Language Acquisition in Multilingual Catalonia

1. INPUT, INTERACTION, OUTPUT.ERROR TREATMENTMÀSTER DE FORMACIÓ DE PROFESSORAT DE SECUNDÀRIA BATXILLERATS I EOIs Helena Roquet Pugès Departament de Traducció i Ciències del Llenguatge Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Oct 2013 Grup d’Adquisició de Llengües des de la Catalunya Multilingüe (ALLENCAM) LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN MULTILINGUAL CATALONIA

2. OUTLINE • Foreign Language Acquisition paradigms (L2/L3) • StructuralistBehaviorist period. Contrastive analysis • Chomskyan period. Acquisition studies Interlanguage Error analysis • Stephen Krashen. Input hypothesis • Environmentalist period. Language and communication. The communicative approach Interaction hypothesis (Long) Noticing hypothesis ((Schmidt) Output hypothesis (Swain)

3. OUTLINE • Input hypothesis (Krashen) • Interaction hypothesis (Long) • Noticing hypothesis (Schmidt) • Output hypothesis (Swain) • Errors

4. Input Hypothesis (Krashen) • The acquirer builds up competence ONLY through comprehensible input. To acquire a L the message needs to be understood. NATURAL COMMUNICATIVE INPUT IS THE KEY

5. Interaction Hypothesis (Long) • Modified interaction is necessary for language acquisition. • Interactional modification makes input comprehensible. • Comprehensible input promotes acquisition. • Negotiation of meaning promotes language development.

6. Noticing Hypothesis (Schmidt) • Noticing does not itself result in acquisition but it is the essential starting point. NOTHING IS LEARNED UNLESS IT HAS BEEN NOTICED

7. Comprehensible Output Hypothesis (Swain) • Comprehensible output: L produced by learners that is coherent and appropriate. • Producing the target L may be the trigger that forces the learner to pay attention to the means of expression needed in order to successfully convey his or her intended meaning. PRODUCTION OF L PUSHES LEARNERS TO PROCESS L MORE DEEPLY

8. ENVIRONMENTALISM • Interaction • Negotiation of meaning • ‘Noticing’ new forms in the input

9. THE STUDY OF ERRORS • 1. Errors met with brutal punishment • 2. Behaviourism: errors signs of non-learning • Contrastive analysis: the prevention of errors is more important than the mere identification • 3. Late 60’s: resurgence in interest in error analysis • Corder (1981): Errors as guides on L learning process. Making errors: strategy to test out certain hypothesis • 4. Krashen (1983: Natural Order Hypothesis): acquisition in a predictable order in which errors are signs of naturalistic developmental processes.

10. THE STUDY OF ERRORS • Errors are no longer “unwanted forms” but an active learner’s contribution to SLA. • Errors are a positive contribution to L learning and give students an active role on the L learning process. • Why are errors useful? • 1. Provide data from which interferences can be made • 2. Indicate to teachers which part of the TL students have more difficulty producing correctly

11. THE STUDY OF ERRORS • Practical aspect of error analysis: Function in guiding the remedial action we must take to correct an unsatisfactory state of affairs • Error / mistake: Error: result of incorrect rule learning, stored in brain incorrectly Mistake: Less serious. It is the retrieval what is faulty, not the knowledge

12. CLASSIFICATION OF ERRORS • Errors of competence: (can’t be recognised by L2 learners) result from the application of rules which do not correspond to the L2 norm 1. Interlingual errors: caused by the structure of L1 2. Intralingual errors: caused by the structure of L2 • Errors of performance: (can be recognised by L2 learners) result from mistakes in language use and manifest themselves as repeats, false starts..

13. CONCLUSION • Learning a second/foreign language it is not completely different from learning a first language, yet it is not entirely the same…..