Second and Foreign
Language Data:
Different Ways to Collect and Analyze
Data
10-0313
Roger
Gass, S. M., & Selinker, L. (2008). Second language acquisition: An
introductory course (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge.
1
Before we go into the textbook
• What mistakes do your Ss often make when
learning English?
• What do your Ss’ mistakes tell you?
• How do you correct Ss when they make
mistakes?
• How do SL or FL learners learn the Lang?
• Can Ss’ mistakes bring us a master degree?
2
How to Collect Data:
Longitudinal studies
• What are longitudinal studies? (Patty)
• Strengths
– Determining developmental trends
– Interpreting various social constraint and input
influences
• Drawbacks
– Time-consuming
– Limited subjects
– Grammar mistakes vs. Slips of tongue (p.75)
• More quantitative or qualitative?
3
How to Collect Data:
Cross-Sectional Studies
• What are cross-sectional studies?
• Strengths
– Investigate a large No. of Ss at one time
– Gain controlled output
• Drawbacks
– No detailed info about participants’ learning
– Limited linguistic environment
• More qualitative or quantitative?
• Longitudinal or Cross-Sectional? Combine?
4
Activities to Collect Data
• Past tense
– what they did at weekends
• Narratives
– describe pictures/retell a story
• Semantic unit
– repeat a long sentence
– summarize a paragraph
5
Ways to Collect Data
• Language tasks (pair/group)
– Picture-description task
• Differences in 2 identical pictures
• Describe one’s picture for partner to draw
– Group discussion to reach consensus
• 10 people on an island need to get off (p.62)
• Money distribution (see CCDL handout)
– Computer-mediated communication (CMC)
6
Ways to Collect Data
• Social variables
– Age/gender differences
– Specific area (speech acts): discourse completion
questionnaire (p.63)
• Reaction
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Sentence matching
Decision task
Comprehension tests
Intuitional tasks (p.64, p.68)
Ranking
Judgment / true-value (p. 67 himself)
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Ways to Collect Data
• Verbal/Introspective report
– Recall
– Think aloud protocol
• Measurement for non-linguistic information
– Questionnaire
– Interviews
– Diaries
• Proficiency measurement:
– Standardized language tests
8
Replication
• Why do we want to redo others’ studies?
– The No. of participants
– Nature of SL knowledge (not definite)
– Different individuals
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Issues in Data Analysis
• Development of SLA (vs. L1 acquisition)
– No MLU to count
– No broad-sweeping similarities
• Standardized tests/Placement tests
• T-unit for oral data (p.73)
• Communication strategies in conversation
– Verbal cues
– appropriateness
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Discussions
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