Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Hamburg, 2001. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-80).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-106).

This report investigates the amount and types of feedback that are produced on the social language learning site Livemocha.com in response to learners’ written and oral productions. The data are 200 speaking and writing activity submissions with a total of 674 reviewer comments and 1,357 feedback tokens. Feedback is separated into 19 categories which take into account interpersonal communication as well as task-based and grammatical information. More than one-third of all feedback tokens consist of the reviewer encouraging, congratulating, or otherwise offering emotional support to the learner. This strongly indicates that Livemocha.com users are not solely focused on the mechanics of learning languages, but also are creating a welcoming community of practice. / text

The current study aims to investigate the source(s)of cross linguistic influence(CLI)on the production of future encoding strategies by L1 Cantonese learners of L3 Swedish who speak L2 English. In the literature of third language acquisition (TLA) research, the language status of native and non-native languages as well as genetic and (psycho)typological language distance are identified to be important to TLA processes but the current knowledge is insufficient to inform which factor(s) is/are more influential. Given the close genetic distance between English and Swedish and the status of English as a second language, it is hypothesized that CLI on L3 Swedish comes from L2 English rather than L1 Cantonese. Any confirmation or rejection to this hypothesis serves to inform the relationship of language status and language distance to TLA. To test this hypothesis, linguistic background questionnaire and a picture elicitation task are designed to record the production of future ideas in the three languages. Through qualitative and quantitative analyses, mixed sources of CLI from Cantonese and English are identified. An equidistance representation of non-native languages is also identified in which non-native English and Swedish respectively show similar degree of cross linguistic matching in relation to native Cantonese regardless which of them is the principal source of CLI. The hypothesis of differentiation of linguistic representation in the minds of polyglots is therefore proposed and further verification and investigation is required. / published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

When revising the curriculum for the Swedish upper secondary school in 2011, language-learning strategies were added to the description of the subject of English. It was also added to the core content and to the grading criteria, which in its turn has added a new dimension to teaching and assessing L2. By problematizing the teachers’ subjective views on assessment of these new criteria, the hypothesis, according to which teachers find assessing language learning strategies, in English 5, difficult, is discussed. Skolverket’s policy documents, the Common European Framework of Reference scale (CEFR scale) and researchers’ findings are compared to the teachers’ views. In order to provide an image of how teachers interpret the new assessment guidelines, and how teachers interpret problems related to assessment, six teachers from different upper secondary schools have been interviewed on their opinions about language-learning strategies. The interviews indicate that even though teachers are positive to the inclusion of language-learning strategies in the course description, the strategies are difficult to detect. One consequence is that the results of strategy use are assessed rather than actual strategy use.

During the past few decades, there has been increasing attention to multimodal adaptive language learning interface design. The purpose of this study was to examine users’ experiences with a chatbot language learning interface through the lens of cognitive emotions and emotions in learning. A particular focus of this study was on users’ interactions with a chatbot in a public setting and in a private environment. Focusing on the event of users’ interaction with a chatbot interface, seventy-five interactions were videotaped in this study, in which fifteen users were asked to interact with the chatbot “Lucy” for their language learning. The video-stimulated post interaction interviews with participants provided complementary data for understanding their experiences with the language learning system. Analysis of twenty-five interactions selected from a total of seventy-five revealed five main factors of chatbot language tutor interface design and their relative significance in the process of users’ meaning making and knowledge construction. Findings showed that users’ sensory, emotional, cultural, linguistic and relational engagement influenced their responses to the chatbot interface, which in turn, shaped their learning processes. Building on a theoretical framework of cognitive emotions and emotions in learning, this study documented users’ language learning processes with the chatbot language learning interface by investigating users’ experiences. The findings and techniques resulting from this study will help designers and researchers achieve a better understanding of users’ experiences with technology and the role of emotions in the processes of learning when using technology and assist them to improve the design of language learning environments.

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No description available.

The goal of the research was to discover which type of input and instruction best facilitates the acquisition of syntax in adult learners. An artificial miniature language was used to model real second language to control precisely the type of input, conditions of exposure and instruction accompanying that input. Performance of learners under four input conditions was compared and analogies were drawn between these conditions and those experienced by adult second language learners (L2 learners). 'Instructed' learners Z): like formally instructed L2 learners were systematically taught the rules of the language. 'Exposure' learners saw example sentences and were asked to search for rules, the conditions of their input analogous to that of 'naturalistic' L2 learners who receive no formal instruction but who make conscious efforts to search for rules. 'Memorisation' learners received the same input as that presented to the exposure learners but were asked to memorise the sentencesT. hey were seena s analogoust o naturalistic L2 learners who do not search for the rules and the conditions of input were modelled on those claimed to induce implicit learning. 'Cued' learners received input which contained cross-sentential cues to underlying phrasal structure. They were modelled on naturalistic learners whose input contains such cues and who make efforts to search for rules. Performance was compared on both grammaticality judgement and free production tasks. No overall superiority in performance was observed for any of the input conditions. An interaction between input type and rule complexity was evident in which the amount of information received regarding the rules related positively to performance on. the less salient, more complex rules. It was proposed that the findings could be explained in terms of a 'noticing' hypothesis, in which noticing of features is considered a pre-requisite for acquisition. Theories of second and artificial language learning which have stipulated that complex rules can only be learned implicitly were not supported.