L2 development

Adapted from Franceschina (2004)

What do we study when we study (L2) development?

Developmental sequences Mechanisms that cause these sequences

(transition theories)

What are the sequences of L2 development?

NB: It is important to separate rate and route of development when analysing developmental data.

Example: Morpheme order studies

(Dulay and Burt, 1973, 1974; Bailey, Madden and Krashen, 1974)

Dulay and Burt (1974)

The acquisition of question formationPienemann, Johnston and Brindley (1988)

Example: 1. A dog?

2. The boys throw the shoes?3. What the dog are playing? Is the picture has two planets on top?4. Where is the sun?5. How do you say [proche]?6. It’s better, isn’t it? Why can’t you go? Can you tell me what the date is today?

The acquisition of negationSchumann (1979) Example:

1. No bicycle.No have any sand.I no like it.

2. He don’t like it.I don’t can sing.

3. You can not go there.He was not happy.She don’t like rice.

4. It doesn’t work.We didn’t have supper.I didn’t went there.

L1 vs. L2 developmental sequences

Some similarities and some differences

Example:Dulay, Burt and Krashen (1982), Meisel, Clahsen and Pienemann (1981)

Dulay and Burt (1974)

Adult vs child L2 development

They are quite similar, although some differences have been found in rate and route of development of different age groups

Example: Compare study by Dulay and Burt (1974) to that of Bailey Madden and Krashen (1974)

*Dulay and Burt (1974)** Bailey et al. (1974)

L1 effects on L2 development

Rate of developmentDulay and Burt (1974) on grammatical morphemesSchumann (1982) on negationGilbert and Orlovic (1975) on articlesKeller-Cohen (1978) on yes/no questions

Route of developmentZobl (1982) on articles

Context of acquisition effects on L2 development

Virtually no effects in terms of route of developmentDulay and Burt (1973) Pienemann (1989)Pica (1983) Perkins and Larsen-Freeman (1975)

Some effects of instruction on rate of acquisitionPienemann (1989)

Dulay and Burt (1973)

Methodological issues

How should one measure language development?

- Emergence criterion

- Mastery (accuracy) criterion

Explaining developmental sequences

According to Gregg (1996), developmental sequences can be explained as:

– Environmental– Reductive– Teleological– Psycholinguistic

Theories of L2 development

(a.k.a. transition theories)

1. General learning principles (non-modular)

2. Modular learning mechanisms

1. Non-modular theories

Based on general learning principles

Example:- hypothesis testing- automaticity- inferencing, etc.

LA= acquisition of a complex cognitive skill

2. Modular theories

UG-basedExample:Subset Principle(Wexler and Manzini, 1987)

OtherExample:Communicative Competence Theory (e.g., Canale and Swain, 1980; Bachman, 1990)

Subset Principle(e.g., Wexler and Manzini, 1987)

Children select initially the smallest language compatible with the input, i.e., they do not select a language which go beyond the available input

input of additional positive evidence larger grammars

Communicative language competence(e.g., Canale and Swain, 1980; Bachman, 1990)

Language Competence

Organizational Competence

Pragmatic Competence

Grammatical Competence

Textual Competence Illocutionary Competence Sociolinguistic Competence

Vocabulary Morphology Syntax Phonology/Graph Cohesion Rhetorical organization

Ideat. functions

Manip. functions

Heur. functions

Imag.fucntions Sensitivity to

dialectal variety

Sensitivity to register

Sensitivity to nat.

Cultural refs. and

figs. of speech

C o m p o ne n ts o f C o m m u n ica tive C o m p e ten ce in C o m m u n ica tive La n g ua g e U se

L a ng u ag e C om pe ten ce(K o w le d ge o f th e w o rld )

K o w led g e S tru ctu res(K no w led ge o f la ng u ag e)

S tra te g ic C o m p e te n ce

C o nte n te xt o f S itu a t ion

P s ych op h ys io lo g ica l M e cha n ism s

Reading

Hawkins, R. 2001: Second Language Syntax. A generative introduction. Oxford: Blackwell. (Chapter 2)