Some Unresolved Issues in an ELT New Media Age: Towards Building an Interlanguage Semantics

On May 10, 2011, students from Professor ZhaoHong Han’s Advanced Second Language Acquisition (SLA) class in Spring 2011 had the honor of attending an invited seminar in which Professor Larry Selinker, was the honorary speaker. A well-respected researcher who helped found the field of SLA with his Interlanguage Hypothesis 40 years ago, Professor Selinker has persistently sought to advance the research space vis-a-vis the second language (L2) learner’s developing system. His conception of interlanguage fossilization, in particular, has been a fundamental impetus for many existing strands of SLA research, including L2 learnability and teachability, as well as ultimate attainment

Review Article

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98394/1/j.1467-1770.1985.tb00362.x.pd

Research methodology in contextually- based second language research

We suggest a combined research methodology for studying SLA in real-life and important contexts, a methodology sensitive to the demands of such contexts. For studying IL learning in context, our suggested methodology combines and integrates aspects from three fields: grounded ethnography in ethnomethodol ogy ; subject-specialist informant procedures in language for specific purposes; and rhetorical/grammatical strategies in discourse analysis. We first present evidence for the importance of devising a research approach to contexually based SLA. Then we sketch the suggested research methodology and present two extended case studies which illustrate the methodology. We view such research as complimentary to universal approaches to core IL grammar. Finally, we sketch our theoretical approach, showing a possible link between research in universal and contextually-based SLA.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68815/2/10.1177_026765838900500201.pd

Using the Discourse Domain Hypothesis of Interlanguage to Teach Scientific Concepts: Report On a Case Study in Secondary Education

This paper reports work-to-date on a particular practical context, applying one approach to interlanguage, the discourse domains approach, merged with the rhetorical-grammatical approach, involving both language and content. The context is an MA course for teacher residents placed in urban schools, and their English language learners (ELLs) in math and science classes, providing content area teachers the linguistic support they need to teach the language of their content, and thus the content itself. We were interested in how exactly learners\u27 interlanguage creation interacts with their understanding of scientific concepts. We primarily look at the rhetorical function definition, with discourse level semantic choices, and attendant grammar, with ELL data gathered by the teacher residents. Correct definitions in expected grammatical form point to an understanding of the scientific concept within the discourse domain, providing evidence that the science or mathematics content has been understood by the student. In our data analysis, we concentrated on the semantics and grammar of this rhetorical function, but other functions kept intruding, especially classification . Cross-language transfer appears not to be a factor, but cross-domain transfer is. Finally, we discuss how the marriage of this view of interlanguage with safe rule rhetorical/grammatical functions can better support teacher preparation, especially given how challenging teaching ELLs is for content area teachers

A tribute to Louis Trimble

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27468/1/0000509.pd

Some Unresolved Issues in an ELT New Media Age: Towards Building an Interlanguage Semantics

On May 10, 2011, students from Professor ZhaoHong Han’s Advanced Second Language Acquisition (SLA) class in Spring 2011 had the honor of attending an invited seminar in which Professor Larry Selinker, was the honorary speaker. A well-respected researcher who helped found the field of SLA with his Interlanguage Hypothesis 40 years ago, Professor Selinker has persistently sought to advance the research space vis-a-vis the second language (L2) learner’s developing system. His conception of interlanguage fossilization, in particular, has been a fundamental impetus for many existing strands of SLA research, including L2 learnability and teachability, as well as ultimate attainment

Covariation between temporal interlanguage features and nonverbal event categorisation

This study investigates crosslinguistic influence and conceptual transfer in advanced Chinese learners of English on two levels: expression and categorisation. Specifically, it tests how patterns of temporal reference in learners’ linguistic expression co-vary with their nonverbal event categorisation. The key structural difference between the target and the source language is that achievements are compatible with grammatical ongoingness marking in English (the door is closing) but not in Chinese (*men zai guan). 42 learners were asked to retell videos with achievement-type events (throw away a frisbee) and activities (push a piano) in English. Before expression, the same learners judged which animation (action-biased vs. result-biased) looks most like the model clip (equidistant from event midpoints). Results from expression showed pronounced crosslinguistic influence in learners’ infrequent combination of ongoingness with achievements, when compared with the English controls. Categorisation data signals that L1-modulated preferences also underlie learners’ nonverbal judgements. Crucially, the main new finding is covariation between the frequency of combined forms in learners’ retellings (he is running with a frisbee and threw it away) and how much their overall categorisation choices approximate to those in the target control group. Using a combined new methodology, the reported modulation of learners’ nonverbal behaviour by interlanguage systems provides a hitherto unattested empirical contribution to our understanding of L2 learners’ cognitive restructuring

LSP and interlanguage: Some empirical studies

It is argued that LSP and interlanguage studies in SLA need each other. A series of questions which should be open to empirical investigation are then presented. Some possible interrelations of LSP and IL are discussed. Finally, some of the questions are explored in terms of the empirical studies which appear in this issue of the Journal.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26873/1/0000439.pd

Analyzing oral proficiency test performance in general and specific purpose contexts

To investigate whether a field-specific oral proficiency test, constructed by manipulating test method facets, would be a better predictor of field-specific performance than a general purpose oral proficiency test, 31 Chinese chemistry graduate students were given three English tests: the field specific test, the general purpose test and a chemistry teaching performance test. Results suggested that when raters of the performance test were asked to recommend specifically whether or not a subject should be allowed to actually teach chemistry in a lab or classroom, the field-specific test was a better predictor than the general purpose test. The paper contains a theoretical discussion of field-specific language testing and guidelines for the construction of oral proficiency tests in specific purpose contexts.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/29924/1/0000281.pd