Theories of Second language Acquisition

Difference between Acquisition and Learning

Language acquisition is a natural process for any native to acquire his native vernacular language.

Language learning is a structured system for anyone to learn a language.

What is SecondLanguage Acquisition?

In second language learning, language plays an institutional and social role in the community. It

functions as a recognized means of communication

among members who speak some other language as their native tongue.

In foreign language learning, language plays no major role in the community and is primarily learned in the classroom.

The distinction between second and foreign language learning is what is learned and how it is learned.

What is the Study of Second Language Acquisition?

It is the study of:

how second languages are learned;

how learners create a new language system with limited exposure to a second language;

why most second language learners do not achieve the same degree of proficiency in a second language as they do in their native language; and

why some learners appear to achieve native-like proficiency in more than one language.

EXPLAINING SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNINGDifferent theories have been proposed:1.The behaviorist perspective2.The innatist perspective3.The cognitive/developmental perspective4.The sociocultural perspective

The Behaviorist Perspective•Learning is explained in terms of imitation,

practice, reinforcement, and habit formation•It had a powerful influence on second and

foreign language teaching between the 1940s and the 1970s.

ExampleThe Audiolingual method.•Students memorized dialogues and sentence

patterns by heart.

The audiolingual method

•http://www.saskschools.ca/curr_content/hutt/esl/almstrat.htm

The audiolingual method

The audiolingual method

DiscussionWhat do you think to be the main limitations of behaviorism as a theory of learning?

What’s the role of teachers and students?

Behaviorism• Teacher role: Transmitter of

knowledge/expert source

• Student role: Receive information; demonstrate competence – all students learn the same material

• Types of activities: Lecture, demonstration, seatwork, practice, testing

• Assessment strategies: Written tests, same measures for all students

The Innatist Perspective• It’s mainly concerned with first language

acquisition.• It asserts that humans have access to the

knowledge that is processed innately.•One of its main pioneers is Naom

Chomsky.•He argued that if children learn language

by imitation, why do they say things have never heard before?

The Innatist Perspective

Chomsky’s conclusion: Children’s minds are not blank states to be filled by imitating language they hear in the environment.

Hypothesis: Children are born with a specific innate ability to discover by themselves the rules of language system on the basis of the samples of a natural language they are exposed to.

The Innatist Perspective

Example:Children hear falso starts, incomplete

sentences and slips of tongue. Nonetheless, they learn to distinguish between grammatical and ungrammatical sentences.

The Innatist Perspective

Universal GrammarChomsky even affirmed that babies did not have to

learn rules specific to each language because according to him all languages

follow the same set of rules.

Noam Chomsky made the argument that the human brain contains a limited set of rules for organizing language. In turn, there is an assumption that all languages have a common structural basis. This set of rules is known as universal grammar.

Krashen’s Model

Krashen’s Model•It is one of the models that adopt the innatist

perspective•It was quite influential in the 1970s.•It emphasizes the role of exposure to

comprehensible input in second language acquisition.

•It is based on 5 hypotheses:1. Acquisition/learning hypothesis2. Monitor hypothesis3. The natural order hypothesis4. The input hypothesis5. The affective filter hypothesis

The Sociocultural PerspectiveVygotsky’s theory

The Sociocultural Perspective•Vygotsky’s theory proposes:•Cognitive development, including language

development, arises as a result of social interaction.

•Learning occurs how?When an individual interacts with an interlocutor- within his ZPD ( a situation where the learner is

capable of performing at a higher level because there is support from the interlocutor).

- Focus on input and output in the interaction. - Cognitive development starts from the social

context then become internalized.