Nancy Stenson

New Frontiers in Second Language Learning.

Spend your time even for only few minutes to read a book. Reading a book will never reduce and waste your time to be useless. Reading, for some people become a need that is to do every day such as spending time for eating. Now, what about you? Do you like to read a book? Now, we will show you a new book enPDFd new frontiers in second language learning that can be a new way to explore the knowledge. When reading this book, you can get one thing to always remember in every reading time, even step by step.

Irish autonomous impersonals

This paper investigates Irish impersonal sentences marked by the inflection traditionally known as “autonomous” and examines ways to account for the empty subject position in such sentences. The various empty categories of Government-Binding Theory are considered. It is argued that the best candidate for the subject of the impersonal construction is arbitrary PRO, in contrast to other languages such as Spanish, which has been analyzed as having an arbitrary pro subject. Some problems resulting from allowing PRO in a tensed S are discussed. The proposed solution is linked to the fact that Irish tensed clauses need not include AGR.

Acquiring Pronouns in a Second Language: Evidence for Hypothesis Testing.

Gundel and Tarone (1981) studied the acquisition of pronouns by Chinese and Spanish speaking adults learning English. On the basis of this study it was proposed that when L1 and L2 differ in the relative order of object pronoun and verb, the acquisition of direct object pronouns proceeds in three stages: ( 1 ) direct transfer of the native language pattern; ( 2 ) zero anaphora, i.e. no overt form at all, in direct object position; ( 3 ) the correct L2 pattern. The present paper presents further evidence for this proposal, and hence for a hypothesis-testing view of second language acquisition, on the basis of longitudinal data from English speaking children learning French in the Toronto French Immersion Program.

Irish orthography: what do teachers and learners need to know about it, and why?

Irish has significant State support, but lacks a research base to support the teaching of Irish reading. Current approaches to teaching Irish reading are presented, and outcomes summarised. Issues of consistency and complexity in Irish orthography are discussed in light of an analysis of a corpus of early reader texts, and the formulation of rules for discriminating between words which are regular by letter-sound and grapheme-sound rules is outlined. While the most frequent words show a high level of regularity, underlying rules are very complex. The need to target decoding skills early is discussed. Recommendations regarding the teaching of aspects of Irish orthography are presented.

Second-language Acquisition of Irish and the Role of Reading

A variety of sociolinguistic factors significantly affect success in promoting the acquisition of Irish as a first (henceforth L1) and second language (L2). These include societal attitudes toward Irish, parental support for Irish, teacher proficiency in Irish and pre-service preparation to teach it, the type of instructional methods adopted, the availability of appropriate materials and competing demands in schools. Given the small numbers acquiring the language as their first or dominant language, the majority of those engaged in learning Irish today are learning it as a second or foreign language. Here, we consider the sociolinguistic context of Irish language acquisition in today’s Ireland, with particular emphasis on L2 acquisition and the role accorded to the development of Irish literacy in L2 contexts. We discuss the shift of focus in primary and secondary education to the development of oral language skills, which, in the context of continued losses in the native speaker population and limited exposure for L2 learners to Irish outside the classroom, has contributed to a serious decline in Irish reading, with concomitant negative effects on overall language skills. We argue that literacy in a second language offers a lifeline for minority languages, especially where learners are dispersed or have limited access to other proficient speakers, as is the case in most areas of Ireland outside Gaeltacht regions.

When regular is not easy: Cracking the code of Irish orthography

ABSTRACT Irish is well-known to be a threatened minority language, which has a number of under-researched features. This article presents an analysis of Irish orthography, based on the most frequent words in a corpus of children’s literature in Irish. We identify both basic orthographic rules and a few phonological rules that systematically alter pronunciations from those expected based on the orthographic norms. While comparison of Irish spelling patterns with those in a similar corpus for English confirms a widespread belief that the orthography of Irish is more regular than that of English (the L1 of most beginning readers of Irish), this analysis refutes the commonly accepted corollary assumption that explicit decoding instruction in Irish is unnecessary for learners already literate in English, based on further examination of other features differentiating the two languages. We argue that, despite its greater regularity, Irish spelling is sufficiently complex and distinct from English to challenge learners and require explicit instruction.

One step forward and two steps back in teaching an endangered language? Revisiting L2 reading in Irish

ABSTRACT Hickey’s (1991) article [Leisure reading in a second language: An experiment with audio tapes. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 4(2), 119-131. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07908319109525098] reported the benefits of audio-support for L2 reading of real books, showing gains in fluency and motivation among 9-year-old learners of Irish. In the 25 years since that, there have been significant changes in the educational and sociolinguistic context in which Irish and Irish reading are taught. That period encompassed a major shift in the curricular approach to teaching Irish, and changes in status. With the advent of a new primary school curriculum, it is time to revisit this topic and reflect on how changes in the interim have impacted on the teaching of L2 Irish reading. This article reviews the societal and educational changes relevant to teaching Irish in mainstream (English-medium) schools, offering insights into current practices from a qualitative study of teachers’ reflections on their pedagogical strategies, perceived priorities and difficulties encountered. Finally, it considers the advances made in the provision of materials supporting L2 Irish reading in the intervening years, and the challenges that remain with regard to promoting the use of those materials in mainstream classrooms.