Language Learner Language and Language Learning Processes: Nativelike Fluency and Nativelike Selection

1. A presentation by:
Karen Murphy & Abir Anbari
For:
Language Learner Language and Language Learning Processes
SS 2009
Professor Dr. Paul Lennon

2. 1. The Puzzle of Nativelike Fluency
2. The Puzzle of Nativelike Selection
3. Memorized Sequences
4. Lexicalized Sentence Stems
5. Putting it all together…
6. Bibliography

4.  Spoken discourse
 Mental processes:
 Thinking of what to say
 Finding the right words
 Expressing oneself clearly
 In communication…
 a speaker should speak
 grammatically
 coherently
 with an appropriate register etc.
in order to be able to achieve the nativelike
fluency

5.  Fluency:
 Constant speech tempo
 Few long pauses
 Fluent units
 consist of complete grammatical clauses
 refer to a stretch of pause-free speech which is
faster than normal rate of articulation
 Typical rate of articulation during fluent speech:
270-300 syllables a minute

6. Nativelike Fluency is
“the native speaker‘s ability to produce
fluent stretches of spontaneous connected
discourse.“
(Pawley and Syder; 1983:191)

7. Please have a look at the following tasks:
(Please work in pairs. You have 10 minutes.)
1. Listen to this interview
2. Please answer the questions on your sheets
3. Does the speaker have a nativelike fluency in
this interview? If yes, why? If no, why not?

9.  I had four uncles - they all volunteered
to go away - and ah that was one
Christmas …
 The brothers of my parents were four.
Their offering to soldier in lands
elsewhere in the army of our country had
occurred …
(Pawley and Syder; 1983:194)

10. L2 Learners
 System of rules as
a basis to produce
grammatical
sentences
(Generative
Grammar)
Nativelike control
 Generative
Grammar +
 Ability to
distinguish
between natural
and unnatural
sentences

11. Nativelike selection is
“the ability of native speakers to routinely
convey his meaning by an expression that is
not only grammatical correct but also
nativelike.“
(Pawley and Syder; 1983:191)

12. Please think about different ways to express
yourself in the following situations. Which
one would you say is the most natural?
(Please work in pairs. You have 5 minutes)
 What do you say if „nature calls“?
 I need to use the restroom.
 May I use your little room?
 How would you propose to your
girlfriend/boyfriend?
 Will you marry me?
 I want to marry you!

13.  I want to marry you.
 I desire you to become married to me.
 Your marrying me is desired by me.
 I wish to be wedded to you.
 My becoming your spouse is what I want.
 I, who am speaking, want to marry you, whom I
am addressing.

14.  I want to marry you.
 I wish to be wedded to you.
 My becoming your spouse is what I want.
 Preference of certain sentence structures
 E.g. preference of putting new information at
the end of an utterance
 Verbal complements preferred over nominal
complements

15. Examples of nativelike expressions:
 Height:
 He is 5 feet 9 (inches)
 *He is 5 ¾ feet
 Time:
 It’s twenty to four
 It’s half past two
 *It’s two thirds past three
 Discussion: Are they the same in every
language???

16. Summing it up:
 No rule of the thumb
 Matter of preference and conventions
adapted to context
Hints:
 Easy preferred over complicated
 Preference for new information at the end
 Avoidance of stating the obvious

17. 17

18.  Part of linguistic knowledge of the speaker
 Many thousands of such sequences
 Many clauses of native(-like) language are
memorized sequences
 Speakers recall them automatically

19.  Fixed expressions
 Cannot be altered or adapted
 Are accessed as single items in the mental
lexicon
 Examples:
 Can I help?
 Hold on a minute.
 I can’t wait any longer.
 Are you all right?
 Can I take a message?
 Watch your step!

21.  “a piece of timeless knowledge shared by the
members of a language community” (Pawley
and Syder; 1983:209)
 Formula to create a number of adequate
utterances in a particular context
 Learner analyzes and internalizes the
structure
 Enables him to vary the utterance according to
context

22. Example:
 NP be-TENSE sorry to keep-TENSE you waiting
 I’m sorry to keep you waiting
 Mr. X is so sorry to have kept you waiting.

24.  Fluent speech mostly consists of memorized
sequences and lexicalized sentence stems
 Not all grammatical sentences are
considered natural/nativelike
 By internalizing memorized sequences and
lexicalized sentence stems learners will
become more fluent and sound more
nativelike

25. Thank you very much for
your attention and
participation!!!

26.  Hunston, S., Francis, G. and Manning, E. (1997).
Grammar and vocabulary: showing the connections.
ELT Journal 51/3: pp. 208-216.
 Pawley, A. and Syder, F. H. (1983). Two puzzles for
linguistic theory: nativelike selection and nativelike
fluency. In Richards, J. and Schmidt, R. (eds.),
Language and Communication: London: Longman, pp.
191-226.
 Richards, J. C. and Rodgers,T. S. (2001). Approaches
and Methods in Language Teaching. Second Edition.
Cambridge, pp. 5-9.