economics,
anthropology
and
similar
disciplines.
English
languagebelongs to both humanities and social sciences (because some topics covered by
linguistics can be examined quantitatively). Thus, it is important to examine students' attitudes
toward humanities and social sciences and their relationship with English proficiency.
However, there are only few studies and discussions that dealt with this kind of relationship.
Aydoğan and Gupta (2014) carried out a study on the impact of humanities and social
sciences on foreign language learning and self-reported oral intelligence. The results of this
study indicated a high level of appreciation for humanities and social sciences among students
and a high level of self-reported English proficiency as well as oral intelligence.
Akay and Toraman (2015) examined attitudes toward the English language and they found
that, in general, students of humanities and social sciences had very positive attitudes toward
this language. In addition, their study did not reveal statistically significant gender differences
in this kind of attitudes.
Liking literature facilitates the process of learning foreign language (such as English). In other
words, reading stories and novels, analyzing main points of their authors helps students think
in English and expresses their own thoughts in this language. Therefore, literature is related to
a pragmatic aspect of language (Bataineh, 2014). Ariogul (2011)and Lázár (2003) stressed
the importance of intercultural topics and communicative competence related to the
interaction with people who have distinct cultural backgrounds in learning English. Thus,
there should be positive attitude toward sociology and psychology in order to like, understand
and respect different cultures.
As for the aspects of the English language, TOEFL (this acronym stands for ''Test of English
as a foreign language''), for instance, takes into account reading, listening, writing, and
speaking skills. Additionally, there are vocabulary and grammar items that are believed to be
adequately covered within the TOEFL examination. However, traditional pedagogies usually
focus on teaching grammar (Sawir, 2005). Hence, students' perceptions and estimates of their
grammar skills can be crucial to their attitudes toward the English language.
�This study is devoted to the exploration of relationships of students' attitudes toward social
sciences and humanities with their English competence. This is, thus, the aim of our study.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES
Based on the previous research and the aim of the present study, the following research
questions were posed:
1. Do students' attitudes toward humanities and social sciences correlate with their
subjective estimates of English competence?
2. Are there any gender differences in these attitudes?
3. What is the best predictor of positive attitudes toward the English language?
Likewise, the subsequent hypotheses were defined:
1. Students' attitudes toward humanities (literature as well as English and Turkish
language) and social sciences (psychology, sociology, and pedagogy) are in positive
and statistically significant correlations with subjective estimates of different elements
of English competence (reading, writing, listening, speaking, grammar, and
vocabulary).
2. Gender differences in attitudes toward humanities and social sciences are statistically
significant, in favor of female students.
3. The best predictor of attitudes toward the English language is students' estimate of
their grammar competence/skills.
METHOD
Sample
the present study was carried out on a sample of 157 students who attend to a State university
in Turkey. Their mean age was calculated as M = 21.92 (SD = 2.73). Participants' ages ranged
from 18 to 30 years of age. Information on students' gender and year of study is shown in
Figure 1.
�29
30
24
25
20
18
15
15
15
14
Males
12
11
10
6
6
Females
5
5
2
0
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
Figure 1. Participants' gender and year of study
Figure 1 shows that the subsample of females (N = 88, 56.05% of the whole sample)
outnumbers the subsample of males (N = 69, i.e. 43.95%). Most of the participants were at the
second year of study (N = 44, 28.03% of the total number of participants). The least number
of participants was at the sixth year of study (N = 7, i.e. 4.46%).
Instruments
For the purpose of this study, three instruments were administered among students. The first
one ('demographics') included three questions on participants' gender, ageand year of study.
The second and the third one were made in order to answer research questions of the present
study:
Attitudes toward humanities and social science's scale (ATHSS)are comprised of six items
(see Appendix 1 at the end of this article). The first three items are: English language, Turkish
language, and literature. Actually, they represent humanities. The last three items are:
psychology, sociology, and pedagogy. They belong to social sciences. In fact, the ATHSS
measures affective component of attitudes to humanities and social sciences. Students decided
to what extent, they like each of these six academic disciplines. Each item includes a fivepoint Likert scale (1 – 'completely dislike' to 5 – 'like very much'). Internal consistency of this
instrument, expressed as Cronbach's alpha coefficient, is calculated as α = .842. Hence, the
ATHSS is a reliable measure of this kind of attitudes.
�Self-reported English competence scale (SRECS)is a scale consisted of six items as well
(please, look at the Appendix 2). The items are, in fact, the English skills that are regularly
assessed by TOEFL (reading, writing, listening, and speaking), with the addition of grammar
and vocabulary. Participants are expected to provide estimates of their competence related to
these aspects of the English language. As before, there is a five-point Likert scale (1 –
'insufficient', 2 – 'sufficient', 3 – 'good', 4 – 'very good', and 5 – 'excellent'). Cronbach's alpha
coefficient, as a measure of the SRECS' reliability (internal consistency), is α = .835.
Therefore, the SRECS has a very good internal consistency.
Procedure and data processing
The instruments described above were administered to students at tertiary level in Turkey. It
took them 8-10 minutes to fill in their data and to express their attitudes toward the
aforementioned scientific disciplines as well as estimates of English competence. The data
were collected along with the protection of confidentiality and anonymity related to
participants' identity as well as the answers they provided.
Later, data were entered into SPSS 17.0 for Win where the database was created. Three
statistical procedures were used in order to examine data: Pearson's coefficient of correlation
(r), independent-samples t test, and multiple regression analysis (MRA). Before these
procedures, the main descriptive statistical values were calculated.
RESULTS
Participants' maximum and minimum scores along with mean values and standard deviations
were shown in the following two tables.
Table 1
Descriptive statistical values of attitudes towards humanities and social sciences
Humanities and social science
N
Min
Max
M
SD
English language
157
1
5
3.81
0.82
Turkish language
157
2
5
3.99
0.78
Literature
157
1
5
3.85
0.88
Psychology
157
1
5
3.87
0.86
Sociology
157
2
5
3.90
0.88
Pedagogy
157
1
5
3.84
0.90
�The theoretical mean of the five-point Likert scale is 3. As shown in Table 1, mean values of
all variables were above 3 (attitudes toward the English language: M = 3.81 to attitudes
toward the Turkish language: M = 3.99). Participants' scores ranged from 1 to 5 in four
variables; on the other hand, from 2 to 5 in the attitudes toward the Turkish language and
sociology. In general, participants' attitudes (in particular, their affective component) toward
humanities and social sciences are positive.
Table 2
Descriptive statistical values of self-reported English competence
Components of English competence
N
Min
Max
M
SD
Reading
157
1
5
3.85
0.83
Writing
157
2
5
3.84
0.88
Listening
157
2
5
3.91
0.78
Speaking
157
2
5
3.89
0.86
Grammar
157
1
5
3.73
0.89
Vocabulary
157
2
5
3.85
0.72
It is clear (Table 2) that students estimated their English skills/competence as above the
average: M = 3.91 (listening), M = 3.89 (speaking), M = 3.85 (reading and vocabulary), M =
3.84 (writing), and M = 3.73 (grammar). The range of participants' scores with regard to
reading and grammar is 1 to 5 and in all other cases, it is 2 to 5.
Table 3
Correlations of attitudes toward humanities with self-reported English competence
English language
Turkish language
Literature
Reading
.421*
.483*
.314*
Writing
.518*
.446*
.377*
Listening
.365*
.558*
.403*
Speaking
.505*
.390*
.334*
Grammar
.552*
.494*
.564*
Vocabulary
.462*
.487*
.431*
Note. All coefficients of correlation are significant at the level .001
�The figures in Table 3 indicate moderate, positive and statistically significant correlations of
attitudes toward humanities with self-reported English competence/skills. Attitudes toward
the English language had the strongest relationship with subjective estimates of grammar
skills (r(155) = .552, p< .001). Attitudes toward the Turkish language were in the strongest
correlation with students' estimates of their listening skills (r(155) = .558, p < .001). At last,
the correlation coefficient of students' attitudes towards literature and their estimates of
grammar was the highest in the last column of the Table 3 (r(155) = .564, p < .001). Hence,
attitudes toward humanities and self-reported English competence are significantly correlated
to each other.
Table 4
Correlations of attitudes towardssocial scienceswith self-reported English competence
Psychology
Sociology
Pedagogy
Reading
.568***
.368***
.287***
Writing
.439***
.429***
.203*
Listening
.338***
.260**
.347***
Speaking
.405***
.512***
.284***
Grammar
.498***
.450***
.307***
Vocabulary
.403***
.453***
.320***
Note. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001
By examining Table 4, favourable, low to moderate and statistically important coefficients of
correlation can be noticed. Attitudes toward psychology were in the strongest correlation with
self-reported reading skills (r(155) = .568, p < .001), whereas attitudes toward sociology
correlated the most with self-reported speaking skills (r(155) = .512, p < .001). Finally,
students' attitudes to pedagogy were in the strongest correlation with their estimates of
listening skills (r(155) = .347, p < .001).
Gender differences in attitudes to both humanities and social sciences were examined by
independent-samples t - test and shown in tables 5 and 6 below.
Looking at the Table 5, the significant gender differences can be noticed only in attitudes
towards literature (t(155) = -2.40, p< .05). Females' mean value was higher (M = 4.00) in
relation to males' mean value (M = 3.67).
�Table 5
Gender differences in attitudes toward humanities
Humanities
English language
Turkish language
Literature
Gender
N
M
SD
Males
69
3.71
0.86
Females
88
3.89
0.78
Males
69
3.87
0.89
Females
88
4.09
0.67
Males
69
3.67
0.85
Females
88
4.00
0.87
t
-1.34
-1.78
-2.40*
Note. * p < .05
However, female students had higher mean values for the English (M = 3.89) and Turkish
language (M = 4.09), compared to male students (M = 3.71 and M = 3.87, respectively).
Notwithstanding, differences between them were not statistically significant.
Table 6
Gender differences in attitudes toward social sciences
Humanities
Psychology
Sociology
Pedagogy
Gender
N
M
SD
Males
69
3.65
0.94
Females
88
4.03
0.75
Males
69
3.61
0.89
Females
88
4.14
0.79
Males
69
3.59
0.83
Females
88
4.03
0.90
t
-2.84*
-3.92**
-3.14*
Note. * p < .01; ** p < .001
It was found that all gender differences in attitudes toward social sciences were statistically
significant, in favor of females (Table 6): M = 4.03 vs. M = 3.65, t(155) = -2.84, p< .01
(psychology), M = 4.14 vs. M = 3.61, t(155) = -3.92, p< .001 (sociology), and M = 4.03 vs. M
= 3.59, t(155) = -3.14, p< .01 (pedagogy).
All components of English competence were entered into multiple regression analysis in order
to examine their predictive validity related to attitudes toward the English language, that were
the criterion variable (Table 7).
�Table 7
Six components of English competence as predictors of attitudes toward the English language
Unstandardized coefficients
Standardized coefficients
Beta (β)
t
B
Std.Error
Constant
.661
.333
Reading
.019
.079
.019
0.24
Writing
.172
.081
.185
2.12*
Listening
.087
.079
.083
1.11
Speaking
.210
.074
.222
2.86**
Grammar
.218
.079
.238
2.75**
Vocabulary
.116
.102
.102
1.14
R = .652 R2 = .425
1.98*
F(6, 150) = 18.48***
Note. * p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001
Referring to Table 7, it can be said that the regression model with six predictors was
statistically significant (F(6, 150) = 18.48, p< .001). The coefficient of multiple correlations is
R = .652 and the coefficient of multiple determinations is R2= .425. Therefore, these
predictors account for 42.5% of criterion's variance.In other words, self-reported reading,
writing, listening, speaking, grammar and vocabulary competence (taken together) explain
42.5% of students' attitudes towards the English language.
Additionally, it appears that there are three statistically significant predictors: grammar (β =
.238, t = 2.75, p< .01), speaking (β = .222, t = 2.86, p < .01), and writing (β = .185, t = 2.12,
p< .05). As expected before, self-reported grammar skills were the best predictor of students'
attitudes toward the English language.
DISCUSSION
The first part of our findings reflect students' positive attitudes towards humanities and social
sciences. This result is in accordance with that of Aydoğan and Gupta (2014). Humanities and
social sciences are not as difficult as natural sciences and this finding can be explained by this
notion.
The second part of our results includes moderate, positive, and statistically significant
correlations between students' attitudes towards humanities/social sciences and their selfreported English competence (reading, writing, speaking, listening, vocabulary and grammar
�skills). Akay and Torman (2015) found more positive attitudes towards English and higher
competence in English among students of humanities and social sciences compared to those
who studied engineering and architecture. Hence, our results overlapped with theirs.
Therefore, the first hypothesis was confirmed.
The present study did not yield statistically significant gender differences in attitudes toward
English and Turkish language. Neither Akay and Toraman (2015) get significant gender
differences in attitudes toward the English language. One of the possible explanations is the
following one: learning English is important for both males and females because the English
language is the lingua franca of the 21st-century society. Their similar results with regard to
the Turkish language were presumably influenced by students' nationality and tight
connection to their country (i.e. Turkey). However, there were statistically significant
differences favoring females in their attitudes toward literature, psychology, pedagogy and
sociology. This part of findings can be explained by empirically-based conclusions provided
by Su, Rounds and Armstrong (2009) as well as Jones, Howe and Rua (2000): females are
more interested in social sciences and working with people rather than in natural sciences and
working with things (objects). Thus, the second hypothesis was partially confirmed.
In the end, students' estimates of six elements of their English competence significantly
contribute to the explanation of their attitudes toward the English language. The best predictor
was the estimate of their grammar skills. Because this aspect (component) of English
language is in the limelight of traditional pedagogies (Sawir, 2005), this finding is not
surprising. Hence, the third hypothesis was confirmed.
The implications rose from this research are the following:
1. Students should use their knowledge of humanities and social sciences while reading
stories, passages, movies and other learning materials in English classes that are
related to introducing various cultures, customs and nations.
2. It seems that gender stereotypes still influence gender differences in attitudes towards
humanities and social science (with the exception for English and Turkish language).
3. Difficulties with regard to English grammar apprehension affect students' general
attitudes toward the English language.
Some strengths of this research are linked to the examination of a topic that was rarely
investigated before. The prime limitation of this study is the nature of self-reported
�measuresof English competence. Objective tests of English knowledge and skills (for each of
its components separately) should be used thereafter. This is, at the same time, the most
important recommendation for future research on this topic.
CONCLUSION
If these results can be appropriately generalized, Turkish students like humanities (literature,
as well as English and Turkish language) and social sciences (psychology, pedagogy, and
sociology). Participants who have very positive attitudes towards these scientific disciplines
estimate their English competence (reading, writing, speaking, listening, grammar and
vocabulary) as pretty high, and vice versa. There were some gender differences, as well.
Female students have more positive attitudes to literature, sociology, psychology and
pedagogy in relation to male students.
Finally, there were three significant predictors for participants' attitudes toward the English
language: self-reported writing, speaking, and grammar skills. Their estimates of grammar
skills were the best predictor. Further studies will shed light on other impacts on students'
attitudes toward the English language (e.g. academic self-efficacy, previous knowledge,
students' previous experience with native English speakers, etc.).
REFERENCES
Akay, E.& Toraman, Ç. (2015). Students’ attitudes towards learning English grammar: A
study of scale development: Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 11(2), 67-82.
Ariogul, S. (2011). The teaching of reading through short stories in advanced classes.
Unpublished M.A. thesis, Ankara: Hacettepe University.
Aydoğan, H. & Gupta, S. (2014). Impact of humanities and social sciences on foreign
language learning and verbal intelligence: A model study on Bosnian and Turkish students.
The Journal of Teaching English for Specific and Academic Purposes, 2, 661-670.
Bataineh, A. (2014). The effect of teaching literature on EFL students' pragmatic competence.
Journal of Education and Practice, 5, 137-156.
Huang, M. & Chang, Y. (2008). Characteristics of research output in social sciences and
humanities: From a research evaluation perspective. Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology, 59, 1819-1828.
�Jones, C., Champman, M., & Woods, P. C. (1972). The characteristics of the literature used
by historians. Journal of Librarianship, 4(3), 137–156.
Jones, M. G., Howe, A., & Rua, M. J. (2000). Gender differences in students' experiences,
interests and attitudes toward science and scientists. Sci Ed, 84, 180-192.
Lázár, I. (2003). Incorporating intercultural communicative competence in language teacher
education. Strasbourg: European Centre of Modern Languages – Council of Europe
Publishing.
Sawir, E. (2005). Language difficulties of international students in Australia: The effects of
prior learning experience. International Education Journal, 6, 567-580.
Su, R., Rounds, J., & Armstrong, P. I. (2009). Men and things, women and people: A metaanalysis of sex differences in interests. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 859-884.
APPENDIX 1
Attitudes toward humanities and social sciences scale (ATHSS)
Instructions for participants:
Please indicate to which extent you like the following academic disciplines/subjects (1 –
completely dislike, 2 – dislike, 3 – neither like nor dislike, 4 – like, 5 – like very much):
English language
1
2
3
4
5
Turkish language 1
2
3
4
5
Literature
1
2
3
4
5
Psychology
1
2
3
4
5
Sociology
1
2
3
4
5
Pedagogy
1
2
3
4
5
�APPENDIX 2
Self-reported English competence scale (SRECS)
Instructions for participants:
Please indicate the level of your competence, knowledge and skills in the following categories
related to the English language (1 – insufficient, 2 – sufficient, 3 – good, 4 – very good, 5 –
excellent):
Reading
1
2
3
4
5
Writing
1
2
3
4
5
Listening
1
2
3
4
5
Speaking
1
2
3
4
5
Grammar
1
2
3
4
5
Vocabulary
1
2
3
4
5
�
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Attitudes Toward Humanities and Social Sciences and Their Relationship With English Competence
Author
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Aydoğan, Hakan
Akbarov, Azamat
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Humanities and social sciences are mostly regarded as ''soft sciences''. Females have greater interest in them compared to males. Because linguistic (in this paper, English language studies) belongs to both humanities and social sciences, the present study aims to examine the relationship of students' estimates of English competence and their attitudes toward humanities and social sciences. The sample consists of 157 participants (88 females and 69 males).Who are at tertiarry level in Turkey. The obtained results reflect no gender differences in students' attitudes toward English and Turkish language; however, significant gender differences were found in their attitudes toward literature, psychology, sociology and pedagogy. Participants' attitudes toward humanities and socal aciences were in significant relationships with all aspects of self-reported English competence. In addition, self-reported grammar skills were the best predictor of attitudes towards the English language. Keywords: English competence, humanities, social sciences, gender differences.
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International Burch University
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2016-04-02
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PE English
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https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/580e199ff2b57d69c7a073b9244957d7.pdf
202d722735ba964d09a84f7029e9c431
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Text
Tense and Gender production in Arabic-Speaking Aphasics
Hisham Adam
American University of the Middle East, Kuwait
Abstract:
The current study aims at examining the tense and agreement patterns as produced by
agrammatic Palestinian-Arabic speakers using sentence completion tasks. The participants
were presented with two sentences and asked to work on them. The first sentence included an
inflected verb for both tense and agreement. In the second sentence, the participants were
requested to complete a missing verb, where the temporal adverb or the subject’s person,
gender, or number was changed. The findings revealed that the agrammatic speakers showed
a significant dissociation between tense and agreement, whereby tense was significantly more
impaired compared to agreement inflections. Similar results are reported from other
languages. The results provide further evidence of Tree Pruning Hypothesis (TPH) that
functional categories associated with upper nodes in the syntactic tree are more impaired than
functional categories associated with the lower nodes of the tree. The selective deficits of the
morpho-syntactic structures suggest that specific morphemes should be targeted in therapy
programs.
Keywords: Palestinian Arabic (PA); Agrammatism; Aphasia; Tense and Gender; Tree
Pruning.
1. Introduction
Agrammatism is a language disorder caused by the damage to the left hemisphere of the
brain, particularly in the Broca’s area (Zurif, 1995). It is manifested by the substitution and
omission of free and bound morphemes and deficits in the production of certain functional
categories (Friedmann, 2001; Goodglass, 1972). Several studies have indicated that people
with agrammatism tend to convey their messages by relying on non-linguistic clues
(Grodzinsky, 1984; Goodglass, 1972). However, many other studies have reported that
agrammatic patients can retain the syntactic ability to maintain verbs-subject agreement and
correctly using the object pronoun in some languages (Menn&Obler, 1990).
The selective nature of these syntactic deficits in which some syntactic structures were
preserved while others were impaired in different languages suggests certain limitations of
syntactic theories. For example, It has been reported that a hierarchical pattern of a deficit in
which “complementizers were more impaired than verb tense inflections, and verb tense
inflections were more impaired than verb agreement inflections” (Albustanji, Miliman, Foxi,
&Bourgeois, 2013, p. 94). Tree Pruning Hypothesis (TPH) was originally proposed to assess
the selective morpho-syntactic deficits across agrammatic speakers (Friedmann, 1998, 2002).
�According to TPH, the syntactic tree may be “pruned at various structural levels; a pruned
structural level necessitates impairments at all higher levels (Albustanji, 2009, p.5).
Many psycholinguistic studies have focused on gender-congruency, one of the most puzzling
grammatical categories of a language (Friederici& Jacobsen, 1999; Schriefers&Jescheniak,
1999). Other studies have focused on gender deviations in aphasia and the neural correlates
of gender processing (Miceli, Turriziani, Caltagiron, Capasso, Tomaiuolo, &Caramazza,
2002). Gender is defined as an inherent lexical property of nouns that plays a syntactic role
and is partially related to the meaning and the phonological form of a noun (Caramazza,
Miozzo, Costa, Schiller, &Alario, 2002)
Studies on both Dutch and German agrammatic subjects have highlighted the problems
associated with the production of articles, including omissions and substitutions. Recent
models of language production assume that gender is represented at an autonomous lexical
level (Caramazza, 1997). However, aphasic studies have contradicted such assumptions by
confirming the idea of different representations of gender and phonological information with
different independent levels (Avila, Lambon, Parcet, Geffner, & Gonzales-Darder, 2001).
Accordingly, the errors made by agrammatic patients confirm the distinction between gender
as a stored lexical property and as a feature involved in inflectional processes.
Levelt (1999) suggested that gender information is selected in a sentential context, and the
activation of the phonological representation of a word can be achieved without the need to
access its syntactic features. However, such an assumption is questionable. Kulke and
Blanken (2001) showed that the semantic paraphasias made by aphasic patients in picturenaming tasks present a form of preservation of the grammatical gender of target nouns. This
suggests that information about nominal gender is always selected, even in bare noun
production.
Friedmann et al. (2003) indicated that gender agreement in Hebrew-speaking aphasics when a
paraphasia is produced generally corresponds to the partial knowledge of the speaker about
the target word. Different studies on different languages have reported different results. For
example, the grammatical gender of words in Italian, German, Hebrew, and Spanish
languages is usually preserved in anomia and tip-of-the-tongue states. In Hebrew, no genderagreement deviations were found, regardless of the type of the aphasic deficit (Friedmann&
Shapiro, 2003). However, in a study on the production of articles in a picture-naming task in
German- and Dutch-speaking patients with agrammatic Broca’s aphasia, the Dutch patients
made almost exclusively omissions and the German patients made mainly substitution errors
(Bastiaanse, & Van Zonneveld, 1998). Ritter (1993) interpreted gender as an intrinsic
property of nouns that can be retrieved at the moment of lexical access and numbered as an
intrinsic feature of the inflection. His preliminary finding indicated a clear dissociation
between gender identification and phonological knowledge of the targeted word in
paraphasias. As a result, in semantic deficits, aphasic patients demonstrated the gender
preservation effect by detecting gender without relying on the phonological information. All
�these observations support the view that grammatical gender tends to be preserved in the
speaking performance of aphasic patients. However, this finding is questionable since a
number of predictions in the sentence and phrase context should be empirically explored.
Since Arabic has a rich and distinct inflectional morphology, we have a good notion of
inflection in agrammatism. After a deficit of the left cerebral hemisphere, the aphasic patients
lose the ability to inflect verbs correctly for tense and use subject pronouns. However, they
maintain the ability to inflect verbs for subject agreement, as shown in some studies
(Friedmann, 2001).
Many theories have been developed in an attempt to give a syntactic characterization of such
patients. The traditional view of agrammatism states that the syntactic abilities of agrammatic
patients are completely lost, i.e., such patients depend on the non-linguistic strategies to
concatenate words into sentences (Berndt & Caramazza, 1981). However, studies have
reported that patients with Broca’s aphasia have intact syntactic abilities, and the distribution
of these findings differ according to the language features (Hagiwara, 1995; Lonzi &
Luzzatti, 1993).
Arabic introduces a special pattern of verb inflection since the production of sentences
requires the speaker to choose between three tenses—past, present, and future—in addition to
twelve agreement forms: agreeing in gender, person, and number with subject. The
performance of the agrammatic patients in producing verbs revealed that their speech
displayed more errors with inflection for tense than with inflection for agreement. This
finding is also true in Hebrew (Friedmann, 2000).
A number of studies have examined morpho-syntactic impairments in many languages, such
as Hebrew (Friedmann, 2001; 2002; 1997), English (Milman, Dickey, & Thompson, 2008),
German (Burchert et al., 2005), and Turkish (Yarbay, Duman, &Bastiaanse, 2009). Despite
the agrammatic data being reported for different languages, less research has been done in
Arabic languages: Palestinian Arabic (Friedmann, 2002), Algerian Arabic
(Mimouni&Jarema, 1997), Moroccan Arabic (Diouny, 2010), and Jordanian Arabic
(Albustanji, Y., Miliman, L., Foxi, R. & Bourgeois, 2013).
Palestinian Arabic serves as an excellent testing ground for verb inflections because of its
morphological richness and relatively free word-order system, compared to English, which is
characterized by a relatively fixed word order (Abdel-Jawad, 1986). Moreover, by
investigating the agrammatic features in Palestinian Arabic, the similarities with other
Semitic languages like Hebrew can be addressed.
The aims of the current study were to (a) examine the tense and agreement patterns as
produced by agrammatic patients using the completion task and (b) evaluate whether the
deviant patterns are comparable to other languages.
2. Method
�2.1.Participants
Four male agrammatic Palestinians residing in the West Bank participated in the
study(Adam, 2014). The participants were diagnosed with Broca’s aphasics using the
Jordanian Arabic version of the Bilingual Aphasia Test (Paradis, 1987). All participants were
right-handed and presented with a left hemisphere lesion at least six months prior to testing.
They revealed typical symptoms of Broca’s aphasia, including non-fluent, effortful, and
telegraphic speech. As shown in Table 1, the ages of the participants ranged from 47 to 55
years. The time post-onset ranged from one to eight years, and their number of educational
years ranged from 10 to 15 years. Visual and auditory systems functioned to a degree
sufficient to complete the experimental tasks of the study. Four native speakers with no
language or speech deficits served as the control group.
Table 1
Patient Data
Aphasic
Age (in years) Etiology
MPO
Gender
Subjects
A1
47
CVA-L
12
M
A2
50
CVA-L
25
M
A3
51
CVA-L
74
M
A4
55
CVA-L
96
M
Patient data: (A: aphasic subject; CVA: Cerebrovascular accident; L: left hemisphere; MPO:
months post-onset; M: male).
For this task, we adopted the procedures used by Friedman, 2000 and 2001. Accordingly, the
participants were presented with two sentences. The first sentence includes an inflected verb
for both tense and agreement. In the second sentence, the participants were requested to
complete a missing verb, where the temporal adverb or the subject’s person, gender, or
number was changed. The agrammatic subjects were asked to give the correct form of verb
inflection. In the tense inflection (example 1, Table 2) condition, tense was the only
difference between the missing verb and given verb while in the agreement condition,
agreement feature was the criteria that distinguished the missing verb from the provided verb
(example 2, Table 2).
Table 2
Examples
(1)
Tense:
Biruħʔilawala:dħalħienʕal madrasah. kamanimbariħʔilwald………(Raħ)
the boy goes now to school. Yesterday too the boy _________. (went)
(2)
Agreement:
�Biruħʔilwaladħalħienʕal madrasah. u kamaniAlwaladhalħeen ………(Biruħu)
the boy goes now to school. The boys also _________. (go-plural)
(3)
Tense and Agreement:
ʔilbintbidhatukil. ʔilbintraħatʕalmatˤabax u ______ (aklat)
The girl wanted to eat, so she went to the kitchen and_____ (ate-past, 3rd, fem, sg)
3. Results and Discussion
The purpose of the current study was to examine the production of inflectional morphemes
including tense and agreement in Palestinian Arabic patients with agrammatism. The results
revealed that the Palestinian Arabic agrammatic speakers showed a significant dissociation
between tense and agreement. Table 3 clearly shows a significant deficit in tense and
agreement inflections, whereby the tense was significantly more impaired compared to the
agreement inflections. The agrammatic patients made tense errors in 70% of the productions
and agreement errors in only 12% of the productions. Therefore, the current findings revealed
that agrammatic patients performed better on agreement tasks than on tense tasks.
Table 3
Verb Completion Task
Arabic (n=4)
Tense errors
Agreement errors
12%
Completion
70% (35/50)
(35/50)
The selective deficits associated with tense and agreement inflections are conducive with
those found in the current finding that morph is consistent with results reported from other
languages (Friedmann, 2001; 2002; Friedmann & Grodzinsky, 1997; Higiwara, 1995;
Ouhalla, 1993). In fact, the intact agreement could suggest that not all grammatical
morphemes are impaired in agrammatism. The finding that agrammatic patients showed a
dissociation between tense and agreement provided evidence supporting the TPH predictions
“that states that functional categories associated with upper nodes in the syntactic tree (e.g.,
TP) are more impaired than functional categories associated with lower nodes of the tree”
(e.g., NegP and AgrP [AlBustanji, 2009, pp. 85]).
Similar results were also reported by Benedet et al. (1998), who examined verb-subject
agreement in Spanish and concluded that subject agreement was found to be relatively
preserved than tense inflection. Kolk (2000) also reported that Dutch and German patients
displayed dissociation between the verb and subject-verb agreement by exhibiting better
performance on subject agreement than on verb tense.
�Our data clearly showed that the patients made substitution errors but relatively no agreement
errors. Many scholars have reported that structural words and inflections get deleted in
agrammatic speech. On the other hand, it seems that Arabic patients behave in the same way
as Hebrew agrammatic patients. In this respect, it is not phonologically possible to omit verb
inflections; as such, grammatical errors are substitutions rather than omissions whereas
omission of verb inflections is widely observed in English-speaking agrammatic patients
(Menn&Obler, 1990). Our observations from our subjects exhibited many forms of verb
violations like:
1Omission of verb prefixes leading to tense substitution.
2Omission of verb prefixes causing tense and gender substitution.
3Stem substitution leading to tense or gender substitution.
4. Conclusion
Our data showed that the patients made substitution errors but relatively negligible agreement
errors. The complexity and the selective deficit of the morpho-syntactic structures suggest
that specific morphemes should be targeted in the rehabilitation plans. For example, in
Palestinian Arabic, as well as other languages, structures associated with tense morphological
components were found to be significantly impaired compared to other morpho-syntactic
elements. Thus, the findings of the current study may have important clinical implications,
where these morphemes can be served as potential targets for therapy approaches.
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�
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3262
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Tense and Gender production in Arabic-Speaking Aphasics
Author
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Adam, Hisham
Abstract
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The current study aims at examining the tense and agreement patterns as produced by agrammatic Palestinian-Arabic speakers using sentence completion tasks. The participants were presented with two sentences and asked to work on them. The first sentence included an inflected verb for both tense and agreement. In the second sentence, the participants were requested to complete a missing verb, where the temporal adverb or the subject’s person, gender, or number was changed. The findings revealed that the agrammatic speakers showed a significant dissociation between tense and agreement, whereby tense was significantly more impaired compared to agreement inflections. Similar results are reported from other languages. The results provide further evidence of Tree Pruning Hypothesis (TPH) that functional categories associated with upper nodes in the syntactic tree are more impaired than functional categories associated with the lower nodes of the tree. The selective deficits of the morpho-syntactic structures suggest that specific morphemes should be targeted in therapy programs. Keywords: Palestinian Arabic (PA); Agrammatism; Aphasia; Tense and Gender; Tree Pruning.
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International Burch University
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2016-04-05
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PE English