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Oleo de José Tola
From: Carmelle Aronovits - (APLN 520)
Date: 9/10/99
Time: 11:17:43 AM
Remote Name: 165.247.17.24
Summary of Abstracts
Programmatic Ahistrocity in Second Language Acquisition theory (Margaret Thomas) From “Studies in Second Language Acquisition” Sept. 1998
The writer of the article attempts to refute the conventionally accepted notion that SLA originated only in the last 20 to 30 years, and that it has no relevant earlier history. In her opinion, this belief creates negative implication on the field and therefore, she tries to re-conceptualize the true theory.
Problem Solving Mechanism in L2 Communication (Zoltan Dornyei and Judit Kormos) From: “Studies in Second Language Acquisition” Sept. 1998
The writers of the article investigate the various mechanism that L2 communicators employ to overcome and manage problems in L2 communication. For this purpose they adopt a psycholinguistic approach based on Levelt’s model of speech production. Problem-solving devices are analyzed and classified according to how they are related to the different pre - and post - articulatory phases of speech processing.
The Relationship between Prior Knowledge and Topic Interest in Second Language Readings (Patricia L. Carrell and Teresa E. Wise) From: “Studies in Second Language Acquisition” Sept. 1998
The writers want to prove that although knowledge and interest may often be connected, they do not necessarily correlate. They conducted a study when their goal is to separate the affects of prior knowledge and topic interest on second language reading comprehension. On the basis of a prior-knowledge test and a topic-interest inventory, they tested 104 students of ESL. Each student took a multiple-choice reading comprehension test on topics for which they had all four possible combinations of high and low topic interest and high and low prior knowledge. Their findings are that, despite their earlier assumption that there is no necessarily a connection between the two variables, there was a significant interaction between prior knowledge and topic interest, as well as a significant interaction between interest and gender, with males more influenced by high topic interest.
L2 Acquisition an Obligatory Head Movement (Maria-Luise Beck) From: “Studies in Second Language Acquisition” Sept. 1998
The paper presents results of a response-latency (RL) experiment with English speaking learners of German that investigated to what extent, two different groups of L2 learners permit raising of the thematic verb. The framework under which the study was conducted involves varying theoretical predictions derived from the native language transfer of Schwartz and Sprouse, the gradual development view of Vanikka and Young Scholten and the under specification view of Eubank. The L2 results reported show that learners respond in different ways to stimulus sentences with raised and non- raised verbs depending on the subjects’ level of development. The surprising results are that it is the less advanced learners who exhibit an RL preference for raised verbs experimental stimuli. The more advanced learners did not differentiate between raised verb and non- raised verb stimuli.
Conceptualizing Willingness to Communicate in a L2: A Situational Model of L2 Confidence and Affiliation (Peter D. Macintyre, Zoltan Dornyei, Richard Clement, Kimberly A. Noels) From: “The Modern Language Journal” Winter 98
The writers of the article attempt to investigate the question of why certain students seek L2 communication while others try to avoid it. They observed that the willingness to communicate is independent from their linguistic competence. Furthermore, some students whose L2 competence is high were more likely to avoid L2 communication than students whose linguistic competence is poor. The study has two goals: 1) to provide an account of linguistics, communicative, and social psychological variables that might affect the willingness to communicate, and 2) to suggest a potential relations among these variables by outlining a conceptual model that may explain and predict L2 communication.
Chicano Spanish: The Problem of the “Underdeveloped” Code in Bilingual Repertoires (Guadalupe Valdes, Michelle Geoffrion-Vinci) From: “The Modern Language Journal” Winter 98
The article is about a study conducted on Mexican American-Students that focuses on the characteristics of the different levels and styles of language found in the repertoires of bilingual speakers. The analysis focuses on the features of non- interactive spoken language produced in Spanish by university-level Chicano students as compared with Spanish monolinguals of the same social background, education and age. The results suggest that although the bilingual students demonstrate a poorer lexical production than their monolingual counterpart, both appear to use an “approximative” academic recording that is in a state of development.