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。它不仅给你更多的教育和工作机会，而且还可能有利于其他技能，例如提高你在两项或多项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，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年人更成功（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儿童在这种情况下更好地学习语言。我们计划进行一系列的语言学习实验，以探讨哪些因素促进了两个年龄组的语言学习成功; 11奥尔兹（儿童目前（通常）在学校开始第二语言学习的年龄），和7岁奥尔兹（如果国家课程的拟议变化得到实施，第二语言将在学校开始的年龄）。在每个实验中，我们将比较不同年龄段的英语儿童学习一门新语言（日语或意大利语）的情况。通过这些实验，我们将看到训练材料和程序的变化（但不是暴露的量）如何导致每个年龄组的学习效果更好/更差，其中一组实验将研究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，重要的是要听到新的语言结构与各种不同的词，否则他们可能无法学习和使用的一般方式。然而，增加的多样性也意味着增加的复杂性，这可能特别阻碍处理能力较低的年轻学习者。我们的实验将探索这种权衡，并调查什么类型的“输入结构”导致更好的学习在每个年龄组。第二个实验集将探索不同的学习时间表可能会影响学习。更具体地说，我们将探索关于一种新语言的信息是否在我们睡觉的时候一夜之间得到巩固。利用这些发现，我们将进行研究，看看在多个学习课程中分散学习是否有益，从而包括更多的交错睡眠时间;这将直接说明学校安排语言课程的方式（即，是每周上一节长时间的语言课，还是分几天上很多节短时间的课更好）。最后，我们将研究关于新语言的明确指导是否有用。在之前的实验中，孩子们被动地接触语言，反映了一个更自然的学习环境。然而，有证据表明，明确的指令是有用的成人语言学习者，虽然很少知道儿童的学习。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，明确地告诉孩子英语（“the girl carries the boy”）和日语（“the girl the boy carries”）中词序的不同是有用的，还是让他们自己发现和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接近母语的语言能力。这可能是因为在学习的早期阶段，明确的指导比没有指导更有效，但在研究结束时，没有指导会导致更多的类似母语的能力。

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.