scholarly journals Documenting L2 input and interaction during study abroad: Approaches, instruments and challenges

2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832110306
Author(s):  
Rosamond Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Sociocultural Development ◽  
L2 Development ◽  
Corpus Creation ◽  
Popular Language

A major rationale for study abroad (SA) from the perspective of second language acquisition is the presumed opportunity available to sojourners for naturalistic second language (L2) “immersion”. However, such opportunities are affected by variations in the linguistic, institutional and social affordances of SA, in different settings. They are also affected by the varying agency and motivation of sojourners in seeking second language (L2) engagement. For example, many sojourners prioritize mastering informal L2 speech, while others prioritize academic and professional registers including writing. Most will operate multilingually, using their home language, a local language, and/or English as lingua franca for different purposes, and the types of input they seek out, and language practices they enter into, vary accordingly. Consequently, while researchers have developed varied approaches to documenting L2 engagement, and have tried to relate these to measures of L2 development, these efforts have so far seen somewhat mixed success. This article reviews different approaches to documenting SA input and interaction; first, that of participant self-report, using questionnaires, interviews, journals, or language logs. Particular attention is paid to the popular Language Contact Profile (LCP), and to approaches drawing on Social Network Analysis. The limitations of all forms of self-report are acknowledged. The article also examines the contribution of direct observation and recording of L2 input and interaction during SA. This is a significant alternative approach for the study of acquisition, but one which poses theoretical, ethical and practical challenges. Researchers have increasingly enlisted participants as research collaborators who create small corpora through self-recording with L2 interlocutors. Analyses in this tradition have so far prioritized interactional, pragmatic and sociocultural development, in learner corpora, over other dimensions of second language acquisition (SLA). The theoretical and practical challenges of corpus creation in SA settings and their wider use to promote understandings of informal L2 learning are discussed.

scholarly journals Reviewing the potential of the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) for capturing second language exposure and use

2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832110200
Author(s):  
Henriette L Arndt ◽  
Jonas Granfeldt ◽  
Marianne Gullberg
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Sampling Method ◽  
Experience Sampling ◽  
Experience Sampling Method ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Language Exposure

Frequent language exposure and use are among the most important conditions for successful language learning, whether in classrooms, during study abroad, or in other informal contexts. Research probing exposure and usage often relies on one-off self-report questionnaires in which participants estimate their typical level of language exposure over extended periods of time, often long after it occurred. This may negatively affect the validity of the resulting data. This article instead explores the potential of methods used in medical and psychological research, variably known as the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), or diary methods. These methods are often combined with electronic and mobile survey applications to elicit self-report assessments at frequent, sometimes randomized intervals. We consider the possibilities of these methods for strengthening research into language exposure and use, second language acquisition more broadly, and study abroad research specifically. The methods have the potential to drastically reduce biases associated with summative recall. Additionally, they enable researchers to collect richer data about how individuals engage with language differently over time, and the contexts in which they do so, thus ultimately contributing to our understanding of individual differences in language acquisition.

Language learning in mindbodyworld: A sociocognitive approach to second language acquisition

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 467-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dwight Atkinson
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Major Part ◽  
Video Clip ◽  
Continuous Learning ◽  
Computational Process ◽  
Knowledge Representations ◽  
L2 Development

Based on recent research in cognitive science, interaction, and second language acquisition (SLA), I describe a sociocognitive approach to SLA. This approach adopts anon-cognitivistview of cognition: Instead of an isolated computational process in which input is extracted from the environment and used to build elaborate internal knowledge representations, cognition is seen asadaptive intelligence,enabling our close and sensitivealignmentto our ecosocial environment in order to survive in it. Mind, body, and world are thus functionally integrated from a sociocognitive perspective instead of radically separated.Learning plays a major part in this scenario: If environments are ever-changing, then adaptation to them is continuous. Learning is part of our natural ability to so adapt, while retaining traces of that adaptation in the integrated mind-body-world system. Viewed in this way, SLA is adaptation to/engagement with L2 environments.Interactionalso plays a central role in sociocognitive SLA: We learn L2s through interacting with/in L2 environments. Founded on innate, universal skills which evolutionarilyprecededlanguage and make it possible, interaction supports SLA at every turn. Having presented this argument, I illustrate it by analyzing a video clip of an EFL tutoring session, indicating various ‘sociocognitive tools’ for interactive alignment which undergird L2 development.

The Development of Metropolitan Languages in Post-Colonial Contexts: Language Contact and Language Change and the Case of Portuguese in Maputo

1996 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-213
Author(s):  
Christopher Stroud
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
The Social

This article explores briefly some phenomena of potential indigenization of the Portuguese spoken in Mozambique. Data for the study has been taken from work that is currently underway in Maputo, Mozambique, that was originally initiated to investigate contact varieties of Portuguese and to probe their educational implications. Speech samples comprise formal interviews and non-formal encounters from a socio-demographically representative sample of informants. The article first provides an inventory of some non-standard European Portuguese variants that are found in this data, and subsequently focusses upon a discussion of what contribution different linguistic processes make to indigenization, specifically the role played by processes of second language acquisition in a context of massive and diffuse language contact and change. Special attention is also paid to the social contexts in which different manifestations of language contact are found, and the importance of linguistic ideology for the form that language contact takes in particular cases is explored. The article concludes with the suggestion that the salient characteristics of types of non-native speech community such as Maputo require a reconceptualization of models and methods of contact linguistics and second language acquisition, and that this in turn carries implications for the terms of reference and analysis to which indigenization need be related.

World Englishes, Second Language Acquisition, and Language Contact

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajend Mesthrie
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Second Languages

Although areas of potential overlap between the fields of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and World Englishes (WE) may seem obvious, they developed historically in isolation from each other. SLA had a psycholinguistic emphasis, studying the ways in which individuals progressed towards acquisition of a target language. WE studies initially developed a sociolinguistic focus, describing varieties that arose as second languages in former British colonies. This chapter explores the way in which each field could benefit from the other. The SLA emphasis on routes of development, overgeneralization, universals of SLA, and transfer in the interlanguage has relevance to characterizing sub-varieties of WEs. Conversely, the socio-political dimension of early WE studies and the notion of macro- or group acquisition fills a gap in SLA studies which sometimes failed to acknowledge that the goal of second language learners was to become bilingual in ways that were socially meaningful within their societies.

Prototypical influence in second language acquisition: What now for the Aspect Hypothesis

2013 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin McManus
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Aspect Hypothesis ◽  
L2 Development ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Sentence Interpretation

AbstractThis paper presents empirical evidence on the development of aspect by English- and German-speaking university learners of French L2 collected from a spoken narrative task and a sentence interpretation task. Contrary to the Aspect Hypothesis's predictions, this study's results suggest that increased use of prototypical pairings goes in hand with increased L2 proficiency. Following a small but growing number of studies, this study questions the route of L2 development proposed by the Aspect Hypothesis.

Determining the influence of instruction on L2 speech processing

1987 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manfred Pienemann
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Formal Context ◽  
Verbal Morphology ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
L2 Development

Abstract In this article it is claimed that there is a set of universal speech processing constraints which applies to all types of second language acquisition. These constraints define the range of possible hypotheses about the structure of the L2 which a learner can create at a given stage of development and cannot be overridden by formal instruction or by other alterations in the linguistic input. These claims, however, do not imply that all types of language acquisition are identical or that teaching has no influence whatsoever on the way a second language develops in a formal context. It has been shown elsewhere (cf. Pienemann, 1984, 1985, 1987a) that under certain conditions teaching can influence formal L2 development. These demonstrable positive effects of teaching, however, remain inside the variational margin left open by the processing constraints. The present paper reports on the interlanguage development of one learner of German as a second language, selected from a broader longitudinal study of one year’s duration. It was found that the learner’s word order development was identical to the natural development of German as a second language despite the progression intended in the teaching. A similar result was obtained in the development of verbal morphology. It is also shown that agreement marking is acquired at the same time as specific word order rules.

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