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Chapter 13. Teaching the German case system

A comparison of two approaches to the study of learner readiness
  • Kristof Baten
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Widening Contexts for Processability Theory
This chapter is in the book Widening Contexts for Processability Theory

Abstract

This chapter compares two different approaches to the construct ‘readiness’: namely, processing constraints as defined by Processability Theory and the Teachability Hypothesis (Pienemann, 1998) and partial mastery as defined in the research on Focus on Form (Williams & Evans, 1998). The former operationalises readiness through the emergence criterion, the latter employs an accuracy criterion. The chapter applies both definitions and operationalisations in the context of a study investigating the effectiveness of instruction on the acquisition of the German case system by Dutch-speaking foreign language learners. The study included 18 freshman university students of German and adopted a quasi-experimental pretest/posttest design. The instructional treatment involved a meaning-focussed activity which eventually led to explicit rule presentation. Oral language production data was collected by means of a picture description task and an elicited imitation task. The results show that the (non-)emergence of the developmental stages of the German case marking system stayed within the predictive boundaries of the Teachability Hypothesis, whereas the development of the accuracy scores did not reveal any observable sequence. However, the results reveal that the two (emergence and accuracy) are related to the extent that increases in accuracy scores are only possible if a stage is reached or reachable. The findings suggest that the systematic, implicational emergence of stages and the subsequent, variable increases in accuracy scores represent two different, but complementing, aspects of L2 development.

Abstract

This chapter compares two different approaches to the construct ‘readiness’: namely, processing constraints as defined by Processability Theory and the Teachability Hypothesis (Pienemann, 1998) and partial mastery as defined in the research on Focus on Form (Williams & Evans, 1998). The former operationalises readiness through the emergence criterion, the latter employs an accuracy criterion. The chapter applies both definitions and operationalisations in the context of a study investigating the effectiveness of instruction on the acquisition of the German case system by Dutch-speaking foreign language learners. The study included 18 freshman university students of German and adopted a quasi-experimental pretest/posttest design. The instructional treatment involved a meaning-focussed activity which eventually led to explicit rule presentation. Oral language production data was collected by means of a picture description task and an elicited imitation task. The results show that the (non-)emergence of the developmental stages of the German case marking system stayed within the predictive boundaries of the Teachability Hypothesis, whereas the development of the accuracy scores did not reveal any observable sequence. However, the results reveal that the two (emergence and accuracy) are related to the extent that increases in accuracy scores are only possible if a stage is reached or reachable. The findings suggest that the systematic, implicational emergence of stages and the subsequent, variable increases in accuracy scores represent two different, but complementing, aspects of L2 development.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. Chapter 1. Contextualising issues in Processability Theory 1
  5. Section 1. Language production and comprehension processes
  6. Chapter 2. Towards an integrated model of grammatical encoding and decoding in SLA 13
  7. Chapter 3. Productive and receptive processes in PT 49
  8. Chapter 4. Is morpho-syntactic decoding governed by Processability Theory? 73
  9. Section 2. Language acquisition features across typological boundaries
  10. Chapter 5. Case within the phrasal procedure stage 105
  11. Chapter 6. Developing morpho-syntax in non-configurational languages 131
  12. Section 3. Language use and developmental trajectories
  13. Chapter 7. Using the Multiplicity framework to reposition and reframe the Hypothesis Space 157
  14. Chapter 8. Processability Theory as a tool in the study of a heritage speaker of Norwegian 185
  15. Chapter 9. Discourse-pragmatic conditions for Object topicalisation structures in early L2 Chinese 207
  16. Chapter 10. Modelling relative clauses in Processability Theory and Lexical-Functional Grammar 231
  17. Chapter 11. Early development and relative clause constructions in English as a second language 255
  18. Section 4. Language learning and teaching issues in relation to classroom and assessment contexts
  19. Chapter 12. Exploiting the potential of tasks for targeted language learning in the EFL classroom 285
  20. Chapter 13. Teaching the German case system 301
  21. Chapter 14. Development of English question formation in the EFL context of China 327
  22. Chapter 15. Can print literacy impact upon learning to speak Standard Australian English? 349
  23. Chapter 16. The role of grammatical development in oral assessment 371
  24. Chapter 17. How does PT’s view of acquisition relate to the challenge of widening perspectives on SLA? 391
  25. Index 399
https://doi.org/10.1075/palart.7.13bat

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. Chapter 1. Contextualising issues in Processability Theory 1
  5. Section 1. Language production and comprehension processes
  6. Chapter 2. Towards an integrated model of grammatical encoding and decoding in SLA 13
  7. Chapter 3. Productive and receptive processes in PT 49
  8. Chapter 4. Is morpho-syntactic decoding governed by Processability Theory? 73
  9. Section 2. Language acquisition features across typological boundaries
  10. Chapter 5. Case within the phrasal procedure stage 105
  11. Chapter 6. Developing morpho-syntax in non-configurational languages 131
  12. Section 3. Language use and developmental trajectories
  13. Chapter 7. Using the Multiplicity framework to reposition and reframe the Hypothesis Space 157
  14. Chapter 8. Processability Theory as a tool in the study of a heritage speaker of Norwegian 185
  15. Chapter 9. Discourse-pragmatic conditions for Object topicalisation structures in early L2 Chinese 207
  16. Chapter 10. Modelling relative clauses in Processability Theory and Lexical-Functional Grammar 231
  17. Chapter 11. Early development and relative clause constructions in English as a second language 255
  18. Section 4. Language learning and teaching issues in relation to classroom and assessment contexts
  19. Chapter 12. Exploiting the potential of tasks for targeted language learning in the EFL classroom 285
  20. Chapter 13. Teaching the German case system 301
  21. Chapter 14. Development of English question formation in the EFL context of China 327
  22. Chapter 15. Can print literacy impact upon learning to speak Standard Australian English? 349
  23. Chapter 16. The role of grammatical development in oral assessment 371
  24. Chapter 17. How does PT’s view of acquisition relate to the challenge of widening perspectives on SLA? 391
  25. Index 399
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