Factor In Second Language Acquisition Research Articles

The Influence of Language Aptitude on EFL Learners in SLA

In recent decades, as an important factor in second language acquisition (SLA), language aptitude has attracted more and more attention. Many scholars such as John Carroll, Skehan, Bialystok and Frohlich have proved that language aptitude has great impact on second language acquisition and can predict language learning effect. Using Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT), this paper mainly analyzes the influence of language aptitude on EFL learners in second language acquisition. Therefore, the author chooses some EFL students at the research subject, and adopts some methods (eg: interview) to survey their basic situation of foreign language learning. After that, the data collected are analyzed by SPSS, a statistical software. From those data, we learn about how language aptitude influences foreign language learning in the process of second language acquisition. Based on these results, the author finds out the relationship between language aptitude and teaching and then proposes several suggestions on how to teach efficiently when facing EFL learners.

영어교육에 게재된 학습자 변인 연구 개관

The purpose of this paper is to examine the current state of research on learner factors in second language acquisition by reviewing relevant studies published in English Teaching over the past 50 years. A total of 182 articles on various learner factors were extracted from the journal. Further detailed analyses were conducted on 110 articles on strategy, motivation, and personality traits in terms ofpublication year, research topics, participants, methods, and researchers' concentration. The results reveal that research on learner factors has significantly expanded over time in terms of volume and diversity, reflecting increasing research interests in the field. As for research methodology, a quantitative approach was far more frequent but qualitative and mixedmethod approaches have gained visibility since 2000. Yet, most of the studies focused on tertiary level learners, while overall neglecting primary and secondary level learners. Furthermore, individual researchers' interests in the factors looked rather sporadic as revealed in the lack of research concentration. Based on the findings, suggestions for future research on learner factors are made.

Motivating Learners and the Importance of Materials Used in Language Teaching

The motivation of the learner is one of the most important factors in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), meanwhile language teaching materials are having a very important effect and role in language learning and teaching activities. This research focus on how different materials motivate students. Many factors which affect student's motivation towards teaching materials were perceived, such as interest in the subject matter, level of difficulty, relevance to existing knowledge, perception of usefulness.

Vietnamese American Experiences of English Language Learning: Ethnic Acceptance and Prejudice

Vietnamese American Experiences of English Language Learning: Ethnic Acceptance and Prejudice

Study on the Negative Transfer of Mother Tongue in College Students’ English Argumentative Writing

Language transfer is an important factor in second language acquisition, which consists of positive transfer and negative transfer. Positive transfer promotes the learning of the foreign language, while negative transfer interferes with language study. Language learners, no matter what level they are in, can hardly learn a language under the influence of native language, especially the negative influence of it. Because of it, errors seem to be an unavoidable phenomenon in the process of learning a foreign language. This paper takes non-English major students of Ningbo Dahongying University as research subjects. From the analysis of different errors in college English writing, the author can be certain of one point that the negative influence of MT (mother tongue) on word learning is reflected on multiple aspects.

The influence of prosodic input in the second language classroom: does it stimulate child acquisition of word order and function words?

This paper reports on an intervention study with young Polish beginners (mean age: 8 years, 3 months) learning English at school. It seeks to identify whether exposure to rhythmic input improves knowledge of word order and function words. The ‘prosodic bootstrapping hypothesis’, relevant in developmental psycholinguistics, provided the theoretical framework for the study. Eighty-seven children were randomly assigned to a treatment group exposed to rhythm-salient input in the form of nursery rhymes, a comparison group exposed to prose input, or a control group with no extra input. Results established that prosody can be an important factor in second language acquisition, as in first language acquisition. Children in the treatment group showed improvement in metalinguistic knowledge of English word order but not of function words. This has implications for teaching methods and classroom materials.

Complexity theory: a new way to think

It was pure good fortune that I encountered Complexity Theory (CT) some years ago. It originates in the physical sciences, and I am a mere dilettante in them. However, from the beginning of my acquaintance with CT, I quickly realized that it had much to offer applied linguists. It challenged my concept of language as a static rule-governed system, maintaining instead that “the act of playing the game has a way of changing the rules” (Gleick 1987, p. 24) , and doing away with the need to posit an innate LAD and preformationism (“the assumption that in order to build a complex structure you need to begin with a detailed plan or template”) (Deacon 2012, p. 50). Besides, I could see how CT had the potential to unite important ontogenetic and phylogenetic processes: Language development, language learning, language evolution, language use, language change. However, it was not only that CT was theoretically satisfying; it also resonated with my personal experience. For one thing, adopting a systems perspective on issues of interest in applied linguistics, rather than a piecemeal approach, made a great deal of sense to me. I had grown somewhat discouraged by common research approaches to second language acquisition (SLA) as I understood them. I found them to be reductionist, atomizing the object of concern and then studying one atom at a time, often through single treatment, pre-testpost-test designs. Controlling for other factors and overly deterministic, it sought to identify the causal factor in SLA, e.g., comprehensible input at an i+1 level. Such approaches too readily dismissed variability as noise or measurement error or attributed it to “outliers.” They treated context as a backdrop, removed from the main action. They failed to capture the dynamicity of processes, leading Elman (2003, p. 430) to remark that “This

Multiple factors in second language acquisition: The CASP model

We propose a new model of second language acquisition consisting of multiple interacting principles and inspired by work on complex adaptive systems. The model is referred to as CASP, short for complex adaptive system principles for second language acquisition. It is informed by a broad range of linguistic and psycholinguistic research and supported empirically by recent second language research studies based on a learner corpus. The novelty of our model lies in the definitions that we propose for a number of general and specific principles of learning, in the interactions that we demonstrate between them, in the predictions that we make and illustrate empirically, and in our integration of research findings from numerous areas of the language sciences. The result is a broadly based theory of SLA, which can potentially solve some of the traditional puzzles in this field, e.g., involving when transfer from an L1 does and does not occur.

The Academic Aural/oral Difficulties Taiwanese ESL Students Experience on the US Campus and Their Coping Strategies to Improve Related Proficiency

This qualitative study examines the academic aural/oral difficulties Taiwanese ESL students experience on the US campus and the coping strategies they use in improving related proficiency. They are discussed within a framework of input/interaction/output theory, socio-cultural theory, and from perspectives of affective factors in second language acquisition. The research questions include: What challenges does participation in classroom discussion present? How do students exploit the all English environment to gain the sought-after proficiency? What problems are there in acquiring communication opportunities in the environment? Participants in this study were four Taiwanese graduate students majoring in special education, business, linguistics, and electronics engineering at the University of Kansas. Their stays on campus vary from four months to more than three years. Data are collected through semi-structured interviews, which are recorded and transcribed for analysis that results in four dimensions: Personal attributes, environmental impacts, difficulty types, and strategy repertoire. There are further subcategorized into: background effects, motivation & attitude effects, environmental advantages, impeding situations, linguistic deficiency, content & cultural barriers, strategies to overcome difficulties, and strategies to gain communication opportunities. The main difficulties Taiwanese ESL students experience include insufficient vocabulary and basic listening/speaking skills, lack of background knowledge about the current American society, and being shy from risk-taking in spontaneous discussions. The strategies to cope with such difficulties contain making the most of the environment to improve basic competence, taking an active role in social participation, and engaging in adequate preparation for class meetings.

Language Teaching Materials and Learner Motivation

The motivation of the learner is one of the most important factors in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), meanwhile language teaching materials are having a very important effect and role in language learning and teaching activities. This research focus on how different materials motivate students. Many factors which affect student's motivation towards teaching materials were perceived, such as interest in the subject matter, level of difficulty, relevance to existing knowledge, perception of usefulness.

Investment and Second Language Acquisition

The article argues that Norton Peirce's (1995) concept of a language learner's investment should figure centrally in how instructors address the needs of adult learners in ESL classrooms. Investment is discussed in relation to second language acquisition research that addresses the role of social factors in second language acquisition. The article then expands on the nature of the relationship between an instructor and students in terms of engaging and sustaining investment in the target language. Finally, the article suggests directions for further research in applying the concept of investment to classroom practice.

MAKING SENSE OF FREQUENCY

Nick Ellis's article is impressive for its breadth of scholarship and the cogent case made for frequency as an important factor in second language acquisition (SLA). This response begins with a brief historical sketch, which aims to contextualize the frequency factor in terms of the evolution of SLA research. Although researchers have known about a frequency effect for some time, until recently, we have lacked neurologically plausible models and technologically convenient means of measuring and testing frequency effects in input. Still, as relevant and important as a frequency factor is, it requires greater definition and qualification. For instance, L2 learners are agents of their own learning process. They do not merely record frequency; they categorize frequently occurring patterns, abstract, and generalize from them. Higher level generalizations emerge from interactions, impose top-down expectancies on future data, and, in turn, are altered by the data in a perpetually dynamic interplay. In a similar fashion, it is incumbent on SLA researchers not to be satisfied with a frequency explanation, but to interpret it—in short, to make sense of frequency.

Multiple Perceptions: Social Identity in a Multilingual Elementary Classroom

27-50). Arlington, VA: Center for Applied Linguistics. Schumann, J. H. (1978b). Social and psychological distance as factors in second language acquisition. In The pidginization process: A model for second language acquisition (pp. 69-100). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Schumann, J. H. (1978c). Social and psychological factors in second language acquisition. InJ. Richards (Ed.), Understanding second andforeign language learning (pp. 163-177). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Wong Fillmore, L., & Valadez, C. (1986). Teaching bilingual learners. In M. Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (pp. 648-685). New York: Macmillan. Wong-Rieger, D., & Quintana, D. (1987). Comparative acculturation of Southeast Asian and Hispanic immigrants and sojourners. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 18, 345-362. Young, M. Y., & Gardner, R. C. (1990). Modes of acculturation and second language proficiency. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 22, 59-71.

The Age Factor in Second Language Acquisition

The Age Factor in Second Language Acquisition

The Challenge of the Future: Teaching Students to Speak Fluently and Accurately

In the late nineteenth century, Fran~ois Gouin (1880), who had become thoroughly frustrated with his own fruitless attempts to "learn" German by memorizing long lists of vocabulary and grammar rules, discovered that his threeyear-old nephew had "acquired" a decent command of French simply by hearing and using the language in context. In order to capitalize on this observation, Gouin developed his "Series Method" whereby the teacher would perform a series of actions while describing them to the students in the foreign language. This emphasis on listening comprehension as a key factor in second language acquisition failed to gain widespread recognition since at the time formal language instruction was still heavily focussed on grammar and translation. Gouin was promoting "comprehensible input" in France one hundred years before the term would be popular in North America.

Social and individual factors in second language acquisition.

Social and individual factors in second language acquisition.

Affective, Cognitive and Social Factors in Second-Language Acquisition

Affective, Cognitive and Social Factors in Second-Language Acquisition