Taking the Guesswork Out of Curriculum Design: Learning to Engineer Explicit Grammar Curricula through the Analysis of Multiple Influences on the Acquisition Process

Andrew D. Schenck, Wonkyung Choi

Department of Liberal Arts Education (LAEC), Ju Si-Gyeong College, Pai Chai University, Daejeon, South Korea.

DOI: 10.4236/ojml.2012.23015                

Abstract

While a study by Goldschneider and DeKeyser (2005) was able to explain how factors such as phonological salience, frequency, morphological regularity, semantic complexity, and syntactic complexity influence acquisition order, the examination of six similar morphological features provided only a limited perspective. The purpose of this study was to see if causal variables, both individually and cumulatively, could be used to predict acquisition orders with more highly disparate morphological and syntactic features. Results of Spearman rank calculations revealed that the integration of causal factors yielded the highest correlation to both the Processability Theory (r_s = 0.821; p = 0.007) and Natural Order Hypothesis (r_s = 0.529; p = 0.143), suggesting that these factors have a synergistic influence on morphosyntactic development. Methods to predict the acquisition of both syntactic and morphological features are suggested, along with an empirically-based method to guide explicit grammar instruction.

Keywords

Explicit Grammar Instruction, Processability Theory; Natural Order Hypothesis; Acquisition Order; Frequency; Morphosyntactic Complexity

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Bettoni, C., & Di Biase, B. (2011). Beyond canonical order: The acquisition of marked word orders in Italian as a second language. EUROSLA Yearbook, 11, 244-272. doi:10.1075/eurosla.11.13bet
[2]	Biber, D., & Reppen, R. (2002). What does frequency have to do with grammar teaching? Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24, 199-208. doi:10.1017/S0272263102002048
[3]	Boss, B. (2008). Exploring the acquisition of German verb morphology by instructed learners. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 31, 14-41. doi:10.2104/aral0814
[4]	Brown, R. (1973). A first language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[5]	Chang, F., Kobayashi, T., & Amano, S. (2009). Social factors in the acquisition of a new word order. First Language, 29, 427-445. doi:10.1177/0142723709105316
[6]	Chen, J. (2007). On how to solve the problem of the avoidance of phrasal verbs in the Chinese context. International Education Journal, 8, 348-353.
[7]	Cook, V. (1993). Linguistics and second language acquisition. New York, NY: Palgrave.
[8]	Cook, V. (2001). Second language learning and language teaching (3rd ed.). London: Arnold.
[9]	Davies, M. (2008). The corpus of contemporary American English: 425 million words, 1990-present. URL (last checked 18 March 2012). http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/
[10]	De Villiers, J., & De Villiers, P. (1973). A cross-sectional study of the acquisition of grammatical morphemes in child speech. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 2, 267-278. doi:10.1007/BF01067106
[11]	Dulay, H. C., and Burt, M. K. (1974). Natural sequences in child language acquisition. Language Learning, 24, 37-53. doi:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1974.tb00234.x
[12]	Dulay, H. C., & Burt, M. K. (1975). A new approach to discovering universals of child second language acquisition. In D. Dato (Ed.), Developmental psycholinguistics (Monograph series on language and linguistics) (pp. 209-233). Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.
[13]	Dulay, H. C., Burt, M. K., & Krashen, S. (1982). Language two. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
[14]	Dyson, B. (2009). Processability theory and the role of morphology in English as a second language development: A longitudinal study. Second Language Research, 25, 355-376. doi:10.1177/0267658309104578
[15]	Ellis, N. (2002). Frequency effects in language processing: A review with implications for theories of implicit and explicit language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24, 143-188. doi:10.1017/S0272263102002024
[16]	Ellis, R., Sheen, Y., Murakami, M., & Takashima, H. (2008). The effects of focused and unfocused written corrective feedback in an English as a foreign language context. System, 36, 353-371. doi:10.1016/j.system.2008.02.001
[17]	Evers-Vermeul, J., & Sanders, T. (2009). The emergence of Dutch connectives; How cumulative cognitive complexity explains the order of acquisition. Journal of Child Language, 36, 829-854. doi:10.1017/S0305000908009227
[18]	Friedmann, N., & Costa, J. (2011). Acquisition of SV and VS order in Hebrew, European Portuguese, Palestinian Arabic, and Spanish. Language Acquisition, 18, 1-38. doi:10.1080/10489223.2011.530507
[19]	Gass, S. M., & Selinker, L. (2008). Second language acquisition: An introductory course (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
[20]	Goldschneider, J., & DeKeyser, R. (2005). Explaining the “natural order of L2 morpheme acquisition” in English: A meta-analysis of multiple determinants, Language Learning, 55, 27-77. doi:10.1111/j.0023-8333.205.00295.x
[21]	Hill, J. D., & Flynn, K. (2008). Asking the right questions. Journal of Staff Development, 29, 46-52.
[22]	Hogg, R., & McCully, C. (1987). Metrical phonology: A coursebook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[23]	Johnston, M. (1985). Syntactic and morphological progressions in learner English. Canberra: Commonwealth Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs.
[24]	Johnston, M. (1994). Second language acquisition: A classroom perspective. Australian studies in language acquisition no. 1. Washington DC: ERIC Database.
[25]	Krashen, S. D., & Terrell, T. D. (1983). The natural approach. New York: Alemany Press.
[26]	Larsen-Freeman, D. E. (1976). An explanation for the morpheme acquisition order of second language learners. Language Learning, 26, 125-134. doi:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1976.tb00264.x
[27]	Laver, J. (1994). Principles of phonetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139166621
[28]	Lee, C. (2005). Different types of English to which Korean college students are exposed outside the class. Washington DC: ERIC Database.
[29]	Lee, J. (2006). Korean children’s acquisition of English interrogatives. Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics, 6, 637-653.
[30]	Liao, Y., & Fukuya, Y. J. (2004). Avoidance of phrasal verbs: The case of Chinese learners of English. Language Learning, 54, 193-226. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9922.2004.00254.x
[31]	Maguire, M. J., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Golinkoff, R., Imai, M., Haryu, E., Vanegas, S., Okada, H., Pulverman, R., & Sanchez-Davis, B. (2010). A developmental shift from similar to language-specific strategies in verb acquisition: A comparison of English, Spanish, and Japanese. Cognition, 114, 299-319. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2009.10.002
[32]	Martohardjono, G. (1989). The sonority cycle in the acquisition of phonology. Washington DC: ERIC Database.
[33]	Master, P. (1996). Systems in English grammar: An introduction for language teachers. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.
[34]	McCarthy, J. J. (2004). Optimality theory in phonology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
[35]	Mitchell, R., & Myles, F. (2004). Second language learning theories (2nd ed.). London: Hodder Arnold.
[36]	Norris, J. M. & Ortega, L. (2000). Effectiveness of L2 instruction: A research synthesis and quantitative meta-analysis. Language Learning, 50, 417-528. doi:10.1111/0023-8333.00136
[37]	Pelucchi, B., Hay, J., & Saffran, J. (2009). Statistical learning in a natural language by 8-month-old infants. Child Development, 80, 674-685. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01290.x
[38]	Pienemann, M. (1999). Language processing and second-language development: Processability theory. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
[39]	Pienemann, M. (2005). Cross-linguistic aspects of processability theory. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
[40]	Rowland, C. F., Pine, J. M., Lieven, E. V. M., & Theakston, A. L. (2003). Determinants of acquisition order in wh-questions: Re-evaluating the role of caregiver speech. Journal of Child Language, 30, 609-635. doi:10.1017/S0305000903005695
[41]	Saffran, J. R., Aslin, R. N., & Newport, E. L. (1996). Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants. Science, 274, 1926-1928. doi:10.1017/S0305000903005695
[42]	Simmons, G. V. (2001). The acquisition of the English determiner system: Sequence, order and transfer. Doctoral Thesis, Cambridge: ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Database.
[43]	Spada, N., & Tomita, Y. (2010). Interactions between type of instructtion and type of language feature: A meta-analysis. Language Learning, 60, 263-308. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9922.2010.00562.x
[44]	Tode, T. (2007). Durability problems with explicit Instruction in an EFL context: The learning of the English copula “be” before and after the introduction of the auxiliary “be”. Language Teaching Research, 11, 11-30. doi:10.1177/1362168806072398
[45]	Truscott, J., & Hsu, Y. (2008). Error correction, revision, and learning. Journal of Second Language Writing, 17, 292-305. doi:10.1016/j.jslw.2008.05.003
[46]	Westergaard, M. (2009). Usage-based vs. rule-based learning: The acquisition of word order in wh-questions in English and Norwegian. Journal of Child Language, 36, 1023-1051. doi:10.1017/S0305000909009349
[47]	Williams, J. N. (2010). Initial incidental acquisition of word order regularities: Is it just sequence learning? Language Learning, 60, 221-244. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9922.2010.00607.x
[48]	Zobl, H., & Liceras, J. (1994). Functional categories and acquisition orders. Language Learning, 44, 159-180.