Target-like Use Research Articles

Accuracy Order of the Acquisition of the English Article System: Evidence from the Written and Oral Production of Undergraduate Arab EFL Learners

The present study investigates the accuracy order and underlying processes of acquiring English articles by 45 undergraduate Arab EFL learners drawn from three proficiency groups. The theoretical approach adopted here is Bickerton's (1981) semantic model that focuses on the features ±Specific Referent(±SR) and ±Assumed Known to the Hearer (±HK). The study aims to identify what the three measures, SOC (Supplied in Obligatory Contexts), TLU (Target-Like Use), and UOC (Used in Obligatory Contexts), reveal about the accuracy order of the acquisition of English articles in the written and oral production tasks. It also seeks to determine the semantic contexts in which the articles are overgeneralized and the most challenging context to acquire. The results show that the SOC measure reveals an accuracy order of a >the >Ø and the >a >Ø, whereas the TLU measure reveals an accuracy order of the>a>Ø across the groups. In addition, the UOC measure reveals that Ø goes through a flooding-then-trickling process, then experiences a U-shaped behavior highlighted by an overgeneralization stage, and follows the by undergoing a U-shaped development. Furthermore, the learners have difficulty distinguishing [±HK] and [±Countability]. The accuracy comparison in article use showed that [+SR, −HK] and [−SR, +HK] were the most challenging contexts to acquire.

Prosodic Transfer in Contact Varieties: Vocative Calls in Metropolitan and Basaá-Cameroonian French

This paper examines the production of vocative calls in (Northern) Metropolitan French (MF) and Cameroonian French (CF) as it is spoken by native speakers of a tone language, Basaá. While the results of our Discourse Completion Task confirm previous descriptions of MF, they also further our understanding of the relationship between pragmatics and prosody across different groups of French speakers. MF favors the vocative chant in routine contexts and a rising-falling contour in urgent contexts. In contrast, context has little influence on the choice of contour in CF. A melody consisting of the surface realization of lexical tones is produced in both contexts. Regarding acoustic parameters, context only exerts a significant effect on the loudness of vocative calls (RMS amplitude) and has little effect on their F0 height, F0 range and duration. A target-use of vocative calls in CF thus does not amount to target-like use of the original standard target language, MF. Our results provide novel evidence for the transfer of lexical tones onto the contact variety of an intonation language. They also corroborate previous studies involving the pragmatics-prosody interface: the more marked a prosodic pattern is (here, the vocative chant), the more difficult it is to acquire.

Accuracy order in L2 grammatical morphemes: Corpus evidence from different proficiency levels of Turkish learners of English

The present study empirically scrutinizes the fixed natural order of grammatical morphemes relying on a manual analysis of an EFL learner corpus. Specifically, we test whether the accuracy order of L2 grammatical morphemes in the case of L1 Turkish speakers of English deviates from Krashen’s (1977) natural order and whether proficiency levels play a role in the order of acquisition of these morphemes. With this in mind, we focus on the (in)accuracy of nine English grammatical morphemes with 2883 cases manually tagged by the UAM Corpus Tool in the written exam scripts of Turkish learners of English. The results based on target-like use scores provide evidence for deviation from what is widely believed to be a set order of acquisition of these grammatical morphemes by second language learners. In light of such findings, we challenge the view that the internally driven processes of mastering grammatical morphemes in English for interlanguage users are largely independent of their L1. Regardless of L2 grammar proficiency in our data, the observed accuracy of some morphemes ranked low in comparison with the so-called natural order. These grammatical morphemes were almost exclusively non-existent features in participants’ mother tongue (e.g., third person singular –s, articles and the irregular past tense forms), thus suggesting the influence of L1 in this respect.

Task closure and task complexity effects on L2 written performance

Although a major line of task-based research investigates the effects of task condition, little attention has been paid to the differential effects of open vs. closed tasks on L2 learning. Some researchers claim that closed oral interactive tasks are more effective, as the predetermined solution forces learners to continue without giving up, leading to greater negotiation for meaning, language recycling, and provision/incorporation of feedback. Because there is little empirical evidence to support such claims, the present study was conducted to investigate the combined effects of task closure and task complexity on the L2 written performance of 83 Korean learners of English.Participants performed two tasks whose task complexity was operationalized as number of elements. Half of the participants carried out closed task versions, and the other half carried out open versions. Greater task complexity was found to increase cognitive load shown by learner self-ratings, expert judgments, and time-on-task measures. Regarding written performance, greater task complexity had significant effects on lexical diversity and proportion of target-like use of articles. Contrary to previous claims, open tasks were found to elicit greater lexical diversity than closed tasks.

Production Accuracy of Verb Morphology in Early EFL: Does Primary School CLIL Make a Difference?

This study explores the impact of CLIL and standard EFL instruction on the use of verb morphology by 40 primary school Catalan/Spanish learners in an oral narrative task over a period of two academic years. The empirical evidence available to date comes from secondary school contexts and indicates that CLIL learners are more accurate using verb inflections than EFL-only learners in the early teens, whereas starting with the mid teens, CLIL has a ceiling effect on the development of verb morphology, with differences only in terms of higher production accuracy of irregular past forms (Huettner and Rider-Bunemann, 2007; Lazaro Ibarrola, 2012; Garcia Mayo and Villarreal Olaizola 2011). No research is available on the impact of CLIL instruction on the use of verb morphology in the early stages of EFL. Production accuracy was analysed in terms of omission, targetlike use and errors regarding suppletive and affixal verb forms. Our findings show that CLIL impacts on the intra-group progress rates for affixal omission, in particular -s omission, and targetlike use of the progressive form. The vehicular use of the target language in CLIL instruction seems to strengthen learners' reliance on semantic prototypes in their use of the progressive form.

First language transfer in second language acquisition as a cause for error-making in translations

Starting from Lord (2008), who claims that ‘many researchers study the effects of L2 on mother tongue, but few researchers analyze the effects of mother tongue on L2’, I have decided to analyze in this piece of research the errors produced by Romanian students when translating tense-based sentences from Romanian into English, in order to establish whether or not the errors are produced as a consequence of the transfer of the grammar knowledge of the students from their mother tongue on L2 or, why not, if the errors occur as a result of other factors. It is often claimed that, when students transfer grammar knowledge from L1 into L2, errors may occur due to the structural grammar differences between the source and the target language. From this point of view, important differences between the Romanian and the English verb system (the aspect, the temporal sequentiality as reflected in posteriority, simultaneity and anteriority) might reveal in the end that Romanian students that learn English as a foreign language transfer in English structures and forms from Romanian, which inevitably leads to errors. When analyzing the reasons that lead to error making when learning a foreign language, linguists, didacticians and methodologists claim that the interference between the mother tongue (Romanian, in this case) and the newly learnt language (English) is an important source for making errors. Linguistic interference, also known as language transfer, refers to the transfer of linguistic features between languages, emphasizing the fact that the transfer can be either positive or negative. Positive linguistic transfer (target-like use of L2) is when the grammatical structure or element is the same in both languages and consequently, the produced outcome is correct. On the contrary, negative linguistic transfer (non-target-like use of L2) is when the grammatical structure is different from one language to the other and the outcome breaks the linguistic laws in the target language. The theoretical approach that deals with the analysis of the differences and similarities between languages is contrastive analysis which has demonstrated that when two languages are more distinct, the likelihood of greater negative transfer is all too possible. That implies that any two languages which have more similar grammatical rules would expectedly result in positive transfer. Contrastive analysis proves its usefulness especially in the teaching-learning process; firstly, the teacher must be aware of the differences between the students’ first language and their L2 in order to help students overcome difficulties when learning a foreign language and to reduce the number of transfer errors that students might produce. Secondly, the students need to become themselves aware of these differences so that they make fully-informed linguistic decisions. Thus, this is a predictive method of knowing beforehand what might lead to errors when Romanian students translate from Romanian into English. Nevertheless, teaching should not be based on this comparative analysis as the only way of teaching students.

The emergence of functional case marking in initial varieties of Polish L2

Abstract This paper addresses the acquisition of L2 inflectional morphology after only a few hours of exposure. Eighty-nine participants with five different L1s and no experience of the L2 took part in a specially designed 14-hour L2 Polish course, during which they were tested on their developing morphosyntactic skills at various times. The present paper uses a Comprehension task and an Elicited Imitation task to probe learners’ ability to use nominative and accusative case markings to infer and express the subject and object. The study is designed to isolate variables such as the task employed to elicit L2 data, target sentence word order, time of exposure to the L2 input, and learners’ L1. The results show that while the majority of learners stick to a word order principle, some managed to identify and systematically apply the target-like use of inflectional morphology. Various intermediate strategies make it possible to identify a hierarchy of task difficulty. Both time of exposure and the learner’s L1 proved to be significant predictors of performance.

Making do

Abstract This paper argues that the cognitive usage-based model enhanced by a complexity theory perspective can provide useful insights into L2 learners’ non-target-like use of L2 phraseological chunks. Firstly, L2 chunks are conceptualized here as L2 complex form-meaning mappings subject to developmental schematization and entrenchment, as well as productive cut-and-paste mechanisms. Traces of these mechanisms at community level are interpreted as emergent patterns, a complexity theory concept in line with the cognitive usage-based model. Next, learner expressions for two task-elicited notions (depositing money and donating money) in a community of L2 English learners (N = 167; L1 Dutch) are analyzed for emergent patterns at different levels of schematicity. The findings indicate that L2 phraseological chunks are not constructed from a target-like initial exemplar that becomes entrenched or schematized. The paper concludes that within the cognitive usage-based model this is a major impeding factor in L2 learners’ target-like use of L2 phraseological chunks.

Intensifying constructions in French-speaking L2 learners of English and Dutch

AbstractWe investigate the cross-linguistic influence and the (longitudinal) impact of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) on the acquisition of intensifying constructions, using corpora of written French, Dutch, and English productions by L1 speakers, and L2 English and L2 Dutch produced by French-speaking learners in CLIL and traditional foreign language education. We hypothesize that learners will benefit from similarities between the L1 and target language (TL) intensifying constructions, and secondly, that more input and use (through CLIL) will lead to a more target-like use of intensifying constructions. The analyses include quantitative measures of frequency and productivity, and covarying analyses (Gries, 2007). Our findings suggest that, as expected, CLIL students produce intensifying constructions in a more target-like manner. The effect of the duration of TL learning, however, is more apparent in English than in Dutch.

Reference tracking in early stages of different modality L2 acquisition: Limited over-explicitness in novice ASL signers' referring expressions.

Previous research on reference tracking has revealed a tendency towards over-explicitness in second language (L2) learners. Only limited evidence exists that this trend extends to situations where the learner's first and second languages do not share a sensory-motor modality. Using a story-telling paradigm, this study examined how hearing novice L2 learners accomplish reference tracking in American Sign Language (ASL), and whether they transfer strategies from gesture. Our results revealed limited evidence of over-explicitness. Instead there was an overall similarity in the L2 learners' reference tracking to that of a native signer control group, even in the use of lexical nominals, pronouns and zero anaphora - areas where research on spoken L2 reference tracking predicts differences. Our data also revealed, however, that L2 learners have problems with the referential value of ASL classifiers, and with target-like use of zero anaphora from different verb types, as well as spatial modification. This suggests that over-explicitness occurs in the early stages of different modality L2 acquisition to a limited extent. We found no evidence of gestural transfer. Finally, we found that L2 learners reintroduce more than native signers, which could indicate that they, unlike native signers are not yet capable of utilizing the affordances of the visual modality to reference multiple entities simultaneously.

The pragmatics of articles in Dutch children with specific language impairment

Previous studies have found that the morpho-syntactic aspects of grammatical morphemes, including articles, pose problems for Dutch-speaking children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). In the present study it is demonstrated that article errors in Dutch children with SLI appear to be modulated by the pragmatic context to some extent. This study examines the pragmatic aspects of articles in 19 6- to 8-year-old children with SLI, comparing the results with those of 26 monolingual typically developing age-matched (TD-AM) and 17 language-matched (TD-LM) children. An elicitation task was used to test the specific discourse-new context (definite articles) and non-specific context (indefinite articles). In both contexts, the SLI group omitted articles more often than the TD-AM group, thus behaving similarly to the younger TD-LM group. The SLI group substituted articles more often than children in both control groups. Many children in the SLI group displayed variable behaviour and relatively many children with SLI used definite articles in non-specific contexts. We conclude that processing limitations in SLI may lead to less stable lexical knowledge of articles and hinder the successful integration of lexical, syntactic and pragmatic information that is required for target-like use of articles.

Relative Effects of Reactive and Preemptive Focus on Form in Promoting Linguistic Gain

Two kinds of incidental focus on form, reactive and preemptive, are compared for significant differences in gaining of target grammatical forms and students’ satisfaction. TLU (target-like use) and SOC (suppliance in obligatory context) are the measures employed for the data coding of the two target forms, preposition and article. To overcome the small sample size (n=16), multivariate inequality tests are employed along with the conventional t-tests. The empirical results show more improvement in linguistic gain as well as higher satisfaction for students in the preemptive focus on form class. In terms of comparing across proficiency levels, significant gain of target forms is noted for low proficiency students in the preemptive focus on form class. High proficiency students are less satisfied with the focus on form instruction in general; however, the decline in satisfaction is considerably smaller in the preemptive focus on form class.

Reinvestigating the Noticing Function of Output

A conceptual replication of Izumi and Bigelow's research, this study used multiple measures to investigate second language (L2) learners’ processes in output‐input‐output sequences. Specifically, it examined whether producing the target language impacts learners’ attention to L2 structures in subsequent input. Thirty learners of English as a second language were randomly assigned to two experimental groups (EGs) and a control group (CG). The EGs were given opportunities for written output that elicited either the past or the present hypothetical‐conditional (more complex vs. less complex structures) while the CG was not prompted to produce output requiring the use of the target structures. All groups engaged in follow‐up reading and underlining activities. The input text modeled targetlike use of the relevant structure for the EGs. Subsequently, all participants produced a second essay and participated in a stimulated recall interview. While the quantitative underlining and test data did not support an effect of output (EGs vs. CG) on specific attention to grammar in subsequent text, the qualitative stimulated‐recall data revealed how output influences learners’ subsequent noticing of vocabulary and/or awareness of their linguistic limitations concerning grammar structures. Learning was greater with the more complex structure, which is discussed in light of the noticing hypothesis and information processing theory.

Deletion of /t, d/ and the Acquisition of Linguistic Variation by Second Language Learners of English

This study investigated second language (L2) learners’ acquisition of English /t, d/ deletion patterns in word‐final consonant clusters, (a) focusing on how constraints such as grammatical conditioning and phonological environment affect deletion of /t, d/ in L2 acquisition and (b) determining the extent to which these L2 learners had acquired native‐speaker‐like patterns of deletion in ways that may be similar to patterns attested for first and second language acquisition in previous research. Seven native speakers of Mandarin Chinese, all graduate students at a Midwestern university in the United States, participated in the study. Findings indicate that the participants had not yet acquired targetlike use of /–t, –d/ deletion patterns for all constraints. Following the linguistic environment, possibly due to the influence of sonority, appeared to be the easiest constraint to acquire. Other linguistic constraints, such as preceding linguistic environment and grammatical conditioning, appeared to be more difficult to acquire, probably due to the effects of first language transfer.

The Expression of Temporality in Basilang Speech

This paper examines the expression of temporality in the basilang speech (the earliest stage of second language development) of five subjects. Temporality is studied from three perspectives: morphology, semantics, and pragmatics. The first analysis determined the subjects' degree of target-like use of English morphology and demonstrated that these basilang speakers generally lack verb phrase morphology and do not have a tense system. The second analysis examined the subjects' utterances in terms of sentence-level semantics, classifying utterances according to (universal) categories such as completive versus non-completive action, habitual versus continuous action, and action versus states. The analysis showed that none of the subjects studied made tense or aspectual distinctions and that temporal marking was not accomplished by the form of the verb. The third analysis examined how temporal reference was made by the adverbials (now, tomorrow, always, prepositional phrases), serialization (the fixing of a temporal reference point and allowing the sequence of utterances to reflect the actual temporal order of reported events), calendric reference (dates, days of the week, months, and numbers), and implicit reference (temporal reference inferred from a particular context or situation). This taxonomy captured the expression of time at the basilang level of interlanguage development much better than the previous two analyses.

Methods of Morpheme Quantification: Their Effect on the Interpretation of Second Language Data

Production of English grammatical morphemes has provided a fruitful data base for language acquisition research. However, questions have been raised as to how these data can best be analyzed to represent subjects' actual use of morphemes (Andersen 1977, Hakuta 1976, Hatch and Wagner-Gough 1976, Lightbown, Spada, and Wallace 1980, Stauble 1981). In the following study, application of different methods of morpheme quantification to the spontaneous speech data of 18 adults acquiring English as a second language led to conflicting interpretations regarding their morpheme production.Application of two alternative methods of morpheme quantification—one by suppliance in obligatory contexts, the other by target-like use—resulted in substantially different percentages of accuracy for subjects' production of the morphemes progressive -ing, progressive auxiliary, and past irregular. Another set of methods, used to analyze plural -s—quantification by noun tokens and by noun types—yielded contradictory findings regarding subjects' production of this morpheme.Results of this study demonstrate that data can be described in various ways depending on how morphemes are quantified. As a consequence of applying different analyses to the same data base, conflicting interpretations about subjects' interlanguage can occur.