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Linguistic Changes in L2 Oral Performance by Chinese English Majors Across Four Years

Linguistic Changes in L2 Oral Performance by Chinese English Majors Across Four Years. WEN Qiufang National Research Center for Foreign Language Education, BFSU, China. Outline. Part One Introduction Part Two Linguistic changes in different modules and sub-modules Part Three

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Linguistic Changes in L2 Oral Performance by Chinese English Majors Across Four Years

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  1. Linguistic Changes in L2 Oral Performance by Chinese English Majors Across Four Years WEN Qiufang National Research Center for Foreign Language Education, BFSU, China

  2. Outline • Part One • Introduction • Part Two • Linguistic changes in different modules and sub-modules • Part Three • Linguistic changes in different dimensions • Part Four • Conclusion

  3. Part One • A general description of the project • Purpose • Subject • Data collection • Data analysis

  4. General Purpose Linguistic change Cognitive change • What changes have English majors produced in their oral English performance across four years’ undergraduate study? Change for the better Change for the worse

  5. Specific purpose one • Clarify two theoretical issues • Does L2 develop linearly or nonlinearly? • Does L2 develop monolithically or non-monolithically?

  6. Specific purpose two • Improve the effectiveness of the BA program in English in China • Bring the student’s potential into full play

  7. A state-funded project • The project was accomplished by a team of more than 100 people. • The core members of the project are 10 PhD degree-holders or PhD students.

  8. Linguistic changes • Phonological change by Chen in 2006 • Morphological change (agreement and past tense) by Li & Wen, Wang & Wen in 2007 • Syntactic change (VP, NP, T-unit) by Heng & Wen, Ma & Wen, Hu & Wen in 2006 • Lexical change (Vocabulary and FS) by Wen and by Qi in 2006 • Discoursal change (discourse markers) by Hu & Wen in 2007 • Register features change by Wen in 2008

  9. Subjects • 72 English majors participated in this project when they were enrolled in a national key university in 2001 56 students left for the final data analysis since the others’ data sets were incomplete. • 11 male; 45 female • 15 American students from Davidson University in North Carolina who completed one task • 4 male; 11 female

  10. Data collection Retelling An argumentative task Discussion Reading aloud A narrative task Role play

  11. Data collection 1 2 3

  12. Tasks involved in today’s presentation • A narrative task • An argumentative task • Three minutes’ preparation and three minutes’ talk

  13. Topics for narrative monologues

  14. Topics for argumentative monologues

  15. Data preparation • Transcribed 5,760 minutes’ oral performance with three times’ check • Data cleaning (Foster et al 2000) • false starts • repetitions • self-repairs

  16. A Framework • What to analyze • How to analyze

  17. What to analyze

  18. Morphology-accuracy • Agreement-Accuracy • DN agreement-A • SV agreement-A • AP agreement-A How to analyze? Linear Non-linear Increase U shape Decrease Ω shape etc. N shape, etc. The difference between the starting point and the ending point The time for increase or decrease or cessation More target-like or less target-like

  19. The framework for today’s presentation Morphological (Agreement & past tense) Syntactic (NP, VP) Lexical (FS, vocabulary) Accuracy Complexity Variation Agreement, past tense, NP, VP, FS Accuracy NP, VP, Vocabulary Complexity, variation, accuracy NP, VP, FS, Vocabulary Fluency, complexity, variation

  20. Part Two • Morphological change • Syntactic change • Lexical change

  21. Morphological Change • Grammatical agreement • Past tense

  22. Research question What are the changes in agreement accuracy in the argumentative monologs by the 56 English majors across four years?

  23. Agreement accuracy

  24. Agreement accuracy Y1 – Y2 = .001 Y3– Y4 = .051 Y2 – Y3 = .000

  25. Morphological Change • Grammatical agreement • Past tense

  26. Past tense accuracy

  27. Past tense accuracy Y3 -Y4=.061

  28. Part Two • Morphological change • Syntactic change • Lexical change

  29. Syntactic Change • VP

  30. Research question How does VP complexity, VP variation and VP accuracy change in argumentative monologues by the English majors across four years?

  31. VP Classifications

  32. VP examples

  33. Measurement • VP complexity (Flahive & Snow, 1980) • [(VP1s× 1)+(VP2s×2)+(VP3s×3)+ (VP4s×4)+ (VP5s×5] ÷ VPs • VP variation (Chaudron & Parker, 1990) • (VP types)2÷ VP tokens • VP accuracy • error-free VPs ÷VPs

  34. Three dimensions of VP

  35. Pairwise comparison

  36. Three dimensions of VP VP Complexity VP Variation VP Accuracy Y1-Y2 =.03 Y3-Y4=.00 Y2-Y3 =.03

  37. Part Two • Morphological change • Syntactic change • Lexical change

  38. Lexical change • Formulaic sequences • Vocabulary

  39. Research questions • To what extent does English speaking vocabulary develop in terms of fluency, complexity and variation? • Does entry-level affect the changing patterns of fluency, complexity and variation of argumentative vocabulary?

  40. Three dimensions • Fluency • Vocabulary size • Variation

  41. Fluency • The number of words spoken or written in a given time (Wolfe-Quintero et al., 1998)

  42. Three dimensions • Fluency • Vocabulary size • Variation

  43. Vocabulary size • Token • I bought a book and a pencil. (7) • Type • I, bought, a, book, and, pencil (6) • Family • Agree, agreeable, agreement • Level 1 vocabulary = Baseword list 1 • Level 2 vocabulary = Baseword List 2 • Level 3 vocabulary = Baseword List 3 and the words off the above three word lists • Words beyond Baseword Lists 1 and 2 better indicators of advanced learners (Laufer, 1995) Vocabulary breadth or complexity The measure of vocabulary size is different from Lexical frequency profile proposed by Laufer & Nation (1995)

  44. Three dimensions • Fluency • Vocabulary size • Variation

  45. Lexical variation • Type/Token ratio • Type xType/Token (Wolfe-Quitero et.al., 1998:107)

  46. Data analysis • Patcound produced by Liang Maocheng and Xiong Wenxin • SPSS: Repeated measures to identify the patterns of change and find out whether the differences between two adjacent years are significant or not.

  47. Research Question 1 • To what extent does English speaking vocabulary change in terms of fluency, vocabulary size and variation?

  48. Change in vocabulary

  49. Pairwise comparison

  50. Three dimensions of vocabulary Fluency Vocabulary size Lexical Variation Y2-Y3 P=.002 Y1-Y2 P=.000 Y1-Y2 P=.000 Y1-Y2 P=.01

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