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The Effects of Input Flood, Structured Input, Explicit Information, and Language Background on Beginner Learners’ Acquisition of a Target Structure in Mandarin Chinese

Glimois, Laurene
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555425162693471

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, French and Italian.
Bilingualism is associated with lifelong cognitive benefits that correlate with facilitated achievements in subsequent language learning. Second language (L2) instruction as well can promote the development of cognitive abilities involved in language learning, and among these, L2 input processing. Crucial to L2 acquisition, input processing is the ability to associate forms detected in communicative language (input) to their meaning. A pedagogical intervention called Processing Instruction (PI) was specifically designed to support input processing. Specifically, PI exposes learners to a particular type of input called structured input (SI), to help L2 learners process grammatical forms more efficiently. To date, whether instruction with SI might affect monolingual and bilingual learners differently is an issue that has been largely overlooked. In order to fill this gap, the study in my dissertation investigated how fast and accurately monolingual and bilingual learners would process a linguistic form in Mandarin Chinese, and how different learning conditions used in conjunction with SI, namely explicit information about the target form (EI) and a flood of input (IF), would affect learners’ ability to process L2 input. A total of 319 subjects took part in this experiment. They were unfamiliar with Chinese and had no prior knowledge of the target forms: the classifiers ba (“held by hand”) and tai (“heavy, mechanical, electronic”), which must be inserted between a determiner and a noun in Chinese. The monolingual participants were native speakers of English, and the bilingual participants were speakers of English and a Romance language. They were divided into four instructional groups, each of which was assigned to a different combination of SI, EI and IF. Participants’ learning rate was assessed as they were completing pedagogical activities, counting the number of sentences containing ba or tai that they misinterpreted, before they were able to start linking the classifiers to the meaning they convey. Participants’ overall improvements were measured comparing their performances interpreting sentences with ba and tai before, and after they completed the pedagogical treatment. Results indicate that, when instruction includes SI, monolingual learners are as successful as bilingual learners at processing the classifiers ba and tai more accurately. Results also show that, with these two linguistic forms, SI is sufficient to yield significant learning improvements, and combining EI with SI yields accelerated learning rates and higher overall learning performances. No significant effects were found for IF. The findings from this study allow for reiterating the claim that pedagogical interventions focused on helping learners make form-meaning connections are conducive to L2 acquisition. Findings also extend the scope of the effectiveness of SI and EI to the acquisition of target forms in Chinese; a language that had not yet received attention in research on L2 grammar processing.
Wynne Wong, Prof. (Advisor)
318 p.
Foreign Language; Language; Linguistics
Processing instruction; Structured input; Explicit information; Input flood; bilingualism

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Citations

  • Glimois, L. (2019). The Effects of Input Flood, Structured Input, Explicit Information, and Language Background on Beginner Learners’ Acquisition of a Target Structure in Mandarin Chinese [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555425162693471

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Glimois, Laurene. The Effects of Input Flood, Structured Input, Explicit Information, and Language Background on Beginner Learners’ Acquisition of a Target Structure in Mandarin Chinese . 2019. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555425162693471.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Glimois, Laurene. "The Effects of Input Flood, Structured Input, Explicit Information, and Language Background on Beginner Learners’ Acquisition of a Target Structure in Mandarin Chinese ." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555425162693471

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.