Lanspan Lectures 2022

Abstracts

Laura Nap - Interaction in Multilingual Classrooms

As European societies become increasingly diverse, teachers are faced with classrooms in which pupils have a variety of cultural and language backgrounds. Even though primary school teachers are becoming more aware of the importance of languages pupils already know for their learning of the school language and content in school, teachers do not feel prepared to adequately use pupils’ languages as a resource for learning (Robinson-Jones et al., 2022) . In the 3M project (Meer kansen Met Meertaligheid – More opportunities with multilingualism), researchers from the NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences worked together with primary school teachers in Fryslân to develop multilingual activities based on a holistic model of multilingual education (Duarte & Günther-Van der Meij, 2018) . While teachers implemented these activities in their classrooms, we videorecorded their lessons in order to be able to study the interaction and language use in the classroom. In this presentation, I will share the results of our studies focusing on the whole class interaction in these classrooms in which the teacher is following a multilingual approach. 

For a first explorative study, we analysed the whole class interaction in terms of turn and T-Unit length, turn allocation and speech acts. We also analysed the language use and the translanguaging function of interactions in which other languages than the school language Dutch were used. The results demonstrated a mostly teacher-dominant classroom interaction, in which the use of languages other than Dutch was rather limited and restricted to symbolic use on the word level (Nap, Hiddink, & Duarte, 2022) .

Following this explorative study, we analysed language comparison interactions in more detail using conversation analysis. We analysed both the conversational structure of these interactions and the teachers’ practices that stimulated pupils’ active contribution to the interaction. We found a dominant conversational structure consisting of two key components and a dialogic participation framework that provided pupils with more opportunities to actively participate in the language comparison interactions (Nap, Hiddink, Walsweer, & Duarte, 2022).

Lieke van Maastricht - L2 prosody teaching and learning: Can gesture help?

In our multilingual society, communicating in foreign languages (L2) is increasingly important but complicated by a lack of existing methods for L2 prosody training. While L2 learners often practice individual L2 phonemes in class, they barely receive instruction on the form or function of the prosodic features of their L2 (e.g., the use of pitch accents to mark discourse focus). However, prosody is essential for communication and its understanding has both theoretical repercussions and societal relevance. In short, L2 researchers, teachers, and learners are starting to recognize the importance of L2 prosody acquisition, but how to overcome the challenges that it presents, especially in an L2 classroom?

In my talk, I will first discuss the conclusions that can be drawn from my work on the acquisition of different prosodic features regarding the factors that influence L2 development, as well as some effects of prosodic errors on L1-L2 communication. Second, I will present collaborative research on the coupling between hand/head gestures and L2 speech, which appears a promising avenue for future research and applications in L2 prosody teaching from several perspectives (e.g., biomechanics, embodied cognition).

Jim Ureel - Developing L2 sociolinguistic competence in instructional  settings: Acquiring and teaching sensitivity to linguistic (in)formality in L2 English … WTF!

At the heart of many studies into second language acquisition lies the concept of form–meaning–use mappings, which encapsulates the three linguistic dimensions that learners grapple with when acquiring languages. In this lecture, I focus on language use (appropriateness), more specifically on developing L2 sociolinguistic competence. Despite burgeoning research into L2 sociolinguistics, a feature that has received limited systematic attention – especially in L2 English – is the development of sensitivity to linguistic (in)formality in instructional settings. L2 English learners find themselves faced with the challenges of comprehending and producing language that is sociolinguistically appropriate in various cultural contexts. They acquire sociolinguistic competence, for example, by developing accommodative competence, which is the ability to adapt language to make it appropriate in various communicative and cultural settings. Using results from two studies into sensitivity to linguistic (in)formality in L2 English, I explore accommodative competence. Study 1 focuses on if/how coursebooks operationalise linguistic (in)formality, investigating quantitative and qualitative challenges inherent in presenting linguistic (in)formality in coursebook discussions of accommodative competence. Study 2 focuses on developing accommodative competence, mapping if/how receptive and productive sensitivity to linguistic (in)formality in L2 English learners develops in undergraduate training. I conclude this lecture by highlighting the importance of designing a sociolinguistically responsive language curriculum to increase learner sensitivity to linguistic (in)formality. In so doing, teachers and curriculum planners can become pedagogical facilitators for advancing L2 sociolinguistic competence, helping L2 learners to develop into fully functional language users in the complex, multilingual communicative contexts that they prepare them for.

Vanessa de Wilde - A longitudinal investigation of young learners’ L2 English speaking development

Usage-based theories of language learning have stressed the importance of input for language learning both in and outside the classroom. When large amounts of input are available, learning gains can be rapid and large. However, far less is known about the actual learning processes driving L2 development.

In this presentation, I will report on a study which looks into L2 English speaking development of young, adolescent learners both at the group level and the individual level.

L2 English development was investigated in an intensive longitudinal study mapping ‘real-time’ development (one-year study). With this study, I aim to focus on several aspects of the learning process:

• First, I will look into the role of internal and external resources in L2 English language development.
• A second issue under investigation is the possibility of discerning ergodic groups.
• Third, I will investigate the shape of the learning curve for several aspects of language development both in groups and individuals.

64 learners who attended the first year of secondary school participated in a longitudinal study in which they were asked to do a speaking activity every week over the course of one school year. They were also tested extensively at the start of the study in order to map individual differences between the learners (e.g. differences in prior knowledge, instruction, out-of-school exposure, motivation and cognitive differences).

The learners belonged to three different class groups which each had a different profile. Group 1 (n = 21) attended a school in Flanders. They did not receive any English lessons in primary education and were at the start of formal English education. Group 2 (n = 22) attended a school in Flanders. They did not receive any English lessons in primary education and did not yet have formal English lessons. Group 3 (n = 21) attended a school in the Netherlands. They started with English lessons in primary education.

In this presentation, I will discuss how the study was set up and I will show some preliminary results, mainly focusing on learners’ overall speaking development throughout the study and the similarities and differences between individuals and groups.

Sybrine Bultena - Learning from our own istakes: L2 error monitoring reflected by ERPs

Successful second language (L2) learners have good intuitions about the rules of the target language, and are able to recognize their own errors. Before such knowledge is in place, however, learners rely on feedback and their internal monitoring is subject to uncertainty, which obscures the process of error detection. Internal monitoring of errors is reflected by a response-locked EEG component known as the error-related negativity (ERN), which can give insight in the process of L2 learning. In this talk, I will discuss two different studies involving feedback-driven error-based learning that show changes in internal error monitoring over time. The first study [1] examines item-based learning, focusing on uncertainty regarding morphosyntactic representations in a feedback-guided gender decision task. In this experiment, German learners of Dutch were asked to decide on the correct article for Dutch nouns involving high and low levels of language conflict (e.g., gender incongruent cognates:  ‘deCOMMON auto’ – ‘dasNEUTER Auto’ vs. gender congruent cognates: ‘hetNEUTER nest’ vs. ‘dasNEUTER Nest’). The second study [2] zooms in on rule-based learning, by examining accent adaptation in an auditory lexical decision task performed by native speakers of Dutch, who were exposed to a novel accent involving a vowel shift that made familiar words such as ‘vis’ sound like ‘vus’(unambiguous), or ‘list’ like ‘lust’ (ambiguous). Results of both experiments indicate rapid learning, which can be observed in behavioural performance as well as changes in the ERP waveforms.  

Sophie McBride - The challenges faced and decisions made when analysing L2 writers’ depth of written corrective feedback processing in pen-and-paper and digital environments.

Research focusing on written corrective feedback (WCF) has received ample attention throughout the years within the field of SLA (as reviewed in Hyland & Hyland, 2018; Kang & Han, 2015). More recently, a growing interest on the processing of WCF has led to an increase in studies that attempt to tap into the cognitive processes of L2 learners as they engage with WCF (e.g., Caras, 2019; Cerezo et al. 2019; Manchón et al, 2020). Part of current debates in this research strand are methodological in nature. In this presentation, based on the data collected for my doctoral thesis, I will discuss some of the primary challenges faced when coding and analyzing the WCF processing of 36 Spanish undergraduate students, whose processing activity was elicited in three experimental conditions, namely, via (i) think-aloud protocols, (ii) written languaging tables, and (iii) think aloud + written languaging tables. In addition, I will discuss both the methodological affordances (in terms of the insights they provide for the collection of WCF processing data) as well as the pedagogical affordances (relating the to the language learning potential and classroom validity) of the two introspective data collection instruments implemented.

Agurtzane Azkarai Garai - Children learning English through collaborative tasks in the Basque Country: what have we found so far?

Research with children working in collaborative tasks has gained ground in the last decade, especially in EFL settings. This line of research has shown that, like adults, children can also negotiate for meaning and talk about the language they are using while receiving feedback on their production. In the Basque Country children start learning English at a very early age – 4 years old. Moreover, several schools in the Basque Country have implemented a trilingual model that involves three languages: Basque, Spanish and English. Considering the importance of the latter in educational settings, it is important to delve into how children can benefit the most from their English learning experience.

This talk will serve as a review of the work that has been carried out in several Basque schools with children of different ages (9 to 12) who have carried out in pairs different tasks with the aim of improving their English skills. This presentation will also focus on how individual variables such as the gender and age may impact on the way they interact and discuss language issues, as well as their motivation towards learning English, collaborative work and the tasks that they carry out. The talk will conclude with some ideas for further research in the EFL classroom.

Paula Roncaglia - The effect of second language proficiency on music rhythmic perception

Previous research identified a link between mastering a second language (L2) and one’s ability to perceive rhythmic variation in music  (Bhatara et al., 2015; Roncaglia-Denissen et al., 2013, 2016) , with such an ability being greater if one’s first and second languages have different rhythmic properties  (Roncaglia-Denissen et al., 2013, 2016) . Similarly to how musical training shapes auditory skills (Kraus & Chandrasekaran, 2010), so could learning a new language. However, it is still not clear whether this enhanced music rhythmic ability occurs only when a high level of L2 proficiency is achieved or already during the early learning stages. The current study will investigate 200 L2 learners of Dutch with different proficiency levels in terms of their music rhythmic variation perception. To account for individual differences which may affect one’s rhythmic ability, participants’ working memory and phonological memory were assessed together with their language history and music background. Preliminary analyses of the first 100 participants suggest that language proficiency positively impacts individuals’ rhythmic perception. Although preliminary, these findings could be the first step towards the development of more complete L2 learning methods, which take listening abilities into account, using music training to additionally support L2 learning.