Lecture 13 Second Language. According to UNESCO, second language is a language acquired/ learned by a person in addition to his mother tongue.

Lecture 13

Second Language

According to UNESCO, second language is a language acquired/ learned by a person in addition to his mother tongue.

Second Language Acquisition

SLA

Terminology

L1 – first language L2 – second language SL – second language FL – foreign language NL – native language (=L1) TL – target language (=L2) IL – interlanguage

SL vs FL

The broad sense of SL

Any language learned after the learning of L1.

It can be one’s first, second, third, fourth or … non-native language.

Its acquisition can occur in a classroom situation, as well as in more “natural” exposure situations.

The narrow sense of SL

A non-native language learned in the environment where that language is spoken.

E.g. Chinese speakers learning English

in America

Foreign language

A non-native language learned in the environment of one’s native language.

E.g. Chinese speakers learning English in C

hina.

Broadly speaking, SL includes FL

Narrowly speaking, SL differs from FL

This difference is mostly ignored in our course.

First language acquisition unconscious

successful

Second language learning painstaking unsuccessful

Bley-Vroman’s Fundamental DiffereBley-Vroman’s Fundamental Difference Hypothesisnce Hypothesis

Adult foreign language learningAdult foreign language learning

Child language developmentChild language development

Conscious memorization of grammar rulesConscious memorization of grammar rules

General adult skill acquisition General adult skill acquisition

Problem solvingProblem solving

Internally driven growthInternally driven growth

Child L1 acquisition

A process better described as “growth” than “learning”.

Universally successful The knowledge acquired is largely

of an unconscious sort.

Bley-Vroman on SLABley-Vroman on SLA

Lack of successLack of successGeneral failureGeneral failureVariation in success, course, and strategyVariation in success, course, and strategyVariation in goalsVariation in goalsFossilizationFossilizationIndeterminate intuitionsIndeterminate intuitionsImportance of instructionImportance of instructionNative evidenceNative evidenceRole of affective factorsRole of affective factors

The learner’s perspective

Why are some individuals more successful in learning an L2 than other individuals?

Age Aptitude Motivation Attitude Socio-psychological factors

Age

Some facts

Individuals generally do not achieve a native-like accent in a second language unless they are exposed to it at an early age.

Older individuals cannot reasonably hope to ever achieve a native accent in a second language.

Second language learners cannot achieve complete mastery of syntax.

Aptitude

Carroll: “Standard ‘four component’ view of language aptitude”

1. Phonemic coding ability2. Grammatical sensitivity3. Inductive language learning ability 4. Memory and learning

A person who is excellent in one or more of these abilities would seem to be at an advantage in learning a second language Skehen suggested that these be combined into one ability: language analytic ability

Motivation

Gardner:

Integrative motivation: coming from a desire to integrate with the TL community; it is hypothesized to be a better predictor of second language success than instrumental motivation.

Instrumental motivation: coming from the rewards that might come from learning (e.g. learning English in order to be able to study mathematics at an English-speaking university). It is more utilitarian.

Anxiety

Motivation and anxiety

If a learner is not at all anxious, she or he is unlikely to be motivated to make any effort.

High motivation with little subjective hope of achievement increase anxiety.

Anxiety is linked to personality.

The learning perspective

SLA is the study of how learners

create a new language system with only limited exposure to a second language.

No worry for the error

*Do you know where is Mrs. Irving?

A mark of a stage of the development of the learner’s L2.

Corder (1967) Errors are evidence of the state of a

learner’s knowledge of the L2. They are evidence of an underlying

rule-governed system. They are not the product of imperfect

learning. They are not a reflection of faulty

imitation.

Corder: Error vs. mistake Mistakes are akin to slips of the tongue. That

is, they are generally one-time-only events. The speaker who makes a mistake is able to recognize it as a mistake and correct it if necessary.

An error, on the other hand, is systematic. That is, it is likely to occur repeatedly and is not recognized by the learner as an error. The learner in this case has incorporated a particular erroneous form (from the perspective of the TL) into his or her system.

Types of Language Errors

i. Pre-systematic Errors. Random errors made by the learner when he is unable to express himself. These errors are marked by (a) the learner cannot explain why ; (b) he cannot self-correct them.

ii. Systematic Errors. Errors made by the learner systematically showing that he is formulating some incomplete rules. These errors are marked by (a) the learner can explain why; (b) he cannot self-correct them.

iii. Post-systematic Errors. Errors made by the learner when he has not formed the habit of correctly using L2. These errors are marked by (a) the learner can explain why; (b) he can self-correct them.

Errors: interlingual vs. intralingual

Interlingual errors = negative L1 transfer e.g. serve for people (NL: Chinese) Intralingual errors = indicators of the IL st

ages e.g. He comed yesterday. (NL: all)

Interference error Developmental error

Identify the source of errors

L1 Development Convergence from both

Accuracy ≠ acquisition In the first month of a Japanese-speaking child learning English in an English speaking country, she formed questions like:

Do you know? How do you do it? Do you have coffee? Do you want this one?

During her second month of residence, the following questions were uttered by the same child:

What do you doing, this boy? What do you do it, this, froggie? What do you doing? What do you drinking, her?

A Progress

Obviously, the English this small girl acquired in the first month of learning was very limited. Though the questions she made were free of errors, she could only use the second person in them. In the second month she attempted to use third-person in her questions, but she did not know the way to change person. So she changed in her own way – with the third person reference as a tag of the second person question. This self-created error type marks a progress in L2 question acquisition.

The teaching perspective

Input: what learners hear and read

Krashen’s Input Hypothesis: L2 is acquired by receiving comprehensible input

Comprehensible input: the bit of language that contains structures a little bit beyond their current level of competence

‘i+1’ notion: current stage of knowledge as i and the next stage as ‘i+1’

A number of researchers see comprehensible input as a major causative factor in L2 acquisition, and the main task for L2 teachers is to ensure that their students receive comprehensible input.

Output: learners’ speaking and writing Krashen holds that speaking is the result of

acquisition, not its cause; learner production does not contribute directly to acquisition.

Swain argues that input alone is insufficient for acquisition.

Her evidence: Canadian children learning French in immersion schools progressed very slowly without emphasizing output

Swain on comprehensible output

Comprehensible output refers to the need for a learner to be “pushed toward the delivery of a message that is not only conveyed, but that is conveyed precisely, coherently, and appropriately.”

Output “would seem to have a potentially significant role in the development of syntax and morphology.”

The research perspective

S1 S2

creation; hypothesis testing

Definition: Interlanguage is the language produced by a nonnative speaker of a language (i.e., a learner’s output)

Interlanguage

The basic assumption in SLA research

Learners create a language system, known as an interlanguage (IL).

The learners themselves impose structure on the available linguistic data and formulate an internalized system.

The Interlanguage Structural Conformity hypothesis

All universals that are true for primary languages are also true for interlanguages.

The range of the domain of language universals is all human languages, including learner languages.

Peirce: social identity and investment L2 acquisition involves a “struggle” and

“investment”. Learners are not computers who process input data but combatants who battle to assert themselves and investors who expect a good return on their efforts.

Successful learners are those who reflect critically on how they engage with native speakers and who are prepared to challenge the accepted social order by constructing and asserting social identities of their own choice.

Erroneous output and L2 identity Many ungrammatical sentences are

meaningful to the native ears. E.g.

* That woman beautiful is my mother. * I’ll happy if I can get your paper.

Such sentences serve as evidence of the speaker’s L2 identity.

Interlanguage pragmatics

The area of pragmatics is perhaps one of the most difficult areas for learners because they are generally unaware of this aspect of language and may be equally unaware of the negative perceptions that native speakers may have of them as a result of their pragmatic errors.

E.g. NS: I’m really upset about the book because I

needed it to prepare for last week’s class.

NNS: I have nothing to say.

Conversation between an NNS & an NS

I have a favor to ask you. Sure, what can I do for you? You need to write a recommendation for me.

Interlanguage pragmatics, in dealing with how people use language within a social context, must take into consideration not only how language is used (i.e., how grammatical forms are used to express semantic concepts), but also what it is being used for and who it is being used with.

Example

Context: Graduate students addressing a faculty advisor.

Advisor: OK, let’s talk about next semester.

NS: I was thinking of taking syntax. NNS: I will take syntax.

Is UG still awake?

no-access position

direct-access position

indirect-access position

partial-access position

L2 is learned in the same way as any other aspect of knowledge.

L2 learners learn in exactly the same way as L1 learners.

L2 learners have access to UG through what they know of the L1.

Some but not all principles of UG can be accessed directly, i.e.

not via the L1 grammar, during L2 acquisition.

Yuan (1995)

Though both the subject and the object of a sentence can be omitted in Chinese (termed null subject and null object), L1-Chinese learners will scarcely omit the subject of an English sentence. It seems as if their Chinese knowledge of null subject had been totally forgotten.

Evidence

In Chinese we can say: 我曾经见过约翰的女朋友，长得非常漂亮。 But Chinese speaking learners of English o

f different levels never accept: * I once met John’s girlfriend. Was very

beautiful.

Yuan speculated that it was the acquisition of inflection in English that triggered the learners’ unlearning of the L1-Chinese null subject in their IL: Since an inflectional morpheme needed to be checked with the subject, a null subject should not be allowed in an English sentence. Yuan’s discovery indicated that parameter setting could also be triggered in L2 acquisition.

As for null object, Yuan found that Chinese learners were unable to detect its ungrammaticality in English, owing to lack of triggering evidence.

Evidence

Even an advanced learner may fail to see the null-object error in the sentence below.

* John said those students were in the library, but I told him I didn’t find there.

Comparing with its word-for-word translation below, we can see null object is an error of L1 transfer.

约翰说那些学生在图书馆里，但是我告诉他我在那儿没见着。

Yuan’s findings imply that UG, though inaccessible in L1 acquisition after the critical age, still plays a certain part in L2 acquisition.

SLA’s orientations As a discipline, second language acquisiti

on has two orientations. One is to explore the rules and methods of L2 learning and teaching; the other is to study how learners create a new language system （ i.e. IL ） with only limited exposure to a second language. With more and more people learning another language nowadays, SLA becomes one of the most active fields in linguistics.