Kim McDonough

HOW DO LEARNERS PERCEIVE INTERACTIONAL FEEDBACK

This study was designed to test the Fundamental Difference Hypothesis (Bley-Vroman,n 1988), which states that, whereas children are known to learn language almost completelyn through (implicit) domain-specific mechanisms, adults have largely lost the ability to learn an language without reflecting on its structure and have to use alternative mechanisms, drawingn especially on their problem-solving capacities, to learn a second language. The hypothesisn implies that only adults with a high level of verbal analytical ability will reach near-nativen competence in their second language, but that this ability will not be a significant predictor ofn success for childhood second language acquisition. A study with 57 adult Hungarian-speakingn immigrants confirmed the hypothesis in the sense that very few adult immigrants scored withinn the range of child arrivals on a grammaticality judgment test, and that the few who did had highn levels of verbal analytical ability; this ability was not a significant predictor for childhoodn arrivals. This study replicates the findings of Johnson and Newport (1989) and provides ann explanation for the apparent exceptions in their study. These findings lead to an reconceptualization of the Critical Period Hypothesis: If the scope of this hypothesis is limited ton implicit learning mechanisms, then it appears that there may be no exceptions to the age effectsn that the hypothesis seeks to explain.

The effect of interlocutor proficiency on the collaborative dialogue between Korean as a second language learners

Previous research has shown that second language (L2) learners reflect on language form when carrying out collaborative activities in L2 classrooms. This study explored which language forms Korean as a second language (KSL) learners focused on and how their linguistic issues were resolved when collaborating with interlocutors from different proficiency levels. Eight intermediate Korean L2 learners interacted with an intermediate interlocutor (n= 8) and with an advanced interlocutor (n = 8). Their collaborative dialogue was analyzed in terms of (a) the occurrence and resolution of lexical and grammatical language-related episodes (LREs) and (b) the patterns of interaction with their interlocutors. Results showed that the collaborative dialogue with advanced interlocutors contained significantly more lexical LREs and correctly resolved LREs. In terms of their patterns of interaction, the learners showed different pair dynamics when collaborating with interlocutors from different proficiency levels. The findings are discussed in terms of the pedagogical implications for the use of collaborative tasks in L2 classrooms.

Interaction and Syntactic Priming: English L2 Speakers' Production of Dative Constructions.

Interaction research about the role of language production in second language (L2) development has focused largely on modified output, specifically learners responses to negative feedback ( Iwashita, 2001 ; Loewen & Philp, in press ; Mackey & Philp, 1998 ; McDonough, 2005 ; McDonough & Mackey, in press ; Nobuyoshi & Ellis, 1993 ; Pica, 1988 ; Shehadeh, 2001 ). However, other processes involved in language production might help account for the beneficial relationship between interaction and L2 development. This paper reports the findings of two experiments that examined the occurrence of syntactic priming—a speakers tendency to produce a previously spoken or heard structure—during interaction between L2 English speakers. Both studies used confederate scripting to elicit dative constructions from advanced English L2 speakers. In experiment 1, the participants ( n = 50) were exposed to both prepositional and double-object dative primes. The linear mixed-model analysis indicated that syntactic priming occurred with prepositional datives only. In experiment 2, the English L2 participants ( n = 54) received double-object dative primes only; results showed no evidence of syntactic priming. The implications are discussed in terms of the potential role of syntactic priming in driving L2 development in interactive contexts. This research was supported by grants (03135 and 04184) from the campus research board at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I am grateful to Nick Ellis, Susan Gass, Alison Mackey, and Pavel Trofimovich for their insightful comments on this paper and to Ron Crawford for his assistance with the coding. Any errors, of course, are my own.

SYNTACTIC PRIMING AND ESL QUESTION DEVELOPMENT

Interaction research that has investigated the relationship between language production and second language (L2) development has largely focused on learners immediate responses to interactional feedback. However, other speech production processes might help account for the beneficial relationship between interaction and L2 development. The current study examines whether syntactic priming—the tendency to produce a syntactic structure encountered in the recent discourse—is associated with English as a second language (ESL) question development. The participants were intermediate-level Thai learners of English (N = 46) at a large public university in northern Thailand. In two 20-min sessions, the participants carried out communicative activities with a more advanced L2 English interlocutor who had been scripted with developmentally advanced question forms. They also completed an oral pretest and two posttests that consisted of activities similar to those carried out during the treatment sessions. The results indicated that participants who evidenced high levels of syntactic priming were likely to advance to a higher stage in the developmental sequence of ESL question formation.