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No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) A INTERFERÊNCIA DA L1 SOBRE A L2 - CARLA MOTA - VERSÃO FINAL.pdf: 604380 bytes, checksum: b0fd07c328ad927252597508fd1b921f (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A discussão sobre como acontece a aquisição de uma segunda língua (L2) e em que medida a língua materna (L1) pode interferir neste processo tem se mostrado bastante produtiva e complexa na literatura. O PB tem sido considerado uma língua parcialmente pro drop, segundo Duarte (1995) por apresentar a preferência pelo preenchimento de sujeitos referenciais. Já o espanhol, segundo Pinheiro-Correa (2010), caracteriza-se como uma língua pro drop prototípica por preencher o sujeito em situações específicas, como as de foco contrastivo ou quando aparecem complementos apositivos ou adjetivais. Estas diferenças relacionadas ao preenchimento do sujeito sintático entre o PB e o espanhol permitiram uma comparação, à luz da teoria de Princípios e Parâmetros (P&P) (CHOMSKY, 1981, 1995, 2011), por meio de uma abordagem metodológica da psicolinguística experimental, com o intuito de investigar o processamento das estruturas de sujeito nulo e pleno em falantes nativos do PB e do espanhol e verificar se há transferência do PB na aquisição de espanhol como L2 com relação ao preenchimento do sujeito pronominal e, ainda, se tal transferência é anulada e substituída pelo parâmetro da língua alvo durante o curso do aprendizado da L2. Para isso, foram realizados dois experimentos off-line de produção induzida que consistiam na continuação de pequenas narrativas incompletas em espanhol divididas em quatro condições experimentais (1ª e 3ª pessoas do singular e 1ª e 3ª pessoas do plural), ambos foram realizados com aprendizes de espanhol como L2. O experimento I contou com alunos do curso de idiomas Prolem e o experimento II contou com alunos da graduação da Universidade Federal Fluminense, além disso, os dados de um grupo de nativos (controle) foram utilizados nos dois experimentos. Coube aos participantes experimentais divididos em três níveis de proficiência (básico, intermediário e avançado) continuar as 12 pequenas narrativas experimentais com duas ou três palavras apenas. A hipótese que orientou este trabalho é a de que o parâmetro do sujeito nulo da L1 seja transferido para a L2, tendo sua interferência diminuída em função do aumento da proficiência na língua-alvo. Todos os resultados foram submetidos ao teste estatístico qui-quadrado e indicaram que o valor do parâmetro do sujeito nulo do PB, como L1, parece ser transferido para o espanhol como L2 mais visivelmente em aprendizes do curso de idiomas, mas que o mesmo acontece em menor escala com os aprendizes de espanhol, como L2, alunos da graduação e, ainda, que a interferência entre estas línguas parece diminuir em função do aumento da proficiência na língua-alvo de acordo com os resultados dos dois experimentos / The discussion on how the acquisition of a second language (L2) happens and the extent that the mother language (L1) can interfere in this process is being very productive and complex in literature. BP (Brazilian Portuguese) is being considered a partially pro drop language, according to Duarte (1995) because it presents the preference for filling reference subjects. Spanish, according to Pinheiro-Correa (2010), is characterized as a prototypical pro drop language because it fills the subject in specific situations, such as contrastive focus or when appositive or adjectival complements appear. These differences related to the fulfillment of the syntactical subject between BP and Spanish allowed a comparison, in according to the theory of Principles and Parameters (P&P) (CHOMSKY, 1981, 1995, 2011), through the methodological approach of the experimental psycholinguistics, in order to investigate the processing of structures of null and full subject in native speakers of BP and Spanish and check for transfer from BP in the acquisition of Spanish as L2 in relation to the completion of the subject pronoun, and even if such transfer is canceled and replaced by the target language parameter during the L2 learning course. For this, we performed two off-line experiments of induced production that consisted of the continuation of short narratives incomplete in Spanish divided into four experimental conditions (1st and 3rd person of singular and 1st and 3rd person of plural), both were conducted with apprentices of Spanish as L2. The experiment I had students of the language course Prolem and experiment II had undergraduate students of Universidade Federal Fluminense, in addition, data from a group of native speakers (control) were used in both experiments. It was up to the experimental participants divided into three proficiency levels (basic, intermediate and advanced) to continue 12 small experimental narratives with two or three words only. The hypothesis that guided this work is that the L1 null subject parameter is transferred to L2, and its interference is decreased due to the increased proficiency in the target language. All results were submitted to the statistical test chi-square test and they indicated that the parameter value of the null subject of BP, as L1, seems to be transferred to the Spanish as L2 most visibly in the learners language course, but it is also true in smaller scale with learners of Spanish as L2, graduate students, and also the interference between these languages seems to decrease due to increased proficiency in the target language according to the results of two experiments

Cette thèse s’inscrit au sein des recherches sur l’acquisition de la temporalité. Elle vise à étudier l’acquisition et l’expression de la temporalité en français par les apprenants persanophones. L’objectif majeur étant d’identifier et de décrire les moyens linguistiques de transmettre l’information temporelle par nos sujets enquêtés. Notre recherche se concentre particulièrement sur les moyens de référence au « passé ». La description de la temporalité se caractérise par deux aspects : la référence à la morphologie verbale d’une part et le recours aux moyens pragmatiques (le lexique, les adverbes temporels, le principe de raconter les événements dans l’ordre de leur occurrence) d’autre part. La morphologie verbale et son développement se trouvent au cœur des analyses des données recueillies. Les formes verbales sont examinées dans une perspective formelle et fonctionnelle tout en s’appuyant sur une méthode fonctionnaliste. L’enquête de terrain a été conduite auprès de trois apprenantes iraniennes qui résident en France. Il s’agit d’un corpus longitudinal (oral et écrit) afin de relever les traces du développement progressif dans l’acquisition de la temporalité. Nous nous interrogeons notamment sur les étapes de développement morphologique dans la description de la temporalité. Les résultats des analyses favorisent non seulement l’étude comparative de trois apprenantes, mais aussi leur confrontation avec les apprenants d’autres recherches menées en différentes langues sources et cibles. L’objectif principal est de mettre en lumière les phénomènes permanents dans l’acquisition de la temporalité en L2. / This thesis is in the field of research on the acquisition of temporality. It aims at studying the acquisition and the expression of French temporality by the persanophones learning. The major goal is to identify and describe the average linguistics to transmit temporal information by our surveyed subjects. Our research concentrates particularly on the means of reference to the « past ». Two aspects characterize the temporality description: the reference to verbal morphology on the one hand and the recourse to the pragmatic means (the lexicon, adverbs temporal, the principle of telling the events in the order of their occurrence) on the other hand. Verbal morphology and its development are in the centre of the data analyses collected. The verbal forms are examined in the formal and functional prospect, all while being based on a functionalist method. The fieldwork has been conducted near three Iranian learning French who resides in France.! It is a question of a longitudinal corpus (oral and writing) in order to raise the traces of the progressive development in the acquisition of temporality. We wonder in particular about the stages of morphological development in the description of temporality. The results of the analyses support not only the comparative study of three learning, but also their confrontation with learning from other research undertaken in various source and target languages. The main aim is to clarify the permanent phenomena in the acquisition of temporality in L2.

Abstract It has been claimed that teachers who possess a low level of self-efficacy may impede the learning process for students. When teachers do not possess a high self-efficacy, they may not believe strongly in their own ability to teach, which could in turn lead to unmotivated students in the second language classroom. The purpose of this research is to examine in what way the self-efficacy of Swedish L2 teachers of English influences their way of teaching in the second language classroom both in terms of how it affects their approach to teaching and how it affects the strategies and methods they choose touse in the classroom to strengthen their own students’ self-efficacy. The study uses a qualitative research method. Data was collected through questionnaires, classroom observations and follow-up questionnaires with five English teachers in Southern Sweden. Findings of the study suggest that teachers' with a high level of self-efficacy more positively influence their teaching approach than those who possess a low level of self-efficacy, which can impede their way of teaching. It was also found that the strategies teachers found useful for improving students’ self-efficacy were: language use, scaffolding and group work. This result could be important for further theoretical and pedagogical research for all in an educational position.

This quantitative study used eye-tracking technology to compare the attentional focus of 32 native English speakers and 26 native Korean speakers at the university level as they read idiomatic and literal phrases within well-formed sentences. Results revealed that native Korean speakers read both literal and idiomatic sentences slower than native English speakers. Additionally, native Korean speakers read idiomatic sentences slower than literal sentences, whereas native English speakers did not show a significant difference. Variables relating to language socialization, language development and idiom knowledge were also investigated to find which variables were correlated with reading measures. Of the variables tested, idiom knowledge was the only one that had significant effect on reading measures. These findings suggest that Korean speakers take longer to process English idioms as lexical units, though idiom familiarity seems to mitigate this effect.

This dissertation explores the effect of visuals on test-takers’ L2 listeningprocesses. It uses a mixed methods design, following a concurrent transformative model (Creswell & Poth, 2018). There are three components to the study. The first is a comparison of group performance, aiming to shed light on how test-takers’ test performance may be affected by the inclusion of visuals. A total of 190 undergraduate students in China took part in this component. After being randomly and evenly placed in two groups according to their estimated proficiency level, their listening ability was assessed by a pre-test. They then took one of the two versions of a post-test, one where the participants could both see and hear the speakers, and the other one where they could only hear the speakers. A comparison of the two groups’ post-test scores using ANCOVA showed that the audio-visual participants scored significantly higher than the audio-only participants on the post-test. This indicates that the inclusion of visuals significantly enhanced the participants’ test performance. The second component of the study is a retrospective cued recall that investigatestest-takers’ specific listening processes. Ten participants in each group were randomly selected to join this part to the study. Their post-test test-taking processes were recorded and served as the stimuli for them to recall their viewing patterns, note-taking practice, identification of authentic features, and question-answering approaches. The comparisons between the two groups showed individual and group similarities, along with differences in every aspect of the listening processes. The last component is an analysis of the notes taken by the test-takers. Thequalitative participants’ notes taken during the post-test were rated regarding the correct levels of information noted, overall organization, and irrelevant and incorrect information noted. Using Spearman’s correlations, the note quality was correlated with the post-test scores in each condition. No significant correlations were found. This indicates that there was no substantive relationship between the participants’ note quality and test scores. Based on the results of the study, I advocate for the practice of including visualsin L2 listening tests, and an expansion of the construct definition of academic lecture listening to include the assessment of test-takers’ ability to understand visual cues. I also propose a five-dimension authenticity scale to measure the authenticity level of L2 listening input used on L2 listening tests. The study also has several other practical implications that are useful for L2 listening research, test development, and teaching and learning. Key limitations are acknowledged and discussed, and future research directions are suggested. / Teaching & Learning

ABSTRACTThis study is an investigation of Japanese university students’ use of metacognitive knowledge for reading an English narrative text for general comprehension and their inference generation while reading. Research in second language (L2) reading and reading comprehension has advanced over the past three and half decades (Grabe & Stoller, 2020). Many studies focusing on L2 reading comprehension have shed light on the strong correlation of linguistic knowledge such as vocabulary and syntax with reading comprehension (e.g., Jeon & Yamashita, 2014). In addition, the literature on L2 reading has shown a strong interest in the role of higher-order processing and metacognition. However, there is a paucity of research on higher-order processing and metacognitive knowledge in L2 reading in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. With these gaps in mind, this study draws on Flavell’s (1979) model of cognitive monitoring and Nelson and Narens’ (1990) model of metacognition. It also draws on Kintsch’s (1988) Construction-Integration (CI) Model that elaborately describes the process of reading comprehension. Ten intermediate- and advanced-proficiency Japanese EFL learners voluntarily participated in this multiple case study, read a narrative text for general comprehension, and reported on their reading. The data collected from the participants’ course assignments, class oral presentation, class discussion, semi-structured interviews, and the think aloud and stimulated recall protocols were transcribed and coded for analysis. The transcribed data together with the written data were analyzed thematically clustering the data into categories manually using Flavell’s (1979) framework of metacognitive knowledge, person, task, and strategy, and by the types of inferences made. This study provides a descriptive account of the participants and contributes to the literature on EFL learners’ strategy use, metacognition, and inference-making in L2 reading. The findings reveal that intermediate- and advanced-proficiency Japanese EFL learners used strategies in combination to solve the difficulties they encountered, and metacognitive strategies to monitor and evaluate their strategy use while reading. Accordingly, this study supports the conclusion that metacognitive strategies are essential to self-regulated reading to achieve comprehension. In addition, the participants’ positive beliefs about themselves as EFL learners appeared to positively contribute to their motivation to read. In particular, their beliefs about good L2 readers helped them set goals with regards to the areas that they problematized. For example, the participants aspired to read faster because they recognized that their present L2 reading speed was slow. The findings also provide a detailed account of how readers constructed situation models for their reader comprehension. In particular, re-reading helped enhance participants’ ability to draw inferences, identify causal relationships, remove irrelevant or contradictory elements, and integrate relevant background knowledge to the textbase in the interest of updating their situation models. The rich description of the multiple cases in this study contributes to our understanding of difficulties intermediate- and advanced-proficiency Japanese EFL learners encounter while reading, how they use strategies to address them, how they draw inferences to connect information, and how they evaluate their comprehension on an ongoing basis. / Teaching & Learning

This dissertation study explored the feasibility of using authenticated spoken texts to test L2 Chinese listening comprehension. The spoken texts used in the study were created using an “authenticating” technique, in which scripted spoken Chinese texts were infused with characteristics of real-world, unscripted spoken Chinese. In the first part of the study, 101 “naïve” L1 Chinese speakers reported their attitudes toward various characteristics of the scripted spoken texts and the authenticated spoken texts in a survey questionnaire. Comparisons of the L1 Chinese participants’ attitudes showed that they believed that the authenticated spoken texts were more authentic-sounding than the scripted texts in every measure. This indicates that the authenticity of scripted spoken texts normally used in L2 listening tests can be enhanced by using the text authentication technique. In the second part of the study, L2 listeners’ test performance and listening and test-taking processes during the post-test were examined. For the quantitative data, 184 intermediate and advanced adult L2 Chinese learners completed two listening tests (one pre-test assessing their listening proficiency and one post-test) and questionnaires tapping into their use of listening strategies and test-taking strategies. For the qualitative data, stimulated verbal recalls and verbal reports were employed to elicit another 16 L2 listeners’ verbalizations of their listening and test-taking processes. The comparison of the test scores showed that the listening test using authenticated spoken text as listening input was significantly more difficult than the same test using scripted spoken texts. The comparisons of the questionnaire results showed that the test-takers did not differ in their use of listening strategies and test-taking strategies. Aligned with the quantitative results, the verbal recalls showed that the two groups, despite hearing spoken texts with different degrees of scriptedness, did not adjust their use of listening strategies and test-taking strategies. However, the authenticated spoken texts elicited a greater reliance on lower-level processes compared to the scripted spoken texts. The last part of the study involving the same 16 L2 qualitative participants investigated text-related sources of bottom-up listening difficulties of the two experimental groups through a series of diagnostic listening procedures using L2 oral and written (typing) repetition tasks. It was found that, first, compared to the scripted group, the authenticated group had more phonological decoding difficulties due to connected speech; second, even though the authenticated group had more word segmentation difficulties, this type of listening difficulty seemed to be less severe for both groups compared to the difficulty of phonological decoding; and third, other features commonly found in unscripted spoken Chinese such as filled pauses and false starts did not seem to greatly impede participants’ bottom-up listening processes. The results from the three parts of the study and my experience creating authenticated spoken texts suggest that L2 Chinese test developers should include at least some authenticated spoken texts in their listening tests, because (a) they are more “authentic-sounding”; (b) high-proficiency L2 listeners with extensive Chinese second language learning experiences find them harder to comprehend than scripted texts; and (c) they elicit cognitive processes that better represent the processes in real-world listening. Additional practical and theoretical implications pertinent to test development and L2 Chinese listening instruction are also provided. / Applied Linguistics

Grammatical accuracy in second language (L2) writing is one of the key issues that English as a Second Language (ESL) learners struggle with, both in intensive English language programs and continuing after their university matriculation. Numerous instructional methodologies exist that center around the concept of error correction—how can or should ESL instructors correct grammatical errors in L2 students' writing to best facilitate improvements in written linguistic accuracy? Error correction in L2 writing has been a controversial issue for over a decade (e.g., Ferris, 1999; Truscott, 1996), and in an effort to contribute to an understanding of this controversial topic, this study investigated an innovative method of error correction known as dynamic written corrective feedback (WCF). For 15 weeks, 24 students at the Brigham Young University (BYU) English Language Center (ELC) received a form of dynamic WCF dramatically modified from Hartshorn's (2008) original method with the objective of increased practicality. These students produced a 30-minute pretest and posttest essay, and researchers calculated the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of each pretest and posttest. Data from the current study is compared against data from Hartshorn (2008), which found dynamic WCF to be successful in improving accuracy after carrying out similar research. The results validate previous findings and confirm that dynamic WCF is an effective approach to error correction, even when dramatically modified.

The present study, a quantitative lexical analysis, examines the extent to which vocabulary size and lexical diversity contribute to writing scores on advanced non-native speakers’ and native speakers’ academic compositions. The data consists of essays composed by 104 adult non-native English learners enrolled in advanced second language writing courses and 68 native speaking university students in a first-year composition course. The lexical diversity of the sample essays is quantified by both the Measure of Textual Lexical Diversity (MTLD) and the voc-D while vocabulary size is measured by CELEX word frequency means, three instruments that are available in the computational linguistics program Coh-Metrix 3.0. Writing scores are provided by three independent raters’ evaluations according to the TOEFL iBT Independent Writing Rubric. Results from a binary logistic regression reveal that lexical diversity has a significantly greater impact on writing score than vocabulary size (p < .01). Nevertheless, a series of MANOVAs indicate that vocabulary size initially facilitates writing scores at the lower proficiency levels, but it is an essay’s lexical diversity that promotes it to the higher score levels. Additional findings from the MANOVAs demonstrate that native speakers’ profiles of lexical diversity and size are significantly different from their non-native peers (p < .001). The lexical profiles also differed significantly among the individual score levels of the TOEFL iBT rubric (p < .05). A final outcome from a Pearson’s product moment correlation analysis shows that iii vocabulary size has only a moderate relationship to lexical diversity, suggesting that variation of mid-range vocabulary may be more important to writing proficiency than the use of more sophisticated terms that occur less frequently in natural language. Implications for practice suggest that it is not enough to simply teach vocabulary words in the L2 composition classroom, but also to guide learners in how to employ these words in a varied manner within their writing. Furthermore, the results of this study indicate that teachers should spend more time on helping students use medium frequency words along with synonyms of a similar frequency rather than teaching students infrequent vocabulary, which may appear to sound more advanced.

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