1,721,019 research outputs found
"Grammar instruction and input processing: The acquisition of Spanish ""ser"" and ""estar"""
No full textThis study examined the effects of two types of instruction on the acquisition of the Spanish copulas ser and estar by adult English-speaking learners of Spanish in a classroom setting. It compared traditional production-oriented instruction, processing instruction (VanPatten and Cadierno, 1993), and no-instruction. The traditional instruction was characterized by explanation of grammar rules followed by written and oral practice. The processing instruction involved grammar explanation and comprehension practice using structured input that induces learners to alter existing processing strategies so as to make correct meaning-and-form connections.Previous studies on the acquisition of clitic direct object pronouns (VanPatten and Cadierno, 1993, VanPatten and Sanz, 1995) and past tense verb morphology (Cadierno, 1992) suggested that students' strategies for processing input can be changed through processing instruction that subsequently enhances the acquisition of the target grammar features. However, it was not clear whether explicit instruction in the Spanish ser and estar, which do not have an obvious one-to-one form-and-meaning connection, would have as great an impact on students' developing system. It was not known whether processing instruction of a form with less communicative value, such as the Spanish ser and estar, would raise the learners' consciousness and alter their processing strategies.The results demonstrated that students receiving processing instruction outperformed those receiving no instruction not only in comprehension tasks but also in production tasks, whereas those receiving traditional instruction performed better than those receiving no-instruction only in production tasks. This study, therefore, supports previous research showing that processing instruction can help learners both engage in a more efficient process while mapping form and meaning and restructure their developing system of the target forms. Moreover, the results illustrate that mental representation can be accessed during output production. The results of the study may help point the way toward a pedagogical approach suited to best encourage linguistic competence in the classroom.Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T14:17:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Previous issue date: 1995Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding ([email protected]) on 2011-05-07T15:05:05Z
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Explicit instruction in grammar: A comparison of input-based and output-based instruction in second language acquisition
No full textU of I Only"This study investigates the relative effects of two types of instruction on the acquisition of clitic direct object pronouns and past tense verb morphology by adult classroom learners of Spanish. Two types of instruction were compared: one was traditional instruction, consisting of grammar explanation and oral practice which was output based and was directed at altering the ways in which the L2 learners produce the second language; the other, called processing instruction, was input based and was directed at altering the ways in which the L2 learners process L2 input. Processing instruction aimed at altering two well documented strategies used by language learners when processing input. One consists of the so-called ""S-V-O = agent-action-object strategy"", according to which learners in the early and intermediate stages of language acquisition tend to interpret NVN sequences as agent-action-object or SVO sequences when processing input. The other strategy consists of the precedence given by second language learners to lexical items --temporal adverbs--over morphological markers when interpreting tense."A total of 161 subjects participated in the both the investigation on direct object pronouns and past tense verb morphology. All subjects consisted of second year learners of Spanish at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Subjects did not participate in both studies. For each investigation, subjects were assigned to one of three instructional treatments: traditional instruction, processing instruction and no instruction, this last one being the control group. A pretest/post-test procedure (with immediate as well as delayed post-tests) was used as the means of assessing the impact of instruction. All tests consisted of both interpretation/comprehension tasks and written production tasks.The results of both investigations indicated that processing instruction seems to have a greater effect on the developing system of language learners of Spanish than traditional instruction. Processing instruction appears to have altered the way in which the subjects processed input which in turn had an effect on what they could access for production. Traditional instruction, on the other hand, had an impact on what the subjects could access for production but had little impact on how the subjects processed input."The results obtained from the present investigation have both theoretical and pedagogical implications. On the theoretical side, the present study not only makes a contribution to on-going discussion about the role of formal instruction on SLA, but it also provides support for the important role that input processing plays in SLA. On the pedagogical side, the results of the present study suggests that instead of discussing whether formal instruction ""per se"" makes a difference in SLA, it would be more appropriate to consider what type of formal instruction would be most effective in SLA."Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T12:35:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Previous issue date: 1992Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding ([email protected]) on 2011-05-07T14:42:59Z
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The use of address pronouns in Bogota: A comparative study of two stages of acquisition by nonnative speakers
No full textThis study examined the use of address pronouns in Spanish as perceived by U.S. nonnative speakers before and after residence in a Spanish speaking community. The data used for the analysis were collected with a questionnaire from 56 subjects divided into three groups as follows: 23 Spanish learners in Illinois (NNI), 23 Spanish learners who have lived in Bogota for a period of no less than four months (NNB), and 10 college students from Bogota (NB). The variables included in this research were the between subjects-variable group membership and the within subjects variables age, status, acquaintanceship, closeness and family.The most significant finding of the study is that second language learners (later-stage learners) who have been exposed to the native Spanish-speaking community show a pattern of address analogous to that of the native speakers, and significantly different from that of the foreign language learners (early-stage learners) who have been exposed only to the formal environment. The semantic representation relevant to the native culture, however, has not yet been fully acquired, particularly with respect to the social factors which underlie nonreciprocal use.Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T14:01:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Previous issue date: 1992Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding ([email protected]) on 2011-05-07T15:02:01Z
Item is restricted indefinitely.Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:29:28-05:00
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Sentence processing in Spanish as a second language: A study of context, background knowledge and word order
No full textSentence processing research has demonstrated a strong tendency for second language learners to assign the role of subject or agent to the first noun of an utterance even though grammatical morphemes and function words indicate that the second noun is the subject (Bates and MacWhinney, 1984: Gass, 1989: Glisan, 1985: Heilenman & McDonald, 1992). English speakers learning Spanish mistake preverbal object pronouns for subjects (Lee, 1987; VanPatten, 1984). Although a first-noun strategy is highly reliable in English, it is less reliable in languages such as Spanish where Object-Verb-Subject (OVS) constructions occur more frequently. Sentence processing research has found that lexical semantics, a type of word-level prior knowledge, can override the tendency of second language learners to assign. The present study investigates whether context and background knowledge, like lexical semantics, can override this first-noun strategy when cues are in conflict. For example, when the first noun of an utterance is inanimate and the second noun is animate, Italian speakers tend to prefer a lexical semantic (animacy) strategy over a word-order (first noun) strategy (Bates and MacWhinney, 1984). These speakers tend to identify the animate second noun as the subject or agent.In the present study, fourth-semester university students of Spanish were asked to listen to simple declarative sentences and complete a sentence interpretation task. Target sentences were object-verb-subject (OVS) constructions in which word order was in conflict either with context or with background knowledge. The results of the present study support that background knowledge can override the tendency of second language learners to assign subject status to the first noun of an utterance. Context, as operationalized in the present study, did not appear to have an effect.The present study provides direction for future research on the role of prior knowledge in the acquisition of second language surface features. Acquisition of forms depends not merely on comprehension, but also on form/meaning connections (Terrell, 1986). If prior knowledge serves to make input comprehensible, it should also serve to make input available for acquisition.Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T12:57:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Previous issue date: 1996Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding ([email protected]) on 2011-05-07T14:48:19Z
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Task, mode and the effects of input-based explicit instruction
No full text"Ten years have gone by since Long published his article entitled ""Does instruction make a difference?"" (1983). Since then, a number of studies have been published that provide evidence in favor of the positive effects of instruction and the limitations of those effects on different aspects of SLA. Experimental research has mainly concentrated on what to teach. However, psycholinguistic-based studies such as VanPatten (1991) and VanPatten and Cadierno (1993) represent an attempt to answer the question on how instruction can make a difference in L2 knowledge. The experimental study presented here seeks to investigate where the difference is made, more specifically, what kind of knowledge is gained and how this knowledge can be put to use."In this experiment, 44 native speakers of English learning Spanish in a formal context where tested with the help of multiple assessment tasks. The tasks differ in the amount of production they required, and consist of a sentence completion, a structured interview and a video retelling. All tasks were performed in the written and the oral modes. The type of instruction investigated, Processing Instruction (VanPatten 1991) had as its goal the manipulation of a well known strategy (first-noun strategy) used by learners when processing input. The data were scored for use of pre-verbal object pronouns in Spanish and were submitted to different 2-way ANOVAs with repeated measures on the following variables: instructional effects (pre-test vs. post-test), mode (written vs. oral), and elicitation task (sentence completion vs. question-answer vs. video clip narration).The results show a positive effect for instruction across all three task types and differential effects according to the elicitation technique and the mode of production, which are explained based on the differences in processing demands made on the subject; i.e., production of long chunks of speech requires automatic access to knowledge, while completing a sentence in the written mode can be done using controlled access to knowledge.The outcome of this study has implications for SLA theory, research methodology and teaching pedagogy, which are all discussed in the last chapter.Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T14:08:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Previous issue date: 1994Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding ([email protected]) on 2011-05-07T15:03:19Z
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The ability of second language learners to assign tense at the sentence level: A crosslinguistic study
No full textThe study investigated which cues in the input are used by classroom second language learners in order to assign tense at the sentence level: lexical items (temporal adverbials), gestures (indicating temporal references), and/or verb morphology. Data are reported for 169 learners of Italian, French, and Spanish at the first and third semester levels of L2 study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.The subjects were required, upon watching videotaped native-speaker presentations of statements in each of the languages, to indicate whether the action of each statement was past, present or future. Statements were presented: (1) with a lexical item (a temporal adverbial expression) and a gesture (indicating temporal reference) given in addition to the verb morphology; (2) with the lexical item given in addition to the verb morphology; (3) with the gesture given in addition to the verb morphology; and (4) with the verb morphology only to mark the tense. Statistical analysis revealed significant main effects for Language, Semester Level of Study, Tense, and Feature Condition.Post hoc analyses of the data revealed that early-stage learners use lexical items in order to assign tense, but only until verb morphology becomes a reliable processing cue. Gestures did not have a significant effect. Third semester learners' performance was not affected by any of the variables. Evidence was found for a developmental shift from a lexically-driven processing system (early-stage) to a more morphologically-driven system (later-stage). Examination of the relationship between learners' ability to assign tense on an aural/visual task and their ability to recognize verb morphology on a paper and pencil task showed that scores on the latter were poor indicators of learners' performance on the aural/visual task. In addition, it is suggested that there exists a hierarchical second language processing mechanism in early-stage second language acquisition.Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T13:37:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Previous issue date: 1989Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding ([email protected]) on 2011-05-07T14:57:07Z
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The native and nonnative foreign language teacher: Attitudes toward Spanish language varieties
No full textLinguistic diversity in the societal domain is a natural phenomenon at any level of interaction, in any linguistic encounter, yet in the educational setting linguistic diversity is frequently noticed and--rightly or wrongly--tends to be given a high degree of attention, both positively and negatively.Since linguistic diversity in schools (mainly at the classroom level) presents a great opportunity for clashes among varieties, this study explored and analyzed the degree to which foreign language teachers accept phonetic and lexical variables that comprise Latin American and Peninsular Spanish (represented by speakers of Puerto Rico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Spain and Venezuela).The data for the study was obtained from fifty six university level teaching assistants, twenty six native and thirty nonnative speakers of Spanish to whom three questionnaires on attitudes toward lexical items, phonetics with isolated words and phonetics with connected speech were administered. For the statistical analysis -test were performed in the questionnaires.The main goal of the study was to determine whether native and nonnative speakers differ in their attitudes toward language variation. Specifically, this study compared natives' and nonnatives' attitudes toward phonetic and lexical variation in the classroom setting.Findings of the study showed that foreign language teachers in this sample do not exhibit attitudinal differences based on nativeness when the three questionnaires are analyzed as a whole, nor do they on the lexical questionnaires, or on the phonetic questionnaires as a unit. However, there is a tendency toward a difference in specific items of each questionnaire.Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T11:53:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Previous issue date: 1990Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding ([email protected]) on 2011-05-07T14:33:50Z
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Communicative value and linguistic knowledge in second language oral input processing
No full textThis study investigated the roles of communicative value and linguistic knowledge in second language input processing. It was hypothesized that focus of attention on an element of low communicative value would negatively affect input processing for meaning while focus of attention on an element of high communicative value would not. It was further hypothesized that linguistic knowledge of an element of low communicative value would not relate to the processing of overall meaning or to the processing of that specific element at the discourse level or the sentence level. Finally, it was hypothesized that there would be a positive correlation between processing an element of low communicative value at the discourse level and at the sentence level.One hundred seventy-eight subjects completed a multiple choice grammar task to evaluate Linguistic Knowledge of estar, an on-line translation task to measure sentence level processing of estar, and a recall task to measure overall input processing and processing of estar at the discourse level. Subjects completed the recall task under one of three conditions: (1) listening for content only; (2) listening for content while simultaneously noting every occurrence of an element of low communicative value (the verb estar); (3) listening for content while simultaneously noting every occurrence of an element of high communicative value (the noun examenes).Statistical analyses revealed significant main effects for Communicative Value and Linguistic Knowledge in overall discourse level processing. A significant main effect for Linguistic Knowledge was obtained for the recall of estar propositions in the discourse level task. A significant main effect was obtained for Linguistic Knowledge in the sentence level task. A significant correlation was found between the processing of estar at the discourse level and the sentence level.The results revealed that subjects were affected by focus of attention in support of the communicative value hypothesis. Evidence was not found to support the hypotheses that linguistic knowledge would not relate to input processing. It is suggested that learners who demonstrate linguistic knowledge of an element of low communicative value may have greater L2 knowledge in general than those who do not demonstrate such knowledge.Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T13:08:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Previous issue date: 1991Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding ([email protected]) on 2011-05-07T14:50:48Z
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Markedness and instructed SLA: An experiment in teaching the Spanish subjunctive
No full textThe present study has investigated the role of typological markedness on instructed second language acquisition (SLA). In particular, the study has examined whether instruction in a marked Spanish subjunctive use had an effect on the acquisition of this marked element and triggered the acquisition of unmarked subjunctive uses. For the purpose of the study, the instructional method used was processing instruction.A typological hierarchy of subjunctive uses was investigated based on the typological and acquisitional literature. This study was focused on six subjunctive categories: VOL, PUR POSS, TEMP, EVAL CONC (volition, purpuse, temportal-anticipation, possibility, evaluation and concession). Based on previous research, it was hypothesized that processing instruction limited to a marked present subjunctive use--evaluation use--had a positive impact on learners' acquisition of this marked element and the effect of learning was generalized to the unmarked subjunctive uses--volition and purpose categories.Subjects (68) were divided into two groups: (l) the marked subjunctive treatment group, who was taught in a marked use of present subjunctive and (2) the control group, who did not receive any explicit instruction on the target subjunctive uses. The effect of instruction was measured on a battery of pre- and post-tests, in which subjects completed two types of written tasks: one Grammaticality Judgment task to measure learners' gain on their knowledge of subjunctive and one Dialogue Completion task to measure learners' gain on the production of subjunctive. The scoring of tests were submitted for statistical analysis.The results of the statistical analyses for the Grammaticality Judgment test and the Dialogue Completion test did not show a significantly important difference between the experimental and the control groups. However, the present study found limited support for the hypothesis by looking at some descriptive statistical measures. The results thus of the analyses on the level of difficulty of the different subjunctive items have pointed towards supporting the hypothesis, although the instructional effect was small.Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T11:57:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Previous issue date: 1996Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding ([email protected]) on 2011-05-07T14:34:49Z
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On listening comprehension: Linguistic strategies used by second language learners in non-collaborative discourse
No full textTwo objectives guide this dissertation: (1) determining which task reveals more comprehension by L2 listeners when they listen to a passage in non-collaborative discourse; (2) identifying the introspective strategies used to comprehend the aural passage.Both comprehension and strategies are analyzed in a study based on a psycho-cognitive framework in which comprehension of spoken language is assumed to be a process of decoding and encoding language. Comprehended language is held either in the long-term memory (LTM), or short-term memory (STM). Furthermore, it is assumed that listeners make use of strategies to understand language.Data were collected during a post-listening task, an on-line task and a retrospective interview. The two first tasks were designed to measure comprehension, and the last was an introspective task designed to probe the subjects' points of view on the listening comprehension process. Fifty-nine students of Portuguese at the University of Illinois participated in the post-listening task. Based on their recall protocols, twelve subjects were selected as High, Middle and Low-group subjects, of which there are four in each group. The scoring procedures of the recall protocols are based on Meyer (1979). The verbal reports collected during the retrospective interview were analyzed according to Oxford (1990).The results show that all subjects recalled more idea units during the on-line task than in the post-listening task when language is assumed to be in STM. However, the conclusion is that comprehension was best revealed during the post-listening task. This is so because comprehension is considered to be the manner in which one hears, then organizes the language into verbal units and applies meaning to language, not only the number of recalls, as shown in the on-line task. The subjects' introspections on the comprehension process revealed that the High-group subjects were more aware of their strategies. The results also show that the High-group subjects demonstrated more comprehension, despite having studied Portuguese for less time. Due to the fact that they were older than the others, it is suggested that maturational factors might possibly have affected the High-group subjects' performance.Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T13:20:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Previous issue date: 1995Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding ([email protected]) on 2011-05-07T14:53:32Z
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