scholarly journals Unpacking the Concept of Complexity in the Instructed SLA Research: Towards an Acquisitional Definition

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Ji-Yung Jung

<p><em>Over the past few decades, the field of second language acquisition (SLA) has seen a remarkable increase of interest in the study of instructed second language acquisition (ISLA), which “investigates second language (L2) learning or acquisition that occurs as a result of teaching” (Loewen, 2014, p. 2). The importance of this subfield has particularly been emphasized for the sake of adult L2 learners, who, due to biological and cognitive constraints, have difficulty acquiring a target language (TL) solely based on naturalistic input (e.g., Han, 2004; Long, 1990). For this, ISLA research has suggested the utilization of focus on form (FonF), a pedagogical approach that attempts to engage learners’ metalinguistic attention in an otherwise solely meaning-based environment (Doughty &amp; Williams, 1998; Long, 1991; Long &amp; Robinson, 1998). According to Doughty and Williams (1998), FonF involves an array of pedagogical options, ranging from implicit techniques (e.g., input flood, input enhancement, and recasts) that attempt to attract leaners’ attention to form, to explicit techniques (e.g., processing instruction, consciousness-raising, and dictogloss) that attempt to direct their attention to form.</em></p>

Author(s):  
Sandy Ferianda ◽  
Herdiyanti Herdiyanti

Interactional feedback as a means of helping second language (L2) learners to focus on form has received increased attention recently in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). Moreover, feedback is also considered as an effective way to help the students improve their ability in learning L2. Subsequently, as teachers encourage use of the target language in their classrooms, they must consider how to provide feedback to their students concerning the accuracy of their utterances. This paper attempts to reveal the answers for the research question which is “what does interactional feedback mean to the students?” There are two participants who were willing to share their lived experiences. The data are in a form of texts and gathered from an in-depth interview in which the data are then extracted to be the themes for the discussion. For the themes, there are two major themes appear in the study namely motivation and self-improvement. Motivation was the first theme that appeared from the study. The comments and feedback could motivate the participants to perform better in their next speaking practices. Additionally, motivation indeed becomes one of the positive effects which could make the participants feel motivated in improving their speaking ability through the feedback from their lecturers. Self-improvement became the second major theme from the study. Self-improvement was derived from the participants’ consciousness when they encountered the mistakes that they often committed when speaking. Contextually, the interactional feedback that the participants gained from the lecturer made the participants aware of the mistake that they had committed. Therefore, after gaining the feedbacks from their teacher, they are triggered to improve their performance in the next speaking assignments.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 737-744
Author(s):  
Paweł Scheffler

In a large scale survey of teachers’ perceptions of the challenges they face in teaching English to young primary school learners (Copland, Garton, & Burns, 2014), some of the key issues that are identified are as follows: teaching speaking, using only English in the classroom, enhancing motivation, maintaining discipline, catering for different individual needs (including special educational needs), dealing with parents, and teaching grammar as well as reading and writing. The relevance of Early Instructed Second Language Acquisition, edited by Rokita-Jaśkow and Ellis, is clearly shown by the fact that it addresses most of these central issues.


2020 ◽  
pp. 136216882091402
Author(s):  
James F. Lee ◽  
Paul A. Malovrh ◽  
Stephen Doherty ◽  
Alecia Nichols

Recent research on the effects of processing instruction (PI) have incorporated online research methods in order to demonstrate that PI has effects on cognitive processing behaviors as well as on accuracy (e.g. Lee & Doherty, 2019a). The present study uses self-paced reading and a moving windows technique to examine the effects of PI on second language (L2) learners’ processing of Spanish active and passive sentences to explore the effects of PI on instructed second language acquisition. One group received PI but the Control group did not. Between group comparisons on passive sentences showed changes in performance for the PI group but not the Control group with the PI group gaining in accuracy and processing speed, specifically faster response times to select the correct picture and faster reading time on passive verb forms. Within group analyses showed changes in the PI group’s performance on all dependent variables at the immediate posttest and a subsequent decline in performance at the delayed posttest (8 weeks later). We discuss the implications of our results and treatment format for classroom and hybridized instruction.


Author(s):  
Rajend Mesthrie

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.


1998 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 123-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyoko Ogawa

Abstract Neustupny (1988, 1991) recommended an interactive competence approach for second language acquisition that places a greater emphasis on learners’ active interaction with native speakers in real communicative situations. In order to have the opportunity to interact with native speakers in the target language, a conscious effort by the learners as well as support from the teachers and the community is essential. The third-year Japanese course at Monash University was designed to encourage and support learners to establish and maintain relationships with Japanese people as well as to utilise various other resources of the target language and culture. This paper examines the impact of this interaction-oriented course on learners in their establishment and maintenance of relationships with Japanese people, and cultural and social understanding. It is based on data collected during 1996 and 1997.


1996 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 135-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clive Perdue

Three of the traditional questions in (second) language acquisition research are: 1. What is acquired, in what order? 2. How is it acquired? 3. Why is it acquired? In this paper, I concentrate on (1) and (3), proposing a description of various learners' paths towards various L2s, and examining different factors which may explain the course of acquisition. The learners were, for the most part, recorded during the European Science Foundation's study of the spontaneous (untutored) acquisition of Dutch, French, English and German (Perdue 1993); other comparable studies will also be discussed. The emphasis is placed on the beginning stages of acquisition in an attempt to demonstrate that these stages are crucial for an understanding of the whole process. It will be argued (a) that there are stages (grammars) through which all learners pass, (b) that these stages can be characterised explicitly, but (c) the description of these stages, and of the transition between them, is not reducible to a single-level analysis, and (d) distance between (source and target) language pairs partially determines the amount of useful knowledge available to the absolute beginner.


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