Contemporary ‘Linguistics An Introduction | eet eer NATIT Teh ei eTe 7 iY itetar=T) eh eeL Ai ee Lr Tle)gure 12.01 Figure 13.12 Ni sing bet Children acquire be ws aman verb before they acqite Be as an auxiliary vt So, children stun by producing sentences tht are simpler i that they have ‘copula (inking) verb (eg He is hungrs) belore they produce Sentences tha include an auxiliary plus a main ver (ee wus working) se shown ia Figue 13.12 ‘ a) ’ wee ve Yom A x vw ve 1 1 | He boa f ering sey aSowreewihcopbrebbe Sent wih ve ep man veh Structure 13120 hasan extra level of complexity ia that it has a complex veth phrase (one VP within another, Adults, othe oder hand, appear to be able to use both the simple copula and auxiliary verbs quite early on. Whether this difference is becase of the adul's greater ability to hale complexity in general cogiive term or because children’s linguistic systems are maturing remains x conroversal and uneesolved sue Tn addition, note that een acquire the three -5 morphemes in the order plural possessive. thin person in thei frst language. Phoaetcally these Irplicmes have the sam realization, so we can't say that the ofr Feflects ‘phonological somplexty. The onder might be explained by wong that plural Isa wondlevel phenomenon (og. dogs), possessive (as we savin Chapter 4. section 13) ia phrse-level phenomenon (ef [he King of Eglond Tors, mot "Lhe king of England horse) and hid person marking involves Figure 12.13 3 AFFECTING SLA au age SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION. 523 4 elation betwecn the verb and a phrase (ibe subject) chewhere in the Sentence (e.g. [That man} usualy thnks to mach). Like the patra md forthe development of copula auxiary be children sem to be asin, structures in de a complexiy a8 shown in Figure 13.13 oN 6b we © Inieees) i oN a dey 5 Ne OW NF tan mHoe™ a a>, ig Fe mes iP Se | wliy | San thi ‘The elet of comply onthe ork a theese agit chen In contrast. adults acquire the plural quite eal, but them seem to get bath the possessive and the third person marking quite ate ~ perhaps for reasons involving procesing’(Whes concentrating on geting the words wight. we do ot always have the processing capacity to pode well-formed higher-level Structures) Interestingly. te adults do ot scem wo find intephasal morpol- ‘gy like Figure 13.13) moe difficult than phrasal morphology like Figore 15.138). This may be because the ads ave already acquired the grarnimar for thee ist Language an that grant nos Hey has both pease-evel and fnterphrasal morphological phenomena. In cores, children have Wo set up ‘erarchical stature of grammar forthe fst ie, amd could conceivably ‘bebulfing the stracture from the botom up (words ~» phrases —> sentences), {In summary. we noe that the order of aequstion das ae iniguing in both firs and second language asquisition, even tough we await conclusive explanation of the fas. So far, we've looked at some ofthe characterises of an UL grammar. Now Jers tum © a variety of factors that can influence second language acquisition. Is clear that there is much mote variation i the grams of peopl learning second languages than inthe grammars of people larg first languages. This brings ws tothe qucstion of what fetors might help to sccount for hat aration ‘One of the obvious ways that language Ierers vary isin thei age. People steaming second languages ative pots in thee ives, Could he ge ‘of onset oF L2 Teen cause diferent levels ial peoiciency?“Tis isa qucstion usally omsidered under what is known 38 thy Critica Peril Hoputhess (ace Chapter 12, action 65). We know that hiokiclly thsi cra percent in oer spies, For example some inca ka ih nong of dir species only Hf exposed wo it Juin a particular windows of “opportunity I they nly hearth song to early or oo Tt, then Karin will fot take place. (See Chapter 16 or further discussion) fy second language Fermin hike is? Bs there an optimal ine (or eis etod) to aequirea second langage? The answer appears tobe yes anil no Proficiency ima language is a emaskaly complex thing (se the discussion ‘ot communicative competence in section 1). Usually dieassion of a fosuble eric pied focises on the area of phonological competence White people who begin SLA as adult tend 10 retain non-nativelibe phonology in dhe target language, i is much more iffieuk wo predict Knowledge oc ability in any ofthe other areas of communicative eonpetem {Gyntae- cohesion, sociolinguistic, ele. Jhased upon age of acquisition. Th fact even L2 phonology isnot as staighuorward sit might est appear tw he. We ean predict with far certainty tat people who stat Teaming thei [2 bstore the ape of seven wil ave nativelke 2 speech and that people who art earning ae fourteen often wl probably have non-nativelike speech But the results of people who sat Teathig beeen the ages of seven and foteen are much rene varied Some endup with accents rd some don “Thetis no etirent evidence of anything biological that prevents als from acquiring proficiency In a second language. Factors that ave been Considered in the post (ike Bruin lateralization; see Chapter 11) are now Uhoweht tobe of litle predictive value in determining L2 aby. The question Of “ultimate attainment” in L2 acquisition is stil hotly debate, and the erature has cited cases of adult L2 Jeamers who apparently. perform ‘itally identically to native speakers in a variety of domains (including phonology) ‘Currently. the crite period debate in SLA research is usally couched in tems ofthe question, Do als have access to Universal Grammar” Rather thon Tooking for changes inthe brain that coincide with aging, researchers tow look to soe wheter I, grammars are governed by the same constrains te pimaty lnguazes eg, Swab, Yorba). If adults are engaged in the same Kind of development process as chlden, then we would expect their IL framars tobe desctbable in tems of he same priniples and parameters of UG that we se to describe primary languages. Conversely, if adults are feguiing their second languages sing qualiavely iféent learning mechanisms than arc used Yo aegite an LI (ei they we general problen olving abilities), then we might expt them io opt hypotheses tht are not Sanctioned by Universal Grammar Something ike this may infact happen in the acquisition of gender in French. Cikren learning French as a first Fanguage seem to have very litle woube laming gender as they fam the ‘wor themselves (ep fe ve. the Book” is masculine; la ene, “the table Js feminine) and so on, On the ober hand. adults whose first language does hot have gerd offen have grea dics learing French gender. They seem tose up eompley (bu incorrect) rules For predicting the gender of a given —————— Fr] ANGUAGE ACQUI noun, (For example, they may assume that words naming colours (or some ther scmanie category) are of one ender, o that words that end ith ‘certain snd sequence are of another) Rules Hike this somtimes allo non hative speakers to guess the ender coms, tut they sill perform ‘ighificuntly diffreolly from live speakers. This is example, of how Adults” greater capacity to formulate general rules can soins ead them ‘down the weong path Individual differences ‘Learners vay in ways oter than ag. Broadly speaking. de esearch ask the ‘question, “I Teams havea parieular quality x, does this make them beter st Second Language acquisition?” For example, we might look at the elect of inhibition, lf-handedness, or some ober individual trait on L2 ability. As inuicvely appealing a hic avenue is itis one tat must be taken carefully, Tn particulu, thereat thre pints on which we must he explicit: 1+ how we define and measure x 2 whar it means tobe beter 1 et aspect of communicative competence we are refering to. Consider in his regatta ie empaths en ang hat woe eae ae ter npg mers Ts fan ey ‘pocaling notion People who are pati an magne what i fel ike iOS im somcone ces sss and hy cn ok things fom ar ferspestive. Ant send anges eiming seal involves Toon things tom a iferntpospctie: Bach SUA rset, we nee fads toe proce wa 0 vats hypo “er ar eth lm 9 me person's empathy. ts his mon really wel- defined const? Ts oe spy empath oa, o thee cee of empathy ther are deren db we ee & carlton econ Spee of empty and degree of sues? And whet oes Ht mean for Srmptheve meso be Deter fargue Tees tan peosle who at fmpuhate? Do they make fever errr? Les scriows eon? Should we expect people with ree empay to be beter at evrything inthe L2? Or tye fst a phoaogy and soe iingune competence? On ‘what baie Could we mea dcon? Tevet atsinle ax We rae them no to argc that esac in individual vara espe, bu to show ome ofthe comple aca ta ned tobe alee tefore we an ope 1 est Samal comccion tween pariclar personality at ad success st Second tangs lang We cam distinguish etwcon two Kinds of fst in tems Of bi individuals on vay atv store anengtive factors et we wil ook ihe rol of et fective factors have 0 40 with the emotional side of leaming 2 second Tangwags, Clearly there is great deal at take emotionally wher learing a ‘tcond language. and tf possible tht emotions afeet how suscesfulGenitive Factors second languoge learner is AMetive Faetors that have Been si! inchs Empathy. anxiety, inion, ad staking. In ths section we wil ook at fone uch Factor motivation TLeamers can vary sith repost tthe amount or typeof motivation they frye tolearm a second langage I somcone i ighly mxivated wo learn wll that perwon do better at leaning? [a order to answer this question, we need to say ite about what means to he motivate “Teaditinaly, two types of motivation have been proposed: instrumental and integrative Instrumental motivation involves warn earn the L2 foe specific goul or reason. For example, someone might need to pass a Tanguage requirement in ordse to get a graduate degree, ora job with a igoscenment ageney. Integrative motivation. on the other hind. involves ‘ranting to kar the L2 i order to eart more about particular eulture or it int it Detter. For instance. someone might Want to lar Japanese inorder 60 Jeans more about a fascinating culture ‘Studies Rave shown thatthe degree of iterative motivation conelates with the degre of success i language learning, Tht io sy. subjects who Score highly on fests of integrative motivation do beter on cei Lnguag tess than comparable subjects who sere poly on the same tests. However, Subjects with instrumental rather Han integrative motivation can also do well if their level of motivation is high. One study found tha subjects who wore folfred a cash rewatd if they obtained a certain sore ona language test performed mh the same as subjets with high integrative motivation. All {his seuns to suggest that degre of motivation isa heer predictor of fate learning sucess than is type of motivation While affective factors have something 10 do with the emional side of| learing,engitve factors involve the mechanics of how an individual lars fovmething, Different people seem to lam via diferent coziive styles and “lferent earning strategies We wil ist address cognitive ste 'A individual, we fend to tackle mental asks using a pancular“ognitive siyl’ In contrast with an aes factor lke motivation, whieh may vary from domain to domi (@. someone might be more motivated to learn French cooking that lem the French lnguage) cogive syle sa sable ‘rit across domains “The study of cognitive syle often Focuses on a contrast between field dependence und Held independence. Learners wo are field independent are hot disrcted by ielevant background information when tying to eam Something. These are people who can see the tees without being distracted bythe forest.On the other hand, learners who are eld dependent tn to see fe forest but may miss the characteristics of invidual tes. OF couse this is motto say that, overall, one walt is good and the oer 1s bad, File ‘dependent learners probably are abe o syhesize the overall picture beter than fel independent learners, bt elsindependent lamers are probably beter able to pick out elevant fats In erm of second language acquisition, i seems tht feld-ndependent The good language learner COND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 527 eamers do ett on language tess that focus on analytic tks such as proving th eotect rma Form ina piven wntense: 2) ‘Yestelay, we _ the hid othe 200 (ake) In contrast, keds eames tnd o do Deter on ks dit involve syuihseng thie Knowledge Fr example. tey may deem boner Communicative competence in tha cy ae me contd with geting the tmcrnge aeons han with the grammatical acuacy ofthe selene {0 orm theirmesase Ultimately he proficient 2 earner needs 4 he concen with bh accuracy an fen. Broly speaking cue histo do with wher he iene asthe core epresentation of patric sttae itimolves knowledge). Pluney onthe ater and, has to Jo with he epi Ieival of pocesing of thove representations (rey st involve skis) Someone wh no vent may wel ave Secure representations, But ake considerable tie and ergy to erie them. Different agnor, hough ae Frosh going to havea nara! ainy to emphasize either accuracy oe Pueny.depening perhaps on thei ideal cognitive le, Petomance Sado type ae anced in ger depth Chapter 12 "While copie nes appear to be lie!) Stabl tes ia anniv ther are elements of learning that we hve some contol over Exch of has cern learning strates tht we can employ tote to fll exp i ou Tngusde Knowiedge: These sates canbe conrsted th commune tion stratepes, which are designed t Keep communication happeaing In ‘ole of Eps Knolege — a when somenoe ven paraphrase fo describe 2 cet for which he or she har ao vocabulary em (eg Cond you pate ine the thing ou ase or ining nals). Tnconan Tearing tte Is sed discover somthing new about he 12. Many ifeeat leaning sires have teen proposed For expe, ing the satay of dete atenton, lemons may decile in advance 10 {ecu on parle aspects of ask a to pore aero, when eating 2 ext or listening toa lestre, they mia det focus only onthe ain fein. Another sregy involves repeition: to renin a lexical em orto rp the pronunciation of «sions of sounds, the larner may epest a ‘word or phrase over and over. A third sates makes use of elrfistion requests (0 the taacer, a pet, ore oes In 4 converson) aout ‘Something that stot understood (3 How come str dest fy wth ood? Whats a eg’) Unde this i: eae hae awry of sie, thir disposal and have odscover which ones Work Best fr them. “The question of individual variation in second language learing has reseived ‘uiteabitofaenton under the heading the good language learner ‘What makes a good language lear? One researcher has presented the ‘haraeteristcs listed in Table 13.6. For tbe most part, this sti concerned ‘with the Teaming strategies that poopl invoke inan attempt to aequirean 2,“The 4 Chartres othe goo guage are 2. Hm am active app the 3. Him atokrancan! outgoing appro the tag anguage and empaty with ieapetker, 4 Hoste know aout howto eK a ngage SS Hin siepeof experimentation aod panning with he bjt a veloping thew guage nt nore yen and revising hs ster progreiey Tennis searching for eaing [built pete Fwiling ws the guage in el communiation, Haselnnitaing ay an crial sonst fo langage we Isableto develo the are anguaze more and more ta sept reference ‘pte and ale to ar tik ait By focusing on sch charsteristics, the leaning strategy approach seeks w acon fer ifeecsin 2 pin by fering thew a wich individuals try to acquire acw knowledge, Some people have gone so fara» to sugges iat this iype of esearch will make it posible teach notso- good language leamers the earning sirsegies necessary 10 be good langeage Tears. “This beings us to the interesting question of socond language leaning in class thf at acto as on 2 ig 1 aly posible to teach someone @ second lnguage? Or ean teaches simply creat En envionment in which second Tanguage Tearing can take place? We tar fos tothe esac that hs looked specifically at L2 classrooms. thas ben flippant sad that people have been sucesfily acing Seon Tague or toons of ye teaches ia he sic te pints This comments pobily oe een ot i's unfrmaeeaperence n cera (ys flange easton (hat Taya teen dulloreven physiol thestoning. depending on th centy) than i's samen abou gener pedagoge Uli. Howes the fact temsins at language cession can by sheeted envionmets where Stan cane even he ppartenty to ler and practise witout Being ‘Chests the pss fare hat can bmp ote soem "We should acknowl a this pin tht thee fell 0 such Wig thetic second mguage classroom In eal al aston ze ferent tau they hve ferent people in them, Novels. hte ae certain Stents hurcan bende Tere ae thce elvan charts Seon angeage claro ht we with o expe: es of 4 SICOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 529 + mdifcd input 2 fed interaction 2 focus on form. ‘Modified input Modified interaction i Chaper 12, it was tote that als dy ot ako children inthe same way that thoy talk wo oder adults. Jus the inp directed to elven as certain simplifying characteristics, so speach directed at nonnative speakers tnd to be Simplified compared to tho speech dreeted at native speakers. In all communicative situations ~ wheher dealing with child or am adit, 9 non native speaker ora native speaker ~ we seem to make a rapid assessment of the level of proficiency or background knowledge ofthe Istencr, and adjst ‘the input accordingly “The input aime at non-native speakers is refered tas foreigner talk ‘The subset ofthis speech that takes place in classrooms fs Known as teacher ik. Teacher talk. ends nt vo be as evenly raiched the proficiency ofthe lstner as foreigner tlk is. forthe simple reason that teachers are usally ‘dressing class rather than a individ. Av a result, some learners may Find the modified speech oo hard 0 100 ea. "The pedagogic goal of teacher talks crystal clear: make sure the students now shat is being talked about by providing comprehensible input Perhaps surprisingly this idea has generated an extraordinary amount of confit inte field of SLA research, Although itscemst0 De use o provide Jearers with comprebensibl input teachers must guard against simplying {oo much, which might give the appearance of patronizing the leamers ot talking to them as if they wete stupid rather than onthe way to becoming bilingual ‘Second language classrooms also de from the outside word in terns ofthe Kind of interactions tht go on there. However. the diference appears to be mainly one of degree, not quality Inside a classroom. the teacher may engage inthe following kinds of strategies: ‘+ More comprehension checks; © .,Do you understand? OK? {More prompting; Who knows where he Tower of London is? + More expansions eg Stiden Me red cater Teacher: Yes, ow re wearing a red sweater arent ‘This modified intention appears to be one of the characteristics that cifereites classrooms from other communicative settings, While all these devices (eg. comprehension checks) occur in non-classroom discourse a5 well. they appear to occur more frequent in second language elassrooms. ‘Assuming tha the teacher realizes that the purpose of the classroom is to ‘repre the student to understand input and interaction ouside the classroom ‘3 ell, modified iteration is ene