Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Gisela Hkansson
Lund University
Do language learners really develop from less complex to more complex language?
Language development is often described in the CAF triad
Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency
Is subordination complex?
As a general rule, hypotactic constructions are considered more complex than paratactic constructions; thus subordination can be regarded as a feature of complexity (e.g. Givn 1979).
But what about learner language?
Subordination is not a valid measure for languages like Finnish, since subordination in Finnish does not demand changes in word order or morphology just the learning of the subjunction (Martin et al 2010)
Research questions:
RQ 1. Is subordination a valid measure for L2 Swedish?
RQ 2. Is language complexity in the form of subordination restricted by grammatical prociency or is it an individual feature and the same in L1 and L2 ?
4 S-procedure
Grammatical information between phrases (pred agr, INVERSION)
3 Phrasal procedure
Gram information between words, within phrases (attr agreement)
2 Category procedure
No gram information between words (past, plural)
Results
Subordination
At Time I, low levels of subordination (compared to NS) in all learners except for Brett.
At Time II, Jenni and Lynn have more subordinate clauses, Brett and Jason fewer
0,6 0,5 0,4 0,3 0,2 0,1 0 Brett Jenni Jason Lynn NS g5 sublcl PT
PT
Brett & Jenni no PT development Jason & Lynn from stage 4 to 5
0,6 0,5 0,4 0,3 0,2 0,1 0 Brett2 Jenni2 Jason2 Lynn2 NS g5 sublcl PT
Combination
Brett +/- PT, - subordination
Jennie +/- PT, +/- subordination
Jason + PT, - subordination
Lynn + PT, + subordination
Vem jag var liten, 3 eller 4 r, jag tyckte om segel btar. Jag hade en liten matroskostym och en matroshatt vid jag stta p mig varje plats gick jag
(Vem should be nr, vid should be som)
When I was young, 3 or 4 years, I liked sailing boats. I had a small costume and a sailers hat which I put on whereever I went
Summarizing:
Some learners increase their use of subordinate clauses when reaching stage 5 and are able also to use the internal subclause word order (Lynn)
Some learners - risk-takers - use subordinate clauses at stage 3 (Brett)
Some learners - avoiders - decrase their use of subordinate clauses at all when they approach stage 5 (Jason)
Data collection
written essays My weekend , A trip I cannot come to the lecture
First in L2 Swedish, then in L1
Why
Analyses
Complexity measures
sentence length
subordination
Grammaticality
topicalization (Level 3 in PT)
inversion (Level 4 in PT)
Results
Complexity
Sentence length
All participants have longer sentences in their L1 essays than in the L2 essays
Subordination
Seven learners have more subordination in L1 than in L2
Eight learners have the same amount of subordination in L1 and L2
PT levels
Topicalization (level 3 ADV)
14 out of 15 learners have more topicalization in L1 than in L2
Inversion (level 4)
All German learners had more inversion in L1 than in L2
Gestern waren wir auf einem Konzert das auch sehr gut war
11 words/sentence, inverted word order, subordinate clause
This means that their restricted grammar is not a hindrance for language complexity in lower level learners
On the contrary!
One can speculate whether lower level grammar implies less awareness of one s own restrictions
Summary of results
RQ1. Comparison L2 complexity and PT level
No clear relation between complexity (degree of subordination) and PT level
Thank you!