Classroom-centered research on language use surrounding teaching and learning processes can provide much of the information needed to put modern language teaching on a scientific footing. The history of second language classroom research is briefly outlined, and the principal research methodologies are described. A critique is offered of current work, and a proposal made for the next decade. It is argued that priority needs to be given to high-valency, psycholinguistically motivated studies of both a basic and applied nature. Ten topics are identified that meet these requirements and that, it is felt, would merit early consideration in a national research agenda.
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References
1.
1. For review, see Michael H. Long and Charlene J. Sato, “Methodological Issues in Interlanguage Studies: An Interactionist Perspective,” in Interlanguage, ed. Alan Davis, Clive Criper, and Anthony Howatt (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1984), pp. 253-279.
2.
Diane Larsen-Freeman and Michael H. Long, An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research (London: Longman, forthcoming).
3.
3. For review, see Michael H. Long, “Instructed Interlanguage Development,” in Second Language Acquisition: Multiple Perspectives, ed. Leslie M. Beebe (Rowley, MA: Newbury House, forthcoming).
4.
Phillip D. Smith , A Comparison of the Cognitive and Audiolingual Approaches to Foreign Language Instruction: The Pennsylvania Foreign Language Project (Philadelphia: Center for Curriculum Development, 1970).
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Lorraine Swaffer , Katherine Arens, and M. Morgan, “Teacher Classroom Practices: Redefining Method as Task Hierarchy,”Modern Language Journal, 66(1):24-33 (1982).
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6. Swaffer, Arens, and Morgan, “Teacher Classroom Practices.”
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for review, see Graham Crookes, Task Classification: A Cross-disciplinary Review, technical report no. 4 (Manoa: University of Hawaii, Social Science Research Institute, Center for Second Language Classroom Research, 1986).
8.
Rosalind Mitchell , “Process Research in Second Language Classrooms,”Language Teaching, 18(4):330-352 (1985).
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9. Cynthia Brock, “The Effects of Referential Questions on ESL Classroom Discourse,”TESOL Quarterly, 20(1): 47-59 (1986).
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10. Richard L. Allwright, “Turns, Topics and Tasks: Patterns of Participation in Language Teaching and Learning,” in Discourse Analysis in Second Language Acquisition Research, ed. D. Larsen-Freeman (Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1980), pp. 165-187.
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11. Tere Pica and Cathy Doughty, “Input and Interaction in the Communicative Language Classroom: A Comparison of Teacher-Fronted and Group Activities,” in Input and Second Language Acquisition, ed. Susan Gass and Caroline Madden (Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1985), pp. 129-139.
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Vera Henzl , “Foreigner Talk in the Classroom,”International Review of Applied Linguistics, 17(2): 159-167 (1979).
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13. Charlene J. Sato, “Ethnic Styles in Classroom Discourse,” in On TESOL `81, ed. Mary Hynes and William Rutherford (Washington, DC: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, 1981), pp. 11-24.
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14. Herbert W. Seliger, “Does Practice Make Perfect? A Study of Interaction Patterns and L2 Competence,”Language Learning, 27(2):263-278 (1977).
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15. Craig Chaudron, “A Descriptive Model of Discourse in the Corrective Treatment of Learners' Errors,”Language Learning, 27(1):29-46 (1977).
16.
16. Patsy Duff, “Another Look at Interlanguage Talk: Taking Task to Task,” in Talking to Learn: Conversation and Second Language Acquisition, ed. R. R. Day (Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1986), pp. 147-181.
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17. E. Varonis and Susan Gass, “Non-native/Non-native Conversations: A Model for Negotiation of Meaning,”Applied Linguistics, 6(1):71-90 (1985).
18.
Craig Chaudron , Second Language Classrooms: Research on Teaching and Learning (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).
19.
19. Craig Chaudron, Graham Crookes, and Michael H. Long, “Transcription Procedures and Conventions for Classroom Discourse” (Manuscript, Center for Second Language Classroom Research, Social Science Research Institute, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1984).
20.
20. New Flanders, Analyzing Teaching Behavior (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1970).
21.
21. Michael H. Long, “Inside the `Black Box': Methodological Issues in Classroom Research on Language Learning,”Language Learning, 30(1):1-42 (1980).
22.
Mitchell , “Process Research.”
23.
23. For requirements on an adequate discourse analysis, see John McH. Sinclair and R. M. Coulthard, Towards an Analysis of Discourse: The English Used by Teachers and Pupils (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975).
24.
24. See, for example, Craig Chaudron, “Coding Categories and Conventions” (Manuscript, Center for Second Language Classroom Research, Social Science Research Institute, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1985).
25.
25. Some process-process studies—for example, Brock, “Effects of Referential Questions”—have been completed, however.
26.
Helmut Zobl , “Grammars in Search of Input and Intake,” in Input and Second Language Acquisition, ed. Gass and Madden, pp. 329-344.
27.
Michael H. Longet al. , The Effect of Teachers' Questioning Patterns and Wait-time on Pupil Participation in Public High School Classes in Hawaii for Students of Limited English Proficiency, technical report no. 1 (Manoa: University of Hawaii, Social Science Research Institute, Center for Second Language Classroom Research, 1984).
28.
28. Michael H. Long, “Process and Product in ESL Program Evaluation,”TESOL Quarterly, 18(4):409-425 (1984).
29.
D. O. Rafter , “Three Approaches to Evaluation Research,”Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion, Utilization, 6(2):165-185 (1984).
30.
30. Readers familiar with the SLA literature will recognize the hypothetical study outlined as a schematic representation of one reported in Pienemann, “Psychological Constraints on the Teachability of Languages.”
31.
31. Michael H. Long and Graham Crookes, “Intervention Points in Second Language Classroom Processes” (Paper delivered at the Regional English Language Center Seminar on Patterns of Classroom Interaction in Southeast Asia, Regional English Language Center, Singapore, 21-25 Apr. 1986).
