Comparing L1 and L2 acquisition

SS 2007

Linguistic knowledge

L2 learners know linguistic categories from their

native language:

Units: words, clauses, phrases

Categories: nouns, verbs, pronouns

Sentence types: declarative, interrogative

Cognitive maturity

L2 learners have cognitive capacities such as

analogical reasoning and a theory-of-mind that develop parallel to their linguistic knowledge.

(1) Peter thought Sally didn’t know they would come.

World knowledge

In L1 acquisition, vocabulary learning and the acquisition of new categories cooccur.

In L2 acquisition, learners acquire a new phonetic form for a known category/concept.

Categorical/lexical differences:argue

Unknown categories: Schadenfreude

1. argumentieren2. streiten

Learning a new language involves learning new concepts.

Metalinguistic awareness

Children have no or only little metalinguistic awareness.

L2 learners are able to reflect and to control their

linguistic behavior, providing a prerequisite for

language/grammar teaching.

Learning environment

Most children learn language at home.

L1 acquisition takes place in various contexts: (1)

second language acquisition, (2) foreign language

learning.

Motivation

Children are intrinsically motivated to learn a language.

L2 learners can have many different motivations for

learning another language: …

Modified input

Motherese:

• Special prosodic features: exaggerated stress patterns, exaggerated intonation

• Many repetitions• Many vocatives/attention getters• Many questions (often in place of an evaluative

statement)• Simple sentences and simple grammatical

constructions• Basic vocabulary

Negative evidence

CHILD: Want other one spoon, daddy.FATHER: You mean, you want the other spoon.CHILD: Yes, I want the other spoon.FATHER: Can you say ‘the other spoon’?CHILD: other … one … spoon.FATHER: Say ‘other’.CHILD: Other.FATHER: ‘Spoon’.CHILD: Spoon.FATHER: ‘Other spoon’.CHILD: Other … spoon. Child: Now give me the other one spoon.

Negative evidence

L2 acquisition can involve both positive and negative evidence. Negative evidence plays an important role in language teaching.

Krashen (1982): 1. Language acquisition (in natural environment)2. language learning (usually in class room)

Acquisition

The result of language acquisition … is subconscious. We are generally not consciously aware of the rules of the languages we have acquired. Instead, we have a ‘feel’ for the correctness. Grammatical sentences ‘sound’ right, or ‘feel’ right, and errors feel wrong, even if we do not consciously know what rule was violated.

[Krashen 1982: 10]

Learning

We will use the term ‘learning’ henceforth to refer to conscious knowledge of a second language, knowing the rules, being aware of them, and being able to talk about them. In nontechnical terms, learning is ‘knowing about’ a language, known to most people as ‘grammar’ or ‘rules’. Some synonyms include formal knowledge of a language or explicit meaning.

[Krashen 1982: 10]

Self-consciousness

Children use language ‘naturally’.

L2 learners are often self-conscious when using a second language: They are nervous and insecure, which is reflected in their linguistic performance.

End stage

Children reach full mastery of their native language, but native speakers often stop developing: Their language fossilizes.

• Cognitive explanations: critical period• Pragmatic explanation: There is no need to fully master a

language in order to communicate.• Social explanations: L2 learners are reluctant to fully

identify with the new speech community.

Errors

Both L1 and L2 learners produce errors of omission and errors of commission.

However, only L2 learners produce interference errors. That is, L1 learners only produce developmental errors, while L2 learners produce both interference errors and developmental errors.

Variability

Learner language is highly variable.

Developmental sequences

Grammatical development often involves the same stages in L1 and L2 acquisition (e.g. acquisition of negation, relative clauses)

Formulaic language

Learner language tends to be formulaic. Both L1 and L2 language includes a very high proportion of prefabricated chunks and utterance formulas.

Grammatical development

More car. 1;11

More that. 2;0

More cookie. 2;0

More fish. 2;1

More jump. 2;1

More Peter water. 2;4

Grammatical development

More car. 1;11

More that. 2;0

More cookie. 2;0

More fish. 2;1

More jump. 2;1

More Peter water. 2;4

Grammatical development

Block get-it. 2;3

Bottle get-it. 2;3

Mama get-it. 2;4

Towel get-it. 2;4

Dog get-it. 2;4

Books get-it. 2;5

Grammatical development

Spoon back. 2;2

Tiger back. 2;3

Give back. 2;3

Ball back. 2;3

Want ball back. 2;4

Lexically-specific constructions

More __ .

__ get-it.

__ back.

Lexically-specific constructions

No bed. 1;11

No bread. 2;0

No eat. 2;2

No milk. 2;2

No apple juice. 2;5

Lexically-specific constructions

Clock on there. 2;2

Up on there. 2;2

Hot in there. 2;2

Milk in there. 2;4

Water in there 2;5

Lexically-specific constructions

All broke. 2;0All buttened. 2;3All clean. 2;4All done. 2;4All gone milk. 2;2All gone shoe. 2;2All gone juice. 2;2All gone bear. 2;3

Lexically-specific constructions

Dat Daddy. 2;0

Dat’s Weezer. 2;0

Dat my chair. 2;1

Dat’s him. 2;1

Dat’s a paper too. 2;4

That’s too little for me. 2;9

Lexically-specific constructions

Rote

learning Grammatical

development

Item-specific

constructions

Lexical development

• People daddy, mommy, baby• Animals dog, kitty, bird, duck• Body parts eye, nose, ear• Food banana, juice, apple• Toys ball, balloon, book• Cloths shoe, sock, hat• Household objects bottle, keys, bath, spoon• Routines bye, hi, uh oh, night-night, no• Activities up, down, back• Sound imitating words woof, moo, ouch, baa baa, yum• Deictics that

Lexical development

1;2 – 1;3 First words

2;0 100-600 words

9-10 words a day

6;0 14,000 words

18;0 50,000 words

Vocabulary spurt

Symbolic nature of language