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EFFECTS OF EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL ATTENTIONAL MANIPULATIONS ON SECOND LANGUAGE GRAMMAR DEVELOPMENT

AN EYE-TRACKING STUDY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2018

Bernard I. Issa  and
Kara Morgan-Short
Bernard I. Issa*
Affiliation:
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Kara Morgan-Short
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Chicago
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be directed to Bernard I. Issa II, Department of Modern Foreign Language and Literatures, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN 37996. E-mail: bissa@utk.edu
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Abstract

The role of attention has been central to theoretical and empirical inquiries in second language (L2) acquisition. The current eye-tracking study examined how external and internal attentional manipulations (Chun, Golomb, &Turk-Browne, 2011) promote L2 grammatical development. Participants (n = 55) were exposed to Spanish direct-object pronouns under external or internal attentional manipulations, which were implemented through textual input enhancement or structured input practice, respectively. Results for both manipulations indicated that (a) learner attentional allocation to the form was affected; (b) L2 gains were evidenced, although only the internal manipulation led to above-chance performance; and (c) L2 gains were related to attention allocated to the form under the external manipulation and to a lesser extent the internal manipulation. Overall, findings may inform theoretical perspectives on attention and elucidate cognitive processes related to L2 instruction.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , May 2019 , pp. 389 - 417
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

The research was supported by a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (1348964) and a Language Learning Dissertation Grant. We would like to thank Gary Raney, Kay González-Vilbazo, Jessica Williams, and Aline Godfroid for their contributions to this work as members of Issa’s dissertation committee. We would like to acknowledge audiences at the Second Language Research Forum (2015) and EuroSLA (2014) as well as members of the Cognition of Second Language Acquisition laboratory for their comments on previous iterations of this project. We also thank Briana Villegas and Nidhi Kadakia for their help with data collection. Lastly, we would like to thank Sharisse and Dustin Manning for their work as models in the photos used in the experiment. All errors are our own.

References

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