1

THEORIES AND FOUNDATIONS OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

MÀSTER DE FORMACIÓ DE PROFESSORAT DE SECUNDÀRIA BATXILLERATS I EOIs

Helena Roquet Pugès Departament de Traducció i Ciències del Llenguatge

Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Oct 2013Grup d’Adquisició de Llengües des de la Catalunya Multilingüe

(ALLENCAM)

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN MULTILINGUAL CATALONIA

OUTLINE

Foreign Language Acquisition paradigms (L2/L3)

Structuralist Behaviorist period

Contrastive analysis

Chomskyan period

Acquisition studies. Interlanguage.

Environmentalist period

Language and communication: THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

LA RESEARCH PARADIGMS

Structuralist/ Behaviorist period Contrastive analysis

Chomskyan period Acquisition studies

Environmentalist period Language and communication

Structuralist/Behaviourist (1)

Skinner. 1957. Verbal behaviour

L learning is a process of habit formation, a stimulus-response-reaction mechanism

Imitation, repetition, memorisation, practise and reinforcement Properties of L1 influence L2 learning: Positive/negative transfer

(interference). Errors are avoided!

CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF ERRORS

Structuralist/Behaviourist (2) Positive contribution:

Attention to oral language (emphasis on spoken L and pronunication)

Identification of factors present in LA Imitation Repetition Memory of strategies

Explanation of some types of errors Transfer errors Language distance (affecting achievement)

Structuralist/Behaviourist (3)Negative contribution:

Attention to form and not to meaning

Learner is a passive recipient

Learning proceeds by analogy

Creativity is not allowed

LA RESEARCH PARADIGMS

Structuralist/ Behaviorist period Contrastive analysis

Chomskyan period Acquisition studies. Interlanguage

Environmentalist period Language and communication

The Chomskyan period (1)

N. Chomsky. 1957. Syntactic Structures. 1959 Review of Verbal Behaviour

Acquisition: Rule-governed behaviour Learning by analysis and not by analogy Creativity in L: “Generate an infinite number of

sentences from a finite number of rules”

The Chomskyan period (2)

*I goed. *I eated it. *She no can go. *She doesn’t wants to go. *I saw these mans. *She cans come.

The Chomskyan period (5)

Research strands:

1. Stages of acquisition and INTERLANGUAGE 2. Variability (Sociolinguistic approaches) 3. Input studies 4. Linguistic universals (Aurora Bel)

INTERLANGUAGE (1)

Each of the stages the learner goes through on his/her way towards mastery of the target language. Each stage is a linguistic system in its own right, with specific features which characterize it, known as interlanguage.

INTERLANGUAGE (2)

It is different from the target language. It has its own internal structure. Errors are systematic. It is permeable to input. At each given moment a particular stage of

acquisition is apparent. Each stage includes forms typical of a previous

stage and forms anticipating the next one (Variability).

Past morpheme interlanguage development

John eat a banana yesterday. (ref. past no morf.)

She went. She broke. She jump. She walked. (sporadic use)

She goed. She eated. John breaked. (overegularitzation)

She went. She walked (correct use)

Legacy of the period

Several models among which Krashen (1983. The Natural Approach) Monitor

model. Based on 5 principles:

Comprehension precedes production

Production emerges in stages (students are not forced to speak before they are ready)

Communicative goals (classroom activities organised by topics, not by grammatical structures)

The instructor must create a good atmosphere

The Natural Approach (1983, Krashen)

5 hypothesis:

1.The Acquisition/Learning hypothesis

1.The Monitor hypothesis

1.The Natural Order hypothesis

§The Input hypothesis (emphasis on what the L learners here before they try to produce L)

§The Affective Filter hypothesis

LA RESEARCH PARADIGMS

Structuralist/ Behaviorist period Contrastive analysis

Chomskyan period Acquisition studies. Interlanguage

Environmentalist period Language and communication

Environmentalist period (1)

Language acquisition:

Complex interaction between the linguistic environment (input) and the learner's internal mechanisms, with neither viewed as primary. Verbal interaction is of crucial importance

Sociolinguistics (2)

Hymes (1971): Different levels of competence involved in language: Structural Discourse Communicative Strategic

ALL USED IN ‘CONTEXT’: Situation where discourse arises

Discourse Analysis (3)

Austin (1975): Speech act theory How language is used to do things

YOU CAN SAY ONE SAME MEANING WITH A VARIETY OF FORMS, AND ONE SAME FORM CAN HAVE A VARIETY OF MEANINGS

LANGUAGE IN USE IS COMMUNICATIVE

Real communication is based on interaction. It gives information which the person engaged in conversation with the speaker does not have.

Real communication is always with a purpose.

Real communication contains an element of unpredictability of choices of words. Only in very restricted formulaic expressions language is predictable.

The Communicative Approach

Language is seen as a tool for communicating

Real language practice in the classroom

To develop communicative competence in real communicative context

To develop communicative strategies through interaction

Language is communicative as well as linguistic:

grammar + pronunciation + social rules

Focus on functions, not on structures

View that students acquire a language when focusing on meaning, not only in form

The role of grammar in the CA

COMMUNICATIVE TEACHING

+ Focus on meaning + Group work interaction + Genuine questions + Opportunities to use lang. creatively + Opportunities to participate in task negotiations of

topics

ENVIRONMENTALISM

Interaction

Negotiation of meaning

‘Noticing’ new forms in the input

Instructional Implications?

Use of authentic materials and tasks

Communicative activities such as games and role plays

Group and pair work

Small number of students interacting

Emphasis on functions and meaning, not forms

Tolerate errors of form

…

CONCLUSION

Learning a second/foreign language it is not completely different from learning a first language, yet it is not

entirely the same…..