The article addresses the use of dictionaries among the new millennium generation of English as a foreign language (EFL) undergraduates. Applying the mixed-method approach (a questionnaire and ...interviews), the study examines the frequency of dictionary use, the types of dictionaries used, activities initiating dictionary consultation, information searched for, and problems faced in using dictionaries. The findings suggest that the participants are most fond of bilingual online dictionaries and use them mostly for looking up the meaning of unknown words. They also show that despite being high consumers of technology, participants do not benefit much from online dictionaries, as they neglect most of the entry information. The qualitative data reveal that the participants perceive various digital tools of questionable quality as online dictionaries. Overall, the study sheds light on the characteristic behavior of the new generation of EFL learners regarding their dictionary use and points to the necessity of developing their digital competence in the realm of dictionary use.
Research in computer-mediated communication has pointed to online disinhibition effect, i.e., a tendency to interact with less restraint when online than in face-to-face contacts. The current study ...explores the presence and level of disinhibition in online communication among university students and sets it in the context of synchronous online foreign language learning. To this end, 284 university students who took a course in English as part of their study programs participated in the research. A quantitative approach employing a survey design was adopted and the results were analyzed by means of descriptive and inferential statistical tests in SPSS 25. The findings show that the overall level of online disinhibition is rather low among the participants—the students self-report they feel inhibited when using the internet and communicating online. It also shows that male students tend to be more disinhibited in online communication than females. Two factors, the ability to immerse themselves in online learning surroundings and the use of headphones while attending lessons online are found to produce higher disinhibition levels. The findings imply that the affective domain deserves special attention in creating and conducting online language courses and that the digital environment requires a specific student-centered approach that is yet to be explored and defined.
Although there is abundant literature on attitudes toward English, much less has so far been said about the attitudes of minority language speakers toward a foreign language, especially in contexts ...in which the minority language speakers receive formal education in their L1 and are not immersed in an English environment. The paper presents the results of a survey conducted among grammar schools pupils in Vojvodina (Serbia) whose L1 is Hungarian and who have been studying English for over 10 years. There were two groups of research participants, based on the area where they live (compact vs. diffuse language community). The research instrument was a questionnaire, which contained two parts: the first part investigated the participants' profile and the second part explored the participants' value judgements regarding English. The results of the study confirm the initial hypothesis that students living in a diffuse environment will be open to exposure to English and that their attitudes to EFL will be more positive than the attitudes of students living in a compact environment. Only some of the more general independent variables included in the study show an interaction with positive attitudes towards English. The results of the study lead to pinpointing some determinants of the attitudes Hungarian L1 students in Serbia hold toward English, thereby adding to the scarce literature on minority speakers' attitudes to a foreign language in a multilingual and multicultural area like Vojvodina.
Among the factors argued to contribute to a bilingual advantage in executive function (EF), the combination of languages spoken by the bilingual is often overlooked. In this study, we explored the ...role of language similarity on memory and EF task by comparing performance of three groups of young adults—Hungarian–Serbian and Slovak–Serbian early balanced bilinguals, and Serbian-speaking monolinguals. Slovak is typologically related to Serbian, which are both Slavic, in contrast to Hungarian, which is Finno–Ugric. On the computerized tasks from the CANTAB battery (CANTAB Cognition, 2016, www.cantab.com), differences between monolinguals and bilinguals emerged on the EF tasks: Stockings of Cambridge (SOC) and Attentional Set Shifting (AST), but not the memory tasks: Delayed Matching to Sample (DMS), Paired Associate Learning (PAL), Spatial Working Memory (SWM). Both Hungarian–Serbian and Slovak–Serbian bilinguals outperformed the monolinguals on the more difficult SOC tasks, solved using more than a minimally required number of moves. This is in line with reports that bilinguals perform better under more complex conditions that require more monitoring and switching. However, bilinguals speaking Hungarian and Serbian spent less time preparing to execute the simpler SOC tasks, which can be solved in a minimum of two or three moves; they also exhibited reduced local switching cost and were faster overall on AST than both the Slovak–Serbian bilinguals and Serbian monolinguals. The advantageous performance of speakers of the typologically unrelated languages in our study suggests that these bilinguals may have more efficient attention switching and inhibition systems than bilinguals who speak typologically similar languages.
Somatisms are phraseologisms which contain at least one body-part term as a constituent. They make up a considerable part of the phrasemes of any language. In this paper, we focus on the extent to ...which the equivalent(s) of the term láb occur(s) in Serbian and English somatisms. The research is based on a corpus extracted from both monolingual and bilingual phraseological dictionaries of Hungarian, Serbian, and English. The data are analysed primarily from a cognitive point of view, with the aim of establishing whether the three languages are comparable in terms of the meaning of the idiom as a whole. Degrees of equivalence are established based on whether there is an idiomatic expression in Serbian/English containing the lexeme noga or leg/foot, respectively. Another issue addressed in the paper is the choice of the English term (leg vs foot) in somatisms and the question of whether this choice is arbitrary. Though structure is of secondary importance only, we also take it into account in establishing the degree of equivalence between the items listed in the corpus. Lastly, we stress the similarities and differences noted in the way the body-part terms mentioned are employed in the phraseologisms of the three languages.
WHAT IT TAKES TO COMMUNICATE Topalov, Jagoda; Knežević, Ljiljana; Halupka-Rešetar, Sabina
Godišnjak Filozofskog fakulteta u Novom Sadu,
12/2022, Letnik:
47, Številka:
2
Journal Article
The multimodality of the online learning environment allows students’ participation in different modes, relying either on video, audio or text-based communication. The current study explores the ...level of students’ willingness to communicate in the three modes of interaction in synchronous online English language lessons and compares it with their willingness to communicate in a conventional face-to-face language classroom. To this end, we recruited for this research 281 university students who took a course in English as part of their study programs. Relying on a cross-sectional survey design, we analyzed the data on the response variables by means of descriptive statistical tests and factorial ANOVAs. The results reveal that the students’ willingness to communicate in synchronous online classes decreases whenever they are required to activate more modes of communication. They also show that the highest willingness to communicate is found in conventional, face-to-face classrooms. An implication of the research is that the mode of communication has the potential to encourage or discourage WTC in EFL among students. It is proposed that the factors of responsibility and face-saving affect the students’ participation in online classes, aligning with the idea that WTC is a dynamic, fluid variable which changes depending on the situational context.
The paper investigates the concept of willingness to communicate (WTC) in the context of tertiary education in Serbia with a twofold aim: (a) to assess the level of students' WTC, both generally and ...in relation to each of the four language skills, both inside the classroom and outside of it; (b) to explore the extent to which orientation towards learning L2 and self-perceived competence affect the students' WTC. To this end, we conducted a survey with 171 B1-B2 level students at the University of Novi Sad. The measuring instrument was a three-part questionnaire, used to gather background information on the participants and their self-perceived English language competence based on a 3-point self-assessment Likert scale, as well as a list of 20 statements to examine the students' orientation towards learning English in relation to five types of orientation. The results of the analysis, performed using the SPSS Statistics 20 software package (paired-samples t-tests, bivariate correlations and a multiple linear regression), confirm the importance of the affective dimension in learning and point to the predominance of self-perceived competence as a crucial factor for L2 WTC.
Although there is abundant literature on attitudes toward English, much less has so far been said about the attitudes of minority language speakers toward a foreign language, especially in contexts ...in which the minority language speakers receive formal education in their L1 and are not immersed in an English environment. The paper presents the results of a survey conducted among grammar schools pupils in Vojvodina (Serbia) whose L1 is Hungarian and who have been studying English for over 10 years. There were two groups of research participants, based on the area where they live (compact vs. diffuse language community). The research instrument was a questionnaire, which contained two parts: the first part investigated the participants' profile and the second part explored the participants' value judgements regarding English. The results of the study confirm the initial hypothesis that students living in a diffuse environment will be open to exposure to English and that their attitudes to EFL will be more positive than the attitudes of students living in a compact environment. Only some of the more general independent variables included in the study show an interaction with positive attitudes towards English. The results of the study lead to pinpointing some determinants of the attitudes Hungarian L1 students in Serbia hold toward English, thereby adding to the scarce literature on minority speakers' attitudes to a foreign language in a multilingual and multicultural area like Vojvodina.
PDF
