Second Language Acquisition

1
Second Language Acquisition

• Romance Languages 700
• Fall 2006

2
Where does acquisition happen?

• Romance Languages 700
• Fall 2006

3
The Brain
4
(No Transcript)
5
The cerebral cortex where it all takes place.
6
(No Transcript)
7
Language development Continuum

• Stages
• Predictable
• Sequential

8
Stage I The Silent/Receptive or Preproduction
Stage

• 10 hours 6 months
• 500 receptive words
• silent period

9
Stage II The Early Production Stage

• 6 monthslater
• 1,000 words (receptive/active)
• One/two-word phrases
• Comprehension of NEW material (questions)
• Yes/no
• Either/or
• Who/what/where/

10
Stage III The Speech Emergence Stage

• 1 yearlater
• 3,000 words
• Simple sentences
• Grammatical errors that interfere with
  communication

11
Stage IV The Intermediate Language Proficiency
Stage

• 1 year more
• 6,000 words
• Complex statements
• Opinions, share thoughts
• Ask for clarification
• Length.

12
Stage V The Advanced Language Proficiency Stage

• 5-7 years
• Specialized content-area vocabulary
• Grammar/vocabulary comparable to native speaker

13

• "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

14
Acquisition / Learning

• Experience interactions with the language
• Natural assimilation
• Intuition
• Subconscious process
• Similar to first language

• Store information about the language
• Study with written text
• Logical deductive reasoning
• Form is of great importance
• Syllabus governs teaching/learning interactions

15
Krashens theory

• the Acquisition-Learning hypothesis,
• the Monitor hypothesis,
• the Natural Order hypothesis,
• the Input hypothesis,
• and the Affective Filter hypothesis.

16
Monitor hypothesis

• practical result of learned grammar
• acts in a planning, editing and correcting
  function
• Minor role correct deviations from 'normal'
  speech and give speech a more 'polished'
  appearance

17
Use of the monitor

• individual variation among language learners
• Under-users (extroverts)
• Over-users (introverts, perfectionists)
• Optional users

18
Natural order

• acquisition of grammatical structures follows a
  predictable order
• order seems to be independent of the learners'
  age, L1 background, conditions of exposure

Learners have a built in syllabus.
19
Input
Zone of Proximal Development (Lev Vygotsky)

• Only concerned with acquisition
• Input 1
• Comprehensible

20
Affective filter

• variables play facilitative, non-casual role in
  acquistion
• Motivation
• Self-confidence
• Anxiety

21
Cognitive Linguistics
Learning a language IS like learning to ride
a bicycle!

• Efficiency
• grammatical structures of language are directly
  associated with the way people conceptualize

Ronald Langacker grammar is conceptualization
22
Cognitive priciple of relevance

• the human cognitive system is geared to look
  out for relevant information, which will interact
  with existing mentally-represented information
  and bring about positive cognitive effects based
  on a combination of new and old information.

• Communicative principle of relevance
• Follow path of least resistance.
• Stop when expectations are satisfied.

23
Theory of Multiple Intelligences
24
Grammar
There is now ample evidence to show that
grammar instruction can help learners
to perform grammatical features more accurately
in experimentally elicited performance.

• Krashen when target language is used to explain
  I 1 filter is low (focus is not on
  medium, but on what is talked about)
  acquisition!
• Non-native instructors are best
• If primary goal is interaction (acquisition),
  native instructors have an advantage

Grammar instruction does not always result in
more accurate use of the targeted features in
free oral production, BUT when an effect is found
it is durable.
25
References

• Steven Krashen, Second language acquisition and
  second language learning
• http//www.sdkrashen.com/SL_Acquisition_and_Learn
  ing/index.html
• Cognitive Linguistics George Lakoff, Leonard
  Talmy, Gilles Fauconnier, Fillmore
• Langacker, Foundations of Cognitive Grammar,
  1987, 1991.
• Lakoff and Johnson, Metaphors We Live By, 1980.
• Lakoff, Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things,1987.
• Howard Gardner, Intelligence Reframed Multiple
  Intelligences for the 21st. Century, 1999.
• http//www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm