The Process Of Learning A Second Language

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Abstract

1. Introduction

For the past decade task-based language teaching and learning has captivated the interest of numerous scholars, teachers, testers, and syllabus designers in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) research and tasks have played a crucial role in language pedagogy. Since then an increasing number of studies has been conducted to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of using tasks during meaning-oriented collaborative interactions of learners in the classrooms.

In the process of learning a second or a foreign language, individuals vary extremely in their ability to master the language. There are a number of individual characteristics which play crucial roles in the way that they learn and perform in a language (Atkinson & Schiffrin, 1968; Gardner & MacIntyre, 1992; Grandman & Hanania, 1991; O'Malley & Chamot, 1990; Oxford & Ehrman, 1993; Skehan, 1986). The study of individual differences (IDs) in second language (SL) learning has received considerable attention over the last decade (Ellis, 1994; Oxford 1992; Skehan, 1989, 1991). Gardner & MacIntyre (1992) mention that "there are probably as many factors that might account for individual differences in achievement in a second language as there are individuals" (p. 212). In second language acquisition (SLA) research, age, gender, aptitude, motivation, attitude, intelligence, etc. have been stated as variables which influence success in learning a language. In the shift from Structuralism to Functionalism gender has been considered as one of the significant individual and social variable and the most eminent IDs in relation to success in learning a Foreign Language (FL) (Brantmeier, Schuller, & Wilde, 2007).

Ekstrand (1980) states that in learning a FL language Gender differences are most likely attributable to cognitive and cultural variations. As cited by Butler (1990) "gender is the repeated stylization of the body, a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of a ‘natural’ kind of being" (p. 32). Gender is not something we are born with, and not something we acquire on one occasion, but something we perform, a continuous attainment of our actions (West, Zimmerman, 1987; Cameron, 2004).

2. Background

3. Methodology

3.1 Participants

The participants of the current study were 12 male and female intermediate-level EFL learners, aging between 18 to 35, who enrolled in a private language school in Isfahan province of Iran. Communicative language ability is the pedagogical approach adapted in this school. Most of the participants were university or graduate students. They have been studying TopNotch English language textbook series by Pearson Education Publication for about six terms. They have been selected based on a language proficiency test and they were placed into three groups according to their gender, male versus female. Afterwards they formed pairs:

Male-Male pairs (two pairs);

Male-Female pairs (two pairs);

Female-Female pairs (two pairs).

3.2 Instruments

In order to accomplish the objectives of this study a mixed-method approach was used which included both qualitative and quantitative research method approaches.

3.2.1 Language Proficiency Test

To shape homogeneous groups, the PEARSON language proficiency test was administered. It generally addressed four language skills: speaking tests, listening test, reading test, and general test and each part included authentic and real world materials. The general test included items testing knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, and social language. In part I, the test taker was required to complete 3 listening tasks including 10 multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty in 15 minutes. In part II, the test taker was required to complete 2 reading tasks including 10 multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty in 30 minutes. In part III, the test taker was required to answer to 120 multiple-choice questions of mixed difficulty in 50 minutes. Totally, the test included140 questions which lasted for 95 minutes.

3.2.2 Interview

3.2.3 Treatment Tasks

Based on task-based studies of language teaching, interaction, scaffolding, and the discourse of interaction four different types of tasks were chosen, including a picture description task, a problem-solving task, an argumentative task, and a story-telling task.

Task I

The participants were given a depiction of the human body's blood circulation system, showing the routes by which blood circulates from the heart through body and goes back to the heart. They were asked to describe the process by which blood goes from the heart to head and upper limbs, and to the rest of body, through the arteries, and then how it returns to the heart through the veins.

Task II

The participants were given a letter from a parent to a friend. In this letter the parents are worried about their daughter because she refuses to do anything they tell her and she is very rude to them. Also, she has become friendly with a girl they don't like. She mentions that they don't trust her anymore because she is always lying to them. The participants were required to discuss their ideas, and then agree on four best advices to the parents.

Task III

The participants were to imagine that one of them is a judge, and the other a doctor who was supposed to be a murderer. The doctor gave an overdose to an 85-year-old woman because she was dying painfully from cancer. The woman herself had asked for the overdose. The woman’s family has accused the doctor of murder. There were four decisions to be made. For each decision, they had to decide for how long to send the accused to prison. The maximum was real life sentence, the minimum was three months. They could also set her/him free.

Task IV

The participants were asked to create a story using the following words:

Safety fence, suicide, narrow ledge, New York, top floor, unemployment, Fifth Avenue, Empire State Building, 85th floor, wind, television station

3.3 Procedures

On the onset of the study, after describing the aim of the research to the participants, an English Placement Test (EPT) was administered. The test taker had a test booklet and one optical mark reader answer sheet, where s/he was required to answer the multiple choice questions in the listening, reading, and general tests. Then they participated in the speaking section of the test. They were scored according to the test manual. Intermediate-level learners were chosen as the participants of the research.

The main part of the research required participants to carry out tasks in pairs while being tape-recorded by the researcher with the participants' consent. They performed the given sequences of the tasks in the specified time limit. The participants performed the tasks during 24 sessions. At the beginning of every session, they were given instructions of what they were supposed to do. The researcher monitored participants without any interference in the process of data collection. During the process the researcher took notes of the behavioral and gestural communication between participants which is an effective source of information of how they scaffolded their struggling partners.

The current study employed both a qualitative and quantitative method for analyzing the data. The recordings were then transcribed according to the transcription conventions developed by Garden and Wanger (2004). Ohta’s (2001) list of seven types of scaffolding methods was used as a framework to analyze the data. The transcriptions were studied thoroughly several times. The frequency of each method of scaffolding was examined in two different directions; how the frequency of a specific method of scaffolding altered when the same pair carried out different tasks, and how the frequency of that specific method of scaffolding altered when different pairs carried out the same task.

Types of Scaffolding Methods (when interlocutor is struggling)

Waiting

One partner gives the other, even when struggling; time to complete an L2 utterance without making any contribution

Prompting

Partner repeats the syllable or word just uttered, helping the interlocutor to continue

Co-construction

Partner contributes an item (syllable, word, phrase, etc.) that works towards completion of the utterance

Explaining

Partner explains in L1

Additional Methods (when interlocutor makes an error)

Initiating repair

Partner indicates that the preceding utterance is somehow problematic, for example saying "huh?" This provides an opportunity for the interlocutor to consider the utterance and self-correct

Providing repair

Partner initiates and carries out repair

Asking the teacher

Partner notices the interlocutor’s error and asks the teacher about it

Finally, the quantitative data obtained was processed, classified and analyzed by SPSS software package to determine the frequency of each scaffolding method in regard to production within and between groups.

4. Results

5. Discussion

6. Conclusion