Explaining Second Language Learning Chapter 2

1. Explaining Second Language LearningChapter 2

2. A child or adult learning a second language is different from a child acquiring first language in terms of : Learner characteristics. Learning conditions.

3. 1. Learner Characteristics: • Knowledge of another language • Cognitive maturity • Metalinguistic awareness • World Knowledge • Anxiety about speaking

4. 2. Learning Conditions: • Freedom to be silent • Ample time & contact • Corrective feedback: (grammar, pronunciation) • Corrective feedback: (meaning, word choice) • Modified input

5. Differences in learning L1 & L2 (summary): SLA (Second Language Acquisition) theories need to account for language acquisition by learners with a variety of characteristics and learning in a variety of contexts.

6. What is behaviorism? The term behaviorism refers to the school of psychology founded by John B. Watson based on the belief that behaviors can be measured, trained, and changed.

7. Four characteristics of behaviorism: • Imitation • Practice • Reinforcement • Habit formation

8. Second language applications: Mimicry and memorization. • 1. Nelson and Robert Lado influence directly the development of Audio-lingual teaching materials. • Language learning is based on a collection of habits. • It was assumed that a person learning a second language would start off with the habits formed in the first language and that habits would interfere with the new one needed for the second language.

9. 2. Behaviorism was linked to the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CHA) Second language acquisition would be easier if the first and second language were similar. Some second language learners produce errors and mistakes that are not based on their first language. The influence of the first language is so important and it affects the second language.

10. Errors in Behaviorism • Errors are seen as L1 habits interfering with L2 habits. • Behaviorists develop a procedure known as: CAH (Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis) • A comparison is made between the native language and the target language to identify similarities and differences. • Then, a prediction is made of when certain errors will occur. • The CAH predicts as follows: o Similarities will lead to ease of acquisition. o Differences will lead to difficulty in acquisition.

11. Criticism of CAH • Not all errors predicted by the CAH are actually made. • Learners do make many errors not predicted by the CAH. • Adults L2 learners produce sentences that sound more like a child’s. • Many of their sentences would be ungrammatical if translated into L1.

12. The simple structures they use are very similar across learners from a variety of backgrounds. • For example, • ’ no understand’ • ‘yesterday, I meet my teacher’ • They are utterances produced by learners from different backgrounds. • By the 1970’s, many researchers were convinced that behaviorism and CAH were inadequate explanations for L2 acquisition. • This arose as a result of the growing influence of INNATIST views of language acquisition.

13. Innatism • Universal Grammar (UG) in relation to second language development • Competence vs. Performance • Krashen’s “monitor model”

14. UGand SLA • Chomsky argued that innate knowledge of the principles of UG permits all children to acquire L1 during a critical period of their development. • Chomsky did not make any claim about the implications of his theory for L2 learning. • Other linguists (Lydia White) differ in their views about the framework of UG .

15. Some argued that UG offers the best perspective from which to understand SLA. UG can explain why L2 learners eventually know more about the language than they could reasonably have learned (i.e. UG can explain L2 learners’ creativity and generalization ability). • Others (Robert Bley-Vroman and Jacquelyn Schachter) argue that it is not a good explanation, especially by learners who have passed the critical period. (i.e. CPH does not work in SLA). • In their view, this means that L2 acquisition has to be explained by some other theories, perhaps one of the more general psychological theories.

16. Vivian Cook said that many learners fail to master the target language. • Researchers said that instructions and feedback deeply affect second language learners. • Researchers who studied second language acquisition are interested in advanced learners with complex grammar rather than simple language of beginners.

17. How UG works in SLA: Two different views - • The nature and availability of UG are the same in L1 and L2 acquisition. Adult L2 learners, like children, neither need nor benefit from error correction and metalinguistic information. These things change only the superficial appearance of language performance and do not affect the underlying competence of the new language (e.g., Krashen’s “Monitor Model”).

18. UG may be present and available to L2 learners, but its exactnaturehas beenaltered by the prior acquisition of the first language. L2 learners need to be given some explicit information about what is not grammatical in the L2. Otherwise, they may assume that some structures of the L1 have equivalents in the L2 when, in fact, they do not.

19. Competence vs. Performance • Competence: It refers to the knowledge which underlies our ability to use language. • Performance: It refers to the way a person actually uses language in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Performance is subject to variations due to inattention, anxiety, or fatigue whereas competence (at least for the mature native speaker) is more stable.

20. SLA researchers from the UG perspective (innatism) are more interested in the language competence (i.e., knowledge of complex syntax) of advanced learners rather than in the simple language of early stage learners. • Their investigations often involve comparing the judgments of grammaticality made by L2 and L1 learners, rather than observations of actual language performance (i.e., use of language).

22. Second Language Applications: Krashen’s ‘Monitor Model’ • Influenced by Chomsky’s theory. • The implications of the innate theory for L2 learning • This theory has had the most influence on L2 teaching practice. • The theory, ‘MONITOR MODEL’ is proposed by Stephen Krashen (1982)

23. Five Basic Hypotheses of Krashen’s ‘Monitor Model ‘ • The Acquisition - Learning Hypothesis • The Monitor Hypothesis • The Natural Order Hypothesis • The Input Hypothesis • The Affective Hypothesis

24. The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis • Acquisition: we acquire L2 knowledge as we are exposed to samples of the L2 which we understand with no conscious attention to language form. It is a subconscious and intuitive process. • Learning: we learn the L2 via a conscious process of study and attention to form and rule learning. • Krashen argues that “acquisition” is a more important process of constructing the system of a language than “learning” because fluency in L2 performance is due to what we have acquired, not what we have learned.

25. 2) The monitor hypothesis • The acquired systemacts to initiate the speaker’s utterances and is responsible for spontaneous language use, whereas the learned systemacts as a “monitor”, making minor changes and polishing what the acquired system has produced. • Such monitoring takes place only when the speaker/writer has plenty of time, is concerned about producing correct language, and has learned the relevant rules. 3) The natural order hypothesis • L2 learners acquire the features of the TL in predictable sequences. • The language features that are easiest to state (and thus to ‘learn’) are not necessarily the first to be acquired. e.g. the rule for adding an –s to third person singular verbs in the present tense

26. 4) The input hypothesis • Acquisition occurs when one is exposed to language that is comprehensibleandthat contains . • If the input contains forms and structures just beyond the learner’s current level of competence in the language, then both comprehension and acquisition will occur. 5) The affective filter hypothesis • “Affect” refers to feelings, motives, needs, attitudes, and emotional states. • The “affective filter” is an imaginary/metaphorical barrier that prevents learners from acquiring language from the available input. • Depending on the learner’s state of mind, the filter limits what is noticed and what is acquired. A learner who is tense, anxious, or bored may “filter out” input, making it unavailable for acquisition.

27. Summary • Krashen’s “monitor model” (i.e., acquisition vs. learning, monitor, natural order, comprehensible input, and affective filter) has been very influential in supporting communicative language teaching (CLT), which focuses on using language for meaningful interaction and for accomplishing tasks, rather than on learning rules. • Krashen’s hypotheses are intuitively appealing, but those hypotheses are hard to be tested by empirical evidence.

28. Thank you for Listening • Supervised by • Dr. Amira Kashgary • Done by • Amra Alamari • & • Sara Atteya