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Chico ENGL 232 - SLA Lab Report #2

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SLA Lab Report #2After having spent a great deal of time with Ricardo, my second-language learner fromMexico City, I have noticed some patterns in his English errors that I can definitively evaluate.There are others but I have very few clear examples that establish a pattern within those errorsand cannot clearly evaluate what the problem might be. Ricardo seems to be having trouble withauxiliary verb movement in question formation, exceptions to past tense verb formation, omissionof pronouns, and pronoun redundancy. The following are the clearest examples I have gatheredof these errors.1. How you are getting to the game? What you are going to have to eat? Where you are going for vacation? What you think is going to happen?This group of errors is an example of not understanding question formation and all of the rulesinvolved. It might simply be inability to process on-line rather than a complete lack ofunderstanding The learner is in a later stage of question formation. He understands Wh-movement and where the question words belong but does not always understand where hisauxiliary verb belongs. This could also be a significant source of confusion because in his nativelanguage (Spanish) pronouns can be implied by the form of the verb being used and are goingwould be replaced with only one Spanish word as Spanish does not have auxiliary verbs. In thelast example the learner does seem to grasp auxiliary verb movement.2. I runned to the store. Julia haved to be there by three o clock this morning to get on the train. When we were in Hawaii I swimmed everyday. I played soccer in school when I was a child. I called my mother last night to tell her we are going to be married.This particular group of errors shows trouble forming past tense verbs. The learner knows how toform past tense verbs but is overextending the pattern and does not know about English s specialexceptions to grammar rules. He actually corrected himself and replaced haved with had justafter he finished uttering the phrase. His self-correction shows that he is transitioning, which inthis case probably has to come simply from modeling and exposure to English.3. Have to be there by when? Went to the jewelry store to buy our rings last night. Have no money left today! The rings were very much money.This is a piece of casual conversation between the learner and another second language learnerthat was sitting at lunch with us one afternoon. This is an omission of pronouns and would be anative language transfer error. In Spanish, the verb-form chosen implies the pronoun and this isnot the case in English. Ricardo seems to only do this when he is speaking at a more rapid pace.4. My brother and Alicia they are going to Mexico City to visit my mother. That lady she forgot to give me my change. That guy he is the one that we know from our job.This is an example of pronoun redundancy. The learner does not make this error in all instancesbut it is rather frequent. Since we have been working together is has become less frequent andseems to become more frequent again when the pace of the conversation speeds up and there isless concentration on English.In addition to the errors discussed above, there have been some errors that I cannotdefinitively identify such as syntactic word order errors. Sometimes Ricardo puts adjectives afternouns rather than before them. There is also double negation in our conversations occasionallybut he seems to catch his errors and correct them immediately. Ricardo also substitutes nativewords in the middle of his sentences occasionally without even realizing what he did. Luckily forus, I do understand a little bit of Spanish vocabulary! Ricardo s English is very clear and veryseldom inhibits comprehension by a


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Chico ENGL 232 - SLA Lab Report #2

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