Typical experiments investigating the accessibility and/or role of principles of Universal Grammar (UG) in adult second language acquisition (SLA) use a written grammaticality judgment (GJ) task to infer knowledge of principles of UG. The present investigation examined whether subjects would judge sentences differently in the aural modality than the visual. It was hypothesized that subjects in the aural condition would be less accurate and slower at judging sentences violating the subjacency principle than subjects in the visual condition. Four language groups were tested: ESL (English second-language) FSL (French second-language), L1.E (English first language) and L1.F (French first language). Subjects were assigned to either an aural or a visual condition; the same sentences were presented via computer. The target sentences presented to the subjects were declarative sentences involving embedded questions, as well as ungrammatical wh-questions which violated subjacency. The presentation times for all sentences were matched across conditions. Accuracy and reaction time to grammaticality judgment were measured. The hypothesis that subjects would be slower and less accurate in the aural condition than the visual one was supported. Furthermore, subjects were less accurate and slower to judge violations of subjacency than other sentences, in both modalities. The detrimental effects of the auditory task on judgments was most pronounced for the L2 learners. These results are discussed in the context of the informativeness and validity of outcomes derived from GJ tasks, and the ways in which they are presented.

Questions surrounding the impact of feedback in response to learner error are of interest in the fields of both Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language Learning (ICALL). Current empirical SLA research seeks to ascertain what feedback types have a statistically significant positive impact on the process of acquiring a second language. Similarly, research in ICALL focuses on testing Intelligent Language Tutoring Systems (ILTSs) generally as well as the effectiveness of the feedback that they deliver. Despite this common interest in feedback, to date there has been no significant interdisciplinary research involving the two fields. The experiment reported here seeks to bridge this gap. Using a purpose-built ILTS, we tested the effect of two types of feedback on the acquisition of French past tense aspect among anglophone learners. Inspired by previous work in SLA, Explicit Inductive (EI) and Input Processing (IP) feedback were tested against a control group using a pre test/post test design. The learners completed a transformation and a grammaticality judgment task. For the transformation, they were presented with texts in the present tense and asked to re-write them in the past tense. For the grammaticality judgment, they had to rank the grammaticality of each sentence in a set of texts. In response to errors, EI feedback interpreted the aspectual meaning of the learners' answer and explicitly told them that it was not the most natural according to the context. In order to encourage formmeaning mapping, IP feedback asked the learners to match their erroneous answer to its interpretation. Two interpretations were presented: one was the target interpretation and the other matched the learner's answer. Having made their choice, they were then told whether it was correct as well as which interpretation was in fact target-like. The quantitative evaluation of the effectiveness of the EI and IP feedback was not statistically significant. We argued that this was due to a combined effect of learner level, target structure and feedback.

In the Storyline approach a fictive world is created in the classroom. Learners become characters in a story, which develops as they work in small groups on open key questions, devised by the teacher on the basis of curriculum content and in which practical and theoretical tasks are integrated. Though established in first language contexts, Storyline is less known in second language education, although it would seem to offer conditions considered to promote language development in young learners: the story framework provides an engaging and meaningful context in which learners use their language skills holistically, in tasks which simulate the way they might use English in the real world, and in which they can use their creative talents. This multi-strategy case study investigated the language development of a class of Swedish 11-13 year olds who took part in Storyline, Our Sustainable Street, lasting five weeks. In the topic the learners were families living in a new street in a fictive English town. The aim was to consolidate their existing structural and lexical knowledge, develop their language skills and introduce the lexis of sustainability. Findings show that the learners became engaged when they worked with the Storyline, and that this impacted positively on their language development, especially regarding the learning of new words, losing the fear of speaking English before their peers, and in the voluntary production of longer and more structurally and lexically complex written texts. Features which contributed most to learner engagement were found to be group work, art work and the variety of task types, with the boys also motivated by not working with a textbook and girls by opportunities to use their imagination. The results suggest that inclusion of the Storyline approach in a teaching repertoire can facilitate language development in young learners.

With the growth of recent research on the internal benefits of gesture for second language learners, the emphasis has begun to shift away from the traditional focus on addressee-related benefits. The current study explores student-student interactions which reflect internal benefits during face-to-face video game play. Data was collected in the conference room at a local Victoria high school and involved 7 participants; 6 English as a Second Language students and one native English speaker. Using discourse analysis as a method of data analysis, Long’s social constructivist model is taken as the grounded theory whereby it is thought that learners construct their new language through interaction that is socially mediated (Brown, 2007). The database is composed of videotaped sessions where student dyads, in a laddered consecutive order, take turns first as ‘novice’ gamers when learning how to play and then teaching in the next dyad. Each dyad experienced 5 minutes of instruction, 10 minutes of game play and 10 minutes of reflection about the game using a set number of questions. Videotapes of participants and transcripts were later examined and re-examined for face and body gestures, signs of social bonding as well as different types and uses of vocabulary. Two dyads emerged as having the most interesting results on almost all measures. These dyads both displayed a high number of gestures, vocabulary, mimicking and simultaneous gesturing. These findings reflect the potential utility of using student gesture to predict and gauge learner readiness, engagement and learning. This study has implications for both the instruction and learning of a second language as well as the use of interactive media and even video games for educational purposes. In addition, it contributes to the understanding of student-student interaction and the social construction of learning English as a second language. / Graduate

No description available.

The study has two main aims. The first is theoretical and the second methodological. Theoretically, the study seeks to investigate the nature and extent of variation in interlanguage with the aim of identifying and assessing the extent to which factors such as discourse mode (e.g. narrative vs descriptive) and linguistic context are likely to result in variable interlanguage performance. Methodologically, the study seeks to highlight the problems of eliciting valid interlanguage data using the concept of planning as is currently formulated by Ochs (1979) and Ellis (1987). Although interlanguage performance may be shown to be variable it still remains important to assess how widespread variation is in interlanguage, because variation is likely to shed much more light on interlanguage development and use, if it is demonstrated that it is neither restricted to specific structural areas nor typical of learners at particular stages of interlanguage development. With this in mind this study investigates the performance of second language learners at three different levels of proficiency in two linguistic areas - spatial and directional prepositions and the 3rd person singular. Variation in interlanguage has been attributed to a large number of factors some of which are enumerated below - discourse mode, varying planning conditions, topic, setting, interlocutor, linguistic context etc.

<p>Since economic reform started in China in 1978, the educational objectives for English language teaching have undergone many changes. In secondary school, reading and writing abilities have become increasingly important, not only in assisting students to study and work in English language contexts, but also in setting up the foundation for further English learning at university level. Thus, new materials have been devised and new teaching methods have been used. However, in practice, the English reading skills of many learners do not seem to have improved and learners have difficulty in achieving the syllabus goals set for reading. This study investigated the factors which influence the development of reading skills by learners in one Grade 10 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) class in Taiyuan, a city in China.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--George Mason University, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jan. 21, 2008). Thesis director: Adam Winsler. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology. Vita: p. 65. Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-64). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Education. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-169). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR19759