Prepared By:

Edward Valcárcel Melgarejo

Docente de Educación en IdiomasUniversidad Nacional de San

Agustín de Arequipa

*Second Language

Acquisition

OBJECTIVES

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the internal

factors influencing the learning process.

2. Integrate knowledge of second language

acquisition research and diverse cognitive

style.

* CHAPTER 1

KEY ISSUES IN SECOND

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

*THEMATIC NUCLEUS 1

PREVIOUS CONCEPTS

*What is Second

Language Acquisition?

SLA as a Uniforms Phenomenon

SLA is not a uniform and predictablephenomenon. There is no single way inwhich learners acquire a knowledge of asecond language. SLA is the product ofmany factors pertaining to the learner on theone hand and the learning situation on theother.

*SECOND LANGAGE ACQUISITION

VS FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Second language acquisition stands in contrast to first language acquisition. It is the study of how learners learn an additional language after they have acquired their mother tongue. The study of language leaner language began with the study of first language (L1) acquisition.

* 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.

THE CENTRALITY OF SYNTAX AND MORPHOLOGY

COMPETENCE VERSUS PERFORMANCE

A distinction is often made beween competenceand performance in the study of language.According to Chomsky competence consists ofthe mental representation of linguistic ruleswhich constitute the speaker-hearer’sinternalized grammar. Performance consists ofcomprehension and production of language.

*Competence Vs. Performance

According to Chomsky (1965), competence consistsof mental representations of linguistic rules thatconstitute the speaker-hearer’s internal grammar.

This internal grammar is implicit rather than explicit.It is evident in the intuitions, which the speaker-hearerhas about the grammaticality of sentences.

Performance consists of the use of this grammar inthe comprehension and production of the language.

*THE ROLE OF THE FIRST

LANGUAGE

*Language transfer

*L1 helps L2

*L1 makes difficult

*THE GIRL SMART

*THE SMART GIRL

*

Contrastive analysis is a way of comparing languages

in order to determine potential errors.

The ultimate goal of contrastive analysis is to predict

areas that will be either easy or difficult for learners.

*INDIVIDUAL LEARNER

DIFFERENCES

*AGE: Do adults learn a L2 in the same way as

children.

*APTITUDE

*MOTIVATION: Intrinsec and Extrinsec.

*PERSONALITY AND COGNITIVE STYLE: What kind

of personality is most successful in learning a

L2? What role does inhibition play in SLA?

*THE ROLE OF THE INPUT

*LEARNER PROCESSES

*Cognitive Strategies.

*Universal Grammar

*THE ROLE OF FORMAL

INSTRUCTION

*The effect that instruction has on the route of

learning and

*The effect that it has on rate of learning.

Order of grammar.

Does formal instruction help learners to perform in

all types of situations? Why?

*Accelerating the whole process.

*Learn more rapidly.

*THEMATIC NUCLEUS 2

THE ROLE OF THE FIRST

LANGUAGE

*The Role of the First Language

Introduction

Foreing accents in SLA.

Transferring L1 features into the L2.

Language

Transfer

*Behaviourist Learning

Theory

*Habits: Different stimuli produced

differente responses from a learner.

*What is a habit?

*The stimulus elicits the response.

*Imitation and reinforcement.

*Behaviourist Learning

Theory

*Errors: old habits get in the way

of learning new habits.

*Interference was the result of

what was called proactive

inhibition.

*Contrastive Analysis

Hypothesis: The Psychological

Aspect

There are two positions that developed with regard to CA: (1) strong (2) weak.

The strong version (predictive) maintained that all L2 errors can be predicted.

The weak version (explanatory) maintained that a contrastive analysis can be used to identify which errors are the result of interference..

*Contrastive Analysis

Hypothesis: The Linguistic

Aspect

Structuralist linguists: description of the differentcategories that make up the patterns of alanguage.

Procedure:

oDescription of the two languages.

oSelection of items or areas for comparison

oComparison.

oPrediction of areas which can cause errors.

*Criticisms of the

Contrastive Analysis

Hypothesis

*The ability of Contrastive Analysis to

predict errors.

*Contrastive Analysis doesn’t have

anything relevant to offer to language

teaching.

*Empirical Research and

the predictability of

errors

*Four types of errors.

1. Interference-like errors: reflect native language

structure.

2. First language developmental errors: are found in first

language acquisition data.

3. Ambigous errors: can not be categorized.

4. Unique errors.

*Theoretical

Criticisms

*The attack on behaviourist accounts

of language learning which was given

impetus by chomsky`s (1959) review

of Skinner`s Verbal Behaviour;

*Practical Criticisms

*Is Contrastive Analysis useful for the

teacher?

*The final set of criticisms concerns

whether Contrastive Analysis is of any

practical worth to language teachers.