maria dolores garcía-pastor selisteán teodora …cont.) spanish secondary education learners in...

Maria Dolores García-Pastor

Selisteán Teodora Rodica

Faculty of Education

University of Valencia

M.D. García-Pastor, T.R. Selisteán © 2013

http://iated.org/inted2013

Introduction

Summary:

Research on L1 Spanish students’ errors in

English as a foreign language (EFL) written

assignments in Secondary Education, more

specifically, the 2nd year of the so-called

“Bachillerato” (12th grade in North-America,

year 13 in British High School)


Theoretical background

Second Language Acquisition (SLA)

Error analysis (Corder, 1967; James, 1998;

Richards, 1974) and transfer analysis

(Selinker, 1972, 1983)

Second Language Writing (SLW)

Product-oriented v. process-oriented

perspective on writing (Polio, 2003)



Justification:

Learner errors can provide useful information

on students’ learning process (Ellis, 1985)

Teachers can better raise learners’ awareness

of the features of the target language

Knowing more about learner errors can thus

contribute to learners’ progress towards

language proficiency


Basic concepts:

Learner language: version of the target language

which is used or known by the learner

Errors & mistakes (Corder, 1967; Council of

Europe, 2001):

Errors: systematic distorted representations of

the target competence inherent to language

learning

Mistakes: errors of performance due to memory

lapses, physical states or psychological

conditions



Research questions:

RQ1. Which are the most frequent errors in terms of

transfer or intralingual errors in students’ written

productions in EFL, and which are the linguistic categories

most affected by them?

RQ2. Does the length of the writing task have an influence

in the quality of writing as regards the number of errors

made?

RQ3. Do time constraints have an influence on accuracy

and on the variety of specific vocabulary used in writing

tasks?


Methods

Subjects

42 Spanish students

Grade: 2nd year of “Bachillerato” in Spanish Secondary

Education (12th grade 13 in North-America, year 13 in

British High School)

Level: A1/A2 of the CEFR (Council of Europe, 2001)

Data:

56 opinion essays (incidental sample: 12 essays)

Fieldnotes

Spontaneous interviews with the students


Methods

Analysis (Ellis, 2001):


Methods

1

2

3

Error identification

Error description (grammatical errors & other errors)

Error explanation (Transfer analysis & intralingual

errors)

RQ1: Which are the most frequent errors (transfer or

intralingual) in students’ written productions in EFL,

and which are the linguistic categories most affected

by them?

Intralingual errors outnumbered transfer errors

Morphology was the linguistic area most affected

by errors on the whole, contrary to some research

findings


Results

Morphology: the linguistic category most affected by error


Results

Results

• Intralingual errors outnumbered transfer

errors in general

• Morphology: intralingual errors are the

most frequent

• Syntax and lexis: transfer errors are the

most frequent

0

5

10

15

20

INTRALINGUAL TRANSFER

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

INTRALINGUAL TRANSFER TRANSFER/INTRALINGUAL

MORPHOLOGY

SYNTAX

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

INTRALINGUAL TRANSFER

LEXIS


RQ2: Does the length of the writing task have an

influence in the quality of writing as regards the

number of errors made?

The percentage of error occurrence in shorter

essays was higher than in longer essays

There is a relationship between students’ level of

proficiency and the length of their essays

Longer essays revealed a higher level of

proficiency

Results


• The percentage of error occurrence in shorter essays

was higher than in longer essays

ERRORS IN SHORTER ESSAYS ERRORS IN LONGER ESSAYS

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

WORDS ERROR PERCENTAGE

0

50

100

150

200

250

WORDS ERROR PERCENTAGE


Results

RQ3: Do time constraints have an influence on

accuracy and on the variety of specific

vocabulary used in writing tasks?

Yes, they do: learners’ linguistic accuracy in written

assignments at home was superior to that of their

written assignments in tests

Errors affected linguistic categories less in

students’ texts at home than in students’ texts in

tests.

Results


Spanish Secondary Education learners in their 2nd year of “Bachillerato”:

mostly make intralingual v. transfer errors in EFL writing, which indicates a general decreasing reliance on L1

most errors are morphological,

morphological errors are mainly intralingual errors

syntactic and lexical errors are mainly transfer errors, which signals greater reliance on L1 in these linguistic areas


Conclusions

(Cont.) Spanish Secondary Education learners in

their 2nd year of “Bachillerato”:

write shorter essays if their level of proficiency is

not high, making more errors in these essays

write longer essays if their level of proficiency is

high, making less errors in these essays

show greater linguistic accuracy in their texts at

home than in their texts in tests with errors

affecting linguistic categories less in the former

than in the latter


Conclusions

Implications of this study

Teachers should foster learners’ development of

morphology in this educational stage

Teachers should work on syntax and lexis in a

more contextualized and comprehensive manner,

so that learners become less reliant on their L1

Teachers should promote written assignments for

homework in this educational stage


Conclusions

THANK YOU FOR YOUR

ATTENTION

Council of Europe (2001): Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Corder, S. P. (1967): “The significance of learner errors”, IRAL, 4, 161-170.

Ellis, R. (1985): Understanding second language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon.

Ellis, R. (2001): The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University

Press.

James, C. (1998): Errors in Language Learning and Use. Exploring Error Analysis.

Harlow: Pearson Education.

Kroll, B. (1997): “What does time buy? ESL student performance on home versus class

compositions”. In Kroll, B. (ed.), Second Language Writing: Research Insights for

the Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 140-154.

Richards , J.C. (1974): Error Analysis. Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition.

London: Longman.

Russell , J. & Spada, N. (2006): “The effectiveness of corrective feedback for the

acquisition of L2 grammar: a metanalysis of the research”. In Norris, J.M. & Ortega,

L. (eds.), Synthesizing Research on Language Learning and Teaching. Amsterdam:

John Benjamins, 133-164.

Selinker, L. (1972): “Interlanguage”, IRAL, 10, 209-231.

Selinker, L. (1983): Language Transfer in Language Learning. Rowley, MA: Newbury

House. M.D. García-Pastor, T.R. Selisteán © 2013

References

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