Language Acquisition

• The Behaviourist Perspective explained language learning in terms of imitation, practice, reinforcement and habit formation
• The influence of the behaviourist perspective in second/foreign language learning was noticed in the development of widely used audiolingual teaching materials and in teacher training
• Classroom activities emphasized mimicry and memorization, and students learned dialogues and sentence patterns by heart
• Because language development was viewed as the formation of habits, it was assumed that a person learning a second language would start off with the habits formed in the first language and that these habits would interfere with the new ones needed for the second language
• By the end of 1970, both the contrastive analysis hypothesis and behaviourism were rejected
• Universal Grammar (UG)


  Innate knowledge of the principles of language that permits all children to acquire the language of their environment during a critical period of their development
• UG does not offer a good explanation for second language acquisition, especially by learners who have passed the critical period


  SLA has to be explained by some other theories
• UG is available to second language learners as well as to first language learners

  This explains how second language learners can know more about the L2 than they have learned or been exposed to
• UG may be present and available to second language learners

  But its exact nature has been altered by the acquisition of other languages
• Formal instruction or the availability of feedback


  May change only superficial aspects of language performance and do not affect the underlying systematic knowledge of the new language
• Formal instruction or the availability of feedback


  May be needed for second language learners to acquire many grammatical features of the new language
• Researchers who study second language acquisition from a UG perspective

  • Are usually interested in the language competence of advanced learners rather than beginning learners
  • Are interested in investigating the language competence of L2 learners as opposed to the language competence of native speakers
• Krashen's 'Monitor Model'


  A model of second language acquisition proposed in 1982, described in terms of five hypotheses
• Acquisition/learning hypothesis


  L2 learners 'acquire' the language as they are exposed to samples of meaningful language, while they 'learn' through conscious attention to form and rule learning
• Monitor hypothesis


  Learners use what they 'acquired' and 'learned' as an editor or 'monitor' to make minor changes in their language production
• Natural order hypothesis


  SLA has developmental sequences, where the language rules that are easiest to state are not necessarily the first to be acquired
• Comprehensible input hypothesis


  Acquisition occurs when one is exposed to language that is comprehensible and just beyond their current level of proficiency (i + 1)
• Affective filter hypothesis


  Learners' feelings of anxiety or negative attitudes can act as a barrier that prevents them from acquiring language even when appropriate input is available
• Classroom research has confirmed that students can make a great deal of progress through exposure to comprehensible input without direct instruction, but some students may reach a point where they fail to make further progress on some features of the L2 unless they have access to guided instruction
• Cognitive perspective on SLA

  First and second language acquisition are seen to use the same processes of perception, memory, categorization, and generalization, with the difference lying in the circumstances of learning and the learners' prior knowledge
• Information processing model


  SLA is the building up of knowledge that can eventually be called on automatically for speaking and understanding, starting with declarative knowledge and becoming procedural and then automatic with practice
• Aspects of automaticity in language processing

  • Fluent speakers use predictable patterns and strings of words that typically occur together
  • Proficient language users can immediately retrieve word meanings and focus on overall meaning rather than individual words and relationships
• Usage-based learning


  Learners develop a stronger network of associations between linguistic features and the contexts in which they occur, so that the presence of one feature activates the others
• Proficient language users


  Give their full attention to the overall meaning of a text or conversation
• Less proficient learners


  Use more of their attention on processing the meaning of each word and the relationship between them
• Information processing model


  Suggests that there is a limit to the amount of focused mental activity we can engage in at one time
• Usage-based learning


  Learners develop a stronger and stronger network of associations or connections between linguistic features as well as language features and the contexts in which they occur
• Usage-based learning


  • Learners might get subject-verb agreement correct, not because they know a rule but because they have heard examples such as 'I say' and 'he says' so often that each subject pronoun activates the correct verb form
• Nick Ellis (2003,2005) suggested that language is at least partly learned in units larger than single words, and sentences and phrases are not usually put together one word at a time
• Usage-based learning


  • Frequency that learners encounter specific linguistic features
  • Frequency with which language features occur together
  • The context in which they occur
• Competition model


  For both first and second language acquisition, the focus is not only on language form but on language meaning and language use
• Competition model


  • English uses word order as the most common indicator of the relationships between sentence components. However, a two- and three years old English speaker can use cues of 'animacy' and their knowledge of the way things work in the world to interpret a sentence as 'Box push boy'. But when he/she gets older, they will use the cue of word-order because it is stronger than animacy for English speakers
• According to the competition model, second language acquisition requires that learners learn the relative importance of the different cues appropriate in the language they are learning
• First and second languages

  Are acquired and represented in the same areas of the brain
• Brain processing


  Second language input is processed differently from first language input
• Recent studies show activation in different locations in both hemispheres of the brain during language processing. This is true for both L1 and L2. However, differences such as the learner's age and language proficiency show changes in the activation in the brain
• As an L2 learner's proficiency increases, the brain activity looks more like that of the L1 processing
• The limited research that has been conducted to test the connection between second language learning and the brain has produced mix findings
• Interaction hypothesis


  Conversational interaction is essential for second language acquisition
• Noticing hypothesis


  Language is leaned when it is noticed