32 CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL AEDEAN



XXXIV Aedean Conference (Almería 2010)

PANEL: LANGUAGE TEACHING AND ACQUISITION (Coordinator: Amparo Lázaro Ibarrola)

SESSION 1

Strategies to Correct EFL Writing in High-school: Effects on Error Reduction and Classroom Validity

Amparo Lázaro Ibarrola (Public University of Navarra)

Writing Goals: Insights into the Situational Variability of Learners’ Cognition in Writing

Florentina Nicolás Conesa (University of Murcia)

Do EFL Learners Acquire Grammar and Pragmatics in Tandem? A Study with Learners at Different Levels of Proficiency

Julia Barón Parés and Mª Luz Celaya (University of Barcelona)

SESSION 2

Is there a Canonical Word Order at the Initial State of Third Language Acquisition? Investigating CLI in Instructed EFL Spanish/Catalan Bilinguals

Laura Sánchez Pérez (University of Barcelona)

The Evolution of the Lexicalization of Movement in Students of English as a Foreign Language: A Case Study

Gema Alcaraz Mármol (University of Murcia)

Heterogeneidad y contradicciones en los procesos de verificación del nivel de inglés de las universidades españolas

Anna Halbach, Alberto Lázaro Lafuente (University of Alcala) and Javier Pérez Guerra (University of Vigo)

SESSION 3 (ROUND TABLE)

English Studies in the EHEA: The 2010 Crossroads

María Luisa Pérez Cañado (University of Jaen)

Participants: María Luisa Pérez Cañado, Chair (University of Jaen), Ian Tudor (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Barry Pennock-Speck (University of Valencia Estudi General)

LANGUAGE TEACHING AND ACQUISITION

ABSTRACTS

Strategies to Correct EFL Writing in High-school: Effects on Error Reduction and Classroom Validity

Amparo Lázaro Ibarrola (Public University of Navarra)

This study compares the effectiveness and classroom validity of two correction strategies (reformulation and self-correction) for EFL writing with a school group of 16 Spanish learners of English. The study examines the reduction of errors in students’ drafts through a writing-correction-rewriting task which includes: (i) a reformulation session in which learners received feedback in the form of a reformulated text and (ii) a self-correction session in which learners received no feedback. In both sessions students worked in pairs and had to report and explain their proposed corrections.

Results show that whereas reformulation outperformed self-correction as regards error detection, both strategies had a positive effect on error reduction of those errors which had been previously reported. Also, learners failed to report errors beyond sentence level with both strategies. As regards classroom validity, neither reformulation nor self-correction seemed fully successful and some variations to adapt them to regular teaching praxis are suggested.

Keywords: self-correction; reformulation; EFL writing; error correction.

Writing Goals: Insights into the Situational Variability of Learners’ Cognition in Writing

Florentina Nicolás Conesa (University of Murcia)

Numerous studies of second language writing have documented the strategies used by writers to complete their tasks, but analyses of these strategies in relation to the goals that people have to motivate and guide their task performance are very scarce. Some of the few attempts in this direction are represented by Cumming, Busch & Zhou (2002) and Cumming’s (2006) investigations into writers’ goals in ESL contexts. However, ESL and EFL contexts are supposed to offer learners different kinds of interaction, input, affective and social relations, as well as different quantities of each. Bearing these assumptions in mind, this paper presents a study about the goals for writing of a group of University EFL students (n= 23) in a Spanish instructional context with a view to comparing them to the goals previously reported in ESL contexts. For these contrastive purposes, data analysis was based on the operationalization of goals and strategies reported in the abovementioned studies. Our findings may be relevant from a theoretical and pedagogical point of view from two different angles. Firstly, the findings offer empirical evidence of the influence of contextually situated literacy experiences on students’ goals to improve their writing in different academic settings. Secondly, the results give insights into the situational variability of learners’ cognition and actions in writing.

Keywords: writing goals; learners' cognition; situational variability; multi-dimensions; multi-faceted structure

Do EFL Learners Acquire Grammar and Pragmatics in Tandem? A Study with Learners at Different Levels of Proficiency

Julia Barón Parés and Mª Luz Celaya (University of Barcelona)

In the field of Interlanguage Pragmatics there exists an ongoing debate on the relationship between grammar and pragmatics, since some studies claim that grammatical competence and pragmatic competence can develop independently, but others state that they develop together. The aim of the present study is to delve into this debate by means of analyzing how a group of English as a foreign language learners (N= 144) develop their grammatical and pragmatic competence from beginner to more advanced levels. The learners carried out an open role-play where requests and responses to such requests were required. Pragmatic competence was assessed by means of appropriateness when requesting and responding to requests. As for grammatical competence, a seven-point scale was used, which considered aspects such as syntactic complexity, and the use of modality, among others. The results show that as the learners become more grammatically competent they tend to use more elaborate requests and responses, and more pragmatically appropriate utterances. In line with previous research, the findings of this study suggest that grammar and pragmatics seem to develop in tandem.

Keywords: English as a foreign language; interlanguage pragmatics; development; grammatical competence; pragmatic competence.

Is there a Canonical Word Order at the Initial State of Third Language Acquisition? Investigating CLI in Instructed EFL Spanish/Catalan Bilinguals

Laura Sánchez Pérez (University of Barcelona)

In the last three decades or so, it has often been claimed that the initial stages of SLA are characterized by the consistent use of SVO, referred to as canonical word order within Pienemann’s (1998) Processability Theory and Klein and Perdue’s (1997) Basic Variety. The main claim in both of these is the existence of a universal strategy by means of which all L2 learners start out learning and using an unalterable SVO order irrespective of their L1. The study presented here refutes this premise, by showing strong evidence of the use of (S)OV orders at the initial state of TLA (Third or Additional Language Acquisition, following De Angelis, 2007) in an instructed context. In particular, the study draws on L3 English data from speakers of Spanish and Catalan (n= 83) with prior knowledge of L2 German. Data from these learners were collected when learners were aged 8-10, and had received 33 hours of instruction in the L3. In order to obtain data from these learners, a Picture Story Telling task was employed in its written modality. The results suggest important CLI effects on the data, especially in the high incidence of OV orders at the initial state of L3 acquisition (namely, over 80% of orders were OV after this instructional time).

Keywords: Cross-linguistic influence; third language acquisition; canonical word order; grammatical development; age; input.

The Evolution of the Lexicalization of Movement in Students of English as a Foreign Language: A Case Study

Gema Alcaraz Mármol (University of Murcia)

The way movement is expressed varies across languages. One of the most illustrating examples is the differences found between English and Spanish when lexicalizing motion. The verbal movement structures used by native speakers of one or the other language are qualitatively different. Several studies have focused on these divergences in native speakers, but there are few authors who have paid attention to the way movement is lexicalized in terms of interlanguage. The present study seeks to analyse the evolution of an English Philology student with attending to the way she lexicalizes movement in her second language. Two samples were collected: the first one corresponds to her first year as student of English Philology, whereas the second one was collected the current year, when she is already in the fourth year of her degree. The ultimate goal of this study is to identify possible changes in the way the student expresses movement in English by contrasting the two samples. Results show that there is fair approach towards the way native speakers of English express movement, although the influence of L1-like structures is still considerably strong.

Keywords: Interlanguage; learning; lexicalization; motion; Second Language.

Heterogeneidad y contradicciones en los procesos de verificación del nivel de inglés de las universidades españolas

Anna Halbach, Alberto Lázaro Lafuente (University of Alcala) and Javier Pérez Guerra (University of Vigo)

En este periodo de cambios educativos encaminados hacia la convergencia europea se constata un gran interés por parte de las universidades españolas por fomentar entre sus estudiantes la adquisición de conocimientos y competencias de lenguas extranjeras, fundamentalmente el inglés. Sin embargo, este interés no siempre se ve acompañado de iniciativas y políticas claras, coherentes y homogéneas por parte de las propias universidades y de los gobiernos con competencias educativas. El presente estudio, basado en un trabajo de campo representativo de la universidad española, se centra en el análisis de los diferentes procesos que se están poniendo en marcha para acreditar los niveles de inglés, tanto para las nuevas titulaciones como para la participación en programas internacionales de intercambio. Especial atención se presta a los tipos de certificados que se admiten y las tablas de equivalencias que se utilizan. El análisis de datos que recoge este trabajo muestra la existencia de una gran heterogeneidad de criterios y soluciones, no exentos de contradicciones e incongruencias. A la luz de los datos aportados por la investigación, los autores ofrecen algunas recomendaciones encaminadas principalmente a la homogeneización de políticas y criterios.

Keywords: competencias lingüísticas; niveles lingüísticos; acreditación; Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior.

English Studies in the EHEA: The 2010 Crossroads

María Luisa Pérez Cañado (University of Jaen)

Participants: María Luisa Pérez Cañado, Chair (University of Jaén), Ian Tudor (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Barry Pennock-Speck (University of Valencia Estudi General)

The present round table attempts to promote stocktaking and discussion of where English Studies currently stand in the process of adaptation to the European Higher Education Area at the 2010 crossroads. Three practitioners and researchers from different European universities will pool their knowledge and experience of over half a decade of ECTS piloting in order to address some of the key issues with wich the language teaching profession is being faced in conforming to Bologna standards. Special attention will be devoted to the challenges involved in adapting to a competency-based model of language teaching and in making the shift to student-centered methodologies in language education, and evidence will be presented from local, national, and European investigations into the past, present, and future of the adaption of language studies to the EHEA.

The overarching aims of the round table are the following:

a) To identify and act upon the key challenges which the implementation of the ECTS is posing in language teaching;

b) To characterize the concept of “competencies” within the Bologna process and to facilitate its application to language teaching;

c) To contribute to methodological adaptation to the ECTS by sharing practical accounts and experiences;

d) To unify efforts and connect initiatives across Europe and learn from what is being done in other countries;

e) To help policy-makers make informed decisions about how to implement the ECTS in the new language studies programmes;

f) To gain insights from the outcomes of research projects (e.g., ENLU, ADELEEES, or ANGLOTIC);

g) To bridge the gap between theory and practice, and rhetoric and action in the implementation of the European Credit Transfer system in language teaching;

h) To contribute to making the implementation of the Bologna processes a feasible reality in the language teaching arena.

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