Diversifying Processing Instruction for Diverse Learners

Wynne WONG et Thierno DIALLO

The Ohio State University

Questions in English and in French are welcome.

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Given that language learners in today’s second language (L2) classrooms are increasingly multilingual and culturally diverse, research and pedagogical practices necessarily need to evolve to meet the needs of these students. A pedagogical practice that has been shown to be effective in helping L2 learners process target grammatical structures is processing instruction (VanPatten & Cadierno,1993). Based on VanPatten’s model of input processing (1996, 2004, 2015), processing instruction is presumed to be beneficial because the structured input activities used in this pedagogical practice are directly informed by the processing strategies that L2 learners tend to use to process L2 input. 

To date, research on processing instruction has mostly focused on alphabet languages, and to our knowledge, structured input activities have not been developed (or are at least not readily available) for non-alphabet and less commonly taught languages.

In this presentation, we discuss the need to diversify processing instruction for today’s diverse learners. We first discuss the need to diversify processing instruction by encouraging the development of structured input activities that target less commonly taught languages (e.g., Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish). Second, we show why processing instruction and structured input activities are suitable for diverse learners including learners with disabilities. 

References

VanPatten, B. (1996). Input processing and grammar instruction: Theory and research. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

VanPatten, B. (2004). Input processing in second language acquisition. In B. VanPatten (Ed.), Processing instruction: Theory, research, and commentary (pp. 5–31). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

VanPatten, B. (2015). Input processing in adult SLA. In B. VanPatten & J. Williams (Eds.), Theories in second language acquisition: An introduction (2nd ed.) (pp. 113–134). New York, NY: Routledge. 

VanPatten, B., & Cadierno, T. (1993). Explicit instruction and input processing. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 15(2), 225-243.