Taking the Guesswork Out of Curriculum Design: Learning to Engineer Explicit Grammar Curricula through the Analysis of Multiple Influences on the Acquisition Process

Andrew Schenck ,Wonkyung Choi

doi:10.4236/ojml.2012.23015

Abstract

While a study by Goldschneider and DeKeyser (2005) was able to explain how factors such as phonological salience, frequency, morphological regularity, semantic complexity, and syntactic complexity influence acquisition order, the examination of six similar morphological features provided only a limited perspective. The purpose of this study was to see if causal variables, both individually and cumulatively, could be used to predict acquisition orders with more highly disparate morphological and syntactic features. Results of Spearman rank calculations revealed that the integration of causal factors yielded the highest correlation to both the Processability Theory (rs = 0.821; p = 0.007) and Natural Order Hypothesis (rs = 0.529; p = 0.143), suggesting that these factors have a synergistic influence on morphosyntactic development. Methods to predict the acquisition of both syntactic and morphological features are suggested, along with an empirically-based method to guide explicit grammar instruction.

Highlights

Explicit grammar instruction has been extensively investigated (Norris & Ortega, 2000; Spada & Tomita, 2010), a debate concerning its efficacy persists today
Several historical studies document a clear sequence of acquisition for L2 learners (Cook, 2001; De Villiers & De Villiers, 1973; Dulay & Burt, 1974; Dulay, Burt, & Krashen, 1982; Krashen & Terrell, 1983; Pienemann, 1999, 2005; Simmons, 2001), they have failed to provide a holistic perspective from which effective explicit grammar curricula can be created
All other causal factors had negative correlations. Both morphosyntactic complexity and morphosyntactic alternations were highly signifycant to the 0.05 probability level, suggesting that these two factors are influential in slowing the acquisition of features in the Processability Model

Summary

Introduction

Explicit grammar instruction has been extensively investigated (Norris & Ortega, 2000; Spada & Tomita, 2010), a debate concerning its efficacy persists today. Rather than extending the limited order of 14 morphemes first discovered by Brown (1973) in the 1970s, successive studies continued to examine only a few morphosyntactic features in isolation, numbering from 10 to 14 (De Villiers & De Villiers, 1973; Dulay & Burt, 1974, 1975; Krashen & Terrell, 1983; Johnston, 1985, 1994; Pienemann, 1999, 2005) These designs have had only limited utility, because they illuminate only a small facet of a more complex acquisition process. Each research project used different participants at disparate developmental levels, meaning that results, which contained different morphosyntactic features, could not be cross-referenced to provide a more holistic perspective

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion