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published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

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Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) allows designers to control for rate of speech and the amount and kinds of control learners have over playback in listening comprehension exercises for second language (L2) learners. Research shows that slower rates of speech can improve listening comprehension (Chaudron, 1988; Zhao, 1997), as can pausing (Zhao, 1997). Jensen and Vinther's (2003) work suggests that, in listening comprehension training, slower speeds can help improve L2 learners' comprehension of grammatical structures.This study examined the influence of different rates of speech and learner controls in a CALL environment. The study used a pretest--training--posttest design. All subjects were pre-tested on listening comprehension on both slow (135 words per minute) and fast (180 words per minute) dialogues. They also performed a maze task as a pretest. Then the participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions for ten training sessions: A) trained on only fast dialogues, B) trained on only slow dialogues, C) given a choice of speed for the second playback during the lessons, and D) given an option to pause playback when listening the second time. Posttests followed training. Data were also collected through surveys and interviews, allowing the issues of CALL design and communication and learning strategy use to be investigated as well.The data support the previous research but also suggest that design features can affect L2 learners either positively or negatively. This study, which was done with Chilean, college-level students of English as a foreign language (EFL), has implications for CALL design and classroom teaching, as well as language testing. These are discussed, as are suggestions for future research.

Recent work has shown the importance of identity in language learning and how the desire to belong to an imagined community drives individuals to invest in their learning (Norton, 2000). This work has documented that a mismatch between students' imagined community and the community envisioned by the teacher can have negative outcomes on students' learning trajectories. Other research has explored how institutional policies and their linked educational practices reflect differences in the imagined communities each institution sees their students potentially joining in the future (Kanno, 2003) and how reading materials and the discourses reflected in them can affect learners' visions of themselves(Pavlenko, 2003). However few studies have tried to document how an `imagined community' might be collectively constructed for others through a complex interaction of social and cultural structures, circulating discourses, institutional discourses, educational practices, group dynamics and personal histories that produce visions of potential identities (I) and their respective imagined communities (IC's) in which newcomers get socialized. There is a gap in current research on how `imagined communities' and `identities' for second language learners get constructed, circulated and made available to learners within institutional contexts.Through this qualitative study involving questionnaires and autobiographical research I studied the construction of imagined communities in an English language major in Mexico. I explored how professional identities and their related imagined communities are collectively constructed and made available to students in order to understand how institutions, programs administrators and faculty members could enhance the spread of successful professional identities and inspire/stimulate L2 speakers in their educational and professional trajectories.

In general, L2 learners have great difficulty mastering aspects of grammar in the second language. For example, Chinese-speaking ESL learners often fail to mark past tense in their speaking and writing (Aaronson & Ferres, 1987; Bayley, 1991; Bean & Gergen, 1990; Jia & Fuse, 2007; Krashen & Pon, 1975; Lardiere, 1998; Wei, 2000), and there are some suggestions in the literature that Chinese learners of English never master English tense (Lardiere, 1998). One question that arises is whether the failure to learn to use the past tense is due to a failure of competence or a failure of performance. If the former, then Chinese-speaking ESL learners should show such failures in all tasks including comprehension tasks.However, little research has investigated L2 comprehension of tense marking in reading. The studies (Gass, 2001; Guillelmon & Grosjean, 2001; Jiang, 2004, 2007) have showed that late L2 learners are not sensitive to certain types of grammatical marking. They have poor inflectional comprehension. It is possible that Chinese English-language learners are insensitive to grammatical violation involving tense during reading. This dissertation tests this idea.A group of English-proficient college students from Fu-Jen University in Taiwan was tested in a number of tasks. In paper-and-pencil tests, Chinese English-language learners showed knowledge of the past tense forms and the appropriate contexts for their usage. This suggests that past tense marking is learnable. Chinese English-language learners can acquire this knowledge. Does the relative mastery of past tense show up in comprehension in a similar L2 population? A reading comprehension test that measured reading time to sequential segments of a sentence indicated that unlike native speakers of English who were tested, Chinese English-language learners were insensitive to grammatical violation involving tense. This finding is consistent with the other studies, indicating that L2 learners are insensitive to grammatical marking during reading.Overall, it appears that high-functioning Chinese English-language learners can learn almost the proper way to use tense, but fail to do so during performance.

Abstract It is unclear how L2 students acquire vocabulary – how is it taught – or wheather it can even be taught. In an SSL (Swedish as second language) program for young adults the ambition has been to integrate the L2 students’ into the national high school (gymnasium) courses as quickly as possible, in order to meet the students’ demands for subject education and to challenge them on an appropriate knowledge level. Teachers noticed quite early that the course – integrated L2 students seemed to have a deeper understanding of words and an easier flow in their speech. The study was conducted to map and learn more about the differences in vocabulary with L2 students who were integrated in the national L1 programs in several subjects and L2 students who have chosen to focus, in an isolated group, on SSL only. How does the students’ vocabulary evolve in relation to time? The study is based on the vocabulary knowledge scale as the methodological tool and Stephen Krashen’s monitor model as the theoretical practice, and in particular the input hypothesis and the hypothesis of acquisition and learning in combination with Pauline Gibbons’s methodologies in scaffolding. In the study the test results of eight SSL students are compared; four of the students have chosen to integrate with the L1 classes and four of them have chosen not to integrate with the L1 students. We will show that students that participate in national “high school” courses on the same premises as the L1 students will, through exposure to vocabulary in text books, lectures and post scaffolding, learn their vocabulary at a faster and higher rate than students who focus on the structural functions and, often non-contextual, vocabulary training alone.

This thesis studies the problem of language learnability in relation to two different but related sets of structures in Spanish, both involving multifunctional clitic pronouns. The first of these is the reflexive clitic se which is used in impersonal and inchoative constructions. The second is the dative clitic le which appears in certain clitic doubling constructions. In both cases the structures exhibit subtle properties which cannot be readily inferred from the input. / In the first place, this study provides a syntactic analysis of the structures related to each of these clitics. Regarding the first of these, the reflexive se, it is suggested that it can be generated in at least two functional positions: as the head of AgrO in impersonal constructions, and as the head of Inner Aspect in the case of inchoatives. In the impersonal construction the theme argument NP moves to check case and &phis; features with se in AgrO, thus triggering agreement on the verb. In the case of the inchoative, the NP moves into the specifier of AgrS. Thus, the NP in the impersonal construction is an object with some subject-like properties, which derive from agreement with the verb. The NP in the inchoative construction is a subject. / Regarding the dative clitic le, it is generated as the head of Inner Aspect. The NP which is stranded after a preposition incorporates into the verb must move to Inner Aspect to check case and &phis; features with le. As a result, the NP is interpreted as affected. The process of incorporation in Spanish is subject to several constraints which fall out naturally from this account. / In the second place, the problem of learnability is investigated empirically in relation to second language acquisition (SLA) with two empirical studies which look at the grammar of speakers who appear to have reached an end state in their second language. The tasks used in these studies were designed to test the speakers' knowledge of the properties related to the two multifunctional clitics. The subjects included two groups of near-native Spanish speakers, that is, speakers who can pass or almost pass for native speakers, but who learned Spanish as a second language after puberty. One group was made up of English speakers, the other of French speakers. The reason for choosing near-natives is that data from learners who appear to have reached a very high level of proficiency are crucial in determining whether adult learners can in fact acquire a grammar which is indistinguishable from a native speaker grammar. It has been suggested [Bley-Vroman, 1990] that L2 learning is fundamentally different from L1 acquisition and that, as a result, the final state L2 grammar differs in important ways from native speaker grammars. This thesis argues against this position. Results show that L2 learners are able to acquire subtle properties not evident in the input. This suggests that L2 acquisition is constrained by Universal Grammar in the same way as L1 acquisition is.