ES 1.2 - Task 3: Reading a research paper

You will select three research articles about teaching or learning. Then, you will summarize the three abstracts in your own words (goal and method used) and justify which one of the three articles you wish to read in detail. You will choose your own method to read the article and record what you have learnt.

My question:

To what extent does a learner’s mother tongue influence their second language acquisition?

Summary of the 3 abstracts

The focus of the article “Error Analysis on Learners’ Interlanguage and Intralanguage: A Case Study of Two Adolescent Students” is on the errors made by English language learners. As the title suggests, two teenage students, who have been studying English since childhood, are the subjects of this research. The data for the analysis is gathered during an interview session and the mistakes made by the subjects are identified and classified. The pattern is then drawn in order to determine the subjects' nature of language. The findings suggest that students' English is influenced by both interlanguage and intralanguage, even though interlanguage has a greater impact on errors. This demonstrates that the existence of L1 affects the L2 acquisition.

In the article “Reading Comprehension in Adolescent Bilinguals Learning English as a Second Language”, two studies examine reading comprehension (RC) among teenage bilinguals who are learning English as a second language. The first study examines predictors of RC among Chinese-English and Spanish-English bilinguals. The main goal is to find universal and language-specific features of RC in both the first and second languages (L1 and L2) in various classes of bilinguals. Results suggest some language-specific aspects between finer-grain morphological awareness skills and comprehension. The second study examines within- and cross-language predictors of RC among groups of Chinese-English bilinguals in different language learning environments. Results demonstrate that patterns of within- and cross-language predictors of comprehension varied across groups, and for L1 or L2 comprehension. The findings show that L1 and L2 reading skills intersect in the early stages of L2 acquisition. Lastly, the impact of the language learning environment on changing patterns of within- and cross-language relationships is explored.

The article “Enhancing Academic Instruction for Adolescent English Language Learners With or at Risk for Learning Disabilities” explores academic learning strategies for English language learners (ELLs) and students with learning disabilities, as well as instructional methods to support the development of reading and language skills. This is because not only a high percentage of children around the world attends schools where the language of instruction differs from their mother tongue, posing major difficulties in acquiring knowledge, but some of these pupils have learning disabilities, which adds even more obstacles to their learning, due to the reading and language expectations of content area instruction.

Is the question I would like to investigate clear?

I believe my question "To what extent does a learner’s mother tongue influence their second language acquisition?" is clear enough because it is specific and properly formulated, giving the opportunity to elaborate on the answer. It also relates to my personal goals and professional development because, as a future non-native speaker English teacher, it is my primary concern to know the answer to this question in order to become able to prevent and correct errors caused by first language interference, occurring both in myself and in my future students. Moreover, based on my previous experience as a CELTA-trainee and on my recent online research, I can confirm that this is a widely investigated topic; therefore, I will be able to find numerous articles to broaden my knowledge on this matter.

How is the article I want to read connected to the question I want to investigate?

The article “Error Analysis on Learners’ Interlanguage and Intralanguage: A Case Study of Two Adolescent Students” is connected to the question I want to investigate, because it examines the common errors made by English language learners and demonstrates how the existence of the mother tongue affects the second language acquisition, which is exactly what I am looking for in order to answer my question.

Where does the article come from?

The article comes from Teknosastik: Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra, a double-blind peer-reviewed journal published by the Faculty of Arts and Education, Universitas Teknokrat Indonesia. This journal aims to facilitate and promote the dissemination of scholarly information on research and development in the field of linguistics, literature, and language teaching and learning.

Who are the authors?

The author is Dian Puspita, a Master student in English Literature at the Universitas Teknokrat Indonesia - 3 publications on Research Gate.

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Information about the article

"Error Analysis on Learners’ Interlanguage and Intralanguage:

A Case Study of Two Adolescent Students" (Dian Puspita).

The aim of this study is to answer the following research questions:

1. How does interlanguage affect the errors performed by learners?

2. What are the types of errors in terms of subject-verb agreement, tenses, and relative clauses appeared in the speaking performance?

3. What kind of feedback do the learners need?

The method used is the following:

• Interviews during which the mistakes made by the subjects are identified and classified.

• The data was collected by recording the interview with the topic of “the motivation of learning English”.

• The results then were transcribed and analyzed by identifying, classifying the errors, and explaining the errors and patterns.

• Some theoretical frameworks are used to analyze the data, such as types of error, tense aspect, English relative clause general stages, and feedback.

The main findings are:

• Learners’ English is influenced by both interlanguage and intralanguage;

• interlanguage has a greater impact on errors than intralanguage;

• interference is the errors caused by learners' mother tongue interference. Most of the errors in this study were interfered by subjects’ L1. This means that the existence of L1 affects the L2 acquisition;

• explicit correction directly informs learners the incorrect form and gives the correct form;

• implicit correction consists of recast and prompts;

• in recast, the teacher reformulates all or part of the learner's utterance, providing a correct alternative, without explicitly signaling that it is a correction;

• prompts offer a variety of signals to push the learner to self-repair and are divided into four: clarification request, elicitation, metalinguistic feedback, and repetition.

Does the article attempt to persuade or bias the reader? (after reading)

The reader is convinced about the reliability and truthfulness of the findings thanks to the explanation of the theory and method used. However, the purpose of the article is not to persuade, but to inform the reader.

Conclusion - What is useful for me for my ES1.2 project? What do I still need to investigate?

Conclusions:

• Interlanguage can cause errors in terms of grammatical structural accuracy (subject-verb agreement and tense), because what is correct in L1 structure may be incorrect in L2. In fact, error analysis has some characteristics influenced by previously learned languages.

• The errors performed by the subjects in terms of subject-verb agreement are caused by interlanguage and intralanguage interference, such as over-generalization, simplification, analogical error, incomplete application of rule, and false hypothesis.

• Providing appropriate feedback according to the learners’ needs is important, as it helps improve learner proficiency; this proves that interlanguage is dynamic, constantly changing.

This article was useful not only for my ES1.2 project, but also for my future career as an English teacher, because if I ever find myself teaching to international students from different linguistic backgrounds, I will know how to approach their language acquisition development and what to do in order to support them in class and in their English language learning in general. In fact, as the article states, “analyzing learners' errors can improve the teaching materials and techniques”. However, in this article the errors performed by learners were analyzed only speaking performance-wise. Therefore, in order to become aware of all the possible errors, their causes, preventive measures and correction methods, I will have to read more articles on error analysis and error correction.

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Reference list

Puspita, Dian (2019). Error Analysis on Learners’ Interlanguage and Intralanguage: A Case Study of Two Adolescent Students. TEKNOSASTIK. Universitas Teknokrat Indonesia.

Pasquarella, A. D. K. (2014). Reading comprehension in adolescent bilinguals learning English as a second language. University of Toronto (Canada).

Haager & Osipova (2017). Enhancing Academic Instruction for Adolescent English Language Learners With or at Risk for Learning Disabilities. California State University, Los Angeles.