Second Language

Acquisition
 Task 1 – Literal Movie Titles

• Watch the video by Tree Potatoes on

Literal Movie Titles.
• Try to guess the movies as Sir Io will
pause on some parts of the video.
• Then, let‟s use this as our
springboard for the lesson we have
today.
 Nature of Language
• What is language?
– May have various definitions
– Powerful tool for us, social animals which we will
use to build every other tool
– Systematic means of communicating by the use
of sounds or conventional symbols
– Human system of communication that uses
arbitrary signals such as voice sounds, gestures,
or written symbols
– Institution whereby humans communicate and
interact with each other by means of habitually-
used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols in culture
 Nature of Language
• What is linguistics?
– Scientific investigation of language, a
means for discovering the mechanisms of
language by asking well-formulated
questions and seeking answers

Seeking answers to what?

 Various Definitions of Language

• First Language (L1)

– Native language, arterial language, mother
tongue, native tongue
– The language a person has learned from birth or
speaks the best and is often the basis for
sociolinguistic identity
– Refer to the language of one‟s ethnic group
rather than one‟s first language
 Various Definitions of Language

• Second Language (L2)

– By contrast, is any language that one speaks
other than one‟s first language
– Any language learned after the first language or
mother tongue
– Some languages, often called auxiliary
languages, are used primarily as second
languages or lingua francas
 SLA vs. FLA

• SLA is not intended to contrast with

foreign language acquisition
• SLA is used as a general term that
embraces both untutored (or
naturalistic) acquisition and tutored (or
classroom) acquisition
 SLA vs. FLA

• The best way to teach a person an L2

considers the following factors:
– Language is spoken at home
– Amount of opportunity to practice L2
– Internal motivation of the learner
– Reason for which L2 is needed in school or work
 SLA vs. FLA
• FLA is acquiring a language indigenous
to another country
• A language not spoken in the native
country of the person referred to
• Hence, it should be tutored and
unnatural
• Person who wants to learn a foreign
language must have a valid intention of
learning the same
 Task 2 – Video Watching ~
TEDEd: World‟s English Mania
• Watch this TEDEd video by Jay Walker on
“The World‟s English Mania”. Then,
answer these intriguing questions:
– Why is the world having a “mania” on
English?
– What does this have to do with our study in
SLA and FLA?
– How then should we look at English language
learning as teachers in the future?
Write your answers in a ¼ sheet of paper.
 Uses of Language
• We use language to express inner
thoughts and emotions, make sense of
complex and abstract thought, to learn
to communicate with others, to fulfill our
wants and needs, as well as to establish
rules and maintain our culture
 Uses of Language
• M.A.K. Halliday (1975) Seven
categories of language functions:
– Instrumental (“I want my mommy.”)
– Imaginative (“And they live happily ever after.”)
– Interactional (“Will you play with me?”
– Informative (“I‟ve made a great discovery.”)
– Personal (“I will be a great doctor when I grow up.”)
– Regulatory (“Do as I tell you.”)
Halliday‟s
– Heuristic (“Where did I come from?” Language
Functions
 Theories of SLA
• Behaviorist
– Classical Conditioning
– Operant Conditioning
• Nativist
– Language Acquisition Device
• Cognitive
• Interactionist
– Zone of Proximal Development
– Discovery Leraning
 Interlanguage (Selinker, 1972)
• A series of interlocking systems which
characterize acquisitions
• System that is observed at single stage of
development
• Refer to particular L1/L2 combinations
• Language that is spoken by a learner
which is not yet mastered and is
dependent on many factors: intelligence,
culture, maturity
 Interlanguage (Selinker, 1972)
• Therefore – language errors
• Errors caused by several different
processes:
– Borrowing patterns from L1
– Extending patterns from L2
– Expressing meanings using the words and
grammar which are already known
 Pidgins and Creoles

• Pidgin
–an artificial language used for trade
between speakers of different
languages
• Creole
–a mother tongue that originates
from contact between two
languages
 Pidgins and Creoles
• Pidgin
– a language with no native speakers and is
used just for doing business with others with
whom one shares the language and no other
• Creole
– spoken natively by an entire speech
community, often one whose ancestors were
displaced geographically so that their ties with
their original language and sociocultural
identity were partly broken
 Universal Hypothesis
• A theory that states that there are linguistic
universals which determine the course of
SLA as follows:
– Linguistic universal impose constraints on the
form that interlanguage take
– Learners find it easier to acquire patterns that
conform to linguistic universals than those
that do not
– Where the L1 manifest linguistic universals, it
is likely to assist interlanguage development
through transfer
 Universal Hypothesis
• Linguistic universals
– Those that are true to all languages (spoken,
symbolic, sentences have doer and action,
have gaps and spaces in between, etc.)
• Universal grammar
– The properties inherent in the human mind
consisting of a set of principles that apply to
all languages rather than a set of particular
ones
 Task 3 – Notes Table
Complete the table to differentiate these three (3) theories on SLA.

Krashen Giles Winddowson

Theory
Year
Important
Terms
View on
Language
Role of
Teacher
Role of
Students
Relevant
Activities
 "Language
acquisition does not
require extensive
use of conscious
grammatical rules,
and does not
require tedious
drill…"

Stephen KrashenSLA professor and theorist

 “… Acquisition
requires meaningful
interaction in the target
language - natural
communication - in
which speakers are
concerned not with the
form of their utterances
but with the messages
they are conveying
and understanding."
Stephen Krashen SLA professor and theorist
Krashen’s Monitor Model
Views of Stephen Krashen on Bilingualism and Second Language Acquisition
 Stephen Krashen
• Professor of Curriculum and Teaching
(School of Education, University of South
California, LA)
• Former ESL Director (Queens College, NY)
• Expert in the fields of second language
acquisition, bilingual education and literacy
• Specialist in theories of language
acquisition and development
• Author of several SL books and researches
 Five Central
Hypotheses
• Acquisition-Learning hypothesis
• Monitor hypothesis
• Natural Order hypothesis
• Input hypothesis
• Affective Filter hypothesis
 Acquisition-Learning
Hypothesis

Acquired System Learned System

• Subconscious • Product of formal
• Natural instruction
• Involves • Less important
meaningful than acquisition
interaction
 Monitor Hypothesis
• Explains the relationship between the
acquisition and learning and defines
the influence of the latter to the former
Acquired system Learned system
utterance initiator monitor or editor
• The monitor – learned system of the SL
learner – acts in the planning, editing
and correcting function
 Monitor Hypothesis
• The monitor is effective when three
conditions are met:
1. Sufficient time
2. Concern with form and correctness
3. Knowledge of rule
• Role of monitor should be minor –
being used only to correct deviations
from normal speech and to give speech
a „polished‟ appearance
 Monitor Hypothesis
• Individual variation among language
learners with the use of the monitor:

Use monitor all the time Prefer not to use monitor

Over-users Under-users
Introverts/perfectionists extroverts

Use monitor appropriately

Optimal users
 Natural Order Hypothesis
• Acquisition of grammatical structures
follow in a „natural order‟
• Order is predictable
• Independent of the learner‟s instruction,
age, background and exposure
• But Krashen rejects grammatical
sequencing and syllabus on this „order‟
• Really innatist/nativist
 Input Hypothesis
• Attempts to explain how SLA happens
• Learner improves and progresses
along „natural order‟ when he/she
receives SL input that is one step
beyond his/her current stage of
linguistic competence
i+1
where i = learner‟s stage
 Input Hypothesis
i+1
where i = learner‟s stage
• Acquisition takes place when he/she is
exposed to „Comprehensible Input‟ that
belongs to level „i + 1‟
• Natural communicative input should be
delivered to ensure that learner
acquires appropriate linguistic
competence
 Affective Filter Hypothesis
• „Affective variables‟ play a facilitative
but non-causal role in SLA
• Variables include:
1. Motivation
2. Self-confidence
3. Anxiety
• Learners with high motivation, self-
confidence, a good self-image and a low
level of anxiety are successful in SLA
 Affective Filter Hypothesis
• Low motivation, low self-esteem, and
debilitating anxiety can combine to
„raise‟ the affective filter and form a
„mental block‟.
• When filter is „up‟, this filter impedes
language acquisition
• Positive affect is necessary but not
sufficient on its own
 Summary
1. Acquisition is more important than
learning
2. In order to acquire, two conditions
are necessary: comprehensible input
(i + 1), and a low/weak affective filter
 Summary
Theory first appeared: 1981
Theorist: Stephen Krashen
Appeared as: response to more
behaviorist perspectives
Theory of language: innatist; language is
for the purpose of communicating
meaning, asserts that language learning
should emphasize meaning through
normal language scenarios
 Summary
Theory of learning: separates conscious
and subconscious processes, asserts that
acquisition occurs naturally through
exposure to comprehensible input
Typical roles for teachers: source or
facilitator of comprehensible input – similar
to a Vygotskian role, helping students
accomplish more than they are able to
alone
 Summary
Typical roles for students: absorb
comprehensible input through attentive
listening for meaning, develop literacy
skills
Good input: input which is
comprehensible, slightly beyond the
current language ability of learner
Typical activities: vary according to
method used, fitting comprehensible input
The Accommodation
Theory
of Second Language
Acquisition
 Accommodation Theory
• was developed by Howard Giles and colleagues
in the 1970s.
• suggests that we adjust our speech to
‘accommodate’ the person we are addressing.
This may result in convergence and divergence.
Convergence is more common and occurs when
we move our speech closer to that of the other
person.

Divergence occurs when people’s speech styles

move further apart.
Convergence decreases the social distance between
people.

Someone with an RP (received pronunciation)

accent ‘toning down’ their accent to speak to
someone with a ‘lower class’ accent is called
downward convergence.
Someone with a ‘working class’ accent trying to
eliminate some of the stronger regional features
of their speech for a job interview with an RP
speaker is called upward convergence.
If both participants in a conversation converge
towards the other, this is called mutual
convergence.
Divergence has the effect of emphasizing the
differences between people. Two supporters of
rival soccer teams might exaggerate their
respective regional accents in an argument, if
unconsciously.
Tollefson (1991) criticizes Accommodation
Theory for its ahistorical analysis and failure to
account for domination and coercion in
language shift.

Williams (1992) argues that Accommodation

Theory tends to play down conflict and power,
thereby not expressing the anger, discrimination
and frustration felt by language minority groups
and their members.
One strength of the theory is that it takes into
account ethnic identity in language learning, an
important determining factor for many children
and adults in second language acquisition.
THE VARIABLE COMPETENCE MODEL

“The way a language is learnt is a reflection of

the way it is used.”
DEFINITION

The model is based on two distinctions-

one refers to the process of the
language use and the other to the
product.
THE PRODUCT

The product of a language use comprises

a continuum of discourse types ranging
from entirely unplanned to entirely
planned.
THE PRODUCT

UNPLANNED DISCOURSE PLANNED DISCOURSE

Lacks thought and Discourse that is
preparation. thought out prior
Associated with to expression.
spontaneous Requires conscious
communication. thought and the
opportunity to
work out content
and expression.
THE PROCESS OF LANGUAGE USE
To be understood in terms of the distinction
between linguistic knowledge (rules)and the
ability to make use of this knowledge
(procedures).
Winddowson (1984)refers to a knowledge of
rules as competence and to a knowledge of
procedures involved in using rules to construct
discourse as capacity.
Language user makes his knowledge of linguistic
rules by exploiting them in relation to both the
situational and linguistic context.
THE PROCESS OF LANGUAGE USE
The process of the language use (i.e.
the different type of discourse) is the
result of either or both of the
following:
1. A variable competence, i.e. the
language uses or possesses a
heterogeneous rule system;
2. Variable application of procedures for
actualizing knowledge in discourse.
THE VARIABILITY OF THE LEARNER’S
RULE SYSTEM
Bialystok ( 1982)
Described dual distinction between
automatic/non-automatic and analytic/unanalytic.
First distinction Second distinction concerns
concerns the the extent to which the
learner possesses a
relative access that proportional mental
the learner has to presentation which makes
L2 knowledge. clear the structure of
1. Automatic- the knowledge and its
relationship to other
knowledge that can aspects of knowledge.
be retrieved easily Unanalyzed knowledge is a
and quickly. general form that we
2. Non-automatic- know most things,in that
knowledge that we usually not aware of
the way in which
takes time and knowledge is structured.
effort to retrieve.
 TYPES OF PROCEDURES FOR
ACTUALIZING KNOWLEDGE

1. Primary Processes – responsible for

engaging in unplanned discourse.Draws
knowledge that is relatively unplanned
and automatic. Example for this is
semantic simplification(omission of
elements from a proposition in
production).
2. Secondary processes – come into play
in planned discourse and draw
knowledge towards the analyzed and of
the continuum.Example for this is
monitoring (the editing of language).
SEMANTIC STRUCTURE CAN BE
ACCOUNTED FOR AS FOLLOWS:
DISCOURSE PROCESS- simplify the
semantic structure of a message by omitting
meaning elements that are communicatively
redundant or that can be realized by a non-
verbal device(e.g. mime).
COGNITIVE PROCESS
a. Construct an underlying conceptual structure
of a message.
b. Compare this structure with the frame of
reference shared with an interlocutor.
c. Eliminate redundant elements and elements
for which no lexical items are available.
 IMPLICATIONS OF THE MODEL

1. This process is motivated by the

learner’s felt need to be socially
acceptable and is helped by practice
which is automizes rules that initially
can be applied only when the learner is
attending to his speech.

2. The variability position stresses the

importance of matching the learning
process with the type of
instruction.Instruction must consider
specific goals of the learner.
 THE GOAL

Refers to the type of language use that the

learner needs or wants to engage in.
If the goal is to participate in natural
conversation, the learner will need to develop
his vernacular style by acquiring L2 knowledge
that is automatic but unanalyzed.
If the learner’s goal is to participate in
discourse that requires careful,conscious
planning,it can be developed by acquiring L2
knowledge that is automatic and analyzed.
This can be accomplished by formal
instruction that focuses on the L2 code.
SUMMARY
1. There is a single knowledge store containing
variable interlanguage rules according to how
automatic and how analysed the rules are.
2. The learner possesses a capacity for language
use which consists of primary and secondary
discourse and cognitive processes.
3. L2 performance is variable as a result of
whether primary processes employing
unanalyzed L2 rules are utilized in unplanned
discourse,or secondary processes employing
analysed L2 rules are utilized in planned
discourse.
4. Development occurs as a result of:
a.) acquisition of new L2 rules through
participation in various types of discourse;
b.) activation of L2 rules which initially exist in
either a non-automatic unanalyzed form or in
an analyzed form so they can be used in
unplanned discourse.
 Task 4 ~ Short Quiz
• Here are phrases related to the three SLA theories discussed. Identify to
which theory do they match? Write 1 for Krashen‟s, 2 for Giles‟, and 3 for
Winddowson‟s.
1. Product and process of language
2. Language input should be a level not available yet of the
learner
3. Convergence and divergence
4. Unplanned and analytic discourses
5. Acquisition vs. learning
6. Internal monitor is present and will work if language rules
are earned
7. Learning happens when goal is defined by learner
8. Low affective filter helps in language learning
9. Taking into account ethnic identify of learner
10. Language learning is always about adjustment.
 Task 4 ~ Short Quiz
• Here are phrases related to the three SLA theories discussed. Identify to
which theory do they match? Write 1 for Krashen‟s, 2 for Giles‟, and 3 for
Winddowson‟s.
1. Product and process of language (3)
2. Language input should be a level not available yet of the
learner (1)
3. Convergence and divergence (2)
4. Unplanned and analytic discourses (3)
5. Acquisition vs. learning (1)
6. Internal monitor is present and will work if language rules are
earned (1)
7. Learning happens when goal is defined by learner (3)
8. Low affective filter helps in language learning (1)
9. Taking into account ethnic identify of learner (2)
10. Language learning is always about adjustment (2)