International Journal of Language and Literary Studies

The Failed Rhetoric: Presupposition Analysis on Duterte’s 5th State of the Nation Address

Mary Ann Murillo, Aiden Yeh — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Presupposition triggers play a vital role in verbal communication. It is a linguistic element that can be employed in utterances. Language has a significant role too in the communication and interpretation of intentions by analyzing presupposition in political speeches. One example of these is the speech articulated by politicians which often serve as vehicles toward achieving their ultimate goals. This study analyzed the presupposition triggers found in the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte’s 5th State of the Nation Address (SONA). Data was analyzed using critical discourse analysis (CDA), an approach to cognitively analyze how Duterte communicated his political intentions through the use of presupposition triggers. The results show that his SONA was filled with propositions that were erroneous and ambiguous. One example of his propositions was the frequently used lexical item “rest assured”, i.e., “Rest assured that we will not dodge our obligation to fight for human rights.” This highly contentious statement pertains to the killings and his war on drugs, and other human rights violations that his government is being accused of; a recrimination which alludes to the fact that the human rights crisis in the Philippines has heightened, if not worsened ever since he took office. This study concludes that the study of presupposition enhances the comprehension of what is being communicated, particularly in political speeches where failed rhetorics could also reflect a failed state.

Language Mixings in Heritage Language Education: A Systematic Review

Yizhe Jiang — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The overarching research question for this paper is what work has been done on heritage languages worldwide through a language mixing lens. Given the increasing research interest in this topic and the scarcity of previous secondary studies, a systematic review was conducted on the empirical data at the intersection of language mixing and heritage language education, in and out of schools. Thematic analysis and frequency analysis were carried out on qualified empirical sources gathered from Scopus, Web of Science, and Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA). After sharing backgrounds on heritage language education and language mixing with relative terms and perspectives, the paper presents findings from the review based on 23 peer-reviewed empirical journal articles, focusing specifically on three aspects: (a) the main theoretical approaches and definitions employed for language mixing; (b) the characterization of language mixing for instruction and its impacts on heritage language education; (c) the parent and community language mixing activities for children’s heritage language learning. The limitations of the existing studies and the implications for educators and researchers are later discussed. It is hoped that this article will further our knowledge on this topic and provide pointed implications for future education and research.

Exploring the Effect of the Flipped Classroom Model on EFL Phonology Students’ Academic Achievement

Mohsine Wahib, Youssef Tamer — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Recent research has shown that the flipped model had a great success in higher education. Yet, there are very limited experimental studies that prove its effects on EFL students’ academic achievement in Moroccan higher education. The central objective of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of the flipped model in an EFL Phonology course and its effect on students’ academic achievement. The sample was composed of 156 participants (n=156) of two intact groups of EFL phonology course at two Moroccan higher education institutions. In a semester-long study, the phonology course was taught using the flipped model. Working with the existing intact classrooms made the study adopt a quasi-experiment design. The teacher inverted the course by offering lectures via videos for students to view at home using the free online platform Edpuzzle and then followed up by providing activities and more practice in the classroom. Quantitative data were gathered using self-designed achievement test as a pre-test and post-test for both control and experimental groups. The results revealed a significant increase in the participants’ academic achievement in the experimental group in comparison to the control group.

The Impact of Project-Based Learning on Students’ Cultural Awareness

Mohamed AKHARRAZ — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

While only a few studies have been conducted to explore the effectiveness of project-based learning (PjBL) in culture teaching/learning in second and foreign language education, no study known to the investigator has empirically measured the effect of PjBL together with the cultural framework of the 3Ps (products, practices, and perspectives) in the teaching of culture in an EFL context. This study aimed to measure the effect of PjBL on students’ awareness of the English cultures. Two intact groups at a Moroccan public school were randomly assigned to control and treatment groups. A cultural awareness test was utilized to measure students’ cultural awareness levels before and after a 24-week treatment. The independent sample t-tests indicated that the PjBL group substantially outperformed the control group in cultural awareness. While the study concluded that PjBL is a useful tool for incorporating cultures in the EFL classes, its proper implementation entails a redistribution of power in the language classroom and a radical change in the culture of assessment.

Use of Posters to Promote Speaking Performance among Non-English Majors at Thai Nguyen University of Education, Vietnam

Yen Tran, Tran Thi Minh Hang — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

English speaking is an important skill for students; however, many English majors at universities in Vietnam in general and non-majors in particular have problems in speaking English. Therefore, the aim of the research is to improve English speaking performance for non-English majors by organizing activities for students to design posters and speaking based on the posters that have been designed. The specific objectives are to investigate the current situation of speaking performance among non-English majors at Thai Nguyen University of Education as well as organize activities for students to design posters and speak based on the designed posters, and then evaluate the impacts of posters-based speaking activities on the speaking performance of non-English majors. To conduct the study, a mixed method research design, which combines qualitative method and quantitative methods, was used along with the survey. There were all 20 non-English majors from Maths class at Thai Nguyen University of Education, who were invited to take part in the research. All of these students were required to take part in the speaking pre-test and post-test as well as pre- and post-questionnaire about their opinions of using poster designing activities. The results show that designing posters plays a significant role in improving and enhancing English speaking performance for non-English majors. Students’ feedback concerning the use of posters designed in speaking classes are, in general, also quite optimistic. Besides, the research proposes some suggestions for minimizing the drawbacks of using posters designing activities to enhance the potentiality of this method and make it more interesting, meaningful and effective.

Genre-Based Inquiry of Literature Review in Social Sciences Master’s Theses

Gideon Sumayo, Donnie Tulud — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Literature review (LR) as a distinct type of genre was disregarded continuously, and its rhetorical moves and steps were less explored. Hence, this research attempted to study the rhetorical structure through move analysis of the LR section of social science master’s theses. The research determined the common rhetorical moves employed in the 30 LR sections of quantitative theses at the University of Southern Mindanao Graduate School. The rhetorical structure in the LR sections was examined using the move structure model formulated by Hsiao and Yu (2012). Results revealed that the thirty LR corpora employed presenting field knowledge, occupying the niche, but deficient in classifying themes, and integrating and relating previous works to the current study as their text features. Findings also revealed that every thesis writer in the 30 LR corpora have various ways of presenting their LRs, which means that there is no general pattern or format in writing LR in thesis manuscripts analyzed. This implies that the LRs in the master’s theses analyzed are written in a variety of styles depending on the orientation of the writers not following Hsiao and Yu’s prescribed model. Also, an additional step was subsumed under Move 4 and is labeled announcing the conceptual framework, which is not evident in the previously published model structure for LR, which means this step is considered a new structure in the literature review section evident only in the USM Graduate School.

Engineering Students' EFL Needs at the Tertiary Level of Education in Bangladesh: Expectations and Existence

Md. Habibur Rahman, Md. Musrifur Jelane — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Conducting needs analysis is a prevalent phenomenon in designing curriculum in language teaching and learning. This paper explored the English language needs of engineering students at the tertiary level of education in Bangladesh vis-à-vis four basic language skills. Moreover, this paper tried to shed some light on the gaps between learners’ present level of competence and target needs. This study followed the mixed approach (both quantitative approach and qualitative approach) to collect data through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions. Under the random stratified sampling method, the study collected data from 99 undergraduate engineering students and 15 EFL teachers from different universities in Bangladesh. The findings of the study revealed that engineering students felt the ardent need for all the four major language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). The findings also addressed the needs of the subskills regarding each language skill. Additionally, the offered courses were not adequately addressing the language needs of the students. Moreover, the duration and number of English language classes were not sufficient to meet the needs of the engineering students. Based on the findings, this study made some recommendations to minimize the gaps between engineering students’ present and target needs of the English language.

Culture Teaching in Moroccan EFL Secondary Schools

Mohamed AKHARRAZ, Youssef TAMER — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

To empower Moroccan students to join the rapidly growing globalized world, the Ministry of education, through multiple official documents, incessantly calls for culture incorporation in the teaching of foreign languages. While the existing research studies on culture in the Moroccan EFL context have considerably revolved around textbook analysis, no study known to the researcher, has explored the real classroom practices of culture teaching in Moroccan secondary schools. Hence, this study explores how culture is being treated by the teaching practitioners at Moroccan secondary EFL classrooms – second-year Baccalaureate level. The thematic analysis of the data collected from 76 EFL instructors at Souss Massa Academy, through online questionnaires and interviews, has shown that the research participants demonstrated a good understanding of the culture teaching. However, the findings exhibited that plenty of challenges have made the linguistic components continue to pre-empt the significant portion of time in the classroom teaching. Based on the reported hurdles, a set of recommendations for the EFL teachers, ELT supervisors, textbook and curriculum designers, and further research were highlighted.

Exploring Two Cases of Amazigh Maintenance and Shift in a Moroccan Higher Education Institution

Abdelaziz Ait Taleb, Mohamed El Ghazi — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The study of Language Maintenance and Shift (LMS) is mainly concerned with exploring the effects of contact between two varieties or more on the speakers' "habitual use" of these varieties. This paper focuses on investigating two cases of LMS among native Amazigh-speaking youngsters who were enrolled at a higher education institution in the city of Agadir, Morocco. With regard to their linguistic background, the two cases are bilingual in an Amazigh variety (Tashlhit) as their mother tongue and Moroccan Arabic (Darija) as their L2. The purpose of the study is to explore the possible determinants of LMS among these two cases by exploring both their language choice patterns and social networks in particular language use domains (family and school). The instruments utilized to collect data included 'natural speech' recordings, self-report questionnaires, and interviews. The collected data were analyzed and interpreted in the light of Domain analysis and Social Network theories. The results revealed inconsistency in the case studies' patterns and determinants of LMS. Accordingly, the study concluded by recommending adopting more comprehensive models to better comprehend the dynamics of LMS in indigenous settings.

Classroom Discourse Analysis: A Case of ESL Reading Class

Nurtimhar Shahaji — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

More than the recognition, perception, and interpretation of written materials, reading has been dubbed as our bridge to other skills that are necessary for academic success. Subsequently, one way for teachers to monitor both the quantity and quality of output of the students is through Classroom discourse analysis, which is an aspect of classroom process research (Jiang, 2012). This paper, therefore, aimed to determine teacher’s questioning vis-à-vis students’ reading strategies in the case of an ESL reading class in one of the private schools in Zamboanga City, Philipenese through classroom discourse analysis. As a qualitative endeavor, it made use of classroom observations with the aid of an audio recorder to enable the analysis. A total of 131 exchanges were generated in a 45-minute discussion, with roughly 25 minutes allotted to the said discourse, and the rest for other activities. Teacher-Pupil-Teacher (TPT) captured as Teacher-Student-Teacher (TST) in the case of this paper, is the recurring sequence during the whole duration of the discourse. Discourse analysis that was done to an audio recording transcript of a reading class observation revealed patterns that are primarily present in some, if not most, discourse analysis (DA) research literature. Interestingly, it, however, uncovered the following: for teacher’s way of questioning (in this case, echoice and epistemic), epistemic questions (mostly, rhetorical for this matter), were made reference(s) by the students in answering questions. Consequently, the lesson or activity became, to some extent, communicative, because of the above mentioned points.

The Characters of Children in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” and Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path”: A Comparative Study

fuad muttalib — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This article tries to compare between two well-known American short stories, “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, from a comparative perspective. The author of the first of these stories is an African-American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. Alice Walker and the other story is written by an American short story writer, novelist and photographer, who wrote about the American South, Audra Welty. The specific reasons behind choosing these two short stories because they are written by women writers from different cultures, both deal with racial issues, but more importantly is that both include children characters that can add an attribution to be representations of the new African- American generation. Walker’s story includes the characters of two African- American daughters; Maggi and Dee, each of these characters behave in a different way, a behavior which consequently represents a special attitude towards the new generation of African- Americans. While in Welty’s story, we find the character of the grandson of the protagonist, Phoenix, who has a disease which deprived him from his ability to speak. This study analyses how these three characters provide different angles of seeing how the new generation of African- Americans is represented through a comparative outlook.

Translation Features of Chinese Version of Emily Dickinson’s Poetry Selection Final Harvest

Jianxin Zhou — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Final Harvest(1996) is the first and only Chinese translation of Emily Dickinson’s poetry selection of 576 poems, Final Harvest(1961). Using Antconc software and program written in python language, a statistical analysis of relevant data of stanzas, lines, punctuation marks, transliterated words and conjunctions in translated version and original book is conducted, to reveal translation features of the translation. It is found that the translation deviates slightly from the original in terms of stanza, line and punctuation, yet there are obvious deviations from the original in translation of transliterated words and conjunctions in that a large number of transliterated words are not annotated with footnotes or given explanation, and original logical relation displayed by conjunctions are often distorted or missing in translation. In general, the faithfulness of the translation to the original is mainly manifested in poetic form rather than in content.

Employment of the Question as a Transition Mechanism from the Existing to the Desired in Rawiya Jarjoura Burbara's Collection of Short Stories: L? ?Ur?d? ?an ?A?t?da A?laika/ I Don't Want to Get Used to You*

Rima Abu Jaber Baransi — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This study introduces a critical analytical reading of Rawiya Jarjoura Burbara's collection of short stories, L? ?Ur?d? ?an ?A?t?da A?laika / I Don't Want to Get Used to You, published in 2020, a year after the outbreak of the Coronavirus in November 2020. The collection consists of 23 narrative texts that are classified into three chapters. The first chapter is called, A?la -al- ?ar?q– M?a al-N?s/ On the Road-With People, which is the largest chapter and includes 10 short stories; the second chapter is called, A?n al-N?s – Habl al-Kadib/ With People-the Rope of Lies, which consists of 7 short stories, and the third chapter, which is called Ma?ahu-Tuffa?at Adam/ With Him – Adam's Apple, which consists of 6 short stories. The study attempts to highlight the theme of the 'Question' in the collection, as the texts, in general, fall in the genre of 'Literature of Question'. Throughout the collection, the writer raises daily life human questions that express her refusal acceptance of matters as they are and getting used to for granted matters as if the possibility of changing them does not exist anymore. The writer introduces questions that are likely to awaken the reader from his hibernation and wake the human beings, in general, to start thinking, questioning, changing, and getting out of the circle of accepting things as for granted and getting used to them. The writer, represented by the Narrators of her stories, refuses to get used to several social, psychological, political, and human life matters.

Aesthetics of Postmodernism in Clifton Gachagua’s Madman at Kilifi

Adetunji Adelokun — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This study is an attempt to analyse the postmodern aesthetics of the poetry collection of Clifton Gachagua. This analysis was informed by the need to critically identify the structure of postmodern writing and the tenets of postmodernism which informs the creative imagination of Clifton Gachagua in Madman at Kilifi. This study critically appraised the manifestation of intertextuality, meaninglessness of meaning (populism), scatological imaging and formlessness in the poetry collection. The study revealed that the poetry collection is a reflection of Clifton Gachagua’s postmodernist inclination and masses oriented ideologies. The poet amplifies the need to advocate the dominance of consumerism and the urgent need to denounce globalization.

Literary Parody of Russian Communism Harmonizing to George Orwell's Two Novels "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty Four"

Hazhar Ramadhan Ahmed, Shabanb, Othman Mohammed — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This Paper concerns within one of the foremost critical viewpoints in literature, where the metaphorical and mocking centrality of ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four' by George Orwell is highlighted, Through 'Animal Farm' and 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' Orwell by implication assaults Russian communism, Orwell combines political reason with a creative one to voice his critical conviction. Orwell utilized parody to grant more impact and understanding of his two books. Parody in Literature constitutes one of the viable literary strategies writers utilize in their stories to assault an individual, a thought, or behaviour that they think awful or silly. An essayist in parody employments an anecdotal character, which stands for genuine individuals to uncover and condemn their debasement, the analyst takes after the descriptive-analytic strategy. Animal Farm is ostensibly an animal story, but deep down it is a moral story, a parody around the Russian Revolution of 1917 with wrong qualities of course battle.

To a few degrees, Nineteen Eighty-Four moreover centres on the concepts of the free venture and person flexibility, which don't really exist. There as it were remains a world of scorn. Segregation, and fear as superpowers. Eurasia and East Asia are two superpowers and Oceania, the third one, is continuously at war with one of them. By using political parody within the two books, the writer makes a consul and curiously air that influences progressing the plot in arrange to provide a clear understanding and improving its structure. In arrange to connect the investigate questions and the discoveries, a nitty-gritty clarification on the concept of the parody has been displayed as a curiously literary method; something else, peruses would not discover a relationship between the two works. At long last, Orwell actually succeeds in encoding his knead within the shape of a parody and hence peruses associated with him.

Classroom Translation of Tabib's Poem: A Practical Model for Analysis and Evaluation of Poetry Discourse Translation

aysu taheri — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Poetry Translation is a high-quality open access translation of classical texts by famous poets, the characteristics of poetry can be based on sound, syntax, structure or pragmatics. In addition to text transformation, poetic translation is concerned with the perception, discourse and action of and between people and textual agents in a material and social context. A public poetry translation project generally aims to feature one or more poets. Poetry translators are interested in interpreting the meaning layers of the source poem, they rely on reliability to judge this and produce a poem in the target language that is readable and pleasing to the literary text. They are responsible for making their writing easy to understand. The reader is also responsible for understanding the translator's translation. The possible solutions to these problems are collaboration between authors and translators. This article highlights the challenges associated with translating poetry. Although poetry makes up only a small percentage of the world's translation output, case studies and examples from poetry have dominated theoretical construction in translation studies to the detriment of genres translated more often.

Revamping the Environment for National Development: A Lexico-Semantic Reading of Niyi Osundare’s The Eye of the Earth

MARY ENWELIM-NKEM OKOH — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Environmental poetry is relatively young in the literature of the Nigerian literary writers and critics. Literary scholars of an earlier generation before Osundare – Soyinka, Okigbo, and Okara have dwelt more on the themes and language of cultural heritage, cultural conflicts, colonial and post-colonial political, socio-economic and religious issues. They barely scratched around the themes of environment and ecology. More so, their language may be adjudged obscure and esoteric. Therefore, the present study engages in the exploration of Osundare’s innovative and full-scale venture into pivotal issues of the environment that have become of utmost concern nationally and internationally in contemporary times. Also of interest in this study is Osundare’s efforts to redefine the diction of Nigerian poetry to reach a wider audience. Osundare’s poetry collection, The Eye of the Earth is our focal text. It has been observed that critical studies on this collection are largely centered on literary interpretations. Lexico-semantic exploration of this collection can be considered inadequate, which necessitated the present study to strike a balance in deciphering Osundare’s language and thematic preoccupations. This study is anchored on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and eco-criticism theory with insights from lexical-semantic theory. Poems of environmental background are purposively selected from the collection. The study reveals Osundare’s tactical manipulation of “common” language in exposing man’s pernicious activities in the natural environment. In a similar manipulative skill in language use, the study unveils consequential roles imperative for a man to obviate his adverse activities on nature in order to achieve development at different spheres of life.

Authenticity vs. Inauthenticity in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest

Md. Ibrahim Khalil — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Unlike other living creatures, human being requires an authentic life to reflect the true self and independence. Due to the limitations and complicacies of life, either personal or from the surroundings, people sometimes play inauthentic roles and express inconsistent statements. Wilde’s play ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ represents the same situation where two protagonists Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncireff frequently change their valid identity and address for abundant freedom and worldly pleasure. Considering two fundamental existentialistic concerns such as authenticity and inauthenticity along with qualitative and descriptive analysis method, the study evaluates how authentic or inauthentic decisions Algernon and Jack have made to transform their long carried name, definite identity and diversified location. It highlights how Wilde’s major characters are intertwined with complicated relationships affecting self-motivated decision, choice and freedom. Nevertheless, the study takes into account all the self-contradictory commitments of both Algernon and Jack Worthing and their ridiculous attitude towards religious perception. Finally, it inspects the authenticity of the name “Earnest” for what both Cecily Cardew and Gwendolen Fairfax always feel an inexorable urge and fervor.

The World’s Hero: Gods and Archetypes in the Myth of the Superman

Rehuel Nikolai Soriano — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This study aims to demonstrate and document that the phenomenon of Superman, as a fictional character, is an amalgamation of the extra human attributes of the heroes and gods that are read and seen in ancient narratives. Specifically, it identifies the qualities of Superman as a superhero, determines the parallelism that exists between these qualities of Superman and those of mythological and biblical personae, and establishes the similarity between the scenes, situations, and events found in its mythos and those that are found in archetypal narratives to vividly delineate his image as the world’s superhero. A content analysis of the text was primarily conducted to draw the structural elements of its narrative. Since this study also assumes that literary texts may be viewed outside of their aesthetic merits, an archetypal analysis is subsequently implemented. Meanwhile, the theoretical foundation of this study is predicated on the theory of Archetypes which assumes that literary texts are based on and influenced by archaic structures manifested in the recurring motifs, mythological counterparts, and parallelisms embedded in the story. As stated in the results, it was determined that the mythos of Superman as a heroic character is a reimagination and manifestation of mythological stories as exemplified in the analyzed materials. Furthermore, it showed that he functions as a custodian of several archetypal figures and with this, can be used as a bridge in teaching traditional literature since he embodies a conglomeration of several mythological characters. The materials analyzed in this study were composed of eight graphic novels, six Hollywood films, and two animated movies.

Factors Influencing EFL Learners’ Attitudes toward English Varieties

Arifumi Saito — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This study explores how intercultural communication and the knowledge of ‘English as an International Language’ (EIL) affect EFL learners’ perception and attitudes toward “non-native” English varieties. Since EIL encourages non-native English speakers to use their own English with expressions reflecting their cultures and identities, introducing EIL in EFL classes is expected to lead EFL learners to positively change their mindset for English varieties and enhance their confidence in their own English. In this research, Japanese and Chinese/Vietnamese college students were divided into two groups and assigned different readings (EIL vs. non-EIL readings) before the discussion on English varieties. After the intercultural communication, participants were asked to write about their ideas on EIL, and their reflective writings were qualitatively analyzed to examine how the knowledge of EIL would influence the students’ attitudes toward English varieties. As a result, the Japanese students who did the EIL readings showed a positive attitude toward “non-native” English varieties, including ‘Japanese English’. In contrast, the Chinese and Vietnamese students showed a negative attitude toward them across the board even after learning about EIL. We aim to investigate the reasons and backgrounds of the results including what makes the difference between the Japanese and the Chinese/Vietnamese students.

Cross-Cultural Adjustment and Second Language Acquisition

Mahdi Aben Ahmed — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The purpose of this study is to examine how the process of cross-cultural adjustment affects second language acquisition for Saudi students in the American universities. The sample consists of a group of Saudi students studying at one of the American universities in the USA. Interviews were carried out to collect data about daily life experiences of subjects, their feelings, and ways of coping in academic and social community, and also what motivates them to study English, and their attitudes toward the English language, its culture and its people.

The findings of this study suggest that there are several factors for healthier adjustment and greater successful acquisition of second language, and there are other factors that keep a number of the interviewees socially and psychologically distant from the target population, and the target culture. From the findings of the current study, a number of implications and recommendations for future research have been developed to help professionals involved with international students and English as a Second Language field better understand Saudis and their journey towards cross-cultural adjustment, and acquiring a second language.