1. LIN 540G Second Language Acquistion
Week 8
SLA & language teaching

2. What is the relationship between SLA & language teaching?
L2 researchers are experts who develop theories and test the questions raised within those theories. L2 teachers are experts who make decisions about the most effective ways to promote language learning by artfully using a variety of techniques, skills, and knowledge
Braidi, 1999, 188

3. What is the relationship between SLA & language teaching?
The moral of this research-teaching story is relatively simple: the more we know about language and language learning, the more informed decisions we make about language teaching
Braidi, 1999, 189

4. What is the relationship between SLA & language teaching?
The task of the applied linguist, as I see it, is not to promulgate what and how teachers should teach but to encourage teachers to understand their own theories of teaching and to experiment with new ideas which they judge to be applicable to their own classrooms
Ellis, 1997, 240

5. SLA & language teaching: some important questions
Does instruction make any difference to second language learning? If so, what kind of difference?
Are some linguistic features more affected by instruction than others? If so, which features?
What kind of instruction is likely to be most effective?

6. Does instruction make any difference to second language learning?
The balance of evidence is that instruction does make a difference. The majority of studies looking at this issue (but not all!) have found that instructed learners tend to outperform non-instructed learners
Summaries in Doughty 2003, Sanz & Morgan-Short 2005, Lightbown & Spada, 2006 (Ch. 6)

7. Example
White (1991) studied acquisition of adverb placement among L1 French learners of L2 English
Group 1 received two weeks of instruction (approx 9 hours); instruction involved explicit teaching and corrective feedback on errors
Group 2 did not receive instruction
Immediate post-tests showed the experimental group outperformed the control group (i.e. instruction had made a difference)

8. What kind of difference?
Reminder: L2 acquisition involves developing a new linguistic system inside the mind (IL)
ILs are
systematic
dynamic
characterized by developmental sequences
subject to fossilization
How does teaching affect this process?

9. What kind of difference?
Teachers can influence the process of IL development by:
a) providing plentiful comprehensible input
b) drawing attention to key features of the input, making these features more salient, and increasing their frequency in the input, (i.e. helping to convert input into intake)
c) creating opportunities for output production

10. But . . . ILs develop according to their own schedule
ILs are characterized by developmental sequences
Ss can only benefit from instruction when they are “developmentally ready” for the next stage; instruction aimed at a stage for which learners are not ready is unlikely to be effective
Therefore, teachers should teach what the learner is ready to learn, targeting the next stage of development
This is the “teachability hypothesis”

11. The teachability hypothesis
“. . . the teachability hypothesis, which has received considerable support in recent research, suggests that instruction does not subvert the natural sequence of acquisition but rather helps to speed up learners’ passage through it”
Ellis, 1997, 82

12. Are some linguistic features more affected by instruction than others?
Studies suggest that certain grammatical features are more sensitive to instruction than others, e.g. Williams & Evans (1998)
W&E studied the acquisition of participial adjectives (He is interesting/interested) & passives (The lock was frozen)
Three groups were tested:
Group 1 received exposure to language containing many examples of target structures but no explicit instruction
Group 2 received explicit instruction on the target structures
Group 3 received no special teaching on the target structures
W&E found that Group 2 (the instructed group) did better than other groups for adjectives, but there was no marked difference for passives

13. What kind of instruction is likely to be most effective?
Various proposals have been made
Among the more interesting . . .
focus on form (Long et al.)
processing instruction (Van Patten et al.)

14. Focus on form
focus on form...overtly draws students' attention to linguistic elements as they arise incidentally in lessons whose overriding focus is on meaning or communication
Long, 1991, 45-46
focus on form often consists of an occasional shift of attention to linguistic code features triggered by perceived problems with comprehension or production
Long & Robinson, 1998, 23

15. Processing instruction
PI has three basic stages:
Ss are provided with explanations of the targeted grammar structure
Ss are alerted to problems they may encounter with this structure, particularly those caused by differences between the grammar of TL and the L1
Ss complete tasks in which they attend to the structure in order to understand the meaning
The aim of these tasks is to highlight the structure’s contribution to a sentence's overall message. In order to perform the task successfully Ss must attend to the salient grammatical structure
See Van Patten 2005

16. References
Braidi, S. M. (1999). The acquisition of second language syntax London: Arnold
Doughty, C.J. (2003). Instructed SLA: Constraints, Compensation, and Enhancement. In C. Doughty & M. H. Long (eds.) The handbook of second language acquisition Blackwell, Oxford
Ellis, R. (1997a). SLA research and language teaching Oxford: OUP
Ellis, R. (1997b). Second language acquisition Oxford: OUP
Lightbown, P.M. & N. Spada (2006). How languages are learned 3rd Edition Oxford: OUP
Long, M.H. (1991). Focus on form: A design feature in language teaching methodology. In K. de Bot, R. Ginsberg, & C. Kramsch (eds.) Foreign language research in cross-cultural perspective Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Long, M.H. & Robinson, P. (1998) Focus on form. In C. Doughty & J. Williams (eds.) Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

17. References
Sanz, C. & K. Morgan-Short (2005). Explictness in pedagogical interventions: Input, practice, and feedback. In C. Sanz (ed.) Mind and context in adult second language acquisition. Methods, theory, and practice Washington DC: Georgetown University Press
Van Patten, B. (2005). Processing instruction. In C. Sanz (ed.) Mind and context in adult second language acquisition. Methods, theory, and practice Washington DC: Georgetown University Press
White, L. (1991). Adverb placement in second language acquisition: Some effects of positive and negative evidence in the classroom Second Language Research 7,
Williams, J. & Evans, J. (1998). What kind of focus and on which forms? In C. Doughty & J. Williams (eds.) Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition Cambridge: CUP