摘要:

This article reviews the proposition that achievement in a second language is related to attitudinal/motivational characteristics of the students. It uses as its starting point articles by Oller and Perkins, and demonstrates that their generalizations that such relationships are weak, and that they are due to the spurious effects of verbal intelligence and language proficiency are not founded in fact. Statistical, contextual, and conceptual issues relevant to their criticisms of this research area are reviewed, as are much more parsimonious interpretations of so‐called “strange” findings. It is recommended that rather than argue over hypothetical relationships, we direct our research attention to unravelling the mysteries of second language acquisition, to the benefit of students and teachers

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1980.tb00318.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1980

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Suter (1976) studied the correlations between English pronunciation accuracy scores and a battery of 20 variables for 61 normative speakers of English. Although he found that 12 of the 20 were significantly correlated with pronunciation accuracy, he did not attempt to assess the relative importance of the 12 in accounting for the criterion's variance. By limiting his analysis to a consideration of zero order correlations it was not possible to determine which of the significant predictors were true predictors of pronunciation accuracy in and of themselves and which were only significant predictors by virtue of their substantial correlations with other, more efficient predictors of pronunciation accuracy. In the present paper we apply more advanced techniques to the analysis of the predictors and conclude that only 4 variables, one of them a composite of 2 of Suter's predictors, are useful in accounting for the variability of subjects' pronunciation accuracy scores.

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1980.tb00319.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1980

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This study analyzes the relationship between English language attainment and attitudes towards English among Chinese‐speaking (Canton dialect) secondary school students in Hong Kong. The subjects were Form IV (10th grade) students from both English‐medium and Chinese‐medium schools. Attitude measures were obtained by use of both direct and indirect means. Attitudes towards English were measured directly by means of a series of statements concerning the study and use of English to which subjects were asked to respond on five‐point scales. Indirectly, attitudes were measured with a scale of stereotypes modelled on the work of Spolsky. English attainment was assessed by a cloze procedure as suggested by Oller. Results of factor analysis of the direct attitude questions regarding English show that several of these attitude factors are significantly related to English attainment as measured by the cloze test. In some cases, however, the correlations were contrary to the directions that one might expect. In general, the statistical results of this study indicate that, for the population under study, the direct measure of attitude was a better predictor of English attainment than an indirect measure. The indirect measures obtained by asking Ss to rate (1) themselves, (2) themselves as they would like to be, (3) Chinese people, and (4) Westerners did produce some significant results, but these were not as strong indicators of language attainment as the results obtained from the direct m

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1980.tb00320.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1980

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Research to help learners of English use spelling clues to predict the vowel and consonant sounds as well as the stress of words has revealed a rule simplification which has practical and theoretical implications. This paper shows that the well‐known Trisyllabic Laxing Rule is a subcase of a much simpler and more general vowel quality rule, the Bisyllabic Laxing Rule. On the practical side, the Bisyllabic Laxing Rule gives ESL students a way to predict vowel qualities which heretofore they could only guess at. On the theoretical side, the rule (and others like it) challenges the conventional representation of underlying vowels and the use of vowel alternation rules in the generative description of English phonolog

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1980.tb00321.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1980

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The answers we give to the questions we ask are limited by the methods we use The argument of this paper is that theory and research in second language learning are leading us to ask questions for which we need a new research paradigm–one that focuses on the interaction of person and situational factors. This paradigm has been used in some areas of research in education and psychology, although only recently has the application of regression analysis allowed adequate testing of the model. Advantages and problems in the use of the interaction research paradigm are discussed and implications are drawn for research on second language learnin

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1980.tb00322.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1980

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This study was designed as an extension of previous research in which pronunciation of a foreign language was experimentally manipulated using alcohol or hypnosis, to confirm a relationship between permeability of language ego boundaries and pronunciation. The present study used Benzodiazepine (Valium) to manipulate pronunciation in Thai. Seventy‐five subjects were assigned to one of four treatment conditions: Placebo, 2 mg., 5 mg., or 10 mg., and subsequently tested on the Standard Thai Procedure (STP) and the Digit Symbol Test. Results seem to suggest that Benzodiazepine (Valium) facilitates the empathic sensitivity of the subjects to the tester rather than to the voice on the tape. The combined findings of the Valium and alcohol studies are interpreted as supporting the theoretical connection between language ego boundaries and ego boundaries in general and illustrate the extraordinary sensitivity of the test to fluctuations in the state of the subject's eg

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1980.tb00323.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1980

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Previous studies of the communicative effect of learner language have mainly dealt with native speaker evaluations of the intelligibility of discrete items (typically error types) in learners' written performance. The present study is an attempt to assess a wider range of native speaker reactions to stretches of discourse, produced by Danish learners of English in interview situations. These data were evaluated by 150 native British informants on 14 five‐point scales labelled by bipolar adjectives. A factor analysis yielded four factors, which were interpreted as a personality factor, a content factor, a language factor, and a comprehension factor.Results obtained on the language factor and on the comprehension factor were then compared with results obtained from an objective performance analysis of the learner texts. These comparisons indicated that whereas the correlation was highly significant between the language factor and most of the performance features analysed, only one of the performance features correlated significantly with the comprehension factor, viz. communication strategies. This lack of correlation between quantitative measures of learners' performance and evaluations of comprehension was further investigated by means of more qualitative analyses of specific aspects of the texts (errors in lexis, communication strategies, discourse structure

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1980.tb00324.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1980

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The purpose of this study is to investigate the deletion of redundant elements in coordinate structures usingandin ESL learners' interlanguages (ILs). In natural language, there are certain universal constraints on the surface orders which may result from the deletion of one or more identical elements in such coordinate structures. Since it has been hypothesized that ILs are natural languages, this study sets out to determine if ILs obey universal constraints on surface orders of coordinate structures and therefore behave as natural languages with respect to these structures. It will be shown that they do.In addition, where ILs differ from English with respect to surface orders, it is proposed that such ESL learners' errors are not best accounted for in terms of surface order transfer or overgeneralization of a target language rule, but rather that ESL learners may transfer the discourse constraints on deletion from their native language and create a new IL form in English.Methodological considerations for doing such a study are also discussed. It is argued that a data base drawn from a single test can have serious implications for the accuracy of a description of an IL grammar.

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1980.tb00325.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1980

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

A framework for the study of interlanguage strategies of communication, production, and learning is established, and rigorous criteria are proposed to define communication strategies within that framework. Research on communication strategies is related to research on foreigner talk (Hatch 1979, Hatch, Shapira, and Gough 1978), and repair in interlanguage (Schwartz 1977, Fathman 1980). The claim is made that much of this research focuses on the same kind of phenomenon in interlanguage communication, but that the conceptual frameworks used by researchers investigating communication strategies, foreigner talk, and repair have in the main been different, and hence caused researchers to “see” different things in the same d

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1980.tb00326.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1980

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This paper presents empirical data (collected from nine Thai ESL learners) to support the claim that there is sociolinguistic variation and style shifting in interlanguage phonology, just as there is in the phonology of any natural language. The study addresses several theoretical questions:1. Is interlanguage more permeable to a superordinate rule system in formal than in informal situations?2. If it is more permeable, does the native language or the target language act as the superordinate rule system?3. Does phonological transfer follow the sociolinguistic rules of the native language?4. Does Monitoring operate on a continuum, increasing in formal contexts, and thereby producing a style shift?The findings are consistent with the point of view that interlanguage becomes permeable to a superordinate rule system in formal situations. In these data, the target language (English) acted as the superordinate rule system when the variable examined had no social meaning in the native language (Thai), but when the variable was in fact strongly marked for social value in Thai, the native language (Thai) was adopted as the superordinate rule system. The latter style shifting involved transfer of a socially appropriate variant. Finally, it was found that monitoring (attention to speech) and conscious Monitoring with a learned phonological rule operated on a sliding scale, increasing in formal contexts, and resulting in a style shift.

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1980.tb00327.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1980

数据来源: WILEY