Influences of Attention and Noticing on Second Language Acquisition

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how realizing problems during translation from Japanese to English and noticing forms in written model sentences encourage learners to internalize linguistic items. Thirty nine university students, classified into 3 proficiency levels, took part in an experiment, in which they wrote down problems they had realized while translating Japanese into English and also took notes of what forms they had noticed in looking at model sentences. A post test was given in the following week to examine how the participants internalized target linguistic items. The results are: 1) realizing problems and noticing forms prompt the immediate internalization of linguistic items and play an important role in mapping already learned forms with the new meanings in all proficiency levels, and 2) realizing problems and noticing forms make advanced learners internalize more linguistic items.