Bolin, Matt
LING 566: Dr. Klein
February 11, 2015
Plenty of Possible Proposals
#1 What are the actual benefits of talking to yourself in L2?
I would be interested in researching the effects of talking to one’s self in the L2. I used to talk to
myself constantly in L2 in order to self-correct common errors in everyday speech. While many
people laugh at this idea, it proved to be an invaluable asset for me in my language learning.
#2 Does explicit grammar instruction have a place in a primarily fluency-based classroom?
Last semester, I looked at many research papers and one thing I found rather intriguing was the
idea that explicit grammar instruction was ineffective in fluency classrooms. The studies found
that the students were more receptive to figuring out grammar points on their own rather than
being told the exact rules. I would be curious to look into this matter further and perhaps draw up
some kind of literature review that could act as the precursor to my study proposal.
#3 Should we be looking at language as a whole rather than at individual aspects when it
comes to research?
Since language is a dynamic thing, many researchers have argued that by taking apart one aspect
of a language and “proving” the reasons behind certain phenomena, researchers are actually
missing the bigger picture. Complexity theory is what I would like to look at more in-depth.