What second language learners can tell us about the native speaker

2001 ◽  
pp. 91-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Davies
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speaker

Factors driving lexical variation in L2 French: A variationist study of automobile, auto, voiture, char and machine

2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
TERRY NADASDI ◽  
RAYMOND MOUGEON ◽  
KATHERINE REHNER
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Lexical Variation ◽  
Neutral Variant ◽  
The Prestige

ABSTRACTOur paper examines lexical variation in the spoken French of second language learners and focuses on words referring to the notion of ‘automobile’ (i.e., automobile, auto, voiture, char and machine). Results reveal that while students do follow the native speaker pattern of using the neutral variant auto in most instances, they diverge from native speakers by making no use of the vernacular form char and relatively high use of the prestige variant voiture. The principal external factors that influence variant choice are students' home language and the representation of variants in the input to which students are exposed.

The case of the conditional and the imperfect in variable mood-choice contexts in second-language and native-speaker Spanish

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aarnes Gudmestad
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Form Function ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Range Of Functions ◽  
Mood Choice

The current study builds on research on mood distinction in Spanish, which has focused on the subjunctive mood, by examining the full inventory of verb forms that second-language learners and native speakers (NSs) of Spanish use in mood-choice contexts. Twenty NSs and 130 learners corresponding to five proficiency levels completed three oral-elicitation tasks. The results show that participants use a wide repertoire of tense/mood/aspect forms in mood-choice contexts and that NSs and learners use largely the same forms. An analysis of the conditional and imperfect suggests that learners tend to restructure and strengthen their form-function connections between these verb forms and a range of functions.

The use of computer-delivered structured tasks in pragmatic instruction: An exploratory study

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetyana Sydorenko
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Focus On Form ◽  
Pragmatic Development ◽  
Oral Practice ◽  
Pragmatic Instruction

AbstractThis study examines the effect of oral practice via computer-delivered structured tasks (CASTs) with native speaker (NS) models and open-ended tasks without NS input (i.e., learner-leaner role-plays) on pragmatic development of second language learners. While prior studies have indicated that structured tasks afford more opportunities for focus on form (FonF) than open-ended tasks (

scholarly journals Morphosyntactic Processing in Late Second-Language Learners

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 1870-1887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Gillon Dowens ◽  
Marta Vergara ◽  
Horacio A. Barber ◽  
Manuel Carreiras
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
First Language ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Sentence Position ◽  
And Gender

The goal of the present study was to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of second-language (L2) morphosyntactic processing in highly proficient late learners of an L2 with long exposure to the L2 environment. ERPs were collected from 22 English–Spanish late learners while they read sentences in which morphosyntactic features of the L2 present or not present in the first language (number and gender agreement, respectively) were manipulated at two different sentence positions—within and across phrases. The results for a control group of age-matched native-speaker Spanish participants included an ERP pattern of LAN-type early negativity followed by P600 effect in response to both agreement violations and for both sentence positions. The late L2 learner results included a similar pattern, consisting of early negativity followed by P600, in the first sentence position (within-phrase agreement violations) but only P600 effects in the second sentence position (across-phrase agreement violation), as well as significant amplitude and onset latency differences between the gender and the number violation effects in both sentence positions. These results reveal that highly proficient learners can show electrophysiological correlates during L2 processing that are qualitatively similar to those of native speakers, but the results also indicate the contribution of factors such as age of acquisition and transfer processes from first language to L2.

Adult second language learners’ social network development and perceived fluency gain in an intensive English program abroad

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Bejarano ◽  
Dan P. Dewey ◽  
Wendy Baker-Smemoe ◽  
Lynn E. Henrichsen ◽  
Timothy Hall
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Network Size ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Intensive English ◽  
Intensive English Program

Abstract This study investigated the social networks developed by language learners during 14 weeks of an intensive English as a second language (ESL) program using the Study Abroad Social Interaction Questionnaire (Dewey, Bown, Baker, Martinsen, Gold, & Eggett, 2014; Dewey, Bown, & Eggett, 2012). It also utilized native speaker judgments to evaluate ESL fluency development. Results showed that participants were successful in developing complex social networks, that their oral fluency increased significantly, and that fluency gains were related to L2 social networks. Density (average number of people in a social group) was the most important predictor of fluency gain when only social network variables were considered. In a hierarchical regression, initial proficiency level and percentage of native English speakers in one’s network were the most significant of the established variables in the first step, and overall network size and density were the most important of the added social network variables in the second step.

AGE AND ULTIMATE ATTAINMENT IN THE PRONUNCIATION OF A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

1997 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 447-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theo Bongaerts ◽  
Chantal van Summeren ◽  
Brigitte Planken ◽  
Erik Schils
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Late Start ◽  
Ultimate Attainment

This paper reports on two studies that addressed the issue of ultimate attainment by late second language learners. The aim of the studies, which included a carefully screened group of highly successful Dutch learners of English in their designs, was to determine whether or not late second language learners who had achieved a nativelike performance in the pronunciation of a second language could be identified. Speech samples provided by two groups of learners, one of which consisted of highly successful learners only, and a native speaker control group were rated for accent by native speakers of English. The ratings obtained by some learners were within the range of the ratings assigned to the native speaker controls. Such results suggest that it is not impossible to achieve an authentic, nativelike pronunciation of a second language after a specified biological period of time. Examination of the learning histories of the highly successful learners lead the authors to argue that certain learner characteristics and learning contexts may work together to override the disadvantages of a late start.

scholarly journals On Using Corpus Frequency, Dispersion, and Chronological Data to Help Identify Useful Collocations

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-37
Author(s):  
J Rogers ◽  
◽  
and others
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Frequency Dispersion ◽  
Dispersion Analysis ◽  
Manual Analysis ◽  
Dispersion Data ◽  
Corpus Data

This study analyzed corpus data to determine the extent to which frequency, dispersion, and chronological data can help identify useful collocations for second language learners who aim to master general English. The findings indicated that although various analysis levels of frequency and dispersion data are largely effective, the analyses could not identify useful collocations reliably. The findings also indicated that chronological data analysis is not as useful as dispersion analysis due to the amount of time it took versus the improvements that resulted from it. Ultimately, it was found that a manual analysis of data using native speaker intuition is unavoidable. This study highlighted the value and reliability of certain types of corpus data analysis, and also the necessity of labor-intensive, native speaker analysis for identifying useful collocations.

Setting/interlocutor-related variation in oral performance of adult ESL learners

1995 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-146
Author(s):  
Zofia Cholewka
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Oral Performance ◽  
Adult Esl

Abstract The performance of six adult intermediate second-language learners on an oral task was examined. The subjects, sharing a number of characteristics, e.g. the source language (Polish), performed the same task twice, with two different interlocutors, in two different settings (familiar vs. ‘real-life’). The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of the familiarity of the setting/ interlocutor factors on the subjects’ performance. To analyse the surface structure errors obtained from the two interviews, Selinker’s (1972) error taxonomy was employed, thus yielding five error categories: language transfer, overgeneralization, simplification, communication based and teaching induced errors. The findings revealed that the unfamiliar, ‘real-life’ setting elicited significantly higher proportion of language transfer errors than the same task performed in the familiar environment. It is argued that adult, intermediate second-language learners, in a new, ‘real-life’ social setting, when confronted with an unfamiliar native speaker of the target language, revert to their native language, fall back on their prior knowledge to facilitate the task demands.

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