摘要:

This article reports an empirical research into the nature of the relationship between L2 learners’target language proficiency and their strategic competence. The 220 communication strategies employed by 12 Chinese EFL learners of both high and low proficiency in their target language communication with native speakers were identified and analyzed.The results indicate that the frequency, type, and effectiveness of communication strategies (CSs) employed by the learners vary according to their proficiency level. The language distance between the learners’LI and L2 is also found to affect their choice of communication strategies. These findings lend strong support to our hypothesis that learners’communicative competence could probably be increased by development of their strategic compe

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1990.tb01332.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The predictive ability of motivational and attitudinal factors in continuation of foreign language study beyond the second level among high‐school students was investigated among students in two different geographical areas in the U.S. Three classes of French and three classes of Spanish Level 2 high‐school students participated in the study. The data were collected through a survey questionnaire. Discriminant function analyses were used to address the research questions.The results of the study indicate that motivational and attitudinal factors in addition to grade level and course grade successfully discriminate between continuing and discontinuing students. Interest in culture and in learning the language thoroughly—including reading, writing, and speaking it—distinguished continuing students from discontinuing students. On the other hand, interest in fulfilling a college entrance requirement primarily characterized the discontinuing students.Grade level when taking the second level of a foreign language and grade in the foreign language course were also found to be discriminating variables.Based upon these findings, profiles of continuing and discontinuing students were constructed and recommendations are made for interventions that may promote the type of intrinsic interest in language learning indicated by continuing s

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1990.tb01333.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This study investigated the hypothesis that people with multiple language skills have different language‐acquisition strategies than do people with single language skills. Multilingual and monolingual subjects learned a miniature linguistic system incorporating a reference world under instructions to “memorize” or instructions to “discover rules”. Although there was no clear evidence that multilinguals were superior in language learning abilities overall, multilingual subjects were found to be more able to adjust their learning strategies according to the requirements of

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1990.tb01334.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Flynn has reported that the second‐language processing of subordinate clauses and of anaphora is affected by the basic word order (head direction) of the learner's native language. This phenomenon is claimed to be a prediction of Universal Grammar and of Flynn's formulation of a parameter‐setting model of second‐language acquisition.This paper explores both the theoretical status of the prediction and the factual status of the phenomenon. The principal conclusions are that the prediction cannot derive from any current version of the theory of Universal Grammar, and that there is no evidence in Flynn's research for a processing difference based upon L1 grammatical contrasts. The clearest results are subject to more plausible interpretations, involving general considerations of online sentence processing that are prerequisite to other psycholinguistic explanations. The L1‐based differences reported by Flynn are evidently artifacts of experimental method and inappropriate analysis, especially of the incorrect use of analysis of covariance in an attempt to correct for a mismatch between experimental groups.SUMMARYFlynn's version of a head direction parameter linked to anaphora interpretation is thus without foundation in linguistic theory and, furthermore, is founded upon empirical observations of doubtful applicability and replicability. However, Flynn's research is still of considerable importance, for three reasons. First, the study of pronoun processing ease in language acquisition is of intrinsic psycholinguistic interest. Whereas a fair amount of information about anaphora in child language acquisition exists, there is little in adult language acquisition. Second, Flynn's research is of methodological interest, especially with regard to the techniques used to deal with the crucial problem of comparing groups with different L1s and at different proficiency levels. Third, Flynn's claimed findings are relevant to the general issue of the effect of L1/L2 differences and of universal processing strategies in second‐language acquisition. Thus, despite our general reservations as to the theoretical validity of this research, we will attempt to review the major claims and findings, adhering as much as possible to Flynn's own for

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1990.tb01335.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1990.tb01336.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1990.tb01337.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1990.tb01338.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY