1. Chapter Ten The Second Language Acquisition

2. Teaching focuses: --- First language acquisition (FLA) --- Scond language acquisition (SLA) --- acquisition & learning --- Transfer & interference --- Contrastive analysis & Error analysis --- Krashen’s Input Hypothesis --- Individual differences in SLA

3. 1. First language acquisition (FLA) 1.1 Definition --- The process whereby children become speakers of their native language or languages

4. learner language & target language Learner language: the language that learners produce in speech and writing during the course of language acquisition.

5. Target language: the language that learner is trying to learn.

6. 1.2 The Stages of first language acquisition --- The prelinguistic --- The one-word stage --- The two-word stage --- The multiword stage “telegraphic speech”

7. 2. Scond language acquisition (SLA) 2. 1 Definition The way in which people learn a language other than their mother tongue, inside or outside a classroom.

8. 2.2 Acquisition & learning A distinction proposed by the American SLA scholar Stephen Krashen.

9. Acquisition --- the gradual and subconscious development of ability in the first language by using it naturally in daily communicative situations.

10. Learning--- a conscious process of accumulating knowledge of a second language usually obtained in school settings.

11. A second language, Krashen argues, is more commonly learned but to some degree may also be acquired, depending on the environmental setting and the input received by the L2 learner.

12. 2.3 Transfer and interference The influence of mother tongue upon the second language is known as TRANSFER. Transfer can be positive or negative. When structures of the two languages are similar,we can get positive transfer of facilitation;when the two languages are different in structures,negative transfer of inference occurs and result in errors.

13. Negative transfer, more commonly known as interference, was once believed to be the major source of difficulties and errors made by L2 learners.

14. 2.4 Contrastive analysis (CA) It is a types of data analysis employed in language acquisition research. --- It is to systematically compare native languages and target languages to find the interference of native language when acquiring target languages

15. It is believed that differences between the native language and the target language would pose difficulties in second/foreign language learning and teaching. e.g. * To touch the society. * There are more people come to study in the states. * I wait you at the gate of the school.

16. Contrastive analysis hypothesis A hypothesis which holds that where two languages are similar, positive transfer would occur; where they are different, negative transfer, or interference, would result.

17. Shortcomings of CA The CA was soon found problematic, for many of the predictions of the target language learning difficulty formulated on the basis of contrastive analysis turned out to be either uninformative or inaccurate. Predicted errors did not materialize in learner language while errors did show up that the contrastive analysis had not predicted. “differences” and “difficulties” are not identical concepts.

18. 2.5 Error analysis (EA) The contrastive approach to learners’ errors has shed new light on people’s attitudes: the errors are significant in telling the teacher what needs to be taught, in telling the researcher how learning proceeds and those errors are a means whereby learners test their hypotheses about the language to be learnt.

19. 2.5.1 Two main sorts of errors: Interlingual errors Intralingual errors

20. A. Interlingual errors Interlingual errors mainly result from cross-linguistic interference at different levels such as phonological, lexical, grammatical or discoursal etc. For example: Shortening of long vowels: sheep  ship, meet  mit

21. B. Intralingual errors ---The intralingual errors mainly from faulty or partial learning of the target language, independent of the native language. Two types of errors have been well exploited: overgeneralization & cross-association

22. Overgeneralization Overgeneralization ---- the use of previously available strategies in new situations. Walked, watched, washed… *rided, *goed, *doed, *eated… Jane advise me to give up smoking. Jane told me to give up smoking. *Jane hoped me to give up smoking. *Jane suggested me to give up smoking.

23. Cross-association Cross-association refers to the phenomenon that the close association of the two similar words often leads to confusion, e.g. Other/another, much/many, stalagmite/stalactite… It may also occurs at all levels of language from phonological to syntactic, e.g. The coffee is too hot to drink. *The apricot is too sour to eat it.

24. 2.5.2 Error & mistake ERROR is the grammatically incorrect form, and always goes with language learners. MISTAKE appears when the language is correct grammatically but improper in a communication context, and also occurs to native speakers.

25. 2.6. Interlanguage and fossilization Interlanguage --- the type of language constructed by second or foreign language learners who are still in the process of learning a language, eg. The language system between the target language and the learner’s native language.

26. It represents the learner’s transitional competence moving along a learning continuum stretching from one’s L1 competence to the target language competence.

27. Fossil --- a kind of stone turned from a buried piece of soft wood because of the steady drip of calcium-containing water

28. fossilization --- the rigidity of mind and habit induced by the steady drip of wrong and harmful methods in learners Or: a process occurring from time to time in which incorrect linguistic features become a permanent part of the way a person speaks or writes a language.

29. 2.7 Krashen’s Input Hypothesis Krashen makes a distinction between acquisition & learning. He puts forward that learners advance their language learning gradually by receiving comprehensible input. He defined comprehensible input as “i + 1” : “i” represents learners’ current state of knowledge, the next stage is an “i + 1”.

30. 3. Individual differences in SLA Language aptitude Motivation Learning strategies Age of acquisition Personal traits

31. 3.1 Language aptitude Language aptitude refers to a natural ability for learning a second language. It is believed to be related to a learner’s general intelligence. John Carroll identified some components of language aptitude: Phonemic coding ability Grammatical sensitivity Inductive language learning ability Rote learning ability

32. 3.2 Motivation Motivation can be defined as the learner’s attitudes and affective state or learning drive. It has a strong impact on his efforts in learning a second language. Generally four types of motivations have been identified:

33. Instrumental motivation Integrative motivation Resultative motivation Intrinsic motivation

34. 3.3 personality traits In terms of communicative ability rather than grammatical accuracy or knowledge of grammatical rules, the personality traits such as extroversion, talkative, self- esteem, self-confidence can be found in successful second language learners.

35. 3.4 Learning strategies Learning strategies are learners’ conscious, goal-oriented and problem-solving based efforts to achieve learning efficiency.

36. Cognitive strategies ---- analyzing,synthesis and internalizing what has been learned. Metacognitive strategies ---- planning, monitoring and evaluating one’s learning. Affect/social strategies ---- the ways learners interact with other speakers.

37. 4. Implications on second language acquisition