![THE ACCESSIBILITY HIERARCHY (AH) Subject : SU The girl [who came late] is my sister. Direct object : DO The girl [Kate saw] is my sister. Indirect object : IO That’s the man [to whom I gave the letter]. Object of Preposition: OPREP The dog [that I am talking about___] Genitive : GEN That’s the man [whose sister I know]. Object of Comp: OPCOMP That’s the man [I am taller than].](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/slapresentationfinal1april09-100216101128-phpapp02/85/ON-THE-GENERALIZATION-OF-RELATIVE-CLAUSE-IN-ENGLISH-AS-AN-L2-7-320.jpg)
ON THE GENERALIZATION OF RELATIVE CLAUSE IN ENGLISH AS AN L2
- 1. ON THE GENERALIZATION OF RELATIVE CLAUSE IN ENGLISH AS AN L2 BY FRED R. ECKMAN, LAWRENCE BELL AND DIANE NELSON Presented by: Xabier Gil Zazpe Maria Scappini Leire Inés Cortés Aurora Celeste Mazzocchi
- 2. INTRODUCTION: Typological approach Linguistics & SLA theory may make language pedagogy effective. Aim of the study: to prove the hypothesis on the generalization of relative clauses.
- 3. KEY QUESTIONS OF THE STUDY What aspects of the TL will be easier to acquire for any given learner? What aspects of the TL will be the most difficult to acquire for any given learner? What aspects of the TL will, if learned, result in maximal generalization of that learning to other structures?
- 4. GENERALIZATION OF LEARNING E SL manuals reveal that generalization of learning is not expected. A progressive order of complexity is followed in instructing the learners = no presumption of generalization.
- 5. GENERALIZATION OF LEARNING Teaching English Pronunciation (Bens 1977): Phonemes in word-initial position followed by final or medial positions. Every phoneme introduced and drilled separately: The knowledge of word-initial phonemes is not generalized to the other positions. Learners only know what they are taught
- 6. MARKEDNESS DIFFERENTIAL HYPOTHESIS (MDH) Markedness : marked elements can be found less frequently in a language than unmarked elements. MDH : systematic comparison between the NL and TL predicts difficulties in learning. More marked in TL than in NL ------- Difficult Less marked in TL than in NL -------- Less difficult The most marked aspects of a TL provide the learner with generalization on easier issues.
- 7. THE ACCESSIBILITY HIERARCHY (AH) Subject : SU The girl [who came late] is my sister. Direct object : DO The girl [Kate saw] is my sister. Indirect object : IO That’s the man [to whom I gave the letter]. Object of Preposition: OPREP The dog [that I am talking about___] Genitive : GEN That’s the man [whose sister I know]. Object of Comp: OPCOMP That’s the man [I am taller than].
- 8. METHOD 36 students with different L1 participate to an ESL Intensive program Intermediate & low- intermediate proficiency Randomly assigned to 4 groups with different instructions: 1. SU group 2. DO group 3. OPREP group = same procedure but varying focus 4. Control group: no instruction about relative clauses
- 9. PROCEDURE: PRE – TEST: combining 2 sentences EXERCISES in class: - sentences on board - oral exercise - written exercise INSTRUCTION POST – TEST: combining 2 sentences 2 days later Warm - up exercise
- 10. SCORING Calculating only errors relevant to the formation of the target relative clauses BUT ignoring the use of wrong pronouns Scoring as 1 error if the subject combined the sentences in a wrong order, even if grammatical e.g. Joan sent a note to the professor that I saw. √ I saw the professor to whom Joan sent a note.
- 11. RESULTS ANOVA, analysis of variance Pre-test: - No significant differences between the groups - Difference in performance in RC types
- 12. COMPARISON PRE- AND POST-TEST Significant difference between the groups Better performance in those RC types they have been instructed
- 13. RESULTS Generalization -> Less marked structures
- 14. CONCLUSION Students who learned OPREP scored the best in SU and DO The more marked the structures are the more the generalization of learning will be maximal
- 15. CONCLUSION Degree of markedness is directly proportional to the number of errors made Generalization of learning in the direction of less marked structures ( UNIDIRECTIONAL ) Most marked Least marked
- 16. DISCUSSION UG seems to be available in adult SLA (at least for RC formation) Importance of the time factor: - Amount of time needed to learn each RC - Will these learned features remain afterwards?
- 17. DISCUSSION Possible new teaching method Uncertain aspects about instruction: - Effectiveness of the teaching method - Unknown point in an already started acquisition process
- 18. REFERENCES Eckman, Fred R., On the generalization of relative clause instruction in the acquisition of english as a second language, Applied linguistics, 9 (1988) p.1
- 19. YOUR QUESTIONS ARE NOW WELCOME !!