SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

1. SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

2. AFFECTIVE FACTORS IN SLA Does/is the learner; • Know at least one language? • Cognitively mature? • Have a well developed metaling. awaremess? • Have an extensive knowledge of the world? • Anxious about making mistakes • Exposed to an environment s/he has to speak or not? • Have time to practice? • Receive corrective feedback in terms of grammar? • Receive corrective feedback in terms of meaning? • Have access to modified input?

3. LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS AND LEARNING CONDITIONS + usually -- usually absent ? sometimes

4. EXPLAINING SLA: BEHAVIOURISM • AUDIOLINGUAL method • Classroom activities that emphasize mimicry and memorization • Repeated practice of sentence patterns and dialogues The Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis

5. EXPLAINING SLA: BEHAVIOURISM • TheContrastiveAnalysisHypothesis comparison of linguisticstructures in thelearningtaskbetweenthenativelanguageandthetargetlanguage. since learning is habitformation, similarpatternswill be learnedmoreeasily. • Reaction: InterLanguageApproach – comesfromtheinnatistperspective

6. INNATISM • A UG approachto SLA • TheHypothesis: UG principlesareavailableto SLL aftercriticalperiod, but may be alteredbytheacquisition of thefirstlanguage • TheProblematicAspect: Experiments on CPH • TheInterlanguageapproach (Corder (1967), Selinker(1972)) Learnerswereviewed as activeandrationalagentswhoengaged in thediscovery of underlying L2 rules. Erroranalysis • Krashen’smonitor model

7. INNATISM KRASHEN’S MONITOR MODEL • Acquisition/Learning Hypothesis: • Monitor Hypothesis: Learned system is an editor for the acquired system • Natural order hypothesis: Unfolding in certain sequences • The Input Hypothesis: the famous i+1, whatever it is ! • Affective filter hypothesis: may be the best part of the whole theory!! Some criticism: can be tested empirically? how do we differentiate between acquired or learned?

8. APPLICATION OF KRASHEN The Communicative Approach No apparent instruction of grammar forms Content based curriculum design/skill based rather than grammar based ordering of topics Exposure to comprehensible input (a) the core ingredient of additional language learning is meaningful, comprehensible input; (b) the processes of additional language acquisition are implicit and subconscious and any explicit and conscious processes that may be summoned in the classroom can only help careful monitored performance but will have little effects on true language knowledge or on spontaneous performance (c) the main obstacles to additional language learning for adults stem from affective inhibitions.

9. COGNITIVE SCIENCE APPROACH InformationProcessing • building up of knowledge that can eventually be called on automatically forspeakingandunderstanding. • learners have to pay attention at first to any aspect of thelanguage that they are trying to understand or produce. • learners at the earliest stages will use most oftheirresources to understand the main words in a message. • Throughexperience and practice, information that was new becomes easier toprocess, and learners become able to access it quickly and even automatically. • This frees them to pay attention to other aspects of the language that, inturn, graduallybecomeautomatic. • 'practice' needed for the development of automaticity is not limited to the production of language. • Exposure to, and comprehension of, a language feature may also be countedas practice. In information processing, practice involves cognitive effort onthe part of the learner, but it need not necessarily be available for the learner’s introspection. It can occur below the level of awareness.

10. COGNITIVE SCIENCE APPROACH: Connectionism(alsoemergentist) • No innateability • theemphasis is on thefrequencywithwhichlearnersencounterspecificlinguisticfeatures in theinputandthefrequencywithwhichfeaturesoccurtogether. • (Neural) Networks betweensituationalandlinguisticcontexts = connectionism • presence of onesituationalorlinguistic element willactivatetheother(s) in thelearner'smind • Themorelearnershear a linguisticstructure, thestrongertheconnectionsbetweenthelinguisticitemsbetweenthosestructures • learnersmightgetsubjectverbagreementcorrect, not becausetheyknow a rule but becausetheyhaveheardexamplessuch as 'I say' and 'he says' sooftenthateachsubjectpronounactivatesthecorrectverb form. • Transfer appropriateprocessing • Empiricist, associationist, generalistview.

11. COGNITIVE SCIENCE APPROACH (alsoemergentist) A neural network consists of large number of units joined together in a pattern ofconnections. Units in a net are usually segregated into three classes: input units, whichreceiveinformation to be processed, output units where the results of the processingare found, and units in between called hidden units. If a neural net were to model thewhole human nervous system, the input units would be analogous to the sensoryneurons, the output units to the motor neurons, and the hidden units to all other neurons. Each input unit has an activation value that represents some feature external to thenet. An input unit sends its activation value to each of the hidden units to which it isconnected. Each of these hidden units calculates its own activation value depending onthe activation values it receives from the input units. This signal is then passed on tooutput units or to another layer of hidden units. Those hidden units compute theiractivation values in the same way, and send them along to their neighbors.

12. COGNITIVE SCIENCE APPROACH: SLA APPLICATIONS “structuresthatareeasiertoprocess, thattakeuplessamount of mentaleffort, areacquiredfirstbythelearners” WhichCognitiveAbilitiesrequirewhatkind of mentaleffort? 1. Payingattentiontoandnoticingstructures: requires a gooddeal of mentaleffort, solearnerscan’t pay attentiontoeverysingledetail at first. Only pay attentiontomainwords, do not realizethemorphologicalmarkers. 2. Automatization:Noticedstructuresgeteasiertoprocess. Does not require a lot of mentalefforttoprocessthem. 3. As informationandstrucuturesareautomatizes, mentalfocus can be giventomeaningandtextprocessing. 4. Transfer appropriateprocessing

13. COGS PERSPECTIVE: SLA APPLICATIONS • Interaction hypothesis Modified conversational interaction 1. interactional modification makes input comprehensible 2. comprehensible input promotes acquisition 3. interactional modification promotes acquisition Types of interactional modification elaboration slower speech rate gestures comprehension checks clarification requests self-repetition/paraphrase

14. COGS PERSPECTIVE: SLA APPLICATIONS • NoticingHypothesis • nothing is learned unless it has been noticed. Noticing doesnot itself result in acquisition, but it is the essential starring point. • The extent to which learners' awareness of language affects theirsecondlanguagedevelopment?? Consciousness?? • ProcessabilityHypothesis “structuresthatareeasiertoprocess, thattakeuplessamount of mentaleffort, areacquiredeasierbythelearners”

15. THE SOCIOCULTURAL APPROACH • Lev Vygotsky • Language development as a result of social interactions • Conversations motivate thinking, which makes learners to gain control over their mental abilities. • It is through interaction that higher order thinking emerges, the place where this is most likely to be facilitated is the zone of proximal development; ZPD. • ZPD: the distance between the actual developmental level [of the learner] as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers • More capable peers (and teachers) aid or ‘scaffold’ learners in the ZPD, thus contributing a socially oriented rationale for interactive and collaborative pair and group work (Lantolf 2000). • Task-based cirriculum: learning by doing, semantic and procedural syllabi