Helena Roquet Pugès Departament de Traducció i Ciències del Llenguatge

1. STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT IN LANGUAGE ACQUISITIONMÀSTER 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 • Questionnaire on Second Language Acquisition (SLA) • Terminology • First Language Acquisition (L1) What and how we learn? • Foreign Language Acquisition (L2/L3) Differences and similitudes • Instructional Implications What can we do as teachers? • Input and interaction. Formal instruction

3. QUESTIONNAIRE I: What do youthink? • 1) What is included in the study of SLA? • 2) What is not included? • 3) Why is SLA research relevant?

4. QUESTIONNAIRE II: Correctorincorrect? • 1) We learn languages by imitating what we hear. • 2) Adults tend to correct children when they make mistakes. • 3) Intelligent people are better at learning languages. • 4) If you learn a language before adolescence, you are better at it. • 5) Most errors we make are due to the influence of our L1. • 6) Bilingual children do not learn their two languages well. • 7) Mixing languages is dangerous.

5. SLA mainissues in a nutshell: • 1) How do learners learn an L1, an L2? • 2) Why do learners vary in how fast they learn an L2? • 3) Why do most fail to achieve full TL competence?

6. LanguageAcquisition: Terminology I • First language/s: the 1L/s one learns as a child (also mother tongue). • Second language/s: a non native L that is widely used for purposes of communication, usually as a medium of communication, government or business (i.e. English in Nigeria). • Foreign language/s: a non native language (usually taught in school) that has no status as a routine medium of communication in that country (i.e. English in Catalonia).

7. LanguageAcquisition: TerminologyII • Acquisition: Natural – implicit unconscious process by which L is acquired similarly as children acquire their 1L. “Natural” way of picking up a L by using it in natural, communicative situations. • Learning: Formal – explicit conscious knowledge about grammar and rules about a language. It takes place in classrooms when following a structured course with a teacher, so formal teaching and correction of errors are necessary for learning to occur. Main tenets of Stephen Krashen’s theory of SLA.

8. FirstLanguageAcquisition (L1) • One mother tongue language : L1 • Monolingualism • Two or more mother tongue languages: L1s • Bilingualism, Trilingualism, etc…

9. FirstLanguageAcquisition (L1) • We all learn to speak our first language/s with the same degree of competence: (however, the same does not occur with L2/3) • First language competence will have an effect on second/foreign language competence.

10. FirstLanguageAcquisition (L1) • What do we learn? • Language development. • How do we learn? • Requisites

11. Language development (1) • 0;6 months = vocalisations (crollling) • 0;8 months= sounds and gestures to request i gestualització • 0;9 months = babbling /pæ/ /bæ/ • 0;10 months = reduplicated babbling

12. Language development (2) • 0;11 months = first words • 1;4 years = 50 words • 1;6 years= 100 words • + telegraphic speech: • ‘daddy go; more this; no cooky’ • 1;7 years = 200 words • 1;10 years = first syntax

13. Language development (3) • 4/5 years • Phonology, lexis and syntax (stages of acquisition) • Until 10 years • More complexsyntax • Allourlife • Lexis

14. Degree of competence L1 • Communicativeabilities • Basic interpersonal Communicativeskills (BICS) • Academicabilities COGNITIVE MATURATION • CognitiveAcademicLanguageProficiency (CALP) (Cummins, 1979)

15. How we learn: Requisites • Chomskyan innatism We are genetically programmed to learn any language. GIVEN… • Exposure to the target language (INPUT) • 4/5 years = 10.000 hours • In communicative situations (OUTPUT)

16. Second/ForeignLanguageAcquisition Differences and similarities: between.. Natural acquisition (+BICS): Typically of L1 Formal acquisition/learning (+CALP): Typically of L2, except for bilingualism in children

17. Second/ForeignLanguageAcquisition • Wealllearnour L1/s withthesamedegree of competence • Noteveryonereachesthesamelevels of competence in an L2: • Similarities (route of acquisition) • Individual differences (level of attainment, speed): AGE, APTITUDE, ATTITUDE, MOTIVATION, PERSONALITY, COGNITIVE STYLE, GENDER (thesemakeusdifferent and theconditions are notalwaystheonesexplainedbefore)

18. SUMMARY • ¿What do we learn? • Basic interactive communicative skills (BICS) • Cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) (Cummins, 1984) • ¿How do we learn? • Massive exposure to target language (INPUT) in communicative situations (INTERACTION) • Aprendizaje formal: Gramática, lectura y escritura

19. ¿Are the conditions to formal language learning in school met? • ¿Massive exposure to input? • NO • ¿In interactive contexts with attention to BICS as well as to CALP? • FEW

20. InstructionalImplications What can we do as teachers? • As much input as possible (always English, internet, songs, films, documentaries...) • Promote communicative situations with a lot of interaction • CLIL • ….

21. Second Language Acquisition Recommendation Focus on form: drawing students’ attention to linguistic elements as they arise incidentally in lessons whose overriding focus is on meaning or communication(Doughty & Long, 2003) In communicative contexts Double orientation: towards form and meaning

22. Second Language Acquisition DeKeyser warning is that implicit focus on form may be insufficient if there is not massive input (DeKeyser, 2002) Focus on forms: separate attention to grammar and subsequent integration of the knowledge provided in increasingly communicative activity (DeKeyser, 1998)

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