Discussion
Though individual variation in the acquisition of a second language (L2) has recently been actively researched (e.g., reviews in Dewaele, 2009; Kidd et al, 2018; Li et al, 2022; Segalowitz, 2014; Suzuki, 2022), linguists mainly focus on factors that cause this phenomenon, rather than investigating the differences in the actual acquisition process. This paper makes an important contribution to this line of research by presenting a fine-grained analysis of individual trajectories of the acquisition of L2 Russian case inflection by complete beginners in instructional settings. It “disrupts” a traditional approach to testing and teaching complex morphology by demonstrating that different learners, taught under the same conditions, acquire the same set of case endings in different ways (prioritising different endings at different times), which needs to be accounted for in SLA testing procedures and in language instruction.
The data to be presented here, is part of a larger study, which was funded by UK Research and Innovation and involved a 10-week teaching intervention. English-speaking learners, recruited as volunteers at a UK University (n= 27), were given an hour’s teaching a week, in a form-meaning integrated approach to introduce two Russian cases (Prepositional and Accusative). Learners’ case accuracy in spontaneous speech production was tested in three rounds of testing, using specifically-designed elicitation methodology.
The graphs of individual acquisition trajectories show that case endings for different grammatical genders are acquired separately (with some significant differences in scores). In addition, contrary to many WM studies, low-WM learners, who have the lowest initial scores, demonstrate the most significant improvement. This study has important implications for language pedagogy, Second Language Acquisition and psycholinguistics.
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Li, S., Hiver, P., & Papi, M. (2022). Individual differences in second language acquisition: Theory, research, and practice. In The Routledge handbook of second language acquisition and individual differences (pp. 3-34). Routledge.
Segalowitz, N. (2014). Individual differences in second language acquisition. In Tutorials in bilingualism (pp. 85-112). Psychology Press.
