A Study Of Long-Term Second Language Oral Language Development Of Chinese English Majors

The current research,by tracing the same group of learners for four consecutive years,aims to delineate their long-term language development under systematic pedagogical intervention.The corpus of this study concerning learner language performance are collected via four equated oral language tests applied at a theoretically equal interval(one year)which are further transcribed and subjected to analysis to assess the long-term development of learner oral language proficiency.Learner language performance in four equated tests are evaluated from a general rubric concerning the five aspects of content,structure,vocabulary,accuracy and fluency by three independent raters whose inter-rater reliability exceeds 80%(see Appendix ? and ?),to assign each learner a final score concerning his or her performance in respective years.Analyses are then conducted to measure learner inter-language developmental stages and the interaction between the psycholinguistic variables along with proficiency growth.Data collected during the testing phase in the current research are analyzed from the following three perspectives:1)evaluating learner language proficiency development by independent ratings of task performance with reference to the CEFR levels(Common European Framework of Reference)(Council of Europe 2001),2)delineating learner language development in terms of the sequencing of developmental stages defined by PT(Pienemann 2005:24),and 3)measuring progression in learner second language performance by investigating into the interaction between the complexity,accuracy and fluency variables in learner inter-language.The results of the current research demonstrate that in line with general oral language proficiency development,group developmental features emerge as the students progress through the PT developmental stages sequentially and hierarchically while the competition between the C-A(complexity-accuracy)and A-F(accuracy-fluency)variables gradually lessen along with increasing oral language accuracy.Generally,findings of the current research are listed as the following five aspects.Firstly,Results for proficiency level rating indicate a general developmental trend for learners to gradually approach B2 level(inferred by task difficulty corresponding to CEFR level)in the third(2015)and fourth year(2016),with the mean total score keep on rising(39-47-57-60)and the standard deviation for mean scores in each task continue declining,suggesting a gradual lessening of gap in individual differences in language proficiency as a result of instruction.Secondly,the competition between the CAF(complexity,accuracy,fluency)variables lessens along with proficiency growth,which is demonstrated as the gradually disappearing CA 'trade-off' and diminishing positive correlation between error rate and number of breakdowns per language unit.However,measures of 'breakdown fluency'indicating the average number of repairs and breakdowns per language unit(Skehan 2009:512)continue fluctuating over the four years,indicating that learner language complexity and accuracy may be maintained at the expanse of fluency(frequent language repairs and breakdowns).Thirdly,results of the current research set a possible condition for the functioning of Cognition Hypothesis(Robinson 2011),proposing that the degree to which task complexity can enhance the increase of language complexity are related to leaners'current language proficiency.Learner language complexity therefore,can best be prompted when his or her current language proficiency level is approaching the task demand(task difficulty level);tasks that are deemed too easy or difficult may not function as effective.Validation of this hypothesis therefore,opens up potentials for possible future research.Fourthly,inter-language development of the learners in the current research conforms to the PT developmental sequences,with accuracy rate in the later stages only significantly improving after the previous stages having been reached.Long-term observation over inter-language development therefore,renders a firmer support for PT in demonstrating the 'process' of development rather than its 'product'.Fifthly,through continuous inspection over the same group of learners for four consecutive years,the current research sheds light on a possible 'bootstrapping' period for long-term language development,during which learner language undergoes continuous'restructuring' before finally significantly improving in accuracy(in the current research only after the third year of 2015).During the first two years(2012-2013),learner language complexity and fluency have increased significantly(Cl1:11.22-13.66,C22:0.6-0.86,F13:1.92-1.44),indicating a gradual development in the width and ease of communication,enabling meanings to be conveyed more precisely and spontaneously.However,learner language accuracy rate kept on fluctuating over the years(2012-2013)before finally significantly improving in 2015(Al4:0.42-0.51-0.29)when the developmental stages(PT stages)(Stage 3 to Stage 5)have been reached,indicating that learner language syntactic development may lag behind that of lexical and pragmatic development.