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Theories of Second Language Acquisition

The document discusses various theories of second language acquisition, including behaviorist, innatist, cognitive, and sociocultural perspectives, highlighting key concepts such as habit formation, the language acquisition device, and the importance of social interaction. It also outlines applications for second language learning in the classroom, emphasizing the significance of interaction, noticing, processing, and practice. The document advocates for fluency over accuracy and suggests that learners can benefit from content-based language learning and task-based instruction.

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Levi Szabo H
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12 views5 pages

Theories of Second Language Acquisition

The document discusses various theories of second language acquisition, including behaviorist, innatist, cognitive, and sociocultural perspectives, highlighting key concepts such as habit formation, the language acquisition device, and the importance of social interaction. It also outlines applications for second language learning in the classroom, emphasizing the significance of interaction, noticing, processing, and practice. The document advocates for fluency over accuracy and suggests that learners can benefit from content-based language learning and task-based instruction.

Uploaded by

Levi Szabo H
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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13.

Theories of second language acquisition

Introduction:
o What „second” refers to?
- second lg = living in the L2 environment (where the official lg is not your mother tongue)
- foreign lg = living in your L1 environment ( when the official lg is your mother tongue
o What ’acquisition’ refers to?
- acquisition = picking up a lg , not learning consciously grammar rules
- learning = a planned and conscious process

THEORIES

1. THE BEHAVIOURIST PERSPECTIVE


o a psychological theory that all learning happens through habit formation
o when learners imitate and repeat the language they hear in their surrounding environment
and are positively reinforced for doing so, habit formation (or learning) occurs.
o Behaviourist theory explained learning in terms of imitation, practice, reinforcement (or
feedback on success), and habit formation.
o Nelson Brooks and Robert Lado – two prominent of this perspective
o classroom activities emphasized mimicry and memorization, and students learned dialogues
and sentence patterns by heart.
o Lg learning was viewed as formation - these habits would interfere with new ones needed
for the second lg
o behaviourism was often linked to the contrastive analysis hypothesis → it states that the
structure of the L1 affects the SLA
o a focus on avoiding errors is problematic: the errors learners make are not predictable on the
basis of their first language
o this discovery led to the rejection of both the contrastive analysis hypothesis and
behaviourism

2. THE INNATIST PERSPECTIVE


o the innatist theory states that learning is natural for human beings → they believe that
babies enter the world with an inborn device, to learn language = LAD - language
acquisition device
o problem: how children come to know the rules of grammar which they need for a creative
production of sentences?
o Noam Chomsky hypothesizes that infants must be born with some special built-in ability to
learn language = Language Acquisition Device (LAD) contains the main rules for all
possible human languages
o he called this set of common rules Universal Grammar
o infants universally possess an innate ‘universal grammar’ that allows them to select
out the many grammatical rules of the language they hear spoken around them, they
gradually construct the grammar of their own native language
o all children acquire the language of their environment during a critical period of their
development
o it has been clearly differentiated that acquisition is related to first language (L1 – mother
tongue) whereas learning has to do with second and foreign languages. Some theorists argue
that UG may be available for second language acquisition up to a critical age only (early
puberty)

1
Krashen’s ‘Monitor Model’
o Krashen described his model in terms of 5 hypothesises:
1. Acquisition/learning hypothesis
o we ‘acquire’ lg as we are exposed to samples of lg that we understand in much the same
way that children pick up their first lg – with no conscious attention to lg form
o we ‘learn’ on the other hand through conscious attention to form and rule learning
o according to Krashen 'learning' is less important than 'acquisition'
2. Monitor hypothesis
o there is a difference between ‘acquisition’ and ‘learning’
o learning functions as a monitor or editor and it focuses on accuracy
o acquisition is responsible for fluency
o conscious knowledge can only be used as a monitor or editor for production, it does not
responsible for fluency
3. The natural order hypothesis
o the acquisition of grammatical structures follows a 'natural order' which is predictable
4. Comprehensible input hypothesis
o acquisition occurs when one is exposed to lg that is comprehensible and contains i + 1.
The i represents the level of lg already acquired, and the +1 is a metaphor for language
that is just a step beyond that level
o BUT: how do you know that it is not i+1000?
5. Affective filter hypothesis
o the ‘affective filter’ is a metaphorical barrier that prevents learners from acquiring lg
even when appropriate input is available - acts as a block which keeping acquirers from
using input -Explains why some individuals are better learners than others
o a learner who is anxious or bored may filter out input, making it unavailable for
acquisition

3. THE COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE


- humans have a language-specific module in the brain
- sees second language acquisition as a conscious thinking process, involving the deliberate
use of learning strategies
- the difference between first and second lg acquisition lies in the circumstances of learning:
o what the learners already know about lg
o how that prior knowledge shapes their perception of the new lg

Information processing
- Processing: controlled and automatic processing
o controlled processing: needs attention, can be easily interrupted
o automatic processing: needs little attention, difficult to interrupt
- Explicit and implicit learning
o Explicit learning: aware of process and product at the time of learning
o Implicit learning: neither aware of the process or product at the time of learning
- when proficient listeners hear a familiar word, even for a second, they cannot help but
understand it → proficient language learners can give their full attention to the overall
meaning

Usage-based learning
- less importance to the kind of declarative knowledge that characterizes skill learning and
traditional structure-based approaches to second lg instruction.
- the emphasis is on the frequency with which learners encounter specific linguistic features
in the input and the frequency with which lg features occur together
- frequency of encounters determines learning
2
The competition model
- Competition method: an explanation for both first and second lg acquisition that takes into
account not only lg but also lg meaning and lg use
- second lg acquisition requires that learners learn to use the different cues that signal specific
information.

Language and the brain


- Whether first and second lgs are acquired and represented in the same areas of the brain?
o recent brain imaging studies show activation in different locations in both
hemispheres of the brain during lg processing
o this is true for both first and second lgs
- differences have been observed, depending on the learners’ age and level of proficiency

4. THE SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE


- knowledge is acquired during social activity
- through dialogic communication, learners jointly construct knowledge
- sociocultural theorists emphasise the integration of the social, cultural and biological
elements
- Swain and Lapkin: collaborative dialogue –learning by talking

SECOND LANGUAGE APPLICATIONS

1. INTERACTING
 conversational interaction is an essential condition for second lg acquisition
 learners need opportunities to interact with other speakers, working together to reach
mutual comprehension through negotiation for meaning (= interrupting the flow of
conversation so that both speakers can understand what the conversation is about)
 noticing and corrective feedback are important during interaction

2. NOTICING
 everything that is learned is noticed in input
 the learner have to be aware of a particular lg feature

3. PROCESSING
 students often misunderstand sentences
 problem: learners have limited processing capacity and cannot pay attention to form and
meaning at the same time
o they tend to give priority to meaning, overlooking some features of the lg form

4. PRACTICE
 practice should be interactive, meaningful
 ACCESS (Automatization in Communicative Contexts of Essential Speech Segments)
 it is based on classroom activities which require learners to use meaningful units of
language repetitively

3
SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING IN THE CLASSROOM

1. Fluency before accuracy


- supporters of communicative lg teaching have argued that lg is not learned by gradual
accumulation of one item after another
o they suggest that errors are a natural and valuable part of the lg learning process
o it is better to encourage to develop ‘fluency’ before ‘accuracy’

2. Audiolingual pattern drill


- repetition and drill of decontextualized sentences did not seem to favour the development of
comprehension, fluency or communicative abilities either.

3. Just listen... and read


- it says that second lg. learners do not need to speak at all, expect to get other people to
provide input by speaking to them
- according to this view, it is enough to hear and understand the target lg.

4. Total physical response


- in TPR classes sts participate in activities in which they hear a series of commands in the
target lg, for example: stand up, put your book on the table
- at more advanced level, they may act out skits as the teacher provides a description of an
event or encounter.
- Ss simply listen and show their comprehension by their actions
- when Ss speak, they take over the role of the teacher and give commands as well as
following them

5. Let’s talk
- Advocates of ‘Let’s talk’ emphasize the importance of access to both comprehensible input
and conversational interactions with teachers and other sts
- when learners are given the opportunity to engage in interaction, they are compelled to
‘negotiation for meaning’ – to express and clarify their intentions, thoughts, opinions, in a
way that permits them to arrive at mutual understanding. – esp. task based instruction

6. Content-based language learning – two for one


- learners acquire a second or a foreign lg as they study subject matter taught in that lg
- Ss can get ‘two for one’, learning the subject matter content and the lg at the same time
o e.g. learning History in English
- advantages:
o increases the amount of time for learners to be exposed to the new lg.
o creates a genuine need to communicate
o motivating Ss to acquire the lg in order to understand the content
- problems:
o Ss may need several years before their ability to use the lg for cognitively
challenging academic material has reached an age-appropriate level

7. Teach what is teachable


- ‘Teach what is teachable’ view suggests that while some features of the lg can be taught
successfully at various points in the learners’ development, other features develop according
to the learners’ internal schedule.

4
- Although learners may be able to produce more advanced forms on tests or in very restricted
pedagogical exercise, instruction cannot change the ‘natural’ developmental course.

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