Effects of Negotiated Interaction on Mongolian-nationality EFL Learners’ Spoken Output

Xueping Li

doi:10.5539/elt.v5n6p119

Abstract

The present study examines the effect of negotiated interaction on Mongolian-nationality EFL learners’ spoken production, focusing on the teacher-learner interaction in a story-telling task. The study supports the hypothesis that interaction plays a facilitating role in language development for learners. Quantitative analysis shows that Mongolian learners gained significant improvement on language accuracy and fluency. The interaction offered occasions for phonological, syntactical as well as semantic language development for individual learners. However, how far these occasions may serve as a facilitating tool for language development depended on the learners’ response in the interaction and their uptake in subsequent language production. The analysis also shows that Mongolian learners drew their attention to meaning prior to language forms in dealing with input and output. Their performance was not so much determined by their present language proficiency level, but rather by their L1 background (Mongolian), L2 (Chinese) and negotiation types they engaged in.

Highlights

According to Swain (1985, 1995), language acquisition may result from language production, or output, spoken output being one of them
The results indicated that negotiations had significant delayed effects on learners’ output
The present study provides more empirical evidence that what the learners experienced in the teacher-learner interaction pushed them to produce comprehensible, more complete and accurate output on the information level, which corresponds to the results in Van den Branden (1997)’s study, and more morph-syntactically correct target language

Summary

Introduction

According to Swain (1985, 1995), language acquisition may result from language production, or output, spoken output being one of them. Conversational interaction contains several factors beneficial for ESL/EFL learners, including reception of comprehensible input and interactional feedback (Long, 1983b; Gass & Varonis, 1994) and “pushed” modifications in language production (Swain, 1995, 2000, 2005), fulfilling the capacity of interaction to connect both input and output (Pica, 1994b, 2005; Gass, 2003; Gass et al, 2006) While such studies in the West flourished, researchers in China have made some attempts for oral English development, but without paying equal attention to the important role of interaction (Wang & Zhou, 2004). Because of the late starting point, a sense of inferiority compels them to speak either Mongolian or Chinese for communication after class, rather than practicing English (Li, 2003; Han, 2003) Considering their English level, in most cases teachers of Han or Mongolian nationality are chosen for their oral lessons rather than foreign teachers. The present study is intended to find out effects of teacher-learner interaction on spoken output of Mongolian English majors, with an aim to figure out how to engage both teachers and learners in effective interaction for effective oral English competence, providing some pedagogical implications for EFL minority learners

Results

Discussion

Conclusion