SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT:

APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE IN THE CLASSROOM

1 Luz Andrea Bolaos Benigno

2 PEFPMTFL2118447

4 Luz Amparo Cuero Valencia

5 COFPMTFL99168
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10 Group: 2016-02
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14 Dr. Majid Safadaran Mosazadeh
15 Tutor
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23 January 7th, 2017

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Assignment Index

Page
Introduction 3
I. TASK 1 4
1.1. Interlanguage Generalisation 4
1.2. Learners strategies 4
1.3. Additional information to test hypotheses 5
II. TASK 2 6
III. TASK 3 8
Bibliography 10
Appendix 1 11
 Introduction

Classroom communication has been the object of particular research interest

since it is the main purpose of language learners as well as one of the most difficult
goals to achieve.
Researchers have attempted to identify typical classroom participation
structures, examine the character of teacher talk, indicate the effects of different types
of communicative patterns used in the language classroom on learning and investigate
the influence of cultural factors on the nature of classroom interaction. In fact, the
variety of elements which create the shape of such communication, together with
several methodological and technical problems involved in the process of data
collection and analysis, result in a tendency to treat classroom discourse as a rather
problematic medium which is not likely to submit to simple, predictable or unanimous
interpretations.
In this assignment, we will be analyzing different types of classroom events in
order to identify learners difficulties of learning as well as strategies used in the
process to acquire the language.
Finally, we will be giving some opinions about what other factors can be
considered in the process of learning a well as some recommendations to apply in the
classroom to enhance students process of learning.
 I. TASK 1

1.1. Work out an IL generalization that might account for the forms in boldface.
Give your reasons for postulating this generalization.

In this context, students are overgeneralizing the rules of the use of gerunds,
past participles, and adjectives as nouns. Their sentences are incorrect because they
are using verbs and adjectives instead of using nouns.
The mistakes made by these students can also show cultural and background
differences due to the fact that students come from different cultural contexts.
According to Johnson (1995), these mistakes can show the phenomenon of
fossilization.
It also seems these students are going through the process of regularization
because they have the tendency to use regular forms when possible.

1.2. What strategy/strategies do you think these learners have come up with
regarding lexical use?

In the first sentence, the student seems to have generalized the use of the
gerund due to the fact that most sports end with -ing, for example sailing, skiing,
cycling, etc. Therefore, the student applied that rule with the word sport. The correct
term to be used in this sentence should be sport, not supporting.

In the second sentence, the student used the same tense (past simple) in the
next verb. The student might have thought that as the first verb goes in past tense, the
next one should follow the same rule. This is a strategy of generalization due to
misinformation or as a result of an avoidance strategy. As a result, he might have been
exposed to the rule in connection with the use of -ing/infinitive after certain verbs and is
hesitant about it because its a late acquisition. Hence, he tries to avoid it by
paraphrasing the sentence resulting in a global error.
 In the third sentence, the learner seems to have learnt that after go the -ing form
follows, for example go cycling, go swimming, etc.; therefore, s/he generalizes the rule
and used went schooling, which is a local misinformation error.

In the fourth sentence, the learner is probably acquainted with lexical chunks
such as Eastern Europe, western countries, etc. and thus has generalized the rule that
the -ern ending is used when next to a place. According to Richards, this could be
considered an error resulting from a false concept hypothesized.

In the fifth sentence, the student must have learned that when an action is in the
past the verb should be in the past. The removal has probably already taken place; so
he uses that verb in the past, not noticing that the main verb is have which seems less
significant than remove.
In the sixth sentence, the student has apparently learned the expression to fall
asleep as a lexical chunk, and has over-generalized the form in for asleep, which has a
similar sound. Its a global error so it is difficult to determine which should be the correct
sentence.
In the seventh sentence, the learner is probably acquainted with lexical chunks
such as conflicting opinions or conflicting interests and decided to omit the second part
of the chunk to simplify it.
In the eighth sentence the student is probably familiar with the expressions
school graduation and graduation ceremony and has decided to use the same word as
a verb.

In general, it is difficult to determine what caused these errors just by analyzing

the examples out of context. However, it seems that students have been recently
exposed to the use of the -ed/-ing forms, and are using these forms as much as
possible. Apparently they think that by adding -ing they can make a noun out of a verb.
In addition, they seem to have learned some words in a certain form and they are using
them as memorized, regardless of the appropriate part of speech needed.

1.3. What additional information, if any, would you like to have from these
learners to test your hypothesis?

In our opinion, to have a clear idea of the kind of strategies the learners have
used and what made them make those mistakes, we would like to know where each
student comes from, the grammar they have been previously taught, and the amount of
input they receive, as well as the teachers strategy/strategies to correct them.

It would be also important to know what motivates students to learn.

This way we would know what their expectations are and we as teachers would be able
to help the achieve their goals.

II. TASK 2

2.1. What feature of English grammar is being tested in each of the test items?
What is being tested in each of the test items is grammar. It focuses on the
correct use of tenses, including the present simple, past tense; as well as the past
participle of irregular verbs.
We can also notice that the use of formal English is prevalent in most of the cases,
even though, the last student does not use it.

2.2. Who appears to be the most advanced learner and why?

The most advanced learner of the group is learner A because the student
shows that s/he manages the agreement between subject and verb. In this case, we
can apply the contrastive analysis by comparing the target language (English) with the
mother tongue (Spanish). As we know in English, we add an s or es for the third
person in singular, which in Spanish is a little different and may result in interference if
knowledge is not learned appropriately or repeated and reinforced.

Another reason is that s/he knows the rule for the past tense of irregular verbs.
As we know, many students have trouble when dealing with irregular verbs. It is
common to see that students with low learning of English tend to over-generalize some
grammatical rules. For example, the past tense of eat is ate, but some students would
say eated because they kept the theory that verbs in the past tense are added d or
ed.
Finally, s/he knows how to use would, which is present in intermediate levels.
Although s/he has not used would in the present perfect tense, s/he applied the rule for
would effectively. In addition, the learner again shows command of irregular verbs in
the past tense, and did not confuse the verb to fall with another one like to feel or fill,
which usually happens when learning irregular verbs.
2.3. Who appears to be the least advanced learner and why?
The one who appears to be the least advanced learner is student D because
firstly, apparently s/he only knows the base form of verbs. S/he is not able to conjugate
the verbs in third person singular. S/he has only used verbs in their base form, which
leads to incorrect S-V agreement.
Secondly, s/he does not know the past tense of irregular verbs and uses the
base form for present and past tense, without distinction.

Finally, maybe this learner does not have as much interaction as necessary with
native speakers, and maybe English-speaking people do not surround him/her.
Perhaps, s/he has not found motivation for learning English. On the other hand, it is
possible that this speaker has adopted his/her interlanguage as his/her regular
language, and maintains it with these mistakes; therefore, this would be an explanation
for fossilization. According to such theory, the learner stops making efforts to adopt the
L2 rules and norms due to factors such as pressure, lack of learning opportunity, and
the type of feedback received.

2.4. What generalization can be made about the order of acquisition for learning
these constructions? Please note that you will not be able to reproduce the
matrix you have for this question (in your study materials) in the VC. You could
use point form here.

Student A has already acquired the 3rd person -s and the irregular past. He
knows the conditional but only in its simple form, not the perfect.
Student B has le not art any of the forms yet, as his use of the irregular past is
random. Sometimes he gets it right, sometimes not.
Student C has already acquired the 3rd person -s and the irregular past. He is
also familiar with the conditional perfect but confuses the past participle with the past
simple in view that in regular verbs and many irregular verbs both past simple and past
participles are the same.
Student D has not acquired any of the forms, but at least knows that he cannot
use the present for item 3.
Student E has avoided the use of the 3rd person -s by using a lexical chunk
which is normally acquired late. Since he is a pre-adolescent, he has probably heard
this form in songs or in informal environments. His use of the irregular past is random,
and he is acquainted with the simple form of the conditional.
Also it is important to consider, the article the seems to have been acquired first in this
group of learners.

2.5. Tests of this type are designed primarily to elicit spontaneous utterances in
a controlled setting. What limitations are there in doing order of acquisition
analysis based on data of this sort?

This type of test is only testing form and the analysis of the order of acquisition
is only in connection with certain grammar items, disregarding the fact that there is
much more to consider when analyzing learners processes of acquiring language.
By analyzing the order of acquisition based on these data it is generalized that
all learners of a given language will learn the grammatical features of that language in
roughly the same order, which is not necessarily like that because many factors
determine acquisition.
TASK 3

3.1. Describe this learner's knowledge of English negation.

It is clear that this speaker is transferring the grammar from his L1 to the L2 as
he is not using any auxiliary to form the negative. Besides, he seems to have a severe
fossilization linguistic problem.
An important factor here why the speaker is not capable of using auxiliaries properly is
the age. As we have studied, it is easier to acquire a new language when we are
younger and as this speaker is an adult, he might be struggling with grammar
structures of the L2.
As Ellis (1994) suggested, there are internal and external factors for fossilization, and
in the case of this speaker, age is one of the internal ones. As an adult, apparently,
he/she has reached the critical age in which his/her brain has lost plasticity so it is
difficult for him/her to intake the features used in the target language to express
negation.

One of the external factors that can be applicable to this type of speaker is the
communicative pressure, what Ellis calls the persistent pressure to communicate
ideas that require the use of language that exceeds the learners linguistic
competence. We have had the opportunity to talk to adult non-native speaker that
intend to travel to an English speaking country looking for a better future, but once
there, they feel pressured to communicate with whatever vocabulary they have and in
whatever way possible just to make a living to survive. In this way, the context in
which they arrive is not formal and the input they receive when interacting is not the
appropriate for producing the output for a successful learning of the target language.

3.2. At this same time, this non-native speaker produced many examples of "I
don't know". Does this alter your hypothesis about the pattern described in
question 1? If so, how?

What we can say about this speaker is that he/he seems not to be interested or
motivated to learn the target language, so he/she feels comfortable speaking in the
way he/she does.

This case is not comparable with the speakers we have in Task 1, who are learning the
language through formal instruction (test belong to formal education). In the case of
Talk 1 we can think about learning strategies, noticing, reformulation and reconstruction
and other theoretical concepts worked in this subject material, but in the case of the
Task 3 speaker, he/she is producing and output quite similar to the input he/she
receives, the English that is produced in the street by foreigner.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Andrewes, S. (1993). Helping Learners learn to listen in GRETA ACTAS:

IX Jornadas Pedaggicas para la Enseanza del Ingls 1993, 75-84
Brown, H. Douglas (2001). Teaching by principles. An interactive
approach to language pedagogy. Barnes and Noble.
Ellis, R. (1994). The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford
University Press. Oxford.
Scott A. Crossley Georgia State University, David Allen The University of
Tokyo, Japan Danielle S. McNamara (2012). Text simplification and comprehensible
input: A case for an intuitive approach. Available in
http://shared.cas.gsu.edu/files/2014/03/Text-simplification-and-comprehensible-
input-A-case-for-an-intuitive-approach.pdf
Sinclair, B & Prowse, P. (1996). Activate your English. Cambridge
University Press. Cambridge.
Tudor, I. (1997). Autonomy and the traditional classroom in IATEFL
Newsletter.
UR, P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory.
Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
 APPENDIX 1: Assignment

Task 1

Native Languages: Mixed.

Target Language: English.
Background Information: Intermediate level, students on an intensive course.
Data Source: student compositions.

DATA:
1. Soccer is the most common sporting.
2. America refused continual supported our military request.
3. When he was 7 years old, he went schooling.
4. About two hours driving eastern from Bangkok.
5. After finished my college studied, I went to my country.
6. Doctors have the right to removed it from him.
7. There is a night for asleep.
8. Moreover it may lead to conflicting.
9. I am not going to get married when I will graduation the school.

Task 2

Native Language: Spanish.

Target Language: English.
Background Information: Pre-adolescents, born in Mexico, living in United States.
Data Source: Responses to a picture story from a standard proficiency test.

DATA:

Below are the "correct" responses to standardised test items.

1. He wants to eat some food.

2. The dog ate the food.
3. The king would have eaten it.
4. It fell.

Below are the responses to these test items by five ESL learners (A-E).

A.
1. he wants to eat
2. the dog ate it
3. the king would eat it
4. it fell

B.

1. he want the food

2. the dog ate ...
3. the king eat ...
4. they fall

C.
1. he wants to get some food
2. the dog ate it
3. the king would have ate it
4. it fell

D.
1. he want...
2. the dog eat...
3. the king will eat...
4. it fall

E.
1. he wanna eat...
2. the dog eat-ate it
3. he would eat it
4. it fall

Task 3

Native Language: Mexican Spanish.

Target Language: English.
Background Information: Adult male.
Data Source: Tape-recorded spontaneous speech.

DATA:

Following are examples of this subject's use of negatives:

1. No write.
2. No like it.
3. I me no speaka too much Englee, eh?
4. Me no like stay in the house.
5. No es correct.
6. I no like tortilla.
7. You no go Calexico?
8. My brother no go to school.
9. No, ya no work.
10. Me no comin.
11. No in town.
12. No cheese.
13. No now.
14. No American.
15. The operation ya no good.
16. No money.
17. Maybe no good for me.