Researching Acquisition Sequences: Idealization and De-idealization in SLA

Idealization plays a fundamental role in scientific inquiry. This article examines the case for maintaining the claim that the second language acquisition (SLA) of grammatical structures such as negation manifests identifiable stages of acquisition. It proposes that, while research has demonstrated the need for de-idealization, there is no need to abandon the idealization itself. Drawing on work on idealization in the philosophy of science, it argues that the sequence of acquisition should be seen as a minimal idealization that is of continuing value for the domains of both SLA and, in particular, teacher education. This thesis is explored by examining four studies of second language negation that investigated the same data set. These studies afford important insights about the variability evident in the different stages and, as such, identify the limitations of the idealization but do not justify its rejection. The article concludes with a discussion of other factors (e.g., the first language and the role of instruction), the investigation of which may reveal further limitations and thus contribute further to the de-idealization of the fundamental claim

The Effects of Inference-Training and Text Repetition on Chinese Learners' Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition While Listening

This article reports a study of the effects of inference training and text repetition on Chinese university students’ performance of two listening information-transfer tasks that provided built-in measures of their comprehension and opportunities for the acquisition of ten unknown target words embedded in the listening texts. One group just listened to the text once, a second group three times, while the third listened three times and received inference-training support. The results showed that text repetition had a positive effect on both comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. However, the inference-training had no additional effect. The study lends support to the findings of previous studies which have shown that repeated opportunities to process oral input have a positive effect on listening comprehension and extends these studies by showing that it also facilitates incidental vocabulary acquisition

The comparative effect of direct written corrective feedback and metalinguistic explanation on learners' explicit and implicit knowledge of the English indefinite article

The study extends current work on written error feedback in writing in two ways. First, it examines whether it has an effect on adult ESL learners' L2 implicit and explicit knowledge. Second, the study compares the effect of one common type of feedback - direct corrective feedback (DCF) - with an alternative type of error feedback - the provision of metalinguistic explanation (ME). The effect of these two types of error feedback was measured by an Error Correction Test (ECT) and by examining the accuracy of use of the target feature (the English indefinite article) in both a revised text and in new pieces of writing by 49 low-intermediate ESL students in an intensive language programme in the United States. In addition, eye-tracking data and self-reports elicited from the learners provided information about the use that they made of the DCF and ME. It was found that the DCF had no effect on accurate use of the target feature suggesting that it benefited neither implicit nor explicit knowledge. In contrast, the ME led to gains in accuracy in the ECT and in a new piece of writing completed immediately after the treatment but not in a second new text completed two weeks later. These results are interpreted as indicating that the ME helped to develop learners' L2 explicit knowledge but that the effect was not durable and thus probably had no effect on their implicit knowledge. Learners' self-reports indicate that the learners receiving the DCF did not develop awareness of the rule whereas those receiving the ME did and were able to use it when revising their original text. These findings are discussed from the perspective of both SLA theory and language pedagogy and suggestions for further research are put forward

Tracking ‘learning behaviours’ in the incidental acquisition of two dimensional adjectives by Japanese beginner learners of L2 English

The purpose of this article is to examine both the process and product of vocabulary learning in a task-based instructional context. The article reports a study that investigated the acquisition of two dimensional adjectives (‘big’ and ‘small’) by six-year-old Japanese children who were complete beginners. It tracked the ‘learning behaviours’ that occurred in the classroom interactions involving the use of these adjectives in nine task-based lessons to show how these behaviours developed over time. It also collected test data to establish whether the learners had developed the receptive and productive knowledge required for the independent use of two adjectives. In this way, the study shows how second language (L2) learning evolves through interaction by exploring the relationships between the learners’ different learning behaviours and the differences in their test performance. The main finding was that differences in the success of the individual learners in acquiring productive control over the dimensional adjectives – as shown in the tests – was directly traceable to their learning behaviours in the task-based interactions

Current collection by high voltage anodes in near ionospheric conditions

The authors experimentally identified three distinct regimes with large differences in current collection in the presence of neutrals and weak magnetic fields. In magnetic field/anode voltage space the three regions are separated by very sharp transition boundaries. The authors performed a series of laboratory experiments to study the dependence of the region boundaries on several parameters, such as the ambient neutral density, plasma density, magnetic field strength, applied anode voltage, voltage pulsewidth, chamber material, chamber size and anode radius. The three observed regimes are: classical magnetic field limited collection; stable medium current toroidal discharge; and large scale, high current space glow discharge. There is as much as several orders of magnitude of difference in the amount of collected current upon any boundary crossing, particularly if one enters the space glow regime. They measured some of the properties of the plasma generated by the breakdown that is present in regimes II and III in the vicinity of the anode including the sheath modified electrostatic potential, I-V characteristics at high voltage as well as the local plasma density

Focussing on form in the classroom

Current theories of second language acquisition emphasise the importance of learners' attending consciously to form. Similarly, current discussions of communicative language pedagogy stress the need for classroom language learners to focus on form as well as meaning. The study reported in this article is intended to contribute to both theory and practice. It examines the different ways in which teachers and students achieve a ‘focus-on-form' (i.e. attend to linguistic form in the context of activity that is primarily message-oriented). Based on an analysis of 12 hours of teaching English in a private language school, a coding system is developed to account for the general characteristics of ‘focus-on-form episodes' (FFEs). The system is then used to provide an account of focus-on-form in the classrooms studied, revealing that nearly half of the total FFEs were proactive rather than reactive and that more than half involved negotiating form rather than negotiating meaning (i.e. they were not triggered by any communicative problem). The paper concludes with proposals for future research. Key words: communicative pedagogy, focus-on-form, uptake [Jnl for Language Teaching Vol.37(2) 2003: 149-163

Oral corrective feedback on L2 writing: Two approaches compared

Corrective feedback (CF) research conducted within a cognitive-interactionist framework has examined the effectiveness of specific types of CF (e.g. Ellis etal., 2006). In contrast, CF research conducted within a sociocultural framework has sought to show how tailoring the feedback to the learners' zone of proximal development assists learning (e.g. Aljaafreh and Lantolf, 1994). The study reported in this article was designed to compare these two approaches to investigating CF by examining two types of feedback on students' errors in oral conferences following two pieces of writing. Some students received 'graduated feedback' in accordance with sociocultural theory and others explicit feedback in accordance with cognitive-interactionist theory. The detailed analysis of the feedback sessions showed that while the graduated feedback was effective in promoting self-correction, there was no evidence of any systematic reduction in the level of assistance provided over time. In contrast, the explicit feedback resulted in less self-correction but was accomplished much more quickly. © 2013