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Exploring second language learning in children: The role of input structure, learning schedules and explicit instruction

探索儿童第二语言学习：输入结构、学习时间表和显性指令的作用

基本信息

批准号：
ES/K013637/2
负责人：
Elizabeth Wonnacott
金额：
$ 44.13万
依托单位：
University College London
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2014
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2014 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FK013637%2F2
关键词：
Exploring second language learning children

项目摘要

Learning a second language is a useful skill. Not only does it give you more opportunities in education and work, but it may also benefit other skills, such as improving your ability to switch rapidly between two or more task (a skill known as "executive control"). Yet in recent years there has been a marked decline in the number of secondary school pupils taking modern foreign language exams in England.In July 2012 the Education secretary unveiled plans to introduce modern foreign language teaching in primary schools, from age 7+. One motivation for this change is that research has shown that children are more successful than adults at learning languages in naturalistic environments (e.g., when immersed in a different language as a result of moving to a new country). However, it is not yet known why children are better language learners in this situation. There is also some evidence suggesting that this advantage for younger learners may not hold in the classroom.We plan to carry out a set of language learning experiments to explore which factors promote successful language learning in two age groups; 11 year olds (the age at which children currently (typically) begin second language learning in school), and 7 year olds (the age at which second language will begin in school if the proposed changes in the national curriculum are implemented). In each experiment, we will compare how well groups of English-speaking children of each age learn some aspect of a new language (either Japanese or Italian). Across the experiments we will see how changes to training materials and procedures (but not the amount of exposure) lead to better/worse learning in each age-group.One experiment set will examine how details of the specific utterances which the children hear leads to different types of learning. For example, previous work suggests that it is important to hear new language structures with a variety of different words, otherwise they may not be learned and used in a general manner. However increased variety also means increased complexity, and this may particularly hinder younger learners who have lower processing capacity. Our experiments will explore this trade-off and investigate what type of "input structure" leads to better learning in each age group.The second experiment set will explore how different learning schedules might affect learning. More specifically, we will explore whether information about a new language is consolidated overnight while we sleep. Using these findings we will then carry out studies looking at whether spreading learning out over multiple learning sessions, and thus including more periods of interleaved sleep, is beneficial; this will speak directly to the way in which language classes are scheduled in schools (i.e., is it better to have one long language class per week or lots of short classes spread out over multiple days).Finally, we will examine whether explicit instruction about the new language is useful. In the previous experiments, children will have been passively exposed to the language, mirroring a more naturalistic learning environment. However there is evidence that explicit instruction is useful for adult language learners, though less is known for children's learning. Our final experiments will add in explicit instruction and see if this aids learning for either 7 or 11 year old learners. For instance, is it useful to explicitly tell children about differences between word order in English ("the girl carries the boy") and Japanese ("the girl the boy carries"), or is it better to let them find and use these new patterns on their own? We are particularly interested in looking at which type of learning produces the most native-like language competency at the end of the study. It may be that explicit instruction is more effective than no instruction in the early stages of learning, but that no instruction results in more native-like competence by the end of the study.

学习第二语言是一项有用的技能。这不仅会给你提供更多的教育和工作机会，还可能会让你的其他技能受益，比如提高你在两项或更多任务之间快速切换的能力(一种被称为“执行控制”的技能)。然而，近年来，参加英国现代外语考试的中学生人数明显减少。2012年7月，英国教育大臣公布了从7岁以上开始在小学引入现代外语教学的计划。这一变化的一个动机是，研究表明，在自然环境中(例如，由于搬到一个新的国家而沉浸在一种不同的语言中)，儿童在学习语言方面比成年人更成功。然而，目前还不清楚为什么儿童在这种情况下会更好地学习语言。也有一些证据表明，对于较年轻的学习者来说，这一优势可能在课堂上并不存在。我们计划进行一系列语言学习实验，以探索哪些因素在两个年龄段促进成功的语言学习：11岁(儿童目前(通常)开始在学校学习第二语言的年龄)和7岁(如果国家课程改革建议的变化得到实施，第二语言开始在学校学习的年龄)。在每个实验中，我们将比较各个年龄段的说英语的儿童群体学习一门新语言(无论是日语还是意大利语)的水平。在整个实验中，我们将看到对培训材料和程序(但不是接触的量)的改变如何在每个年龄组中导致更好/更差的学习。一组实验将检验孩子们听到的特定话语的细节如何导致不同类型的学习。例如，以前的工作表明，听到具有各种不同单词的新语言结构很重要，否则可能无法以一般方式学习和使用它们。然而，多样性的增加也意味着复杂性的增加，这可能会特别阻碍处理能力较低的年轻学习者。我们的实验将探索这种取舍，并调查在每个年龄组中，什么类型的“输入结构”会导致更好的学习。第二组实验将探索不同的学习时间表如何影响学习。更具体地说，我们将探索关于一门新语言的信息是否在我们睡觉的时候一夜之间被巩固。然后，我们将利用这些发现进行研究，看看将学习分散到多个学习阶段，从而包括更多的交错睡眠时间，是否有益；这将直接影响学校的语言课程安排(即，每周上一节长语文课还是分几天上很多短语课更好)。最后，我们将检验关于新语言的明确教学是否有用。在之前的实验中，孩子们将被动地接触到这种语言，反映了一个更自然的学习环境。然而，有证据表明，明确的教学对成人语言学习者是有用的，尽管对儿童学习的了解较少。我们最后的实验将增加明确的指导，看看这是否有助于7岁或11岁的学习者学习。例如，明确地告诉孩子们英语中的词序(“女孩抱着男孩”)和日语(“男孩携带的女孩”)之间的差异是有用的，还是让他们自己发现和使用这些新句型更好？我们特别感兴趣的是，在研究结束时，哪种类型的学习能产生最接近母语的语言能力。在学习的早期阶段，显性教学可能比没有教学更有效，但到研究结束时，没有任何教学能带来更多的母语能力。