June Eyckmans

Formulaic sequences and perceived oral proficiency: putting a Lexical Approach to the test:

This study reports a small-scale experiment that was set up to estimate the extent to which (i) the use of formulaic sequences (standardized phrases such as collocations and idiomatic expressions) can help learners come across as proficient L2 speakers and (ii) an instructional method that emphasizes ‘noticing’of L2 formulaic sequences can help language learners add such phrases to their linguistic repertoire. Participants were 32 college students majoring in English. Over the course of 22 teaching hours they were exposed to considerable quantities of authentic listening and reading materials. During exploration of those materials, the experimental students (N = 17) were made aware of standardized word combinations, while in the control group (N = 15) the traditional grammar-lexis dichotomy was upheld. Afterwards, the participants’ oral proficiency was gauged in an interview by two blind judges. Both perceived the experimental group as more proficient than the control group. Two other blind judges counted the number of word combinations in the interviews that they considered to be formulaic sequences. Their counts correlated well with the oral proficiency ratings, which suggests that helping learners build a repertoire of formulaic sequences can be a useful contribution to improving their oral proficiency.

Are alliterative word combinations comparatively easy to remember for adult learners

Lindstromberg and Boers (2008a, 2008b) have reported experiments with adult learners of English which revealed a comparative mnemonic advantage afforded by word combinations that display sound patterns such as alliteration (green grass) and assonance (home phone). These findings are relevant for TESOL, given the fact that English phraseology abounds with alliterative and assonant expressions (Boers and Lindstromberg, 2009, chapter 6). The authors recommend classroom interventions that draw learners’ attention to the alliteration or assonance in standardized word strings such as collocations so as to unlock their mnemonic potential. They contend that such interventions are justified because learners are unlikely to take notice of a sound pattern such as alliteration spontaneously, while noticing is widely believed to be a crucial step towards retention (e.g. Schmidt, 2001). The mnemonic advantage of alliteration and assonance in Lindstromberg and Boers’ (2008a, 2008b) experiments was attested after tasks that required the participants’ conscious engagement with the given sound pattern. This does not actually preclude the possibility that learners reap some mnemonic benefits of these sound patterns also without being made aware of the sound repetition. In this article, we report a new within-participant experiment in which matched samples of alliterative and non-alliterative word pairs were dictated to upper-intermediate to advanced learners of English. The participants were not briefed about the presence of alliterative stimuli; they were merely asked to repeat each dictated word pair before writing it down. The results of an unannounced free recall test revealed significantly better recall of the alliterative stimuli, but the difference was not at all as pronounced as in the aforementioned experiments, where the participants had engaged in more explicit and more elaborate processing of phonological form.

Is alliteration mnemonic without awareness-raising?

English phraseology abounds with alliterative multiword units (e.g., slippery slope), which suggests that alliterative word strings have a comparative advantage to become stock phrases. One plausible explanation for this advantage is that alliterative word strings are relatively memorable, all else being equal, although there is little directly pertinent empirical evidence. In the context of instructed second language acquisition, it has been suggested that alliteration has a good potential to facilitate the learning of multiword units (MWU), at least when learners are made aware of the presence of alliteration in these units. In the present article, we investigate whether alliteration also makes MWUs comparatively memorable also in the absence of awareness-raising. English alliterative phrases and matched controls were dictated to EFL learners whose ability to recall the phrases was subsequently gauged in unannounced tests. We found a modest, short-lived mnemonic effect of alliteration. This points to an important role for awareness-raising if teachers or materials writers wish to help learners capitalise on the mnemonic advantage afforded by alliteration.

‘Does the form of this word fit its meaning?’ The effect of learner-generated mapping elaborations on L2 word recall:

If known words can be defined psycholinguistically as ‘form–meaning mappings’, the present article investigates whether prompting learners to evaluate whether the form of a new second language (L2) word fits its meaning generates ‘mapping elaborations’ that aid recall. Thirty Dutch-speaking upper-intermediate learners of English were invited to rate and motivate the degree of congruency they perceived between the form and meaning of 14 novel L2 words. Their ability to recall the form and the meaning of the target words was measured in an unannounced post-test. Recall was found to be positively related to the number of learner-generated mapping elaborations triggered by the task. Elaborations of a sound–symbolic nature appeared particularly useful for rendering the form of new words memorable.

The power of sound in L2 idiom learning

Corpus analyses of learners’ dictionaries of English idioms have revealed that 11% to 35% of English figurative idioms show either alliteration (miss the mark) or assonance (get this show on the road), depending on the type considered. Because English multiword combinations, particularly idiomatic expressions, present a huge challenge even to advanced learners, techniques for helping learners come to grips with this part of the lexicon should be welcomed. A quasi-experiment was conducted to investigate whether interword phonological similarity (specifically, alliteration and assonance) facilitates the delayed recall of the forms of common second language (L2) English figurative idioms which were not known at pretest. Twenty-six advanced-level EFL learners learned significantly more phonologically similar, or ‘sound-repeating’, idioms than phonologically dissimilar control idioms after a treatment designed to raise awareness of phonological similarity and to direct learners’ attention toward occurrences of it. Learners in a comparison group (n = 24), who experienced no awareness raising or attention direction, recalled more non-sound-repeating control idioms than sound-repeating ones. We conclude that the presence of sound-repetition in idioms makes the forms of those idioms relatively easy to recall, but only when learners experience appropriate awareness raising and attention direction. It appears that the techniques of awareness raising and attention direction did not hinder learning of the control idioms.

Does copying idioms promote their recall

This paper reports an experiment designed to evaluate an attempt to improve the effectiveness of an existing L2 idiom-learning tool. In this tool, learners are helped to associate the abstract, idiomatic meaning of expressions such as jump the gun (act too soon) with their original, concrete meaning (e.g. associating jump the gun with the scene of a track athlete who starts running before the starting pistol is fired). This association lends concreteness to target lexis, which is known to facilitate learning (Paivio, A., & Desrochers, A. (1979). Effects of an imagery mnemonic on second language recall and comprehension. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 33, 17–28). It is a mental operation that orients the learner first and foremost to the semantic dimension of the expression, however. It does not as such engage the learner with formal properties of the expression, such as its orthography. In an effort to stimulate the latter engagement, a copy exercise was incorporated in the learning procedure. The merit of this additional exercise was evaluated by having one group of students (N= 21) study 25 idioms according to the new procedure, while a comparison group (N= 21) was given an additional meaning-oriented task instead. Recall by the two groups was compared immediately and two weeks after the treatment by means of a gap-fill test. The copy exercise was not found to promote better recall, a result we discuss with reference to levels of processing theory (Lockhart, R.S., & Craik, F.I.G. (1990). Levels of processing: A retrospective commentary on a framework for memory research. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 44, 87–112).

Investigating tolerance of ambiguity in expert and novice translators and interpreters: an exploratory study

This is an exploratory inquiry into signed language interpreters’ perceptions of interpreter e-professionalism on social media, specifically Facebook. Given the global pervasiveness of Facebook, this study presents an international perspective, and reports on findings of focus groups held with a total of 12 professional signed language interpreters from the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Denmark, all of whom are also Facebook users. The findings reveal that Facebook is seen to blur the traditional boundaries between personal and professional realms – an overlap which is perceived to be compounded by the nature of the small community in which signed language interpreters typically work –necessitating boundary management strategies in order to maintain perceptions of professionalism on the site. Facebook is considered a valuable professional resource to leverage for networking, professional development, problem solving and assignment preparation, but it is also perceived as a potential professional liability for both individual interpreters and the profession at large. Maintaining client confidentiality was found to be the most pressing challenge Facebook brings to the profession. Educational measures to raise awareness about e-professionalism were generally viewed favourably.The study probes into translation students’ perception of the value of online peer feedback in improving translation skills. Students enrolled in a translation degree in Australia translated a 250-word text on two separate occasions. On each occasion, the students were given another fellow student’s translation of the same text to mark and provide anonymous peer feedback. The original translations from all the students, together with any peer feedback, were uploaded onto an online forum. The students were encouraged to download their own translation to review the peer feedback in it. They were also encouraged to download and peruse other students’ peer reviewed translations for comparison. Upon completion of the project, the students were surveyed about their perceptions and appreciation of their engagement in the process in the following three capacities: (i) as a feedback provider, (ii) as a feedback recipient, and (iii) as a peruser of other students’ work and the peer feedback therein. Results suggest that translation students appreciate online peer feedback as a valuable activity that facilitates improvement. The students found receiving peer feedback on their own translation especially rewarding, as it offered alternative approaches and perspectives on tackling linguistic/translation issues. In comparing the three capacities, students perceived reviewing feedback on their own work and perusing other students’ work as more beneficial than engaging in giving feedback to others.Title: Tarjamat al-khadamaat al-’aammah ( Community Interpreting and Translation) Author: Dr. Mustapha Taibi (University of Western Sydney) Year of publication: 2011 Publisher: Dar Assalam , Rabat (Morocco) ISBN: 978-9954-22-088-7 191 pagesAccent is known to cause comprehension difficulty, but empirical interpreting studies on its specific impact have been sporadic. According to Mazzetti (1999), an accent is composed of deviated phonemics and prosody, both discussed extensively in the TESL discipline. The current study seeks to examine, in the interpreting setting, the applicability of Anderson-Hsieh, Johnson and Koehlers (1992) finding that deviated prosody hinders comprehension more than problematic phonemics and syllable structure do. Thirty-seven graduate-level interpreting majors, assigned randomly to four groups, rendered four versions of a text read by the same speaker and then filled out a questionnaire while playing back their own renditions. Renditions were later rated for accuracy by two freelance interpreters, whereas the questionnaires analysed qualitatively. Results of analyses indicated that 1) both phonemics and prosody deteriorated comprehension, but prosody had a greater impact; 2) deviated North American English post-vowel /r/, intonation and rhythm were comprehension problem triggers. The finding may be of use to interpreting trainers, trainees and professionals by contributing to their knowledge of accent.The title Conference of the Tongues at first sight raises questions as to the particularities of its pertinence to translation studies, i.e. the range of possible subject matters subsumed, and is somewhat loosely explained in the preface by a short and factual hint to its historical origins (in sixteenth-century Spain in a paratext to a translation of Aesop). There is no further elaboration on the motivation for the choice of this title however.The market for translation services provided by individuals is currently characterized by significant uncertainty because buyers lack clear ways to identify qualified providers from amongst the total pool of translators. Certification and educational diplomas both serve to reduce the resulting information asymmetry, but both suffer from potential drawbacks: translator training programs are currently oversupplying the market with graduates who may lack the specific skills needed in the market and no certification program enjoys universal recognition. In addition, the two may be seen as competing means of establishing qualification. The resulting situation, in which potential clients are uncertain about which signal to trust, is known as a signal jam . In order to overcome this jam and provide more consistent signaling, translator-training programs and professional associations offering certification need to collaborate more closely to harmonize their requirements and deliver continuing professional development (CPD) that help align the outcomes from training and certification.Interpreting is rather like scuba diving. With just a bit of protective equipment, we interpreters plunge for a short time into an often alien world, where a mistake can be very serious, not only for ourselves but for the other divers who are depending on us to understand their surroundings. And as all who dive, we interpreters find this daily foray into a new environment fascinating, exhilarating, but also at times, challenging. One of the high-risk dive sites into which we venture often is the sea of healthcare, where the strange whale-song of medical dialogue, the often incomprehensible behavior of local denizens such as doctors, and the tricky currents of the healthcare system itself require special knowledge and skill to navigate successfully. Did you ever wish for a dive manual for unique world of healthcare? Well, here’s a good one, from linguist, RN and interpreter trainer, Dr. Ineke Crezee of New Zealand.Among all the difficulties inherent in interpreting, numbers stand out as a common and complex problem trigger. This experimental study contributes to research on the causes of errors in the passive simultaneous interpretation (SI) of numbers. Two groups of Italian Master’s degree students (one for English and one for German) were asked to interpret simultaneously a number-dense speech from their respective B language into their mother tongue, Italian. Note-taking was allowed during the test and both the study participants and their lecturers completed a questionnaire afterwards. Data analysis was conducted with statistical and qualitative methods, combining the cognitivist and contextualist approach. The objective was to ascertain whether one main variable may be held responsible for the high error rate related to interpreting numbers and the difficulty perceived by students in the task. The analysis quantifies the relative impact of different causes of difficulties on participants’ delivery of numbers. It stresses the crucial role of the subjective variable represented by interpreters’ skills. Didactic implications and directions for future research are discussed in the conclusion.

Investigating tolerance of ambiguity in novice and expert translators and interpreters : an exploratory study

In recent years socio-psychological language research has influenced the fields of translation and interpreting studies resulting in a growing interest in personality traits such as extraversion, emotional stability, self-efficacy and risk-taking as relevant constructs of translator competence and interpreter aptitude (Hubscher-Davidson, 2009; Bolaños Medina, 2014). A personality trait that has received limited attention, especially in relation to interpreting, is tolerance of ambiguity (TA). TA is generally described as the ability to manage situations that are new, complex or insoluble (Budner, 1962). As these types of situations seem to be inherent to the translation and interpreting practice, the construct has interesting potential. This study aims to shed some light on the level of TA in novice and expert translators and interpreters. To this end, we have administered the Tolerance for Ambiguity Scale (Herman, Stevens, Bird, Mendenhall & Oddou, 2010) to two groups of student interpreters (n=20) and translators (n=20) and two professional populations of interpreters (n=20) and translators (n=14). The results indicate a significant difference between interpreters and translators at the professional level regardless of age. This seems to suggest that the nature of the interpreter’s job aids the development of tolerance of ambiguity.

Metalinguistic awareness in L2 vocabulary acquisition: which factors influence learners’ motivations of form-meaning connections?

ABSTRACT Research has shown that prompting learners to elaborate on the appropriateness of form-meaning links can be an efficient vocabulary learning exercise (Deconinck, Boers & Eyckmans, 2017). In this paper we wish to shed more light on the mental processes that occur during this specific elaborative task by investigating the influence of individual learner variables pertaining to prior linguistic knowledge and a number of word-specific features. To this end fifty Dutch-speaking EFL learners rated the congruency they perceived between the form and meaning of 24 English words on a 6-point Likert scale. The motivation of their scores was elicited by means of a think-aloud protocol, the transcriptions of which were analysed with regard to the type of elaborations made. Vocabulary size tests and a language background questionnaire provided us with additional information about the learners. We identified five types of elaborations: cross-lexical associations, sound-symbolic associations, word-form comparisons, morphological associations, and idiosyncratic associations. The data also reveal that the individual learner variables and word-specific features examined in the present study have an influence on the number of elaborations made by the learners. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Birds of a feather? A comparison of the personality profiles of aspiring interpreters and other language experts

Since the early days of translation and interpreting studies, scholars have emphasized the value of certain personality related traits for translation and interpreting performance. Especially in the conference interpreter world, preconceived opinions about the desired personality traits for conference interpreters seem to exist. However, there is little to no empirical evidence to either corroborate or refuse these ideas. In this paper we aim to explore a set of individual difference variables (IDs) — as these traits are called in the literature — to gain an insight into the profile of aspiring interpreters and to explore whether this profile differs from that of other advanced language experts. To this end, we have compared the IDs of three groups of advanced language learners who have received the same bachelor training but will branch off into three different master’s programmes: interpreting, translation and multilingual communication. By means of self-report questionnaires we have gauged the language...