This study investigates the effects of token item frequency in Structured Input activities on both a primary target form (Spanish accusative clitics) and a secondary target form (Spanish dative clitics). Participants included 460 adult learners enrolled in a beginning-level Spanish language course and they were exposed to either 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, or 140 target form tokens. This study included a pretest, immediate posttest, and a delayed posttest measuring interpretation and production of both primary and secondary target forms. Findings reveal that primary form interpretation effects across all frequencies, however, production findings present themselves with the 60 and 80 token groups only. Secondary form interpretation findings reveal themselves across all frequency levels with the exception of the lowest frequency investigated (40 tokens) and secondary form production mirror those found in previous studies on the same forms. As such, we discuss the theoretical and methodological ramifications of these findings as well as directions for future research.
The purpose of this paper is to compare structured input (SI) with other input-based instructional treatments. The input-based instructional types include: input flood (IF), text enhancement (TE), SI activities, and focused input (FI; SI without implicit negative feedback). Participants included 145 adult learners enrolled in an intermediate Spanish course. Learners completed a pretest, treatment, immediate posttest, delayed post-test (three weeks after treatment) and an extended delayed post-test (six weeks after treatment) measuring both interpretation and production of the Spanish accusative clitics. The results revealed significant findings for all groups on the interpretation task, with SI being the most robust. The findings for the production measures are not so straightforward; however, all groups showed some improvement. The theoretical and methodological ramifications of these findings are discussed.
The present paper examines the effect of input at the macro- and micro-levels on beginning level language learners of Italian. At the macro-level, learners are exposed to Structured Input activities targeting Italian accusative clitics to determine their effect on learners' default processing strategies. At the microlevel, the effect of the number of target item tokens in the input is measured and subsequently compared: 40 and 80 tokens. This study included pre-test, immediate post-test and delayed post-test measures on interpretation and production to examine the effect of Structured Input activities. Findings reveal that Structured Input activities at varying token frequencies may affect learners' processing related to this target form as evidenced by their gains in interpretation, as well as their adoption of a 'second noun strategy' in which they overextend their altered processing strategy. As such, we discuss the theoretical and pedagogical ramifications of these findings.
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