Second Language Acquisition Process Research Articles

Self-efficacy and language proficiency in interpreter trainees

The aim of this paper is to empirically assess the impact of self-efficacy on the performance of trainee interpreters with different degrees of second-language competence. Self-efficacy, as understood by Bandura, is defined as people’s beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance. This article begins by presenting an overview of this psychological construct and highlighting the difference between general self-efficacy and specific self-efficacy. Second, it reviews the literature on self-efficacy and its relation to performance, as well as the relationship between the process of second-language acquisition and the process of interpreting skills acquisition. Interpreting tasks performed by students with low linguistic competence in their B language are compared with the output of trainee interpreters with high linguistic competence, after their specific self-efficacy expectations are measured. A sample of 281 interpreting trainees was used for this study. Results show that self-efficacy is relevant when predicting performance only in trainees with high linguistic competence, and not relevant for trainees with low linguistic competence. However, high linguistic competence trainees lacking self-efficacy offer poorer interpretation renderings. Implications for teaching are discussed.

제2언어 습득의 사회인지적 과정으로서 대화의 의의* -사회문화이론(Sociocultural theory)의 관점에서 미시발달(microgenesis)의 상호작용 사례 분석-

제2언어 습득의 사회인지적 과정으로서 대화의 의의* -사회문화이론(Sociocultural theory)의 관점에서 미시발달(microgenesis)의 상호작용 사례 분석-

The Process of Second Language Acquisition and its Implications for Teaching

Die Ergebnisse beim Erlernen einer neuen Zielsprache werden nach wie vor nach Unterrichtsgrundlagen des Behaviorismus aus den 50er Jahren gemessen. Danach orientiert sich der Sprachansatz des Lerners auf eine ungenaue Wiedergabe, seine Fehler werden durch ungenügende Praxis erklärt. Der behavioristische Ansatz erwies sich in neueren Theorien als zu ungenau. Seitdem haben Forschungen ergeben, dass das Erlernen einer zweiten Sprache von qualitativen Veränderungen und von Rückschritten bestimmt wird. Das Erlernen einer weiteren Sprache wird durch verschiedene unterschiedliche Faktoren bestimmt, von denen der formale Sprachunterricht nur einer ist. Die L 2-Entwicklung des Lerners ist von der mentalen Informationsverarbeitung, von der kognitiven Reife, früheren sprachlichen Erfahrungen, zeitlichen Beschränkungen, individuellen psychologischen Eigenschaften sowie dem sozialen Umfeld abhängig. Hier werden Modelle und Lehrmethoden mit Fokus auf die Sprache des Lerners vorgestellt. Die hier genannten Fakten dienen dem besseren Verständnis eines andauernden Lernprozesses und können für die Interpretation von Unterrichtsergebnissen herangezogen werden

From Bengali to English: sequential bilingualism of a second-generation British Bangladeshi

The paper discusses sequential language acquisition of the researcher's daughter Safa who transformed from a monolingual Bengali speaker to an almost monolingual English speaker in a few months after moving to the UK. Safa was born in Bangladesh and was a monolingual Bengali speaker until she was three years and nine months when the family moved to the UK. Unlike most research on sequential bilingualism, Safa's transition from Bengali to English went through a period of an invented language, which she developed and used for a few months. Safa then underwent language shift as Bengali became her passive language. Safa's loss of fluency in Bengali was mainly due to the absence of Bengali linguistic environment, because her family lived outside the community. Safa's mother's indifference to Bangladeshi ethnicity and her parents’ positive attitude towards Britishness meant that her decline in Bengali did not cause them much concern. Despite the lack of proficiency in Bengali, Safa still retains a strong ethnic Bangladeshi identity. Tabors and Snow’s four-stage developmental process of sequential second-language acquisition has been applied to find the similarities and differences in Safa's case, while language maintenance and shift theories have contributed to the analysis of the process of her language shift.

Grammatical analysis of interlanguage

The process of second language acquisition involves the active construction of interim granmiars or interlanguages (Selinker, 1972) by learners as they progress towards competence in the target language. An interlanguage evolves as a result of the various strategies which learners apply to the task of language learning. The primary aim of this study was to analyse and describe the Interlanguage of two second-language English speakers in samples of interactional spoken language with the goal of identifying the learning strategies being applied and developing appropriate, empirically based inteivention strategies designed to facilitate the acquisition process. A secondary aim of the study was to evaluate ihe appropriacy of the particular descriptive tool employed in this study, namely the Language Assessment, Remediation and Screening Procedure (LARSP) (Crystal, Fletcher and Carman, 1989), in the context of L2 acquisition research. While the LARSP provided a useful initial description it lacked precision in identifying and accounting for the numerous error patterns produced. A detailed error analysis was therefore devised which permitted ideniification of idiosyncratic strategies as well as the more general error patterns that characterised the interlanguage of both subjects in strikingly similar ways. Of particular note was the finding thai the acquisition of the verb phrase and its components was particulariy problematic for both subjects. Numerous errors in the realisation of the argument structure of lexical verbs was noted. As it is generally agreed that the verb phrase plays a central role in the syntactic organisation of the sentence and contributes significantly to conmiunicative efficiency (Fletcher, 1992), this finding has significant implications for second language pedagogy and warrents further investigation

Political Idiots and Ignorant Clients: Vernacular Legal Language in Thirteenth-Century Iberian Culture

In this article, the author explores the idea that during the thirteenth century there were implemented new vernacular legal languages that were communicated to the ignorant clients of the law or lay people by notarial officers. The article theorizes around the effects of this communication, understood as a process of second language acquisition in which the second language is the formulaic system contained in legal documents.

An Analysis of Article Errors among Saudi Female EFL Students: A Case Study

This study aims at providing a comprehensive account of the types of errors produced by Saudi female EFL students in their use of articles, based on the Surface Structure Taxonomies (SST) of errors. Data were collected from written samples of 100 first-year female EFL students at the Department of English in the University of Ha’il. Students were given one-and-a-half hours to write on one of six different descriptive topics related to their life and culture. Analysis of errors in students’ written samples revealed that while students made a considerable number of errors in their use of articles according to SST, omission errors were the most frequent, while substitutions were the least frequent. Additionally, among all types of omission errors identified, the omission of the indefinite article ‘a’ was the most frequent. In sharp contrast, the omission of the indefinite article ‘an’ was the least frequent error. Not surprisingly, errors relating to the addition of the definite article ‘the’ were the most frequent, which correlates with the fact that the definite article is used more widely in the Arabic language than in English. In fact, the English article system is a complex aspect of English grammar. It is one of the most difficult areas of acquisition for even the most advanced learners who have perfectly learnt all other features of the language. This means that EFL instructors may tolerate these errors and look at article errors as more serious.Further, results showed that Arabic interference was not the only source of errors, but that English was a source of many errors as well. Findings showed that 57. % of the errors were interlingual ones, indicating the influence of the native language. Thus, interlingual errors are the most commonly occurring types. On the other hand, intralingual errors represented 42.56% of article errors. This result also indicates that L1 interference strongly influences the process of second language acquisition of the articles, having a negative effect on the learning process. Teachers and instructors should therefore point out more clearly the differences between L1 and L2 in the use of articles.

Video-mediated teacher collaborative inquiry: Focus on English language learners

Video-mediated teacher collaborative inquiry: Focus on English language learners Laura Baecher, Ph.D. , Sarah Rorimer, and Leonore Smith Introduction High school teachers today work in challenging, high-accountability instructional environments (Giles & Hargreaves, 2006), striving to meet the needs of upwards of 100 learners per day. Rapidly growing numbers of English-language learners (ELLs) in U.S. classrooms have added to these pressures. Rather than using collaborative structures to face these challenges, the structure of departmentalization too often results in content-area high school teachers working in isolation from one another (Grossman, Wineburg & Woolworth, 2001; McLaughlin & Talbert, 2001). This means that English as a Second Language (ESL) specialists, as well as other teachers of ELLs, have few if any formal structures for peer interaction across disciplines. Professional development for ELLs, when available, is still too frequently delivered in decontextualized, “one-off” sessions with little follow-up (Gándara, Maxwell-Jolly, & Driscoll, 2005). This conflicts with the literature on best practices in professional development, which has shown, instead, how it should (1) parallel local initiatives, standards, and teachers’ own professional goals; (2) focus on the content and methods teachers use in their classrooms; (3) be sustained over time; (4) occur on-site in schools and/or in teachers’ own classrooms; (5) involve collective participation of peers and colleagues; and (6) provide numerous opportunities for active learning (Ballantyne, Sanderman & Levy, 2008; DuFour, Eaker & DuFour, 2005; Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman & Yoon, 2001; González & Darling-Hammond, 1997; Merriam & Caffarella, 1998; Wenger, 1999). Aligned with these conditions of high quality, meaningful professional learning, a teacher educator, alongside content and ESL teachers at one urban high school, came together in a collaborative inquiry cycle to explore ways of improving their ELL instruction. The intent of this paper is to share outcomes of this teacher-led collaboration, which combined two powerful tools in professional learning–teacher-collaborative inquiry and video analysis of teaching–as a means to focus teachers across content areas on ELL pedagogy. Review of Literature Teacher preparation for ELL instruction Growing consensus in the study of effective instructional practices for ELLs suggests that content teachers who are highly effective in teaching ELLs possess dispositions, skills and [End Page 49] knowledge that enable them to meet both the content-area learning needs as well as the language development needs of their ELL students. This expertise is more specialized than “just good teaching” (deJong & Harper, 2005; Faltis, Arias & Ramírez-Marín, 2010; Fradd & Lee, 1998). Teachers need to reference both content knowledge of their subject area (e.g. mathematics, science, literature) as well as their pedagogical knowledge (e.g., of classrooms and learner behavior) to develop their pedagogical content knowledge (Ball & McDiarmid, 1990; Cochran, 1993; Freeman & Johnson, 1998). Lucas and Villegas (2011) identified key knowledge, dispositions, and skills of this pedagogical content knowledge base for mainstream teacher preparation for ELLs such as an understanding of the processes of second language acquisition, the recognition of the role of language in completing academic tasks, and scaffolding instruction to provide access to content-area learning. Despite this evidence, and their large and growing population, most ELLs do not receive instruction from teachers who have been prepared to support their needs (Gándara, Maxwell-Jolly, & Rumberger, 2008; Menken & Antunez, 2001). On-the-job professional development targeted for ELLs also falls short. A study conducted by Gándara, Maxwell-Jolly, and Driscoll (2005), with more than 5,000 California teachers, showed that 43% of teachers with 50% or more ELLs had received no more than one in-service workshop on the instruction of ELLs. Another important finding from this research was that when they did occur, these professional development workshops on ELLs were frequently of poor quality. Teachers surveyed cited the lack of presenter experience with ELLs and lack of follow-up as major concerns. The departmentalization of secondary schools is another factor that may prohibit opportunities for professional learning about ELL instruction, as content teachers have limited interaction with ESL teachers. Although schools are mandated to provide ESL instruction to their ELLs, content and ESL teachers usually do not coordinate instructional planning. Research on the instructional planning and teaching that occurs between ESL and classroom teachers has shown...

What It Takes to Call Yourself a Bilingual Practitioner

What It Takes to Call Yourself a Bilingual Practitioner

I think (that) something’s missing: Complementizer deletion in nonnative e-mails

Sociolinguistic competence is not often examined in nonnative English acquisition. This is particularly true for features where the variants are neither stylistically nor socially constrained, but rather are acceptable in all circumstances. Learning to use a language fully, however, implies being able to deal with this type of ‘difficulty,’ and understanding what type of variable features nonnative speakers acquire with ease and which ones they do not may help us better understand more general processes of second language acquisition. By comparing the rates of complementizer deletion of nonnative to native speakers and examining their distributions across various internal and external factors, this paper addresses these issues and offers an example of acquisition of what is, in some ways, an invisible variant. Furthermore, by focusing on a Swiss student association, the paper is also able to compare the patterns of French, German and Italian native speakers, to examine to what extent they differ in English.

DOES FORM-FOCUSED INSTRUCTION AFFECT L2 LEARNERS PERFORMANCE? FOCUS ON GRAMMATICALLY JUDGMENTS

It is one of the goals of research in applied linguistics to gain insight into the process and mechanisms of second language acquisition. The cornerstone and the single most fundamental change in perspective on the nature of language and language learning is, perhaps, the focus on learners as active creators in their learning process, not as passive recipients. The present study has two goals. First, it aims at investigating advanced students’ metalinguistic ability in solving multidimensional grammatical problems. Second, it is, also, an attempt to highlight the role of focus on form instructions in shaping L2 learners’ performance. The subjects of the present study were forty Egyptian students who were in their fourth year of academic study in the Department of English and Literature, Faculty of Arts, Menufia University, Egypt. The instrument of this study consisted of (1) pre-test; (2) post-test; and (3) individual interviews. Two tasks were used: (1) “Sentence Completion” task, and (2) “Error Recognition and Correction” task. In the first task, a list of 15 incomplete sentences was given to the subjects who were asked to choose the word or phrase to complete the sentence. The focus, in this task, was on the meaning of the sentence rather than the form, although accurate understanding of the formal properties of language is a must. In the second task, students were asked to detect the word or phrase that must be changed in order for the sentence to be correct. A list of 25 sentences was given to the subjects who worked on this task twice. In the pre-test, no word or phrase was underlined; it is an example of the unfocused correction type. In the post-test, the same sentences were given to the subjects, with four words underlined, and marked (A), (B), (C) and (D). It is an example of the focused correction type. Finally, students were interviewed to explain and comment on their performance in the previous tasks. The data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results were obtained and conclusions were made.It is one of the goals of research in applied linguistics to gain insight into the process and mechanisms of second language acquisition. A correct understanding of these processes and mechanisms is a prerequisite for an adequate didactic approach. Relatedly, Morley (1987) points out that during the last twenty years ideas about language learning and language teaching have been changing in some very fundamental ways. Significant developments in perspectives on the nature of second language learning processes have had a marked effect on language pedagogyThe cornerstone and the single most fundamental change in perspectives on the nature of language and language learning in recent years is, perhaps, the focus on learners as active creators in their learning process, not as passive recipients. Accordingly, the focus of second language study has shifted from a prominence of contrastive analysis in the 1940s and 1950s and error analysis in the 60s and 70s to interlanguage analysis in the 70s and 80s. Interlanguage analysis is marked today by “a variety of investigations looking at diverse aspects of learner language” (Morley, 1987: 16). In this connection, Gass (1983: 273) points out that “it is widely accepted that the language of second language learners, what Selinker (1972 has called ‘interlanguage’ or what (Gass, 1983) has called ‘Learner-language’ is a system in its own right.” To understand such a system, we should focus on discovering how second language (L2) learners evaluate and correct their own or other people’s utterances, an issue that will be explored in the present study. In other words, the major point of interest here is L2 learners’ linguistic intuitions and the role of focus on form instruction in making grammaticality judgments.

Toward a Second Language Socialization Perspective: Issues in Study Abroad Research

Abstract: The last few decades have seen a proliferation of research on study abroad (SA). A review of SA research literature shows general inconsistencies and inconclusiveness on certain issues, particularly on SA outcomes and their factors. This article discusses such inconsistencies in terms of the highly variable contexts and vastly unstable nature of second language acquisition (SLA). It is evident that the amount and the quality of interactional encounters with native speakers, along with learners' identity, play a major role in language acquisition in the SA context. Accordingly, the researcher argues for a socialization perspective on documenting and interpreting the SLA process in the SA context, with an emphasis on learner identity.

Identifying the Learning Development of Students Who Are Refugees

AbstractStudents who are refugees need understanding and support to settle successfully into mainstream Australian classrooms. Teachers not aware of students' prior learning and the process of second language acquisition may have difficulty providing the most appropriate learning environments to meet these students' needs. This study found that, with no coordination of information on students' learning backgrounds nor of their learning needs and development, students were in danger of being identified as at-risk of having a learning disability, with little support to substantiate such claims.

Creoles as interlanguages

The idea that processes of second language acquisition (SLA) are highly relevant to an account of creole genesis is far from new or original (see Plag (2008a) for some discussion and further references). However, it is still controversial which kinds of SLA processes are relevant, and how much of a given creole’s structures can be attributed to such processes. In my previous three Columns (Plag 2008a,b, 2009) I discussed a specific hypothesis about the relation of creolization and SLA that I labeled ’interlanguage hypothesis’. According to this hypothesis, creoles originate as conventionalized interlanguages of an early developmental stage. The interlanguage hypothesis is highly compatible with scenarios that claim that creolization is at least a two-generation process, which involves at least two successive stages of development. For example, Veenstra (2003) argues that during the first stage, adults acquire the superstrate language to variable degrees, with interlanguages of the Basic Variety type (Perdue 1993) chiefly among them. Traditionally, this stage has also been called the pidginization stage, characterized by rudimentary acquisition of the (socially) dominant language. This stage is followed by a second stage, following the so-called target-shift, in which the next generation of speakers acquires the new medium of interethnic communication (cf., e.g., Baker 1994), and no longer the superstrate language. This next generation of speakers may consist of first language learners and second language learners of the new variety, e.g. newly arrived slaves, as in the case of

Connectionist modelling of Aspect acquisition in Italian L2

Within the long tradition of second language acquisition (SLA) research on the development of the category of Aspect (Dietrich et al. 1995; Giacalone Ramat 2002), the present study compares the acquisitional pattern observed in learners of Italian L2 and those obtained by connectionist simulations, namely unsupervised neural networks, Self Organizing Maps, SOMs (Kohonen 2001). The research tests empirically whether SOMs can display the emergence of Aspect in the interlanguage produced by German-speaking and Spanish-speaking L2 learners and the interaction between Aspect, Actionality and Grounding in this development. The convergence between connectionist modelling and learners’ patterns provides evidence for the interaction that exists between data-driven mechanisms and cognitive principles in the complex process of second language acquisition.

Creoles as interlanguages

The idea that processes of second language acquisition (SLA) are highly relevant for an account of creole genesis is far from new or original (see Plag (2008a) for some discussion and further references). However, it is still controversial which kinds of interlanguage processes are relevant, and how much of a given creole’s structures can be attributed to such processes. In my previous two Columns (Plag 2008a,b) I discussed a specific hypothesis about the relation of creolization and SLA that I labeled ’interlanguage hypothesis’. According to this hypothesis, creoles originate as conventionalized interlanguages of an early developmental stage. The interlanguage hypothesis is highly compatible with scenarios that claim that creolization is at least a two-generation process, which involves at least two successive stages of development. For example, Veenstra (2003) argues that during the first stage, adults acquire the superstrate language to variable degrees, with interlanguages of the Basic Variety type (Perdue 1993) chiefly among them. Traditionally, this stage has also been called the pidginization stage, characterized by rudimentary acquisition of the dominant language. This stage is followed by a second stage, following the so-called target-shift, in which the next generation of speakers acquires the new medium of interethnic communication (cf., e.g., Baker 1994), and no longer the superstrate language. At this stage, processes of SLA, first language acquisition and dialect levelling may all be going on at the same time. In my previous column, I took a closer look at inflectional morphology and a number of syntactic constructions to investigate whether the linguistic phenomena encountered in these areas lend themselves to an explanation in terms of SLA processes. Starting out with the assumptions of a psycholingistic theory of morphosyntactic development in SLA (Processability Theory, e.g. Pienemann 1998, 2005) I argued that both the loss of inflectional morphology and the preservation (if any) of primarily inherent inflection can be

Learner varieties in language teaching

The paper addresses the question of whether and how knowledge about processes of untutored second language acquisition could be exploited for language teaching. The first part deals with the difficulties of assigning learners to the stages proposed in different types of stage models for language development. Such stage models mainly list communicative potentials or structural properties of learner varieties in their presumed order of acquisition but do not necessarily help to understand the driving forces and stumble blocks in language learning under different circumstances.

Children with Autism Thrive in English Class

A special education program (Wakakusa class) has been set up for the mentally handicapped children at the school (Ninoe Public Elementary School at Tokyo Edogawa-ward) where I currently work. Registered in that class are 14 children who have features of autism, pervasive developmental disorder, and the likes, 3 mentally retarded students, and 3 pupils with Down's disease. Autism is a developmental disorder caused by the imperfect of the central nervous system that is distinguished by a characteristic triad of symptoms, namely: 1) impaired interpersonal relationship and social interaction; 2) impairments in language and communication; and 3) restricted interest and self-stimulatory behavior. However, since some peculiar cases can also be seen like the superior music sensibility of some of them, it is said that there is also an unknown field concerning the function of the brain. (Yoshihisa Abe [An Introduction to Special Needs Education] Nihon Bunkasha, 2006) In order for the autistic children to develop their Japanese communication skill, the teachers create teaching material. On the other hand, if these children find it difficult to communicate in Japanese which is their first language, I thought that learning a second language such as English would be good for them. At the same time, I thought that the process of second language acquisition may influence and hopefully, have good effect in their Japanese. Furthermore, children must be symbolic, self-determined, independent, and have the energy and vitality to keep up with the progressing globalization. That is also the makings of the foundation of international communication power. Even the children who have special needs are not an exception. It was through Cheerful Communication Activities Made way for the Truant and the Autistic Child to be the ALT's Favorite and The Ability to Have Pleasant Conversation without Fear and Hesitation Obtained (Kanji Watanabe [International and English Communication in Elementary and Junior High Schools:Issues and Perspectives] Bunkyo Gakuin University Department of Foreign Languages and Bunkyo Gakuin College Bulletin 7th issue 2007) that I gained confidence in English activities. Through this practice, I hope that each and every autistic child would be able to build interpersonal relations, pull out the initiative and confidence to communicate, and to cultivate individuality.

Creoles as interlanguages

In my previous Column (Plag 2008) I discussed the hypothesis that creoles originate as conventionalized interlanguages of an early developmental stage. For the sake of convenience I will refer to this specific hypothesis as the ‘interlanguage hypothesis’. While the idea that processes of second language acquisition (SLA) are a crucial ingredient to creole genesis is far from new or original (see Plag 2008 for some discussion and further references), it is still controversial which kinds of interlanguage processes are relevant, and how much of a given creole’s structures can be attributed to such processes. In the said Column, I took a closer look at inflectional morphology and showed that certain facts about creole languages are best explained by making reference

On Discourse, Communication, and (Some) Fundamental Concepts in SLA Research

This article argues for a reconceptualization of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research that would enlarge the ontological and empirical parameters of the field. We claim that methodologies, theories, and foci within SLA reflect an imbalance between cognitive and mentalistic orientations, and social and contextual orientations to language, the former orientation being unquestionably in the ascendancy. This has resulted in a skewed perspective on discourse and communication, which conceives of the foreign language speaker as a deficient communicator struggling to overcome an underdeveloped L2 competence, striving to reach the “target” competence of an idealized native speaker (NS). We contend that SLA research requires a significantly enhanced awareness of the contextual and interactional dimensions of language use, an increased “emic” (i.e., participant‐relevant) sensitivity towards fundamental concepts, and the broadening of the traditional SLA data base. With such changes in place, the field of SLA has the capacity to become a theoretically and methodologically richer, more robust enterprise, better able to explicate the processes of second or foreign language (S/FL) acquisition, and better situated to engage with and contribute to research commonly perceived to reside outside its boundaries.