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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'First and Second Language Acquisition'
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Lawrence, Tracee Ann Lang Adler Susan A. "First language literacy and second language reading." Diss., UMK access, 2005.
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Thesis (Ed.D.)--School of Education. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2005."A dissertation in curriculum and instructional leadership." Advisor: Susan Adler. Typescript. Vita. Title from "catalog record" of the print edition Description based on contents viewed June 23, 2006. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 121-125 ). Online version of the print edition.
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Aitken, Meghan Elizabeth. "A Study of First Language Background and Second Language Order of Acquisition." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2011. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2674.
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One major topic that often appears in textbooks on second language acquisition (SLA) is that of order of acquisition of morphemes. Much research has been done on the issue in the past, and a particular acquisition order has been accepted by many in the field of SLA for second language learners of English. This order of morphemes is deemed invariant and not affected by the native language of the learner. This thesis examines this claim, using an elicited imitation test to target nine English morphemes. The results show that a learner's native language does indeed have an effect on the order of acquisition of morphemes; however, only a few limited claims can be made regarding this order (for example, Japanese and Korean seem to acquire the auxiliary morpheme earlier than in other languages). Previous research is examined in light of the differences between this and other studies, with a specific focus on methodological issues which could have a significant impact on both results and interpretation of results in studies related to order of acquisition of morphemes.
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Li, Mingyue. "An investigation into the differential effects of subtitles (first language, second language, and bilingual) on second language vocabulary acquisition." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/22013.
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Video recordings can be subtitled in three ways: with first language (L1) subtitles, with second language (L2) subtitles, or with first language plus second language (bilingual or L1+L2) subtitles. The first two types of subtitles are widely discussed in previous research with regard to how they affect language learning. However, the effects of bilingual subtitles have not been widely studied. This study aims to examine the pedagogical effects of bilingual subtitles on vocabulary acquisition in the L2 classroom. A seven-week quasi-experimental study was conducted with four English-major classes in year-3 in a Chinese university: three experimental groups and one control group. Students in the three experimental classes were exposed to three documentary films on very similar topics with the three different types of subtitles in turn. They then took a vocabulary test relating to the lexical items encountered in the films. At the end of the experiment, they were given a questionnaire to explore their opinions towards differential subtitles in relation to their language learning. The results demonstrated a significant advantage of bilingual subtitling in videos for students’ receptive vocabulary knowledge and recall at post-test and this advantage was maintained at delayed post-test. The bilingual subtitles probably are more effective than monolingual subtitles with regard to students’ vocabulary acquisition in short-term and long-term. Also, bilingual subtitles were preferred by a majority of students in respect of video understanding and vocabulary learning. L2 subtitles were favoured by more students for improving their listening comprehension. Pedagogical implications for the use of differential subtitles in the L2 classroom are discussed.
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Berlin, Andreas, and Kajsa Hammarström. "First Language Use in Second and Foreign Language Teaching." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för kultur och kommunikation, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-125620.
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The Swedish curriculum for the subject English in upper secondary school clearly states the English should be used“as far as possible” in the classroom. However, the possible amount of first language usage is never mentioned. Thisfact piqued our interest for investigating how much, if any, first language use is beneficial for learning a newlanguage. For this reason, we decided to pose our research questions as follows: What are the different views on theusage of the L1 in an L2 and foreign-language classroom according to the teachers and learners? What has been saidabout only target language usage from a historical and a contemporary perspective? Does the use of the L1 in asecond-language/foreign-language classroom have a positive or negative effect on the learners’ language learning?To answer these questions, we have read and analysed sixteen empirical studies. Firstly, the research shows that bothlearners and teachers prefer to use the second language/target language as much as possible. However, they alsorecognise the benefits that the first language can have. The second question we have answered using both empiricalstudies as well as theorists from second language acquisition research and sociocultural theory. Our literaturedescribes a shift in language learning and teaching, from the bilingual grammar-translation method towards a moremonolingual classroom where the first language has no place. However, the empirical studies signal a new shift insecond-language/foreign-language education, reverting back to a more bilingual approach. Finally, all studies agreethat the first language has a complementary role in the language classroom, and if used properly, it can have apositive effect on language acquisition. Through our results we argue that the first language can increase the learners’motivation, move the tasks along and create a non-threatening environment where learners can feel safe to use thetarget language. Although the first language can benefit second language learning, learners and teachers must beaware of the danger of extensive usage, as it should remain a supplement to the target language.
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Lu, Yuan. "The acquisition of Chinese connectives by second language learners." Diss., University of Iowa, 2017. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/5560.
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This study investigates the acquisition of Chinese connectives by second language learners under the theoretical framework of usage-based theory. Language is not a random set of words and phrases, but rather a coherent and cohesive set of utterances. As such, learning a second language (L2) entails, among other processes, learners’ development of employing cohesive devices to construct a coherent discourse in their target language. One type of cohesive devices frequently used by L2 learners is connectives. In Chinese, connectives are utilized to denote various semantic relationships between the clauses in a compound sentence. Due to their flexibility and complexity in nature, Chinese connectives present a huge challenge to L2 learners’ learning. However, to date no study has been set up to explore the learners’ development of Chinese connectives within L2 Chinese research community.
This study aims to fill this gap in the literature and build an L2 acquisitional model of Chinese connectives under the theoretical framework of Constructionist Usage-based Theory. Constructionist Usage-based Theory maintains that the basic unit of language is constructions and that the syntactic and lexical form of constructions and its corresponding semantic and discourse functions are conventionalized in language usage. According to these notions, language learning is believed to be driven by the factors grounded in the form and function of constructions in language usage. This study specifically examines how the factors of frequency, form, function, contingency (interaction of form and function), and L1-tuned attention affect L2 Chinese learners’ development of Chinese connectives. Furthermore, the study investigates the learners’ knowledge about the distribution of Chinese connectives across different proficiency levels.
Specifically, this study aims to address four research questions: (1) what is the relationship between L2 learners’ proficiency level and language background and the acquisition of Chinese connectives?; (2) do L2 learners overuse or underuse Chinese connectives in constructing responses when the other in a pair is given and what errors do L2 learners make when using Chinese connectives?; (3) how can 12 target pairs of Chinese connectives be categorized into (hierarchical) groups based on L2 Chinese learners’ performance?; and (4) how do theoretically-motivated models represent the factorial structure underlying L2 acquisition of Chinese connectives?
To address the four research questions, this study elicited L2 Chinese learners’ performance in two tests: a mini-discourse completion test and a form-function association test. In the mini-discourse completion test, learners were required to supply a missing clause to complete a three-clause discourse in which one of paired connectives was embedded; in the form-function association test, learners were asked to choose options of paired connectives to link two given clauses where connectives were omitted.
Results showed that the development of all Chinese paired connectives was positively correlated to L2 learners’ L2 proficiency level. Learners with heritage language background seemed to have an advantage over less frequent and less prototypical connectives. Predominantly, L2 learners underused Chinese connectives, resulting from the cross-linguistic influence of disparity between English and Chinese connectives at the structural level in particular and between English and Chinese textual cohesion at the discourse level in general. Based on L2 learners’ performances in the two tests, the 12 pairs of Chinese connectives were classifier into four hierarchical groups. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the usage-based factors (i.e., frequency, co-occurrence strength, formulaicity, prototypicality, contingency, and L1-tuned attention) jointly determined the L2 acquisition and development of Chinese connectives in a complex, adaptive, dynamic manner. Summarizing these findings, this study proposed a usage-based acquisitional model of L2 Chinese connectives, providing theoretical contributions to the usage-based theory and pedagogical implications for Chinese connectives.
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Muramatsu, Chie. "Portraits of second language learners: agency, identities, and second language learning." Diss., University of Iowa, 2013. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/4885.
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This study is a qualitative examination of second language (L2) learning processes by four advanced learners of Japanese in the community of a summer intensive full-immersion program in the United States. Using L2 socialization theory as a theoretical framework, this study conceives of L2 learning as a process of social participation in a community of practice and examines L2 learning processes by four learners, focusing on the dynamic interplay between the affordances of the social community and the agency of the individual learners. The purpose of this study is twofold: (a) It investigates the ways in which the four learners exercise their agency to pursue their goals of learning Japanese and (b) it documents how the different ways in which the four learners exercise agency form different trajectories of learning and create different experiences of L2 socialization.
This study has adopted an ethnographic case study approach to the investigation of research inquiries. Through the analyses of data obtained from multiple sources, including interviews with the four learners, observations of their engagement in the community of practice of the summer intensive full-immersion program, their audio-recorded conversations with other members of the community, and various artifacts, this study explores the role of L2 learner agency in the process of L2 socialization and describes in depth their experiences of learning Japanese from their emic perspectives.
The case studies of the four learners have highlighted the different ways in which they engaged in the community of practice, understood their tasks of learning Japanese, interpreted the affordances of the social community, negotiated the meaning of their participations, defined and redefined their sense of self, and eventually achieved their L2 learning goals.
The findings suggest that the richness and effectiveness of a social environment are not characterized by the physical and academic affordances of a social community alone; rather they are constructed in a dynamic relation between the affordance structure of a social community and the L2 learners' agency in the pursuit of the joint enterprise of making L2 learning happen.
With regard to the role of L2 learner agency, the study has foregrounded the important role of the aspirations of the four L2 learners for personal transformation and negotiation of the meaning of self of the past, the present, and the future. The findings suggest that L2 learners' diverse and complex social and personal desires for learning an L2 may not be able to be explained using the notion of investment (Norton, 1995, 2000) alone.
Since the SLA debate initiated by Firth and Wagner (1997, 2007), SLA research has begun to reconceptualize L2 learners as socially situated beings with diverse needs, wants, and identities. This study presents four portraits of L2 learners who engaged in the enterprise of learning Japanese, as a means of contributing to this reconceptualization, and explores for these four learners what it meant to learn Japanese in the summer of 2010.
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Lepine, Christine. "Adolescent learners' awareness of first language influence on their second language knowledge." Thesis, McGill University, 2001. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=33912.
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This research is a replication and expansion of Lightbown and Spada (2000) which investigated the metalinguistic awareness of 11--12 year-old francophone learners of English as second language (ESL). Their research examined whether young L2 learners were able to make explicit L1 rules influencing their L2 performance. The present research builds on Lightbown and Spada (2000) by comparing their findings to those of older and more proficient francophone ESL learners (12--16 years old) in secondary school. As observed with the younger learners in Lightbown and Spada (2000), the interlanguage of the older learners revealed a clear influence of transfer of French even though they were more accurate in their overall performance. The results also indicated that the older learners were capable of considerable metalinguistic awareness regarding the target features (question formation and adverb placement). This contrasts sharply with Lightbown and Spada's (2000) in which there was no evidence of metalinguistic awareness on the part of the younger learners.
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Cho, Ji-Hyeon Jacee. "Remapping nominal features in the second language." Diss., University of Iowa, 2012. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/3278.
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This dissertation investigates second language (L2) development in the domains of morphosyntax and semantics. Specifically, it examines the acquisition of definiteness and specificity in Russian within the Feature Re-assembly framework (Lardiere, 2009), according to which the hardest L2 learning task is not to reset parameters but to reconfigure, or remap features from the way they are assembled in the L1 into new formal configurations in the L2. Within the Feature Re-assembly approach, it has been argued that re-assembling features that are represented overtly in the L1 and mapping them onto those that are encoded covertly by context in the L2 will present a greater difficulty than re-assembling features in the opposite direction (Slabakova, 2009). This dissertation examines the acquisition of four linguistic properties (types of modifiers, word order, indefinite determiners and case marking) that encode definiteness and specificity overtly or covertly in L2 Russian by English and Korean speakers. The native languages of the learners were chosen specifically in order to test various overt-covert mappings.
The data obtained from two experimental tasks (grammaticality and felicity judgments) completed by 56 Russian native speaker controls, 51 English- and 53 Korean-speaking learners support Slabakova's prediction that overt-to-covert realization of the feature is more challenging than covert-to-overt realization. In addition, the findings uncovered other important factors facilitating or impeding acquisition, such as the nature of the form-to-meaning mapping (one-to-one or one-to-many) and the availability of clear, unambiguous evidence for a certain mapping in the input available to learners. Results also reveal that the presence or absence of the L1 transfer depends on the overt/covert status of the feature in the L2. That is, when the feature is marked overtly in both the L1 and L2, L1 transfer has facilitative effect on the acquisition of the feature. On the contrary, when the feature is marked covertly in both the L1 and L2, L1 transfer has no or negative effects. These findings provide new insights into the effects of the native language on L2 learnability and enable us to come to a more precise and fine-grained understanding of grammatical meaning acquisition in the second language.
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Gürel, Ayşe. "Linguistic characteristics of second language acquisition and first language attrition : Turkish overt versus null pronouns." Thesis, McGill University, 2002. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=38201.
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This thesis investigates the binding of overt and null subject pronouns in second language (L2) acquisition and first language (L1) attrition of Turkish. The aim is to provide a comparative investigation of language transfer effects in the ultimate state of the L2 and L1 grammar. More specifically, it examines transfer effects from English L1 and English L2 into the grammars of Turkish L2 and Turkish L1, respectively.In this thesis, I propose that the Subset Condition (Berwick, 1985; Manzini & Wexler, 1987) can account for transfer phenomena observed in both L2 acquisition and L1 attrition. I argue that the subset relation that holds between the L1 and the L2 can be a predictor for the extent and duration of cross-linguistic transfer in L2 acquisition and L1 attrition. In other words, whether or not a particular property will resist L2 acquisition and undergo L1 attrition can be determined by looking at the subset relationship between the L1 and the L2 with respect to that property.
The prediction is that in configurations where the 'influencing language' (L1 in L2 acquisition and L2 in L1 attrition) is the superset of the 'affected language' (L2 in L2 acquisition and L1 in L1 attrition), L1 transfer effect will persist in L2 acquisition and we will see more signs of L2 transfer into the L1 grammar, resulting in more attrition effects.
Pronominal binding is chosen to investigate such cross-linguistic transfer effects. English and Turkish differ with respect to governing domains and types of pronominals present in two languages. Turkish, being a pro-drop language, allows null subject pronouns in main and embedded clauses. It also has a special type of anaphoric pronominal, kendisi, for which English has no corresponding form.
Two experiments were conducted to test L2 acquisition and L1 attrition of binding properties of Turkish overt and null subject pronouns under the influence of English. Participants included native English-speakers living in Turkey (end-state L2 Turkish speakers) and native Turkish-speakers living in North America (end-state L2 English speakers). Overall, results obtained from the two studies reveal cross-linguistic transfer effects in the manner predicted. In particular, properties of English overt pronouns (e.g., him/her) are transferred onto the overt Turkish pronoun o in L2 acquisition and in attrition, whereas properties of the Turkish null pronoun and the anaphoric pronominal kendisi are unaffected by English.
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Yang, Shuyi. "Constructing informal diagnostic reading assessment instruments for lower-level Chinese as second language readers." Diss., University of Iowa, 2018. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/6343.
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Reading in a second language (L2) is a complex process that poses formidable obstacles for readers, especially those in the initial stages of learning. The challenge is particularly daunting for lower-level Chinese L2 readers with an alphabetic first language (L1) background. Chinese is a logographic, deep orthography with unique linguistic features that necessitate specific reading processes and skills. The development of Chinese L2 reading competence is heavily dependent upon instruction. Effective instruction requires accurate diagnoses of the learners’ reading problems and appropriate selection of instructional materials. Compared with standardized proficiency tests that provide little diagnostic information, and formal diagnostic assessments that are inconvenient to use in daily instruction for diagnostic purposes, informal diagnostic assessment tools enable language teachers to better accommodate the instructional needs of learners to identify reading weaknesses and select suitable materials. However, thus far, instruction-informative, diagnostically rich, and flexible informal diagnostic reading assessment for Chinese L2 reading is lacking.
This study aims to fill a gap in the Chinese L2 reading assessment field by exploring the applicability of three tasks as informal reading diagnostic assessment tools to measure comprehension performance, detect reading problems, and determine instructional material difficulty levels for lower-level Chinese L2 readers. These three assessment instruments are: oral word reading, word segmentation, and oral passage reading. This study is a necessary step towards constructing diagnostic Chinese reading assessment instruments that can be used by classroom teachers. It also contributes to the Chinese L2 reading field theoretically because it examines whether an L1 English reading theory can be applied to explain L2 Chinese reading. The participants in this study were 70 lower-level English-speaking learners of Chinese from several universities in the United States and China.
The results showed that all three of the informal diagnostic instruments effectively predict reading comprehension, with oral passage reading emerging as the strongest indicator. One shared construct, oral reading fluency, underlies the three diagnostic instruments. Oral reading fluency strongly predicts comprehension, suggesting that there is commonality in reading across languages, and theories designed for L1 alphabetic language reading can be well applied to Chinese L2 reading. Chinese orthographic characteristics also exert influence on reading, as manifested in the stronger role of fluency in predicting comprehension and the word segmenting processes in reading. The informal diagnostic instruments can also be used to evaluate instructional material difficulty. Two of the three textbook-equivalent texts examined in this study fit the learners’ reading level, while most learners felt one of the texts was too difficult to read. L2 readers have diverse profiles and they develop their componential skills in different ways, whereas the crucial role of word-level processing in reading remains stable across reader patterns. Generally speaking, the three diagnostic instruments were moderately difficult for the participants in this study, and the two oral reading tasks were more challenging than the word segmentation. The quantity and quality of learners’ errors when completing these three diagnostic instruments reveal rich information about their reading processes and problems. The findings offered strong support for the three instruments as effective tools for diagnostic purposes in Chinese lower-level L2 reading instruction and indicated the importance of developing reading fluency and training word-level processing skills.
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Song, Min Sun. "The first and second language acquisition of negative polarity items in English and Korean." Thesis, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0&did=765031621&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=2&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1245438531&clientId=23440.
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Yang, Li. "A web-based approach to learning expressions of gratitude in Chinese as a foreign language." Diss., University of Iowa, 2013. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2425.
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This study investigates the effects of instruction delivered via a learner-centered, self-access website on the learning of expressions of gratitude by L2 Chinese learners across proficiency levels. Three research questions are addressed: (1) whether the web-based instruction facilitates students' learning of Chinese expressions of gratitude, (2) whether the effects of instruction vary across proficiency levels, and (3) how L2 learners regard the use of the website as a learning tool.
Based on the noticing hypothesis and the pragmatic consciousness-raising approach, a pragmatics website was developed that provided explicit instruction on how to appropriately express gratitude in Chinese and offered awareness-raising exercises and activities for practice. It was structured in eight instructional units and two review sessions.
To address the three research questions, this study adopted a pretest-posttest design to include two groups of learners who differed in their proficiency in the Chinese language. The two groups of learners received pragmatics instruction delivered via the self-access website over five weeks. Two weeks prior to the instruction, all learners were asked to complete (1) the language contact profile (LCP) for eliciting their demographic information and their contact with Chinese outside the classroom, (2) a local standardized Chinese proficiency test (CPT) for assessing their proficiency in Chinese, (3) discourse completion tasks/tests (DCT) for soliciting their production of Chinese expressions of gratitude, (4) metapragmatic assessment tasks (MAT) for eliciting their metapragmatic assessment of thanking responses provided, and (5) retrospective interviews for soliciting learners' explanations of their assessments in the MAT. On a weekly basis during the treatment period, learners wrote reflective e-journals in response to prompt questions provided by the researcher, which helped track learners' self-access study progress and their on-going perceptions of the website. One week after the online instruction, all learners were also asked to complete the same types of questionnaires (i.e., the DCT and the MAT) and retrospective interviews for assessing their pragmatic development.
Results showed that after receiving the web-based instruction, all learners produced more appropriate expressions of gratitude and used more varied thanking strategies in their responses, regardless of their proficiency. Learners' assessments of Chinese expressions of gratitude became more target-like and their metapragmatic awareness was also promoted. However, higher-level learners seemed to have benefited more from the instruction in their production of Chinese expressions of gratitude than lower-level participants, and the higher-level group demonstrated an overall higher level of pragmatic awareness than the lower-level group after the online instruction. But no significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of learners' metapragmatic assessments. In addition, participants responded positively to the website and put forward constructive suggestions to improve it.
Finally, this study interpreted the findings based on cognitive processing theories, proposed both theoretical and pedagogical implications, and discussed the limitations of this study and directions for future research.
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Campos, Dintrans Gonzalo Santiago. "Acquisition of morphosyntax in the adult second language: the phonology factor." Diss., University of Iowa, 2011. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2677.
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The goal of this dissertation is to examine the ubiquitous challenge that adult second language speakers have in producing functional morphology, even at advanced stages of acquisition. Specifically, this study examines how native speakers of Spanish, Mandarin and Japanese use past tense and number morphology in English. To this aim, two current competing hypotheses are tested: the Interpretability Hypothesis, which states that certain aspects of syntactic knowledge (uninterpretable features) cannot be acquired after a critical period, resulting in target-deviant use of functional morphology, and the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis, which claims that all aspects of syntax can be acquired, but that phonological transfer effects from the first language might be at the source of target-deviant use of functional morphology. Participants were selected according to a pre-established set of criteria in order to obtain similar linguistic profiles. Native speakers of American English also participated as controls. The experiments included proficiency tests, sentence completion tests and picture description tests.
Group and individual results were analyzed in order to determine the extent to which the Interpretability Hypothesis and the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis could account for the observed patterns. The results of the experiments in this study strongly suggest that phonological factors can account for some of the observed target-deviant use of functional morphology, supporting the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis. The results also suggest that ultimate acquisition of new uninterpretable features is possible, supporting the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis and not the Interpretability Hypothesis. The study also stresses the idea that although phonological transfer effects cannot account for all the problems observed in second language functional morphology, it is vital that phonological factors be taken into account.
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Thoms, Joshua J. "Teacher-initiated talk and student oral discourse in a second language literature classroom : a sociocultural analysis." Diss., University of Iowa, 2008. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/4555.
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Hunter, Sharyn L. "Can we share this umbrella : expressivism in first language and second language classrooms /." Connect to online version at OhioLINK ETD Connect to online version at Digital.Maag, 1998. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ysu997111124.
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Izura, Cristina. "Age of acquisition effects in first and second languages." Thesis, University of York, 2003. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/9847/.
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Shimanskaya, Elena Mikhaylovna. "Feature reassembly of semantic and morphosyntactic pronominal features in L2 acquisition." Diss., University of Iowa, 2015. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/1902.
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Previous research in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has shown that some of the systematic errors of second language (L2) learners can be attributed to the influence of the native language (L1). In fact, many hypotheses in generative SLA have focused on the role of L1 transfer ranging the spectrum from No Transfer to Full Transfer. The goal of this dissertation was to investigate L1 transfer by focusing on L1-L2 differences in terms of linguistic features; specifically, how differences in the featural and morpholexical organization of L1 and L2 pronominal paradigms affect SLA.
In this work I operationalize L1 transfer in terms of the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (FRH; Lardiere, 2009). The hypothesis pioneers conceptualization of L1 transfer as an initial attempt by L2 learners to establish a direct mapping between L1 and L2 forms. The FRH is particularly suitable to the study of L2 development because it predicts that when a one-to-one initial mapping is unsuccessful, L2 learners will gradually reorganize the L1 grammatical system until they attain (possibly complete) convergence. Empirical testing of the hypothesis is critical since determining when and why transfer occurs opens numerous possibilities to predict transfer errors and to develop pedagogical approaches to tackle negative transfer.
In the current study I focus on the L2 acquisition of four 3rd person singular French object pronouns in the interlanguage of native speakers of English. Difficulties in the acquisition of Romance object pronouns have been amply documented in L2 research. However, most of the previous studies of the topic have focused on L2 acquisition of clitic pronouns and their syntactic properties. The present study takes a novel approach investigating the acquisition of strong as well as clitic pronouns. In my dissertation I test different kinds of knowledge including learners' comprehension of different kinds of pronouns. Going beyond production data, my experimental tasks include a grammaticality judgment task with correction, a picture selection task, and a self-paced reading task. The experimental tasks were administered to a group of native speakers (n=43) and L2 learners of French (n=87). The overall picture that emerges from the current study allows unveiling the initial mapping and subsequent reassembly of the semantic and morphosyntactic features implicated in the acquisition process of the four forms under investigation.
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Gustin, Santiago. "Differences in Syntactic Complexity in the Writing of EL1 and ELL Civil Engineering Students." PDXScholar, 2019. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/5129.
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Traditional studies in syntactic complexity consider increased clausal complexity to be characteristic of development, proficiency and growth in written language production. However, this stereotypical view ignores two important facts. First, complexity differs by register (i.e. daily speech versus formal writing). Second, as the proficiency of writers increases, their complexity in formal writing changes from clausal complexity to phrasal complexity (i.e. lower-proficiency writers have more subordinate clauses whereas higher-proficiency writers tend to have more noun phrases). Therefore, in this study, I argue for the need to consider not just clausal complexity but also phrasal complexity measures when assessing development and performance in second language (L2) writing production. In addition, this study addresses two important gaps that remain understudied in the literature of syntactic complexity. First, there are few studies that analyze changes in syntactic complexity of first-language (L1) Spanish English Language Learners (ELL)'s writing. A few studies have analyzed writers' L1 background as an influential factor in complexity, but an important language such as Spanish has been ignored. Additionally, most studies focus on general academic writing (i.e. argumentative essays), but there are no studies that investigate syntactic complexity in other registers and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) areas. For instance, there are no studies in syntactic complexity that focus on civil engineering, which is an area where writing plays a vital role. Hence, this study intends to fill these gaps by looking at the syntactic complexity of civil engineering student writing, including Spanish L1 writers.
The present study investigated syntactic complexity in the writing of English-as- their-first-language (EL1) and English-language-learner (ELL) civil engineering student writing. Taking a contrastive corpus-based approach, I used the L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer (L2SCA) (Lu, 2010) to analyze measures of clausal and phrasal complexity. In particular, I used two measures of clausal complexity (clauses per sentence and dependent clauses per clause) and three measures of phrasal complexity (mean length of clause, coordinate phrases per clause, and complex nominals per clause). The analysis was focused on a total of 74 samples of student writing: 30 ELL low-level texts, 14 ELL high-level texts, and 30 EL1 texts. The quantitative analysis consisted of non-parametric statistical tests applied between groups (i.e. ELL-low vs ELL-high, ELL-low vs EL1, and ELL-high vs EL1).
The statistical analysis indicated that the writing of both ELL student groups was significantly more clausally complex than the writing of EL1 students on both clausal complexity measures. No differences were found in phrasal complexity, and no developmental trends were found in relation to levels of proficiency among writers. All groups exhibited high levels of internal diversity and lack of within-group consistency.
The pedagogical implications of this study include familiarizing ELL students with the characteristics of professional engineering writing as a way to break the stereotype that more clausally complex sentences entail more advanced and more proficient writing. ESP instructors should try to identify characteristics of the syntactic complexity particular to their field so that they can provide appropriate feedback to their students. Moreover, ESP programs with Spanish-speaking students should pay attention to clausal complexity as potential linguistic transfer from students' L1 into the writing production in the L2.
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Malcolm, Kaye. "An investigation of communication strategy use in reception." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1991. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1119.
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This thesis is a theoretical and empirical investigation of communication strategy use in the receptive behaviour of second/foreign language learners. The investigation is descriptive in design, and seeks to describe the phenomenon of communication strategies both as a constituent of communicative discourse and as a part of that discourse, in inter-relationship with other constituents. The theoretical framework for the research is an interactional one. Description is sought from analysis of the dynamics of communication. The need for a study on communication strategy use in reception lies in the fact that second/foreign language learners see reception as being particularly problematic, and in the fact that very little research has been done in the area of learners' solutions to problems in reception. The thesis concerns itself to define, describe and explain strategy use in reception. The theoretical investigation leads to the definition of communication strategies as: action taken at points in communication where limiting conditions prevail, or where there is distance between speaker and hearer communicative systems which is recognized, perceived as a problem, and which the individual seeks to reduce. The empirical investigation reveals that while this definition indicates the primary purpose of communication strategy use, there appears to be a secondary purpose, which is to manage impressions. Communication strategies are described as issuing from two different responses to communication problems achievement behaviour, where the problem is tackled, and avoidance behaviour, where it is not tackled. In the empirical study, these two responses appear, realized as achievement and avoidance strategies. Explanation for variation in strategy selection is sought from examination of a whole array of factors which operate simultaneously in any interaction. The empirical study finds that selection is related to the way factors operate at three levels. These are: the way communicative systems are used in particular interactions, the social constraints in operation in those interactions, and the personal constraints which are imposed by perceptions, attitudes, goals and capacities of the participants. The research has application to the study of native speaker/non-native speaker role-relationships. It is suggested that achievement strategies maintain the balance of power which usually exists between native and non-native speakers, and that avoidance strategies may alter that balance. There is also application to second and foreign language teaching. Some suggestions for teaching seem to be prescriptive, and to imply that learners should only use achievement behaviour to solve communication problems. This prescriptive approach is seen as unhelpful to learners.
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del, Barco Dolores Villarreal. "First language instruction and second language acquisition among Spanish speaking high school students: A case study." Scholarly Commons, 1988. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/3364.
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This case-study had as its principal focus the applicability of James Cummins' theory of developmental interdependence in language acquisition to secondary age students. This theory postulates that, for younger children, the development and strengthening of the first language can ultimately lead to a more rapid and efficient acquisition of the second. The study set out to test the hypothesis that secondary age Limited English Proficient (LEP) students who receive Primary Language Arts instruction demonstrate higher levels of English acquisition than do comparable students who do not receive this instruction. The primary language of the students was Spanish. A quasi-experimental research design was used to compare the effect of different treatments on two relatively equal groups of Hispanic LEP students in a single urban high school over a five year period. Achievement and completion of high school work were examined statistically for students enrolled in English as a Second Language and Espanol Para Hispanos (Spanish for Spanish-Speakers) classes during the course of the study. Hispanic LEP students in neither treatment group and all other Hispanic students in attendance at the school during the study made up additional comparison groups. Results of achievement tests, while not completely conclusive, suggest a qualified affirmative of the hypothesis. Students in the Espanol Para Hispanos (Spanish for Spanish-Speakers) groups demonstrated a statistically significant higher level of achievement in English Reading and Language Arts than did the other LEP groups in Tenth grade. Achievement in English in Eleventh and Twelfth grades, although substantial, was not as definitive. There was also corroboration for Cummins' views on "Student Empowerment". Correlations of Participation in Treatment Groups with Completion of Studies showed that a statistically significant percentage of students who received instruction in the development of their primary language (Spanish) graduated from high school. The Tenth grade was found to be the most crucial year for treatment to be effective, both for achievement and for completion of studies.
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Man, So-shan Susan. "First language influencing Hong Kong students' English learning." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2006. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B36897784.
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Letsas, Ranya. "Developmental differences in early language production and comprehension between 21 month-old first born and second born children." Thesis, McGill University, 1992. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=61151.
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This research was designed to provide information concerning the developmental differences in early language production and comprehension between 21 month-old first born and second born children. Furthermore, the study explored the assumption that more opportunities to hear conversations between the parent and the older sibling provide an advantage for second born children in learning personal pronouns.Spontaneous speech productions of 16 first born children were compared to those of 16 second born children while in dyadic interactions with their mothers. First born children were observed in two 25 minute free-play dyadic interactions with their mothers. Second born children were observed in one 25 minute free-play mother-child dyadic interaction and in one 25 minute free-play mother-child-older sibling triadic interaction. All children were administered controlled tasks involving production and comprehension of first and second person pronouns.
Compared to first borns, second born children are not significantly delayed in general language development. Second borns' speech productions differ depending on whether or not their older sibling was present. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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Moore, Glenn Edward. "Anxiety and motivation in second language learning." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2004. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2448.
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This study investigates student and instructor perceptions of the causes and effects of anxiety and motivation's effect on a student's ability to learn a second language. The study focused on the participant's perceptions of the causes and effects of anxiety, and relationships between anxiety and motivation, in both short-term and long-term learners.
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Gardner, Christine Elaine. "The Effect of First Language Dialect Vowel Mergers on Second Language Perception and Production." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2010. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2158.
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Previous second language (L2) acquisition research has assumed that L2 learners from a common first language (L1) have the same problems in an L2, ignoring the potential impact of a speaker's L1 dialect on L2 acquisition. This study examines the effects of L1 dialect on the acquisition of L2 German vowels. In particular, this thesis investigates two questions: 1) Do speakers from L1 dialects with vowel mergers perceive or produce vowel contrasts in the L1 and/or L2 differently than speakers from dialect areas without the same mergers? and 2) Are subjects' patterns of L1 perception or production paralleled in the L2? This thesis focuses on the vowel contrasts "pin"-"pen," "fail"-"fell," and "pool"-"pull"-"pole," which are merged (i.e., neutralized) in some environments in the Mississippi dialect, such that words like "him" and "hem" are heard or produced as the same word. Two groups of subjects participated: students from The University of Mississippi (the merging group) and students from Brigham Young University (BYU) (the non-merging group). Subjects completed a perceptual task and a production task. The perception task was a forced-choice identification task in which subjects heard English and German words and indicated which word they heard. In the production task, subjects read aloud German and English sentences. Results indicate that BYU subjects were significantly better than UMiss subjects at perceiving many vowel contrasts in English and German. Additionally, some perceptual patterns seemed to transfer to the L2, e.g., /ɪn/ and /ɛn/, were identified with similar accuracy in English and in German. In production, the groups differed significantly from each other in their production of many vowel contrasts, while acoustic analysis found no production mergers for either group in English or German. In two case studies, perception results and production results (as found by native speaker judgments), showed that vowel contrasts merged in English were also problematic in L2 German, though the problematic vowel was not necessarily the same. In sum, the UMiss speakers with mergers in their L1 dialect appeared to face different challenges than the BYU speakers when perceiving and producing German vowel contrasts. Results have implications for the L2 classroom and L2 research, suggesting that instructors may need different teaching strategies for speakers from merging dialects.
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Dykstra, Lisa Kristine. "On pragmatic perception do learners of Russian perceive the sociocultural weight of the address pronouns? /." Diss., University of Iowa, 2006. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/66.
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Hu, Guiling. "Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying Second Language Listening Comprehension." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2009. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/alesl_diss/11.
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This dissertation research investigates the cognitive mechanisms underlying second language (L2) listening comprehension. I use three types of sentential contexts, congruent, neutral and incongruent, to look at how L2 learners construct meaning in spoken sentence comprehension. The three types of contexts differ in their context predictability. The last word in a congruent context is highly predictable (e.g., Children are more affected by the disease than adults), the last word in a neutral context is likely but not highly predictable (e.g., Children are more affected by the disease than nurses), and the last word in an incongruent context is impossible (e.g., Children are more affected by the disease than chairs). The study shows that, for both native speakers and L2 learners, a consistent context facilitates word recognition. In contrast, an inconsistent context inhibits native speakers’ word recognition but not that of L2 learners. I refer to this new discovery as the facilitation-without-inhibition phenomenon in L2 listening comprehension. Results from follow-up experiments show that this facilitation-without-inhibition phenomenon is a result of insufficient suppression by L2 learners.
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Gu, Lin. "At the interface between language testing and second language acquisition: communicative language ability and test-taker characteristics." Diss., University of Iowa, 2011. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/972.
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The present study investigates the nature of communicative language ability as manifested in performance on the TOEFL iBT® test, as well as the relationship between this ability with test-takers' study-abroad and learning experiences. The research interest in the nature of language ability is shared by the language testing community, whereas understanding the factors that affect language acquisition has been a focus of attention in the field of second language acquisition (Bachman & Cohen, 1998). This study utilizes a structural equation modeling approach, a hybrid of factor analysis and path analysis, to address issues at the interface between language testing and second language acquisition.
The purpose of this study is two-fold. The first has a linguistic focus: to provide empirical evidence to enhance our understanding of the nature of communicative language ability by examining the dimensionality of this construct in both its absolute and relative senses. The second purpose, which has a social and cultural orientation, is to investigate the possible educational, social, and cultural influences on the acquisition of English as a foreign language, and the relationships between test performance and test-taker characteristics.
The results revealed that the ability measured by the test was predominantly skill-oriented. The role of the context of language use in defining communicative language ability could not be confirmed due to a lack of empirical evidence. As elicited by the test, this ability was found to have equivalent underlying representations in two groups of test-takers with different context-of-learning experiences. The common belief in the superiority of the study-abroad environment over learning in the home country could not be upheld. Furthermore, both study-abroad and home-country learning were proved to have significant associations with aspects of the language ability, although the results also suggested that variables other than the ones specified in the models may have had an impact on the development of the ability being investigated.
From a test validation point of view, the results of this study provide crucial validity evidence regarding the test's internal structure, this structure's generalizability across subgroups of test-takers, as well as its external relationships with relevant test-taker characteristics. Such a validity inquiry contributes to our understanding of what constitutes the test construct, and how this construct interacts with the individual and socio-cultural variables of foreign language learners and test-takers.
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Ma, Lixia. "Acquisition of the perfective aspect marker "le" of Mandarin Chinese in discourse by American college learners." Diss., University of Iowa, 2006. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/68.
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Koo, Kyosung. "Effects of using corpora and online reference tools on foreign language writing: a study of Korean learners of English as a second language." Diss., University of Iowa, 2006. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/65.
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The general aim of this study is to better understand aspects of using reference tools for writing and to identify technologies that can assist foreign language writers. The specific purpose of this study is to look closely at how English as a Second Language (ESL) students from Korea use a corpus as a reference tool in conjunction with dictionaries when paraphrasing English newspaper articles. The participants were Korean graduate students with advanced English proficiency (N=10). Their task was to paraphrase an English newspaper article.
The results show that purposes for using a concordancing program include collocations, definitions, context, and parts of speech. The subjects looked for a variety of information in a concordancing program, including prepositions, authentic samples, and the context in which the search terms were used. Reasons for using dictionaries include definitions, parts of speech, and sample sentences. The most common strategy was to combine reference tools, while the second most common was to use a specific search word. Subjects who used more than one tool for a search or performed multiple searches were more successful in finding what they were looking for.
A concordancing program enabled users to see multiple examples of everyday language use. By using the concordancing program, learners were able to see words that were used most frequently, their patterns, and collocations. Learners took more responsibility for their language learning, as they became researchers in their own right. They gained confidence as L2 writers as they had inside access to linguistic resources. The subjects became more independent and were able to solve their own writing and linguistic problems as they became more aware through the use of authentic texts. In this study, the subjects found the corpora to be useful for sentence-level composition and revision. Overall, the use of reference tools led to an improvement in the accuracy of writing. A concordancing program played an important role in defining the structure and context of English phrases and sentences.
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Sirsa, Hema. "First Language and Sociolinguistic Influences on the Sound Patterns of Indian English." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18715.
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The current dissertation is a systematic study of variation in the English spoken in multilingual and multicultural India. Three experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of two native languages (Hindi and Telugu) on English, which is spoken by almost all Indians as a second language. The first experiment indicated that Indian English (IE) is accented by the first language of its speakers, but high English proficiency and the degree of divergence between the sound patterns of the speaker's native language and his or her IE suggested that other factors might influence the preservation of a native language accent in IE. The second experiment controlled for language investigated the effect of region on IE, finding that listeners were able to distinguish speakers based on region even when they spoke the same native language. The regional variation in IE was more noticeable for native Telugu speakers than for native Hindi speakers. This difference was attributed to differences in the social and political power associated with these native languages: Hindi being the national language and the language of the capital city of India; Telugu, a regional language of Andhra Pradesh and spoken by many fewer people than Hindi. The third experiment was motivated by the idea that persistent effects of the speaker's native language might also be used to reflect a speaker's personal identity. Accordingly, the experiment investigated the effect of speaking about personal versus neutral topics on IE pronunciation. The results were that speakers' IE pronunciation was more like their native language when speakers discussed personal topics then when they discussed neutral topics. Overall, the results suggest that the pronunciation of IE is conditioned by social factors, meaning that it has entered the differentiation phase of Schneider's dynamic model of English evolution.
This dissertation includes previously published co-authored material.
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Qiao, Zhengwei. "Oral corrective feedback and the acquisition of Chinese rule-based verb constructions." Diss., University of Iowa, 2015. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/1730.
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Research has focused on how the effects of different types of feedback vary as a function of the complexity of the linguistic targets and on the learning of inflectional features. However, few studies have investigated the learning of rule-based verb constructions. Grounded in the interactionist approach and usage-based theory, this study investigated the effects of corrective feedback on the acquisition of rule-based verb constructions among English-speaking learners of Chinese. Specifically, this study examined the effects of input-providing feedback and output-prompting feedback on the learning of two verb constructions. Data were drawn from 18 learners of Chinese from second-year Chinese classes in an American university. The participants were divided into two groups and took a pretest, treatment, and two posttests. Learners also filled out a questionnaire about their perception and preference of feedback types. Contrary to previous research, results indicated that both recasts and metalinguistic clues had positive effects on learners' learning of the target constructions. Moreover, learners of different proficiency preferred different types of feedback. The study results provided a categorization of verb constructions into four classes based on the rules that govern their formations and constraints that work on the constructions and identified stages learners moved through when learning verb constructions. The researcher proposed an instructional model of rule-based verb constructions. The model will help instructors recognize the stage the learners' are in and provide insight into how to help learners move to a higher stage by providing instruction, corrective feedback, and practice activities.
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Nathenson-Mejia, Sally Jill. "Learning a second language through reading and writing activities: Case studies of first-graders in a bilingual school /." The Ohio State University, 1987. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487585645576429.
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Clark, Beverly Ann. "Comparison of two groups of Cambodian children in first and second language acquisition and school readiness." Scholarly Commons, 2001. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2561.
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The purpose of this study was to investigate whether Cambodian children who attended a native language preschool would acquire a broader linguistic and experiential base in their native language and in English than a comparable group who have not attended any preschool. Specifically the study looked at the children's native language fluency, English fluency, and academic skills in elementary school. The sample of this study consisted of Cambodian children who had attended a native language preschool and who had remained in the same school district and a control group of Cambodian children from the same school district who had not attended preschool but who were similar economically and socially. An existing database was used to measure native language fluency, English fluency, whether or not the children met grade level standards and whether they were socially/emotionally prepared for school. It was found that although there was a difference in native language fluency there was no significant difference in English fluency or in meeting grade level standards. The findings suggest that further study is needed to determine long-term success academically between the two groups.
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Jones, Adam. "Emerging Lexical Organization from Intentional Vocabulary Learning." PDXScholar, 2014. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1949.
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The role that vocabulary learning plays in second language acquisition has been receiving increased attention from both teachers and researchers. However, there is still much that is not known about the processes through which new words become functioning components of the mental lexicon. This study used a word association test (WAT) to investigate how new words are initially integrated into the lexicon immediately after being studied for the first time. This initial lexical organization of new words was compared with the existing lexical organization of well-known items. In addition, this study investigated how sentence writing, thought to encourage deeper levels of processing, affected how the new words were initially integrated into the lexicon.
The participants in this study were 16 volunteers from an Intensive English Language Program. The participants first completed a vocabulary knowledge scale to assess if they knew the new vocabulary words. Then, the participants spent 20 minutes learning the words--either through writing sentences with the words or through choosing their own method of study. Immediately after the 20 minute learning period, the WAT was administered. The results of the WAT indicated that the new words were being organized into the lexicon through meaning-based connections just as the well-known words were. The majority of the meaning-based lexical organization was based on equivalent meaning connections such as synonymy or superordination. The sentence writing condition correlated with a decrease in meaning-based WAT associations for the new words, which indicated that sentence writing may have affected the lexical integration in unexpected ways. Finally, unanticipated WAT response patterns indicated that other contextual factors may have also influenced the responses.
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Johnston, Kathryn Marie. "Lexical Bundles in Applied Linguistics and Literature Writing: a Comparison of Intermediate English Learners and Professionals." PDXScholar, 2017. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3482.
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Lexical bundles (fixed sequences of three to four words) have been described as building blocks of discourse, both written and spoken (Biber & Barbieri, 2007), and as a useful mechanical device for creating writing that is suited for its academic field (Hyland, 2008). Having noticed that the academic theses of my students at Longdong University in Qingyang, China seemed very different from professional writing in their fields, I created a thesis project that addressed the question of how professionals in their fields were using bundles and how the learners' use of these bundles in terms of frequency, structure, and function varied from the professionals' use.
In order to answer this question, I compiled four corpora of writing in literature and applied linguistics, representing professional and learner writing in each field. I used concordancing software in order to identify four-word lexical bundles that occurred at least 20 times per 100,000 words and over a range of four texts. I then did a three-part analysis which looked at frequency, structure, and function of these bundles.
The results of the study reveal that professionals in applied linguistics and literature use bundles with different frequency, display different choices of lexical items to fill structural bundles, and use functional bundles differently. These differences seem to reflect the rhetorical needs of each discipline. Further, the learners in each field displayed differences in their use of bundles as compared to the professionals' use. Learners in applied linguistics used more types and tokens of bundles overall, while learners in literature used fewer. Both groups of learners relied more on repetitive use of certain bundles than did the professionals.
Implications of this study are discussed for teaching and curriculum development. The findings can be applied to teaching through creating awareness-raising and guided practice opportunities for the students to see how bundles are used in professional writing and to help them apply this understanding to their own writing.
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Doty, Astrid Zerla. "The effects first language use phonological difficulty perception foreign accented speech [sic]." [Tampa, Fla.] : University of South Florida, 2005. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/SFE0001198.
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Grabitzky, Vera Katharina. "Vulnerable language areas in attriting L1 German : testing the interface hypothesis and structural overlap hypothesis." Diss., University of Iowa, 2014. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/1328.
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Linguists studying language acquisition often assume that once a first language is fully acquired, its mental linguistic representation remains constant and stable. Observations of native language attrition due to the influence of a dominant second language have led researchers to rethink the nature of the first language and consider the possibility that the mental representation of our first language may not be completely stable.
The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate specific areas of the first language that may be particularly vulnerable to L1 attrition if exposed to a dominant L2. I test Sorace's (2003) Vulnerable Interface Hypothesis, and propose and test the Structural
Overlap Hypothesis.
The Vulnerable Interface Hypothesis for first language attrition claims that linguistic properties located in the interfaces between the linguistic computational system and external domains (e.g. discourse or pragmatics) are particularly vulnerable to attrition, while internal interfaces (e.g. the syntax-semantics interface) are only somewhat vulnerable to attrition. The domain of narrow syntax is assumed to remain stable unless the L1 begins to attrite in childhood (Montrul, 2008). The Structural Overlap Hypothesis assumes that properties which exhibit structural overlap between the L1 and L2 are more vulnerable to L1 attrition.
The predictions of both hypotheses are tested using 15 L1 German adult attriters whose dominant L2 is English, in order to observe the degree of stability of the linguistic system in adult onset bilinguals. Four linguistic properties of German are examined, which are grouped in two pairings of a purely syntactic property with a grammatically related interface property. 15 monolingual L1 German speakers and 15 monolingual L1 English speakers serve as controls.
The data obtained also shed light on a frequently debated question of attrition research, viz. whether L1 attrition is due to transfer from the L2, or a decrease in the linguistic processing capacity due to competition of a dominant L2, or both.
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O'Donnell, Mary E. "Use of textual elaboration with literary texts in intermediate Spanish." Diss., University of Iowa, 2005. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/102.
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Lo, Bee Hong. "Indeterminacy in first and second languages: Case studies of narrative development of Chinese children with and without language disorder." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2000. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1353.
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Bilingual children with specific language impairment (SLI) from non English speaking background (NESB) present a major diagnostic problem to speech pathologist and educationist in an English speaking country. There has been no known study on the simultaneous narrative development involving bilingual Chinese children with and without SLI. This longitudinal case study examined the relationship of Chinese (L1) and English (L2) in narrative development in a child with no language difficulty (Child LN) and a child (Child L1) diagnosed as having SLI. The hypothesis posed for this study was that Child L1 has the same developmental profile for narrative skill in L1 and L2 as Child LN, but at a slower rate of progression and there was no within subject difference in the narrative development between L1 and L2. The narrative characteristics of L1 and L2 of these two children were studied over a twelve months period between the age of six and half and seven and half years. A total often recordings of the children's retelling and generation of stories in both L1 and L2 were made, using various bilingual and text less children's books and pictures. The narratives were analysed with regard to their form and content. The narrative form was measured by T-unit/utterance ratio, the cohesive score and the number of complete episodes. The narrative content was analysed according to the total number of story grammar components (measuring content amount), the types and frequency of grammar components, and the developmental staging (measuring narrative maturity). For each child, the narrative characteristics of L1 and L2, with regard to the indices studied, were closely linked. Both children showed a similar developmental pattern in their narrative production, and parallel progression with age in the narrative production of coherence score, total grammar components, and number of complete episodes. However, Child L1 generally performed at the lower level than Child LN in both his Chinese and English languages for T-unit/utterance ratio, developmental staging, coherence, and number of complete episodes The study also confirmed the past findings of the important influence of age, topic and communicative context on the production of narratives of young children. Whilst Child LN was developing culture related narrative characteristic in the way of using different constituents for his grammar components, Child Ll was yet to do so. The frequent sequence of "initial event", "attempt" and "consequence" was found in Child LN's Chinese narratives, indicating the "cause-effect" discourse pattern of Chinese culture. This was in contrast to his English narratives where "setting" was found to be more frequent than "consequence". No difference in the frequency of common grammar components between L1 and L2 of Child L1 's narratives was found. They were "attempt", "initiating event" and "internal response". The preponderance of "internal response" in Child LI's narrative was in contrast to past studies on children with SLI. The outcome of this study indicates that the indices used in this study may be culturally relevant for analysing the narrative structure of bilingual Chinese children. The results indicated that simultaneous analysis of L1 and L2 narratives of these children may help to differentiate SLI from ESL (English as second language). In this respect, gaining access into L1 data through linguistically competent transcriber may be crucial to accurately identify narrative difficulties of children from non English background. This study, although descriptive in nature with only a single representative case, raised a number of questions that need to be addressed in future research. They will be discussed in the thesis. Further research to see if the same characteristics could be isolated among most bilingual Chinese children is necessary for cross-cultural study of children with SLI.
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Nakakubo, Takako. "The effects of planning on second language oral performance in Japanese: processes and production." Diss., University of Iowa, 2011. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/1038.
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For over two decades, studies on task planning and its role in second language learners' oral performance have shown that the opportunity to plan for a task generally improves learners' speech (Ellis, 2005). It has been hypothesized that the opportunity to plan for a task reduces cognitive load during language processing, thus allowing learners to attend to various aspects of language, and that this enhanced attention, in turn, results in more successful task performance. However, one limitation to this task planning research to date it that most studies have examined the effects of planning before task performance, while largely ignoring the effects of planning that occur during task performance (Yuan & Ellis, 2003). Another limitation in planning research is that findings have been based exclusively on external observation and measurement of learners' oral production; we know little about what strategies learners use that may result in higher-quality speech.
The participants in this study were intermediate and high-intermediate learners of Japanese. They were divided into experimental groups and performed a narrative task under different task conditions. Participants received a set of pictures and were asked to retell the story in Japanese. To examine the effects of planning on task performance, fluency, complexity, and accuracy in the participants' speech were analyzed. For the analysis of planning strategies, retrospective interviews were given to a group of participants from each planning group immediately after the task performance.
The results revealed that there were no significant differences in participants' oral production across planning conditions, except in the area of lexical complexity (participants without a pre-task planning opportunity produced narrative stories with a greater variety of vocabulary than those who planned before the task). A trade-off effect between lexical complexity and accuracy was found when participants planned either before or during the task. Another trade-off effect was found between lexical complexity and fluency for the participants with on-line planning only. The analyses of strategy use showed that second language learners generally selected similar strategies regardless of planning conditions. These results provided important pedagogical implications and suggested useful future research directions.
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Li, Yu. "Comparison of the comprehension of three types of Chinese colloquial idioms by advanced Chinese L2 learners." Diss., University of Iowa, 2016. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2112.
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This study explores how comprehension strategies, first language (L1), and contextual information affect the comprehension and interpretation of three types of colloquial idioms by Chinese as a second language (L2) learners at an advanced level of proficiency. Three research questions are addressed: (1) to what extent does context affect the comprehension and interpretation of three types of Chinese colloquial idioms, (2) to what extent does the degree of L1–L2 similarity influence the comprehension and interpretation of the Chinese colloquial idioms, and (3) what strategies are employed by the learners in comprehending the Chinese colloquial idioms in isolation and in context, and which strategies contribute to better comprehension of the Chinese colloquial idioms in context.
To address these research questions, 30 advanced Chinese L2 learners at a Midwest University participated in the study. They were asked to comprehend 15 unknown colloquial idioms in and out of context. All of the participants were native speakers of English. The 15 target idiomatic phrases differed in terms of the degree of L1–L2 similarity, including 5 matching idioms, 5 partially matching idioms, and 5 non-matching idioms. In the decontextualized condition, the participants were given a list of the target colloquial idioms without contextual information, whereas in the contextualized condition, the target colloquial idioms were embedded in short paragraph context. For both tasks, the individual participants were required to verbalize their thought processes as they arrived at the meanings of the target colloquial idioms. Think-aloud protocols were employed to collect qualitative data.
It was discovered that context substantially facilitated the comprehension processes of the target colloquial idioms, especially with respect to the partially matching category. The degree of L1–L2 similarity significantly affected the ease with which the participants understood the Chinese colloquial idioms in the decontextualized and contextualized tasks. In the decontextualized condition, the participants generally adopted a “part-to-whole and literal-to-figurative” approach to interpret the target items, whereas in the contextualized condition, the participants adopted a heuristic method and employed a wide range of strategies (e.g., sentence translation, component words, and background knowledge) to access meaning of the target idioms. Among the strategies identified, semantic processing and pre-existing knowledge were strong predictors of accurate idiom interpretation. Instead of using existing L1 idiom comprehension models to explain the comprehension of idioms in an L2, a tentative model of idiom comprehension was proposed. L2 learners appeared to undergo two stages in comprehending unknown Chinese colloquial idioms: an initial prediction stage and a verification stage.
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Ranjan, Rajiv. "Acquisition of ergative case in L2 Hindi-Urdu." Diss., University of Iowa, 2016. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/3168.
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This dissertation contributes to an ongoing debate on the types of linguistic features which can be acquired in a second language by looking at the multiple learning challenges related to the ergative case system (the appearance of –ne with the subject) in Hindi-Urdu by classroom learners. Some hypotheses in second language research hold that interpretable features (features which contribute semantic information) can be acquired in a second language, whereas uninterpretable features (features which express grammatical information) cannot be easily acquired, if ever. Additionally, hypotheses in second language processing hold that the second language learners are able to process semantic information but not grammatical information. This dissertation investigates at the acquisition process of second language learners of Hindi-Urdu acquiring the uninterpretable ergative case. In Hindi-Urdu, the subject of a sentence appears with the ergative case marker –ne, when the verb is transitive and in the perfective aspect. In my dissertation, I test the validity of the aforementioned hypotheses and investigate the acquisition and acquisitional process of ergative case in L2 Hindi-Urdu by L1 English speakers by analyzing data collected by using an acceptability/grammaticality judgement task, a self-paced reading task and a production task from Hindi-Urdu learners and native speakers.
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Baker, Amanda A. "Pronunciation Pedagogy: Second Language Teacher Cognition and Practice." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2011. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/alesl_diss/16.
Full textAbstract:
Over the past few decades, increasing research has examined the cognitions (knowledge and beliefs) of second language (L2) teachers. Such efforts have provided insight into what constitutes teachers' beliefs and knowledge about teaching, how these cognitions have developed and how they are reflected in classroom practice (see Borg, 2006). Although numerous studies have been conducted into the curricular areas of L2 grammar and, to a lesser extent, L2 literacy, far fewer have examined L2 teachers' cognitions concerning L2 pronunciation instruction. The purpose of the present study, therefore, was to explore some of the dynamic relationships that exist between L2 teachers’ cognitions and actual pedagogical practices, how these cognitions
have developed over time, and what relationships exist between both students’ and teachers’ perceptions. In the study, the cognitions and practices - as they relate to the teaching of L2 pronunciation - of five experienced teachers in an Intensive English program were investigated. The teachers participated in three types of data collection procedures over one semester - three semi-structured interviews, five classroom observations, and two stimulated recall interviews. Also, their students completed questionnaires. Findings revealed that, in terms of the development of teachers' cognitions, a graduate course dedicated to pronunciation pedagogy had the greatest impact of the teachers’ cognitions. In addition, all teachers experienced some degree of insecurity about teaching pronunciation. This was especially true for teachers who had never taken a course in pronunciation pedagogy. Yet even those teacher with specific training in pronunciation pedagogy lacked confidence in certain areas, especially in how to diagnose and address problems with pronunciation. Furthermore, some of the teachers were hesitant to assess students' pronunciation, fearing that negative feedback might be damaging to the learners' identities. However, through viewing the results of the student questionnaires, the participant-teachers were surprised to learn that students favored receiving explicit feedback in class in front of their peers over other types of feedback. One final major finding was that the teachers predominantly employed controlled techniques when teaching pronunciation and that, of all the techniques used, guided techniques were used less frequently.
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Pan, Xiaofei. "Investigating the development of syntactic complexity in L2 Chinese writing." Diss., University of Iowa, 2018. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/6242.
Full textAbstract:
This present study investigates the development of second language (L2) Chinese learners’ writing by 1) subjective ratings of essay quality, 2) a battery of objective measures representing the general syntactic complexity as well as specific syntactic features, and 3) the sources of verb phrase complexity used by learners of different institutional levels. This study first compares the subjective ratings of the essays written by learners across four institutional levels and then uses Cumulative Linked Model to examine the contribution of the objective measures of linguistic features to the essay ratings. This study further identifies a number of sources used by learners to construct complex verb phrases, which is an important contributor of the essay rating, and compares the amount of usages by learners at different institutional levels. The purpose of the study is to better understand L2 Chinese learners’ syntactic development in writing from multi-dimensional perspectives, and to identify the most crucial elements that determine the quality of writing.
This study recruits 105 L2 Chinese college learners to write a narrative essay and an argumentative essay according to the prompts. Each of the writing sample is rated by two independent raters according to the holistic ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, as well as the analytic rubric which was adapted from the ESL Composition Profile for this study. The derivation of syntactic complexity measures was based on the rank scales of lexicogrammar in Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014), involving 12 features at the levels of clause complex, clause, and verb phrase, some of which represent constructions unique to Chinese.
A series of statistical tests, including Kruskal-Wallis tests, Dunn’ tests, Spearman’ correlation tests, and CLM are performed to answer that research questions. The findings show that 1) learners’ overall writing quality measured by holistic and analytic ratings do not show significant differences across the first several academic years; 2) higher-level learners are more heterogeneous in writing ability than lower-level learners; 3) phrasal complexity contributes more to the essay quality than clausal complexity; 4) syntactic complexity features that learners develop fastest hardly overlap with those that contribute most to the essay rating; 5) complex verbal phrases come from 10 different sources and the composition of complex verbal phrases remain stable across the groups; and 6) essay types makes significant differences in terms of holistic and analytic ratings, use of syntactic complexity features, as well as their contribution to the essay ratings.
From the pedagogical view, this study points out that instruction should focus more on complexity at the phrasal level, especially nominalization and complex verb phrases, that play a more important role to determine the writing quality. Some of the current focus in instruction may not necessarily lead to better quality or higher proficiency in Chinese writing.
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Canizares, Carlos I. "Second Language Learners’ Performance on Non-Isomorphic Cross-Language Cognates in Translation." FIU Digital Commons, 2016. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3061.
Full textAbstract:
Do adult L2 English bilingual speakers have difficulty with cognate words whose meanings are distinct across their two languages? This study explored the extent to which variations in meaning in cross-language cognates affect translation performance in a translation task by L2 English (L1 Spanish) speakers who learned English as adults. A prep-phase experiment was conducted to test native English-speakers’ predicted completions of the study’s stimuli sentences, in order to choose the optimal stimuli for the primary experiment. The method for the primary experiment of this study consisted of a web-based translation task of 120 sentences from Spanish to English, while controlling for polysemy and frequency. The results showed that adult L2 learners of English did experience difficulty when translating cognates in sentences from their L1 to their L2. The interaction of the Spanish word’s polysemous nature, Spanish word frequency, English target frequency and English cognate frequency played a role in the participants’ performance.
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Mikulski, Ariana Maria. "Native intuitions, foreign struggles? knowledge of the subjunctive in volitional constructions among heritage and traditional FL learners of Spanish." Diss., University of Iowa, 2006. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/49.
Full textAbstract:
The Spanish subjunctive has been the focus of much SLA research, largely because it poses difficulties for learners of Spanish whose L1 is English (e.g., Collentine, 1993; Stokes & Krashen, 1990; Terrell et al., 1987). Investigating the same feature in heritage learners of Spanish can provide more information about their linguistic development and also has the potential to inform our knowledge of the acquisition of the subjunctive in traditional FL learners. The present study investigates whether heritage learners recognize grammatical and ungrammatical modal choice in volitional constructions. These constructions have been selected because this use of the subjunctive does not vary by a speaker's dialect or by belief about the idea being expressed. Furthermore, given that theories of language attrition posit that the structures that are acquired earliest are the last to be lost (e.g., De Bot & Weltens, 1991) and that Spanish monolingual children acquire the subjunctive in volitional constructions first (Blake, 1980; 1983), heritage learners who have experienced some language attrition may still have knowledge of this feature. To investigate the effect that language attrition or incomplete acquisition may have on this knowledge, I also compared the SHL learners in the sample who were early bilinguals in English (those born in the United States or who immigrated before age 6) with those who were late bilingual (those who immigrated between ages 6 and 13). Students enrolled in Spanish for Heritage Learners (SHL) and Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) courses at three universities in the Northeast completed grammaticality judgment (GJ) and editing tasks, which contained examples of correct and incorrect mood choices, as well as distracter items. The GJ task also required participants to explain their judgments. The results indicate that SHL learners outperform their SFL peers on recognizing correct mood selection. No significant differences were found between early and late bilinguals. SHL and SFL learners tended to correct utterances that they had rejected of judged neutrally but gave different types of reasons for accepting utterances. There were several similarities between early and late bilinguals in terms of their reasons for their judgments of utterances.
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Iwasaki, Junko. "The Acquisition of Japanese as a Second Language and Processability Theory: A Longitudinal Study of a Naturalistic Child Learner." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2006. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/73.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of this study was to investigate longitudinally how a child learner acquired verbal morpho-syntax in Japanese in a naturalistic second language (L2) context. Specifically the points of emergence for three verbal morpho-syntactic structures, namely verbal inflection, the V-te V structure and the passive/causative structure, were investigated within a framework of Processability Theory (PT) (Pienemann, 1998b). The subsequent development of these structures was also examined. Unlike earlier research about morpheme orders and developmental sequences in language acquisition which was criticised because of its apparent lack of theoretical underpinnings, Pienemann’s Processability Theory (PT)(1998b) connects the processability of morpho-syntactic structure to linguistic theories. Pienemann also claims that this theory can be used to explain the acquisition of a wide range of morpho-syntactic structures and that it is typologically plausible and applicable to any language. In recent times PT has been extensively tested in a range of languages acquired as an L2, including German, English and Swedish (Pienemann, 1998b; Pienemann & Håkansson, 1999) and Italian and Japanese (Di Biase & Kawaguchi, 2002). The findings from these studies support this theory. Following the acquisition criteria proposed by Pienemann (1998b), the current study analyses the points of emergence of verbal morpho-syntactic structures by a seven year old Australian boy who was acquiring Japanese as a second language (JSL) naturalistically. Data were collected through audio taping approximately 90 minute interactions between the child and other Japanese speakers at each of the 26 sessions over a one-year and nine month period. The task-based elicitation method was used to create as spontaneous interaction as possible between the child and his interlocutors.
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Adams, Aurora Mathews. "LINGUISTIC AND CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS OF ‘HEART’ IN LEARNER CORPORA." UKnowledge, 2017. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/ltt_etds/20.
Full textAbstract:
This corpus-based study examined English and Spanish learner language for ‘heart’ metaphors. Gutiérrez Pérez (2008) compared ‘heart’ metaphors across five languages and that study served as a reference framework for the work presented here. This work intended to find evidence of metaphor transfer and/or new metaphor learning in second language writing. Conceptual metaphors (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980) and linguistic or lexical metaphors (Falck, 2012) from both languages were considered in the analysis. This work analyzed ‘heart’ metaphors taken from two learner corpora, the Cambridge Learner Corpus and the Corpus de Aprendices de Español. Results were compared to the findings of Gutiérrez Pérez (2008) to see whether these metaphors typically occur only in English, only in Spanish, or are found in both languages. The results showed evidence of language learners using several kinds of metaphors that do not typically occur in their first language. The aim of this study was to add a new facet to this body of research by examining these phenomena in learner corpora rather than monolingual corpora. Furthermore, this study also examined both second language English and second language Spanish corpora, addressing potential bi-directionality of transfer or conversely, the use of new linguistic forms.
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Powell, Judith Ann. "Teaching reading to adults where English is their second language." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2008. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/3346.
Full textAbstract:
This project sought to identify methods that will work best for Second Language (ESL) adults and identify ways in which ESL can be taught to help facilitate learning for the older adult over 40 years of age. This project identified some of the problems caused by the nature of the English language and the grammatical issues older ESL students face when attempting to learn to speak and read English.
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Rangel-Studer, Beatriz. "Self-repair in second language interaction: Dyad groups in action." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2006. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2975.
Full textAbstract:
Describes the results of a research project that analyzes the interaction of a second language (L2) learners of English (non-native speakers (NNS)) with a native speakers (NS). The subjects of the study were four NNS and two NS of English at Imperial Valley College in Imperial, California. The first aspect of the analysis determines the way in which self-repair might be related to L2 development and the L2 learner's language proficiency level. The second aspect of the analysis determines whether the NNS use self-repair differently when the interlocutor is a NS or a NNS of English. Results of the study indicate that while there was not a correlation between overall frequency of self-repair and language proficiency, there was a relationship between frequency of particular types of repair and language proficiency.