8.667, Qs: Apologies, Objects, Learning English

Tue May 6 23:16:34 UTC 1997

LINGUIST List:  Vol-8-667. Tue May 6 1997. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 8.667, Qs: Apologies, Objects, Learning English

Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at linguistlist.org>
            T. Daniel Seely: Eastern Michigan U. <seely at linguistlist.org>

Review Editor:     Andrew Carnie <carnie at linguistlist.org>

Associate Editors: Ljuba Veselinova <ljuba at linguistlist.org>
                   Ann Dizdar <ann at linguistlist.org>
Assistant Editor:  Sue Robinson <sue at linguistlist.org>

Software development: John H. Remmers <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
                      Zhiping Zheng <zzheng at online.emich.edu>

Home Page:  http://linguistlist.org/

Editor for this issue: Susan Robinson <sue at linguistlist.org>
 ==========================================================================

We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually
best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is
then  strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list.   This policy was
instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we
would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.

=================================Directory=================================

1)
Date:           Mon, 5 May 1997 12:33:33 GMT + 2:00
From:  "M. Lynne Murphy" <104LYN at muse.arts.wits.ac.za>
Subject:        apologies in english

2)
Date:  Tue, 06 May 1997 09:41:12 +0800
From:  Adrian Clynes <aclynes at ubd.edu.bn>
Subject:  Objects

3)
Date:  Mon, 5 May 1997 9:38:55 -0400
From:  "Robinson, Timothy" <trobinso at usia.gov>
Subject:  Difficulties of learning English

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:           Mon, 5 May 1997 12:33:33 GMT + 2:00
From:  "M. Lynne Murphy" <104LYN at muse.arts.wits.ac.za>
Subject:        apologies in english

hello all--

a student of mine is looking for data on apologies in british english
done in the CCSARP (cross-cultural speech act realization project)
method.  she needs a full set of statistics from discourse completion
tests in order to compare it to the data she has for baganda speakers
of english as a second language.  we haven't been able to find
anything in the CCSARP literature that provides these figures, but
that certainly doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

lynne murphy

- ------------------------------------------------------------------
M. Lynne Murphy, Senior Lecturer         104lyn at muse.arts.wits.ac.za
Department of Linguistics                    phone:  +27-11-716-2340
University of the Witwatersrand                fax:  +27-11-716-4199
Johannesburg 2050
SOUTH AFRICA

-------------------------------- Message 2 -------------------------------

Date:  Tue, 06 May 1997 09:41:12 +0800
From:  Adrian Clynes <aclynes at ubd.edu.bn>
Subject:  Objects

I'd be grateful for any useful references on the grammatical relation
'Object', and the properties of NP's said to bear that relation.
'Thanks in advance': I'll post a summary of reponses.

Adrian

Adrian Clynes
aclynes at ubd.edu.bn
Dept of English & Applied Linguistics			
Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei		

-------------------------------- Message 3 -------------------------------

Date:  Mon, 5 May 1997 9:38:55 -0400
From:  "Robinson, Timothy" <trobinso at usia.gov>
Subject:  Difficulties of learning English

Colleagues:

Can anyone help in aiding a colleague in Bangladesh?  I have received a
message from an ELT professional at Dhaka University whom I had the
pleasure to meet during a trip there in January of this year.  Below is
an excerpt from his message:

BEGIN QUOTE
I am investigating the problems faced by Bangladeshi learners in
acquiring the English Tense-Aspect system. English is taught as a foreign
language in Bangladesh and using the English Tense-Aspect system
appropriately and correctly is difficult for Bangladeshi learners.  The
purpose of my study is to identify which forms and their functions cause
problems and also the nature and causes of these problems.  I am looking
for suggestions and references with regard to the following:

1.  Defining the point of acquisition:  Larsen-Freeman and Long
(1991:40-41) in their Introduction to Second Language Acquisition
Research (New York & London:  Longman) deal with the matter.  They refer
to Cazden (1968, The Acquisition of noun and verb inflections, Child
Development, 39, 433-448) and Hakuta (1974, A preliminary report on the
development of grammatical morphemes in a Japanese girl learning English
as a second language, Working Papers on Bilingualism, 3, 18-43) - who
accept 90% suppliance of correct grammatical forms in obligatory contexts
as evidence for successful acquisition.  But how far can I use
percentages for acquisition of a grammatical form or its function?  A
more rational approach would perhaps be to see if a learner or group of
learners are able to use a form-function relationship consistently in
different tasks over time.  Have there been any recent studies in this
matter?  What are the references?

2.  Defining a learning difficulty or a learning problem:  I need to
explain what constitutes a 'learning difficulty' and refer to
psycholinguistic studies in relation to the concept of difficulty in
language learning.  I have identified the following five references:

A)  Higa, M. 1966. The psycholinguistic concept of 'difficulty' and the
teaching of foreign language vocabulary. Language Learning, 16, 167-179.

B)  Kellerman, E. 1979. The problem with difficulty. Interlanguage
Studies Bulletin,  4, 1, 27- 48.

C)  Nickel, G. 1971. Problems of learners' difficulties in foreign
language acquisition.  IRAL, 9, 3, 219-227.

D)  Nickel, G. 1971. Variables in a hierarchy of difficulty. Working
Papers in Linguistics, 3, 4, 185-194.

E)  Tran-Thi-Chau. 1975. Error analysis, contrastive analysis and
students' perception: a study of difficulty in second language learning.
IRAL, 13, 2, 119-143.

I don't know about any recent contributions to the issue. I'd be grateful
if you could send me a list of recent references in this matter or
photocopies of the same.
END QUOTE

Request 1: If anyone has good info/references for his point #1 (defining
point of acq), please send them to me and I will forward.

Request 2: If anyone has recent references on "difficulty," please send
to me and I will then track them down on my end and forward.

Request 3: I have been able to obtain copies of four of the (older)
references he cited for "difficulty."  Does anyone have the following
article on their shelves that they could copy and send to me (mail or
fax)?  I have not been able to locate a copy locally (neither at Lib of
Congress nor at other major university near me):

- Nickel, G. 1971. Variables in a hierarchy of difficulty.  Working
Papers in Linguistics, 3, 4, 185-194. (This is the Hawaii WPL, I think).

Please reply off-list anyone who could help.  I will summarize/post
anything that seems relevant to the list.   And thanks very much in
advance.  Access to materials, especially current ones, is difficult in
Bangladesh.

Tim Robinson
trobinso at usia.gov

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-8-667