Chapter 12: 2 nd Lang. Acq. As coffee is an ACQUIRED taste…

“Gina is by lingual… that means she can say the same thing twice, but you can only understand it once.”

Whaddya Think? Acquiring a second language involves both knowing something about the language and being able to do something with the language. Do you think that knowledge and skills are related? Can you see any trade-off between accuracy and fluency?

Competence & Performance L1 L2 Interlanguage

Transference L1 competence in L2 performance Fossilization Interlanguage ‘errors’ become ‘rules’

Fossilization: Whaddya think? What factors can you think of that might influence fossilization? Do you think some people are more likely to fossilize than others? Why or Why not? Do you think it can be reversed? If so, what strategies might be effective?

Whenever we speak… Language Strategic CompetenceCompetence OrganizationalPragmaticCompetence GrammaticalTextualIllocutionarySociolinguistic CompetenceCompetenceCompetenceCompetence VocabularyCohesionRhetorical DialectCultural OrganizationReferences SyntaxRegister Morphology Functional PhonologyAbilities Typical ESL Instruction

Interlanguage Phonology Markedness Differential Hypothesis C > B > A Similarity Differential Rate Hypothesis Similarity breeds confusion… Syllabification Once a syllable, always a syllable… A stressful situation

Exercise A dialect of Arabic breaks up clusters by inserting an epenthetic vowel in front of an unsyllabified consonant. How would a speaker of this dialect pronounce the following words? plant transporttranslate

Exercise (some more) Given what you know about implicational universals, do you think it would be easier for an English speaker to acquire French nasal vowels (e.g. gant [gã] ‘glove’) or for a French speaker to acquire English oral vowels?

Interlanguage Syntax L1 Merge & Move Rules Null Subject Verb Movement Markedness & Subsets Positive (Direct) Evidence Negative (Indirect) Evidence

Exercise (again) What explanation would you give for a native speaker of French who produced the English sentence ‘I drink frequently coffee’ ? How could you explain to this person that ‘He is frequently late’ is grammatical? Do any other English verbs have the same properties as BE ?

Interlanguage Morphology L1 Acquisition -ing plural –s irregular past possessive -’s copula ( main verb ) BE articles the, a, an regular past -ed 3 rd pers. sing. -s auxillary BE L2 Acquisition -ing copula ( main verb ) BE articles the, a auxillary BE plural -s irregular past regular past -ed 3 rd pers. sing. –s possessive -’s

Morphology Exercise Why do second language learners, regardless of their first language, produce forms like goed, sheeps, and could decided even though they never hear these from a native speaker. What are some other forms you might expect to hear? Why?

Will I/they Ever Get It? Age Critical Period Hypothesis Idiosyncrasies Affective issues Cognitive issues Learning environment

In the Classroom Modified Input Teacher talk ( i +1) Modified Interaction  Discourse differences Focus on Form  Explicit Language Instruction Error Correction  Self-monitoring & correction

Education: Whaddya think? Why do you think nonnative speakers of English are more at risk of dropping out of the educational system than native speakers?

Bilingual Education Almost 10% of school kids = ENL One-Way Bilingual Education English-Only ESL Newcomer Programs Immersion Programs (TWI) Heritage Language Programs

Exercises 2 take 3 minutes to read solo then 3 minutes to discuss with your group then we’ll discuss as a class 10 We’ll discuss as a class