This document discusses methods for collecting and analyzing second language data. It covers eliciting speech samples through tasks like narratives and elicited imitation. It also discusses eliciting reactions to data through tasks like sentence matching and grammaticality judgments. Further, it addresses collecting verbal report data through think-alouds and recalls, as well as measuring non-linguistic information through questionnaires and diaries. The document also discusses measuring general proficiency through standardized tests and issues around replicating studies and analyzing second language data.

1. Second and Foreign
Language Data

2. 01 Eliciting speech samples
02 Eliciting reactions to data
03 Verbal report data
04 Measuring non-linguistic information
Table of
Contents 05 Measuring general proficiency
06 Replication
07 Issues in data analysis
08 What is acquisition?

3. Eliciting
Speech
Samples
01

4. Eliciting Speech Samples
Often one wants actual speech samples within a specific context.
1. One way is through narratives:
For example
v To determine a learner’s ability to use past tense, = Tell me/write about what you did last weekend.
v To learn about a learner’s ability to express futurity = Tell me/write about your plans for next week/summer/year.
2. Another common way is through elicited imitation:
For Example
v Stimulus: The doctor called the professor when he prepared the breakfast.
v Response: The doctor called the professor and the doctor prepared the breakfast.
Data can be analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively.
In the case of a quantitative analysis, one can calculate the percentage of responses that match the target input.
A qualitative analysis provides an indication of a learner’s developing grammar.

5. Eliciting Speech Samples
● Language tasks
For example:
v picture-description task.
● Whenever a task is used to elicit certain
types of information, it is essential to
do a pilot test to make sure that the
grammatical information that the
researcher suspects will be present is
actually present.

6. Eliciting Speech Samples
● Computer–mediated communication
● The same tasks that are used in face-
to-face communication can be used in
chat-based environments.
● The data that are typed can be stored
and available for numerous types of
analyses, such as self-corrections,
pause time, and dictionary look-up use.

7. v Studies using data of this sort can
manipulate various social variables.
v For example, if one wanted to consider the
role of age differences, pairs of different age
levels could be involved; if one wanted to
consider the role of gender differences, pairs
could be constructed with this in mind.

8. Eliciting Speech Samples
Forced production data are often used when studying second language pragmatic behavior.
v The most common measure is the discourse completion questionnaire.
v This can be used to gather data concerning particular speech acts (apologies, compliments, refusals, requests,
etc.).
v Participants are given a description of a situation in which the speech act under investigation is required. This is
then followed by blank space in which the subject is to write down what he or she would say in the given
situation.
v An example of a situation in which the research focus was status differences in “giving embarrassing
information:
You are a corporate executive talking to your assistant.
Your assistant, who will be greeting some important guests arriving soon, has some spinach in his/her teeth.
v The learners are then to write down what they would say in response to this situation.
v To ensure that the intended speech act is given in their response, the printed page may have a minidialogue .
v One limitation is that another type of response might actually occur.

9. Eliciting
Reactions to
Data
02

10. Eliciting Reactions to Data
v Some data do not require learners to produce data but to react in some way to data. Often these responses are
timed, with the idea that speed of response is an indication of processing load.
v For Example: sentence matching, a decision task, comprehension studies and intuitional data.
Ø He remembers the man who his brother is a doctor.
Ø We respect the man with whom you danced with him.
Ø He laughed at the boy whom he is taller than him.
Ø John admires the woman for whom you wrote the letter.
Ø He met the man whom you recommended.

11. Eliciting Reactions to Data
v Intuitional data have been widely used in SLA research, yet, more than other research methods, they have been the subject of
controversy.
v Grammaticality judgments are one (but certainly not the only) form of metalinguistic performance, or language objectification.
v One way of objectifying language is to state whether a given sentence is acceptable or not.
v Native speakers’ responses are used to infer grammatical properties of a given language.
v Judgment data can reveal more about a language than production data alone.
v Judgment data can provide information about what is not possible in the given language—something production data cannot do.

12. v How valid are judgment data
as measures of what a
learner’s grammar at a given
point in time is capable of
generating?

13. Eliciting Reactions to Data
v Despite these difficulties, a significant amount of work has been done within the field of second language acquisition using
grammaticality judgments.
v Learners are asked to state whether a given sentence is acceptable in the TL or not.
v For Example: I saw the woman who she is your son’s teacher
v Another method is to ask not for judgments based on degree of certainty.
v For Example: He remembers the man who his brother is a doctor.
–3 –2 – 1 0 +1 +2 +3
definitely incorrect unsure definitely correct
v Intuitional data are not limited to judgments of grammaticality. Other means of getting judgments that reflect learners’ intuitions
are preference judgments, and rankings.
v Ranking is a variation of the preference type task just exemplified. The difference lies primarily in the number of sentences used
and the lack of “same degree of grammaticality” as an option.

14. John said that
Bill saw
himself in the
mirror.

15. Example of Truth-value judgment tasks:
A boy and his father went on a bike ride together. The boy went
down a hill very fast. “Don’t go so fast!” shouted the father. It was
too late, the boy fell off his bike and started crying. The father gave
the boy a hug. Then the boy was happy again.
The boy was happy that the father hugged himself.
True ____ False ____
a) Can himself refer to the boy? (b) Can himself refer to the father?

16. Eliciting Reactions to Data
v You are a member of a research group. Many people are missing from a meeting and it is necessary for someone
to notify them about the next meeting. Your boss turns to you and says:
a) Notify those who are missing, OK?
b) Perhaps you could notify those who didn’t come?
c) Could you please notify the others about our next meeting?
d) How about getting in touch with the people who were absent?
e) I’d appreciate it if you could notify the people who were absent.
f) You will notify the people who were absent.

17. Verbal Report
Data
03

18. Verbal Report Data
v They are protocols or reports that come about from asking individuals to say what is going through their minds as they are
performing some task.
v There are essentially two types of verbal reports that are used: recalls and think-alouds.
v Think-alouds are conducted during the activity and recalls are conducted following an activity
v Recalls can be done with some stimulus (e.g., a video or audio of the event that the participant is reporting on, a written paper that a
learner has written) or without.
v The crucial information that the researcher wants to obtain are the thought processes at the time of the original event.

19. Measuring
Non-linguistic
Information
04

20. Studies investigating attitude, motivation, learning styles, and
personality characteristics frequently use instruments borrowed
directly or with some modification from the field of psychology.
B
Interviews
are generally conducted
orally and one-on-one.
A
Questionnaires
are commonly used to gain
information about
attitudes a learner may
have toward language
learning
C
Diaries
are journals that a learner
keeps (either on his or her
own initiative or following a
request/assignment given
by a teacher).

21. Measuring
General
Proficiency:
Standardized
Language Tests
05

22. Measuring General Proficiency:
Standardized Language Tests
v Standardized language tests are not often used as a source for second language data primarily because the most common type of
standardized test is objective and does not yield productive data that can be easily analyzed.
v Even with standardized tests, however, there is no absolute accepted cutoff point for advanced, intermediate and beginner.
v One difficulty in comparing SLA studies is that, because there is no accepted cutoff point, one researcher’s advanced category may
correspond to another’s intermediate category.
v Thomas (1994), based on a survey of the literature, has identified four common ways of assessing proficiency:
(a) impressionistic judgments, (b) institutional status (e.g., first semester of second-year French), (c) specific research-designed test,
(d) standardized tests.
v Because there are so many ways to measure proficiency, the field of SLA is left with considerable difficulty in comparing studies.
v This is unlike the field of child language acquisition, in which there is a well-accepted means of judging where a child is on the
developmental scale.

23. Replication
06

24. Replication
Much of SLA research is
empirical and such research is
in need of replication.
SLA research deals with human
behavior and thus is often
inconsistent.
This is complicated by two additional factors:
(a) The paucity of participants in many studies.
(b) The nature of second language knowledge.

25. Polio and Gass (1997) have argued for the
importance of replication while at the same time
acknowledging that “exact replication” is impossible
given that a replication study includes different
individuals. Replication studies are an ideal way for
those who are new to the field.

26. Issues in Data
Analysis
06

27. Issues in Data Analysis
1. The determination of development. The field of second language acquisition has not yet come up with an index of development.
2. Data do not yield unique results. A researcher must interpret the results. In order to interpret the results, the researcher must first
decide what data to include. That is, what are the relevant data for analysis? Another important consideration is the point of
reference for comparison.
3. In analyzing second language data there can be considerable difficulty in determining what the targeted structure is, there can be
differences in results depending on the methodology used for analysis, and there can also be differences in the results when using
a similar methodology.
4. How can we be sure about the facts of the native language? One concern is the role of dialects.
5. There is an equally complex issue in that we do not always know what target language variety the learner is “aiming” at.

28. What is
Acquisition?
07

29. What is Acquisition?
v One can be misled into thinking that a correct utterance or even two or three correct utterances suggest that a particular
structure has been acquired.
v However, learners appear to “backslide” that is, correct forms appear, but then seem to disappear.
v The fact of “backsliding,” underscores the need and difficulty of pinpointing second language knowledge.
v How one defines acquisition depends on what one is looking at. This might range from linguistic knowledge to the ability to use
that knowledge in speech and the ability to process language in real time.
v Consider the fact that an English learner of Italian may know that there is agreement, say between noun and adjective, but may
not be able to use that information when confronted with needing to use it in a conversation. Thus, if one is asking whether that
learner has learned that there is a concept of agreement in Italian, the answer is yes; if one is asking whether that learner has
learned to use that information in speech, the answer is no.

30. What is Acquisition?
v Various possible definitions of acquisition of a form:
(a) The first appearance of a correct form.
(b) A certain percentage of accurate forms (e.g., 90%).
(c) The “first of three consecutive two-week samples in which the morpheme is supplied in over 90% of obligatory contexts.
(d) The presence of at least two examples of structures in two different posttests.
v Considering language forms is limiting. For example, one needs to consider not only the actual forms, but also the context in
which the forms occur.
Ø Rachel: I read three great books last week.
Ø Miriam: Which one did you like best?
Rachel: The book about Mr. Park’s ex-wife who killed Nate Hosen
v Here, Rachel uses the definite article the before the noun book. English requires the use of the in this context, and it is in this
sense that we can talk about an obligatory context for the use of the definite article.

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