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What is Second
Language Acquisition?
why
some learners appear to achieve native-like proficiency in
more than one language.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Characteristics of learner
language
Errors
Variability
Pragmatic features
Social context
L1 transfer
Learning procesess
Communication strategies
Language Learner
Learner strategies.
Schools of thought
Learner Language
Pragmatic Features
The study of how language is used in communication
includes:
Deixis (language encodes features of the context of
utterance).
Conversational implicature (language is used to
convey meanings that are not linguistically encoded).
Illocutionary acts (the use of language to perform
speech acts).
Conversational structure (the way in which a
conversation is structured).
Repair (work done to deal with miscommunication).
Sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic failure (Thomas,
1983).
Developmental patterns in L1
Learner Strategies
Learner strategies are defined as deliberate behaviors or
actions that learners use to make language learning more
successful, self-directed and enjoyable.
Strategies
Theory
two perspectives:
The data-driven perspective which looks at surface features of a
wide-range of languages to find out how languages vary and
what principles underlie this variation. The data-driven approach
considers system external factors or input as the basis.
The theory-driven perspective which looks at in-depth analysis
of the properties of language to determine highly abstract
principles of grammar. System internal factors are those found
in cognitive and linguistic processes.
Universalist Theory
(Continued)
Theory
Theory
Behaviorist Theory
(Continued)
Theory
When the learner learns a language, this learning includes a set of stimulusresponse-reward (S-R-R) chains.
Imitation provides the learner with a repertoire of appropriate, productive
responses. The learner learns to imitate or approximate the productive
responses provided by the environment.
The characteristics of human and non-human learners include the ability to:
1.
1.
2.
3.
Theory
Nativist Theory
(Continued)
Theory
the ability to distinguish speech sounds from other sounds in the environment;
1.
the ability to organize linguistic events into various classes that can be refined later;
1.
knowledge that only a certain kind of linguistic system is possible and that other kinds
are not; and
1.
the ability to engage in constant evaluation of the developing linguistic system in order
to construct the simplest possible system out of the linguistic data that are encountered.
Theory
Cognitivists say that the conditions for learning language are the same
conditions that are necessary for any kind of learning. The environment
provides the material that the child can work on.
Cognitivists view the role of feedback in the learning process as important for
affective reasons, but non-influential in terms of modifying or altering the
sequence of development.
Cognitivist Theory
(Continued)
Theory
Learning a language involves internal representations that regulate and guide performance.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Skills are learned and routinized only after the earlier use of controlled processes have
been used.
6.
Learner strategies contain both declarative knowledge i.e. knowing the what of the
language-internalized rules and memorized chunks of language, and procedural knowledge
i.e. know the how of the language system to employ strategies.
Theory
Theory
Language Acquisition is a subconscious process. It occurs very naturally in a nonthreatening environment. The research strongly supports the view that both children and
adults can subconsciously acquire languages.
Context-Embedded Cognitively
Undemanding Sample Tasks
Context-Embedded/Cognitively Undemanding tasks are supported by the use
of pictures, illustrations, demonstrations, connections with life experiences, etc.
Language learning is non-threatening and learners are able to depend on
environmental cues for assistance.
Some sample tasks include:
Context-Embedded Cognitively
Demanding Sample Tasks
Context-Embedded/Cognitively Demanding tasks are those activities that
provide some environmental cues, but are more cognitively demanding.
Language learners are exposed to more complex tasks that include some
context-embedded cues.
Examples of these tasks include:
Context-Reduced Cognitively
Undemanding Sample Tasks
Context-Reduced/Cognitively Undemanding tasks are those
activities that are simple to carry out but do not contain any
environmental cues to assist the language learner.
Some sample tasks include:
Context-Reduced Cognitively
Demanding Sample Tasks
Context-Reduced/Cognitively Demanding tasks are those that require more
academically demanding language, are more abstract and are
decontextualized.
Some examples of these tasks include:
Components of Communicative
Competence
Canale and Swain (1983) identified four components of communicative competence:
1) grammatical competence
2) sociolinguistic competence
3) discourse competence
4) strategic competence
Sociolinguistic competence involves knowing how to produce and understand the language
in different sociolinguistic contexts, taking into consideration such factors as:
1) the status of the participants
2) the purpose of the interaction; and
3) the norms or conventions of the interaction.
Components of Communicative
Competence (Continued)
Discourse competence involves the ability to combine and connect
utterances (spoken) and sentences (written) into a meaningful whole.
Discourse ranges from a simple spoken conversation to long written texts.
Strategic competence involves the manipulation of language in order to
meet communicative goals. It involves both verbal and non-verbal behaviors.
Speakers employ this competence for two main reasons:
1) to compensate for breakdowns in communication such as when the
speaker forgets or does not know a term and is forced to paraphrase or
gesture to get the idea across; and
2) to enhance the effectiveness of communication such as when a speaker
raises or lowers the voice for effect.
Language Learning
Behaviorists views of language learning and of language teaching were predominant in the two decades following the second world war. These views drew on
general theories of learning propounded by psychologists such as Watson (1924),
Thorndike (1932), and Skinner (1957).
Dakin (1973) identifies three general principles of language learning derived from
these theories.
1.
According to the law of exercise, language learning is promoted when the learner makes
active and repeated responses to stimuli.
2.
The law of effect emphasizes the importance of reinforcing the learners responses and
correcting non-target-like ones.
3.
The principle of shaping claims that learning will proceed most smoothly and rapidly if
complex behaviors are broken down into their component parts and learned bit-by-bit.
Language Learning
(Continued)
Underlying these principles was the assumption that language learning, like any other kind
of learning, took the form of habit formation, a habit consisting of an automatic response
elicited by a given stimulus.
Learning was seen to take place inductively through analogy rather than analysis.
According to behaviorist theories, the main impediment to learning was interference from
prior knowledge.
Proactive inhibition occurred when old habits got in the way of attempts to learn new ones.
In such cases, the old habits had to be unlearned so that they could be replaced by the new
ones.
The notion of unlearning made little sense as learners did not need to forget their L1 in order
to acquire an L2.
For this reason, behaviorist theories of L2 learning emphasized the idea of difficulty. This
is defined as the amount of effort required to learn an L2 pattern.
The degree of difficulty was believed to depend primarily in the extent to which the target
language pattern was similar to or different from a native language pattern.
Language
Transfer
The role of native language in second language acquisition has come to be known as
language transfer.
It has been assumed that in a second language learning situation learners rely extensively
on their native language.
According to Lado (1957) individuals tend to transfer forms and meanings, the
distribution of the forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign
language and culture.
This transfer is productive when the learner attempts to speak the language.
This transfer is receptive when the learner attempts to grasp and understand the language
and culture as practiced by native speakers.
Lados work and much of the work of that time (1950s) was based on the need to
produce pedagogically relevant materials. A contrastive analysis of the native language
and the target language was conducted in order to determine similarities and differences
in the languages.
Framework for
Explaining L1 Transfer
Language
Transfer
Theory
Language
Language Transfer
Transfer
Where the two languages were identical, learning could take place through
positive transfer to the native-language pattern.
Where the two languages were different, learning difficulty arose and errors
occurred resulting from negative transfer.
Chomsky (1959) set in motion a re-evaluation of many of the behaviorists
claims. This re-evaluation included area such as:
Selinkers Interlanguage
Theory
Selinkers Interlanguage Theory maintains the separateness of a second language learners system and gives the system a structurally
intermediate status between the native and target languages.
According to Selinker, second language learners are producing their own self-contained linguistic system. The system is not a native language
or target language system, rather it falls between the two.
Stages of Interlanguage Development include:
1) random errors (presystematic);
Identification of
Learner Errors
Error
Identification
An error can be defined as a deviation from the norms of the target language although questions are
raised as to which variety of the target language should serve as the norm.
The general practice where classroom learners are concerned is to select the standard written dialect
as a norm.
The distinction between errors and mistakes is a concern in this type of research. Errors take place
when the deviation arises as a result of lack of knowledge. Mistakes occur when learners fail to
perform their competence.
Overt errors are deviations in form i.e. I runned all the way. Covert errors occur in utterances that are
superficially well-formed but which do not mean what the learner intended them to mean i.e. It was
stopped. What does it refer to?
Should the analysis of errors examine only deviations in correctness or also deviations in
appropriateness? Correctness errors involve rules of language use i.e. learner invites a stranger by
saying I want you to come to the cinema with me. The code was used correctly it was not used
appropriately.
There are three types of interpretation of errors: 1) normal- can assign a meaning to an utterance
based on the rules of the target language; 2) authoritative-involves asking the learner to say what the
utterance means in order to make an authoritative reconstruction; and 3) plausible-can be obtained by
referring to the context in which the utterance was produced or by translating the sentence literally
into the learners L1.
Learner Errors
Error Analysis is used for examining errors as a way of investigating learning
processes.
Much of the early work on learner errors focused on the extent to which L2 acquisition
was the result of L1 transfer or creative construction (construction of unique rules
similar to those which children form in the course of acquiring the native language).
The presence of errors that mirrored L1 structures was taken as evidence of transfer
(interlingual), while those errors similar to those observed in L1 acquisition were
indicative of creative construction (intralingual).
The study of learner errors showed that although many errors were caused by
transferring L1 habits, many more were not.
It was found that learners went through stages of acquisition and the nature of errors
varied according to their level of development.
Error analysis could not show when learners resorted to avoidance and it ignored what
learners could do correctly.
Error Analysis
Error
Analysis
Error Analysis
(Continued)
Error
Analysis
Contrastive Analysis
Hypothesis
Contrastive analysis is a way of comparing languages in order to determine potential
errors for the ultimate purpose of isolating what needs to be learned and what does not
need to be learned in a second language learning situation.
Lado detailed that one does a structure-by-structure comparison of the sound system,
morphological system, syntactic system and even the cultural system of two languages
for the purpose of discovering similarities and differences.
The ultimate goal of contrastive analysis is to predict areas that will be either easy or
difficult for learners.
There are two positions that developed with regard to CA: (1) strong (2) weak.
The strong version (predictive) maintained that one could make predictions about
learning and hence about the success of language teaching materials based on a
comparison between two languages.
The weak version (explanatory) starts with an analysis of learners recurring errors (error
analysis). It begins with what learners do and then attempts to account for those errors on
the basis of native language-target language differences.
Social
and
Cultural
Processes
L1 + L2 Cognitive Development
Cognitive Development
The cognitive dimension is a natural subconscious process that occurs
developmentally from birth to the end of schooling and beyond.
An infant initially builds thought processes through interacting with
loved ones in the language of the home.
This is an important stepping-stone to build on as cognitive
development continues.
Academic Development
Academic development includes all school work in language arts, math, the
sciences, and social studies for each grade level, K-12.
With each succeeding grade, academic work dramatically expands the
vocabulary, sociolinguistic, and discourse dimensions of language to higher
cognitive levels.
Academic knowledge and conceptual development transfer from first
language to second language.
It is most efficient to develop academic work through the students first
language, while teaching second language during other periods of the
school day through meaningful academic content.
In earlier decades, schools in the United States emphasized teaching
second language as the first step and postponing the teaching of
academics.
Research has shown that postponing or interrupting academic development
is likely to promote academic failure.
Language Development
Linguistic processes consist of the subconscious aspects of language
development, an innate ability all humans possess for acquisition of
oral language, as well as the metalinguistic, conscious, formal teaching
of language in the school and acquisition of the written system of
language.
This includes the acquisition of the oral and written systems of the
students first and second languages across all language domains, such
as phonology, vocabulary, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics
and discourse.
To assure cognitive and academic success in a second language, a
students first language system, oral and written, must be developed to
a high cognitive level at least through the elementary school years.
Sociocultural Processes
At the heart of the figure is the individual student going through the process of
acquiring a second language at school.
Central to that students acquisition of language are all of the surrounding social and
cultural processes occurring through everyday life within the students past, present,
and future, in all contexts-home, school, community, and the broader society.
Sociocultural processes may include individual student variables such as self-esteem,
anxiety, or other affective factors.
At school the instructional environment in a classroom or administrative program
structures may create social and psychological distance between groups.
Community or regional social patterns such as prejudice and discrimination expressed
towards groups or individuals in personal and professional contexts can influence
students achievement in school, as well as societal patterns such as the subordinate
status of a minority group or accuturation vs. assimilation forces.
These factors can strongly influence the students response to a new language,
affecting the process positively only when the student is in a socioculturally
supportive environment.
In Conclusion
The Learner/The Teacher
The learner needs:
expectations of success;
the confidence to take risks and make mistakes;
a willingness to share and engage;
the confidence to ask for help; and
an acceptance of the need to readjust.
respect for and interest in the learners language, culture, thought and
intentions;
the ability to recognize growth points, strengths and potential;
the appreciation that mistakes are necessary to learning;
the confidence to maintain breadth, richness and variety, and to match
these to the learners interests and direction;
to stimulate and challenge; and
a sensitive awareness of when to intervene and when to leave alone.
Bibliography
Ellis, R. (2003). The study of second language acquisition (10th ed.). Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Thomas, W., & Collier, V. (1997). School effectiveness for language minority
students. National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education Resource Collection
Series, No. 9.