LeowThis study qualitatively and quantitatively addressed the role of awareness in relation to Schmidt's noticing hypothesis in second language acquisition (1990, 1993, 1994, 1995). It analyzed both the think-aloud protocols produced by 28 beginning adult L2 learners of Spanish (selected carefully from a pool of 85 people on the basis of relevant criteria) completing a problem-solving task and their immediate performances on 2 post-exposure assessment tasks, a recognition and written production task. The qualitative and quantitative analyses of learners' performances suggest the following conclusions: (a) Different levels of awareness lead to differences in processing, (b) more awareness contributes to more recognition and accurate written production of noticed forms, and (c) the findings provide empirical support for the facilitative effects of awareness on foreign language behavior.The role of consciousness and awareness in the human attentional system while learning a foreign (FL) or second language (L2) has been particularly controversial in the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, and second language acquisition 467

No abstract

This study is a quantitative and qualitative investigation of the effects of awareness, or the lack thereof, on 32 adult second or foreign language (L2) learners' subsequent intake and written production of targeted Spanish morphological forms. Think-aloud protocol data, gathered while learners completed a problem-solving task (a crossword puzzle) and postexposure assessment tasks (a multiple-choice recognition task and a written production task), were used to measure awareness or the lack thereof, and morphological learning was assessed by learners' performances on the two postexposure tasks. From a theoretical perspective, no dissociation between awareness and further processing of targeted forms was found in this study, the results of which are compatible with the claim that awareness plays a crucial role in subsequent processing of L2 data (e.g., Robinson, 1995; Schmidt, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995). From a methodological perspective, the data collection procedure clearly underscores the need for studies that investigate the roles of attention and awareness in second language acquisition (SLA) to gather as much data as possible from different sources that reveal participants' internal processes. By attempting to ascertain what learners really attend to or are aware of, or both, while exposed to or interacting with L2 data, such information can also address the methodological issue of how representative learners' performances in experimental groups really are in studies conducted under an attentional framework in SLA.

The present study revisited the issue of simultaneous attention to form and meaning from a methodological perspective that addressed several potential methodological issues of previous research in this strand of inquiry. Seventy-two second-semester-level participants were randomly assigned to one of five experimental groups, including a control, and requested to read a Spanish text and also circle one of four targeted forms (10 occurrences each) in the input. To measure comprehension, a 10-item multiple-choice test was administered immediately after the reading. Both qualitative (think-aloud protocols) and quantitative analyses were conducted to address the following research question: Does type of attentional condition have a differential effect on adult second language reading comprehension? The quantitative analysis revealed no significant difference in comprehension among all five groups. To explicate the findings, the quantitative and qualitative data and analyses are discussed with regard to the issues of modality, depth or level of processing, and research methodology.Keywords simultaneous attention; levels of processing; form vs. meaning; hybrid design; input processing; The Primacy of Meaning Principle; think-aloud protocols There are several theoretical models in second language acquisition (SLA) that have posited an important role for attention in adult second/foreign language (L2) development (e.g.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.