Guided planning, task complexity and second language oral development

This thesis reports on a mixed methods experimental research study carried out at a university in Japan. The study investigated the effectiveness of two types of guided planning treatment towards specific language forms. Specifically, English relative clause types OS and OPREP as well as 3rd person singular and plural. Two groups of Japanese second year intermediate level learners performed a series of oral narrative tasks that increased in complexity over a three week period. Both groups were placed under different planning conditions. One condition involved ‘guided planning’ which consisted of continuous guidance towards English relative clauses and 3rd person singular and plural. The other condition ‘guided and unguided planning’ consisted of initial guidance towards the target forms and then the learners received unguided planning during the rest of the task sequence. During the treatment, both groups were interviewed about their planning strategies. It was hypothesized that the guided planning group would produce greater developmental gains in accuracy compared to the guided and unguided planning group. Learners’ L2 speech was measured in terms of fluency, accuracy and complexity. The results showed that the guided planning group produced significantly greater gains in fluency and accuracy compared to the guided and unguided planning group. In addition, both groups focused on form during the task sequencing treatment. No previous studies have appeared to investigate the effects of guided and unguided planning with tasks that are sequenced over time. As a result, the findings of this study appear unique in reporting the benefits that guided planning and task complexity produces on L2 oral development in terms of fluency, accuracy and complexity

The impact of information structure on the emergence of differential object marking:An experimental study

Many languages exhibit differential object marking (DOM), where only certain types of grammatical objects are marked with morphological cases. Traditionally, it has been claimed that DOM arises as a way to prevent ambiguity by marking objects that might otherwise be mistaken for subjects (e.g., animate objects). While some recent experimental work supports this account, research on language typology suggests at least one alternative hypothesis. In particular, DOM may instead arise as a way of marking objects that are atypical from the point of view of information structure. According to this account, rather than being marked to avoid ambiguity, objects are marked when they are given (already familiar in the discourse) rather than new. Here, we experimentally investigate this hypothesis using two artificial language learning experiments. We find that information structure impacts participants’ object marking, but in an indirect way: atypical information structure leads to a change in word order, which then triggers increased object marking. Interestingly, this staged process of change is compatible with documented cases of DOM emergence. We argue that this process is driven by two cognitive tendencies. First, a tendency to place discourse given information before new information, and second, a tendency to mark noncanonical word order. Taken together, our findings provide corroborating evidence for the role of information structure in the emergence of DOM systems

Errors in inflectional morphemes as an index of linguistic competence of Korean Heritage language learners and American learners of Korean

This study examined the linguistic competence in Korean of Korean heritage language learners (HLLs), compared to English-speaking non-heritage language learners (NHLLs) of Korean. It is unclear and controversial as to whether heritage languages learners are exposed to early but are interrupted manifest as L1 competence or share more characteristics with development in L2/FL competence. However, a common misconception is that HLLs outperform NHLLs in overall language skills even though Korean HLLs in Korean as a Foreign Language (KFL) classes do not make better progress than NHLLs despite their comparatively stronger aural interpretive abilities. This study was designed to investigate whether HLLs have an advantage over NHLLs in learning distinctive parametric values in Korean language, through comparing occurrences and sources of grammatical errors exhibited by two groups taking university-level KFL classes. This study addresses Korean inflectional morphemes, with a focus on case and postposition markers and affixal connectives. Data was collected from error analysis (EA) of inflectional morpheme errors and its source on semi-guided and self-generated writing samples, and grammaticality judgment in a word completion (GJWC) test using the same inflectional morphemes used for the EA. Schlyter's Weak language (WL) as L2, Montrul's WL as L1, and the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis (MSIH) provided theoretical frameworks. The EA data was coded using the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcript program. The EA and GJWC data were analyzed using a 2-way ANOVA and, when there was a significant interaction effect between heritage status and language proficiency level, a 1-way ANOVA. This study's results confirmed Schlyter's hypothesis, but did not support Montrul's hypothesis from either the EA or GJWC. MSIH failed in explaining underlying linguistic competence of HLLs. Significantly higher error rates caused by omitting necessary subject and object markers among HLLs imply their Korean morphological data stays at the level of Korean child's morphology. Significantly higher error rates in instrument marker in the GJWC test by advanced level of HLLs imply impaired Korean morphology of HLLs. Linguistic variation is more prominent among HLL group. Findings are further discussed in relation to their theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical implications. Differentiated instructional and curricular approaches for HLL and NHLL groups are suggested

The scope of usage-based theory

Usage-based approaches typically draw on a relatively small set of cognitive processes, such as categorization, analogy, and chunking to explain language structure and function. The goal of this paper is to first review the extent to which the “cognitive commitment” of usage-based theory has had success in explaining empirical findings across domains, including language acquisition, processing, and typology. We then look at the overall strengths and weaknesses of usage-based theory and highlight where there are significant debates. Finally, we draw special attention to a set of culturally generated structural patterns that seem to lie beyond the explanation of core usage-based cognitive processes. In this context we draw a distinction between cognition permitting language structure vs. cognition entailing language structure. As well as addressing the need for greater clarity on the mechanisms of generalizations and the fundamental units of grammar, we suggest that integrating culturally generated structures within existing cognitive models of use will generate tighter predictions about how language works

The marker yypothesis: a constructivist theory of language acquisition

This thesis presents a theory of the early stages of first language acquisition. Language is characterised as constituting an instructional environment - diachronic change in language serves to maintain and enhance sources of structural marking which act as salient cues that guide the development of linguistic representations in the child's brain. Language learning is characterised as a constructivist process in which the underlying grammatical representation and modular structure arise out of developmental processes. In particular, I investigate the role of closed-class elements in language which obtain salience through their high occurrence frequency and which serve to both label and segment useful grammatical units. I adopt an inter-disciplinary approach which encompasses analyses of child language and agrammatic speech, psycholinguistic data, the development of a developmental linguistic theory based on the Dependency Grammar formalism, and a number of computational investigations of spoken language corpora. I conclude that language development is highly interactionist and that in trying to understand the processes involved in learning we must begin with the child and not with the end-point of adult linguistic competence

Processing and production of unique and non-unique-to-L2 syntactic structures: The case of English articles and tense-aspect

The L2 acquisition of English articles and tense-aspect (TA) have been popular research areas over the last two decades. Compared with the numerous applications of metalinguistic knowledge and oral production tasks, the use of online (real time) processing methods to investigate these morphosyntactic structures has been far less common. In perhaps the only eye-tracking study on L2 English article processing, Trenkic et al. (2014) showed that L1 Mandarin/L2 English learners are able to use articles in real time to resolve referent ambiguity in a similar manner to L1 English speakers. In one of the rare self-paced reading (SPR) studies on L2 English TA processing, Roberts and Liszka (2013) found that while L1 English and L1 French/L2 English speakers were sensitive to English present perfect violations, L1 German/L2 English speakers, whose first language grammaticalises tense but not aspect, were not. However, beyond these important findings, our understanding of the L2 online processing of these morphosyntactic structures remains limited. To address these gaps, the present thesis tested 24 L1 Mandarin/L2 English, 22 L1 Croatian/L2 English and 24 L1 English participants on an SPR task and in oral production. The SPR task used novel article stimuli and TA items adapted from Roberts and Liszka (2013) to test (implicit) sensitivity to violations, while a grammaticality judgement task (GJT) on the same stimuli was used to ascertain participants’ explicit knowledge. The comprehension data were triangulated with oral productions of English articles and tense elicited via an animated film retelling task. A linear mixed-effects model analysis revealed that the participants’ performance on both the SPR and oral production tasks was highly influenced by their L1. The findings lend support to the morphological congruency hypothesis (Jiang, Novokshanova, Masuda, & Wang, 2011) which posits that late L2 learners cannot fully acquire morphosyntactic features that are incongruent (realised differently or absent in the L1 and L2), which suggest several implications for further research

Models of conversation and narrative : towards a pedagogical description

This is the first of three modules concerned with narrative and identity in English language teaching in Japan. This module makes the case for developing a pedagogical model of spoken discourse, particularly spoken narrative, to aid the teaching of English in foreign language contexts such as Japan. It is proposed that this model should take account of the learners L1, in this case Japanese. Rather than teaching the model, however, it is suggested that the model would ideally be applied using a task-based approach.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo