bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A STUDY OF THE STATISTICAL FOUNDATIONS OF GROUP CONVERSATION TESTS IN SPOKEN ENGLISH1
Authors: Liski Erkki , Puntanen Simo
Published: October 2006

This paper is intended as one statistical step towards achieving objectivity in group oral testing in English. The test and the marking system adopted were developed by Folland and Robertson (1976). The data under study comprise sample results from tests taken by 698 Finnish university students at the University of Tampere. The testees' performance was evaluated by noting errors under four categories—pronunciation, grammatical structure, lexis, and use—and “pluses” under use and lexis. The primary aim of this research has been to bring out statistical factors which may be useful in developing tests of spoken English. Distributions of errors are shown and studied in relation to variables such as number of utterances spoken by the testee, sex, mark in a matriculation examination, and group factors. The results show that most errors were made in grammatical structure and fewest in use. More talkative students showed better proficiency than less talkative when compared on the basis of the number of errors per ten utterances. Generally considered, the girls' proficiency was better than the boys', but this difference disappeared when the mark in the matriculation examination was taken into account: The mark was positively correlated with language proficiency and the girls' marks were significantly higher than those of the boys.
MARKEDNESS AND THE PROJECTION PROBLEM
Authors: Zobl Helmut
Published: October 2006

Rutherford (1982) explores linguistic and psycholinguistic constructs of markedness relative to a number of goals he proposes for theory construction in L2 acquisition research. This paper argues that if we formulate the theoretical goals so as to provide an accounting of language learnability, a different markedness construct is indicated: a projection model of markedness. The theoretical considerations entering into such a model are delineated and the model is tested on L2 acquisition data. While the model is found to be in need, of refinement, its predictive capacity and theoretical fit with language typological findings (Hawkins 1979) argue favourably for its viability.
ADULT ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE UNDER DIFFERENT CONDITIONS OF EXPOSURE
Authors: Pica Teresa
Published: October 2006

Claims have been made regarding the differing contributions of formal classroom versus naturalistic settings to second language acquisition (D'Anglejan 1978; Krashen 1976; Krashen and Seliger 1975; Sajavaara 1981). A study was designed to test such claims by investigating the production of English grammatical morphology by 18 adult native speakers of Spanish under three different conditions of exposure to English L2: (1) Instruction Only, (2) Naturalistic, and (3) Mixed (a combination of 1 and 2).

Effects of the three conditions of second language exposure were revealed in the types of errors produced during individual conversations with a researcher: (1) All subjects made errors of morpheme oversuppliance in inappropriate contexts and morpheme omission in required contexts; however, the former were more prevalent among Instruction Only subjects, and the latter more common among Naturalistic subjects. These differences were statistically significant. (2) The Naturalistic group tended to omit plural ‐s endings on nouns which were premodified by quantifiers. This nonredundant marking of plurality, characteristic of many pidgin speakers, was significantly different from the nontarget plural productions of the other two groups. Despite these differences in production errors, statistically high correlations were found among the three groups of subjects with regard to rank order accuracy for grammatical morphology.

Results of the study suggest that different conditions of exposure to English L2 do not significantly alter the accuracy order in which grammatical morphemes are produced. However, as reflected in production errors, different conditions appear to affect learners' hypotheses about the target morphology and their strategies for using it.
PRODUCTION AND PERCEPTION OF THE /r/‐/l/ CONTRAST IN KOREAN ADULTS LEARNING ENGLISH
Authors: Borden Gloria , Gerber Adele , Milsark Gary
Published: October 2006

Training of Korean speakers in the perception and production of the /r/‐/l/ contrast in English resulted in short term improvement in production with little carryover. Improved identification of the phonemes in a speech perception task, however, did result. Speakers with lowest production scores produced an [r]‐like sound for /l/, while speakers with higher scores evidenced fewer confusions and they occurred both ways: r/l and l/r. Identification of items in a [ra] to [la] continuum was better than discrimination between pairs of items. There was a significant relationship between production and self‐perception, with live judgments of self in better agreement with experimenter judgments than were taped judgments of self. In some cases, production “errors” seem to parallel perceptual behavior and in other cases, they seem to be only a problem in production. Implications for training are drawn from the results.
INTERFERENCE AND NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Authors: Tarallo Fernando , Myhill John
Published: October 2006

This paper reports the findings of a study of the acquisition of relative clauses in Chinese, Japanese, Persian, German, and Portuguese by first and second year students of these languages with English as their first language. Various structures were tested with the aim of separating the features of interlanguage which may be attributed to first language interference from those which may be explained as being universal to second language acquisition. Among these structures were use of resumptive pronouns in the relative clause, deletion of relativizers, stranding of prepositions, deletion of prepositions, and piedpiping structures. In line with the work of Gass and Ard (1980) and Hyltenstam (1981), the present paper examines the explanatory value of the accessibility hierarchy of Keenan and Comrie (1977) as applied to the ease or difficulty of the acquisition of relativization of various syntactic types, and expands this study by including data from the acquisition of relative clause types not examined in previous works. Also tested were structures involving different strategies for the parsing and recognition of relative clauses, in order to determine which are employed most frequently and most successfully by second language learners, and structures with correct and incorrect deletion of prepositions, in order to see whether the loss of information involved would be a constraining factor.
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SPEECH AND READING AMONG SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS
Authors: Muchisky Dennis M.
Published: October 2006

This paper describes the results of a short‐term memory, reaction time study with students of English as a second language. Thirty‐five foreign students at the University of New Mexico did a series of short‐term memory tasks designed to determine if phonological encoding of visually presented verbal material occurred during reading. The memory tasks were done in two conditions: simple visual presentation of material (nonshadowing condition) and visual presentation of material accompanied by an oral repetition task (shadowing condition). A similar study done by Kleiman (1975) with native speakers of English showed that reaction times increased (slowed down) in the shadowing condition. In the present study the second language students' reaction times decreased (speeded up) in the shadowing condition. The explanation offered for this result is that the second language students in the nonshadowing condition show phonological interference from their native language which slows reaction times; however, the shadowing task which involves the oral production of English curtails the interference, thereby improving the reaction times. In addition to the short‐term memory tasks, the students in the study took a reading proficiency test (the Nelson‐Denny Reading Test). Correlations between the results of the memory task reaction times and reading proficiency scores showed few significant results.
INTEGRATIVE MOTIVATION: CAUSE OR RESULT OF SUCCESSFUL SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION?
Authors: Strong Michael
Published: October 2006

This study examines the relationship between integrative motivation and acquired second language proficiency among a group of Spanish‐speaking kindergartners in an American classroom. Integrative motivation was measured by finding out the children's preferences for friends and playmates and workmates and scoring them according to their tendencies to nominate members of the target language group. Communicative English proficiency was assessed by analyzing spontaneous language and deriving measures of structural knowledge, vocabulary breadth, and pronunciation skill. A Kendall's tau test showed no positive association between integrative motivation and acquired English proficiency. A further comparison of beginners and advanced level English speakers found that the advanced children showed significantly more integrative orientation to the target language group than the beginners, lending support to the notion that integrative attitudes follow second language acquisition skills rather than promoting them.
PRAGMATIC COMPREHENSION IN LEARNER‐NATIVE SPEAKER DISCOURSE
Authors: Kasper Gabriele
Published: October 2006

The paper reports on an exploratory study on FL learners’comprehension of speech acts and discourse functions, referred to as pragmatic comprehension. On the basis of a frame‐theoretical approach, some theoretical assumptions and empirical findings about L1 pragmatic comprehension are discussed. These are used as a framework for analyzing two types of learners’pragmatic misunderstandings: their failure to distinguish between phatic talk and referential talk, and their failure to identify the intended illocutionary force of indirect speech acts. The data analysis indicates that the learners (a) rely too heavily on bottom‐up processing, (b) do not make sufficient use of illocutionary force indicating devices, (c) have problems in activating frames relevant in the given context, and (d) have too little flexibility for frame shift if incoming data are incompatible with a currently active higher‐order frame. Some implications for FL teaching are suggested.
A CATEGORICAL INSTRUMENT FOR SCORING SECOND LANGUAGE WRITING SKILLS
Authors: Brown James Dean , Bailey Kathleen M.
Published: October 2006

This paper first reviews recent research on evaluating second language learners’writing skills. It then discusses research on a categorical instrument for evaluating compositions written by upper intermediate university ESL students. The form of the instrument used in this study included five equally weighted criteria for scoring: (1) Organization, (2) Logical Development of Ideas, (3) Grammar, (4) Mechanics, and (5) Style. An experiment was conducted under controlled conditions in which ten raters scored fifty randomly selected compositions. Regression analysis and generalizability theory were used for investigating the reliability of the instrument. In addition, information was obtained from the raters as to their reactions to the instrument. The results indicate that the scoring instrument is moderately reliable. More useful, perhaps, is the demonstration provided of the effects on reliability of changing the number of raters and/or criteria. The paper concludes with a discussion of the issues involved (both with this particular instrument and with analytic scoring systems in general) and of possible future research on the evaluation of nonnative speakers’writing.
THE ACQUISITION OF THE DATIVE ALTERNATION BY SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS AND LINGUISTIC THEORY
Authors: Mazurkewich Irene
Published: October 2006

The research discussed in this paper attempts to demonstrate that evidence based on the acquisition of dative structures in English by second language learners provides support for a theory of markedness. Within this theory, it is claimed that unmarked structures, which are postulated to be part of core grammar, will be acquired before marked structures, which are considered to be peripheral rules of the core grammar. Using a test that elicited intuitive judgements, we obtained data from native French‐speaking and Inuktitut‐speaking (Eskimo) students as well as native English‐speaking students whose judgements were used as the norm. Dative structures in which the dative noun phrase appears either in a prepositional phrase or as the first noun phrase of a double object construction were tested. Within the framework of markedness we assume, it is argued that the former represents the unmarked structure whereas the latter is the marked one. The results we obtained show that the unmarked structures were acquired first as predicted and the marked structures followed. The theoretical implications of markedness regarding learnability of the complement structures of alternating and nonalternating dative verbs are discussed.
REVIEW
Authors: Carrell Patricia L.
Published: October 2006

Child Language—An International Perspective. Philip S. Dale and David Ingram, eds.

Towards a Crosslinguistic Assessment of Speech Production. Hans Dechert and Manfred Raupach, eds.

On the Surface of Discourse. Michael Hoey.
SUMMARY PROTOCOLS OF “UNDERPREPARED” AND “ADEPT” UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: REPLICATIONS AND DISTORTIONS OF THE ORIGINAL
Authors: Johns Ann M.
Published: October 2006

The summary task requires the use of higher order reading skills; identification of main ideas and condensation of text while maintaining the focus of the original. Though there have been a number of studies examining the summarizing skills of elementary and secondary students (e.g. Brown et al. 1981; Day 1980; Winograd 1984), skills of university students have not been well documented. Nor has a complete scale for scoring protocols been produced. It was the purpose of this study to examine the summarizing skills of “underprepared” or remedial university students and to develop from their protocols a scale for coding replications and distortions of the original. Findings indicate that underprepared students omit a number of main ideas from their summary protocols and include more sentence‐level reproductions than combinations of idea units (IUs) or macropropositions. However, the data indicate that the underprepared students do not differ significantly from other student groups in their balance and distribution of IUs in their protocols, nor do they employ more distortions (i.e. IUs which are not true to the original).
THEORETICAL GAINS FROM THE STUDY OF BILINGUALISM: A CASE REPORT
Authors: Levy Yonata
Published: October 2006

The problem of gaining insights into the young child's emerging linguistic competencies has been examined within the field of child language in several ways. The most common studies have been those examining the normal child, in her normal environment, typically interacting with a familiar adult. This study suggests that crucial insights may be gained through an examination of the child's linguistic abilities in cognitively‐demanding situations during which one can observe the limitations placed upon the child's abilities at a given time in development. Our claim is illustrated by a case study that concerns the meta‐linguistic abilities of a bilingual two‐year old learning Hebrew and English simultaneously.
SYSTEM AND VARIABILITY IN INTERLANGUAGE SYNTAX
Authors: Huebner Thorn
Published: October 2006

Inherent in the interlanguage hypothesis is the assumption that the language of second language acquirers is systematic. This article reviews the notions of system and variability as applied to interlanguages, especially in the area of syntax. The article summarizes the findings of Huebner (1983a) with respect to variability over time in the forms used to mark referential status of discourse participants, using Bickerton's (1981) proposed universal features for referentiality. It then examines, from the same perspective, new data from the same informant collected approximately 20 months after the end of the initial study. Finally, the new corpus is examined in light of Givón's (1982) Quantity Universal. Three measures are applied to those data to determine topic continuity: degree of referential distance, degree of topic persistence, and degree of importance in discourse. Data from the original study reveal the nonlinear nature of linguistic change in an interlanguage. Both the original and the new data support claims made about the primacy of the specific referent/nonspecific referent distinction (Bickerton 1981). The study also suggests that degree of topic continuity can explain residual data.
THE SILENT PERIOD: AN EXAMINATION
Authors: Gibbons John
Published: October 2006

This paper deals with three widely accepted propositions: (1) that children learning a second language will remain silent for a period of one or more months if they are not pressured to speak, (2) that this period of silence is a result of a need for intake and acquisition before speaking, and (3) consequently the second language curriculum should include an initial period of silence before speaking begins. The data base for propositions 1 and 2 is examined and is found to be based on inadequate research with contradictory findings. Consequently a survey of children (N=47) learning English as a second language in Sydney primary schools was undertaken. It revealed a period of silence with a mean of just over two weeks, with very great individual variation. A survey of the literature on children entering mother tongue education also revealed that a period of withdrawal is common. The conclusions drawn were that: (1) the initial silent period probably begins as a period of silent incomprehension, (2) if the silent period is prolonged this may be a result of psychological withdrawal rather than language acquisition processes, and (3) consequently initial silence in the language curriculum is not necessarily desirable. The early use of routines and patterns is also examined, and it is suggested that these might play a much more significant role in the early stages of the second language curriculum.
YET ANOTHER LOOK AT INTERLANGUAGE PHONOLOGY: THE MODIFICATION OF ENGLISH SYLLABLE STRUCTURE BY NATIVE SPEAKERS OF POLISH
Authors: Hodne Barbara
Published: October 2006

Tarone (1980) attempted to show that some syllable structure errors in the interlanguage (IL) speech of learners of English from various language backgrounds were not attributable to language transfer and might provide evidence of a universal tendency to produce open (CV) syllables, an interlanguage process which she argued operates independently of language transfer The case study presented here follows essentially the same method of investigation that Tarone followed to gather evidence for the hypothesized universal preference for the open syllable, but uses speakers from a different language group (Polish) as subjects Since Polish features man) of the same complex syllable structures that English does, modification of these same complex syllable in the interlanguage would not appear to be attributable to transfer The next question would be whether the modifications found showed movement toward an open syllable.

The results obtained here are less categorical than those obtained by Tarone Although a number of modifications were found which could not readily be attributed to transfer, only about half of these could be sad to show clear modification toward an open (CV) syllable pattern Although it IS possible that the preference for the open CV syllable operates as a variable rule in interlanguage phonology, with the native‐language (NL) background of the learner influencing the extent to which the rule is applied, it is suggested that the patterns of modification found here might best be analyzed not in terms of processes unique to IL phonology, but rather in terms of universal patterns of glottalization and epenthesis found in the speech of persons experiencing stress, whether they are speaking in their native language or in a second language.
ON THE ACQUISITION OF SECOND LANGUAGE TIMING PATTERNS
Authors: Fourakis Marios , Iverson Gregory K.
Published: October 2006

This paper presents the results of an experiment which examined the temporal characteristics of voiceless plosives in American English. Arabic, and Arabic‐accented English. Results showed that the temporal implementation of closure duration and Voice Onset Time delay was different for each of the three groups. surprisingly, however. Arabic‐accented English fell not between the norms established by Arabic and English proper, but rather departed from the target language goal (shorter closures, longer VOT delays) with longer closures and shorter VOT delays than is characteristic of Arabic itself This unusual interlanguage phenomenon can be explained in terms ot the Arabic speakers having learned that English displays a constant voiceless interval (Weismer 1980) among all places of articulation, but having mislearned that the distribution internal to this interval varies according to positional factors.
DERIVATIONAL COMPLEXITY AND ITEM DIFFICULTY IN A SENTENCE REPETITION TASK
Authors: Perkins Kyle , Brutten Sheila R. , Angelis Paul J.
Published: October 2006

This paper reports the results of an analysis to determine whether derivational complexity is a determinant of item difficulty in a sentence repetition task. Fifty ESL subjects took a 26 item sentence repetition test. It was possible to estimate Rasch item difficulty indices for 18 items. The high‐difficulty items were derivationally more complex than the low‐difficulty items; however, predictions made in the early derivational complexity research about passive, negative, and interrogative sentences were not confirmed in this research. A linguistic analysis of the most difficult items suggests that this sample of ESL subjects experienced difficulties in processing adverbials, compounding and reduction of clauses, and the non‐finite verbals.
Language‐Mixing in Children's Speech: Dutch Language Use in Turkish Discourse
Authors: Boeschoten Hendrik E. , Verhoeven Ludo Th.
Published: October 2006

Data on Dutch‐Turkish language‐mixing behavior of Turkish children growing up in The Netherlands are presented and analysed. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the descriptive models developed in research on language‐mixing are generalizable. It was found that the functional characteristics of the children's language‐mixing are compatible with earlier results. Structural analysis of the data, however, yielded results that shed considerable doubt on the universal applicability of surface structure constraint rules for sentence‐internal language‐mixing.
Sex Differences in Listening Vocabulary*
Authors: Boyle Joseph P.
Published: October 2006

Not enough attention has been paid in the past to the variable of sex differences in language‐learning research. This may be because it is taken as proven that girls are superior to boys in language ability. Although the majority of evidence does favor this conclusion, there is one area of language ability in which boys seem to be superior to girls, even in view of overall female superiority in language proficiency. This area is the comprehension of heard vocabulary.

Evidence from first‐language studies prompted an experiment with second‐language subjects: two sets of Chinese college students (n= 285 and 205). Ten tests were used to establish general language proficiency, and two tests of listening vocabulary were included in the battery. With both sets of subjects, the females were superior in general language proficiency, but the males had higher mean scores in both tests of listening vocabulary.

The difficulties of conducting such an experiment are discussed, notably the problem of constructing satisfactory listening vocabulary tests. Reasons for the phenomenon of male superiority in this select area of language ability are suggested, and similar experiments are encouraged.
Native and Nonnative Judgments of Intelligibility and Irritation
Authors: Fayer Joan M. , Krasinski Emily
Published: October 2006

This study compares the reactions of native English speakers and native Spanish speakers who listened to tapes of Puerto Rican learners of English of various levels of proficiency. The listeners completed a questionnaire that examines the following variables: intelligibility, grammar, pronunciation, intonation, wrong words, voice, hesitations, distraction and annoyance. It was found that the English and Spanish listeners differed principally in how they rated the linguistic form of the speakers and in the annoyance reported. The Spanish listeners rated the linguistic form much lower than did the English listeners and also reported more annoyance. This indicates that the Spanish listeners were less tolerant toward nonnative speech than were the English listeners. In addition, pronunciation and hesitations were reported by both groups of listeners to be, overall, the features most distracting from the message.
A New Look at Methodologies in the Study of Article Acquisition for Learners of ESL*
Authors: Parrish Betsy
Published: October 2006

In order to have a greater understanding of the processes underlying interlanguage development, it is essential to use methods of analysis that can adequately uncover those processes. The current study attempts to demonstrate how an analysis based on suppliance of morphemes in obligatory contexts alone cannot account for the systematic nature of interlanguage variability. A longitudinal study of one Japanese learner of ESL was conducted and the learner's article system was analyzed using three systems of analysis: Huebner's (1979, 1983) system of analysis based on semantic types, an adaptation of his system, and an analysis based on suppliance of morphemes in obligatory contexts. By using a combination of methods of analysis, it is found that, although this learner's use of articles is not target‐like, it is not totally random. Systematicity in the article system is found to be governed by the semantic function of noun phrases, lexical categories of NPs and attempts to keep linguistically related forms consistent with one another.
Markedness and Salience in Second‐Language Acquisition*
Authors: Bardovi‐Harlig Kathleen
Published: October 2006

This paper examines the acquisition of a typologically marked construction, preposition stranding, and its unmarked counterpart, preposition pied piping, by learners of English as a second language. Acquisition data from 95 college‐age learners show unequivocally that preposition stranding (the marked form) is acquired before preposition pied piping (the unmarked form). This apparent counterexample to the markedness hypothesis, which predicts that unmarked forms should be acquired before marked forms, suggests that a second factor, salience, also plays a role in determining acquisition order.
Textual Cohesion and Second‐Language Comprehension*
Authors: Jonz Jon
Published: October 2006

Two cloze tests were administered to native (n=199) and nonnative (n = 230) speakers of English at three universities in northeastern Texas. One test was based on an analysis of the lexical and referential cohesion in the passage while the other was a standard fixed‐ratio test. Prior to the administration of the tests, half the subjects were allowed to read the whole text from which the cloze tests were derived. Nonnative scores on the fixed‐ratio format reflect approximately the same effect as native scores from having had prior access to the whole context. Scores on the cohesion‐based test, however, demonstrate that nonnatives are far less capable of coping with the loss of redundant cohesive data than are natives. When these data are available, however, nonnatives employ them in comprehension to a comparatively greater extent than do native speakers. Nonnative speakers appear to be far more reliant on text in comprehension processes (text‐bound) than are native speakers.
Cognitive Complexity and Written Production in English as a Second Language
Authors: Shuqiang Zhang
Published: October 2006

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the effects of cognitive complexity upon the written production of learners of English as a second language (ESL). Sixty‐three intermediate ESL learners provided written responses to questions at high and low cognitive levels. Their performances at the two cognitive levels were rated for total number of words produced, syntactic complexity, and linguistic accuracy. It was found that a higher order of cognition increased both the amount and the order of syntactic complexity of written English responses. But across the two cognitive levels, the degree of inaccuracy remained stable. It was also found that an increase in cognitive complexity increased variability in terms of total amount of production and syntactic complexity but reduced the dispersion in error incidence. Comparisons between standard deviations and standard errors of estimate pointed to substantial inaccuracy of prediction if generalizations were to be made about ESL performance at a high cognitive level from a knowledge of performance at a low level.
The Effect of Foreign Accent and Speaking Rate on Native Speaker Comprehension*
Authors: Anderson‐Hsieh Janet , Koehler Kenneth
Published: October 2006

This study investigated the effect of foreign accent and speaking rate on native speaker comprehension. The speakers for the study were three native speakers of Chinese, with TSE (Test of Spoken English) comprehensibility scores of 180, 200, and 260, and one native speaker of American English. The speakers each read passages at three different speaking rates. The tape‐recorded passages were then presented to native speakers of American English who responded to them by taking a listening comprehension test and rating the speech samples. The results showed that the comprehension scores were significantly higher for the native passages than for the nonnative passages and significantly higher at the regular rate than at the fast rate for all speakers. It was also found that the increase in speaking rate from the regular to the fast rate resulted in a greater decrease in comprehension for the most heavily accented speaker than for the other speakers, indicating that speaking rate is more critical for the comprehension of heavily accented speech. In addition, the results suggested that prosodie deviance may affect comprehension more adversely than does segmentai deviance.
Second‐Language Accent: The Relationship Between Discrimination and Perception in Acquisition*
Authors: Schneiderman Eta , Bourdages Johanne , Champagne Cécile
Published: October 2006

This paper reports on a study which measures the relationship between the discrimination and production of segmental and prosodic elements in a second language. The measures employed in the study also served to assess the effects of a phonetic training program for French as a second language designed by the authors.

Two questions are addressed in the present study: 1) Is there a systematic relationship between perception and production of the sound system in a second language? 2) What effect does a period of systematic discrimination training in the second language have on this relationship?

The measures employed included tests of discrimination and production for French phones, rhythm, and prosody. The subjects' production test results were judged by highly trained, native speakers of French. Subjects for the study included a treated group which had undergone the phonetic training program and an untreated group which had not. Both groups were simultaneously enrolled in French as a second language courses. Testing took place prior to the start of the French courses and at the end of the semester immediately after they had finished.

Although the results of the study indicate that discrimination ability initially exceeds production ability, they also suggest that explicit training may disrupt this relationship.
The Socio‐Educational Model of Second‐Language Learning: Assumptions, Findings, and Issues*
Authors: Gardner R. C.
Published: October 2006

Au criticizes the socio‐educational model of second‐language learning and argues that the research literature does not offer strong support for it. The present article responds to these criticisms, indicating where they are based on invalid assumptions and/or a simplistic interpretation of the model, and reviews research findings that attest to the validity of the model. It is argued that Au's criticisms are valuable, however, in that they highlight issues in this research area, and some of the ones that are believed to be most important are then reviewed.
Tuck in Your Shirt, You Squid: Suggestions in ESL*
Authors: Banerjee Janet , Carrell Patricia L.
Published: October 2006

A discourse completion questionnaire consisting of 60 situations designed to elicit suggestions in English was administered to 28 native speakers of Chinese or Malay and 12 native speakers of American English. The purpose of the study was to determine what, if any, differences exist between the way adult native speakers and nonnative speakers make suggestions and what implications there may be, if any, for the ESL classroom teacher in helping students develop pragmatic competence. Situations reflected three degrees of embarrassment to addressees who were varied by familiarity and sex.

Speakers provided suggestions to about 50% of the situations, natives slightly more frequently than did nonnatives; however, nonnatives were slightly more direct in their responses than were natives. All subjects provided suggestions more frequently in urgent situations and less frequently in embarrassing situations. Simple statements of fact were the most common and neutral type of suggestions made by all speakers.

Although suggestions made by native and nonnative speakers were basically similar in directness and frequency, they differed in the number and type of politeness strategies used. Examples of successful strategies used by native speakers, which could be taught to ESL students using a functional approach, as well as some of the pragmatically less successful strategies used by nonnative speakers are discussed.
Anxiety and Second‐Language Learning: Toward a Theoretical Clarification*
Authors: MacIntyre P. D. , Gardner R. C.
Published: October 2006

Reviews of the literature on foreign‐language anxiety show a considerable amount of ambiguity arising from the conflicting results of past studies. This study attempts to show that these difficulties can be resolved given an awareness of the theoretical perspective from which this research has developed. Specifically, it was predicted that anxiety based in the language environment would be associated with language learning whereas other types of anxiety would not show consistent relationships to performance. Eleven anxiety scales were factor analyzed yielding two orthogonal dimensions of anxiety which were labelled General Anxiety and Communicative Anxiety. It was found that only Communicative Anxiety is a factor in both the acquisition and production of French vocabulary. Analyses of the correlations between the anxiety scales and the measures of achievement show that scales of foreign‐language anxiety and state anxiety are associated with performance. Scales of test anxiety, audience sensitivity, trait anxiety, and other types of anxiety did not correlate with any of the production measures. Finally, a model is proposed which describes the development of foreign‐language anxiety.
Self‐Assessment of Foreign‐Language Skills: Implications for Teachers and Researchers
Authors: Blanche Patrick , Merino Barbara J.
Published: October 2006

Self‐assessment accuracy is a condition of learner autonomy. If students can appraise their own performance accurately enough, they will not have to depend entirely on the opinions of teachers and, at the same time, they will be able to make teachers aware of their individual learning needs. The purpose of this article is (1) to summarize the literature on self‐evaluation of foreign language skills and (2) to show what it could mean to teachers and researchers. The conclusions of several self‐assessment studies are somewhat contradictory, but these differences seem to support Krashen's Monitor Model/ Theory. Therefore, both teachers and researchers should keep in mind that foreign language learners' self‐estimates may be influenced to a varying degree by the use of the Monitor.
Language Universals and Second‐Language Acquisition*
Authors: Gass Susan M.
Published: October 2006

This paper examines the goals and assumptions of second‐language acquisition (SLA) research, in particular relating these goals and assumptions to those of linguistics. It is argued that SLA is linguistics and that second‐language data are of import in understanding the nature of language. The main focus is language universals of which three approaches (Universal Grammar, typological universals, and processing universals) are considered. Both theoretical underpinnings and empirical evidence are brought to bear in presenting supporting and discinfiirming arguments for each of these three approaches. It is argued that we must take into account an understanding of how apparently disparate facts of language—which are universally related—are conceptually related before we can predict their effect on second‐language acquisition. It is further pointed out that because an understanding of second‐language learning necessitates an interdisciplinary approach, we must be able to specify where any single approach fits into the total picture. Finally, we present a view of the possible ways in which SLA and linguistics are theoretically related and point out that it is incumbent upon SLA researchers to make it known that the data we work with are of relevance and interest to the formulation of theories of language.
Second‐Language Acquisition and the Computational Paradigm*
Authors: Carroll Susanne
Published: October 2006

The central claim of the cognitive science paradigm is that the mind/brain can be thought of as an information‐processing device. Classical theories require explicitness about the representations in which knowledge is encoded because processes are denned as algorithms computing over them. In much current second‐language acquisition (SLA) research, there is talk of “process” and “processing” without talk of representation or, conversely, proposals about representation with no clarity about how structures are exploited during parsing or production. To accept this state of affairs is not to take the paradigm seriously. I offer an analysis of gender attribution in French L1 and French L2 acquisition to show how one can develop explicit models of acquisition, blending together the findings of linguistics and experimental psycholinguistics.
Topic Prominence in Japanese EFL Students’ Existential Constructions*
Authors: Sasaki Miyuki
Published: October 2006

This paper investigates Japanese speakers’ interlanguage constructions of English existential sentences with a locative sentential topic. Written sentences produced by four different levels of learners were compared. The investigation focuses on the following two issues: (1) the effect of learners’ proficiency level on the degree of topic prominence in a relatively free writing task (Test 1) and (2) the effect of elicitation on production of target‐like constructions (i.e., the subject‐predicate structure) in a controlled writing task (Test 2). The results of Test 1 indicate that there was a general shift from topic‐comment to subject‐predicate structures as the students’ proficiency increases. Interactions were also observed between the degree of topic‐prominence and the location of the sentence in the students’ writing tasks. The results of Test 2 suggest that although some students did not use the target‐like structure in Test 1, this does not mean that they cannot use it under other conditions. The implications of these results are discussed.
Investigating Fluency in EFL: A Quantitative Approach*
Authors: Lennon Paul
Published: October 2006

This paper investigates various easily quantifiable performance features that might function as objective indicators of oral fluency. It would be advantageous if we could assemble a set of variables that functioned as good indicators of what expert judges, such as experienced native‐speaker EFL teachers, are reacting to when subjectively assessing fluency. This would advance our knowledge of what constitutes fluency and especially what makes for perceived fluency differences among learners and how an individual learner improves in fluency over time.

To these ends a sample of the spoken performance of four advanced EFL learners was recorded at the start of six‐months' residence in Britain and again shortly before departure. A panel of 10 native‐speaker teachers of EFL subjectively rated the recordings for global fluency and generally agreed that the second set was more fluent than was the first, though for each subject one or two panel members dissented.

A battery of 12 readily quantifiable performance variables considered to be related to fluency was then assembled. Values per subject per recording were obtained, expressed as frequency rates or as proportions so that comparisons could be made between first and second renderings. For each variable, subjects' scores were compared between the two time points to ascertain in which features improvements were consistently manifested. For each variable t‐tests were conducted between sample means at Week 2 and Week 23. Improvement of note at the 0.05 level of significance was found for three variables (one‐tailed test), namely, speech rate, filled pauses per T‐Unit, and percentage of T‐Units followed by pause. Surprisingly, self‐corrections did not prove a good indicator.

The implications of the study are that quantitative analysis can indeed help to identify fluency improvements in individual learners, and may have the potential to provide objective assessment of spoken fluency. Findings revealed two key areas of performance that seem to be important for fluency: (1) speech‐pause relationships in performance and (2) frequency of occurrence of dysfluency markers such as filled pauses and repetitions (but not necessarily self‐corrections).

However, even from this small‐scale study it does seem that there is scope for individual variation among subjects in the precise areas in which fluency improvements may occur. Further research might be able to identify both “core” and “peripheral” fluency variables.

Quantitative analysis has applications both as a testing instrument and as a diagnostic tool to identify individual learner strengths and weaknesses among the components of fluency. Investigation of native‐speaker performance might provide native‐like target score ranges on each variable for learners to aim at.
In Defense of Parameter‐Setting in L2 Acquisition: A Reply to Bley‐Vroman and Chaudron‘90*
Authors: Flynn Suzanne , Lust Barbara
Published: October 2006

Bley‐Vroman and Chaudron (BV/C) (1990) challenge the theoretical and empirical validity of the results in Flynn (1983, 1987) and propose an alternative explanation of the reported results. In doing so, BV/C attempt to impugn the role of Universal Grammar (UG), particularly Parameter (P)‐setting, in L2 acquisition.

In this paper, we demonstrate that BV/C's remarks are based on (1) failure to consider the theoretical and logical basis of the research paradigm they challenge; (2) simplistic interpretation of the parameter‐setting paradigm in UG, and (3) false assumptions regarding the statistical method, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). In addition, (4) the putative “more plausible interpretation” they propose is not theoretically viable, is based on false assumptions regarding the empirical facts of language processing, and is inconsistent with precise analyses of the data that it is attempting to explain. Therefore, it in no way provides an alternative explanation for the results of Flynn's empirical studies. Thus, of the two accounts, only the P‐setting explanation remains as a viable explanation.
Conceptualizing Motivation in Foreign‐Language Learning*
Authors: Dörnyei Zoltán
Published: October 2006

This study investigates the components of motivation in foreign‐language learning (FLL)–which involves learning the target language in institutional/academic settings without regularly interacting with the target language community. It was assumed that the results obtained from second‐language acquisition (SLA) contexts–those in which the target language is learned at least partly embedded in the host environment–are not directly applicable to FLL situations. Therefore a motivational questionnaire was developed and administered to 134 learners of English in Hungary, a typical European FLL environment, with the aim of defining the relevance and characteristics of integrativeness and instrumentality in FLL, as well as to locate other motivational components. Based upon the results, a motivational construct was postulated consisting of (1) an Instrumental Motivational Subsystem, (2) an Integrative Motivational Subsystem, which is a multifaceted cluster with four dimensions, (3) Need for Ach evement, and (4) Attributions about Past Failures. The results also indicated that in mastering an intermediate target language proficiency, the Instrumental Motivational Subsystem and Need for Achievement especially, play a significant role, whereas the desire to go beyond this level is associated with integrative motives.
The Cloze Test as an Integrative Measure of EFL Proficiency: A Substitute for Essays on College Entrance Examinations?*
Authors: Fotos Sandra S.
Published: October 2006

Cloze tests have been the focus of considerable interest in recent years as easily constructed and scored measures of integrative proficiency. Although there has been debate as to whether all forms produced by the cloze procedure are equally reliable and valid, as well as controversy over what is actually measured, the balance of evidence favors a positive view of the cloze test as an effective testing instrument. These implications are especially significant in the EFL situation in which many English teachers are nonnative speakers who want to include an integrative measure of EFL proficiency within the English portion of their college entrance examinations. The study reported here presents the necessary steps in the development of a reliable and valid cloze test and uses the form produced to measure EFL proficiency in two groups of Japanese college students, English majors and nonmajors. Cloze test performance is correlated with essay scores and TOEFL scores to determine whether the cloze test can function as an alternative measure of integrative language ability. Issues regarding construct and predictive validity are addressed, and it is suggested that well‐designed cloze tests are capable of assessing language skills ranging from basic to advanced. Use of cloze tests in their fixed‐ratio deletion, exact‐word scored format is recommended, with certain limiting considerations, as a substitute for essay tests on English proficiency examinations.