Planning, recasts and learning of L2 morphology

1. This presentation will probably involve audience discussion, which will create action items. Use PowerPoint to keep track of these action items during your presentation • In Slide Show, click on the right mouse button • Select “Meeting Minder” • Select the “Action Items” tab • Type in action items as they come up • Click OK to dismiss this box • This will automatically create an Action Item slide at the end of your presentation with your points entered. Planning, recasts and learning of L2 morphology Natalia Romanova University of Maryland romanova@umd.edu

2. Focus Task Complexity (+/-planning) ? ? L2 learning + ? Focus on Form (Recast)

3. Motivation • much research of the effects of recasts on interlanguage development (Long, 2007) • much research of task complexity variables on learner’s production (Ellis, 2003) • much research on the effect of planning time on learners’ production (Ellis, 1987; 2003; Mehnert, 1998; Ortega, 1999; Wendel, 1997; Yuan and Ellis, 2003) but • pre-task planning was typically conflated with online planning • little research of effectiveness of recasts in relation to task complexity (Revesz and Han, 2006; Revesz, 2006; 2009)

4. Goals of the study • explores the relationship between task complexity and L2 learning to explore the effects of type of planning on L2 morphological development • isolates planning time available before and during task performance as an independent variable • seeks to determine whether the availability of planning time and type of planning may • enhance the salience of corrective feedback, • promote the noticing of recasts and • facilitate acquisition of complex morphosyntactic forms.

5. Recasts: impact • gaps between their interlanguage and target language forms • facilitation of form-function mapping • destabilization and consequent restructuring of the IL grammar

6. Recasts: factors of effectiveness Research to date suggests that recasts can facilitate L2 development, but their efficacy is a function of several internal and external variables. • learners’ internal factors • L1 • level of L2 proficiency • age • working memory capacity • developmental readiness • external factors • type of linguistic features • context • task variables

7. Planning and language production pre-task planning directed at the conceptualization stage online planning engages both conceptualizing and careful formulation monitoring rapid planning limited processing time LTM is accessed mainly for lexical material

8. Task characteristics: attention

9. + planning time - planning time Single resource model: Multiple resources model: Single resource model: Multiple resources model: frees attentional resources that can be devoted to language form frees attention and directs it to particular aspects of the language depletes attentional resources that can be devoted to L2 form depletes attention and disperses it over non-specific areas of L2 Predictions regarding L2 accuracy Promotes accuracy Degrades accuracy

10. Predictions regarding recasts Single resource model less complex tasks encourage focus on form, and may lead to noticing, uptake and retention of input made salient by recasts Cognition Hypothesis more complex tasks along resource-dispersing dimensions will facilitate automatization of, and real-time access to, an already established and developing IL system more complex tasks along resource-directing dimensions will direct learners’ attention to language analysis which will eventually lead to the development of new L2 form-function mappings more complex tasks may prompt learners to look for more and more help in the input, attending to facilitative forms made salient by recasts more complex tasks along resource-directing, and in general, too, along resource dispersing dimensions promote noticing, uptake and retention of input made salient by recasts.

11. Studies exploring the effect of task complexity on L2 learning Revesz (2007; 2009): examined how the task variable +/− contextual support combined with recasting affects L2 morphosyntactic development. Learners who received recasts but were not receiving contextual support outperformed learners who received both recasts and contextual support. Nuevo (2006): did not detect an effect for task complexity; focused on a resource-directing dimension

12. Research Questions Does the availability of planning time before or during the task have a differential effect on the acquisition of morphological forms made salient in the input by recasts? A. Do learners who are exposed to focused recasts on their L2 output in the pre-task planning (PP) condition show greater short-term L2 development than learners who are exposed to recasts in the no planning (NP) condition? B. Do learners who are exposed to focused recasts on their L2 output during online task planning (OP condition) show greater short-term L2 development than learners who do not have an opportunity for online planning (NP condition)? 2.Does type of planning (when planning takes place) have a differential effect on the acquisition of morphological forms made salient in the input by recasts? Do learners who are exposed to focused recasts on their L2 output during online planning (OP) condition and learners who engage in pre-task planning (PP) condition show similar short-term L2 development?

13. Hypotheses 1. A. The PP group will show greater improvement than the NP group. B. The OP group will show greater improvement than the NP group. 2. The OP group will show greater improvement than the PP group.

14. Design Pre-test-posttest-delayed posttest design 2 (time: pre-test, post-test) x 3 (planning type: pre-task, online, no planning) factorial repeated measures ANOVA time as a within-subjects factor and type of planning as a between-subject factor DV: learners’ accuracy of the target forms Treatment: recasts of deviant verb forms during online story-telling task. DV: accuracy in the use the target form.

15. Participants • 3 groups • PP group (N=13) • OP group (N=13) • NP group (N=13) • Homogeneous language background • Native speakers of English • Mean age: 21.2 • F=23, M=16 • Two-five semesters of Russian • Similar instructional background • (the same two-volume, introductory Russian-language textbook “Golosa”) • No study abroad experience • No or minimal exposure to Russian outside the classroom • Developmentally ready • Random assignment to conditions to control for possible covariates

16. Target form Russian: 3d person singular form of the present tense verbs of the unproductive –a- class low perceptual salience low frequency morphologically complex (it has an automatic truncation at the juncture of the stem and the ending, mutation of the root-final consonant and a stress shift) has no communicative value Involves learning a probabilistic rule, or concrete co-occurrence patterns which favors implicit learning as opposed to learning abstract categorical rules that seem to be best learned explicitly (DeKeyser, 1998) is difficult to acquire solely from exposure to input (Long and Robinson, 1998): typical errors are the use of a different conjugation pattern in place of –a- pattern, errors in consonant mutation, missing mutation or incorrect mutation (Gor and Chernigovskaya, 2003; 2004; Gor, 2007; Romanova, 2004; 2008).

17. Target form Infinitive 3rd person, singular, Present piSa+t piS-a + et = piSHet = pisAu

18. Data collection • Orally • About 60 minutes per participant • Language background questionnaire • Language proficiency test • Pre-test: answer the questions task and picture description task • Treatment session: picture description task • Exit questionnaire (what they planned, focused on and noticed) • Post-test given immediately after the treatment, • Delayed post-test two weeks later (N=22).

19. Stimuli Real verbs: 12 Nonce verbs: 24 (12 X2) created by manipulating one or two initial consonants. Each set has verbs representing 3 mutation types: 4 verbs with root final –t-, 4 verbs with root final –к-, both mutating to –ch-, and 4 verbs with root final bilabial –b-, -p-,-m- that add –l-. Examples: xnykat’ – (on) xnych+et, dremat’ – (on) drem+l+et. Paired real and nonce verbs were not used in the same task, The same real verbs were not used in the same test, and The same nonce verbs were not used in the pre- and post-tests.

20. Pre-/post-tests A story narrative task • two sets of 12 pictures • 6 real verbs (different for each set) and 6 distracters provided with the pictures. An answer-the-questions task • two lists of 36 questions counterbalanced across the tests • 12 questions require the use of the target verbs (6 real verbs and 6 nonce verbs), and 24 distracters require the use of nouns in oblique cases, adjectives and adverbs. The order of the tasks is counterbalanced across the participants.

21. Answer the questions task Please give short one-word responses (if appropriate) to the following questions. Examples: Q: Наташа любит чипАть. Что она сейчас делает? A: ЧипАет. Q:Андрей хочет смотреть телевизор. Что он сейчас делает? A: Смотрит телевизор. Q: Вмагазин привезли компьютеры. Где сейчас компьютеры? A: Вмагазине.

22. Picture description task

23. Treatment task • 24 pictures, 24 words/expressions, 12 target real verbs • Planning conditions • NP condition: no pre-task planning 20 sec. to describe each picture • PP condition: 5-10 minutes of pre-task planning 20 sec. to describe each picture • OP condition: no pre-task planning no time pressure to describe each picture

24. Method – treatment task

25. Data coding and analysis • 1 point for the correct use of the verb form (-a- class conjugational pattern + correct mutation) and • 0 points for an incorrect use of the –a- class pattern (including incorrect mutation). • Analysis of interlanguage development: all instances of attempted use of the –a- class pattern were counted.

26. Treatment 2 number of correct forms during treatment *accuracy score at the immediate posttest (r=.684, p=0.00), number of attempted forms during treatment * number of attempted forms at the posttest (r=.422, p=0.01).

27. 2

28. Results • accuracy has improved overall from 0.51 to 4.1 • there is a difference between how the treatment affected the groups: • a dramatic increase in accuracy on the posttest for the OP and PP groups but not for the NP group. • no difference between the groups on the pretest • a difference between the performance of the NP group and the two planning groups on the posttest.

29. Results • The main effect for time in the tests of within-subjects effects: • F(1, 36)=37.028; p=.000, Eta-squared= .507, observed power=1; • The effect for time * condition interaction: • F(1, 36)=5.114; p=.011, Eta-squared=.211, observed power= .8 • The main effect for planning in the tests of between-subjects effects: • F(1, 36)=3.869, p=.03, Eta-squared=.177, observed power=.663. • Pairwise comparisons: • OP and NP are significantly different (p=.042) • PP and OP and PP and NP difference is not significant • performance on the immediate posttest is significantly different from the pretest p<.005)

30. Results 2

31. Results • The main effect for time in the tests of within-subjects effects: • F(1, 18)=15.07; p=.001, Eta-squared= .456, observed power=.956 (pretest-posttest-delayed posttest scores); • The effect for time * condition interaction: • F(1, 18)=2.846; p=.083, • The main effect for planning in the tests of between-subjects effects: • F(1, 18)=3.2849, p=.060 • Pairwise comparisons: • OP and NP are significantly different (p=.023) • PP and OP or PP and NP are not significantly different • performance on both posttests is significantly different from pretest (p=.000 for pretest-immediate posttest comparison) and p=.003 for pretest-delayed posttest comparison) • performance on posttest and delayed post test was not significantly different.

32. Interlanguage development –attempted target forms 2 • Effects of: • time: F(1,36)=36.641, p=.000, Eta squared= .504, power=1 • time*condition: F(1, 36)=4.540, p=.017, Eta squared=.201, power=.737

33. Exit questionnaire Focus 2 focus* treatment accuracy: Spearman r= .327 (sig) focus* posttest accuracy: Spearman r=.400 (sig)

34. Exit questionnaire Noticing 2 noticing* modified output: Spearman r =. 365, p=0.02.

35. Exit questionnaire Learning 2 learning * number of correct forms produced during the treatment (Spearman r=.340, p=0.03) and at the posttest (r=.360, p=0.02).

36. Conclusions • The availability of planning – regardless of whether it was before or during the task – decreases cognitive load and task complexity, releases attentional resources and predispose learners to monitor the accuracy of production and notice recasts in the input, which leads to the restructuring of IL grammar and facilitates the learning of target forms. • The unavailability of planning time depletes the attentional resources, dispersing the attention available, and results in poor learning of morphological forms targeted by recasts.

37. Conclusions • These results are in line with the single resource model and contrary to predictions of the Cognition Hypothesis. • Online planning that engages both conceptualizing and careful formulation and monitoring may better assist learners in noticing gaps in their L2 knowledge than the availability of pretask planning time directed primarily at conceptualizing.

38. Limitations and next steps • No control group • No recast group • Focus during task performance matters • Results may have been modulated by • group responses to feedback • working memory limitations • language proficiency

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