Question and Answer

Questions :

   1.       What is second language acquisition?

   2.       What is the difference between ‘second’ and ‘foreign’ language?

   3.       What are the goals of SLA?

   4.       Give an example of a ‘naturalistic’ learner. Why?

   5.       What is the difference between ‘mistakes’ and ‘errors’?

   6.       Explain and give one example of ‘overgeneralization’!

  7.       Explain two learning theories: Behaviorist and Mentalist. What are the implications of these learning theories for language teachers?

   8.       Consider the following data:

A : I like your shoes (expressing compliments)

B : Thank you

How can you explain the B’s response in terms of the acquisition of discourse rules?

Answers :

   1.       A second language is a language learned by a person after his or her native language, especially as a resident of an area where it is in general use. And then, language acquisition is a natural, unconscious progression or development of language. It is a process that occurs through language use in ordinary conversation and is the typical progression by which infants and young children first learn to talk. So, Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is a process by which people learn a language after his or her native language, especially as a resident of an area where it is in general use, inside or outside of a classroom.

   2.       A second language is a language that is learned after one has already learned one language. It is often learned for business purposes because of the second language's dominance in important affairs. For example, many people learn English because of how many important affairs involve the United States. A foreign language is a language that is from a country other than one's native country. Foreign languages are usually learned for the sake of learning about the culture and people who speak it. For example, some people learn ancient Greek for a deeper understanding of the early philosophers from reading their works in their original language. In short, a second language is a language you learn that is not the language you normally speak. For example, if you grow up speaking only English and you learn Spanish later in life, your second language is Spanish. A foreign language is a language you cannot speak.

   3.       One of the goals of SLA is the description of L2 acquisition. Another is explanation; identifying the external and internal factors that account for why learners acquire an L2 in the way they do. One of the external factors is the social milieu in which learning takes place. Social conditions influence the opportunities that learner have to hear and speak the language and the attitudes that they develop towards it. Another external factor is the input that learners receive, that is, the samples of language to which a learner is exposed. A final set of internal factors explain why learners vary in the rate they learn an L2 and how successful they ultimately are. The goals of SLA are to describe how L2 acquisition proceeds and to explain this process and why some learners seem to be better at it than others.

  4.       Naturalistic learner is someone who learns the language at the same time as learning to communicate in it. For example a native speaker from Japanese who has little formal instruction in English, he would visit Hawaii for his business. In connection with his work, he had regular opportunities to use English.

   5.       A mistake is based on knowledge that the students have, but haven't applied properly. An 'error' is a deviation from accuracy or correctness. A 'mistake' is an error caused by a fault: the fault being misjudgment, carelessness, or forgetfulness. The first time it would be an error. The second time it would be a mistake since we should have known better. Error is a more formal word and has various technical meanings.

   6.       the process of extending the application of a rule to items that are excluded from it in the language norm, as when a child uses the regular past tense verb ending -ed  of forms like I walked  to produce forms like *I goed  or *I rided.

   7.       Behaviorism and mentalism are two theories that involve the mind, but one is based on empirical observation and the other is based on pure belief. Behaviorism is a topic that you learn about in a psychology course, a theory that behavior is in response to conditioning without regard to feelings, and mentalism, a theory based on mental perception and thought processes, can be learned through experience or through an apprenticeship with an experienced mentalist. Behaviorism is a theory that is based around the study of behaviors in humans and animals in response to negative or positive stimulation. One of the most well-known studies in behaviorism is the study conducted by Ivan Pavlov. He observed that, over time, a dog would begin to salivate after hearing a bell ring because the dog associated it with food being placed in front of it. This is an aspect of behaviorism known as classical conditioning, in which the bell ringing, which is a conditioned stimulus, caused a reaction in the dog because of the food, an unconditioned stimulus.

   8.       There are rules or, at least, regularities in the ways in which native speakers hold conversations. In American English, for example, compliment responses are usually quite elaborate, involving some attempt on the part of the speaker to play down the compliment by making some unfavourable comment. For example :

A : I like your sweater.

B : It’s so old. My sister bought it for me in Italy some time ago.

However, L2 learners behave differently. Sometimes they fail to respond to a compliment at all. At other times they produce bare responses {for example, ‘Thank you’}.

References :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error

http://www.quora.com/English-language/What-is-the-difference-between-a-mistake-and-an-error

Ellis. R. (1986). Understanding second language acquisition. Oxford University Press

http://www.unc.edu/~gerfen/Ling30Sp2002/acquisition.html

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/overgeneralization

http://www.ehow.com/info_8378971_difference-between-behaviourism-mentalism.html

Instruction and L2 Acquisition

One of the goals of SLA is to improve language teaching. To this end some researchers have studied what impact teaching has on L2 learning. In this chapter we will consider three branches of this research. The first concerns whether teaching learners grammar has any effect on their interlanguage development. The second draws on the research into individual learner differences. The third branch looks at strategy training.

    1.       Form-focused Instruction

Traditionally, language pedagogy has emphasized form-focused instruction. The Grammar Translation Method and the Audiolingual Method both involve attempts to teach learners grammar, differing only in how this is to be accomplished. More recently, however, language pedagogy has emphasized the need to provide learners with real communicative experiences. Communicative Language Teaching is premised on the assumption that learners do not need to be taught grammar before they can communicate but will acquire it naturally as part of the process of learning to communicate. This brief review of the pedagogical background suggests that there are two key questions : (1) Does form-focused instruction work (i.e. do learners learn what they have been taught)? and, assuming a positive answer to (1), (2) What kind of form-focused instructionworks best?

a.       Does form-focused instruction work

It is not possible to teach learners all the rules of the grammar of a language. This is a distinct possibility given that some grammatical structures seem to be implicated with each other. An intriguing possibility, therefore, is that if learners can discover that the target language permits a marked function they will be able to generalize this knowledge to the unmarked functions. Teaching learners a relatively marked function, such as indirect object, does appear to trigger acquisition of the unmarked direct object and subject functions. However, it is not clear if such effects are durable nor is it clear whether this trigering effect applies to other grammatical structures.

b.      What kind of form-focused instruction work best?

To illustrate this we will consider a number of options in form-focused instruction. The first concerns the distinction between input-based and production-based practice. Some theories of SLA see interlanguage as driven by input rather than output. An interesting question – from both a pedagogical and a theoretical standpoint – is whether instruction that emphasizes input-processing works better than instruction that emphasizes output production.

 

The second issue, concerns consciousness-raising. This term refers to attempts to make learners aware of the existence of specific linguistic features in the target language. One way in which this can be done is by supplying the learner with positive evidence.

    2.       Learner-instruction Matching

A distinct possibility, however, is that the same instructional option is not equally effective for all L2 learners. Individual differences to do with such factors as learning style and language aptitude are likely to influence which options work best. Learners vary in the particular types of ability they are strong in. Some learners are good at segmenting sounds in the speech they hear but are less effective at identifying the grammatical functions of words in sentences. Other learners are the opposite. Learners with differing kinds of ability may be able to achieve similar levels of success providing that the type of instructions enables them to maximize their strengths. There is some evidence to suggest that this is the case.

    3.       Strategy Training

Teaching learners specific grammatical structures constitutes an attempt to intervene directly in interlanguage develpment. An alternative approach is to intervene more indirectly by identifying strategies that are likely to promote acquisition and providing training in them.

The idea of strategy training is attractive because it provides a way of helping learners to become autonomous (i.e. of enabling them to take responsibility for their own learning). The main problem is that not enough is known about which strategies and which combination of strategies work best for L2 acquisition.

 

Individual Differences in L2 Acquisition

 

    1.       Language aptitude

It has been suggested that people differ in the extent to which they possess a natural ability for learning an L2. This ability, known as language aptitude, is believed to be in part related to general intelligence but also to be in part distinct.

Eaely work by John Carroll led to the identification of a number of components of language aptitude. These are :

a.   Phonemic coding ability, i.e. the ability to identify the sounds of a foreign language so that they can be remembered later.

b.  Grammatical sensitivity, i.e. the ability to recognize the grammatical functions of words in sentences (for example, the subject and object of a sentence).

c.     Inductive language learning ability, i.e. the ability to identify patterns of correspondence and relations between form and meaning (for example, to recognize that in English ‘to’ can denote direction and ‘at’ location).

d.     Rote learning ability, i.e. the ability to form and remember associations between stimuli. This is believed to be important in vocabulary learning.

    2.       Motivation

Whereas language aptitude concerns the cognitive abilities that underlie successful L2 acquisition, motivation involves the attitudes and affective states that influence the degree of effort that learners make to learn an L2. Various kinds of motivation have been identified: instrumental, integrative, resultative, and intrinsic.

a.       Instrumental motivation

Learners may make efforts to learn an L2 for some functional reason-to pass an examination, to get a better job, or to get a place at university. In some learning contexts, an instrumental motivation seems to be the major force determining success in L2 learning.

b.      Integrative motivation

Some learersmaychoose toleara particular L2 because they are interested in the people and culture represented by the target language group. For example, it is this integrative orientation that underlies the motivation that many English speaking Canadians have for learning French.

c.       Resultative motivation

An assumption of the research reffered to above is that motivation is the cause of L2 achievement. However, it is also possible thatmotivation is the result of learning. That is, learners who experiences success in learning may become more, or in some contexts, less motivated to learn.

d.      Intrinsic motivation

In some learning situations, it may not be learners’ general reasons for learning an L2 that are crucial in determining their motivation. Indeed, it is possible that many learners do not hold distinctattitude, positive or negative, towards the target-language group. Such is probably the case with many foreign language learners.

    3.       Learning strategies

Learning strategies are the particular approaches or techniques that learners employ to try to learn an L2. They can be behaviour (for example, repeating new words aloud to help you remember them) or they can be mental (for example, using the linguistic or situational context to infer the meaning of a new word).they are typically problem-oriented. That is, learners employ learning strategies when they are faced with some problem, such as how to remember a new word. Learners are generally aware of the strategies they use and, when, asked, can explain what they did to try to learn something.

Different kinds of learning strategies have been identified. Cognitive strategies are those that are involved in the analysis, synthesis, or transformation of learning materials. Metacognitive strategies are those involved in planning, monitoring, and evaluating learning. Social/affective strategies concern the ways in which learners choose to interact with other speakers.

The study of learning strategies is of potential value to language teachers. If those strategies that are crucial for learning can be identified, it may prove possible to train students to use them. We will examine this idea in the broader context of a discussion of the role of instruction in L2 acquisition.