Measuring group work dynamics and its relation with L2 learners’ task motivation and language production

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 719-740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glen Poupore
Keyword(s):  
Group Work ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Task Motivation ◽  
L2 Learners

scholarly journals Korean College EFL Learners’ Task Motivation in Written Language Production

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bomin Kim ◽  
Haedong Kim
Keyword(s):  
Language Production ◽  
L2 Writing ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Choice Condition ◽  
College Level ◽  
Task Motivation ◽  
Written Production ◽  
Task Conditions ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Topic Choice

<p>The aims of the present study were to explore the effects of two different types of task conditions (topic choice vs. no choice) on the quality of written production in a second language (lexical complexity, syntactic complexity, and cohesion) and to investigate the effects of these two different task conditions on task motivation. This research was conducted by means of a task motivation questionnaire and a collation of the writings of 31 Korean college students learning English as a foreign language. The data was analyzed using Coh-Metrix 3.0. The major findings were as follows: 1) The writings of participants in the topic choice condition were better than those in the no-choice condition in terms of lexical sophistication and temporal cohesion. However, participants’ written production in the no-choice condition was better than that in the topic choice condition in terms of syntactic complexity. 2) The participants’ task motivation levels were higher for the perceived choice domain in the topic choice condition than in the no-choice condition. These findings should help L2 writing instructors, materials developers, and researchers to design L2 writing instruction with a focus on written production specifically for Korean college-level learners.</p>

Effects of Task Complexity Variables on Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency of Second Language Production: A Critical Review

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Lilliati Ismail ◽  
Arshad Abd. Samad
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Task Complexity ◽  
Task Design ◽  
Complex Tasks ◽  
Complexity Level ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
L2 Learners

This paper reviews recent research that has manipulated task complexity variables to gauge their effects on L2 learning. This review draws upon Robinson’s Triadic Componential Framework for task design (2001a) which suggests that increases in task complexity levels should be an important consideration when designing and sequencing a task-based language syllabus. Most of the studies discussed support Robinson’s contention that more complex tasks result in greater accuracy and complexity in L2 learners’ language production. This would imply the need to consider task complexity variables in selecting, designing and administering tasks in the second language classroom to achieve optimum effects on the learning process. Teachers would also have to be conscientious in evaluating cognitive loads of tasks to ensure heightened attention to meaning and forms. Also, the potential of using task complexity level as an organising principle for a second-language syllabus needs to be further explored and investigated.

scholarly journals The Effect of Planning on Complexity, and Accuracy in Second Language Production: A Case Study in Learner’s Writing

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 467-474
Author(s):  
Komara Suhendar
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Average Length ◽  
Slight Improvement ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Subject ◽  
First Time ◽  
And Task

This case study investigates the effect of planning on complexity, and accuracy in second language (L2) learners’ writing. The subject of the research is a twenty-four-year-old-Indonesian student named Della. She is selected due to her most current IELTS score, and her first-time residence in English speaking country. The participant is asked to write two writing tasks which was taken from IELTS topics. While the duration of time is set for the first task, the second task is not limited by time. After that, the results are compared and analyzed by means of T-unit as in Hunt (1965). The result of the research shows that planning may lead to slight improvement in learner’s writing. In terms of accuracy, there is 69.23% of error-free T-unit in task 1, and 72.22% in task 2. Similarly, in connection with complexity, the average length of T-unit and clauses in task 1 and task 2 is 12.92 and 15 respectively.

The effects of pre-task planning on EFL learners’ oral performance in a 3D multi-user virtual environment

ReCALL ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 232-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian ChengChiang Chen
Keyword(s):  
Language Production ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Task Planning ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Oral Performance ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Linguistic Performance ◽  
L2 Learners

AbstractPrior research on pre-task planning examines its effects on the quality of second language (L2) learners’ planned output. Planning mitigates the cognitive overload placed upon L2 learners’ oral performance, thus improving language production. Despite the pedagogical benefits, studies on pre-task planning on L2 learners’ oral output are conducted mostly in a lab or class setting. Whether or not similar effects of pre-task planning can be evidenced in three-dimensional (3D) multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs), such as Second Life (SL), is still less explored. Hence, this study investigates whether pre-task planning could enhance the quality and quantity of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ task-oriented, voice-based outcomes in SL. Nine EFL learners worldwide participated in this 10-session virtual class. Data were collected through students’ oral presentations in performing real-life simulated tasks related to their home cultures and interests. Yuan and Ellis’s (2003) framework of T-units measures was adopted to analyze their linguistic performance measured by complexity and accuracy. Results indicated that EFL learners showed statistically significant improvement on grammatical complexity on the levels of syntactic complexity and variety (but not on lexical variety) and on linguistic accuracy across all measured levels (error-free clauses/T-units/verb forms). It is suggested that pre-task planning can be seeded in task-based instruction either in a classroom-based or 3D MUVE setting to optimize the quality of learners’ linguistic performance. Tasks that are real-world oriented and targeting learners’ cultural repertoires and world knowledge also positively impact their virtual learning experiences. These significant implications add new research and pedagogical dimensions to the field of computer-assisted language learning.

Representational and Processing Constraints on the Acquisition of Case and Gender by Heritage and L2 Learners of Russian

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-115
Author(s):  
Gina Peirce
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
First Languages ◽  
Functional Features ◽  
And Gender

Morphological errors are prevalent in adult second language production, particularly among learners whose first languages have less complex inflectional systems. Thus, U.S. learners of Russian can provide a testing ground for competing approaches to L2 morphological acquisition. This study utilizes the Russian Learner Corpus of Academic Writing (2017) to compare case and gender-marking error frequencies in timed versus untimed essays by advanced heritage and traditional L2 learners in Portland State University’s Russian Language Flagship program. It was predicted that higher error rates in timed compositions would support the position that advanced learners’ morphological errors reflect processing difficulties under time pressure. However, such differences did not reach significance for either heritage or L2 learners; in the latter group, error rates were higher in students’ untimed texts. These results could be interpreted as demonstrating representational deficits in interlanguage grammar, particularly in the L2 group. However, greater complexity (words per T-unit) of the untimed essays provides an alternative explanation for the higher untimed error rate among this group. The heritage group had lower overall case and gender-marking error rates than the L2 group, suggesting heritage learners are less likely to show evidence of possible representational deficits of nominal functional features in their interlanguage grammar.

scholarly journals Cross-linguistic influence in L1 processing of morphosyntactic variation: Evidence from L2 learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-180
Author(s):  
Pablo E. Requena ◽  
Grant M. Berry
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Morphosyntactic Variation ◽  
Verb Phrases ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Bilingual Group ◽  
Reading Experiment

AbstractThe current study investigates cross-linguistic influence of second language (L2) learning on native language (L1) processing of morphosyntactic variation in proficient L2 learners immersed in their L1. Despite Spanish pre- and postverbal clitic pronoun positions being grammatical in complex verb phrases, preferences of use have been well attested in naturalistic language production. To examine whether those preferences obtain for comprehension in monolinguals, as well as how those preferences might be modulated by learning an L2 with fixed pronoun positions, we administered a self-paced reading experiment to 20 Spanish monolinguals as well as 22 proficient learners English (L1 Spanish). The results of a Bayesian mixed effects regression analysis suggest that preferences in production are echoed in comprehension—but only for the monolingual group. We find support for facilitation in the bilingual group precisely where both languages overlap, as well as evidence that bilinguals may not use clitic position as a reliable cue at all. We interpret the results as evidence that learning an L2 that lacks variation for a particular feature may lead to reduced sensitivity to that feature as a cue in an analogous L1 structure. We situate these results in an experience-based, shared-syntax account of language processing.

Discourse fluency modulates spoken word recognition in monolingual and L2 speakers

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Mona Roxana Botezatu ◽  
Judith F. Kroll ◽  
Morgan Trachsel ◽  
Taomei Guo
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Spoken Word Recognition ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Lexical Competition ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Language Effects ◽  
Fluent Language

Abstract We investigated whether fluent language production is associated with greater skill in resolving lexical competition during spoken word recognition and ignoring irrelevant information in non-linguistic tasks. Native English monolinguals and native English L2 learners, who varied on measures of discourse/verbal fluency and cognitive control, identified spoken English words from dense (e.g., BAG) and sparse (e.g., BALL) phonological neighborhoods in moderate noise. Participants were slower in recognizing spoken words from denser neighborhoods. The inhibitory effect of phonological neighborhood density was smaller for English monolinguals and L2 learners with higher speech production fluency, but was unrelated to cognitive control as indexed by performance on the Simon task. Converging evidence from within-language effects in monolinguals and cross-language effects in L2 learners suggests that fluent language production involves a competitive selection process that may not engage all domain-general control mechanisms. Results suggest that language experience may capture individual variation in lexical competition resolution.

scholarly journals Grammatical gender in L2: A production or a real-time processing problem?

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theres Grüter ◽  
Casey Lew-Williams ◽  
Anne Fernald
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Lexical Representation ◽  
Real Time Processing ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Gender Information ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Performance Problem

Mastery of grammatical gender is difficult to achieve in a second language (L2). This study investigates whether persistent difficulty with grammatical gender often observed in the speech of otherwise highly proficient L2 learners is best characterized as a production-specific performance problem, or as difficulty with the retrieval of gender information in real-time language use. In an experimental design that crossed production/comprehension and online/offline tasks, highly proficient L2 learners of Spanish performed at ceiling in offline comprehension, showed errors in elicited production, and exhibited weaker use of gender cues in online processing of familiar (though not novel) nouns than native speakers. These findings suggest that persistent difficulty with grammatical gender may not be limited to the realm of language production, but could affect both expressive and receptive use of language in real time. We propose that the observed differences in performance between native and non-native speakers lie at the level of lexical representation of grammatical gender and arise from fundamental differences in how infants and adults approach word learning.

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