Slot: 28D-8 Dec. 28, 3:45 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.
Panel: Studies in Second Language Acquisition
Chair: Maria Alley, Ohio State University
Title: The Effect of Second Language Instruction
on Acquisition of Relative Clauses in the Russian Language
Author: Valentina Dunn, Brigham Young University
The purpose of this research project is
to test the predictions of the Accessibility Hierarchy theory (Keenean &
Comrie, 1977) applying it to the Russian language. According to this theory,
syntactic linguistic features and relative clauses in particular are acquired
in a fixed order from the highest position (S - subject), which is considered
more susceptible to relativization to the lowest position (OPOSS - possessive),
which is less susceptible. The present study attempts to determine if learners
are able to make generalizations about more susceptible RC positions and
produce them after receiving instruction only on a relatively more complex and
less susceptible relative clause position (OPREP – object of preposition).
Participants of
the study are Brigham Young University students studying Russian as a second
language. Two groups, the control group (n=10) and the experimental group
(n=20), completed pre-test and post-tests each of which included two
elicitation tasks: a grammaticality judgment test and a combination test. Both
groups received instruction between the tests. The control group received
instruction on the subject (S), the direct object (DO), and the indirect object
(IO) relative clause positions. The experimental group received instruction
only on the object of preposition (OPREP) position. The purpose of the research
project is to determine how the type of instruction can effect relative clause
acquisition. The preliminary results show that participants who were instructed
in OPREP relative clause position performed better on the post- test than those
who were instructed only on S, DO, and IO relative clause positions.
References:
Gass, S. (1981). From theory to practice.
Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Conference
of Teachers of English to Speakers of
Other Languages.
Michigan, 129-139.
Keenan, E. L., & Comrie, B. (1977).
Noun phrase accessibility and universal grammar.
Linguistic Inquiry, 8(1), 63-99.
Title: Tykajut, Tychut, or Tychajut: The One-Stem Verb System in Pedagogical
Grammar Versus Internalized Learner Grammar
Author: Kira Gor, University of Maryland
Since the publication of Jakobson’s
seminal paper proposing a description of the Russian verb system based on a
single stem (Jakobson 1948), the debates regarding psycholinguistic reality of
this description for native and non-native speakers and its pedagogical
usefulness have continued. They take the shape both of overt scholarly
discussions and covert competition between the textbooks, which make use of
either the one- or two-stem verb systems. In recent years, this issue has
received renewed interest due to the increased focus on the learner in the
field of teaching and to advances in empirical psycholinguistic research on the
processing of inflectional morphology.
The present
paper reports the results of a series of experiments on the processing of
Russian verbal morphology by adult American learners of Russian. It compares
the learner data to the parallel data on native Russian adults, who have an
internalized fully developed conjugational system, and Russian children ages
4-6, whose internal grammar has not yet stabilized. The
data were collected in a real and nonce verb generation task. The material
involved the verbs belonging to the -aj-, -a-, -i-, and -ova- classes
according to the one-stem verb system ranging in frequency, productivity, and
morphological complexity. The subjects were beginning and intermediate American
college-level students of Russian who had studied Russian for one, two, and
several years. The results of the study shed new light on the
development of the conjugational system in American learners of Russian and
demonstrate the functioning and interplay of rule-based and probabilistic
mechanisms in verbal processing. The paper uses the conclusions of the
empirical study to address the benefits of the one-stem verb system in its
pedagogical applications to the Russian language classroom.
Jakobson, R. O. (1948). Russian
conjugation. Word 4, 155-167.
Title: The Acquisition of the Instrumental Case
in Second Year Learners of Russian: A Balance between Function and Form
Author: Meghan Murphy-Lee, Military Academy at
West Point
Although there has been
much discussion in recent years on the presentation and acquisition of Russian
grammatical forms, only limited research has been published which gives
instructors specific information on the order of acquisition of case forms and
functions. Murphy-Lee (2003) notes
that among intermediate-level learners of Russian there are many
inconsistencies in case acquisition.
For example, she found that although the instrumental case is introduced
late in the first year or early in the second year of instruction, students
appear to produce the morphological ending of the instrumental case
surprisingly accurately but only in extremely limited contexts. For the most part, these learners used
the instrumental case in set phrases: летом, вечером, зимой. The instrumental case was rarely used
in the predicative position and also rarely used in other contexts such as
passive voice. In this paper, I
will presents the results of my preliminary research where I will attempt to
determine in which contexts learners can accurately produce these morphological
endings and to what degree the usage is consistent throughout the third
semester of instruction.
In order to determine this, I will conduct a semester long study of the
second year learners at a major university. As part of this study, I will test
their knowledge of both the morphological endings of the instrumental case and
the contexts in which this case is necessary. The learners will be examined three times in the fall
semester. Once these data are
collected, I will analyze them to determine how the learners produce these
morphological endings in various contexts and how these results compare to
previous research on the instrumental case and case acquisition in general. I hope that these results will lead to
a long-term study of the development of case acquisition of learners of Russian
at the intermediate level.
References:
Gibson, M. (1984). Some Changes in
the Use of the Instrumental Case. Russian
Language Journal, 38 (129-30),
25-35.
Murphy-Lee, M. (2003). A Description and Analysis of the
Interlanguage of Second
Year Students of Russian: Evidence from
Electronic Dialogue Journals. Doctoral
Dissertation, University of Kansas.
Rubinstein, G. (1995). On
Acquisition of Russian Cases by American Classroom
Learners. IRAL, 33 (1), 9-34.
Thompson, I. (1980). “Acquisition of Cases by Students of Russian: A
Preliminary
Investigation.” Russian
Language Journal, 34 (117), 43-52.