Low-proficiency Participants Research Articles

A PROPOSAL FOR RECALIBRATION OF A VOCABULARY LEVELS TEST AS DIAGNOSIS OF LATE BILINGUALS’ L2 PROFICIENCY

his study explores the recalibration and adequacy of a measure of vocabulary size – the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) – as a predictor of Brazilian Portuguese-English speakers’ ability to access grammatical representations through their non-dominant language. Such endeavor concerns a specific part of the test (composed majorly by cognates) which has been blurring the results when participants are natives in Latin-derived languages, such as Brazilian Portuguese. A new test (nVLT) was designed, with a novel version of this problematic part (level 4) present in the older test that, now, avoids the proliferation of cognates. Both versions were applied to a number of Brazilian participants and the results were correlated with another proficiency measure, taken from an acceptability judgment task designed according to the model reported in Souza et al (2015). When the low-proficiency participants took the VLT, there were a decreasing pattern in their scores from the first level of the exam all the way to level 3 (because each level is harder than the preceding). But, when they got to level 4, which is “harder” than level 3, their scores increased surprisingly, and then decreased again in level 5. When they performed the nVLT, which has a level 4 recalibrated (without latin cognates), the decreasing pattern was maintained evenly through the whole test. These results from nVLT show an internal coherence of the test due to the recalibration.

Investigating the Declarative-Procedural Gap for the Indirect Speech Construction in L2 Learners.

It is common to have good declarative but poor procedural knowledge of a foreign language, especially for classroom learners. To study this gap in a constrained manner, we asked Chinese learners of English to repeat, correct and produce indirect speech. The indirect speech construction was selected in the present study because it is known to be a particularly complex construction. Chinese university students who all had good declarative knowledge of the rules governing indirect speech were selected to have overall low or high oral proficiency when assessed in a free speech situation. High proficiency participants pursued strategies that increased their speech rate while reducing errors. They used more idiomatic English, more chunked expressions, and showed less negative transfer from Mandarin, compared to low proficiency participants. Indeed use of chunks was the primary means by which both groups of participants were able to increase their accuracy, complexity, and speaking rate. Low proficiency but not high participants showed evidence of a speed-accuracy trade-off. They either kept errors low at the cost of high pausing, or produced many errors with the benefit of rapid speech. Identifying preferences for speed versus accuracy could facilitate methods for encouraging learners to move out of their comfort zones.

Test-taking strategies and Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary and structure test performance

Abstract
 
 Test-taking strategies are conscious processes that respondents employ to enhance their performance on language tests. This article reports a study on test-taking strategies utilized by low and high proficiency female EFL respondents in completing multiple-choice vocabulary and structure tests. The study seeks to explore how test-taking strategies vary according to the participants’ proficiency level. Data were collected from 60 Persian EFL learners at a reputable institute on completing vocabulary and structure test items. The data were collected, categorized, and analyzed based on an adapted version of strategy questionnaire developed by Phakiti (2006). The results indicated that low-proficiency participants utilized mnemonic strategies more frequently than high-proficiency participants in completing both tests. In completing structure tests, high-proficiency participants employed mnemonic strategies more than cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies. In completing vocabulary test items, however, they drew almost equally on all three strategy types. The results also indicated that the low-proficiency participants did better in completing vocabulary test than high-proficiency participants did. Further, high proficiency participants performed better in structure tests than low proficiency participants did. The findings seem to indicate that foreign language learners rely more on mnemonic strategies than cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies due to their deficient competency in L2 knowledge. The results have implications for foreign language teachers and learners.
 Key words: Test-taking strategy, cognitive and meta-cognitive strategy, mnemonic strategy, Iranian EFL learners.

Cross-linguistic differences affect late Chinese-English learners on-line processing of English tense and aspect

Aims: The present study aimed to explore how varied cross-linguistic differences affect late Chinese-English learners’ on-line processing of tense and aspect in English. Methodology: We used the self-paced reading task (Experiment 1) and the eye-tracking technique (Experiment 2) to test the above question. Data and analysis: Reading times in Experiment 1 and first-fixation duration, and gaze time in Experiment 2 in four interested positions were analysed in R by ANOVAs and t-tests. Findings: Both high- and low-proficiency participants showed their sensitivity to the violation of progressive, which is nearly congruent between English and Chinese. Only high-proficiency participants were sensitive to the violation of past tense, which is similar but not congruent between Chinese and English. With regard to present third person singular, which is incongruent between Chinese and English, high-proficiency participants also showed their sensitivity to its violation; however, this sensitivity is only detected by the eye-tracking method (Experiment 2). These results suggested that cross-linguistic differences affect late second language learners’ on-line processing of English tense and aspect. Originality: To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first one exploring varied cross-linguistic differences’ influence on late Chinese-English learners’ on-line processing of tense and aspect in English. Significance: Our results provide new evidence to support the Performance Deficit Account.

Test-Taking strategies and Iranian EFL Learners’ vocabulary and structure test performance

Test-taking strategies are conscious processes that respondents employ to enhance their performance on language tests. This article reports a study on test-taking strategies utilized by low and high proficiency female EFL respondents in completing multiple-choice vocabulary and structure tests. The study seeks to explore how test-taking strategies vary according to the participants’ proficiency level. Data were collected from 60 Persian EFL learners at a reputable institute on completing vocabulary and structure test items. The data were collected, categorized, and analyzed based on an adapted version of strategy questionnaire developed by Phakiti (2006). The results indicated that low-proficiency participants utilized mnemonic strategies more frequently than high-proficiency participants in completing both tests. In completing structure tests, high-proficiency participants employed mnemonic strategies more than cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies. In completing vocabulary test items, however, they drew almost equally on all three strategy types. The results also indicated that the low-proficiency participants did better in completing vocabulary test than high-proficiency participants did. Further, high proficiency participants performed better in structure tests than low proficiency participants did. The findings seem to indicate that foreign language learners rely more on mnemonic strategies than cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies due to their deficient competency in L2 knowledge. The results have implications for foreign language teachers and learners. Keywords: test-taking strategy, cognitive and meta-cognitive strategy, mnemonic strategy, Iranian EFL learners

Hypertext annotation: Effects of presentation formats and learner proficiency on reading comprehension and vocabulary learning in foreign languages

This study extends current knowledge by exploring the effect of different annotation formats, namely in-text annotation, glossary annotation, and pop-up annotation, on hypertext reading comprehension in a foreign language and vocabulary acquisition across student proficiencies. User attitudes toward the annotation presentation were also investigated. Data were collected from 83 non-English-majored university students in Taiwan in a 4-week period. Each week participants read 3 passages, each with different annotation formats as a treatment condition and one passage without annotation as a control condition. Posttests of reading comprehension and vocabulary recognition followed each passage. The results indicate that, for reading comprehension, the in-text format led to the lowest performance among all types of annotation, including the control condition. The best performance was observed in the condition where annotations were presented in the pop-up format. No interaction effect between format and proficiency was detected. For vocabulary acquisition, reading passages with hypermedia annotations significantly benefit vocabulary learning for participants of medium and high proficiencies compared with the control condition. No significant differences were found among the 3 formats. The beneficial effect, however, did not extend to low-proficiency participants. Participant feedback revealed a positive attitude toward annotations. Among the 3 annotation formats, the glossary type was considered the least preferred type by participants. Findings of the research provide insights on the design and instruction for online reading.

Effect of lexical proficiency on reading strategies used for shallow and deep orthographies

The aim of the present study was to explore how different levels of proficiency in deep orthography (DO) influence the reading strategies used for sentences containing both shallow orthographies and DO, and to examine the neural correlates involved. High-proficiency participants, who depend on rapid and direct semantic retrieval by the lexical route, activated the anterior cingulate cortex, middle frontal, and fusiform gyri. Low-proficiency participants, who rely on the sublexical route, activated inferior parietal lobule and inferior frontal gyrus. These findings suggest that level of proficiency in DO modulates the selection of specific reading strategies, and that the neural pathways underlying these strategies are separately laid out in the cortical areas.

Who's in Control? Proficiency and L1 Influence on L2 Processing

We report three reaction time (RT)/event-related brain potential (ERP) semantic priming lexical decision experiments that explore the following in relation to L1 activation during L2 processing: (1) the role of L2 proficiency, (2) the role of sentence context, and (3) the locus of L1 activations (orthographic vs. semantic). All experiments used German (L1) homonyms translated into English (L2) to form prime-target pairs (pine-jaw for Kiefer) to test whether the L1 caused interference in an all-L2 experiment. Both RTs and ERPs were measured on targets. Experiment 1 revealed reversed priming in the N200 component and RTs for low-proficiency learners, but only RT interference for high-proficiency participants. Experiment 2 showed that once the words were processed in sentence context, the low-proficiency participants still showed reversed N200 and RT priming, whereas the high-proficiency group showed no effects. Experiment 3 tested native English speakers with the words in sentence context and showed a null result comparable to the high-proficiency group. Based on these results, we argue that cognitive control relating to translational activation is modulated by (1) L2 proficiency, as the early interference in the N200 was observed only for low-proficiency learners, and (2) sentence context, as it helps high-proficiency learners control L1 activation. As reversed priming was observed in the N200 and not the N400 component, we argue that (3) the locus of the L1 activations was orthographic. Implications in terms of bilingual word recognition and the functional role of the N200 ERP component are discussed.