A Study of the Role of Awareness in Foreign Language Behavior

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 effectiveness of visual input enhancement on the noticing and L2 development of the Spanish past tense

“…Although the perception of external stimuli is argued to be a necessary precursor for L2 learning, the exact characteristics of noticing, attention and awareness in L2 learning remain controversial (Godfroid, Boers, & Housen, 2013;Leow, 1997aLeow, , 2000Leow, , 2001Robinson, 1995Robinson, , 2003Schmidt, 1990Schmidt, , 2001Simard & Wong, 2001;Tomlin & Villa, 1994;Wong, 2001, among others). In its original form, Schmidt's (1990) noticing hypothesis claims that learners must consciously notice forms in the input for acquisition to take place.…”

Ir a + infinitivo y la reflexión metalingüística en segunda lengua: Más allá del futuro

“…Leow (2000) afi rma que la refl exión metalingüística puede incidir en el reconocimiento y la producción de la morfología en español L2 e, igualmente, conducir a un uso más productivo de la L2 en los aprendientes a diferencia de aquellos que no la realizan. Según DeKeyser (2003), este conocimiento resulta benéfi co para formar lo que se ha denominado conocimiento declarativo de la lengua que, en relación con la práctica en contextos comunicativos, puede resultar en el conocimiento instrumental de la misma, es decir, la posibilidad de que el aprendiente haga uso de su lengua de modo espontáneo (Anderson 1993;Hu 2011).…”

“…Dentro de esta perspectiva, los investigadores han señalado que la práctica de la refl exión metalingüística en los contextos de instrucción L2 estimula y facilita el desarrollo de la adquisición (e.g. Leow 2000). Se ha demostrado, por ejemplo, una relación específi ca entre el uso de actividades que promueven la refl exión sobre el lenguaje y la precisión de los aprendientes en tareas de decisión gramatical (Storch 2001).…”

The Differential Effect of Attentional Condition on Subsequent Vocabulary Development

“…Think-aloud protocols are used as the main methodological tool to measure learners' awareness of and attention to certain features of the L2 input. Since concurrent verbal reports are able to show learner's cognitive processes while interacting with the L2 (Bowles, 2010), the verbalizations of think-aloud have been used to investigate different levels of several cognitive concepts such as awareness (Leow, 1997(Leow, , 2000Rosa & Leow, 2004;Rosa & O'Neill, 1999;Sachs & Suh, 2007). Levels of processing were also to be investigated through verbalization of concurrent think-aloud which are defined as the amount of attention, cognitive effort, or elaborating on the target item in the input, and/or noticing induced by different types of experimental tasks (Leow et al, 2008;Morgan-Short et al, 2012) Leow et al, 2008) Any discussion of think-aloud protocols needs to consider the possibility of reactivity; that is, for some tasks, think-aloud may actually alter the cognitive processes involved in the task.…”

“…Empirical research evidenced for the beneficial role of attention has been provided by several SLA studies in strands of researches as directly or indirectly evidenced, on the role that attention plays an important role in the input processing and intake processing in the light of cognitive processes (Leow, 1997(Leow, , 1998(Leow, , 2000(Leow, , 2001Rosa & Leow, 2004;Rosa & O'Neill, 1999). Some of these studies have been based on psycholinguistic notion of L2 learner as a limited capacity processor (McLaughlin, 1987).…”