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Second Language Learning - Lightbown & Spada, Chapter 2

Second language learners differ from first language learners in their characteristics and learning environments. A general theory of second language acquisition needs to account for learners with varying characteristics learning in different contexts. While learners may progress through predictable sequences, their language cannot always be easily measured and they develop their own internal "interlanguage" system between their first language and the target language.

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167 views

Second Language Learning - Lightbown & Spada, Chapter 2

Second language learners differ from first language learners in their characteristics and learning environments. A general theory of second language acquisition needs to account for learners with varying characteristics learning in different contexts. While learners may progress through predictable sequences, their language cannot always be easily measured and they develop their own internal "interlanguage" system between their first language and the target language.

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Lena
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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INTRODUCTION

 A second language learner is different in many ways from a young


child acquiring a first language or an older child learning a second
language.

 This is true in terms of both the learners’ characteristics and the


environments in which the language acquisition typically occurs.
INTRODUCTION
Think about how the characteristics and learning conditions of the
following learners may differ:

 A young child learning a first language,


 A child learning a second language in day care or on the playground,

 An adolescent studying a foreign language in their own country,

 An adult immigrant with limited or disrupted education working in a


second language environment and having no opportunity to go to
language classes.
Now ask yourself the following questions about these different learners:

1. Do they already know at least one language?

2. Are they cognitively mature? Are they able to engage in problem


solving, deduction, and complex memory tasks?
3. How well developed is their metalinguistic awareness?
4. How extensive is the learner’s general knowledge of the world?

5. Are they likely to be anxious about making mistakes and concerned


about sounding ‘’silly’’ when speaking the language?
Now ask yourself the following questions about these different learners:

6. Does the learning environment allow them to be silent in the early stages of
learning, or are they expected to speak from the beginning?
7. Do they have plenty of time available for language learning to take place, and
plenty of contact with proficient speakers of the language?
8. Do they frequently receive corrective feedback when they make errors in
grammar or pronunciation?
9. Do they receive corrective feedback when their meaning is not clear?
10. Is modified input available? That is, do interlocutors adapt their speech so
that learners can understand?
LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS LEARNING CONDITIONS
 Another language,  Freedom to be silent,
 Cognitive maturity,  Ample time,

 Metalinguistic awareness,  Corrective feedback (grammar and

 World knowledge, pronunciation),


 Anxiety about speaking…  Corrective feedback (meaning,
word choice, politeness),
 Modified input…

Share your opinions about the presence or absence of all


these constructs above for four different learners: young
children (L1/at home), young child (playground/L2),
adolescent (classroom/L2), adult (on the job/L2).
LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS

 By definition, all second language learners, regardless of age, have


already acquired at least one language. This prior knowledge may be an
advantage in the sense that they have an idea of how languages work.

 Knowledge of other languages can also lead learners to make incorrect


guesses about how the second language works and this may cause
errors which first language learners would not make.
LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS
 Very young learners begin the task of first language acquisition without
the cognitive maturity or metalinguistic awareness that older second
language learners have.

 Most child learners do not feel nervous about attempting to use the
language and they are willing to try to use the language even when their
proficiency is quite limited, but adults and adolescents often find it very
stressful when they are unable to express themselves clearly and
correctly.
LEARNING CONDITIONS
 Older learners, especially students in language classrooms, are more
likely to receive only limited exposure to the second language.
 One condition that appears to be common learners of all ages -
though perhaps not in equal quantities- is access to modified input.
 This adjusted speech style, which is called child-directed speech for
first languages, is sometimes called foreigner talk or teacher talk for
second languages.
 To sum up;

A general theory of SLA needs to account for


language acquisition by learners with a variety of
characteristics, learning in a variety of contexts.
THE LANGUAGE OF L2 LEARNERS

 Predictable sequences,
 Some characteristics of learner language can be perplexing,
 Progress cannot always be measured,
 Teachers and researchers cannot read learners’ minds, so they must infer
what learners know by observing what they do,
 L2 learners do not learn language simply through imitation and practice.
CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS HYPOTHESIS (CAH)
 Until the late 1960s…
 Errors were assumed to be the result of transfer from learners’ first
language.
 It aimed to predict errors.
 Detailed analysis of learners’ errors revealed, however, that not all
errors made by L2 learners can be explained in terms of L1 transfer
alone.
 Thus, some researchers took a different approach to analysing learners’
errors.
ERROR ANALYSIS

 during the 1970s,


 Pit Corder,
 involved detailed descriptions of the errors L2 learners made,
 aimed to discover what learners really knew about the language,
 sought to discover and describe different kinds of errors in an effort to
understand how learners process L2 data.
ERROR ANALYSIS

 Based on the hypothesis that, like child language, L2 learner language is


a system in its own right – one that is rule-governed and predictable.

 Larry Selinker (1972) gave the name interlanguage to learners’


developing second language knowledge.
INTERLANGUAGE

 (has) Some characteristics influenced by previously learned languages,


 Some characteristics of L2,
 Some characteristics such as the omission of function words and
grammatical morphemes,
 Systematic,

 Dynamic, continually evolving as learners receive more input and revise


their hypotheses about L2.
FOSSILIZATION

 Selinker coined this term to refer to the fact that some features in a
learner’s language seem to stop changing.

 This may be especially true for learners whose exposure to the L2 does
not include instruction or the kind of feedback that would help them to
recognize differences between their interlanguage and the target
language.
DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCES

 L2 learners, like L1 learners, pass through sequences of


development.

 Research has shown that learners receive instruction exhibit


similar developmental sequences and error patterns.
• GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES:

Krashen’s (1982) summary of second language grammatical morpheme acquisition


sequence
• NEGATION:
 Similar to the stages for L1 acquisition.
 L2 learners from different L1 backgrounds behave somewhat differently
within those stages.

Stage 1: No bicycle.

Stage 2: He don’t like it.


Stage 3: You can not go there.
Stage 4: It doesn’t work. We didn’t have supper.
• QUESTIONS:
 The overall sequence is similar to the one for L1 acquisition, but again, there
are some differences that are attributable to L1 influence.

Stage 1: Single words, formulae, or sentence fragments.


Dog? Four children?
Stage 2: Declarative word order, no inversion, no fronting.
It’s a monster in the right corner?
Stage 3: do- fronting, wh- fronting without inversion.
Where the children are playing?
Is the picture has two planets on top?
• QUESTIONS:

Stage 4: Inversion in wh- + copula


Where is the sun?
Stage 5: Inversion, in wh- questions with both an auxiliary and a main verb.
What’s the boy doing?
Stage 6: Complex questions.
It’s better, isn’t it?
Why can’t you go?
MOVEMENT THROUGH DEVELOPMENTAL
SEQUENCES

 There are systematic and predictable developmental sequences in SLA.


 At a given point in time, learners may use sentences typical of several
different stages.
 Progress to a higher stage does not always mean fewer errors.
 Learners do not appear to assume that they can simply transfer the structures
of their first language into the second.

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