scholarly journals Examining the Language Learning Potential of a Task-Based Approach to Synchronous Computer-Meditated communication

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Nik Aloesnita Nik Mohd Alwi
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Task Complexity ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Task Structure ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Language Support ◽  
Learner Language ◽  
Interactionist Approach

<p>This study investigates the influence of two task implementation features, the level of task structure and the use of language support, on learner language production during task-based text synchronous computer-mediated communication (text-SCMC) interactions. The study draws on two theoretical sets of claims concerning the process of second language acquisition (SLA). The first, broadly described as cognitive accounts of language learning, the Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2001b, 2003b, 2005) and the Trade-off Hypothesis (Skehan, 1998, 2009), has generated a large body of research on the role of implementation features (a means of varying task complexity) in influencing learner language production. The second, the Interactionist Approach (Gass & Mackey, 2006) has also claimed the facilitative role of interaction in promoting second language production. Most of the studies in both these areas were conducted in face-to-face settings (e.g. Gilabert, 2007b; Michel, Kuiken & Vedder, 2007; Robinson, 2007b; Tavakoli & Foster, 2008; Tavakoli & Skehan, 2005). Because SCMC is growing more pervasive in academic and professional communication, it is timely for empirical research into the effect of task complexity on interaction and language production to be conducted in this setting (Lee, 2008; Smith, 2008). It is this gap that the current study aims to address. The participants were 96 engineering learners at a technical university in Malaysia in an English for Professional Communication course. Using a 2x2 experimental design, the learners were placed in one of four experimental groups defined by high or low task structure (+TS or -TS), and with or without language support (+LS or -LS). Each group was subdivided into teams of four. In each team, the students engaged in a 45-minute chat session performing a simulation of a decision-making task on an engineering problem. The chat exchanges were captured and then analyzed to determine the role of these task implementation features on the occurrence of focus on form sequences and on the accuracy, complexity, and quantity of language produced during the tasks. Results showed that the two task implementation features (+/-TS and +/-LS) influenced the occurrence of language-related episodes (LREs), accuracy, complexity and quantity of output. The findings on the effects of task structure (TS) revealed that the learners engaged in more LREs and their output was more accurate when task performance was highly structured (+TS). However, task structure did not have a significant effect on the structural and lexical complexity of the output nor on the amount of language produced and equality of participation. The findings on the effects of language support (LS) demonstrated that the participants engaged in more LREs and their language use was more accurate when performing the task with language support (+LS) than without it (-LS). In contrast, they produced more complex language when performing the task without language support (-LS). Without language support (-LS), the learners were also found to produce fewer turns but with more words per turn. The finding for equality of participation was non-significant which suggests that participation was not affected by language support. To summarize, the current study lends qualified empirical support to the Interactionist Approach (Gass & Mackey, 2006) and the trade-off effects proposed by Skehan (1998, 2009) in that cognitively simple tasks promoted more accurate, but less complex production than cognitively complex tasks as they apply to taskbased interactions in a text-SCMC context. Additionally, the finding demonstrates partial support for the Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2001b; 2003b, 2005) in that increasing task complexity along the resource-dispersing dimension decreased the accuracy of language production. The visual salience of language in a text-SCMC setting may be an important explanatory factor in accounting for this finding. The study, therefore, provides evidence that the nature of text-SCMC may be facilitative to L2 learning, particularly as a medium for learning of form during communicative practice.</p>

scholarly journals Examining the Language Learning Potential of a Task-Based Approach to Synchronous Computer-Meditated communication

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Nik Aloesnita Nik Mohd Alwi
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Task Complexity ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Task Structure ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Language Support ◽  
Learner Language ◽  
Interactionist Approach

<p>This study investigates the influence of two task implementation features, the level of task structure and the use of language support, on learner language production during task-based text synchronous computer-mediated communication (text-SCMC) interactions. The study draws on two theoretical sets of claims concerning the process of second language acquisition (SLA). The first, broadly described as cognitive accounts of language learning, the Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2001b, 2003b, 2005) and the Trade-off Hypothesis (Skehan, 1998, 2009), has generated a large body of research on the role of implementation features (a means of varying task complexity) in influencing learner language production. The second, the Interactionist Approach (Gass & Mackey, 2006) has also claimed the facilitative role of interaction in promoting second language production. Most of the studies in both these areas were conducted in face-to-face settings (e.g. Gilabert, 2007b; Michel, Kuiken & Vedder, 2007; Robinson, 2007b; Tavakoli & Foster, 2008; Tavakoli & Skehan, 2005). Because SCMC is growing more pervasive in academic and professional communication, it is timely for empirical research into the effect of task complexity on interaction and language production to be conducted in this setting (Lee, 2008; Smith, 2008). It is this gap that the current study aims to address. The participants were 96 engineering learners at a technical university in Malaysia in an English for Professional Communication course. Using a 2x2 experimental design, the learners were placed in one of four experimental groups defined by high or low task structure (+TS or -TS), and with or without language support (+LS or -LS). Each group was subdivided into teams of four. In each team, the students engaged in a 45-minute chat session performing a simulation of a decision-making task on an engineering problem. The chat exchanges were captured and then analyzed to determine the role of these task implementation features on the occurrence of focus on form sequences and on the accuracy, complexity, and quantity of language produced during the tasks. Results showed that the two task implementation features (+/-TS and +/-LS) influenced the occurrence of language-related episodes (LREs), accuracy, complexity and quantity of output. The findings on the effects of task structure (TS) revealed that the learners engaged in more LREs and their output was more accurate when task performance was highly structured (+TS). However, task structure did not have a significant effect on the structural and lexical complexity of the output nor on the amount of language produced and equality of participation. The findings on the effects of language support (LS) demonstrated that the participants engaged in more LREs and their language use was more accurate when performing the task with language support (+LS) than without it (-LS). In contrast, they produced more complex language when performing the task without language support (-LS). Without language support (-LS), the learners were also found to produce fewer turns but with more words per turn. The finding for equality of participation was non-significant which suggests that participation was not affected by language support. To summarize, the current study lends qualified empirical support to the Interactionist Approach (Gass & Mackey, 2006) and the trade-off effects proposed by Skehan (1998, 2009) in that cognitively simple tasks promoted more accurate, but less complex production than cognitively complex tasks as they apply to taskbased interactions in a text-SCMC context. Additionally, the finding demonstrates partial support for the Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2001b; 2003b, 2005) in that increasing task complexity along the resource-dispersing dimension decreased the accuracy of language production. The visual salience of language in a text-SCMC setting may be an important explanatory factor in accounting for this finding. The study, therefore, provides evidence that the nature of text-SCMC may be facilitative to L2 learning, particularly as a medium for learning of form during communicative practice.</p>

What learner corpus research can contribute to multilingualism research

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 734-753 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Wulff
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Language Research ◽  
Methodological Tool ◽  
Learner Language ◽  
Linguistic Approaches

Corpus linguists are increasingly interested in applying their methodological tool box to the various areas of multilingualism. This paper gives an overview of corpus resources and presents three case studies on L2 foreign language learning that employ quantitative methods. The goal is to demonstrate that corpus-linguistic approaches further our understanding of many hot topics in learner language research, including appropriate characterizations of the L1 input and/or target norm; the adequate modeling of the intrinsically complex and highly L1-specific nature of learner language; and the increasingly recognized role of individual variation in the acquisition process. The paper closes with a brief discussion of how these methods can and should be applied to other areas of multilingualism research.

scholarly journals TEACHING LANGUAGES FOR MEDICAL PURPOSES WITH TECHNOLOGY: WHAT TO TAKE TO THE DIGITAL CLASSROOM

2022 ◽  
pp. 667
Author(s):  
Irina Markovina ◽  
Varvara Krasilnikova
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Technology Use ◽  
Mode Of Delivery ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Independent Learning ◽  
Quantitative Methodology ◽  
Digital Classroom ◽  
Student’S Attitude ◽  
Academic Content

The article focuses on the experience of online language learning in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic at Sechenov University (Moscow, Russia). Due to the differences in accepted professional communication practices in medical sphere in Russia and abroad there is a need of commenting, propagation and constant focusing on the part of the instructor. The aim of this research was to obtain a clear and a detailed picture of medical students’ attitude towards the change in the mode of delivery in teaching languages for medical purposes, which occurred during the lockdown and triggered a sudden shift in the roles. We analyzed the technologies used, the alterations to the academic content, modes of delivery, and the student’s attitude towards ESP/EMP employing mainly a quantitative methodology of gathering and analyzing data. The survey of the students showed that, though there is a strong preference in favor of technology use and more independent learning, they fully understand the role of the instructor in the process. 

scholarly journals Predicting head-marking variability in Yucatec Maya relative clause production

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELISABETH NORCLIFFE ◽  
T. FLORIAN JAEGER
Keyword(s):  
Information Transmission ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Cognitive Systems ◽  
Yucatec Maya ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Communicative Efficiency ◽  
Reduced Forms ◽  
Computational Properties

abstractRecent proposals hold that the cognitive systems underlying language production exhibit computational properties that facilitate communicative efficiency, i.e., an efficient trade-off between production ease and robust information transmission. We contribute to the cross-linguistic evaluation of the communicative efficiency hypothesis by investigating speakers’ preferences in the production of a typologically rare head-marking alternation that occurs in relative clause constructions in Yucatec Maya. In a sentence recall study, we find that speakers of Yucatec Maya prefer to use reduced forms of relative clause verbs when the relative clause is more contextually expected. This result is consistent with communicative efficiency and thus supports its typological generalizability. We compare two types of cue to the presence of a relative clause, pragmatic cues previously investigated in other languages and a highly predictive morphosyntactic cue specific to Yucatec. We find that Yucatec speakers’ preferences for a reduced verb form are primarily conditioned on the more informative cue. This demonstrates the role of both general principles of language production and their language-specific realizations.

scholarly journals DOES FORM-FOCUSED INSTRUCTION AFFECT L2 LEARNERS PERFORMANCE? FOCUS ON GRAMMATICALLY JUDGMENTS

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 57-100
Author(s):  
Hosni El-dali
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Focus On Form ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Learner Language ◽  
Insight Into

It is one of the goals of research in applied linguistics to gain insight into the process and mechanisms of second language acquisition.  The cornerstone and the single most fundamental change in perspective on the nature of language and language learning is, perhaps, the focus on learners as active creators in their learning process, not as passive recipients.  The present study has two goals.  First, it aims at investigating advanced students’ metalinguistic ability in solving multidimensional grammatical problems.  Second, it is, also, an attempt to highlight the role of focus on form instructions in shaping L2 learners’ performance. The subjects of the present study were forty Egyptian students who were in their fourth year of academic study in the Department of English and Literature, Faculty of Arts, Menufia University, Egypt.  The instrument of this study consisted of (1) pre-test; (2) post-test; and (3) individual interviews.  Two tasks were used: (1) “Sentence Completion” task, and (2) “Error Recognition and Correction” task.  In the first task, a list of 15 incomplete sentences was given to the subjects who were asked to choose the word or phrase to complete the sentence.  The focus, in this task, was on the meaning of the sentence rather than the form, although accurate understanding of the formal properties of language is a must.  In the second task, students were asked to detect the word or phrase that must be changed in order for the sentence to be correct.  A list of 25 sentences was given to the subjects who worked on this task twice.  In the pre-test, no word or phrase was underlined; it is an example of the unfocused correction type.  In the post-test, the same sentences were given to the subjects, with four words underlined, and marked (A), (B), (C) and (D).  It is an example of the focused correction type. Finally, students were interviewed to explain and comment on their performance in the previous tasks.  The data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results were obtained and conclusions were made.It is one of the goals of research in applied linguistics to gain insight into the process and mechanisms of second language acquisition.  A correct understanding of these processes and mechanisms is a prerequisite for an adequate didactic approach.  Relatedly, Morley (1987) points out that during the last twenty years ideas about language learning and language teaching have been changing in some very fundamental ways.  Significant developments in perspectives on the nature of second language learning processes have had a marked effect on language pedagogyThe cornerstone and the single most fundamental change in perspectives on the nature of language and language learning in recent years is, perhaps, the focus on learners as active creators in their learning process, not as passive recipients.  Accordingly, the focus of second language study has shifted from a prominence of contrastive analysis in the 1940s and 1950s and error analysis in the 60s and 70s to interlanguage analysis in the 70s and 80s.  Interlanguage analysis is marked today by “a variety of investigations looking at diverse aspects of learner language” (Morley, 1987: 16).  In this connection, Gass (1983: 273) points out that “it is widely accepted that the language of second language learners, what Selinker (1972 has called ‘interlanguage’ or what (Gass, 1983) has called ‘Learner-language’ is a system in its own right.”  To understand such a system, we should focus on discovering how second language (L2) learners evaluate and correct their own or other people’s utterances, an issue that will be explored in the present study.  In other words, the major point of interest here is L2 learners’ linguistic intuitions and the role of focus on form instruction in making grammaticality judgments.

A Review of Studies on Languaging and Second Language Learning (2006-2017)

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 1222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruiying Niu ◽  
Lijia Li
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
L2 Learning

Since Swain postulated the concept “languaging” in 2006 to capture the role of language production in second language (L2) learning, a growing body of empirical studies has been conducted on languaging. However, little research has reviewed these studies. The present paper reviews 15 empirical studies that were conducted over the past decade on languaging in L2 learning, followed Vygotsky’s socioculutral theory of mind, and directly took languaging as the treatment or part of the treatment. We distinguished task-prompted and teacher-imposed languaging in the paper. All studies reviewed focused on teacher-imposed languaging. On the basis of reviewing the foci and findings of the studies, we offer our critical comments and recommendations for future research.

Discourse Analysis and Spoken Language Instruction

1990 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 152-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi Riggenbach
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Language Data

Several excellent articles and books have been written, based on discourse analyses of spoken language, which can infrom teachers (and teacher educators) about features and conventions that are unique to spoken English (Brown, et al. 1984, Brown and Yule 1983, Bygate 1987, Melrose 1989, Tannen 1989) or about differences between authentic, naturalistic discourse and that fount in textbooks (Cathcart 1989, Scotton and Bernstein 1988). These approaches, clearly, have applications and implications for language instruction. However, it is the intent of this paper to discuss the ways in which discourse analysis itself can be useful for language learners as a tool for speaking and listening instruction. Many of the techniques and activities described in this paper bring students into the role of active participant in their own language learning processes, requiring them to collect and produce their own language “data,” to analyze these materials, and to become conscious of the skills involved with language production.

On The Role Of Context In The Development Of Learner Language

2005 ◽  
Vol 147-148 ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Howard
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
International Exchange ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Past Time ◽  
Learner Language ◽  
Time Systems

Based on an expansive study of Irish university learners of French, this paper aims to illuminate the specificity of the role played by ‘learning context’ on the learners’ language development. Following discussion of the concept of ‘learning context’ in language learning, the paper compares the language development of classroom instructed learners in Ireland and ‘study abroad’ learners who are also instructed learners, but who have resided in France thanks to an international exchange programme. Given the differences in the type of intercultural encounter which each learning context permits, the paper collates results of a study which attempts to capture how such encounters might transform the learners’ language use on a particular aspect of their linguistic repertoire in French, namely the expression of past time reference. Whilst the results detail the highly beneficial effect of the study abroad context on the learners’language development, they none the less point to a number of similarities in the past time systems of both the study abroad learners and the instructed learners. The results are discussed in relation to previous findings and areas for future research.

scholarly journals The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Speaking Skills of Iranian Advanced EFL Learners

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zohre Esmaeeli ◽  
Masoud Khalili Sabet ◽  
Yadollah Shahabi
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Pearson Correlation ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Speaking Skills

The role of emotional intelligence as a significant factor contributing to academic achievement was central in the area of research for several years. In second language learning research, personal and social skills seems to be critical as individual differences in language production. In this regard, this study has attempted to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and speaking skills of Iranian advanced EFL learners. In order to achieve this goal, 96 advanced EFL learners including 48 males and 48 females were randomly selected from eight institutes in Tehran. The design of the study is a quantitative, non- experimental research utilizing a correlational approach. The data were gathered through an EQ questionnaire (namely EQ- i: S, designed by Bar- On), and speaking test (from ILETS samples of speaking tests in the form of individual interview). The value of Pearson correlation coefficient indicated that there was a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and speaking score of advanced EFL learners. The findings of the present study which denoted the role of EQ in speaking ability can be efficiently implemented in educational system through social- and- emotional- learning programs to improve students’ oral proficiency in language classroom. And it is the job of English teachers to exploit students’ full potential in order to facilitate language learning.

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