1. Topic
Investigation of two L2 language acquirers
2. General Instructions
1.
Essay Topic :
Investigation
of two L2 Language Acquirers
>>
all of the conditions below must be met <<
1. Choose two adults (not students in the
TESOL course) and prepare a detailed
profile describing their acquisition
of a second language.
2. Make an hypothesis (or null hypothesis)
about what led to the differences
and similarities in language acquisition
between these two individuals. [Note
that the hypothesis in this exercise
is more of a focusing tool than a precise instrument
of inquiry. It will also be useful to develop a number of sub-hypotheses
to deal with particular issues].
3. The subjects should be significantly different
individuals in interesting ways (e.g.
in age, gender, life experience, aptitude,
motivation etc.).
4. The investigation should include some
objective evidence
or measures of their language achievement
and aptitudes (i.e. not just personal
opinions). This evidence could include not only
formal test results, but actual examples of writing and recordings
of speech.
5. The investigation should explore multiple
areas of language achievement
: that is, speaking (segmental and non-segmental
features), listening, reading, writing
6. The investigation should consider both
the fluency
and accuracy
of language used by these individuals;
7. The investigation should consider the
size of vocabulary
and if possible the use of syntactic
complexity .
8. The investigation should measure the language
achievement of
these individuals against their actual language
needs;
9. The investigation should try to establish
any changes which occurred in their
rate of second language acquisition
at different stages of their learning;
10. The investigation should include both
a structured questionnaire
and open ended interviews.
11. The language acquirers will have to be
interviewed several
times. Go away with their answers,
think about them, develop more questions
to inquire further, then come back and re-interview
with the follow-up questions. It is a cyclical process.
(The first interviews should have been completed by the time
the 1st draft of the essay is handed in).
12. The questionnaire and interviews should
encourage the subjects to reflect
and speculate on their own language
achievements in as much detail and
depth as possible. In particular, the
subjects should be invited to think in detail about their
language acquisition and motivation at different points in their
lives.
13.
Checklist :
All essays should include
:
a) an introduction
which states in a general way what you are
aiming to do and explains why the investigation is worthwhile;
b) an hypothesis
(or null hypothesis) which states
the idea you are investigating. This
can be part of the introduction (in
this essay, though not in standard research).
c) a
literature statement
containing a discussion and evaluation
of work by other writers on relevant areas of L2 acquisition
and action research processes. Note : any
quotation or paraphrase must
be followed by your own evaluation of the quotation
or paraphrase.
d1) a method
statement which says what you
did to prove or disprove the hypothesis,
and also :
d2) Information on the subjects' age, language
level and other relevant background;
and also :
d3) Information on the number
and type of interviews, questionnaires
and tests conducted;
and also :
d4) a list
of tools you used in your investigation
(for example, questionnaire, open-ended
interview, any statistical procedures
or programs .. etc.). Actual instruments (tools) like a
sample questionnaire, can be added as appendices at the end
of the essay.
e1) A detailed Results
Statement containing
: -
e2) A Table
1 comparing
each subject's self-evaluation versus
objective tests (or other evidence)
of their real L2 achievement
e3) Table1 shows separate results for a)
speaking,
b) listening,
c) reading,
d) writing,
e) vocabulary size.
The table should use a scale
of 0-5 (5 is native speaker
level). An estimate of the Subjects'
use of syntactic complexity
would also be useful; (see the article,
'Evaluating Linguistic Difficulty'
in the Linguistics section of my website).
e4) A Table
2 comparing each subjects' own
judgement of their overall
a) fluency
and b) accuracy
in L2 versus
your own judgement of their level.
The table should use a scale of 0-5
f1) A Discussion
Section containing A detailed
analysis and discussion of the results
obtained in Section 4, especially: -
f2) Results of a discussion with both subjects
about how their learning
methods and feelings
about L2 changed at zero, elementary,
intermediate (and maybe advanced) levels
f3) Your evaluation of how
and why Subject1 and Subject2 may
have reached different levels of skill
in L2.
f4) Your evaluation of what factors (variables)
may have distorted
or biased information from the
Subjects
g) a Conclusion
which states summarizes what you did or discovered.