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Investigating Instructed Second Language Acquisition
... Following Ellis [7]; Housen and Pierrard [8] and Nassaji [9] S. Loewen speaks about instructed second language acquisition (ISLA) as a subfield discipline of second language acquisition (SLA) which he defines as a theoretically and empirically based field of academic inquiry that aims to understand how the systematic manipulation of the mechanism of learning and/or the conditions under which they occur enable or facilitate the development and acquisition of an additional language [10]. This is based on the earlier work where he and M. Sato referencing explicit and implicit knowledge as well as differences in learners' objectives, instruction goals and targets of manipulation, highlighted that over the last several decades it became clear that meaning-focused instruction alone would not bring about the level of accuracy in a second language that the learner might desire. ...
The article is concerned with certain aspects of second language acquisition which define a number of contradictions that language teaching faces today. The article provides theoretical observation of the key findings in the field of second language acquisition, foreign language teaching and task-based learning followed by a detailed description of the results of the research conducted by the author. Based on the data and aspects discussed, the author suggests task input strategies which can serve as an effective alternative to form-based instruction.
... No entanto, a L1 pode servir como uma entrada compreensível em momentos em que há incerteza na percepção ou na interpretaçãode vocabulário (Kraschen, 1982). Uma vez que o papel da consciência e atenção no processo de aprendizagem de línguas ressalta o ato de perceber conscientemente novas informações a partir de entrada linguística, a L1 poderia servir como um foco de atenção para um nível mais profundo de processamento mental, visto que poderia promover a percepção de características relevantes da linguagem, como a semantização do vocabulário, por exemplo(Housen; Pierrard, 2005, p. 6-7). Por outro lado, o mesmo estudo também sugere o uso de meios não verbais para tornar a entrada compreensível, usando recursos visuais e gestos para reduzir a quantidade de tradução de L2 em L1 (Ibid., p. 163).Em suma, o uso máximo da língua-alvo em salas de aula de L2, parece ser relevante, pois, de acordo com o presente estudo, causa a impressão de favorecer seu desenvolvimento. ...
In recent decades, bilingual schools have been widely established in Brazil. Within this plurilingual educational universe, a frequent issue of this focus converges to the appropriate use of the first lan�guage (L1) in learning the target language. The current research reflects on the L1–L2 relationship in classrooms for learning German as a Foreign Language and, for this purpose, a two-year study in elementary school was conducted in a bilingual school in Brazil. The qualiquantitative empirical stu�dy, sought to examine the school performance of L2 learning from two groups — the experimental group with the limitation of the use of L1 and the control group with opportune use of L1. The research generated guiding principles with the aim of helping language teachers to make decisions about their language use choices in the immersion classroom, since, on the one hand, the limitation of L1 use provides better readiness on the part of learners to communicate in the target language, on the other hand, it can limit participation in second language learning classrooms.
... No Excerto 2, vemos a questão do tempo influenciando a atividade do professor Eduardo: MARCONI, 2007). 6 A abordagem explícita, no contexto de ensino-aprendizagem de línguas, busca evidenciar um aspecto da língua com o objetivo de o aluno aprendê-lo conscientemente, sendo caracterizado pela intervenção do professor que apresenta as formas linguísticas, propõe a sua prática e exige a atenção direta dos alunos sobre elas (HOUSEN; PIERRARD, 2005) Participante: "Sim. É, é... Essa minha ação de, às vezes, pra gente não levar muito tempo, tipo, 'ah, cinco minutos para vocês'. ...
A entrada do jovem professor na carreira profissional é permeada de inseguranças e angústias. Entender esse processo é essencial para munir o iniciante com ferramentas que o façam atravessar mais suavemente esta etapa. Assim, o objetivo geral do presente trabalho é analisar a atividade docente de dois professores iniciantes de Francês, no intuito de desvelar e compreender as situações que impactam sua atividade. Nossos questionamentos são: 1) Quais as dificuldades observadas pelos professores iniciantes no momento de sua atividade didática?; e 2) Que estratégias e recursos estes professores utilizam para lidar com as dificuldades que se apresentam e para constituir sua atividade docente? Na nossa análise, escolhemos o quadro metodológico da autoconfrontação (CLOT; FAÏTA, 2000), oriundo da Clínica da Atividade, na qual nos fundamentamos, e também na Ergonomia da Atividade (AMIGUES, 2003). Os resultados mostram que vários elementos impactam a atividade do professor iniciante, dentre os quais destacamos: os imprevistos na sala de aula, a gestão do tempo e a pouca prática pedagógica dos docentes. A autoconfrontação, ao evidenciar tais elementos, permite que o docente, exposto à imagem de seu próprio trabalho e em diálogo com o pesquisador, consiga analisá-los e dar-lhes novos sentidos, fomentando o processo de reflexão sobre a própria atividade docente.
... The field pertains to all learners of an additional language, be it their first L2 or another learnt contemporaneously or subsequently, at any post-L1 acquisition level and in all learning contexts. Therefore, it is not restricted to an instructed learning environment, although instructed second language acquisition (ISLA) constitutes a significant sub-domain, giving rise to a range of areas of investigation (for a presentation, see [3,8,9]). Learning context has traditionally been considered in terms of a dichotomy between instructed learning in the foreign language classroom and naturalistic learning in the target language community. However, the alternation and complementarity between contexts are evident, such as in the case of naturalistic learners availing of language classes and instructed learners spending periods of time in the target language community during study abroad [10]. ...
This Special Issue brings together the fields of second language acquisition (SLA) and language education in an attempt to offer a venue for exploring mutual insights into classroom language learning [...]
... Explicit instruction can also foster L2 acquisition (Doughty, 2005;Ellis, 2005;Robinson, 1996). In many explicit instruction paradigms, learners are presented with a specific target form in isolation and then practice this form in a controlled manner (Housen & Pierrard, 2006). For example, during a specific task, students can follow the explicit instruction of searching for rules, such as the construction of word plurals. ...
This study examines the effect of gestures on second language (L2) pitch measures and fluency in storytelling tasks. It is well documented that L2 learners commonly use gestures in conversations and storytelling. Research has shown that gestures benefit L2 word learning and recall, but it is still unclear to what extent gestures affect speech fluency and pitch range. We compared a series of speech fluency and pitch measures across two storytelling tasks: task repetition and explicit instruction on the use of gestures. By analysing the use of gestures in these tasks, we provide insights on how gestures can help L2 fluency and intonation.
... 3-4) noticing hypothesis which emphasises the value of noticing and awareness in learning; the hypothesis stipulates that "the concept of attention is necessary in order to understand virtually every aspect of SLA [second language acquisition]" and that "SLA is largely driven by what learners pay attention to and notice in target language input and what they understand the significance of noticed input to be. " Housen and Pierrard (2005) argue that attention controls and leads to awareness. For example, Kennedy et al. (2014) tested the role of learner awareness in the achievement of L2 learners in pronunciation, found that there is a strong link between learner awareness L2 pronunciation accuracy and fluency, and concluded that "awareness can be viewed as a learner's orientation toward language and language learning" and that "language awareness may be akin to many individual difference factors" (p. ...
This study investigates the efficacy of the type of instruction (i.e., perception-based vs. production-based) on second language (L2) pronunciation acquisition in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context. To achieve this objective, 60 tertiary-level Jordanian learners of English were recruited and put into two groups (30 learners in each group). Group A received 6 weeks of perception-based instruction on both segmental and suprasegmental aspects of English pronunciation, and Group B received production-based instruction over the same period and on the same aspects of pronunciation. Progress in L2 pronunciation was assessed at three time points (i.e., week 1, week 6, and week 14). Pre-, post- and delayed post-tests were run to achieve the study’s objective. A statistical analysis was conducted to analyse the data. The results show that both groups demonstrated a significant improvement in L2 pronunciation accuracy; in particular, Group A which received perception-based instruction demonstrated higher gains in segmental, syllabic, and prosodic aspects while Group B which received production-based instruction demonstrated more improvement in both global (i.e., comprehensibility) and temporal (i.e., fluency) aspects of pronunciation. However, both groups demonstrated similar gains on the delayed post-test. The findings provide implications for L2 pronunciation learners and teachers on the impact of the type of instruction on the addressed aspects of pronunciation.
... For example, individuals with amnesia show intact implicit learning abilities (Foerde, Race, et al., 2013). Explicit learning, on the other hand, occurs when the content is presented as smaller units of information, often in isolation, with specific and verbalizable rules Dienes & Perner, 1999;Housen & Pierrard, 2005). This information is well suited for memorization and practice but is subject to the limited cognitive resources of attention and working memory, known to be impaired in children with DLD (e.g., Ebert & Kohnert, 2011;Gray et al., 2019;Vugs et al., 2013). ...
Purpose
The growing interest in framing intervention approaches as either implicit or explicit calls for a discussion of what makes intervention approaches engage each of these learning systems, with the goal of achieving a shared framework. This tutorial presents evidence for the interaction between implicit and explicit learning systems, and it highlights the intervention characteristics that promote implicit or explicit learning as well as outcome measures that tap into implicit or explicit knowledge. This framework is then applied to eight common intervention approaches and notable combinations of approaches to unpack their differential engagement of implicit and explicit learning.
Conclusions
Many intervention characteristics (e.g., instructions, elicitation techniques, feedback) can be manipulated to move an intervention along the implicit–explicit continuum. Given the bias for using explicit learning strategies that develops throughout childhood and into adulthood, clinicians should be aware that most interventions (even those that promote implicit learning) will engage the explicit learning system. However, increased awareness of the implicit and explicit learning systems and their cognitive demands will allow clinicians to choose the most appropriate intervention for the target behavior.
... Regardless of the controversies that pervade on defining and measuring these categories, what aggravates the issue of knowledge in the English language schools has ties with its presentation. The way teachers disseminate their knowledge of teaching practice has to reflect the recent research findings that prioritize direct interventions in delivery of implicit and explicit instruction (Housen and Pierrard, 2006). Thus, the effective dissemination of knowledge by teachers, one that is expected to pave the way for its assimilation by other colleagues to their current explicit and implicit repertoires, may presuppose certain levels of self-efficacy and creativity on the part of teachers. ...
... Regardless of the controversies that pervade on defining and measuring these categories, what aggravates the issue of knowledge in the English language schools has ties with its presentation. The way teachers disseminate their knowledge of teaching practice has to reflect the recent research findings that prioritize direct interventions in delivery of implicit and explicit instruction (Housen and Pierrard, 2006). Thus, the effective dissemination of knowledge by teachers, one that is expected to pave the way for its assimilation by other colleagues to their current explicit and implicit repertoires, may presuppose certain levels of self-efficacy and creativity on the part of teachers. ...
Purpose – As demonstrated in the literature, teachers ’ knowledge sharing, self-efficacy and creativity display certain levels of cause-and-effect and correlational connections from different perspectives. Nonetheless, few studies, if any, have been reported on the interplay of these three concepts in the context of the language classroom. As such, this study aims to test a structural model of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers ’ knowledge sharing, self-efficacy and creativity and specifically to examine the hypothesis that creativity mediates the relationship between EFL teachers ’ knowledge sharing and self-efficacy.
Design/methodology/approach – The participants were 384 EFL teachers from different language institutes across Iran. The EFL teachers were selected based on random stratifi ed sampling method. To verify the research hypotheses, a quantitative correlational design was used in the present study. The quantitative data was collected using three questionnaires, and then descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Therefore, we used the EFL teachers ’ creativity questionnaire developed by Khany and Boghayeri (2014), knowledge sharing behavior scale by Ramayah et al. (2014) and teachers ’ self-efficacy questionnaire by Tschannen-Moran and Hoy (2001). To analyze the data, Pearson correlation and multiple regression were run.
Findings – The findings revealed the hypothesized model of relationships among the study variables. The results also con firmed the mediator role of creativity. The implications of the findings in relation to creativity, knowledge sharing and self-efficacy are discussed.
Originality/value – The bulk of research on teacher self-ef fi cacy has concentrated fairly adequately on its relationship with factors such as teachers ’ re fl ective practice, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, personality and student achievement. What seems to be rather missing in this line of research has to do with the exploration of the possible links among knowledge sharing, self-efficacy and creativity as interacting variables, especially in the context of Iran where teachers ’ knowledge sharing is lower than expected. More importantly, no previous investigation has tapped into the mediating effect of creativity on the connection between English teachers ’ knowledge sharing and self-efficacy.
... In other words, EI was found to be more eff ective to develop both receptive and productive knowledge than II. Unlike the previous research supporting that explicit instruction is effective to develop discrete and focused linguistic tasks (receptive knowledge) and implicit instruction is eff ective to develop productive knowledge required for fl uent and spontaneous use of contextualized language (Doughty, 2003;Housen & Pierrard, 2006;Norris & Ortega, 2000;Spada & Tomita, 2010), this result provides ample evidence that explicit instruction is benefi cial to enhance both receptive knowledge under controlled conditions and productive knowledge under free use of target forms. Along with the results of E. Y. Kang et al. (2019) and J. Kim (2020), the results of no moderating eff ects on educational context and duration of instruction were also found in this meta-analysis. ...
... The most common learning situation these days for L2 learners in Western countries is probably instructed learning(Housen & Pierrard, 2005).Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved. ...
L1 and L2 writers attend to different aspects of the formulation subprocess of writing. L2 writers devote more time and attention to low-level aspects such as grammar correction and spelling (Barbier 1998; Fagan and Hayden 1988; Whalen and Ménard 1995), leading to better spelling performances than L1 writers (Gunnarsson-Largy 2013). In deep-orthography languages such as French or English, L1 writers retrieve a phonological form of the word and then tend to automatically transcribe the most frequent corresponding orthographic form, whereas L2 writers seem to directly retrieve the exact orthographic form. For L2 writers, the visuo-orthographic form of the word therefore seems to prevail over the phonological one. Accordingly, we hypothesized that L1 and L2 writers rely differently on working memory (WM). To test this hypothesis, we designed an experiment where two groups (Levels B1 and C1) of instructed L2 French learners and an L1 French control group wrote dictated sentences, with compulsory negation marking in an ambiguous phonological context. While writing, they performed a concurrent task that induced a cognitive load on either phonological or visual WM, in order to identify the nature of the form maintained in WM during semantic checking. Results indicated that L2 French learners gradually move from a visual to a more phonological form of retrieval.
... Recent definitions (e.g. Loewen, 2015, see also Housen & Pierrard, 2005;Nassaji, 2016a) have focused more on research that underscores an important role of a better understanding of the cognitive processes employed by second/foreign (L2) learners while interacting with L2 data. Loewen (2015) provides a synthesis of previous definitions of ISLA as: a theoretically and empirically based field of academic inquiry that aims to understand how the systematic manipulation of the mechanisms of learning and/or the conditions under which they occur enable or facilitate the development and acquisition of a language other than one's own. ...
Instructed second language acquisition (ISLA) research has recently attracted more focal attention due to the publications of three books and as the theme of the 2016 Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) conference that celebrated its 35th anniversary in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). Recent definitions (e.g. Loewen, 2015) have underscored the context (instructed vs. naturalistic setting), the ‘mechanisms of learning’ (cognitive processes), and the potential manipulation of these processes or the conditions under which such processes take place by instructional intervention. This article goes a step further to consider the curricular aspect of the ISLA context that exists within the language curriculum, the type of learning that does take place in an instructed environment and should be promoted in the instructed setting, and the pedagogical implications for the instructed L2 environment, given its curricular status (Leow & Cerezo, 2016). To this end, this article (1) provides a critical discussion of the context of ISLA, (2) presents a succinct overview of cognitive processes reported to play a role in the L2 learning process, (3) reports the findings of empirical research on implicit/incidental and explicit/intentional learning, and (4) reports on one recent study that purports to acknowledge these variables. Recommendations for future ISLA research are provided.
... The teacher proposed them as side exercises to break up strongly theoretical lessons, and although the repetition of similar tasks could result in a conscious approach to the tasks as being, for instance, all related to the performance of complaints, it would be difficult to reach a real understanding of how to produce a native--like speech act in this way. Following Takahashi (2010, p. 138), who states that explicit and implicit forms of intervention (with reference to the definition by Housen & Pierrard, 2005) may be better conceptualized on a continuum rather than as separate, binary concepts, it would be interesting to explore whether a more explicit teaching intervention on the sociopragmatic variables, especially in terms of the social distance and the identity of the interlocutor (as suggested by Gauci, 2015, p. 123), may be useful, after implicit training with the mentioned audiovisual materials. In conclusion, the analysis offered by this paper may have useful pedagogical implications, as DCTs provide a lot of information on the forms that need to be used as a target of specific training. ...
This paper reports on an ongoing study of Dutch native speakers learning Italian as a foreign language in a guided learning context. The study compares native and non-native realization patterns of complaints, both in terms of the type of expression of judgment and the request for reparation performed (following the classifications suggested by Nuzzo, 2007), and of the use of modifiers. Special attention is given to the potential effects of learners’ language proficiency levels on the native- likeness of their realization patterns and of the quantity and variety of modifiers they used. Methods consisted of a sociolinguistic questionnaire, a written discourse completion test, and a conditional inference trees analysis of the production of 23 learners attending a B1 level course, 19 learners attending a B2 level course, and 23 native Italian speakers.
Properly designed translation practice serves as an effective foreign language (FL) teaching method to improve students’ four language skills (Duff, 1994). This study investigates whether translation tasks could facilitate FL Chinese grammar acquisition and teachers’ grammar teaching. Furthermore, it examines which pedagogical method (i.e., explicit or implicit) supports teaching with translation tasks in class. The study employed a quasi-experimental research design involving 90 undergraduate students in an FL Chinese language course with the objective of learning ten specific linguistic structures. Participants were assigned to one of three classes: Class A was taught using proactive explicit grammar with translation tasks focusing on forms and structures; Class B was taught using proactive implicit grammar teaching with inductive grammatical learning from translation tasks; and Class C was taught using reactive explicit instruction without translation tasks. All participants wrote a pre- and post-test to measure the learning effect between groups. Results show that (1) Class A and B showed higher post-test results, suggesting that translation tasks are effective for Chinese grammar teaching; and (2) the explicit approach used in Class A is relatively better for FL grammar teaching. The study suggests a way to maximize the effects of translation activities in class.
Grammar instruction is a crucial topic of debate in foreign language development. This study aimed at investigating the impact of focus on form (FonF) and focus on forms (FonFs) instruction on grammar acquisition of the subjunctive by Iranian advanced EFL learners. To this end, 40 Iranian advanced EFL learners were selected within the age range of 16-20 from a language school in Karaj, Iran. Initially, the Preliminary English Test was run to ensure that the students were homogenous with respect to their language proficiency. Before any treatment, a pretest was administered to determine the participants' knowledge of the subjunctive. Afterwards, the researchers taught the subjunctive to one group through FonF instruction and the second group received FonFs instruction. After five weeks of instruction, the researchers administered a posttest to investigate the effectiveness of FonF and FonFs instruction. Then, paired samples statistics, the independent samples t-test, and Mann Whitney U test were run to test the null hypotheses. The findings revealed that although FonF and FonFs instruction have significant positive impacts on grammar acquisition of the subjunctive by Iranian advanced EFL learners, the students who were taught through FonFs
Lexical retrieval is an essential language skill. It is influenced by the competition between the languages a person knows, even if they are not involved in the current task (e.g., De Bot, K. 1992; Sullivan, Poarch, & Bialystok, 2018), the language properties, as well as various factors of the lexemes (frequency, age of acquisition; e.g., Hanulová, Davidson & Indefrey, 2011) and participants explored in our study.
Word frequency effect, reflecting relative accessibility of high-frequency words in the mental lexicon, was largely attested in monolinguals (e.g., Oldfield & Wingfield, 1965; Dell, 1990; Jescheniak & Levelt, 1994; Almeida et al., 2007) and shown to be more salient for bilinguals (e.g., Gollan et al., 2008).
In our picture naming experiment we extended the employability of this hypothesis to French L2\L3 learners performance: higher word frequency entailed higher accuracy and shorter naming latency.
Today, it is an undeniable fact that each EFL teacher has their own unique ways of
teaching the foreign language. In these varying ways of teaching, there are numerous factors directly affecting the language acquisition. One of these factors is grammar teaching. The importance of grammar teaching when teaching English differs for every teacher. EFL teachers’ beliefs about the importance of grammar teaching have been investigated multiple times in the past and countless significant findings have been presented by these studies. However, only a few studies took the teaching experience factor into consideration, thus there is not ample amount of research that compares experienced and inexperienced teachers. regarding their beliefs about the importance of grammar teaching. This study aims to fill this particular gap in the literature by comparing experienced and inexperienced secondary school Turkish EFL teachers’ views on the significance of grammar teaching when teaching English. The data of the study were collected from 155 in-service EFL teachers, currently working at state and private secondary schools, located in a large city in Turkey. In addition, open-ended questions and semi structured interviews were also administered to a certain number of participants. The findings of the study reveal that Turkish secondary school EFL teachers view grammar teaching important, and that this view is not affected by the teaching experience. Moreover, the study also points out that teachers tend to use explicit grammar teaching ways slightly more, and this also does not differ for experienced or inexperienced teachers. Despite a number of limitations, this study proves its significance in terms of allowing experienced and inexperienced EFL teachers to be aware of their beliefs about grammar teaching when teaching English
Nas últimas décadas, escolas bilíngues foram amplamente criadas no Brasil. Dentro desse universo educacional plurilíngue, a abordagem imersiva de uma segunda língua (L2) ganha espaço, e uma questão contumaz desse enfoque converge para o uso apropriado da primeira língua (L1) no aprendizado da língua-alvo. O atual trabalho traz uma reflexão sobre a relação L1–L2 em salas de aula de aprendizado de alemão como língua estrangeira, e, para esse fim, foi conduzido um estudo de dois anos no ensino fundamental de uma escola bilíngue no Brasil. O estudo empírico, predominantemente qualitativo, procurou examinar o rendimento escolar de aprendizado da L2 de dois grupos — o grupo do experimento, com a limitação do uso da L1, e o grupo de controle, com uso oportunizado da L1. Os resultados geraram princípios orientadores, com o objetivo de ajudar docentes de L2 a tomar decisões sobre suas escolhas de uso do idioma na sala de aula de imersão, pois, se de um lado a limitação do uso da L1 proporciona uma melhor prontidão, por parte das/dos aprendizes, para comunicação na língua-alvo, por outro, ela pode ser limitadora de participação em contextos de aprendizado de uma segunda língua.
This study contributes to the explicit implicit debate by investigating to which extent adult learners of Hungarian develop knowledge of new grammar rules, and the proficiency to use them, through listening activities complemented with explicit grammar instruction or not.
In a quasi-experimental study, we compared the acquisition of three specific rules of Hungarian grammar by 80 Flemish adult students in two conditions. Both methods involved listening activities, but in one condition explicit rule explanation and practice was given and in the other one, meaningful activities were created without grammar explanation. The findings indicate that for teaching simple rules, compared to more complex grammar features, listening activities and exposure to comprehensible input have a significantly positive effect on grammar acquisition at the basic level. The explicit condition did not have an added beneficial effect. Exposure to L2 is the main driver of language development.
Since English didactics has a relatively short history in Norway, exploring its nature, scope, academic identity, definition, status, and raison d'être is an ineluctable necessity. This article sets out to answer a simple yet fundamental question about English didactics: Is English didactics a propaedeutic discipline or a parasitic discipline? We argue that English didactics is warranted to address three interrelated issues if it purports to establish itself as a propaedeutic discipline. First, English didactics needs to demarcate and delimit its disciplinary boundaries with other adjacent disciplines which feed into it. Second, delineating the ontological axioms and epistemological underpinnings as well as the methodological apparatus which distinguish English didactics from other closely related disciplines is warranted. Third, through invoking intellectual capital and scientific findings of other disciplines, English didactics must aim to generate its own novel theoretical and practical knowledge. This article calls for more attention to expounding and theorizing English didactics than currently conceptualized.
The present study investigated the potential of writing in English as a foreign language (EFL) for language learning by manipulating cognitive task complexity based on related models and hypotheses. English essays written by 59 Chinese postgraduate EFL students from different subject areas were analysed with reference to writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). Results showed that task complexity had no significant effect on EFL learners’ lexical complexity but had an influence on their syntactic variation in EFL writing. Findings suggest that manipulating writing task complexity could be a feasible means to promoting and enhancing EFL learners’ language learning. Such findings might broaden our understanding of the relationship between EFL writing and language learning in an EFL learning context. The interplay of EFL writing and EFL learning is also pedagogically relevant to those who are interested in appropriately sequencing tasks for more effective language teaching.
Now that the value of grammar instruction has been corroborated in a number of studies, there is a need to determine the ways in which it should most beneficially be conducted. In order to do this, however, it is necessary to undertake empirical investigations which would address such issues as the choice of linguistic features to be taught, the effectiveness of specific techniques and procedures, the timing, duration and intensity of instruction, as well as its place in the overall curriculum. Since such research needs to be context-specific to provide a basis for practicable pedagogic proposals, the present paper outlines the main research directions and discusses key methodological issues in the area of form-focused instruction with a view to encouraging Polish applied linguists to pursue this line of inquiry.
This study investigates the roles of instruction explicitness and learning styles on the relative effectiveness of multimedia glossing with texts and cognitive linguistics-based image schemas presented in two modalities, i.e., static and animated, on Taiwanese college EFL students learning three polysemous prepositions: above, on, and over. Based on a pre-post-test design, the experiments consist of a free writing test and a gap-fill test, respectively used to gauge the active and passive aspects of learners’ receptive lexical gain. Three groups of intermediate learners were recruited, receiving the same text annotations but different treatments configured in presentation modes and explicitness: SI group with text-static imagery annotations under implicit instruction, AI group with text-animation annotations under implicit instruction, and AE group with text-animation annotations under explicit instruction. The results suggest the following: (1) animations, compared with static imagery, seem able to better enrich the meaningfulness of image schemas and elicit larger and more durable learning effects, especially on the more active aspects of the receptive gain; (2) explicit verbal cues enhanced the learning effects on the active aspects of the receptive gains; (3) visualizers benefit more from animations than verbalizers in both active and passive aspects of the receptive gains, especially if verbal cues are provided. Pedagogical suggestions include the utilization of image schema visual aids in a dynamic presentation mode accompanied by sufficient explicit instruction to optimize the effects of learning polysemous words.
The relative order of constituents within determiner phrases (DP) in which the noun is modified by an adjective (AN) has traditionally been taught in English as an L2 subject in the Spanish context. This is not the case for the same type of phrase in which the N-head is modified by another N (NN). This study aims to assess the impact of direct instruction in English NNs as part of the school curriculum. Acceptability judgement data and production have been elicited from two groups of L1 Spanish-L2 English children living in Spain, one receiving explicit NN instruction and the other following the regular only-AN instruction. Results show an advancement of the instruction group not only in NNs but also in ANs. This has a double implication: that NNs and ANs might share a common morphosyntactic underlying structure and that explicit teaching of grammatical properties that are shared by different structures might result in better attainment.
This article offers a methodological synthesis spanning 35 years of instructed second language acquisition research on the efficacy of form-focused instruction. Eighty-eight (quasi-) experimental studies were sampled from six academic journals: Applied Linguistics, Language Learning, Language Teaching Research, Modern Language Journal, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, and TESOL Quarterly. The focus of analysis was on five sets of variables: (1) research design, (2) participants, (3) context in which the studies were conducted, (4) instructional treatment, and (5) outcome measures. Results revealed that since Norris and Ortega’s (2000) seminal study, the research domain has grown, not only with respect to the number of studies published, but also with regard to the addition of previously unexamined L1 groups, increase in the number of studies investigating implicit instruction, greater use of multiple measures of learning, and more pretesting and delayed posttesting. However, a number of methodological weaknesses have also persisted.
摘要
完成体和经历体 “过” 是汉语语法里用来表示事件内部时间结构的重要工具，两者在语法结构和功能上有许多差异。然而当前的主流教材在初级和中级课本的编写上，多半只着重教授经历体 “过” 的用法，忽视完成体 “过” 的介绍，造成课堂语法教学无法反映语言现实的情况。本文针对两种 “过” 的教学进行了一系列研究，首先讨论两种 “过” 的区别，再综述教学语法的基本原则以及体貌标记的习得研究，然后具体分析三套在美国广受欢迎的汉语教材在教学次序、语法解释及练习活动上对两种 “过” 的处理，最后以样例示范形式提出针对 “过” 的对教材编写及教学活动的建议。
Foreign language education has now been implemented at the elementary school level across Europe, and early foreign language education has gained traction following language policies set by the European Commission. The long-term effects of an early start, however, have not received ample scientific scrutiny. The present study assessed early receptive skills of two cohorts of English language learners in Year 5 (beginning of secondary education in Germany) and two years later in Year 7. The factors distinguishing between these two cohorts were onset of foreign language education and the amount of language exposure. The effects of the earlier start were found in the results for Year 5, when the early cohort outperformed peers with less and later exposure to English. However, in Year 7, the late starters surpassed their early starting peers.
This paper reports the results of a study on the effects of explicit instruction, which examined the L2 development of the German case system. The study investigated to what extent the effects of instruction, if any, depend on (i) the type of linguistic performance (knowledge vs. use) and (ii) the developmental readiness of the learners. The pretest-posttest study involved 18 first-year university students of German (L1 Dutch), who were administered a grammatical judgment task (which examined their knowledge of the case rule) and an oral production task (which examined their case use). The findings uncover differences between pretest and posttests, which shows that explicit instruction improves linguistic performance in general. Further analysis reveals that the effect does not depend on ‘type of performance’, but that it does depend on ‘developmental readiness’.
This study examined the effect of explicit and implicit instruction on second language learners’ implicit knowledge of English past simple tense. Fifty-nine intermediate Persian learners of English took part in this study receiving either explicit or implicit instruction about the grammatical feature at classroom setting. Their ability to use the structure was measured at three times through a timed grammaticality judgment task and an elicited oral imitation task. Data was analyzed using ANOVA. Results showed explicit and implicit instruction promoted the use of the target structures in both timed grammaticality judgment task and elicited oral imitation task equally effectively. Findings of this study do not support superiority of explicit instruction over implicit instruction in promoting second language implicit knowledge.
The role of grammar teaching in foreign language education is a controversial one both in second language acquisition (SLA) research and language pedagogy and, as a result, a potential source of confusion to student teachers. The objective of this study was to gain insight into the beliefs on grammar teaching of student teachers of English as a foreign language enrolled in undergraduate and postgraduate teacher education programmes at Dutch universities of applied sciences. To this end a questionnaire was developed and validated based on four construct pairs from SLA literature: meaning- versus form-focused instruction, focus on form (FonF) versus focus on forms (FonFs), implicit versus explicit instruction, and inductive versus deductive instruction. Overall, respondents (n = 832) were found to prefer form-focused, explicit, inductive instruction, and FonFs. However, higher-year undergraduates’ and postgraduates’ results showed a trend towards a preference for more meaning-focused and implicit instruction, and FonF. When learner level was factored in, however, these forms of language instruction were considered subordinate to more traditional form-focused approaches for teaching higher-level language learners.
Do adults learn the same syntactic second language (L2) form explicitly and implicitly simultaneously during meaning-based
exposure, and does the type of learning (explicit and/or implicit) affect subsequent performance. In this study, 81 anglophones
completed comprehension tasks providing incidental exposure to a semi-artificial language (English lexis, German syntax).
A surprise grammaticality-judgement test (GJT) measured performance with the novel syntax. Source attributions and verbal
reports provided information on type of learning (implicit and/or explicit), which were analysed in an exploratory fashion
to classify within-participant implicit and explicit learning. Sixty-three participants demonstrated both types of learning,
which suggests that extant binary classifications of type of learning may be inadequate. Furthermore, there were no significant
performance differences on the GJT based on type of learning despite poor performance overall. The interpretation of the findings
considers within-participant explicit and implicit learning measures and research issues when comparing the effectiveness
of initial explicit learning and implicit learning on immediate performance.
Kinder und Jugendliche aus Zuwandererfamilien sind im deutschen Bildungssystem
deutlich weniger erfolgreich als Kinder und Jugendliche ohne Migrationshintergrund.
Die bestehenden Disparitäten lassen sich zu einem großen Teil auf die unzureichende
Beherrschung der Instruktionssprache zurückführen, was als Indikator für einen Mangel an
Lerngelegenheiten zum Kompetenzerwerb in der Zweitsprache interpretiert werden kann. Dieser
Beitrag geht der Frage nach, wie es gelingen kann, die sprachbezogenen Disparitäten vor
der Einschulung und im weiteren Verlauf der schulischen Bildung zu reduzieren. Der Beitrag
verfolgt dabei das Ziel, die aktuelle Forschungslage zu Effekten der Quantität und der Qualität
des institutionellen Zugangs zur Zweitsprache darzustellen und Hinweise auf Möglichkeiten der
Weiterentwicklung pädagogischer Förderpraxis abzuleiten sowie weiteren Forschungsbedarf aufzuzeigen.
Es werden aktuelle Befunde zum Einfluss frühkindlicher Betreuung allgemein sowie
zu Effekten von qualitativen Merkmalen der frühkindlichen Betreuung und Sprachförderung auf
die Sprachentwicklung der Kinder berichtet. Für den schulischen Bereich werden Befunde zu den
Wirkungen von Ganztagsschulen auf den Zweitspracherwerb sowie aktuelle Ansätze der Sprachförderung
und Erkenntnisse über ihre Effekte dargestellt.
While there is growing evidence that pronunciation teaching can work, there is a need to establish what it is that makes it work. The study reported here tested for the effect of two particular factors: socially constructed metalanguage (SCM) and critical listening (CL). SCM is a term proposed for metalanguage developed by students working together with the teacher using already understood first language (L1) concepts to help in the formation of target language phonological concepts. CL is based on listening and contrasting to learn phonological categories and their boundaries. The study involved four groups of six high-intermediate level adult students. Each group received 45–50 minutes of instruction on pronouncing syllable codas. The instruction was carefully scripted for each group to create four conditions; SCM+/CL+, SCM+/CL−, SCM−/CL+, and SCM−/CL−. The results showed significant immediate effects for SCM on speech production and for CL on speech perception. The SCM+/CL+ lesson was replicated for four members of the SCM−/CL− group, who then made similar gains to those achieved by the first group to receive SCM+/CL+ instruction. These results add to the theoretical debate on what makes pronunciation instruction effective and have practical implications for the classroom.
A classroom study was designed to test the hypothesis that explicit knowledge is used by second-language (L2) learners in a free written response task if that knowledge is present. Eighty-one 12–18-year-old learners of Dutch as an L2 took part in a computer-assisted language learning experiment receiving either explicit or implicit instruction about two grammar structures. The ability to use these structures was measured at three points in time by means of an untimed grammaticality judgment task and a free written response task. Explicit and implicit instruction promoted the use of the target structures in free response tasks equally effectively. However, for one structure, both facilitative and inhibitory effects of explicit instruction were observed if first language similarity was taken into consideration.
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