The papers in this issue were presented at a colloquium on The Role of Instruction in Second Language Acquisition held at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, in July 1991. Participants in the Colloquium were the following:

Birgit Harley, OISE, University of Toronto

Patsy M. Lightbown, Concordia University

Michael Long, University of Hawaii

Manfred Pienemann, Sydney University

Bonnie Schwartz, University of Durham

Michael Sharwood Smith, Utrecht University

Nina Spada, McGill University

Bill VanPatten, University of Illinois

Lydia White, McGill University

The Colloquium was sponsored by Concordia University and McGill University as well as by research grants from the government of Quebec through its Fonds pour la formation de chercheurs et l'aide à la recherche and from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

This study investigates the generalizability of claims by Logan (Klapp, Boches, Trabert, & Logan, 1991; Logan, 1985, 1988a, 1988b; Logan & Klapp, 1991) about the development of automaticity in the adult learning of alphabet arithmetic problems to the context of adult second language acquisition. Logan's proposal is that as individual solutions to problems accumulate in memory a transition in problem-solving procedures takes place. This transition involves the shift from an algorithm-based procedure for deducing correct solutions to direct retrieval of individual solutions or instances from memory. In the present study, second language learners of English were presented with a rule for understanding the morphological constraint on the dative alternation (Mazurkewich & White, 1984) and asked to judge the acceptability of 36 sentences presented in a training set. The sentences were controlled for frequency of presentation, one being presented eight times, one seven times, and so forth. When presented together with novel instances of the same type in a transfer set, reaction times to old instances were significantly faster. Reaction times to repetitions of the previously presented verbs in new frames and novel verbs in old frames were compared as a test of hypotheses about strategy switches in processing alternating and nonalternating verbs.

This paper examines the intersection of syntax and semantics in second language acquisition (SLA), a perspective on language learning that has received relatively little attention in the past, in ordertoanswer the following question: Why do English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners tend to use the same morpheme (e.g., HAVE) for Possessives (P) and Existentials (E), when English has separate forms (HAVE, THERE BE) for these two functions? Working within a functionalist framework, data are analyzed from the longitudinal case study of a Cambodian adult who, despite formal ESL instruction and residence in an English-speaking community, persistently uses the form has for both P and E. Although first language transfer can be invoked as a partial explanation forthis, it alone cannot account for the systematic conflation of P and E in interlanguage. Rather, it is argued that the shared semanticproperties of P/E, together with syntactic, pragmatic, and perceptual characteristics of native language, interlanguage, and second language constructions, make this overlap imminently transferable, especially in untutored or low-level instructed SLA.

This paper is a longitudinal study of the acquisition of pragmatic competence. Advanced adult nonnative speakers of English were taped in advising sessions over the course of a semester. Two speech acts, suggestions and rejections, were analyzed according to their frequency, form, and successfulness and compared with similar data gathered for native speakers. The nonnative speakers showed change toward the native speaker norms in their ability to employ appropriate speech acts, moving toward using more suggestions and fewer rejections, and became more successful negotiators. However, they changed less in their ability to employ appropriate forms of the speech acts, continuing to use fewer mitigators than the native speakers. Furthermore, unlike native speakers, they also used aggravators. We claim that these results may be explained by the availability of input: Learners receive positive and negative feedback from the advisor regarding the desirability and outcome of particular speech acts, but they do not receive such feedback regarding the appropriateness of the forms of such speech acts.

This article reports on research aimed at identifying ways of improving the contribution of Dutch infant classes to the second language acquisition of nonnative children. Verbal interactions in 15 Dutch infant classes with immigrant children were investigated. Conversations were audiotaped during five types of activity: the pupil-centered conversation, the instructional exchange, the children's group, the small-group-with-teacher, and the special second-language group. Several input and production features, which are assumed to facilitate second language acquisition, were analyzed. Potentially, the special second language group offers the best opportunities for second language acquisition with respect to input and response production; the children's group is the most favorable activity with respect to self-initiated production. Regarding the actual contribution of the five activities to an average infant-class day, however, the children's group offers most of the beneficial interaction for second-language acquisition. Implications for the teaching of young multilingual children are presented.

Among the structural and lexical factors claimed to account for avoidance in second language learning are (a) cross-linguistic difference, (b) cross-linguistic similarity, and (c) intrinsic complexity of the second language features avoided. This paper examines patterns of avoidance and preference for phrasal verbs or equivalent single-word verbs among Swedish learners of English. We assumed that if the subjects avoided English phrasal verbs, particularly the figurative ones, even though phrasal verbs exist in Swedish, this would indicate that inherent semantic difficulty of second language forms was the main factor contributing to the avoidance behavior. If, on the other hand, the learners did not show any preference for one-word verb forms in English, or indeed favored the phrasal forms, this would support the assumption that avoidance or nonavoidance depends largely on differences or similarities between the native and the foreign language.

A multiple-choice test and a translation test were given to two groups of advanced Swedish-speaking learners of English. Each test consisted of 20 sentences, allowing for the choice of either a phrasal or a synonymous single-word verb. The test answers showed that the Swedish learners avoided neither phrasal verbs in general nor the figurative ones in particular, regardless of whether the verbs were similar to, or different from, their Swedish translation equivalents. Furthermore, the results were compared to the avoidance patterns of a group of advanced Hebrew-speaking learners of English. From the comparison it emerged that the Swedish learners usedsignificantly more phrasal verbs than the Israelis, notably figurative ones. These results suggest that the avoidance is determined more by a systemic incongruence between the first language (L1) and the second language (L2) than by the inherent difficulty of L2 forms.

Variability, both systematic and nonsystematic, has been the subject of much debate in recent years in the study of learner interlanguage. This article presents empirical evidence from a longitudinal study of a small group of advanced learners of French. Variability is noticeable throughout the period of learning of a particular structure in French. Nonsystematicity observed in individual learners' performance is explained in the light of developmental stages such as those put forward in Gatbonton's diffusion model. When looked at in terms of developmental processes, nonsystematic variability becomes an essential element of progress. Patterns of development are observed across the subjects, and learning can thus be seen to follow a systematic route.

Psychologically speaking, all linguistic behavior is the overt manifestation of some type of underlying knowledge that is represented in the mind/brain of an individual. Exposure to linguistic data is necessary for growth of the system of knowledge. On the basis of only overt linguistic behavior, how can we ascertain whether the native and nonnative knowledge systems that people have are of distinct or similar types? Is there a (necessary) relationship between type of knowledge and type of linguistic exposure?

The hypothesis to be defended is that negative data and explicit data result in a type of knowledge that is not to be equated with linguistic competence. The claim is not that negative and explicit data cannot give rise to knowledge; rather, the specific claim is that only positive data can effect the construction of an interlanguage grammar that is comparable to the knowledge system that characterizes the result of first language acquisition.

The concept of input to the language learner is examined with reference to some current theorizing about language processing and the idea of modular systems of knowledge. The question of what this can tell us about the actions taken by teachers and textbook writers is addressed specifically with regard to manipulating, or “enhancing,” the input ideally so that it will affect learner knowledge and thereby learner behavior. The logic of the argumentation is that, in exposing the learner to the second language, we are engaging a whole battery of different processing mechanisms. Input enhancement research and the conclusions drawn from it have to be set within the context of a modular view of language and language learning.

During the past decade and a half, a great deal of research has posited a developmental sequence approach in second language acquisition. Much of this research has proposed that certain linguistic structures are acquired in a natural immutable order while other linguistic structures are acquired variably as a result of a learner's orientation (Clahsen, Meisel, & Pienemann, 1983; Meisel, Clahsen, & Pienemann, 1981; Pienemann, 1984, 1985, 1987; Pienemann & Johnston, 1987). Proposals have been made for extending the model into language assessment and pedagogy (Clahsen, 1985; Pienemann, 1984, 1992; Pienemann & Johnston, 1987). The present study reexamines the original social-psychological research upon which the multidimensional model is based and shows that it is incorrect due to faulty analyses. Further, it examines the limited applicability and generalizability of the developmental sequence approach for assessment and pedagogy.

The study investigates the role of causal reasoning in second language (L2) narrative comprehension. Subjects read and recalled texts that were either high or low in causal coherence. This read-and-recall procedure was repeated. Half of the subjects reported their thoughts during reading. The major finding was that first language (L1) readers recalled the high coherence texts better than the low coherence texts. Advanced L2 readers showed a similar advantage for thehigh coherence texts, but only in their second reading. Intermediate readers' recall was lower and showed no advantage for highly coherent texts. The verbal report data generally supported these patterns. These results indicate that L2 readers have difficulty detecting the higher order causal structure in texts. This structure is a central component of L1 readers' mental representation of the information in a text. As L2 readers' skills improve, their ability to detect causal relations increases, although even advanced L2 readers may need a second reading to do so.

This study investigates the effects of simplification, type of linguistic item, and second language experience on learners' intake of linguistic items contained in written input. Learners at two levels of language experience were exposed to one of the following four conditions: a simplified or unsimplified reading passage with the present perfect tense form or a simplified or unsimplified reading passage with the present subjunctive form. To measure learners' intake, a repeated-measures analysis of variance was performed on the raw scores obtained on a task consisting of a pre- and posttest. The tests were a multiple-choice recognition assessment task. Significant main effects were found for type of passage and language experience, and there was a significant interaction between type of passage and task. Results suggest that simplification does not have a facilitating effect on learners' intake and that learners at different levels demonstrate a different pattern of performance while internalizing written input. Implications for pedagogical written materials and future research are also discussed.

In this paper we show that supplying positive evidence in the second language (L2) classroom does not necessarily trigger the appropriate L2 value of a parameter of Universal Grammar. The parameter we investigate is the verb movement parameter of Pollock (1989), which accounts for the fact that English and French adverbs differ as to where they occur in relation to the verb: In French the verb raises past the adverb, allowing the order SVAO but not SAV, whereas in English the verb does not raise, allowing SAV but not SVAO. Fifty-four francophone children (aged 11) in intensive English-as-a-second-language programs in Quebec, Canada, were exposed to a 2-week input flood of specially prepared materials containing English adverbs used naturalistically. No form-focused instruction or negative evidence on adverb placement was provided. Subjects were pretested immediately prior to the input flood, posttested immediately afterward, and again 3 weeks later, on four different tasks. On all tasks there is a change between pretest and posttest behavior, namely, a dramatic increase in use of the English SAV order but little or no decline in incorrect usage of SVAO. Results are also compared to groups reported in White (1991a, 1991b); the subjects in the present study differ from both groups in the previous studies. The results of the present study suggest that positive evidence does not serve to preempt the first language parameter setting in this case; acquiring the correct English SAV order did not lead to loss of incorrect SVAO. Implications of this result for theories of preemption and parameter setting in L2 acquisition are discussed.

This study investigated the generalizability of Gardner's socioeducational model for second language learning to a highly different social context from that in which the model was developed. Specifically, the study examined Jewish high school students in Israel learning Arabic as a foreign language in a setting characterized by a high degree of intergroup conflict. Four tenets were identified as forming the essential core of Gardner's theory. These we would expect to apply across widely differing contexts in order to support the generalizability of the model. Other elements in the model, as well as the degree of relationship between variables, may be specific to the social context. The main hypothesis posited an expanded version of Gardner's model that included additional constructs—both general and context specific.

The subjects for this study were 484 pupils studying Arabic in the 10th grade in regular high school programs. The instruments consisted of written questionnaires that were administered during two regular class periods. Teachers' marks were collected at the end of the school year. The hypothesis was tested using linear structural relations (or LISREL) causal modeling techniques. Regarding each of the four core elements in Gardner's theory, we concluded that the model was indeed generalizable to the context of this study. Other relationships between variables in the model are interpreted in light of the specific language learning context.

The relative effects of various types of negative feedback on the acquisition of the English dative alternation by 100 adult Spanish-speaking learners of English as a second language were investigated. Our objective was to determine empirically whether feedback can help learners learn the appropriate abstract constraints on an overgeneral rule. All subjects were trained on the alternation, which was presented in terms of a simple structural change. Subjects were divided into groups according to the type of feedback they received when they made an error. Specifically, upon making an error, Group A subjects were given explicit metalinguistic information about the generalization we hoped they would learn. Group B subjects were told that their response was wrong. Group C subjects were corrected when they erred, giving them a model of the response desired along with implicit negative evidence that their response was incorrect. Group D subjects, having made an error, were asked if they were sure about their response. The comparison group received no feedback.

This paper is a report on a quasi-experimental study designed to investigate contributions of form-focused instruction and corrective feedback to the development of interrogative constructions in the oral performance of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners. The subjects were young francophone learners of English (age 10–12) receiving intensive ESL instruction. Their accuracy and developmental progress in the use of interrogative structures was measured prior to a 2-week period of instructional treatment. Immediate and delayed posttests were administered after the instruction. The language produced by the instructors while teaching interrogative structures was examined in relation to the learners' oral performance. Similar analyses were carried out with a comparison group. The results support the hypothesis that form-focused instruction and corrective feedback provided within the context of communicative interaction can contribute positively to second language development in both the short and long term.

The study reported here extends Tyler and Bro's (1992) investigation of the sources of native speakers' perceptions of incoherence in English text produced by nonnative speakers. Using paper-and-pencil tasks, the original study examined two competing hypotheses: (a) The primary source of interference was the order in which the ideas were presented versus (b) the primary source of interference was mismatches in discourse structuring cues. They found no effect for order of ideas but a strong effect of discourse structuring cues. In the present study, 80 subjects were tested on the same texts as those used in Tyler and Bro (1992) but using microcomputers. Subjects rated the text for comprehensibility and answered three questions concerning the propositional content. The computer format represented a more sensitive measure of subjects' reactions to the text because it did not allow looking back and because it provided information concerning differences in reading time for each manipulation. Once again, the results of the comprehensibility ratings showed a strong effect for miscues and no significant effect for order of ideas. Results of the true/false questions indicated that presence of miscues affected subjects' comprehension of the propositional content but that order of ideas had no discernible effect. Finally, reading time results also showed a strong effect for miscues and a mixed effect for order of ideas, suggesting that order of ideas does make a minor contribution to comprehensibility.