ABSTRACTS UK | 30 August – 2 September 2017
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27th Conference of the European Second Language Association Reading,ABSTRACTS UK | 30 August – 2 September 2017 Table of Contents page Keynotes 2 Language Learning Round Table 4 Colloquia 7 Papers 29 Posters 182 Index 214 1 Keynotes L2 sentence processing: Building structure from words Holger Hopp (University of Braunschweig) In this plenary, I explore the relations between lexical representations and syntactic structure in L2 acquisition. Based on a series of experiments on real-time sentence comprehension, I outline (a) how lexical knowledge and access to lexical representations may drive or hamper structure building in L2 sentence processing and (b) how co-activation of the L1 lexicon impacts L2 syntactic processing across different ages and proficiency levels. In conjunction, these findings highlight the importance of understanding the lexical preconditions for constructing L2 grammatical representations. I will consider the implications of lexical representations and processing for grammar learning as well as potential consequences for language teaching. After 25 years of researching vocabulary: A personal reflection on where vocabulary research needs to go next Norbert Schmitt (University of Nottingham) Since Paul Meara’s 1980 paper describing vocabulary as a neglected aspect of language learning, lexical research has boomed. Today vocabulary research and pedagogy is vibrant, but there is still much to do. I have been researching and thinking about vocabulary now for 25 years, and have seen a number of trends unfold. The field has made a number of important advances in our understanding of how vocabulary works, including: • The rough establishment of vocabulary size targets for doing things in English (but mostly reading) • A consensus that around 10 exposures for incidental learning • A better understanding of the vocabulary required for academic and specific purposes • The use of psycholinguistic measurement techniques Vocabulary scholars can congratulate themselves on these advances. However, I see there are still many gaps and challenges to address, and this presentation will outline my views of where vocabulary research needs to focus its energies in the near and mid-term future: e.g.: • Future vocabulary tests need to be validated much more rigorously than they have been in the past • Word lists can be useful, but some seem to be made without much thought to their need or purpose. Future lists need to be validated in much the same way as tests • There is still a no overall theory or description of vocabulary acquisition. We need research which throws light on the incremental development of vocabulary knowledge • The message has reached practitioners that formulaic language is important for language use, but we still do not know the best way to teach it 2 • There are many practical aspects of teaching vocabulary which we need to understand better, e.g. how many repetitions are necessary for explicit instruction, and how to best combine explicit teaching with incidental learning. Dividing seas of words: How bilingual input shapes early language acquisition Nuria Sebastian-Galles (Centre for Brain and Cognition, Universitat Pompeu Fabra) Within a few months of life, infants establish the phonological properties of their input language and discover the first words, among other exceptional achievements. Infants exposed to multilingual environments develop specific strategies to achieve the same language development milestones at equivalent pace than infants exposed to just one language. In this presentation I will overview the state of the art in early bilingual development and focus on recent research with multimodal information. What corpus-linguistics can contribute to second language acquisition research Stefanie Wulff (University of Florida) There is wide agreement in the second language acquisition research community across all contemporary theoretical foci that second language learning is an inherently complex process: a multitude of language-internal and –external factors jointly characterize the initial state, the developmental route, the speed of advancement, and the ultimate attainment of second language learning, and they do so to varying extents at different stages of proficiency. In recognition of this complexity, and given the advantage of rapidly advancing computer and experimental technology, researchers are turning to correspondingly sophisticated methods to elicit data, statistically evaluate them, and create models predicting second language learning. In this talk, I aim to advocate specifically for the inclusion of corpus-linguistic analyses into the second language researcher’s expanding methodological toolbox. I will give an overview of recent studies that employ sophisticated methods to illustrate how learner corpus research can complement experimental methods in the investigation of some of the hottest issues in second language acquisition research, such as appropriate characterizations of the input; adequate modeling of the highly L1-specific nature of learner language development; and even the increasingly recognized role of individual variation in the acquisition process. I close with a critical discussion of limitations of corpus-based approaches to second language acquisition and desiderata for future research. 3 Language Learning Round Table Nativelike and Targetlike Attainment: Two sides of the same coin? Holger Hopp (University of Braunschweig) For decades, nativelike attainment had been seen by learners and researchers as THE goalpost in second language acquisition. Recent research on nativelike attainment in second language acquisition and processing has questioned the standard of nativelikeness by adopting three types of reasoning. (1) Moving the goalpost: In view of nativelike performance by late L2 learners in some domains, researchers have argued that ever more challenging grammatical, idiomatic or pragmatic language features be investigated (e.g. Abrahamsson & Hyltenstam, 2012) or the focus be shifted to taxing structures in real-time language processing (e.g. DeKeyser & Larson- Hall, 2005; Clahsen & Felser, 2006). (2) Scattering the goalpost: Others have argued that the native speaker is a “myth” (Davies, 2003) in that there is no monolithic native speaker ideal, since native speakers vary in linguistic competence and language performance depending on age, education, literacy etc. (e.g. Dabrowska, 2012). (3) Removing the goalpost: Yet others hold that bilingual language processing is language non-selective and involves competition across languages in bilinguals. It hence inherently differs from monolingual language processing such that a native norm is, by definition, vacuous in research on bilingualism (e.g. Grosjean, 1998). In this talk, I will explore a different conceptualization of nativelikeness in research on L2 processing that is framed in terms of targetlikeness relative to the grammatical representations of the interlanguage of the learner. I will present evidence predominantly coming from eye-tracking studies to assess whether the processing patterns late L2 learners show comply with their subjective lexical and grammatical representations. If so, they can be deemed to be “nativelike” with respect to their interlanguage grammar, irrespective of whether these representations correspond to those of native speakers or the target language. I will discuss the potential of such a conceptualization of targetlike attainment to inform us about the underlying processing mechanisms and grammatical architecture of second language acquisition. Structural and functional plasticity associated with learning in bilinguals Gigi Luk (Harvard University) In contemporary educational settings, learning often occurs by means of spoken language. While there is often a dominant language of instruction in a classroom, learners often have diverse language backgrounds. Current research on cognitive neuroscience typically focuses on finding brain differences in participants with diverse antecedent experiences. In this roundtable discussion, I will share results from a new study examining how learners’ language experience moderates neural networks before, during, and after learning. Furthermore, we extend brain functional and structural differences to learning outcomes, bridging individual learners’ experiences to learning new concepts through understanding the neural dynamics supporting concept acquisition. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), adults with diverse language backgrounds undergo functional and structural scans while watching videos designed from current science education curriculum, and during resting-state after the learning phase. After the scanning session, adults complete free 4 recall and answer probing questions about the content of the video. Furthermore, participants complete a series of standardized language and reading assessments. Preliminary results indicate that participants’ English proficiency and their age at which they active practice bilingualism modulates the neural networks while watching video and in resting-state after watching the video. Comparing comprehension to production and on-line vs. off-line tasks: What can they tell us about the development of grammatical knowledge and ultimate attainment in SLA? Theo Marinis (University of Reading) The field of SLA has made considerable progress within the last 20 years in terms of complementing traditional production tasks and off-line grammatical judgement tasks with psycholinguistic tasks that