The Longitudinal Development of Oral Linguistic Complexity and Accuracy of Spanish Learner

199 Pages·2015·1.59 MB·English

The Longitudinal Development of Oral Linguistic Complexity and Accuracy
of Spanish Learner Language in Second-Year University Students

A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
BY

Abby Louise Bajuniemi

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Carol A. Klee, Adviser

September 2015
© Abby Louise Bajuniemi 2015
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I have to thank my family, especially my mom and Eric, for
their unwavering support. Writing a dissertation is not only difficult and trying for the
dissertator, but also for her support system, and I will forever be grateful to you for
helping me through some truly difficult times.
I‘d also like to thank my friends and colleagues, both within and outside of my
department—especially those of you involved in the 50,000+ Facebook message thread. I
don‘t know how I could have gotten through everything without you. I‘ll miss the
camaraderie in class and in the office, laughing ridiculously long and loudly at the
wonders of the Internet. Sitting with you at conferences. Studying and throwing out ideas
together. Commiserating together. Supporting one another. I feel so lucky to have been a
part of such a great group of linguists and nonlinguists.
To my participants: It was a pleasure to get to know each of you. Without you,
this project would not exist. I am grateful for your willingness to be a part of my project.
I also am grateful to the instructors who allowed me to intrude into their classrooms for
an entire semester. I learned so much, and my own teaching has benefitted from your
expertise!
I would be remiss if I did not (profusely) thank Dr. Andrea Révész for her
guidance and support in reimagining this project. Without her, I would not have gotten to
the finish line. Thank you, Andrea, for your kindness and generosity. Your contributions
were critical to getting this project to the end. You are truly a gem in academia, and I
wish you a long, successful career.
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Finally, I would like to thank my interim home at Macalester College. My
colleagues, friends, and students were an especially bright light during the most trying of
times. Wherever the future takes me, my time at Macalester will be a time I will truly
treasure.
I can‘t forget the four-leggeds in my life, either. Your insistence upon being in my
lap, your need for exercise, and your silly antics were a major comfort and reason to
smile.
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Dedication
To grandma Betty and Lee. I wish both of you could have seen the culmination of
years of hard work. I miss you both.
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Abstract
To date, few studies have investigated the production of linguistic complexity and
accuracy with naturalistic data. Very often, the data are obtained in a laboratory or
laboratory-style settings, with tasks defined by the researcher rather than the instructor
(Hatch, 1978; Seedhouse, 2004). Additionally, replicability of studies that investigate the
production of complexity, accuracy, and/or fluency (CAF) has been made difficult by the
myriad ways that researchers have operationalized the constructs in their research (c.f.
Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005; Housen & Kuiken, 2009; Housen, Kuiken, & Vedder, 2012;
Norris & Ortega, 2009; Pallotti, 2009). Further, few studies use a Dynamic Systems
Theory lens when researching CAF and the development of CAF. The current
longitudinal case study investigates how task affects the production of linguistic
complexity and accuracy by three intermediate students of Spanish using data collected in
the participants‘ regular classrooms over one academic year. A DST framework is used to
reflect upon each student‘s developmental trajectory over the course of the study.
The data were transcribed and separated into AS-units, and then further coded
using two global syntactic complexity measures and one specific syntactic complexity
measure, and one global accuracy measure as well as one specific accuracy measure. In
order to determine task effects, ANOVAs were performed on each student‘s data. A
multi-level mixed effects model was used to determine whether there were any
interactions between time and task type. Results of the ANOVAs showed that task affects
each student‘s production in a slightly different way, while the multi-level mixed effects
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modeling showed that verbal accuracy alone showed an interaction between time and task
type.
Results of the longitudinal analysis of the oral production of linguistic complexity
and accuracy using a DST lens showed that the students‘ production did vary over time
and that each student followed her or his own trajectory over the course of an academic
year. These results also showed that there were some trade-off effects with the measures
of linguistic complexity and accuracy, in that when complexity measures increased, there
was a tendency for accuracy measures to decrease.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments i
Dedication iii
Abstract iv
List of Tables x
List of Figures xii
Chapter 1. Introduction 1
Statement of the Problem 1
Task-based Learning and Teaching 1
L2 Development 3
Significance of Study 4
Research Questions 5
Overview 6
Chapter 2. Literature Review 7
Introduction 7
Variation in SLA 8
DST and Complex Systems 9
Task-based Language Instruction 13
Theoretical Models that Account for Linguistic Complexity and
Accuracy and the Relation to Cognitive Complexity 16
Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency 24
Conceptualizations of Task Type in the Literature 28
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The Development of Verbal Morphology in Spanish as L2 32
Chapter 3. Methodology 39
Participants 39
Mike 40
Teresa 44
Rebecca 48
Classroom Experiences 51
Data Collection 59
Operationalizing the Constructs and Coding the Data 60
Linguistic Complexity 63
Linguistic Accuracy 65
Task Categorization 66
Statistical Analyses 75
Variables 76
RQ 1: Does task type affect oral linguistic complexity and
accuracy of learner language? 76
RQ 1a: Does time interact with task type to affect oral linguistic
complexity and accuracy of learner language? 77
RQ 2: Does oral linguistic complexity and accuracy exhibit
change in trajectory over time? 78
Chapter 4. Results 79
Participants 79
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Independent Variables 79
Dependent Variables 86
Descriptive Statistics 86
Research Question 1: ANOVA Results 89
Research Question 1a: Multilevel Modeling Results 97
Research Question 2: Pearson Correlation 107
Individual Developmental Trajectory 110
Chapter 5. Discussion and Conclusions 126
RQ1: Does task type affect oral linguistic complexity and accuracy of
learner language? 126
Global Syntactic Complexity 128
Phrasal Complexity 130
Verbal Complexity 132
Verbal Accuracy 135
RQ1: Summary 136
RQ1a: Does time interact with task type to affect oral linguistic
complexity and accuracy of learner language? 139
Verbal Complexity 140
Global Syntactic Complexity 140
Phrasal Complexity 140
Verbal Accuracy 140
RQ2: Does oral linguistic complexity and accuracy change over time? 142
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