The Effects of Two Grammar Teaching Options on Learning Complex Grammatical Structures

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Nasser Gardaoui ◽  
Bouhadiba Farouk
Keyword(s):  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Relative Effectiveness ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Grammar Teaching ◽  
Input Enhancement ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Treatment Conditions ◽  
Instructional Effect ◽  
Description Task ◽  
Implicit And Explicit

Abstract This study compared the relative effectiveness of two instructional options -explicit instruction (EI) in conjunction with input enhancement (IE) vs. IE alone- on students’ learning of tense and grammatical aspect in the Algerian EFL situation. The treatment conditions were implemented with thirty-eight young adult EFL learners in two intact classes at the university level. The first group received instruction through input enhancement only, while the second group was exposed to explicit instruction prior to input enhancement. All participants had to participate in a pretest and a posttest. The tests consisted of three tasks: (1) a grammaticality judgment task and (2) a written gap-filling task, and (3) a picture description task. The results ‘descriptive results indicated that the EI + IE group outperformed the IE group while the statistical analysis (Anova) revealed that the instructional effect did not amount to statistically significant learning gains. These limited findings imply that, pedagogically, combining implicit and explicit instructional treatments is a better choice for teachers than focussing on implicit and less intrusive techniques in grammar classes.

The interaction of working memory capacity and engagement with recasts on different L2 outcome measures: A replication of Révész ()

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Javad Alipour ◽  
Maryam Mohebi ◽  
Ali Roohani
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Learner Engagement ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Coding Method ◽  
Lower Effect ◽  
Description Task

Abstract We report on a conceptual replication of Révész (2012) in order to investigate the idea whether learners provided with recasts do engage in different kinds of behavioral engagement as a function of their working memory and if/how this engagement comes to bear on performance on different measures. Engagement with recasts was measured through a coding method categorizing responses to the recasts running the gamut from: (1) no opportunity, (2) opportunity, but did not repeat, (3) repeated the recasted form, (4) negotiated the response, to (5) used the recasted form later in the discourse. Consistent with Révész (2012), though with lower effect sizes, the results showed that recasts were most conducive to gains on an oral task and less so on a written description task, but non-effective on a grammaticality judgment task. Furthermore, it was revealed that learners with a high phonological short-term memory were more prone to recast-induced engagement on an oral production task, whereas those enjoying a higher reading span were considerably less so. We propose that learner engagement be deemed more important in future interaction research.

scholarly journals Brief inductive learning but not explicit instruction of a new grammar can produce a Whorfian effect

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuyan Xue ◽  
John Williams
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Inductive Learning ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Trained Group ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Brief Training

It is known that brief training on new vocabulary and metaphors can shift how we represent concepts and categorize stimuli even when we are not using the language. But it remains unknown whether brief training on grammar can also produce such ‘Whorfian’ effects. Besides, previous studies have neglected how the way in which the language was learned might be a factor. To fill these gaps, Mandarin native speakers learned a new grammatical marker of transitivity through either inductive training or explicit instruction. In subsequent non-verbal matching task the inductively trained group based their judgments on the number of entities involved in motion events to a greater extent than controls naïve to the grammar, but the explicitly trained group did not, despite showing equivalent knowledge of the grammar in a grammaticality judgment task. We interpret the effects in terms of dynamic and unconscious top-down feedback from grammar to lower-level perceptual processes.

scholarly journals Heritage Language Learners and Automaticity: The Use of "por" and "para"

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie J. Trujillo
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Procedural Knowledge ◽  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Declarative Knowledge ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Heritage Language Learners ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Growing Body

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of the Spanish prepositions por and para (P&P) by heritage-language (HL) learners to analyze whether they demonstrate automaticity in their application, as is common with L1 Spanish speakers (i.e. “it just sounds right”), or if they rely on the conscious, declarative knowledge of the prescriptive uses of these prepositions, as is common with speakers for whom Spanish is an L2. Upper and lower HL learners and upper and lower FL learners (non-HL learners) were asked to complete a cloze test and a grammaticality judgment task and were asked to explain their judgments. The explanations given by students provide a glimpse into the type of knowledge, whether declarative or procedural, that students tap into when using P&P. This study found that while FL learners relied on declarative knowledge in the application of P&P, HL learners demonstrated a level of automaticity and procedural knowledge in their use of these prepositions. This suggests that HL learners have internalized the uses of P&P though communicative exposure throughout their childhood, which may be more effective than the explicit instruction FL learners have received on these structures. This study aims to add to the growing body of literature on heritage language processes and development.

Implicit and explicit knowledge in second language acquisition

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 829-856 ◽  
Author(s):  
PATRICK REBUSCHAT ◽  
JOHN N. WILLIAMS
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Incidental Learning ◽  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Incidental Exposure ◽  
Improved Performance ◽  
Implicit And Explicit

ABSTRACTLanguage development is frequently characterized as a process where learning proceeds implicitly, that is, incidentally and in absence of awareness of what was learned. This article reports the results of two experiments that investigated whether second language acquisition can also result in implicit knowledge. Adult learners were trained on an artificial language under incidental learning conditions and then tested by means of grammaticality judgments and subjective measures of awareness. The results indicate that incidental exposure to second language syntax can result in unconscious knowledge, which suggests that at least some of the learning in this experiment was implicit. At the same time, however, it was also found that conscious (but unverbalizable) knowledge was clearly linked to improved performance in the grammaticality judgment task.

The impact of instruction on second-language implicit knowledge: Evidence against encapsulation

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 1163-1193 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAUL D. TOTH ◽  
PEDRO GUIJARRO-FUENTES
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Implicit Knowledge ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Control Treatment ◽  
First Language Transfer ◽  
Grammar Rules ◽  
Intransitive Verbs ◽  
Description Task ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTThis paper compares explicit instruction in second-language Spanish with a control treatment on a written picture description task and a timed auditory grammaticality judgment task. Participants came from two intact, third-year US high school classes, with one experiencing a week of communicative lessons on the Spanish clitic se (n = 15) and the other exposed to se only incidentally (n = 20). Explicit instruction consisted of grammar rules with sentence-level examples, followed by communicative tasks. Three test versions were administered within a split-bloc design as a pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest 6 weeks after instruction. The instructed group increased targetlike uses of se on both tasks and sustained gains through the delayed posttest, although first-language transfer errors persisted. Meanwhile, overgeneralization errors centered on semantic and syntactic contexts similar to the instructional object, aligning with the unergative–unaccusative distinction among intransitive verbs. It is argued that the data provide evidence for the permeability of second-language implicit knowledge to explicit instruction and against total encapsulation as a model of the mind.

Plural marking in the second language: Atomicity, definiteness, and transfer

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Sea Hee Choi ◽  
Tania Ionin
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Mass Nouns ◽  
Count Nouns ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Plural Marking

Abstract This paper examines whether second language (L2)-English learners whose native languages (L1; Korean and Mandarin) lack obligatory plural marking transfer the properties of plural marking from their L1s, and whether transfer is manifested both offline (in a grammaticality judgment task) and online (in a self-paced reading task). The online task tests the predictions of the morphological congruency hypothesis (Jiang 2007), according to which L2 learners have particular difficulty automatically activating the meaning of L2 morphemes that are incongruent with their L1. Experiment 1 tests L2 learners’ sensitivity to errors of –s oversuppliance with mass nouns, while Experiment 2 tests their sensitivity to errors of –s omission with count nouns. The findings show that (a) L2 learners detect errors with nonatomic mass nouns (sunlights) but not atomic ones (furnitures), both offline and online; and (b) L1-Korean L2-English learners are more successful than L1-Mandarin L2-English learners in detecting missing –s with definite plurals (these boat), while the two groups behave similarly with indefinite plurals (many boat). Given that definite plurals require plural marking in Korean but not in Mandarin, the second finding is consistent with L1-transfer. Overall, the findings show that learners are able to overcome morphological incongruency and acquire novel uses of L2 morphemes.

Grammaticality Judgment Task

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Michael ◽  
Nan Bernstein Ratner ◽  
Rochelle Newman
Keyword(s):  
Judgment Task ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment

AGE OF ONSET, TYPE OF EXPOSURE, AND ULTIMATE ATTAINMENT OF L2 MORPHO-SYNTACTIC SENSITIVITY

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 801-823
Author(s):  
Eun-Kyoung Rosa Lee
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Age Of Onset ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Third Person

AbstractThe present study examined whether early immersive L2 exposure in a foreign language learning context can yield long-term advantages in L2 morpho-syntactic sensitivity. Participants were 40 Korean university students with high English proficiency, who had either attended an English kindergarten or begun learning English in a classroom, and a control group of native English speakers. All participants performed a speeded aural grammaticality judgment task that included the following features: articles, subcategorization, plural -s, third-person -s. Results showed that the English-kindergarten group outperformed the late-classroom group in terms of accuracy for ungrammatical sentences, while the two groups did not differ significantly on grammatical sentences and in reaction time measures. The learners altogether scored higher in plural -s and third-person -s compared to articles. While the native speakers showed near-perfect accuracy and fast reaction times, the highly proficient learners were at near-chance level in detecting morpho-syntactic errors during online L2 aural processing.

Enhancing Listening Comprehension Through Kinesthetic Rhythm Training

RELC Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 003368822094130
Author(s):  
Bradford J Lee
Keyword(s):  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Comparison Group ◽  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Japanese University ◽  
Input Enhancement ◽  
Pronunciation Instruction ◽  
Based Instruction ◽  
Traditional Grammar

Research has suggested that the type and frequency of learning strategies employed by successful listeners is greater than their less successful counterparts. Based on evidence that metacognitive strategies (e.g. listening-for-gist; inferring meaning) are more effective than cognitive ones (e.g. word-for-word translation), this study sought to measure the effect that rhymical training had on the listening comprehension acuity of 313 Japanese university students. The theoretical basis was that rhythmical priming assists learners parse the input based on prosody and identify salient words by stress. Small but significant increases were observed among students who were rhythmically trained, compared to a comparison group that received explicit instruction but no rhythm training, and a “true” control group that received no treatment. These results extend the feasibility of input enhancement, rhythmic priming, and perception-based instruction beyond the traditional grammar and pronunciation instruction domains.

Incidental and explicit learning of L2 derivational morphology and the nature of acquired knowledge

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 1377-1404
Author(s):  
Keiichi Ishikawa
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Explicit Learning ◽  
Derivational Morphology ◽  
Verbal Reports ◽  
Delayed Effects ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Set Up

AbstractThe aim of the current study was to compare both incidental and explicit auditory learning of second language derivational morphology by measuring the accuracy and the reaction time of a grammaticality judgment task. Furthermore, the study was set up to examine the nature of acquired knowledge using subjective measures of awareness during the testing phases and postexperimental verbal reports. The delayed effects of learning were investigated by testing participants immediately after the learning and 1 week later also. The results showed a significant learning effect for the incidental and explicit learners immediately after exposure, but only the explicit learners maintained the learning effects a week later. Both types of learners showed no significant difference in the reaction time. Incidental learners primarily developed implicit knowledge, while explicit learners relied on explicit knowledge to a large extent, part of which became unconscious later. The differences of learning under incidental and explicit learning conditions are discussed in terms of the maintenance of knowledge.

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