Hey hey,
Just a friendly reminder to please bring a picture to class on Thursday if you can.
You can send it to yourself as an email attachment or stick it on a flash drive.
If not, someone might be bringing a digital camera, but discretion is the better part of valor.
Thanks,
BEN
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Who are Nina Spada and Patsy Lightbown?
This week you will read the first empirical study in this course (after having read 3 chapters from our textbook): Spada & Lightbown (1999), published in the Modern Language Journal. It's a study of effectiveness of instruction conducted in Canadian ESL intensive classes, with children who were Francophone speakers learning English in Quebec (a French-speaking province in Canada). They were in grade 6, so their age was 11 or 12.
If you want to find out more about the two authors, the web has some information about them, including some photos. Nina Spada is currently at the University of Toronto, and you can find a photo and description of her interests here, the same photo and an extensive list of publications here, and an abridged CV here. Patsy Lightbown is now professor emeritus (which means she retired, but remains active in the field) at her institution of many years, Concordia University in Montreal. You can read the note on her retirement in 2001 and see a photo if you click here and scroll down the page.
These two SLA scholars are co-authors of one of the most successful SLA textbooks in the history of the field: "How languages are learned." It is an excellent undergraduate-level, readable introduction, and it would be a good idea to consult it for your research papers if your topic has to do with L2 learning in classroom contexts.
If you want to find out more about the two authors, the web has some information about them, including some photos. Nina Spada is currently at the University of Toronto, and you can find a photo and description of her interests here, the same photo and an extensive list of publications here, and an abridged CV here. Patsy Lightbown is now professor emeritus (which means she retired, but remains active in the field) at her institution of many years, Concordia University in Montreal. You can read the note on her retirement in 2001 and see a photo if you click here and scroll down the page.
These two SLA scholars are co-authors of one of the most successful SLA textbooks in the history of the field: "How languages are learned." It is an excellent undergraduate-level, readable introduction, and it would be a good idea to consult it for your research papers if your topic has to do with L2 learning in classroom contexts.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Week 3 Reflection
[SLS 650] Week 3 Reflection
Tuesday (September 4, 2007)
Reflection and Discussion Leader: Everyone has signed up for a
date to do the weekly reflection. The class also requires you do be a
discussion leader, so everyone signed up with a day to be a discussion leader.
Preview Posts: The preview posts were due today! All the previews for each chapter should
be online on our blog.
10 Minute Free Writing Assignment: The topic was cross linguistic influences. We were given only 10 minutes to write about our personal experience through a story.
((I thought found this writing assignment quite difficult to me because I couldn’t come up with something good to share with everyone. I know I’ve had a cross linguistic influence experience, but I just had a hard time getting it on paper. The stories that I read were great! I loved it, and it helped to clarify and understand the whole cross linguistic influence concept.))
The following is the list that was written on the board.
-positive / negative
-conscious or strategic / unintentional
-avoidance / over use / under use
-L2 -> L1
-L3 / L2 / L1
-codeswitching
-interlanguage force (not really related)
-grammar, vocab, pronounciation, pragmatic
-surface/ deep
After writing our story and sharing it to our partner, we analyzed which group our stories fit into.
1) Shaun shared his story about high school students saying “I am chicken” on his flight.
2) Merica shared her story about the mishap between “ungarn” and “ungern”.
3) Miyung shared her story about the Korean greetings “Where are you going?” and “Have you eaten yet?”
Ben also shared his story about “mecha hungry yade”, and his codeswitching between English, Japanese, and
(I found this to be very interesting because I understand “mecha hungry yade”, and it’s so funny to hear to, but it makes perfect sense to me!)
Our professor also shared her story about not knowing the word for “cold”, but was able to come up with the word “colding” because of the person who asked her if she was “colding”.
Conclusion:
L1 is important in learning L2. Similarities can facilitate more than being a negative effect. A good part of language mistakes are same with first language learners. Therefore contrastive analysis don’t occur anymore because its no longer about the language, but about the language
learner.
Thursday (September 6, 2007)
Helpful Website: The HATESL website was introduced to the class. (http://www.lll.hawaii.edu/web/hatesl/)
Reminder: Research Bibliography due Sunday 16th. Remember to include a title, and an intro (approx. 1 paragraph). You are welcomed to categorize your bibliography according to the different topics that are involved in your research.
Everyone’s Research Topic: Everyone shared their ideas on what they would like to do for their research project this semester. The following is a list of ideas that everyone came up with.
track own learning, study abroad, language teaching practicum abroad, acquisition related to participation and motivation, 1st year teachers who were language learners in immersion camps, ethnic identity and language learning process, extensive reading, vocab learning strategies, explicit/implicit knowledge, computer related communication and second language teaching/learning, EFL context and cultural learning, qualitative study on attitude and perception on bilingualism, bilingual education, multilingualism, creoles, vocab learning through reading, incidental vocab learning, early second language learning, effectiveness of making a video and second language learning (technology mediated learning).
(Helpful Hints: When looking for articles, use the abstract! When you are looking through books, use the index! When you’ve started collecting many articles, create folders to help organize the
different articles. And if it’s printed/copied material, create piles!)
When coming up with a research questions, the following three ways were introduced to the class.
-“To what extent…”
-“In what ways….”
-“What’s the relationship…”
This will help direct you in the direction you need to go to further your study.
Developmental Stages for L2 English Questions: The worksheet handed out to us in class gives us an explanation of the different stages. Therefore if you find a student create a question that is not grammatically correct, it isn’t a mistake. It’s away to classify the student in a stage. However, stages don’t do with accuracy, it deals with development. ((I've never thought about classifying English questions into different developmental stages, therefore this excersise was an eyeopener for me. It's very interesting to be able to break down and analyze it to such a specific degree.))
For next class: Our professor has sent out the empirical study in which we should all read. The study by Spada & Lightbown was briefly mentioned in section 3.4 of Chapter 3, therefore you might want to re-read that section before reading. She has also sent out the reading guide that should help with the reading.
Have a great weekend! (^_____^)/
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Chapter 5: Cognition
Cognition?
It is the various mental process used in thinking, remembering, perceiving, recognizing, classifying, etc. Also this chapter discusses 1) how people become aware of knowing L2 and 2) what information makes people know another language.
Summary
Information processing assumes that human cognitive architecture is made of representation and access, mental process is included by unconscious and conscious, and performance is variable due to limited attention and memory.
According to skill acquisition theory, gradual transformation of performance turns from controlled to automatic. Practice helps automatization of new knowledge and it makes knowledge easier to access without effort, but power of practice is variable over time. Automaticity is the last outcome of the gradual process of automatization. Robert DeKeyser (1997) is a good exemplary study of this theory.
Long-term memory is unlimited and about representation. It is made of explicit-declaration memory (recollection of fact or event) and implicit-procedural memory (skills). In the vocabulary study, it has a matter of degree of proceduralization(strength – implicit memory), total number of words known(size-explicit-declarative memory), and how well elaborated the vocabulary is (depth-both). In the L2 words consist of the content of the representation and the mechanism of access. Nonselectivity is that information encoded for both languages when the bilinguals recognize or produce vocabulary.
Working memory is of limited capacity and activation. We need it for a storage functions and a processing function. L2 working memory capacity is smaller that L1. To measure short-term memory (for storage), four memories and benchmarks are used: digit span recall tasks, word span tasks, non-word repetition span tasks, and sentence repetition tasks. Time passage, increasing confusion, and insufficient relevant knowledge, content, and serial position information are alternative conceptualizations in L1 memory researches. In reading span task in L1, subjects recall the last word and underlined words. In the L2 predictive validity of passive working memory measures was lower than that of active measures.
Attention has limited capacity, and is selective, voluntary, and controls access to consciousness. Incidental, implicit, and explicit in the L2 learning process and outcomes are considered. In terms of L2 learning without attention, detection (selective attention) makes it possible. However, Schmidt (1994, 2000) insisted that noticing (conscious attention) is need. Learning without intention is possible (L2 vocabulary learning while pleasure reading). Demonstrating that learning without awareness is not possible, because we can not figure out the zero awareness. In the lower-level associative learning, it is possible to learn without rules. However it does not lead to systematic rule knowledge. Both low-level associative learning and high-level learning can occur and interact.
Emergentism refers to a contemporary family of theories in cognitive science that have coalesced out if critical of information process. Emergentist family for explanations for L2 learning approaches tenets such as associative, probabilistic, rational, usage-based, grounded, and dynamic.
Reflection
If you are interested in vocabulary learning, this chapter would help you give background information to develop your research. I’m quite interested that incidental vocabulary learning is possible through pleasure reading. If this result can apply in my life, I do read every article without dictionary. I don’t know, but it’s worth studying.
In addition, it is not easy to understand the whole chapter as you read it once. To figure out an invisible mental process while learning, we need to know some unfamiliar terms. There is a tip. If you want to know each new term clearly, you read this chapter roughly first and then read carefully with examples. From my experience, I can approach the concept of cognition efficiently as I apply real life example and other instances which were provided in the chapter. But I think our own example is more helpful to set up the terms.
Discussion Questions
- What if L2 vocabulary learning is possible with no intention during reading, do you think pleasure reading is the best way to learn incidental vocabulary?
- If you think pleasure reading is the best way to learn incidental vocabulary, how can L2 reading textbook designers (or publishers, authors) maximize the pleasure of reading?
It is the various mental process used in thinking, remembering, perceiving, recognizing, classifying, etc. Also this chapter discusses 1) how people become aware of knowing L2 and 2) what information makes people know another language.
Summary
Information processing assumes that human cognitive architecture is made of representation and access, mental process is included by unconscious and conscious, and performance is variable due to limited attention and memory.
According to skill acquisition theory, gradual transformation of performance turns from controlled to automatic. Practice helps automatization of new knowledge and it makes knowledge easier to access without effort, but power of practice is variable over time. Automaticity is the last outcome of the gradual process of automatization. Robert DeKeyser (1997) is a good exemplary study of this theory.
Long-term memory is unlimited and about representation. It is made of explicit-declaration memory (recollection of fact or event) and implicit-procedural memory (skills). In the vocabulary study, it has a matter of degree of proceduralization(strength – implicit memory), total number of words known(size-explicit-declarative memory), and how well elaborated the vocabulary is (depth-both). In the L2 words consist of the content of the representation and the mechanism of access. Nonselectivity is that information encoded for both languages when the bilinguals recognize or produce vocabulary.
Working memory is of limited capacity and activation. We need it for a storage functions and a processing function. L2 working memory capacity is smaller that L1. To measure short-term memory (for storage), four memories and benchmarks are used: digit span recall tasks, word span tasks, non-word repetition span tasks, and sentence repetition tasks. Time passage, increasing confusion, and insufficient relevant knowledge, content, and serial position information are alternative conceptualizations in L1 memory researches. In reading span task in L1, subjects recall the last word and underlined words. In the L2 predictive validity of passive working memory measures was lower than that of active measures.
Attention has limited capacity, and is selective, voluntary, and controls access to consciousness. Incidental, implicit, and explicit in the L2 learning process and outcomes are considered. In terms of L2 learning without attention, detection (selective attention) makes it possible. However, Schmidt (1994, 2000) insisted that noticing (conscious attention) is need. Learning without intention is possible (L2 vocabulary learning while pleasure reading). Demonstrating that learning without awareness is not possible, because we can not figure out the zero awareness. In the lower-level associative learning, it is possible to learn without rules. However it does not lead to systematic rule knowledge. Both low-level associative learning and high-level learning can occur and interact.
Emergentism refers to a contemporary family of theories in cognitive science that have coalesced out if critical of information process. Emergentist family for explanations for L2 learning approaches tenets such as associative, probabilistic, rational, usage-based, grounded, and dynamic.
Reflection
If you are interested in vocabulary learning, this chapter would help you give background information to develop your research. I’m quite interested that incidental vocabulary learning is possible through pleasure reading. If this result can apply in my life, I do read every article without dictionary. I don’t know, but it’s worth studying.
In addition, it is not easy to understand the whole chapter as you read it once. To figure out an invisible mental process while learning, we need to know some unfamiliar terms. There is a tip. If you want to know each new term clearly, you read this chapter roughly first and then read carefully with examples. From my experience, I can approach the concept of cognition efficiently as I apply real life example and other instances which were provided in the chapter. But I think our own example is more helpful to set up the terms.
Discussion Questions
- What if L2 vocabulary learning is possible with no intention during reading, do you think pleasure reading is the best way to learn incidental vocabulary?
- If you think pleasure reading is the best way to learn incidental vocabulary, how can L2 reading textbook designers (or publishers, authors) maximize the pleasure of reading?
Preview of week 13
Lantolf, J., & Thorn,S. (2006). Sociocultural theory and second language learning.
Sociocultural Theory: “an approach to SLA derived from Vygotsky’s work which emphasized the causal relationship between social interaction and cognitive development, including SLA.”
The authors introduce the theoretical principles and constructs of Sociocultural Theory (SCT),madiation and regulation, internalization, and the zone of proximal development and consider how they inform the study of second language acquisition (SLA) in the article.
Key concepts
Mediation: Human mental functioning is fundamentally a mediated process that is organized by cultural artifacts, activities, and concepts. Language is the most powerful cultural artifact the humans possess to mediate their connection to the world, to each other, and to themselves.
Regulation: One form of mediation is regulation. Regulation can be divided into three stages.
Object-regulation: using objects to regulate mental activity.
Other-regulation: implicit and explicit mediation by others, such as parents, siblings, peers, coaches, teachers and so on, for example, assistance and direction from others.
Self-regulation: the ability to accomplish activities with minimal or no external support
Internalization: Internalization is a negotiated process that reorganizes the relationship of the individual to her or his social environment and generally carries it into future performance (Winegar, 1997, p.31) (p.203)
the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers” (Vygotsky, 1978, p.86) (p.206)
Preview: Chapter 4 (Miyung)
Chapter 4: The Linguistic Environment
Nick provided an overview of the chapter 4. I will illustrate some topics and issues that I would like to share for class discussions.
1) The Role of the Linguistic Environment
Would having positive attitudes toward the L2 and ideal environmental conditions itself lead to mastery of L2?
The story of Wes (Schmidt, 1983) offers a clear example of the selective impact that the linguistic environment brings to L2 learning. Interestingly, despite his positive attitudes towards the L2 and abundant (& meaningful) opportunities to interact with native speakers, Wes made minimal progress in L2 grammar (e.g., verb tense, plurals) over the 3 years of his stay in Hawaii, whereas his sociolinguistic and strategic competence dramatically improved. Wes was able to describe and joke in rather sophisticated ways with interlocutors. However, he seemed to neither incorporate more precise expressions offered by interlocutors into his utterances nor ask his interlocutors metalinguistic questions about idiomatic appropriateness. Based on his study on Wes, Schmidt (1983) concluded that grammar cannot be successfully acquired unless the learner pays careful attention to the language code (see noticing & attention hypothesis).
Given this finding, do you believe that focus on form is necessary for L2 grammar acquisition? If so, how can attentional focus on form be achieved? Is explicit instruction the only solution? How can learners, like Wes, self enhance their capacity to attend to the formal details in the linguistic input they receive from the L2 environment?
2) Relationship between the Context, L1 speakers, and L2 learners
Should learners be immersed in a L2-speaking country in order to learn their L2 more effectively?
In my knowledge, an increasing number of Korean parents send their children to an English-speaking country to help their children learn English more effectively. They seem to believe that living and being immersed in the L2 speaking community will naturally and certainly provide meaningful input as well as plentiful opportunities to use the language with native speakers. A neglected consideration here is that just physically being closer to the L2 target society and its members doesn't necessarily mean that the learners are given with the full potential linguistic benefits. As Lindemann (2002) points out, some native speakers, (probably people with no experience living in another culture and language), may hold negative attitudes towards interacting with nonnative speakers, and these reluctant attitudes may influence the processes and outcomes of interactions. In addition, L2 learners with introvert personality may not be comfortable with taking risks and approaching L2 speakers out there to initiate conversations with them.
I believe interaction is a personal experience, and each person may undergo whole different experiences, although they may be in the same L2 learning context with the same conversation partners. What language learning come out of such interaction can vary from person to person, from context to context, and from moment to moment. Successful interpersonal communication involves a lot more than just using the same language; it takes interlocutors' sense of self and others as well as willingness to build a mutual understanding of one another.
I'm wondering how L2 learning environment was like when you just moved to a foreign country. Were you able to be part of the L2 society and build relationships with its members? What was your imagined L2 community before going there and how was it different from your initial impression? Did you feel secure to experiment with your L2 with the members of L2 community?
3) Learner Autonomy and Environment
Cognitive-interactionists' work on the linguistic environment offers important implications for language teachers.
First of all, I believe that there is a major role for the teacher to play, in terms of helping learners to take full advantages of the rich linguistic environment that surrounds them. Especially, in ESL context where learners have more exposure to the target language and speakers, why wouldn't the teacher teach learners HOW they can work on their English outside the classroom ON THEIR OWN (instead of emphasizing the forms and idioms isolated from the context)?
Of course, teachers are responsible for preparing for their lessons and go over their teaching materials, however, the teacher and textbooks are just one of the sources of the language learning. Classroom instruction should not be the end of language learning for students. Students should be encouraged to take what they have learned in class to outside the classroom and make the content more useful and meaningful to their goals and personal lives.
If the environmental components truly contribute to L2 learning (acculturated attitudes, comprehensible input, negotiated interaction, etc), shouldn't we also think about how to help learners to connect to the community and maximize their opportunities to speak the language and listen to others? One task I can think of right now might be having learners to conduct research about their own L2 community and its culture independently and develop their own opinions. They can do this by interviewing with community members, reading/analyzing community newspapers, and visiting different places and stores, along with taking field notes. Each person or a group of pair can work on this task, organize their findings, and report back to the class.
To me, an important part of language teaching is to equip students with the tools and strategies necessary to learn on their own, so that later on, students do not have to rely much on the instruction or the teacher. What are your thoughts on this?
Nick provided an overview of the chapter 4. I will illustrate some topics and issues that I would like to share for class discussions.
1) The Role of the Linguistic Environment
Would having positive attitudes toward the L2 and ideal environmental conditions itself lead to mastery of L2?
The story of Wes (Schmidt, 1983) offers a clear example of the selective impact that the linguistic environment brings to L2 learning. Interestingly, despite his positive attitudes towards the L2 and abundant (& meaningful) opportunities to interact with native speakers, Wes made minimal progress in L2 grammar (e.g., verb tense, plurals) over the 3 years of his stay in Hawaii, whereas his sociolinguistic and strategic competence dramatically improved. Wes was able to describe and joke in rather sophisticated ways with interlocutors. However, he seemed to neither incorporate more precise expressions offered by interlocutors into his utterances nor ask his interlocutors metalinguistic questions about idiomatic appropriateness. Based on his study on Wes, Schmidt (1983) concluded that grammar cannot be successfully acquired unless the learner pays careful attention to the language code (see noticing & attention hypothesis).
Given this finding, do you believe that focus on form is necessary for L2 grammar acquisition? If so, how can attentional focus on form be achieved? Is explicit instruction the only solution? How can learners, like Wes, self enhance their capacity to attend to the formal details in the linguistic input they receive from the L2 environment?
2) Relationship between the Context, L1 speakers, and L2 learners
Should learners be immersed in a L2-speaking country in order to learn their L2 more effectively?
In my knowledge, an increasing number of Korean parents send their children to an English-speaking country to help their children learn English more effectively. They seem to believe that living and being immersed in the L2 speaking community will naturally and certainly provide meaningful input as well as plentiful opportunities to use the language with native speakers. A neglected consideration here is that just physically being closer to the L2 target society and its members doesn't necessarily mean that the learners are given with the full potential linguistic benefits. As Lindemann (2002) points out, some native speakers, (probably people with no experience living in another culture and language), may hold negative attitudes towards interacting with nonnative speakers, and these reluctant attitudes may influence the processes and outcomes of interactions. In addition, L2 learners with introvert personality may not be comfortable with taking risks and approaching L2 speakers out there to initiate conversations with them.
I believe interaction is a personal experience, and each person may undergo whole different experiences, although they may be in the same L2 learning context with the same conversation partners. What language learning come out of such interaction can vary from person to person, from context to context, and from moment to moment. Successful interpersonal communication involves a lot more than just using the same language; it takes interlocutors' sense of self and others as well as willingness to build a mutual understanding of one another.
I'm wondering how L2 learning environment was like when you just moved to a foreign country. Were you able to be part of the L2 society and build relationships with its members? What was your imagined L2 community before going there and how was it different from your initial impression? Did you feel secure to experiment with your L2 with the members of L2 community?
3) Learner Autonomy and Environment
Cognitive-interactionists' work on the linguistic environment offers important implications for language teachers.
First of all, I believe that there is a major role for the teacher to play, in terms of helping learners to take full advantages of the rich linguistic environment that surrounds them. Especially, in ESL context where learners have more exposure to the target language and speakers, why wouldn't the teacher teach learners HOW they can work on their English outside the classroom ON THEIR OWN (instead of emphasizing the forms and idioms isolated from the context)?
Of course, teachers are responsible for preparing for their lessons and go over their teaching materials, however, the teacher and textbooks are just one of the sources of the language learning. Classroom instruction should not be the end of language learning for students. Students should be encouraged to take what they have learned in class to outside the classroom and make the content more useful and meaningful to their goals and personal lives.
If the environmental components truly contribute to L2 learning (acculturated attitudes, comprehensible input, negotiated interaction, etc), shouldn't we also think about how to help learners to connect to the community and maximize their opportunities to speak the language and listen to others? One task I can think of right now might be having learners to conduct research about their own L2 community and its culture independently and develop their own opinions. They can do this by interviewing with community members, reading/analyzing community newspapers, and visiting different places and stores, along with taking field notes. Each person or a group of pair can work on this task, organize their findings, and report back to the class.
To me, an important part of language teaching is to equip students with the tools and strategies necessary to learn on their own, so that later on, students do not have to rely much on the instruction or the teacher. What are your thoughts on this?
Preview for Chapter Four
Chapter Four
The Linguistic Environment
Taking the perspective of cognitive-interactionist SLA research, this chapter explores the influence of the linguistic environment on the learning of a L2.
In the 1980’s, cognitive-interactionist SLA researchers who investigated the linguistic environment focused on some key elements contributing to optimal L2 learning and their research outcomes:
The outcome of their research pointed out that these elements idealistically provide the learner for an optimal L2 learning experience when combined all together. There are no definite answers (or “magic bullet”) to the learning of a L2, though these elements provide teachers and learners with comprehensible and well supported evidences of their own benefits.
The last sections of this chapter provide the readers with further information about the limits of the linguistic environment as well as other subtle observations that have their importance in understanding the key elements in the chapter.
Some Keywords for Chapter Four
Cognitive-interactionist perspective on L2 learning: “multiple internal (cognitive) and external (environmental) factors reciprocally interact and together affect the observed processes and outcomes of [...] additional language learning.” - p1
Attitude : manner, disposition, feeling, position, etc., with regard to a person or thing; tendency or orientation, esp. of the mind (John Schumman)
Input: Linguistic data produced by other competent users of the L2 - p5 (Comprehensible Input Hypothesis, Krashen)
Interaction: “the best kind of comprehensible input learners can hope to obtain is input that has been interactionally modified, in other words, adjusted after receiving some signal that the interlocutor needs some help in order to fully understand the message.” - p6 (Interaction Hypothesis,Michael Long )
Output: [when] learners engage by necessity not only in comprehending and negotiating messages but also in making meaning and producing messages [in interaction] - p 7 (Swain)
Attention: “in order to learn any aspects of the L2 [...] learners need to notice the relevant material in the linguistic data afforded by the environment.” - p 8 (Noticing Hypothesis- Dick Schmidt)
Output modification: “how learners respond to negotiation for meaning moves” - P12 (Teresa Pica & Kim McDonough)
Language-Related Episode/Initiated Focus on Form/Learner-Initiated Focus on Form: “negotiation of form episodes that are learner-initiated, and which they noted are particularly fostered during collaborative writing activities.” - p15 (Sharon Lapkin, Rod Ellis, Jessica Williams)
Negative feedback: “when the interlocutor has the actual intention to provide such negative information [information about the ungrammaticality of their [learners] utterances] - p15
Clarification request: “offered when intelligibility is low and meaning itself needs to be negotiated” - p 16
Explicit correction: “overtly focus on the form at fault and occur when a teacher clearly indicates to a student that some choice is non-target-like” - p16
Recast: “occur when an interlocutor repeats the learner’s utterance maintaining its meaning but offering a more conventional or mature rendition of the form” - p16
Elicitation: “occur when the teacher initiates another repetition but pauses in the middle of the utterance at fault to let the student complete it correctly” - p17
That's all folks!
The Linguistic Environment
Taking the perspective of cognitive-interactionist SLA research, this chapter explores the influence of the linguistic environment on the learning of a L2.
In the 1980’s, cognitive-interactionist SLA researchers who investigated the linguistic environment focused on some key elements contributing to optimal L2 learning and their research outcomes:
The outcome of their research pointed out that these elements idealistically provide the learner for an optimal L2 learning experience when combined all together. There are no definite answers (or “magic bullet”) to the learning of a L2, though these elements provide teachers and learners with comprehensible and well supported evidences of their own benefits.
The last sections of this chapter provide the readers with further information about the limits of the linguistic environment as well as other subtle observations that have their importance in understanding the key elements in the chapter.
Some Keywords for Chapter Four
Cognitive-interactionist perspective on L2 learning: “multiple internal (cognitive) and external (environmental) factors reciprocally interact and together affect the observed processes and outcomes of [...] additional language learning.” - p1
Attitude : manner, disposition, feeling, position, etc., with regard to a person or thing; tendency or orientation, esp. of the mind (John Schumman)
Input: Linguistic data produced by other competent users of the L2 - p5 (Comprehensible Input Hypothesis, Krashen)
Interaction: “the best kind of comprehensible input learners can hope to obtain is input that has been interactionally modified, in other words, adjusted after receiving some signal that the interlocutor needs some help in order to fully understand the message.” - p6 (Interaction Hypothesis,Michael Long )
Output: [when] learners engage by necessity not only in comprehending and negotiating messages but also in making meaning and producing messages [in interaction] - p 7 (Swain)
Attention: “in order to learn any aspects of the L2 [...] learners need to notice the relevant material in the linguistic data afforded by the environment.” - p 8 (Noticing Hypothesis- Dick Schmidt)
Output modification: “how learners respond to negotiation for meaning moves” - P12 (Teresa Pica & Kim McDonough)
Language-Related Episode/Initiated Focus on Form/Learner-Initiated Focus on Form: “negotiation of form episodes that are learner-initiated, and which they noted are particularly fostered during collaborative writing activities.” - p15 (Sharon Lapkin, Rod Ellis, Jessica Williams)
Negative feedback: “when the interlocutor has the actual intention to provide such negative information [information about the ungrammaticality of their [learners] utterances] - p15
Clarification request: “offered when intelligibility is low and meaning itself needs to be negotiated” - p 16
Explicit correction: “overtly focus on the form at fault and occur when a teacher clearly indicates to a student that some choice is non-target-like” - p16
Recast: “occur when an interlocutor repeats the learner’s utterance maintaining its meaning but offering a more conventional or mature rendition of the form” - p16
Elicitation: “occur when the teacher initiates another repetition but pauses in the middle of the utterance at fault to let the student complete it correctly” - p17
That's all folks!
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