Abstract:
This is a preliminary study on the effects of two types of input presenting on the
early development of grammar knowledge (i.e. verbal inflection) in the second language
acquisition (SLA). Two groups of L1 French initial learners of Polish (TL) were
exposed for two weeks to the monolingual input which was similar in terms of linguistic
content, quantity and temporal distribution but distinct in terms of input presenting,
and to some extent, in terms of received corrective feedback. The impact of two teaching
modalities, i.e. meaning-based input with no focus on form nor explicit corrective
feedback vs. form-based input containing focus on form and explicit corrective feedback,
was measured through a grammaticality judgment type test administrated at the
end of each teaching session. Both experimental groups showed significant gains (from
69% on) on the delayed task concerning the subject-verb agreement in Polish. However,
the comparison between the results obtained by the learners trained in the two
teaching sessions reveals that the learners from the form-based group show a greater
accuracy in the grammatical evaluation of TL verbal inflections, and thus, are more successful
with respect to the learners from the meaning-based group. These results suggest
that the form-based input facilitates the learning of inflectional morphology, and
as a consequence, it might be beneficial for L2 linguistic development. Furthermore,
the study gives evidence of complex interrelations between various factors involved in
L2 grammar learning.
