Second Language Acquisition Program: Adult Learners Retention of Collocations - Research Paper Example

? Adult Learners’ Retention of Collocations LINGUISTICS 598 w/ Leyla Zidani-Eroglu, Ph.D By Oldale Lee Rauls Central Connecticut University December 19, 2012 Abstract The concept of formulaic language advances in second language acquisition (SLA) pedagogy is a relevant paradigm to use in SLA classrooms. It is often claimed that adult learners are exposed to low levels of learning collocations from input. It is better to focus in the nature of the collocations included and the range of disciplines for which such a listing will be useful. Further one thesis is devoted to six main types of collocations: adjective+noun, verb+adverb, verb+noun, verb+prepositional phrase, adverb+adjective, and noun+noun and the input of these collocations with adult L2 Spanish speakers. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………4 Thesis Statement………………………………………………………………………………….4 Methodology……………………………………………………………………………………...4 Preliminary Results and Discussion……………………………………………………………....5 Study Implications……………………………………………………………………………...…7 Work Plan…………………………………………………………………………………………7 References…………………………………………………………………………………………9 INTRODUCTION Formulaic language has been playing a key role in second language teaching. A beginning learner utilizes more idiomatic English expressions focused on daily communication templates. Alison Wray’s (2002) definition of a formulaic sequence of words has been the most popular one: “Formulaic Sequence is a sequence, continuous or discontinuous, of words or other elements which is, or appears to be, prefabricated: that is stored and retrieved whole from memory at the time of use, rather than being subject to generation or analysis by the language grammar" (Wray, 2002, p. 9). Wray claims that the adult learner primarily is more focused on individual words and is concentrated on a non-formulaic approach to language learning (Lewis, 2000a; b). This thesis is devoted to identification of an ability of adult language learners to retain information about what words appear together in their input of adj+noun pairs, verb+noun pairs, and or noun+noun pairs. It is supposed that any drawbacks in non-natives’ knowledge of collocation associations between words is caused by an inadequate input. THESIS STATEMENT The fluency-oriented repetition of individual sentence contexts has an impact on collocation learning for L2 learners, and thus participants will primarily notice and remember chunks of words in their input through an organized testing process using the adj-noun, verb-noun, and noun-noun pairs placed in a sentence. METHODOLGY A general selection criterion was a key trigger for my further research. Theoretical background is based on relevant academic articles, academic texts, and books. The participants were asked to undergo a short training session in which they were exposed to a number of target adjective-noun, verb-noun, and noun-noun combinations embedded in sentences called a “naming phase.” Sentences were presented to participants on a computer screen in a random order. The participants were asked to say the noun aloud if they recognized it. The respondents are Spanish speaking Americans. All the participants are enrolled in one or two of the ESL programs for a L2 learner of English within their city’s community base. They are all lower level income participants, with lower level educational backgrounds. PRELIMINARY RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Of the adjective+noun, verb+ noun, and noun+noun word pairs, the nouns were recognized more reliably when they followed the verb with which it was paired. These collocations were easily recognized by the participants. The following chart outlines the results of preliminary data analysis: Descriptive Statistics Adjective-Noun, Verb-Noun, Noun-Noun   Variable NN* Mean SE Mean StDev Minimum Q1 Median Q3 Adjective-Noun 20 0 8.600 0.499 2.234 3.000 7.250 10.000 10.000 Verb-Noun 20 0 9.700 0.128 0.571 8.000 9.250 10.000 10.000 Noun-Noun 20 0 9.450 0.211 0.945 7.000 9.000 10.000 10.000   Variable Maximum Adjective-Noun 10.000 Verb-Noun 10.000 Noun-Noun 10.000   Two-Sample T-Test and CI: Adjective-Noun, Verb-Noun   Two-sample T for Adjective-Noun vs Verb-Noun N Mean StDev SE Mean Adjective-Noun 20 8.60 2.23 0.50 Verb-Noun 20 9.700 0.571 0.13     Difference = mu (Adjective-Noun) - mu (Verb-Noun) Estimate for difference: -1.100 95% upper bound for difference: -0.213 T-Test of difference = 0 (vs Read More