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INITIAL PROFICIENCY AND L2 GRAMMAR DEVELOPMENT DURING SHORT-TERM IMMERSION ABROAD
CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL INSIGHTS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 October 2020
Abstract
The first goal of this study was to examine how individual differences in initial L2 proficiency help explain L2 grammar development in oral production during short-term immersion abroad. The second goal of the study was methodological, and evaluated challenges that can result from operationalizing learners’ initial L2 proficiency as pretest performance on outcome measures (as opposed to independent proficiency measures) in analyses of L2 change. L2 Spanish learners participating in summer study abroad completed an elicited imitation task and two oral production tasks. Production data were analyzed for changes in relevant grammatical complexity and accuracy dimensions. Results indicate that learners with higher initial L2 proficiency experience greater L2 grammar advancement from short-term immersion, and that pretest performance can be an unreliable operational estimate of initial proficiency when analyzing L2 gains. We discuss findings following cognitive accounts of SLA, and highlight methodological implications for further research in immersion contexts and beyond.
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- Research Article
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- Open Practices
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- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press
Footnotes
The experiment in this article earned Open Data and Open Materials badges for transparent practices. The data and materials are available at https://osf.io/nca3m/?view_only=2f238b3cec1b471797c9a89bdaa98d6f
This research was partially funded by a Professional and Scholarly Development Award from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. We are grateful to Alfonso Hernanz, Lauren Jones, Helen Spader, Fermin Luna, and Kyrie Miranda for their assistance with various aspects of this research. We would also like to thank the SSLA editors and anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript. All errors are our own.
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