Second Language Acquisition

1
Second Language Acquisition

• Prepared By
• Dr. Emma Alicia Garza
• Assistant Professor
• Texas AM University-Kingsville

2
What is Second Language Acquisition?

• In second language learning, language plays an
  
  
• institutional and social role in the
  community. It
  
• functions as a recognized means of
  communication
  
• among members who speak some other
  language as their
  
• native tongue.
• In foreign language learning, language plays no
  major
  
• role in the community and is primarily
  learned in the
  
• classroom.
• The distinction between second and foreign
  language learning
  
• is what is learned and how it is learned.

3
What is the Study of Second Language Acquisition?

• It is the study of
• how second languages are learned
• how learners create a new language system with
  limited exposure to a second language
  
• why most second language learners do not achieve
  the same degree of proficiency in a second
  language as they do in their native language
  and
• why some learners appear to achieve native-like
  proficiency in more than one language.

4
How Do Learners Acquire a Second Language?

• Learners acquire a second language by making use
  of existing knowledge of the native language,
  general learning strategies, or universal
  properties of language to internalize knowledge
  of the second language.
• These processes serve as a means by which the
  learner constructs an interlanguage (a
  transitional system reflecting the learners
  current L2 knowledge).
• Communication strategies are employed by the
  learner to make use of existing knowledge to
  
• cope with communication difficulties.

5
The Language Learner

• Individual differences affect L2 acquisition.
  These may include (1) the rate of development
  and (2) their ultimate level of achievement.
  
• Learners differ with regard to variables relating
  to cognitive, affective and social aspects of a
  human being.
  
• Fixed factors such as age and language learning
  aptitude are beyond external control. Variable
  factors such as motivation are influenced by
  external factors such as social setting and by
  the actual course of L2 development.
• Cognitive style refers to the way people
  perceive, conceptualize, organize and recall
  information.
  
• Field dependent learners operate holistically.
  They like to work with others. Field independent
  learners are analytic and prefer to work alone.

6
Learner Strategies

• Learner strategies are defined as deliberate
  behaviors or
  
• actions that learners use to make language
  learning more
  
• successful, self-directed and enjoyable.
• Cognitive strategies relate new concepts to prior
  knowledge.
  
• Metacognitive strategies are those which help
  with organizing a personal timetable to
  facilitate an effective study of the L2.
  
• Social strategies include looking for
  opportunities to converse with native speakers.

7
Natural Order of Strategies of Second Language
Development

• Chesterfield Chesterfield (1985) identified a
  natural order of
  
• strategies in the development of a second
  language.
  
• 1) repetition (imitating a word or structure)
• 2) memorization (recalling songs, rhymes or
  sequences by rote)
  
• 3) formulaic expressions (words or phrases that
  function as units i.e. greetings)
  
• 4) verbal attention getters (language that
  initiates interaction)
  
• 5) answering in unison (responding with
  others)
  
• 6) talking to self (engaging in internal
  monologue)
  
• 7) elaboration (information beyond what is
  necessary)
  
• 8) anticipatory answers (completing anothers
  phrase or statement)
  
• 9) monitoring (self-correcting errors)
• 10) appeal for assistance (asking
  someone for help)
  
• 11) request for clarification (asking
  the speaker to explain or repeat) and
  
• 12) role-playing (interacting with
  another by taking on roles).

8
Theories of Second Language Acquisition

• Universalist Theory defines linguistic universals
  from
  
• 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.

9
Universalist Theory (Continued)

• Several Characteristics of the data-driven
  approach include the following
  
• It has language typology which delves into
  patterns which exist among languages and how they
  vary in human languages.
  
• Language universals focus on what is common. For
  example, subject/verb/object.
  
• Implicational universals which refer to the
  properties of language such as all languages
  have vowels without looking at any other
  properties.
• Several Characteristics of the theory-driven
  approach include the following
  
• Language is acquired through innateness. Certain
  principles of the human mind are biologically
  determined.
  
• There are sets of principles and conditions where
  knowledge of language develops.
  
• Universal grammar is seen as part of the brain.

10
Theories of Second Language Acquisition
(Continued)

• Behaviorist Theory dominated both psychology and
  linguistics in the 1950s. This theory suggests
  that external stimuli (extrinsic) can elicit an
  internal response which in turn can elicit an
  internal stimuli (intrinsic) that lead to
  external responses.
• The learning process has been described by S-R-R
  theorists as a process forming stimulus-response-r
  eward chains. These chains come about because of
  the nature of the environment and the nature of
  the learner.
• The environment provides the stimuli and the
  learner provides the responses. Comprehension or
  production of certain aspects of language and the
  environment provide the reward.
• The environment plays a major role in the
  exercise of the learners abilities since it
  provides the stimuli that can shape responses
  selectively rewarding some responses and not
  others.

11
Behaviorist Theory (Continued)

• When the learner learns a language, this learning
  includes a set of stimulus-response-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
  
• respond to stimuli in a certain way
• intuitively evaluate the reward potential of
  responses
  
• extract the important parameters that made up the
  stimulus response (positive reward chains) and
  
• generalize these parameters to similar situations
  to form classes of
  
• S-R-R chains.

12
Theories of Second Language Acquisition
(Continued)

• Nativist Theory views language acquisition as
  innately determined. Theorists believe that human
  beings are born with a built-in device of some
  kind that predisposes them to acquire language.
• This predisposition is a systematic perception of
  language around us, resulting in the construction
  of an internalized system of language.
  
• Nativists are on the opposite end of the
  theoretical continuum and use more of a
  rationalist approach in explaining the mystery of
  language acquisition.
• Chomsky (1965) claimed the existence of innate
  properties of language that explain a childs
  mastery of his/her native language in a short
  time despite the highly abstract nature of the
  rules of language.
• This innate knowledge, according to Chomsky, is
  embodied in a little black box of sorts called
  a Language Acquisition Device (LAD).

13
Nativist Theory (Continued)

• McNeill (1966) described the LAD as consisting of
  four innate linguistic properties
  
• the ability to distinguish speech sounds from
  other sounds in the environment
  
• the ability to organize linguistic events into
  various classes that can be refined later
  
• knowledge that only a certain kind of linguistic
  system is possible and that other kinds are not
  and
  
• 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.
• Nativists have contributed to the discoveries of
  how the system of child language works. Theorists
  such as Chomsky, McNeill, and others helped us
  understand that a childs language, at any given
  point, is a legitimate system in its own right.

14
Theories of Second Language Acquisition
(Continued)

• Cognitivist Theory views human beings as having
  the innate capacity to develop logical thinking.
  This school of thought was influenced by Jean
  Piagets work where he suggests that logical
  thinking is the underlying factor for both
  linguistic and non-linguistic development.
• The process of association has been used to
  describe the means by which the child learns to
  relate what is said to particular objects or
  events in the environment. The bridge by which
  certain associations are made is meaning. The
  extent and accuracy of the associations made are
  said to change in time as the child matures.
• 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.

15
Cognitivist Theory (Continued)

• Language Learning as a Cognitive Process
• Learning a language involves internal
  representations that regulate and guide
  performance.
  
• Automatic processing activates certain nodes in
  memory when appropriate input is present.
  Activation is a learned response.
  
• Memory is a large collection of nodes.
• Controlled processing is not a learned response.
  It is a temporary activation of nodes in a
  sequence.
  
• Skills are learned and routinized only after the
  earlier use of controlled processes have been
  used.
  
• 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.

16
Theories of Second Language Acquisition
(Continued)

• Social Interactionist Theory supports the view
  that the
  
• development of language comes from the early
  interactions
  
• between infants and caregivers.
• Social interactionists stress
• the importance of a childs interactions with
  parents and other caregivers
  
• the importance of motherese
• contributions of context and world knowledge
  and
  
• the importance of goals
• Glew (1998) claims that learners have to be
  pushed in their negotiation of
  
• meaning to produce comprehensible output. The
  classroom context needs to
  
• provide adequate opportunities for target
  language use to allow learners to
  
• develop competence in the target language.

17
Social Interactionist Theory (Continued)

• Comprehensible output provides opportunities for
  contextualized, meaningful use of language.
  
• Social interactionists believe that
• Human language emerged from the social role that
  language plays in human interaction
  
• The environment plays a key role in language
  development
  
• Adults in the childs linguistic environment are
  viewed as instrumental in language acquisition.
  
• Social interactions are the key element in
  language processing and input from social
  interactions provides a model for negotiation
  opportunities.

18
Krashens Five Hypotheses for Second Language
Acquisition

• The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis
  claims that we have two
  
• independent ways of developing
  language ability
  
• Language Acquisition is a subconscious process.
  It occurs very naturally in a non-threatening
  environment. The research strongly supports the
  view that both children and adults can
  subconsciously acquire languages.
• Language Learning is what occurs at school in an
  academic setting. It is a conscious process. When
  we talk about rules and grammar of language, we
  are usually talking about learning.
• The Natural Order Hypothesis claims
  that we acquire parts of a language
  
• in a predictable order. Some
  grammatical items tend to come earlier in
  
• the acquisition than others. For
  example, the ing progressive is acquired
  
• fairly early in first language
  acquisition, while third person singular s is
  
• acquired later.

19
Krashens Five Hypotheses (Continued)

• The Monitor Hypothesis attempts to explain
  how acquisition and learning are used. Language
  is normally produced using our acquired
  linguistic competence. Conscious learning has
  only one functionas the Monitor or Editor.
  After we produce some language using the acquired
  system, we sometimes inspect it and use our
  learned system to correct errors. This can happen
  internally before we actually speak or write, or
  as a self-correction after we produce the
  utterance or written text.
• Comprehensible Input Hypothesis contends that
  more comprehensible input results in more
  acquisition.
  
• The Affective Filter Hypothesis claims that
  affective variables do not impact language
  acquisition directly, but can prevent input from
  reaching what Chomsky called the Language
  Acquisition Device. The LAD is the part of the
  brain that is responsible for language
  acquisition.

20
Cummins Second Language Framework

• Cummins makes a distinction between social
  language and
  
• academic language.
• 1. Social language refers to the everyday
  conversational language which is supported
  
• by the use of illustrations, realia,
  demonstrations, etc. (Context Embedded). Studies
  
  
• show that language learners acquire
  social language in approximately two years.
  
• Social language deals with the here-and-now
  language, therefore second language
  
• learners tend to acquire it faster.
• 2. Academic language is the language of school
  tasks which is more abstract and
  
• decontextualized (Context Reduced).
• Some second language learners who develop fluent
  spoken English have difficulties in
  
• reading and writing because they may be at
  different levels of proficiency while they are
  
• moving from social language (BICS) to academic
  language (CALP). It takes between five
  
• to seven years for second language learners to
  acquire academic language.

21
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
• developing survival vocabulary
• following demonstrated directions
• playing simple games
• engaging in face-to-face interactions and
• participating in art, music and physical
  education activities.

22
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
• participating in hands-on science and mathematics
  activities
  
• making maps, models, charts, and graphs
• solving math computational problems
• making brief oral presentations
• understanding academic presentations through the
  use of visuals, demonstrations, active
  participation, realia, etc. and
  
• writing academic reports with the aid of
  outlines, structures, etc.

23
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
• engaging in telephone conversations
• reading for personal purposes and
• writing for personal purposes notes,
• lists, sketches, etc.

24
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
• understanding academic presentations without
  visuals or demonstrations (lectures)
  
• making formal oral presentations
• solving math word problems without
  illustrations
  
• writing compositions, essays, and research
  reports in content areas
  
• reading for information in content areas and
• taking standardized achievement tests.

25
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
• Grammatical competence means understanding the
  skills and knowledge necessary to speak and write
  accurately. Grammatical competence includes
  
• 1) vocabulary
• 2) word formation
• 3) meaning
• 4) sentence formation
• 5) pronunciation
• 6) spelling
• 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.

26
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.
  

27
Competence Vs. Performance

• According to Chomsky (1965), competence consists
  of mental representations of linguistic rules
  that constitute the speaker-hearers internal
  grammar.
• This internal grammar is implicit rather than
  explicit. It is evident in the intuitions, which
  the speaker-hearer has about the grammaticality
  of sentences.
• Performance consists of the use of this grammar
  in the comprehension and production of the
  language.
  
• Communicative competence is that aspect of the
  language users competence that enables them to
  convey and interpret messages and to negotiate
  meanings interpersonally within specific
  contexts.
• Language is a form of communication that occurs
  in social interaction. It is used for a purpose
  such as persuading, commanding, and establishing
  social relationships. No longer is the focus on
  specific knowledge of grammatical form. Instead,
  the competent speaker is recognized as one who
  knows when, where, and how to use language
  appropriately.

28
Language Learning

• Behaviorists views of language learning and of
  language teaching were pre-dominant 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.
  
• According to the law of exercise, language
  learning is promoted when the learner makes
  active and repeated responses to stimuli.
  
• The law of effect emphasizes the importance of
  reinforcing the learners responses and
  correcting non-target-like ones.
  
• 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.

29
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.

30
Input and Interaction

• L2 acquisition can only take place when the
  learner has access to input in the second
  language. This input may come in written or
  spoken form.
• Spoken input occurs in face-to-face interactions.
  Non-reciprocal discourse includes listening to
  the radio or watching a film.
  
• Behaviorists claim that presenting learners with
  input in the right doses and then reinforcing
  their attempts to practice them can control the
  process of acquisition.
• Chomsky pointed out that in many cases there was
  a very poor match between the kind of language
  found in the input that learners received and the
  kind of language they themselves produced.
• Comprehensible input (Krashens, 1985 Input
  Hypothesis) proposed that learners acquire
  morphological features in a natural order as a
  result of comprehending input addressed to them.
  Long (1981a) argued that input which is made
  comprehensible by means of the conversational
  adjustments that occur when there is a
  comprehension problem is especially important for
  acquisition.
• Swain (1985) proposed the comprehensible output
  hypothesis which states that learners need
  opportunities for pushed output in speech or
  writing that makes demands on them for correct
  and appropriate use of the L2.

31
The Role of the Native Language in Second
Language Acquisition

• 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.

32
Framework for Explaining L1 Transfer

• The L1 system is used for both comprehension
  and production.
  
• The interlanguage system is also used in
  comprehending and
  
• receiving messages.
• The L1 system is used in hypothesis
  construction responsible for
  
• interlanguage development.
• Comprehensible input serves as a major source
  of information for
  
• hypothesis construction.
• L2 output may be used for hypothesis
  construction.

33
Toward a Theory of First Language Transfer

• An important distinction not always made in
  discussions of transfer is between transfer in L2
  communication and transfer in L2 learning.
  
• Transfer in communication involves the use of the
  L1 either to receive incoming messages
  (reception) or to process output (production).
  
• Transfer in learning occurs when the learner uses
  the L1 in an attempt to develop hypotheses about
  L2 rules.
  
• There are several possibilities for transfer 1)
  it is primarily a characteristic of communication
  2) it is primarily a feature of learning 3) both
  communication and learning transfer are
  significant and interrelated aspects of L2
  acquisition.

34
Language 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
  
• the dangers of extrapolating from laboratory
  studies of animal behavior to the language
  behavior of humans were pointed out
  
• the terms stimulus and response were exposed as
  vacuous where language behavior was concerned
  
• analogy could not account for the language users
  ability to generate totally novel utterances
  and
  
• studies of children acquiring their L1 showed
  that parents rarely corrected their childrens
  linguistic errors, thus casting doubt on the
  importance of reinforcement in language
  learning.
• All this led to the reconsideration of the role
  of L1 in L2 learning.

35
The Nature of the Interlanguage Continuum

• Cognitive theories of interlanguage claim that
  with the assistance of
  
• learning strategies, learners build
  mental grammars of the second
  
• language.
• Learners draw on the rules they have
  constructed to interpret and
  
• produce utterances.
• Learners utterances are only erroneous with
  reference to the target
  
• language norms, not to the norms of their
  own grammars.
  
• The interlanguage continuum consists of a
  series of overlapping
  
• grammars. Each share some rules with the
  previously constructed
  
• grammar, but also contains some new or
  revised rules.
  
• A rule has the status of a hypothesis.

36
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)
• 2) experimentation and inaccurate guessing
• 3) emergent-growing in consistency in linguistic
  production
  
• 4) backsliding-appears to have grasped but later
  regressed and unable to correct errors
  
• 5) systematic stage-ability to correct errors on
  their own rules may not be well-formed but
  display more internal self-consistency
  
• 6) stabilization-few errors are made, have
  mastered the system to the point of fluency and
  
• 7) intralingual-inconsistencies within the
  target language Global errors-affect
  meaninglocal errors-close similarities in word
  form (i.e. spelling).

37
Identification of Learner Errors

• 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.

38
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.

39
Error Analysis

• The conceptualization and significance of
  errors took on a different
  
• role with the publication of an article
  by Pit Corder (1967) entitled
  
• The Significance of Learner Errors.
  Errors are not just to be seen as
  
• something to be eradicated, but rather
  can be important in and of
  
• themselves.
• Errors provide evidence of a system (learners
  attempt to figure out
  
• some system). This evidence can provide
  information on the state of a
  
• learners knowledge of the L2. They are
  not to be viewed solely as a
  
• product of imperfect learning.
• The distinction of error and mistake is also
  important in EA. Mistakes
  
• are slips of the tongue. The speaker who
  makes a mistake is able to
  
• recognize it as a mistake and correct it
  if necessary.
  

40
Error Analysis(Continued)

• An error is systematic. It is likely to occur
  repeatedly and is not recognized by the learner
  as an error. The learner has incorporated a
  particular erroneous from the perspective of the
  target language into his/her own system.
• The learner has created a systematic entity
  called an interlanguage.
  
• Errors are only errors with reference to some
  external norm such as the target language. For
  example, if a learner produces No speak. or No
  understand. and if we assume that these are
  consistent deviations and form a part of a
  learners system, then it is only possible to
  think of them as errors with regard to English,
  but not with regard to the learners system.
• Error analysis is a type of linguistic analysis
  that focuses on the errors learners make. The
  comparison made in EA is between the errors a
  learner makes producing the target language and
  the target language form itself.
• Research in EA was carried out within the context
  of the classroom. The goal was pedagogical
  remediation.

41
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-structu
  re 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.

42
Language Acquisition for School The Prism
ModelThomas Collier, 1997
Social and Cultural Processes
L1 L2 Academic Development
L1 L2 Language Development
L1 L2 Cognitive Development
43
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.
  
• It is important that cognitive development
  continue through a childs first language at
  least through the elementary years.
  
• Extensive research has demonstrated that children
  who reach the threshold in L1 by around age 11 to
  12 enjoy cognitive advantages over monolinguals.

44
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.

45
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.

46
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.

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In ConclusionThe 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.
• The teacher needs
• 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.

48
Bibliography

• Cummins, J. (1979a). Cognitive/academic language
  proficiency, linguistic interdependence, the
  optimal age question and some other matters.
  Working Papers in Bilingualism. No. 19 (pp.
  197-205). Toronto Ontario Institute for Studies
  in Education.
• Ellis, R. (2003). The study of second language
  acquisition (10th ed.). Oxford Oxford University
  Press.
  
• Gass, S., Selinker, L. (2001). Second language
  acquisition (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ Lawrence
  Erlbaum Associates.
  
• Krashen, S. D. (1981). Second language
  acquisition and second language learning. Oxford
  Pergamon press.
  
• Thomas, W., Collier, V. (1997). School
  effectiveness for language minority students.
  National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education
  Resource Collection Series, No. 9.

49
For More Information Contact
Dr. Frank Lucido Program Director Institute for
Second Language Achievement flucido_at_falcon.tamu
cc.edu 361-825-2672 Graphics and slide design
by JoAnn McDonald and Sheryl Roehl