Erica & Yuni, Part II

Part II

Listening: Carefully consider the form of listener’s responses

In order to understand how much students know and comprehend, you must look at external cues such as doing, choosing, transferring, answering, condensing, extending, duplicating, modeling, and conversing. Different responses can be observed depending on the level of students, but in a current classroom setting answering seems to be the most frequently used way to check students’ comprehension. In the case of modeling, you need to try to induce students’ creativity rather than having them repeat the model.

Listening & Speaking: use techniques that are intrinsically motivating

Try to select the topics or activities related to personal interests and goals to increase students’ intrinsic motivation. For example, teachers can choose the topic relevant to “asking for a date” for young adults to increase their level of interest, but need to be cautious about sensitive topics. When you have multiple people with different interests, you can choose one topic for one day and another for the next day so that everyone can get interested in classroom topics.

Content-based Instruction

This method is more about the subject matter and not specifically about other language forms.

Lesson Plan

Age: Native Chinese-speaking Adults in EMBA program at UTA
Proficiency Level: High Intermediate
Institutional Setting: classroom of 6 students, 1 hour class
Terminal Objective: To be able to function in a business meeting conducted in English
Enabling Objective: To read a case study of a company (reading), hear a summary of a different case study (listening and speaking), and be able to answer 3 questions about what they heard (writing)
Materials: 6 different case studies (1 copy each); 6 evaluation forms (6 sections of 4 questions each)

Warm-up (5 min.) (L, S)

Have the students gather around a large table.

Teacher: Today we are going to talk about businesses. Can you tell me some successful businesses?
Ss: verbal responses
Teacher: What makes a company successful? Why?
Ss: verbal responses

Segment 1 (5 min.) (L, R)

Teacher: You each have a case study about a different company in front of you. Without reading the whole study now, but just looking it over, have you ever heard of this company? Have you seen or heard anything about the CEO? Remember, CEO stands for Chief Executive Officer, or the head of the company.

Segment 2 (10 min.) (R)

Teacher: Now I want you to each read your case study, silently. At this time, there should be no talking, just reading.

Segment 3 (30 min.) (S, L)

Teacher: OK, has everyone read their case study? Great! Starting with David, I want you to summarize the case study for your classmates. You don’t need to read it to them, just tell them what the company is, who the CEO is, and some good information about the company. The rest of you should listen carefully to the summary. You have in front of you a sheet of paper, divided into six sections, one for each person, with the questions you will need to answer for each section. You may take notes if you want to.

Segment 4 (5 min.) (W)

Teacher: Now that you’ve heard each summary, write down the answers to the questions that I’ve given you.

Question 1: Who is the student who summarized?
Question 2: Who is the CEO mentioned?
Question 3: What is the name of the company?
Question 4: Name one fact that is interesting to you; this is your choice.

Wind Down (5 min.) (L, S)

Teacher: You all learned about several companies today, and the men who run them or started them. Were these companies successful? Why or why not? If they were, what made them successful?

At this point, the teacher should take answers from several of the students.

Teacher: Please hand in your evaluations. This was a great class today, wasn’t it?

Experiential Learning

Part 1

Experiential Learning: includes activities that engage both left- and right-brain for living in the real-world

Students learn by doing and discovering. Trial and error plays a part in learning.


LESSON PLAN:

Context: 12 Intermediate Level Adult Learners in a Language Center in Texas
Course focus: Multiple skills, emphasis on Grammar
Class Hour: 1 hour
Terminal objective—Ss will be able to use and identify past perfect (pp) & past perfect progressive (ppp) tenses in all four skills areas

WARM-UP (5 mins) L, S, W, R
Enabling Objective: T models using past perfect and past perfect progressive tenses
Step 1: T asks following question and then writes on board: What had you already studied by the time you moved to Texas?
Step 2: T draws diagram on board illustrating chronological order of events, using a response from a student

PRESENTATION: (10 mins) R, L
Enabling Objective: T explains definition of pp & ppp verb tenses, Ss follow along in textbook and refer to examples
1) T directs Ss to page __ in textbook
2) T defines past perfect and past perfect progressive tenses

PRACTICE: (15 mins) R, W, L, S
Enabling Objective: Ss practice creating their own examples of pp & ppp usage
1) Ss create 3 sentences of their own complete with diagrams
2) Volunteers will read their examples

ROLE-PLAY: (20 mins) L, S, W, R
Enabling Objective: Ss use their own creativity to show comprehension & ability to use pp & ppp
1) T & S volunteer model example
2) T assigns pairs
3) Each pair receives an index card with format
4) Pairs fill out cards using pp/ppp
5) Each pair will act out their card

DEBRIEFING (5 mins) L, S
Enabling Objective: Ss evaluate appropriate usage of pp/ppp

WIND-DOWN (5 mins) L, R, W
Enabling Objective: Ss practice pp & ppp usage
T passes out worksheet to be completed and returned the following day

Matt, Jason and Katie Part 2

Listening:
Include a focus on listening in an integrated-skills course
Encourage the development of listening strategies

When including a focus on listening in your integrated-skills course you must be careful to tailor the listening activities to the level of English that your students speak. Some activities you can do to help focus on listening are playing an audio recording and having students respond. Going around the room randomly selecting students and asking them questions about a particular topic and changing the topic as students share about this or that or whatever.

For encouraging students to develop listening strategies we discussed how they will help the students have a more successful learning experience. Listening strategies will help their understanding of English and increase their automaticity. Learning not to worry about whether you understand every word in an utterance but rather picking up the key words will help a student greatly in listening. Also, note taking will help a student to grasp the spoken language as it gives the student and opportunity to summarize what is being heard and to maintain focus.

Speaking:
Encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts

Using relevant, intrinsically motivating spoken language activities helps the student stay interested and take charge of his/her learning. Any grammar discussion should be condensed to a mini-lesson that addresses specific grammatical errors that are hampering a group of the students in class.

Update on Service Learning

So how's the service learning going?  How are you feeling about it?  Learning anything?  Tell us here!

Theme-Based Instruction

Theme-Based Instruction...
This method is very centered on a theme or topic which is the driving force, while the grammar takes a back seat.

Eating Out Theme: Restaurant Style [not fast food]

Context: ESL
Level: Intermediate
Course Focus: Integrated course, General English skills
Students: Adults
Lesson: Unit Four, Lesson One
[Book we made up]
Class hour: 4 hours
Terminal Objective: Dining out at a casual restaurant.
Enabling Objective: How to read a menu, How to tip, How to pay, How to interact with hostess/host, waiter/waitress

Materials: Chili's menu, money, comment card, salt/pepper, sugar packets, ketchup, coaster, silverware, napkins, play food, Chili's check/receipt

Warm-Up: We will watch a Youtube clip of a couple dining at a restaurant. Students will then point out what they saw and discuss the clip. Finally, we will finish with a sequencing activity where students will put into practice the order the restaurant experience goes in. Skills: Listening, Speaking

Presentation:
1. Role Play
Hostess/Getting seated or waiting to be seated
The teachers will model this section, the students will then role play this section, and then we will discuss. Skills: Listening, Speaking
2. Role Play
Meeting waiter/waitress, Ordering drinks and then food
The teachers will model this section, the students will then role play this section, and then we will discuss. Skills: Reading, Listening, Speaking
3. Role Play
Getting the ticket, paying for the meal, to-go box if needed
The teachers will model this section, the students will then role play this section, and then we will discuss. Skills: Speaking, Listening

Closure:
We will examine the Chili's ticket/receipt and explain the "tip" process. The students will learn how to fill out the ticket and how to tip. We will then talk about our field trip to Chili's where we will experience the restaurant first hand. Skills: Writing, Reading

Allison and Yimin Part II

LISTENING: Use authentic language and contexts

- Definition: As a teacher, we have to use real0life texts and situations in the classroom. Activities should be natural, rather than contrived, to encourage students' engagement.

- Questions and Answers:
1. How do we determine how authentic the texts are?
It depends on how you utilize the materials. For example, asking students to draw a cartoon strip about something very dramatic; that is, this could be a counterexample of AUTHENTIC texts.
2. Which of these text is most appropriate for listening activity?
Interviews, conversations or speeches seem to be more appropriate than other texts.


SPEAKING: Give students opportunity to initiate oral communication

- Definition: As a teacher, we have to not only make students have interactions but also make them initiate language by themselves.

- Questions and Answers:
1. How would we intrinsically motivate shy students to initiate oral communication?
Pair work and small group work such as bingo activity can help us to make students start to talk.
Using extrinsic motivation to encourage to answer would be also good.

Allison and Yilmin Post #7, Part 1

Our model was Task-Based Language Teaching. We defined this as a method that focuses on solving communicative problems in real-life situations. Assessments for this model are based on the outcomes of the situation, or the resolution. We determined the ultimate goal or focus of this model is what happens beyond the classroom. The difference between this and experiential learning might be the focus on problem-solving versus re-enactment, and in TBLT, the learning process is directly linked to the curricular goals.

This is the link to our lesson plan as a Google Doc. I've never done this before, so hopefully it works. You know what they say about English teachers and technology...

Blog Assignment #6, part 3

I know that you just finished teaching your first mini-lesson on Tuesday, but it's almost time to teach again!  Next Thursday (in one week), you will need to bring a rough draft of your next lesson plan with you to class.  This lesson plan must include all the components that your first lesson plan did.  Rather than writing these in class, we'll be doing a little bit of peer review to help each other improve our lessons before we actually present them.  Ideally, the weaknesses of this past teaching demo will be improved in the second demo.

So, think about what you need to improve on, and think about the kind of lesson that would allow you to show your growth.  Using any site you choose (check out the blogsites from the first week of class if you need ideas!), or simply coming up with it on your own, choose what you want to teach about next time.  In the comments to this post, tell what site and activity you plan to concentrate on (so that, again, we can make sure that not everyone is doing the same thing).  Using your student comment sheet, summarize what you want to improve upon and your own response to your teaching demo.  Also discuss what you will focus on in this second teaching demo.  Make sure you include your name!  Start writing your lesson plan (not on the blog) if there's time.

Please note: any group or pair work that you include in this lesson should take less than half of your time.  In other words, you as the teacher must discuss or present or instruct for at least half of your total teaching time.

You may need to finish this activity at home.  Please do so no later than the next class!

Blog Assignment #6, part 2

Groupwork is often a helpful tool for interaction in a language classroom, but may lead to classroom management issues, as we saw in the teaching demos on Tuesday.  Considering the usefulness of groupwork, this is an issue that we hope to overcome to be able to successfully use groupwork effectively.  Think about the following questions (choose the appropriate one for your pair), and discuss them with your partner.  Post your answer on the comments to this blog post.  Make sure you include (a) the question, (b) names of both partners, and (c) a well-thought-out response.

cow:  How can random group selection be both advantageous and disadvantageous?  When would you choose to randomly select groups?  When would you not allow random selection?  What about groups selection by ability levels?  When would you use/not use this technique?  Add in some personal experiences if possible.

cat:  How can group assignment by teacher be both advantageous and disadvantageous?  When would you choose to assign members to groups?  When would you not assign group members?  What about student-selected groups?  When would you choose to allow/not allow students to select their own groups?  Add in some personal experiences if possible.

pig:  Think about group work in general.  It works well for some concepts, with some groups, for some teachers.  Other times it's not so successful.  Discuss how we as teachers can better ensure the success of our groupwork.  Add in some personal experiences if possible.

turkey:  Think about classroom management in general.  Think about and discuss several ways (don't just repeat the book!) that a teacher can work toward a well-managed classroom.  Add in some personal experiences if possible.


When you have finished posting (make sure you are ready to discuss!), move on to part 3 in the next post.

Blog Assignment #6, part 1

I was having technical difficulties today, and Microsoft Office kept quitting on me, so I finally gave up and decided to just type your blog assignment directly into the blog itself. 

Here's the first part:
Chapter 13 discusses how the principles we talked about earlier in the semester form the foundation for 'structuring a theory of interaction in the language classroom'.   With your partner, look back over the list of articles that you both posted last week from our trip to the library.  Do any of the articles discuss the importance of interaction in relation to the principle that was researched?  If so, read the abstracts for those articles.  If not, think about why interaction is not stressed for that principle.  Discuss with your partner how interaction can help build that principle, and how that principle affects interaction.  Together, write a paragraph or two that discusses that principle in relation to interaction, and post it in the comments section of the original citation list.  Include your name and your partner's name, please!  Be prepared to summarize both principles and how they relate to interaction for the rest of the students at the end of class (if there is time).

When you finish this section of the blog assignment, move on to part 2 in the next post.

Effort in Reading/Writing/Note-taking in L1 & L2

This research was primarily aimed at studying the attentional load entailed by reading, notetaking, and writing from an electronic document in L1 and in L2. Concerning cognitive effort, there was no significant difference between L1 and L2. On the other hand, reading and note-taking were significantly more costly than writing.

Participants abbreviated almost twice as many words noted in L2 than in L1. Again, the ways of abbreviating in L1 were apparently not transferred to L2, and the use of this process seems to entail the acquisition of language-specific conventions. Nonetheless, word abbreviation in note-taking is an effective strategy for saving time and transcribing as many words as possible without having to go back to the source document.

Compared to note-takers in L1, L2 participants did more verbatim copying of their notes during the writing process. In contrast, the L2 participants benefited from the word-processor condition, since they were able to copy and paste far more ideas than the L1 participants, as if they sensed the difficulty of selecting relevant information.

I think that this article is great in terms of the impact of note-taking in the L2 (English for our students). Realizing how difficult it is to write notes in a new language and how much concentration it takes to do so can help in our pacing of our speech.

Mini-Lesson Observation

Today, you saw 7 mini-lessons taught by your classmates, and performed one yourself.  For me, even after 15 years of teaching, observing other teachers always provides me with new ideas, questions about my own teaching, and different approaches to old topics.  Think back over the teaching demos that you saw, and comment on how they will affect your own teaching - did you learn a new technique, new ideas, things for teachers to be aware of, new ways to focus on a topic, etc?  In other words, what'd you learn today and how did the lessons speak to you about your own teaching?

As always, be nice, be thoughtful, and be detailed.

Looking for conversation starters and/or guides?

I know that some of you are working with partners for your Service Learning who want conversation practice.  This can be difficult when you don't know a person well, kind of like making small talk at a party with someone you've never met before and know nothing about.  At least at a party, you can make an excuse and walk away.  Not so with your conversation partner!

So, in case you need some ideas, I'm posting here my list of top 5 Go-To sites for conversation.  If you have others that you prefer, please add them in the comments!

from eslgold.com
from iteslj.com
from esljunction.com
from eslgenius.com
from eslpartyland.com

Summary of "Willingness to communicate : can online chat help?"

I selected the article, "Willingness to communicate : can online chat help?" I picked this article because it sounded very interesting. What I discovered here was that online chat actually does increase the willingness to communicate. When the students are face to face it puts more pressure on them and it is harder to have that willingness to communicate. Online chat also helps the students not be affected by the teacher, other students, or other elements that might affect the experience of learning a language.

In this article the students feedback was very positive. They were able to communicate freely without any fear. It was easier to give their opinions when not face to face and they didn't know who their partner was that they were talking to so there was no worrying or anxiety.

I would highly recommend this article. I think it is very helpful to ESL and EFL students to do online chat and I recommend reading it.

Summary of Article from the Language/Culture Connection

Since my original article was not available, I opted to read “The Dilemma of Perceptual Changes: A Case Study of Three Japanese ESL Students” by Mika Yoshimoto from Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Carleton University.

A consistent thread throughout the article was the heavy influence Buddhism had on the three Japanese students’ concept of the absence of “self”. One of the students was especially reluctant to participate in groups in her ESL class in Canada because she felt it conflicted with her concept of social harmony. Besides feeling uncomfortable in speaking class, this concept of putting others before “self” affected her writing. In Canada she was expected to write openly about her feelings, which she felt was “excessively direct.”

The three students approached their language learning in unique ways; however, they all shared a fear of losing (or desire to maintain) their Japanese culture. They were primarily concerned about showing honor for their ancestors by not speaking out when they didn’t know the answers, consideration for others’ feelings, and acceptance of things that were beyond their control. All of these factors lead to substantial changes in their self-perceptions during their English study in Canada.

Having read these students’ perspectives I will be able to empathize and thus teach Japanese students more effectively in my future classroom. This article was well worth reading!

Line-up for mini-lessons on Tuesday

On Tuesday, we'll be observing each others' teaching during the first part of class.  Remember 10 minutes minimum, 15 minutes maximum for everyone except Jason and Katie, who are working together and have 15-20 minutes.

Here's the plan:
1 - Matt on personality traits
2 - Ronda on tag questions/intonation
3 - Allison on introductions
4 - Yuni on traveling problems
5 - Derek on Uno for colors and numbers
6 - Erica on body parts and other beginner vocab
7 - Jason and Katie on shopping and delivery items
8 - Yilmin on paragraph structure

Meaningful Learning Article

The article I chose is The Role of English in Individual and Societal Development: A View from African Classrooms, by Ailie Cleghorn and Marissa Rollnick. In this article, the authors discuss when to begin L2 teaching (English, in this case). They feel that, according to studies done, that the best time is either after or at the same time as the student is becoming literate in his first language. This is so that the mother language is not lost while the second language is acquired. The authors delve into meaningful learning when they discuss how important code-switching is for language learners. Just giving students vocabulary and grammar in a second language does them no good if they cannot understand that there are cultural differences between them and other language speakers. The goal is to maintain their own native culture, while preparing these learners for becoming world citizens.

A Selected Paper on Native Language Effect

I selected Interpretation of English multiple wh-questions by japanese speakers: A missing uninterpretable feature account by Roger Hawkins and Hajime Hattori.

As we learned in class, Native Language Effect is two-folded: that is, it can be EITHER facilitation OR interference. This selected paper is mostly about the interference. Initial research question of the paper starts from Tsimpli (2003) suggesting that uninterpretable syntactic features that have not been selected during first language(L1) acquisition will not be available for L2 grammar construction. However, interpretable syntactic features remain available even those not selected by the L1.

Conclusively, the authors argue that there is a critical period for the selection of uninterpretable syntactic features for the construction of mental grammars. Moreover, caution should be required in interpreting target-like performance as evidence that L2 speakers have the same underlying grammatical representations as native speakers.

Personally, this paper is very interesting in that Japanese shares a lot of properties with Korean. The Wh-in-situ language such as Japanese lacks the movement-forcing feature. As far as I know from my native intuition, Korean can be regarded as a Wh-in-situ langauge. However, someone can argue that Korean is not in that Korean acually allows Wh-movement because Korean is very famous for its word order flexibility. I'm also curious about the movement-forcing features.

In a nutshell, it is useful for linguists or TESOL researchers who are interested in native language effect. In particular, if your target language is a Wh-in-situ language, this paper will give you some comparative and contrastive points of view.

Native Language Effect

Abstracts of the 10 papers:

Adrian, Maria Martinez. 2010. On L2 english transfer effects in L3 syntax. VIAL – Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics 7. 75-98.

This article focuses on the acquisition of L3 German by high school learners whose L2 is English. The main aim is to study the possible influence of English as an L2 on the acquisition of word order in L3 German in light of proposals along Minimalist lines (Chomsky 1995; Zwart 1997ab). Taking into account the description of parameters in terms of feature strength within the Minimalist Program, the hypothesis is entertained that there would be transfer of the value of feature strength under functional categories from the L2 to the L3. In order to test this hypothesis, written production data and grammaticality judgements have been collected from two groups of participants who learn German as L3 and from one control group with L2 German. The results do not support the hypothesis of L2 transfer at the syntactic level. However, evidence has been found of optional movements of the verb and the object, as reported in previous studies by Beck (1998). This optionality will be explained by the underspecification of feature values under functional categories.



Chen, Fred Jyun-gwang. 2006. Interplay between forward and backward transfer in L2 and L1 writing: The case of chinese ESL learners in the US. Concentric: Studies in Linguistics 32. 147-96.

This paper focuses on the issue of language transfer in an L2 environment. Research has shown that forward transfer from L1 to L2 appears at early stages and decreases as L2 proficiency increases. Additionally, there is evidence to suggest that backward transfer from L2 to L1 may occur in an L2 environment in which subsequent contact to L2 is limited or in an L2 academic community in which confirming evidence that L1 syntax is correct is lacking. The study of this paper investigates Chinese and Spanish learners across three English proficiency levels, who wrote in L1 and L2 at U.S. graduate schools. All participants completed sentence and discourse tasks. It is found that forward transfer occurred in the Chinese learners' L2 writing at the discourse level and that backward transfer occurred in their L1 writing at the sentence level. Moreover, both forward transfer and backward transfer are mitigated by L2 proficiency. Furthermore, among the Level 2 Chinese learners, the relationship between forward transfer and L2 proficiency in the English sentence task follows a U-shaped curve, and the relationship between backward transfer and L2 proficiency in the Chinese sentence task also follows a U-shaped curve. The results of this study point to the complexity of language transfer and its interactions with L2 proficiency and distinctive task types.



Geranpayeh, Ardeshir. 2000. The acquisition of the english article system by persian speakers. Edinburgh Working Papers in Applied Linguistics 10. 37-51.

It has been argued that the acquisition of the English article system is delayed for most second-language (L2) learners until the very final stages of learning. This paper examines the difficulties of the acquisition of this system by Persian speakers. It will be argued that no single available theory can account for the causes of the learners' errors but a combination of contrastive analysis & an analysis of these errors might be illuminating. English & Persian differ in that the former uses definite markers, while the latter uses specific markers. It will also be shown that syntax has a major role in the use of the definite marker in English, whereas semantics has that role in Persian. It is predicted that if any transfer from the first language (L1) were to occur, it would most likely happen where the noun phrase carrying the article appears in subject position. An analysis of the subjects' performance on two article elicitation tasks suggests that Persian L2 learners of English have problems identifying the English definite marker when it is subject position. 6 Tables, 3 Figures, 1 Appendix, 18 References.



Hasan, Ahmad. 2001. The interference of arabic syntax in EFL learning. Arab Journal for the
Humanities 19. 245-61.

The phenomenon of first language (L1) interference in the learning of a foreign language has been extensively discussed; however, most of the accounts that approach this problem are unsatisfactory as they fail to explain this issue systematically. One aspect of L1 interference in learning a foreign language, namely the interference of Arabic syntax in the learning of English by Arab students, is addressed. Errors in grammar resulting from L1 interference have been dealt with from the error analysis & contrastive analysis perspectives. The author argues that these two models are inadequate as they both fail to attain explanatory power. As an alternative, Chomsky's (1981, 1986, & 1995) model of grammar, as presented in the Government & Binding theory, is adequate not only to describe but also to explain these errors. The author's account enables us to explain the predictability of these errors in that it predicts which errors are likely to occur as a result of Arabic interference in learning English as a foreign language (EFL). More significantly, the author shows how the Government & Binding framework, through its principles & parameters, offers more insight into what happens in the learner's mind than the other models do.



Hawkins, Roger, and Hajime Hattori. 2006. Interpretation of English multiple wh-questions by japanese speakers: A missing uninterpretable feature account. Second Language Research 22. 269-301.

In recent work by Tsimpli (2003) & Tsimpli & Dimitrakopoulou (to appear) an explicit claim is made about the nature of end-state grammars in older second language (L2) learners: uninterpretable syntactic features that have not been selected during first language (L1) acquisition will not be available for L2 grammar construction. Interpretable syntactic features, on the other hand, remain available (as well as the computational procedures & principles of the language faculty), even those not selected by the L1. The present study investigates this hypothesis in relation to the acquisition of the uninterpretable feature that forces wh-movement in interrogatives in English. Nineteen L1 speakers of Japanese (a wh-in-situ language that lacks the movement-forcing feature) who are highly proficient speakers of English were asked to interpret bi-clausal multiple wh-questions in English (like Where did the professor say the students studied when?). Their responses were compared with those of a native speaker control group. It is argued that the results are consistent with the unavailability of the uninterpretable feature. Two conclusions are drawn: first, that there is a critical period for the selection of uninterpretable syntactic features for the construction of mental grammars; second, that despite the observation of target-like performance by L1 Japanese speakers on English wh-interrogatives reported in a number of existing studies, caution is required in interpreting target-like performance as evidence that L2 speakers have the same underlying grammatical representations as native speakers.



Juffs, Alan. 1998. Some effects of first language argument structure and morphosyntax on second language sentence processing. Second Language Research 14. 406-24.

This article explores some effects of first-language verb-argument structure on second-language processing of English as a second language. Speakers of Chinese, Japanese or Korean, & three Romance languages & native English speakers provided word-by-word reading times & grammaticality judgment data in a self-paced reading task. Results suggest that reliable differences in parsing are not restricted to cases where verb-argument structure differs cross-linguistically.



Mori, Yoko. 2005. The initial high pitch in english sentences produced by japanese speakers. English Linguistics / Journal of the English Linguistic Society of Japan 22. 23-55.

This study attempts to explore an initial high pitch characteristically observed in English sentences produced by Japanese speakers. The experimental results have revealed that about half or more native Japanese participants (college students majoring in English) produced unfocused subject pronouns I, they, you, & it in sentence-initial position at a higher pitch than they did lexical verbs that followed. In three sentence-initial articles, however, the phenomenon was not observed, whereas monosyllabic prepositions showed a smaller degree of the initial high pitch depending on their syllable structures. These results suggest that the transfer of Japanese sentence-initial intonation patterns & interference from Japanese phonological & syntactic structures are involved in the occurrence of the initial high pitch.



Perez Tattam, Rocio. 2006. Control in L2 english and spanish: More on grammar at the syntax-semantic interface. Cahiers linguistiques d'Ottawa 34. 99-108.

In this paper we investigate the acquisition of control in second language (L2) English & Spanish by adult native speakers of Spanish & English by means of a bidirectional experimental study which contrasts different control structures according to the type of controlled clause (complement vs. adjunct control structures) & the type of control (obligatory vs. non-obligatory control). Our results will show that our experimental subjects transfer their L1-knowledge when interpreting & producing control structures, & learn language-specific rules.



Schwartz, Bonnie D. 1999. Some Specs on Specs in L2 Acquisition. Specifiers: Minimalist Approaches, ed. by Adger, David, Pintzuk, Susan,Plunkett, Bernadette and George Tsoulas, 299-337. England: Oxford U Press.

Hypotheses in the generative framework regarding the extent of transfer in second-language (L2) acquisition are reviewed & tested by reexamining two studies of children's L2 acquisition involving specifiers. (1) In a critique of Lydia White's (1996) analysis of French clitic acquisition in P. Lightbown's (1977) 3-year study of English-speaking children acquiring Quebecois French in a kindergarten immersion setting (N = 2 males), White's premise that English lacks clitics is contested; L2 clitic development is shown to be early for preverbal subject pronominals & imperative postverbal object pronominals, which can be accommodated by first-language syntax, & late for preverbal object pronominals, which resist English-based analysis. (2) A problematic data set from the earliest period of Belma Haznedar's (1997) study of English acquisition by a Turkish male (aged 4:3 at study onset) is clarified by applying Richard Kayne's proposal that all languages have basic verb + object order: subject's native object raising to a higher specifier position was transferred to English & delearned a year later. Both reanalyses show that the findings of (1) & (2) support B. D. Schwartz & R. A. Sprouse's (1996) full transfer/full access model of L2 acquisition.



Tickoo, Asha. 2001. Re-examining the developmental sequence hypothesis for past tense marking in ESL: Transfer effects and implications. Prospect 16. 17-34.

Recent research on the acquisition of past tense in L2 has suggested that there is a common developmental process for learners of disparate language backgrounds. This universalist hypothesis claims that verbs which are lexico-semantically more event-like are marked for tense first, followed in distinct stages by the marking of increasingly less event-like verbs. In this study, the past tense marking of Chinese learners of ESL in Hong Kong was examined in 120 narratives by students at three learning levels: Form 3 (age 12), Form 6 (age 15), & the second year of university (age 20). An initial quantitative assessment of the data revealed that the above-described developmental pattern does not properly describe the past tense acquisition of ESL learners whose L1 is Cantonese. The data were re-examined using a less traditional, qualitative mode of data analysis, which (1) gave significance to the individual learner's performance & (2) acknowledged the discourse context in which the past tense marking was used, & the speaker intent it served to fulfill. It was then found that across all three proficiency levels some learners use the past tense to mark only foregrounded (that is, informationally salient) situations. Other learners were found to use the past tense on all verbs, in conformity to the target language grammar. It was found that the only change, as these ESL learners advance in their academic career, is a gradual increase in the number of students who use target-like marking. The idiosyncrasy of this pattern of acquisition is interpreted as resulting from the transfer from these learners' tense-free L1 of a feature of its temporal system. Two implications for L2 research & pedagogy are noted. It is suggested that the potential role of L1 in L2 acquisition must be properly acknowledged. It is also suggested that accurate assessment of learners' syntax is achieved via a qualitative analysis of the individual's performance, which recognizes the communicative function the syntax serves in the discourse context in which it occurs.