Formal Linguistics and Language Education: New Empirical Perspectives (Educational Linguistics (43))

Description

This volume focuses on work that has its origin and motivation in formal linguistics and theory-driven research on the acquisition of grammar, and on this basis tries to establish links to language pedagogy, including students’ and teachers’ beliefs about what ‘grammar’ actually is. The contributions to this volume cover a wide range of empirical linguistic domains and concern aspects of morphosyntax, including word order, inflectional morphology, article systems, pronouns, compounding patterns, as well as orthography and students’ general beliefs about grammar. "There are very few volumes which include work for language education by researchers in formal linguistics. This volume does just that, looking at grammar both in terms of the teaching of grammar in general, and with treatment of specific areas of grammar. As such it is a welcome contribution to our understanding of language education, and the role of grammar in language teaching." (Melinda Whong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong) Contents Contributors Formal Linguistics and Language Education: Bridging the Gap 1 Recent Attempts at Bridging the Gap 2 The Contributions References Part I Conceptual Foundations Formal Linguistics and Language Education: A View from Bilingualism Research 1 Introduction 2 Why Not Before, Why Now? 3 Final Words References Grammatical Concepts for Pedagogical Grammar 1 Introduction 2 L2 Development and Grammatical Concepts 3 Rationale for Grammatical Concepts 3.1 Awareness, Language Learning and Language Education 3.2 Deriving Grammatical Concepts from Formal Grammar 4 Grammatical Concepts Illustrated 4.1 Pronouns 4.1.1 Person and Number Concepts 4.1.2 Gender Concept 4.1.3 Respect and Formality Concepts 5 Conclusions References Part II Native Language Settings Teaching Word Order Variation with a Constraint-Based View on Grammar 1 Introduction 1.1 Word Order in German 1.2 Word Order in Textbooks 1.3 Outline 2 Word Order in Students' Text: A Quick Corpus Study 2.1 Procedure 2.2 Results 2.2.1 Word Orders Used by the Grade 5/6 Group 2.2.2 Word Orders Used by the Grade 11–13 Group 2.2.3 Comparison 3 The OT-View on Word Order Variation in German 3.1 Optimality Theory 3.2 Constraints on Word Order 3.3 Scenarios for Introducing Constraint Interaction 3.3.1 Who Can Go First in Traffic? 3.3.2 Where to Sit in the Class Room? 3.3.3 What to Do on Saturday Evening? 4 Word Order Variation in the Curriculum 4.1 Fifth Grade 4.2 Grade 11–13 5 Conclusion References Grammar Is Irrelevant – The Role of Epistemological Beliefs in Students' Learning Success 1 Introduction 2 A Domain-Specific Competence Model 2.1 Grammatical Content Knowledge 2.2 Epistemological Beliefs 2.2.1 A General Model of Epistemological Beliefs 2.2.2 Towards Modelling Epistemological Beliefs of German Grammar 3 Grammatical Content Knowledge, Beliefs, and Other Variables 3.1 Participants 3.2 Methods and Procedure 3.2.1 The Grammar Test 3.2.2 Level of Epistemological Beliefs 3.2.3 Motivation, Self-Concept & Learning Strategies 3.3 Results 4 Discussion & Conclusion References Shaking Students' Beliefs About Grammar: Some Thoughts on the Academic Education of Future Language Teachers 1 Introduction 2 What Do Students Today Think About Grammar? 2.1 Questionnaire 1 2.1.1 The Sample 2.1.2 Data Collection 2.1.3 Data Interpretation 2.2 Questionnaire 2 2.2.1 The Sample 2.2.2 Data Collection 2.2.3 Data Interpretation 2.3 Results and Summary of the Explorative Studies 3 How Can We Deal with Students' Beliefs? 3.1 Essential Areas of Knowledge About Grammar for Future Language Teachers 3.2 Shaking Students' Beliefs: How to Get the Essentials Across or Grammar for Prospective Teachers 3.2.1 Grammar Teaching for Future Teachers 3.2.2 Reflective Teaching: Taking Beliefs into Account 3.2.3 Alternative Ways of Teaching 3.3 Difficulties, Hitches 4 Summary and Outlook References Do Linguistic Landscapes Influence the Spelling Competence of Orthographic Beginners? Two Case Studies 1 Introduction 2 Linguistic Landscapes and Spelling Performance 3 How Linguistic Landscapes Affect Spelling Performance 3.1 Hypothesis 3.2 Orthographic Case Example: Linking Positions of N-N Compounds 3.3 Study 1: Frequency of Wrong Spelling in Linguistic Landscapes 3.3.1 Hypothesis 3.3.2 Method 3.3.3 Data Collection and Data Processing 3.3.4 Data Assessment 3.4 Study 2: Field Experiment on Perceiving Linguistic Landscapes 3.4.1 Hypothesis 3.4.2 Method 3.4.3 Test Persons, Data Recording and Data Processing 3.4.4 Data Assessment 4 Discussion and Summary References Part III Second/Third Language Settings The Present Tense in English, Again 1 Introduction 2 Linguistic Property and Its Treatment 2.1 Introduction to Generative Terminology and Its Application to Tense 2.2 Generative Analysis of the Present Simple Form 2.3 Generative Analysis of the Present Progressive Form 2.4 Non-prototypical Interpretations of Present Tense Forms in English 3 Grammatical Aspect in French 3.1 French Aspectual Tenses 3.2 Narrative Commentaries in French 4 L2 Acquisition of Aspect in the English Present Tense 4.1 The Interpretability Hypothesis 4.2 Previous Research on Aspectual Tenses 4.3 Structural Priming Research 5 The Present Study 5.1 Research Questions and Methodology 5.2 Participants 5.2.1 Participants: Study One 5.2.2 Participants: Study Two 6 Results 7 Discussion References Post-instruction Processing of Generics in English by Japanese L2 Learners 1 Introduction 2 Explicit Learning and Underlying Linguistic Competence 3 Genericity and L2 Acquisition 3.1 Kind vs. General Statement 3.2 L2 Acquisition of Generics 4 On-Line Processing Studies of Articles 5 Previous Article Interventions 6 The Present Study 6.1 Participants 6.2 Research Questions 6.3 SPR Stimulus Set and Experimental Design 6.4 Procedure 6.5 Results 7 Discussion 8 Conclusion References Explicit and Implicit Knowledge of Article Semantics in Belarusian Learners of English: Implications for Teaching 1 Introduction 2 Theoretical Background 2.1 The MOGUL Framework 2.2 Definiteness 2.3 The Learning Task 2.4 Previous Research 3 Method 3.1 Participants 3.2 Tasks and Procedures 3.2.1 The Implicit Task 3.2.2 The Explicit Task 3.3 Analysis 3.3.1 Analysing the Implicit Task 3.3.2 Analysing the Explicit Task 3.3.3 Analysing the Relation Between Explicit and Implicit Knowledge 4 Results 4.1 Results for the Implicit Task 4.2 Results for the Explicit Task 4.3 The Relation Between Explicit and Implicit Knowledge 5 Discussion 5.1 Implications for Teaching References L2 Influence in L3 Acquisition: The Role of the L3 1 Introduction 2 Linguistic Description: V-to-T Movement 3 Background 3.1 Results of Our Previous Studies 3.2 Other Studies on L3 German 4 Design of This Study 4.1 Context of Study 4.2 Research Question and Prediction 4.3 Participants 4.4 Experiments 4.5 Procedure and Analysis 5 Results 6 Discussion 6.1 Interpretation of the Results 6.2 Implications for Third Language Teaching 7 Conclusion References