Second Language Acquisition

Prof. Dr. María I. Ortiz Rosado EdD

 Second Language Acquisition
• What is Second Language Acquisition?

Refers both to the study of individuals and groups

who are learning a language subsequent to
learning their first one as young children, and to
the process of learning that language. The
additional language is called a second language
(L2), even though it may actually be the third,
fourth, or tenth to be acquired.
Second Language Acquisition
To understand the process of second language acquisition,
are seeking to answer three basic questions:

1. What exactly does

the L2 learner come to
know?

2. How does the 3. Why are some

learner acquire this learners more
knowledge? successful than others?
 Second Language Acquisition
• What is a second language?

Is typically an official or societal dominant language needed

for education, employment, and other basic purposes. It is
often acquired by minority group members or immigrants
who speak another language natively. In this more
restricted sense, the term is contrasted with other terms.
 Second Laguage Acquisition

Other terms

A An
foreign A library auxiliary
languag languag languag
e e e
 Second Language Acquisiton
• What is a first language?

native language
primary language
mother tongue
 Second Language Acquisition
• Diversity in learning and learners.

What is learned in acquiring a second language,

as well as how it is learned, is often influenced
by whether the situations involves informal
exposure to speakers of other languages,
immersion in a setting where one needs a new
language to meet basic needs, or formal
instruction in school.
 Second Language Acquisition
• Activity
Do you think that you are (or would be) a “good”
or a “poor” L2 learner? Why do you think so?
Consider whether you believe that your own
relative level of success as a language learner
is due primarily to linguistic, psychological, or
social factors (social may include type of
instruction, contexts of learning, or attitudes
the L1 and L2).
 Second Language Acquisition
• Activity

List all of the languages that you can use. First

classify them as L1(s) and L2(s), and then further
classify the L2(s) as “second”, “foreign”, “library,”
“auxiliary,” or “for special purposes.” Finally,
distinguish between the ways you learned each of
the languages: through informal exposure, formal
instruction, or some combination of these.
 Monolingualism
• Ability to use only one.
Bilingualism
• Ability to use two languages
• Refers to the ability to use two or Multilingualism
more language.
The world of Second Language Acquisition
Foundations of Second Language Acquisition
 Foundations of Second Language Acquisition
The world of Second Language Acquisition
• L2 users differ form monolinguals in L1
knowledge; advanced L2 users differ from
monolinguals in L2 knowledge; L2 users have a
different metalinguistic awareness from
monolinguals; L2 users have different
cognitive processes. These subtle differences
consistently suggest that people with
multicompetence are not simply equivalent to
two monolinguals but are a unique
combination.
Foundations of Second Language Acquisition
2. Children master the basic
phonological and grammatical
operations in their L1 by the age of
about five or six.

3. Children can understand and create

1. Children begin to learn their L1 at the
novel utterances; they are not limited
same age.
to repeating what they have heard.

The role of natural ability

4. The is a cut-off age

5. Acquisition of L1 is
for L1 acquisition,
not simply a facet of
beyond which it can
general intelligence.
never be complete.
 Second Language Acquisition
• The role of social experience

Children will never acquire such language-

specific knowledge unless that language is
used with them and around them, and they
will learn to use only the language(s) used
around them, no matter what their linguistic
heritage.
 Second Language Acquisition
• American-born children of Korean or Greek
ancestry will never learn the language of their
grandparents if only English surrounds them,
for instance, and they will find their ancestral
language just as hard to learn as any other
English speakers do if they attempt to learn it
as an adult. Appropriate social experience,
including L1 input and interaction, is thus a
necessary condition for acquisition.
Foundations of Second Language Acquisition

• L1 versus L2 learning
A brief comparison of L1 and L2 learning is
divided into three phases.
1. Initial state
2. Intermediate states
3. Final state
 Second Language Acquisition
• First vs. Second language development
Foundations of Second Language Acquisition

• Frameworks for study by Second Language

Acquisition
Foundations of Second Language Acquisition

• Activity

Group 1 Linguistic

Group 2 Phonological

Group 3 Social
 Second Language Acquisition
The linguistics of Second Langue Acquisition

Languages are systematic

Languages are symbolic

Languages are social

The Nature of Language

The linguistics of Second Langue Acquisition

The Develo
Develo ping System
ping refers is a…
System …
 The linguistics of Second Langue
Acquisition
Developing

• Refers to something that is in progress, evolving, changing, and perhaps no

standing still.

System

• Complex, and thus not easy to describe

 The Developing System

unity
Social
interaction diversity

communic common
ation purpose
 The linguistics of Second Langue Acquisition
The Developing System

• The language learner’s developing system

consists of a variety of linguistic components
that interact in complex way.
Lexicon
(words)
Phonology
(the sound
system
Morphology
(how words
are formed)
Syntax
(rules that govern
sentence structure
The linguistics of Second Langue Acquisition

• The Network of Forms and Lexical Items

interest disinterest

interesting

uninteresting

Figure 3.1 Connections for the word interest, based on root form and meaning
The Network of Forms and Lexical Items

interest bored
disinterest

boring

interesting

uninteresting

Connections for the word interest, based on semantic relationship.

Figure 3.3 Connections between grammatical forms among
semantically related words

interest bored
disinterest

boring

interesting

uninteresting
 Figure 3.4 Connections between grammatical
forms among semantically related and unrelated
words
interest bored
disinterest

boring

interesting

uninteresting

undivided
unending
 Activity

• Choose a word and make connections based

on semantic relationship. You can work in
pairs.
• Write a reflection essay about the class.

• Assignment Article
 Day 2
• 9:00-10:30 Welcome
• Emotional preparation readiness
• ** Input
• **What is input?
• `Reading and Discussion
 Input
• Is the language that a learner hears (or reads)
that has some kind of communicative intent.
Communicative intent mean that there is a
message in the language that the learner is
supposed to attend to; his or her job is to
understand that message, to comprehend the
meaning of the utterance or sentence.
 Why input is important?
• Case of Genie
An adolescent who was rescued form an abusive family environment. For
all of her developing years, Genie was locked away in a room by herself
and isolated from nearly all contact with family and other humans. She
thus receive none of the warmth, love, or environmental stimuli that any
child reared in a normal home would receive, nor did she ever hear
language spoken.

Aside from the emotional and intellectual effects this isolation had on
Genie, it was clear that it had a profound impact on her linguistic skills.
When found, Genie basically had no first language. Reared almost as if she
were a cage animal, Genie was deprived of the input needed for linguistic
development.
 Why input is important?

Raised in a situation in which there was no

language directed to her, her brain had no
opportunity to work on language as is normally
the case.
How do learners get linguistic data
from the input
Making Form-Meaning Connections

Below are three sentences in four different

languages. If you know any of the languages,
do not look at those sentences; cover them
up with a pencil. See if you can understand
the sentences in a language you don’t know.
How do learners get linguistic data
from the input

German: Sylvia ist nicht nur intelligent, sondern auch fleissig.

French: Sylvia in n’est pas seulement intelligente mais aussi travailleure.

Japanese: Silvia wa ataka ga il dake zya naku, yoku bendyoo simasu.

p.30
How do learners get linguistic data
from the input
• What were you able to comprehend?

A little?

A lot?

Nothing?
How do learners get linguistic data
from the input
Now, without looking back, what do you
remember about the following in the
language that you do not know?
• Verb form(s) used
• Basic word order
• How negation is formed
• Whether or not there is agreement between
nouns and adjectives.
How do learners get linguistic data
from the input
• Principles for input processing:

P1. Learners process input for meaning before

anything else.

P1a. Learners process content words before

anything else.
How do learners get linguistic data
from the input
• If you watch Nick at Nite” in which Lucy and
Ethel get jobs working in a chocolate factory.
Their job is to wrap chocolates coming down a
conveyor belt. At the beginning, when the
conveyor belt is going slowly, the job is easy.
But when their supervisor sees that they can
handle more, she yells “Speed it up.” The belt
begins to move faster and faster.
How do learners get linguistic data
from the input
• Soon ,the belt is delivering chocolates at a
pace beyond Lucy’s and Ethel’s capacity to
wrap them. To keep from getting fired, they
end up stuffing chocolates in their dresses,
hats, and pockets to hide them from their
supervisor.
How do learners get linguistic data
from the input
• Working memory resembles Lucy’s and Ethel’s
efforts. If capacity is not exceeded, you are
fine. But if task demands exceed what you
can do, deteriorates. Your working memory
simply does not have enough capacity to do
much more that search for content words and
even then you might not get them all at the
beginning stages of learning.
How do learners get linguistic data
from the input
• Parsing

• Refers to filling in gaps.

John flew to Miami and Mary to Chicago. Your

know that Mary flew as well. She didn’t drive,
ride a bike, or hop a train. What is missing
after Mary is…
How do learners get linguistic data
from the input
• In how many distinct ways can you complete it
to make a sentence of four to five words?

• I have …
How do learners get linguistic data
from the input
• One of the fundamental aspects of parsing is
figuring out who did what to whom. In English
we rely on word order. The man killed the lion
is a different sentence form The lion killed the
man. As an English speaker, when you begin
to parse the first sentence, you assign a noun
phrase structure that is, a noun and all the
stuff that goes with it such as articles,
adjectives, demonstratives and so on.
 Does Anything facilitate How
Learners Process Input?
• Interaction Negotiation of meaning
• Confirmation checks Recast what the
learner says.
The following interchange took place in a tennis
locker room. Bob is a native speaker of English
and Tom is a lower level non-native speaker
with Chinese as a first language.
 Does Anything facilitate How
Learners Process Input?
• Bob: So where’s Dave?
• Tom: He vacation
• Bob: He’s on vacation?
• Tom: Yeah. On vacation
• Bob: Lucky guy.
 Does Anything facilitate How
Learners Process Input?
• Modification This process works primarily
when listening and reading materials are
directly targeted toward learners.
• Simplification The comprehension
burden can be eased.
 Does Anything facilitate How
Learners Process Input?
• Create a dialogue
• Write an essay about Input and the class. (One
page in computer and send it by email)
• Assignment (3 hours)
 Day 3
• Output
• What is Output?
• How do learners make output?
• How does skill in speaking develop?
 Output
• Refers to the language that a learner
produces. Is anything that emerges from
something else, normally something that is
purposefully produce.
• Has communicative purpose.
 How do learners make output?

Output processing

• Access – refers to activating the lexical items

and grammatical forms necessary to express
particular meanings.

• Production strategies – mechanisms or

procedures
 How do learners make output?
What come before what?

• Running
• Standing
• Walking
 How do learners make output?
• It is easy to see that a child must be able to
stand before being able to walk and to walk
before being able to run. The ability to
perform one procedure implies the ability to
perform a previous one.
 How do learners make output?
In Processability Theory, six procedures exist in
an implicational hierarchy.
• Lemma access: is a technical term for words.
• Category procedure: The learner can not onlyl
access words but also put inflections on them
(add ed to walk)
 How do learners make output?
• Phrasal procedure: The learner can put
inflections on words within a phrase, such as
in noun-adjective agreement:
• Simplified S-procedure: exchange of
information from inside the sentence to the
beginning or end of the sentence. Example: I
talked to my mother yesterday on the phone.
Yesterday, I talked to my mother on the phone.
 How do learners make output?
• S-procedure: exchange of information between
internal constituents, for example, between noun
phrases and verb phrases. (see page 65)
• Subordinate clause procedure: exchange
information across clauses, carrying grammatical or
semantic information from a main clause to an
embedded or subordinate clause. (see book page 65)
 How do learners make output?
Basic processes in making output

Content of message
is generated

Developing Access words

system and forms Output

Use processing
Procedures to
Create utterance

L1 L2
procedures procedures
 HOW DOES SKILL IN SPEAKING
DEVELOP?
Skill development in speaking is similar. When
we talk aboutthe speaking skill in L2 contexts,
we talk about how accurate a person is and
how much effort is exerted while
speaking .This is called the person’s fluency.
Skilled or fluent L2 speakers are faster than
unskilled speakers and may also not make the
same errors.
 HOW DOES SKILL IN SPEAKING
DEVELOP?
• Automatization has ocurred when learners
have reached such levels in making output,
which translates into “speaking without much
conscious effort.”
See book page 70
 Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition
Five key hypothesis about Second Language Acquisition

• See copies / group work

• Providing Input… (see article) Group work

 The psychology of Second Language
Languages and the brain
(see copies)

Day 4
 The psychology of Second
Language
• Learning processes
Psychology provides us with two major
frameworks for the focus on learning
processes:
• Information Processing (IP)
• Connectionism
(see copies)
 The psychology of Second
Language
• Theories regarding order of acquisition.

Processability Theory

Page 76-77 book

 The psychology of Second
Language
Differences in learning
• Age
• Sex
• Aptitude
• Motivation
• (page 83-86 book)
• Lesson Plan Using Children’s Literature

• Course Evaluation

• Reflection Essay
 Thanks

You are #1