LINGUISTICS RESEARCH PAPER L1 Chinese difficulties in L2 english learning.

Overview: The goal of this assignment is to give you the experience of collecting and analyzing data from a second language (L2) learner.

How to begin: Find an L2 learner who is willing to be your research subject. Since you will be analyzing language, this should be a learner of a language that you are highly proficient in (e.g., most likely, your L1 or dominant language). Interview your subject to gather basic information about their language learning experience. Relevant questions might include: at what age did this person begin learning the L2? Did they learn the language primarily in a naturalistic or instructional context? You might want to use or modify questions that guided your own linguistic autobiography. You should ask questions about areas of interest to you (e.g., explicit learning, teaching methods they found most useful, self-reported proficiency in the L2, attitudes and motivation, personality, learning strategies, etc.).

Note: Please let me know ASAP if you cannot find an L2 learner.

Data collection: You will need to get a sample of the person’s language, either oral or written. To do so, consider using one or more tasks that elicit language production. Your elicitation task will be based on what you’re interested in investigating. There are numerous options, including:

· picture stories or comic strips (especially if they have no written text)

· film narration (ask them to tell you the plot of a film they’ve seen recently, or to narrate a youtube clip that has no dialogue—or with sound turned off)

· personal narrative (ask them to tell you about an important event in their life)

· picture description (ask them to describe a photo or compare a series of photos)

· role plays

· Note: If you gather oral data, you will need to digitally record the person’s output for transcription. Important: You cannot record the person without their knowledge and consent! Also, to maintain the anonymity of your participant(s), use pseudonyms.

Other possible options: (a) gather oral and written data and compare them (i.e., have the participant do the same task in each modality) (b) get a native speaker baseline (i.e., have a native speaker do the same task for the purposes of comparison) (c) collect and compare samples from learners at different proficiency levels who’ve had different learning experiences.

Target Feature(s): You can chose any (combination of) linguistic feature(s) for your analysis in any subsystem of language that interests you (e.g., phonology, morphology, vocabulary, syntax, pragmatics). Your focus may be as narrow as, for example, third-person singular –s or past tense markers, or somewhat more broad (e.g., question formation, verb tense/aspect, a speech act such as asking for a favor or apologizing). (Note: You may want to choose features based on previous research, including contrastive analyses or developmental sequences.)

Data analysis: As with your data elicitation method, your analysis will depend on what you’re interested in learning. Again, there are numerous options, including:

· Target-Like Use (TLU) Analysis, which goes beyond error analysis by considering errors and correct uses of a form.

· Complexity, Accuracy, and/or Fluency (CAF) analysis

· Frequency Analysis

Note: There is no expectation that you will incorporate anything beyond simple descriptive statistics (e.g., frequency, type/token ratios, percentages…)

General Note on Methodology : You are welcome (and encouraged) to borrow ideas or materials for data elicitation and analysis from any of the studies that we’ve read or that you’ll read in preparation for this assignment. Just be sure to cite the source!

Format, length, and references (FOLLOW PAPER TEMPLATE)

· 5-6 pages (12pt., Times New Roman, font, 1” margins, double-spaced) for the body of the paper

· 1 page appendix with the data (transcribed, if necessary)

· 1 page appendix with the interview questions

· An appendix with any data elicitation materials

· A minimum of 4 references (the textbook can be one of them)

If you need help, make an appointment to come see me-- preferably no sooner than one week before the due date.