Doing the research

Language learning

02-90 Altaha, F. M. and Al-Easa, Noor S. (The U. of Qatar, Doha, The State Of Qatar). Attitude and achievement in learning English as a foreign language. ITL Review of Applied Linguistics (Leuven, Belgium), 133-134 (2001), 303-23.

This study investigated the attitudes of Qatari female university students towards English and its speakers, and towards the role of the teacher and the role of the family, in order to determine the influence of these attitudes on the students' achievement in learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The results showed that the participants had a positive attitude towards English and its speakers. It also showed that there was no significant correlation between the attitudes of the learners and their achievement. Another conclusion drawn from the data is that the students were instrumentally, not integratively, motivated: they did not want to associate themselves with the target language group and integrate themselves into the new culture; the primary motivating factors for learning English were to get a job, further their careers, read original publications, watch English series and movies, trade, and most importantly, travel abroad, which is seen as a status symbol.

02-91 Altenberg, Bengt (Lund U., Sweden) and Granger, Sylviane (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium). The grammatical and lexical patterning of MAKE in native and non-native student writing. Applied Linguistics (Oxford, UK), 22, 2 (2001), 173-94.

This article investigates the use of high frequency verbs by learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), and in particular use of the verb MAKE, a major representative of this group. The main questions addressed are whether learners tend to over- or underuse these verbs; whether high-frequency verbs are error-prone or safe; and what part transfer plays in misuse of these verbs. To answer these questions, authentic learner data has been compared with native speaker data using computerised corpora and linguistic software tools to speed up the initial stage of the linguistic analysis. The article focuses on what prove to be the two most distinctive uses of MAKE, viz., the delexical and causative uses. Results show that EFL learners, even at an advanced proficiency level, have great difficulty with a high frequency verb such as MAKE. They also demonstrate that some of these problems are shared by the two groups of learners under consideration (Swedish- and French-speaking learners) while others seem to be first language-related. The pedagogical implications of the study are discussed and suggestions made for using concordance-based exercises as a way of raising learners' awareness of the complexity of high-frequency verbs.

02-92 Ayoun, Dalila (U. of Arizona, USA) The role of negative and positive feedback in the second language acquisition of the passé composéand imparfait. The Modern Language Journal (Malden, MA, USA), 85, 2 (2001), 226-43.

This study tests the effectiveness of written recasts versus models in the acquisition of the aspectual distinction between two past tenses in French, the passé composé and the imparfait, with a pretest, repeated exposure, and post-test design. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: R (recasting: implicit negative feedback), M (modelling: pre-emptive positive evidence), and G (grammar: explicit positive evidence and negative feedback).The M and R groups read a different story with illustrations each week: (a) in the M condition, participants were shown a sentence corresponding to the illustration for three seconds, then were asked to answer a related question; (b) in the R condition, participants formed a sentence with given elements based on the illustration, then were exposed to the correct answer for three seconds; (c) the G group read traditional grammar lessons, took a short practice, and were presented with the answer key. Post-test results reveal that the R group performed significantly better than the G group but not the M group, partially supporting the hypothesis that recasting is the most effective form of feedback.

02-93 Berndt, Annette (Gesamthochschule Kassel, Germany). Subjektive Theorien zweier Fremdsprachenlernerinnen im Seniorenalter. [Subjective Theories in two third-age foreign language learners.] Zeitschrift für Fremdsprachenforschung (Berlin, Germany), 11, 2 (2000), 93-124.

The study described here is part of a more comprehensive investigation into third-age language learning. The sample consists of learners of German as a foreign language at one of the Université della Terza Eté in Rome. The article firstly positions Subjective Theories as research method within the framework of present methodological discussion. The author then illustrates the application of this method in its adapted form in the context of her own research. In a third step she gives a succinct presentation of the entire corpus with detailed focus on two particular learners and their Subjective Theories of language learning. The article concludes with a discussion of the extent to which communicative validation - which is the first access to the model of Subjective Theories - may enhance the interpretation of empirical data compared to qualitative interviews in this particular case.

02-94 Bley-Vroman, Robert and Joo, Hye-Ri (U. of Hawai'i, USA). The acquisition and interpretation of English locative constructions by native speakers of Korean. Studies in Second Language Acquisition (New York, USA), 23, 2 (2001), 207-19.

The English locative alternation relates sentences of the type John loaded hay onto the wagon to those of the type John loaded the wagon with hay. Some locative verbs occur in both of these patterns, others in only one or the other. It is known that there are differences among languages with respect to which verbs are possible. The present research focuses on the constructional meaning of the locative alternation and on the constraints governing verbs that can participate in the alternation. One characteristic of the 'ground-object' locative is that the object tends to be viewed as completely affected - this is known as the holism effect. Additionally, English has certain narrow constraints on the verbs that can occur in the two constructions. This study investigates whether native speakers of Korean learning English develop knowledge of the holism effect in the English locative and knowledge of the narrow constraints. English native speakers and Korean learners of English participated in a forced-choice picture-description task. Korean native speakers also judged an equivalent test instrument in Korean. Results show that, when given a ground-object structure, both learners and English native speakers preferentially chose a groundholism picture.This is interpreted as a reflection of the holism effect: learners, like native speakers, have knowledge of this aspect of the constructional meaning of the locative. English native speakers also show their knowledge of the narrow conflation classes by rejecting ground-object structures containing verbs not permitted in this structure, even if the picture would be appropriate. Korean learners show no effect for narrow verb class, which is interpreted as showing that the learners have not achieved native speaker knowledge of the narrow classes. Korean uses a different basis for verb classification.

02-95 Boulton, Alex (Université de Nancy 2, France). From oxidation to Paf the Dog: mental images of student engineers in English vocabulary association and retention. ASp (Anglais de Spécialité) (Bordeaux, France), 27/30 (2000), 33-47.

Vocabulary is commonly held to be one of the biggest and most daunting obstacles facing second language (L2) learners. This observation is no doubt due at least in part to the prevalence of inadequate techniques. Many applied linguists have therefore directed their efforts towards exploiting the widely-confirmed psychological phenomenon that durability of memory traces is intimately connected with the affective strength of mental images and associations. This article describes two experiments, analysing types of images and associations spontaneously produced by English L2 learners without specific training. In the first experiment, a 'random' list of words is presented visually, and recall rates used to demonstrate a variety of psychological phenomena. In the second study, students are tested for production and subsequent recall of lexical associations. Implications are formulated for lexical strategies and for the teaching and learning of L2 vocabulary.

Teachers and learners are often uncertain about the processes at work when students attempt to acquire oral skills in a foreign language. The primary objective of this study is to identify the language-learning strategies associated with the achievement of higher levels of oral proficiency in German for 100 Irish students about to complete their second year at Dublin City University. It also investigates the way these strategies are used by those with higher and lower levels of proficiency. The methodology combines quantitative assessment (using questionnaires) with in-depth, qualitative interviews. The article begins by explaining key concepts in the field of language learning strategy research and then reviews a selection of relevant studies. The experiment is then described, the results indicating that more-proficient students use more language-learning strategies, in particular more cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Ten of the strategies correlate with higher levels of oral proficiency at a significant level. These provide a tentative strategic profile of the more effective learner of German. The qualitative findings suggest that more proficient students use language-learning strategies in a more structured and purposeful manner and apply them to a wider range of situations and tasks. The article concludes with implications for language pedagogy and for future research.

02-97 Dekydtspotter, Laurent (Indiana U., USA;). The Universal Parser and interlanguage: domain-specific mental organisation in the comprehension of combien interrogatives in English-French interlanguage. Second Language Research (London, UK), 17, 2 (2001), 91-143.

From the perspective of Fodor's (1983) theory of mental organisation and Chomsky's (1995) Minimalist theory of grammar, the present author considers constraints on the interpretation of French-type and English-type cardinality interrogatives in the task of sentence comprehension, as a function of a universal parsing algorithm (Universal Parser) and hypotheses embodied in a French-type vs. English-type functional lexicon respectively. It is argued on the basis of the n Language learning interpretation of cardinality interrogatives in English- French interlanguage that second language comprehension appears to require this view of mental organisation in which a universal parsing algorithm interacts with an interlanguage lexicon. Specifically, it is argued that the Minimalist view of mental organisation in the area of grammar provides some insight into the basis of these constraints in mental functioning.

02-98 Dekydtspotter, Laurent and Sprouse, Rex A. (Indiana U., USA). Mental design and (second) language epistemology: adjectival restrictions of wh-quantifiers and tense in English-French interlanguage. Second Language Research (London, UK), 17, 1 (2001), 1-35.

This study addresses the issue of second language (L2) epistemology assuming Chomsky's (1995) discussion of the place of Universal Grammar (UG) in mental design: i.e., the optimal solution to the mental design problem for language in the sense of Minimalist theory. Aspects of interpretation of continuous and discontinuous interrogatives of the form qui de AP ('who (of) AP') in first language and L2 acquisition appear to follow from principles of economy in mental design and language-dependent hypotheses. It is argued here that such knowledge is guaranteed to arise in the absence of relevant input only if a grammar is a realisation of language-dependent hypotheses and basic principles of grammar, but crucially not if it consists of a set of (derivative) grammatical theorems not constrained by principles of optimal design.

02-99 Derwing, Tracey (U. of Alberta, Canada; E) and Munro, Murray J. (Simon Fraser U., Canada). What speaking rates do nonnative listeners prefer? Applied Linguistics (Oxford, UK), 22, 3 (2001), 324-37.

This study reports on an experiment in which two groups of English as a Second Language (ESL) participants (native Mandarin listeners and a mixed group of speakers of other languages) used a nine-point scale ranging from 'too slow' to 'too fast' to assess the appropriateness of the speech rate of narratives read by native English speakers and Mandarin learners of English. The narratives were played to listeners at their unmodified rates and at three computer-manipulated rates: all passages were adjusted to the Mean Mandarin rate, the Mean English rate, and a Reduced Rate, 10 per cent slower than the Mean Mandarin rate. In general, the modifications did not result in improvements in the ratings. However, the listeners did tend to assign better ratings to accelerated (compared with natural rate) productions from the slowest Mandarin speakers. Regression analyses projected that the Mandarin-speaking listeners would prefer the same 'ideal' rate for Mandarin accented speech that they did for native English speech, while the other ESL learners would prefer Mandarin accented English to be spoken at a rate slower than native English speech but faster than the Mandarin speakers' natural rate. This result may reflect a difference in processing costs for familiar and unfamiliar accents. Taken together with the results of other studies, these findings suggest that the admonition to second language learners to 'slow down' is unlikely to be a broadly beneficial strategy.

02-100 Dobinson, Toni (Curtin U. of Technology, Perth, Western Australia). Do learners learn from classroom interaction and does the teacher have a role to play? Language Teaching Research (London, UK), 5, 3 (2001), 189-211.

This article describes a study that sought to investigate possible links between classroom interaction and the learning of new vocabulary. Twenty-four learners, all but one from Asian backgrounds, were asked to report the new words they could recall immediately after their lessons. They were then tested at two-weekly and six weekly intervals for retention of the new vocabulary items. Following this, transcripts of the classroom interaction in each lesson were examined closely to see if connections could be established between teacher-student interaction, student-student interaction and the recall/retention of new vocabulary. The study found both positive and negative links between mentioning new words, repeating new words, focusing upon new words, turn-taking around new words and the recall and retention of new vocabulary. It was also found that learners recalled vocabulary items that the teacher intended to teach and which were made pivotal to the interaction of the lesson, as well as items that arose spontaneously during the lesson.

This study explores the issue of language use in native and non-native speakers of French by taking an in-depth look at contextualization, thereby introducing a novel approach for rethinking the issue of language use and context with second language (L2) learners. A rich data base, involving videotaped interactions as well as retrospective interviews, allowed the capture of participants' viewpoints with respect to what they were producing and what they were perceived to be producing during their conversational encounters. This was achieved with a microanalysis of interaction starting from the observation of contextualization cues. The results show that contextualization cues are instrumental in contributing to the construction both of context and of the message. The outcome of the research provides insight into how students learning an L2 and their teacher interact, and suggests that they need to develop a better awareness and understanding of contextualization cues.