Week 1

Introduction to the course

CLASS CANCELED

Week 2

lunes
16 enero

SLA: Ch. 1-2

Important note about reading assignments:

•  Whenever you have a reading assignment in SLA, in addition to reading the chapter(s), you should also read the excerpts in Section 2 of the book (pp. 91ff.)
  

Read the following articles (on e-reserve):

• Brooks, F. B. (1992). Spanish III learners talking to one another through a jigsaw task.
  
• Ellis, R. (1992). Learning to communicate in the classroom: A study of two language learners' requests.
  
• Ioup, E., et al. (1994). Reexamining the critical period hypothesis: A case study of successful adult SLA in a naturalistic environment.
  

20 enero

SLA: Ch. 3-4

SLA: Ch. 5-6

Read the following articles:

• Donato, R. (1994). Collective scaffolding in second language learning.
  

Week 5

6 febrero

linguistic issues in SLA

Read the following articles:

• Swain, M., & Lapkin, S. (1995). Problems in output and the cognitive processes they generate: A step towards second language learning. (on e-reserve)
• Birdsong, D. (1992). Ultimate attainment in second language acquisition.
  
• Long, M. (1990). Maturational constraints on language development.
  
  

Read the following articles (on e-reserve):

• Cohen, A. D. (1996). Verbal reports as a source of insights into second language learner strategies.
  
• Oxford, R. (1990). Employing a questionnaire to access the use of language learning strategies.
  

*** First draft of research paper is due today (4-5 pages). The draft should consist of the following:

• introduction and presentation of the research problem* (1-2 pages).  Need help with this?  Take a look at the Help & Tools website.
  
• beginning outline of the literature review and a solid list of references. Relate other studies and conclusions to yours...make sure they deal with your topic.  If you begin to include direct quotes, keep them in English, there's no need to translate.  But, if you paraphrase, please translate.
• research questions or hypotheses that your study will investigate.
• list as completely as you can your method -- how you intend to go about investigating your topic. This does not have to be a clean draft, but go for as much detail as possible, so I can help you fill in the gaps and anticipate areas that need more work. Include a description of subjects and materials* and how/what you plan to use to collect the data (procedures*).  Basically, if someone were to 'redo' your study, would the description of all the steps you did help them do it exactly like you did?
  
• a brief statement of what you expect to find with your data, if it'll be similar/different from other studies, and what the significance of the expected finding may be for SLA
• your informed consent form for participants
• any questionnaires/tools/activity description you'll use to collect data
  
• follow APA publication guidelines on how to structure the narrative (margins, spacing, headings, references, in-text citations). I've included links on the Help & Tools website but the best place to physically visit the publication manual is the LRC.
• Checklist for 1st draft.
• Remember that the more you give me to read, the better able I will be to give you helpful feedback.

We will use class time to present our drafts to classmates and help each other with ideas, so be prepared to talk about your project for up to 5 minutes.

* these are pdf files of copied pages from the APA Publication Manual, 5th edition (just in case you haven't consulted it yet in writing your paper). I would check out the reference book if you need more help.  Ib. was copied from Porte, G. K. (2002). Appraising Research in Second Language Learning. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Read  the following articles (on e-reserve):

• Hall, J. K. (1995). "Aw, man, where you goin'?" Classroom interaction and the development of L2 interactional competence.
  
• Long, M., & Porter, P. (1985). Group work, interlanguage talk,and second language acquisition.
  
• Lynch, T. (1997). Nudge, nudge: Teacher interventions in task-based learner talk.