The Effectiveness of Collaborative Tasks on the Acquisition of the Spanish Subjunctive and Development of Mood Selection Abilities: Exploring Form-focused Instruction

L2 Spanish morphosyntactic development through collaborative writing: An analysis of mood production, text length and syntactic complexity

“…Their results revealed significant benefits of enhanced input in the short run and collaborative output in the long run and showed that collaborative text reconstruction was effective to a greater extent when compared to individual text reconstruction, however, participants in the input enhancement group outperformed the others. Similarly, Gallego (2016) found that Spanish L2 learners who engaged in two dictogloss tasks increased subjunctive production in the oral modality as well as subjunctive recognition in the written modality. Task impact on target form production was measured before and after treatment in oral interviews.…”

“…Studies with a pre-and post-test design have rendered heterogeneous results regarding the effects of collaboration on target form recognition, detection, intake, uptake and acquisition, concepts that have been operationalized with variations in every study. Some appear to indicate that collaborative text reconstruction and the interaction generated during collaboration can impact acquisition and/or target form production and recognition (Gallego, 2016;Jabbarpoor & Tajeddin, 2013;Qin, 2008). Others, however, found a less significant effect (Kuiken & Vedder, 2002;Reinders, 2009;Swain & Lapkin, 2001;Uludag & VanPatten, 2012) as compared to other tasks or instructional models.…”

“…In most cases, studies have analysed the nature of the interaction, the effects of interaction on morphosyntactic development, and have looked at the quality of texts produced during the task's reconstruction stage. These investigations have, to date, rendered heterogeneous results with regard to language development (see, amongst others, Basterrechea & García Mayo, 2013;Basterrechea, Leeser, & García Mayo, 2014;Fortune, 2005;Gallego, 2014Gallego, , 2016García Mayo, 2002;Kowal & Swain, 1994;Leeser, 2004;Malmqvist, 2005;Nabei, 1996;Qin, 2008;Salazar Campillo, 2006;Storch, 2013;Swain, 1998, Swain & Lapkin, 2001Uludag & VanPatten, 2012). Target form intake, L2 development, and the quality of learners' writing as evidenced by post-treatment assessment have been less frequently examined.…”

“…Specifically, it seeks to determine whether L2 Spanish learners increase their subjunctive mood production and recognition abilities after engaging in a set of dictogloss tasks. There are several important reasons for investigating the effects of instructional models on this particular structure, with the main one being the fact that mood alternation abilities and particularly subjunctive production develops slowly in interlanguage (see, amongst others, Bonilla, 2014;Collentine, 1995Collentine, , 1997Collentine, , 1998Collentine, , 2002Collentine, , 2003Collentine, , 2010Gallego, 2016;Stokes, 1988;Terrell & Hooper, 1974;Terrell, Baycroft, & Perrone, 1987). Additionally, the suggested need for more research regarding issues such as: the potential impact of explicit instruction, the benefits of metalinguistic awareness, and the need for noticing opportunities (Collentine, 2010(Collentine, , 2014) should be attended.…”

“…Previous research on L2 Spanish morphosyntactic development including the recognition and production of the subjunctive mood, established that while learners can develop the ability to recognize the subjunctive mood in early stages of interlanguage development and tend to perform well in input-oriented 2 tasks, the ability to produce the subjunctive tends to develop at more advanced stages (Bonilla, 2014;Collentine, 1995Collentine, , 1997Collentine, , 1998Collentine, , 2002Collentine, , 2003Collentine, , 2010Gudmestad, 2012aGudmestad, , 2012bHenshaw, 2013;Stokes, 1988;Terrell & Hooper, 1974;Terrell et al, 1987). Indeed, advanced second language learners (L2ers) show signs of mood production abilities (Bonilla, 2014;Gallego, 2016;Gudmestad, 2012aGudmestad, , 2012b and highly-advanced L2ers display target-like production patterns (Gudmestad, 2012a(Gudmestad, , 2012b.…”