Premium
Formal and Informal Experiential Realms in German as a Foreign Language: A Preliminary Investigation
Author(s) -
Moyer Alene
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
foreign language annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.258
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1944-9720
pISSN - 0015-718X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1944-9720.2005.tb02224.x
Subject(s) - fluency , german , linguistics , word order , psychology , subject (documents) , object (grammar) , foreign language , verb , experiential learning , computer science , mathematics education , library science , philosophy
In this study of German as a foreign language, formal classroom experience is compared with informal use of German outside the classroom focusing on three syntactic features: main clause word order (subject–verb–object, or SVO), topicalization (subject–verb inversion), and subordinate word order (subject–object–verb, or SOV). T tests and correlation analyses comparing written and oral data from 31 learners demonstrate that: (a) written and oral fluency diverge significantly for these three features; (b) formal and informal target language experience both correlate to fluency; (c) formal experience correlates most significantly to written fluency; and (d) learner orientation is closely related to both experience and fluency in several ways. This preliminary study underscores the quality of experience—consistent, interactive target language contact across multiple domains—as more significant for acquiring certain features than is quantity, or mere duration of target language exposure.