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Linguistic and Conversational Adjustments to Non-Native Speakers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2008

Michael H. Long
Michael H. Long
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii at Manoa
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Abstract

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At least 40 studies have been conducted of the linguistic and conversational adjustments made by native speakers of a language using it for communication with non-native speakers. The modifications sometimes result in ungrammatical speech. Generally, however, they serve to provide input that is well-formed, a sort of linguistic and conversational cocoon for the neophyte second language acquirer. Most of the findings hold across age groups, social classes and settings, although some differences, both qualitative and quantitative, have been noted in these areas, too.

In making the adjustments described, native speakers appear to be reacting not to one, but to a combination of factors. These include the linguistic characteristics and comprehen-sibility of the non-native's interlanguage, but particularly his or her apparent comprehension of what the native speaker is saying. The adjustments appear to be necessary for second language acquisition, in that beginners seem unable to acquire from unmodified native speaker input. There is some doubt as to their sufficiency in this regard.

Type
Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , Spring 1983 , pp. 177 - 193
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

References

Notes

1. It will be interesting to see what kinds of changes (if any) result in ungrammaticality in FT in languages with different structural characteristics, e.g. those with little or no inflectional morphology. Mandarin and Japanese have been considered in two studies (Chan and Choy 1980, and Long, Gambhiar, Gambhiar and Nishimura 1982, respectively), but neither found any instances of ungrammatical speech, perhaps because both involved arranged encounters in laboratory settings.

2. A recent study of Portuguese FT in street directions (Goldberg 1982) lends only partial support to this generalization. When addressing a middle class English-speaking tourist, ungrammatical utterances were found in the speech of more upper-middle class (higher status) than middle class (equal status) or working class (lower status) speakers. A few middle and working class speakers did use some ungrammatical utterances, however.

3. The question of whether initial and long term reactions to speech samples differ would also be an important one in research on teacher attitudes to accented speech of various ethnic groups. Most such studies in the U.S. during the last 15 years have reported something like ethnic stereotyping by teachers on the basis of their reactions to small samples of talk by children who were unknown to them. It might be the case that the elimination of other means of evaluating character, attitudes, ability, etc., which is an inevitable by-product of the kind of research design used, virtually forces the teachers to offer a stereotypical reaction, and/or that the same teachers' reactions would have been different after exposure to the same children over time in their own classes.

4. I am grateful to Catherine Snow for allowing me access to the draft version of this report. The final publication will be of a slightly revised version.

5. All examples are from Chaudron (in press).

6. Apparent counter-examples are provided by Ochs (1982) and Schiff (1979). The excerpts of caretaker-child conversation given in Ochs (1982), however, show that while Western Samoan caretakers may not employ a conventionalized variety of Baby Talk, they do make the usual adjustments (repetition, etc.) to the interactional structure of conversation. The hearing children of deaf adults, studies by Schiff (1979), who acquired English morphology in the normal sequence, are also not counter-examples since they are reported to have received between 15 and 25 hours per week of normal caretaker-child conversation with relatives and peers outside the home.