Learners' attention to input during focus on form listening tasks: the role of mobile technology in the second language classroom

This study explores the differential effects of medium of delivery of aural input during listening tasks on learners noticing and type of comprehension (top-down and bottom-up) of Spanish object pronouns during focus on form listening tasks. Twenty-two college students enrolled in second year Spanish in a technology-enhanced classroom participated in the study. Two types of medium of delivery of input were compared: mobile assisted language learning (MALL), which is learner manipulated, and instructor manipulated language learning (IMLL). A quasi-experimental design was used – treatment and immediate tests – in order to measure participants' reported noticing and type of comprehension. Noticing was operationalized using think-aloud protocols, and measured on the post-test exposure comprehension assessment tasks. The findings of the study, interpreted within the attentional SLA framework, indicate that learners in the MALL group demonstrated significantly higher levels of reported noticing, bottom-up compr...

[1]  Paul Daniels,et al.  Analysis of the effect a student-centred mobile learning instructional method has on language acquisition , 2013 .

[2]  Kris Van den Branden,et al.  Task-based language education : from theory to practice , 2006 .

[3]  Melissa A. Bowles.  TASK TYPE AND REACTIVITY OF VERBAL REPORTS IN SLA: A First Look at a L2 Task Other Than Reading , 2008, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[4]  R. Schmidt.  Cognition and Second Language Instruction: Attention , 2001 .

[5]  George M. Chinnery.  Going to the MALL: Mobile Assisted Language Learning , 2006 .

[6]  R. Schmidt.  Attention and awareness in foreign language learning , 1995 .

[7]  Catherine Doughty,et al.  Focus on Form in Classroom Second Language Acquisition. The Cambridge Applied Linguistics Series. , 1998 .

[8]  R. Schmidt.  Awareness and Second Language Acquisition , 1992, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics.

[9]  Bill VanPatten,et al.  Input processing in second language acquisition , 2003 .

[10]  Min Liu,et al.  A Look at the Research on Computer-Based Technology Use in Second Language Learning , 2002 .

[11]  Kurt Squire,et al.  Environmental Detectives: PDAs as a window into a virtual simulated world , 2002, Proceedings. IEEE International Workshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education.

[12]  Peter Robinson,et al.  Cognition and Second Language Instruction: COGNITION AND INSTRUCTION , 2001 .

[13]  P. Robinson.  Attention, Memory, and the “Noticing” Hypothesis , 1995 .

[14]  Patricia Thornton,et al.  Using mobile phones in English education in Japan , 2005, J. Comput. Assist. Learn..

[15]  Ronald P. Leow,et al.  Do Learners Notice Enhanced Forms While Interacting with the L2?: An Online and Offline Study of the Role of Written Input Enhancement in L2 Reading , 2001 .

[16]  Yong Zhao,et al.  Recent Developments in Technology and Language Learning: A Literature Review and Meta-analysis , 2013 .

[17]  R. Leow.  Attention, Awareness, and Foreign Language Behavior , 1997 .

[18]  Phil Benson,et al.  Teaching and Researching: Autonomy in Language Learning , 2001 .

[19]  R. Schmidt.  The role of consciousness in second language learning , 1990 .

[20]  K. Morgan‐Short,et al.  Positive Evidence Versus Explicit Rule Presentation and Explicit Negative Feedback: A Computer-Assisted Study. , 2004 .

[21]  Yong Zhao.  The Effects of Listeners' Control of Speech Rate on Second Language Comprehension , 1997 .

[22]  M. Salaberry.  The Use of Technology for Second Language Learning and Teaching: A Retrospective , 2001 .

[23]  Dolores Ramírez Verdugo,et al.  Using Digital Stories to Improve Listening Comprehension with Spanish Young Learners of English. , 2007 .

[24]  Wynne Wong.  MODALITY AND ATTENTION TO MEANING AND FORM IN THE INPUT , 2001, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[25]  Agnes Kukulska-Hulme,et al.  Theory-based Support for Mobile Language Learning: Noticing and Recording , 2009, Int. J. Interact. Mob. Technol..

[26]  Ronald P. Leow,et al.  Awareness, different learning conditions, and second language development , 2004, Applied Psycholinguistics.

[27]  Stéphanie Roussel,et al.  A computer assisted method to track listening strategies in second language learning , 2011, ReCALL.

[28]  P. Skehan.  语言学习认知法 = A cognitive approach to language learning , 1998 .

[29]  R. Leow,et al.  Attention to Form and Meaning Revisited , 2008 .

[30]  Rod Ellis,et al.  Task-based Language Learning and Teaching , 2003 .

[31]  B. Mclaughlin.  Theories of second-language learning , 1987 .

[32]  R. Leow.  Toward operationalizing the process of attention in SLA: Evidence for Tomlin and Villa's (1994) finegrained analysis of attention , 1998, Applied Psycholinguistics.

[33]  George M. Chinnery.  EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES Going to the MALL: Mobile Assisted Language Learning , 2006 .

[34]  Mark R. Freiermuth.  Internet Chat: Collaborating and Learning via E‐Conversations , 2002 .

[35]  Yao-Ting Sung,et al.  A mobile-device-supported peer-assisted learning system for collaborative early EFL reading , 2007 .

[36]  Peter Shea,et al.  Leveling the Playing Field: A Study of Captioned Interactive Video for Second Language Learning , 2000 .

[37]  Alison Mackey.  Feedback, noticing and instructed second language learning , 2006 .

[38]  Joseph Krajcik,et al.  Log on education: Handheld devices are ready-at-hand , 2001, CACM.