The Case for Teaching Morphosyntax and Principles for Doing So

2019 ◽  
Vol 2018 (1) ◽  
pp. 299
Author(s):  
Tomoko Nemoto ◽  
David Beglar
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Explicit Form ◽  
Sensitive Period ◽  
Educational Curriculum ◽  
The Past ◽  
Seven Principles ◽  
Communicative Input

Researchers in the field of second language acquisition have made the study of morphosyntax one of their top priorities over the past four decades. In this paper we first look at six lines of SLA research that converge on the same conclusion: Most postpuberty learners have difficulty acquiring L2 morphosyntax and without an explicit focus on acquiring it, little acquisition will likely take place. The six lines of research are the sensitive period, L1 interference, the complexity of morphosyntax, the lack of salience of many morphosyntactic forms, studies conducted in naturalistic contexts, and studies conducted in classroom contexts. In the second part of the paper, we discuss seven principles for teaching morphosyntax that are placed into three categories: explicit form-focused instruction, communicative input, and communicative output. Ideally, these principles should be combined in an educational curriculum so that they are mutually reinforcing. 第二言語習得研究において半世紀近く重要視されてきた分野のひとつは形態統語研究分野である。この論文では、はじめに、思春期以降の学習者の第二言語の形態統語習得は困難であり、それらに明示的に重点をおかずに習得をすることは稀なことである、という結論へと収束する6つの系列分野の研究の結果を検討していく。その分野とは、敏感期、第一言語干渉、形態統語の複雑性、多くの形態統語における卓越性の欠如、自然的環境下における第二言語学習、そしてクラスルームにおける第二言語学習である。次に、明示的言語重視の指導、コミュニケーションによるインプット、コミュニケーションによるアウトプットの3分野に分類された７つの形態統語教育原理を考察する。これらの原理は、カリキュラムの中で組み合わされ、相互に強調されることが理想的である。

An Empirical Study on Interlanguage of Computer Science and Engineering Major Students in English Writing

2011 ◽  
Vol 71-78 ◽  
pp. 4337-4340
Author(s):  
Jing Li
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Science And Engineering ◽  
English Teaching ◽  
English Writing ◽  
The Past

Interlanguage is an important issue in the field of second language acquisition for the past forty years. This study classifies the errors into three levels-lexicon, syntax and discourse, and then analyses the error examples to reflect the cause of interlanguage. The result may make some suggestions to the English teachers in English teaching.

AHISTORICITY REVISITED

1998 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 407-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Gass ◽  
Catherine Fleck ◽  
Nevin Leder ◽  
Ildiko Svetics
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Pertinent Literature ◽  
The Past ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
Logical Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Second Language Acquisition Theory

In our reply to Margaret Thomas's article “Programmatic ahistoricity in second language acquisition theory,” we first review pertinent literature, concluding that historical awareness is evident in SLA, though it is not as far-reaching as Thomas would like it to be. We then argue that the attitude of most scholars in SLA toward the past is reasonable given that no significant work in SLA from antiquity has been discovered—by Thomas or anyone else—and that if such work exists Thomas has the burden to bring it to light before declaring the field guilty of ahistoricity. We consider various ways to define the field of SLA, arguing that it should be defined theoretically first, and historically second. We claim that the point at which SLA separated itself from language teaching is a logical point from which to date the beginnings of SLA as a true discipline. We consider and reject Thomas's comparison of SLA and its history to various other scientific disciplines and their histories, arguing that these disciplines have true milestones to point to in the distant past, whereas SLA does not. Although we agree with Thomas that a general awareness of the history of philosophy and science is beneficial for scholars in all fields, we make a sharp division between that history and the history of SLA proper. We conclude by arguing that respect for the field of SLA can come only through sound scientific progress, not by appeals to history.

scholarly journals Foreword

1989 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. vii-xi
Author(s):  
Robert B. Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Language Planning ◽  
Language Testing ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Education Planning ◽  
The Past

This tenth volume of the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL) concerns itself with a survey of applied linguistics broadly, as this series did in volume I and volume V. The changes which have occurred in the field generally over the past decade are impressive; indeed, a volume such as this one would have been quite impossible ten years ago. Some of the topics covered in this volume are ones to which this series has repeatedly returned—e.g., language planning, language-in-education planning, bilingualism; others are unique to this volume—e.g., language and aging, and still others represent sub-fields which have been treated previously but which have expanded significantly in the years since volume I was published—e.g., second-language acquisition, language testing.

scholarly journals The Role of Universal Grammar in Second Language Acquisition from the Perspective of Chinese Acquiring English Reflexives

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. p284
Author(s):  
Jing Song
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
The Past ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Chinese And English

In China, the second language learning has always played an important role in primary and higher education. The issue of how children acquire the second language has experienced a boom in China over the past decade as the proficiency of a person’s English level mainly depends on its acquisition in primary stage. The main focus of this paper is to examine the role of UG in the second language acquisition and to what extent it plays in the process. To illustrate this, the four access hypotheses were given firstly. In addition, the role of UG from the aspect of Chinese learners’ acquiring the English reflexives was discussed. In this section, the importance of analyzing the reflexives and the different features of them in Chinese and English were exhibited.

Discovering traces of the past: Studies of bilingualism among school pupils in Finland and in Sweden. Olli Kuure. Oulu: Oulu University Press, 1997. Pp. 182.

1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 589-597
Author(s):  
Jakob Cromdal
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Sociocultural Theory ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Text Linguistics ◽  
Doctoral Thesis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Empirical Ground ◽  
Bilingual Development

This is a courageous book. Published as the author's doctoral thesis, this work strives retrospectively to “determine the significance of age in the acquisition of a second language” (p. 26). It has explicit interdisciplinary ambitions to integrate concepts and practices from various disciplines in which bilingual development is studied: notably, sociocultural theory, developmental psychology, psycholinguistics, text linguistics, and pragmatics. These multifaceted theoretical aims are anchored in an equally broad empirical ground, drawing on various types of data. Not surprisingly, the result is a theoretically intriguing, yet methodologically puzzling, approach to the study of bilingualism and second language acquisition.

scholarly journals A Data-Driven Critical Review of Second Language Acquisition in the Past 30 Years

Publications ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Meng-Lin Chen
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Knowledge Domain ◽  
The Past ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Literature Reviews

This study aims to provide a comprehensive and data-driven review of the knowledge domain of second language acquisition (SLA) and pedagogy in the past 30 years. Using knowledge domain visualization techniques, the study first provides a review of SLA at the disciplinary level. It then identifies the major research areas and current research frontiers in the SLA research landscape based on high-quality data retrieved from Web of Science (WoS) databases. The study provides useful references for future research and pedagogy in the field in which literature reviews employing scientometric methodology and driven by data, such as the present one, are rare, and thus, are much in need of supplement views produced by traditional literature reviews.

Beyond form-focused instruction: Reflections on past, present and future research

2010 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Spada
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Laboratory Research ◽  
Optimal Time ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
L2 Learning

In 1997 I published a paper in Language Teaching entitled ‘Form-focused instruction and second language acquisition: A review of classroom and laboratory research’. The paper reviewed the results of studies investigating the effects of form-focused instruction (FFI) on second language (L2) learning. It was organized around seven questions, including: whether FFI is beneficial to L2 learning; whether particular types of FFI are more beneficial; whether there is an optimal time to provide FFI; and whether different language features benefit more from FFI. In this paper I revisit these questions and reflect on how research on FFI and L2 learning has evolved over the past twelve years.

The structure of age: in search of barriers to second language acquisition

1997 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Bialystok
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
Sensitive Period ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Insufficient Evidence ◽  
Length Of Residence ◽  
Processing Differences

The article examines recent evidence that has been offered to support the notion of a sensitive period for second language acquisition. An analysis of that research leaves several questions unresolved. Two small-scale studies are described which attempt to explore some of these issues. In both cases, it is found that the correspondence between language structures in the first and second language is the most important factor affecting acquisition. The age at which second language acquisitions begins is not a significant factor in either study, but the length of residence, indicating the amount of time spent speaking the second language, is significant in the second study. The conclusion is that there is insufficient evidence to accept the claim that mastery of a second language is determined wholly, or even primarily, by maturational factors. Some suggestions are made for an alternative interpretation based on processing differences between older and younger language learners.

Second Language Acquisition: Possible Insights from Studies on How Birds Acquire Song

1988 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise M. Neapolitan ◽  
Irene M. Pepperberg ◽  
Linda Schinke-Llano
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
First Language ◽  
Independent Learning ◽  
Sensitive Period ◽  
Song Acquisition ◽  
General Linguistic ◽  
Species Specific

Research into general linguistic and cognitive processes in humans has been aided by studies of analogous processes in animals. Studies on how birds develop their species-specific song have been of particular interest to researchers seeking to identify critical variables and universels in first language acquisition in humans. Because of recent studies onexceptionalsong acquisition, that is, time-independent. learning of second dialects or song by birds generally thought to acquire a single song during a limited sensitive period, we suggest that there also exist significant parallels between human second language acquisition and avian bilingualism. The purpose of this paper is to highlight these parallels and to demonstrate that such interspecies comparisons may provide new insights into the processes of second language acquisition.

scholarly journals Systematic Review of Research in Second Language Acquisition: A Snapshot of the Past Ten Years (2009 – September 2019)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amirreza Karami
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Research Trends ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
The Past ◽  
Modern Language Journal

The purpose of this systematic review is to provide second language acquisition (SLA) researchers with an overview of research trends in this field in the last ten years (2009-2019). In doing so, three international peer-reviewed journals, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Language Teaching Research, and The Modern Language Journal, were selected. 150 articles were systematically selected and analyzed. The analysis of data resulted in identifying six descriptive themes. Results showed that some areas of second language acquisition still need further exploration while some areas are of great interest for researchers. Some suggestions for future research as well as implications of the study were discussed in detail.

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