‘It's vocabulary’/‘it's gender’: learner awareness and incidental learning

Abstract

Research has shown that second language (L2) learners that become aware of linguistic features during grammar-based tasks are better able to process these features on a posttest compared to learners that do not focus on these features. However, much L2 input does not come in the form of grammar-based tasks. This study investigates whether learners who become aware of French grammatical gender during a meaning-based task are better able to process these forms than learners whose experience with the same task does not lead to awareness of the feature. Thirty-six Anglophones with low-level French were exposed to reliable noun-ending clues to grammatical gender whilst completing a crossword task. A think-aloud protocol and two probe questions measured awareness. A pre-to posttest design measured accuracy with French nouns ending in eau (e.g. le cadeau). The results revealed no advantage for learners who became aware of the noun-ending clues during exposure: all learners improved in their ability to judge the gender of words encountered during the task (item learning) but none were able to extend this new knowledge to novel items (system learning). The interpretation of the findings considers the choice of linguistic feature, the role of awareness in item learning and the learning conditions that might be necessary for awareness of form to occur during meaning-based exposure.

Movie Reviewing - A Prospective Incidental Learning Approach in English Language Acquisition

“…Long term exposure on media has profited the learners' foreign language skills (Kuppens, 2010). Bell and Collins (2009) are of the opinion that second language development is not much contributed by grammar based activities. India is not an English-speaking country completely in itself and its cultural background, miscellaneous linguistic ideologies and educational philosophies are moderately different from the English-speaking nations.…”