Usefulness of Digital Language Resources in Improving Native Language among Adults

Important keys to effective communication are language competences, which can be supported by using digital language resources. These usually assist the acquisition of a second language, despite their potential for improving one’s native language. Our study was, thus, aimed at raising awareness about the possibilities of improving the native language of an adult population by using digital language resources for the Slovenian language. We conducted workshops, a survey and, partly, semi-structured interviews with 124 participants. We examined whether the perceived usefulness and ease of using digital language resources depends on age, education, self-assessed language proficiency, and experience with language training. The analysis revealed that self-initiative use of analogue language resources is related positively to using digital ones for seeking information, improving language use, as well as for study or work. Moreover, self-assessed proficiency in language was found to affect the perceived ease of using digital language resources. These findings may help language professionals support developing language skills by using digital language resources and preserving language in an adult population.

Tertiary Students' Experience with Digital Language Games for Enhancing the English Language

Recently, digital games are used as a form of new media with massive potential for learning the English Language. To understand the typology of user experiences with digital games, the Presence-Involvement-Flow Framework (PIFF) was utilized. A series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten tertiary students in Northern Malaysia. Participants were asked to download and familiarize five digital language games (Duolingo, Memrise, Word Connect, Word Domination and Word Tower Puzzles) before the interviews. Thematic analysis technique was used to analyze the responses. The study’s thematic network comprises four global themes (Game Structure, Feelings, Skills Gained and Prerequisites) and seven organizing themes (Instruction, Game Design, Positive Emotional Outcome, Negative Emotional Outcome, Soft Skills, Technical Skills and Skills Required). The result is expected to be a good guideline or research framework for practitioners and researchers in exploring further the concept of user experience with English language digital games.

SCIENCE IS GREAT JOY! (TO THE ANNIVERSARY OF JORMA LUUTONEN)

The article is devoted to Jorma Luutonen, the well-known researcher of the Finno-Ugric languages, Doctor of Philosophy, Associate Professor of the Volga Region Languages Research Sector of the Turku University. The article considers his scientific and creative activities, highlighting his contribution to the development of Finno-Ugric studies, primarily to the study of the languages of the Volga region. His research interests also include Turkology, contrastive linguistics, lexicography, and the creation of digital language corpora. The name of the Finnish linguist is known not only throughout Finland, but also far beyond its borders.

Estudio exploratorio de las interacciones musicales entre hermanos/as en el entorno cotidiano

Es evidente que en el seno familiar se producen interacciones musicales entre hermanos/as y que estas tienen una transcendencia importante en el desarrollo musical de ambos participantes. Este artículo presenta datos de un estudio sobre estas interacciones de las que aún se sabe muy poco. Los/as participantes son hermanos/as de entre dos y seis años de tres familias catalanas de características similares. Los datos se recogen mediante el DLP (Digital Language Processor) de LENA®, una grabadora de audio que puede grabar hasta 16 horas con una alta calidad y de forma no intrusiva, que lleva puesta el hermano menor. Las grabaciones se recogen de forma periódica y durante un día entero, y se completan con notas de voz narradas por las familias para facilitar información del contexto de ese día. Los datos se analizan con una tabla validada que permite extraer información de cuatro dimensiones: 1) orden de participación; 2) lugar; 3) tipo de intervención, y 4) fuente. Los resultados revelan, entre otra información, que: a) en la mayor parte de las interacciones el hermano mayor empieza y el menor termina la interacción; b) que las interacciones se producen mayoritariamente en el hogar; c) que la imitación y la sincronía son las tipologías de interacción más utilizadas, y d) que las interacciones se basan por igual en canciones o en improvisaciones.

Pandemic-Triggered Online Teaching in Romania. A Language Teacher’s Perspective

With the restrictions caused by the pandemic, schools closed and classes went online in the spring of 2020. Suddenly, teachers found themselves in unexpected situations they had to deal with. With limited IT skills and no training courses offered by the Ministry of Education guiding them into the world of Google Classroom, Meet, or Zoom, teachers all over Romania had to cope with e-learning somehow. In the present study, I propose to investigate some of the positive and negative aspects of going online, to compare digital language classes involving different age groups (pupils of elementary schools or middle schools vs university students), as well as the diverse social background which influenced online learning to a large extent. I also intend to look at teaching different language skills: is there any relevant change in this respect as opposed to teaching face-to-face?

Polymedia in interaction

This Special Issue on “Polymedia in interaction” theorizes and empirically investigates practices and ideologies of digitally mediated interaction under conditions of polymedia. We argue that the proliferation of mobile interpersonal communication in the 2010s calls for, and is reflected in, conceptual and methodological shifts in empirical research on digital language and communication in pragmatics and sociocultural linguistics. In this introduction, these shifts are crystallized in five interrelated themes: (1) a turn from ‘computer-mediated communication’ to ‘digitally mediated interaction’ as a bracket category; (2) a move beyond the on/offline divide and focus on the integration of mediated interaction in everyday communication on micro-units of social structure (e.g. transnational families, business or academic communication); (3) an empirical downscaling towards private and small-scale public data; publicness; (4) a shift from the study of single modes of digital communication to polymedia; and (5) a focus on semiotic repertoires and registers of digital mediation. Research that orients to (some or all of) these focal points is compared with other trends in digital language research, including computational methods. The papers in this issue flesh out these five dimensions with findings from qualitative research, based on multi-sited linguistic and digital ethnographies in various sociolinguistic settings.