Language Value
December 2019, Volume 11, Number 1
Copyright © 2019, ISSN 1989-7103
Table of Contents
From the editor
Begoña Bellés-Fortuño
i-iii
Articles
A Genre Analysis of Biography Texts on the IMDb Website
Özgür Çelik
1-22
Difficulties resulting from language diversity in teaching medical translation and
methods to overcome them when teaching medical English to future translators
Anna Kuzio
23-44
Communicative competence in non-linguistic university degrees
Oksana Polyakova and Ruzana Galstyan-Sargsyanr
45-70
Exploring the vocabulary learning strategies of Italian learners of English
James Rock
71-102
Book Reviews
Sally S. Scott and Wade A. Edwards
Disability and World Language Learning: Inclusive Teaching for Diverse Learners
Dámaso Izquierdo Alegría
103-107
Joan L. Green
Assistive Technology in Special Education: Resources to Support Literacy,
Communication, and Learning Differences
Ana Isabel Martínez-Hernández
108-112
Copyright © 2019 Language Value, ISSN 1989-7103.
Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors
Language Value
December 2019, Volume 11, Number 1 pp. i-iii
Copyright © 2019, ISSN 1989-7103
From the Editor
DIVERSITY IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM: RAISING AWARENESS
Access to education should be universal in all cases; however, bureaucracy and policy
conventions sometimes divert unconsciously from this objective. Although educational
institutions have been rowing in the right direction in the last decade, still a lot remains
to be done to make education accessible to everyone.
Accessibility to education in most cases goes hand in hand with new technologies and the
concept of e-learning accessibility (Phipps and Kelly 2006), since information and
computer technologies (ICT) are present in all levels of the educational sphere. To
achieve this, the European Union and governments worldwide have advanced in the
publication of directives and requirements that advocate for equal access to education
technology, for example access to websites and applications for the public sector. This
means that education can be adapted to students’ needs according to their functionality
(Batanero et al. 2014).
The current issue includes contributions that delve into the educational sector with
practices and pedagogical accommodations to students’ needs. The issue, structured in
two differentiating sections includes four full articles in the main section and two book
reviews.
The issue opens with Ögur Çelik’s article on genre analysis applied to the field of ESP.
The author explains how the digitalisation has resulted in the generation of new digital
genres and their subsequent study. The article analyses biography texts on the Internet
Movie Database (IMDb) website, the texts under analysis include biographies of the last
20 Oscar-Winning actors and actresses. Çelik proposes a genre-based instruction on EAP
after the biography texts analysis.
Copyright © 2019 Language Value, ISSN 1989-7103.
i
Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors
From the Editor
The next article, written by Anna Kuzio, faces the problems of translating medical reports
from English into Polish, taking into account language diversity. The analysis shows
various linguistic difficulties when translating medical terms.
Next article is an attempt to provide useful professional training to students by gaining
communicative competences. The authors, Oksana Polyakova and Ruzana Galstyan-
Sargsyanr, depart form a students’ needs analysis to deepen into an ESP course on
technical and professional environments. They propose a scale for measuring training
outcomes and provide some results from their piloting study emphasizing the importance
of a customized syllabus.
Last full article, written by James Rock, presents a think-aloud protocol to explore
vocabulary learning strategies of ten adult learners. Deliberate vocabulary learning tasks
are studied. The results reveal some regular patters of strategy use especially in strategies
that require less mental effort. Less emphasis was also found on mechanical repetition.
In the Book and Multimedia Review section we can first read a detailed review done by
Dámaso Izquierdo Alegría of the book Disability and World Language Learning:
Inclusive Teaching for Diverse Learners by Sally S. Scott and Wade A. Edwards (2019).
The book essentially explains the process of adopting inclusive instructional practices to
address diverse students’ needs.
In the review that follows, Ana-Isabel Martínez-Hernández revises the publication
Assistive Technology in Special Education: Resources to Support Literacy,
Communication, and Learning Differences by Joan L. Green Prufrock (2018). This book,
addressed to teachers, schools, speech-language pathologists, therapists and also families
is an attempt to explain how to use technologies to improve the learning process of
physically and mentally challenged students in order to help them overcome learning
difficulties.
I would like to close the editorial by thanking all the scholars that have collaborated in
the peer-review process of the articles that make up this volume. Their time and work are
very valuable and makes this journal possible. I am also grateful to the members of the
Language Value Editorial Board and Book and Multimedia Review editors for their
assistance.
Copyright © 2019 Language Value, ISSN 1989-7103
ii
Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors
Language Value
December 2019, Volume 11, Number 1 pp. i-iii
Copyright © 2019, ISSN 1989-7103
Begoña Bellés-Fortuño
Editor
Universitat Jaume I, Spain
REFERENCES
Batanero, C., Karhu, M., Holvikivi, J., Otón, S. and Amado-Salvatierra, H. 2014. “A
method to evaluate accessibility in e-learning education systems”. In IEEE 14th
International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (pp. 556-560).
Phipps, L. and Kelly, B. 2006.
“Holistic approaches to e-learning accessibility”.
Research in Language Technology, 14 (1), 69-78.
Copyright © 2019 Language Value, ISSN 1989-7103
iii
Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors
Language Value
December 2019, Volume 11, Number 1 pp. 1-22
Copyright © 2019, ISSN 1989-7103
A Genre Analysis of Biography Texts on the IMDb Website
Özgür Çelik
Balıkesir Üniversitesi, Turkey
ABSTRACT
Genre analysis is among the core areas of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and has been gradually
gaining importance because it offers clear, to-the-point and fruitful implications in the field of ESP. The
radical increase in the digitalisation helped genre studies be more specific and accurate. The participation
of users to the Web as the content writers maximised the specificity of genres and online communities
started to form their own sub-genres. Biography texts represent an excellent example of this. This study
aims to make a genre analysis of the biography texts on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) website
which were created by the members of an online community. The texts were chosen from the biographies
of the last 20 Oscar-Winning actors and actresses, and a corpus was compiled. Casañ-Pitarch’s (2017)
Analysis of Multi-Genre Structures (AMS) model was adopted to analyse the texts. According to the
analysis results, a genre-based instruction as a part of an English for General Academic Purposes course
was proposed.
Keywords: Genre, Genre Analysis, Biography Texts, Genre-Based Instruction, IMDB
I. INTRODUCTION
Categorisation has always been an instinct endeavour of humanity towards complexity
or chaos. The principal-agent of a categorisation process is the concept of genre.
Classifying the kinds of texts based on their characteristics dates back to Ancient
Greece, first practised by Aristotle
(Beghtol 2001). In time, this process radically
evolved from a classification mechanism to more complex, comprehensive and
influential genre studies.
Although the concept of genre has ancient roots, genre studies can be regarded as
relatively new and emerged as a natural outcome of English for Specific Purposes (ESP)
studies. First introduced by Tarone (1981), genre studies owe its advent to the seminal
work of Swales (1981). Since then, genre studies have been vigorously embraced by
researchers and have turned out to be one of the focal points of ESP studies.
Regarded as a fruitful field of ESP studies which is mainly concerned with procedures
and practical outcomes, genre analysis has evolved considerably with the contribution
of prominent figures in ESP research (Swales 1990, Bhatia 1993, Berkenkotter &
Copyright © 2019 Language Value, ISSN 1989-7103
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Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors
Özgur Çelik
Huckin 1993) and gained a more systematic nature with the help of genre analysis
models
(Swales
1990, Bhatia
1993, Casañ-Pitarch
2017). Another significant
contribution to the development of genre analysis is the integration of computer-based
tools which can be regarded as a milestone in genre studies. Regarding text analysis,
computer-based tools led to more time-saving, to-the-point, practical and more
straightforward analysis.
A crucial characteristic of genres is specificity. Principally, a genre analysis aims to
scrutinise a specific text and draw specific conclusions. The level of this specificity is
generally bound to the content, context, communicative purposes or discourse
community. Furthermore, even a context-specific text may vary per se according to the
discourse community. Biography texts constitute an excellent example of this. For
instance, biography texts of actors and actresses on movie websites like IMDB and
Fandango can be created in a different way since these websites offer different
guidelines to their discourse communities to write biographies. In this respect, it can be
put forward that genres are context and content-specific texts that serve for specific
communicative purposes and belong to a specific discourse community.
In the light of these assumptions, this study set out to conduct a genre analysis on the
biography texts of Oscar-winning actors and actresses on the IMDB website. IMDB is
acknowledged as “the world’s most popular and authoritative movie and celebrity
content source” (Press Room 2018). The content is created by the contributors, and the
publication of the content requires a review process. Also, IMDB offers a guideline on
how to, what to and how not to write the biographies. Celebrity biographies on IMDB
can be regarded as a genre because (1) it has a framework on what to and how to write,
(2) it has a specific discourse community (the contributors) and (3) the production of
biography texts continues and seems to be continued in the future. For the analysis
process, a corpus was compiled using the biography texts of the last 20 Oscar-winning
actors and actresses and Casañ-Pitarch’s (2017) Analysis of Multi-Genre Structures
(AMS) model for genre analysis was adopted. Detailed information related to AMS
analysis model will be given in the methodology section. Lastly, a framework for
Genre-Based Instruction on biography texts will be offered.
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A Genre Analysis of Biography Texts on the IMDB Website
I.1. Biography Texts as a Genre
Biography is a nonfictional form of literature telling the life of an individual and
regarded as one of the oldest forms of literary expression (Kendall 2018). Baud (2005)
acknowledges that biography texts are the most specific textual genre of Ancient
Egyptian culture. As such an old literary form, biography texts developed specific
characteristics in time and gained historical, sociological, psychological, ethical and
aesthetic aspects. Kendall (2018) draws attention to the difficulty in classifying the
biography texts since they can easily shade into another, but a broad classification can
be made on the basis of the source of knowledge as those written from personal
knowledge and those from research. However, in a broad sense, biography texts can be
classified as, but not limited to, critical biographies, standard biographies, interpretive
biographies, fictionalised biographies and special purpose biographies. Biography
writing is not only an individual endeavour but also attracts the attention of institutions
and governmental organisations. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, which
includes over 60,000 biographies of people who shaped British history, serves as a good
example of institutional perspective to biographies. Similarly, American National
Biography includes over 19,000 biographies of people from American history written
by prominent scholars.
The central focus of this study is on the biography texts of Oscar-Winning actors and
actresses on IMDB. Askehave (1999) asserts that genres have basically two types of
communicative purposes: official communicative purpose and hidden communicative
purpose. In the official sense, the biographies on IMDB are created to inform the
readers about the life events of actors/actresses including where the person grew up,
who their parents were, which school they attended to, how they were discovered, what
their debut and breakthrough were and so on. Since the biography texts on IMDB can
be classified as informative biographies, the primary communicative purpose is to,
simply, inform the reader about the person. On the other hand, it can be argued that
biography texts on IMDB can serve for a ‘hidden’ communicative purpose. IMDB has
two membership plans; IMDB and IMDB Pro. The former is free membership plan
allowing access to basic information about the movies and the staff while the latter
requires paid membership and offers comprehensive and expanded data for industry
professionals. Biography texts act as the showcase of comprehensive data about actors
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and actresses. In this respect, the hidden communicative purpose of the biographies on
IMDB can be regarded as giving an insight into the comprehensive data and directing
readers to IMDB Pro to access detailed information.
The biography texts on IMDB are written by the ‘contributors’. A contributor is anyone
who submits information to the website (IMDb Contribution, 2018). It can be claimed
that the contributors form the discourse community of biography texts on IMDB.
Swales (1990) defines discourse communities as groups that have goals or purposes and
use communication to achieve these goals and draws six characteristics of discourse
communities. The first characteristic is that a discourse community has a broadly agreed
set of public goals. In the contributor’s charter, the main goals of contributors are listed
as
(1) helping users make informed choices about what to see, (2) helping users
discover titles they might not otherwise have found and (3) enriching users’ viewing
experiences by providing information and content. The second characteristic is having a
mechanism of intercommunication among the members. To enable intercommunication,
IMBD provides a community zone for the contributors in which they can communicate
with each other. The third one is using participatory mechanisms to provide information
and feedback. The aforementioned community zone enables the contributors to ask
questions, share ideas, get their problems solved and help others. The fourth
characteristic is utilising one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its
aims. In this context, biography texts serve as the genre for the contributors with which
they can fulfil community goals and maintain communication. The fifth characteristic is
acquiring some specific lexis. Biography texts have a special form and cover a range of
frequently used words that will be detailed in the analysis part. And the last
characteristic of a discourse community is having a threshold level of members with a
suitable degree of relevant content and discourse expertise. The contribution mechanism
of IMDB is a very dynamic one including 21 badges for contributors determined
according to their contribution level. As can be seen, the contributors reflect all the
characteristics of a discourse community proposed by Swales (2011).
IMDB dictates guidelines (Biographical data guidelines 2019) that frame what to and
what not to include in a biography text and highlights some concerns about style,
wording and technical details. The contributors are expected to provide a broad,
objective overview of the person in chronological order, avoiding subjective opinions.
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Biographies should be in the English language and in the third person singular.
Sentence structure should be preferred rather than a rêsumê format. Additionally,
guidelines inform the contributors about the content that should be avoided in the
biography texts. The contributors should avoid giving information about physical
measurements (e.g. weight, height, clothing size etc.), personal details
(e.g. sexual
orientation, medical history, political views, and religion), and information about dating,
rumours and gossips about the person. The guidelines serve as a clear-cut framework
that make biography texts on IMBD a genre.
Analysis results of biography texts provide valuable information and insights for
biography writers and EFL learners in that the analysis suggests a clear roadmap that
simplifies the writing process. In this respect, this study set out to answer the following
research question:
(i)
RQ-1: What are the microstructure and macrostructure features of
biography texts at IMBD Website?
II. METHODOLOGY
This study aims to analyse the biography texts of actors and actresses at IMDB. For the
sample size, 20 biography texts were chosen by filtering the last 20 Oscar-Winning
actors and actresses. Since IMDB proposes a clear framework
(biographical data
guidelines), the texts are quite similar in macro and microstructure. However, it is likely
that some biographies may have particular shortcomings. The reason why the
biographies of Oscar-Winning actors and actresses were chosen is that these biographies
meet all the criteria dictated in the biographical data guidelines. A corpus was compiled
from 20 biography texts, and the texts were analysed quantitatively based on the
Analysis of Multi-Genre Structures (AMS) model (Casañ-Pitarch 2017).
AMS model is based on the analysis models by Swales (1981) and Bhatia (1993) and is
a combination of both. Casañ-Pitarch (2017) defines the purpose of the model as to
analyse, describe and produce genres by analysing the oral and written discourse forms.
The model comprises two main sections and 9 sub-sections to analyse data. The
sections of the AMS model are shown in Table 1 below, and a detailed description of
each section will be presented in the analysis part.
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Table 1. Analysis Sections of AMS Model.
Elements
Software
Macrostructure
Quantification of forms and structures
analyzemywriting.com
Moves and steps forming the genre
Manuel analysis
Microstructure
Language Typology
Tropes Software
Morphology
Tropes Software
Formality, Readability and Lexical Density
analyzemywriting.com
Terminology
analyzemywriting.com
Verbal analysis
Tropes Software, Voyant Tools
Analysis of personal pronouns
Tropes Software
Syntax
Tropes Software
Tropes Software
III. DATA ANALYSIS
AMS Model proposes an analysis procedure which consists of two sections and nine
sub-sections. In this part, the analysis results of the data will be presented in accordance
with the analysis steps of AMS Model.
III.1. Macrostructure
The primary focus of macrostructure analysis is on major forms and structures. These
major forms and structures refer to the semantic structures related to the coherence and
unity of the text (Van Dijk 1995) and concerns on meaning (Ruiz-Moneva 2011). AMS
model offers two ways to analyse the macrostructure of a text: (1) Quantification of
forms and structures and (2) Moves and steps forming the genre. In this section, the
macrostructure of the biography texts on IMDB will be described and analysed under
two sub-sections.
III.1.1. Quantification of forms and structures
This stage serves as a preliminary work for further analysis by focusing on the number
of words, sentences and paragraphs in general and other frequency statistics in
particular. Quantification analysis captures the frequency overview of the text
(see
Table 2). In this stage, the analysis is conducted via an online text analysis tool
(analyzemywriting.com).
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Table 2. Quantification of words, sentences, paragraphs, question marks and quotation marks
Total Count
Average Per Text (/20)
Word Count
11610
581
Sentence Count
473
24
Paragraph count
131
7
Question Mark Count
1
-
Quotation Mark Count
130
7
Figure 1. Word Lengths
Figure 2. Sentence Lengths
III.1.2. Moves and steps forming the genre
In this part, rhetorical moves of the text and the steps are identified. Swales (1990)
defines the rhetorical moves as the parts of the texts that correspond to a communicative
purpose, and each move has specific steps that function as the components of the
moves. In this context, the rhetorical moves and the steps of the biography texts on
IMDB are identified in Table 3.
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Table 3. The Moves and Steps in the Biography Texts on IMDB
Moves
Steps
Descriptions
Codes
Move 1
STARTING WITH A LOGLINE
L
Move 2
GIVING INFORMATION ABOUT EARLY LIFE
EL
Step 1 Giving information about the birthdate and birthplace
EL1
Step 2 Describing the person’s family
EL2
Step 3 Describing the person’s childhood
EL3
Step 4 Describing the person’s education
EL4
Move 3
GIVING INFORMATION ABOUT HIS/HER CAREER
C
Step 1 Giving information about how s/he started his/her career
C1
Step 2 Identifying his/her debut work
C2
Step 3 Giving information about his/her breakthrough
C3
Step 4 Listing significant movies s/he acted
C4
Step 5 Listing the significant nominations/awards in his/her career
C5
Move 4
GIVING INFORMATION ABOUT HIS/HER PERSONAL LIFE
PL
Step 1 Presenting interesting facts about his/her life
PL1
Step 2 Describing the person’s personality
PL2
Step 3 Describing the person’s physical appearance
PL3
These moves and steps constitute the conveyors of communicative purposes in
biography texts on IMDB. Primarily, the texts are composed of the moves and steps
above, but the sequence of the moves differs according to the writers’ style and
preference. The variety in the sequence of moves and steps are illustrated in Table 4.
Tabe 4. The Variances of Move Sequences
BIOGRAPHY TEXT
MOVE AND STEP SEQUENCES
Frances McDormand
EL1 EL2 EL4 C1 C3 C2 PL2 C5 PL1
Gary Oldman
L
PL1 EL1 EL2 EL4 C1 C2 C5 C4 C3 PL1 C5
Casey Affleck
L
EL1 C3 C4
Emma Stone
EL1 EL2 C1 C2 PL1 C3
Leonardo DiCaprio
L
EL1 EL2 C1 C2 C3 C4 PL1 PL2
Brie Larson
L
C1 C3 C4 PL1
Eddie Redmayne
L
EL1 EL2 EL4 C1 C2 C3 C4 C5
Julianne Moore
EL1 EL2 EL4 C1 C2 C3 C4 C5
Matthew McConaughey
EL1 EL2 C1 C4 C5
Cate Blanchett
EL1 EL2 EL4 C2 C4 C5 PL1
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Daniel Day-Lewis
EL1 EL2 EL4 C2 C1 C4 C5
Jennifer Lawrence
L
EL1 EL2 C1 C2 C5 C4
Meryl Streep
C5 EL1 EL2 EL4 C1 C5 C4
Colin Firth
EL1 EL2 EL3 PL1 C1 C5
Natalie Portman
L
EL1 EL2 EL3 EL4 C1 C2 C3 C4 C5
Jeff Bridges
EL1 EL2 EL3 C1 C5 C4 C5 PL1 PL2
Sandra Bullock
EL1 EL2 EL3 EL4 C1 C3 C4 PL1
Sean Penn
L
EL1 EL2 C1 C3 C4 C5 L
Kate Winslet
L
EL1 EL2 EL3 C1 C3 C5 C4 C5 PL1
Marion Cottillard
EL1 EL2 C2 C1 C3 C4 C5 PL1
III.2. Microstructure
Microstructure in a text refers to the in-depth study of sentences and the connection
between sentences and the words (Glowalla and Colonius 1982) corresponding to an
analysis at morphological and syntactic levels (Casañ-Pitarch 2017). This section will
cover the analysis of Language Typology, Morphology, Morphological Formality,
Readability, Lexical Density Terminology, Verbal analysis, Analysis of personal
pronouns and Syntax.
III.2.1. Quantification of forms and structures
This section focuses on the type of the text and why it is written for. In general, texts are
classified according to their style and purpose. Fundamentally, there are four types of
writing styles; narrative, descriptive, expository and argumentative. In addition, text
types vary according to their purpose such as informative, persuasive, promotional,
critical and so on. The analysis of language typology can be conducted in two ways; by
using software and manually. The manual analysis yields more reliable results when
compared to software analysis. A trope is a text analysis tool that can analyse the text
and decide the language typology along with the setting. The analysis results of Tropes
software indicate that biography texts are narrative texts. Along with the manual
analysis it can be claimed that biography texts on IMDB are narrative in style and
informative in purpose.
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Özgur Çelik
Figure 3. Language Typology Analysis Results with Tropes Software
III.2.2. Morphology
Morphological analysis refers to a statistical overview of the words in the text including
nouns, verbs, adjectives, determiners, adverbs, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions etc.
Tropes software and analyzemywriting.com website were used for morphological
analysis. The statistical analysis of these components is made in line with the frequency
of use. Table 5 shows the morphological analysis results of the words in biography
texts.
Table 5. Morphological Analysis Results of the Biography Texts
Factive
Stative
Reflexive
Performative
Verbs
63,6%
25,4%
11,0%
0.0%
(665)
(266)
(115)
(0)
Condition Cause
Goal Addition Disjunction Opposition Comparison
Time Place
Connectors
0.2%
0.7%
0.4%
64.6%
0.7%
5.4%
20.9%
7.2%
0.0%
(1)
(4)
(2)
(361)
(4)
(30)
(117)
(40)
(0)
Time
Place
Manner Assertion
Doubt
Negation
Intensity
Modalities
39.0%.
13,0%
19.9%
1.1%
0.8%
3.4%
22.8%
(147)
(49)
(75)
(4)
(3)
(13)
(86)
Adjectives
Objective
Subjective
Numeral
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A Genre Analysis of Biography Texts on the IMDB Website
69,5%
21,3%
9,2%
(808)
(247)
(107)
I
You
We
They
He
She
Pronouns
2,8%
0,9%
0,6%
3,7%
86,6%
50,4%
(10)
(3)
(2)
(13)
(304)
(177)
III.2.3. Formality, Readability and Lexical Density
Formality is related to the variation between styles or registers. Proposed by Heylighen
and Dewaele (1999), the formality of language is measured by a formula which
attributes an ‘F score’ to the text that determines the formality of language. Heylighen
and Dewaele (1999) suggest that there are two types of formality; deep and surface
formality. Deep formality refers to the components that minimize the content-
dependence, fuzziness and expression to avoid ambiguity. While nouns, adjectives,
prepositions and articles are more frequent in formal style, verbs, adverbs, pronouns and
interjections are more frequent in the informal style. In order to determine the formality
of a text, Heylighen and Dewaele (1999) propose the formula below:
F = (noun frequency + adjective freq. + preposition freq. + article freq. - pronoun freq.
- verb freq. - adverb freq. - interjection freq. + 100)/2
The frequencies, here, indicate the percentages of words with respect to the total
number of words. The higher the F value is, the more formal the text is. When the
frequencies are put in the formula, the F value of biography texts is 76.9 which indicates
that biography texts on IMDB are above-average formality level.
Readability calculation is related to how difficult a text is to read by measuring the
complexity of a text with special formulas (DuBay 2007). There are several readability
indexes measuring the complexity of a text from different aspects (e.g. Gunning fog,
Flesch-Kincaid, SMOG, Coleman-Liau, Automated). Table 6 shows the readability
scores and the corresponding level of the biography texts.
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Table 6. Readability Scores and Corresponding Level of Biography Texts
Readability Index
Readability Score
Corresponding Text Level
Gunning fog
15.18
College Junior Level
Flesch-Kincaid
12.42
College Graduate Level
SMOG
13.49
Undergraduate Level
Coleman-Liau
12.61
Undergraduate Level
Automated
12.5
College Student
Table 6 shows that, based on the readability scores, the biography texts at IMDB appeal
to college level students.
Didau (2013) calculates lexical density by dividing the lexical words to the total number
of words in the text. The aim of a lexical density analysis is to measure how informative
the text is since meaning is conveyed through lexical words. In lexical density analysis,
words are divided into two categories; lexical words (nouns, verbs, adjectives and
adverbs) and function words (articles, prepositions, conjunctions, to be, do, have).
Lexical words directly provide information about what the text about while function
words give little or no information about the text. In this case, the lexical density of
biography texts is found as 57.36%. Since lexical density focuses on the amount of
information of a text, this result can be interpreted that biography texts are informative
texts.
III.2.4. Terminology
Terminology analysis aims to reveal the most frequent words used in the text. It is a
significant stage in terms of determining the genre-specific terminology. The analysis
can be conducted using a text analysis software or web tools. Among all, Tropes
software yields more comprehensive results classifying the terminology in certain
categories such as verbs, nouns and adjectives. Table 7 shows the most frequently used
10 words in biography texts.
Table 7. The most frequently used 10 words in biography texts
VERBS
ADJECTIVES
NOUNS
1
Win
Best
Role
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2
Play
First
Film
3
Have
Young
Actress
4
Make
Great
Performance
5
Receive
Old
Actor
6
Appear
Small
Award
7
Nominate
High
Year
8
Give
Big
Movie
9
Include
Same
Career
10
become
leading
Drama
Additionally, the figure below schematises the interrelation of the frequently used
words. The analysis is made with an online analysis tool called Voyant Tools (Sinclair
and Rockwell 2019).
Figure 4. The Interrelation Scheme of the Frequently Used Words
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Özgur Çelik
III.2.5. Verbal Analysis and Syntax
The verbal analysis primarily aims to determine the frequency of grammatical
structures, especially tenses, by focusing on the verbs. Analysing the grammatical
structures reveals valuable insight about the structure of biography texts. Table 8 lists
the most frequently used words, and with which structures they are used.
Table 8. The Most Frequently Used Words, and With Which Structures They are Used.
VERBS
PAST
PRESENT
FUTURE
PASSIVE
1
Win
2
Play
3
Have
4
Make
5
Receive
6
Appear
7
Nominate
8
Give
9
Include
10
Become
III.2.6. Analysis of Personal Pronouns
Pronouns are indispensable agents of both oral and written communication and tell
much about the type, content, context, style of the text. The results of a pronoun
analysis can be a significant indicator of the style of the text. In this context, pronoun
use in biography texts reveals valuable information about the formality of the texts.
Table 6 lists the frequency of pronoun usage in biography texts.
Table 9. The frequency of Pronoun Usage in Biography Texts
Subject Pron.
Object Pron.
Possessive Deter. Possessive Pron.
Reflexive Pron.
Pron.
Freq.
Pron.
Freq.
Pron.
Freq.
Pron.
Freq.
Pron.
Freq.
I
8
Me
6
My
5
Mine
0
Myself
0
We
2
Us
0
Our
1
Ours
0
Ourselves
0
You
2
You
1
Your
1
Yours
0
Yourself
0
She
160
Her
29
Her
148
Hers
0
Herself
1
He
120
Him
24
His
138
His
0
Himself
2
It
17
It
1
Its
4
Its
0
Itself
1
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A Genre Analysis of Biography Texts on the IMDB Website
IV. FINDINGS
This study aimed to analyse the biography texts on IMDB as a genre by defining
communicative purpose and discourse community along with the linguistic analysis of
the texts. The primary aim of biography texts is to inform the readers about the life of a
person (in this case, actors and actresses). Also, biography texts meet all the standards of
a discourse community, in this case contributors, as suggested by Swales (2011). Lastly,
linguistic analysis of biography texts discovers all the features of the biography texts on
IMDB and these features are listed below:
Quantification analysis revealed that a standard biography text is composed of
500-600 words with seven paragraphs. The number of quotation marks used (N
= 1) indicates that question form is generally avoided in biography texts. It can
be inferred from the average word and sentence lengths that in biography texts
average sentence length is preferred rather than long or short sentences which is
valid for the words, too.
With move analysis, the moves and the steps in a biography text were identified.
As can be inferred from the sequence table (Table 4), a standard biography text
on IMDB follows the move sequence of early life, career and personal life of the
person. In addition, starting with a logline can be preferred by the biography
writers.
Typology analysis suggests that biography texts are narrative in style and
informative in purpose. The informative nature of biography texts is validated
with lexical density analysis.
Morphological analysis records detailed results on the frequency of verbs,
connectors, modalities, adjectives and pronouns. According to the
morphological analysis results, a biography text makes use of factive verbs,
addition connectors, time modals, objective adjectives and third person singular
pronouns most. The results highlight the morphological components that should
be addressed in biography writing.
Heylighen and Dewaele’s (1999) formality formula indicates that biography
texts are formal texts and according to the readability score, biography texts on
Language Value 11 (1), 1-22
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Özgur Çelik
IMDB appeal to college students. The results of this stage give some clues about
the target group with which the biography texts should be studied.
Terminology analysis focuses on the frequency of verbs, adjectives and nouns
along with the links between the most used words along with the collocations.
This analysis will give an inside about the words that should be primarily
studied, especially the collocations from the perspective of the lexical approach.
The verbal analysis gives clues about the grammatical structures to be studied.
The results suggest that in biography texts the dominant grammatical structure is
the past tenses. Present and passive is seldom used while future tenses are
generally avoided.
Pronoun analysis revealed that while subject pronouns, objects pronouns and
possessive determiners are used in biography texts, possessive pronouns and
reflexive pronouns are almost never used.
V. CONCLUSION
This study aimed to conduct a genre analysis on the biography texts on the IMDB
website. The last 20 biographies of Oscar-Winning actors and actresses were chosen,
and a corpus was compiled. First, the communicative purpose and the discourse
community of biography texts on IMDB were identified and described. Then, a
linguistic analysis was conducted according to Casañ-Pitarch’s
(2017) Analysis of
Multi-Genre Structures (AMS) Model. The analysis is made in two parts: the analysis of
macrostructure and the microstructure. In the macrostructure stage, a statistical analysis
of the quantification of forms and structures were conducted. Additionally, the moves
and the steps of the texts were determined, and the variance of move sequences was
presented. In the microstructure part, language typology is identified; statistical
information about morphological items was presented; formality, readability and lexical
density of the texts were calculated; the most frequently used verbs, nouns and
adjectives were listed; frequently used tenses and pronouns were determined.
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A Genre Analysis of Biography Texts on the IMDB Website
The analysis results revealed that biography texts on IMDB can be regarded as a genre
in that they meet all the characteristics of a genre proposed by Swales (1990) and Bhatia
(1993). The main components of a genre were identified as the communicative purposes
and a discourse community. The primary communicative purpose of the biography text
on IMDB is to inform the readers about the actors or actresses in a structured way. The
contributors of the IMDB comprise the discourse community of the genre. This
discourse community meets all six features of Swales’ definition of discourse
communities. Lastly, with linguistic analysis, all the typical features of the biography
texts on IMDB were identified.
Biography texts can be accepted as one of the unique literary works with their function,
form and purpose. Though the studies on biography texts are relatively limited,
especially in genre analysis concept, there has been a growing interest in the biography
as a genre which suggests that particular concern should be devoted to the genre
analysis of biography texts.
VI. IMPLICATIONS
In this study, biography texts were analysed with a multi-dimensional perspective and
features of a biography texts are documented. In this sense, the communicative
purposes, discourse community and structural patterns were identified. Bearing on this
data, a Genre-Based Instruction for biography texts is proposed as a part of an English
for General Academic Purposes course. The course is based on Firkins, Forey and
Sengupta’s
(2007) genre-based instruction model which comprises three stages:
modelling of the text, co-construction of the text and independent construction of the
text.
Table 10. Suggested GBI for Biography Writing
Course Title Academic Writing
Course Domain
English for General Academic Purposes
Task Title
Biography Writing
Task Duration
Optional
Level
Intermediate / Upper Intermediate
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Özgur Çelik
Task Description
In this task, students learn how to write a biography of an actor or actress.
The task includes two sections; first the analysis of sample biographies and
second writing a biography from scratch.
Goals
At the end of the task;
Students will be able to distinguish the features of a biography text
as a genre.
Students will be able to write a biography text that is in line with
the generic organisation of the biography genre.
Materials
Biography corpus, text analysis tools, course portfolio
Assessment
Process-based and product based. Process-based in that students keep a
portfolio, product-based in that students are expected to write an
independent biography text at the end of the course.
100= (Portfolio Score)/2 + (Final Writing Score)/2
Procedure
1st Phase: Modelling of
In this phase, learners are expected to analyse the sample biography texts in
the Text
a systematic way. Casañ-Pitarch’s
(2017) Analysis of Multi-Genre
Structures (AMS) Model will be used for analysis. An analysis portfolio will
be used to record the analysis data and create the text (see the attachment for
the portfolio file). In the whole process, the teacher acts as a facilitator
guiding the learners to analyse the texts correctly. The first, teacher asks
students to analyse the quantification of the text and record the results to the
relevant page of the portfolio. In this way, learners will make a soft and clear
start which will help them understand the notion of text analysis before
going deeper.
Next, the teacher asks the learners to identify the moves and steps of the
texts. The teacher shows some examples so that the learners can have an
understanding of what moves and steps are. Then, the teacher asks them to
determine the possible move sequences by scanning at least five texts and
record the results to the portfolio file. After this part, learners are expected to
analyse the linguistic structures deeper. The next step is devoted to the
morphological analysis of the texts. By using an online text analysis tools
and software, learners analyse the morphological structure of the texts
regarding frequency. After each session, the teacher makes comments about
how the data gathered can be interpreted. At the next section, learners
calculate the formality, readability and lexical density of the texts and record
the results along with the interpretations of the results. The next session aims
to find out the most frequently used words in general and adjectives, nouns
Language Value 11 (1), 1-22
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A Genre Analysis of Biography Texts on the IMDB Website
and verbs in particular.
2nd Phase: Co-
In this phase, the teacher and the learners start to co-construct the text by
Construction of the Text
following the bottom-up technique. Before starting to write, learners create a
profile page of the person so that they can collect data and use in their texts.
Then, learners and the teacher work together on moves one by one. Learners
write a paragraph for each move, and the teacher gives feedback about the
learners’ writings. After feedback session, learners update their writings
according to the teacher’s feedback. This process continues until all the
moves are checked and corrected.
3rd Phase: Independent
In the last phase, learners start to write the text independently considering
Construction of the Text
the teacher feedbacks and the features of the biography genre. When
finished, the teacher makes a last review of the final text and makes
corrections if necessary.
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Received: 19 June 2019
Accepted: 02 December 2019
Cite this article as:
Çelik, Özgür. 2019. “A Genre Analysis of Biography Texts on the IMDB Website”. Language
Value, 11 (1), 1-22. Jaume I University ePress: Castelló, Spain. http://www.languagevalue.uji.es.
ISSN 1989-7103
Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors
Language Value 11 (1), 1-22
22
Language Value
December 2019, Volume 11, Number 1 pp. 23-44
Copyright © 2019, ISSN 1989-7103
Difficulties resulting from language diversity in teaching
medical translation and methods to overcome them when
teaching medical English to future translators
Anna Kuzio
Uniwersytet Zielonogórski, Poland
ABSTRACT
Active cooperation and international exchange of experience in the field of medicine and health care are
being employed in the contemporary world. In this regard, the application of quality translation of
medical records is of great significance. This paper discusses problems related to the translation of
medical terms from English into Polish, taking language diversity into account. It applies an evaluation
approach to investigate and discuss the issues and complexities of translating medical terms from English
into Polish. The purpose of the study is to present the various linguistic difficulties related to the
translation of medical terms and the way in which students in a medical translation course deal with them.
The study used qualitative and quantitative approach to evaluate the significance of the potential problem.
It concentrates on various types of medical terms. The findings of the analysis of the data revealed that
the translation of medical terms posed real challenges and difficulties to students who face difficulties
while rendering medical terms from English into Polish that seems to be the main problem in translating
medical texts.
Keywords: Medicine, medical discourse, teaching medical translation, language diversity
I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, medical translation is a highly specialized industry that plays a key role in
the distribution of medical knowledge and results of medical research, in the
cooperation of the international scientific community and in introducing new medical
products, services and technologies to the market. For these reasons, those individuals
who choose this type of activity are required to meet numerous, very diverse quality
standards.
The terms “medicine” and “translation” are too broad and multi-faceted for any of their
definitions to qualify for a comprehensive and consistent interpretation of each of them.
Yet, “medical translation” refers to the process and outcome of the complete, detailed
transmission of health information expressed in one language through equivalent text or
speech in another language
(Smith
2011:
135). Currently, medical translation is
frequently referred to as special types of scientific, technical or technological translation
Copyright © 2019 Language Value, ISSN 1989-7103
23
Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors
Anna Kuzio
(Eck et al. 2004, Byrne 2006: 18). In this respect, it is commonly believed that a
medical translator should be a medical specialist (Olle ten Cate et al. 2010: 669). At the
same time, from a different point of view, the main activity of a medical translator is to
translate from one language to another, and such activity requires special knowledge in
the field of translation studies and linguistics as a whole (Montalt and González-Davies
2014: 20, Shyiab et al. 2010: 100).
Translation activities entail the application of knowledge and skills that are not intended
to be specifically targeted in the course of study of medical specialties. Equally, the
knowledge gained in translation and translation studies does not involve understanding
of even the basics of medical science. Systematic development of the combination of
skills involves special training so it is crucial to offer the possibility to non-medical
professionals to gain that opportunity. It is important to equip future translators with
those skills as they are to offer the translation services in the future to a wide audience.
Moreover, literature resources have not shown any verified data on the number of
philologists and doctors among those employed in the field of medical translation, but it
can be assumed that, despite the relatively large number of philologists and linguists,
physicians prevail among medical translators. However, when talking about medical
translation as an industry, it should be kept in mind that this is mainly translation in
medical discourse, i.e. the possession of specific translation skills is not only desirable,
but also necessary for the qualitative performance of functional duties. Insufficient
proficiency in one's native language, which is most frequently the language of
translation, is often a problem (Pöchhacker and Shlesinger 2007). Surprisingly, but
often seeing the way to success in foreign languages, young professionals spend a
significant amount of time and effort studying the grammar and vocabulary of a foreign
language (Wakabayashi 1996: 358-359), and as a result, write, for example, in English
even more competently than in Polish. In the process of translation, a medical translator
does not always pay adequate attention to the accuracy of translation, often
hyperbolizing it as a literal translation of absolutely all terms (Newmark 1976: 12) and
expressions found in the source text, which is detrimental to the natural use of the
translation language and complicates the perception of the text by the customer (Kuhn
et al. 2007: 820, Crezee and Ng 2016: 13). The opposite situation is also possible: due
to their high professional level in the field of original text, a medical translator allows
Language Value 11 (1), 23-44
24
Difficulties resulting from language diversity in teaching medical translation and methods to overcome
them when teaching medical English to future translators
himself to ‘creatively rethink’ some of its ‘insignificant’ moments, which can lead to
distortion of the translation result
(Ji et al.
2019: 103-104). The abovementioned
disadvantages are deprived of linguistic specialists who studied translation studies,
understood the goals and objectives, and possessed skills and knowledge of the means
of translation. At the same time, they still face the problem of redundancy and
synonymity of medical terminology (Cimino 1998: 42), as well as the mismatch
between the medical descriptive systems adopted in the original language and culture
and those employed by the target translation (Sousa and Rojjanasrirat 2011: 267).
Translation of eponyms and medical abbreviations is particularly problematic (it should
be noted, for the sake of fairness, that translators with basic medical education also face
a comparable problem) (Sloane 1985). Linguists’ difficulties are also related to the
peculiarities of the use of medical vocabulary in the occasional use of medical
vocabulary, as well as to the insufficiency of their existing base of medical phraseology
(Fischbach 1998: 87, Shiyab et al. 2010: 106). Of course, there are also ways to
overcome this problem. For this purpose, a linguist has to master medical terminology
(Dubrovskaya and Lobina 2015: 123), structure and peculiarities in the formation of
medical terms, peculiarities of their pronunciation and use, to study the ‘false friends of
the translator’ in the medical text (Kuzmina et al. 2015: 549), the main peculiarities of
the structure and functioning of the human body, and the peculiarities of formation of
the names of medicines, procedures etc. (Wright and Budin 2001: 697). In general, the
acquisition of such a significant amount of information requires a considerable amount
of time and effort, as well as systematic training, which is not possible to discuss due to
the limited availability of specialized educational programs in this paper.
The availability of complete professional education in both medicine and in linguistics,
taking into account of the aspect of high standard in this domain, at first glance appears
to be an ideal combination for the formation of professional competence of a medical
translator. The most effective option is to train a specialist in the field of ‘translation in
the field of professional communication’ with professional orientation in the field of
medical knowledge. It is crucial to identify the linguistic elements that will constitute
the part of that training. The aim of this paper is to show how linguistic diversity can
contribute to potential difficulties and how they can be overcome while teaching
Language Value 11 (1), 23-44
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Anna Kuzio
medical English to future translators. Moreover, it is important to show which areas can
pose potential problems to translators when it comes to their linguistic aspects.
II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Translation is a complex and multifaceted activity that requires a great deal of human
effort (González Davies 2004: 11). The main requirement for translation is accuracy
(Darwish 2010: 42) and completeness (Hung 2002: 182). None of the author’s ideas
should be omitted or misrepresented (Castro et al. 2017: 131). The consequences of a
change in the meaning of the original source may vary depending on the type of
translation and may be up to the point of causing harm to a person, for example, when it
comes to translation in medicine. Modern translation theory has not yet developed a
single definition of translation as a language activity (Gentzler 2001: 1). One of the
definitions of translation is the following: “Translation is a complete transfer by means
of one language of communication, formulated in another (Millán and Bartrina 2013:
261). The aspect of “completeness” of information transmission in the process of
translation also appears to be crucial from the point of view concerning rendering
meaning (Gambier and van Doorslaer 2010: 97). By expert opinion, full translation of
the medical text has completely different characteristics than a full translation of the
journalistic text (Trosborg 1997: xii). The “fullness” is not so much a linguistic, as an
extra-linguistic, pragmatic property of translation, as it is provided only when taking
into account such factors as the real situation of communication, the relative socio-
cultural communities of the communicating individuals (Malmkjær 2008: 51).
The global processes of the 21st century pose new challenges for medicine, which
require the development of professional skills and abilities. This is impossible without
close cooperation and exchange of experience at an international level. The main goals
of teaching foreign language in a medical university are teaching professionally oriented
reading, formation of the ability to extract necessary information from the scientific text
depending on the communicative task of the specialist, and also conducting
conversation on specialized topics (Strop and Carlson 2011: 87, Antic 2007: 142).
Development of the ability to read and understand the original literature in the specialty
is determined by the need to obtain information from foreign sources and is reflected in
Language Value 11 (1), 23-44
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Difficulties resulting from language diversity in teaching medical translation and methods to overcome
them when teaching medical English to future translators
foreign language programs (Antic 2007: 142-143). Knowledge of foreign languages,
including medical English, helps doctors to be constantly aware of events in the field of
medicine, to get acquainted with modern literature in English.
The basis of the medical language is the terminology describing the state of the
organism, medicines and their impact on people, technologies used in treatment, and
much more, which is found in special publications, the content of which is related to
human health. Such texts, which need to be translated, can be of any level of complexity
and can involve various types of texts: an abstract from a medical history, protocols of
diagnostic examinations and operations performed, results of laboratory tests,
information for patients and/or doctors, instructions on the use of medicines, treatment
recommendations, etc. Taking these aspects into account, it is important to pay attention
to translation competence. Translation competence is often perceived in translation
literature as an additional skill (Pellatt et al. 2010: 177). Kielar (2007:19) states that it is
“the ability to form in target linguistic texts that are equivalent to the original texts” or
as Grucza (2004: 250) mentions it is “the ability to move from L1 to L2, to pass the
same content in the original translation and text.” Pamela Faber (2012: 3) believes that
the comprehension of the source text terminology is very crucial factor in the process of
translating, the creating of the terms’ target language counterparts is of equivalent, if
not, greater significance.
The main place in modern translation studies is occupied by the linguistics studies in the
field of translation. As any scientific discipline, modern translation studies were
developed by scientists from many countries. Much of the merit in this field is attributed
to the national science in this field (Kerner and Hall 2009, Gea Valor et al. 2010).
Medical translation and the translation of pharmaceutical texts are highly specialized
types of translation, which requires a translator who not only speaks the relevant foreign
language, but also possesses knowledge of the special terminology of the text to be
translated (Trosborg 1997: 159). Characteristic features of contemporary medicine are
the increasing number of narrow specialties, the emergence of new treatment options
and the development of specialized equipment and materials. Correspondingly, the
requirements for the qualification of an interpreter are constantly growing (Ozolins
2010: 198). It is significant for the translator to be conscious of, and to be trained in
Language Value 11 (1), 23-44
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Anna Kuzio
coping with, the technical terms that he/she encounters in translating technical texts. In
this regard, García-Sánchez (2010: 186) proposes that training in technical translation is
a crucial criterion to help technical translators so the aspect of training students
concerning medical translation should be treated as an obvious.
Over the last several decades, the translation of medical texts in combinations of two
languages in which one of the languages is English has been studied in detail.
Translations highlight several major problems in translating medical texts. For example,
the Quebec linguist Rouleau (203:143-152) has identified six main problems in English
and French: 1) peculiarities of use, including the metonymic use of terms and the
preferred use of certain parts of speech; 2) variability of terminology; 3) terminological
synonyms; 4) problems of translating eponyms; 5) discrepancy of affixes in general
words;
6) insufficiently high quality of specialized bilingual and multilingual
dictionaries. Rask (2004: 16-17) points out the following problems on the basis of
Swedish-English translations:
1) insufficient standardization of terminology,
2) the
acceptability of the use of Anglicisms in the translated text, 3) difficulties in translating
eponyms, and 4) differences in the organization of the health care system in different
countries. Lee-Jahnke (2001: 145-153) suggests a classification of medical translation
difficulties applicable to any pairs of languages:
1) terminological problems;
2)
translation difficulties; 3) difficulties in translating eponyms; 4) acceptability of the use
of Anglicisms; 5) peculiarities of the compatibility of language units and text structure
The classification of medical translation distinguishes between written and spoken
translation, as well as any other translation (Montalt 2014: 333). Translation is provided
by professional, semi-professional and native speakers of languages for which the
nature of the situation, the specific education of the communication and mastery of
terminology are crucial taking into account the specific education of the translator as
well as the specific knowledge of the communication (Montalt 2014: 333). Professional
level is characterized by the use of certain lexical units and syntactic constructions,
which are also characteristic for written medical translation. This is the language of
conferences, symposiums, presentations, reports, etc. At the semi-professional level
(doctor-patient communication), the efficiency of communication is reduced by the fact
that one of its participants is not a member of the medical profession, and, accordingly,
barriers to communication are established, among which are: semantic, communicative,
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Difficulties resulting from language diversity in teaching medical translation and methods to overcome
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psychological, cultural, stylistic. These differences may result in creating language
diversity that can contribute to the development of the coherent and cohesive
translation.
Taking the abovementioned issues into account, one should be aware that language
diversity greatly contributes to the whole translation process. Precision in scientific and
technical translations
(STTs) is both essential and important, particularly in this
'technological era', but they are not easy to obtain. The transfer of information and
technology from one language to another is restricted by many limitations, since each
language has its own characteristics, such as grammatical and lexical properties and
cultural aspects. These are barriers for translators and readers of such texts (Cronin
2003: 47). Furthermore, each language has a tendency to change over time. Changes
here indicates that some words can be substituted by other similar or different words,
new words are implemented to the language, and some words have established, or
denote, different meanings. This kind of modification occurs because of changes in
human culture and communities and it also affects the process of translation and
medical discourse (Trask 1994:1). The aspect of equivalence can also result in some
problems that a translator has to face. Moreover, this aspect seems to be an integral part
of language diversity that can affect the final shape of the translated text. A translator’s
failure to accomplish a suitable equivalent translation can give rise to a mistranslation
which may be misleading in most fields but which can be ‘dangerous’ in the field of
medicine (Baker and Saldanha 2009). Problems of equivalence occur at various levels,
ranging from word to the textual level. Neologisms are very common in medical
terminology mainly for the names of diseases as they spread very fast throughout the
world and each language needs to have counterparts for them very quickly (Montalt and
Gonzalez 2007: 230), e.g. in some situations functional-descriptive terms are employed
to name new diseases as it was with the term ‘swine flu’ that was introduced in 2009.
Correspondingly, some acronyms and abbreviations can result in a problem of
polysemy, as they are not exclusive and some abbreviations or acronyms can have
diverse meanings. Montalt (2011) claims that abbreviations and acronyms are causes of
polysemy, e.g. the medical abbreviation CF can have about 15 possible meanings.
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Anna Kuzio
Taking into account the concept of language diversity and the pace of changes in
medical discourse, one should realize that language diversity is an integral part of
teaching medical translation. Translations of scientific and technical terms ought to be
updated as many terms come in languages over time and some become no longer in
usage or are substituted by other terms. Language diversity includes meaning and
language change which pose some of the problems to medical translators.
III. METHODOLOGY
III.1. Statement of the problem
Medical translation requires a high degree of consistency and accuracy in the transfer of
the source text to the target language (TL). The translation of medical terms generally
poses many challenges. While some medical terms can be translated without any
difficulties, others are very difficult to translate. One of the things that can make the
translation of some medical terms into English more difficult is their complex structure,
e.g. hypergammaglobulinemia. Furthermore, there are medical complex terms and
abbreviations (which may be vague) that make it hard for an unexperienced translator to
grasp, such as the central nervous system (CNS).
It can sometimes be problematic for translators to cope with these structures in English,
which can lead to incorrect translations (Montalt and González-Davies 2014: 168).
Moreover, there are problems of ambiguity because many English terms are either new
or so technical that inexperienced translators cannot comprehend their meaning in
source language (SL) (ibid.).
The problems of various types of equivalence and differences in Polish medical terms
for the same English medical term may appear to be unavoidable because of different
factors. There are different translation phrases that operate independently, as unitary
expressions in the Polish world (Baker and Saldanha 2009). The use of competing
resources is regarded as one of the main causes for the multiplicity of concepts, which is
mirrored by the terminological inconsistency resulting from the lack of standardization.
All this highlights the significance of translator education that leads to the development
of their capacity to work in the field of medicine.
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Difficulties resulting from language diversity in teaching medical translation and methods to overcome
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To summarize, the study will demonstrate that the translation of medical terms is
difficult because some medical terms have complex structures and may give rise to
different semantic, lexical and grammatical interpretations that make translating very
difficult. A second reason is that there is a lack of clarity or because of ambiguity which
may be due to certain medical terms or expressions in SL, which in turn has a great
influence on the translation process.
III.2. Aim of the study
The current paper aims to analyse a specific translation problem, i.e., medical terms.
The study examines the problems that Polish students of translation majors may face
while translating English medical terms into their mother tongue. The following are the
research aims:
1. Rendering medical terms from English into Polish seems to be the main problem
in translating medical texts.
Hervey et al.
(1995:
155) mention that people have many problems with
terms that are not used in ordinary language, which are, thus, unfamiliar to the
translator. As a result, translators cannot guess the precise meaning of
the term or make a reliable guess at its correct TL rendering and this is typical
for medical terminology which often pose problems to translators who are not
trained in this specific field.
2. It is essential to train future translators in the medical field before they start
working in their profession.
Sofer (2011: 90) believes that all prospective translators should acquire some
knowledge of the medical field in advance.
3. Since neologism, lack of equality, polysemy and terminological incoherence
present significant translation problems, the aim of the study is to work out
strategies to help the future translators to deal with these difficulties.
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Anna Kuzio
Montalt and González Davies (2007: 248) also mention that the challenges faced
by medical translators can be found in the following fields, namely terminology,
neologisms and polysemy.
III.3. Population and the sample of the study
The starting point for the analysis in this paper is the course entitled 'The English
language in medicine', which is taught to students of English philology at the Bachelor's
level. The course is not required but selective. Students decide on their own whether to
participate in the course, which is partially expected to be consistent with their interests,
and thus it can be assumed that students will have some kind of background in medical
knowledge.
About 20% of the university students decide to enrol in this course, which consists of 15
classes (30 contact hours) per semester. Students usually do not have formal education
in medicine and generally do not know much about it, although they are expected to
show an interest in the subject when choosing this course.
The course is aimed primarily at students of the translation major in order to gain
theoretical insights into how teaching medical translation differs from teaching foreign
languages and teaching English to medical students.
The texts examined include material from students who participated in the survey from
2017 to 2019. The number of students who attended the classes in those years amounted
to 61 (18 men and 43 women). The age of the course participants, who are 1st and 2nd
year students of M.A. level, was between 21-25, indicating C1 level of proficiency;
those students were involved in the translation major at the B.A. level
The analysis was based on the written pieces of work delivered by students, which
included translating medical documents and medical texts from English into Polish as
well as standard translating tasks asking students to provide the equivalent in the given
language. Only translations prepared by individuals were used for the study, though
sometimes students worked in teams but these team projects were not included in the
analysis. Problems that appeared in translations prepared by individuals were also
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Difficulties resulting from language diversity in teaching medical translation and methods to overcome
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repeated in translations prepared by the groups. This shows that problems arising from
linguistic diversity are a challenging issue at every stage of the translation process.
Validity and reliability have been assured. All examples of medical texts were taken
from officially valid and reliable sources, which were easily accessible to the researcher
from websites.
III.4. Data Analysis and Discussion
The following table summarizes the findings of the student translators' responses. It
indicates that 51.7% of them were acceptable translations, namely translations that were
believed to be coherent and cohesive in terms of style and lexical choice made by the
translators. Unacceptable translations accounted for 43.7% and 8.8% were blank, which
indicates that participants did not give any response. Unacceptable translations (43.7%)
reflected the difficulty experienced in this field. This result is significant as it predicts
difficulties in translating into English, as well as problems in translating into Polish. The
fifteen examples will be analysed in turn exemplifying the different kinds of problems
linked to the translation of each of them. These examples show the general tendencies
observed in rendering translation of medical terms.
Table 1. Percentage Results of the Translations of Medical Term
No.
Term
Acceptable
Unacceptable
Blank
Raw score
%
Raw score
%
Raw score
%
1
Outpatient appointment
42
69
9
15
10
16
2
Orthotic appointment
7
12
47
77
7
12
3
Meningococcal diseases
15
25
42
69
4
6
4
Thalassaemia
38
62
20
33
3
5
5
Aspiration
8
13
47
77
6
10
6
Demyelinating neuropathy
12
20
41
67
8
13
7
SARS
60
98
-
-
1
2
8
Paediatrician
59
96
1
2
1
2
9
Haemophilia B
53
87
5
8
3
5
10
African trypanosomiasis
12
20
44
72
5
8
11
Haemoglobinopathies
16
26
39
64
6
10
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Anna Kuzio
12
Ophthalmologist
38
62
13
21
10
17
13
Fundoplication
13
21
43
71
5
8
14
Immunology assessment
52
85
6
10
3
5
15
Flu jab
11
18
42
69
8
13
Total
23
776
655
132
%
19,4
51.7
43.7
8.8
The first term is made up of two elements, the second one is appointment, which is a
common word and for most of the participants it was very simple to grasp the correct
meaning of the term. The term outpatient was sometimes translated literally. The
respondents recognized that an outpatient clinic is something located outside the
hospital, but were not able to state the correct equivalent in Polish. Element no.2
(orthotic appointment) is similar to example no. 1 (outpatient appointment) as this term
is a compound involving more than one element, orthotic and appointment. Most of the
subjects failed to get the right meaning of the term in Polish. It seems that the first
element of the orthotic term is responsible for the error as it was associated with the
term orthodontist and related to teeth. As a result, it was rendered as an activity dealing
in the dentistry field. The subjects failed to observe that orthotic is a synonym for bone.
It indicates that students faced some difficulties deriving the meaning of the expression.
On the other hand, term no.14 (immunology assessment) was one of the easiest elements
to translate in the group, only three people offered the wrong translation. It showed that
students did not have a problem deriving the meaning of the expression from the
context offered.
Terms like thalassemia, SARS, paediatrician and haemophilia were rendered correctly.
These terms can be translated using direct translation in Polish. Most participants
decided to rely on offering the closest and safest equivalent for these terms. In the case
of the abbreviation SARS, the transliteration of this abbreviation is commonly used in
Polish. Paediatrician was one of the least difficult terms. It accounted for one of the
highest percentages of adequate translations. Similarly, the term haemophilia did not
pose many translation problems. More problematic was the term thalassemia, but most
of the participants succeeded in giving acceptable translations which are often calques
of the terms and are commonly used in Polish.
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Meningococcal diseases appeared to be a difficult term to translate as the participants
delivered unacceptable translations. Meningococcal is an adjective that is used to
describe the diseases. Students experienced difficulties in comprehending the exact
meaning of the concept. They typically offered an unacceptable translation of the term
that could be back-translated as meningitis. Even though the participants who gave the
unacceptable translations grasped the meaning of the prefix, they failed to observe the
right semantic relationship linking the two elements of the term. The term aspiration
also caused translation problems. The cause for this could be that the term can be
translated into Polish using the direct translation method but the result does not reflect
the medical term. Some of the translations provided were recognized as unacceptable
because, from the sequence of the text, it was clear that aspiration is the concern and not
the treatment. Yet while providing the equivalent in Polish, students offered translations
that indicated the treatment and not the concern.
Demyelinating neuropathy is one of the conditions with a small number of accurate
renderings. The explanation for this small number may be because in medical
dictionaries the compound could not be found. Most of the students offered a back-
translation of the term neuropathy. This could have been due to their failure to find a
Polish counterpart for the first element, demyelinating, so they tried to resolve the
problem using the omission strategy. This led to a loss of meaning of the one part of the
concept. Term no. 10 (African trypanosomiasis) also caused some problems for the
future translators. The students had difficulties with the second part of the concept as it
is related to the Latin word denoting sleeping sickness. Lack of knowledge concerning
the Latin stock of vocabulary in medical translation can result in more problems like
this. Term no.11 (haemoglobinopathies) appeared to be too complex to students to
grasp the meaning of the term. Students probably had problems with identifying the
semantic components that were embedded in the term. This could be ascribed to the fact
that the participants did not know the meaning of the condition in English and had
problems with understanding what the components meant in English. ‘Fundoplication’
has shown a low rate of appropriate translation. The answers offered by the participants
indicated that the respondents were unable to comprehend the meaning of the word in
English (SL) and were not able to find any easily available counterpart in their mother
tongue that resulted in offering a direct calque into Polish. The term flu jab was not easy
Language Value 11 (1), 23-44
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Anna Kuzio
to translate. Moreover, this is an example of medical jargon. There may be may variants
(e.g. injection, shot) of each word that can also cause some difficulties. The group of
students had some difficulties in comprehending the accurate meaning of this concept. It
appeared that the polysemous element jab was the problematic part of the compound.
This caused the participants confused as to what to select as the suitable equivalent for
jab, which goes with the element flu. Besides this was a problematic word, the
compound itself is not present in medical dictionaries, so the participants may resort to
employing literal translation.
One can notice that some technical terms pose a lot of problems for the participants.
Moreover, some of the participants find it more difficult to render the proper meaning
while some of these terms are embedded in the context, as the context frequently creates
another challenge. Therefore, So, it is vital to examine how the same subjects decode
the meaning of some technical terms. In my opinion, it is not possible to measure how
many ideas and how much information a medical translator must try to understand in
practice in order to translate efficiently. Alternatively, I will offer some qualitative
recommendations based on the medical translation course I had a chance to create.
I consider that students who are involved in translating must be exposed, either by
taking part in a special courses or self-paced learning, to the entire subsystem of
medical concepts. This will allow them to have a holistic view of the area of concepts.
In clinical medicine, the conceptual fields are clearly represented by organ systems. A
systematic presentation of the basis of medical knowledge about a particular organ
system may encompass the following aspects: anatomy and physiology, disease
symptoms, diagnostic work, and treatment. The medical translation course therefore
should comprise quite extensive English texts on various organ systems. Some terms
should be emphasized during class discussion, e.g. due to the specific nature of their
Polish equivalents or in order to establish a link between the concept and other concepts
from the text. There is sometimes additional terminology presented which is not linked
to a specific organ system. For example, the difference between hypertrophy and
hyperplasia in the context of mild prostate hypertrophy / prostate hyperplasia in the
presentation of the urinary system has been a point of reference for the implementation
of related terms such as dysplasia, cancer or anaplasia and proliferation.
Language Value 11 (1), 23-44
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Difficulties resulting from language diversity in teaching medical translation and methods to overcome
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The translation course would therefore have to contain solutions to enhance the
maintenance of thematic knowledge. This is best achieved, in my opinion, by enabling
students to understand the links between concepts. Learning associative relations is
quite obviously the simplest way to gain a broader comprehension of the conceptual
system of a field.
Moreover, a course in terminology and phraseology must apply to both English and the
students' own mother tongue. Since medicine is a domain of life to which virtually all of
us have been exposed and medical issues are passed on in everyday situations by means
of words, which may vary from official terminology, it is vital that students should
study those texts for patients that may not include adequate terminology in Polish. This
concerns mainly - and paradoxically - words of Latin and Greek origin, which seem
very medical, but in reality are not used by physicians e.g. chronic or epilepsy.
Cases of terminological distortions can also create some problems in translation from a
foreign language to one’s mother tongue. For example, the gallbladder (Polish literal
translation
‘gall sac’), may have its unprofessional sound of gallbladder when the
translator decides to use the common term instead of sticking to the literal translation
(gall sac), resulting in an error.
The terminology should also be taught with an example-based linguistic approach and
not with the purpose of giving students the knowledge that is specific to a particular
concept. Students may be concerned with understanding the causes of hypocalcemia,
but their translation skills will be better understood if they know that the name of such
laboratory abnormalities is developed in accordance with the pattern hypo/hyper +
name of substance, as it will allow them to use similar patterns to understand more
terms that cause potential translation challenges.
Obviously not all information concerning medical terminology can be modelled,
particularly since the terminology is to be provided in two languages. As mentioned
earlier, English Latinate terms have Polish equivalents that represent native Slavic
words. Some of them are structurally identical to the English terms while some are not.
Multi-word terms may likewise be classified in one of three categories: similar in form
(e.g. invasive cardiology), similar in structure (e.g. malignant anaemia) or differently
structured (e.g. cerebral hematoma).
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Anna Kuzio
Self-study skills should not be overlooked because most translation assignments require
students to understand unfamiliar concepts, but this is no different from what can
happen with other translation courses with specific orientation. Students should also
receive a list of general medical reference works and should be encouraged to read
professional medical texts regularly.
IV. IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Medical translators should have a good knowledge of both SL and TL, a good
knowledge of the subject, an up-to-date knowledge of their field of specialization and a
broad comprehension of medical terms and abbreviations.
After the analysis of the errors, it can be stated that the students do not have adequate
knowledge of medicine, which results in incorrect translations. It is evident that there is
a problem regarding imbalances, relationships, abbreviations and new terms, as
translators appear to be trying to find them in English-Polish medical dictionaries that
they believed to be the only source of information that could be seen as a reliable source
of information. At the same time, they disregarded various databases, multilingual
corpora and other resources that could offer them more reliable information. This would
indicate that regularly updated English-Polish medical dictionaries would be very useful
and the quality of translation would be much better. It would be advisable to suggest
that the Polish academics should undertake some efforts to create a dictionary that
would be very helpful and of better quality for translation. It is important to point out
that specialized medical dictionaries on the Polish market are becoming more and more
popular, but there are still only a few of them, which does not provide full access to
medical knowledge.
Furthermore, teaching medical translation with respect to linguistic diversity should be
compulsory for translation majors as students do not always are aware that linguistic
diversity is a key element. It would be worth engaging translators who are interested in
working in the field of medicine, in order to be able to participate in the training of
students to work in the field of medical translation. It is also advisable to involve
medical students in the translation process in order to show students that the aspect of
collaboration with a professional is essential at a certain stage. This training would
Language Value 11 (1), 23-44
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Difficulties resulting from language diversity in teaching medical translation and methods to overcome
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enable students to become well acquainted with medical terminology and the manner in
which they work. From an academic point of view, deeper research on terminological
inconsistency and standardization would be useful.
This study was only aimed at addressing the problems that students and subsequently
future translators may encounter, it should be noticed that the greatest problem arose in
the use of medical terms in English and Polish. In general, further in-depth research is
required to address the problem of medical translation, and in particular the problems of
semantic and associative relationships and abbreviations.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The results of this research reveal that the translation of medical terms is a matter of
concern for unprofessional translators and university students. Moreover, the research
results reveal that inexperienced students have a clear weakness in identifying precise
translations and appropriate explanations of terms which are not found in English-Polish
medical dictionaries and CAT tools or have no counterparts in Polish. The study also
found that most of the unacceptable translations come from students who have less than
five years of medical experience. This could be negatively reflected in their work as
translators in a field such as medicine. Furthermore, the results of the study highlight
the fact that hiring inexperienced translators and interpreters in bilingual settings
(English and other languages) without offering them training may create risks for
communication between patients and healthcare professionals. That is, interpreters
interested in working in the medical field must be better trained before they start their
careers.
The findings of this research confirm previous hypotheses that translators would
encounter some obstacles in translating some medical terms. As mentioned above, the
findings demonstrate that certain difficulties were triggered by certain medical terms,
that usually that terms which were represented by compounds, collocations and
abbreviations, which cannot be found either in English-Polish dictionaries or in
monolingual dictionaries. They also indicate that the students use different approaches
to translating medical terms with varying degrees of success.
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Anna Kuzio
For this reason, hopefully the results of this study will be considered as a way of
enhancing the level and competence of translators by offering them special training in
medical translation and expanding the translation programme for translators in Poland
to include some medical translation courses.
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Smith C. A. 2011. “Consumer language, patient language, and thesauri: a review of the
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Received: 17 July 2019
Accepted: 13 December 2019
Cite this article as:
Kuzio, Anna.
2019.
“Difficulties resulting from language diversity in teaching medical
translation and methods to overcome them when teaching medical English to future translators”.
Language Value
11
(1),
23-44. Jaume I University ePress: Castelló, Spain.
ISSN 1989-7103
Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors
Language Value 11 (1), 23-44
44
Language Value
December 2019, Volume 11, Number 1 pp. 45-70
Copyright © 2019, ISSN 1989-7103
Communicative competences in non-linguistic university
degrees
Oksana Polyakova
Ruzana Galstyan-Sargsyan
Universidad Católica de Valenica, Spain
ABSTRACT
As labour markets continue to change rapidly, the learning environments continue to be unchallenged in
the provision of new professionals across the world. This change has compelled the need for students to
attain communicative competences in non-linguistic institutions of higher education. In order to address
this issue, we propose a novel approach to communicative competences integration into the curriculum
development of a specialised foreign language course. For this purpose, we combine students’ needs
analysis with a personalised English for specific purposes (ESP) course design that motivates them to
learn more about technical and professional environments through a skill-based routing. Additionally, we
provide a scale for measuring training outcomes as well as suggest first results from the piloting phase of
the teaching experience. The findings of the study highlight usefulness of the customised competence
training experience.
Keywords: higher education, communicative competences, second language acquisition, foreign
language teaching
I. INTRODUCTION
Working environment in the 21st century is changing fast. As a result, higher education
institutions include communicative competences in non-linguistic degrees to ensure
their students come out as well-prepared individuals. The competence training offers
graduates the ability to develop their goals and acquire an understanding of a variety of
specific skills required to succeed in the labour market. Fundamentally, competence
means achieving something successfully and efficiently (Feldhaus et al.
2006), it
becomes a positive quality that all professionals want, regardless of the field of
expertise. Several studies were conducted in different countries, so it is essential to
point out some of the most relevant approaches and results.
According to a research carried out in the USA by Feldhaus et al. (2006), students of
university degrees need specific training that guarantees the acquisition of ethical, social
and professional responsibility competences. In addition, the authors of the teaching
Copyright © 2019 Language Value, ISSN 1989-7103
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Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors
Oksana Polyakova and Ruzana Galstyan-Sargsyan
project designed a qualification based on the essential competences for professional
leadership in organisations. However, we have noticed that the focus on the leadership
competence, provided by Feldhaus as the main course of orientation, contains no
broader competence vision and does not combine it with second language (L2) skills.
The work of Walther et al. (2011), also based on the US experience, argues that
competence-based training of engineering students is determined by a series of factors
of the education system. Unlike the previous study, the authors propose the use of a
framework based on seven blocks of professional skills linked to the technical training
model. Due to the linguistic profile of students -future American engineers whose
mother tongue is English-, the communicative competence in L2 has not been
considered.
The research of Argüelles Álvarez (2013) conducted in Spain reveals ground-breaking
achievements in teaching specialised English and content course. The combination of
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) methods as well as a set of generic
competences were taught within Moodle environment and on-campus. The assessment
scale viewed holistically could gain precision and relevance in connection to
competences achievement. In general, course activities planned alongside with project
work designed specifically for the course were insightful for our L2 curriculum design.
Another investigation, undertaken by Kongsom (2016) in Thailand, improves the use of
communicative strategies in engineering degrees. Foreign language students often face
difficulties in learning English, specifically oral expression. The communicative
strategy is closely linked to communicative competences. As determined by the study
results, a course of ten communicative strategies managed to improve communicative
and strategic competences of university students.
The main objective of our study is to investigate the combined methods and procedures
related to the L2 communicative competence development. Additionally, the research
included mediation as a new key aspect for teaching and learning foreign languages
according to the CEFR. The study`s research questions to explore will include:
(i)
What type of methodology and procedures could address the
implementation of linguistic competences in L2 training at university
level?
Language Value 11 (1), 45-70
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Communicative competences in non-linguistic university degrees
(ii)
Is it possible to personalise and bear in mind students’ interests while
designing a training course?
(iii)
Can we assess training results?
(iv)
Does the use and piloting of a proposed course model correlate with
expected learning outcomes in terms of competences acquired?
Thus, thorough research on literature addressing communicative competence training
will be carried out. Scholarly articles will be used, and a qualitative review and analysis
will be carried out to justify our stance on the importance of communicative
competences in higher education across the world. In our study, the concept of non-
linguistic university degree allows variation from technical to financial areas to
extrapolate research results. The different political and geographical situations including
various activities and social context around the world affect the issue.
Additionally, the attitude and the students’ expectations are critical factors in the
attainment of competences among students. Many students may view the competences
as a waste of time and irrelevant in their field and our task is to change this point of
view through the present research.
The need to train students to communicate effectively enough for the modern-day
workplaces is the main reason for this article as it discusses the importance of
communicative competency in non-language degrees across the world. The study is
critical in determining the attention that higher education is giving to communicative
competence. The research will also be vital in determining how the institutions are
adjusting towards providing students with the competence both in language and non-
language degrees.
II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
II.1. Concept of communicative competence and its development
The concept of communicative competence was introduced by Hymes (1972). The term
was coined by Hymes while reacting against the perceived inadequacy of Noam
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Chomsky’s (1965) difference between the performance and linguistic competence. In
order to address Chomsky’s abstract idea of competence, Hymes conducted an
ethnographic assessment of communicative competence that integrated communicative
form and functions as they relate to one another. Hymes’ approach towards improving
the understanding of communicative competence is described as the ethnography of
communication. Hymes believed in the ability to communicate properly needs to be
developed in language teaching. It implies that students must be taught about various
ways of learning a language in their daily communication to enable them to demonstrate
their language mastery. The aim of Communicative Language Teaching is to infuse into
individuals the ability to create and to construct utterances (spoken and written), which
have the desired social value or purpose (Kramsch 2006).
Fundamentally, communicative competence concept has been widely recognised in the
teaching of English language, as well as other fields such as sociolinguistic, discourse,
strategic and pragmatic competences. According to Kramsch
(2006), language
communicative competence is the expression, interpretation and negotiation of meaning
between interlocutors. The development of communicative competence among the
students has contributed to a huge recognition of English as a fundamental
communicating tool after graduation in many parts of Europe where the language is
treated as a foreign language. The use of the English language, for example, skills and
cultural aspects have permitted them to learn about ways of communicating with people
of different cultural backgrounds in real language contexts (Pepper 2011).
At the pedagogic level, the approach through which the competences highlight the
practical side of learning, the use of the learning effects for the individuals as well as the
society. In this regard, studies have shown that the use of competences in defining the
objective is crucial as it allows the education to provide a considerably more direct
answer to the concrete needs of the learning community. Voiculescu (2013) reported
that the integrator model of skills enhanced a proper interpretation of the concept,
thereby preserving the elements identified. According to the authors, the communicative
competences have the ability to address the knowledge and abilities that integrate the
values, attitudes and the necessity for problem-solving.
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The communicative competence provides knowledge that ensures the theoretical basis
of the competence, the ability to represent the executory, acting side of the competence
and the personality characteristics that direct the competence from the value point of
view
(Kramsch
2006). Within the university environment, the communicative
competence is defined in reference to given disciplinary competences. Notably, they are
competences that transcend the education discipline. Theoretically, some skills are
learnt with the disciplinary ones. They might be included explicitly and implicitly.
The establishment of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) has
further enhanced the development and use of the communicative competence in the
teaching of the University students across European nations (Council of Europe 2018).
Primarily, the framework was developed as a continuation of the Council of Europe’s
work in language education during the 1970s and 1980s. Notably, the action-oriented
approach of the framework builds on and proceeds beyond a communicative approach
in the teaching of the foreign languages amongst the university students. Thus, they are
led to a better perception of what is general and what is specific concerning the
linguistic organisation of different languages.
There are several theories that support the communicative language teaching. One of
these theories is Hymes’ theory (1972) of communicative learning. In this theory,
Hymes (1972) proposed a theory of language performance or use. This theory bases its
core arguments on the acceptability and therefore pursues the models and rules that
underlie within people’s performance. Hymes’ framework (1972) goes beyond the
difference between the competence and performance, based on the fact that both can be
important. This has led to the development and understanding of the communicative
competence teaching, which emphasizes all the four skills, namely listening, speaking,
reading and writing. However, listening and speaking have a special place in
Communicative Language Teaching.
II.2. Necessity and feasibility of developing communicative competence
Teaching communicative competence provides the students with an opportunity to
speak and share their ideas in a relatively relaxed manner. Ideally, the students are
subject to being the major players or protagonists within the classroom settings as part
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of foreign language learning (Valdman 1992). As such, their initiative and motivation
are both enhanced. Studies have shown that the problems that can be brought by the
lack of competence in a foreign language can be solved through the implementation of
communicative competence as a teaching strategy (Pepper
2011). Communicative
competence does not only focus on the development of the students’ listening and
speaking abilities but also their writing skills.
Many national governments have tried to adapt the curricula of their programmes to the
needs of the labour market, and equipping their students with the transferable
competences that will enable them to apply their knowledge in various professional
areas. The future employer requires these skills. Teaching the communicative
competence in non-linguistic universities, therefore, facilitates the introduction of the
new teaching methods, which creates a diversified teaching process. Under these
circumstances, teachers can utilize the various resources to assist the students in
developing their communicative skills, which is one way through which diversity is
manifested.
For instance, English teachers might use pictures to foster group discussions, thereby
assisting students in developing improved informational understanding and the cultural
backgrounds on various topics. Games also constitute one mechanism that promotes
communicative competence (Halász and Michel 2011). Ideally, games can be used to
help students learn about the foreign vocabulary and practice their writing skills. More
specifically, teachers can assist the student in learning about the vocabulary and
consequently practising their writing skills. In some areas, teachers can help students in
developing contexts in a foreign language when teaching them grammar and the culture
of that particular foreign language. Students can be asked various integrative questions
to enable them to practice not only their spoken foreign language but also learn about
the different cultures (Valdman 1992). Undeniably, this can be an excellent platform for
students to learn and deeply study a foreign language.
II.3. Challenges of developing student’s communicative competences
Studies have reported that inadequate interaction between teachers and students
contribute to one of the significant traditional limitations to the learning of foreign
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language. Traditional learning encompasses a simple interaction mechanism where
teachers are involved in lecturing while students take notes and rarely participate in
class. Further, test-based teaching methods make learners develop a certain degree of
reluctance and therefore become unable to participate in various classroom activities. In
this sense, communicative teaching approach is still a journey from the theory to
practice within the non-linguistic universities (Halász and Michel 2011).
Lack of individual initiative towards learning the foreign language also influences the
effectiveness of teaching. Learning a foreign language calls for an own effort, although
a joint initiative by both the teacher and students is essential. While it is evident that
most universities pay more attention to the development of the students’ communicative
competence, the traditional systems of assessment do not take into account whether or
not the students have genuinely developed such competences (Kramsch 2006). In most
cases, such methods are still ingrained, even though the dichotomy between fluency and
accuracy is always worth to be considered. Related to this is the fact that students may
not be willing to learn by themselves. Studies have found that students who do not
speak the foreign language as their major may demonstrate a varied opinion about that
particular language (Halász and Michel 2011). As such, the absence of both the input
and output reduces the students’ interest and skills in reading the vocabularies. This
kind of attitude towards learning a foreign language may severely impede students’
learning. In essence, the teachers and students need to establish a steady relationship
between foreign language teaching and learning.
III. METHODS AND PROCEDURES
The communicative competence deals with the ability for a student to communicate,
manage, relate, create and recognise. In order to tackle the issue of personalised
implementation in non-linguistic degree second language (L2) learning and curriculum
design, the following methods and procedures will be used in this study. Initially, we
will perform students’ needs analysis and then, in line with its results, we will design a
combined training process based on communicative competences progress. Finally, an
assessment scale and a self-assessment table will be proposed to measure competence
achievement.
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III.1. Student needs survey design
As demonstrated by the soft competences required in the university and work context, it
is necessary to be a qualified specialist and to have a correct command of professional
expertise related to the ability to communicate effectively. In addition to this challenge,
university students have to acquire L2 (English language) skills. Thus, non-linguistic
education requires a strong focus on communicative competences embedded in
curricular programming and teaching materials of specialised language subjects. A
method selected for detecting students’ points of view and motivation is a needs
analysis that is going to collect learners’ background information on English training
and special vocabulary preferences.
76 engineering students of the Universitat
Politècnica de València took part in our survey and provided us with their opinions and
suggestions that will be described later in the Results section.
III.2. Communicative competences learning process
It should be noted that a student survey is an essential starting point in the research
process. Due to its personalised approach, we can design a didactic planning aimed at
achieving curricular objectives. Specifically, the linguistic objective focuses on level B2
(Council of Europe 2018, 2001) and entails a correct mastery of the four skills (oral and
written expression, reading and listening comprehension). Moreover, a number of
additional
21st century competences should be included in the learning process:
mediation and online training competences, as well as pluricultural and plurilingual
competences.
However, at the lexical level, needs analysis outcomes will provide us with solid data
on thematic choice for the course dossier. The study looks at ways student motivation
regarding themes is used to reinforce language competence training. A course dossier
contents will be compiled from ten units based on vocabulary section approved by
students, a wide range of activities also combines speaking, grammar, reading,
paraphrasing and translation tasks. Each unit will promote the use and development of
competences through a dynamic L2 environment as well as encourage reflection point
on the knowledge and skills acquired or in progress.
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This didactic strategy is proposed in line with the learning process based on tasks and
projects and follows the curricular design guidelines set by Nation and Macalister
(2010), Nunan
(2013,
2004) and Ur (2012). These guidelines will allow certain
linguistic concepts to be worked on with a greater degree of adaptation to the learning
objectives and transversal competences.
III.3. Measuring language competences
As mentioned before, a number of higher education institutions have introduced key
competence measurement, including communication in foreign language as one of them
(e.g. Universita Di Bologna, Coventry University, University of Cordoba, Alexandru
Ioan Cuza University, among others). However, we cannot use them to tackle specific
language competences while teaching foreign languages in non-linguistic degrees
because of the missing linguistic components. For the current study, the researchers had
to design a specific scale for measuring communicative competences` achievement
within a specialised training context.
Language factors promoted by the updated Common European Framework of Reference
for Language (Council of Europe 2018) will play an active role in emphasising the B2
level of English through seven language competences (LC): LC-01 Listening, LC-02
Speaking, LC-03 Reading, LC-04 Writing, LC-05 Mediation, LC-06 Pluricultural and
plurilingual competence, LC-07 Online training competence.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
IV.1. Needs survey analysis
In line with the Bologna process priorities, our research places students at the centre of
the learning process and we will study both their linguistic background and technical
thematic preferences. 76 engineering degree students of the Universitat Politècnica de
València, Spain (academic year 2017-2018) took part in a needs survey aimed at
providing specific information through the Google format survey. The purpose of the
survey was to get a better understanding of our future students’ language background,
future linguistic needs together with motivation towards a number of specific topics.
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The latter has become significantly relevant for the students’ involvement in their own
communicative competence advance. In this respect, it is worth mentioning that the
training designed aims a diverse group of future engineering staff specialised in
industrial technologies, chemistry, biomedicine, energy among other. So, a closer
connection between the learning process planned and the way we personalise it, can
keep the course aligned with a meaningful competences training.
Here below are displayed the results of our survey (See Figures 1, 2 and 3):
a) Language learning
How long have you been studying English?
Since secondary school
Since high school
Since university
Figure 1. Language learning background.
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Communicative competences in non-linguistic university degrees
Have you got any official language
certificate?
A2 certificate
B1 certificate
B2 certificate
Figure 2. Official certificates obtained by engineering students.
Have you ever studied English at a B1 or B2
level?
No
General English B1 course
Technical English B1 course
Figure 3. Previous general or technical language learning background.
According to the answers received, the majority of university students (82%) started
learning English in elementary school. 42% of the respondents admit having the official
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Oksana Polyakova and Ruzana Galstyan-Sargsyan
A2 certificate in English, 8% have an official B1 level and 8% a B2, while 42% lack
any type of official certification. Regarding the previous experience of learning English,
the proportion obtained corresponds to the almost equal distribution of courses of
general English B1 (22%), technical English B1 (25%), general English B2 (29%) or
absence of previous experience (24%).
b) Future L2 use and vocabulary preferences
Where will you probably work in the future?
Working place and business
Friends and family
Travelling and free time
Figure 4. Future working place.
The use of English in the future leaves us with clear evidence of the respondents
recognising the importance of L2 to achieve professional goals. The majority (78.9%)
have indicated the use of English in their future jobs as the most likely scenario, the
second most voted option (13.2%) is travel and free time. The third choice (6.6%) is the
university and educational environment, and friends and family (1.3%) rank in the last
place.
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Communicative competences in non-linguistic university degrees
Where will you probably work in the future?
Process management and
maintenance
Project management/consulting
Technical sales and
customerservice
Figure 5. Future work options.
What type of language use will you need?
General English Grammar
Specific English Vocabulary
Specific English Grammar
Figure 6. Types of future language use.
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What English language skills will you need
for your future?
Listening
Speaking
Writing
Figure 7. Types of future language skills needs.
In the survey, students choose to work in the future in the areas of process management
and maintenance (32.9%), research and development (28.9%), project management and
consulting (27.8%), technical sales assistance and customer service (10.5%). In line
with job expectations, students of university degrees indicate future needs of specific
English vocabulary (47.4%), general English vocabulary (39.5%), and, to a lesser
extent, general English grammar (7.9%) or specific grammar (5.3%). The linguistic skill
most in demand for their professional future is oral expression in L2 (81.6%), followed
by oral comprehension (9.2%), written expression (5.3%) and reading comprehension
(3.9%).
The data from the topic preference survey gave promising results. Most of the
participants agreed with the topics and the precise values for each one of the topics are
listed in the figure below:
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Communicative competences in non-linguistic university degrees
TOPIC PREFERENCES
Completely agree
Agree
No opinion
Disagree
RULES AND REGULATIONS
7,9
60,5
25
6,6
BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY
46,1
48,7
3,1,3
PROJECT, CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
36,8
50
13,2
0
COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
22,4
60,5
10,5
6,6
WORKPLACE
25
60,5
11,8
2,6
BUILDINGS AND INSTALLATIONS
26,7
50,7
14,7
8
ACADEMIC STUDIES
14,5
60,5
18,4
6,6
TRANSPORT AND TRAVEL
25
53,9
14,5
6,6
ENVIRONMENT AND GEOGRAPHY
30,3
47,4
14,5
7,9
HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY
25
43,4
15,8
15,8
Figure 8. Topic preferences.
c) Proposals and suggestions
The needs analysis survey includes the following set of open-ended questions:
What other subject could we include in the design of the course? Several
respondents pointed out the need to incorporate: New technologies, Art,
Cinema and history, Science, Teamwork, Job application, Marketing
strategies, How to communicate well, Business and negotiation, among
others.
What would be the best English textbook for each respondent? Among the
answers obtained are, for example, English grammar in use, Gold First,
Objective First, Communicating across cultures, Cambridge English B2
level, Face-to-face, My grammar lab or speaking skills books.
The results displayed help obtain characteristics of previous L2 knowledge of our
students, validate possible didactic topics and suggestions regarding our students’ L2
training experience. Just as respondents suggested, we enriched our course content with
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multicultural job and academic oriented activities as well as strengthened grammar
preparation to interconnect it with specific vocabulary.
IV.2. A course dossier for teaching competences
In line with the Bologna process priorities, our research places students at the centre of
the learning process and we will study both their linguistic background and technical
thematic preferences.
The course dossier covers the main areas of English grammar and concentrates
on aspects that learners need to advance in listening, reading, speaking and writing
skills to be able to communicate confidently. It consists of ten units which are based on
the most up-to-date topics to engage learners to study the language according to the B2
level requirements (see Table 1). A wide range of activities has been designed to engage
learners and the language to the real-world demands and to group the units into the
following type of activities:
Warm-up activities to introduce the topic and give the students a chance to
work in groups to share knowledge on the topic;
Vocabulary activities allow students to reinforce the newly acquired words
in a context;
Grammar activities to build knowledge on different grammar aspects though
fill-in gaps, writing or group activities;
Reading activities to practice the reading skill through interactive exercises;
Paraphrasing, translating activities to connect L2 structures and mother
tongue of our students;
Discussions, information analysis activities to encourage application and
improvement of transversal competences;
Summary, reflection and self-assessment activities to identify and measure
competences acquired in a particular unit.
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Table 1. Dossier contents (Polyakova and Stepins 2019). Source: authors.
Dossier
Unit contents
Unit 1. The world around us
Vocabulary: Geography and environment. Grammar: Quantifiers,
articles, uncountable and plural nouns.
Vocabulary: present and past of health technology. Grammar:
Unit 2. Health technology
comparison and order of adjectives, prepositions at, on, in. Speaking
topic: sport.
Vocabulary: transport and travel. Grammar: infinitive and
-ing,
Unit 3. On a business trip
irregular verbs.
Vocabulary: academic CV, writing clearly. Grammar: connectors,
Unit 4. Academic issues
prepositions and expressions. Speaking topic: Erasmus interview.
Vocabulary: buildings, industrial facilities, problems with
Unit 5. Buildings and facilities
installations. Grammar: present tense, past tense, present perfect.
Vocabulary: workplace. Grammar: modal verbs. Speaking topic:
Unit 6. Workplace
SWOT analysis.
Vocabulary: communication and media. Grammar: future tenses,
Unit 7. Communication
conditionals, temporal clauses.
Unit 8. Projects, creativity and
Vocabulary: projects, creativity and innovations. Grammar: active
innovations
and passive voice.
Vocabulary: Business and Industry. Grammar: Reported Speech,
Unit 9. Business and industry
Reporting Verbs and Their Patterns
Unit 10. Rules and regulations
Vocabulary: Rules and regulations. Grammar: future tenses
When linking the teaching of communicative competences in L2 with professional
needs, the starting point is to customise ten didactic units according to the needs of
future specialists. Likewise, each unit proposes a clear communicative-linguistic
approach of B2 level and connects unit contents to the list of transversal competences
chosen for the current project. In order to illustrate the various types activities designed
for the first unit, we have selected the following combination of competences and tasks:
Unit 1. The world around us (unit name chosen for the topic Environment and
geography).
Language competences, B2 level of English:
Speaking, listening, reading, writing;
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Vocabulary (geography and environment);
Grammar (quantifiers, articles, uncountable and plural nouns);
Mediation (groupwork and presentation of different types of energy).
Activities:
Discuss different types of energy in your country (page 10, activity F);
Classify energy types, indicate advantages / disadvantages in a table (page
11, activity G); write a short text giving the opinion on the classification
(page 11, activity H);
Work in groups and present different types of energy to convince others to
use this type of energy (page 11, activity I).
In this manner, we account for a course dossier prepared so that any L2 English
professor can have several pre-designed thematic activities closely related to
competence development. Similarly, the dossier format will allow the incorporation of
learning tasks based on cross-curricular projects and explore new paths of collaboration
with teachers-experts in specialised subjects.
IV.3. Assessing communicative competence development
As mentioned before, the research also includes an adapted assessment scale that will
strengthen knowledge acquisition process and ensure effective competence
achievement. Besides that, a rubric presented (see Appendix I) suggests a user-friendly
format based on competence names, descriptors and Likert scale marking that can be
used for teacher, peer and self-assessment.
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Figure 9. Self-assessment part at the end of each unit.
Another compelling challenge in the area of assessment is the development of self-
assessment skills of our learners. We recommend to implement the following self-
assessment block designed for each unit (see Figure 9) in order to engage students and
support their gradual progress.
IV.4. Task-based curricular design modelling and piloting
Teaching English as a foreign language is part of the communicative competences’
integration programme. The programme teaches students to acquire skills that assist
them to be competent in multi-professional skills. The skills acquired after completion
of the programme are diverse with the inclusion of communicative orientation of
training. Pillars of learning is achieved through the learning of English since it is a
pathway for students to acquire communicative knowledge and skills to be used in a
different profession.
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Oksana Polyakova and Ruzana Galstyan-Sargsyan
The following stage on piloting communicative language competences integration
performed in close cooperation with Professor Parvina Islamova (Tajik State University
of Commerce) includes course details as well as its goals, training setting and learning
outcomes linked to competence achievement. The future profession, in this case, is
accounting and audit. Professional accountant learning different types of speech skills
such as listening, speaking, reading, writing and mediation improve the chances of
being a qualified professional in the job market. During the program period, students
will get an opportunity to form communication skills. The component of
communication skills is the ability of students to communicate with classmates,
therefore, enhancing productive learning.
Forming and refining their communication skills is the first objective of this course.
Communication skills are the basics for students for them to be best positioned in
understanding and factually synthesizing information. Communication skills go beyond
the basics needs putting students in a good state for them to effectively develop and
justify points. Point justification abilities are made possible through mastery of speech
and writing. Practicing communication relies on the text as a basic tool. The changing
global trends put English as the leading foreign language to connect people. Refined
communication skills put a student in a good position to be accepted by most
employers. The English language through mastery of communication skills makes it
possible for students to enhance other complementing transversal skills. The English
language is, therefore, the backbone of ensuring that students acquire other transversal
competences with ease.
The lesson was conducted using unit 3 of the dossier called “On a business trip” in the
group of a specialty “Accounting and audit” 13 participants, aged around 18-19. In
words of Parvina Islamova, “We have got a theme about a business trip, and I wanted to
test my students with the use of this book, but I have known that the level of English is
higher than they have. I have found this book interesting, however my students would
have had a better experience if they were B1-B2 level. My students are so ambitious
they want to improve their knowledge, and I think it was a good idea to change our
textbook”. The practical process also proved that knowledge acquired on the English
language [partially acquired LC-01, LC-02, LC-03 and LC-04] was a factor when it
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Communicative competences in non-linguistic university degrees
came to carrying out of experiments and analysis of data. The interpretation of data is
essential in concluding competence achievement”.
V. CONCLUSIONS
This assessment of the importance of communicative competences in higher institutions
demonstrates the type of skills looked for by institutions as well as for clarity in their
definition. In terms of limitation, this study aims to critically assess the relevance of
communicative competence in non-language degrees to increase the employability of
students in the workplaces and delivery of the expected outcomes. We hope people that
will use this study will be able to gain an insight into the importance of the subject both
in the class and outside their classrooms.
The study results presented in this article show that the authors attached importance to
the development of a reliable study methodology. Moreover, a number of
methodological procedures for addressing university students’ thematic interests and
connecting them to curricular objectives helped adopt innovative competence-based
approaches. This allowed scholars to answer research questions in the following way:
RQ (i) the combination of procedures that ensured study cohesion was based on needs
survey, dossier and assessment suggestions as well as project piloting; RQ (ii) as
mentioned before, students’ needs detected by needs analysis are the core element of
motivation towards competence training; RQ
(iii) adapted competence assessment
merging a specific scale and self-assessment table can be used for assessing learning
results; RQ (iv) piloting results were quite promising even though some adjustments
should be done.
The main result that is obtained in the research is a course design proposal that allows to
integrate the personalised learning elements to complete successfully the training
process through the implementation of communicative competences. One of the most
remarkable practical implications of this study is that the proposed dossier allows a
structural and clear development of communicative competences and their
measurement. Thus, it helps learners to have a robust vision of his/her learning
processes. The implementation of communicative competences is usually presented in
the context of a subject but there is no concrete didactic material which embraces and
Language Value 11 (1), 45-70
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Oksana Polyakova and Ruzana Galstyan-Sargsyan
works those competences gradually and systematically through cross-curricular
competences.
In summary, learning of L2 can be challenging, but it can also be exciting if done with a
positive attitude (Redecker et al. 2011). It entails the involvement of different people to
make sure that students can succeed in their education. These people include, but not
limited to, educators, graduates and employers.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank Professor Parvina Islamova (PhD, Senior Lecturer at the
Department of Foreign Languages, Tajik State University of Commerce) for her
valuable help and insights on the modelling and piloting stage of the current project.
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Ur., P. 2012. A Course in English Language Teaching. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
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Valdman, A. 1992. “Authenticity, variation and communication in the foreign language
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APPENDIX I
Table 2. Adapted communicative competences assessment scale
Competence
Markers/ descriptors
Likert
Scale (1-5)
LC-01 Listening, B2
Can understand the main ideas of propositionally and
linguistically complex speech.
Can follow extended speech and complex lines of argument.
LC-02 Speaking, B2
Can give clear, systematically developed descriptions and
presentations, with appropriate highlighting of significant
points, and relevant supporting detail.
Can give clear, detailed descriptions and presentations on a
wide range of subjects.
Can communicate detailed information reliably.
Can give a clear, detailed description of how to carry out a
procedure.
Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity.
LC-03 Reading, B2
Can read with a large degree of independence.
Can scan quickly through long and complex texts, locating
relevant details.
Can quickly identify the content and relevance of news items,
articles and reports on a wide range of professional topics,
deciding whether closer study is worthwhile.
LC-04 Writing
Can write clear, detailed texts on a variety of subjects related to
his/her field of interest, synthesising and evaluating information
and arguments from a number of sources.
LC-05 Mediation, B2
Can convey detailed information and arguments reliably, e.g.
the significant point(s) contained in complex but well-
structured, texts within my fields of professional, academic and
personal interest.
Can encourage participation and pose questions that invite
reactions from other group members’ perspectives or ask
people to expand on their thinking and clarify their opinions.
LC-06 Pluricultural
Can describe and evaluate the viewpoints and practices of
and
plurilingual
his/her own and other social groups, showing awareness of
competence, B2
the implicit values on which judgments and prejudices are
frequently based.
Can alternate between languages in his/her plurilingual
repertoire in order to communicate specialised information and
issues on a subject in his field of interest to different
interlocutors.
LC-07
Can participate actively in an online discussion.
Online
training
Can engage in online exchanges between several participants.
competence, B2
Can recognise misunderstandings and disagreements that arise
in an online interaction and can deal with them.
Comments and feedback
Language Value 11 (1), 45-70
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Oksana Polyakova and Ruzana Galstyan-Sargsyan
Received: 01 July 2019
Accepted: 17 December 2019
Cite this article as:
Polyakova, Oksana and Galstyan-Sargsyan, Ruzana. 2019. “Communicative competences in
non-linguistic university degrees”. Language Value 11 (1), 45-70. Jaume I University ePress:
Castelló, Spain. http://www.languagevalue.uji.es.
ISSN 1989-7103
Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors
Language Value 11 (1), 45-70
70
Language Value
December 2019, Volume 11, Number 1 pp. 71-102
Copyright © 2019, ISSN 1989-7103
Exploring the Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Italian
Learners of English
James Rock
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, Italy
ABSTRACT
In this paper, a think-aloud protocol is used to explore the vocabulary learning strategies of ten adult
learners of English at a university in the north of Italy. The focus is on discovering the types of techniques
that are actually used by learners while performing a deliberate vocabulary learning task. As well as
providing details about the strategy use of each participant, the investigation considered the strategies
used by more and less successful EFL learners. In general, less attention was awarded to techniques
involving deeper mental elaboration, such as complex guessing for meaning or the use of mnemonic
techniques, in favour of strategies requiring less mental effort. There was also less emphasis on
mechanical repetition than in many previous studies on the topic.
Keywords: vocabulary learning strategies, exploratory, think-aloud, strategy sequences, frequency of
use
I. INTRODUCTION
The present study is an in-depth exploration of the vocabulary learning strategies of a
group of Italian adult learners of English as a foreign language. Information is provided
about the types of strategies used and how frequently they are employed on a deliberate
vocabulary learning task. The investigation distinguishes between individuals in terms
of their strategic behaviour and also considers the relationship between language
learning success and strategy use. The hope is that the findings will help inform how
English vocabulary is presented and taught to Italian learners of English in the
classroom.
Due to the longevity of language learning strategy research, and its sub-set comprising
vocabulary learning strategies, which emerged over forty years ago, it is necessary to
begin by establishing why this investigation is of value. This is pertinent, given that the
traditional approach to such research, which targeted the techniques that learners apply,
has been the subject of criticism. Essentially, rather than focus exclusively on the types
of strategies used by learners, some researchers (Dörnyei 2005, Tseng et al. 2006, Tseng
Copyright © 2019 Language Value, ISSN 1989-7103
71
Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors
James Rock
and Schmitt 2008) have called for greater attention to be devoted to exploring the forces
driving our learning behaviour. The consequence of this is that many experts are
seemingly less keen now on examining the types of strategies used by learners. Yet, the
position adopted here is that there are still valid reasons for persisting with inquiries of
observable learner behaviour. Indeed, in Gao’s (2007) view, existing models of strategy
use and investigations that look at the initial driving forces are not incompatible, as they
are measuring the beginning and end-product of the same event. Rose (2012) also
maintains that it is possible to study strategic learning both in terms of what drives a
learner to behave in a certain way, but also in terms of the cognitive and behavioural
strategies they employ (Rose 2012: 97). More recently, Oxford (2017) and Rose et al.
(2018) both assert that investigating learning strategies is still beneficial,
notwithstanding recent developments in the field of strategy research. Such views
helped establish the theoretical basis of the present study, which was also reinforced by
Pawlak and Oxford’s (2018: 529) assertion that it is difficult to imagine how any kind
of learning, including foreign language learning, could be successfully managed without
skilled use of strategies. Consequently, it is anticipated that this exploration of strategy
use will prove beneficial, since it presents detailed information about the types of
strategies employed and indicates how learners differ in terms of their use.
Since the goal is to present a thorough exploration of strategy use, the emphasis is
placed on qualitative rather than quantitative research methods. For data collection, a
think-aloud protocol is utilised to tap into the thoughts and actions of a group of learners
as they attempt to determine and consolidate ten unknown lexical items. This
methodological decision is supported by Takeuchi
(2019:
16) who contends that
research on language learning strategies should “observe the trend in the direction of
qualitative data collection methodologies including narratives, interviews, diaries,
journals, portfolios, and think-aloud protocols”. Besides functioning as a useful tool for
uncovering the strategic moves made by individuals, a think-aloud protocol also enables
one to gain some valuable insight into how a group of students differ while undertaking
a specific learning task. This is relevant, as research has indicated that a variety of
factors may influence the types of learning strategies that are used (Oxford 1990,
Macaro 2006). These include, amongst others, age, gender, attitude, motivation,
aptitude, learning stage, learning styles, individual differences, cultural differences,
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Exploring the Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Italian Learners of English
beliefs about language learning, and language proficiency. In this instance, the objective
is to contribute to our understanding of the influence of language learning success on
strategy use. Though this topic has received research interest, there exists a paucity of
research involving Italian adult learners of English. Consequently, rather than select
participants randomly for the think-aloud study, the sample comprises an assortment of
learners who were either successful or unsuccessful in their most recent university
English examination.
The study focuses on:
Identifying the strategies used by Italian learners of English while discovering
and consolidating unknown English words.
Exploring the relationship between language learning success and strategy use.
II. CONTEXT OF THE STUDY
The motivation to perform the study came while I was teaching English to a group of
undergraduate students at a university in the north of Italy. All members of the class had
been unsuccessful in the previous end-of-year written English language exam. The
language class, in question, is termed a recupero course, and functions as a remedial
programme for students who need to improve their level of performance in the end-of-
year written exam in English. Hence, the course is very exam-oriented and contains
fewer students than traditional English language courses at the university. In class, it
struck me how passive many individuals were in terms of how they approached various
learning tasks, with many showing a degree of reluctance to engage actively in language
learning. With this in mind, I chose to focus exclusively on vocabulary learning, with
the aim of learning more about the kinds of strategies used by Italian learners of English
to discover and consolidate lexical meaning in English. In so doing, I hoped some
useful data would emerge surrounding the strategic behaviour of more and less
successful learners.
By contextualising the investigation within a third-level institution in the north of Italy,
the findings can be examined alongside studies with participants from different
backgrounds. This is recommended by Takeuchi (2019), who claims that future studies
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James Rock
should focus on a specific population in a specific task-setting and context, as strategy
use depends to a large extent on learners, tasks, and contexts. Consequently, rather than
try to uncover general patterns in the population, which has been the focus of a large
proportion of previous research on strategies, the goal here is to collect rich data about
strategy use from learners as they actively engage in a deliberate vocabulary learning
task. Pawlak and Oxford (2018) highlight the value of doing so, since understanding
how strategies are used in specific learning tasks or the different phases of tasks remains
a challenge for researchers.
III. VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES
While there has been an interest in language learning strategies for several decades,
many investigations have focused broadly on language learning as a whole and tended
to ignore vocabulary learning strategies (Schmitt 1997). Readers are invited to refer to
Cohen and Macaro (2007) for a thorough overview of language learning strategy
research, plus a
2018 special issue of Studies in Second Language Learning and
Teaching that explores past research on the topic and recommends avenues for future
research. However, a body of research devoted specifically to vocabulary learning
strategies now exists, which has addressed a variety of issues over the years (see Pavičić
Takač 2008 for a detailed survey of vocabulary learning strategy research).
In terms of focus, research has been done on various topics, including classifying
vocabulary learning strategies (Stoffer 1995, Schmitt 1997, Gu 2003, Zhang and Li
2011), examining frequency of strategy use (Cohen and Aphek 1981, Gu and Johnson
1996, Lawson and Hogben 1996, Barcroft 2009; O’Malley et al. 1985a, Schmitt 1997,
Schmitt and Schmitt 1993, Fan 2003, Kafipour et al. 2011, Arjomand and Sharififar
2011, Rabadi 2016), and considering the effect of strategies on vocabulary retention
(Atkinson and Raugh 1975, Brown and Perry 1991, Rodríguez and Sadowki 2000,
Zahedi 2012, Wei 2015). On top of that, many studies have been conducted on learners
from different cultural backgrounds and at various stages of education. In the last
decade alone, numerous publications have appeared concerning the vocabulary learning
strategies of English learners from many countries, including Malaysia (Asgari and
Ghazali 2011), Turkey (Çelik and Toptaş 2010, Kirmizi and Topcu 2014, Yigit and
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Exploring the Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Italian Learners of English
Aykul 2018), Iran (Hamzah et al. 2009, Davoudi and Chavosh 2016), Indonesia (Bakti
2018, Noprianto and Purnawarman 2019), Poland (Nosidlak 2013), Croatia (Roguli and
Čizmić 2018), Romania (Cusen 2009) and China (Zou and Zhou 2017). The hope is that
this study of Italian learners of English will contribute to the field by providing another
contextualized investigation of strategy use.
Several key investigations of vocabulary learning strategies by prominent experts in the
field are outlined below. Quite a few of them were published more than two decades
ago, when interest in strategy research was at its peak. Yet, due to the nature of this
study, which explores the types of strategies actually used, how learners differ in terms
of strategy use, and the relationship between learning success and strategy use, they
remain relevant and will be referred to while discussing the findings.
III.1. Types and frequency of vocabulary learning strategies
Gu and Johnson (1996) surveyed the vocabulary learning behaviour of 850 Chinese
university learners of English. Participants reported greater use of meaning-oriented
strategies than rote-learning strategies. It also emerged that “contextualised guessing,
skilful use of dictionaries for learning purposes
(as opposed to looking up for
comprehension only), note-taking, paying attention to word formation, contextual
encoding, and intentional activation of new words all positively correlated” (Gu and
Johnson
1996:
668) with vocabulary size. Conversely, visual repetition was the
strongest negative predictor of learning outcome. In another survey, Schmitt and
Schmitt (1993) asked 600 Japanese learners of English to indicate whether they used a
particular strategy or not, as well as whether they thought it was helpful or not. There
was a strong preference for a bilingual dictionary, while most respondents also guessed
for meaning frequently and asked classmates for help with deciphering lexical meaning.
As for consolidation strategies, some form of repetition was the most popular strategy,
while focusing on a word’s spelling or connecting a word with synonyms or antonyms
were also common. In terms of helpfulness, a bilingual dictionary was considered most
beneficial, while asking a teacher for a paraphrase or synonym also ranked highly.
Forming an image of a word, or using the Keyword Method, were both considered
unhelpful.
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James Rock
While obtaining perceptions of strategy use lends itself to descriptive analyses, Lawson
and Hogben (1996) believed more could be understood about learner behaviour by
exploring the kinds of strategies they actually use rather than those they think they use.
To do so, they adopted a think-aloud protocol to explore the behaviour of 15 foreign
language learners as they attempted to acquire the meaning of several new words. Their
study design proved instrumental when choosing a data collection tool for the present
investigation. In terms of findings, the most frequently used strategy involved some
form of repetition of words and their meanings. Such findings supported an earlier
investigation by O’Malley et al. (1985a), which also highlighted the recurring use of
repetition and reported actions requiring active manipulation of information to be far
less frequent. In Lawson and Hogben’s study, participants largely ignored the physical
or grammatical features of words, and overlooked more elaborate acquisition
procedures, such as the Keyword Method. Barcroft (2009) expanded on Lawson and
Hogben’s work by exploring the relationship between strategy use and vocabulary
learning performance. With respect to shared features across both studies, three actions
emerged: repetition, testing, and mnemonic use. Though such findings attest the value
of mechanical strategies to learners, techniques requiring deeper mental elaboration
resulted in greater recall of words. This supports an earlier study by Cohen and Aphek
(1981), who highlighted the benefit of strategies requiring complex mental elaboration
for learning vocabulary.
III.2. The relationship between language learning success and strategy use
Early research on the topic of language learning strategies focused on the topic of what
defines a good learner, with Rubin (1975: 42) postulating that “if we knew more about
what the 'successful learners' did, we might be able to teach these strategies to poorer
learners to enhance their success record” (1975: 42). A study by Ahmed (1989) on
vocabulary learning strategy use revealed that good learners are more aware of what
they can learn about new words and words’ collocation, spelling and context. In
contrast, poor learners refuse to use the dictionary and almost always ignore new words.
They are generally characterised by their apparent passiveness in learning. Gu (1994)
performed an in-depth analysis of the vocabulary learning strategies of a ‘good’ and
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Exploring the Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Italian Learners of English
‘poor’ Chinese learners of English. In a similar vein to the present study, a think-aloud
protocol was employed to tap into the types of strategies used by learners. Gu reported
that the poorer learner used a narrower range of strategies than the good learner and
used them ineffectively. In his view, poorer learners need to learn how to monitor and
evaluate their strategy use as well as the learning process. Moreover, they need to
understand that there is more to learning a language than remembering the target
equivalents of all native language words. In an excellent review of research on ‘good’
and ‘poor’ language learners, Griffiths (2008) deals with the issue in view of current
thinking in the field and examines the implications for language teaching. With regard
to vocabulary size and strategy use, Fan (2003) revealed that learners with a greater
knowledge of English vocabulary were more self-initiated, used more sources, and
employed guessing and dictionary strategies more often than individuals with lower
proficiency, which supports some earlier studies (Ahmed 1989, Barcroft 2009, Gu and
Johnson 1996, Lawson and Hogben 1996, Sanaoui 1995). Finally, Teng (2015), in a
study of 145 Chinese EFL learners, reported that participants’ scores in strategy use
correlated significantly and positively with breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge.
Against this background, is it reasonable to assume that less successful learners will
improve if they pursue the vocabulary learning strategy use of better learners? While
this may often be the case, Gu (1994) cautions against doing so, as many less successful
learners use a high number of strategies but remain poor learners. Moreover, the
literature shows the findings of previous studies often vary in terms of the importance
awarded to rote-learning and meaning-oriented strategies. Consequently, investigating
actual strategy use may shed light on the priority awarded to such techniques. It may
also help explain why less successful Italian EFL learners struggle and what can be
done to improve their language learning performance.
IV. PARTICIPANTS
Ten individuals took part in the study (See Table 1 and Table 2). At the time of the
investigation, they were all attending the second year of a three-year undergraduate
degree programme in foreign languages at a university in the north of Italy. A structured
sample was chosen to increase the likelihood of the sample containing a mix of more
Language Value 11 (1), 71-102
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James Rock
and less successful learners of English. Thus, five individuals had all previously failed
the end-of-year written examination in English on, at least, three occasions. As a result,
they were attending a remedial English language programme, or a recupero course as it
is defined at the university in question, which prepares students to retake the written
exam. Another five individuals were randomly selected from a regular second year
course and had not yet attempted the end-of-year exam. As well as selecting the
participants from different types of EFL courses, the productive vocabulary knowledge
of each learner was also assessed.
To test productive vocabulary knowledge, a paper and pencil version of Lex30 (Meara
and Fitzpatrick
2000) was used
(researchers can access the Lex30 test at
productive vocabulary of non-native speakers of English. It is a word association task,
in which learners are presented with thirty stimulus words, and are required to produce
at least three responses to each word. Thus, we are left with a short text generate by
each testee, which typically contains about 90 different words. The stimulus words are
selected so that they elicit unusual, infrequent words in native speakers. In terms of
evaluation, Lex30 awards one point to every response word, which does not appear in
the most frequent 1,000 words of English. The assumption is that learners with a lower
level of vocabulary knowledge will struggle to produce low frequency responses in this
task, and that the presence of low frequency words in a test taker’s response set
indicates that they have an extended productive vocabulary. The developers of Lex30
claim that the test has considerable potential as a quick productive vocabulary test and
can also be successfully used to identify cases where the vocabulary development of
learners may be abnormal. The results indicated that the group of learners attending the
recupero course possessed a lower level of productive vocabulary knowledge than those
attending the regular second year course.
Table 1. Participants involved in the study
Participant
1
2
3
4
5
Age
24
22
22
22
22
Gender
F
F
F
F
F
Course study
2nd year
2nd year
2nd year
2nd year
2nd year
recupero EFL
recupero EFL
recupero EFL
recupero EFL
recupero EFL
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Exploring the Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Italian Learners of English
course
course
course
course
course
Score on Lex30
7
28
38
28
38
Table 2. Participants involved in the study
Participant
6
7
8
9
10
Age
19
20
20
20
22
Gender
F
M
F
F
M
Course study
2nd year EFL
2nd year EFL
2nd year EFL
2nd year EFL
2nd year EFL
course
course
course
course
course
Score on Lex30
45
46
53
54
80
V. METHODOLOGY
The experimental set up is a variation on the work of Lawson and Hogben (1996), who
also used a concurrent think-aloud procedure in their investigation of vocabulary
learning strategies. As in their study, participants were presented with twelve English
sentences, with each sentence containing an unknown word (this will henceforth be
referred to as the target word). Their task was to think aloud as they discovered and
consolidated the meaning of the words by whichever means they chose. Each learner
was instructed to report on the thoughts that were in the focus of their attention, and,
were not required to describe or explain what was being done. Unlike in Lawson and
Hogben’s study, they were also allowed to use a bilingual and monolingual dictionary.
V.1. Selecting the target words for the think-aloud task
The following criteria were used in the selection of the twelve words. This was partially
in keeping with Lawson and Hogben’s
(1996) selection criteria, with the main
difference being that while they focused exclusively on nouns, my study included other
parts of speech.
1. Eight words were nouns, three words were adjectives and one target word was
a verb.
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2. Each word had to be one for which the students did not know the meaning.
This was established prior to commencing the task.
3. Each word had to represent a familiar object, concept or emotion.
4. Three words had to contain suffixes.
To cover the possibility of some words being familiar to participants, some reserve
items were selected that also fulfilled the above criteria. If a learner knew the meaning
of a word on the standard list, one of the reserve items of the same type would substitute
it. The complete list of words is shown below.
Target Words
COT
LATCH
MUZZLE
SHOVEL
REFURBISHMENT
LUMBER
SEASONING
UNDERDOG
GOBSMACKED
BLISSFUL
GUTLESS
GRIEVE
Reserve Target Words
PAVING
PERISHABLE
UNASSAILABLE
LEAFLET
OUTSKIRTS
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Each word was presented in context, with each sample sentence selected from the
British National Corpus (See Table 3). Every effort was made to check that each
sentence provided a clue to the word’s meaning.
Table 3. Sentences used in the think-aloud study.
Sentences containing the twelve target words
1.
GOBSMACKED - The loyal workers were gobsmacked to find two months later their ex-boss had
bought all his ex-machinery at an auction for next to nothing and started up in business again under
another name in the same building. (Source: Trade Union Annual Congress (1985-1994). Rec. on 6
Jun 1993.
2.
COT - ‘I have put your daughter in a cot in your room,’ Mrs Barnet continued. (Source: Ruth
Appleby. Rhodes, Elvi. London: Corgi Books, 1992, pp. 109-226, 3427 s-units)
3.
REFURBISHMENT - We have undergone in the last year a major refurbishment of all our guest
and public rooms and now offer the comforts so necessary for a mini-break. (Source: Short breaks -
- Brighton and Hove 1992, 829 s-units)
4.
SHOVEL - Tom dug frantically with the shovel, lifting the heavy rain-soaked clods of earth with
difficulty. (Source: Saigon. Grey, Anthony. London: Pan Books Ltd, 1983, pp. 9-128. 2513 s-units)
5.
LATCH - I can still remember the click of the latch as she shut the door behind her. (Source: Part
of the furniture. Falk, Michael. London: Bellew Pub. Ltd, 1991, pp. 1-146. 3416 s-units)
6.
UNDERDOG - The Welsh team arrived in Edinburgh last night keen to exploit the underdog tag
for tomorrow's rugby international at Murrayfield, a ground where they have not won since 1985.
(Source: Scotsman. Leisure material, 6963 s-units)
7.
LUMBER - All along the riverbank, for a distance of 200 metres, piles of lumber are burning.
(Source: Volcanoes. Francis, Peter. London: Penguin Group, 1979, 1432 s-units)
8.
GRIEVE - Yes, we grieve when tragedy strikes in such awful forms as we have seen recently.
(Source: I believe. Carey, George. London: SPCK, 1991, pp. 32-131. 2205 s-units)
9.
SEASONING - There are indeed times when a lemon as a seasoning seems second only in
importance to salt. (Source: An omelette and a glass of wine. David, Elizabeth. London: Penguin
Group, 1987, pp. 156-274. 1944 s-units)
10.
MUZZLE - But you have to admit, it's for the dog's own protection to wear a muzzle, as they can
pick up all sorts of things in the street which can poison them. (Source: Dogs Today. Windsor:
Burlington Pub. Ltd, 1992, 1478 s-units)
11. BLISSFUL - Once the winter rains have passed, Delhi experiences two months of weather so
perfect and blissful that they almost compensate for the climatic extremes of the other ten months
of the year. (Source: City of djinns. Dalrymple, William. London: HarperCollins, 1993, 2329 s-
units)
12. GUTLESS - I should have had the support of my team but they are gutless.
(Source: Today.
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11230 s-units)
Additional sentences containing the reserve words
1.
PAVING - A short path led along cracked paving to a front door with coloured glass set into its
wood. (Source: Hide and seek. Potter, Dennis. London: Faber and Faber Ltd, 1990, 2403 s-units).
2.
PERISHABLE - Moreover, if the retailer has too much stock of perishable goods, items may
deteriorate or pass their ‘sell by’ date before they are sold. (Source: Retailing: a manual for
students. Leach, Helen. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1989, pp. 45-160. 3291 s-units).
3.
UNASSAILABLE - When, just as Kylie ended her ten-date tour, the UK's top pop magazine
Smash Hits held its annual awards ceremony, her position as music's No 1 female star was
unassailable. (Source: Kylie Minogue: the superstar next door. Stone, Sasha. London: Omnibus
Press, 1989, pp. 4-96. 2055 s-units).
4.
LEAFLET - Criticism was made of his publicity leaflet, which featured a photograph not only of
the candidate, but a Family ensemble complete with children. (Source: High risk lives: lesbian and
gay politics after the Clause. ed. Lincoln, Paul and Kaufmann, Tara. Bridport, Dorset: Prism Press,
1991, pp. 126-248. 1766 s-units).
5.
OUTSKIRTS - He switched the engine on and swung the Audi out of the car-park, down
Yorkstrasse towards the outskirts of the city. (Source: The Lucy ghosts. Shah, Eddy. London:
Corgi Books, 1993, pp. 321-452. 4235 s-units).
V.2. The interviews
Each participant was provided with a sheet of paper, listing the twelve target words, and
was asked in English to mark any word whose meaning he/she knew. If any of the
words were familiar, the cards for those words were replaced with a card from the
reserve set. The objective of the study was explained to the participants, i.e. to obtain
some information on ways Italian learners go about learning the meaning of new
English words. This was followed by each learner listening to a brief description of the
think-aloud protocol, as well as observing the researcher run through the think-aloud
method with a practice card. They were told to feel free to use the monolingual and
bilingual dictionaries provided as often as they felt necessary. Having completed the
demonstration, each learner progressed through the twelve cards featuring the target
words. All ten interviews were recorded with the average duration being 46 minutes.
VI. DATA ANALYSIS
The following section describes how the think-aloud data was analysed and coded.
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VI.1. Analysis of the recordings and coding of data
The ten recordings were transcribed and analysed for different types of strategic moves.
A chart was created for each learner, which included the strategies they used, as well as
the sequences in which they were used. Each strategy was coded and assigned to one of
five higher-level categories (See Table 4), which was largely based on the procedure
used by Lawson and Hogben (1996). A category describing dictionary use was added.
The first four categories represented the kinds of actions used to discover the meaning
of a new word, while the fifth category described the techniques used to consolidate the
meaning of a new word. Categories 1 and 2 involved transformation of the features of
the word and/or the meaning, with strategies demanding more complex mental
elaboration occupying the former category and those requiring less mental elaboration
the latter. Regarding the use of context as a way of providing clues to word meaning,
the decision was made to split this strategy between Categories 1 and 2. Hence, more
complex speculation on the meaning of a word, using knowledge of other constituents
of the sentence, occupied Category 1, while quickly guessing the meaning of a word
using English, or providing a translation, fell into Category 2. Translating a sample
sentence or producing a literal translation of a target word were viewed as demanding a
lower degree of mental elaboration and were, thus, assigned to Category 2. This
category also included techniques analysis of physical features of a word, such as its
appearance or its sound as a basis for identifying its features. By contrast, the
production of synonyms of the target word before consulting a dictionary was viewed as
demanding greater mental effort, and, thus, occupied Category 1. Category 3 reflected
some form of word feature analysis. This included the analysis of affixes, or other
grammatical features of a word, such as its part of speech. Category
4 included
strategies employed while consulting a dictionary, while Category
5 represented
consolidation strategies based upon note-taking, rehearsal of the word and/or the
meaning, or some form of self-testing.
Table 4. Categories of strategies used for coding
1. Complex elaboration (C.E)
Complex use of context: the individual made a serious attempt to derive the target word meaning from
the sentence, by referring to the meaning or features of other words in the sentence.
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Paraphrase: the individual suggested synonyms of the target word before consulting a dictionary.
2. Simple elaboration (S.E)
Simple use of context: the individual attempted to explain the meaning of the target word (in English or
Italian) without making specific reference to any other word(s) in the sentence.
Simple use of context: the individual suggested a possible Italian translation for the target word without
making specific reference to any other word(s) in the sentence.
Literal translation: the individual attempted to translate literally the target word into Italian.
Physical appearance: the individual commented on the target word’s similarity to a word in the L1 or
L2.
Sentence translation: the individual attempted to translate the sample sentence into Italian.
3. Word feature analysis (W.F)
Word classification: the individual commented on the part of speech of the new word.
Use of affixes: the individual used his/her knowledge of prefixes or suffixes.
4. Dictionary use (D.U)
Bilingual dictionary: the individual referred to a bilingual dictionary to find the meaning of the target
word or another word in the sentence.
Monolingual dictionary: the individual referred to a monolingual dictionary to find the meaning of the
target word or another word in the sentence.
5. Consolidation strategies
Note taking (NT): the individual took a note of various features of the new word (meaning, translation,
pronunciation, grammatical properties, sample sentence, other uses of the word).
Simple word rehearsal (REH): the individual used repetition, or other kinds of learning strategies, to help
remember the meaning of the target word.
Cumulative rehearsal (REH): the individual not only repeated the word and/or meaning but also returned
to previous words and rehearsed these in a sequence.
Self-testing (ST): the individual engaged in self-testing by covering the Italian/English meaning of the
new word and tried to generate the other part of the pair.
VII. FINDINGS
In this section, the strategies used by the group to discover and consolidate the meaning
of the lexical items is the vocabulary learning task are discussed
(Table 4), with
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reference also made to the types of strategies used while consulting dictionaries during
the task (See Table 5 and Table 6). This is followed by a description of the strategies
employed by each participant. The subsequent discussion section reflects on the strategy
use of the sample of learners, and considers the strategy use of those who were
described as being less successful learners.
VII.1. The types of strategies used to discover and consolidate lexical meaning
The most popular strategy involved the use of a bilingual dictionary, which was
consulted to a greater or lesser extent by all ten individuals. While a monolingual
dictionary was used less often, it was still popular with only one participant choosing
not to use it. Guessing for meaning through English, or coming up with a translation of
a word, were also common. Similarly, sentence translation was prominent, with seven
individuals doing so at some point during the task. By contrast, examples of more
complex guessing for meaning were less prevalent. With regard to word feature
analysis, half of the sample attended to the affixes of several target words, with a similar
number focusing on grammatical properties of words. Finally, though the majority of
participants commented on a physical similarity between a target word and a known
word, only two individuals highlighted synonyms of a word.
There was also variation in terms of the use of consolidation strategies. Repetition, in
particular, was less frequent than expected. Indeed, only three participants engaged in
simple word repetition, albeit doing so on several occasions. There were instances of
cumulative rehearsal, though this was only popular with four individuals. On the other
hand, note taking was much more evident, with most learners writing a target word and
one, or more, translations of a word. Fewer individuals chose to write the meaning of a
word in English, though they did so consistently. In general, the sample failed to take
written notes of grammatical or pronunciation features, and they chose not to write an
example sentence to help remember a word. Finally, there was only one case of self-
testing.
VII.2. The types of strategies used to discover and consolidate lexical meaning
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Most participants sought more than one translation of a word in a bilingual dictionary.
Many also looked for more than one meaning of a word in a monolingual dictionary,
though they did so less frequently. Similarly, their attention was only occasionally
drawn to sample sentences in a monolingual and bilingual dictionary. In terms of word
feature analysis, while half of the sample attended to grammatical information of, at
least, one target word, only three individuals considered pronunciation features. The
same number paid attention to different parts of speech of, at least, one target word, or
looked for synonyms in a monolingual dictionary. Finally, only two learners searched
for further information about a word they found in a dictionary definition (See Table 7).
All ten participants matched a dictionary entry to the context in which a target word was
originally used (See Table 8). There was also a strong desire to translate, with most of
them trying to guess a translation of a target word found in a monolingual dictionary.
Indeed, half of the sample also translated the definition of a word found in a
monolingual dictionary. When English was used to guess for meaning, learners were
more likely to search for information about a word in a monolingual dictionary.
Similarly, after providing synonyms of words, they were more likely to use a
monolingual dictionary. On the other hand, upon translating a sentence, a bilingual
dictionary was used more often.
Table 5. The types of strategies used by each participant to discover and consolidate lexical meaning
A.
Frequency of strategies used to determine lexical meaning
Strategy
PARTICIPANTS
Total
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
freq.
of
use
W.F: Checked the part of speech of the
1
1
0
0
4
6
5
0
0
2
19
target word
W.F: Checked the affixes of the target
1
2
1
0
1
3
0
0
0
1
9
word
S.E: Tried to translate the sentence into
2
7
2
10
0
2
0
2
2
0
27
Italian
S.E: Tried to translate literally the target
1
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
3
word
S.E: Guessed a translation of the word
1
5
0
3
0
3
0
4
1
1
18
without referring to other items
S.E: Guessed the meaning of the word
1
1
4
4
3
3
2
3
3
5
29
without considering other items
S.E: Commented on the similarity of the
0
1
0
1
1
1
2
0
1
1
8
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target word to an L1 or L2 word
C.E: Guessed the meaning of the word by
0
0
0
0
6
3
2
0
0
3
14
considering other items in the sentence
C.E: Suggested possible synonyms of the
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
4
target word
D.U: Used a bilingual dictionary to look
12
11
3
10
4
10
12
10
7
8
87
up the target word
D.U: Used a bilingual dictionary to look
0
3
0
5
0
2
2
2
6
0
20
up a non-target word in the sentence
D.U: Used a monolingual dictionary to
7
1
12
5
12
0
6
4
11
11
69
look up the target word
D.U: Used a monolingual dictionary to
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
look up a non-target word in the sentence
Total frequency of strategy use per
26
32
23
33
32
32
30
23
25
35
student
Table 6. The types of strategies used by each participant to discover and consolidate lexical meaning
B. Strategies used to consolidate lexical meaning
Strategy
PARTICIPANTS
Total
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
freq.
of
use
N.T: Wrote the target word and one or
12
12
1
10
0
12
12
12
11
0
82
more translations in Italian
N.T: Wrote the target word and its
0
0
11
0
12
0
0
0
9
12
32
meaning in English
N.T: Wrote the IPA of the target word
5
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
0
7
N.T: Wrote some grammatical
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
information about the target word
N.T: Wrote a sentence or phrase to
4
3
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
8
help remember the word
N.T: Wrote a sentence or phrase to
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
help remember a non-target word
N.T: Wrote information about other
3
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
uses of the target word
REH: Simple word rehearsal
5
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
6
0
12
REH: Cumulative rehearsal
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
4
S.T: Self-testing
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
Total frequency of use of
31
16
14
11
12
12
13
14
30
12
consolidation strategies
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Table 7. Types of dictionary consultation strategies
Strategy
PARTICIPANTS
Tot
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Read more than one translation of a target word in
12
9
2
5
0
10
6
6
5
8
63
a bilingual dictionary
Read more than one definition of a target word in a
2
0
4
1
6
0
2
0
3
1
19
monolingual dictionary
Read a sample sentence containing a target word
3
0
1
2
0
1
0
1
2
1
11
in a bilingual dictionary
Read a sample sentence containing a target word
0
0
1
3
2
0
0
0
1
1
8
in a monolingual dictionary
Considered the IPA of a target word
3
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
3
0
7
Considered the grammatical properties of a target
2
0
0
0
1
1
1
0
1
2
8
word
Looked up synonyms of a target word
3
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
3
0
7
Looked at the meaning of another part of speech
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
2
4
of a target word
Related the target word’s meaning to the context in
10
4
6
2
10
5
11
3
4
8
63
which a word was originally found
Guessed an Italian translation of a target word
0
0
2
2
7
0
3
3
5
3
25
after reading a definition in a monolingual
dictionary
Translated a definition of a target word found in a
0
1
2
1
0
0
1
1
0
0
6
monolingual dictionary into Italian
Looked up the meaning of an unknown word
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
2
found in the definition of a target word in a
monolingual dictionary
Took note of another new word that was of interest
2
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
4
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VII.3. The types of strategies used to discover and consolidate lexical meaning
VII.3.1.
Participant 1
This individual actively used a bilingual dictionary to discover word meaning. Her
reliance on a bilingual dictionary was shown by the fact that it was consulted thirteen
times throughout the task. This feature really distinguished her from the other
participants. While a monolingual dictionary was also used, it merely functioned as a
tool to consolidate something she had found in a bilingual dictionary. She infrequently
guessed for meaning through English or tried to come up with an Italian translation of a
word. Similarly, she seldom engaged in word feature analysis. With regard to
consolidation, she took a lot of written notes, which included writing the target words, a
possible translation of each word, and a sample sentence illustrating the use of several
target words. Finally, she engaged in simple word repetition with half of the target
words.
VII.3.2.
Participants 2 and 4
Both individuals focused heavily on guessing translations of words, as well as making
numerous attempts at sentence translation. They also frequently consulted a bilingual
dictionary. While participant two only used a monolingual dictionary once, participant
four used one regularly to confirm something she had read in a bilingual dictionary.
Both learners failed to examine the surrounding words to derive lexical meaning. In
terms of consolidation, they took a written note of target words and, at least, one
translation of each word. They also employed a vocabulary learning technique, with
participant 2 using cumulative rehearsal and participant 4 engaging self-testing.
VII.3.3.
Participants 3 and 5
These participants were characterised by their use of English while determining word
meaning. Hence, they frequently referred to a monolingual dictionary and guessed for
meaning through English. While participant 3 chose not to engage in complex guessing
for meaning, participant 5 focused heavily on the surrounding words in several sample
sentences before guessing. In terms of consolidation, they both took written notes of
target words and the meaning of each word in English.
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VII.3.4.
Participants 6 and 7
Both individuals awarded a lot of attention to the grammatical properties of words.
There were also instances of quick guessing for meaning, plus more complex guessing
involving prior knowledge of other sentence components. A bilingual dictionary was
consulted frequently to check the meaning of both target and non-target words. On
several occasions, participant 7 also made use of a monolingual dictionary. Finally, they
took written notes of the meaning of each target word in Italian.
VII.3.5.
Participant 8
This individual used both Italian and English frequently to determine lexical meaning.
Thus, she combined translation
(i.e. guessing a translation of an item, sentence
translation, or using a bilingual dictionary) with several strategies involving English
(use of a monolingual dictionary and guessing for meaning). With regard to
consolidation, she took a note of a translation of each word and engaged in both simple
and cumulative rehearsal of words.
VII.3.6.
Participant 9
This learner relied heavily on a bilingual and monolingual dictionary to discover
meaning. Indeed, she consulted her bilingual dictionary thirteen times and a
monolingual dictionary on eleven occasions. Compared with the other participants, she
used a monolingual dictionary used more extensively and did so not only to confirm the
meaning of a word previously found in a bilingual dictionary. With regard to
consolidation, she frequently engaged in repetition, which included both simple
repetition of words and cumulative rehearsal of all ten words. Finally, she took many
written notes in both Italian and English.
VII.3.7.
Participant 10
This individual consistently used both types of dictionary, with a monolingual
dictionary being his preferred choice. Indeed, although a bilingual dictionary was used
seven times, its use was confined to consolidating the meaning of a word previously
sourced in a monolingual dictionary. He guessed for meaning in English six times, as
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well as guessing several synonyms of words. He also showed determination to work out
the meaning of unfamiliar words through English. Thus, instead of quickly seeking a
translation of a word, he generally guessed for meaning before looking for further
information in a monolingual dictionary. Upon doing so, he then frequently sought
confirmation in a bilingual dictionary. In terms of consolidation, he chose not to focus
on rehearsal or self-testing strategies and wrote each target word and its meaning in
English.
VIII. DISCUSSION
The principle objective was to investigate the strategies used by a group of ten Italian
learners to discover and consolidate the meaning of twelve English words. From the
outset, it was hoped the investigation would provide some useful information about the
types of strategies that were actually used by Italian learners of English on a deliberate
vocabulary learning task. As well as shedding some light on the types of techniques
commonly employed, the hope was that more could be learned about the way individuals
differ in relation to vocabulary learning behaviour. From this standpoint, a special focus
was placed on uncovering details about the relationship between language learning
success and strategy use. The above-mentioned points are discussed below, while time is
also taken to consider how the results could help inform how English vocabulary is
taught to Italian learners of English in the classroom.
The strategies used by Italian learners of English while discovering and
consolidating unknown English words
When faced with the task of determining lexical meaning, many participants chose to
translate. This involved either guessing a translation of an English word/phrase or
consulting a bilingual dictionary. The desire to translate supports earlier investigations of
strategy use by Lawson and Hogben (1996) and Barcroft (2009), which also reported
that learners translated items frequently. While the former noted instances of sentence
translation, there was no evidence of this in Barcroft’s study. In my study, sentence
translation was popular with several individuals. Guessing for meaning typically
involved learners coming up with a translation or providing a brief description of the
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meaning of a word in English. Consequently, there were few instances of the kind of
guessing that requires careful examination of contextual clues in a sentence to help
derive word meaning. Such findings support Barcroft (2009), who claimed that his
participants spent little time examining the sentence context as a means of generating
cues for word meaning. In light of this, it is recommended that more needs to be done to
teach Italian learners how to use context as a word learning method. This is particularly
pertinent, given that guessing for meaning is an important skill for promoting vocabulary
development in learners. Moreover, with the swing in language learning research
towards producing more active and independent language learners, it makes sense to
equip them with the tools that will enable this to happen. Thus, rather than resort to a
dictionary or ask a teacher for assistance, learners should be shown how to look out for
contextual clues, such as synonyms, antonyms, cognates, definitions, parts of speech,
pronunciation clues.
Dictionaries were frequently used throughout the task. While several individuals
prioritised a monolingual dictionary, there were more instances of bilingual dictionary
use. This confirms earlier studies by Schmitt and Schmitt (1993) and Loucky (2003)
who also revealed a preference among students for a bilingual dictionary. This is a cause
for concern, as a study by Ali (2012) on dictionaries as learning tools revealed that a
monolingual dictionary was more effective than a bilingual dictionary. This is because a
monolingual dictionary requires more effort and supplies sufficient contexts in their
definitions of new words and expressions. By doing so, they assist learners to learn new
words and vocabulary items and to produce them in similar contexts. As expected, the
present study also indicated that guessing for meaning and dictionary use are closely
related. Thus, those who guessed translations of words or sentences were much more
likely to consult a bilingual dictionary. On the other hand, those who used an English
medium to guess the meaning of a word were more inclined to access a monolingual
dictionary. The findings regarding dictionary use once again highlight the fact that
greater attention should be devoted by teachers to contextualised vocabulary learning.
Indeed, while consulting a dictionary, few participants paid attention to contextualised
sentences or information about grammar, pronunciation, or synonyms. Hence, more
could be achieved by showing Italian EFL learners how to use a bilingual and
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monolingual dictionary effectively, as well as providing them with information about the
benefits that can be derived from learning words in context.
There was also variation in terms of the level of attention devoted to word parts. While
several participants ignored word parts almost completely, others actively examined the
grammatical and physical form of words to help derive lexical meaning. Hence, unlike
Lawson and Hogben’s (1996) who reported that participants largely ignored the physical
or grammatical features of unknown words, my findings support Schmitt and Schmitt
(1993), who highlighted the popularity of this strategy with their learners. From a
pedagogical perspective, Schmitt (1997) stresses the importance of teaching word parts
to students, as those who are familiar with them can guess meaning faster. As well as
focusing on physical components of words, more should be done to direct students
towards pronunciation of words. This stems from the fact that little attention was paid to
pronunciation features of words in this study. This may be due to a lack of time devoted
towards pronunciation by EFL teachers in Italy. According to Harmer (2001), most
English language teachers get students to study grammar and vocabulary, yet little
attempt is made to teach pronunciation. Gilbert (2008) also argues that teachers often
find that they do not have enough time in class to give proper attention to this aspect of
English instruction. Considering that pronunciation is a challenging aspect of learning
English for Italian learners, teachers should devote more time to teaching this skill.
Shooshtari at al. (2013: 463) provide some useful guidelines for teachers about how this
may be achieved.
In terms of consolidating lexis, mechanical repetition was less prominent than in some
previous studies of vocabulary learning strategies (Lawson and Hogben 1996, O’Malley
et al.
1985a, Barcroft
2009). My findings are, thus, more reflective of an earlier
investigation by Gu and Johnson (1996) who also reported how respondents generally
avoided rote-learning strategies. While the use of repetition as a learning strategy is
often overlooked in favour of more meaning-centred techniques, a recent study by
Altalhab (2018) on the effects of repetition on vocabulary retention shows that it may be
worth spending more time on this strategy, particularly with difficult words or
collocations. In terms of the use of mnemonic strategies, Schmitt and Schmitt (1993)
reported that their respondents found them unhelpful, while O’Malley et al. (1985a) also
described such techniques as being infrequently used. In Lawson and Hogben’s (1996)
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study, there was no evidence of the Keyword Method, while only a small proportion of
learners used mnemonic strategies, which were similar to some component of the
Keyword Method. Barcroft (2009) also reported very little evidence of strategies
requiring manipulation of information to consolidate lexical meaning. My data largely
reflects such studies, with no evidence of the Keyword Method found or, indeed, any
form of imagery being used. With regard to self-testing of word meaning, there was only
one instance of this learning technique in my study, which contrasts with Lawson and
Hogben (1996) and Barcroft (2009) who reported frequent instances of its use in their
studies. On the other hand, note taking was very common here, with some individuals
writing a translation in Italian, while others took notes exclusively in English. Most
learners, however, failed to take note of any features related to pronunciation, grammar
or collocation. The popularity of note taking supports a recent study by Boonnoon
(2019) who also identified this strategy as one of the most frequently used by
respondents.
Exploring the relationship between language learning success and strategy use.
A good deal of variation was found in terms of the types of strategies used by the
learners. Consequently, it was not possible to identify an underlying trend linking them
all. Typically, learner differences resulted from either focusing on the use of translation
or making use of their English knowledge to determine lexical meaning. Alternatively,
several individuals combined translation with other strategies, such as guessing for
meaning, analysis of word parts and use of a monolingual dictionary. While it was also
impossible to determine a marked difference between the types of strategies used by the
five most (1-5) and the five least successful learners (6-10), some features are referred to
here. For instance, while several participants sought, once in a while, to translate a
sample sentence containing a target word, participants 2, and 4 relied almost exclusively
on this strategy with the target words in the learning task. Such determination to
translate was not so evident with the other learners. Also, in terms of frequency of
strategy use, the individual with the smallest vocabulary size (participant 1) ended up
using the most strategies in the vocabulary learning task. In particular, she used an
extensive range of strategies while consulting a dictionary and consolidating lexical
meaning. This type of strategy use was somewhat unexpected, as research findings often
indicates that less successful learners are generally characterised by the limited number
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Exploring the Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Italian Learners of English
of strategies they employ. Thus, it conflicts with Fan (2003) who revealed that learners
with a greater knowledge of English vocabulary employed guessing and dictionary
strategies more often than individuals with lower proficiency. It also lends support to
Gu’s (1994) observation that many less successful learners use a high number of
strategies but remain poor learners. Another observation related to participants 3 and 5
who predominantly used a monolingual dictionary, with participant 5 also carefully
examining sentence context to help derive meaning. Once again, it was anticipated here
that this type of strategy use would typically be associated with more proficient or
successful learners.
IX. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
With regard to limitations of the study, it should be noted that research on the validity of
think-aloud reports in SLA is only in its infancy stage (Bowles 2010). One of the
criticisms of using think-aloud protocols relates to the validity of such reports, with
researchers unsure as to whether verbalising while completing a task acts as an
additional task and alters cognitive processes rather than providing a true reflection of
thoughts. Upon analysing studies that have investigated reactivity in the L2 literature,
Bowles (2010) claimed that while thinking aloud only has a small effect on post-task
performance, it increases time on a task. Aside from potential issues with the validity of
my think-aloud data, another limitation of my think-aloud study may relate to the fact
that I failed to specify which language the learners should use while verbalising their
thoughts. According to Bowles
(2010:
115) not specifying the language(s) of
verbalisation introduces variability into the research design of the study and creates a
situation in which some participants may think aloud entirely in the L1, while others
may force themselves to think aloud entirely in the second language and might therefore
be unable to communicate some of their thoughts as effectively as they could in the L1.
Finally, a potential pitfall of using think-aloud reports lies in the fact that learners might
report what they perceive they ought to know or do while learning new vocabulary in
English, what they think ideal learners know and do, and not what they in fact know or
do (Ericsson and Simon 1980).
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X. CONCLUSION
This study suggests that it is possible to gain a good understanding of Italian EFL
learners’ use of vocabulary learning strategies by encouraging them to think aloud while
performing a deliberate vocabulary learning task. Detailed information about the types
of strategies used and their frequency of use were reported and discussed. Moreover, it
was possible to identify the types of strategies used by individual leaners. Whilst it was
not possible to provide clear-cut evidence of major differences in strategy use between
more and less successful learners, some differences were revealed. Above all else, the
study highlighted the marked variation that exists among a group of Italian learners of
English in terms of how they approach the task of vocabulary learning in English. It
indicated that while they may differ in terms of the types of strategies they use, the same
strategies are often repeatedly employed by an individual with each new word.
It is hoped this information will be of use to teachers when planning vocabulary
teaching programmes. They are advised to discover more about the vocabulary learning
behaviour of their students, and to identify the types of strategies that are not being
used, or not being employed effectively. This information could then be passed on to
learners with details about new strategies they could employ to improve their ability to
learn words. For instance, it emerged that contextualised guessing for meaning, which
involves looking for clues within a sentence, is rarely attempted by most learners.
Instead, they prefer to make a quick guess at a translation or to seek help from a
bilingual dictionary. It would also be beneficial to educate learners on ways of
improving the effectiveness of certain strategies. This could, for example, include
showing them how to maximise dictionary use, and informing them about the various
merits of each type of dictionary. Similarly, they could be instructed on ways of
improving their note taking skills. This study reported that there is often a failure to
include useful information about words, with the focus placed exclusively on writing a
translation or the meaning of a word in English. In terms of future research, it is felt
more could be learned about the topic by analysing some of the underlying driving
forces behind learner motivation, such as learner beliefs about vocabulary knowledge
and learning, followed by an examination of the relationship between such driving
forces and the types of strategies used by learners.
Language Value 11 (1), 71-102
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Received: 03 June 2019
Accepted: 12 December 2019
Cite this article as:
Rock, James. 2019. “Exploring the Vocabulary Learning Strategies of Italian Learners of
English”. Language Value,
11
(1),
71-102. Jaume I University ePress: Castelló, Spain.
http://www.languagevalue.uji.es.
ISSN 1989-7103
Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors
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Language Value
December 2019, Volume 11, Number 1 pp. 103-107
Copyright © 2019, ISSN 1989-7103
BOOK REVIEW
Disability and World Language Learning: Inclusive Teaching for Diverse Learners
Sally S. Scott and Wade A. Edwards
Rowman & Littlefield, London, 2019. 121 pages.
ISBN: 978-1-4758-3704-9
Reviewed by Dámaso Izquierdo Alegría
dizquierdo@unav.es
GRADUN-ICS, Universidad de Navarra, Spain
Universidad Internacional de La Rioja, Spain
This volume deals with a much-needed topic that, unfortunately, has not attracted
enough attention in the domain of language learning research: the adoption of inclusive
instructional practices to address diverse students’ needs. The authors’ backgrounds and
professional experiences perfectly embody an essential aspect in this field: it must be
undertaken from an interdisciplinary approach. Sally Scott is a senior researcher of the
Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) with extensive experience
with diverse students, including campus disability resource offices; Wade Edwards is a
professor of French at Longwood University. They co-directed the Project LINC:
Learning in Inclusive Classrooms, focused on the development and implementation of
instructional techniques aimed at creating more inclusive foreign language learning
environments in higher education. This project has already proved to be very fruitful
(Scott and Edwards 2012, Edwards and Scott 2012, Scott, Hildebrandt and Edwards
2013), with influential results about a variety of domains, ranging from the attitudes of
students with special needs towards foreign language learning, to the needs of
temporary faculty members that may not be fully aware of the protocols and resources
offered by their campuses to address the learning process of students with disabilities.
One of its major outcomes is a website full of original and already published documents
and resources that serve as an invaluable guide to build an inclusive environment in
foreign language instruction. Much of their experience in this project and subsequent
spin-off research is effectively integrated in this book.
Copyright © 2019 Language Value, ISSN 1989-7103
103
Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors
Book Review
The volume is structured in six chapters. The first one, “Disability, Student Diversity,
and Inclusive Teaching”, describes the general principles of inclusive instruction. To
begin with, the authors provide statistical data that show that student diversity is not an
exception in today’s universities, but rather the most common scenario. Accordingly,
the authors emphasize the importance of transforming our conception of disability.
They introduce the notion of Universal design for instruction (UDI): inclusive teaching
practices should not simply involve creating new materials tailor-made for specific
students with special needs when they demand it; on the contrary, teachers should
ideally create the same standard materials for all students, trying to make them
maximally usable. The nine principles of UDI are then explained and illustrated with
frequent situations in foreign language classrooms. It is noteworthy that one of the
authors, Sally S. Scott, is a precursor of this approach (McGuire and Scott 2002, Scott,
McGuire and Shaw 2003), originally inspired by the concept of universal design in
Architecture and Design.
The second chapter, “Setting the Stage for an Inclusive Language Learning Classroom”,
examines different aspects of the design and planning of inclusive environments before
the beginning of the semester. One of them is classroom layout: the effects of features
like the arrangement of desks, lighting or acoustics are sometimes neglected, even if
they may pose powerful barriers not only to students with physical disabilities, but also
to any of their fellows. The authors are realistic about the capacity of instructors to build
canonically inclusive spaces, since they are aware that they might be assigned
classrooms with many physical shortcomings that they will not be able to overcome.
Anyway, they also show with a case study that a thorough reflection can easily avoid
creating challenging classroom setups.
Another aspect is creating and using accessible instructional materials: tips such as
providing students with materials in electronic format well in advance can have a very
positive effect on the learning experience of many diverse students. The authors also
highlight the need for designing an inclusive syllabus by not simply including a
disability statement, but also considering a clear, not distracting format that directs
attention towards the core information of the course.
Language Value 11 (1), 103-107
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Disability and World Language Learning: Inclusive Teaching for Diverse Learners
Finally, they devote a section to the instructor disposition, “perhaps the most important
feature of an inclusive classroom”
(2019:
36). They pay special attention to the
students’ perspective when teachers are not approachable enough or have wrong
expectations about their performance, particularly when their special needs are not
visible and might raise unfair suspicion.
The third chapter, “In the Classroom”, analyses how to implement different inclusive
instructional strategies during the term. It begins with an overview of the results of a
previous project focused on students’ attitudes towards a variety of instructional
strategies revealing which ones are widely endorsed by learners. The authors choose
three areas likely to create barriers in foreign language classrooms: the extensive use of
the target language, group work and group formation and the amount and characteristics
of daily assignments.
The fourth chapter,
“Assessment of Student Learning”, delves into the topic of
evaluation. The first section revisits the general principles of an inclusive framework for
assessment. Interestingly, the authors include the distinction between target skills (those
that teachers wish to evaluate explicitly) and access skills
(“other non-construct
information which act as a barrier to students”, 2019: 70). They also insist on the
importance of preventing ‘hidden’ skills from being implicitly assessed. Three main
domains are explored: the
“complex and multifaceted”
(2019:
75) topic of error
correction, tips for designing inclusive rubrics, and mechanisms to enhance students’
self-assessment and metacognition.
The structure of the fifth chapter, “Getting Started”, is different: instead of presenting
the main facets of inclusivity regarding different aspects of foreign language instruction,
it is organised as a guideline that enables each reader to connect the contents and
reflections analyzed in the book to the educational setting of his/her own campus. It
contains practical tips and lists the steps to be followed. Particularly helpful are a self-
check and a textbox proposed by the authors to evaluate one’s implementation of
inclusive practices.
Finally, the sixth chapter summarises the main contents of the book. It includes a
section of
“Frequently Asked Questions” that manages to dispel the doubts and
Language Value 11 (1), 103-107
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Book Review
concerns that some readers may still have when reconsidering their own instructional
strategies.
One of the most satisfying characteristics of this volume is that the authors establish a
dialogue with readers through direct questions and suggestions that turn the book into a
stimulating guideline to be read along with a notebook to respond to the multiple
reflections proposed about one’s instructional practices and assumptions. This is already
anticipated in the preface, where several thought-provoking situations are described
involving diverse students’ barriers commonly faced by foreign language teachers. The
authors succeed in prompting readers to go beyond theoretical generalisations and to
fully reconsider their instructional routine, so that they put into practice many of the
ideas advanced. In addition, the book contains many insightful case studies and real
student comments from previous projects and experiences that create a very vivid
atmosphere. Consequently, theory and practice are harmoniously integrated. Moreover,
Scott and Edwards are very realistic in their approach to inclusivity: they are fully aware
that it is impossible to formulate general tips that will be useful and effective in any
context. This is why they accurately show that flexibility and adaptability are two basic
skills when teachers try to incorporate inclusive techniques into their courses.
A minor critique would be that the book does not include some specific guidance about
how to proceed when some students claim to have special needs that do not seem
plausible. In that sense, the authors sometimes adopt a very optimistic tone regarding
the proper functioning of the system and it seems that they assume that students will
never attempt to be granted some unlawful advantages by claiming that they have
special needs. It would have been helpful to include some tips about how to check
suspicious cases without generating anxiety in students that are actually diverse.
In conclusion, this book will be interesting and compelling not only for researchers
specialized in the field of disability and foreign language learning, but also for many
teachers that wish to adopt new inclusive strategies in their courses to foster equitable
learning opportunities. Although the book focuses on university settings, many teachers
from other instructional contexts will also find many useful ideas.
Language Value 11 (1), 103-107
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Disability and World Language Learning: Inclusive Teaching for Diverse Learners
REFERENCES
Edwards, W.A. and Scott, S.S. 2012. “Teaching students with disabilities: Addressing
the needs of adjunct and temporary faculty”. NECTFL Review, 70, 17-30.
McGuire, J. and Scott, S.S. 2002. “Universal Design for Instruction: A promising new
paradigm for higher education”. Perspectives, 28 (2), 27-29.
Scott, S.S. and Edwards, W.A. 2012. “Project LINC: Supporting lecturers and adjunct
instructors in foreign language classrooms”. Journal of Postsecondary Education
and Disability, 25 (3), 253-258.
Scott, S.S., Hildebrandt, S.A. and Edwards, W.A. 2013. “Second language learning
as perceived by students with disabilities”. In Sanz, C. and B. Lado (Eds.),
AAUSC 2013 Volume - Issues in Language Program Direction (Individual
Differences, L2 Development, and Language Program Administration: From
Theory to Application). Stamford: Cengage Learning, 171-191.
Scott, S.S., McGuire, J. M. and Shaw, S. F. 2003. “Universal design for instruction: A
new paradigm for adult instruction in postsecondary education”. Remedial and
Special Education, 24 (6), 369-379.
Received: 11 November 2019
Accepted: 02 December 2019
Language Value 11 (1), 103-107
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Language Value
December 2019, Volume 11, Number 1 pp. 108-112
Copyright © 2019, ISSN 1989-7103
BOOK REVIEW
Assistive Technology in Special Education: Resources to Support Literacy,
Communication, and Learning Differences
Joan L. Green
Prufrock Press Inc: Wako, Texas, 2018 (3rd ed.). 237 pages.
ISBN: 978-1-61821-758-5
Reviewed by Ana-Isabel Martínez-Hernández
Universitat Jaume I, Spain
Assistive Technology in Special Education by Joan L. Green
(2018) delves into
technology, i.e. apps, websites and devices, to boost learning in students with special
needs. With the rise of new technologies in the field of education, many students with
disabilities are left behind. Thus, this book intends to show how to use those
technologies to make learning easier for physically and mentally challenged students to
help them overcome learning difficulties and improve their quality of life. Not only
does this book suggest cutting-edge technology, but also everyday gadgets and apps
which were not originally created with therapy goals in mind, but end up being so if
used correctly, along with state-of-the-art solutions.
This book is addressed to teachers, schools, speech-language pathologists, therapists
and families who want to maximise the students’ learning potential and overcome
barriers such as concentration issues, speech impairment or comprehension among
others. Although many of the resources found in this book can enhance learning in
students with special needs, and in many cases withdraw this support gradually to aid
them become independent, learners with no difficulties can find these resources
beneficial in their learning process as a route to empowerment in order to become the
masters of their own learning and promote autonomous learning. Nevertheless, despite
encouraging families to use technologies with challenged students and applauding
families who already do so, the support and guidance of professionals is highly
recommended throughout the book; what Green strongly endorses is the idea of
therapists, families and teachers working in unison to benefit the student.
Copyright © 2019 Language Value, ISSN 1989-7103
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Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors
Assistive Technology in Special Education: Resources to Support Literacy, Communication, and
Learning Differences
It cannot be denied that technology has become rather overwhelming in the past decade
with the plethora of available resources, i.e. apps and websites, which together with the
myriad of different devices at our disposal in the market can make of this advantage, i.e.
technology, a cumbersome and time-consuming process in which families and
professionals can get lost, and therefore many might regard it as a setback rather than a
step forward. In this book, one of Joan L. Green’s purposes is to make a selection of the
best resources to narrow down all the available apps and sources, a “representative
sampling” (2018: 10) as she calls it, classifying them by function in order to help
families and professionals filter all the resources at hand.
The book is divided into 15 chapters, the first three of which are dedicated to the
introduction of assistive technology and its future in helping students. The following
chapters contain more detailed information about improving specific learning skills,
closing with a call to a responsible use of the resources in the final chapter. All of these
chapters include an enumeration of recommended apps, devices and websites which are
accompanied by a short description and review of the product with the main
characteristics as well as the operating system it works on and the price, with the
intention of helping “readers save time, frustration and money” (2018: 25). In this
sense, this book could be used as a resource book for those educators, families and
therapists who would like to develop a learner’s skill to exploit their potential or cover a
specific need.
The book starts with a ‘reality check’ on the current situation of technology, namely
hardware and software, which implies being aware of all the pros and cons it has to
offer, as well as the reasons for the author to write a third edition of this book regardless
of its transient, thus perishable, nature of which she is aware and is repeatedly
mentioned throughout the pages. In the first chapter, Green encourages people to use
technology that is no longer expensive and is easily available in order to increase
success and independence for people with communicative, learning and cognitive
disabilities. She tries to achieve this by answering some of the most frequently asked
questions among the teachers’ and parents’ communities first, guiding the readers
through the procedure to be followed should they need to find a solution to a learner’s
impediment. Along these lines, notwithstanding the existing barriers to technology for
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Book Review
some challenged individuals, the focal point of Chapter 2 is on how beneficial the shift
towards technology can be in assisting all students, but especially for those with
challenges. The author refers to the advantages, but also to those obstacles and
disadvantages technology may still present for students with an impairment or
disability, although the advantages clearly outweigh the disadvantages. Chapter
3
reinforces the idea of technology as a means towards independence for individuals with
special needs with the sole aim of overcoming the existing hindrance. In this chapter,
the author offers some guidance to assist families and professionals with device choice
by offering a review of two of the most popular operating systems on mobile devices.
The chapter that follows (Chapter 4) focuses on improving verbal expression, namely
intelligibility and expressive language, encouraging a diagnosis of the obstacle and
offering strategies and useful technology tools to tackle it. Chapter 5 introduces AAC
(Augmentative and Alternative Communication), which helps boost communication
needs, and offers a list of resources to learn more about AAC as well as apps, devices,
and other options to help individuals communicate. The author contrasts former
solutions to AAC and the current ones, which oftentimes are already installed on our
phones by default, the reader only needs to be creative about how they are applied.
Chapter 6 reviews tips, strategy, apps and resources to improve listening skills - i.e.
auditory comprehension, processing deficits and receptive language
- such as
captioning, assistive devices or websites with free listening activities among others. The
resources mentioned in this chapter may also result profitable for those students
learning English as a second language
(ESL). Chapter 7 has to do with reading
comprehension, in which the author emphasises tools which are key to developing this
skill which is paramount for academic success. The most prominent feature to bolster
reading comprehension mentioned throughout the chapter, be it apps or software on
other devices, is text-to-speech, although many others are mentioned. Additionally,
Chapter 8 unravels ways technology can be used to enhance reading skills in an
engaging way, being mobile apps and websites the top suggestions. Chapter 9 deals
with improving written expression, and the writer insists on the use of assistive
technology to make life easier and to empower the learners in order to show what they
know in a different way with the aim of counteracting a challenge. Chapter 10 is also
connected to writing skills, although it offers guidance to acquire more essential skills.
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Assistive Technology in Special Education: Resources to Support Literacy, Communication, and
Learning Differences
It focuses on spelling and how to draw letters correctly at the outset and goes on to more
complex aspects like punctuation and sentence-building towards the end of the chapter.
Chapter 11 addresses the issue of attention, cognition, and executive function, i.e. how
we pay attention, organise, remember and learn effectively and efficiently. The author
suggests some technological and non-tech solutions to aid students in their learning by
helping them to stay focused (e.g. calendars) and how to use those solutions effectively.
Chapter 12 nourishes the idea of using digital resources and mobile phones to support
learning new information, yet it encourages the combination of traditional and
contemporary approaches to avoid unnecessary digital distractions. Chapter 13 presents
everyday tools to enhance organisation and collaboration. In order to help students
dodge the unpleasant situation of forgetting homework at home, the writer suggests
online storage such as Dropbox or Google Drive which has become commonplace and
most students are familiar with them. On the other hand, to foster collaboration among
peers chatting tools such as WhatsApp and online collaboration tools like Google Docs
are suggested. These are only some of the examples of those mainstream tools students
have already been acquainted with that can be used creatively to provide students with
special needs with solutions. Chapter
14 supports the use of apps and online
programmes to practise cognitive skills and offers a list of those the writer found most
effective. However, competition against peers is discouraged, as it can result in
demotivation. The purpose of these ‘games’ is to improve the last result and track the
student’s progress. Finally, Chapter 15 closes the same way the book opened: with a
‘reality check’. It reminds the reader to teach students to use technology responsibly
warning of all the dangers of the Internet, but also of the benefits if used correctly,
which at the same time will prepare them for their future, that is, the chapter aims to
promote digital citizenship and safety on the net.
All things considered, the book is a fantastic reference book which leads you to think
about the students’ needs at all educational stages. It is definitely a helping hand for
families but more so for us, teachers, and professionals: an excellent handbook, but
above all, it is a stepping stone towards inclusion and accessibility in education.
Language Value 11 (1), 108-112
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Book Review
Received: 05 September 2019
Accepted: 27 Novermber 2019
Language Value 11 (1), 108-112
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