The question I'm interested in is how people's previous language knowledge would influence their SLA. I prefer using lab study to identify which language, the L1 or another L2 would be the donate language when learning a new L2 and why learners will make that choice. According to most studies, the selection of the donate language in new L2 learning is influenced by 1) the similarities between languages and 2) the proficiency of the language. So the design of my study would be:
1. Select 60 native speakers of Chinese. 20 of them will be beginning level English learners, and 20 intermediate-level learners and 20 advance learners.
2. Teach them an artificial language, whose lexical features are similar with Chinese but its syntax is similar with English.
3. Test participants' learning with a test. Score their answers and label their errors.
4. Use think-aloud to identify why students would give these answers and see how their previous language have influenced their learning.
9 comments:
Using an artificial language is often controversial. Are there any languages that you can use instead, which is similar to English and Chinese? (Maybe not...)
yet another new term or research idea that I was not familiar with! I have never heard the term donate language before, but that would be a very interesting study. Who comes up with the artificial language and how do you make sure it is syntactically comparable to the language you are testing?
Sounds like a big (and fun) project! I wonder what parts of the syntax and lexical features you would make similar English and Chinese (respectively). Since you're using an artificial language, do you think it's ecologically valid? What can this tell us about what happens in the real world?
Same as you Susan, I hadn't heard of this term before. Sounds very interesting. I liked the idea of the artificial language but I could see how that could be controversial.
I don't like using artificial languages either...and I hate think aloud protocols because i think they interfere with the cognitive processes of the participants. I like the research question though and I think L1 influence on L2, Ln is a fascinating topic, but I would use a different methodology! Good luck :-)
Sounds like a very interesting project, with a lot of work!! How would you decide what features would make up the artificial language?
I am enjoying how you are discussing the pros and cons of different research tools here.
Sujie, you had a very specific idea. Is that your MA thesis proposal?
It is so hard to get at the process rather than the result, and with the result we cannot trace the origin.
Along the lines of the donate language, it does seems strange to invent a language (that really reflects a sort of interlanguage between English and Chinese) for this research.
Wow, everybody is concerning about the artificial language...I felt a lot of pressure, lol. There are quite a lot of studies using real language to test language transfer, but nobody has used artificial language before. I'm just curious about whether this method would find something new and interesting.
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