Input Processing Theory Input Processing Theory VanPatten’s (1996) Input Processing Theory is based on the standard information processing viewpoint. Namely, working memory is limited in capacity (at least in terms of each modality), making it difficult for learners to attend concurrently to different stimuli in the input. He identified ‘detection’ as the key attentional process,…
Infants’ Language Learning | TESL Issues Infants’ Language Learning | TESL Issues All normal children appear to contain within themselves the ability to create a language in spite of wide variations in experience. External auditory simulation is available to the fetus, although attenuated (Armitage, Baldwin & Vince, 1980, p. 1173). Mother’s voice is a prominent…
Genie and Critical Period Hypothesis Genie Born in 1957, Genie experienced extreme deprivation beginning at about twenty months of age when she was confined to a dark room in the back of a house, harnessed to a potty seat by day and strapped in a sleeping bag in a caged crib at night, until she…
IELTS Speaking Test Sample | Video Games IELTS Speaking Test Sample | Video Games IELTS Candidate: Arash Watch this video on YouTube Part 1: Introduction Questions: So your name is Arash, right? Do you know any other languages, apart from English? Do you know Polish? Did you take any classes to learn Polish? Didn’t you…
Individual Differences Individual Differences Learners clearly differ enormously in their preferred approach to L2 learning, but it is impossible to say which learning style works best (Ellis, 2008). One of the major problems is that the concept of ‘learning style’ is ill-defined, apparently overlapping with other individual differences of both an affective and a cognitive…
Socio-Educational Model of L2 Learning Socio-Educational Model by Gardner reflects the results of work begun at McGill University in Montreal in the 1950s and still carried on today. Gardner’s model was developed to explain L2 learning in classroom settings, in particular the foreign language classroom. It exists in several versions (Gardner, 1979, 1983, 1985). The…
Acknowledgements Acknowledgements is a section in which people who have helped with the research are thanked. Researchers often wish to thank: Their participants Any colleague who may have read earlier drafts of the work and offered suggestions or feedback Any assistant, including students, colleagues, or co-workers, who may have helped with data collection, materials development,…
Error Analysis Error Analysis (EA) The history of error analysis dates back from the late 1960s. Corder spelt out the theoretical rationale and empirical procedures for carrying out an error analysis. Corder (1967) noted that errors provided the researcher with evidence of who language was learnt, and also that they served as devices by which…
Form-Focused Instruction Form-Focused Instruction Traditionally, language pedagogy has emphasized form-focused instruction. The Grammar-Translation Method and the Audiolingual Method both involve attempts to teach learners grammar, differing only in how this is to be accomplished (Ellis, 1997). Form-focused Instruction is in contrast with ‘naturalistic learning’. It intends to examine whether instruction could change the natural order…
Postmethod Pedagogy Postmethod pedagogy allows us to go beyond and overcome the limitations of method-based pedagogy. Within such a broad-based definition, Kumaravadivelu (2003) visualizes postmethod pedagogy as a 3-dimentional system consisting of pedagogic parameters of: Particularity: The parameter of particularity requires that any language pedagogy must be sensitive to a particular group of teachers teaching…