Since the mid 90s, an increasing number of researchers have adopted a sociocultural theory (SCT) of mind to investigate the social and cognitive functions of language during learner-learner interaction (Lantolf & Thorne, 2007). Researchers from an SCT perspective have identified that first languages (L1s) serve important cognitive functions (Alegría de la Colina & García Mayo, 2009; Storch & Aldosari, 2010). Swain and colleagues (Swain, 1995; Swain & Lapkin, 1995, 1998) have also illustrated that languaging, a form of verbalization, facilitates the completion of complex linguistic tasks which leads to second language (L2) development (Swain, Brooks, & Tocalli-Beller, 2002). Moreover, researchers have found that task type impacts language development (Storch & Aldosari, 2010; Storch & Wigglesworth, 2003; Swain & Lapkin, 2001). Due to the growing number of multilingual learners in the world today (Hammarberg, 2010), researchers need to expand the scope of the research to include the role(s) of native and nonnative languages on third language (L3) development. Thus, the purpose of the current multiple case study was to investigate the specific mediating functions of multilingual learners’ languages during four types of collaborative tasks and to explore the relationship between languaging and L3 development. A 16-week classroom-based study was conducted in a university French as a foreign language classroom in Mexico with four focal participants. The language produced during learner-learner interaction was examined using three types of analysis: (1) each turn was coded for language and for their specific functions; (2) each Language-Related Episode (LRE) was coded for type and for resolution; and (3) accuracy on individual tailor-made posttest items. Findings uncovered a complex picture of task type effects on the specific mediating functions of language as well as complementary functions of L1 and L3 mediation. Results from the analysis of LREs show that task type impacts the occurrence and resolution of LREs. Accuracy scores from the posttests suggest that L1 and L3 mediation promotes L3 development. Findings are in line with the focal participants’ beliefs. The findings that languages serve various social and cognitive functions during task completion are discussed in light of current ideas from an SCT perspective.

This longitudinal study was designed to provide an orderly account of how beliefs about English language learning develop among seven Japanese high school students, identify beliefs that are beneficial and interfering for language learning and the routes by which these beliefs are reached, and identify belief changes and their sources. Beliefs are defined as a cognitive representation about self and the world. They are situated in experiences and social context. Learner beliefs pertain to many aspects of language learning and come from multiple sources, including educational background, experience living overseas, peers, teachers, and persons met in chance encounters. The data for the study were collected from seven students attending a Japanese public high school. Beginning when the students were first-year high school students (10th graders), the data, which were drawn from in-depth interviews, journals, written reports, observations, and school records, form a qualitative multiple-case-study. Data gathering ended when the students chose a university in the third year of high school. There were five major findings. First, learners develop and modify their beliefs based on their life experiences inside and outside the classroom. This finding suggests that providing learning experiences is important, but teachers should be aware that learners with different learning backgrounds and personal traits will likely respond to those experiences differently. Experiences that most influence learners’ beliefs seem to be those that learners choose themselves. Second, beliefs are usually implicit, and thus, learners are not always aware of their beliefs until they are asked to verbalize them. Thus, one role for researchers and teachers is to find effective ways to elicit learner beliefs and make them explicit. Third, beliefs can be placed in three categories: beneficial beliefs, indeterminate beliefs, and interfering beliefs. Beneficial beliefs enhance learners’ motivation to learn, while interfering beliefs concern negative thoughts that hinder them from learning and from engaging in challenging tasks. Indeterminate beliefs can be either beneficial or interfering depending on the context in which they occur. Those beliefs are context-sensitive; thus, they are not necessarily shared by all learners. Individual learners have different beneficial and interfering beliefs depending on their learning context. Fourth, adolescent learners’ beliefs change over time because adolescents are in the process of growing and changing physically and mentally. This suggests that there is great potential for modifying their beliefs in positive ways. Fifth, learners develop personal theories about learning based on their beliefs. Considering that learners behave according to their theories of learning, eliciting learners’ beliefs can bring benefits for researchers and teachers because they can anticipate learners’ behavior by knowing their beliefs. / CITE/Language Arts

This dissertation explores learner beliefs about pronunciation and their interaction with identity negotiations in a study-abroad context. Current research on studying abroad has experienced a wave of interest in learner-centered questions, gradually moving away from the narrow focus on students’ linguistic development. In particular, the effects of study abroad on learner identities have attracted attention, revealing the impact of the dispositions of individuals, as well as of interlocutors, on the language learning process. The realm of speaking, especially with regard to pronunciation research, however, has hardly benefited from this interest in the individual perspectives of sojourners. Existing studies merely measure the extent to which learners appropriate native-like accents, resulting in partly inconsistent findings with limited insight into individual learning processes and factors. I thus adopt a different focus by qualitatively investigating the interplay between sojourners’ beliefs about pronunciation and their identity constructions and negotiations. My research is based on five case studies of Canadian learners of German. Each research subject has attended a German university for one or two semesters. In applying narrative inquiry as a research tool for both the within- and cross-case analyses, I investigate participants’ accounts in interviews and e-journals, as conducted at different stages throughout the first sojourn term. Poststructuralist-constructivist conceptualizations of learner identities and beliefs guide the data analysis and interpretation. The results of the holistic and categorical content analyses give insight into the intricate relationship between beliefs about pronunciation and learners’ identity work. In their narratives, learners appear to actively use pronunciation as a tool to construct identity facets in correspondence to specific communities of practice, giving meaning to their investment in the sojourn experience. This process of mediating between different identity constructions appears to be highly complex and partially conflict-laden. The participants’ beliefs and reported learning behaviours are interconnected with their definitions of learning goals, which draw on native-speaker ideals to different extents and with varying results. These orientations are in turn related to the subjects’ degrees of critical language awareness, the latter a factor that appears to play a vital role in shaping the ability of learners to take advantage of learning opportunities. In assessing participants’ learning objectives and their readiness to reflect upon their beliefs and orientations, my study also sheds light on the influence of different learning factor constellations on intercultural learning. The results indicate that unidirectional cause-and-effect relationships cannot be drawn between learners’ beliefs about pronunciation and their abilities to approach their roles as intercultural speakers in sojourn environments. My study rather underlines the importance of illuminating individual learning experiences in their idiosyncrasies and complexities, which may lead to a stronger consideration of learners’ subjective stances in both research and teaching practice. The findings of my study suggest that the primary way that language pedagogy can thus foster the ability to engage in intercultural encounters is by helping learners to become aware of their subjective stances, their self-constructions, and the influence of those on the learning process. Therefore, developing the ability and willingness to critically reflect is crucial, especially with regard to pronunciation. In illuminating the intricate nature of learner beliefs and their influence on the learning process, my study demonstrates the importance of qualitative, emic research into the acquisition of L2 pronunciation.

This dissertation explores learner beliefs about pronunciation and their interaction with identity negotiations in a study-abroad context. Current research on studying abroad has experienced a wave of interest in learner-centered questions, gradually moving away from the narrow focus on students’ linguistic development. In particular, the effects of study abroad on learner identities have attracted attention, revealing the impact of the dispositions of individuals, as well as of interlocutors, on the language learning process. The realm of speaking, especially with regard to pronunciation research, however, has hardly benefited from this interest in the individual perspectives of sojourners. Existing studies merely measure the extent to which learners appropriate native-like accents, resulting in partly inconsistent findings with limited insight into individual learning processes and factors. I thus adopt a different focus by qualitatively investigating the interplay between sojourners’ beliefs about pronunciation and their identity constructions and negotiations. My research is based on five case studies of Canadian learners of German. Each research subject has attended a German university for one or two semesters. In applying narrative inquiry as a research tool for both the within- and cross-case analyses, I investigate participants’ accounts in interviews and e-journals, as conducted at different stages throughout the first sojourn term. Poststructuralist-constructivist conceptualizations of learner identities and beliefs guide the data analysis and interpretation. The results of the holistic and categorical content analyses give insight into the intricate relationship between beliefs about pronunciation and learners’ identity work. In their narratives, learners appear to actively use pronunciation as a tool to construct identity facets in correspondence to specific communities of practice, giving meaning to their investment in the sojourn experience. This process of mediating between different identity constructions appears to be highly complex and partially conflict-laden. The participants’ beliefs and reported learning behaviours are interconnected with their definitions of learning goals, which draw on native-speaker ideals to different extents and with varying results. These orientations are in turn related to the subjects’ degrees of critical language awareness, the latter a factor that appears to play a vital role in shaping the ability of learners to take advantage of learning opportunities. In assessing participants’ learning objectives and their readiness to reflect upon their beliefs and orientations, my study also sheds light on the influence of different learning factor constellations on intercultural learning. The results indicate that unidirectional cause-and-effect relationships cannot be drawn between learners’ beliefs about pronunciation and their abilities to approach their roles as intercultural speakers in sojourn environments. My study rather underlines the importance of illuminating individual learning experiences in their idiosyncrasies and complexities, which may lead to a stronger consideration of learners’ subjective stances in both research and teaching practice. The findings of my study suggest that the primary way that language pedagogy can thus foster the ability to engage in intercultural encounters is by helping learners to become aware of their subjective stances, their self-constructions, and the influence of those on the learning process. Therefore, developing the ability and willingness to critically reflect is crucial, especially with regard to pronunciation. In illuminating the intricate nature of learner beliefs and their influence on the learning process, my study demonstrates the importance of qualitative, emic research into the acquisition of L2 pronunciation.

To understand learners’ beliefs about language learning and strategy use in an EFL exit test environment, this study investigated Taiwanese university students’ language learning beliefs; EFL exit test beliefs; language learning, test-preparation, and test-taking strategies; the relationships among their beliefs and strategy use; and the differences in students’ beliefs and strategy use according to their major, gender, grade level, entrance exam English score, and EFL exit test experience. A total of 518 Taiwanese university students participated in the questionnaire study. Two major instruments were developed and used to measure students’ beliefs and strategy use in the Taiwanese EFL exit test context: (1) the Belief about Language Learning in an EFL Exit test Context (BALLIEETC), and (2) the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning in an EFL Exit test Context (SILLEETC). Analysis of the questionnaire data involved descriptive statistics, factor analysis, canonical correlation analysis, and multivariate analysis of variance. The questionnaire results suggested the following: (1) students believed in the importance of speaking English well, repeating and practicing, learning vocabulary words, acquiring excellent pronunciation, and correcting errors; (2) students primarily used memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, test-preparation, and test-taking strategies to learn English, prepare for the EFL exit test, and take the test; (3) students’ beliefs were associated with their strategy use; (4) English majors had stronger beliefs and higher levels of strategy use than non-English majors; (5) students with higher entrance exam English scores had stronger beliefs and higher levels of strategy use than those of lower scores; (6) college seniors believed more in foreign language aptitude and use test-taking strategies more often than freshmen; (7) students who had taken and passed an EFL exit test had stronger beliefs and higher levels of strategy use than those who had not taken a test. The results of this study support an association between learners’ beliefs and strategy use. Understanding students’ beliefs about language learning and the EFL exit test, as well as their use of language-learning, test-preparation, and test-taking strategies, may enable EFL teachers to help students develop effective language learning, test-preparation, and test-taking strategies and improve their English abilities and EFL exit test performance. The field of second language acquisition may also benefit from insights into students’ beliefs and their use of strategies in an EFL exit test environment. The EFL exit test may affect students’ beliefs about language learning and strategy use, such as their having stronger beliefs about the importance of vocabulary and higher levels of memory strategy use. / text

Cette étude quasi-expérimentale a pour but de 1) comparer la prise en compte et les effets de trois conditions rétroactives, à savoir la reformulation, l’incitation et un mélange des deux techniques, 2) déterminer le lien entre la prise en compte et l’apprentissage, et 3) identifier l’effet des perceptions des apprenants quant à la rétroaction corrective sur la prise en compte et l’apprentissage. Quatre groupes d’apprenants d’anglais langue seconde ainsi que leurs enseignants provenant d’un CEGEP francophone de l’île de Montréal ont participé à cette étude. Chaque enseignant a été assigné à une condition rétroactive expérimentale qui correspondait le plus à ses pratiques rétroactives habituelles. La chercheure a assuré l’intervention auprès du groupe contrôle. L’utilisation du passé et de la phrase interrogative était ciblée durant l’intervention expérimentale. Des protocoles de pensée à haute voie ainsi qu’un questionnaire ont été utilisés pour mesurer la prise en compte de la rétroaction corrective. Des tâches de description d’images et d’identification des différences entre les images ont été administrées avant l’intervention (pré-test), immédiatement après l’intervention (post-test immédiat) et 8 semaines plus tard (post-test différé) afin d’évaluer les effets des différentes conditions rétroactives sur l’apprentissage des formes cibles. Un questionnaire a été administré pour identifier les perceptions des apprenants quant à la rétroaction corrective. En termes de prise en compte, les résultats indiquent que les participants sont en mesure de remarquer la rétroaction dépendamment de la forme cible (les erreurs dans l’utilisation du passé sont détectées plus que les erreurs d’utilisation de la phrase interrogative) et de la technique rétroactive utilisée (l’incitation et le mélange d’incitation et de reformulations sont plus détectés plus que la reformulation). En ce qui a trait à l’apprentissage, l’utilisation du passé en général est marquée par plus de développement que celle de la phrase interrogative, mais il n'y avait aucune différence entre les groupes. Le lien direct entre la prise en compte et l’apprentissage ne pouvait pas être explicitement établi. Pendant que la statistique inférentielle a suggéré une relation minimale entre la prise en compte du passé et son apprentissage, mais aucune relation entre la prise en compte de la phrase interrogative et son apprentissage, les analyses qualitatives ont montrés à une association entre la prise en compte et l’apprentissage (sur les deux cibles) pour certains étudiants et augmentations sans prise en compte pour d'autres. Finalement, l’analyse factorielle du questionnaire indique la présence de quatre facteurs principaux, à savoir l’importance de la rétroaction corrective, la reformulation, l’incitation et les effets affectifs de la rétroaction. Deux de ces facteurs ont un effet modérateur sur la prise en compte de la rétroaction sans, toutefois, avoir d’impact sur l’apprentissage. / This quasi-experimental study sought to investigate the often assumed yet little investigated relationship between noticing of corrective feedback (CF) and L2 development in relation to learner beliefs about error correction. Specifically, it aimed to (1) uncover the noticeability and effectiveness of three CF techniques (namely, recasts, prompts, a combination of the two) (2) to determine a relationship between noticing of CF and learning of the past tense and questions in the past, and (3) to determine whether learner beliefs about CF mediate what is noticed and learned in the language classroom. The participants were four groups of high-beginner college level francophone ESL learners (n = 99) and their teachers. Each teacher was assigned to a treatment condition that fit his CF style, but the researcher taught the controls. CF was provided to learners in response to their production problems with the simple past and questions in the past. While noticing of CF was assessed through immediate recall and questionnaire responses, learning outcomes were measured by way of picture description and spot the differences tasks administered through a pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test design. Learner beliefs about CF were probed by means of a 40-item questionnaire. To elicit the learner and teacher perspectives on the study, semi-structured interviews were held with the three teachers and 20 learners, drawn randomly from the participating classes. The results indicated that the noticeability of CF is dependent on the grammatical target it addresses (i.e., feedback on past tense errors was noticed more) and that the feedback techniques that push learners to self-correct alone or in combination with target exemplars are more effective in bringing out the corrective intent of a feedback move. In relation to the learning outcomes, the overall past tense accuracy increased more than that for questions, but there were no differences between the groups. The direct link between noticing and learning could not be unequivocally established. While the inferential statistics suggested a minimal relationship between noticing and past tense scores, especially if the CF was provided with recasts, but no relationship between noticing and questions scores, the qualitative analyses pointed to an association between noticing and test scores (on both targets) for some learners and gains without noticing for others. Finally, in relation to the beliefs about CF, the participants’ responses centered on four common themes (the importance of oral CF, recasts as CF technique, prompts as CF technique, and affective consequences of CF), two of which mediated the noticeability of the supplied CF, but none impacted the learning outcomes.

This thesis focuses on the use of the mother tongue in foreign language teaching and learning. Recently there has been a notable shift towards promoting the use of the mother tongue. The theoretical part of the thesis maps the attitudes to the mother tongue in current literature as well as the suggested ways of its use in the classroom. The practical part attempts to analyse the students' attitudes towards the incorporation of Czech into English learning and teaching and their experience with its use from their secondary schools. To obtain the data, an online questionnaire was employed. The respondents are first- and second-year students of English and American studies who are expected to be able to analyse both the advantages and disadvantages of using Czech. The practical part focuses on the efficiency of Czech in comparison with English, ways of presenting grammar and vocabulary, the relation between the mother tongue use and the proficiency of students, and learning strategies of the respondents. Based on the analysis, suggestions regarding the mother tongue use are presented in the conclusion.

Cette étude quasi-expérimentale a pour but de 1) comparer la prise en compte et les effets de trois conditions rétroactives, à savoir la reformulation, l’incitation et un mélange des deux techniques, 2) déterminer le lien entre la prise en compte et l’apprentissage, et 3) identifier l’effet des perceptions des apprenants quant à la rétroaction corrective sur la prise en compte et l’apprentissage. Quatre groupes d’apprenants d’anglais langue seconde ainsi que leurs enseignants provenant d’un CEGEP francophone de l’île de Montréal ont participé à cette étude. Chaque enseignant a été assigné à une condition rétroactive expérimentale qui correspondait le plus à ses pratiques rétroactives habituelles. La chercheure a assuré l’intervention auprès du groupe contrôle. L’utilisation du passé et de la phrase interrogative était ciblée durant l’intervention expérimentale. Des protocoles de pensée à haute voie ainsi qu’un questionnaire ont été utilisés pour mesurer la prise en compte de la rétroaction corrective. Des tâches de description d’images et d’identification des différences entre les images ont été administrées avant l’intervention (pré-test), immédiatement après l’intervention (post-test immédiat) et 8 semaines plus tard (post-test différé) afin d’évaluer les effets des différentes conditions rétroactives sur l’apprentissage des formes cibles. Un questionnaire a été administré pour identifier les perceptions des apprenants quant à la rétroaction corrective. En termes de prise en compte, les résultats indiquent que les participants sont en mesure de remarquer la rétroaction dépendamment de la forme cible (les erreurs dans l’utilisation du passé sont détectées plus que les erreurs d’utilisation de la phrase interrogative) et de la technique rétroactive utilisée (l’incitation et le mélange d’incitation et de reformulations sont plus détectés plus que la reformulation). En ce qui a trait à l’apprentissage, l’utilisation du passé en général est marquée par plus de développement que celle de la phrase interrogative, mais il n'y avait aucune différence entre les groupes. Le lien direct entre la prise en compte et l’apprentissage ne pouvait pas être explicitement établi. Pendant que la statistique inférentielle a suggéré une relation minimale entre la prise en compte du passé et son apprentissage, mais aucune relation entre la prise en compte de la phrase interrogative et son apprentissage, les analyses qualitatives ont montrés à une association entre la prise en compte et l’apprentissage (sur les deux cibles) pour certains étudiants et augmentations sans prise en compte pour d'autres. Finalement, l’analyse factorielle du questionnaire indique la présence de quatre facteurs principaux, à savoir l’importance de la rétroaction corrective, la reformulation, l’incitation et les effets affectifs de la rétroaction. Deux de ces facteurs ont un effet modérateur sur la prise en compte de la rétroaction sans, toutefois, avoir d’impact sur l’apprentissage. / This quasi-experimental study sought to investigate the often assumed yet little investigated relationship between noticing of corrective feedback (CF) and L2 development in relation to learner beliefs about error correction. Specifically, it aimed to (1) uncover the noticeability and effectiveness of three CF techniques (namely, recasts, prompts, a combination of the two) (2) to determine a relationship between noticing of CF and learning of the past tense and questions in the past, and (3) to determine whether learner beliefs about CF mediate what is noticed and learned in the language classroom. The participants were four groups of high-beginner college level francophone ESL learners (n = 99) and their teachers. Each teacher was assigned to a treatment condition that fit his CF style, but the researcher taught the controls. CF was provided to learners in response to their production problems with the simple past and questions in the past. While noticing of CF was assessed through immediate recall and questionnaire responses, learning outcomes were measured by way of picture description and spot the differences tasks administered through a pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test design. Learner beliefs about CF were probed by means of a 40-item questionnaire. To elicit the learner and teacher perspectives on the study, semi-structured interviews were held with the three teachers and 20 learners, drawn randomly from the participating classes. The results indicated that the noticeability of CF is dependent on the grammatical target it addresses (i.e., feedback on past tense errors was noticed more) and that the feedback techniques that push learners to self-correct alone or in combination with target exemplars are more effective in bringing out the corrective intent of a feedback move. In relation to the learning outcomes, the overall past tense accuracy increased more than that for questions, but there were no differences between the groups. The direct link between noticing and learning could not be unequivocally established. While the inferential statistics suggested a minimal relationship between noticing and past tense scores, especially if the CF was provided with recasts, but no relationship between noticing and questions scores, the qualitative analyses pointed to an association between noticing and test scores (on both targets) for some learners and gains without noticing for others. Finally, in relation to the beliefs about CF, the participants’ responses centered on four common themes (the importance of oral CF, recasts as CF technique, prompts as CF technique, and affective consequences of CF), two of which mediated the noticeability of the supplied CF, but none impacted the learning outcomes.

Students today encounter a vast amount of English in their free time, outside the walls of school. They watch English films, play English computer games, and keep international contacts through the internet. This present study focuses on mapping the so called Extramural English activities of two groups of upper secondary high school students in order to find out how and if the overall English proficiency of those students can be derived from the English they encounter in their free time. One of the groups is living and studying at a Swedish school in the UK, while the other one is living and studying at a regular high school in the south of Sweden. Both groups participated in a survey where they were asked to answer questions about their free time habits, time spent on different English activities and how they feel that their confidence and overall proficiency in the subject has improved. The results of this study show that the students living in the UK engage in more English activities outside of school and that they claim overall better results and higher confidence in their English. This study contains proof that Extramural English is an important factor in achieving targetlike language proficiency.

No description available.