Showing papers on "Second-language attrition published in 2000"
Book•
01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: Fact and fiction in language learning researching identity and language learning the world of adult immigrant language learners Eva and Mai - old heads on young shoulders mothers, migration, and language learner acquisition theory revisited claiming the right to speak in classrooms & communities as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Fact and fiction in language learning researching identity and language learning the world of adult immigrant language learners Eva and Mai - old heads on young shoulders mothers, migration, and language learning second language acquisition theory revisited claiming the right to speak in classrooms & communities.
2,287 citations
TL;DR: This article found that very few adult immigrants scored within the range of child arrivals on a grammaticality judgment test, and that the few who did had high levels of verbal analytical ability; this ability was not a significant predictor for childhood second language acquisition.
Abstract: This study was designed to test the Fundamental Difference Hypothesis (Bley-Vroman,
1988), which states that, whereas children are known to learn language almost completely
through (implicit) domain-specific mechanisms, adults have largely lost the ability to learn a
language without reflecting on its structure and have to use alternative mechanisms, drawing
especially on their problem-solving capacities, to learn a second language. The hypothesis
implies that only adults with a high level of verbal analytical ability will reach near-native
competence in their second language, but that this ability will not be a significant predictor of
success for childhood second language acquisition. A study with 57 adult Hungarian-speaking
immigrants confirmed the hypothesis in the sense that very few adult immigrants scored within
the range of child arrivals on a grammaticality judgment test, and that the few who did had high
levels of verbal analytical ability; this ability was not a significant predictor for childhood
arrivals. This study replicates the findings of Johnson and Newport (1989) and provides an
explanation for the apparent exceptions in their study. These findings lead to a
reconceptualization of the Critical Period Hypothesis: If the scope of this hypothesis is limited to
implicit learning mechanisms, then it appears that there may be no exceptions to the age effects
that the hypothesis seeks to explain.
1,213 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a description of the proposed model, which is based on the model described in this paper: http://www.no description.no-description.com/
Abstract: No description supplied
717 citations
TL;DR: A new theoretical position has emerged, and six postulates of this position are described, which suggest that infants' strategies are unexpected and unpredicted by historical views.
Abstract: At the forefront of debates on language are new data demonstrating infants' early acquisition of information about their native language. The data show that infants perceptually “map” critical aspects of ambient language in the first year of life before they can speak. Statistical properties of speech are picked up through exposure to ambient language. Moreover, linguistic experience alters infants' perception of speech, warping perception in the service of language. Infants' strategies are unexpected and unpredicted by historical views. A new theoretical position has emerged, and six postulates of this position are described.
689 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2000TL;DR: The authors demonstrate the extent and importance of language play in human life, and draw out the implications for applied linguistics and language teaching, and argue that language play fulfils a major function of language, underpinning the human capacity to adapt: as individuals, as societies, and as a species.
Abstract: This book has two related purposes. The first is to demonstrate the extent and importance of language play in human life; the second is to draw out the implications for applied linguistics and language teaching. Language play should not be thought of as a trivial or peripheral activity, but as central to human thought and culture, to learning, creativity, and intellectual enquiry. It fulfils a major function of language, underpinning the human capacity to adapt: as individuals, as societies, and as a species.
601 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the loss of family languages: Should Educators be Concerned? Theory Into Practice: Vol. 39, Children and Languages at School, pp. 203-210.
Abstract: (2000). Loss of Family Languages: Should Educators Be Concerned? Theory Into Practice: Vol. 39, Children and Languages at School, pp. 203-210.
465 citations
TL;DR: This paper reviewed the research carried out over approximately the past five years on second language learning as a mediated process and explored some of the original topics in greater depth and importantly, it has moved into new areas not previously studied.
Abstract: This article reviews the research carried out over approximately the past five years on second language learning as a mediated process. Lantolf and Pavlenko (1995) surveyed twenty-five studies carried out from the early 1980s to the mid 1990s on mediated second language (L2) learning. Since the publication of their article only five years ago, more than forty new studies have appeared on mediated learning. As this research has become more robust, it has explored some of the original topics in greater depth and importantly, it has moved into new areas not previously studied. For example, current work continues to seek to better understand how L2 learning is mediated in the Zone of Proximal Development, a topic of earlier work, but it is now looking more closely at peer rather than expert-novice scaffolding in the ZPD. Research is also studying how experts scaffold novices in concrete classroom situations where concern is not with the ZPD itself, as was the case with the original work, but with how individuals, unaware of such a construct, go about providing and appropriating help in order to learn.While some of the earlier research focused on the role of private speech in carrying out tasks in a second language, more recent research is concerned with the role of private speech in appropriating a second language. A new area of interest that has opened up within the past two or three years deals with the processes through which language mediates the formation of new identities among L2 learners.
426 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the effects of awareness or the lack thereof on 32 adult second or foreign language (L2) learners' subsequent intake and production of targeted Spanish morphological forms.
Abstract: This study is a quantitative and qualitative investigation of the effects of awareness, or the
lack thereof, on 32 adult second or foreign language (L2) learners' subsequent intake and
written production of targeted Spanish morphological forms. Think-aloud protocol data, gathered
while learners completed a problem-solving task (a crossword puzzle) and postexposure
assessment tasks (a multiple-choice recognition task and a written production task), were used to
measure awareness or the lack thereof, and morphological learning was assessed by
learners' performances on the two postexposure tasks. From a theoretical perspective, no
dissociation between awareness and further processing of targeted forms was found in this study,
the results of which are compatible with the claim that awareness plays a crucial role in
subsequent processing of L2 data (e.g., Robinson, 1995; Schmidt, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995).
From a methodological perspective, the data collection procedure clearly underscores the need
for studies that investigate the roles of attention and awareness in second language acquisition
(SLA) to gather as much data as possible from different sources that reveal participants'
internal processes. By attempting to ascertain what learners really attend to or are aware of, or
both, while exposed to or interacting with L2 data, such information can also address the
methodological issue of how representative learners' performances in experimental groups
really are in studies conducted under an attentional framework in SLA.
296 citations
01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the impact of early language development on children with specific language impairments on their ability to read and language skills, and the role of intervention for children with these impairments.
Abstract: Foreword. M. Tomasello, Acquiring Syntax is Not What You Think. M.L. Rice, Grammatical Symptoms of Specific Language Impairment. R. Plomin, P.S. Dale, Genetics and Early Language Development: A UK Study of Twins. G. J. Whitehurst, J.E. Fischel, Reading and Language Impairments in Conditions of Poverty. J. Stackhouse, Barriers to Literacy Development in Children with Speech and Language Difficulties. D.V.M. Bishop, Pragmatic Language Impairment: A Correlate of SLI a Distinct Subgroup, or Part of the Autistic Continum? L.B. Leonard, Specific Language Impairment Across Languages. P. Tallal, Experimental Studies of Language Learning Impairments: From Research to Remediation. S.E. Weismer, Intervention for Children with Developmental Language Delay. M.E. Fey, K. Proctor-Williams, Recasting, Elicited Information and Modelling In Grammar Intervention for Children with Specific Language Impairments. R. Paul, Predicting Outcomes of Early Expressive Language Delay: Ethical Implications. G. Conti-Ramsden, N. Botting, Educational Placements for Children with Specific Language Impairments. I.M. Goodyear, Language Difficulties and Psychopathology. M.J. Snowling, Language and Literacy Skills: Who is at Risk and Why? T. Deaonna, Acquired Eplieptic Aphasia (AEA) or Landau-Kleffner Syndrome: From Childhood to Adulthood. M. Rutter, Research into Practice: Future Prospects. Index.
289 citations
205 citations
TL;DR: The study of children's language development is converging on an interactionist perspective of how children learn to talk, incorporating the contributions of both nature and nurture to emergent, functional language systems.
Abstract: This review of children's language learning considers historical accounts of acquisition and individual variation, recent advances in methods for studying language learning, research on genetic and environmental input that have contributed to the interactionist perspective, and the relevance of cross-disciplinary work on language disorders and the biology of learning to future theories. It concludes that the study of children's language development is converging on an interactionist perspective of how children learn to talk, incorporating the contributions of both nature and nurture to emergent, functional language systems. Language learning is viewed as an integration of learning in multiple domains.
TL;DR: Because medication-taking remains a clinically important problem despite 50 years of study, reassessment of an issue as basic as the language used to describe it may be necessary to identify new strategies for clinical intervention and research.
Abstract: Terms such as “compliance” and “adherence” are too facile to describe complex behavioral issues in medicine. They should be replaced by a language that is less succinct but richer in its descriptio...
Journal Article•
Journal Article•
TL;DR: This paper found that students in a foreign language classroom are often anxious and that this feeling inhibits their performance in the foreign language (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991a, 1991b; Phillips, 1992; Young, 1990, 1992, 1999).
Abstract: * Several studies have been carried out in different contexts to show experimentally what language teachers know intuitively: that students in a foreign language classroom are often anxious and that this feeling inhibits their performance in the foreign language (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991a, 1991b; Phillips, 1992; Young, 1990, 1992, 1999). One of the conclusions of these studies is that anxiety among foreign language students is not just a case of general classroom anxiety being "transferred to the foreign language learning but a distinct complex of things related to the foreign language classroom learning" (Horwitz et al., 1986, p. 128). What makes language classes so special in this negative sense? Unlike classes in other subjects, foreign language classes that emphasize communicative skills require active participation and a high degree of risk taking and self-exposure. Adolescent or adult learners of a foreign language find themselves in the uncomfortable position of trying to express mature ideas in front of their peers in an obviously still immature linguistic vehicle. Their self-esteem is reduced in this process, and this onstruction of Ambiguous Sentenc s each item, the italicized part of the firs s ntence replaces the italicized part of the s cond timulus) sentenc . There we three Type 1, four Type 2, and thr e Type 3 ambiguous entences. (For a complete lis of sentences, see Harley, How d, & Hart, 1995.)
TL;DR: This article found that the linguistic skills of the bilingual child with specific language impairment (SLI) were qualitatively different from those of the normal language development (NL) across languages, and they highlighted the importance of early intervention in preventing first-language loss.
Abstract: These case studies describe and compare the language characteristics of two bilingual children: one with specific language impairment (SLI) and one with normal language development (NL). Using spontaneous language sampling, we found that the linguistic skills of the bilingual child with SLI were qualitatively different from those of the NL child across languages. The child with SLI produced significantly more morphosyntactic errors and less variety of grammatical forms and sentence types in both languages as compared to the NL child. In addition, some of those errors were different from those typically produced by monolingual children with SLI or speakers of English as a second language. Furthermore, the bilingual child with SLI demonstrated significant first- language loss. These findings support the hypothesis that there are cross-linguistic variations of grammatical SLI markers, and they highlight the importance of early intervention in preventing first-language loss. Moreover, the findings suggest tha...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate and describe the attitudes of Brazilian EFL learners towards the target language, focusing on their perception of the importance of English as a language for international communication, the role of English within Brazil and the learners' expectaitons of time and energy to be consumed in the learning of the language.
Abstract: The present survey project aims at investigating and describing the attitudes of Brazilian EFL learners towards the target language. The focus is on their perception of the importance of English as a language for international communication, the role of English within Brazil and the learners' expectaitons of time and energy to be consumed in the learning of the language. The participants are 190 adult learners attending a private institute in the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo who answered a survey questionnaire. The answers are discussed and the results analyzed vis-a `-vis the importance of creating a curriculum which addresses not only the formal features of the language but also the cultural and attitudinal elements which are brought into the classroom. INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXTUALIZATION
TL;DR: This article found that students with the highest levels of anxiety at the input, processing, and output stages tend to be older, have lower expectations of their achievement in foreign language courses, low perceived global self-worth and low perceived scholastic competence.
Abstract: Foreign language anxiety is a complex phenomenon that occurs at each stage of the language learning process (i.e., input, processing, and output). This study of 205 university students attempted to identify a combination of variables that might be correlated with these three types of anxiety. Canonical correlation analyses revealed that students with the highest levels of anxiety at the input, processing, and output stages tend to be older; have lower expectations of their achievement in foreign language courses, low perceived global self-worth, low perceived scholastic competence, low perceived intellectual ability, and low perceived job competence; and have taken few or no high school foreign language courses. Academic achievement acted as a suppressor in the model by increasing the predictive power of the independent variables. The educational implications of these findings for understanding foreign language anxiety and for increasing foreign language learning are discussed, as are suggestions for futu...
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The authors identified five meanings of culture: growth, refinement, fine arts, patterns of living, and a total way of life, and recommended a dual interpretation of culture, both scientific and humanistic, and an outline for each is suggested.
Abstract: There is general agreement that culture should be taught in a language course, but just what this means is unclear. The scientists propose a concept of totality quite unlike the idea of perfection entertained by humanistic scholars. Attempts to accommodate the two points of view have so far met with limited success. To rough out a definition of culture that will be immediately useful to language teachers, statements are made as to what culture is not, viz.: geography, history, folklore, sociology, literature, civilization. Five meanings of culture are identified: growth, refinement, fine arts, patterns of living, and a total way of life. The fourth meaning refers to the role of the individual in life situations of every kind and his conformity to the rules and models for attitude and conduct in them. This meaning is seen as the most immediately useful in instruction. The third and fifth meanings gain in importance as language competence develops. A dual interpretation of culture is recommended, both scientific and humanistic, and an outline for each is suggested. A number of ways of applying these recommendations in classroom procedure are set forth. A list of proposals invites discussion and development of these ideas leading to wide professional acceptance.
TL;DR: The Bilingualism for All: Two-Way Immersion Education in the United States as mentioned in this paper was the first two-way immersion education in the US, focusing on bilingualism for all.
Abstract: (2000). Bilingualism for All: Two-Way Immersion Education in the United States. Theory Into Practice: Vol. 39, Children and Languages at School, pp. 258-266.
TL;DR: This paper found that the incidental vocabulary learning stemming from reading is an essential complement to the explicit teaching of vocabulary (e.g., Coady & Huckin, 1997; Schmitt & McCarthy, 1997).
Abstract: Vocabulary Learning and Narrow Reading There is a consensus that the incidental vocabulary learning stemming from reading is an essential complement to the explicit teaching of vocabulary (e.g., Coady & Huckin, 1997; Schmitt & McCarthy, 1997). A major reason for this consensus is that the number of words necessary for effective language use is greater than that which can be taught easily (although see Meara , 1995, 1998, for a rebuttal to the limitations of vocabulary teaching). Estimates for the number of words required vary from about 2,000 for everyday oral ability (Schonell, Meddleton, & Shaw, 1956) to 10,000 or more for reading academic texts (Hazenberg & Hulstijn, 1996). Another reason is that a reader must know a very high percentage of words in any text in order to either obtain the gist of the passage or to guess the meaning of any unknown words. The exact percentage depends on factors such as background knowledge of the text topic and purpose of reading, but figures of95% or higher are normally suggested. These high percentage figures translate into the necessity of knowing approximately 5,000 words to begin to read authentic texts (Hirsh & Nation, 1992). Language instructors would have trouble teaching this number of words in any explicit way. In all likelihood, they will be able to teach only a small percentage of these words in class, so the rest need to be met and learned in exposure activities outside the
TL;DR: This article conducted a longitudinal study of 9 preschool-aged children, all meeting the criteria for specific language impairment (SLI), and found that language growth was documented while the children we...
Abstract: A retrospective longitudinal study of 9 preschool-aged children, all meeting the criteria for specific language impairment (SLI), was conducted. Language growth was documented while the children we...
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The use of computer technology is described in some ongoing investigations in which the author participates to the acquisition of automaticity in L2 reading, writing, and listening, and to the use of electronic bilingual dictionaries.
Abstract: This paper first gives a brief characterization of the ways in which second-language acquisition researchers use the computer to elicit L2 production data or to record how L2 learners process L2 input. Eight tasks and/or techniques are described; most of them borrowed from the experimental toolbox of psychologists. The paper then describes the use of computer technology in some ongoing investigations in which the author participates. These investigations pertain to the acquisition of automaticity in L2 reading, writing, and listening, and to the use of electronic bilingual dictionaries.
TL;DR: It is plausible that human language arises in biologically based ways that are quite comparable to those directing other aspects of the structure of the organism.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract Developments in the study of language and cognition give increasing credibility to the view that human knowledge of natural language results from—and is made possible by—a biologically determined capacity specific both to this domain and to our species. The functional properties of this capacity develop along a regular maturational path, such that it seems more appropriate to speak of knowledge of our own language as growing rather than as being learned. That our learning of language results from a specific innate capacity rather than by general mechanisms of induction is supported by the extent to which we can be shown to know things that we could not have learned from observation of any plausible available teaching. The domainspecificity of the language faculty is supported by the many dissociations that can be observed between control of language structure and other cognitive functions. Finally, the species-specificity of the human language faculty is supported by the observation that (absen...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors apply the semiotic language framework to organize the disparate findings on language impairment in DAT, using the hierarchical ranks of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics.
Abstract: Objective:Progressive memory impairment is the primary cognitive feature of Alzheimer's disease. Systematic attention to progressive language impairment is under-appreciated. The purpose of this article is to apply the semiotic language framework to organize the disparate findings on language impairment in DAT.Method:The semiotic system is hierarchical, going from simple to more complex units of language, with the hierarchical ranks of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics. This language hierarchy is used as an organizing tool to provide a context for the discrete data on language decline in DAT. Studies relating to language impairment in DAT were identified through an exhaustive computerized search (Medline and Psych Info Database) of available literature spanning the last forty years in which 615 references were examined. Papers were selected for review if reference were made to any one or more of the language parameters of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, or to any components or indicators ...
TL;DR: This paper examined L1 vocabulary decline by a child whose native language input effectively ceased after her immersion into the L2 environment and found that three groups of words showed high vulnerability to forgetting: high frequency words, cognates, and semantically convergent pairs.
Abstract: The longitudinal study reported in the present paper examines L1 vocabulary decline by a child whose native language input effectively ceased after her immersion into the L2 environment. The subject of the study was a Russian girl adopted by an American family, brought to the USA, and completely isolated from any contact with the Russian-speaking environment. The analysis of the data was based on the results of picture naming tasks and reaction time measurements. Three groups of words showed high vulnerability to forgetting: high frequency words, cognates, and semantically convergent pairs (pairs of words lexically distinguished in L2 and non-distinguished in L1). Fast forgetting of these lexical items in L1 was related to the acquisition of their equivalents in L2. The comparison of noun versus verb retention/acquisition suggested that there might be a delay in L1 verb forgetting / L2 verb acquisition at the early stage of an extensive exposure to the second language.
01 Dec 2000
TL;DR: This paper showed that language learning is a natural phenomenon; it occurs even without intervention and that by understanding how the brain learns naturally, language teachers may be better able to enhance their effectiveness in the classroom.
Abstract: There has been a longstanding interest among second and foreign language educators in research on language and the brain. Language learning is a natural phenomenon; it occurs even without intervention. By understanding how the brain learns naturally, language teachers may be better able to enhance their effectiveness in the classroom.
TL;DR: The authors found that the electronic version of dialogue journals had a significantly positive effect on the amount of language generated by the students, and that it improved students' attitude towards learning and practicing the target language.
Abstract: This article describes an experiment that observed the effects of dialogue journaling through electronic mail on the language produced by learners of Spanish as a second language, compared with the paper-and-pencil version of the technique. The authors statistically analyzed the quality and quantity of discourse generated via the electronic and the traditional (i.e., paper-and-pencil) medium. The primary objective was to determine whether the use of electronic mail had any effect on grammatical accuracy, appropriate use of vocabulary, and language productivity. In addition, the participants completed a written survey at the end of the semester that elicited their opinions of the program's effectiveness. It was found that the electronic version of dialogue journals had a significantly positive effect on the amount of language generated by the students, and that it improved students' attitude towards learning and practicing the target language. However, the electronic version of dialogue journals did not seem to pose any significant advantage over the paper-and-pencil version with regard to lexical and grammatical accuracy.