Noun premodification in multi-word lexical units in teaching English for traffic and transport purposes

Razvijanje kompetencija primanja i proizvodnje predmodificiranih imenica u višerječnim, odnosno višeimeničkim nazivima jedan je od temeljnih zadataka nastave engleskoga jezika struka u tercijarnom obrazovanju, budući da njihovo poznavanje doprinosi razvijanju vještine čitanja specijaliziranih tekstova s razumijevanjem, ali i pisanju takvih tekstova, gdje se višeimenički nazivi rabe daleko učestalije no u općem engleskome jeziku, prije svega zbog postizanja jezične ekonomije. S glotodidaktičkog polazišta želi se postići da studenti postignu kompetencije što sličnije onima izvornih govornika, korisnika registra određene struke, a ukoliko se to želi postići, svakako treba ovladati primanjem i proizvodnjom višeimeničkih naziva. Naime, u engleskome je jeziku moguća složena predmodifikacija imenica u kojoj će se naći više ulančanih imenica bez funkcijskih riječi koje bi pomogle u primanju, odnosno prepoznavanju semantičkih sveza. Takve nizove imenica koji se ustale u jeziku nazivamo višeimeničkim nazivima te ih, slijedom Kereković (2012), definiramo kao višeimeničke sintagme koje se sastoje od dviju ili više imenica i koje kao cjelina prenose leksičko značenje, a u rečenici funkcioniraju kao leksem. Stoga je jedan od temeljnih ciljeva ovoga rada empirijsko istraživanje primanja i proizvodnje predmodificiranih imenica u višeimeničkim nazivima u engleskome jeziku prometnih struka, odnosno utvrđivanje ulaznih kompetencija primanja i proizvodnje višeimeničkih naziva te izlaznih kompetencija nakon ciljanoga poučavanja. Rad uključuje sudionike i temelji se prije svega na glotodidaktičkom i sintaktičko-semantičkom pristupu, uz primjenu statističke obrade podataka te računalne tehnologije za analizu teksta. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo 167 studenata prve godine preddiplomskih studija prometa s tri različite visokoškolske ustanove u Republici Hrvatskoj: Veleučilišta u Rijeci, Veleučilišta u Šibeniku i Fakulteta prometnih znanosti Sveučilišta u Zagrebu. Za potrebe istraživanja primijenjen je kvazieksperimentalni nacrt s inicijalnim jezičnim ispitom kao predtestom i završnim jezičnim ispitom kao posttestom. Za potrebe sastavljanja jezičnoga ispita kao instrumenta izrađen je i računalno analiziran korpus materijala, koji se sastoji od tekstova korištenih u nastavi engleskoga jezika prometnih struka na sve tri navedene visokoškolske ustanove. U završni jezični ispit uklopljena su i pitanja kojima se dolazi do saznanja o mišljenu studenata o poučavanju kompetencijama primanja i proizvodnje višeimeničkih naziva. Istraživanje je provedeno s vremenskim odmakom između dvaju jezičnih ispita. U tom razdoblju tretmanska je skupina bila poučavana osnovnim načelima primanja i proizvodnje višeimeničkih naziva, dok ostale dvije usporedne skupine takvom ciljanome poučavanju nisu bile izložene. Uspjeh tretmanske skupine stavljen je u suodnos s rezultatima usporednih skupina. Analiza podataka dobivenih iz jezičnih ispita provedena je pomoću statističkoga programa SPSS 20. Rezultati istraživanja pokazuju da poučavanje temeljnim načelima poboljšava razinu kompetencija primanja i proizvodnje višeimeničkih naziva, da je učinkovitije za kompetencije primanja nego za kompetencije proizvodnje te da je razina kompetencija studenata u proizvodnji višeimeničkih naziva manja što je više imenica u predmodifikaciji, dok je to samo djelomično dokazano za kompetencije primanja. Nadalje, rezultati upućuju na zaključak da sudionici koji su završili gimnazijske programe ne pokazuju bolje ulazne kompetencije u primanju i proizvodnji višeimeničkih naziva od sudionika koji su pohađali strukovne srednje škole te da sudionici koji su imali bolji uspjeh iz engleskoga jezika u završnome razredu srednje škole i položili Državnu maturu iz engleskoga jezika na višoj (A) razini, ne pokazuju bolje ulazne kompetencije u primanju višeimeničkih naziva od sudionika koji su položili nižu (B) razinu, ali pokazuju bolje ulazne kompetencije u proizvodnji višeimeničkih naziva. Nadalje, rezultati upućuju na to da se većina sudionika koji su ciljano bili poučavani načelima primanja i proizvodnje višeimeničkih naziva slaže da je poučavanje primanju i proizvodnji višeimeničkih naziva korisno i zanimljivo te da osigurava napredak u učenju. Usprkos tome što većina studenata drži da je za uspješno rješavanje zadataka primanja i proizvodnje višeimeničkih naziva potrebna velika koncentracija, djelomično se slažu da im se poučavanje primanju i proizvodnji višeimeničkih naziva sviđa te da bi voljeli više biti poučavani navedenim kompetencijama. Poznavanje engleskoga vokabulara struke većina sudionika drži važnim preduvjetom za uspješno usvajanje primanja i proizvodnje višeimeničkih naziva dok poznavanje struke većina ne smatra nužnim preduvjetom. Znanstveni doprinos ovoga rada očituje se u izvorno osmišljenom i po prvi put provedenom empirijskom istraživanju na sudionicima, izvornim govornicima hrvatskoga kojima je engleski prvi strani jezik na studijima prometa u Republici Hrvatskoj. Kod tih je studenata utvrđena i statistički analizirana ulazna razina kompetencija primanja i proizvodnje višeimeničkih naziva, kao i uspješnost poučavanja osnovnim načelima primanja i proizvodnje tih naziva u engleskome jeziku prometnih struka (EJPS-u). Potvrđene su razlike u uspješnosti između primanja i proizvodnje višeimeničkih naziva (raščlanjenih po broju imenica u predmodifikaciji) prije i nakon poučavanja. Dodatno se ispitalo i mišljenje studenata o različitim aspektima poučavanja kompetencijama primanja i proizvodnje višeimeničkih naziva i pružen je uvid o utjecaju čimbenika iz srednjoškolskoga okruženja na kompetencije primanja i proizvodnje višeimeničkih naziva u engleskome jeziku. Time rad predstavlja izvorni doprinos kako anglistici, tako i glotodidaktici, donoseći nove spoznaje o primanju i proizvodnji višeimeničkih naziva u engleskome jeziku prometnih struka, a ujedno i utire put budućim istraživanjima na različitim uzorcima skupina: studentima drugih studijskih programa u Republici Hrvatskoj u sklopu kojih su poučavani engleskome jeziku struke, studentima neizvornim govornicima engleskoga kojima je neki drugi jezik materinski, kao i studentima izvornim govornicima engleskoga jezika. Bitno je istaknuti i velik praktični, odnosno stručni doprinos koji ovo istraživanje može imati u nastavi. Temeljna načela poučavanja tretmanske skupine mogu poslužiti kao smjerokaz nastavnicima engleskoga jezika struka u poučavanju primanju i proizvodnji višeimeničkih naziva, dok po uzoru na jezični ispit rabljen kao instrument u istraživačkome dijelu rada nastavnici mogu sastaviti ispite sukladno engleskome jeziku struke koji poučavaju.Developing the competences of reception (interpreting, decoding) and production of premodified nouns in multi-word lexical units (MWLU) and multi-noun lexical units (MNLU) in the English language is one of the fundamental tasks of teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) at the tertiary education level, since their acquisition contributes to the development of reading comprehension of specialized texts as well as to writing such texts, where multi-noun lexical units are much more frequently used than in General English, primarily because of the principle of language economy. From the point of view of Second Language Teaching and Learning (Glotodidactics), students want to achieve near-native competences in ESP and to do so, they should master the principal rules of reception and production of MNLU. Complex premodification of nouns is an important feature of the English language, and technical English in particular, which allows a sequence of modifiers, belonging to various parts of speech, to be placed in front of the head noun, i.e. the final noun, without functional words assisting in the reception, i.e. in the recognition of semantic relations among them. When such sequences or multi-word lexical expressions consisting of two or more words but functioning as single lexemes become established in a specialized domain, according to Kereković (2012), they are called multi-word lexical units. In line with this definition, in this work we propose the term multi-noun lexical unit (MNLU), defined as a multi-noun syntagm consisting of two or more nouns functioning as a single lexeme. Thus, the main aim of the study is to empirically examine the reception and production of multinoun lexical units (MNLU) in English for Traffic and Transport Purposes (ETTP), i.e. to establish the level of initial competences of our participants (students) in the reception and production of multi-noun lexical units (MNLU), and their output competences after targeted teaching. Unlike the majority of works dealing with MWLU and MNLU (Levi 1978; Warren, 1978; Bartolić, 1978, 1979; Kvam, 1990; Štambuk, 1997, 2005; Master 2003, 2004; Gačić, 2009b; Špiranec, 2011; López-Jiménez, M. D., 2013; Borucinsky, 2015, and others), this study involves participants and is based primarily on the Second Language Teaching and Learning approach, as well as a syntactic-semantic approach, including statistical data processing and computer technology for text analysis. One hundred and sixty-seven traffic and transport first-year undergraduate students (M=125 (74.9%), F=42 (25.1%), age M=18.95; SD=0.820), participated in the study. They were recruited from three different Croatian institutions of higher education: the Polytechnic of Rijeka, the Polytechnic of Šibenik and the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences in Zagreb. For the purposes of this research, a quasi-experimental design with an initial language test as a pre-test and a final language test as a post-test was used. For designing the language test as an instrument, a computationally analysed corpus of written learning/teaching materials has been created, consisting of texts used in teaching ETTP at all three institutions. The final language test also comprised questions that provided insight into the students' opinion regarding the teaching of reception and production of multi-noun lexical units (MNLU). The study was conducted with a time lag between the two language tests. During this period, the treated group was taught the underlying principles of reception and production of multi-noun lexical units (MNLU), while the other two comparison groups were not exposed to such targeted teaching. The attainment of the treated group was compared to the attainment of the comparison groups. The analysis of the data obtained from language tests was carried out using the SPSS 20 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). The research results indicate that teaching and learning the underlying principles of reception and production of multi-noun lexical units improves the overall level of student competences, and that it is more efficient for the reception than for the production competences. Besides, the level of student competences in the production of MNLU is lower as the number of nouns in premodification is higher, while this is only partially proved for the reception competences. Furthermore, the findings suggest that participants who graduated from grammar schools do not exhibit better initial competencies in receiving and producing MNLU than participants who attended vocational secondary schools. In addition, the results indicate that participants who had better marks in English as a foreign language (EFL) in the final year of secondary school and passed the advanced (A) level (as opposed to the basic (B) level) of EFL at the State Graduation Exam do not show better initial competences in reception of multi-noun lexical units but exhibit better competences in their production. Further, the findings suggest that most of the participants who were exposed to targeted teaching of the underlying principles of reception and production of MNLU agreed that the teaching/learning was useful and interesting, enhancing their learning proficiency. Even though most students argued that a higher level of concentration is required in dealing with the reception and production of MNLU, they partially agreed that they liked it and would like to be exposed more to teaching/learning of the competences in question. Knowledge of specialized professional vocabulary was considered by most participants as an important precondition for successful MNLU reception and production, while professional knowledge was not considered a necessary precondition by the majority of participants. The scientific contribution of doctoral thesis Premodification of Nouns in Multi-Word Lexical Units in Teaching English for Traffic and Transport Purposes is manifested in the originally designed empirical research of multi-noun lexical units in ESP, namely in ETTP, which includes participants, i.e. students of traffic and transport whose mother tongue is Croatian and who learn English as a foreign language (EFL). For the first time the initial level of student competences in reception and production of MNLU has been statistically analysed immediately after enrolling the studies, followed by the analysis of their output competences at the end of the first semester, during which period the treated group, unlike the two comparison groups, was exposed to the targeted teaching/learning of the abovementioned competences. The obtained results have been statistically compared thus evaluating the efficacy of teaching/learning the underlying principles of reception and production of MNLU in ESP, more specifically in ETTP. Moreover, the research results have also showed the differences between the reception and production of MNLU according to the number on nouns contained in them (two-noun, three-noun, four-noun and five-noun lexical units). In addition, for the first time, student opinions on different aspects of teaching/learning the underlying principles of reception and production of MNLU have been presented and analysed. Furthermore, the insight has been given into the differences between the level of the competences in question regarding the type of secondary school the students have graduated from, which has never been done before. Therefore, this doctoral thesis presents an original scientific research which gives novel and important contribution to the fields of English studies and of Second Language Teaching and Learning, offering new insights into the reception and production of MNLU in ESP, namely in ETTP, at the same time paving the way for future research involving various sample groups, such as students of other study programmes in the Republic of Croatia who are taught ESP, students non-native speakers of English in other countries, as well as English native speakers. From the theoretical point of view, the scientific contribution of this doctoral thesis lies in the coining of the novel term multi-noun lexical units (MNLU), which clearly distinguishes them from their hyperonymous category of multi-word lexical units (MWLU). It is also important to point out the practical and professional contribution that this research can have in teaching. The underlying principles of teaching a treated group the reception and production of MNLU can serve as a guide for ESP teachers, while the language test used as an instrument in the research can help them design similar tests depending on the ESP they teach