What's in the Input? : An Examination of L2 Classroom Input in Elementary and Intermediate Spanish Courses

• Other Authors: Prieta, Raquel (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Linguistics
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_2016SP_Prieta_fsu_0071E_13022

This dissertation explores the language that instructors of a second language (such as Spanish) provide their students. Given that input (i.e., communicative samples of the target language (TL)) is a fundamental concept to all theories of language acquisition, this dissertation examines the quantity, the quality, and the frequency of the input that instructors provide in the classroom. This dissertation reports on a study of instructors' input (N=14). Participants included instructors at four different levels of Spanish (Elementary I and II and Intermediate I and II), from different native languages (native speakers (NS) of Spanish, and non-native (NNS) speakers), and include both female and male instructors. By recording, transcribing, and coding the speech samples from four class periods per language instructor (which accounted for more than 2700 minutes of instructor speech), this study looked at how much TL (Spanish), and how much English, instructors use in the classroom, the contexts in which they use English, the types of input modifications they make, as well as the frequency of verb types (person, number, tense, and mood). Analyses of the classroom input data revealed that all instructors but one used the TL between 78-95% of the class time. Based on previous literature, it is suggested that instructors in this study were much more homogeneous in their TL language use, and used it an appropriate amount of time. Results also indicated that NS produced a higher number of TL words than NNS. However, NNS produced a higher percentage of TL input of their total percentage per class. Results also showed that female instructors produced a higher percentage of speech. Regarding the use of English, the speech samples showed that there was a high amount of code switching in the language classrooms. The contexts of English use followed the trends from previous literature. English was predominantly used to explain tasks, and to explain grammar, and to move faster in the curriculum and save time. However, by analyzing the samples, it was proven that the use of English for this matter was contra productive. Every time that the language was switched to English there were extra explanations that might have not even been needed. Results also showed that NS instructors used English to bond/empathy with students, significantly more than NNS instructors. The higher amount of English use was found for Spanish Elementary II. Results support the idea that topic familiarity leads to more comprehension in the L2, because the concepts in Spanish Elementary II were more abstract, unlike the grammar presented in Spanish I. Regarding the modifications of the input, results showed that instructors at all levels modify their input; however, instructors at beginning levels simplify their input more, by slowing their rate, simplifying their syntax and producing high frequency vocabulary words. All instructors but one made use of technology to enhance their input. Results suggest that media is becoming a fundamental tool in the language classroom, and without multimedia or visual supplements instructors might not be taking advantage of the potential contribution of the learners' capacity to process that material in the visual mode as well. Results also showed that the frequency of the verbs in the classroom is different from what has been shown in previous research and in language corpora, suggesting that the context in which communication occurs determines the type of input that is given. By conducting a survey among the instructors' participants about their perspectives of language use in the classroom, it was shown that instructors have a wider perspective of the amount of input they provide in the class and the modifications they do, suggesting the importance of having serial classroom observations periodically. Ultimately, the results from this research will inform practitioners and materials developers as to the kinds of input learners need outside of class in order to complement what they receive in class. Second, I propose to use the data compiled in this project to create the first classroom based input corpus (database) for Spanish and made it available to researchers in second language acquisition. === A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. === Fall Semester 2015. === December 2, 2015. === Includes bibliographical references. === Michael J. Leeser, Professor Directing Dissertation; Michael Kaschak, University Representative; Gretchen Sunderman, Committee Member; Lara Reglero, Committee Member.