Zoe Agiasophiti (SML)
Location: Bedson Teaching Centre, LG 35
Time/Date: 8th October 2009, 16:00 - 17:00
Processing Instruction (PI) aims to force learners to alter their processing strategies by pushing them to process the form in order to get to the meaning of the sentence (VanPatten, 1996, 2002, 2004). Coloured Typographical Input Enhancement on the other hand, suggests that manipulating the input typographically using colours to make the form salient to the learner results in further processing by the learner’s language system (Sharwood Smith, 1991, 1993). Both types of instruction can be more broadly considered to be types of Input Enhancement (IE) in that input is manipulated to force learners to attend to certain structures of the input (Polio, 2007; VanPatten, 2000; Lee and Benati, 2007).
Taking into consideration that in both types of instruction the attention drawing factor is significant in order for information to be further processed, the hypothesis of this study is that the combination of coloured IE with PI will have (1) a greater impact on short and long term language learning than the administration of each technique separately; and (2) response time will be faster than in the other three groups. A hundred and thirty one English learners of German in their second year were divided into four groups, namely, +IE +PI, +IE –PI, -IE+PI, -IE –PI; while online materials corresponding to each group were developed. Results from the study revealed highly statistical significance at p=.001 with regards to language learning in the short and long term, suggesting a hierarchy of +IE +PI >-IE+PI >+IE –PI >-IE –PI. However, there was no statistical significance with regards to response time in all three conditions across the four groups. Findings of the study will be discussed according to the theoretical frameworks proposed, while results will be interpreted according to Modular Online Growth of Language (MOGUL), a framework on language processing proposed by Sharwood Smith and Truscott (2004, 2005).
References: Lee, J.F. and Benati, A.G. (2007). Second language processing: An analysis of theory, problems, and possible solutions, London; New York: Continuum.Published: 30th September 2009