THE RELATIVE EFFECTS OF ENHANCED AND NON-ENHANCED STRUCTURED INPUT ON L2 ACQUISITION OF SPANISH PAST TENSE by Silvia M. Peart, B.A, M.A., M.A. A Dissertation In SPANISH Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Spanish Approved Andrew P. Farley Idoia Elola Greta Gorsuch Janet Perez Susan Stein Fred Hartmeister Dean of the Graduate School May, 2008 Copyright 2008, Silvia M. Peart Texas Tech University, Silvia M. Peart, May 2008 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank first my mentor, advisor and friend, Dr. Andrew Farley. His guidance helped me learn not only the main topics of second language acquisition, but also led me to develop as a professional. It has been a pleasure to work with him these last three years. I thank him for his support this last year, his mentoring and patience. I want also to express my gratitude to Dr. Idoia Elola whose support also has been a key to my success as a doctoral student. Her encouragement and assistance during this last year has been the fuel that kept me in motion. I would like to thank Dr. Susan Stein and Dr. Beard for their friendship and their encouraging support in all my projects as a student. Finally, I would like to thank my committee for their invaluable feedback. I am also grateful to the friends I made during my career at Texas Tech University. It was also their support that encouragement that kept me on track all these years. I would like to thank you René, Hilda and Janie, for your friendship, your companionship, and your laughter. It has been a pleasure to work and to study with you. I want also thank my dearest friends Marina and Tachy, from Córdoba. It was their support and encouragement that made me apply to Texas Tech. I want to express my gratitude to my family, Fernando and Flor. Fernando, you have always been the love of my life. Thank you for all your support in every project I worked. Thank you for holding my hand in the good and in the bad times. Flor, thank you for your understanding, for giving me all those hours from your time to work on my projects, especially in this last one: my dissertation. My parents also deserve recognition for encouraging me to pursue my goals, and for giving me the best gift in life, a good education. ii Texas Tech University, Silvia M. Peart, May 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................... vii LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................. ix LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................x CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................1 Introduction..................................................................................................1 Input: Definition...........................................................................................1 Instruction Can Make a Difference..............................................................3 Input-based Approaches...................................................................4 Output-based Approaches................................................................9 Types of Instruction ...................................................................................12 Input Enhancement ........................................................................12 Textual Enhancement.....................................................................15 Structured Input .............................................................................17 Strategies Learners Use to Process Input.......................................19 Structured Input Activities.............................................................21 Textually Enhanced Structured Input ........................................................22 The Present Study ......................................................................................24 CHAPTER 2 – MOTIVATIONS FOR THE PRESENT STUDY ........................25 Introduction................................................................................................25 Research on Structured Input.....................................................................25 iii Texas Tech University, Silvia M. Peart, May 2008 Structured Input: Background........................................................25 Research and Background on Attention and Noticing...............................33 Input Enhancement and Noticing...................................................36 Research on Textual Enhancement............................................................37 Textual Enhancement: Background...............................................37 A Pilot Study..............................................................................................44 Research Questions for the French Experiment.............................45 Research Questions for the Spanish Experiment ..........................45 Hypothesis for the French Experiment .........................................46 Hypothesis for the Spanish Experiment ........................................47 Subjects..........................................................................................48 Materials ........................................................................................49 Assessments ..................................................................................50 Procedures......................................................................................51 Scoring ...........................................................................................52 Results............................................................................................52 Discussion......................................................................................53 Conclusions....................................................................................56 Summary of the Overall Results of Data from the Pilot Study..................60 Revisions Made Since the Pilot Study...........................................61 Design of the Present Study.......................................................................63 Research Questions........................................................................63 Hypothesis......................................................................................64 iv Texas Tech University, Silvia M. Peart, May 2008 CHAPTER 3 – METHODOLOGY .......................................................................66 Introduction................................................................................................66 Research Design.........................................................................................66 Subjects......................................................................................................68 Materials ....................................................................................................70 Instructional Materials ...................................................................70 Structured Input Packet..................................................................73 Textually Enhanced Structured Input Packet.................................78 Assessment.................................................................................................81 Interpretation Task.........................................................................82 Production Task .............................................................................84 Procedure ...................................................................................................86 Scoring .......................................................................................................90 Analysis......................................................................................................90 CHAPTER 4 – RESULTS.....................................................................................94 Introduction................................................................................................94 Descriptive Statistics of All Data...............................................................94 Analysis of Interpretation Data..................................................................95 Summary of Interpretation Data ....................................................97 Analysis of the Production Data ................................................................98 Summary of Production Data.......................................................100 Analysis of the Present Tense Data .........................................................101 Summary of Analysis of Present Tense.......................................105 v Texas Tech University, Silvia M. Peart, May 2008 CHAPTER 5 – DISCUSSION.............................................................................106 Introduction..............................................................................................106 Discussion................................................................................................106 Implications..............................................................................................112 Limitations and Further Research............................................................115