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Theories of Second Language Acquisition

Summarizes various theories of language/second language acquisition, with names and images of scholars associated with the theory

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arisuimasu
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50 views

Theories of Second Language Acquisition

Summarizes various theories of language/second language acquisition, with names and images of scholars associated with the theory

Uploaded by

arisuimasu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Structuralism

Focused different levels of production in


speech (1950s or earlier)

 Phonology - study of sound systems of


languages
 Morphology - Study of word forms of languages
 Syntax - systemic way words come together
grammatically to form sentences
 Semantics - study of meaning in languages
 Lexicon – catalog of the morphemes of a
Ferdinand de Saussure language
Behaviorism

Language, and everything else, is


learned through habit formation.
(1950s or earlier)- External focus

 Learning may be verbal


 Learning may non-verbal
 Language learners imitate and
repeat what they hear around them.

B.F. Skinner
Sociocultural Theory

Language is learned through


interaction. (1950s or earlier)

 Interaction is not simply


important; it is critical.

 All learning is social


as it occurs in particular
sociocultural contexts.

1950s or earlier

Lev Vygotsky
Transformational-
Generative Grammar
(1960s) – Internal focus
Humans have an innate
ability to learn any language.

 All of us are born with


a toolkit of Universal
Grammar that includes
grammatical constants
that exist across
languages.
 By working to explain
how L1 is acquired,
Chomsky set the stage
for exploring L2
acquisition.
Noam Chomsky 
Universal Grammar
 Innate linguistic knowledge that includes principles,
conditions, rules that are common to all languages.
 Humans have access to this content from birth allowing
them to acquire any language.
 Humans have some kind of language acquisition device
(LAD) in their brains that is equipped with Universal Grammar
content.

 Linguistic competence (innate human ability to acquire


language) as opposed to linguistic performance (the
speaker’s utterances in a particular language)
Krashen’s Monitor Model (1970-1980s)

Acquisition/learning hypothesis - Some aspects of second


language are acquired much the way children acquire first
language (without the learners applying themselves consciously) ,
while other aspects are learned (learners consciously applying
themselves).

Monitor Hypothesis - Learned content accessed through mental


“monitor” that applies rules/limits to language

Natural Order Hypothesis - Rules of language are acquired in a


predictable sequence

Comprehensible Input Hypothesis - acquisition can occur if the


language input provided is comprehensible (i + 1)
i (language already acquired) + 1 (language one step beyond
current skill level)

Affective filter hypothesis - acquisition may not occur if learners


are stressed (affective filter is up)

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