Teach rules to metalinguistic criterion first, then schedule systematic comprehension and production practice¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 2 studies (1 causal, 1 review), q2–q3 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article's instructional sequence: teach target rules and vocabulary explicitly, verify with metalinguistic tests until learners reach criterion, then engage learners in systematic, computer-controlled comprehension and production practice over an extended period. The study reports that after subjects "hadreached criterion on a set of metalinguistic tests of grammar and vocabulary, they engaged insystematic, computer-controlled comprehension and production practice for 8 weeks."

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Metalinguistic tests of grammar and vocabulary to establish criterion before practice
• Sustained practice schedule (8 weeks in the study) with both comprehension and production components

Constraints¶

• Demonstrated with explicitly taught rules in an artificial language; skill developed gradually rather than quickly

Target Learners¶

• adult second language learners

Target Learning Goals¶

• automatization of explicitly learned L2 morphosyntactic rules

Affordances¶

• Skill Acquisition Theory L2 Automatization

Claims¶

• Explicitly learned L2 rules can be automatized through systematic practice after a metalinguistic criterion is reached [+W]
• Learning of second language morphosyntactic rules is highly skill-specific: comprehension practice yields comprehension skill and production practice yields production skill [+W]
• Automatized L2 morphosyntactic skills develop very gradually over time, following a power function learning curve like other cognitive skills [+W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Robert M. DeKeyser. (1997). Beyond Explicit Rule Learning: Automatizing Second Language Morphosyntax. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Volume 19, Issue 2. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263197002040