DuBravac, Stayc

This small-scale study investigated the extent to which negotiations of meaning during methodologically focused communicative partner-activities were concerned with a grammatical target structure, the dative case following spatial prepositions in German. In addition, the impact of the negotiation of the target structure on subsequent learner performance was investigated. The subjects, beginning-level students of German, participated in two two-way information-gap activities, preceded and followed by the same grammaticality judgment test. The interaction was audiotaped and transcribed. The improvement in accuracy between the pretest and the posttest was calculated and correlated with the number of negotiation moves. The results indicate that the subjects negotiated meaning, including form, frequently. However, no significant change in the subjects' subsequent performance was observed.

This research study compares the use of the Spanish preterite and imperfect forms of stative verbs between native Spanish speakers in an L1 Spanish environment (E1) with L1 Spanish speakers in an L2 English environment (E2). The study specifically targets subjects' Spanish L1 attrition of these verb forms in an English L2 environment by eliciting their use in an informal interview.

Scaffolding is the assistance of an expert learner provided to a novice learner to fulfill a given task. This study examined scaffolding in email messages between non-native speakers learning about German culture. The instructor used Internet resources to teach aspects of the target culture to students enrolled in a second semester German course. Email exchanges between two separate classes of German students were designed to elicit scaffolding. Unlike previous studies that have concentrated on the grammatical competence of the students, this study focused on the development of cultural competence as subjects discussed four topics of German culture via email messages. Scaffolded cultural help enables participants to develop an opinion about selected cultural issues. Scaffolded help was found in few email messages and the analysis suggests that participants discussed cultural issues by exchanging factual knowledge rather than providing scaffolded help. Concludes with considerations for further research and teaching.

This qualitative study analyzes speech data from learner's interaction in small group and paired activities in the classroom. The analysis is framed in Vygotsky's theory of language. The findings suggest that peer-peer interaction alone does not increase the opportunities for students to understand, practice and incorporate new concepts into their developing second language. Other-regulation---collaborative dialogue---and scaffolding---the task preparation so the student is compelled to perform a task that appears to be within his/her reach---are compromised when the task lacks context and personal significance for the students.

This study investigates whether synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) has the potential to foster second language learners' strategic competence (as a component of communicative competence). For this purpose, the use of communication strategies (CSs) by 15 fourth-semester students of German during four computer-mediated and four oral "jigsaw" tasks is compared. The students used more CSs in oral interaction, which is attributed to a lesser degree of utterance planning in oral interaction and stronger time constraints in synchronous CMC. However, this quantitative difference is due to only five students' use of significantly more CSs in oral interaction. The distribution of the various CS types was similar in both communication modes; only code-switching occurred much more frequently in synchronous CMC, which is attributed to stronger time constraints in this medium and less monitoring by the instructor. Hence, synchronous CMC is not superior to oral interaction as far as promoting CS use is concerned.