VARIABILITY IN THE ACQUISITION OF SENTENTIAL NEGATION IN ADULT L2 SWAHILI LEARNERS Mary Gathogo

RESEARCH AREA Second Language Acquisition Acquisition of Swahili negation Variability and development

AIMS/ JUSTIFICATION Studies on acquisition of L2 stress the role of variables like age, motivation, environment in acquisition. Many studies focus also on defined stages of development This study seeks to examine inter and intra individual variability to discover how and when negation forms change

REFERENCES Dimroth, C. (2008). Age Effects on the the process of L2 acquisition? Evidence from the acquisition of negation and finiteness in L2 German, Language Learning, 58, 1 pp Verspoor, M., Lowie, W., & Marijn, D. (2008). Variability in second language development from a dynamic systems perspective. The Modern Language Journal, 92, pp Bernini, G. (2000) Negative strategies and negation strategies in nonnative Italian. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 22, Cancino,H., Rosansky, E., & Schumann, J. (1978). The acquisition of English Negatives and interrogatives by native Spanish speakers. In E. Hatch (Ed), Second Language Acquisition: A book of readings (pp ). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Bot, K., Lowie, W., & Marjolijn, V. (2007) A Dynamic Systems Theory approach to second language acquisition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 10 pp 7-21

RESEARCH QUESTIONS Does the acquisition of Swahili negation progress linearly or non linearly? If progress is not linear, which forms of Swahili negation show most regression? Do some forms stabilize sooner than others? Which ones are they?

METHODOLOGY Participants About 25 Ohio University students Native English Speakers learning Swahili as L2 or L3 Elementary and Intermediate levels

METHODOLOGY Instruments Grammaticality judgment test Unstructured questions Cloze test

METHODOLOGY Procedure Students will be given the tests at different points over a period of 5 months Tests will be taken in a class setting Simple and complex negative forms will be classified before grading the tests Check for both correct and incorrect use of negation

METHODOLOGY Data & Analysis The data will be both the correct and incorrect forms of negation Analysis will be done using a statistical analytical option or graphing Qualitative analysis involving the interpretation of scores will be done

ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS Attrition- the class might have a different composition in Winter when I hope to have two data collections Time constraints- interpretation of data phase Subsequent data after each collection and analysis might nullify findings from preceding stages

EXPECTED FINDINGS The development of Swahili negation is non linear, there will be identifiable peaks of development and regression. There will be regression, especially after the introduction of new forms Copula negation ( si ), PST tense (- ku -) and FST (- ta -) will show earlier stability than the PCT and the PPT(- ja -)

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