EUROSLA Yearbook - Volume 14, Issue 1, 2014

This study is a contribution to the empirical underpinning of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), and it aims to identify linguistic correlates to the proficiency levels defined by the CEFR. The study was conducted in a Swedish school setting, focusing on English, French and Italian, and examined the relationship between CEFR levels (A1–C2) assigned by experienced raters to learners’ written texts and three measures of syntactic complexity (based on length of t-unit, subclause ratio, and mean length of clause (cf. Norris & Ortega, 2009)). Data were elicited through two written tasks (a short letter and a narrative) completed by pupils of L2 English (N = 54) in years four, nine and the final year of upper-secondary school, L3 French (N = 38) in year nine and the final year of upper-secondary school, and L4 Italian (N = 28) in the final year of upper-secondary school and first year of university. The results showed that, globally, there were weak to medium-strong correlations between assigned CEFR levels and the three measures of syntactic complexity in English, French and Italian. Furthermore, it was found that syntactic complexity was homogeneous across the three languages at CEFR level A, whereas syntactic complexity was different across languages at CEFR level B, especially in the data for English and French. Consequences for the empirical validity of the CEFR framework and the nature of the three measures of complexity are discussed.

Reflecting the current age of mammoth globalisation and the desirability of having a second language in today’s world, study abroad (SA) is becoming increasingly popular amongst university students across many disciplines. Moreover, with the EU identifying a target of 20% participation in SA in 2010, the value of this activity is also being recognised on an intergovernmental level. Participants in SA programmes stand to gain not only invaluable experiences, in terms of expanding their social and cultural knowledge, but also in developing their second language (L2). While there now exists a multitude of SLA studies situated within this unique learning context, such studies vary enormously in the duration of their learner-participants’ stay in the target language community. Indeed, a review of the current literature indicates that the duration of SA in the existing research ranges from a couple of weeks to a full year. Given such diversity, it is difficult to draw substantive conclusions on the effect of duration of SA on L2 development, although a limited number of important studies have explored the issue (e.g. Davidson, 2010; Dwyer, 2004; Llanes & Muñoz, 2009; Serrano et al., 2012). Against this background, the current paper reports on a longitudinal study of French and Chinese learners of English over a nine month SA period. Initial, medial and final interview data were analysed in terms of Complexity and Accuracy which are considered two important, and often rivalrous, features of language performance (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005). The results of the study point to considerable individual variation, both within individuals (variation across observations) and between individuals (variation across participants) in scope of development, making it difficult to capture language gains in terms of a neat, linear pattern over time.

In the context of a Complex Systems (CS) approach to language acquisition and teaching research, this paper will use Geometric Data Analysis (GDA, l’Analyse géométrique des données: Benzécri 1973; Le Roux & Rouanet 2010) to explore data collected from beginning learners of English (n = 54) in a primary school context in France. The study was initially designed along classical “group comparison” lines (six-year-olds vs. eight-year-olds), and not from the start for CS analysis; participants performed four different tasks in English at two times during their first year of English; they also completed a variety of psychometric tests and questionnaires measuring various cognitive, verbal, affective et conative characteristics. We will begin by looking at classic nonparametric comparisons of the two groups of learners and correlations between the psychometric tests and performance on the English tasks. These univariate statistics do not actually turn up very much structure in the data set, and we will use multivariate GDA for a closer look at the complex relationships between individual features and early L2 skill.

Our study reports on data collected on three separate occasions over a period of 12 months from four Japanese child returnees who had lived in the U.S. between 8 and 12 years before returning to Japan. Their English proficiency was assessed by TOEIC and C-test scores, and they were each asked to complete an Acceptability Judgment Task (AJT). Results show very little change across Test sessions 1, 2 and 3. Initially, we expected to find differences over the course of 12 months as the returnees’ exposure and daily use of English decreased since returning to Japan. Some slight L2 attrition of English was found in the domain of aspect for one returnee. We believe our results overall indicate that rather than L2 language loss, the returnees have managed to maintain their competence in the L2 aspectual domain.

This paper reports on a study that investigated the effectiveness of recasts and clarification requests in a French as a foreign language classroom. The target structures were French past tense structures the passé composé and the imparfait. The study was carried out with three intact classes of high school students in New Zealand, comprising in total 52 participants. A quasi-experimental design was employed, with a pre-test, treatment, immediate post-test and a delayed post-test. The treatment tasks were picture-based, designed to encourage communication and to elicit the use of past tense. The tests were also picture-based, written narrative tasks. The control group did not receive any treatment. Mixed design Repeated measures ANOVAs, followed by ANCOVAs, were computed to examine the effects of the treatment. Overall, results indicate that recasts were more effective for acquisition of the passé composé whereas both recasts and clarification requests proved beneficial for acquisition of the imparfait at this early stage of learning. However, non-parametric tests comparing more advanced and less advanced learners suggest that only the ‘low proficiency’ learners benefited from clarification requests.

The present paper investigates the grammar systems of Chinese learners of Spanish as a second language with the aim of contributing to current debates within contemporary generative second language (L2) acquisition theory: the extent to which adult learners are (un)able to acquire new functional features that result in a L2 grammar that is mentally structured like the native target language has led to recent accounts such as the Interpretability Hypothesis (Hawkins & Hattori 2006; Tsimpli & Dimitrakopoulou 2007) excluding L2A of non-L1 uninterpretable features, and more recently the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (Lardiere 2009) claiming that L2 readjustment is an arduous acquisition task for [+/–] interpretable features. In evaluating both hypotheses, this study further explores L2A of uninterpretable and interpretable features by examining the development of certain Spanish features within the DP (i.e., [uGender]; [uNumber] and an interpretable Focus/Contrast feature) by L2 Chinese learners. Results of our two experimental tasks show that parametrically different uninterpretable and interpretable features are not totally accessible to adult L2 learners, but that proficiency level and individual differences figure largely in the implementation of them, causing competence target deviant patterns. Contrary to the IH, our results thus show initial underspecification of the [+/–] interpretable features in IL grammars and a gradual process which would first mimic L1-consistency before becoming native-like.

In this paper, we present the results of one written task testing the interpretation of mood choice in if-conditional constructions in L2 Spanish: a linguistic task of conditional utterances containing both regular and irregular indicative and subjunctive forms was completed by 48 L1 French and 40 L1 English speakers, and by an L1 Spanish control group (n = 35). Results show a similar pattern in the answers of both experimental groups despite the varying degree of similarity and disparity among the languages. We adopt a cognitive pragmatic perspective for the analysis of the results in connection with the various kinds of effects created by mood alternation in the constructions studied. Furthermore, in relation to current SLA debates (Lardiere 2008, 2009), our findings demonstrate that feature re-assembly in L2 Spanish is not trouble-free, as simple current feature accounts would advocate, even if those features exist in the learners’ L1.

This paper replicates and extends experiments by Grüter (2006) and Grüter & Conradie (2006) to explore some of the learnability implications of Full Transfer at the initial state of L2A. L1 English-speaking learners’ comprehension of L2 German questions and relative clauses is tested on the basis of a picture interpretation task. Patterns of (mis)interpretation of the German clauses suggest that lower-intermediate proficiency learners still access the L1 syntax in order to parse L2 input. This is taken to indicate that learners are influenced by L1 word order patterns in assigning thematic roles in L2 clauses. This is discussed in light of approaches to L2 parsing and processing which attribute different roles to L1 influence.

This paper explores the role of the L1 and the L2 in L3 oral production, both as regards lexicon and syntax. Previous research has shown that both L1 and L2 are used in L3 oral production, and different explanatory factors have been put forward, e.g. (psycho)typology and L2 status. However, these factors do not explain why function words tend to come from L2 while content words seem to be transferred from both L1 and L2 to a larger extent. In order to explain transfer patterns in L3, we use the declarative/procedural model (Paradis 2009), and hypothesize that syntactic transfer will come from L2; transfer of function words from L2; and transfer of content words from both L1 and L2. We analyze lexical and syntactic transfer in eleven native German speakers’ retellings of an episode from a mute video film. The results largely seem to support Paradis’ model.

This chapter reports on a follow-up study to Paquot (2013) which replicates its methodology to investigate transfer effects on French EFL learners’ use of recurrent word sequences. The study focuses on a large dataset of two- to four-word lexical bundles overrepresented in the French component of the International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE) as compared to nine other ICLE learner sub-corpora. Results are in line with a usage-based view of language that recognizes the active role that the first language (L1) may play in the acquisition of a foreign language. In accordance with Paquot’s (2013) findings, the different manifestations of L1 influence displayed in the learners’ idiosyncratic use of lexical bundles are traced back to various properties of French words and word combinations, among which their discourse function and frequency of use seem to play a crucial role.