Nature Of Learning Research Articles

Virtual immersion

Most studies in the field of synchronous Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) deal with interactions between language learners, while interactions between native speakers (NS) and learners have not been explored to the same extent, particularly to ascertain whether chatting with NS can provide a pedagogically sound bridge to conversation. Through the analysis of interactions within a NS Italian chatline, this paper considers whether the chatline environment can act as a bridge to conversational Italian by providing the same opportunities for second language acquisition reputedly offered by face-to-face interaction. Italian NS chatline discourse is analysed for its conversational ‘flavour’ by considering variety of Italian, range of topics, questions, discourse markers, feedback tokens and negotiations. The findings of this study suggest that NS chat discourse can provide learners with exposure to colloquial and regional varieties of Italian, which are generally unavailable in language textbooks. Furthermore, NS chatline discourse offers learners a type of informal conversational practice which also includes negotiation of meaning, thus confirming its role in promoting language learning.

REVIEW: Total Quality Management in Education

With changing patterns of education delivery from face-to-face to online, course content, nature of learner, and organizational structures, the concept of quality has become an inherent component of the educational process for its success. Globally various bodies have been established to develop guidelines for quality products and services; and their maintenance.

Research Note: The Effect of Visuals on Listening Comprehension: A Study of Japanese Learners' Listening Strategies

This study aims to identify listening comprehension strategies used by adult Japanese native speakers and monolingual Australian learners of Japanese language. It investigates how two different listening contexts (audiovisual and audio-only) may influence listeners' choice of strategies and how the strategies chosen relate to learners' proficiency. In this study, a listening strategy is conceptualised as a mental operation undertaken by a learner to solve a listening comprehension problem in a non-interactional situation. To collect data on strategies, a concurrent think-aloud procedure is used and the data are analysed quantitatively. The study identified nineteen strategies which were labelled under the three general categories of ‘cognitive’ strategies (11), ‘metacognitive’ strategies (7) and ‘other’ strategies (1).

A critical period for right hemisphere recruitment in American Sign Language processing.

Signed languages such as American Sign Language (ASL) are natural languages that are formally similar to spoken languages, and thus present an opportunity to examine the effects of language structure and modality on the neural organization for language. Native learners of spoken languages show predominantly left-lateralized patterns of neural activation for language processing, whereas native learners of ASL show extensive right hemisphere (RH) and LH activation. We demonstrate that the RH angular gyrus is active during ASL processing only in native signers (hearing, ASL-English bilinguals) but not in those who acquired ASL after puberty (hearing, native English speakers). This is the first demonstration of a 'sensitive' or 'critical' period for language in an RH structure. This has implications for language acquisition and for understanding age-related changes in neuroplasticity more generally.

THE ACQUISITION AND INTERPRETATION OF ENGLISH LOCATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS BY NATIVE SPEAKERS OF KOREAN

The English locative alternation relates sentences of the type John loaded hay onto the wagon to those of the type John loaded the wagon with hay. Some locative verbs occur in both of these patterns, others in only one or the other. It is known that there are differences among languages with respect to which verbs are possible. The present research focuses on the constructional meaning of the locative alternation and on the constraints governing verbs that can participate in the alternation. One characteristic of the “ground-object” locative is that the object tends to be viewed as completely affected. This is known as the holism effect. Additionally, English has certain narrow constraints on the verbs that can occur in the two constructions. This study investigates whether native speakers of Korean learning English develop knowledge of the holism effect in the English locative and knowledge of the narrow constraints. English native speakers and Korean learners of English participated in a forced-choice picture-description task. Native speakers of Korean also judged an equivalent test instrument in Korean. The primary results are these: When given a ground-object structure, both learners and English native speakers preferentially chose a ground-holism picture. We interpret this as a reflection of the holism effect: Learners, like native speakers, have knowledge of this aspect of the constructional meaning of the locative. English native speakers also show their knowledge of the narrow conflation classes by rejecting ground-object structures containing verbs that are not permitted in this structure, even if the picture would be appropriate. Korean learners show no effect for narrow verb class. We interpret this as showing that the learners have not achieved native-speaker knowledge of the narrow classes. Korean uses a different basis for verb classification.

Multiple frameworks?: Evidence of manifold conceptions in individual cognitive structure

Some literature reports how learners' alternative ideas in science may be coherent, stable and theory-like. However, other commentators suggest that the available data supports the view that children's thinking is inconsistent, with elicited notions being piecemeal, ad hoc and deeply situated in specific contexts. This is considered to reflect the fragmentary and unscientific nature of the learner's knowledge. Accumulating evidence from in-depth work with individual learners is beginning to show that models of cognitive structure that can usefully inform teaching may need to be more complex than either of these views admit. Evidence from a case study is presented to show how a learner may simultaneously hold several alternative explanatory schemes, each of which is persistent over time and applied coherently across a wide range of overlapping contexts. It is argued that the manifold nature of learners' conceptions may be a key to modelling conceptual development.

Culture, History, Biology, and Body: Native and Non‐Native Acquisition of Technological Skill

Each culture defines the appropriate ways for people to use their bodies (Mauss 1934). In this paper we examine the uses of the body in a technical skill, that of Zinacantec Maya backstrap loom weaving. We hypothesize that native learners of weaving are different from non‐native learners in that they are endowed from birth on with the biology and cultural experience needed for weaving. Maya newborns have distinctive patterns of motor behavior and visual attention. These patterns, reinforced by cultural experience, are utilized when girls learn to weave, highlighting the interplay between culture and biology. Non‐native learners do not begin life with the same patterns of motor behavior or cultural experience and thus begin the acquisition of the body techniques involved in the complex skill of weaving with a deficit. Conclusions are based on an empirical, historical study of two generations of girls learning to weave in Nabenchauk, a Zinacantec Maya hamlet in Chiapas, Mexico.

Comparing Second Language Learners' Attention to Form Across Tasks

Recent literature on second language grammar pedagogy promotes the use of tasks which require learners to produce output collaboratively (e.g. Kowal & Swain, 1994; Swain & Lapkin, 1997). Yet there are relatively few studies which have investigated the nature of learners' attention to grammar on such tasks, nor how performance on such tasks compares to performance on more 'traditional' grammar tasks. This paper reports on a small-scale study which set out to compare the performance of adult ESL learners of intermediate second language proficiency on four tasks: multiple choice, rational deletion (cloze), text reconstruction and composition. Each task was completed collaboratively. The data collected included student pair talk on the collaborative tasks, individual student retrospections and the researcher's observations notes. Data from the collaborative tasks were analysed for the quantity and nature of attention to grammatical choices each task generated. Learner attention to grammatical forms varied in quantitative terms across tasks and within task types. Furthermore, there were variations in the amount of articulated reflection on grammatical choices, with the least found in the cloze task and the most in the text reconstruction task.

An instance-based model of Japanese speech recognition by native and non-native listeners

Japanese has a short and long segment contrast (oji-san versus ojii-san, kita versus kitta, and kana versus kanna). Previous research has shown that this durational property is one of the characteristics of moras in Japanese. It has also been reported that Japanese learners generally have difficulty in acquiring this contrast, but after extensive language experience with Japanese, they do learn the contrast. This suggests that the contrasts and similarities are based on remembered instances of linguistic objects in various environments during a lifetime. This paper investigates whether an instance-based approach of speech recognition can replicate performance by native listeners and second language learners of Japanese. An instance-based model was trained with naturally produced utterances of koma spin and komma comma and then tested on a 24-step nasal duration continuum from koma to komma [T. Uchida, doctoral dissertation, Nagoya University (1996)]. The identification function produced by the model was very similar to identification responses produced by native Japanese listeners. Additional simulations trained with utterances produced by English native speakers (e.g., coma, comma) will be reported. These simulations will address the role of linguistic experience in second language acquisition. [Supported by NIDCD R29-016435-06.]

Learners’ difficulties with induction proofs

This paper describes a series of empirical studies, over a period of three years, designed to investigate the nature of learners’ difficulties with the proof technique of structural induction. The learners concerned were second‐year university students who had all completed a course in discrete mathematics and were currently attending a first course in Formal Methods of Computer Science. The main findings are applicable to both mathematical and structural induction, and can be ascribed to conceptual gaps. The precise nature of the errors made varied with the task and the teaching context, but a constant factor across all the studies was the failure of the majority of the subjects to appreciate the role of implication in induction. We suggest that this may be due, in part, to the conceptual gap between the main goal of the proof and the subgoals; the main goal might give false cues as to the structure of the subgoals. Another difficulty seen concerned the conceptual gap between knowing how to apply the principle of induction and understanding why it is valid. Our data indicate that performance may be improved by shifting teaching emphasis and by drawing learners’ attention to the structure of a recursive definition.

A study of Japanese back channels

Abstract This study presents findings from an analysis of the conversational data involving the Japanese back channel with special attention to the comparison of back channel behaviour between Japanese native speakers and Japanese learners at an advanced level. While the analysis is based on four aspects of the back channel (i.e. form, frequency, location and function), the study reveals that native speakers and Japanese learners show significant differences particularly in the locational and functional aspects. There were also trends that the native speaker tends to use back channels in a way of supporting and encouraging the learner to participate in the conversation.

Referential choice in foreigner talk and in learners’ speech in Japanese

Abstract This study of referential choice by Japanese native speakers and learners of Japanese has revealed some significant features in three different types of speech: 1) NS (native speaker)-NS interaction; 2) FT (foreigner talk) and; 3) NNSs’ (non-native speakers’) speech production. The study revealed that both NS in FT and NNS simplified their referential choices. It demonstrates, moreover, that the development of referential choice by NNS correlates with their acquisition of syntax. This experiment was conducted to determine the underlying mechanism for referential choice. The results indicate that potential ambiguity and attention/focus shift affected the referential choices for both NS and NNS of Japanese. Excessive use of both full NPs and ellipsis were observed in NNS speech; by contrast only excessive use of full NPs was observed in FT. This may be explained in terms of the different underlying mechanisms for referential choice used by NS and NNS: different cognitive orientations in the use of two principles of speech production: 1) the clarity principle; and 2) the information economy principle (Williams 1988). Furthermore, the development of use of full NP and ellipsis by NNS varied according to their level of syntactic development.

Hypermedia and the Facilitation of Native American Language Learning: Preserving a Heritage through the Use of Technology

The problem of Native American language loss can be addressed through the use of computer-assisted technology to teach indigenous languages to Native American learners. Hypermedia technology may provide a mechanism for the development of curriculum materials which reflect appropriate instructional techniques. Whole language methods advocated in second language instruction incorporate observational learning strategies—strategies which are inherent in many Native American homes, but often ignored in school. Hypermedia holds promise as an effective development tool for the creation of Native American language instruction.

L2 perception of English vowels: testing the validity of Kuhl's prototypes

The present study investigates confusion patterns in the identification of English vowel sounds by native Spanish learners. The aim was to test the validity of Kuhl's Native Language Magnet (NLM) theory for Spanish learners with an intermediate level of competence in English. Following this theory, the English and Spanish vowel systems were compared in order to obtain a set of L2 confusion predictions that could be derived from the NLM model. It was hypothesized that the prototype model would fail to account for all the confusion patterns in our data since our subjects interlanguage phonological system was no longer a direct reflection of their Ll system. A test was conducted in which subjects were asked to identify RP vowels in monosyllabic words after receiving specific phonetic training. It was observed that few perceptual confusions could be explained according to the NLM model as interpreted for L2 acquisition. We propose that the NLM theory can only account for L2 data if revisions are made as to the nature of prototypes in the interlanguage. The NLM model should also take into account other factors that may shape prototypes such as vowel duration and universals principles.

Material and presentation condition effects on sentence interpretation task performance: methodological examinations of the competition experiment

Ten native English learners of Japanese, ten intermediate native English learners of Japanese and ten native Japanese speakers of English each were requested to report what they thought was the subject or actor of a series of English NVN word strings, in which case marking and lexical-semantics cues were systematically manipulated. These NVN strings were aurally presented first alone, and subsequently the same strings were presented for the second time together with noncanonical NNV and VNN strings. Similarly, their counterpart Japanese NNV strings were first presented alone, and secondly with noncanonical VNN and NVN strings. The results revealed that 1) a greater animacy effect (‘animacy noun as a subject’ bias) was detected when the sentence verb was see rather than eat(or each of their Japanese counterparts); 2) English accusative pronouns generally created greater case biases than nominative ones; and 3) native English speakers interpreting Japanese word strings responded differently under the two presentation conditions.

Contrastive metalinguistic representations: The case of ‘Very French’ learners of English

The paper is based on experimental research. It deals with some of the linguistic and metalinguistic transfers that arise when French students learn comprehension and production in English. It analyses how part of the metalinguistic (more or less adequate) knowledge they have of French (imparfait, passe compose, passe simple) is transferred into the metalinguistic knowledge of English they are building, especially concerning simple preterite vs preterite + be + ing. These transfers do not play the same role in L2 comprehension and production. The paper analyses what kind of L1 and L2 ‘grammar’ is taught, the role of L1 as a linguistic and metalinguistic structuring filter, the nature of learners’ different metalinguistic activities, the degrees of awareness they reveal, their transferability, their fossilisation. The inefficient and often nonsensical language activity represented by the learners’ actual use of memorised metalinguistic cliches should be replaced by an accurate and comprehensible contrastiv...

The English Intonation of Native Speakers and Indonesian Learners: a Coniparative Study

Comparative studies of the English intonation of native speakers and learners are needed to help inform teachers on what they should teach about English intonation and how they can best teach it. This study compares intonation in parallel recordings of English speech produced by British and Indonesian subjects. Included in the main findings are that the Indonesian subjects produced shorter tone units, more level tones, and selected falling tones in contexts where native speakers selected rising tones. Implications for teaching intonation and suggestions for further research are presented.

Discourse Analysis in Stylistics and Literature Instruction

The termsdiscourse analysisandstylistic analysismean different thing to different people. Most narrowly defined, discourse analysis has only to do with the structure of spoken discourse. Such a definition separates discourse analysis from literany stylistics and pragmatics—the study of how people understand language in context. At the other end of the spectrum, discourse analysis can be carried out on spoken and written texts, and can include matters like textual coherence and cohesion, and the inferencing of meaning by readers or listeners. In this case, it includes pragmatics and much of stylistics within its bounds. Similarly, stylistics can apply just to literary texts or not, and be restricted to the study of style or, on the other hand, include the study of meaning. For the purposes of this review, relatively wide definitions of both areas have been assumed in order to make what follows reasonably comprehensive. The main restriction assumed is that the works discussed will be relevant to the examination of literature in some way. The section on literature instruction will include matters relevant to both native and non-native learners of English, and will also make reference to the integration of literary and language study.

Are Classroom and Naturalistic Acquisition the Same?

This article reports a study of the classroom acquisition of German word order rules by adult, successful language learners. Data elicited by an information-gap task performed by 39 learners of L2 Germanat two points in time are used to describe the sequence of acquisition of three obligatory word order rules. A comparison of this sequencewith that reported for naturalistic learners of German revealed no difference, despite the fact that the order in which the rules were introduced and the degree of emphasis given to the rules in the instruction differed from the naturalistic order. The classroom learners, however, did appear to be more successful than the naturalistic learnersin that they reached higher levels of acquisition in a shorter period of time. The results of this study support the claim that the classroom and naturalistic L2 acquisition of complex grammatical features such as word order follow similar routes. They also suggest that classroom learners may learn more rapidly. These findings are discussed with reference to both theories of L2 acquisition and language pedagogy.

Constraints on learning and their role in language acquisition: Studies of the acquisition of American sign language

The general question raised here is why the young child is superior to older children and adults at language acquisition, while at the same time inferior to them in many other cognitive tasks. As an example of the general problem, the paper reviews our own work on the acquisition of complex verbs of American Sign Language (ASL). It begins with an outline of the structure of verbs of motion in ASL, along with possible inductive generalizations a language learner might make concerning this structure. Three lines of research on ASL acquisition are then presented. The first line of research demonstrates that young children, exposed to ASL as a native language, acquire ASL verbs in terms of morphological components, piece by piece, as do children learning spoken language. Moreover, they do so despite alternative generalizations which seem potentially simpler. The second line of research compares native learners of ASL with learners exposed to ASL later in life. This research shows that, while native learners make the morphological componential generalization described, later learners in fact do make alternative generalizations. The third line of research investigates native learners of ASL whose parental input models are late learners. Again it appears that natives perform a morphological analysis, despite the fact that their input is not well organized for such analyses. Taken together, the research shows a striking tendency for children—and only children—to acquire language in a particular fashion. The paper concludes with a discussion of possible explanations for these findings. One possibility is that children have a special set of skills for language acquisition which declines with age. A second possibility is that the cognitive limitations of the child provide the basis on which the child's componential learning occurs, and that the expansion of these cognitive abilities with age is in part responsible for the decline in this type of learning.