Second Language Acquisition

1. Second Language Acquisition Romance Languages 700 Fall 2006

2. Romance Languages 700 Fall 2006

3. The Brain

5. "...makes humans what they are. Within the vast human cortex lies a critical part of the secret of human consciousness, our superb sensory capacities and sensitivities to the external world, our motor skills, our aptitudes for reasoning and imagining and above all our unique language abilities.� [Thompson, 1985, p22]. "...makes humans what they are. Within the vast human cortex lies a critical part of the secret of human consciousness, our superb sensory capacities and sensitivities to the external world, our motor skills, our aptitudes for reasoning and imagining and above all our unique language abilities.� [Thompson, 1985, p22].

6. Running through this again from a slightly different angle, the various subsystems of the brain are bundles of nerves gathered into specific functional groupings and chains of interconnections which are beginning to be well understood. These bundles of nerves are the organs of the brain. Running through this again from a slightly different angle, the various subsystems of the brain are bundles of nerves gathered into specific functional groupings and chains of interconnections which are beginning to be well understood. These bundles of nerves are the organs of the brain.

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 months�later 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 year�later 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. Students can speak at greater length. Students can speak at greater length.

12. Stage V: The Advanced Language Proficiency Stage 5-7 years Specialized content-area vocabulary Grammar/vocabulary comparable to native speaker Students use grammar and vocabulary to native speaker of similar age and intellectual capacity.Students use grammar and vocabulary to native speaker of similar age and intellectual capacity.

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. Krashen�s 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

19. Input Only concerned with acquisition Input + 1 Comprehensible Zone of Proximal Development is a notion whose definition we owe to Lev Vygotsky, who believed that intellectual development (of children) was a function of human communities (not individual achievement). ZPD = gap between current level of development and potential (or emerging) level of development. Zone of Proximal Development is a notion whose definition we owe to Lev Vygotsky, who believed that intellectual development (of children) was a function of human communities (not individual achievement). ZPD = gap between current level of development and potential (or emerging) level of development.

20. Affective filter variables play facilitative, non-casual role in acquistion Motivation Self-confidence Anxiety

21. Cognitive Linguistics Efficiency grammatical structures of language are directly associated with the way people conceptualize Language faculty in the brain is ultimately rooted in the general process of human cognition (no processes are unique to language). The cognitivists believe that the grammatical structures of language are directly associated with the way people conceptualize (i.e., think about and understand) any given situation in the world. Syntax, morphology, even phonology are conceptual in nature, i.e., they are merely input and output of those cognitive processes within the human mind that govern speaking and understanding. This idea is generally encapsulated in a phrase coined by Ronald Langacker and often repeated by cognitive linguists: grammar is conceptualization. In other words, language gets learned just like anything else gets learned. The use of language has nothing special about it that differentiates it from other cognitive processes. Rather, the human infant uses the same store of cognitive tools and processes to learn and use language as he learns to do anything else. Cognition is cognition. Learning is learning. Pattern-recognition and matching is pattern-recognition and matching; imitation and practice is imitation and practice, whether learning your native language or learning to ride a bicycle or select and put on clothes to wear. Language faculty in the brain is ultimately rooted in the general process of human cognition (no processes are unique to language). The cognitivists believe that the grammatical structures of language are directly associated with the way people conceptualize (i.e., think about and understand) any given situation in the world. Syntax, morphology, even phonology are conceptual in nature, i.e., they are merely input and output of those cognitive processes within the human mind that govern speaking and understanding. This idea is generally encapsulated in a phrase coined by Ronald Langacker and often repeated by cognitive linguists: grammar is conceptualization. In other words, language gets learned just like anything else gets learned. The use of language has nothing special about it that differentiates it from other cognitive processes. Rather, the human infant uses the same store of cognitive tools and processes to learn and use language as he learns to do anything else. Cognition is cognition. Learning is learning. Pattern-recognition and matching is pattern-recognition and matching; imitation and practice is imitation and practice, whether learning your native language or learning to ride a bicycle or select and put on clothes to wear.

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.

23. Theory of Multiple Intelligences

24. Grammar 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

25. References Steven Krashen, Second language acquisition and second language learning http://www.sdkrashen.com/SL_Acquisition_and_Learning/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