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

学习第二语言是一项有用的技能。它不仅能给你更多的教育和工作机会，还能提高你的其他技能，比如提高你在两个或多个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，在英国参加现代外语考试的中学生人数明显下降。2012年7月，教育部长公布了在小学引入现代外语教学的计划，从7岁以上开始。这种变化的一个动机是，研究表明，儿童在自然环境中学习语言比成人更成功（例如，当由于搬到一个新的国家而沉浸在不同的语言中时）。然而，目前还不清楚为什么孩子在这种情况下会更好地学习语言。也有一些证据表明，这种优势对年轻学习者来说可能在课堂上不成立。我们计划进行一组语言学习实验，探讨哪些因素促进了两个年龄组的语言学习成功；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（如果实施国家课程改革建议，第二语言将在学校开始学习的年龄）。在每个实验中，我们将比较不同年龄的说英语的孩子在学习一门新语言（日语或意大利语）的某些方面的表现。通过这些实验，我们将看到培训材料和程序的变化（而不是接触的数量）如何导致每个年龄组的学习效果的提高或下降。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，以前的研究表明，听到各种不同单词的新语言结构是很重要的，否则他们可能不会以一般的方式学习和使用。然而，增加的多样性也意味着增加的复杂性，这可能特别阻碍年轻的学习者，他们的处理能力较低。我们的实验将探索这种权衡，并研究哪种类型的“输入结构”会在每个年龄组中带来更好的学习。第二组实验将探讨不同的学习计划对学习的影响。更具体地说，我们将探索关于一门新语言的信息是否会在我们睡觉的时候被巩固。利用这些发现，我们将进行研究，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，是否有益；这直接关系到学校安排语言课程的方式（也就是说，是每周上一节长时间的语言课，还是在几天内上很多短时间的语言课）。最后，我们将研究关于新语言的明确教学是否有用。在之前的实验中，孩子们会被动地接触语言，反映出更自然的学习环境。然而，有证据表明，明确的教学对成人语言学习者是有用的，尽管对儿童的学习知之甚少。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岁的学习者的学习。例如，明确地告诉孩子英语（“the girl carry the boy”）和日语（“the girl the boy carry”）词序的差异是否有用，还是让他们自己发现并使用这些新模式更好？我们特别感兴趣的是，在研究结束时，哪种学习方式能产生最像母语的语言能力。在学习的早期阶段，明确的指导可能比没有指导更有效，但在学习结束时，没有指导的结果是更像母语的能力。

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.