Language learning

98-225 Widdowson, Henry G. (U. of London, from, respectively, the beginner, the 'intermediate' learn-
Inst. of Ed.). The pedagogic relevance of language er and the near-native speaker. (It is stressed that these
awareness. Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen terms as applied to individual learners do not necessarily
(Tubingen, Germany), 26 (1997), 33-43. correlate precisely with formal levels of instruction.)
Evidence is presented for a continuum of ability in the
This paper considers the currently fashionable notion target language, encompassing increasing morphological
of language awareness: what it is, where it comes from, and syntactical complexity and stability, alongside devel-
and how far it is pedagogically valid. Awareness (of lan- oping discursive and dialogic skills and a growing sensi-
guage as grammatical code) was central to language tivity to sociolinguistic variation which approximate
learning in grammar-translation methodology, but was increasingly to those of native speakers. Particular men-
played down in both structural and communicative lan- tion is made of evidence emerging from the Swedish-
guage teaching. A communicative approach implied, based InterFm project, documenting the developing use
however, a need to become aware of aspects of language of French by a group of Swedish university students.
in contextual use, though it was not always clear what
the facts were of which one needed to be aware. Now
that aspects of language use and of usage have been 98-228 Bergstrdm, Anna (Delaware U ) .
described, it is valuable that language teachers be aware L'influence des distinctions aspectuelles sur
of these developments. However, whether and in what I'acquisition des temps en frangais langue
sense such awareness is of pedagogical relevance cannot etrangere. [The influence of aspectual distinctions
be determined by linguistic discovery procedures, or by on the acquisition of tense in French as a foreign
investigating native-speaker norms. Classroom learning language.]/We (Paris), 9(1997), 51-82.
has its own agenda, and the author affirms the need
above all to be aware of this. This article presents the results of a cross-sectional study
of the acquisition of tense and aspect by 75 English-
speaking classroom learners of French. The goal of the
study was to test the Defective Tense Hypothesis pro-
Language learning posed for second language acquisition by Andersen
(1991). This hypothesis holds that learners initially use
verb morphology to mark inherent lexical aspect of
98-226 Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen (Indiana U ) . verbs, not tense or grammatical aspect. The results of the
Another piece of the puzzle: the emergence of the study reported here indicate that the learners make a sta-
present perfect. Language Learning (Cambridge, tive/dynamic distinction. The author offers an explana-
MA), 47, 3(1997), 375-422. tion for the robust use of the passe composi with dynamic
This article examines the emergence of the present per- verbs and the slow emergence of the imperfect, based on
fect in the interlanguage of 16 instructed adult learners an analysis of the aspectual features involved.
of English as a second language. It is part of a longitudi-
nal study of the expression of temporality in inter- 98-229 Borrell, A. (U. Toulouse-Le Mirail).
language; it focuses on the learners' form-meaning Systematisation des erreurs de production et done
associations by investigating their use of the present per- de perception chez les apprenants etrangers? [Are
fect in written and oral texts. The article first describes foreign language learners' errors in production-and
the order of emergence of the present perfect with hence perception-systematic?] Revue de
respect to other tense/aspect forms and then the poten- Phonetique Appliquee (Paris), 118-119 (1996),
tial influence of instruction by comparing production to 1-15.
instructional logs. Examination of the linguistic contexts
in which the present perfect appears shows that adding a It has long been argued that a learner's speech percep-
new inflection in the tense/aspect system requires not tion and production of a foreign language are consis-
only establishing new form-meaning associations but tently and systematically based on the 'phonological
also revising existing ones. filter' formed by the phonemic units and categories of
the mother tongue (LI). This article reports on a
98-227 Bartning, Inge (U. of Stockholm). research project in contrastive phonology which aimed
L'apprenant dit avance et son acquisition d'une to establish the limits of such systematicity. Specific
langue etrangere: tour d'horizon et esquisse d'une aspects of the pronunciation of twenty learners of
caracterisation de la variete avancee. [The so-called French as a foreign language, speaking eight different
'advanced' learner and his/her acquisition of a mother-tongues, were compared. Although the system-
atic operation of LI 'phonological filters' was largely
foreign language: overview of the issues and
confirmed, there was also a significant amount of inter-
preliminary description of the 'advanced' variety.]
and intra-individual variation. It is suggested that this
Aile (Paris), 9 (1997), 9-50.
may be due to the influence of extrinsic factors includ-
Based on a broad international corpus of evidence, ing orthography, teaching methodology, and whether
drawn predominantly from learners of French and French was being learnt as a foreign or second language.
English, this article attempts to identify the features of It is also important to remember that phonological sys-
language use which distinguish the 'advanced' learner tems may vary along parameters such as region, sex or

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444800012994 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Language learning
age within the same speech community, and that speak- text is LI or L2 for them, an awareness both of the lan-
ers of the same mother tongue may therefore possess guage data and of the different subprocesses of reading
different'filters'. ensues. When the text is in L2, and stored language data
are inadequate for a particular subprocess to operate, it
98-230 Boyle, Joseph (Chinese U. of Hong is argued that the activities proposed allow the new lan-
Kong). Success and failure in learning Cantonese. guage data from the text to be processed and stored
Language Learning Journal (Rugby), 16 (1997), more effectively, developing language, and L2 reading
82-6. fluency, and language awareness.

Cantonese is a notoriously difficult language to learn. 98-233 DiCamilla, Frederick J. (Indiana U.) and
Based on interviews with sixty learners of the language Anton, Marta. Repetition in the collaborative
in Hong Kong, this article examines in some detail the
discourse of L2 learners: a Vygotskian perspective.
individual cases of six successful and six unsuccessful
The Canadian Modern Language Review/La Revue
learners, and tries to elicit the common factors which
influenced their success or failure. In addition to factors canadienne des langues vivantes (Toronto, Ont.),
which have been identified in other studies as contribut- 53,4(1997), 609-33.
ing to success or failure in language learning, die author The study reported here investigates the role of repeti-
points to specific features of Cantonese and the Hong tion in the discourse of 10 adult students of Spanish as a
Kong context as hindrances to successful learning. second language (L2) working on a writing assignment
in collaborative dyads. Data were taken from audiotapes
98-231 Carroll, Mary and v. Stutterheim, of the dyads' collaborative sessions. The occurrences of
Christiane (U. of Heidelberg). Relations entre repetition (of self or of the other member of the dyad)
grammaticalisation et conceptualisation et were analysed from the theoretical perspective based on
implications sur I'acquisition d'une langue the work of L. S.Vygotsky (1978, 1986), which argues
etrangere. [The relationship between that 'sociocultural and mental activity are bound
grammaticalisation and conceptualisation, and together in a dependent, symbolically mediated, rela-
implications for second language acquisition.] Aile tionship' (Lantolf & Pavlenko, 1995).This study seeks to
(Paris), 9(1997), 83-115. show that the sociocultural and mental activity of the
subjects is mediated by the repetition of both first and
This article examines the organisation of information in second language utterances, the effect of which is to
learners' texts, which draws on different aspects of their create and maintain a shared perspective of the task (i.e.
linguistic knowledge. Data were gathered from intersubjectivity) and to construct scaffolded help,
advanced English-speaking learners of German con- which enables them to complete their tasks.
fronted with complex verbal tasks such as narratives,
descriptions and instructions. A fundamental problem 98-234 Edmondson, Willis J. (U. of Hamburg)
for the understanding of the second language (L2) Sprachbewufttheit und Motivation beim
learning process is addressed, namely, why adult learners Fremdsprachenlernen. [Language awareness and
do not generally achieve native competence in spite of a motivation in learning foreign languages.]
priori 'sufficient' exposure to the L2. It is suggested that
Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen (Tubingen,
learners cannot achieve native competence unless they
Germany), 26 (1997), 88-110.
acquire the principles organising information flow in L2
discourse, in addition to mastering the L2 grammatical The author investigates the interplay of (foreign) lan-
structures which encode it. guage awareness (as opposed to language knowledge)
and motivation among trainee language teachers at the
98-232 Devitt, Sean (Trinity Coll., Dublin). University of Hamburg.The data are taken from a data-
Reading and writing one's way into language base kept by the author which includes statements
awareness. Language Awareness (Clevedon), 6, made by the students in respect of language awareness
2/3(1997), 119-35. and motivation from their own experiences of foreign
language learning. The data suggest that there is a link
This paper examines the subprocesses of reading, as between motivation and language awareness, and the
they have been identified in first (LI) and second lan- author develops a model for the development of lan-
guage (L2) reading research, and the two types of input guage (learning) awareness documented by statements
that they require: the data from the text, on the one from the database concerning awareness. It is stressed
hand, and the data that the learner has stored, on the that the concept of language awareness may in some
other. It argues that, through activities designed to work way help to make better use of language learning
with each one of the subprocesses in turn, attention can opportunities, and so perhaps to obviate so-called 'lost
be focused both on the subprocess itself and on the lan- opportunities'.
guage data used by it, and that language awareness is
thereby developed. A set of activities, designed in such a
way as to match each of the subprocesses of reading, is
linked to a sample text in English. It is argued that
when readers carry out these activities, whether the

89

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444800012994 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Language learning
98-235 Finkbeiner, Claudia (U. of GieRen). Zur 98-237 Freland-Ricard, M. (U. Aix-Marseille I).
affektiven und kognitiven Dimension beim Lesen: Organisation temporelle et rythmique chez les
Bericht von einer Untersuchung zum apprenants etrangers. Etude multilingue. [Temporal
Zusammenwirken von Interessen und and rhythmic aspects of foreign language learners'
Lerstrategien. [On the emotional and cognitive performance: a multilingual study.] Revue de
dimension of reading: report of a study of the Phon6tique Appliqu^e (Paris), 118-119 (1996),
interplay of interests and learning strategies.] 62-91.
Zeitschrift fur Fremdsprachenforschung (Bochum,
This article, which analyses certain prosodic aspects of
Germany), 8, 2 (1997), 197-212.
foreign language learners' speech, has two main aims.
The author describes a study of the interplay of inter- The first is to identify and describe certain 'errors' com-
ests and learning strategies as used in text comprehen- mitted by foreign students, and the second is to show
sion in a foreign language. For the most part the article that unless such learners receive relevant training, their
is concerned with the development and design of suit- speech production in the foreign language will remain
able procedures for testing such interplay, with particu- based on the prosodic system of their mother tongue.
lar focus on the theoretical rationale behind the design. The article is based on data obtained through the instru-
The devised testing methods were used on 14 ninth- mental phonetic and statistical analysis of recordings of
grade classes (second year post-primary) from grammar groups of native speakers of French, German, Spanish,
and comprehensive schools in the German province of Danish, Norwegian and American English, which shows
Baden-Wiirttemberg, giving a total test population of that learners adopt strategies for the management of
350 learners of English as a Foreign Language; this is to temporal aspects of speech which are different from
form the first phase of a more extensive study run from those of native speakers, and that they fail to identify
the University of GieBen. Statistical analyses of this first patterns and units of intonation in the target language,
phase of the study are presented and some of the more or to distinguish between them. It is argued that such
statistically relevant correlations between interests and observations fully justify the inclusion of lessons specifi-
learning strategies (categorised according to criteria set cally devoted to prosody from the very beginning of a
forth in O'Malley & Chamot (1990)) are highlighted. programme of foreign language instruction.

98-236 Firth, Alan (Aalborg U., Denmark) and 98-238 Gajo.L (U. de Neuchatel).
Wagner, Johannes. On discourse, communication, Decontextualisation et recontextualisation dans
and (some) fundamental concepts in SLA research. I'apprentissage scolaire et non-scolaire d'une
The Modern Language Journal (Madison, Wl), 81, 3 langue seconde. [Decontextualisation and
(19971,285-300. recontextualisation in in-school and out-of-school
second language learning.] Revue de Phone'tique
This article argues for a reconceptualisation of Second
Appliqute (Paris), 121, (1996), 311-25.
Language Acquisition (SLA) research that would
enlarge the ontological and empirical parameters of the This paper sets out to describe certain characteristics of
field. It is claimed that methodologies, theories, and foci the ways in which young immigrants learn French and
within SLA reflect an imbalance between cognitive and German in French-speaking Switzerland. The conceptu-
mentalistic orientations, and social and contextual ori- al and methodological framework draws on three con-
entations to language, the former orientation being cepts related to the analysis of metalinguistic aspects of
unquestionably in the ascendancy. This has resulted in a discourse: double voicing (to be found in the discourse
skewed perspective on discourse and communication, of a teacher who is both teaching and participating in a
which conceives of the foreign language speaker as a role-play), double focus (in exolinguistic discourse, for
deficient communicator struggling to overcome an example, where speakers pay attention both to the con-
underdeveloped competence in the second language, tent and the form of the message), and polyphony (dif-
striving to reach the 'target' competence of an idealised ferent voices or sources present in the same utterance).
native speaker. The authors contend that SLA research Examples of conversation are analysed to show that dif-
requires a significantly enhanced awareness of the con- ferent combinations of these factors are to be found in
textual and interactional dimensions of language use, an in-school and out-of-school discourse. Moreover,
increased 'emic' (i.e., participant-relevant) sensitivity decontextualisation and recontextualisation procedures,
towards fundamental concepts, and the broadening of which are known to be directly involved in the learning
the traditional SLA data base. With such changes in process, also vary between the two situations.
place the field of SLA has the capacity to become a
theoretically and methodologically richer, more robust 98-239 Gardner, R. C , Tremblay, Paul F. and
enterprise, better able to explicate the processes of sec- Masgoret, Anne-Marie (U. of Western Ontario).
ond or foreign language acquisition, and better situated Towards a full model of second language learning:
to engage with and contribute to research commonly an empirical investigation. The Modern Language
perceived to reside outside its boundaries. Journal (Madison, Wl), 81, 3 (1997), 344-62.
Much research in second language acquisition (SLA)
centres on the relationships among individual difference

90

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444800012994 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Language learning
measures such as language attitudes, motivation, anxiety, of the use of parce que might indicate an advanced level
self-confidence, language aptitude, learning strategies, of acquisition in learners.
field independence, and measures of achievement in the
language. Numerous studies have supported the pro- 98-242 Hawkins, Roger (U. of Essex) and Yuet-
posed influences of these individual difference variables hung Chan, Cecilia. The partial availability of
on achievement, and a number of models have been Universal Grammar in second language acquisition:
developed to explain the relationships among subsets of the 'failed functional features hypothesis'. Second
these variables. However, there is a lack of research Language Research (London), 13, 3 (1997),
examining the relationships among all these variables 187-226.
simultaneously. The study reported here investigated a
large number of individual difference measures to deter- A number of studies in the research literature have pro-
mine their underlying dimensions, to contrast their pre- posed that Universal Grammar (UG) is partially avail-
dictive validities, and to evaluate their contributions in a able to adult second language learners. Attempts to
causal model of SLA. The study was based on a sample provide a syntactic characterisation of that partial avail-
of 102 university students enrolled in introductory ability have only recently begun to appear, however.
French.The results indicated substantial links among the This article argues that speakers of Chinese (a language
affective measures and achievement. Support was found without u»/i-operator movement in overt syntax) learn-
for these connections in the proposed causal model. ing second language English (a language with wh-oper-
ator movement in overt syntax) establish mental
98-240 Goh, Christine (Nanyang Tech. U., representations for English which involve pronominal
Singapore). Metacognitive awareness and second binding rather than operator movement. It is suggested
that this divergence from native-speaker representations
language listeners. ELT Journal (Oxford), 51, 4
is an effect of the inaccessibility of features of functional
(1997), 316-9.
categories in second language acquisition, what the
This article reports on a diary study that revealed beliefs authors refer to as the 'failed functional features
and knowledge second language learners had about hypothesis'. Implications are drawn from the findings
their listening. An analysis of the diaries of 40 English as for the syntactic characterisation of accessibility to UG
a Second Language learners from China (average age more generally in second language acquisition.
19) revealed that many of them had clear ideas about
three aspects of listening: their own role and perfor- 98-243 Holtzer, Gisele (U. of Franche-Comte,
mance as second language listeners, the demands and Besangon). Conduites et strategies dans
procedures of second language listening, and strategies I'apprentissage a distance d'une langue etrangere.
for listening. The article discusses the implications of [Behaviours and strategies in foreign language
these findings for the teachng and learning of listening learning in distance mode.] Le Frangais dans le
in English language teaching programmes. It calls for Monde (Paris), special issue (July 1997), 105-15.
more discussion to increase learners' metacognitive
awareness in listening, and argues for the use of listening This paper gives details of strategies used by adult
diaries as a learning tool for this purpose. French learners following a 'pluri-media' distance
course in Chinese (paper, audio- and video-tape). The
98-241 Hancock, Victorine (U. of Stockholm). details are drawn from the analysis of student reports
Parce que: un connecteur macro-syntaxique. based on learning journals.Three types of behaviour are
L'emploi de parce que chez les apprenants de noted: use of problem-solving strategies as the result of
frangais langue etrangere et des locuteurs natifs. moments of realisation; routine learning behaviours,
[Parce que ('because'): a macro-syntactic built on earlier learning experiences ('blind strategies');
and information-storing techniques. The journals sug-
connective. The use of parce que by learners of
gest that it is only when learners face seemingly insur-
French as a foreign language and by native
mountable difficulties that different strategies are
speakers.] Aile (Paris), 9 (1997), 117-45.
seriously contemplated. The paper also gives an account
This paper compares the function of the French con- of the ways in which learners use the three types of
nective parce que ('because') in the spontaneous oral learning support and of the functional practices used by
production of Swedish-speaking learners of French and the most motivated. Finally, the paper argues for the
of French native speakers.The authors apply a syntactic need for interactive discussion of strategies used in spe-
and pragmatic approach which is based on recent cific situations between learners and between learners
research in spoken French, and which is motivated by and teachers. It is suggested that teachers have much to
the need to describe syntactic relations that are not gain from listening to learners.
restricted to the sentence but concern sequences of
speech. They attempt to seek explanations for the
observed overuse of parce que by the non-native speak-
ers, at a level which concerns both the semantic and the
discourse functions of the connective.They also consid-
er the role of parce que in the hierarchical organisation
of spontaneous discourse, and suggest that this feature

91

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444800012994 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Language learning
98-244 Kamma, Karolien (Hoofdweg 307-1, application too. This paper is primarily concerned with
1057 CZ Amsterdam). Kijkend leren: een onderzoek the acquisition of collocational knowledge from corpo-
naar het lerenn van woorden in een vreemde taal ra in order to use it in the language learning process.
via de televisie. [Watching to learn: research on the The authors present what is deemed an efficient
learning of words in a foreign language through method for extracting collocations from corpora,
television.] Toegepaste Taalwetenschap in Artikelen which uses the cost criteria measure and a tree-based
(Amsterdam), 56,1 (1997), 9-21. data structure. They also propose a bilingual collocation
concordancer, a tool that provides language learners
The research reported on in this paper concerns the with collocation correspondences between a native
role of television in the lexical acquisition of a foreign language and a foreign language. Language learners can
language. 20 higher-educated adult learners of Dutch as refer to these concordance outputs during their lan-
a foreign language watched a 15-minute compilation of guage learning activities.
the educational programmes Klokhuis and Lucht. A pre-
and post-test design was used to examine whether the 98-247 Knapp-Potthoff, Annelie (Universitat GH
participants learned words by watching and listening to Siegen). Sprach(lern)bewufttheit im Kontext.
the programmes. The results indicated a significant [Language Awareness in context.! Fremdsprachen
learning effect, which persisted after a one-week inter-
Lehren und Lernen (Tubingen, Germany), 26 (1997),
val. There was also a tendency for the learning effect in
9-23.
the 10 students who watched with explicit word-learn-
ing instruction (intentional learning) to be stronger Starting from reflections upon the current attractiveness
than in those who watched without instruction (inci- of the concept of Language Awareness, this article pre-
dental learning). The learnability of a word was appar- sents a critical discussion of the vagueness of the con-
ently neither positively influenced by the visual support cept itself and its potential benefits for second language
television provided as an extra contextual cue, nor by learning. In particular, it is argued that Language
the number of times a word was offered in the televi- Awareness-as it is generally conceived of-is not easily
sion fragments. It is concluded that television can play accessible to empirical research, and that the problem of
an important role in the lexical acquisition of Dutch as different qualities of learners' Language Awareness is
a foreign language. largely neglected. It is suggested that a conceptualisa-
tion of Language Awareness as the ability and readiness
98-245 Kanno, Kazue (U. of Hawaii, Manoa). to develop adequate and (potentially) explicit subjective
The acquisition of null and overt pronominals in theories of language(s) and language learning presents a
Japanese by English speakers. Second Language more promising framework for empirical research.
Research (London), 13, 3 (1997), 265-87. Several hypotheses concerning influences upon learn-
ers' subjective theories and their relation to foreign
This article reports on an experimental study that language learning are proposed.
examines the role of Universal Grammar (UG) in the
second language (L2) acquisition ofJapanese by English 98-248 Leow, Ronald P. (Georgetown U.).
speakers. The study focuses on the acquisition of the Attention, awareness, and foreign language
principle that prevents overt pronouns from having behaviour. Language Learning (Cambridge, MA),
quantified Noun Phrases (NPs) as antecedents in lan-
47, 3 (1997), 467-505.
guages (such as Japanese) that have null pronouns. A
group of 28 English speakers taking a fourth semester The study reported here qualitatively and quantitatively
course in Japanese were asked to interpret the null and addressed the role of awareness in relation to Schmidt's
overt pronominal in the Japanese equivalent of patterns noticing hypothesis in second language acquisition
such as Everyone, thinks he/CV is smart. Not only did (1990, 1993, 1994, 1995). It analysed both the think-
the L2 learners exhibit a statistically significant differ- aloud protocols produced by 28 beginning adult sec-
ence in their interpretation of null and overt pronomi- ond language learners of Spanish (selected carefully
nals with respect to binding by a quantified NP, from a pool of 85 people on the basis of relevant
consistent with the UG principle, but their perfor- criteria) completing a problem-solving task, and their
mance was not significantly different from that of a immediate performances on two post-exposure assess-
native-speaker control group. ment tasks, a recognition and written production task.
The qualitative and quantitative analyses of learners'
98-246 Kita, Kenji and Ogata, Hiroaki performances suggest the following conclusions: (a) dif-
(Tokushima U., Japan). Collocations in language ferent levels of awareness lead to differences in process-
learning: corpus-based automatic compilation of ing; (b) more awareness contributes to more
collocations and bilingual collocation concordance. recognition and accurate written production of noticed
Computer Assisted Language Learning (Lisse, The forms; and (c) the findings provide empirical support
Netherlands), 10, 3 (1997), 229-38. for the facilitative effects of awareness on foreign
language behaviour.
While corpus-based studies are becoming a new
methodology in natural language processing, second
language learning seems to be an interesting potential

92

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444800012994 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Language learning
98-249 Little, David (Trinity Coll., Dublin). French (LI) and in English (L2). In the second group,
Language awareness and the autonomous data were collected in English (LI). Linguistic awareness
language learner. Language Awareness (Clevedon), was measured by means of two tasks: acceptability
6, 2/3(1997), 93-104. judgements and mazed-reading. The writing task, an
essay, was designed to measure decontextualised writing
This paper offers a language-awareness perspective on (explicit contextualisation). While this study is situated
the concept of autonomy in second language learning. in psycholinguistic theory, the findings call for explana-
The introductory section distinguishes between two tions grounded cognitively, socially and culturally. These
kinds of language awareness and elaborates a working explanations can provide richer and thicker descriptions
definition of learner autonomy. The second section of the contributions of the study to a deeper under-
looks at child development and the role played by both standing of language awareness.
kinds of language awareness in first language acquisi-
tion. It considers in turn the importance of context in
98-252 Meisel, Jiirgen M. (U. of Hamburg and
developmental learning, the role played by the growth
Netherlands Inst. for Advanced Study). The
of metalinguistic knowledge in first-language acquisi-
acquisition of the syntax of negation in French and
tion, and the impact of literacy on first language devel-
opment. The third section is concerned with the role German: contrasting first and second language
played by both kinds of language awareness in second development. Second Language Research
language pedagogy. It begins by reflecting on the short- (London), 13, 3(1997), 227-63.
comings of the grammar-translation approach, then The acquisition of negation is perhaps the best-studied
suggests reasons for the relative failure of the so-called syntactic phenomenon in early interlanguage research,
communicative approach, and ends by proposing a and many of these publications concluded that first (LI)
reassessment of the role of writing in second language and second language (L2) development had much more
learning. in common than had previously been assumed. This
paper re-examines the problem of whether the same
98-250 Lynch, Tony (IALS, Edinburgh U.). Life in underlying principles and mechanisms guide LI and L2
the slow lane: observations of a limited L2 listener. acquisition, from the perspective of more recent gram-
System (Oxford), 25, 3 (1997), 385-98. matical theory. The empirical basis consists of longitu-
dinal case-studies of the acquisition of French and
This paper discusses an intermediate-level learner's
German as first and second languages. The L2 learners'
progress in listening comprehension during a pre-ses-
first language is Spanish. In LI data one finds a rapid,
sional English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course in
uniform and almost error-free course of development
the U.K. It presents evidence from three sources: product
(the learner's answers to entry and exit listening tests); across languages exhibiting quite different morphosyn-
process (his negotiation of meaning in the classroom) tactic means of expressing negation. This is explained in
and his perceptions (of listening difficulties after the terms of Parameter Theory, primarily referring to func-
course). It highlights the difference in progress in one- tional categories determining the placement of finite
way and two-way listening, and the discrepancy verbal elements. L2 acquisition, on the other hand, is
between performance within the sheltered setting of characterised by considerable variability, not only cross-
the language classroom and success in real interaction linguistically, but also across learners and even within
in the academic world outside. individuals. This can be accounted for by assuming dif-
ferent strategies of language use. More importantly, dif-
ferent kinds of linguistic knowledge are drawn upon in
98-251 Masny, Diana (U. of Ottawa). Linguistic
LI as opposed to L2. It is claimed that adult L2 learners,
awareness and writing: exploring the relationship
rather than using structure-dependent operations con-
with language awareness. Language Awareness strained by Universal Grammar, rely primarily on linear
(Clevedon), 6, 2/3 (1997), 105-18. sequencing strategies which apply to surface strings.
This paper explores the inter-relationships between lin-
guistic awareness and language awareness with regard to 98-253 Mondria, Jan-Arjen (U. of Groningen,
second-language teaching and learning. In the second- the Netherlands). Woorden leren: context, raden en
language classroom, language awareness, as an interface onthouden. [Vocabulary learning: context, guessing
mechanism, promotes heightened awareness of language and memorising.] Levende Talen (Amsterdam), 523
forms between the first language (LI) and the target (1997), 476-80.
language (TL) and thereby assists language learning.
Learning psychologists would argue that contextualised
Linguistic awareness refers to the learners' reflection on
learning is superior to decontextualised learning, and that
and manipulation of the language code. This paper pro-
learners guessing word meanings leads to better retention
poses that findings from research studies on linguistic
than teachers simply giving them. However, these claims
awareness can inform practices in language awareness.
have not been unequivocally supported by empirical
One such study is provided here as an example. This
findings. The present study hoped to provide such sup-
particular study examines the relationship between
port in the context of learning foreign language vocabu-
linguistic awareness and writing in two groups of
lary. In a number of experiments, Mondria compared
college students. In one group, data were collected in
die effectiveness of different memorisation strategies in

93

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444800012994 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Language learning
Dutch secondary school learners of French (age 13-14; argued that both the performance and the competence
second year of French).The results support the first claim: dimensions need to be treated as mutually presupposing
the retention of words learned in context is superior to each other, as opposed to the prevailing viewpoint
list learning, with full texts used as contexts leading to whereby only performance is considered as presuppos-
even better results than just sentences. The claim that ing competence, but not the other way round. The sec-
learners guessing would be superior to teachers giving ond part describes a method of measuring attrition of
word meanings was not substantiated: the methods communicative competence using spontaneous speech
appeared to be equally effective. The author stresses that data. The method uses a multi-factor index of defined
the results do not suggest that imprinting isolated word temporal variables, frequency counts of selected verbal
meanings is useless: in actual practice, learners will most behaviours, and grammatical information to measure
likely encounter new words in context; when they subse- either rate of attrition or its reverse. The method pur-
quently sit down and imprint them, the context will res- ports to demonstrate in one quantity the extent
onate, as it were. He also stresses that, although 'guessing' and direction of evolution of a subject's communicative
may not be the most efficient learning strategy, it certainly (or linguistic) competence, relative to a determined
is very valuable as a compensatory strategy. As a learning baseline competence level.
strategy, retention is better when 'guessing' is followed by
'verification'. 98-256 Palmen, Marie-Jose, Bongaerts, Theo
and Schils, Erik (U. of Nijmegen). L'authenticite de
98-254 Multhaup, Uwe (Bergische Universitat, la prononciation dans I'acquisition d'une langue
Germany). Mental networks, procedural knowledge etrangere au-dela de la periode critique: des
and foreign language teaching. Language apprenants neerlandais parvenus a un niveau tres
Awareness (Clevedon), 6, 2/3 (1997), 75-92. avance en frangais. [An authentic accent in foreign
language learning beyond the critical period: Dutch
This paper first outlines what is to be understood by
procedural knowledge, at a time when a growing number learners of French at a very advanced level.] Aile
of researchers call for more process-oriented language (Paris), 9(1997), 173-91.
courses to replace the old factual-oriented courses.The This paper reports on the third of three studies investi-
author discusses why this term, which comes from the gating Scovel's (1988) claim that an authentic accent in
fields of cognitive psychology and information process- a foreign language is unattainable for those who start to
ing research, has gained such prominence in second- acquire the language after the close of the biologically-
language acquisition and foreign language teaching based 'critical period' for language learning. Speech
research, and how it relates to implicit and explicit samples from two groups of Dutch learners of French-
knowledge and to language awareness. A neurobiologi- one of them very advanced—and a native-speaker con-
cally based model of the mental processes involved in trol group were judged for accent by French native
the acquisition and use of language knowledge is pre- speakers. Analysis of the judgements revealed that three
sented. It aims to provide a theoretical framework for learners could indeed pass for native speakers of
understanding the bewildering variety of definitions of French. It is claimed that these results suggest that there
procedural knowledge found in the literature. The is no absolute biological barrier to the acquisition of an
author distinguishes between a procedural knowledge authentic accent in a foreign language. It is also suggest-
which is implicit in the structures of declarative knowl- ed that the success of the exceptional learners in this
edge and a procedural knowledge which is needed for study may have been at least partly due to a combina-
their generation. This entails a dialectical understanding tion of certain learner and learning context factors.
and awareness of language as process and product
which presuppose and modify each other in a
98-257 Py, Bernard (Neuchatel U.). Quelques
hermeneutical circle of knowledge and experience. In
remarques sur I'apprentissage du lexique d'une
this context the author discusses how pedagogical tasks
langue etrangere. [Observations on learning the
and instruction can enhance procedural knowledge and
lexis of a foreign language.] Cahiers de Lexicologie
language awareness.
(Paris), 70, 1 (1997), 175-84.
98-255 Nakuma, Constancio (Tennessee U ) . This paper begins by suggesting that the notion of
Loss of communicative competence: measurability microsystem leads to a better understanding of some
and description of a method. IRAL (Heidelberg, aspects of learning a foreign language and, in particular,
Germany), 35, 3, (1997), 199-209. the lexis, which occupies a pivotal position in exo-lin-
gual communication (particularly in situations of'ver-
The first part of this paper discusses the measurability of bal distress') and learning the linguistic skills that are
communicative and linguistic competence. It is shown required to master it. It would appear that learners
that contemporary linguistic thinking, by suggesting organise the major part of their communication and
that linguistic competence is measurable only to the learning effort around the lexis, and, for example, much
extent that it is revealed by linguistic performance, less around the syntax. Words enable the learner to
effectively reduces the domain of language attrition enter the new language and to build up an interlan-
research to the performance dimension only. It is guage. The paper discusses the study of these learning

94

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444800012994 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Language learning
processes, using observations of oral dialogue data whereas tasks which require more on-line processing or
consisting of verbal interactions between learners and which have complex outcomes, when planned, pro-
native speakers. duce greater complexity.

98-258 Regan, Vera (U. Coll. Dublin). Les 98-260 Suenobu, Mineo, Yamane, Shigeru and
apprenants avances, la lexicalisation et I'acquisition Kanzaki, Kazuo (Kobe U. of Commerce, Japan).
de la competence sociolinguistique: une approche Information transmission of English by Japanese
variationniste. [Advanced learners, lexicalisation learners of English. IRAL (Heidelberg, Germany),
and the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence: a 35, 3(1997), 187-97.
variationist approach.] Aile (Paris), 9 (1997),
The study reported here investigated the process
193-210.
whereby Japanese learners of English transmit informa-
This article describes the variationist approach to sec- tion in the target language. 70 Japanese university stu-
ond language acquisition research. It offers an example dents were shown four pictures constituting a
of the way in which variationist quantitative analysis story-sequence, which they were asked to describe in
can facilitate the understanding of certain aspects of the two minutes. The same procedure was repeated four
acquisition process. In relation to lexicalised phrases, the times, and the process of information transmission was
literature suggests that early learners use such phrases in observed. The relationship between the number of
a process of analysis of the grammar of the target lan- utterances and amount of information was also
guage. The study reported here focused on the use of analysed. The data analysis indicated that: (a) the num-
lexicalised phrases by advanced learners of French as a ber of utterances produced by the learners was not nec-
second language in Ireland. The analysis suggested that essarily related to the amount of information; (b)
these phrases are also important for advanced learners, sentence patterns and the distribution pattern of parts
but may be used by them as a sociolinguistic strategy. of speech in the learners' English differed from native
speakers' English; and (c) the learners' spoken ability
98-259 Skehan, Peter and Foster, Pauline could not necessarily be judged from the results, i.e. if
(Thames Valley U.). Task type and task processing they were allotted sufficient time, they had the potential
conditions as influences on foreign language ability to produce a major part of the story unaided.
performance. Language Teaching Research Pedagogical implications are discussed.
(London), 1,3(1997), 185-211.
98-261 Tajino, Akira (Hiroshima Shudo U.).
This paper examines the effects of planning and post- Learner difficulty: what is it, and how well do we
task activity on task-based performance. It is motivated understand it? The Teacher Trainer (Canterbury), 11,
by the need, given recent claims that task-based 2(1997), 12-14.
instruction has desirable pedagogic qualities, to investi-
gate the effects of choosing different types of tasks, as Teachers, whatever they teach, have to recognise and
well as different task implementation conditions, on the understand what is difficult for their learners. This arti-
fluency, accuracy and complexity of the language cle sets out to explain three main perspectives on the
which is produced when tasks are carried out. Three notion of difficulty, and to put forward the author's
tasks are investigated: a personal task, a narrative task view that difficulty is a psychological rather than a
and a decision task. A 2-by-2 research design was used, purely observable or linguistic issue. Secondly, he
with two planning conditions (10 minutes' planning explains why learner perception is important for moti-
time vs no planning time) and two post-task conditions vational reasons, and thirdly suggests that teachers are
(plus or minus knowledge of a post-task). Performance not always good at diagnosing learner difficulty. Citing
was assessed through the number of pauses (as a mea- research on infant school teachers that shows they had
sure of fluency), the percentage of error-free clauses (to difficulty diagnosing learner problems and even seemed
measure accuracy) and the level of subordination (as a at times to believe it was unnecessary to do so, the
measure of complexity). Confirming hypotheses and author claims, as a result of his own research on high
previous research, planning had clear effects on almost school English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students in
all measures. The hypothesis that foreknowledge of a Japan, that EFL teachers are no better at identifying
post-task activity would selectively influence accuracy learner perception. The article concludes with a plea
received only partial confirmation. Data from the pre- for teachers to recognise that learner perception is
sent study were also related to results in an earlier study. unobservable, important in motivation, and involves the
This revealed that there is strong evidence of trade-off development of the trainable quality of empathic
effects between the different dependent variables used, understanding in teachers.
in that fluency, accuracy and complexity seem to enter
into competition with one another, given the limited
attentional capacities of second language users. Finally,
there are indications that task characteristics interact
with planning time and lead to selective improvements
in particular areas.Tasks which contain clearer inherent
structure, when planned, seem to favour accuracy,

95

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444800012994 Published online by Cambridge University Press

 Language learning
98-262 van Hell, Janet G. and Candia Mahn, 'analytic' approach in tone processing by adults, inher-
Andrea (U. of Amsterdam). Keyword mnemonics ent acoustic characteristics of individual tones as well as
versus rote rehearsal: learning concrete and quantity and quality of the native input. That some N N
abstract foreign words by experienced and tokens were judged 'native-like' seems to challenge the
inexperienced learners. Language Learning claim that segmental as well as suprasegmental errors
(Cambridge, MA), 47, 3 (1997), 507-46. arise from the loss of ability to learn N N sounds.

The two studies reported here examined the efficacy of 98-264 Weltens, Bert (Katholieke U., Nijmegen).
the keyword method vs. rote rehearsal in learning for- Vijftien jaar Nijmeegs taalverliesonderzoek. [Fifteen
eign language (FL) vocabulary. In Experiment 1, 36 years of language attrition research in Nijmegen:
experienced Dutch learners of FLs, naive with regard State of the art.] Toegepaste Taalwetenschap in
to the target language (Spanish), participated. In Artikelen (Amsterdam), 56, 1 (1997), 63-74.
Experiment 2, the 40 participating Americans, all inex-
perienced FL learners, were exposed to Dutch words. Research in Nijmegen into language attrition started in
In both experiments, the concreteness of the novel for- 1982, inspired by a 1980 American conference, the pro-
eign words and the quality of the keyword as a retrieval ceedings of which were published in 77ie loss of language
cue were manipulated: half the concrete and abstract skills (edited by Lambert & Freed; Rowley, MA:
words were linked to a meaningfully related keyword, Newbury House, 1982). Language attrition research
the rest to a semantically unrelated keyword. Learning aroused a great deal of interest in the Netherlands as
was assessed immediately after the learning phase, and well as elsewhere. The question of what happens to for-
again after a one-week and two-week delay. eign-language skills learned at school was—and still
Performance was expressed in proportion correct and is-considered particularly relevant. Many Dutch people
reaction times of the orally produced translation know from personal experience that several years' of
responses. In experienced FL learners, rote learners' learning French at school can still leave them lost for
performance bettered that of keyword learners. In words when, years later, they come to book a hotel
inexperienced learners, rote learners and keyword room. The original research question was how much is
learners recalled the same proportion of words, though lost and what is lost? 15 years and a number of projects
keyword learners had longer retrieval times. It is con- later, researchers in the Netherlands have come to
cluded that keyword imagery does not impede the realise that things are not as bad as supposed, in the
learning of abstract word meanings; and keywords Netherlands at least, for the subjects and skills tested.
meaningfully related to the foreign word form more The skills tested were frequently found to remain intact
effective retrieval cues than semantically unrelated across very long periods of time, and in some cases even
words. improved, even with virtually no exposure to the target
language. This paper presents an overview of the find-
98-263 Wayland, Ratree (Cornell U.). Non-native ings obtained in the 15 years of Nijmegen research into
language attrition, leading to possible avenues for
production of Thai: acoustic measurements and
research in the next 15 years.
accentedness ratings. Applied Linguistics (Oxford),
18,3(1997),345-73.
98-265 Wilhelm, Kim Hughes (Southern Illinois
This paper reports a study of the production of Thai U.). Use of an expert system to predict language
vowels, consonants and tones by native speakers (NSs)
learning success. System (Oxford), 25, 3 (1997),
of English. Three Thai NSs and six English NSs were
317-34.
audio-recorded in an oral reading task. The investiga-
tion focused on: (a) measurement of the acoustic para- The major purpose of the study reported here was to
meters along which the two groups of speakers differ, examine a number of language learning background
and (b) which of these parameters influenced native variables in relationship to rate of progress through an
Thai-speaking listeners'judgments of perceived degree intensive English programme (IEP). In the first stage of
of accentedness. Speech analysis showed that they dif- the study, a knowledge bank of 40 background variables
fered more along the spectral dimension (i.e. formant for 201 subjects was refined to those variables which
frequencies and fundamental frequency) than the tem- most clearly showed 'maximum interclass difference'
poral dimension (i.e. voice-onset time and vowel dura- when comparing three categories of success. In the sec-
tion). Rated for accentedness, the rating data showed ond stage of the study, the extent to which success cate-
that non-native (NN) and native production can be gory could be accurately predicted by an expert system
readily distinguished; only some N N tokens were was measured, basing prediction on (a) all 40 variables,
judged 'native-like'. Moreover, the rating scores for the (b) learner-reported language learning background
NNSs were lower in level tones than contour tones, variables, and (c) IEP entry proficiency measurements.
suggesting different degrees of difficulty for each. When Results indicated that entry proficiency variables were
the acoustic data were regressed on the rating data, sig- most effective when predicting high and low success
nificant predictors were spectral in nature and found category, but language learning background variables
mostly for level tones; and no correlation was found were most effective when predicting medium success. A
between years of experience with Thai and the rating brief introduction to knowledge base expert systems is
scores. Results are discussed in terms of an 'holistic' vs. provided as part of the background to the study.

96

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444800012994 Published online by Cambridge University Press