OUM EL BOUAGHI UNIVERSITY

MASTER ONE LECTURE By Pr. Abdelhak Nemouchi

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION GOALS AND THEORIES

Most frequently used are the terms learning and acquisition. Learning means a conscious
process of trying to acquire a second language. Acquisition means an unconscious process.
Second language acquisition means the unconscious or incidental acquisition of a foreign
language, additionally to the mother tongue.

What is ‘second language acquisition?

‘Second’ refers to any language which is learnt subsequent to the mother tongue, inside and
outside classroom, naturally as a result of living in a country where it is spoken or learning it
in a classroom. It does not mean only the second language, but it can refer to the third or even
fourth language we have learnt. (Ellis, 1994)

‘L2 acquisition’ can be defined as the way in which people learn a language other than their
mother tongue, inside or outside a classroom, and SLA as the study of this.

What are the goals of SLA?

How would a researcher find out how a language learner learns an L2?

 asking learners (valuable information but limited)

 collecting samples of learner-language and analysing them

These samples are greatly significant to the researcher and teacher. If collected at different
points in time, they may show how learners’ knowledge gradually develops.

• Describe: how learner language changes over time. SLA focuses on the formal
features of language that linguists have traditionally concentrated on. (Pronunciation of an L2,
the words learners use, how learner build up their vocabulary, and grammatical structure).

• Explain: identifying the internal and external factors that account for why learners
acquire an L2 in the way they do.

 External factors: social milieu, input, instruction, setting, culture and status, context
where learning takes place

 Internal factors: age, intelligence, personality, aptitude, motivation , learning strategies

…etc, that will account for why learners vary in the rate they learn an L2 and how
successful they ultimately are.

Theories of Second Language Acquisition

I/ The Behaviourist Theory: behaviourism is a major learning theory emphasizing stimulus,

response, and reinforcement as the basic elements of learning. For language acquisition,
 behaviourists hypothesized that children learned their first language through stimulus,
response, and reinforcement as well, postulating imitation and association as essential
processes. For example, to learn the word ball, the child would first associate the word ball
with the familiar spherical object, the stimulus. Next the child would produce the word by
imitation, at which time an adult would praise the child for saying ball, thereby reinforcing the
child’s correct verbal response. Behaviourist concepts of imitation and reinforcement could
not account for typical child utterances like “Him don’t say it right,” which were clearly not
imitations of adult speech.
Yet most utterances we produce in conversation or writing are in fact original. That is, they
are not phrases and sentences we have learned by hearing and repeating. In addition, child
language researchers noticed that parents typically reinforce their children for the meaning of
their utterances, not for grammatical correctness. These and other concerns were pointed out
as Noam Chomsky (1957) engaged in a heated debate with behaviourist B. F. Skinner (1957),
attacking behaviourist theory as inadequate to explain observations of child language
development.
Stimulus-response-reinforcement: Learners are taught the language in small, sequential
steps (structures and then sentence patterns). A small part of the language is presented as a
stimulus, to which the learner responds by repeating or by substituting. This is followed by
reinforcement by the teacher. By repeating the learner develops habits
Learning a language is seen as acquiring a set of appropriate mechanical habits and errors are
frowned upon because they lead to the development of “bad” habits. The role of the teacher is
to develop in learners good language habits.

II/ The Innatist Theory: Chomsky (1959) states that language acquisition could only be
accounted for by an innate, biological language acquisition device (LAD) or system.

Infants must come into the world “prewired for linguistic analysis.” Specifically, Chomsky
claims that infants universally possess an innate universal grammar, which will allow them to
select out the many grammatical rules of the language they hear spoken around them, as they
gradually construct the grammar of their mother tongue.

However, Chomsky did not make specific claims about the implications of his theory for
second language learning.

1. Linguists working within the innatist theory have argued that UG offers the best
perspective to understand SLA. UG can explain why L2 learners eventually know more
about the language than they could reasonably have learned (i.e. UG can explain L2
learners’ creativity and generalization ability).

2. Other linguists argue that UG is not a good explanation for SLA, especially by learners
who have passed the critical period (i.e. CPH does not work in SLA).

3. Howard Gardner stated (Gardner, 1995, p. 27), the Chomskyan view is “too dismissive of
the ways that mothers and others who bring up children help infants to acquire
language.”Gardner argues that, “while the principles of grammar may indeed be acquired
with little help from parents or other caretakers, adults are needed to help children build a
rich vocabulary, master the rules of discourse, and distinguish between culturally
acceptable and unacceptable forms of expression”.
Innatist Competence Performance

SLA researchers from the UG perspective (innatism) are more interested in the language
competence (i.e., knowledge of complex syntax) of advanced learners rather than in the
simple language of early stage learners.

Krashen’s model is based on 5 hypotheses:

1. Acquisition/learning hypothesis

2. Monitor hypothesis

3. The natural order hypothesis

4. The input hypothesis

5. The affective filter hypothesis

1. Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis

Krashen directly links Second Language Acquisition to the process which children undergo
when they learn their first language. Within the Acquisition-Learning Hypotheses, Krashen
right away explains the basic function of acquisition, namely the input and storage of
language and language knowledge. According to Krashen, acquisition happens unconsciously.
This means that the person who is acquiring language does not know that she or he is
acquiring language at this moment. For this reason, the typical acquisition situations do not
take place in school, because normally, the intentional aim of going to school is learning.

Examples for situations in which acquisition typically takes place are simple everyday life
situations like “conversing, reading a book, listening to the radio” (Krashen 1983:136) or
watching TV, while learning takes place consciously as an intended process with the
deliberate aim of gaining language knowledge. So, reading a book, mentioned by Krashen as
a typical acquisition process can also be a learning process if it happens with the intention of
learning the particular language.

2. Monitor Hypothesis

Stephen Krashen prefers Second Language Acquisition to learning. He does not deny the right
to exist for learning, but he locates it within the Monitor Hypotheses. This hypothesis claims
that the main system to gain fluency in L2 is the acquisition system. Learning knowledge is
merely a kind of auxiliary system for acquisition. The function of this Monitor is to check the
output which is produced via acquired language knowledge.

3. Natural Order Hypothesis

L2 learners acquire the features of the TL in predictable sequences. The language features that
are easiest to state (and thus to ‘learn’) are not necessarily the first to be acquired.

E.g. the rule for adding an –s to third person singular verbs in the present tense
4. Input Hypothesis

Acquisition occurs when one is exposed to language that is comprehensible and that contains
“i +1”. If the input contains forms and structures just beyond the learner’s current level of
competence in the language (“i+1”), then both comprehension and acquisition will occur.

5. Affective Filter Hypothesis

“Affect” refers to feelings, motives, needs, attitudes, and emotional states.

The “affective filter” is an imaginary/metaphorical barrier that prevents learners from

acquiring language from the available input.

Depending on the learner’s state of mind, the filter limits what is noticed and what is
acquired. A learner who is tense, anxious, or bored may “filter out” input, making it
unavailable for acquisition.

III/ Interactionist Perspective in Second Language Acquisition: The idea that

comprehensible input is necessary for second language acquisition also forms a basic tenet of
the Interactionist position. However, interactionists view the communicative give and take of
natural conversations between native and non-native speakers as the crucial element of the
language acquisition process (Long & Porter, 1985). Their focus is on the ways in which
native speakers modify their speech to try to make themselves understood by English-learning
conversational partners. Interactionists are also interested in how non-native speakers use
their budding knowledge of the new language to get their ideas across and to achieve their
communicative goals. This trial-and-error process of give-and-take in communication as
people try to understand and be understood is referred to as the negotiation of meaning. As
meaning is negotiated, non-native speakers are actually able to exert some control over the
communication process during conversations, thereby causing their partners to provide input
that is more comprehensible. They do this by asking for repetitions, indicating they don’t
understand, or responding in a way that shows they did not understand. The listener’s natural
response is then to paraphrase or perhaps use some other cue to convey meaning, such as
gesturing, drawing, or modified speech (sometimes referred to as “foreigner talk,” which is
somewhat analogous to caregiver speech in first language acquisition). In addition to the
importance placed on social interaction, some researchers have looked more closely at output,
or the speech produced by English language learners, as an important variable in the overall
language acquisition process (Swain, 1985).

IV/ The Cognitive Developmental Perspective: Information processing theory is the

approach to the study of cognitive development evolved out of the American experimental
tradition in psychology. Developmental psychologists who adopt the information processing
perspective account for mental development in terms of maturational changes in basic
components of a child's mind. The theory is based on the idea that humans process the
information they receive, rather than merely responding to stimuli. This perspective sees the
mind to a computer, which is responsible for analyzing information from the environment.
According to the standard information-processing model for mental development, the mind's
machinery includes attention mechanisms for bringing information in, working memory for
actively manipulating information, and long-term memory for passively holding information
so that it can be used in the future. This theory addresses how children grow, their brains
likewise mature, leading to advances in their ability to process and respond to the information
they received through their senses. The theory emphasizes a continuous pattern of
development, in contrast with Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development that thought
development occurs in stages at a time.

V/ The Noticing Hypothesis: the noticing hypothesis is a theory within second-language

acquisition that a learner cannot continue advancing their language abilities or grasp linguistic
features unless they consciously notice the input. The theory was proposed by Richard
Schmidt in 1990.[1]
The noticing hypothesis explains the change from linguistic input into intake and is
considered a form of conscious processing. It is exclusive from attention and understanding,
and has been criticized within the field of psychology and second language acquisition.
VI/ Vygotsky’ Sociocultural Hypothesis: Sociocultural theory grew from the work of
seminal psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who believed that parents, caregivers, peers, and the
culture at large were responsible for developing higher-order functions. According to
Vygotsky, the basic of the learning is in interacting with other people. Once this has occurred,
the information is then integrated on the individual level.
Sociocultural theory focuses not only how adults and peers influence individual learning, but
also on how cultural beliefs and attitudes affect how learning takes place.
According to Vygotsky, children are born with basic biological constraints on their minds.
Each culture provides "tools of intellectual adaptation." These tools allow children to use
their abilities in a way that is adaptive to the culture in which they live. For example, while
one culture might emphasize memory strategies such as note-taking, another might use tools
like reminders or rote memorization.
How does Vygotsky’ sociocultural theory differ from Piaget's theory of cognitive
development? First, Vygotsky placed a greater emphasis on how social factors influence
development. While Piaget's theory stressed how a child's interactions influenced
development, Vygotsky stressed the essential role that social interactions play in cognitive
development.1
Another important difference between the two theories is that while Piaget's theory suggests
that development is largely universal, Vygotsky asserts that cognitive development can differ
between different cultures. The course of development in Western culture, for example, might
be different than it is in Eastern culture.