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Linguistics and Second Language Teaching

Linguistics and Second Language Teaching. Phil Hubbard Linguistics/English for Foreign Students Linguistics 1 November 30, 2011. Who am I?. Outline. Overview of linguistics in language t eaching Key points from Rothman (2010) Communicative language teaching model

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Linguistics and Second Language Teaching

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  1. Linguistics and Second Language Teaching Phil Hubbard Linguistics/English for Foreign Students Linguistics 1 November 30, 2011

  2. Who am I?

  3. Outline • Overview of linguistics in language teaching • Key points from Rothman (2010) • Communicative language teaching model • Some examples of linguistics in action

  4. Linguistics in Language Teaching • Structuralist influence (1950s-60s) • Audio lingual method • Contrastive analysis • Transformational grammar I (1970s) • Innatism; Critical Period Hypothesis • Interlanguage – learner’s language as a system • Cognitive code approach

  5. Linguistics in Language Teaching • Communicative approaches (1970s-80s+) • Influence of sociolinguists (Hymes) • Focus on communicative competence • Transformational grammar II (1980s) • Innatism; Krashen’s Input Hypothesis; Natural Order • Critical period replaced by affective filter • UG approaches (e.g., parameter setting)

  6. Linguistics in Language Teaching • Interactionist approaches (1990s) • Both input and output necessary • Noticing hypothesis • Processability theory • Sociocultural approaches (1990s) • Collaboration & scaffolding • Closer links to sociolinguistics

  7. Rothman (2010) • Relation of linguistics and teaching • Types of grammars • Prescriptive – tells NS’s what is “right” • Pedagogical – tells NNS’s what is “right” and how to learn it (often by contrast with L1) • Descriptive – systematizes NS intuitions and data from language use

  8. Rothman (2010) • Example: pronominal subjects in Spanish • Grammatical distinctions • John believes that we/*Ø are good people • Juan creequenosotros/Ø are good people • Pragmatics in “optional” use • Who spoke to Roberto yesterday? I/*Ø spoke to him • ¿Quienhablócon Roberto ayer? Yo/*Ø le hablé

  9. Linguistics in perspective: a “standard” communicative model Learning goal: develop “communicative competence”: (Savignon, 2001) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicative_competence • Grammatical competence • Sociocultural competence • Discourse competence • Strategic competence

  10. Linguistics in perspective: a “standard” communicative model • See also the SIL classification

  11. Useful knowledge for teachers • Phonetics and phonology • Teaching lexical items: challenges • Idioms • Synonyms, antonyms, and items in the same semantic fields • Speech acts (English is more indirect than students believe) • Verb subcategorization

  12. Verb subcategorization • The woman boiled the water/*cried the baby. • I am studying/*knowing French. • Fred called his friend up/*ran his friend into. • She told/*explained me the schedule. • They didn’t allow/*let him to come

  13. Examples • For each set of sentences in the handout, try to determine the nature of the problem (if any) and what you might do to help ESL learners understand it. • Work in groups of 2-3—feel free to link to outside sources if you have the means.

  14. Group 1 Examples • Infinitive vs. gerund • Gerund after a preposition • Test for preposition: can you replace the verb form with a noun phrase while maintaining the basic meaning? • I look forward to the party. • I’m not accustomed to such treatment. • We were used to his complaints.

  15. Group 2 Examples Bolinger Principle (from The Grammar Book): • To-infinitive = hypothetical, future, unfulfilled relative to the main verb time • Gerund = real, vivid, fulfilled relative to the main verb time

  16. Group 3 Examples All the verbs are unaccusative. That is, they have a single argument that is semantically more like what we expect to see as a direct object in a transitive verb (e.g., a patient). Such verbs behave differently in many languages, and thus language learners often produce passive-like structures with these verbs, but not with agentive intransitives: “John was spoke first.”

  17. Conclusion • Knowledge of linguistics is quite helpful for language teaching • However, being a linguist doesn’t automatically make you a better language teacher • If interested, consider Linguistics 191/291 next quarter (shameless plug): www.stanford.edu/~efs/ling291

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