Search results for "kieli"

Dynamic Usage-based Principles in the Development of L2 Finnish Evaluative Constructions

2021

Abstract This study investigates the formal verbalizations of evaluation used by four beginning L2 learners of Finnish from a dynamic usage-based perspective. Longitudinal data collected weekly were used to investigate what kind of constructions learners use to express evaluation and how these interact and develop over time. The results show that when a new construction is acquired in the L2, another related construction might regress. The results also point to increased variability in the construction during a phase of rapid development and reduced variability in the phases of regression or slower progress. These findings add to our understanding of a developing L2 as a system in which cha…

To correct or to cooperate : Mediational processes and L2 development

2018

The present article argues for a conceptual distinction between corrective feedback and mediation that emphasizes the status of the latter not as an instructional practice but as a defining feature of human psychology (Vygotsky, 1987) that has direct implications for how instruction might be approached. Specifically, Sociocultural Theory (SCT) posits that humans are always and everywhere mediated, as individuals draw upon meanings and ways of thinking they have already internalized as well as those that are available in their immediate environment to regulate their actions. With regard to second language (L2) education, rather than exclusively focusing on learner independent performance or…

Kazoo training for L2 pronunciation practice and reduced foreign accentedness?

2019

This paper presents a controlled pretest–training–posttest study on using a small membraphone instrument called kazoo for L2 pronunciation practice and reducing foreign accentedness. Learners were recorded for free speech before and after a six-week pronunciation and oral skills course including L2 prosody training with personal kazoos. A control group did not receive any kazoo training but did similar tasks in regular speech. Samples of all learners’ free speech before and after the course were rated for foreign accentedness by L1 speakers. In addition, learners taking part in the kazoo group were interviewed in focus groups to ascertain their views on kazoo training. The results imply tha…

Connecting the Language Classroom and the Wild : Re-enactments of Language Use Experiences

2018

AbstractUsing multimodal conversation analysis, this article analyses language learning as an in situ process during a teacher-assigned, experientially based pedagogical activity. The activity involved a three-part pedagogical structure, where learners first prepared for and then participated in real-life service encounters, and later reflected on their experiences back in the classroom. The analysis details how the co-constructed telling sequences through which novice second language users re-enact their experiences create an occasion for language-focused activity. We argue that the actions through which the participants display and sustain an orientation to an interactional practice as an…

Second Language Prosody and its Development : Connection between Different Aspects

2018

This study focuses on the development of L2 prosody and, in particular, whether different aspects can affect each other. Finnish-speaking learners of Swedish took part in a pronunciation and oral skills course and were recorded for various speaking tasks before and after the experimental intervention. Read-aloud declarative sentences (statements) from nine learners were acoustically analysed for several tonal and temporal aspects, focusing on the marking of primary stress. The results reveal that the learning of Swedish tonal word accent 2 (H*LH) facilitates other tonal developments towards native-like utterance intonation. A link between tonal and temporal developments in the marking of pr…

The role of motor system in action-related language comprehension in L1 and L2: An fMRI study

2018

The framework of embodied cognition has challenged the modular view of a language-cognition divide by suggesting that meaning-retrieval critically involves the sensory-motor system. Despite extensive research into the neural mechanisms underlying language-motor coupling, it remains unclear how the motor system might be differentially engaged by different levels of linguistic abstraction and language proficiency. To address this issue, we used fMRI to quantify neural activations in brain regions underlying motor and language processing in Chinese-English speakers’ processing of literal, metaphorical, and abstract language in their L1 and L2. Results overall revealed a response in motor ROIs …

"We really had a great week together, didn't we?" : the development of questions in texts written by adult learners of English as a second language

2011

Toisen kielen kehityksen tasoja on tutkittu jo vuosikymmenien ajan ja kysymyslauseet ovat olleet yksi alan keskeisimpiä tutkimuskohteita. Pienemannin, Johnstonin ja Brindleyn vuonna 1988 esittelemä kysymyslauseiden kuusiportainen kategorisointi niiden kehitystason mukaisesti on vaikuttanut todella suuresti alalla tehtyyn tutkimukseen aina tähän päivään saakka. Myöhemmissä tutkimuksissa, esimerkiksi Lightbown ja Spada (1993), on selvitetty että uusien tasojen oppiminen tapahtuu järjestelmällisesti ja että kielen oppija ei voi hypätä minkään kehitystason yli. Uusi kehitystaso ei myöskään korvaa aiempia tasoja vaan liittyy niiden jatkeeksi. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli jatkaa kysymyslau…

Ajanilmaukset Cefling-hankkeen koululaisaineistossa

2010

Tutkimuksessani tarkastelen suomenoppijoiden (S2) käyttämiä ajanilmauksia. Työni pohjana ovat Cefling-hankkeen aineistona olleet nuorten (7.–9. lk) kirjoitelmat. Cefling-hanke pyrkii selvittämään, kuinka toisen ja vieraan kielen oppijan kielitaito kehittyy taitotasolta toiselle. Tutkin aineistoa DEMfad-mallin (Franceschina 2006) avulla eli lasken ajanilmausten taajuuden, tarkkuuden ja jakauman. Taajuus (engl. frequency) selvitetään suhteuttamalla ajanilmausten esiintymämääriä 1000 sanaa kohti. Aineiston tarkkuus (engl. accuracy) selviää, kun lasketaan kuinka usein tietty ajanilmaus on oikea tuhatta (1000) sanaa kohti. Aineiston jakaumaa eli distribuutiota tarkastelen laadullisesti. Selvitän…

Suomi toisena kielenä -oppijoiden possessiivisuffiksin käyttö

2012

Words, clauses, sentences, and T-units in learner language: Precise and objective units of measure?

2020

In research on learner language complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF), syntactic complexity is often studied with quantitative measures based on words, clauses, sentences, and T-units. The findings have been mixed, but segmenting learner language into these units of measure has seldom been problematised, even if the need for accurate coding is well known. The present study explores words, clauses, sentences, and T-units as production units in written learner language using a corpus of 352 L2 Finnish texts (28,813 words). The results illustrate how written learner language can be hard to fit into the production unit categories, which are essential for the most frequently used quantitative m…