title: Modified Output in Response to Clarification Requests and Second Language

authors: Ogino, Masayoshi

subjects: second language acquisition

abstract: Modified output, second language (L2) learners' reformulation of their own utterances, has been attracting researchers' interest as an important component of learner interactions, and as a manifestation of interlanguage development and psycholinguistic processing. 

The output hypothesis (Swain, 1985, 1993, 1995, 2005) claims that the act of production constitutes part of the process of L2 learning in terms of noticing, hypothesis testing and metalinguistic functions.  This hypothesis has been used as a theoretical framework to investigate the relationship between modified output and L2 learning (e.g., McDonough, 2001, 2005; Nobuyoshi  Ellis, 1993; O'Relly, Flatiz,  Kromrey, 2001; Takashima  Ellis, 1999).  However, the empirical evidence from these studies does not yet appear to confirm unequivocally that the production of modified output facilitates L2 learning. 

The present study further explored the impact of modified output on L2 learning, by means of an experimental pre-test, post-test and delayed-post design.  The production of modified output was triggered by one type of implicit feedback, clarification requests.  The data were collected from 28 undergraduate students who were learning Japanese as a foreign language.  The target linguistic feature was the negation of adjectives in Japanese, and a total of 1,011 negations were elicited and analysed.  The impact of modified output on L2 learning was measured in two different aspects of potential outcomes of modified output (i.e., grammatical accuracy and interlanguage development).  In addition, the study investigated whether the non-targetlike forms which participants previously modified were then produced in the subsequent situations of use.  

The output hypothesis was originally framed in terms of the relationship between output and grammatical accuracy, but the findings of the current study suggest that production of modified output in response to clarification requests may facilitate the progress of interlanguage development towards targetlike use even when its immediate impact on grammatical accuracy may not be observed.  Therefore, the present study lends at least partial support to the claim of the output hypothesis.

The results did not clearly demonstrate whether or not production of modified output might sensitise learners to avoid the use of the same non-targetlike form that they have previously modified.  This indicates a possibility of the limited role of production of modified output in L2 learning, and suggests that the follow-up feedback to learners' modified output may be necessary to maximise the impact of modified output in facilitating L2 learning.

text: Modified Output in Response to Clarification Requests and Second Language Modified output, second language (L2) learners' reformulation of their own utterances, has been attracting researchers' interest as an important component of learner interactions, and as a manifestation of interlanguage development and psycholinguistic processing. 

The output hypothesis (Swain, 1985, 1993, 1995, 2005) claims that the act of production constitutes part of the process of L2 learning in terms of noticing, hypothesis testing and metalinguistic functions.  This hypothesis has been used as a theoretical framework to investigate the relationship between modified output and L2 learning (e.g., McDonough, 2001, 2005; Nobuyoshi  Ellis, 1993; O'Relly, Flatiz,  Kromrey, 2001; Takashima  Ellis, 1999).  However, the empirical evidence from these studies does not yet appear to confirm unequivocally that the production of modified output facilitates L2 learning. 

The present study further explored the impact of modified output on L2 learning, by means of an experimental pre-test, post-test and delayed-post design.  The production of modified output was triggered by one type of implicit feedback, clarification requests.  The data were collected from 28 undergraduate students who were learning Japanese as a foreign language.  The target linguistic feature was the negation of adjectives in Japanese, and a total of 1,011 negations were elicited and analysed.  The impact of modified output on L2 learning was measured in two different aspects of potential outcomes of modified output (i.e., grammatical accuracy and interlanguage development).  In addition, the study investigated whether the non-targetlike forms which participants previously modified were then produced in the subsequent situations of use.  

The output hypothesis was originally framed in terms of the relationship between output and grammatical accuracy, but the findings of the current study suggest that production of modified output in response to clarification requests may facilitate the progress of interlanguage development towards targetlike use even when its immediate impact on grammatical accuracy may not be observed.  Therefore, the present study lends at least partial support to the claim of the output hypothesis.

The results did not clearly demonstrate whether or not production of modified output might sensitise learners to avoid the use of the same non-targetlike form that they have previously modified.  This indicates a possibility of the limited role of production of modified output in L2 learning, and suggests that the follow-up feedback to learners' modified output may be necessary to maximise the impact of modified output in facilitating L2 learning.

year: 2008

title: Youth perceptions of suicide and help-seeking: 'They'd think I was weak or “mental”'

authors: Curtis, Cate

subjects: suicide

abstract: Youth suicide is an issue of international concern and the college population may have a considerably higher rate of suicidal behaviour than the general population, yet seeking help for suicidality is uncommon. This research sought to understand college students' knowledge of suicidal behaviour and attitudes to help-seeking, in a New Zealand university. A mixed-method approach comprising a survey and interviews was utilised. Approximately one-fifth of participants had been suicidal, were aware of another student's suicide and/or had supported a suicidal student. Some participants expressed willingness to seek help for another, but far fewer were willing to seek help for themselves. Key reasons for the latter include stigma and a perceived need for self-reliance. Participants expressed greater willingness to seek help for another if they were not a close friend.

text: Youth perceptions of suicide and help-seeking: 'They'd think I was weak or “mental”' Youth suicide is an issue of international concern and the college population may have a considerably higher rate of suicidal behaviour than the general population, yet seeking help for suicidality is uncommon. This research sought to understand college students' knowledge of suicidal behaviour and attitudes to help-seeking, in a New Zealand university. A mixed-method approach comprising a survey and interviews was utilised. Approximately one-fifth of participants had been suicidal, were aware of another student's suicide and/or had supported a suicidal student. Some participants expressed willingness to seek help for another, but far fewer were willing to seek help for themselves. Key reasons for the latter include stigma and a perceived need for self-reliance. Participants expressed greater willingness to seek help for another if they were not a close friend.

year: 2010

title: The Struggle For Success: A Socio-Cultural Perspective on the French Marist Priests and their Māori Mission 1838-1867

authors: Harman, Sandy Angela

subjects: missionaries

abstract: The nineteenth-century Roman Catholic missionary endeavour in New Zealand had its origins in a society of priests from Lyon, known as the Marists. The Marists’ mission has been deemed a failure due to its ongoing financial problems, its reputation for having abandoned Māori adherents, and its less visible impact compared to the Anglican Mission. This thesis examines the challenges facing the pioneer Marist priests in New Zealand and asks the question: was the Mission indeed a failure? The answer lies in the correspondence of the French Marists themselves, a largely untapped historical source which contains a different view of early New Zealand contact and religious history from that of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) evangelists. ‘The Struggle for Success’ consists of three parts examining the Mission before, during and after the pioneer phase. The first describes the Marists’ early influences and religious formation in France, which serve to elucidate the missionaries’ raison d’être and provide an historical context for the Mission. It is also an important attempt at a prosopography of men whose early lives were barely documented, and whose connection with contemporaneous and historical France, and the Lyon area in particular, would greatly affect the missions in Oceania. The subsequent comparative mission history in Part Two highlights the difficulties and conflicts that affected the progress of the Marist Māori Mission in New Zealand compared with other Christian missions in Oceania, notably the CMS in New Zealand and the early Marists in Wallis, Futuna, Tonga and New Caledonia. It describes the factors leading to the alleged failure of the Marist Māori Mission and demonstrates that hardships and struggle were the common lot of pioneer missionaries in Oceania. But the Marists on the Māori Mission had the added obstacles of being Frenchmen in a British colony, ascetics surrounded by and dependent on commerce, and dutiful religious under the authority of overburdened bishops. Irish immigration into New Zealand distorted the original aims of the French Marist missionaries, and Māori politico-religious initiatives to combat the devastating impacts of British colonialism essentially quashed Marist hopes that Māori would become a decidedly Catholic people. Having considered the obstacles to success, the thesis discusses in Part Three how the pioneer Marists understood success and conversion. In retrospect, it is clear that the missionaries underestimated the tenacity of early Māori catechists, but the CMS in New Zealand and Marists throughout Oceania were equally insensible in this respect. Finally the thesis offers an assessment of the mission’s overall success taking into account the revival of the Marist Māori Mission in the late 1870s and its continuation into the twentieth century. The social, cultural and political complexities of missionary endeavour demand a less rigid evaluation of missions than has been previously offered; and success and failure are problematic terms for the pioneer Marist Māori Mission because evangelisation was and is a work in progress.

text: The Struggle For Success: A Socio-Cultural Perspective on the French Marist Priests and their Māori Mission 1838-1867 The nineteenth-century Roman Catholic missionary endeavour in New Zealand had its origins in a society of priests from Lyon, known as the Marists. The Marists’ mission has been deemed a failure due to its ongoing financial problems, its reputation for having abandoned Māori adherents, and its less visible impact compared to the Anglican Mission. This thesis examines the challenges facing the pioneer Marist priests in New Zealand and asks the question: was the Mission indeed a failure? The answer lies in the correspondence of the French Marists themselves, a largely untapped historical source which contains a different view of early New Zealand contact and religious history from that of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) evangelists. ‘The Struggle for Success’ consists of three parts examining the Mission before, during and after the pioneer phase. The first describes the Marists’ early influences and religious formation in France, which serve to elucidate the missionaries’ raison d’être and provide an historical context for the Mission. It is also an important attempt at a prosopography of men whose early lives were barely documented, and whose connection with contemporaneous and historical France, and the Lyon area in particular, would greatly affect the missions in Oceania. The subsequent comparative mission history in Part Two highlights the difficulties and conflicts that affected the progress of the Marist Māori Mission in New Zealand compared with other Christian missions in Oceania, notably the CMS in New Zealand and the early Marists in Wallis, Futuna, Tonga and New Caledonia. It describes the factors leading to the alleged failure of the Marist Māori Mission and demonstrates that hardships and struggle were the common lot of pioneer missionaries in Oceania. But the Marists on the Māori Mission had the added obstacles of being Frenchmen in a British colony, ascetics surrounded by and dependent on commerce, and dutiful religious under the authority of overburdened bishops. Irish immigration into New Zealand distorted the original aims of the French Marist missionaries, and Māori politico-religious initiatives to combat the devastating impacts of British colonialism essentially quashed Marist hopes that Māori would become a decidedly Catholic people. Having considered the obstacles to success, the thesis discusses in Part Three how the pioneer Marists understood success and conversion. In retrospect, it is clear that the missionaries underestimated the tenacity of early Māori catechists, but the CMS in New Zealand and Marists throughout Oceania were equally insensible in this respect. Finally the thesis offers an assessment of the mission’s overall success taking into account the revival of the Marist Māori Mission in the late 1870s and its continuation into the twentieth century. The social, cultural and political complexities of missionary endeavour demand a less rigid evaluation of missions than has been previously offered; and success and failure are problematic terms for the pioneer Marist Māori Mission because evangelisation was and is a work in progress.

year: 2010