北外语言学考博试题二.doc

北京外国语大学中国外语教育研究中心2008年博士生招生考试试卷（B卷）(刘润清）General Directions: Answer any FOUR of the following questions, each bearing 25 points out of 100. Your answers will be evaluated in terms of both their content and language. Please write very clearly.I. Define TEN of the following terms: 1. construct validity 2. comprehensible input 3. feedback 4. implicit learning 5. course density 6. language aptitude 7. skewness 8. skimming 9. needs analysis 10. learning style 11. metalanguage 12. pace-reading 13. incidental learning 14. automaticity 15. input hypothesis 16. working memory17. treatment group 18. think aloud 19. top-down processing 20. learner autonomy II. Lourdes Ortega wrote a paper called Second language learning explained? SLA across nine contemporary theories in which he reviewed nine approaches in SLA. In the following paragraph he discussed two approaches. You are asked to read them carefully and then comment on the merits and demerits of these theories in comparison of other theories you know of. Universal Grammar theory (UG) and Autonomous Induction theory (AI) are affiliated with the field of generative Chomskyan linguistics and therefore adopt a linguistic view of language cognition. Both theories offer the following argument: If L2 learners possess abstract knowledge of ambiguity and ungrammaticality that could have never been derived from the linguistic input available in the environment or from their L1 knowledge alone, we must assume that the knowledge was already there, in some initial form at least, independent from experience. That is, the two theories are committed to nativism. Furthermore, in both theories learners are thought to be constrained (in the positive sense of guided) in their learning task by this preexisting initial grammatical knowledge they possess. Proponents of both theories are also committed to modularity. In other words, they believe language is distinct from other forms of cognition; it is a separate faculty, an organ of the mind. (In the specialized literature, the terms language-specific and domain-specific are also used to refer to this same notion.) Finally, in both of them, language knowledge is thought to be symbolic. This symbolic knowledge is posited to be formal, highly abstract, and unconscious or tacit, represented in our mind in the form of principles and parameters (in UG) or features and categories (in AI). It follows that according to these two theories, core grammatical knowledge unfolds incidentally by deduction from an innate abstract knowledge. The instantiated rules of the specific L1 or L2, once acquired, remain implicitly represented.III. The following passage is taken from Theories in Second Language Acquisition: An Introduction. The authors listed ten observations on SLA. Read them carefully and then comment on them, pointing out which ones you agree with and why. 1. Exposure to input is necessary for SLA. It means acquisition does not happen for learners of L2 unless they are exposed to input. 2. A good deal of SLA happens incidentally. It means that various aspects of language enter learners minds when they are focused on communicative interaction. 3. Learners come to know more than what they have been exposed to in the input. 4. Learners output (speech) often follows predictable paths with predictable stages in the acquisition of a given structure. 5. Second language learning is variable in its outcome, which means that not all learners achieve the same degree of unconscious knowledge about a L2. 6. Second language learning is variable across linguistic subsystems. Learners may vary, for example, in whether their sound system is more developed than their syntax or vocabulary. 7. There are limits on the effects of frequency on SLA. It means that the frequency of occurrence of a linguistic feature in the input correlates with whether it is acquired early or late. 8. There are limits on the effects of a learners first language on SLA. It seems that the influence of L1 is somehow selective and also varies across individual learners. 9. There are limits on the effects of instruction on SLA. It is possible for instruction to have no effect, detrimental effect, indirect effect on acquisition sequences and acquisition orders. 10. There are limits on the effects of output (learner production) on language acquisition. Though it may seem like common sense that practice makes perfect, this proverb is not entirely true when it comes to SLA.IV. Here are 5 figures illustrating pre-experimental and true experimental designs of research. Explain what each figure means and comment on the merits and demerits of each design. X O O1 X O2 Figure 1: one-shot case study Figure 2: one-group pretest posttest design X O2 R X O1 - O2 R O2Figure 3: intact-group design Figure 4: posttest only control group design RO1 X O2 Figure 5: pretest-posttest control group design RO4 O4V. Using theories and principles in language testing, comment on CET Bands 4 and 6, in particular reference to their nature (achievement test or proficiency test or not defined), use (to promote teaching and learning or to serve non-educational functions), format (subjective testing or objective testing), backwash effect (conducive to teaching or otherwise) and administration (easy to administer or difficult). VI. The normal curve or normal distribution is a very stable and important statistical phenomenon. If samples of size N are repeatedly drawn from any population, and the sample means are plotted in a histogram, we find the following three things happen, if the sample size N is large: (a) the histogram is symmetrical; (b) the mean of the set of sample means is very close to that of the original population; (c) the standard deviation of the set of sample means will be very close to the original population standard deviation divided by the square root of the sample size N. If N is large enough, then the histogram of the means of the samples can always be very closely described by a simple mathematical formula, irrespective of the population from which the samples are drawn. Here is a normal curve. Explain what the figure tells us and what use we can make of it. And suppose we know the mean score from one test is 123, and the standard deviation is 23. Say everything we can work out from the curve about Student A who got 150 and Student B who got 95.VII. In his A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory, Penny Ur shows how to give effective explanations and instructions. He laid out the following outlines for teachers to think about and discuss with their colleagues. Now pl