Issues In Second Language Acquisition Research Articles

Investigating the Effects of Speaker Variability on Arabic children’s Acquisition of English Vowels

This study investigated whether speaker variability in phonetic training benefits vowel learnability by Arabic learners of English. Perception training using High-Variability stimuli in laboratory studies has been shown to improve both the perception and production of Second Language sounds in adults and children and has become the dominant methodology for investigating issues in Second Language acquisition. Less consideration is given to production training, in which Second Language learners focus on the role of the articulators in producing second language sounds. This study aimed to assess the role of speaker variability by comparing the effect of using High-Variability and Low-Variability stimuli for production training in a classroom setting. Forty-six Arabic children aged 9-12 years were trained on 18 Standard Southern British English vowels in five training sessions over two weeks and were tested before and after training on their vowel production and category discrimination. The results indicate that Low-Variability stimuli may be more beneficial for children, however, High-Variability stimuli may alter some phonetic cues. Furthermore, the results suggest that production training may be used to improve the perception and production of Second Language sounds, but also to inform the design of Second Language pronunciation learning programmes and theories of Second Language acquisition.

Language Learning through Interaction: Issues in Second Language Acquisition

This study was done to investigate how children acquire and learn languages as they grow mentally and physically. The theories of second language acquisition state that the dominating factor affecting second language acquisition are motivation, cognitive style, sociocultural, and other linguistic factors. The Behaviorist Theory of Language acquisition states that children learn language through motivation while the Cognitivist theory claims that language develops through the concepts of memory and time. Likewise, the Innatists claim that children are born with an innate quality of universal grammar to acquire language automatically as they grow. The socioculturalists claim that language acquisition and learning occurs through social interaction without having required to force them to learn a language. The paper found that “input” factor has improved and progressed the linguistic competence of the learners which is seen in Bhutanese children being able to understand more than two languages like Nepali and Hindi. Most of the Bhutanese children understand the above two languages without 
 having attended any formal classes but all learned through the “Input” factors of exposure to television and contacts. The findings of this paper indicated that conversational interaction in second language learning had enhanced the language development of children at a young age.

Gender-related Emotionality in EFL Students’ Classroom: An Experience Sampling Analysis

This study addresses one of the neglected issues in second language acquisition (SLA) research namely emotionality in EFL students. Based on domain specificity dimension of social-cognitive model of emotions, this study aims to capture students’ ongoing and spontaneous emotions through experience sampling method. That is, it analyzed 96 forms which students completed at random times and upon receiving random signals in the EFL class. The forms were then analyzed based on the difference between females and males in the following areas: 1) EFL-related activities vs. non-EFL-related activities; 2) the frequency of different emotions; 3) the antecedents of students’ emotional states; 4) students’ use of emotion regulation strategies and the valence of emotions. The overall results indicated that females and males differed in significant ways in diverse facets of emotional experience. First, females outperformed in the amount of involvement in EFL-related tasks and thinking. Second, they reported experiencing the class emotionally different. Particularly, they experienced greater amount of anxiety and hope comparing to males. Third, they differed in the degree to which they attributed their emotions to teachers meaning that teachers have a more crucial role in emotional dispositions of female students. The implications were then discussed in the light of teachers’ responsibility in facilitating communication of emotion and creating positive emotional climate.

Key Issues in Second Language Acquisition since the 1990s

The research field of the second language acquisition has been increasingly widened in recent years, and emerged various kinds of new theories. This thesis summarizes foreign and domestic researches’ key issues in this field since the 1990s according to theoretical framework of the second language research, then sorts out relative achievements from respective points of sociocutural theory; input, interaction and output in SLA; learner differences; external elements of learners, tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge and universal grammar and interlanguage representations, and looks into the future development, so as to make domestic learners better understand the current researches of this field and increase the general level of our foreign language education and teaching.

Editor's Remarks

Editor's Remarks

The Study of Errors and Feedback in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Research: Strategies used by the ELT practitioners in Bangladesh to address the errors their students make in learning English

The study of errors and feedback is one of the major issues in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research. The research in this area is so important because it gives the English language teaching (ELT) practitioners an opportunity to have an insight in understanding the nature of learners’ errors and in giving feedback to learners. Following quantitative method, this paper carries out an empirical cross-sectional survey research on errors and feedback in SLA in the context of Bangladesh in order to generalize the way in which the Bangladeshi ELT practitioners view their students’ errors and the ways they correct the errors. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/iiucs.v8i0.20409 IIUC Studies Vol.8 December 2011: 131-140

Theory Construction in Second Language Acquisition In Favor of the Rationalism

One of the most controversial issues in second language acquisition (SLA) seems to be the issue of theory construction. There are mainly two opposing views considering the SLA theory construction namely the Rationalist view and the Relativist view. The former tries to reasons that there should be a few theories of SLA at work while the latter favors as many theories as possible. However, the present paper tries to take a supportive stance with regard to the rationalism reasoning that the rationalist view seems to be more fruitful, practical, and above all beneficial considering theory construction in SLA.

Conceptions of Language Input in Second Language Acquisition: A Case of Vietnamese EFL Teachers

Conceptions of Language Input in Second Language Acquisition: A Case of Vietnamese EFL Teachers

Morphosyntactic Issues in Second Language Acquisition edited by GABRYS–BARKER, DANUTA

The article reviews the book Morphosyntactic Issues in Second Language Acquisition, edited by Danuta Gabrys-Barker.

Methodological reflections on gesture analysis in second language acquisition and bilingualism research

Gestures, i.e. the symbolic movements that speakers perform while they speak, form a closely interconnected system with speech, where gestures serve both addressee-directed (‘communicative’) and speaker-directed (‘internal’) functions. This article aims (1) to show that a combined analysis of gesture and speech offers new ways to address theoretical issues in second language acquisition (SLA) and bilingualism studies, probing SLA and bilingualism as product and process; and (2) to outline some methodological concerns and desiderata to facilitate the inclusion of gesture in SLA and bilingualism research.

Constructing another Language--Usage-Based Linguistics in Second Language Acquisition

The general aim of this article is to discuss the application of Usage-Based Linguistics (UBL) to an investigation of developmental issues in second language acquisition (SLA). Particularly, the aim is to discuss the relevance for SLA of the UBL suggestion that language learning is item-based, going from formulas via low-scope patterns to fully abstract constructions. This paper examines how well this suggested path of acquisition serves ‘as a default in guiding the investigation of the ways in which exemplars and their type and token frequencies determine the second language acquisition of structure’ (N. Ellis 2002: 170). As such, it builds on and further discusses the findings in Bardovi-Harlig (2002) and Eskildsen and Cadierno (2007). The empirical point of departure is longitudinal oral second language classroom interaction and the focal point is the use of can by one student in the class in question. The data reveal the formulas, here operationalized as recurring multiword expressions, to be situated in recurring usage events, suggesting the need for a fine-tuning of the UBL theory for the purposes of SLA research towards a more locally contextualized theory of language acquisition and use. The data also suggest that semi-fixed linguistic patterns, here operationalized as utterance schemas, deserve a prominent place in L2 developmental research.

Dynamic systems in second language learning: Some general methodological reflections

In this rich and provocative article, De Bot, Lowie and Verspoor provide a clear and informative description of the central tenets of dynamic systems theory and apply this to a number of theoretical and empirical issues in second language acquisition. The authors see dynamic systems theory as a promise for the future, an overarching theory in second language acquisition that takes into account the interconnectedness that is so characteristic of complex, developing systems, including the cognitive and social factors that help shape the process of second language acquisition. Having pioneered in dynamic systems for quite some time now (see Van Geert and Steenbeek, 2005, for a recent overview), I cannot be but supportive of their vision and their hope that this particular approach will lead to a fuller understanding of second language acquisition that is not only of theoretical but also of applied importance. However, the authors' remark about “some unresolved issues” in Dynamic Systems Theory may be somewhat over-optimistic. Nevertheless, I consider the dynamic systems approach as the quintessential future approach to human action, cognition and behavior, including language. All these phenomena are about change, about process in time. And this is exactly what dynamic systems approaches provide: an explicit model of change of some phenomenon of interest.

The Lexicon-syntax Interface in Second Language Acquisition (review)

Reviewed by: The lexicon-syntax interface in second language acquisition ed. by Roeland van Hout, Aafke Hulk, Folkert Kuiken, and Richard J. Towell Liang Chen The lexicon-syntax interface in second language acquisition. Ed. by Roeland van Hout, Aafke Hulk, Folkert Kuiken, and Richard J. Towell. (Language acquisition and language disorders 30.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2003. Pp. vi, 232. ISBN 158811418X. $119 (Hb). This volume contains ten papers, including introductory and concluding chapters by the editors. These papers were presented at ‘The interface between syntax and the lexicon in second language acquisition’ seminar organized by the editors and held in Amsterdam in 2001. Richard Towell (1–20) first outlines the linguistic and psychological perspectives of second language acquisition (SLA) as a context against which the eight papers are then briefly introduced and evaluated. The complementary nature of such different perspectives of SLA research is highlighted. Roger Hawkins and Sara Liszka (21–44) attribute errors in tense marking made by Chinese speakers of English in their spontaneous oral production (e.g. The police CAUGHT the man and TAKE him away.) to the difficulty in assigning the formal feature [past] to the category T(ense), as such a feature is not selected in their first language (L1). Norbert Corver (45–68) analyzes second language (L2) expressions produced by Turkish L2 learners of Dutch within a minimalist interface perspective and argues that ‘L2-expressions are perfect grammatical objects, where perfection amounts to legibility of its information to the systems with which it interacts’ (66). Ineke van de Craats (69–96) uses longitudinal data of eight adults with Turkish and Moroccan Arabic L1 backgrounds learning Dutch as an L2 to explore how the grammatical knowledge of an L2 learner is encoded in the lexicon. It is argued that while these L2 learners are more aware of crosslinguistic differences in morphological and lexical properties of words, they originally assume the L1 formal feature constellation, which gradually changes in favor of the L2 ones. Nigel Duffield (97–128) proposes a dual model of competence to account for both the categorical aspects and the various types of lexical and syntactic gradient effects of our implicit grammatical knowledge. Ton Dijkstra (129–50) reviews available literature on the lexical storage and retrieval in bilinguals, which suggests (i) a largely automatic bilingual word identification system, (ii) the slower activation of L2 than L1, depending on relative L1/L2 proficiency, and (iii) the potential influence of experimental and contextual factors on patterns observed in experiments. John N. Williams (151–74) focuses on the similarities and differences between human and connectionist learning of noun classes. In particular, it is argued that while an arbitrary noun class system with masculine and feminine genders is learnable both by humans and by connectionist networks (via distributional information), gender is a persistent problem in SLA as well as in connectionist learning. Laura Sabourin and Marco Haverkort (175–96) show that differences in linguistic processing are quantitative between aphasic speakers and normative speakers, but are qualitative between native speakers and second language learners. David W. Green (197–218) reviews current research on the representation and processing of lexicon and grammar in L2 and claims that they ‘marginally favor the convergence hypothesis’, that is, ‘as proficiency in L2 increases, the networks mediating L2 converge with those mediating language use in native speakers of that language’ (212), rather than the differential representation hypothesis (i.e. an L2 learner’s representation and processing of the lexical and grammatical knowledge of the target language differ from that of a native speaker of that language). Roeland van Hout, Aafke Hulk, and Folkert Kuiken (219–26) highlight the lexicon as the driving force of language acquisition in their concluding remarks. They suggest that varieties in methodology, learners and languages, linguistic domains, contexts and tasks, and perspectives all need to be considered in order to address more fully the issues in second language acquisition examined in this volume and beyond. This work represents the latest developments in the generative/psycholinguistic studies of second language acquisition. It will certainly advance our understanding of this important...

Acquisition by processing: A modular perspective on language development

The paper offers a model of language development, first and second, within a processing perspective. We first sketch a modular view of language, in which competence is embodied in the processing mechanisms. We then propose a novel approach to language acquisition (Acquisition by Processing Theory, or APT), in which development of the module occurs as a natural product of processing activity, without any acquisition mechanisms as such. The approach is illustrated and explicated through examples of the development of content words, derivational morphology, the functional category I with its variable features, and Case and thematic roles, as well as apparent cross-linguistic variation in processing strategies and the status of bootstrapping in the model. We then examine some possible applications to issues in second language acquisition – noticing the gap, the initial state, transfer, and the apparent limits of SLA – and finally offer a broader perspective on the model: its scope, its relations to other approaches, and its possible limits.

Issues in second language acquisition and language processing

The focus of this special issue is on the interface between second language acquisition (SLA) and language processing. The four articles in this issue were originally presented at the workshop on 'Issues in SLA and language processing' held in June 2000 at the University of Paderborn, Germany. The articles tackle language processing from three rather different points of view. This diversity of perspectives is not atypical of research in second language (L2) processing which has in the past included such issues as procedural skills, attention, input and the L2 processor. The assumption that L2 acquisition is constrained by processing represents the basis for several approaches to SLA. This view constitutes a basic assumption in work on L2 input processing (e.g., van Patten, 1996), in research on L2 skill acquisition (e.g., McLaughlin et al. , 1983; Levelt, 1978; McLaughlin, 1987; Hulstijn, 1990; Schmidt, 1992), in work on operating principles (e.g., Andersen, 1984), in the 'competition model' (e.g., Bates and MacWhinney, 1982), in Clahsen's (1984) L2 processing strategies as well as in my own work on processability (Pienemann, 1998). The one thing that the articles in this issue have in common is that they all attempt to integrate aspects of processing into a theory of SLA. Hulstijn focuses on the integration of the notion of automatization into acquisition and representation. Carroll addresses the interface between L2 input and linguistic knowledge, and the two papers by Hâkansson et al. and by Di Biase and Kawaguchi explore the constraints assumed to be imposed on L2 development by the architecture of the emerging L2 processor (Pienemann, 1998) in a number cross-linguistic settings. In this article Hulstijn argues that current theories of the representation, acquisition and automatization of linguistic knowledge are at present largely incompatible due to fundamental differences in the underlying, assumptions made by the symbolist and the connectionist schools of thought. He makes the point that a coherent theory of SLA needs to reconcile some of these differences in order to benefit from the complementary strengths of both approaches. Hulstijn offers a speculative proposal towards

IRC Français: The Creation of an Internet-Based SLA Community

Research into text-based chat environments for foreign language learning has shown that discussions online have a significantly different character from those in the classroom. In this paper, we begin with a brief design history of one of these environments: IRC Français. Our experience both illustrates the challenges involved in moving these chat environments from the language lab to the Internet and offers insight into some of the causes of these changes in conversation. The initial challenges we encountered ranged from ethical difficulties in doing research in Internet-based chat environments to bootstrapping a synchronous community. After exploring these challenges, we present a study taking a closer look at the interactions online and in the classroom over the course of a semester. During this semester, classroom interaction was largely teacher-oriented, despite the best efforts of the teachers involved. Even though teachers initiated online conversations in the same way, however, online interaction was student-driven and significantly more interactive. These observations lend credibility to the language ego permeability theory and its emphasis on inhibition. Quantitative findings of this study mirror a number of other studies. Qualitative findings suggest that important features of the medium lead students to feel more comfortable in the online environment. In particular, the “almost realtime” nature of this medium seems to offer a blend of benefits that arise in both face-to-face conversation and asynchronous interaction. In doing so, however, some new challenges are introduced. We conclude with some suggestions for new research directions into both these challenges and more general issues in second language acquisition in online environments.

Beginning in English: The growth of linguistic and literate abilities in Spanish‐speaking first graders

This article traces the experience of two Spanish‐speaking children of Puerto Rican origin learning to read and write English as they learned to speak it in mainstream first‐grade classrooms in an urban school where instruction followed a basal series. One child read and wrote words with ease, though his ability to pronounce English and speak in grammatical sentences remained highly marked by Spanish. The other did not consolidate her reading and writing skills outside the structured activities, despite native‐like pronunciation and advancing English speech. Both showed through their engagement that they understood the spoken English of classroom but hardly the written English of texts. Their accomplishments in language and literacy are discussed in terms of issues in second language acquisition among school‐age children, differences between Spanish and English, metalinguistic features of instruction, and the content of early literacy learning.

PERSPECTIVES ON FOREIGN AND SECOND LANGUAGE PEDAGOGY: ESSAYS PRESENTED TO KIRSTEN HAASTRUP ON THE OCCASION OF HER SIXTIETH BIRTHDAY. Dorte Albrechtsen, Birgit Henriksen, Inger M. Mees, and Erik Poulsen (Eds.). Odense: Odense University Press, 1998, Pp. 304. $32.00 paper.

The title of this volume, Perspectives on Foreign and Second Language Pedagogy, leads one to expect treatises on the relative merits of varying second-language classroom practices. Nothing could be farther from reality. It is, rather, a collection of essays addressing issues in second language acquisition, most with relevance to learner processes, context, and L2 development, with special emphasis on vocabulary.

The virtues of language: History in language, linguistics and texts Ed. by Dieter Stein and Rosanna Sornicola (review)

478 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 76, NUMBER 2 (2000) Second language acquisition and the critical period hypothesis. Ed. by David Birdsong. (Second language acquisition research: Theoretical and methodological issues 3.) Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1999. Pp. x, 191. The third in a series on theoretical and methodological issues in second language acquisition (SLA) research, this volume was inspired by the 1996 Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée symposium, 'New perspectives on the critical period for SLA'. The editor notes in his introductory chapter (1-18) that several versions of the critical period hypothesis (CPH) are represented in the book, allowing a broad perspective on the issue. In the six chapters that follow, international contributors to the volume are evenly divided in the discussion for and against critical periods in SLA. Diversifying the volume are the range of disciplines that take up the issue and the variety of evidence put forth, including but not limited to morphological, syntactic, and phonological data. The three chapters following the introduction present data from SLA studies that support the CPH. Starting from a neurophysiological approach, Christine M. Weber-Fox and Helen T. Neville (23-36) present the hypothesis that cerebral subsystems for semantics and grammar are differentially affected by critical periods (CPs). The authors' incorporation of both behavioral and electrophysiological research methods provides compelling evidence for this hypothesis . Tames R. Hurford and Simon Kirby (39-62) describe simulations that suggest that evolutionary processes contribute to a CP and discuss the implications for SLA briefly. Lynn Eubank and Kevin R. Gregg (65-93) bring a thorough linguistic theory analysis of the CPH to the volume. Asserting that CPHs in adult SLA demand refinement, the authors demonstrate ways that this refinement can come from linguistic theory. Also discussed in this chapter are fundamental distinctions of critical and/or sensitive periods and the role of physiological evidence for CPs in SLA. Three remaining chapters provide counter explanations that also fit the facts of SLA. James E. Flege (101-27) examines the discontinuity predicted by CPH vs. linear function in second language pronunciation and age of arrival. One view offered is that second language phonological production is limited by accuracy in first language perception. Theo Bongaerts (133-55) reports on three studies that he and his colleagues performed which attempted to address the concern that ultimate attainment studies focus on advanced learners. This chapter suggests that motivation , access, and training in perception and production may contribute to high levels of phonological attainment. The identification of native-like late learners of English and French from Dutch-speaking backgrounds supports this suggestion. In the final chapter (161-78), Ellen Bialystok and Kenji Hakuta challenge the assumption of causality between age and level of attainment. They explore results that fail to support the CPH in both the linguistic and cognitive evidence, concluding that there is reason to accept a null hypothesis contradicting the CPH. The 'younger equals better' hypothesis for SLA remains under advisement. In this regard the virtue of the contributions presented here is that they offer a broad scope for future research. Researchers, graduate students, and teachers will find this volume a useful equilibration of the issues. [Daniel O. Jackson , University of Pennsylvania.] The virtues of language: History in language , linguistics and texts. Ed. by Dieter Stein and Rosanna Sornicola. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1998. Pp. viii, 232. This collection of thirteen essays is dedicated to the memory of Thomas Frank (1925-1990), who held the Chair ofthe History ofEnglish at the University of Naples from 1982 until his death. The first essay, E. F. Konrad Koerner's revised obituary article (originally published in Historiographia Ling üistica 17.421-26 [1990]), summarizes the honorée's many accomplishments over a long and distinguished career (3-10). It contains his bibliography from 1953-1996, which includes a number of studies in the history of linguistics such as a monograph on Bishop Tohn Wilkins's (1714-1792) Essay towards a real character and a philosophical language of 1668 (Guida: Naples, 1979). Rosanna Sornicola's "Thomas Frank in the Neapolitan environment' (11-14) is a historical survey of Frank's career in Naples—from his days as a teaching assistant in English atthe Neapolitan Istituto Universitario...

Second language acquisition and the critical period hypothesis Ed. by David Birdsong (review)

478 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 76, NUMBER 2 (2000) Second language acquisition and the critical period hypothesis. Ed. by David Birdsong. (Second language acquisition research: Theoretical and methodological issues 3.) Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1999. Pp. x, 191. The third in a series on theoretical and methodological issues in second language acquisition (SLA) research, this volume was inspired by the 1996 Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée symposium, 'New perspectives on the critical period for SLA'. The editor notes in his introductory chapter (1-18) that several versions of the critical period hypothesis (CPH) are represented in the book, allowing a broad perspective on the issue. In the six chapters that follow, international contributors to the volume are evenly divided in the discussion for and against critical periods in SLA. Diversifying the volume are the range of disciplines that take up the issue and the variety of evidence put forth, including but not limited to morphological, syntactic, and phonological data. The three chapters following the introduction present data from SLA studies that support the CPH. Starting from a neurophysiological approach, Christine M. Weber-Fox and Helen T. Neville (23-36) present the hypothesis that cerebral subsystems for semantics and grammar are differentially affected by critical periods (CPs). The authors' incorporation of both behavioral and electrophysiological research methods provides compelling evidence for this hypothesis . Tames R. Hurford and Simon Kirby (39-62) describe simulations that suggest that evolutionary processes contribute to a CP and discuss the implications for SLA briefly. Lynn Eubank and Kevin R. Gregg (65-93) bring a thorough linguistic theory analysis of the CPH to the volume. Asserting that CPHs in adult SLA demand refinement, the authors demonstrate ways that this refinement can come from linguistic theory. Also discussed in this chapter are fundamental distinctions of critical and/or sensitive periods and the role of physiological evidence for CPs in SLA. Three remaining chapters provide counter explanations that also fit the facts of SLA. James E. Flege (101-27) examines the discontinuity predicted by CPH vs. linear function in second language pronunciation and age of arrival. One view offered is that second language phonological production is limited by accuracy in first language perception. Theo Bongaerts (133-55) reports on three studies that he and his colleagues performed which attempted to address the concern that ultimate attainment studies focus on advanced learners. This chapter suggests that motivation , access, and training in perception and production may contribute to high levels of phonological attainment. The identification of native-like late learners of English and French from Dutch-speaking backgrounds supports this suggestion. In the final chapter (161-78), Ellen Bialystok and Kenji Hakuta challenge the assumption of causality between age and level of attainment. They explore results that fail to support the CPH in both the linguistic and cognitive evidence, concluding that there is reason to accept a null hypothesis contradicting the CPH. The 'younger equals better' hypothesis for SLA remains under advisement. In this regard the virtue of the contributions presented here is that they offer a broad scope for future research. Researchers, graduate students, and teachers will find this volume a useful equilibration of the issues. [Daniel O. Jackson , University of Pennsylvania.] The virtues of language: History in language , linguistics and texts. Ed. by Dieter Stein and Rosanna Sornicola. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1998. Pp. viii, 232. This collection of thirteen essays is dedicated to the memory of Thomas Frank (1925-1990), who held the Chair ofthe History ofEnglish at the University of Naples from 1982 until his death. The first essay, E. F. Konrad Koerner's revised obituary article (originally published in Historiographia Ling üistica 17.421-26 [1990]), summarizes the honorée's many accomplishments over a long and distinguished career (3-10). It contains his bibliography from 1953-1996, which includes a number of studies in the history of linguistics such as a monograph on Bishop Tohn Wilkins's (1714-1792) Essay towards a real character and a philosophical language of 1668 (Guida: Naples, 1979). Rosanna Sornicola's "Thomas Frank in the Neapolitan environment' (11-14) is a historical survey of Frank's career in Naples—from his days as a teaching assistant in English atthe Neapolitan Istituto Universitario...