Applied Linguistics Seminars

Michaelmas Term 2009

Tuesday October 27
1pm K & L
Hayo Reinders

The effects of Enhanced input on intake and acquisition
of implicit and explicit knowledge


The importance of ample input for second language acquisition is uncontroversial. At the same time, evidence exists (for example from studies in immersion settings) to show that even with massive exposure certain aspects of the language develop slowly or not at all. This appears to apply especially to formal features that are semantically redundant and/or that are difficult to notice. It appears that such aspects require some form of instructional intervention, although it remains unclear what type of intervention is most effective. One instructional possibility is ‘input enhancement’. This presentation reports a study that investigated the effect of two different types of input enhancement (input enrichment and input enrichment + noticing instruction) on both the intake and acquisition of a difficult grammatical structure (negative adverbs). The effect of the instruction was measured in terms of both implicit and explicit L2 knowledge. The study showed that enhanced input in the form of enriched input resulted in intake and assisted the acquisition of implicit knowledge.  It showed that asking students to pay attention to the target structure conferred no additional advantage for either intake or acquisition.

Dr. Hayo Reinders (www.innovationinteaching.org) is Head of Language and Learning Support at Middlesex University in London and Adjunct Professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He is also Editor of Innovation in Language Learning and  Teaching, Convenor of the AILA Research Network for CALL and the Learner, and he is a speaker for the Royal Society of New Zealand. Hayo’s research interests are in the areas of noticing, autonomy, and technology. His most recent books are on teacher autonomy, teaching methodologies, and second language acquisition.

Wednesday 28 October
2.30 pm Room G
Michael Swan

What exactly is Grammar?

We all know what grammar is - until somebody asks us. The session will look beyond the rather unhelpful dictionary definition ('rules for changing the form of words and combining them into sentences'), to consider the following questions:
- What exactly is 'grammar'?
- Why do languages need it?
- Why do different languages use grammar in such different ways?
- What grammar do learners really need - and do they all need the same?
- What grammar do teachers really need?

Monday 2 November
5pm Seminar Room A
Matthew Saxton
Institute of Education, London.

Beyond input: interaction in first language acquisition

It has long been known that the linguistic environment of young children is adapted in numerous ways at every level of linguistic analysis. At the same time, the role of this special register – Child Directed Speech (CDS) – has never been fully integrated within theories of child language acquisition. In both nativist and non-nativist theories, the role of CDS is reduced largely to a matter of frequency of input forms. In contrast, I will argue that aspects of the interaction between child and caregiver also yield important information for the language-learning child. The focus will be on imitation, a fundamental aspect of human communication, which has often been dismissed in theorising on a mistaken reading of Chomsky. In correcting this view, I will present evidence on one aspect of imitation which may contribute to the child’s developing sense of grammaticality.

Tuesday 10 November
1pm Rooms K&L
Mela Sarkar
Associate professor at McGill University, Faculty of Education

The Multilingual Mainstream, or, who are you calling a minority anyway?

A Canadian perspective on immigrant-origin children in majority-language school systems
In recent decades the population of urban Canada, formerly perceived as mostly white and (except in Quebec) of British extraction, has been transformed by several waves of immigration. School systems designed to educate more or less homogeneous populations have had to cope with increasing ethnolinguistic diversity among the children they serve. In Canada’s three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, well over half of the school-aged population comes from homes in which the main language is not English or French.
In this talk, the phenomenon whereby children from immigrant backgrounds must integrate linguistically into host-society schools will be examined (in the Canadian context) from contrasting perspectives: that of the schools, and that of the children and their families. The importance of supporting first language development and second language acquisition for all children will be discussed; both psycholinguistic and sociocultural factors will be considered. Comparisons will be drawn between English-speaking and French-speaking Canada, between Canada and the United States, and between Canada and Britain.

Tuesday 24 November
1pm   Rooms K&L
Vivienne Rogers

Syntactic development in instructed English learners of French

French poses some persistent difficulties in terms of word order for instructed English learners, in particular with negation, adverbs and object clitics. These surface differences are argued to be due to a single parametric difference in verb placement. If L2 learners have continued access to UG and can re-set this parameter then we would expect verb raising to cluster across structures. Five groups of 15 learners were tested using elicited production, comprehension and acceptability judgements on each structure. The results show significant correlations on verb raising across structures suggesting that parameter re-setting is possible.

Monday November 30
5pm Lecture Room A
Professor Alison Wray
Centre for Language and Communication Research, Cardiff University

Memorization and L2 learning: reflections on process and product

Should L2 learners be encouraged to memorize texts? According to Ding (2007), winners of an all-China English Language speaking competition “attributed [their] success to the practice of text memorization and imitation during their middle school years” (p.272). Cooper (2004), Dahlin & Watkins (2000) and Marton, Dall’Alba & Tse (1993) show that effective learning through memorization only takes place if the learner understands the memorized text, while the key benefit of memorization lies in the opportunity for further learning facilitated by repeated access, through memory, to reliable information. However, accurate memorization is surprisingly difficult. In this paper, I will report findings from some of my studies into memorization in L2 learning. They include a case in which the memorization was so good that it bamboozled IELTS examiners (Wray & Pegg, 2009), and two studies in which learners wanted and needed to memorize the L2 text accurately, yet failed to (Fitzpatrick & Wray, 2006; Wray, 2004; Wray & Fitzpatrick, 2008). I will also consider the challenge faced by classical singers who have to memorize texts in languages they do not know. Based on these collected findings, I will propose that learners’ existing L2 knowledge creates an obstacle to accurate memorization, and suggest a means by which memorization activities might be used a tool for targeted learning.

• Cooper, B. J. (2004). The enigma of the Chinese learner. Accounting Education, 13 (3), 289-310.
• Dahlin, B., & Watkins, D. (2000). The role of repetition in the processes of memorising and understanding: a comparison of the views of German and Chinese secondary school students in Hong Kong. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 70, 65-84.
• Fitzpatrick, T., & Wray, A. (2006). Breaking up is not so hard to do: individual differences in L2 memorization. Canadian Modern Language Review, 63 (1), 35-57.
• Marton, F., Dall’Alba, G., & Tse, L. K. (1993). The paradox of the Chinese learner. Melbourne: RMIT, Educational Research and Development Unit.
• Wray, A. (2004). 'Here's one I prepared earlier': formulaic language learning on television. In N. Schmitt (Ed.), Formulaic sequences: acquisition, processing and use (pp. 249-268). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Wray, A., & Fitzpatrick, T. (2008). Why can’t you just leave it alone? Deviations from memorized language as a gauge of nativelike competence. In F. Meunier & S. Granger (Eds.), Phraseology in language learning and teaching (pp. 123-148). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Wray, A., & Pegg, C. (2009). The effect of memorized learning on the writing scores of Chinese IELTS test takers. IELTS Research Reports, 9, 191-216.