Showing papers in "The Modern Language Journal in 2004"

Second Language Acquisition as Situated Practice: Task Accomplishment in the French Second Language Classroom

Abstract: This article provides an empirically based perspective on the contribution of conversation analysis (CA) and sociocultural theory to our understanding of learners' second language (L2) practices within what we call a strong socio-interactionist perspective. It explores the interactive (re)configuration of tasks in French second language classrooms. Stressing that learning is situated in learners' social, and therefore profoundly interactional, practices, we investigate how tasks are not only accomplished but also collaboratively (re)organized by learners and teachers, leading to various configurations of classroom talk and structuring specific opportunities for learning. The analysis of L2 classroom interactions at basic and advanced levels shows how the teacher's instructions are reflexively redefined within courses of action and how thereby the learner's emerging language competence is related to other (interactional, institutional, sociocultural) competencies. Discussing the results in the light of recent analyses of the indexical and grounded dimensions of everyday and experimental tasks allows us to broaden our understanding of competence and situated cognition in language learning.

Mind, Language, and Epistemology: Toward a Language Socialization Paradigm for SLA

Abstract: For some time now second language acquisition (SLA) research has been hampered by unhelpful debates between the “cognitivist” and “sociocultural” camps that have generated more acrimony than useful theory. Recent developments in second generation cognitive science, first language acquisition studies, cognitive anthropology, and human development research, however, have opened the way for a new synthesis. This synthesis involves a reconsideration of mind, language, and epistemology, and a recognition that cognition originates in social interaction and is shaped by cultural and sociopolitical processes: These processes are central rather than incidental to cognitive development. Here I lay out the issues and argue for a language socialization paradigm for SLA that is consistent with and embracive of the new research.

Learning as changing participation: discourse roles in esl writing conferences

Abstract: This study investigates the acquisition of an unfamiliar discursive practice by an adult Vietnamese learner of English. The practice is revision talk in weekly English as a Second Language (ESL) writing conferences between the student and his ESL writing instructor. This research adopts the interactional competence framework for understanding the interactional architecture and participation framework of the practice. It also draws on the theory of situated learning or legitimate peripheral participation in arguing that changes in the student's and instructor's patterns of co-participation demonstrate processes by which the student moved from peripheral to fuller participation. It appears that although the student was the one whose participation was most dramatically transformed, the instructor was a co-learner, and her participation changed in ways that complemented the student's learning. Through close analysis of the revision talk in four successive writing conferences, this study contributes to our understanding of language learning as co-constructed development in situated discursive practices.

Participant Orientations in German Conversation‐for‐Learning

Abstract: This article explores some roles for conversation analysis (CA) as an approach to second and foreign language learning by examining the initial segment of a Gesprdchsrunde, a dyadic conversation-for-learning conducted between a beginning learner of German as a foreign language and a native speaker of German. The analysis focuses on the situated identities, comprising social membership categories as well as interaction-internal participant statuses that the co-participants made relevant to each other as their interaction unfolded. Although the complementary membership categories of target language novice and expert were demonstrably omnirelevant in the setting, they were predominantly invoked by the novice, and only on particular occasions. In these metalingual exchanges, code switching worked as one device by which the novice requested a target language action format from the language expert. Although the metalingual exchanges stood out for their salient acquisitional potential, microanalytic scrutiny is also required for other kinds of interactional conduct in order to assess their capacity for second language learning.

Understanding successful and unsuccessful EFL students in Chinese universities

Abstract: Unlike success in first language acquisition, success in learning a second or foreign language is considerably more variable. Recently, second language acquisition researchers have called for more integrative research on individual difference factors. With this goal in mind, this study followed a larger, quantitative study of the links between self-directedness for language learning and English language learning attainment among university students on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong. Drawing on the findings of that study (Gan, 2003), this 1-semester study looked closely at 2 small groups of tertiary-level English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in China in order to document how they carried out their out-of-class (self-directed) English learning, as well as to elaborate issues that may be critical to understanding the variability that had already been observed in their English learning outcomes. The data were gathered through interviews, diaries, and follow-up email correspondence with 9 successful and 9 unsuccessful second-year EFL students at 2 Chinese mainland universities. Using grounded theory methodology (Strauss & Corbin, 1994, 1998), 6 categories of qualitative data were constructed: conceptualizing English language learning; perceptions of the College English Course; learning and practising strategies; self-management; internal drive; and English proficiency tests. The study findings suggest that different levels of success may be explained by a complex and dynamic interplay of internal cognition and emotion, external incentives, and social context. The findings imply the need to take a holistic view of variation in language learning outcomes and to broaden the scope of the current practice in learner strategy training.

Student Spanish Use and Investment in a Dual Immersion Classroom: Implications for Second Language Acquisition and Heritage Language Maintenance

Abstract: In dual immersion classrooms, students from different language backgrounds are immersed in the minority language for large portions of the school day with the expectation that they will become equally proficient in their first language (L1) and in their second language (L2). Research on dual immersion indicates that students reach above-average levels of academic achievement and linguistic proficiency, but, to date, very few quantifications have been made of how much of the minority language is used in these environments. Given that actually speaking a language is crucial for L2 acquisition as well as for heritage language maintenance, this study explored how much Spanish was used and for what purposes by 4 students (2 Spanish L1 and 2 two Spanish L2) in a Spanish/English dual immersion classroom. Over 2,000 turns of natural classroom speech were recorded during a 5-month period. Overall, the students used Spanish 56% of the time, with 4 major trends: (a) The girls used more Spanish than the boys, regardless of L1; (b) the students averaged 82% Spanish when talking with the teacher, but only 32% when talking to peers; (c) Spanish was used primarily for on-task topics; (d) the students' English when speaking with peers covered a wider range of functions than did their Spanish. These findings lend support to proposals that a kind of diglossia exists in immersion classrooms (Tarone & Swain, 1995). Additional ethnographic data gathered through extensive participant-observations and interviews were interpreted using the concept of investment (Norton, 2000). Explanations of the students' language use are offered according to their sometimes competing identity investments.

Semantic Transfer and Its Implications for Vocabulary Teaching in a Second Language

Abstract: This study investigated semantic transfer in second language (L2) learning and provided a replication of the author's study (Jiang, 2002) in a different English as a Second Language (ESL) population. Korean ESL speakers were asked to perform a semantic judgment task in which they decided whether or not 2 English words were related in meaning. Two types of related word pairs served as critical stimuli: word pairs whose 2 members shared or did not share the same Korean translation. The Korean ESL speakers responded to the same-translation pairs significantly faster than to the different-translation pairs whereas no such same-translation effect was found among native speakers of English. The same-translation effect found in L2 speakers was taken as evidence for the presence of first language semantic structures in L2 lexical representations and their continued involvement in L2 processing. Pedagogical implications for L2 vocabulary teaching are discussed.

Negotiating Sequential Boundaries and Learning Opportunities: A Case from a Japanese Language Classroom.

Abstract: Using the methodological framework of conversation analysis (CA) as a central tool for analysis, this study examines a peer interactive task that occurred in a Japanese as a foreign language classroom. During the short segment of interaction, the students shifted back and forth between the development of an assigned task and the management of problems associated with their lack of lexical knowledge. The close observation of the participants' vocal and nonvocal conduct during these different types of sequences and sequential boundaries demonstrates how the students transform in a moment-by-moment fashion their converging or diverging orientations towards varying types of learning and learning opportunities. Through the presentation of a single case analysis, this study discusses one way of applying CA techniques to the study of classroom interaction in order to promote an overall sensitivity to the intricacies of classroom talk and to generate critical reflection on classroom policies and instructional designs.

Giving up on Modern Foreign Languages? Students' Perceptions of Learning French

Abstract: This article reports on the findings of an investigation into the attitudes of English students aged 16 to 19 years towards French and how they view the reasons behind their level of achievement. Those students who attributed success to effort, high ability, and effective learning strategies had higher levels of achievement, and students intending to continue French after age 16 were more likely than noncontinuers to attribute success to these factors. Low ability and task difficulty were the main reasons cited for lack of achievement in French, whereas the possible role of learning strategies tended to be overlooked by students. It is argued that learners' self-concept and motivation might be enhanced through approaches that encourage learners to explore the causal links between the strategies they employ and their academic performance, thereby changing the attributions they make for success or failure.

CA for SLA: Arguments from the Chinese Language Classroom

Abstract: When the seminal article on the organization of turn-taking by Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson (1974) was published 30 years ago, I started learning English as a foreign language. In addition to being a learner of the English language for many years, I was also trained in the traditions of Conversation Analysis (CA) and linguistic anthropology (particularly Language Socialization) in graduate school. For the present article, my objective is to explore the uses and nonuses of CA for language learning, particularly for Chinese language learning. In what follows, I take the perspective of a conversation analyst as well as that of a second language (L2) learner. This article is divided into three main sections. The first section discusses the kinds of contributions CA can make to research on L2 learning and teaching. I propose that the basic science produced by CA research can be fruitfully applied to L2 learning and instruction and to oral language assessment. I further suggest that CA studies of classroom interaction provide richly textured descriptions of language learning contexts such as expert-novice relations and participants' identity construction. The second section considers what CA does not do, or is not designed to do for Second Language Acquisition (SLA). I submit that, unlike language socialization research, CA does not address introspective, unobservable matters that may be important to language learning. Furthermore, unlike ethnomethodology, CA is not designed to document learning (i.e., change in behavior) over a considerable period of time. The final section concludes on a hermeneutical note: I argue that CA studies of SLA provide a part of the picture of L2 learning and teaching, a part that, crucially, compels us to reconsider the whole.

Zones of Interactional Transition in ESL Classes

Abstract: This article uses conversation analysis (CA) to describe the structural properties of zones of interactional transition (ZITs) or talk that occurs at the boundaries of different classroom (and perhaps other institutionally oriented) speech exchange systems. Two types of ZIT are analyzed in detail. Counter question sequences (Markee, 1995) are interactions in which teachers, in order to regain control of the classroom agenda, insert counter question turns between the question and answer turns of question-answer-comment sequences initiated by learners. Tactical fronting talk involves ambiguous or misleading claims made by learners to the teacher concerning precisely who is having trouble understanding problematic language. ZITs are loci of potential trouble, whose explication is of interest to both CA and second language acquisition researchers, and also to teachers and teacher trainers.

Computerized Task-Based Exposure, Explicitness, Type of Feedback, and Spanish L2 Development

Abstract: This study examined whether exposure to second/foreign language (L2) data under different computerized task conditions had a differential impact on learners' ability to recognize and produce the target structure immediately after exposure to the input and over time. Learners' L2 development was assessed through recognition and controlled-production tests containing old and new exemplars of the target structure. Adult learners of Spanish were exposed to past conditional sentences under 1 of 6 conditions premised on different degrees of explicitness. The degree of explicitness was manipulated by combining 3 features: (a) a pretask providing explicit grammatical information, (b) feedback concurrent to input processing, and (c) variation in the nature (i.e., implicit or explicit) of the feedback in those cases in which it was provided. The advantages of processing input under explicit conditions were evident (a) in production more than in recognition and (b) in new exemplars more than in old exemplars.

Syntactic Transfer: Evidence from the Interlanguage of Hong Kong Chinese ESL Learners

Abstract: This article presents evidence of syntactic transfer from Chinese to English based on data obtained from 710 Hong Kong Chinese ESL learners at different proficiency levels. Three methodologies were used: self-reporting in individual interviews, translation (with and without prompts), and grammaticality judgment. The focus of the study was on 5 error types: (a) lack of control of the copula, (b) incorrect placement of adverbs, (c) inability to use the there be structure for expressing the existential or presentative function, (d) failure to use the relative clause, and (e) confusion in verb transitivity. The results showed that many Chinese ESL learners in Hong Kong tended to think in Chinese first before they wrote in English, and that the surface structures of many of the interlanguage strings produced by the participants were identical or very similar to the usual or normative sentence structures of the learners' first language (L1), Cantonese. The extent of syntactic transfer was particularly large for complex target structures and among learners of a lower proficiency level, though high-proficiency learners may also have relied on the syntax and vocabulary of their previous linguistic repertoire, their L1, when finding it difficult to produce output in the target language.

The Effects of Teaching Spoken Arabic on Students' Attitudes and Motivation in Israel.

Abstract: The study investigated whether changes in the educational context of teaching Arabic as a second language in Israeli schools affect students' attitudes towards the language, its speakers and culture, and motivation to study the language. These changes included teaching spoken Arabic rather than Modern Standard Arabic and lowering the starting age of instruction. Self-report questionnaires were distributed to 692 students (4th–6th grade) and 362 parents from 14 elementary schools. The findings revealed that students who study spoken Arabic (experimental group), as opposed to those who do not (control group), report holding more positive attitudes towards the Arabic language, its culture, and speakers, and also claim to be more motivated to study the language. Findings also confirm the important role that parents have over their children's behavior because parents' attitudes constituted one of the predictors of students' motivation to study Arabic. Yet, the variable that best predicted students' motivation was their satisfaction with their Arabic study program.

Family Matters: The Influence of Applied Linguistics and Composition Studies on Second Language Writing Studies¿Past, Present, and Future

Abstract: This intellectual history of the disciplinary roots of second language (L2) writing research and pedagogy in English examines the influences of its feeder disciplines, composition studies and applied linguistics, and their parent disciplines, rhetoric and linguistics. After a brief history of L2 writing's two grandparent disciplines (rhetoric and linguistics) and its two parent disciplines (composition studies and applied linguistics), the article focuses on the effect of the two parent disciplines' conflicting identities. Whereas L2 writing benefits from its invigorating position at the confluence of these two intellectual streams, it has also been pulled in different incompatible directions resulting from differences, and even similarities, between applied linguistics' and composition studies' inquiry paradigms and traditions, their intellectual identities, and the material disciplinary manifestations of their organizations, conferences, and publications. A brief history of L2 writing pedagogy and research demonstrates the push and pull of the conflicting influences of its feeder disciplines.

Strategy Use by Nonnative English‐Speaking Students in an MBA Program: Not Business as Usual!

Abstract: Despite the long-standing interest in strategy use and language learning, little attention has been given to how social context may constrain or facilitate this use or the development of new strategies. Drawing on data from a longitudinal qualitative study, we discuss this issue in relation to the experiences of Chinese students from the People's Republic of China, who, following study in English for Academic Purposes courses, registered in a Masters in Business Administration program in a Canadian university. Specifically, we focus on how the contact with the native-English-speaking Canadian students mediated the Chinese students' strategy use in 3 domains: reading, class lectures, and team work. In contrast to the rather simplistic notion evoked in certain portrayals of the good language learner, strategy use as reported herein emerges as a complex, socially situated phenomenon, bound up with issues related to personal identity (Leki, 2001; Norton, 1997, 2000; Spack, 1997).

Computer Anxiety and Students' Preferred Feedback Methods in EFL Writing.

Abstract: Computer-mediated instruction plays a significant role in foreign language education. The incorporation of computer technology into the classroom has also been accompanied by an increasing number of students who experience anxiety when interacting with computers. This study examined the effects of computer anxiety on students' choice of feedback methods and academic performance in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing. The study included 207 university-level Japanese students in EFL writing classes, who received both face-to-face teacher feedback and online teacher and peer feedback while revising an essay writing assignment. The students were free to choose their preferred feedback method. The results of multiple regression analysis revealed that the students' choices of feedback method varied as a function of the level of their computer anxiety and that providing the choice of using or not using computers helped both high- and low-anxiety students improve their essay writing. The findings reveal the importance of recognizing computer anxiety and creating a learning environment in which students who are highly computer anxious are not disadvantaged.

Interlinguistic Variation and Similarity in Second Language Speech Act Behavior

Abstract: This study investigates the compliment response behavior of 2 groups of Chinese learners of English, one living in the United States and the other in Taiwan. The present study compared the behavior of these learner groups with that of native Chinese and English speakers in order to determine how they respond to compliments in different situations when two contextual variables, addressees' status and gender, vary. Compliment responses by the Chinese using Chinese and the learners in Taiwan were more likely to be rejections than acceptances, whereas responses to compliments by the Americans and the learners in the United States were more likely to be acceptances than rejections. Furthermore, although there were substantial differences between the 2 learner groups, the performance of both reflected native language (L1) communicative styles and transfer of L1 sociocultural strategies in their second language behavior.

The Effectiveness of Written Recasts in the Second Language Acquisition of Aspectual Distinctions in French: A Follow-Up Study

Abstract: This follow-up study on the acquisition of the aspectual distinction between the passe compose (PC) and the imparfait (IMP) investigates the differential outcomes of the results presented in an earlier study, Ayoun (2001), by pursuing two lines of research: the effectiveness of written recasts versus models and traditional grammar instruction, and the development of temporality in the interlanguage of French college students as second language learners (i.e., the Aspect Hypothesis). The earlier study found that all learners improved in their use of the PC but not the IMP. The R(recast)-group out-performed the M(model)-group and the G(grammar)-group, with a significant difference over the latter but not the former, which supported the hypothesis that recasts are the most effective form of treatment. The qualitative results of the present study weaken this finding because it was more difficult to distinguish among the three different treatments: (a) The G-group outperformed the R- and M-groups in accuracy and frequency in the PC; (b) all three groups decreased in their accuracy and frequency in the IMP but the G-group outperformed the other two groups; (c) the three groups were practically identical in the production of various predicate types in the PC and IMP on the pre- and posttests; and (d) overall, it was the G-group's performance that showed a greater aspectual use of predicate frequency and type in the IMP. These new results partially support a prediction of the Aspect Hypothesis, according to which the use of past tense morphology is influenced by lexical class, but they offer only tentative support for the Imparfait Spreading hypothesis. A few preliminary suggestions regarding pedagogical applications are offered.

The Competitive Advantage of Foreign Languages and Cultural Knowledge

Abstract: This study presents the results of an electronic survey of 2,500 randomly selected alumni from the graduating classes of 1970 through 2002 of Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management. Of the 2,500 alumni, 581 responded. Thunderbird required a minimum of 4 semesters of foreign language for graduation. The survey concerned whether or not the alumni had received a competitive advantage in their careers from their foreign language skills and cultural knowledge. The vast majority of the respondents acknowledged that both foreign language skills and cultural knowledge had benefited them in their professional lives. Slightly more of them reported receiving an edge from their cultural skills (89%) than from their foreign language abilities (82%). The research results provide empirical data on how members of the U.S. and international business communities perceive the value of foreign language and cultural knowledge to their work.

Fast Capitalism, School Reform, and Second Language Literacy Practices

Abstract: This 2-year qualitative study explores the ironies of educational reform in the United States as experienced by three second language learners attending a school attempting to transform itself into a high-performance elementary school in California's Silicon Valley. Drawing on the concept of “fast capitalism” in a globalized economic work order (Gee, Hull, & Lankshear, 1996) and the tools of critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1989), the findings from this investigation reveal that the discourses of school reform in the United States visibly and invisibly placed second language learners in new highly vulnerable positions. In what follows I provide an analysis of this vulnerability by relating the experiences of three families and their attempts to enrol and stay enrolled in the school of their choice. Next, I provide a critical analysis of the discourses of reading and writing instruction and of a text produced by a focal student named Alma in this context. This analysis highlights the ways in which classroom literacy practices inadvertently constrained the efforts of second language learners to acquire academic literacies and ultimately legitimated the school's decision to declare Alma “not Web material.” The implications of this study relate to better understanding classroom SLA from a historical, institutional perspective and to supporting teachers and policy makers in addressing the needs of second language learners in a time of rapid social and economic change.

When Grammar Instruction Undermines Cohesion in L2 Spanish Classroom Discourse

Abstract: This article compares ordinary conversational topics and targeted second language (L2) forms for their effectiveness in building and maintaining classroom discourse cohesion. In this study, 16 learners participated in 2 lessons, 1 with teacher turns determined by a grammatical object of instruction, and the other with turns determined by conversation topics. Based on research by Sperber and Wilson (1995) and Vuchinich (1977), extended latency gaps and remedy sequences in learner turns were taken as evidence of poor cohesion. Both lessons were videotaped, transcribed, and coded. Of the 16 learners, 5 volunteers viewed the videotapes and offered written explanations for their extended latencies. Longer latencies and more frequent remedy sequences occurred during the grammatically-determined discourse, with volunteers likewise indicating greater difficulty understanding the instructor, than during the conversational lesson. It is argued that for grammar instruction to work effectively, a focus on form must be transparent as the instructional objective, and targeted L2 forms must themselves be properly treated as discourse topics.

Identifying the Best Foreign Language Teachers: Teacher Standards and Professional Portfolios

Abstract: This study explored the differing perspectives of principals and foreign language department chairs on one state's teaching standards and the use of professional teaching portfolios as part of the hiring process. A 17-item questionnaire completed by 61 participants revealed that both groups strongly agreed with state teacher standards as accurate descriptors of good teaching. Both groups reported confidence that teaching portfolios are helpful tools for evaluating teacher candidates. Principals most wanted evidence of creativity and innovation, whereas chairs most wanted evidence of second language (L2) proficiency in a candidate's portfolio. Principals were significantly more interested in seeing evidence of communication with parents than were chairs. Both reported spending relatively little time reviewing candidates' portfolios, although chairs devoted significantly more time. The results were the same, regardless of whether the educators were from urban, suburban, or rural districts. The findings suggest that foreign language educators should continue efforts to provide guidance on foreign-language-appropriate versions of state teaching standards and on creation of foreign language teaching professional portfolios.