Second Language Acquisition by Adult Immigrants: Exemplified Methodology

Trevise, Anne; Porquier, Rémy

doi:10.1017/s0272263100006306

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Cues that are the same across languages would easily transfer from the first language to the second language as their validity is strengthened from input. Cues that are not consistent across languages would not be as likely to transfer because the learner may have a competing set of cues decreasing cue validity (Kuppersmitt, 2004;Trevise & Remy, 1986;Seliger, 1989). MacWhinney (2005) describes this transfer as a "syntactic accent" in the second language interpretation of sentences based on first language cues.…”

Section: A Functional Model Of Bilingual Language Input and Usementioning

confidence: 99%

The Dynamic Assessment of Narratives: A Bilingual Study

Fiestas

Peña

2018

J Cogn Educ Psych

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This study applied the dynamic assessment (DA) of narratives in a bilingual Spanish- and English-speaking early elementary population. We examined transfer and change in narrative performance within and across languages after mediated learning experience (MLE) in Spanish or English. Sixty-eight bilingual children were randomized to two groups: Spanish (n = 24) or English mediation (n = 25), while a control group (n = 19) participated in regular academic activities. The MLE Spanish and English groups participated in mediated learning focusing on storytelling ability, and children’s modifiability was rated. Pre- to posttest narrative macro- and microstructure change was measured for all children. Both MLE groups demonstrated significant gains in macrostructure compared to the no-treatment control group. Children’s stories were stronger in Spanish overall. Children in both MLE groups demonstrated transfer of narrative macrostructure across both languages regardless of the language of the MLE. When the language of MLE matched language of story production, children did not make greater posttest gains than when unmatched. Finally, MLE in English had a small effect on children’s modifiability ratings. For English-language learners, DA may be a valid method to assess children’s modifiability, language learning, and transfer of skills across languages in an academically relevant task.

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Section: A Functional Model Of Bilingual Language Input and Usementioning

confidence: 99%

The Dynamic Assessment of Narratives: A Bilingual Study

Fiestas

Peña

2018

J Cogn Educ Psych

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“…Early efforts, like Bahns and Wode (1980), argue that consideration of linguistic forms without consideration of the functions those forms realize and how those relations might change during acquisition fails to capture critical observations about the development of an interlanguage. Very much the same message can be found in more recent efforts (Fuller & Gundel, 1987;Gass, 1986;Gundel, Stenson, & Tarone, 1984;Gundel & Tarone, 1985;Hanania & Gradman, 1977;Huebner, 1979Huebner, , 1983Jordens, 1980;Lightbown, 1983;Meisel, 1987;Pfaff, 1987;Tomlin, 1984Tomlin, , 1987Trevise, 1987;Trevise & Porquier, 1986;Veronique, 1987). The Nijmegen-based European Project (Perdue, 1984) embraces relational functional description as one of its principal goals (Klein & Perdue, 1988).…”

Section: The Central Goals and Tenets Of Functional Linguisticsmentioning

confidence: 55%

Functionalism in Second Language Acquisition

Tomlin¹

1990

Stud Sec Lang Acq

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This article examines the role played by functional approaches to linguistics in understanding second language acquisition (SLA). Central premises and tenets of functional approaches are described, and several key theoretical problems with functional efforts are detailed. The problem of referential management (the selection of nominal vs. pronominal NPs) in second language discourse production is examined. The general conclusions are drawn that (a) functional approaches to linguistics have a significant role to play in SLA studies, but (b) functional universals are insufficiently grounded theoretically and empirically at this point to contribute more than heuristic guidance to SLA theory.

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“…First language acquisition normally stops when there is no salient difference between the learner's language and the language of the social environment: second language acquisition typically fossilizes much before -for example at the level of the 'BV'. "See also Trévise and Porquier (1986) for methodological issues, and especially Feldweg (1993) for a detailed description of the transcribed and computerized data bank emanating from this project, whose results are based on the analysis of approximately 15,000 pages of transcription.…”

Section: Empirical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

The basic variety (or: couldn’t natural languages be much simpler?)

2018

Looking at Language

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In this article, we discuss the implications of the fact that adult second language learners (outside the classroom) universally develop a wellstructured, efficient and simple form of language -the Basic Variety (BV). Three questions are asked as to (1) the structural properties of the BV, (2) the status of these properties and (3) why some structural properties of 'fully fledged' languages are more complex. First, we characterize the BV in four respects: its lexical repertoire, the principles according to which utterances are structured, and temporality and spatiality expressed. The organizational principles proposed are small in number, and interact. We analyse this interaction, describing how the BV is put to use in various complex verbal tasks, in order to establish both what its communicative potentialities are, and also those discourse contexts where the constraints come into conflict and where the variety breaks down. This latter phenomenon provides a partial answer to the third question, concerning the relative complexity of 'fully fledged' languages -they have devices to deal with such cases. As for the second question, it is argued firstly that the empirically established continuity of the adult acquisition process precludes any assignment of the BV to a mode of linguistic expression (e.g.. 'protolanguage') distinct from that of 'fully fledged' languages and. moreover, that the organizational constraints of the BV belong to the core attributes of the human language capacity, whereas a number of complexifications not attested in the BV are less central properties of this capacity. Finally, it is shown that the notion of feature strength, as used in recent versions of Generative Grammar, allows a straightforward characterization of the BV as a special case of an I-language. in the sense of this theory. Under this perspective, the acquisition of an 1-language beyond the BV can essentially be described as a change in feature strength.

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Second Language Acquisition by Adult Immigrants: Exemplified Methodology

Cited by 7 publications

References 2 publications

The Dynamic Assessment of Narratives: A Bilingual Study

The Dynamic Assessment of Narratives: A Bilingual Study

Functionalism in Second Language Acquisition

The basic variety (or: couldn’t natural languages be much simpler?)

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