Context Of Language Acquisition Research Articles

A minimal mechanism of the bilingual advantage

Looking to atypical populations to illuminate the functioning of core cognitive systems has a long history in the behavioral sciences (e.g., Caramazza, 1986; McCloskey, 1992). Pierce, Genesee, Delcenserie, and Morgan (2017) continue that tradition in their keynote article, here by shedding light on how the development of phonological working memory (PWM) may be shaped not only by individual genetic variation but also by various features of the language acquisition context, whether that context is enriched, as in bilingualism; delayed, as with cochlear implantation (CI) or international adoption (IA); or impoverished, as with deaf children of hearing parents or repeat cases of otitis media. Their review of the literature demonstrates that a sensitive (/critical) period for phonological development, encompassing variation in quality, quantity, and timing of early exposure, has crucial consequences for an individual's level of PWM attainment and, by a compelling extension, for aspects of ongoing language development such as vocabulary learning and reading skills.

Indonesian Efl Teachers’ Practice Of Interactional Feedback

<p>Interactional feedback is defined as feedback that is generated by teachers in response to both erroneous and communicatively inappropriate utterances that students produce during conversational interaction (Nassaji, 2015). Interactional feedback has been investigated in second language acquisition contexts, but little has been done concerning interactional feedback in foreign language settings, particularly in Indonesian context. In this descriptive study, conducted at junior high school level, it was aimed to identify the actual practice of instructors of English as a foreign language on interactional feedback in their classrooms. A classroom observation protocol was used to collect the data. The results show that teachers in general have applied different types of interactional feedback. However, not all interactional feedback results in students’ uptakes.</p>

An Overview of Motivation: The Challenges and the Importance of Motivation for Second Language Acquisition

<p>The importance of the learner's attitudes and motivation plays a major role for most psycholinguists, either in a language learning situation or in a second language acquisition context. A quick look at the major theories of language acquisition can be helpful to establish this. Krashen's monitor model argues attitudes and motivation most influential in unconscious language acquisition. The learner's motivational level acts as an affective filter on language intake (Krashen 1981, p. 102). In another model language learning begins when the learner feels motivated to communicate something to someone (see Carroll's conscious reinforcement model, 1981). Reinforcement takes place when the desired end is obtained. Bialystok's strategy model (1978) demonstrates that it can be assumed that learners will seek language exposure only if they feel motivated. Therefore, using their explicit and/or implicit knowledge, communication will take place. This study investigates the challenges and the importance of motivation for second language learning or SL acquisition.</p>

Markedness and Syllabus Design in SLA

This paper discusses how markedness issues have affected syllabus design in a second language acquisition context. To do this, first definitions of the term markedness are presented and different criteria for distinguishing marked from unmarked are reviewed. Then markedness issues in syllabus design are discussed.

Approaching Synforms (Similar Lexical Forms) in an EAP Context

The paper is concerned with the phenomenon of synforms which is defined as form similarity between words, pairs, or groups of words in terms of sound, script or morphology (Laufer, 2005). Synformy has been researched within the context of language acquisition and lexical errors. However, it has not been investigated in the context of naturalistic classroom environment. The data presented in this paper were collected in an EAP teacher’s classroom. Results suggest that it is important for language teachers to raise their awareness of synforms because their unpredictable nature may negatively affect the way in which teachers treat lexical items. The factors shaping the teacher’s instructional decisions about synforms predominantly relate to students and lexical items. The implications and challenges of treating synforms during classroom instruction are also discussed.

Bilingual: Life and Reality, by François Grosjean, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England, Harvard University Press, 2010, 276 pp., $26.95, £19.95 (hardcover), ISBN 978-0-674-04887-4

Bilingual: life and reality. Francois Grosjean (2010) Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press. Pp 276. ISBN 9780674048874This book by Grosjean addresses different aspects of bilingualism, presents its multifaceted character and the effects it may have on people, groups and societies. The aim of the book is to describe key concepts relating to the phenomenon and highlight study areas investigated by researchers. The volume is divided into two parts and is a collection of 19 chapters followed by a Conclusion. Part 1 consists of the main 13 chapters of the book in which the author presents various features of adult bilingualism. Part 2 is devoted to the phenomenon of bilingualism in children and comprises the remaining 6 chapters.In the opening chapter of the book it is reported that nearly half of the world's population are bilingual. Grosjean presents different reasons for people being or becoming bilingual, such as international travel and tourism, globalised business activities, migration and resettlement. Also national language policies (as in Belgium, Switzerland and Canada), education, cultural exchange, intermarriage or deafness in the family can all result in people becoming bilingual. Chapter 9 states that the phenomenon of bilingualism is normally associated with an extended range of possibilities, such as communicating with people from differ- ent countries, reading newspapers and literature in the original language and actively participating in a multilingual setting. These possibilities enhance general communication skills and personal satisfaction which in turn translates into wider job prospects and greater social mobility. On a more personal level, bilingualism is said to aid general understanding of all things different as it increases levels of tolerance and open-mindedness. The latter is said to be directly linked with cognitive advantages of bilingual speakers and their superior ability to analyse things from different points of view. Chapter 9 also lists some of the less positive attitudes towards bilingualism as well as common misconceptions and myths which include perceiving bilinguals as having internal conflicts of values, dual perceptions or split personalities.Chapter 2 provides the all-important definitions of bilingualism and historical evolvement thereof. According to Grosjean bilinguals are those who 'use two or more languages in their everyday lives' (p. 22). The notion of language use is said to be of prime importance, which is characteristic of the more recent definitions of the term. Earlier definitions would primarily stress language fluency and if this failed to prove near-native, the speaker would not be considered as a bilingual but as having a limited knowledge of a foreign language. Grosjean points out that the level of language fluency increases in direct proportion to the level of language use, which indirectly incorporates the notion of fluency into the modern definitions of the term. Perfectly balanced bilingualism is said to be very rare and pure bilinguals unique in their ability. Other factors, including age and context of language acquisition, are said to be regularly addressed in scholarly discussions on bilingualism. Do bilinguals need to use their languages from birth to be called bilingual? Or can they develop their bilingual abilities across the lifespan? Those and other questions are raised and discussed in both Chapters 2 and 8. It is in Chapter 8 that we find how the state of being bilingual can shift across the course of a lifetime. Events ranging from international student exchanges and work placements, to high-impact life changing events such as migration and death in the family, can all trigger a seismic shift in the linguistic equilibrium of the bilingual speaker. Travel and migration can serve as real-life initiatives to learn new languages, while death of a relative or a close friend has the potential to mark the onset of language attrition. …

The effect of experience on the acquisition of a non-native vowel contrast

This study examines the effect of second language experience on the acquisition of the English vowel contrast /ε/–/æ/ by native speakers of Dutch. It reports on the results of production and perception tasks performed by three groups of native Dutch learners of English in Belgium, differing in experience with English, as measured through study choice and progress. Whereas experience has often been defined in terms of ‘Age of Acquisition’ or ‘Length of Residence’ in studies on L2 immersion in, for instance, immigrant settings, in traditional foreign language contexts experience needs to be defined in terms of amount of instruction and (non-)naturalistic exposure. The results revealed an asymmetry in production and perception: all learners seemed to have created a new phonetic category for English /æ/, but failed to phonetically implement it in a native-like way. No new category for the vowel /ε/ was created, but learners who had opted for English studies at tertiary level produced a clear contrast between the two English vowels. All learner groups performed well on a discrimination and identification task involving the vowels /ε/ and /æ/. The results are discussed in light of currently used speech learning theories, such as Flege’s Speech Learning Model (1987, 1995), Best’s Perceptual Assimilation Model for naı¨ve listeners (1995; Best et al., 2001) and its adaption for learners in an Second Language Acquisition context (Best and Tyler, 2007). It is argued that predictions formulated within these models also hold for learners in a Foreign Language Acquisition context.

Aphasia Assessment in Chinese Speakers

Aphasia Assessment in Chinese Speakers

Improving method-in-use through classroom observation

Method-in-use (Nunn, Describing classroom interaction in intercultural curricular research and development, University of Reading, 1996, International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 37: 23–42, 1999) is a description of the method actually being enacted through classroom interaction in a particular context. The description is primarily a tool for improving classroom teaching and learning, first by establishing what is in place and then by considering what could be adjusted to improve learning. The description emphasizes the use of discourse to enhance learning, considering (1) teachers' and students' roles in classroom interaction, (2) types of discourse input and creation (3) types of holistic pedagogical activities and (4) types of discourse outcomes. As a situated concept, method-in-use combines well with classroom observation when the latter has the aim not of evaluation but of improving second language acquisition in context. What is being enacted in the classroom with and through language is then at the centre of a renewal process. The exploitation of the original fourpart classroom model for deriving a teacher's method-in-use is briefly exemplified using observation data from two contexts before considering observation data from a third context, the Iran Language Institute in Tehran, in more detail. Once an adequate description has been achieved providing situated local knowledge, improvement of the local situation can be attempted in relation to de-contextualized conceptual knowledge of the method concept (Richards and Rogers, Approaches and methods in language teaching, Cambridge University Press, 1986) or SLA principles (Ellis, Asian EFL Journal 7: 9–24, 2005).

Lessons about respect and affect in a Korean heritage language school

This paper examines the ideologies and practices surrounding respect at a Korean American heritage language school in California. It illustrates the interaction between locally circulating metadiscourses about children's dispositions, intentions, and identities and the enforcement of classroom norms of respect. In some cases, teachers accommodated to children's linguistic norms though a metadiscourse that reframed the indexicality of potentially disrespectful behavior. In other cases, forms of bodily demeanor were naturalized as indexical of children's deliberate communication of disrespect. Teachers’ classroom narratives presented theories of affective accommodation and affective display, where respect for a teacher's feelings was supposed to be given priority over respect for a child's feelings, but children did not always comply with these theories. By illustrating how teachers’ metapragmatic ideologies about children's identities as Korean Americans, contexts of language acquisition, and linguistic needs mediate the interactional construction of (dis)respect, this paper demonstrates the hybrid/multidirectional nature of language socialization.

Integration in two-way immersion education: equalising linguistic benefits for all students

As bilingual enrichment programmes that integrate language majority and language minority students, two-way immersion (TWI) programmes have the potential to overcome the harmful effects of segregation and remedial education that are the frequent byproducts of educational programmes for native speakers of languages other than English. Native/non-native speaker integration is considered essential in these programmes to achieve positive academic, linguistic and cross-cultural outcomes for all students, but these benefits have been largely assumed by educators and programme developers. The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the distribution of the linguistic benefits of student integration in TWI classrooms. We argue that, in the absence of a bilingual perspective that takes into consideration issues of differential language status and language acquisition contexts, TWI classrooms may fail to optimise language learning opportunities for all students, particularly for language minority students and in the minority language. We conclude by highlighting programmatic and instructional features that serve to equalise the linguistic benefits of these integrated classrooms.

From recording linguistic competence to supporting inferences about language acquisition in context

Student models for Intelligent Computer Assisted Language Learning (ICALL) have largely focused on the acquisition of grammatical structures. In this paper, we motivate a broader perspective of student models for ICALL that incorporates insights from current research on second language acquisition and language testing. We argue for a student model that includes a representation of the learner's ability to use language in context and to perform tasks, as well as for an explicit activity model that provides information on the language tasks and the inferences for the student model they support. The student model architecture we present is being developed as part of the TAGARELA system, an intelligent workbook supporting the instruction of Portuguese.

La adquisición del español en la población inmigrada en España: apuntes para una reflexión sobre el paradigma

The Acquisition of the Target Languages by Immigrants is nowadays a burning subject, not only because of the increasing interest recorded in the Migratory Phenomenon Studies but also because of the impact on and the processing by the Mass Media of the recent decisions of some European governments in the sense of making the Target Language Learning a compulsory study for immigrants. This paper aims to contribute to the debate with an overall impression about some factors that Public Powers should take into account at the moment of putting into practice this kind of measures. What is the role of the Target Societies as Second Language Acquisition Contexts? What extent the Acculturation Processes decide the Target Language Learning to? Have all the immigrants access on an equal basis to the Reception Language Learning? And finally, What is the difference between the teaching of Spanish for immigrants and other Spanish L2 Teaching Programs?

The role of ambiguity in second language change: the case of Mozambican African Portuguese

In this article, my point of departure is that language change is driven by acquisition, and I argue that the triggers for establishing the properties of language-specific grammars differ according to whether first language (L1) or second language (L2) acquisition is involved. The reason for this is that in L2 acquisition evidence about the target grammar may be ambiguous in ways which do not occur in L1 acquisition. To illustrate the argument, I present two case studies of Mozambican African Portuguese, a nonnative variety of Portuguese acquired during childhood by L1 speakers of Bantu languages. These case studies show that strings generated by the grammar of European Portuguese may trigger ‘wrong/new’ parameter values which, although nonexistent in the original grammatical system, are perfectly legitimate from the point of view of the speakers’ L1 grammars. In both cases, although the new parameter settings (NPSs) are not convergent with the target grammar, resetting is blocked because the new parameter values successfully analyse the input. The nonresetting of the ‘wrong/new’ parameter values in the direction of the target European norm can be attributed to the social context of language acquisition, where the original European model is considerably diluted, and the surface effects they set off appear to be denser since the L2 speakers are in the majority.

'Semicreolization'? – The restructured Portuguese of the Tongas of São Tomé, a consequence of L1 acquisition in a special contact situation

This paper discusses aspects of language transmission among the Tongas of São Tomé, the descendants of indentured Africans, on the Monte Café plantation where restructured Portuguese developed alongside an Umbundu-based koiné. It considers the sociohistorical context of language acquisition and transmission, and the role of Portuguese L2 influence in primary linguistic data (PLD) for L1 acquisition in this speech community. In the Tonga Portuguese of a first generation born to African parents, these processes gave rise to broad restructuring relative to (i) agreement rules (number, gender, and subject-verb), (ii) verb and tense and aspect marking, (iii) the signalling of definite and indefinite reference, and (iv) negation. These restructurings constitute a variable set resembling, in form and function, structures found in varieties of Creole Portuguese. However, the consequences in Tonga Portuguese are only slight in comparison, so the language appears to have been partially creolized. The motivation for restructuring is viewed both from DeGraff’s perspective of a Universal Grammar approach to acquisition and creolization, stressing the quality of PLD and its role in yielding unmarked structures, and from the perspective of Bantu substrate influence. Finally, discussion turns to Holm’s notion of ‘semi-creole’ and the validity of classifying Tonga Portuguese in these terms.

'Novel unaccusatives'

Abstract Interlanguage 'novel unaccusative' (term borrowed from BALCOM 1997) has been a subject of investigation since the late 1970s, though it has usually been discussed under the terms of an interlanguage syntactic structure called the 'pseudo-passive' (e.g., SCHACHTER & RUTHERFORD 1979; RUTHERFORD 1983; YIP 1995; HAN 2000). While most of the research to date is in favor of the view that the interlanguage structure is primarily induced by L1 discourse/syntactic influence, BALCOM (1997) provides an alternative explanatory account. Assuming a lexical perspective, she sees the interlanguage structure as the creation of a 'novel unaccusative' through a lexical process of detransitivization. In this paper, I shall discuss Balcom's view, in particular, her contention that interlanguage novel unaccusatives and native-like unaccusatives with transitive counterparts share the same underlying lexical process of detransitivization. Drawing on both natural longitudinal data and elicited data (HAN 1998), I will show that Balcom's view would be over-generalizing if applied across language acquisition contexts. What renders the application problematic is the fact that while some novel unaccusatives from L2 acquisition may derive from the lexical process of detransitivization as in L1 acquisition, some do not. It seems imperative to me that in the context of SLA, we discriminate, at least in loose terms, between developmental and L1-induced novel unaccusatives. Such a distinction is important not only because it helps to refine our understanding of what underlies novel unaccusatives in L2 acquisition, but also because it would lend more accurate guidance to L2 teachers in dealing with novel unaccusatives in the classroom.

Making the Connection: Language and Academic Achievement Among African American Students (review)

Reviewed by: Making the connection: Language and academic achievement among African American students ed. by Carolyn Temple Adger, Donna Christian, Orlando Taylor Iman Makeba Laversuch Making the connection: Language and academic achievement among African American students. Ed. by Carolyn Temple Adger, Donna Christian, and Orlando Taylor. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1999. Pp. 180. Despite many significant advances in African American scholastic achievement, this group still consistently ranks among the lowest on standardized tests nationwide. To address this problem, the Coalition on Language Diversity in Education convened in January 1998. An outgrowth of that conference, this book seeks to tackle this ongoing problem from a number of different and yet still complementary angles. The multidimensional approach taken here is quite necessary, for as the contributors themselves point out, African American scholastic achievement is far more complicated than it is sometimes conceived, encompassing a number of different, interrelated factors. According to John Rickford, all across America, poor academic performance among African American students can be seen as a function of diminished school funding and reduced teacher involvement. However, as Terry Meier explains, even among the most exceptionally dedicated educators who have ample resources at their disposal, unchallenged ignorance and prejudice have continued to poison the academic environment. Courtney Cazden rightly stresses that if the circle of underachievement is to [End Page 849] be broken, the relationship between students and teachers must be better understood. Towards that end, Kelli Harris-Wright and Asa G. Hilliard present many of the lessons learned from the ongoing Ebonics debate along with recent linguistic and pedagogical research on bidialectal programs. This information is then effectively placed by Walt Wolfram within the larger context of language acquisition involving exchanges between speakers of nonstandard and standard varieties of English. Geneva Smitherman follows this up by stressing the importance of using this to establish a national policy for success. However, as John Baugh reminds us, before this goal can be achieved, there is still much to be done. In many cases, we still have yet to come to a consensus on a set of terms with which to discuss this topic. What exactly is meant by the terms dialect or variety, standard or nonstandard, vernacular or slang? The result of this lack of agreement is unmistakable. All too often, what begins as an academic discussion degenerates into a series of polemical tirades with little or no hope for mutual understanding or progress. On the negative side, this newest reference on African American achievement tends to suffer somewhat from redundancy, needlessly repeating not only points which have already been made in previous chapters but also in other works written on the topic. In addition, there is a slight tendency among some writers to overgeneralize research findings. As Orlando Taylor reminds us, such overgeneralization can be exceedingly counterproductive. No two African Americans are alike, and consequently we must stop hoping to find the one magical cure for healing the wounds suffered by this community. Having said this, on the positive side, this reference achieves much by simply stressing the need to finally use our collective common sense. No student, irrespective of his/her racial classification, can perform his/her very best without adequate support. Thus, as the authors reiterate themselves, the issue of academic achievement is not simply a question of education, it is a question of human rights. Iman Makeba Laversuch Frieburg University Copyright © 2001 Linguistic Society of America

Review. Social Psychological Perspectives on Second Language Learning. RK Agnihotri, AL Khanna, I Sachdev (eds). Contemporary Approaches to Second Language Acquisition in Context. V Regan (ed)

Journal Article Review. Social Psychological Perspectives on Second Language Learning. RK Agnihotri, AL Khanna, I Sachdev (eds). Contemporary Approaches to Second Language Acquisition in Context. V Regan (ed) Get access M Lacorte M Lacorte Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Maryland-College Park, College Park, MD 20742, USA E-mail: ml207@umail.umd.edu Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Applied Linguistics, Volume 21, Issue 4, December 2000, Pages 576–581, https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/21.4.576 Published: 01 December 2000

Repetition in Conversation: A Look at "First and Second Sayings"

Repetition has been described as one of the most misunderstood phenomena in psycholinguistics (Ochs & Schieffelin, 1983). Indeed, repetition is a human, social activity, clearly part of our everyday conduct and behavior and not just a marker of a "disfluent" or "sloppy" speaker (Schegloff, 1987). Using the framework of conversation analysis, I discuss one form of repetition found in ordinary conversation, a form in which a speaker produces a "first saying" and, subsequent to that, a "second saying" within the same turn. Moreover, an inserted element comes between the first and second sayings. I propose that this particular form of repetition is used by speakers as a storytelling technique in the accomplishment of the action of resumption. What might be at stake in this form of repetition is something that might be referred to as unspoken repair (or unspoken repair projection). By extension, if one considers this form of repetition as an oral practice of everyday conversation (Hall, 1993), one might consider what lies in store in the second language acquisition context. I conclude this article with some reflections on implications for the nonnative speaker environment, based on an examination of nonnative speaker English conversation in which this form of repetition does not occur.

Interactional routines and the socialization of interactional style in adult learners of Japanese

Interactional routines are powerful in first language acquisition contexts, socializing children into appropriate norms of language use. This paper investigates the role of interactional routines in the socialization of L2 interactional competence via analysis of 15 hours of foreign language classroom data. Results reveal that active and peripheral participation in the routines of the classroom shapes learner ability to use the follow-up turn of the IRF routine to perform assessments and other expressions responsive to their interlocutor's utterances. Instances in which teachers explicitly guide learners in the expression of alignment are rare. In teacher-fronted contexts, learners are guided to be responsive to teacher questions, and have little opportunity for expression of alignment, including assessments. Learner assessments, when they occur in teacher-fronted contexts, have particular sequential consequences, triggering extended assessment activity by the teacher. The teachers' language incorporates various follow-up turn expressions during interaction with students. Longitudinal analysis of learner language during pair-work reveals an increase in learner use of follow-up expressions, including assessments, evidencing the socializing power of both active and peripheral participation in the interactional routines of the classroom.