Theories of Second Language Acquisition

(SLA)

Created by Dr. Keya Mukherjee. Revised by Dr. Jeffra Flaitz

Opinions about Language Learning

• Languages are learned mainly through imitation.

• People with high IQs are good language learners.

• Most of the mistakes ELLs make are due to interference from their native language.

• Errors should be corrected as soon as they are made in order to prevent the formation of bad habits.

Second Language Acquisition

• What does it mean to know a language?

• What does it mean to know a second language?

• How are second languages learned? In what order? What helps, what doesn't help?

SLA is concerned with how people learn a second language

and with how to provide teachers with a psycholinguistic basis for teaching ELLs.

FIRST Language Acquisition

• What do you know about how children learn their first (i.e. native) language?

• What are the stages of first language acquisition ?

• What is a child doing in each of these stages?

What we now know from research on children’s language development

• Humans are born with Language Acquisition Device, a system that allows us to learn language

• Children go through different language learning stages – babble at 6 mo– 1-word utterances at 1 yr– 2 word utterances at 1.5 yrs– word inflections at 3yrs– complex constructions around 5 years– mature speech around 10 yrs

What we now know from research on children’s language development

• There is a Critical Period during language learning must occur. In other words, there is a correlation between age and eventual success at attainment of language.

• Language ability does not seem to be correlated with intelligence.

Review of Kinds of Linguistic Knowledge• Phonology: knowing the sounds of the language

• Morphology: knowing how to form words

• Lexicon: the mental dictionary of words

• Syntax: knowing about acceptable sentences

• Semantics: knowing word meanings

• Pragmatics: knowing how to use language in social context

• COMPETENCE: knowledge about language rules

• PERFORMANCE: ability to use language to communicate

How do we learn our native language?

• Our biological and innate cognitive ability, that which Noam Chomsky called Language Acquisition Device (LAD), means that humans are specially wired for language, which is our unique human capability.

• Native language competence develops from exposure to language. Children “pick up” the language spoken in their environment.

• We are able to formulate the rules of a language without being explicitly taught.

Look at the following language sample

1. A speaker says: “I eated chicken yesterday.”

Who is likely to make this utterance? • A child learning their L1 (native language)? • A beginning learner of an L2 (second language)? • An L2 speaker for 35 years?

2. The same speaker says: “I ate chicken yesterday.”– The past tense verb now looks like standard English.

3. Hold on! Now the same speaker says: “I goed to visit grandma yesterday.”

-- Given this lack of consistency, what can you say about the speaker’s acquisition of the past tense? 

Look at the following language sample

3. Hold on! Now the same speaker says: “I goed to visit grandma yesterday.”

-- Given this lack of consistency, what can you say about the speaker’s acquisition of the past tense? 

Those who understand the process of language acquisition recognize that the speaker has learned that most past tense verbs end in –ed (e.g. waited).

The speaker also seems to understand that some past tense verbs in English are irregular (e.g. ate).

It appears, however, that the speaker hasn’t yet figured out which verbs have irregular past tense forms.

Why is acquisition representedas a U-shape?

Uate

eated ated

ate

Why study these developmental patterns?

• These developmental patterns are part of what is called INTERLANGUAGE

• Interlanguage data reveal the different stages of acquisition

• Interlanguage describes a learner’s language in its own right

Why Study about SLA? Linguistics:• Suggests that SLA is a component of the broader study

of language, a unique human faculty  

Language Pedagogy• Designing effective teaching methodologies, assessing

reasonable expectations

Language Policy• Bilingual education, language laws

Does SLA mimic First Language Acquisition?

YESandNo

They are more similar than dissimilar.

L1 Acquisition development studies

Brown (1973) and de Villiers and de Villiers (1973) found clear orders and sequences in the acquisition of grammatical morphemes by first language learners.

L2 Acquisition development studies

Dulay and Burt (1973), Bailey, Madden, & Krashen (1974), Larsen-Freeman (1976), and Pica (1983) also found clear orders and sequences in the acquisition of grammatical morphemes by second language learners.

Findings in L1 vs. L2 Acquisition

• Research has demonstrated that children from different language backgrounds (e.g. Spanish or Chinese) learning English as a second language showed similar order of acquisition of word inflections as the order of acquisition manifested by their L1 peers.

• HOWEVER, this finding could not be generalized to adult L2 acquisition of English. In other words, the developmental patterns of SLA among child-aged ELLs is different from those observed in adult-aged ELLs.

Findings in L1 vs. L2 Acquisition

Findings in L1 vs. L2 Acquisition

• The NATIVE language has less of an impact on the order of acquisition than the nature of the TARGET language.

• The natural order CANNOT be changed through instruction.

• If you know the grammatical rule you MAY NOT be able to apply it.

Early L2 development is generally characterized by …

• Silent period: a period of time when the learner does not say anything and understands little

• Formulaic speech: speech is structured, learner produces formula-like utterance (e.g. That’s a …, I want …)

• Structural and semantic simplification: learner produces very simple sentences

These patterns are similar to that of L1 acquisition

Differences between L1 and L2 Acquisition

• External factors: social situation in which learning took place, input and interaction

• Internal factors: age, motivation, style, strategies, language transfer

L1 vs. L2 Acquisition Circumstances FIRST LANGUAGE (L1) SECOND LANGUAGE (L2)Learned at home Learned at school, workLearned by infants and toddlers All ages, oftentimes olderLearned in order to communicate with loved ones

Learned to communicate with loved ones, community, co-workers, or to succeed in US job market

Largely and unconscious process Very conscious process, structured, learned not acquired, stressful, ongoing, use it or lose it, never becomes your L1

Not time pressure to learn Pressure of a timeframe, social and academic

Must learn developmental concepts as well as language

Transfer developmental concepts to L2 for older learners

Some conclusions we can draw

There are many unanswered questions with regard to the similarities and differences between learning a second language and learning one’s first language.

The bottom line seems to be that SLA progresses in a systematic order that is similar to but not completely identical to the orders observed in first language acquisition.

Pause and Think…

The following is a sample of speech from an ELL whose native language is Spanish.

What observations can you make about this ELL’s interlanguage (silent, formulaic, L1 transfer, mistakes)?

1. Lookit, like that.2. Lookit four cars. Hey look, dese.3. Looky chicken.4. Look two cars5. Lookit gas. 6. Lookit four.7. Hey look, lunch money.

Stages of Language Acquisition

• Pre-production (Level 1)“Silent Period”, 500 word receptive vocabulary

• Early production (Level 2)Limited comprehension, one or two-word responses, 1000 word receptive vocabulary

• Speech Emergence (Level 3)Good comprehension, errors in grammar, simple sentences, 3000 word receptive vocab.

• Intermediate Fluency (Level 4) Excellent comprehension, complex and varied sentence structure, 3000+ words

What attempts have been made in the past to explain how humans learn a language?

A few prominent theories were espoused to explain the process of language acquisition. They came from:

B.F. Skinner: The Behaviorist Model

Noam Chomsky: The Innatist Model

Lev Vygotsky: The Interactionist Model (or Socio-cultural Theory)

Historical Perspective Recent History on SLA Research

B.F. Skinner’s Behaviorism

In the 1950’s and 1960’s, the techniques of language teaching were based on a behaviorist view of language.

Language under this view is essentially a system of habits; learning proceeds by producing a response to a stimulus and receiving either positive or negative

reinforcement.

Behaviorist TheoryA psychologist by training, a Harvard researcher, and the chief proponent for the behaviorist model of learning, Skinner believed that …

• language learning is not a unique process. All humans go through the same stages of language acquisition (cooing, babbling, one-word utterances etc).

• language learning is habit formation and is shaped by conditioned behavior. Learning will take place based on the reinforcement received for the response.

• there is no concern for the existence of any “underlying mental processes.”

• a learner’s mind, according to Skinner, is a blank slate.

Behaviorism and Language Learning

• Based on this view, language teaching was seen to involve a lot of pattern repetitions to instill proper habits in the learner.

• For L2 learners, there was also the matter of “unlearning” certain interfering habits from the L1.

Problems with Behaviorist Thinking

• Language isn’t a collection of habits (Chomsky).

• L1 acquisition shows that …

– children do not merely repeat what they have heard; they use language creatively.

– children internalize rules by producing sentences during the different stages of language acquisition.

Innatist TheoryA linguist by training, MIT researcher, and chief proponent of the Innatist Theory of language acquisition, Chomsky believed that …

• language learning is an innate biological ability in all humans; we have a predisposition to language learning thanks to our “language acquisition device” or LAD.

• Language is learned through a complex process of rule generation, hypothesis testing and confirmation.

• Our ability to create infinite sentences from a finite set of rules is given as primary evidence of the LAD.

• Learners play an active role in their language development, even if the role seems effortless and

“un”conscious.

Interaction (Socio-cultural) TheoryBorn in post-Czar Marxist Russia, Vygotsky was both a psychologist and linguist by training and believed that …

• human cognitive development, including language development, is a result of social interaction; it is specifically related to the individual’s culture and is aimed at creating a shared knowledge of the culture.

• Adult scaffolding of knowledge through speech helps the child internalize both language and cultural knowledge.

• Social interaction during scaffolding helps the learner with full development in their zone of proximal development (ZPD).

• Although children use language to learn and think, its main purpose to them is social interaction.

How did these learning theories influence SLA theories and approaches?

1. Behaviorist Theory gave birth to approaches such as the Audiolingual Method (drill and practice)

2. Innatist Theory gave rise to Krashen’s Monitor Model (5 hypotheses)

3. Interactionist (Socio-cultural) Theory resulted in greater emphasis on the “tools of thinking,” practices such as cooperative learning, reciprocal teaching, and scaffolding, and consideration of the learner’s social and cultural experience.

Behaviorism Contrastive Analysis

• Contrastive Analysis (CA) focused on comparing and contrasting languages to find areas of difference.

• Learner errors were accounted for by looking at the differences between languages.

• Differences were to be brought to the attention of the learner; similarities were to be subconsciously transferred from the L1.

• Source of difficulty in learning an L2 was believed to be determined by the differences between the L1 and the L2.

Problems with using the CA approach• In language learning, L2 learners use many of the same

cognitive strategies as L1 learners do.

• Many errors that L2 learners make cannot be traced to the influence of their L1.

• “Transfer of habits” is not consistently found to be the source of learner errors.

• CA cannot explain why a learner could easily produce an erroneous form, struggle with the form, and then produce a correct form.

• The task of enumerating the “differences” between languages is not straightforward; hence it is hard to predict where the problems would arise.

Error Analysis: One of next steps in language pedagogy

• Ultimately, looking at the differences between languages was not a viable approach for articulating language teaching pedagogy. Thus, the next step was to look at learner errors as opposed to mistakes.

• Error Mistake• Mistake: a random performance slip caused by fatigue,

excitement, etc. It can be easily corrected.• Error: a systematic deviation from the rules made by

learners who have not yet mastered the L2. Errors cannot be self-corrected. They reveal the learner’s underlying competence or hypotheses about rules.

• The expectation is that learning the source of the error, would reveal more about interference and developmental patterns.

Error Analysis

• Analyzing L2 learner errors showed that the majority of the them were not the result of L1 interference, but they were rather “internal” errors of the “interlanguage” of the learner.

• Error Analysis (EA) showed that L2 learners have a grammatical system, “interlanguage”, which falls on a point along a continuum somewhere between zero proficiency and perfect proficiency.

• This is a developing system and hence the question of stages of development is raised.

Problems with Error Analysis

Despite the popularity of error analysis as an approach to investigate and understand second language learning …

• sole focus on learners’ errors denied access to the whole picture

• many of the sources of learners’ errors could not be identified

• the EA hypothesis could not account for all the areas in which the learner was having difficulty (e.g. avoiding certain structures)

Interlanguage (IL):another look at learners’ interim language

• A learner’s interlanguage is the intermediate status of the learner’s system between the L1 and the L2

• Interlanguage data shows evidence that the process of L2 development is systematic and rule governed

• Evidence of systematic stages of IL development is seen in the acquisition of interrogatives, negation, word order, and other aspects of syntax.

Interlanguage Development

Stages of Negation

Stage 1: No + X ex: no book; no is happy; no you pay it

Stage 2: No/Don’t + verb ex: I don’t like LA; I don’t swim; I don’t can play good; He don’t like job.

Stage 3: Auxiliary + negation ex: I can’t play; It wasn’t big

Stage 4: Unanalyzed “don’t” and auxiliary + negative ex: I don’t like apples; I can’t play; She doesn’t drink

alcohol; They weren’t at home

Interlanguage Development

Acquisition of Questions

Stage 1: WH + declarative order

ex: What you want, what you eat, where we go

Stage 2: Stage 1 utterances continue; “be” is inverted; few examples of other verb inversions

ex: where is mine’s, where is John’s, what say they

Stage 3: “Be” is correctly used; auxiliary “do” emerges in WH questions; “do” also appears correctly in “Y/N” answers; double marking of tenses

ex: where did he found it; where’s this one belongs

Interlanguage Activity #1What can you conclude about the interlanguage of the ELL (native language is Spanish) whose data is shown below? In particular, how does this speaker produce English negatives? At which stage (of negation acquisition) is the learner? How did you arrive at this conclusion?

1. No write.2. No like it.3. I no like American food.4. No money.5. My brother no go to school yet.6. This may be no good for you.7. I don’t know English.8. No in house now.9. I don’t know word.

Interlanguage Activity #2Examine the following sample of spontaneous speech by a Japanese child, age 5-6 years old. What observations can you make about his development of question formation in English?

Month 1 Month 2Do you know?How do you do it?Do you have milk?Do you want this one?

What do you doing, this boy?What do you do it, this froggie?What do you doing?What do want it?

Implications of Error Analysis for Teachers

• Look at learners’ errors carefully• Don’t be misled by constructions in stage 2• Pay attention to fossilization (pause in learning)• Work with students’ errors

– Discuss, analyze, categorize– Don’t overcorrect– Encourage “self-correction”– Be sensitive – don’t embarrass– Model correct answers– Don’t ignore errors– Motivate and encourage success– Create an atmosphere that will encourage

students to produce in the L2.

Stephen Krashen’s Monitor ModelA linguist from the MIT tradition, Krashen’s theory of SLA, popularly known as the Monitor Model, is based on the following 5 premises:

1. Language acquisition and language learning are two distinctively different processes.

2. In SLA, as with first language acquisition, there is a natural order in the acquisition of grammatical morphemes; however, the order does not need to be the basis of language instruction.

3. In order for SLA to take place, the input the learner receives must be made comprehensible through the use of communicative methodology.

http://www.sdkrashen.com/

Stephen Krashen’s Monitor Model

4. Along with comprehensibility, when the input is slightly above the current level of the learner’s competence, then the learner’s is more likely to learn in this Zone of Proximal Development.

5. Learners also use a conscious system of rules, also

known as the monitor to guide their language learning and production; however, use of the monitor depends on the amount of time available, the amount of knowledge amassed, and the learner’s desire to use the rules.

http://www.sdkrashen.com/

Krashen’s 5 Hypotheses

1. The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis

2. The Monitor Hypothesis

3. The Natural Order Hypothesis

4. The Input Hypothesis

5. The Affective Filter Hypothesis

Krashen's Five Hypotheses Hypothesis 1: Acquisition versus learning refers to language acquisition as the subconscious internalizing of implicit rules, whereas learning refers to the conscious process that results in knowing about the language

Hypothesis 2: Our brains “monitor” our use of rules during language production. An overactive monitor inhibits language production whereas an underactive monitor causes the learner to produce language in an haphazard way. The monitor can only be optimally used when the learner has time and is conscious of the rules.

Krashen's Five Hypotheses Hypothesis 3: Grammatical morphemes are acquired in a fixed order; hence, explicitly teaching grammar has little impact. Learners will acquire the forms when they are “psycho-linguistically ready.”

Hypothesis 4: Provision of comprehensible input speeds up language learning.

Hypothesis 5: The learner’s “affect” (feelings) can interfere with effective language learning; hence, s/he needs to be made to feel comfortable and confident.

Highlights from Krashen's Monitor Model

The Role of Input:• Must be modified and adjusted• Must use “foreigner talk” (slowed down, simplified)• Must be comprehensible• Must be one step beyond current competence (i+1)

Acquisition Rich Environment• Meaningful interaction rather than drills• Exposure rather than instruction• Communicative tasks• Negotiation of meaning

Implications of Interactionist (Socio-cultural) Theory for Teaching

Research Findings• Classroom interaction and opportunities for participation

with peers give learners a chance to evolve and enjoy social as well as learning success.

• Peer groups and collaborative learning play a very important role in facilitating cultural learning, competent pragmatic use of language, as well as constructing knowledge.

• Guidance and collaboration allow the learner to grow within his/her Zone of Proximal Development.

http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/~achafe/cooplang.html

Research Findings• Learners benefit from extrinsic learning rewards as well as

from the intrinsic reward of having learned something.

• Second language learners benefit from integrating into the school community as well as the larger social context.

• There is a positive impact on the process of second language learning when …

• the learning context is enriched through opportunities to learn both language and culture via social interaction

• the students’ worldview and background are positively exploited for the benefit of others

• the student’s culture is validated and acknowledged.http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/digest_pdfs/0005-contextual-walqui.pdf

Other Findings from SLA Research• Interaction and instruction have positive effects on second

language learning (rate, ultimate level of attainment) – Michael Long

• Awareness of language learning strategies helps the learner learn the second language – Rebecca Oxford

• There are two levels of language that must be acquired: Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) – Jim Cummins

• Students must receive explicit language instruction

• Learner differences account for differences in second language learning

Summary of Language Acquisition

• The child learns language by unconsciously generating rules, perhaps to fill and innate blueprint (Chomsky).

• Errors often indicate that learning is taking place.

• The child learns language in meaningful, supportive, and communicative settings.

• The child understands more than he can say.

• The child will require a lot of time to become fluent.

Name That Hypothesis

All children with normal hearing and articulatory mechanisms acquire their first language

Hypothesis:

By whom?

Attempting to communicate enables acquisition.

Learners learn by doing.

Learners need to be pushed to go beyond what they can currently do.

Hypothesis:

By whom?

Name That Hypothesis

Opinions about Language Learning REVIEW

Languages are learned mainly through imitation• False• If it were true, how can the following utterance be

explained? “I goed to school”

People with high IQs are good language learners.• True: They are good at learning about the language • False: They are not good at acquiring the language

for communicative purposes.

Most of the mistakes made by second language learners are due to interference from their first (native0 language.

• True: for pronunciation and some other features (false friends, word order)

• False: Speakers of a variety of different native languages make many of the same errors.

Opinions about Language Learning REVIEW

• Errors should be corrected as soon as they are made in order to prevent the formation of bad habits.

• False: Can negatively affect self-esteem and motivation

• False: Impossible to correct every single mistake

• False: Errors are a natural part of language development• False: Errors help students “to notice the gap” between

their current understanding and where they need to make adjustments

Opinions about Language Learning REVIEW