Constitution of form-orientation: Contributions of context and explicit knowledge to learning from recasts

This article investigates a language learner’s cognitive ability (i.e., form-orientation) in detecting the corrective nature of non-salient feedback, by reviewing the operationalizations and reported effectiveness of recasts in recent SLA literature. Two directionalities which seem to have resulted in the divergent findings of recast effectiveness will be discussed: (a) operationalized (or intact) explicitness or implicitness of recasts, which designate the level of noticeability (i.e., feedback factors) and (b) contextual variables, including where a study was conducted and participants’ learning background, which ultimately influence the effectiveness of recasts on language development (i.e., learner factors). To expose learner factors accordingly, learning contexts and learner’s explicit knowledge will be discussed as possible variables in forming cognitive orientation. By taking an interdisciplinary approach to explore the constitution of the orientation, namely, SLA, psycholinguistic, and sociocultural approaches, this article concludes that contexts and explicit knowledge interdependently create the cognitive ability that enhances the noticing of implicit recasts, which then arguably determines subsequent language development

Comparative effectiveness of input-based instructions on L2 grammar knowledge : textual enhancement and processing instruction

06.03.2018 tarihli ve 30352 sayılı Resmi Gazetede yayımlanan “Yükseköğretim Kanunu İle Bazı Kanun Ve Kanun Hükmünde Kararnamelerde Değişiklik Yapılması Hakkında Kanun” ile 18.06.2018 tarihli “Lisansüstü Tezlerin Elektronik Ortamda Toplanması, Düzenlenmesi ve Erişime Açılmasına İlişkin Yönerge” gereğince tam metin erişime açılmıştır.Bu tez çalışması iki farklı girdi temelli öğretim yönteminin, Metinsel Girdi Geliştirme ve Yapılandırılmış Girdi Alıştırmaları, İngilizce geniş zaman 3. tekil şahıs ekinin edinimine etkisini araştırmıştır. Bu çalışma yarı deneysel bir çalışma olup başlangıçta 43 katılımcıdan oluşan iki deney grubu içermektedir. Her iki deney grubuna da eğitimden bir hafta önce bir ön test uygulanmış ve sonrasında ikişer ders saati boyunca Yapılandırılmış Girdi ve Metinsel Girdi Alıştırmalarını içeren iki farklı uygulama yürütülmüştür. Eğitimden bir gün sonra her iki gruba da son test uygulanmıştır. Son olarak, edinimin kalıcı olup olmadığını ortaya koymak adına dört hafta sonra farklı bir son test uygulanmıştır. Bu çalışmada, iki farklı girdi temelli öğretim yönteminin ortaokul düzeyinde İngilizce'yi yabancı dil olarak öğrenen öğrencilerin hedef dildeki geniş zaman tekil şahıs ekini kavrama ve (eğitim süresince üretim yaptırılmamasına rağmen) üretim düzeylerine ne kadar katkıda bulunacağının ortaya çıkarılması amaçlanmaktadır. Sonuçlar, her iki yöntemin de katılımcıya kavrama düzeyinde katkıda bulunduğunu ancak ekin üretimine ilişkin olarak aynı etkiye sahip olmadığını göstermektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Girdi-temelli Öğretim Yöntemi, Metinsel Girdi Geliştirme Alıştırmaları, Yapılandırılmış Girdi Alıştırmaları, Çocuklara Yabancı Dil ÖğretimiThis quasi-experimental study investigated the effects of two different types of input-based instructions, namely Textual Enhancement (TE) and Processing Instruction (PI) on the acquisition of English Simple Present Tense third person singular form (–s). To this end, elementary level young learners (n = 43) learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) were employed for the study, and then randomly distributed into two experimental groups as TE and PI groups. Each group received its own specific instruction for two regular classroom hours: the TE group received textual enhancement; the PI group received processing instruction. The groups were assessed within a pretest, an immediate posttest and a delayed posttest design. The assessment materials included one interpretation task (grammaticality judgment task) and two production tasks (form correction and written production tasks). All the instructional and assessment materials used in the study were piloted twice on a similar group of students prior to the main study to check the difficulty level of the instructional materials, the reliability of the tests and the clarity of the instruction. The overall findings showed that both TE and PI groups improved their performance on the interpretation-level task; however, they failed to improve their performance on the production-level tasks. Key words: Input-based Instructions, Focus-on-form, Textual Enhancement,Processing Instruction, Teaching English to Young Learner

Brain responses to contrastive and noncontrastive morphosyntactic structures in African American English and Mainstream American English: ERP evidence for the neural indices of dialect

Recent research has shown that distinct event-related potential (ERP) signatures are associated with switching between languages compared to switching between dialects or registers (e.g., Khamis-Dakwar & Froud, 2007; Moreno, Federmeier & Kutas, 2002). The current investigation builds on these findings to examine whether contrastive and non-contrastive morphosyntactic features in English elicit differing neural responses in bidialectal speakers of African American English (AAE) and Mainstream American English (MAE), compared to monodialectal speakers of MAE. Event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral responses (response types and reaction time) to grammaticality judgments targeting a contrasting morphosyntactic feature between MAE and AAE are presented as evidence of dual-language representation in bidialectal speakers. Results from 30 participants (15 monodialectal; 15 bidialectal) support the notion that bidialectal populations demonstrate distinct neurophysiological profiles from monolingual groups as indicated by a significantly greater P600 amplitude from 500ms – 800ms time window in the monodialectal group, when listening to sentences containing contrasting features. Such evidence can support the development of linguistically informed educational curriculums and clinical approaches from speech-language pathologists, by elucidating the differing underlying processes of language between monodialectal and bidialectal speakers of American English

Norms and varieties of English and TESOL teacher agency

The growing recognition of the plurality of English underling the World Englishes (WE) paradigm has problematised the conventional second language acquisition (SLA) views of errors. If English use in emerging English-speaking contexts is to be judged by local norms, as argued by WE scholars, applying exocentric norms in these contexts can be inappropriate. On the other hand, despite the significant growth of WE, varieties of new Englishes have yet to develop widely acceptable endocentric norms. These developments have raised a critical question: How can TESOL teachers distinguish between errors in the SLA sense and varietal features in the WE sense? Framed around language management theory (LMT) and teacher agency, this paper investigates how a group of global TESOL practitioners in an Australian university evaluated usages of English as a second language, what criteria they used and what implications their judgments and decision-making processes have for TESOL pedagogy and WE research

The maintenance and loss of reflexive anaphors in L2 English

This thesis is a generative-based investigation of second language (L2) attrition. L2 attrition research to now has measured the loss of lexical items, morphology, word order, and so on. However, none to my knowledge has examined attrition from within an established theoretical framework such as Chomsky's theory of Government and Binding (GB). In particular, this study considers the loss of reflexive binding in proficient L2 English speakers. Informants are six Japanese university students who spent their junior (third) years abroad in the United States. These six informants consisted of two groups: three who had childhood exposure to English, and three whose first exposure to English in the L2 environment was as adults during their university stay overseas. In order to observe attrition which might occur shortly after exposure to the L2 ceased, an important aspect of this research was to begin data collection as soon as possible after the informants' returns to Japan from studying abroad. Data collections occurred at various intervals for each informant and lasted up to 16 months. Data for this longitudinal study were collected via two tests: a truth value judgment test and a grammaticality judgement test. This study is unique in that it uses generative-based SLA research tools and methods to investigate L2 attrition. Furthermore, the truth value judgment test and the grammaticality judgment test provide results which support the hypothesis that principles of reflexive binding attrite in a manner not inconsistent with UG constraints. The general pattern exhibited by all six test subjects initially shows varying but high levels of knowledge of reflexive binding. Over the course of their data collection periods, the informants' knowledge of reflexive binding in English becomes unstable in the face of zero exposure to the target language. In particular, reflexives in finite subordinate clauses tend to remain bound grammatically to local antecedents to a greater degree than in nonfinite clauses. Reflexive binding in tensed clauses thus appears more resistant to attrition. Age at first exposure to the L2 was also considered as a factor in determining ultimate level of attrition. Evidence was found of a sensitive period up to age eight for the successful acquisition and long-term maintenance of knowledge of the principles of reflexive binding, even upon loss of exposure to the L2

시각강화와 작업기억이 한국인 영어 학습자의 문법 학습에 미치는 영향

학위논문(석사) -- 서울대학교대학원 : 인문대학 영어영문학과, 2023. 2. 송미정.제 2 언어를 습득함에 있어 주의집중의 중요성에 관한 연구가 축적된 이후 실제 교실에서는 학습자의 관심을 문법 형태로 유도하기 위한 다양한 교수기법이 개발되었고 또한 적용되고 있다. 명시적으로 규칙을 설명하거나 간접적으로 문법을 제시해 주는 기법 등과 같은 많은 학습 방법 중에서 시각적 입력 강화(VIE)은 제 2 언어를 연구원들과 교실에서 수업하는 교사들로부터 많은 관심을 받았다. 이는 학습자가 알 수 있도록 독해 텍스트 내에서 해당 문법 사항을 강조하는 기법을 의미한다. 하지만 시각강화가 문법 학습에 미치는 영향에 대한 앞선 연구들은 학습자의 다양한 내부 요인 뿐만 아니라 특정 문법 항목의 선택과 같은 방법론적 차이로 인해 혼합된 결과를 보여주었다. 게다가 시각강화가 독해력에 미치는 영향과 관련된 또 다른 중요한 문제는 해결되지 않았고 논란의 여지가 남아 있다. 수년에 걸쳐 많은 시각강화 연구가 수행되었지만, 서로 다른 문법 항목 사이에 시각강화의 효과를 비교하고 학습자의 작업 기억과 시각강화 효과 사이에서의 상관관계를 조사한 연구는 거의 없었다. 따라서 본 연구는 시각강화가 두 가지 문법적 형태의 문법 학습에 미치는 영향과 독해력에 미치는 영향을 조사하고자 하였다. 영어 관계사절과 관사를 해당 문법 항목으로 선정한 것은 그동안 한국인 영어 학습자들이 상대적으로 어렵게 여기는 특징을 나타냈으며 여기에는 유사점과 차이점이 존재하기 때문이다. 마지막으로 개인변인이 시각강화의 효과성에 미치는 영향을 파악하기 위해 개별 학습자의 작업 기억 능력도 연구되었다. 실험에는 총 48명의 한국인 대학 영어학습자들이 참여했다. 참가자들은 (a) 관계사절 그룹(관계사절에 대한 시각강화), (b) 관사 그룹(관사에 대한 시각강화), (c) 통제 그룹(시각강화 미제공)의 세 그룹으로 배정되었다. 이들은 독해 시험과 문법 시험을 치루었다. 본 연구는 또한 시각강화의 효과가 각 참가자의 작업 기억 수준에 따라 영향을 받는 지의 여부를 분석하였다. 따라서 이들의 작업 기억 능력 결과를 바탕으로 각 그룹을 높은 작업 기억 그룹과 낮은 작업 기억 그룹으로 세분화하였다. 두 시각강화그룹의 독해력 테스트 결과는 통제 그룹과 비교하여 유의한 차이가 없는 것으로 나타났으며, 이는 두 문법 항목에 대한 텍스트 내에서의 강조가 학습자의 독해에 방해하지 않았음을 의미한다. 두 시각강화 그룹의 문법 시험 결과는 문법 대상에 따라 통제 그룹과의 문법 시험 결과와 다르게 나타났다. 관계사절 그룹에서는 수용성 지식(receptive knowledge)에 해당하는 문법 시험에서 통제 그룹보다 더 높은 점수를 받았다. 관계사절 집단 참가자들은 다른 집단에 비해 관계사절에 시각적으로 강화된 점에 주목하였고, 시각강화는 영어 관계사절 대한 수용적 지식을 향상시키는데 도움을 주는 것으로 나타났다. 관사의 경우, 시각강화는 참가자들의 영어 관사에 대한 생산적인 지식(productive knowledge)을 향상시키는 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 결과는 문법 항목을 시각적으로 강화하면 문법 학습에 긍정적인 영향을 미치고 있음을 나타낸다. 작업 기억 능력의 개인차는 관계사절 그룹과 관사 그룹에서 독해나 문법 학습에 영향을 미치지 않았다. 그러나 작업기억을 세분화하여 살펴본 결과, 처리 능력이 높은 학습자들이 낮은 학습자들보다 더 우수한 성적을 보였다. 관계사절 그룹에서 높은 처리 능력을 가진 참가자들은 낮은 그룹보다 GJT에서 약간 더 나은 성과를 보였지만, 통계적으로 유의하지 않았다. 관사 그룹에서, 높은 처리 능력을 가진 참가자들은 통계적으로 유의미한 수준으로 FIB에서 더 나은 성과를 보였다. 이러한 결과는 작업 기억의 처리 구성 요소가 문법 학습에 중요한 개인 변수가 될 수 있음을 시사한다. 통계적으로 유의하지 않음에도 불구하고 작업기억능력이 높은 집단이 하위집단보다 우수한 경향은 학습자의 작업 기억 능력에 따라 시각강화의 효과가 달라질 수 있는 가능성을 제시한다. 본 연구는 두 개의 다른 특징을 가진 문법 항목 대한 시각강화가 독해를 저해하지는 않았고 문법 학습에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 또한, 문법 학습에 대한 시각강화의 효과는 작은 영향에도 불구하고 참가자의 작업 기억 능력의 처리 구성 요소에 의해 영향을 받을 수 있다는 점이다. 이 연구 결과, 문법 형태를 시각적으로 향상시킴으로써 학습자가 형태를 알아내고 의미의 손상 없이 습득할 수 있음을 시사해주고 있다.Since the research evidence on the importance of attention and noticing in learning a second language has been accumulated, various teaching techniques to draw learners attention to target forms have been developed and applied in L2 classrooms. Amongst many techniques, such as explicit rule explanation, dictogloss, recasts, prompts, input flooding, etc., visual input enhancement (VIE) has particularly received a lot of attention from L2 researchers as well as classroom teachers. It involves enhancing target features in reading texts for learners to notice them. Previous studies on the effects of VIE on L2 grammar learning, however, have shown mixed results due to the methodological differences such as the choice of specific target linguistic forms as well as various learner-internal factors. Moreover, another important issue regarding the impact of VIE on reading comprehension has not been resolved and remains controversial. Over the years, many VIE studies have been carried out; however, few studies have compared the effectiveness of VIE between different target structures and investigated the relationship between learners working memory and the effectiveness of VIE. Thus, this study aims to investigate the effect of VIE on the learning of two grammatical forms and their impact on reading comprehension. English relative clauses and articles have been chosen as the target features because they have been known as relatively challenging features for Korean EFL learners and there are some similarities and differences in complexity. Finally, individual learners working memory capacity has been also examined to explore its impact on the effectiveness of VIE. A total of 48 Korean college learners of English participated in this study. The participants were assigned into three groups: (a) relative group (VIE on relative clauses), (b) article group (VIE on articles), and (c) control group (no VIE). They completed a reading comprehension test and grammar tests, including a grammaticality judgement test (GJT) and a fill-in-the-blank (FIB) test. This study also explored whether the effectiveness of VIE was influenced by each participants different levels of working memory. Therefore, based on their working memory test results, each group was subdivided into high and low working memory (WM) capacity groups. The findings showed that reading comprehension test results of the two VIE groups were not significantly different from the control group, which indicates that the enhancement on two grammatical features did not interrupt learners reading comprehension. However, the grammar test results of the two VIE groups were different from that of the control group, depending on the target form. In the relative group, the immediate posttest result for the GJT was better than that of the control group. The participants in the relative group noticed the enhanced relative clauses more than other groups, and it was found that VIE helped them enhance their receptive knowledge of English relative clauses. As for articles, VIE was shown to improve the participants productive knowledge of English articles. These results indicate that VIE on target linguistic features has positive effects on their grammar learning. The individual differences in working memory capacity in general did not affect the reading comprehension or grammar learning for both the VIE-relative and VIE-article groups. However, the result of the processing component of working memory showed that learners with higher WM processing ability performed better than those with lower WM processing ability. In the relative group, participants with high WM processing ability slightly performed better in the GJT than their counterparts; however, it was not statistically significant. In the article group, participants with high WM processing ability had performed better in the FIB, which was statistically significant. These findings suggest that the processing component of working memory might be an important individual variable for grammar learning. Despite not being statistically significant, the trend that the group with high working memory ability outperformed the lower group presents the possibility that the effects of VIE can differ depending on the learners' WM capacity. The current study showed that VIE on the target form did not inhibit reading comprehension, but it had a positive effect on grammar learning. Furthermore, the impact of VIE on grammar learning can be influenced by the processing component of the participants working memory capacity, despite its small impact. The findings of this study suggest that by enhancing the target grammatical forms, learners can notice the forms and thereby acquire them without compromising for meaning.1. Introduction 1 1.1 Research Background 1 1.2 Research Questions 3 1.3 Organization of the Thesis 4 2. Literature Review 5 2.1 Attention in Second Language Acquisition 5 2.2 Visual Input Enhancement 8 2.3 Grammatical Features 14 2.3.1 Grammatical Difficulty 14 2.3.2 Target Forms 18 2.4 Working Memory Capacity 21 3. Methodology 28 3.1 Participants 28 3.2 Procedure 29 3.3 Materials 31 3.3.1 Reading Comprehension 31 3.3.2 Grammar Tests 32 3.3.3 Working Memory Capacity 34 3.4 Method of Analysis 35 4. Results 36 4.1 The Effects of Visual Input Enhancement 36 4.1.1 Reading Comprehension 36 4.1.2 Grammar Learning 38 4.1.2.1 Relative Clauses 38 4.1.2.2 Articles 40 4.2 The Effects of Working Memory Capacity 43 4.2.1 Working Memory Composite 44 4.2.2 Working Memory Storage 47 4.2.3 Working Memory Processing 49 5. Discussions 53 5.1 The Effectiveness of Visual Input Enhancement 53 5.2 Working Memory Capacity as Individual Variable 58 6. Conclusion 61 References 64 Appendices 75 국문초록 98석

CHALLENGES IN THE SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION OF DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

The three studies in this dissertation bring together quantitative and qualitative methods in order to understand L2 learning of derivational morphology. By using measures of derivational knowledge developed from L1 research, Study 1 provides a foundation for in-class research by assessing what L2 learners know and do not know about derivational morphology in comparison to adult native English speakers and how factors such as L1 background and L2 proficiency shape L2 knowledge of derivational morphology. Results show that L2 learners have poor knowledge of derivational morphology regardless of L1 background or L2 proficiency.Study 2 follows from these results and investigates the effects of input-processing versus pushed output instruction on the development of productive and receptive morphological abilities. The results of this study support the hypothesis that instruction is beneficial for L2 derivational learning; however, results do not support the hypothesis that pushed output instruction leads to better immediate and long-term learning than the input-processing condition. In fact, results suggest that equivalent learning occurs between the two conditions across all measures of derivational knowledge.Finally, Study 3 was a qualitative investigation of learners' attitudes, actions, and motivations towards the learning of derivational morphology over the course of Study 2. Using activity theory, this study describes how students' initial actions, which were not aligned with the goal of morphological learning, were transformed over the course of the study as students came to realize the importance of derivational morphology for their success in English. The results of this study are also important because they offer an alternative explanation for why the hypotheses in Study 2 regarding the effectiveness of output were not supported. Specifically, many participants in this study became aware of derivational morphology for the first time as a result of this study; therefore, a "novelty effect" (cf. Tulving & Kroll, 1995) may have overridden any potential benefit of the output treatment over the input treatment