Showing papers in "Language Learning in 1994"

Research on Negotiation: What Does It Reveal about Second-Language Learning Conditions, Processes, and Outcomes?.

Abstract: This article reviews insights into second-language (L2) learning that have been revealed through over a decade of research on the social interaction and negotiation of L2 learners and their interlocutors, begining with the seminal work of Hatch (1978a, 197810) and Long (1980 et passim), and withereferenceto a corpus of informal, experimental, and classroom data from published studies. This research illustrates ways in which negotiation contributes to condi- tions, processes, and outcomes ofL2 learningby facilitating learners' comprehension and structural segmentation of L2 input, access to lexical form and meaning, and production of modified output. The research points out areas in which negotiation does not appear to assist L2 learning, especially with respect to the learner's need to access L2

The Subtle Effects of Language Anxiety on Cognitive Processing in the Second Language

Abstract: Previous research has shown language anxiety to be associated with broad-based indices of language achievement, such as course grades. This study examined some of the more specific cognitive processes that may be involved in language acquisition in terms of a three-stage model of learning: Input, Processing, and Output. These stages were represented in a set of nine tasks that were employed to isolate and measure the language acquisition stages. A new anxiety scale was also developed to measure anxiety at each of the stages. Generally, significant correlations were obtained between the stage-specific anxiety scales and stage-specific tasks (e.g., output anxiety with output tasks) suggesting that the effects of language anxiety may be both pervasive and subtle.

Motivation, self-confidence, and group cohesion in the foreign language classroom

Abstract: Defining the motivational basis of second and foreign language acquisition has been at the center of much research and controversy for many years. The present study applied social psychological constructs to the acquisition of English in the unicultural Hungarian setting. A total of 301 Grade 11 students from the region of Budapest answered a questionnaire assessing their attitude, anxiety, and motivation toward learning English, as well as their perception of classroom atmosphere and cohesion. In addition, their teachers rated each of the students on proficiency and a number of classroom behaviors and evaluated the relative cohesion of each class group. Factor and correlational analyses of the results revealed that xenophilic (M=4.22on a 1–6 scale), sociocultural (M=3.96), instrumental (M=3.78), and media-use reasons (M=3.79) were most strongly endorsed by the students whereas an identification orientation (M=1.8l)was rejected. Factor analysis of the attitude, anxiety, and motivation scales confirmed the existence of attitude-based (integrative motive) and self-confidence motivational subprocesses and revealed the presence of a relatively independent class- room based subprocess, characterized by classroom cohesion and evaluation. Correlational analyses of these clusters further revealed that, while all subprocesses were associated with achievement, self-confidenceand anxiety showed no relationship to classroom atmosphere. We discuss these findings in the context of current theories of second and foreign language acquisition and with reference to their applied implications.

Classroom Interaction, Comprehension, and the Acquisition of L2 Word Meanings

Abstract: There are substantial theoretical and empirical grounds for believing that opportunities to negotiate meaning through interaction facilitate comprehension. However, although there are theoretical grounds for believing that meaning negotiation aids second language acquisition, these are not supported by any empirical evidence. This article reports two classroom studies, based on the same design, which investigated the effects of modified interaction on comprehension and vocabulary acquisition among 79 and 127 high-school students of English in Japan. The main results were: (a) interactionally modified input resulted in better comprehension than premodified input, (b) interactiqnally modified input led to more new words being acquired than premodified input, (c) learners who actively participated in negotiating meaning did not understand any better than those simply exposed to modified interaction, and (d) the active participators did not learn more new words. These results are discussed in terms of the interaction hypothesis (Long, 1981). The dual-study method in classroom research is a useful way of establishing which results are generalizable and which are subject to situational variation.

Transfer in Bilingual Development: The Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis Revisited

Abstract: This study aimed to find empirical evidence for the linguistic interdependence hypothesis, which states that in bilingual development, language and literacy skills can be transferred from one language to another. Ninety-eight 6-year-old Turkish children, living in the Netherlands since infancy, were selected prior to their entrance into the first grade of primary school. A longitudinal design monitored the development of lexical, morphosyntactic, pragmatic, phonological, and literacy abilities in the children's first and second languages. To minimize test-bias, I developed linguistic tasks, which required minimal instruction, analyzing interdependence relationships in bilingual development with LISREL techniques. The results clearly show that at the level of lexicon and syntax, language transfer was quite limited. At the level of pragmatic skills, phonological skills, and literacy skills, however, positive evidence appeared for the interdependence in bilingual development.

The Effects of Simplified and Elaborated Texts on Foreign Language Reading Comprehension

Abstract: Linguistic simplification of written texts can increase their comprehensibility for nonnative speakers but reduce their utility for language learning in other ways, for example, through the removal of linguistic items that learners do not know but need to learn. This study was conducted to test the hypothesis that elaborative modification observed in oral foreigner talk discourse, where redundancy and explicitness compensate for unknown linguistic items, offers a potential alternative approach to written text modification. We randomly presented 13 reading passages to 483 Japanese college students in one of three forms: (a) native baseline, (b) simplified, or (c) elaborated. Comprehension, assessed by 30 multiple-choice test items, was highest among learners reading the simplified version, but not significantly different from those reading the elaborated version. The type of modifications to the texts interacted significantly with the kind of test item used to, assess comprehension—replication, synthesis or inference—suggesting that different kinds of text modification facilitate different levels of comprehension.

Patterns of Interaction in the Lexical Growth in Two Languages of Bilingual Infants and Toddlers

Abstract: We investigated the extent to which bilingual children follow the same patterns and timetable of lexical development as monolinguals. For a group of 20 simultaneous bilingual (English-Spanish) infants, ages 10 to 30 months, we looked at the patterns of growth in one language in relation to growth in the other and also with respect to growth in both languages combined. The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDI), standardized parent report forms in Spanish and English, provided measures of lexical growth in two languages at varying intervals within the age range. We plotted the two single-language measures, as well as Total and Total Conceptual language measures, across time, referenced on a second γ-axis to the percent of the child's language environment that each language represented. For a subset of the children, we calculated the percentages of general nominals, social words, and verbs for each language to allow the characterization of the children's learning strategies as “referential” or “expressive” (Nelson, 1973). The rate and pace of development were similar to patterns observed in monolinguals. In addition, the vocabulary spurt was seen to occur in about the same percentage of children as has been observed in groups of monolingual children. The bilinguals differed from one another with respect to the relative independence of one language from the other, including the use of different learning strategies in the two languages by the same child.

Neurobiological Mechanisms of Language Acquisition

Abstract: In this paper we specify language acquisition processes in terms of brain mechanisms in order to explain the variable success achieved by early and late language learners. On the basis of the literature in language acquisition, neurobiology, and linguistics, we propose a brain-based model for language acquisition. The model assumes two conditions must be met in order to acquire full knowledge of a particular language: first, that the learner is motivated to acquire the language; and second, that the learner is equipped with the ability to acquire grammatical knowledge. We explain the neural underpinnings for both motivation and grammatical ability and show how they interact to produce variable success in language acquisition.

Functional Categories and Acquisition Orders

Abstract: We analyzed some earlier studies of English L1 and L2 morpheme orders, basing our analysis on current functional categories theory. Our analysis meets two long-standing charges against morpheme order data; namely, that the heterogeneity of the morphemes does not yield up any insights into L2 acquisition and that the English language-based orders lack generalizability. We suggest that the salient differences between the L1 and the L2 orders reduce to a number of simple contrasts. These involve (a) the category-specific emergence of functional categories in L1 versus their cross-category development in L2; (b) an L2 ordering hinging crucially on the lexical head versus inflectional head distinction in L2 and its absence in L1; (c) the at least coequal, or possibly even spearheading, role that inflections play vis-a-vis free functional categories in L1 versus the earlier and independent emergence of the latter in L2; and (d) the apparently greater difficulty that affix-movement poses for L2 learners.

Attempts to Improve English L2 Pronunciation: The Variable Effects of Different Types of Instruction

Abstract: This study compared the pronunciation of targeted vocabulary items in spontaneous speech by 23 adult Chinese L1 learners of L2 English grouped into four different conditions reflecting current pedagogical practices: (a) traditional drilling activities, (b) self-study with tape recordings, (c) interactive activities, and (d) a no-intervention control condition. One hundred and twenty native-speaking listeners judged whether there was improvement or deterioration in pronunciation before and at two separate times subsequent to each of the four conditions. Because none of the results appeared to overwhelmingly favor one teaching technique, we included a discussion of the range of patterns of change brought about by the four input types. We also present arguments for a more serious consideration of the complex effects potentially involved when setting out to modify a learner's L2 pronunciation.

Reading Proficiency and Orthography Evidence from Hebrew and English

Abstract: We conducted two experiments to test whether the orthography of readers’ first or second languages affects their reading time and comprehension in each. In both experiments, very skilled bilinguals read texts translated from Hebrew to English, or from English to Hebrew. Half the texts were originally written in Hebrew and the other half in English. In the first experiment, 24 native Hebrew speakers read two passages of four texts in the Hebrew version. Each read one of the texts voweled and the other one unvoweled. Twelve native English speakers read two passages from the same four texts in English. Participants in the study were either students or teachers at the University of Haifa. The English native speakers read the EngLish texts significantly faster than the native Hebrew speakers read the same texts in their Hebrew version. The origin of the text (English or Hebrew) and vowelization were nonsignificant, as was any interaction between the main factors. The comprehension of the Hebrew voweled texts was nearly significantly better than was the comprehension of the Hebrew unvoweled texts. In the second experiment, 24 advanced bilingual, Hebrew native speakers read two passages in Hebrew (one voweled and the other unvoweled) and two in English. Again, the reading time in English was significantly shorter. Post-hoc comparisons showed that readingtime was shorter in English than in unvoweled Hebrew, but not shorter than in voweled Hebrew. Comprehension of English was not significantly different from comprehension of voweled Hebrew, but was significantly better than comprehension of unvoweled Hebrew.

Is implicational generalization unidirectional and maximal? Evidence from relativization instruction in a second language

Abstract: L'A. teste l'hypothese de la generalisation implicationnelle (effet d'une instruction formelle) chez des sujets adultes apprenant l'anglais langue seconde. L'experimentation est basee sur les niveaux de hierarchie d'accessibilite des syntagmes nominaux de Keenan et Comrie (1977). L'A. degage quelques consequences pour la pedagogie en langue seconde

Topic-Prominence and Subject-Prominence in L2 Acquisition: Evidence of English-to-Chinese Typological Transfer.

Abstract: L'A. tente de determiner si le processus d'acquisition d'une langue seconde est caracterise par une etape universelle de commentaire du theme du discours, ou bien si les apprenants transferent les principales caracteristiques du theme de L1 a L2. Il analyse le comportement de locuteurs natifs anglais apprenant le chinois. Trois tâches de production du discours sont utilisees pour mesurer la performance des apprenants

Developmental Changes in Receptive Vocabulary in Hispanic Bilingual School Children

Abstract: The present study examined the receptive vocabulary knowledge of mid-socioeconomic-status Hispanic simultaneous bilinguals exposed to English and Spanish (either mostly Spanish or equally English and Spanish) at home since birth. One hundred and two (34 from each grade level) first, third, and sixth graders were tested in both English and Spanish with complementary standardized tests, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-R) and the Test de Vocabulario en Imaenes Peabody (TVIP-H). All functioned comparably well on the Spanish receptive vocabulary test, the performance of first and sixth graders being near the mean for the norming sample. In contrast, English receptive vocabulary performance increased with grade level (p<.05), first graders functioning approximately one standard deviation below the mean and sixth graders near the mean. It appears, therefore, that early simultaneous exposure to two languages does not harm receptive vocabulary development in the language of origin, while it lays the groundwork for gradual improvement in the majority language with formal schooling. Furthermore, within a simultaneous learning circumstance, equal exposure to English and Spanish at home was found to be sufficient for the maintenance of Spanish vocabulary skills and superior to exposure to mostly Spanish at home with respect to English vocabulary development. In addition, consistent with Cummins'(1979, 1984) interdependence hypothesis, performance in one language was found to be the best predictor of performance in the other.

Reverse‐Order Reports and the Acquisition of Tense: Beyond the Principle of Chronological Order

Abstract: This article presents the results of a longitudinal study of the expression of temporality in interlanguage that followed 16 adult learners of English as a second language for an average period of 10 months. It focuses on these learners’ presentation of a specific rhetorical device, the reverse-order report, showing how these learners used tense contrast and time adverbials to produce such reports, and how the emergence of these reports related to more general patterns of tense acquisition. The study indicates that these learners marked reverse-order reports as deviations from chronological order by their use of tense contrast, time adverbials, and other means, with time adverbials playing a pivotal role. The study also shows that high accuracy of past tense use was a necessary prerequisite for the emergence of reverse-order reports, and that it was the emergence of these environment for the emergence of the pluperfect (and not vice versa). It further showed that acquisitional prerequisites, and not instruction, played the key role in these acquisitional sequences.

Chronological and Stylistic Aspects of Second Language Acquisition of Consonant Clusters

Abstract: A major focus in second language acquisition (SLA) studies for the past two or three decades has been the role that universal factors play in acquisition. Prior to then, the influence of transfer had been well documented, since the early work of Lado (1957) and even earlier work of Weinreich (1953). However, in 1971 Nemser reported Hungarian learners of English used substitutions that occurred in neither native English nor Hungarian; likewise, Johansson (1973) noted that L2 learners of Swedish produced sounds that occurred in neither Swedish nor the native languages. These nontransfer substitutions have been termed universal developmental variants (part of Universal Grammar [UG]) because they are similar or identical to those occurring in L1 acquisition. Although these substitutions had been well documented, there was no attempt to describe the interrelationship of transfer and developmental factors until Major (1986a, 1987) proposed the Ontogeny Model (OM) to describe a relationship of these two factors for both chronology and style. The present study further tests this model, the data largely supporting the claims for chronology but not for style. This work is significant because it rigorously tests claims concerning the interaction of transfer and universal factors, and although the claims for stylistic variation were not supported, the study provides extensive data with research implications for variation studies. The importance of variation in SLA has been pointed out by numerous researchers, including Tarone (1988), and in a recently published volume on variation in SLA (Bayley & Preston, 1996), which quite significantly contains a chapter by Labov. Although about a dozen years old, the OM has implications for an ongoing debate in SLA (not restricted to phonology): whether UG is or is not accessible to the learner. The model predicts that at early stages of acquisition, UG will not play a major role because the influence of transfer is strong and the influence of developmental factors (subsumed under UG) is minimal.According to the model, however, at later stages of acquisition the role of UG will increase because transfer decreases and developmental factors decrease. The OM has also had an impact on very recent work in L2 phonology, for example, Broselow, Chen, and Wang (1998) and Hancin-Bhatt and Bhatt (1997), who employ Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1993). From an Optimality Theory framework, Hancin-Bhatt and Bhatt discuss the interaction of transfer and developmental factors and state: “In so doing, we can begin to give a linguistic-theoretic interpretation to Major's (1986, 1987, 1994) ontogeny model” (p. 368).

Universals of Word Formation Processes: Noun Incorporation in the Acquisition of Samoan as a Second Language

Abstract: This study examines the influence of a proposed implicational hierarchy (Mithun, 1984) and constraints of Universal Grammar (Baker, 1988) on the acquisition of noun incorporation processes by 29 adult learners of Samoan, compared to the performance of a control group of 11 native Samoan speakers. The methodology involved reaction time, grammaticality judgment and response certainty measures of the processing difficulty and acceptability of examples of noun incorporation for English speaking learners of Samoan, with the latter measure giving the clearest support for two hypothesized orders of difficulty.

Comparative Patterns in the Acquisition of English Negation by Native Speakers of French Creole and Creole English

Abstract: This study of comparative patterns in the acquisition of standard English is part of a larger study on acquisition by St. Lucian native speakers of French Creole and Creole English in a formal setting. The study compares the developmental patterns in the acquisition of negation by French Creole and Creole English speakers, and presents the results of an error analysis of the learners’ interlanguage. The speech samples of 9 children—5 French Creole and 4 Creole English speakers—is the corpus used for the analysis. Similar patterns of development and error types were found for both groups, but the French Creole speakers remained at a less advanced stage than did the Creole English speakers throughout the study. The findings suggest that the target language for the French Creole speakers is a variety of Creole English, and not Standard English, which is the language of instruction. The Creole English speakers, on the other hand, appear to be moving toward Standard English as a target. After 2½ years of instruction in a formal setting, the French Creole speakers were not as advanced as were the Creole English speakers in the acquisition of Standard English. Overall, the French Creole speakers had a higher number of Creole English structures in their interlanguage. The findings raise questions about the efficacy of the methods used to instruct these learners.