Developmental Patterns in Language Acquisition

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Developmental Patterns in Language Acquisition
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I eated chicken yesterday

• Child learning L1
• Beginning learner of L2
• L2 speaker for 35 years

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I ate chicken yesterday

• Is it supplied in obligatory occasion?
• Yes
• Is it target like?
• Not certain
• Overgeneralized?
• Has it been acquired?
• Not certain
• U-shaped acquisition

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Why call acquisition U-shaped?

• U

ate
ate
eated
ated
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Why Study Developmental Patterns?

• To describe learner language in its own right, as
  a system of rules that learners
  and repeatedly
  (p.109)
• Not compared to (CA)
• Not solely based on norms (EA)
• Also called Interlanguage

revise
constructed
NL
TL
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It is easy to determine exactly when a learner
has acquired a feature
TRUE OR FALSE

• FALSE
• U-shaped development
• overgeneralization

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Some Researchers talk about
in L2, even though that is a term used for
L1 acquisition
TRUE OR FALSE
emergence

• TRUE
• Bickerton (1981), Pienemann (1984)
• Does it make sense?
• It is a process
• Using it once does not mean it has been
  mastered
• NOT like building a brick wall

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What methods can we use to detect/study/measure
development?

• Obligatory occasion analysis
• Target-like use analysis
• Frequency analysis
• Implicational scaling
• All based on accuracy order

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AND are
flawed because the TL is used to describe the
learner language
TRUE OR FALSE
Obligatory occasion analysis
target-like use analysis

• TRUE
• This is called the

comparative fallacy
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It is safe to assume thatAccuracy Order
Acquisition Order
TRUE OR FALSE

• FALSE
• U-shaped acquisition pattern
• NOT building a brick wall

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Implicational Scaling

• Can be used in obligatory occasion
• Does not show linguistic environment
• Has to be scored either or
• Brick Wall?

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Order of Acquisition means the same as sequence
of acquisition
TRUE OR FALSE

• FALSE
• Order
• Overall the big picture
• Sequence
• Stages within each feature

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Does the Acquisition of an L2 mimic what happens
in L1 Acquisition?L1 L2 Hypothesis

• Yes and No

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L1 Acquisition development studies have found
clear orders and sequences
TRUE OR FALSE

• TRUE
• Brown (1973),
• de Villiers and de Villiers (1973)

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L2 Acquisition development studies have also
found orders and sequences
TRUE OR FALSE

• TRUE
• Dulay and Burt (1973)
• Bailey, Madden and Krashen (1974)
• Larsen-Freeman (1976)
• Pica (1983)

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Developmental patterns in SLA have been mainly
studied in settings
with language use.
TRUE OR FALSE

• TRUE

naturalistic
unplanned
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Early L2 development is generally characterized
by

• period
• speech
• Structural and semantic

Silent
Formulaic
simplification
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L2 Formulaic Speech Argument

• is a result of learners being forced to talk
  before they are ready
• Says

• is unpacked/analyzed over time
• Says

VS.
Ellis
Krashen
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Native speakers do NOT rely on chunks
TRUE OR FALSE

• FALSE

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The Natural Order

• -ing, plural, copula
• Auxiliary, article
• Irregular past
• Regular past, 3rd person singular, possessive s

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Examples of Sequences

• Negation
• Ravem 68, Milton 74, Cazden et al 75, Wode 76
  and 81, Adam 78, Butterworth and Hatch 78
• Word order in German (ZISA)
• Meisel, Clahsen, and Pienemann
• Past tense
• Interrogatives

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Strongest Evidence for the Weak Definition

• Syntactic structures
• Negatives
• Preverbal negation is consistent across L1s
• Relative clauses
• Interrogatives
• Word order rules

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Sequences completely rigid
are NOT

• Different forms of overgeneralization in pronouns
• Based on L1
• L1 word order can affect starting point of WO
  acquisition

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Then and Now

• Do you remember instructional sequences when you
  learned an L2?
• What do our textbooks look like today?
• What does this mean for the language teacher?