摘要:

The study examined the relationship between learner characteristics and achievement in French as a second language in a sample of 391 adult immigrants completing a 900‐hour course of classroom instruction in Montreal. A multivariate analysis of variance was used to assess the relative contribution of nine learner variables to individual differences in performance on an FSL achievement test. Teachers' evaluations of subjects as “good learners” or “poor learners” served as the dependent variable in a multivariate ANOVA comparing the two groups. Results of the various analyses indicated that subjects who have more schooling, a higher degree of nonverbal reasoning ability, make greater use of French outside the classroom, are more competent in English, and display a greater degree of field independence are more likely to benefit from formal language instruction. Higher levels of illiteracy and classroom anxiety, coupled with greater age, were related to learning difficulties. The paper underlines the importance of multivariate data analysis techniques and proposes the use of graphical data analysis techniques for researchers exploring multivariate data sets with small groups of

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1985.tb01012.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This study was designed to (a) identify the range, type, and frequency of learning strategy use by beginning and intermediate level ESL students and (b) determine the types of language tasks with which the strategies tend to be associated. Students at beginning and intermediate levels in English proficiency were interviewed in small groups to determine the strategies used to assist in learning each of a number of language tasks: pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, following directions, listening, making a brief presentation in class, social communication, and functional communication (e.g., applying for a job). In addition, ESL and other teachers of limited English proficient students were interviewed to detect their familiarity with student use of strategies, and to determine whether or not they introduced strategies to their students during instruction. Findings indicated that (a) strategies could be classified into three broad categories—metacognitive, cognitive, and social mediating strategies, (b) students tended to use strategies most often with less complex language tasks, (c) strategies students used most often tended to require little cognitive processing of the learning materials, and (d) teachers were generally unaware of students' strategies and rarely introduced strategies while teachin

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1985.tb01013.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

In this paper, it is proposed that adults learning second languages have particular problems when their mother tongue has activated a parameter of Universal Grammar which is not operative in the second language. It is suggested that the learner will carry the parameter over from L1 to L2, causing transfer errors. This proposal was tested on adult native speakers of Spanish learning English as a second language. Spanish, unlike English, is a “pro‐drop” language, having the following properties, all thought to be related by the “pro‐drop” parameter: (1) missing subjects, (2) free subject‐verb inversion, (3)that traceeffects. Subjects were asked to make grammaticality judgments on a number of English sentences, including some with “pro‐drop” characteristics, which would have been grammatical in Spanish but were ungrammatical in English. It was found that Spanish speakers did accept many such sentences as grammatical, as compared to French‐speaking controls, who did not, and that Spanish speakers showed improvement with increasing

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1985.tb01014.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This paper reports the findings of a study conducted with Japanese children temporarily residing in the U.S. The study examined, within a population whose group‐specific background was fairly definable, the degree of mother tongue maintenance/ development in relation to the learning of the second language among the subjects as well as the factors which affected the individuals' success or failure in their endeavors in the learning of two languages.Forty‐eight subjects, who were sixth graders in a Japanese weekend school, took a nonverbal IQ test and a Japanese language test. Some of them also took a reading test in English. Both the children and parents responded to individual questionnaires. Correlation, factor, multiple regression, and discriminant analyses were the methods of analyses used.The results revealed that there were no relationships between (1) the years of schooling in Japan and the level in the Japanese language skills, (2) the level of intelligence and the abilities in the two languages, and (3) the comparable abilities in Japanese and English. The years of schooling in the U.S. significantly related to the skill level in English. This factor did not have any discriminating power, however, to separate the children who were high in both languages, high in one and low in the other, and low in both languages. Parents proved a factor in the children's language status, particularly in the degree of their mother tongue maintenance. In terms of relative importance, however, the children's interests, attitudes, and the extent of use of the language contributed more significantly to the level in each langu

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1985.tb01015.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This paper is a commentary on Mazurkewich's article on dative alternation and second language acquisition (1984). It suggests that there are a number of weaknesses in the article as regards (a) examples purporting to illustrate the workings of dative alternation, (b) choice of subjects in the experiment and the elicitation format used, and, most importantly, (c) the presentation and statistical treatment of the data. These weaknesses, it is argued, do not permit Mazurkewich to claim that her theory of markedness will also predict which dative structure ([NP PP] or [NP NP]) will be easier to acquire by second language learners.

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1985.tb01016.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1985.tb01017.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1985.tb01018.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1985.tb01019.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Learning Purpose and Language Use.Henry Widdowson.Outsiders.Jean S. Mullen.Thinking in English: Practice with the Complex Sentence for Students of ESL.Marvin Coates and Donald Pederson.Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas.Seymour Papert.

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1985.tb01020.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0023-8333    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1985.tb01021.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY