SLRF 2009 @ MSU

Colloquia

There will be three colloquia at SLRF 2009 (one invited and two refereed).

Invited Colloquium: Measuring the Effectiveness of Focus on Form
Organizer and Discussant: Shawn Loewen (Michigan State University)

Refereed Colloquium: Language Learning Abroad: Insights from the Missionary Experience
Organizer and Discussant: Lynne Hansen (Brigham Young University)

Refereed Colloquium: Gaining Access / Granting Access: Participation and non-Participation in Target Language Communities
Organizer and Discussant: Michele Back (University of California, Riverside)

Invited Colloquium: Measuring the Effectiveness of Focus on Form
Organizer and Discussant: Shawn Loewen (Michigan State University)

Focus on form has been defined as brief attention to language items within a larger meaning-focused activity (Long, 1991). Previous studies of L2 classrooms have shown that focus on form can, and does, occur in a variety of L2 instructional contexts (e.g. Lyster & Ranta, 1998; Ellis, Basturkmen & Loewen 2001; Sheen, 2004). Additional studies have begun to look at the effectiveness of focus on form in both lab-based (e.g., Mackey, 1999; Adams, 2007; Ross-Feldman, 2007) and classroom settings (e.g., Lyster, 2004; Ammar & Spada 2006). Nevertheless two recent meta-analyses (Russell & Spada, 2006; Mackey & Goo, 2007) investigating the effects of corrective feedback and L2 interaction have commented on the small number of available studies to include in the synthesis process, particularly when considering the effects of more specific characteristics of focus on form. The current colloquium, therefore, seeks to expand our understanding of the effects of focus on form by bringing together papers that investigate several important characteristics.

Colloquium Presentations:

The Timing of Form-Focused Instruction: Learner Differences and Learning Outcomes
Nina Spada, Li Ju Shiu, Yasuyo Tomita, Sebnem Yalcin (University of Toronto/ OISE)

Adult ESL learners received isolated or integrated form-focused instruction (FFI) on the ‘passive construction’ in English. Pre-tests, immediate and delayed post-tests measured learners’ knowledge and use of the target form. A questionnaire measured learners’ preferences for type of FFI. Results are discussed in terms of learner differences and learning outcomes.

Following up on incidental focus on form in whole class interaction - the remains of the day?
Jenefer Philp (University of Auckland)

This exploratory study of incidental focus on form during teacher fronted classroom interaction in a French foreign language class over 3 weeks includes transcripts of 12 lessons, individualized tests and interviews with seven students. The data reveal cognitive and social factors that may mediate the effectiveness of focus on form.

Focus on form in group work versus whole-class interaction
Hossein Nassaji (Victoria University)

This study examined and compared the use and effectiveness of incidental focus on form (FonF) in two types of classroom interactions: whole-class and small-group interactions. Three types of FonF were identified: reactive, student-initiated, and teacher-initiated. The results revealed a significant relationship between the types of classroom interaction and FonF.

Implicit or explicit, that is the question: evidence from corrective feedback research
Ahlem Ammar (Université de Montréal)

This classroom study investigating students' differential abilities to notice implicit and explicit recasts targeting three morphosyntactic targets - possessive determiners, questions and past tense - reveals that explicit recasts are more noticeable than their implicit counterparts. The latter were quite often misinterpreted as non-corrective repetitions.

Refereed Colloquium: Language Learning Abroad: Insights from the Missionary Experience
Organizer and Discussant: Lynne Hansen (Brigham Young University)

In the introduction to a volume on language study abroad, Freed (1995, pp. 17-18) noted that a question remains unanswered concerning the relative linguistic benefits of a summer, a semester or a year in the foreign environment. This colloquium focuses on the second language acquisition of LDS missionaries whose experience abroad allows comparisons of L2 attainment over these exposure times as well as longer ones while, at the same time, through uniformity in learner characteristics and foreign learning contexts, allowing for control of other variables which can get in the way in second language studies.

The colloquium begins with a brief overview by Graham of language learning and teaching in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, suggesting potentials for L2 research in the missionary population. Presentations follow which explore the proficiency levels attained by missionaries during approximately two years abroad. Clifford & Dewey use OPIs to examine the speaking ability of 391 recently returned missionaries, L2 learners of seven languages, comparing their oral proficiency with that of non-returned-missionary undergraduate language majors. Larson-Hall & Dewey use SOPIs and an elicited imitation test to examine the Japanese proficiency of 44 missionaries in Japan. Hansen, et al. use an oral elicitation test to examine the vocabulary attainment of 480 learners of six mission languages.

The examination of learner characteristics in mission language studies is enhanced by relative uniformity in age, L1 English, time spent in the target culture, primary focus on the spoken language, and high motivation to converse daily on similar topics in the L2. Individual learner characteristics addressed in the colloquium include the amount of input, gender, motivation, beliefs about language learning, language attitudes, and language learning aptitude. In conclusion, Eggington offers insights on the missionary language learning experience from the perspective of language planning.

Colloquium presentations

Language Learning and Teaching in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Ray Graham (Brigham Young University)

This paper examines the history of language teaching in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It focuses on the language resources which are created by the return, after two years of service, of tens of thousands of advanced speakers of some fifty of the world’s languages, and the potential for research in language acquisition, attrition and retention which they provide.

Returned missionary speaking abilities: How do they perform after eighteen months to two years abroad?
Dan P. Dewey (Brigham Young University)
Ray T. Clifford (Brigham Young University

This presentation provides a description of returned missionaries’ speaking abilities based on Oral Proficiency Interviews. Analyses involve OPI scores and evaluations of fluency, grammatical accuracy, pragmatics, vocabulary use, ability to make and defend arguments, and several other features. Comparisons are made with the speaking abilities of non-returned-missionary undergraduate language majors.

The Acquisition of Vocabulary by LDS Missionaries
Lynne Hansen (Brigham Young University, Hawaii)
Ronald M. Miller (Brigham Young University, Hawaii)

The acquisition of productive L2 vocabulary is examined in the speech of 480 L1 English missionaries who were learning Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese or Spanish. The factors most predictive of learning success were time abroad, language distance, motivation and belief in a spiritual component in second language learning.

The effects of input, aptitude, and motivation on the language proficiency of missionaries learning Japanese as a second language
Jenifer Larson-Hall (University of North Texas)
Dan P. Dewey (Brigham Young University)

We examined 44 English L1 Japanese L2 missionaries to determine which measures of individual differences such as amount of input, language aptitude and motivation best predicted their proficiency. The most predictive regression model included months on mission, a working memory task, and a motivational cluster representing the “Ideal L2 Self”.

The acquisition of LDS mission languages from language planning perspectives
William Eggington (Brigham Young University)

This paper will review the LDS Church’s language plan in terms of planned and unplanned approaches, formal and informal stances, language behavior and behavior toward language criteria and top-down versus bottom up strategies. This language planning evaluation is then expanded to include pre-mission preparation and post-mission language retention efforts concluding with a set of language planning recommendation.

One of the driving forces behind second language acquisition (SLA) research has been to discover why, under similar conditions of exposure or instruction, some individuals learn languages successfully and others encounter difficulties. In recent years, SLA researchers have described how individuals negotiate the socially situated interactions that mediate the processes occurring in the individual learner (Lantolf, 2000). One way to examine the effect of the social environment on the individual is through examining interactions between the learner and the target community. Lave and Wenger (1990) emphasize legitimate peripheral participation (LPP), a relational and evolving process that enables a newcomer to access the discursive practices of a particular community. Gaining access depends upon numerous factors, and is "implicated in social structures involving relations of power" (Lave & Wenger, p. 36). A community can empower a newcomer through increased legitimacy and more intensive participation, or it can disempower them by preventing participation. These actions are influenced by the interactions between the community and the newcomer; in other words, they are co-constructed (Ochs & Jacoby, 1995).

In this panel we address issues of LPP and language learning in non-classroom contexts; a Japanese language house, tutoring sessions in Italian, an Andean folkloric music band, and the experiences of a Catalan post-doctoral student in the United States. In an examination of learners in these contexts and the target communities they attempt to enter, we focus on the obstacles these learners encountered, and, in some cases, their co-constructed marginalization from these communities. We discuss the negotiations of inclusion and exclusion that characterize legitimate peripheral participation, and suggest that these negotiations not only affect the target language communities, but also deeply impact the identities of the individual learners. In doing so, we emphasize the role of "access granted" or "access denied" in learning an additional language.

Colloquium presentations

"Bellas Melodías:" Failed Reification of a Newcomer's Experience in a Target Language Community
Michele Back (University of California, Riverside)

Using close discourse analysis, I examine how a newcomer attempts to reify his previous musical experiences to an Andean folkloric music group, and how phenomena such as conversational overlaps, laughter, and language alternation point to a failed attempt at reification, and may contribute to linguistic marginalization from this community.

Negotiating Identities: Being Members of a "Language Learning" Community
Yumiko Matsunaga (University of Wisconsin, Madison)

By reporting on a longitudinal observation of a proposed "language learning" community, the current study explores how the members display their identities by accepting or rejecting being learners of Japanese and how the members’ identities deeply relate to their language choices and participation in practices.

Approaching the Discourse of FL Literature: Identity, Linguistic Ownership and the Role of the NS
Barbara Bird (University of Wisconsin, Madison)

In this presentation, I compare how social identities and linguistic ownership are portrayed by the self, to how they are attributed to the other in interaction. CA reveals how the participants, a NS and a NNS of Italian, frame the discourse of Italian literature, with respect to modern Italian.

Befriending the Natives in their Non-native Languages: Using multilingual competence to access the native English speaking community
Alice Astarita (University of Wisconsin, Madison)

This case study employs document analysis and a narrative inquiry approach to examine how one native Catalan speaking post-doctoral student constructed himself as an outsider to the English speaking community. Membership in this community later evolved by using Spanish and Italian to access multilingual native English speakers.