Merrill Swain Explained

Merrill Swain is a Canadian applied linguist whose research has focused on second language acquisition (SLA).[1] Some of her most notable contributions to SLA research include the Output Hypothesis and her research related to immersion education.[2] Swain is a Professor Emerita at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto.[3] Swain is also known for her work with Michael Canale on communicative competence.[4] Swain was the president of the American Association for Applied Linguistics in 1998.[5] She received her PhD in psychology at the University of California. Swain has co-supervised 64 PhD students.

The Output Hypothesis

See main article: Comprehensible output. Merrill Swain came to propose the Output Hypothesis based on her observations of French immersion classrooms that very rarely did students say anything longer than a clause, and that many graduates of French immersion programs still had grammatical inaccuracies in their speech that never went away even after many years of immersion education.[6] In contrast with Stephen Krashen’s 1977 Input Hypothesis, Swain’s Output Hypothesis posited that comprehensible input on its own is not enough for language learning.[7] [8]

The Output Hypothesis proposes that “through producing language, either spoken or written, language acquisition/learning may occur”, because learners are more likely to notice gaps in their knowledge when producing output, and learn as a result of trying to fill that gap.[9]

The Output Hypothesis attributes three main functions to the production of language (output) that are relevant to language learning:

  1. The noticing/triggering function - in attempting to produce language, learners may become aware of a gap between their intended meaning and the form closest to that meaning that they can produce using their current knowledge.
  2. The hypothesis-testing function - output can be a reflection of hypotheses about the language that learners are testing.
  3. The metalinguistic (reflective) function - “using language to reflect on language produced by others or the self mediates second language learning”.[10]

Immersion Education

Merrill Swain has contributed significantly to immersion pedagogy through her extensive observation and research of French immersion classrooms and other second language learning contexts. In the 1970s, immersion education in Canada centrally focused on comprehensible input, achieved by teaching school subjects in French.[11] In the 1970s, Swain pushed for change in the way immersion language teaching was conducted. Swain pointed out in a 1974 paper co-authored by Henry Barik about their observations in French immersion classrooms in two schools in Elgin county that, even after many years in the immersion program, “some of the errors do not disappear”. Therefore, Swain pushed for a “combination of emphasis on grammatical accuracy and … meaningful communication from the very start”.[12] Swain hypothesized that when exposed to content instruction in the target language, learners can deduce the meaning of language through contextual knowledge without needing to understand grammatical structures, and that it is more difficult to use this kind of shortcut when producing output. Swain suggested that students should be given more opportunities to produce output in the target language, as it would cause students to better notice structural aspects of the language. These ideas formed the basis of Swain’s Output Hypothesis.

Merrill Swain’s research also showed that teachers’ typical language use was limited in the variety of grammatical forms used, which meant that students had a low amount of exposure to those forms not used by teachers. This lopsided input was a factor in students’ continued inaccuracies in some forms. To remedy this, Swain suggested that teachers should design activities that “naturally elicit particular uses of language”.

Awards

Writing

Merrill Swain is the co-author or co-editor of 12 books or special issues, 95 book chapters, and 135 papers in refereed journals. Listed here is a small sample of her numerous works.

External links

Notes and References

  1. EVALUATING BILINGUAL EDUCATION: A CANADIAN CASE STUDY, Merrill Swain and Sharon Larkin. Clevedon, Avon, England: Multilingual matters LTD., 1982. Pp. 117. . 10.1017/S0272263100005593 . 1985 . Reagan . Timothy . Studies in Second Language Acquisition . 7 . 3 . 354–355 . 145225607 .
  2. Web site: OISE :: Merrill Swain :: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto .
  3. Book: Perspectives on language as action : festschrift in honour of Merrill Swain. Haneda, Mari, 1958-, Nassaji, Hossein, Swain, Merrill.. 22 February 2019. 978-1-78892-294-4. Bristol. 1075556039.
  4. Book: Brown, H. Douglas . Principles of Language Learning and Teaching . 2007 . Pearson Education . White Plains, NY . 978-0-13-199128-6 . 5th . 219–220 .
  5. Web site: Past Presidents. American Association of Applied Linguistics. 11 November 2012. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20101026123401/http://aaal.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=13. 26 October 2010.
  6. Swain. Merrill. 1988-10-26. Manipulating and Complementing Content Teaching To Maximize Second Language Learning. TESL Canada Journal. 6. 1. 68. 10.18806/tesl.v6i1.542. 1925-8917. free.
  7. Krashen, S. (1977). "Some issues relating to the monitor model". In Brown, H. D., Yorio, C. A., & Crymes, R. H. (1977). Teaching and learning English as a second language: Trends in research and practice : on TESOL '77 : selected papers from the eleventh annual convention of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Miami, Florida, April 26-May 1, 1977. Washington: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.
  8. Book: Swain, Merrill. Input in Second Language Acquisition. Newbury House. 1985. Gass. Susan. Rowley, MA. Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. Carolyn. Madden.
  9. Swain. Merrill. October 1993. The Output Hypothesis: Just Speaking and Writing Aren't Enough. Canadian Modern Language Review. 50. 1. 158–164. 10.3138/cmlr.50.1.158. 0008-4506.
  10. Swain, M. (2004). The output hypothesis: Its history and its future [Presentation]. National Research Center for Foreign Language Education of Beijing Foreign Studies University. Retrieved from http://www.celea.org.cn/2007/keynote/ppt/Merrill%20Swain.pdf
  11. Barik. Henri C.. Swain. Merrill. December 1974. English-French Bilingual Education in the Early Grades: The Elgin Study*. The Modern Language Journal. en. 58. 8. 392–403. 10.1111/j.1540-4781.1974.tb05131.x.
  12. Harley. Brigit. Swain. Merrill. 1978. Form and Function in a Second Language: A Close Look at the Verb System. Paper Presented at the Fifth International Congress of Applied Linguistics. Montreal, Quebec, Canada..
  13. Web site: CTL :: Merrill Swain :: Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at OISE. 2020-12-04. www.oise.utoronto.ca.