Chapter published in:
Widening Contexts for Processability Theory: Theories and issuesEdited by Anke Lenzing, Howard Nicholas and Jana Roos
[Processability Approaches to Language Acquisition Research & Teaching 7] 2019
► pp. 349–370
Can print literacy impact upon learning to speak Standard Australian English?
Second language learning research mostly investigates literate learners. Based
on studies by Tarone, Bigelow and colleagues (2004, 2005, 2006, 2006) this small scale study focuses on low level literacy learners
who are acquiring Standard Australian English as their second dialect. It explores whether
literacy levels impact upon the processing of language when engaging in oral interaction
tasks. Utilising Pienemann’s (1998, 2005) stages of question formation, feedback given to
the learners targeted questions within the learners’ developmental stage. Participants were
asked to identify whether the language used differed from their own, and if so, to attempt
to reproduce it. The findings show that feedback was often noticed, but no significant
relationship was found between literacy level and noticing. However, there was a significant
relationship between literacy level and the reproduction of targeted forms. This study, like
the others contained within this section, is concerned with the developmental readiness of
second language learners to acquire target forms and the approach is closely aligned with
that of Li and Iwashita (this volume). However, it does differ in that its participants are
learners of a second dialect with low literacy levels, representing an under-studied
population.
Published online: 28 November 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/palart.7.15ste
https://doi.org/10.1075/palart.7.15ste
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