Chapter 4. Are speech and writing teachable?
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Bronwen Patricia Dyson
Abstract
Does the teachability hypothesis (Pienemann 1984, 1989) apply to spoken and written L2 English questions? Given varied findings on this issue, the present chapter reports on a study of 20 postgraduate students, divided into experimental and comparison groups. The experimental group, which comprised ‘unready’ (stage X), ‘ready’ (stage X+1) and stage X+2 students, was taught X+2 question formation. This group’s post-test results demonstrated overall differences from the comparison group and that, in both skills, the ready learners moved up a stage and one unready learner did not. However, two of the experimental group’s unready students advanced two stages in both skills. The spoken and written results imply that instruction cannot make learners skip stages but may help unready learners progress.
Abstract
Does the teachability hypothesis (Pienemann 1984, 1989) apply to spoken and written L2 English questions? Given varied findings on this issue, the present chapter reports on a study of 20 postgraduate students, divided into experimental and comparison groups. The experimental group, which comprised ‘unready’ (stage X), ‘ready’ (stage X+1) and stage X+2 students, was taught X+2 question formation. This group’s post-test results demonstrated overall differences from the comparison group and that, in both skills, the ready learners moved up a stage and one unready learner did not. However, two of the experimental group’s unready students advanced two stages in both skills. The spoken and written results imply that instruction cannot make learners skip stages but may help unready learners progress.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Teachability and learnability
- Chapter 1. Research timeline. The role of instruction 9
- Chapter 2. How much English do children know before they are exposed to instruction? 27
- Chapter 3. Morpho-syntactic development in the input 51
- Chapter 4. Are speech and writing teachable? 71
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Part II. Methods and assessment
- Chapter 5. The elicitation of oral language production data 97
- Chapter 6. Elicited imitation as a diagnostic tool of morpho-syntactic processing 119
- Chapter 7. Grammatical accuracy and complexity in a speaking proficiency test 137
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Part III. Cross-linguistic aspects of SLA
- Chapter 8. Acquisition of nominal morphology in Norwegian L2 163
- Chapter 9. Interlingual versus intralingual tendencies in second language acquisition 183
- Chapter 10. The acquisition of Turkish (genitive-)possessive structures by adult Norwegian learners 205
-
Closing chapter
- Chapter 11. Heritage language development and the promise of Processability Theory 237
- Index 261
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Teachability and learnability
- Chapter 1. Research timeline. The role of instruction 9
- Chapter 2. How much English do children know before they are exposed to instruction? 27
- Chapter 3. Morpho-syntactic development in the input 51
- Chapter 4. Are speech and writing teachable? 71
-
Part II. Methods and assessment
- Chapter 5. The elicitation of oral language production data 97
- Chapter 6. Elicited imitation as a diagnostic tool of morpho-syntactic processing 119
- Chapter 7. Grammatical accuracy and complexity in a speaking proficiency test 137
-
Part III. Cross-linguistic aspects of SLA
- Chapter 8. Acquisition of nominal morphology in Norwegian L2 163
- Chapter 9. Interlingual versus intralingual tendencies in second language acquisition 183
- Chapter 10. The acquisition of Turkish (genitive-)possessive structures by adult Norwegian learners 205
-
Closing chapter
- Chapter 11. Heritage language development and the promise of Processability Theory 237
- Index 261
