Theses and Dissertations from UMD

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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Input modification

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    EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF AUDITORY INPUT ON INCIDENTAL VOCABULARY LEARNING BY L2 JAPANESE SPEAKERS
    (2020) Hillman, Kyoko Kobayashi; Ross, Steven J; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Research on advanced L2 adult learners and viable classroom instruction for them has become increasingly important along with increasing global connections. This study investigated the effects of different kinds of spoken input modification on listening comprehension and incidental vocabulary learning by 106 advanced Chinese speakers of Japanese in Japan. The participants were randomly assigned to four types of input (genuine, simplified, elaborated, modified elaborated) used in four short academic talks by Japanese professionals. Each talk contained eight low-frequency nouns, each appearing three times. Learning outcomes were assessed using three different measures: form-recognition, meaning recognition with contextual information, and meaning recognition via L2 definitions. Participants responded to three types of comprehension questions (replication, synthesis, inference) while listening to the talks. Scores from an online proficiency test and two working memory (WM) tasks served as moderator variables.Results showed that elaborated input was the most effective of the four types for both comprehension and incidental vocabulary learning. Results also showed that modified elaborated input, a novel input modification type that contained the same elaboration but with shorter sentences, was more effective when higher WM was available. In contrast, elaborated input was least influenced by WM capacities. Regarding the relationships between input modification and type of comprehension questions, modified elaborated input had a marginally significant effect on replication items. For synthesis and inference items, statistically significant effects for input type were not found, contradicting previous results in the literature. Proficiency showed significant effects on all tests, whereas WM showed interaction effects with simplified and modified elaborated input. In light of these findings, the study concludes that (a) elaborated input is more beneficial for advanced L2 learners than genuine input regardless of WM, (b) modified elaborated input with short sentences requires WM, (c) input elaboration is more effective than input enhancement for incidental vocabulary learning for both form and meaning recognition, and (d) enhanced incidental vocabulary conditions using greater input elaboration are likely to provide L2 learners with better input and opportunities to learn more lexical items incidentally.
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    SPEECH MODIFICATION TO NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS AND CONTENT DILUTION: IMPLICATIONS FOR ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION (EMI)
    (2018) Al Thowaini, Assma Mohammad; Long, Michael H; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    With the rapid growth of language education programs, such as Content-and-Language-Integrated Learning (CLIL) and English as a medium of instruction (EMI), research on input modification shifted perspectives. The current study investigates L2 input modification by comparing the speech of non-native speakers to that of native speakers towards low-proficiency learners of English using quantitative methods. Furthermore, the study explores the effects of these modifications on learners’ content comprehension and the possible content dilution (e.g., loss of essential information) triggered by linguistic simplification. In this experiment, two types of participants were recruited: speakers and listeners. Twenty native and advanced non-native speakers of English participated (ten of each). The speaker participants were divided into two subgroups: those with language teaching experience and those without. For the listeners, three groups were recruited: 20 native speaker controls, 20 high-proficiency, and 20 low-proficiency English learners (listeners). Each speaker narrated stories to three assigned listeners (one from each condition) in one-on-one sessions. Each session included an introduction, two warm-up stories, and three main stories. Speech was audio-recorded to examine the types of modification employed with high- and low-proficiency listeners, as opposed to native listener controls, and the effects of those modifications on story content and listener comprehension. After each story, the listeners took a content comprehension assessment. The transcripts were coded for lexical complexity (diversity and sophistication), syntactic complexity, and content dilution. The results showed a significant difference between native and non-native speakers in their speech to the three listener conditions in terms of lexical sophistication and syntactic complexity, as well as a significant difference between speakers with language teaching experience and speakers without in terms of lexical diversity. Furthermore, all speaker conditions exhibited significant linguistic modification (lexical diversity, lexical sophistication, and syntactic complexity) in their speech towards low- and high-proficiency listeners compared to their speech towards the native controls. In addition, only native speakers showed significant content dilution (measured by the count of mentioned information bits) in their speech towards high- and low-proficiency listeners. Finally, the high- and low-proficiency listeners’ scores on the content comprehension assessment were significantly lower than the scores of the native controls.