Master's Degree ​in ​Advanced​ ​English​ ​Studies

The Acquisition of English and Intercultural Communication Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Department of English and German

COURSE WORK

The Effect of Alcohol Consumption on Utterance Length in SLA.

Supervisor’s name: ​María José Solé Sabater​​.

Student’s name: ​Aleksandra Belousova.

Introduction
A large number of personality characteristics have been shown to affect second language
learning. Some studies have revealed that success in Second Language Acquisition (SLA)
depends on extraversion (assertiveness and adventurousness), whereas other aspects of
personality such as inhibition may affect it in a negative way. Ryan Brown assumed that
inhibition stimulates students to protect their ego in SLA and, therefore, their speaking
performance deteriorates (2000). According to Prof. Ur (1996) inhibition refers to the lack of
motivation, self-confidence, self-esteem, shyness and language ego. All these factors affect
the speech performance in terms of utterance length. Teachers can reduce inhibition in
many ways (classroom management, good rapport, etc), however, this research will study
and analyse the effect of small doses of alcohol, known for the ability to reduce inhibition.

There are two main factors that cause inhibition. The cognitive factor includes grammar,
vocabulary and pronunciation which are integrated in the language production. Students’
lack of vocabulary (Becker, 1997) is the cause of low academic performance. Difficulties in
pronouncing the words (Brown, 2000) decrease bravery in oral communication. The fear to
produce ungrammatical structures (Thurnbury, 2006) impairs the process of interaction.
The affective factor includes lack of motivation, shyness, self confidence, self esteem and
language ego. Grabe and Stoller (2002) emphasised that low motivation decreases
learners’ comprehension. Caroline Baldwin (2011) stated that shyness is a common
phobia, which students encounter in the process of SLA. Dornyei (1998) claimed that
learners are unable to reach long-term goals without adequate level of self-confidence and
language ego.

R​ecent studies (Rodgers B, Windsor TD, Anstey KJ, Dear KB, F Jorm A, Christensen H,
2005) have shown that light to moderate alcohol consumption is often associated with
better outcomes than complete abstinence from drinking. They have revealed that alcohol
abstainers gain lower scores on cognitive tests compared with moderate drinkers.
The evaluation of alcohol consumption effect on cognitive factors is complicated by a wide
range of beverages. Some studies suggest that red wine has specific benefits for cognition
compared with beer, while beverage-specific effect has not been proved in other studies.
(Stampfer MJ, Kang JH, Chen J, Cherry R, Grodstein F., 2005).
There is an assumption that small doses of vodka (50g) may increase utterance length,
affecting it positively. ​Two prominent studies can be mentioned in this respect. ​Alexander
Guiora (1972) ​claimed that moderate doses of alcohol improve the performance of L2
learners by “lowering inhibitions”. Another scientist Dr. Fritz Renner (2018) tested the
effects of alcohol on self-rated and observer-rated verbal foreign language performance.
He concluded that ingestion of small amounts of alcohol has beneficial effects on the ability
to pronounce a second language.

The effect of ​alcohol consumption on L2 performance in foreign language learners has not
been investigated in depth as it may impair functioning at many levels. Nevertheless, it is
challenging to apply the methods of scientific inquiry to SLA at low blood-alcohol levels.

​ Research Question and Experimental Hypothesis

The research question of the present study is: how can inhibition in SLA be diminished?

The experimental directional hypothesis: a moderate dose of alcohol (vodka) can diminish
inhibition and increase the Utterance Length (UL).

The null hypothesis: alcohol does not increase UL.

There are 4 conditions in the experiment: 2 groups of volunteers (N=20), each group
comprises 5 males and 5 females. There are 2 treatment conditions, based on consumption
of alcohol: control condition with no alcohol and experimental condition with alcohol intake (≈
50g vodka). In order to avoid a confounding variable (body weight) the exact dose of alcohol
depends on the weight of a subject. Volunteers, whose weight is ≥ 60 kg, are administered
50g. Volunteers, whose weight is < 60 kg, are administered 40g.

The prediction of the hypothesis: UL significantly increases under the influence of alcohol in
terms of the number of words.

Experimental Design

Material: 2 groups of student-volunteers. Each group comprised 5 adult males and 5 adult
females, with the same proficiency level (pre-intermediate). Both groups underwent the test
“the length of utterance” in response to the task: describe a picture. The pictures depicted
scenes from everyday life (shopping and travel). Two conditions were used: the subjects
from group 1 had an experimental test which included alcohol intake. The subjects from the
group 2 had a control test and did not consume alcohol. The dose of alcohol was based
upon self-reported body weight measurements. Under the experimental condition the test
was administered 10 minutes after the intake of food and alcohol. In order to equate the
treatment of groups and counterbalance the variables, a similar test (a picture description)
was carried out with an interval of 3 days, where group 1 underwent the control test
conditions with no alcohol intake. The experimental test with alcohol consumption was
administered in group 2.

Methodology: ​There are 2 independent variables (IV) in this experiment. The first IV: ​group
with 2 levels of treatment conditions (alcohol intake -> no intake and no intake ->alcohol
intake). Alcohol intake is used because alcohol is acknowledged to be a means of lowering
inhibition if taken moderately. The second IV is gender (males and females).
The dependent variable (DV) is the utterance length (​UL) in an experimental test minus UL
in a control test (gain), where ​the UL​1,2 is the number of words in the utterance, recorded
and counted, because it indicates the enhancement of speech skills. The control variable
(CV) is the proficiency level of participants (pre-intermediate).

Procedure: ​As a warm-up, the subjects in both groups were asked to carry out a practice
task in which they had to talk about themselves. Each volunteer in group 1 with
experimental conditions (M1-M5 and F1-F5) was asked to drink ≈50g of vodka in
accordance with the self-reported weight and take a snack. The timer was set to allow 10
minutes for the beverage to take effect. The subjects from group 2 (M6-M10, F6-F10) did
not get any alcohol intake and underwent a control test. Each subject was given picture 1
(shopping) and asked to describe it.

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1 ​
"The term ​'utterance' refers to complete communicative units, which may consist of single words, phrases, clauses and
clause combinations spoken in context."(Ronald Carter and Michael McCarthy, ​Cambridge Grammar of English.​
Cambridge University Press, 2006).

2 ​
“An utterance is identifiable by a pause, a relinquishing of the floor, a change of speaker; that the first speaker stops
indicates that the utterance is, temporarily, complete and awaits, invites a response." (Barbara Green, "Experiential
Learning." ​Bakhtin and Genre Theory in Biblical Studies,​ ed. by Roland Boer. Society of Biblical Literature, 2007)
Once the task was administered, the students performed it individually with the time limit of
10 minutes. The utterances were recorded. After 3 days a similar test was administered in
both groups. First, all the subjects were asked to do a practice task as a warm-up, where
they talked about their day. Then all the subjects from group 1 (M1-M5, F1-F5) were treated
in control conditions, with zero alcohol consumption before the test administration, whereas
group 2 subjects (M6-M10, F6-F10) were treated like the experimental group with alcohol
and food intake. Ten minutes later each subject was asked to describe picture 2 (travel)
with a time limit of 10 minutes. Their productions were recorded.

Measurement technique: Speech samples were measured in the number of words where a
word is defined as ​a single distinct meaningful element of speech​. The speech utterances
were recorded by means of a voice recorder. Ungrammatical forms which included
mispronounced or ill-formed (wrong inflection or agreement) lexical units were taken into
account.

​Results

For the purpose of assessing the length of speech utterances, the number of words,
produced by 20 subjects in the control and experimental conditions, were included in the
table of frequencies. In the control test (without alcohol intake) the number of words in
speech utterances varies from 20 to 102. In the experimental test (with the consumption of
alcohol) the number of words varies from 32 to 160.

Control Experimental
In order to study the effect of alcohol intake on UL, a two-way ANOVA test was carried out
and the following data and plots were received:

Response: gain
Sum Sq Df F value Pr(>F)
group 594 1 0.5607 0.4649
gender 396 1 0.3738 0.5495
group:gender 84 1 0,0793. 0.7818
Residuals 16952 16
group effect
group
1 2
30.3 19.4

gender effect
gender
M F
20.4 29.3

group*gender effect
gender
group M F
1 23.8 36.8
2 17.0 21.8

A two-way ANOVA (group x gender) showed no significant effect of group (F

(1,16)=0.5607, p>0,05 (0.4649), group 1, M=30,3; group 2, M=19,4) and no significant
effect of gender ( F(1,16) =0.3738, p>0,05, males, M=20,4; females, M=29,3). Interaction
effects between gender and group were found not significant F(1,16) = 0,0793 , p>0,05
(0.7818). We can not reject the null hypothesis. Alcohol consumption does not diminish the
level of inhibition and does not significantly increase UL.

Conclusion and ​Implications.

Although there is some evidence that moderate doses of alcohol have beneficial effects on
cognitive factors in people, this study does not prove the assumption that alcohol intake
significantly facilitates speech production and increases utterance length in SLA, neither in
men, nor in women. There is no significant effect of alcohol on the level of inhibition that
affects the subjects. Thus, i​nhibition in SLA can not be sufficiently diminished by means of
alcohol administration.

The effect of alcohol intake is temporary, and more accurate measurement is required to
study the length of the effect and ​cognitive outcomes. Apart from that, before alcohol
exposure, body and weight information is obtained by self-report, so the risk of
complications, such as hypertension or cognitive decline, increases. On top of that,
establishing the effect of alcohol on cognitive development may require obtaining
information on past drinking as well.

So instead of having an alcohol input, it could be recommended to lower inhibition levels

together with a language teacher who can identify students’ problems and propose a range
of activities, such as guessing or communicative games, role-play activities, etc., as well as
establish good rapport with students and provide effective classroom management.

Bibliography

Guiora et al (1972). The effects of experimentally induced changes in ego states on

pronunciation ability in a second language, ​Comprehensive Psychiatry​ ,​13(5), pp. 421-8.

Kaarin J. A. (2008). ​Alcohol exposure and cognitive development: an example of why we

need a contextualized, dynamic life course approach to cognitive ageing – a mini-review.
Gerontology,​ 54, pp. 283–291.

Renner, F ​(2018)​. ​Dutch courage? Effects of acute alcohol consumption on self-ratings and
observer ratings of foreign language skills. ​Psychopharmacol​, 32(1), pp. 116-122.
  
Rodgers B, Windsor TD, Anstey KJ, Dear KB, F Jorm A, Christensen H (2005). Non-linear
relationships between cognitive function and alcohol consumption in young, middle-aged
and older adults, ​Addiction​, ​100(9), pp.1280-90​.

Stampfer MJ, Kang JH, Chen J, Cherry R, Grodstein F. (2005). Effects of moderate alcohol
consumption on cognitive function in women. ​The New England Journal of Medicine, ​352,
pp. 245-253.