Marsden making grammar matter in the input london network for languages june 2014

Making grammar matter in the
input.
Dr Emma Marsden & Rowena Hanan
Centre for Language Learning Research
Department of Education
University of York
emma.marsden@york.ac.uk

Outline
PART 1: What do learners attend to in the input?
PART 2: Practising Form Meaning Connections
– Reducing reliance on certain cues
PART 3: Limits of this kind of practice
• The kind of knowledge gained
• How far can practising FMCs be applied?

Part 1: What do learners attend to in the input?
Evidence shows…
• Learners produce, esp. in spontaneous oral production,
even after several years of learning:
– Le garçon m’appelle
– Le weekend dernier je manger
– Nous j’habite… or …Nous habiter
– Tu aimer les carrottes?
– Je pas manger
– Il lave (for he washes himself)
• And write:
– Tu joue au tennis?
– Vous aller en Angleterre?
– Tu a visité York?

Part 1: What do learners attend to in the input?
Do we mind about these errors?
• On the one hand…
– Natural, developmental errors
– Chunks are very useful
– Too much emphasis on accuracy is de-motivating
– need interesting content, fluency, complexity, risk-
taking
• On the other hand, learners need to
– break down and analyse the chunks
– gradually become more accurate in using grammar

PART 1: Theories about how learners
process the input
Input - the raw material for learning language
Carroll 2002, Long 1996, Krashen 1980
Explaining what is and isn’t learnt:
– Frequency & saliency of grammar doesn’t explain
it all
– ‘knowledge about rules’ doesn’t explain it all!
‘Noticing and extracting’ some features of the
input seems to be difficult…

PART 1: Theories about how learners process the input
Semantic / pragmatic processing
Which of these people do these activities?
Answer as quickly as you can!!!!
1. The cat or parents walks the dog
2. The men or child work in a bank
3. The parents or baby cry all night
4. The child or adults listen to the news

You will hear what someone said about your
friend. Choose the phrase that best fits
1. No creo que coma en casa mucho
Es delgado Es gordo
2. Dudo que baile mucho en las discotecas
Sabe bailar No sabe bailar
3. Estoy seguro que hace su tarea por la noche
Saca buenas notas Saca mala notas

Den Mann verfolgt der Computer.

Jean fait laver la voiture à Paul
Qui a lavé la voiture? Jean Paul

Al hombre lo invita la mujer

Forms are embedded, but attention not oriented to it…
Order the items. Do you like /do you do these activities? Did you hear the activity?

Part 1: Theories about what learners do with the input
Although some morphosyntax may be perceived, it
is not connected to a meaning or function
VanPatten & Cadierno 1993; VanPatten 1996; Marsden 2005; Marsden & Chen 2011
Learners’ attention to some features of the input is
‘blocked’ by
lexical items (reading a telegram)
the L1 (English ‘habits’ entrenched)
common sense , expectations (computers don’t chase
people, men invite women)

PART 2: INSTRUCTION THAT SEEMS TO
HELP: Practising form-meaning
connections
• Taking out the cues that learners rely on
• Repeated practice in perceiving the input
(phonemes, syntax) to map to
meaning/function
• ‘Processing Instruction’
VanPatten & colleagues
• Approx 50 experimental studies since early 1990s
• Form Meaning Connections = FMCs

Practise in making form meaning
connections from the input
• Training the ear
• Improving analysis of language
• Adaptable to a huge range of ages,
proficiencies, languages, grammar features
• Principle, concept

The following sentences have become jumbled.
Underline who you think does the activities:
1. The cat / parents walks the dog
2. The child / men work in a bank
3. The baby / parents cry all night
4. The child / adults listen to the news
PART 2: Instruction that seems to help
Form-meaning connections

You will hear the second half of a statement that someone recently
made about your friend. Circle the opinion phrase that correctly fits
1 coma en casa mucho
He/she eat-SUBJ at home a lot
a) Yo sé que b) No creo que
2 baile mucho en las discotecas
He/she dance-SUBJ a lot in clubs
a) Es obvio que b) Dudo que
3 hace su tarea por la noche
He/she do-IND his/her homework at night
a) Estoy seguro que b) No es verdad que
(Farley, 2000)

Marsden (2005)
Remember: je = present tense (now) j’ai = past (done!)
1)
2)
3)

Hanan & Marsden (ongoing)
Which picture matches the sentence?
Den Mann verfolgt der Computer.

French Causative
Jean fait laver la voiture à Paul
Jean lave la voiture pour Paul
From Whong (2004)

Al hombre lo invita la mujer
El niño besa a la niña
Cadierno (1993), VanPatten & Cadierno (1993)

La mujer invita al hombre
A la niña la besa el niño
Cadierno (1993), VanPatten & Cadierno (1993)

Challenge 1: What kind of knowledge is gained?
• Learners worked out the rule
(Marsden & Chen 2011; Sanz & Morgan-Short 2005)
• Learning consisted of explicit knowledge about rules
• No gains on more implicit measures (conversation,
narration)
• So is this useful for spontaneous use?
See Rowena Hanan’s findings !
Part 3: Challenges for practice FMCs

Challenge 2: Production practice might be
equally beneficial
(DeKeyser, Farley, Toth)
Challenge 3: Perhaps don’t need repeated FMCs.
Just need to notice the form over and over -
spot the form!
(Hanan & Marsden, Schmidt, Ellis’ tallying hypothesis)
PART 3: Limitations and challenges for FMCs practice

Part 3: Limitations of FMCs
BUT this approach useful because…
• It makes us think about what learners do with
specific features in the input …
• With limited time, autonomy, engagement
• A little controlled, repetitive practice can be appealing!
• requires little time or money
• difficult to make production of some grammar essential,
without becoming meaningless, mechanical practice
(Marsden 2004)

Can FMCs help with everything?!
PART 3: Limitations and challenges for FMC research

Can FMCs help when lack of
transparent L1-L2 relations?
French Imparfait
• Kevin McManus (University of York)
• First year undergraduates, then 6th formers
• Full use of Imparfait acquired late due to many
learning problems

Can FMCs help when lack of transparent L1-L2 relations?
French Imparfait (McManus & Marsden)
• L1/L2 similarities and differences
• Different mappings to express habitual…
La femme promenait le chien IMP context
The woman walked the dog (every day)
≠ a promené le chien (complete, unique event)
• Similar mappings for progressive (=ongoing/
interrupted)
La femme promenait le chien PC context
The woman was walking the dog (when…)

Practice in interpreting habitual versus progressive meanings
Remove semantic biases inherent in verbs
Frédérique mangeait à la cantine quand il perdait
son porte-monnaie
[Fred used to eat in the cantine when he used to lose his wallet]
Choose…
Ongoing/interrupted
Or
Regularly repeated

Explicit Negative Feedback
You chose ONGOING/INTERRUPTED, but it
should have been REGULARLY REPEATED.
Remember: REGULARLY REPEATED =
Imparfait + IMPARFAIT

Frédérique mangeait une pomme au moment
où on est arrivé chez le dentiste
[Fred was eating an apple when we arrived at the dentist]
• Ongoing/Interrupted or Regularly repeated?
You chose REGULARLY REPEATED instead of
ONGOING/INTERRUPTED.
Remember ONGOING/INTERRUPTED =
Imparfait + PASSÉ COMPOSÉ

And in listening tasks
• Ongoing or regularly repeated? (live)
Referential hab and prog
• Ongoing or regularly repeated? (eat)
referential hab and prog
Well done!
You chose ONGOING/INTERRUPTED =
PASSÉ COMPOSÉ + Imparfait
You chose ONGOING/INTERRUPTED,
but it should have been REGULARLY
REPEATED.
Remember: REGULARLY REPEATED =
Imparfait IMPARFAIT

Can FMCs help abstract syntax?
S V inversion for interrogatives
Interrogative word order often redundant
Bist du schlank? (are you slim?)
Du bist schlank (you are slim)
Other cues indicate ‘question’:
Intonation
Paralinguistic cues
World knowledge, expectations
Can you make the word order matter?

German Verb 2nd
(Designed for LLAS Materials Bank, Marsden 2005)
The reception on your mobile isn’t good. Decide whether you
have missed something.
Remember, in German the verb is the 2nd idea in the sentence!
1) gehe ich ins Kino
2) ich schlafe bis 12 Uhr
Mittags
Did you miss:
Am Wochenende or nothing?
Did you miss:
Im Winter or nothing?

Part 3: Limitations and challenges for FMCs
Can FMCs help abstract syntax?: Gender
German articles agree with the gender of the noun
Der Hund (the dog)
Die Katze (the cat)
• Can gender in articles be made non-redundant?
Tick the picture
Die schhhhhhhh heisst Tweety
(the schhhhhhhh is called Tweety)
NO!!!!!!!

Gender
Spanish adjectival endings agree with gender of noun
• el libro viejo (the book old)
• una casa blanca (a house white)
Make feature essential in reading or listening
Choose the appropriate noun.
leí el libro divertido
la revista
(I read the book funny)
the magazine
Es hermosa Victoria or David Beckham?

Conclusions (1)
• All these listening and reading activities force
learners to pay attention to grammar to
determine function and meaning

Conclusions (2)
Role for FMCs
Practising task-essential FMCs, with feedback
– Helps knowledge about grammar
– Emerging evidence: also helps knowledge that is
• accessible in real time
• under communicative pressure
• to convey meaning
Of course, one small component in lessons,
amongst many other more interesting
things!!

Making FMCs - French inflectional
system
For more examples of simple activities which
help learners make Form-Meaning
Connections:
see IRIS
www.iris-database.org
Or email: emma.marsden@york.ac.uk

With thanks to collaborators:
Rowena Hanan, Kevin McManus, Hsin-Ying Chen,
Alaidde Berenice Villanueva Aguilera, John Williams,
Gerry Altmann, Xierong Liu, Michelle St Claire
Acknowledgements to funders:
ESRC, British Academy, University of York
VISIT:
http//:www.iris-database.org

ReferencesCollins, L., Trofimovich, P., White, J., Cardoso, W., & Horst, M. (2009). Some Input on the Easy/Difficult Grammar
Question: An Empirical Study. The Modern Language Journal, 93(3), 336-353.
Ellis, N., Hafeez, K., Martin, K. I., Chen, L., Boland, J., and Sagarra, N. (Forthcoming, 2013). Learned attention in adult
language acquisition: Overt then covert. Applied Psycholinguistics.
Ellis, N. and Sagarra, N. (2010). The bounds of adult language acquisition: Blocking and learned attention. Studies in
Second Language Acquisition, 32(4), 1-28.
Ellis, N. and Sagarra, N. (2011). Learned attention in adult language acquisition: A replication and generalization study
and meta-analysis. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 33(4), 589-624.
Farley, A. 2004. ‘Processing instruction and the Spanish subjunctive: Is explicit information needed?’ in B. VanPatten
(ed.), Processing instruction: Theory, Research, and Commentary (pp. 227–239), Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Isabelli, C. (2008) First Noun Principle or L1 Transfer Principle in SLA? Hispania HISPANIA -WICHITA THEN
MASSACHUSETTS- 91, 2; 465-478
MacManus & Marsden (ongoing) The role of explicit information in learning French imparfait.
Marsden, E. (2006). Exploring Input Processing in the classroom: An experimental comparison of Processing Instruction
and Enriched Input, Language Learning, 56, 507-566.
Marsden, E. & Chen, H.-Y. (2011). The roles of structured input activities in processing instruction and the kinds of
knowledge they promote. Language Learning, 61, 4. pp. 1058–1098.
Marsden, E., Altmann, G., St. Claire. (2013). Priming of verb inflections in L2 French amongst beginner learners, and the
effects of orientation of attention during different instructional activities. International Review of Applied Linguistics for
Language Education, 51 (3) 271–298.
Marsden, E., Williams, J., Liu, X. (2013) Learning novel morphology: The role of meaning and orientation of attention at
initial exposure. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 35 (4) 619-654
O’Grady (2014) Anaphora and the case for emergentism. In O’Grady & MacWhinney, The Handbook of Language
Emergence. Wiley Blackwell .
Sagarra, N. and Ellis, N. (2013). From seeing adverbs to seeing morphology. Language experience and adult acquisition
of L2 tense. Special issue “Eye tracking and SLA” (Eds. A. Godfroid, S. Gass, & P. Winke). Studies in Second Language
Acquisition, 35(2) pp 261-290.

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