[진미주 영어교육론] Van Patten: Input Processing Instruction - Structured Input Activities

[Dio Jin 교수]

[Input Processing and  Input Processing Instruction]

According to VanPatten, (1996), the originator of the PI approach, PI is an input based grammar instruction which aims to affect learners’ attention to input data which is in compliance with second language theories and communicative anguage teaching. This pedagogical approach works with input and with the processes learners use to get data from that input. VanPatten’s PI has been proved to be effective. VanPatten accepts the fundamental role of input and uses the term input processing for the cognitive process which occurs when input is understood and integrated into language. The concept of input is single most important concept of second language acquisition.

Van Patten (1996 as cited in VanPatten 2002, p. 758) has presented one model of IP in order to provide the theoretical foundation to it. Processing instruction consists of three basic components: Learners are given information about a linguistic structure or form. Learners are informed about a particular processing strategy that may negatively affect their picking up of the form or structure during comprehension. Learners are pushed to process the form or structure during activities with structured input-input that is manipulated in particular ways to push learners to become dependent on form and structured to get meaning. Learners would work through written and aural activities in which they are pushed to process sentences correctly. These activities are called structured input activities.

[Structured input activities]

Examples of structured input activities that can be used to provide learners with opportunities to focus on grammar while processing input are modeled after published work in this area, including the works of VanPatten and his colleagues. The examples of this model are both referential and affective activities. Referential activities are those that involve only one correct answer. Affective activities do not have any right or wrong answer; learners have to simply indicate their agreement or opinions about a set of sentences. Classroom teachers can use these activities separately or in combination.

1. VanPatten postulates that learners, because of working memory constraints and because they are paying attention to prosodic cues (that signal content or more meaningful words than functors), are only able to process input for meaning before they can process it for form. This he calls the Primacy of Meaning Principle.

This principle comprises five sub-principles:

- (The Primacy of Content Words Principle)

Learners process content before anything else,

- (The Lexical Preference Principle),

rely on lexical words to encode meaning as opposed to grammatical forms that indicate the same semantic information

-(The Preference for Nonredundancy Principle),

are more likely to process non-redundant meaningful grammatical forms before processing redundant meaningful grammatical forms

-(The Meaning-before-Nonmeaning Principle),

are more likely to process meaningful grammatical forms before non-meaningful forms, irrespective of redundancy

-(The Availability of Resources Principle),

must not face a drain of attentional resources while processing sentential meaning before processing either redundant meaningful or nonmeaningful forms

-(The Sentence Location Principle)

and tend to process items in sentence initial position before those in medial and final positions

-(The First Noun Principle)

Related to the principles above are learners' tendency to process the first noun or pronoun in a sentence as the subject / agent .

This in turn comprises three sub-principles:

- (The Lexical Semantics Principle),

learners' tendency to rely on lexical semantics rather than word order to process sentences

- (The Event Probabilities Principle)

relying on event probabilities rather than on word order

- (The Contextual Constraint Principle)

relying less on the first noun principle if preceding context constrains the possible interpretation of a clause or sentence.

However, VanPatten points out that none of these principles operates in isolation; sometimes several may act together or one may take precedence over another, and sometimes several "may collude" to delay acquisition.

2. The Nature of Processing Instruction by Wynne Wong, sets out the three characteristics of Processing Instruction (PI), which she defines as "a type of focus

on form instruction,"thus:

1. explicit information about the target structure

2. explicit information about processing

3. structured input activities

Wong then goes on to describe how to develop Structured Input (SI) activities. She points out that without first identifying a processing problem (which will enable learners to drop their less than optimal strategies for efficient ones), it will not be possible to create SI activities that will help the learner reach the goal.

The other guidelines for developing SI activities follow:

a. Present one thing at a time

(which will not drain learners' resources)

b. Keep meaning in focus

(which means that acquisition of grammatical items will only happen if learners are

required to process propositional content)

c. Move from sentences to connected discourse

d. Use both oral and written input

(so that more "visual" learners would benefit from seeing written input)

e. Have learners do something with the input

(a reason for attending to the input)

f. Keep the learner's processing strategies in mind

(For example, "if learners are relying on lexical items to interpret tense, then we

may want to structure the activities so that learners are pushed to rely on

grammatical morphemes instead of lexical adverbs to get tense").

She also describes the two types of SI activities used in PI: referential—those activities that require learners to pay attention to form in order to get meaning and which have a right or wrong answer—and affective activities--those activities that require learners to express an opinion or belief, but do not have right or wrong answers.

2019년 9-11월 실전문제 7주차 영교론 문제 Processing Instruction 진미주 출제

Read the passage and follow the directions. [4 points]

<A>

The term is used for the cognitive process which occurs when input is understood and integrated into language. According to Van Patten (1996; 2002), learners, because of working memory constraints and because they are paying attention to prosodic cues (that signal content or more meaningful words than function words), are only able to process input for meaning before they can process it for form. This he calls the “Primacy of Meaning Principle.” Learners depend on several principles like PMP when processing L2 input. However, they may negatively affect their picking up the form/structure during comprehension. Thus, ①______________ has been proposed as a teaching methods to help students overcome these processing strategies in acquiring specific language features.

In this instruction, teachers provide student with ② ______________, where input is manipulated in particular ways so that learners become dependent on form and structure to get meaning, and/or to privilege the form/structure in the input so that learners have a better chance of attending to it. Learners do not produce the structure or form during these activities.

[The guidelines]:

a. Present one thing at a time (which will not drain learners' resources)

b. Keep meaning in focus (which means that acquisition of grammatical items will

only happen if learners are required to process propositional content)

c. Move from sentences to connected discourse

d. Use both oral and written input (so that more "visual" learners would benefit from seeing written input)

e. Have learners do something with the input (a reason for attending to the input)

f. Keep the learner's processing strategies in mind (For example, "if learners are

relying on lexical items to interpret tense, then we may want to structure the

activities so that learners are pushed to rely on grammatical morphemes instead of lexical adverbs to get tense").

These activities include two kind of activities: referential and affective activities. Referential activities are regarded as one of the two essential components in the domain of structured input activities. To carry out referential activities successfully, learners are required to attend to the targeted grammatical form and interpret its meaning. To make referential activities more practicable, they involve learners in activities with right and wrong options. Subsequently, learners will be able to distinguish their correct and wrong answers on the basis of the received feedback. Affective activities do not have any right or wrong answer; learners have to simply indicate their agreement or opinions about a set of sentences, in which learners have to merely perform the tasks in meaningfully oriented contexts containing the targeted linguistic feature.

<B>

[Activity 1]

Step 1: Read the following activities and indicate whether you did the same things over the weekend.

	Yes	No
1. I did my homework.
2. I watched TV.
3. I wrote a letter to my friend.
4. I had a birthday party.
5. I walked to the beach.
6. I cleaned my room.
7. I went downtown.
8. I rode my bike.

Step 2: Now form pairs and compare your responses with your classmate to see whether he or she did the same activities

[Activity 2]

[The teacher’s instructions]:

Read each sentence only once and then, after each sentence, ask for an answer. Do not wait until the end to review answers. Students do not repeat or otherwise produce the structure.

1. The girl made the man check the house for mice.

2. My dad made my brother babysit the children all night.

3. Mom let the boys go to three different circuses in one week.

4. The boss had the chef prepare several roast geese for the wedding dinner.

5. Jack let Joe collect some of the data required for our project.

6. The professor had the students create hypotheses for their science

experiment.

[Students’ instruction]:

Listen to each of the following sentences and then decide who is performing the action by checking the box.

1. Who checked the house for mice?	The girl The man
2. Who babysat the children all night?	My dad My brother
3 Who went to three different circuses in one week?	Mom The boys
4. Who prepared several roast geese for the wedding dinner?	The boss The chef
5. Who collected some of the data required for our project?	Jack Joe
6. Who had the students create hypotheses for their science experiment?	The professor The students

First, fill in each blank with THREE different words, respectively. Write your answers in the correct order. Second, decide each activity in <B> belongs to which activity in <A>, referential or affective, and state evidence from <A> and <B>.

Van Patten - Input Processing and Structures Input Activities_진미주.pdf