Ali Shehadeh

Non-native speakers' production of modified comprehensible output and second language learning

This study investigated the ability of NNSs to modify their output toward comprehensibility in the contexts of NS-NNS and NNS-NNS interactions and the degree to which such modified comprehensible output (MCO) was other- or self-initiated. Picture-dictation and opinion-exchange tasks were used to collect data from 8 NSs and 24 NNSs of English representing 13 different L1 backgrounds. The 2 tasks were performed in pairs (NS-NNS and NNS-NNS) and were audiotaped. The results showed that most repairs were self-initiated and that NNS-NNS interactions produced more other-initiations and other-initiated MCOs on the picture-dictation task. The frequencies of these MCOs support the importance of modification toward comprehensible output as a process of second language acquisition

Self- and Other-Initiated Modified Output During Task-Based Interaction

This study examines the role self- and other-initiations play in providing opportunities for modified output (MO), which Swain (1995, 1998) and Swain and Lapkin (1995) suggest is important for successful second language acquisition. Thirty-five adult participants—8 native speakers (NSs) and 27 nonnative speakers (NNSs) of English representing 13 different L1 backgrounds—performed three tasks (picture description, opinion exchange, and decision making). The first two tasks were performed in NS-NNS and NNS-NNS pairs and were audiotaped, and the third was completed in NNS groups and was audio- and videotaped. The results showed that both self- and other-initiations provided NNSs with abundant opportunities to produce MO. However, in four of the five interactional contexts examined in the study, significantly more instances of MO resulted from self-initiation than from other-initiation. These results suggest that self-initiations play an important role in prompting MO and that learners need both time and opportunity to initiate and complete repair of their own messages.

Comprehensible output, from occurrence to acquisition: An agenda for acquisitional research

After over a decade of research into Swain’s (1985) comprehensible output (CO) hypothesis, there is still a severe lack of data showing that learner output or output modifications have any effect on second–language (L2) learning. Izumi and Bigelow (2000, p. 245) argued that this is because, in most cases, researchers assumed rather than showed whether and how output helps with language learning. In this article, I will argue that this, in turn, is because existing research on CO was mostly descriptive in nature, focusing primarily on occurrence per se rather than acquisition or whether and how output can be a source of competence in the L2. I will outline a research agenda that makes acquisitional research central to the study of CO.

A HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING (2nd ed)

A History of English Language Teaching (2nd ed). A. P. R. Howatt (with H. G. Widdowson) . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Pp. xix + 417. £19.20 paper. This volume, a record of the teaching of English to speakers of other languages from the Renaissance to the present day, starts in 1400, when English was a minority language spoken by a population of no more than 3 million people. The book describes the process of making the language teachable and documents the developments in language teaching theory and practice that led to the emergence of English language teaching (ELT) as an autonomous profession.

Learner output, hypothesis testing, and internalizing linguistic knowledge

Abstract This study investigates how output can be a process by which second language (L2) learners test out hypotheses about the L2 and the extent to which learner hypothesis testing attempts that result in non-target like (NTL) output are challenged by interlocutors. A picture-description task was used to collect data from 16 participants, eight native speakers (NS) and eight nonnative speakers (NNS) of English, forming eight NS–NNS dyads. All interactions were audio-taped. The data were analyzed and examined specifically for hypothesis testing episodes (HTEs) by NNSs. The results showed that NNSs tested out one hypothesis about the target language (TL) every 1.8 min. The results also revealed that those HTEs that resulted in NTL output and constituted over a third of all HTEs found went completely unchallenged by interlocutors. These results were interpreted to mean that failing to provide corrective feedback or negative evidence to learner output that exhibits NTL utterances or rules may constitute a signal for the confirmation of these utterances or rules, albeit non-target like, from the perspective of the internal processing systems of the learner, which, in turn, constitutes a step toward internalizing linguistic knowledge.