THE UNIVERSAL HYPOTHESIS

(Chomsky 1976, 1986)

Universal Grammar -UG- • All languages have certain basic structures in common, these are called universals.

• Grammar offer a certain limited number of possibilitiesE.g. Word order

• 75% of the world’s languages use this order

SUBJECT• Ella• She

VERB

• come• eats

OBJECT

• frutas• fruits

L1

L2

LANGUAGE IS AN INNATE FACULTY We are born with a set of rules about language in our heads.

• It’s wired into the brains

• UG: the system of principles, conditions, and rules that are elements or properties of all human languages

• UG: is a theory of knowledge: its concern is with the internal structure of the human mind.

• The nature of this knowledge is inseparable from the problem of how it is acquired.

The studio of linguistic universal has contributed to explanation of SLA in two ways.

• First: linguistic properties of the Target Language (TL), the language to be learned. May vary according to the degree of effort needed to acquire them. The complexity of these language are determinate by their condition as universal.

• Second: linguistic language can be used to predict which differences lead to difficulty and which ones do not.

La manzana grande

The big Apple

SWAIN’S OUTPUT THESIS

The comprehensible thesis, developed by Merrill Swain, states that learning takes place when encountering a

‘gap’ in the linguistic knowledge of the L2.

Swain defines three functions of output:

The noticing function The hypothesis-testing function The Metalinguistic function

• The noticing function: learners encounter gaps between what they want to stay and what they are able to say and so they notice what they do not know or only know partially in this language.

• The hypothesis-testing function: when a learner says something in the target language. By uttering something, the learner test a hypothesis and receives feedback from an interlocutor. This feedback enables him, if necessary. To reprocess his hypothesis.

E.g.:She decided to leave home and now she must paddle her own ________ .

E.g.:She decided to leave home and now she must paddle her own ________ .

• The Metalinguistic function: learners reflect on the language they learn and hereby the output enables them to control and internalize linguistic knowledge.