Introduction: describing and explaining L2 acquisition

Introduction: describing and explaining L2 acquisition

By:Bitha Pracandra R.S

2201410029Rombel 7

What is second language acquisition?

Second Language Acquisition is the study of the way people learn a language other than their mother tongue, inside or outside of a classroom.

What are the goals of SLA?

• The description of L2 acquisition.

• Identifying the external and internal factors that account for why learners acquire an L2 in the way they do.


• External factor : – Social milieu in which learning takes place.

Different motivation will occur when people experience hospitality and cruelty.

– The input that learners receive

The samples of language to which a learner is exposed.


• Internal factors :– Learners posses cognitive mechanism which

enable them to extract information.

– Learners posses general knowledge about the world.

– Learners posses communication strategies.

– Learner are equipped with knowledge of how language in general works.


• To describe how L2 proceeds and to explain about the process of developing SLA and why some learners seem to be better at it than others.

Case study of L2 learners

• A case study is a detailed study of a learner’s acquisition of an L2.

• It is involving the collection of samples of the learner’s speech or writing over a period of time.


Case study example:

•A case study of an adult learner

An adult who moved to another country with different language.

•A case study of two child learners

Two children who almost complete beginners in English, with different behavior.


• The results of the example case studies :– They raise a number of important

methodological issues relating to S2 acquisition should be studied.

– They raise issues relating to the description of learner language.

– They point to some of the problems researcher experience in trying to explain L2 acquisition.

Methodological issues

• Language is such complex phenomenon that researchers have generally preferred to focus on some specific aspect rather than on the whole of it.

• A learner has acquired a particular feature of target language.

• Measure whether acquisition has taken place concern learners’ overuse of linguistic forms.

Issues in the description of learner language

• Learners make errors of different kinds.

example:

– Failed to use some grammatical features at all and used the other incorrectly.

– Sociolinguistics error. They failed to use requests in a socially appropriate manner.

• L2 learners acquire a large number of formulaic chunks.

• An important issue in SLA is the role that these formula play, not just enhancing learners’ performance but also their acquisition in an L2.



• Learners do acquire aspects of an L2 systematically and, moreover, that they follow particular developmental routes, with some features being acquired before others.

Issues in the explanation of L2 acquisition

• L2 acquisition involves different kinds of learning.

• Learners must engage in both item learning and system learning and how the two interrelate.


• The systematic nature of L2 acquisition requires explanation.

Possible explanations:– Learners follow a particular developmental

pattern because their mental faculties are structured in such a way that is the way they have to learn.

– The importance of external as opposed to internal factors.


• None of the learners in the two case studies reached a native-speaker level of performance.

The possibility:– They needed more time to learn – L2 learners stop learning– They are only motivated to learn L2 to the extent that they

are able to satisfy their communicative needs– The learners did not wish to belong to the community of

native speaker– It is only possible to acquire native-speaker competence if

learners start very young

THANK YOU. . .

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Introduction: describing and explaining L2 acquisition