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33 results on '"Sharwood Smith, Mike"'

3. Dangerous dichotomies and misunderstandings in L2 research.

Author

Truscott, John and Sharwood Smith, Mike

Subjects
*LANGUAGE research, *TERMS & phrases, *SECOND language acquisition, *COGNITION
Abstract

This article draws attention to the obstacles created by imprecise definitions and misleading dichotomies. In this case the focus is on second language and multilingualism research literature. Despite the obvious benefits of reformulating otherwise complex ideas and approaches in simpler terms in order to distill their essential meaning, misunderstandings and misrepresentations can too easily arise. These can then proliferate within and beyond these research fields and hinder productive debates between proponents of different theoretical approaches. A selection of classic examples relating to issues of language cognition are discussed in this article. They include definitions of terms like cognitive, nativist, innatist, interactionist, usage-based, and dynamic. Simple contrasts introduced to improve readability and to introduce a longer discussion can become highly misleading where the context fails to include clarification. Incorrect inferences may otherwise be drawn by less well-informed readers. In other cases, dichotomies can be just wrong. We discuss the choice and phrasing of various terms and distinctions and argue that more care is needed by all involved. Discussions can still be carried out in a combative style if discussants so wish but not to the point of introducing conceptual confusion in debates that should serve to advance understanding in second language acquisition research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2024
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9. More on the meta mode: In search of deeper explanations for the role of consciousness in second language learning

Author

Sharwood Smith, Mike

Subjects
metalinguistic, grammar, second language acquisition, consciousness, learning, fluency
Abstract

Thirty years of research has not produced hard evidence that making people aware of formal features of the L2 has any significant effect on their gramma­tical development. Even though people still have a persistent feeling that con­scious learning and conscious use of language must in some way help, the ways in which these do so are not immediately apparent. Is it, for example, only in the area of 'vocabulary'? Is it really only in the way Krashen has described in his Monitor Model? We still say and know little about the mechanisms involved. The model discussed in this paper suggests that learners can develop a separate metagrammar which provides them with a serious alternative or complementary language facility for handling the L2 use. This complementary facility is not possessed by the very young LI acquirer but is possessed by the older, and espe­cially the literate LI user so that, if we can now talk coherently about 'linguistic' and 'metalinguistic fluency', we can elaborate further on the possible conflicts that may occur in given areas between the two systems and how one comple­ments or replaces the other., Selected papers on theoretical and applied linguistics, Vol 16 (2005): Selected Papers on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics from the 16th International Symposium, Thessaloniki 11-13 April 2003

Published
2005

30. Introduction.

Author

Foster-Cohen, Susan, Sharwood Smith, Mike, Sorace, Antonella, and Ota, Mits

Subjects
*LANGUAGE & languages, *PERIODICALS, *SERIAL publications, *ANTHROPOLOGY, *COMMUNICATION, *ETHNOLOGY
Abstract

The article introduces the articles in the January 2004 issue of the periodical "EUROSLA Yearbook". The topic which has emerged in the volume is optionality, which, in various ways, is addressed by several of the papers. The article by Masahiro Hara and Chun-Hua Ma's is about the acquisition of Japanese passives by English-speaking and Chinese-speaking learners. The optionality in Japanese learners' acquisition of English intransitive verbs is explored in the article by Ayako Deguchi and Hiroyuki Oshita. The paper concerned with conditions at the interface is written by Heather Goad and Lydia White. Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig's paper, on the other hand, addresses verbal morphology. The languages involved in the studies in the issue include Albanian, Arabic, Bosnian, Chinese and several others.

Published
2004
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31. Translation across modalities : the practice of translating written text into recorded signed language : an ethnographic case study

Author

Wurm, Svenja, Turner, Graham, de Pedro Ricoy, Raquel, and Sharwood Smith, Mike

Subjects
410
Abstract

This study creates a space for analysing an emerging translational activity, the practice of translating written text into recorded signed language. With its non-prototypical modality pair of source and target texts, the activity neither matches existing conceptualisations of interpreting nor those of translation modes. In an ethnographic case study I investigate the translational mode displayed, paying particular attention to the translational process designed by the practitioner and the impact of source and target text modalities. Drawing on literacy and multimodality research, this work reaffirms that communication is embedded in social, cultural, historical and ideological contexts and foregrounds the involved (human and non-human) agents. Data generated through observation, interviews and analysis of source, target and preparatory documents reveal an event influenced by the intrinsic properties of text modalities, the translator’s socio-professional background, and socially constructed constraints and opportunities. Developing concepts of “translational practice”, “translational events” and “affordances”, I challenge the prototype-based dichotomy (translation/interpreting) used to conceptualise translational activity. By negotiating data of a non-central practice with theoretical concepts developed within Western Translation Studies, this research contributes to enlarging and de-centralising the discipline. Thickly describing one translational event, conceptualising written-signed translation practice and re-thinking central translational concepts, this study highlights implications for theory, pedagogy and the profession.

Published
2010

32. Explicating the implicit : an exploration into the pragmatic competence of Arabic-speaking trainee translators

Author

Saad, Julieta and Sharwood-Smith, Mike

Subjects
410
Abstract

This doctoral thesis is an investigation into the pragmatic competence of English-Arabic trainee translators, as represented by their inferential ability to interpret implied discourse relations in an English source text. Drawing on research into second language pragmatics acquisition, as well as the Relevance-Theory approach to utterance comprehension, the study employs a think-aloud protocol to monitor the participants' translation process. Different patterns of inferential processing are identified as regards the interpretation of discourse relations, which both demonstrate the problematic nature of this aspect of pragmatic competence, as well as highlight the role of classroom instruction in the development of such pragmatic abilities. This project aims to contribute to existing research in the fields of second language pragmatics acquisition and process-oriented translation studies. The study also sets out to make an empiricallybased contribution to the area of research concerned with the application of secondlanguage- acquisition concepts to translator training.

Published
2010

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