Tracking ‘learning behaviours’ in the incidental acquisition of two dimensional adjectives by Japanese beginner learners of L2 English

The purpose of this article is to examine both the process and product of vocabulary learning in a task-based instructional context. The article reports a study that investigated the acquisition of two dimensional adjectives (‘big’ and ‘small’) by six-year-old Japanese children who were complete beg...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Shintani, N., Ellis, Rod
Format: Journal Article
Published: Arnold 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/54946
_version_ 1848759504623108096
author Shintani, N.
Ellis, Rod
author_facet Shintani, N.
Ellis, Rod
author_sort Shintani, N.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The purpose of this article is to examine both the process and product of vocabulary learning in a task-based instructional context. The article reports a study that investigated the acquisition of two dimensional adjectives (‘big’ and ‘small’) by six-year-old Japanese children who were complete beginners. It tracked the ‘learning behaviours’ that occurred in the classroom interactions involving the use of these adjectives in nine task-based lessons to show how these behaviours developed over time. It also collected test data to establish whether the learners had developed the receptive and productive knowledge required for the independent use of two adjectives. In this way, the study shows how second language (L2) learning evolves through interaction by exploring the relationships between the learners’ different learning behaviours and the differences in their test performance. The main finding was that differences in the success of the individual learners in acquiring productive control over the dimensional adjectives – as shown in the tests – was directly traceable to their learning behaviours in the task-based interactions.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T10:00:56Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-54946
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T10:00:56Z
publishDate 2014
publisher Arnold
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-549462017-09-13T16:11:53Z Tracking ‘learning behaviours’ in the incidental acquisition of two dimensional adjectives by Japanese beginner learners of L2 English Shintani, N. Ellis, Rod The purpose of this article is to examine both the process and product of vocabulary learning in a task-based instructional context. The article reports a study that investigated the acquisition of two dimensional adjectives (‘big’ and ‘small’) by six-year-old Japanese children who were complete beginners. It tracked the ‘learning behaviours’ that occurred in the classroom interactions involving the use of these adjectives in nine task-based lessons to show how these behaviours developed over time. It also collected test data to establish whether the learners had developed the receptive and productive knowledge required for the independent use of two adjectives. In this way, the study shows how second language (L2) learning evolves through interaction by exploring the relationships between the learners’ different learning behaviours and the differences in their test performance. The main finding was that differences in the success of the individual learners in acquiring productive control over the dimensional adjectives – as shown in the tests – was directly traceable to their learning behaviours in the task-based interactions. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/54946 10.1177/1362168813519885 Arnold fulltext
spellingShingle Shintani, N.
Ellis, Rod
Tracking ‘learning behaviours’ in the incidental acquisition of two dimensional adjectives by Japanese beginner learners of L2 English
title Tracking ‘learning behaviours’ in the incidental acquisition of two dimensional adjectives by Japanese beginner learners of L2 English
title_full Tracking ‘learning behaviours’ in the incidental acquisition of two dimensional adjectives by Japanese beginner learners of L2 English
title_fullStr Tracking ‘learning behaviours’ in the incidental acquisition of two dimensional adjectives by Japanese beginner learners of L2 English
title_full_unstemmed Tracking ‘learning behaviours’ in the incidental acquisition of two dimensional adjectives by Japanese beginner learners of L2 English
title_short Tracking ‘learning behaviours’ in the incidental acquisition of two dimensional adjectives by Japanese beginner learners of L2 English
title_sort tracking ‘learning behaviours’ in the incidental acquisition of two dimensional adjectives by japanese beginner learners of l2 english
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/54946