Abstract
The aims of the present study were twofold. The study addressed the issues of simultaneous attention to form and meaning in second language (L2) written input and reactivity of think-alouds. Specifically, the study examined the comprehension of L2 learners of Spanish who either attended to lexical or grammatical forms while reading for meaning or read for meaning alone. Learners completed these tasks while either thinking aloud or not. Results indicated only a minimal effect for thinking aloud that did not appear to compromise the internal validity of the study. Additionally, results showed that attending to grammatical or lexical form while reading for meaning did not affect comprehension. Indeed, learners who processed these forms more deeply evidenced greater comprehension. These findings are considered in light of methodological issues and the larger issue of simultaneous attention to form and meaning in a L2.
Highlights
ObjectivesThe aims of the present study were twofold
The results of this study suggest that L2 learners in the first years of learning do have difficulty paying attention simultaneously to form and meaning when the form itself conveys relatively little meaning
Considering the results related to both theeffects of attentional conditions on comprehension and the relationship between depth of processing and comprehension, the findings of the current study suggest that simultaneous attention to form and meaning does not interfere with comprehension when the forms are processed in a meaningful manner—which leads to increased comprehension
Summary
The aims of the present study were twofold. Meaning when processing L2 input more generally (Greenslade et al, 1999; VanPatten, 1990; Wong, 2001), the aims of the present study are twofold: (a) to replicate and extend the results of Leow et al and (b) to examine whether having participants think aloud while attending to form and meaning might have reactive effects. Given that one of the primary aims of the current study was to test the potential reactivity of TAs administered when learners were directed to pay attention to both form and meaning, it was necessary to collect data from TA and NTA groups to compare performance under the two conditions. One of the primary goals of the study was to examine whether thinking aloud would result in reactive effects when L2 learners read a passage for comprehension and attended to a target form
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