Dominant-language Use in Foreign-language Academic Writing Processes

This study investigates the combined effects of residents’ use of native languages and tourists’ mindfulness on perceived authenticity and overall satisfaction in multilingual tourism destinations. Using a sample of 281 tourists, data were collected via a structured survey. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) evaluated the hypothesized relationships. The findings reveal that residents’ use of native languages significantly enhances tourists’ perceptions of authenticity, which, in turn, positively impacts satisfaction. Furthermore, mindfulness moderates the effects of native language use on perceived authenticity, highlighting its role in shaping authentic experiences. These results underscore the importance of cultural preservation through native language use in fostering meaningful and satisfying tourist experiences. This study provides actionable insights for tourism stakeholders, emphasizing the balance between cultural authenticity and tourist engagement to enhance destination competitiveness.

This paper examines the patterns of language use among immigrant children from Anglophone African countries living in Botswana. The study reveals major differences in their patterns of language use when compared to that of their parents. Three distinct language use patterns were identified; namely, children who are monolingual in English; those who are bilingual in English and the mother tongue, English and Kiswahili, or English and Setswana; and a third group who are multilingual in the mother tongue, English, Kiswahili and/ or Setswana. The study also reveals that whereas majority of the immigrant parents do not speak Setswana, in spite of their length of residence in Botswana, a good percentage of their children speaks Setswana. Another interesting finding is that many of the immigrant children who cannot speak their mother tongues are fluent speakers of Setswana, the dominant language of the host community. Data for this study were collected using two instruments; namely, a questionnaire designed for parents and an interview schedule for children aged between 18- 25. The questionnaire was administered to 100 immigrant parents from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia. Fifty immigrant children from these countries were interviewed to get more insightful data on the patterns of language use among this population. Convenience sampling was used to identify the participants. The theoretical framework of this study was based on the “opportunity versus motivation” argument on language maintenance and language shift. The researcher recommends that immigrant children should be given more exposure and opportunities to learn and speak their mother tongue languages, especially in the family domain.

Language users, in our contemporary world, fail to put into cognisance the distinctive linguistic features that characterise each communicative event, often blurring the lines between situational contexts. This is partly owing to exposure to diverse language varieties and the prevalence of digital communication such as texting, and social media. This study undertakes a comparative register analysis of language use on social media platforms and in academic writing, with a view to examining the idiosyncratic features of each of these genres of writings which will enable language users adapt linguistic features to suit these disparate contexts. Using Biber and Conrad’s (2009) analytical framework, the study focuses on aspects such as vocabulary, syntax, and tone, seeking to identify patterns of language use that are unique to each register or shared across contexts. Findings reveal that while the distributions of prepositions and conjunctions are almost similar in both the registers of academic writing and social media messages, the register of social media messages makes use of linguistic features such as pronouns, verbs and adverbs more than the register of academic writing, thereby disclosing that the conversational properties of informal tone, personalisation, action-dependence and emphasis are more prominent in social media language. By exploring the intersections and divergences between social media language and academic writing, this research aims to inform strategies for adapting language to context, ultimately enhancing clarity, coherence, and overall effectiveness of communication.

National identity is usually based on certain features, which enable an individual to perceive his/her national identity. In addition to culture, customs, traditions, a defined territory, a shared history, etc., language is a strong basis for an individual’s identification with a certain ethnic group. Language is considered to be the most universal means of communication as it helps us to convey the content of information when communicating. However, accelerating globalization affects even the use of a national language and, thus, the younger generation is often more focused on the dissemination of information in English. As a result, it seems that the native language is pushed aside, and little significance is given to its correctness. National identity and the use of national language are extremely important for representatives of certain professions, for example, statutory officers, soldiers, and specialists of law because clarity and logic are some of the most important elements in legal documents to comprehensively render the content. Therefore, the article aims to reveal the attitudes of the students of the Public Security Academy of Mykolas Romeris University towards the significance and place of national language and national identity in modern society as well as the importance of language skills for professional career. The survey results revealed that many young people associate national identity with their native language and culture, and find common links between them.

Luxembourg has often been classi?ed as a ‘triglossic’ country in sociolinguistic literature, due to Luxembourgish being used predominantly for spoken functions and French and German for written functions. However, language use in late modern Luxembourg is characterized by increased levels of spoken French coupled with the growing presence of written Luxembourgish in the public sphere, thus altering certain long-standing patterns of language use. In this context, Luxembourgish is often framed as an important marker of authenticity and national identity in language ideological debates. At the same time, the ideological positioning of Luxembourgish as the national language stands in tension with varying levels of uncertainty regarding writing conventions in Luxembourgish, particularly in more formal contexts. Based on the analysis of metalinguistic comments from focus group data, this article examines how the participants discursively construct Luxembourgish in their negotiation between positioning Luxembourgish as the national language whilst also describing it as not being a fully ?edged standardized language. On a broader scale, this paper contributes to language ideological research that explores the construction of national languages as well as the relationship between the standard language ideology and the one-nation one-language ideology.

While differences in the production and acceptability of aspectual inflectional morphology between Spanish–English heritage and monolingually raised speakers of Spanish have been argued to support incomplete acquisition approaches to heritage language acquisition, other approaches have argued that differences in access (e.g., lexical access) to representations for receptive and productive purposes are at the core of some of the unique characteristics of heritage language data. We investigate these issues by focusing on the effects of lexical access, dominance, age of acquisition and patterns of language use in heritage Spanish–English bilinguals. We study aspectual se in Spanish, which yields telic interpretations, in expressions such as María se comió la manzana ‘María ate the apple (completely)’ and Maria ate the apple (where completion may not be reached). Our results indicate that se generates telic interpretations for the heritage and monolingually raised group with no group effect. Heritage speakers showed no English effects in terms of lexical access, age of acquisition, patterns of language use or dominance. This suggests that the heritage group did not differ from their monolingually raised counterparts and showed no evidence of incomplete acquisition of telicity.

Pakistan inherits a multilingual heritage. Along with Urdu, 70 different languages are spoken. The 1973 Constitution officially recognizes Urdu as Pakistan's only national language. Till today, the adoption and promotion of Urdu as a medium of educational instruction has remained a point of controversy. Existing research lacks the voice of academicians on the issue. Present investigation focused on the voice of 100 university professors selected randomly. Part of PhD research, data was gathered using a standardized Likert Summative Ranking Scale. Data analysis revealed that there is a highly significant positive relationship (p = 0.000) between use of national language and nation-building. This means, academicians across Pakistani universities strongly believe in the use of national language in all walks of life to realize the dreams of the nation building. It will help to achieve socio-cultural, developmental, strategic, academic and identity goals amicably.

This paper examines the language use of a small group of interlingual families of a Japanese parent and a Filipino parent with their offspring living in Japan and qualitatively explores possible explanations for their particular language use. Although the data collected from the subject group are limited, the data analysis does reveal some interesting features regarding language use among the family members: a less frequent use of the Filipino parent's native language(s) in comparison to the Japanese parent's native language and the employment of a language other than either parent's native language(s). These features in the present group greatly contrast with those of the Japanese–English interlingual families that the author previously investigated. Coupled with findings from the author's previous studies, findings from the present study suggest that the how and why of language use in interlingual families might be language-sensitive and not necessarily straightforward reflections of such linguistic considerations as the relative language proficiencies of the family members or access to a language community in the close vicinity.

This sequential explanatory mixed methods design study aimed to investigate the beliefs of English Language Teaching (ELT) prospective teachers about using the target language (L2) at macro and micro-levels in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms in addition to some scaffolding strategies to minimize their native language (L1) use. Furthermore, whether being experienced in language teaching and being abroad made differences in the beliefs of prospective teachers (PTs) were examined. The study was conducted with 128 ELT PTs enrolled in a state university in Turkey by administering a questionnaire as a quantitative instrument and a semi-structured interview as a qualitative instrument. The results of the descriptive statistics revealed that the PTs were in favour of using students’ native language whenever it is required rather than following English-only policy. Accordingly, they agreed on the use of L2 mostly to give feedback, information and instructions besides greeting students and later to encourage students, check their understanding, and to provide them supportive talk. They became hesitant to use L2 to manage classrooms, crack jokes, and to give instructions of new and complex types of activities. The dependent variables in the study indicated few differences in their beliefs as to using L2 in EFL classrooms. The results were discussed and some implications for ELT teacher education were suggested.

Language policy is an essential part of the state national policy. It is focused on regulating public relations in three main directions: the use of the languages of the peoples of Russia in order to ensure their preservation and development, the formation of a set of measures that promote the use of the state language of the Russian Federation in official spheres of communication and expand its use in interpersonal informal communication (which is not regulated by law), ensuring guarantees for the study of the native language by its native speakers and popularization of the use of the national (native) language in the fields of education, creativity, and science. The implementation of language policy involves taking into account the plurality of identity, including cultural identity, linguistic identity, which can be considered, under certain conditions, not independently, but as elements of civic identity. The article examines the main directions of language policy, taking into account the combination of individual and collective interests in the fields of language and culture, which contributes to the development of both national languages and cultures and all-Russian symbols — the state language and all-Russian culture. The heterogeneous nature of the legislation of the subjects of the Russian Federation in the field of language policy implementation is emphasized. The directions of improving legislative regulation in order to ensure ethnocultural and linguistic diversity, the development of guarantees for the protection of national languages, and the improvement of the mechanism for the use of languages with different legal status are proposed. The dialectical method of scientific cognition aimed at the study of legal phenomena and processes in their interrelation and systemic unity, and other general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, generalization) are used. Conclusion. Language policy in the interests of maintaining the cultural and national identity of Russian citizens requires taking into account at least two factors in its formation: the need to preserve and protect national culture and language as the basis for the formation of national identity, and strengthening the all-Russian civic identity, which allows a Russian citizen to recognize himself as a Russian. Its principles include the protection of the rights of Russian citizens in the field of culture and language, the promotion and preservation of national languages and cultures of each people of Russia, the adaptation of migrants to the language and culture of the host community, the protection of the linguistic rights of compatriots abroad, the protection of the state language as the main element of the all-Russian civil identity.

This volume examines the sociocultural factors that influence language choices and uses in the multilingual country of Luxembourg. Patterns of language use within and across communities are viewed in terms of interrelationships among language policy intent, implementation, and experience. The study considers the ways in which the language and social experiences within low socioeconomic communities differ from school expectations and how these differences affect achievement of both individual and government goals. A history of past language policies and practices sets the background for recent policy formation and current language uses and values. An investigation of the roles of reading, writing and speaking within school settings illustrates policy implementation and individual usage. The ways in which policy is experienced is described in terms of the number and extent of language functions within communities. The nature of language experience is reflected in ethnographic descriptions of the roles language and literacy abilities play in social life. These descriptions are presented in terms of patterns of language use across socioeconomic groups and through composite case studies of three families representing upper, middle and lower class backgrounds. Community and school language behaviors are then compared across socioeconomic groups through an analysis of the degree of congruence between reading, writing, and speaking functions outside of the school and the in-school norms and methods of language instruction. The study further explores the practical and theoretical implications of the relationships among policy intent, implementation, and experience in the context of socioeconomic transitions in modern multilingual nations.

BackgroundThe aim of our study was to compare free writing skills in English as a native language and a foreign language (in English and Polish students respectively). English and Polish have dissimilar orthographies in terms of grapheme-phoneme correspondence rules that is why we were curious to examine whether native and foreign speakers of English exhibit some similarities and/or differences in terms of writing and vocabulary, controlling the dyslexia factor at the same time.Participants and procedure28 English junior high school students: 13 with dyslexia (ED), 15 without (END), and 32 Polish junior high school students: 16 with dyslexia (PD) and 16 without (PND) participated. They completed tests measuring free writing and vocabulary in English as a native (ED and END) and a foreign (PD and PND) language.ResultsWe found that both PD and PND knew fewer words of different difficulty, made more grammar errors, wrote shorter compositions, and composed shorter sentences than ED and END, demonstrating the influence of a NL and a negative linguistic transfer between synthetic Polish and analytical English. In a free writing task, tough, they committed an equal number of phonological and orthographic errors, probably choosing best-known words, which did not allow to demonstrate the expected deficits of students with dyslexia due to phonological deficit.ConclusionsGenerally, both PD and PND, despite having studied EFL for on average 7 years, failed to equal their ED and END peers’ performance in a simple free writing task. Dyslexia and/or related spelling errors correlated with vocabulary in both Polish and English students, confirming that dyslexia may limit one’s mental lexicon for both NL speakers and FL learners.

Article Some patterns of language use in the period of transition from Dutch to British rule in the Guiana colonies was published on January 1, 1990 in the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language (volume 1990, issue 85).

Any activities conducted at the boundary area between countries will only be successful if the community of speakers has mutual understanding in terms of language, especially those involving business. This study focuses on a community in the northern part of Malaysia near the Thailand border where majority of people are bilingual in Malay and Thai. This study aims to investigate the patterns of language used by speakers in the Malaysia-Thailand border, in the context of language maintenance and language shift. Both countries use different languages; with Malaysians use Malay and the Thais use Thai language. In this cross-border context, activities pertaining to business, visit or personal matters will have an impact on the development of the two languages. This study presents the findings on the language choice from a survey involving 202 respondents that was conducted in two border towns at the Malaysia-Thailand border, namely Rantau Panjang (Malaysian side) and Golok (Thailand side). By utilizing the domain concept that was introduced by Fishman (1972), this study focuses on two domains namely, business and family. In addition to the questionnaire, participant observations and interviews were also conducted as supplements. The data on the patterns of language choice were analyzed statistically. The findings show that although Malaysians and Thais speak two different languages, Kelantanese dialect, which is a variety of the standard Malay, was the most dominant language at the border. This study also found that age was a significant factor in determining the patterns of language use. The younger generations were using Kelantanese dialect and Thai language in domains where older people would only use Kelantanese dialect. This points to the occurrence of language shift at the border. However, the community at the Thai side of the border tends to choose Kelantanese dialect in their daily activities, which seems to indicate language maintenance in this area. These findings suggest that language can serve as a marker of identity, especially for those communities in Golok as most of them are originally from Malaysia. Finally, this study has contributed empirical data on language usage at the Malaysia-Thailand border.

There has been a longstanding debate on the use of native language (L1) in second language acquisition (SLA). One important topic in language education to investigate is the use of language in the second language (L2) writing process. The majority of studies have focused on L2 writers in English as a foreign language (EFL) settings. Quantitative research approaches have been dominant. Nevertheless, the complexity of this issue cannot be comprehensively explored without qualitative analysis. This case study investigates the language use of a Chinese international college student in the United States throughout the L2 writing process. It adopts a qualitative research approach. The findings show that language learners draw upon their entire linguistic repertoire while writing; even those with a high proficiency level still rely upon their L1 in the L2 writing process. The findings also reveal the multiple functions of the L1 in facilitating L2 writing. Although this study primarily focuses on the linguistic influences of the L1, its implications can be generalized to a broader context. Teachers working with English learners (ELs) or bilingual students are highly recommended to acknowledge and gain a comprehensive understanding of the value of students’ linguistic knowledge, as well as embrace and strategically utilize students’ linguistic repertoires.