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Foreign Language Learners (foreign + language_learner)
Selected AbstractsLanguage Learning Strategy Use of Bilingual Foreign Language Learners in SingaporeLANGUAGE LEARNING, Issue 2 2000Glenn Wharton This study, using Oxford's 80-item Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), examines the self-reported language learning strategy use of 678 university students learning Japanese and French as foreign languages in Singapore. The study differs from previous SILL studies in that the participants were bilingual from a multicultural setting, and the use of all 80 strategies was examined. Relationships between background variables and overall strategyuse were investigated using ANOVA. Results were significant for motivation, self-rated proficiency, and language studied, with motivation significantly interacting with language studied. The use of each strategy by proficiency and also by gender was investigated using chi-square. Results showed more learning strategy use among learners with higher proficiency and, unexpectedly, more strategies used significantly more often by men. [source] Modifying First-Year Textbook Dialogues along a Hymesian Model of Meaning: A Theory of In-Depth Language Processing for the L2 ClassroomFOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 2 2000Lana Rings Speakers' "scripts" (established patterns of discourse) and "world" knowlege (the often culture-specific understanding of verbal and nonverbal constructs) are important features of any meaningful exchange of discourse. This article contends that foreign language learners will produce a higher level of language if they are made aware of , and given the opportunity to manipulate , such extralinguistic variables with regard to the texts they study. Whenever possible, teaching materials (e.g., textbook dialogues, autotaped or videotaped texts) should include the context-based information necessary for higher-level language processing. The author also describes a "stop-gap" teaching strategy by which students imagine and describe the full import of "decontextualized" examples of the foreign language. Finally, a tentative model for research on context-based language learning is presented. [source] Input and Second Language Acquisition: The Roles of Frequency, Form, and Function Introduction to the Special IssueMODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL, Issue 3 2009NICK ELLIS The articles in this special issue explore how the acquisition of linguistic constructions as form,function mappings is affected by the distribution and saliency of forms in oral input, by their functional interpretations, and by the reliabilities of their form,function mappings. They consider the psycholinguistics of language learning following general cognitive principles of category learning, with schematic constructions emerging from usage. They analyze how learning is driven by the frequency and frequency distribution of exemplars within construction, the salience of their form, the significance of their functional interpretation, the match of their meaning to the construction prototype, and the reliability of their mappings. These investigations address a range of morphological and syntactic constructions in instructed, uninstructed, and laboratory settings. They include both experimental and corpus-based approaches (some conducted longitudinally) and consider the relationship between input and acquisition in the short term and over time, with a particular emphasis on spoken input directed to second and foreign language learners. [source] Students' and Teachers' Assessments of the Need for Accuracy in the Oral Production of German as a Foreign LanguageMODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL, Issue 4 2007MONIKA CHAVEZ Previous research indicates that foreign language learners are much more focused on accuracy, particularly grammatical accuracy, than their teachers are. The purpose of the current study was to gain a more detailed understanding of American learners' views of the need for accuracy in the oral production of a foreign language (German) by (a) distinguishing among 4 different purposes of language use (deriving a personal sense of accomplishment; being comprehensible to a native speaker [NS]; being pleasant to an NS; receiving an A in the course); (b) specifying 19 different language forms (grammatical, phonological, lexical, and pragmatic) of German; (c) asking the learners to assess the likelihood of ever attaining 90% or higher accuracy in each of these features; (d) examining learners in 4 different years of instruction; and (e) comparing the learners' beliefs to those of their teachers. The results revealed that (a) the learners in this study were not universally motivated toward accuracy in oral production generally or toward grammatical accuracy specifically; (b) they assumed that the grade requirements demanded much higher levels of accuracy than were necessary (as reported by the teachers) and were needed for communication with NSs or for their personal sense of accomplishment; (c) the year of instruction distinguished ratings of needed accuracy in specific forms, but not ratings of the overall degree of needed accuracy; and (d) the views of beginning learners especially and their teachers differed on the degree of accuracy needed to obtain a grade of A in the course, to derive a sense of accomplishment, and in the usage of specific language forms. Here, the learners appeared to construct unwarranted equivalencies between form-meaning relationships in the first language (L1) and the second language (L2) when they perceived that a low degree of accuracy was needed in certain German forms, particularly case endings and suprasegmental features. These findings suggest that judgments of required accuracy: (a) interact with the specific language-use purpose and specific language forms; (b) may vary by specific L1,L2 pairings; and (c) may have reflected in previous research the learners' perceptions of grade requirements rather than their true personal motivations. [source] Writing in the Secondary Foreign Language Classroom: The Effects of Prompts and Tasks on Novice Learners of FrenchMODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL, Issue 2 2000Denise Paige Way This study investigated the effects of 3 different writing tasks (descriptive, narrative, and expository) and 3 different writing prompts (bare, vocabulary, and prose model) on 937 writing samples culled from 330 novice learners enrolled in 15 classes of Levels 1 and 2 high school French. In order to assess the quality, fluency, syntactic complexity, and accuracy of the writing samples, the researchers employed 4 evaluation methods: holistic scoring, length of product, mean length of T-units, and percentage of correct T-units. Results indicate that the descriptive task was the easiest and the expository task the most difficult. The prose model prompts produced the highest mean scores, and the bare prompts produced the lowest mean scores. Based on these findings, the researchers question whether the description of a novice writer in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines(1986) should be used as a blueprint for curriculum development and textbook construction for secondary novice foreign language learners. [source] | ||||||||||