bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
TOWARDS A THEORY OF LANGUAGE LEARNING ABILITY
Authors: Neufeld Gerald G. 
Published: October 2006

In this paper, the problem of foreign or second language learning ability in adults is examined with special attention to the “critical period” hypothesis. Although data from several studies are reviewed, discussion centers around the appropriateness of traditional research methodology in the area.The author begins with a summary of the four most frequently discussed positions on foreign or second language aptitude as they appear in the literature. He then turns to methodological issues where he argues for a shift in orientation from macrocorrelational studies to more carefully controlled micro research which embodies the developmental null hypothesis. In the third portion of the paper, he discusses three studies he has conducted on second language learning ability in adults. The author concludes by enumerating the issues he views most important for future research. He reaffirms his claim that the optimal way to study the nature of language learning ability is to focus narrowly upon specific problems in idealized contexts where extralinguistic variables are reduced to a minimum in tightly controlled designs.
INTERLANGUAGE RESEARCH: INTERPRETATION OR EXPLANATION1
Authors: Jordens Peter 
Published: October 2006

It has generally been accepted that L2 errors can give us information about the L2 acquisition process and its developmental stages. But dealing with interlanguage (IL) phenomena in terms of errors against target language norms can be regarded as problematic in several respects. Moreover, it does not seem adequate either to study rule‐governed IL utterances without explicitly formulating the rules in terms of the underlying psychological processes that characterize the learning. Without considering these processes, we are left merely interpreting our data, not being able to explain what causes them.In order to avoid these shortcomings, empirical research should be done into the psychological reality of the rules that underlie IL behavior. These rules should be studied as part of the mechanisms and strategies of the IL production process. The proper procedure should be to formulate hypotheses about underlying rules and, subsequently, to test the predictions that can be derived from these hypotheses.Hyltenstam's description (1977) of the developmental route of negative (NEG) placement in Swedish as an L2 will be used as an example of how empirical research on the acquisition of grammatical structures can be evaluated. Using Hyltenstam's data, I will propose an alternative that provides an adequate explanation of the route of acquisition of NEG placement in Swedish as a result of underlying principles which are located in the domain of a psychology of L2 learning.
NATIVE SPEAKER REACTIONS TO LEARNERS' SPOKEN INTERLANGUAGE 1
Authors: Albrechtsen Dorte , Henriksen Birgit , Færch Claus 
Published: October 2006

Previous studies of the communicative effect of learner language have mainly dealt with native speaker evaluations of the intelligibility of discrete items (typically error types) in learners' written performance. The present study is an attempt to assess a wider range of native speaker reactions to stretches of discourse, produced by Danish learners of English in interview situations. These data were evaluated by 150 native British informants on 14 five‐point scales labelled by bipolar adjectives. A factor analysis yielded four factors, which were interpreted as a personality factor, a content factor, a language factor, and a comprehension factor.Results obtained on the language factor and on the comprehension factor were then compared with results obtained from an objective performance analysis of the learner texts. These comparisons indicated that whereas the correlation was highly significant between the language factor and most of the performance features analysed, only one of the performance features correlated significantly with the comprehension factor, viz. communication strategies. This lack of correlation between quantitative measures of learners' performance and evaluations of comprehension was further investigated by means of more qualitative analyses of specific aspects of the texts (errors in lexis, communication strategies, discourse structure).
DEVELOPING A MEASURE OF SOCIOCULTURAL COMPETENCE: THE CASE OF APOLOGY1
Authors: Cohen Andrew D. , Olshtain Elite 
Published: October 2006

For a number of years, there has been interest in measuring sociocultural competence (Ervin‐Tripp 1972, Hymes 1974, Canale and Swain 1980). This study focuses on one important aspect of such competence: the ability to use the appropriate sociocultural rules of speaking, by reacting in a culturally acceptable way in context and by choosing stylistically appropriate forms for that context. We chose to look at productive performance in sociocultural aspects of speaking, focusing on the speech act of “apology.” The research question that prompted this study was, “Can a rating scale be developed for assessing sociocultural competence?”The subjects were 32 native Hebrew speakers, 20 of whom served as informants for apologies in English LZ and 12 as informants in Hebrew LI, and 12 Americans who served as informants in English LI. These subjects were asked to role‐play their responses in eight situations in which an apology was expected.The findings show that it is possible to identify culturally and stylistically inappropriate L2 utterances in apology situations. The authors feel, however, that the results so far provide at best a crude measure of sociocultural competence and that further work with this speech act and with others is called for.
ORAL PROFICIENCY TESTING: COMPARATIVE VALIDITIES OF INTERVIEW, IMITATION, AND COMPLETION METHODS
Authors: Henning Grant 
Published: October 2006

Employing an initial sample of 143 adult Egyptian learners of English as a foreign language, the three oral testing methodologies of imitation, completion, and interview were compared for reliability and validity. Similarly, five components under each method, namely, raw score, fluency, pronunciation, grammar, and combined fluency‐pronunciation‐grammar ratings, were analyzed separately and in tandem. Multicomponent‐multimethod convergent and discriminant validities were determined. Stepwise multiple regression was computed using FSI‐like interview scores as the dependent variable. And Rasch latent trait calibration and tests of fit validity were computed for imitation and completion tests.Results indicated that the pronunciation component of the imitation method exhibited highest overall validity across all indexes. The FSI‐like component of the interview method ranked second and the fluency component of the imitation method ranked third. Comparison of the three oral testing methods across all components for all empirical validity indexes showed (1) imitation, (2) interview, and (3) completion methods to rank in that respective order in terms of available composite validity indexes. Regression analysis showed the FSI‐like interview to be primarily related to grammar skill from among 11 independent predictors examined.Advantages of Rasch measurement were noted for management and analysis of item data.
NONNATIVE SPEAKERS' PERCEPTIONS OF ENGLISH “NONLEXICAL” INTONATION SIGNALS
Authors: Luthy Melvin J. 
Published: October 2006

This paper reports the results of a study to determine how well nonnative English speakers understand 14 English intonation signals that generally do not have written correlates.The 14 signals were recorded free of any verbal context, and played first to 25 native English speakers to determine if they understood them without the usual visual or verbal clues, and then to 42 foreign students to determine if there was a significant difference between them and the native speakers. The results indicated that our foreign students may be missing or misinterpreting much that native speakers communicate quite automatically with “nonlexical” signals.The paper discusses the signals, their meanings, and the errors that foreign students made. Each of the signals is shown in an appropriate context with a narrow phonetic description to help anyone desiring to learn or teach the meanings conveyed by this part of English phonology. Related studies and possible avenues for future research are noted.
STUDENT PARTICIPATION IN THE ESL CLASSROOM OR SOME IMPERFECTIONS IN PRACTICE
Authors: Day Richard R. 
Published: October 2006

This study explores the relationship between student participation in the ESL classroom and proficiency in English, use of the target language outside the classroom, and field sensitivity. The 58 subjects, mainly from Asia, were studying ESL in an intensive program in Honolulu. Their classroom participation, which, for the purposes of the study, was defined as responses to teachers’general solicits and self‐initiated turns, was coded during the beginning and end of an eight‐week term. The subjects were also asked to fill out a questionnaire on their use of English outside of the classroom. In the sixth and seventh weeks of the term, the subjects were given an English cloze test and a measure of field dependence/independence; in addition, 26 subjects were administered an oral interview.The results indicate that there was no significant relationship between classroom participation and scores on either the oral interview or the cloze test, between classroom participation and use of the target language away from the classroom, and between classroom participation and field sensitivity. These findings are discussed with respect to the work of others who have conducted similar research.
THE ONE TO ONE PRINCIPLE OF INTERLANGUAGE CONSTRUCTION
Authors: Andersen Roger W. 
Published: October 2006

Studies of pidginization have often characterized the minimal nonnative linguistic systems that result from the process of pidginization in negative terms, as the absence of morphosyntactic features of the native target language. Such negative definitions (1) fail to explain what pidgins are like and how they get that way and (2) fail to provide a means for describing and explaining continual linguistic development of nonnative interlanguage systems beyond the minimal skeletal systems characteristic of the earliest stage of interlanguage development.This paper suggests that one important principle of interlanguage construction can account for both minimal "pidginized" interlanguage systems and more developed interlanguage systems. The One to One Principle of interlanguage construction specifies that an interlanguage system should be constructed in such a way that an intended underlying meaning is expressed with one clear invariant surface form or construction. Evidence for this principle is drawn from recent second language acquisition research on Dutch, English, French, German, Spanish, and Swedish as second languages.
EVIDENCE OF A FORMAL SCHEMA IN SECOND LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION
Authors: Carrell Patricia L. 
Published: October 2006

Research on discourse comprehension has shown that comprehension is determined not only by the local effects (sentences or paragraphs), but also by the overall organization of a text. Each type of text—e.g., stories, fables, expository and scientific texts—has its own conventional structure; knowledge of these conventions aids listeners or readers in comprehending the text as well as in recalling it later (Kintsch and van Dijk 1975; Meyer 1975; Thorndyke 1977). Following Bartlett (1932), this knowledge has been called a schema, or more specifically, following Carrell (1983a), a formal schema.Recent empirical research has shown the powerful effects of formal schemata in first language comprehension for both adults and children (Mandler and Johnson 1977; Johnson and Mandler 1980). Findings for first language acquirers, children, show that at least by first grade children have acquired story schemata and use them to organize comprehension and recall of stories (Mandler 1978a). Yet, no comparable research has been done to empirically investigate the role of story schemata in second language comprehension.This paper reports an empirical study of the effects of story structure on second language comprehension, specifically reading comprehension in English as a second language. Results indicate that the quantity and temporal sequence of story recall are affected by differences in story structure.The findings are discussed in terms of schema‐theoretic approaches to reading and the effects of formal, rhetorical schemata on ESL reading comprehension. The paper concludes with a call for further ESL research in this area.
MOTHER TONGUE MAINTENANCE AND SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING: A CASE OF JAPANESE CHILDREN
Authors: Okamura‐Bichard Fumiko 
Published: October 2006

This paper reports the findings of a study conducted with Japanese children temporarily residing in the U.S. The study examined, within a population whose group‐specific background was fairly definable, the degree of mother tongue maintenance/ development in relation to the learning of the second language among the subjects as well as the factors which affected the individuals' success or failure in their endeavors in the learning of two languages.Forty‐eight subjects, who were sixth graders in a Japanese weekend school, took a nonverbal IQ test and a Japanese language test. Some of them also took a reading test in English. Both the children and parents responded to individual questionnaires. Correlation, factor, multiple regression, and discriminant analyses were the methods of analyses used.The results revealed that there were no relationships between (1) the years of schooling in Japan and the level in the Japanese language skills, (2) the level of intelligence and the abilities in the two languages, and (3) the comparable abilities in Japanese and English. The years of schooling in the U.S. significantly related to the skill level in English. This factor did not have any discriminating power, however, to separate the children who were high in both languages, high in one and low in the other, and low in both languages. Parents proved a factor in the children's language status, particularly in the degree of their mother tongue maintenance. In terms of relative importance, however, the children's interests, attitudes, and the extent of use of the language contributed more significantly to the level in each language.
THE ROLE OF ATTITUDES AND MOTIVATION IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING: CORRELATIONAL AND EXPERIMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
Authors: Gardner R.C. , Lalonde R.N. , Moorcroft R. 
Published: October 2006

This study investigated the multitrait‐multimethod validity of the Attitude/ Motivation Test Battery and in addition made use of laboratory procedures to examine the role of language aptitude and attitudinal/motivational attributes on the rate of learning French vocabulary. Subjects were 170 volunteers from an introductory psychology course. The results indicated that all but two measures adapted from the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery evidenced acceptable convergent and discriminant validity and that they were largely independent of social desirability. Indices of language aptitude and integrative motivation were independent correlates of indices of French achievement.The effects of language aptitude, integrative motivation, and mode of presentation on the rate of learning 25 French/ English vocabulary pairs were investigated using a paired associate learning paradigm. The results demonstrated that all three factors influenced rate of learning. Subjects high in language aptitude learned faster than those who were low, those high on integrative motivation learned faster than those who were low, and the rate of learning was more rapid under visual/ written conditions as compared with aural/oral ones. Other results indicated that subjects' perceptions of their effort and interest on each trial were influenced by their level of integrative motivation but not by language aptitude, suggesting the different roles these two factors play in second language learning.
AN ANALYSIS OF DISCOMFORT, RISKTAKING, SOCIABILITY, AND MOTIVATION IN THE L2 CLASSROOM
Authors: Ely Christopher M. 
Published: October 2006

This study investigated a causal model of second language learning. Particular attention was given to three situation‐specific constructs: Language Class Discomfort, Language Class Risktaking, and Language Class Sociability. It was theorized that voluntary Classroom Participation mediates the effect of Language Class Discomfort, Language Class Risktaking, Language Class Sociability, and Strength of Motivation on success in classroom L2 learning. The subjects were students enrolled in first year (first and second quarter) university Spanish classes.Data on Classroom Participation were gathered by means of classroom observation and audio recording. Proficiency was measured by correctness and fluency on a storyretelling task and correctness on a written final examination. The results of the causal analysis included findings that: Language Class Discomfort negatively predicted Language Class Risktaking and Language Class Sociability; Language Class Risktaking positively predicted Classroom Participation; and Classroom Participation positively predicted Oral Correctness for the first quarter students.
THE KEAUKAHA MODEL FOR MAINSTREAM DIALECT INSTRUCTION*
Authors: Crowley Dale P. 
Published: October 2006

This article is a detailed description of the procedures, together with some of the rationale underlying those procedures, that were designed into the treatment variable of a research project on language acquisition. The treatment variable to which the experimental Ss are being exposed is the pedagogical “model” mentioned in the title. This model for imparting proficiency in the target dialect to the Ss, although clearly an adaptation of audio‐lingual methodology for second language teaching, is described for the most part from the standpoint of educational psychology. The article delineates the various aspects of language pedagogy which were determined to be essential to the most effective model; namely, teacher training, classroom dynamics, dialect analysis, contrastive analysis (between the nonstandard and standard dialects), and lesson writing.The research hypothesis states that the effect of the treatment, or model, will be a greater gain in the acquisition of proficiency in standard oral English by the experimental Ss than by the control Ss, who are exposed to only traditional procedures for teaching English. All of the Ss are youngsters who come to school with their native dialect only, commonly known as Pidgin English. The article characterizes the target dialect as mainstream English.
The Development of L1 and L2 Proficiency in Dutch: A Narrative Analysis of a Picture‐Based Story, Told by Turkish and Native Dutch Children at the Ages of Six and Eight
Authors: Lalleman Josine A. 
Published: October 2006

This article presents analysis of the narrative proficiency of L1 and L2 learners of Dutch. A group of Dutch native children and a group of Turkish immigrant children, born and reared in The Netherlands, were asked to tell a story from a series of pictures, first when they entered primary school and again when they were in the third year of primary school.In comparison with their Dutch peers, the Turkish children exhibit more or less the same level of narrative proficiency in Dutch; however, their grammatical knowledge is deficient. It was concluded that by using their communicative skills, the L2 learners are able to perform almost as well as native children in a task that is cognitively and contextually easy.
Electoral Rhetoric in Israel — The Televised Debates A Study in Political Discourse*
Authors: Nir Raphael 
Published: October 2006

The televised pre‐election debate, first instituted during the Nixon‐Kennedy campaign in 1960, has since been adopted by virtually all Western Democracies. In Israel, the first televised debate took place in 1977 between M. Begin and S. Peres, who met before the cameras once again four years later. A third such debate took place in 1984, this time between S. Peres and I. Shamir.The increasing presence of the mass media in the political system diverts attention from politicians' deeds to their verbal behavior. The televised debate is a most reliable means of documenting the verbal behavior of political candidates, notwithstanding the constraints imposed on such behavior by the medium and the format.In this paper, the author attempts to analyze the communicative setting of the debate within the Israeli format. Stylistic features of the candidates' discourse are studied, beginning with a review of some salient characteristics of persuasive discourse in general. While identifying and comparing rhetorical strategies of the candidates in three debates, the question is asked whether the differences are personal or perhaps stem from the ideologies of the political movements represented by the contenders.The following stylistic and rhetorical features are described, using statistical and qualitative analysis: figurative expressions and intensifiers, irony and rhetorical questions, repetition and parallelism, meta‐discoursive comments.
Piaget's Nominal Realism From a Linguistic Point of View*
Authors: Ephratt Michal 
Published: October 2006

Nominal Realism connotes the belief that “every object has received a primordial and absolute name, which is somehow part of its being”. Following experimental results, Piaget and other psychologists claimed that such a phenomenon is observed with children during their “second childhood period”. This paper challenges these claims about Nominal Realism. Instead, it suggests that this is a linguistic phenomenon and should be studied as such.In terms of linguistics and the philosophy of language, Nominal Realism is a referring instance and excludes any nonreferring (i.e., sense) properties. The sense property synonymy was chosen to carry out a field study in which use was made of a modification of the “semantic differential” in combination with pictorial stimuli to test the grasp of synonymy in children during their second childhood period.By introducing linguistic terms, methods, and tools, we gain methodological validity and objective results, suitable for comparison. The conclusion is that children of the second childhood period acquire sense‐properties—synonymy—hence refuting the psychologists’ claims about Nominal Realism.
On L1 Transfer in L2 Comprehension and L2 Production*
Authors: Ringbom Håkan 
Published: October 2006

Previous studies of transfer have dealt with its effects on either speaking or writing, whereas the effects on reading and listening have been neglected. In this paper, transfer is examined in relation to the different demands that the four language modalities make on the learner.The main differences between L2 comprehension and L2 production concern the roles played by context and by potential knowledge. Transfer in comprehension is overt transfer, in which some cross‐linguistic similarity has been perceived between L2 input and existing or potential L1‐based knowledge, and which has an overwhelmingly facilitative effect on learning. In production, on the other hand, there is also covert transfer, in which L1‐based forms and procedures are used in the absence of appropriate L2‐based forms or procedures. This means that the relative strength of the positive versus the negative effects of transfer are much more difficult to assess in production. However, because comprehension normally precedes production, transfer in comprehension is at least as important as is transfer in production.