This paper focuses on how latent knowledge of an ancestral or heritage language affects subsequent acquisition by adults. The ‘latent speaker ’ is defined as an individual raised in an environment where the ancestral language was spoken but who did not become a speaker of that language. The study examines how attitudes, latent knowledge and learning settings affect the subsequent acquisition process of latent speakers of Alaskan Athabascan languages. The first phase of the study focuses on two successful adult learners and their progress towards developing fluency. The second phase includes an analysis of the backgrounds, attitudes and language proficiency of 15 beginning adult heritage language learners. The results suggest that latent speakers have a number of characteristics distinguishing them from other language learners which may both aid and inhibit language learning. Their receptive skills surpass productive skills, they remember common expressions and emotion-laden vocabulary and their productive phonology is advanced. However, these learners tend to have a low estimate of their language abilities and report being hesitant to speak. These results provide information on factors affecting heritage language acquisition and have implications for adult language programmes. doi: 10.2167/beb428.
One aspect of Western academic writing which appears to cause difficulty for many foreign students is the need to report and evaluate what others within a discipline have written, without using the author's exact words. This difficulty may derive in part from a lack of skill in recognizing hierarchical structure in reading, but the fact that even skilled readers do poorly on summary writing tasks suggests that other factors must be considered as well. In order to determine what those factors might be, we collected a group of summaries written by advanced ESL students in response to a variety of articles they read as part of their coursework for an Academic Entry English Program at the English Language Institute of the University of Michigan. Preliminary work on one set of these summaries has involved comparing the primary text (the article that the students read) with the secondary texts created by the student writers, using a system of text analysis proposed by Kintsch and van Dijk (1978). Comparison thus far has revealed three basic strategies used by students in organizing their summaries: 1) following the sequential development of the primary text, 2) including the superordinate points of the primary text but in a different order, and 3) focusing on one point in the primary text. Comparing primary and secondary texts also revealed problems in interpretation and paraphrase, specifically in determining the strength of a claim made by the primary author. Typically, the deletion or addition of modals, changes in verb tense, and the use of adverbs were found to alter not only the tone but also the intent of certain passages. In addition to doing a comparative analysis of texts, we have examined the possibility that conflicts in underlying cultural assumptions contribute to problems which students have with summary writing. Discussions with the students have revealed that at least some of their problems stem from the nature of the task itself, including the assumption that it is possible to separate "words" from "meaning''-that is, that one can paraphrase someone else's words. This research is intended to add to a growing body of knowledge about specific needs of foreign students in American universities and to provide a basis for developing instructional materials in this area.
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