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The Processing Behaviours of Adult Second Language Learners and their Relationship to Second Language Proficiency1
University College of Southern Queensland
This study investigated the behaviours for processing language input demonstrated by five adults beginning to learn Hindi as a second language through the Total Physical Response Method. Theoretical models of second language acquisition, such as Krashen (1982,1985) have proposed that comprehending ‘input’ in a new language is the only way of acquiring it. Empirical studies, however, have not been conducted to examine closely how learners may vary in their behaviours for processing such input. Concurrent think-aloud protocols, as well as immediate and delayed retrospective reports were collected over twenty teaching sessions. Analyses set out to determine whether learners could be differentiated on the basis of the quantity and quality of their respective processing behaviours.
A large proportion of the behaviours the learners engaged in to process the input were devoted to the extraction of meaning of utterances. In addition, some learners occasionally devoted their attention to the form. Such behaviours tended to occur when meaning retrieval was more automatic.
‘Less successful’ learners showed a greater reliance on just a few processing strategies. These tended to involve either (1) a focus on content words and the use of extra-linguistic information to arrive at the meaning or (2) a translation method that gave equal weight to each word in an utterance. Associated with these tendencies was a greater focus on single words, rather than on phrases or clauses. Slower learners repeated Hindi less often for the purpose of practice.
In contrast, two of the ‘more successful’ learners used a variety of approaches to processing the input and preferred to extract the meaning of utterances via Hindi itself rather than translating Hindi into English. In addition they also exhibited proportionally more instances of repetition for the purpose of practice.
The study suggests that when adult learners are provided with comprehensible input, they engage in a variety of behaviours to extract meaning from it. Some learners, when the retrieval of meaning is relatively automatic, occasionally devote their attention to form. The better learners also practise more. Overall, the frequency of certain behaviours appears to be related to a higher attainment in a second language.
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