Learning grammatical gender: The use of rules by novice learners

Abstract

Two experiments successfully trained novices to categorize French nouns by grammatical gender, resulting in high levels of performance after delay. Training with a frequent exemplar and training with a more diverse exemplar set led to equivalent learning. However, providing explicit rules with correctness feedback led to better generalization and retention than did correctness feedback alone or feature focusing without explicit rule information. This suggests that, at least for some grammar tasks, explicit information about form–function mappings improves learning. Moreover, the advantage of rule instruction was robust to testing and training under time pressure. Thus, rule instruction may be helpful even when speeded performance is required, supporting the prediction that practice leads to proceduralization of declarative grammatical knowledge.

A Cognitive Linguistics Application for Second Language Pedagogy: The English Preposition Tutor

“…The control group, who did not receive preposition instruction guided by the Competition Model, did not show improvement over time. Our findings are consistent with previous studies that adopted the Competition Model (MacWhinney, ) as the framework that guided L2 instructional design (Presson et al., ; Zhang, ; Zhao & MacWhinney, in press). An important common feature shared by these studies, including this one, is that they all have targeted basic syntactic, morphological, or phonological features whose L2 learning involves mastering complex systems of form–function mappings.…”

“…Presson, MacWhinney, and Tokowicz () applied the Competition Model to the computer‐based teaching of French gender to novice learners. They designed instruction based on the concept of cue focusing through explicit cue statement and correctness feedback.…”

“…It was found that, for both intermediate and advanced L2 English learners, cue-based instruction significantly increased accuracy and reduced reaction time at the posttest after two 1-hour sessions of computer-based training. Presson, MacWhinney, and Tokowicz (2014) applied the Competition Model to the computer-based teaching of French gender to novice learners. They designed instruction based on the concept of cue focusing through explicit cue statement and correctness feedback.…”

Comparing Explicit Exemplar‐Based and Rule‐Based Corrective Feedback: Introducing Analogy‐Based Corrective Feedback

“…However, explicit knowledge from metalinguistic CF has been shown to fade more quickly over time while implicit learning conditions tend to lead to maintenance of gains over time in some studies (e.g., Lado et al., ; Li, ). On the other hand, Presson, MacWhinney, and Tokowicz () showed durable results from explicit training conditions over less explicit conditions on a computer‐based task where learners had to select the grammatical gender of French nouns. Presson et al.’s study compared (a) metalinguistic explanations, which also indicated correctness, with (b) an indication of correctness with the correct gender when learners' answers were incorrect.…”

Différences paramétriques dans les systèmes d'assignation du genre en L1 et conséquences sur sa maîtrise en L2

“…Certaines études prônent d'ailleurs l'enseignement explicite et l'exploitation pédagogique de ces régularités (Lyster 2006, Presson et al 2014, Tipurita & Jean 2014. En dépit de l'existence de telles régularités, permettant de mieux rendre compte de la classification des noms dans les différents genres, les recherches insistent toutefois sur le caractère largement arbitraire et culturel de leur assignation, du moins pour ce qui est des noms non-sexués.…”