Second Language Acquisition - 1

1. Language – a kind of code; the system of human communication in which we can observe certain regularities
(patterns, rules). It refers also to non-human systems of communication, such as the ‘language’ of bees or
dolphins.

2. The communication process:

a)

SENDER message TEXT ? RECEIVER

encoder: encoding written decoding decoder:

writer/speaker or spoken reader/listener

? – we may be misunderstood/not understood at all

b) WRITER READER

idea 1 TEXT idea 2

idea 1 ≈ idea 2

3. Factors influencing written and spoken communication:

Written Spoken
 handwriting (how legible)  pronunciation
 correctness (lexis, grammar, punctuation)  volume
 register (style appropriate to the text one wants to
 background noises
use)
 shared knowledge (background knowledge)  intonation
 layout (how the text is organised)  body language/ non-verbal
 education of the audience communication
 accuracy of style

4. Difference between acquisition and learning:

L1 Acquisition FL/L2 Learning

- low consciousness of the whole
process
- bigger exposure to language
- place: home, family environment
- natural process
- interaction/ real-life communication
- purpose: to communicate
- learning the language
- less metalinguistic awareness
- learning language culture
- more aware of what one is internalising
- less exposure to language
- institutionalised environment
- artificial process
-
- purpose: pass tests, read texts, have better job
- learning about the language
- more metalinguistic awareness
- learning about the foreign language culture

5. Language skills (sprawności językowe) :

a. listening, speaking, writing, reading
- productive skills – speaking, writing
- receptive skills – reading, listening
6. Language subskills (podsystemy):
a. vocabulary(lexis),
b. grammar,
c. pronunciation (phonology)
Second Language Acquisition – 2

1. Interlanguage – the language of a FL learner, state/stage between one’s L1 and TL (target language),
carrying features of both

L1 FL/TL (native speaker language competence)

*”he cans dance” interlanguage of a beginner student

*”Thank you from the mountain” literal translation of a phrase from L1 to TL

2. mistake ≠ error
a. mistake – caused by carelessness, stress, anxiety, one can correct themselves
b. error – caused by lack of knowledge

3. Types of errors:
a. Grammar (e.g. )
b. Lexical (e.g. he learned me something)
c. Phonological (e.g. )
d. Interpretive (misunderstanding of the speaker’s intention ; e.g. )
e. Pragmatic (producing language items in the wrong context; e.g. )

4. Communication misunderstanding:
American student: What a nice necklace! (compliment – order)
African student: Please, take it!

5. Interlingual errors – caused by transfer from one’s L1, e.g. “thank you from the mountain”, “I very like you”

6. Intralingual errors – caused by faulty learning of the TL, the influence of one language item (rule) on
another, e.g. *“she cans”, *“he musted”, *“went you?/* Did you went? /*Did you be?”

7. INPUT, INTAKE, OUTPUT:

a. Input - language which a learner receives (hears, reads) and from which (s)he can learn:
i. texts (spoken/written)
ii. authentic materials
iii. media
iv. other FL users
b. Intake – input that’s helpful for the learner, some input cannot serve as intake
i. what one remembers from the input
ii. form: mental lexicon; grammar competence
c. Output – the language a learner produces in writing and speech:
i. spoken production
ii. composition
d. INPUT to INTAKE change:
i. practice (repetition)
ii. quality of input
iii. attention
iv. frequency of exposure
v. aptitude
vi. explanation of the teacher
vii. variety of material
8. Status of English in the world:
a. as a first language [rodzimy/ native language/ mother tongue/ L1]
b. as a second language c. as a foreign language

9. First Language – acquired during childhood:

a. simultaneous multilingualism (bilingualism) – acquisition of more than one language during early
childhood results in more than one native language for an individual
b. sequential multilingualism – learning additional languages after L1 has been already established

10. Types of motivation:

a. Integrative – to learn the language and identify closely with the language community
b. Instrumental – to learn the language for practical purposes (e.g. passing exams, reading in original,
travel)
c. Motivation = inner need

11. If English is a second language, it is:

a. the language of mass-media, i.e. newspapers, radio, TV are largely in English
b. language of official institutions: law courts, local and central governments and education

12. English as an international language:

a. one of 4000-5000 living languages
b. by far the most widely used
c. 300mln native speakers + over 250mln of L2 users who use English for their day-to-day needs
d. if we added those who use English in business we get 1/6 of the whole world population using
English

13. English is used in:

a. debates at the UN
b. language of command for NATO
c. official language of international aviation
d. unofficially – first language of international sport and pop scene
e. 60% of the world’s radio programs are in English
f. 70% of the world’s mail in English

14. Conclusions:
a. From the position of a dialect 400 years ago (mostly used in the southern counties of England) to the
major world language (a lingua franca)
b. We are experiencing a unique historical situation where a language is used by more people who learn
it as L2/FL then by people who receive this valuable free gift as their mother tongue
c. Never in the history of humanity has there been another language that’s been used by so many people
in so many different places.
Second Language Acquisition – 3 & 4
 Teaching English in a L2 and a FL situation are not the same:
o in a FL situation learners’ motivation is ‘weaker’
o limited access to native speakers and authentic materials
o not many opportunities to use the language – it’s not an official language (used in a guided way)
o it’s difficult to develop emotive and informal language ( grammar of spoken and written language
differs; it’s not possible to teach someone emotive language in a classroom; learners are exposed to
artificial informal language)

 Some political and historical considerations:

o population increase in Great Britain from 9 million in 1800 to 30 million in 1900 and 57 million now
o in USA from 4 million in 1800 , 76 million in 1900 and 249 451 900 now
o development of British colonies took settlers to Canada, Australia and several African territories
o English in colonies meant language of colonial power , medium of commerce and education, means of
communication

 An example of India:
o 1950 the Cultural Government decided that the official language would be Hindi
o transition from English was completed by 1965
o due to protests and riots in 1965 it was decided English should continue as an associate official
language

 An example of Africa:
o in West Africa there was no one common language but many different dialects
o English and French became official languages

 Division into English as First Language and English as Second Language is not clear cut:
o e.g. in Sweden and Holland governments aim toward bilingualism, so changing the role of English
into more a L2 than a FL

 The role of emotive language:

o the foreigner’s learning English to express ideas rather than emotions; for his emotional expression he
has the mother tongue. It’s a useful general rule that intensive words and items are of secondary
importance to a FL learner, however common they may be
o we express emotions – pray, quarrel, talk to close friends in our L1
o we’re more likely to read and use English to express emotions in a L2 situation

 Linguistics – study of language itself

o applied linguistics – application of linguistic theories, methods and findings to the explanation and
study of many practical matters, e.g. the teaching and learning of FLs, translation, speech disorders
 psychology – study of human nature and behaviour, mental states
o How do we acquire L1?
o How do we learn L2/FLs?
o In what way are the two processes different and similar?
o Is the traditional assumption that language is uniquely restricted to humans a correct one?
o When something goes wrong with human language ability, how can we explain the disorders? What
can we do about it?
 sociology – investigates how people interact in society
 o bilingualism and multilingualism
o biculturalism and multiculturalism
o code-switching
o pidgin languages
 artificial languages – have no native speakers
 carry elements taken from different languages
 arise when groups of people who don’t speak a common language come into contact with
each other; they carry signs of language mixing
 a market language; e.g. Naga Pidgin (contemporary pidgin)
 wars; e.g. Bamboo English ( simplified version of English with many words taken
from local languages)
 labour migration; e.g. Gastarbieterdeutsch (used by Turkish, Greek, etc. in
Germany)
o language used by men and women
 D. Tannen – discusses styles used by men and women
 ‘You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation’

Women Men
talk more (private) get more air time (public)
private/small talk public
to negotiate status/ avoid
build relations with other people
failure
language spoken language written
developing intimacy information
rapport-talk (to develop good
report-talk
relationships)

 pedagogy – study of human being and his/her development

 psycholinguistics – studies mental processes and skills involved in the use of language, e.g. motivation,
memory span
 sociolinguistics – study of the language when people are in a group (all aspects of the relationship between
language and society), e.g. the language learners use depending on the roles they take in a class, learners
interacting in a FL classroom
 neurolinguistics – study of how the brain works in relation to language use; study of the physiological aspects
of language with regard to the areas in the brain in which the language functions are located; e.g. studies of
the effect of brain damage on language functions (interested in the way the brain processes language)
o brain is asymmetric – with the left and right hemispheres specialising for different functions;
the left – language, the right – intuition
o left-brain dominance: right-brain dominance
- intellectual - intuitive
- remembers names - remembers faces
- responds to verbal instructions -
- experiments systematically and with control -
- objective judgements - subjective judgements
- planned and structured - prefers creative chaos
- prefers multiple choice questions - prefers open questions
o lateralisation of the brain – process during which the two hemispheres get specialised in different
functions; it’s finished by the age of puberty. Later the brain gets less flexible (The Critical Period
Hypothesis)
o Broca’s area – producing speech
Wernicke’s area – comprehending speech
o technology used in neurobiology and neurolinguistic studies:
 PET – positron-emission tomography
 fMRI – functional magnetic resonance imaging
Second Language Acquisition – 5
 How do we acquire L1?
 Listening → being exposed to L1 input [~ 2,5 years old child’s exposure = ~ 20 k h. ]
 Repetition of what we hear.

THEORIES OF L1 ACQUISITION:

 Behaviourism – 1940s-1950s:
 Learning by repetition, imitation, practice, there’s a feedback to successes/failures.
 Language learning = habit formation.
 Stimulus – response chain.
 Conditioning.

* it’s too simple and lacks the explanation of some phenomena, e.g. what about the situation when a child utters a
word it has never heard before.

 Innatism – Noam Chomsky:

 Children are bilologically programmed for language learning, they learn it as if they learned to walk.
 Children are born with certain ability to discover (discovery implies that they do it themselves,
without help) the underlying rules of language system (= language universals).
 LAD – Language Acquisition Device, black box-like thing in our brain which contains the Universal
Grammar principles [= the principles that are universal to all human languages.

 The Critical Point Hypothesis – Eric Lenneberg, a biologist:

 LAD works successfully only when it’s stimulated at the right time.
 There’s a biologically determined period of time when language can be acquired early.
 After puberty (12,13 year of life) it gets more difficult or even impossible to acquire a language.
 To prove it, we need to explore the so called ‘natural experiments’.

Natural experiments – studies of lg-deprived children [= wild feral children, e.g. Genie], provide evidence to
support the existence of the CPH.

- GENIE was abused for 13 years, locked and punished when she tried to speak, as a result she
stopped emitting sounds at all. No one spoke to her, either.
- Rescued at the age of 13, the teachers and linguists interested in her case, made an attempt to
teach her language.
- After 10 years of intense instructions she managed to acquire only very basic vocabulary but NO
grammar.

Other wild children:

- Edik (2 years of living outside the a human community, acquisition was successful but very
delayed.)
- Oksana (6 years of living outside the a human community, acquisition wasn’t successful in terms
of grammar)
- Wiktor

Critical Period – Genie’s language shared features of:

- Adults with brain damages [she had to re-learn the language] 

- Children in the earliest stage of language acquisition
- Chimps which were taught languages
Second Language Acquisition – 6

 study conducted in 1978 by Snow and Hoefnagel-Höhle concerning learning L2 at different ages:
o groups of English speakers tested in Dutch as their L2
o tests performed:
 1st – 6 months after arrival
 2nd – 5-6 months after 1st test
 3rd – 5-6 months after 2nd test

Task Children (3-10 Adolescents (12-15 Adults (18-60

years)` years) years)
Pronunciation Y Y X
Auditory discrimination XY
Morphology XY
Sentence repetition XY
Sentence translation Excluded XY
Sentence judgement Excluded XY
Peabody picture vocabulary XY
test
Story comprehension Y X
Storytelling Y X
o X – best at the beginning
o Y – best at the end
o Results:
 By the end of the year the children were catching up but it was the teens that kept the best
results throughout the year

 Factors influencing FL learners:

o THE LEARNER [internal]:
 age
 level of education
 target language (TL) proficiency level
 learning experiences
 intelligence
 aptitude
 motivation
 cognitive styles
 learning strategies
o ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS [external]:
 social context – whether it’s FL or SL
 opportunities for TL use; e.g. access to native speakers
 classroom and materials
 teachers
o OUTCOME OF FLL:
 proficiency (success)
 error fossilisation (lack of success – repeating errors, difficult to eradicate errors)
 emotional factors – stress and anxiety

 aptitude:
o a knack for learning FLs
o aptitude tests:
  ability to identify and memorise new sounds
 ability to understand the function of particular words in sentences (distinguishing –
identifying nouns, verbs, etc.)
 ability to figure out grammatical rules from language samples
 memorising new words
 working memory (how much data you can process and how quickly you can do it)

 motivation:
o are students more highly motivated because they are successful? Or are they more successful because
they are highly motivated?
 motivation and success are interrelated
o studies in educational psychology suggest:
 varying activities and materials but using certain patterns to avoid chaos
 activities – participation on part of the learner:
o mental involvement
o production
o completion (results)
 types of activities:
o according to 4 skills
o according to 3 subskills
o according to interaction patterns (individual, group, etc.)
 materials:
o audiovisual
o visual
o auditory (recordings)
o textbooks, etc.
o authentic materials – materials produced by native speakers of a given
language (maps, newspapers, tickets, etc.)
 patterns:
o organising courses around certain topics
o PPP (presentation – practice – production)
 grammar, vocabulary lessons based on this pattern
o pre- ; while- ; post- (e.g.. pre-reading, while-reading, post-reading)
 reading, writing, listening
 pre- stage: preparing students for a text/recording/writing
 using co-operative rather than competitive goals
 co-operation – working with peers, having common aims
 competition – individual work, against others
 motivating students into lesson, i.e. at the beginning and later
 catching attention and maintaining it
 how can you motivate students at the beginning of a lesson?
o what the lesson is about
o how it can help them to improve
o asking questions they can answer at the end (the more personal, the better)
o linking to previous lessons
o introducing competitions/ promising rewards
o making material realistic
o personalising material – relating to students’ hobbies, etc.
 how can you sustain concentration?
o variety of activities
 how can you motivate students at the end of a lesson?
o trying to answer questions/ going back to goals
o asking students to sum up what they’ve learned
Second Language Acquisition – 7:
 TPR – Total Physical Response
 A method of teaching FL [in the past]
 A technique if teaching FL [nowadays]
e.g. “Simon says...”
 FIELD DEPENDENT AND FIELD INDEPENDENT STYLES:

FIELD DEPENDENT STYLE FIELD INDEPENDENT STYLE

We depend on: we depend on the field, not parts we depend more on parts, not field
[it’s easier to observe the picture as a whole]
Community: Rural community Urban community
[smaller communities have stronger bonds] [we rely on ourselves]
Culture: Asian Western

More successful in: Learning the communicative aspects of the Classroom learning
language
Type of learning: Untutored learning Tutored learning
[face to face communication, rare in the [analysis attention to details, drills, test
classroom setting] performance]
* the education nowadays produce more FI learners

 LEFT- RIGHT-BRAIN FUNCTIONING:

 As our brain matures, the functions of the brain become lateralised to the left or right hemisphere
 Everyday functioning requires both hemispheres

In FLL:

Krashen and Selinger (1974):

-
L-B dominant learners prefer deductive style of learning [general rule → specific examples]
R-B dominant learners prefer inductive style of learning [specific examples → general rule]
- Stervick (1982):
L-B dominant learners are better at:
producing separate words,
dealing with classification and labelling
R-B dominant learners are better at:
whole images,
metaphors
emotional reactions
 AMBIGUITY TOLERANCE:
 Open-minded in accepting ideas, facts that contradict our own worldview.
 In FLL there’s lots of ‘illogical’ data, words that differ from our L1, many grammatical rule that go
against our expectations, culture is distant from ours.
 Learners with AT are slightly more successful in certain language tasks.

 REFLECTIVITY:
 Systematic style
- Less-mistake reader
- Better in inductive reasoning
- Proofreading is ok with them

 IMPULSIVITY:
 Intuitive style
- Faster reader
 - Better at deductive reasoning
 Cognitive (learning) styles:
o predispositions individuals have for using their intellect in specific ways to learn, e.g.:
 FD/FI
 left- and right-brain functioning
 ambiguity tolerance
 reflectivity and impulsivity
 type of learner:
 visual
 auditory
 kinaesthetic

 learning strategies:
o specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-
directed, more effective and more transferable to new situations (O’Malley and Chamot)
 self-directed = student does not depend on schools or teachers, directs their own learning
 transferable = able to use the same strategy for different contexts
o cognitive, metacognitive, social, affective
 cognitive strategies – operating directly on learning material, manipulating it in order to
enhance learning; connected with learning tasks, e.g.
 memorising new words in the text,
 describing a word,
 paraphrasing,
 predicting the content,
 guessing from the context
 metacognitive – support and manage learning without direct involvement of the language; e.g.
 planning learning,
 evaluating it,
 self-monitoring,
 setting goals,
 identifying the purpose of a learning task,
 finding out about language learning
 social – involve cooperating with other people (other learners, teachers, etc); e.g.
 asking for clarification or correction
 becoming aware of others’ thoughts and feelings
 affective – involve dealing with stress and anxiety; e.g.
 using deep breathing techniques and meditation
 taking your emotional temperature (listening to your body, discussing emotions with
somebody)

 Visual learners:
o learn better by visual means (e.g. reading, looking at pictures or movies)
o remember instructions better if they see them (e.g. on the board, in a book)
o suggestions:

 write things down  draw maps

 use colours  use flash cards
 highlight important parts in  rewrite notes when revising
text  study in a quiet place
 make tables, diagrams
 Auditory learners:
o learn by hearing things (lectures/recordings)
o remember oral instructions better
o like making tape recordings of what they’re learning and having discussions
o suggestions:

 discuss material with a partner  solve problems out loud

 listen to/ give presentations  tape classes and listen to them
 talk to yourself at home
 involve yourself in group
discussion

 Kinaesthetic learners:
o learn best when have hands-on experience, are physically involved or can actively participate
o like moving around
o like a variety of classroom activities
o suggestions:

 act out  stretch between study periods

 fidget  think about what you’re
 lie down or walk studying while doing sports
 use colour  doodle as you study
 write notes in diagrams

 intelligence:
o H. Gardner – theory of Multiple Intelligences:

 linguistic  bodily-kinaesthetic
 logical-mathematical  interpersonal
 spatial  intrapersonal
 musical  naturalistic*

 level of education:
o different knowledge of concepts
o different range of vocabulary

 TL proficiency level:
o beginner vs. advanced learner:
 advanced- notices more mistakes in their use of language
 more attentive to the intricacies of language
 don’t notice progress as much as beginners do

 outcome of FLL:
o proficiency (success)
o error fossilisation (lack of success)
 difficult to eradicate them
 teacher-induced errors – lack of corrections
 being exposed to just one variety of language
 most common fossilised errors:

 false friends  grammatical errors

  incorrect  lexical errors
pronunciation

 what one can do to eliminate them – being aware and correcting

 emotional factors – stress, anxiety

Second Language Acquisition - 8:

 Howard Gardner - 5 minds of future:

o of cognitive nature: DISCIPLINED, SYNTHESISING, CREATING
o of human nature: RESPECTFUL, ETHICAL

Cognitive sphere:

Information → Knowledge → WISDOM

o disciplined mind
 working at things steadily
 mastering major ways of thinking you would like to develop (knowing how other people
think, how they arrive at conclusions)
 becoming an expert in some area
o synthesising
 scads of information, especially on the internet
 largely undigested and unevaluated
 good, bad and so-so syntheses
 the synthesising imperative
 organises information for the person to understand it and communicate it to others
o creating
 going beyond the known – thinking outside the box
 good questions, new questions
 robust, iconoclastic temperament
 ultimate judgement of “the field”
 to be creating you have to develop the two previous minds (be an expert and organise
knowledge)
 failures allow one to start thinking outside the box
 error-free learning doesn’t work if you want to be creative
o depth disciplined mind – digging deep for information
breadth synthesising mind – learning about methods
stretch creating mind – looking at disciplines from the outside

Human sphere

o respectful
 diversity as a fact of life
 beyond mere tolerance
 need to understand others – perspectives; motivation – emotional and interpersonal;
intelligence – “empathy schools”
 inappropriateness of “corporate top-down model” for schools and perhaps even corporations
 corporate = with hierarchies
 No Credit: (kiss up, kick down; bad jokes – stereotyping about different groups; mere
tolerance; respect)
o ethical
 higher level of abstraction than respectful mind
 conceptualising oneself as a (good) worker – especially as a professional
  conceptualising oneself as a (good) citizen
 acting appropriately in both roles
 how this plays out in educational community
o 3 E’s of good work:
 excellent – expert, HQ
 ethical – moral, socially responsible
 engaging – meaningful, intrinsically motivated
Second Language Acquisition – 9:

 Stephen Krashen
o we acquire languages only if we understand the information (comprehensive input)
o talking is not practising; speaking abilities emerge only as an effect of exposure to comprehensive
input
o silent period – time when a learner just listens to comprehensible input

 Krashen’s innatist theory of FL learning:

o the Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis
o the Monitor Model Hypothesis
o the Natural Order Hypothesis
o the Input Hypothesis
o the Affective Filter Hypothesis
 terms:
o input – material the learner is exposed to
o intake – what the learner can utilise in their own learning
o output – language that the learner is able to produce

 ACQUISITION-LEARNING HYPOTHESIS
o L2 learners internalise the TL by acquisition and learning
 The two processes take place in the learner’s mind
o acquisition is a subconscious and intuitive process of constructing the system of a language; learning
involves conscious attention to form and figuring out rules
o fluency in L2 is due to acquisition, not learning – more communicative tasks in the classroom is
recommended

 acquisition techniques:  learning techniques:

 exposure to language  grammar exercises
(reading, listening)
 dialogues, role plays,
etc. (communicative
tasks)

o there is no ‘interface’ between acquisition and learning; the two processes are mutually exclusive
 unclear, Krashen’s criticised for it

 MONITOR MODEL HYPOTHESIS

o monitor – part of learning, not acquisition (alongside INTAKE – in the brain)
o device for ‘watchdoging’ one’s output, for editing and correcting it
o we should use an optimal amount of it only when fluency is established
 we shouldn’t correct ourselves when we’re not fluent enough
 optimal amount = the best amount
 overuse – may hinder communication
 underuse – does not allow one to develop

 NATURAL ORDER HYPOTHESIS (based on grammar morpheme studies)

o we acquire language rules in a predictable/natural order
o grammatical morpheme studies by Dulay and Brown (1974-76): L1 and L2 learners pass through
similar sequences of development, regardless of their background and learning context
 o –ing/ plural –s / irregular past forms/ possessive ‘s/ copula (She is a nice girl)/ articles the, a/ regular
past –ed/ 3rd person singular present –s/ auxiliary ‘be’ (She is cooking)

 INPUT HYPOTHESIS
o the language that learners are exposed to (via reading and listening) should be beyond their current
level of competence; if learners are at level I, the best input would be i+1
o input becomes intake when it is understood by learners
o this hypothesis implies that speech should not be taught very early, speech will emerge when learners
are ready, i.e. after the “silent period”

 AFFECTIVE FILTER HYPOTHESIS

o the best acquisition will occur when anxiety and defensiveness are low; i.e. the affective filter is low
o input is more likely to change into intake when the affective filter is low
o the filter might be an obstacle in development

 CRITCISM OF KRASHEN:
o McLaughlin – 1980 (cognitive psychologist) criticises fuzzy distinction between learning and
acquisition
o research shows that conscious form-focused instruction (explicit grammar teaching) can help learners
to communicate successfully
o Krashen seems to diminish the role of the learner him/herself; it is not only the quality of input
(environment) that is crucial, but how the learner initiates input (no mention of learner’s production)

 The importance of learner’s output:

o Selinger (1983) – gives learners more credit (and blame) for eventual success
 two types of learners:
 HIG (High Input Generators) – good at initiating and sustaining interaction or
generating input from teachers and fellow learners
 LIG (Low Input Generators) – more passive
 research shows that HIGs (at school and outside) make quicker progress
o Swain (1995) – the Output Hypothesis – the output that learners produce is important
 producing the target language may help L2 learners to recognise some of their linguistic
problems and bring to their attention something they need to discover about their L2
(interlanguage); when producing learners test hypotheses about L2

 COMBINED MODEL OF ACQUISITION AND PRODUCTION:

  SL TEACHING PROGRAM:

Second Language Acquisition – FINALLY THE END:

 Different metaphors of learning L2

o What would you compare learning L2 to?
 progress through some stages
 growing a flower
 cooking ( beginning – raw ingredients; you have to process it)
 Theories:

o INNATIVISM – we learn a language thanks to innate knowledge; environment (input only triggers
this knowledge
 Main figures:
 Chomsky (in L1 acquisition)
 Krashen (in SLA)

o COGNITIVISM
 Krashen criticised by cognitive psychologists, eg. McLaughlin
 McLaughlin – works on an information-processing model of human learning, he claims that
knowledge is a gradual build-up of automaticity through practice
 paying attention – there’s a limited amount of information a human can pay attention
to; e.g. a beginner will pay attention to the main words in a message; later through
practice (s)he will notice grammatical morphemes
 automaticity – with experience and practice learners gain automaticity and are not
aware of what they are doing; automaticity = less effort (energy) while performing a
language task
 R. Schmidt – also disagreeing with Krashen:
 noticing – everything we know about the language was first noticed consciously;
there’s no difference between acquisition and learning
 McLeod:
 Restructuring – learning = transforming (restructuring, fitting) bits of knowledge into
the old knowledge, not necessarily through extensive practice. This process may lead
to sudden bursts of progress (epiphany/ enlightment experience) and backsliding

o CONNECTIONISM
 after hearing language features over and over again. Learners develop stronger and stronger
neurological connections between these features. Finally, the presence of one element will
activate the other elements in the learner’s mind. Connectionism invited psycholinguists to
 design computer programs that can learn the language

o CONSTRUCTIVISM
 Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of human mental processing
 according to Vygotsky, all human cognitive development, including language
development, is a result of social interaction between individuals (we learn L1 and
FL thanks to the interaction with language users)
 the interactionist hypothesis (Long)
 Long extended Krashen’s idea of comprehensive input
 comprehensive input is the result of modified interaction. Much sla takes place
through conversational interaction.
 Long observed that modified interaction between L2 learners and native speakers is
important
 modified interaction doesn’t only involve simplification of the language. It entails
elaboration, slower speech rate, using gestures and additional contextual cues:
o comprehension checks: ‘The bus leaves at 6. Do you understand?’
o clarification requests: ‘Could you repeat, please?’
o self-repetition, paraphrasing
 Jim Lantolf extended Vygotsky’s theory to SLA:
 learners advance to higher levels of language knowledge when they cooperate and
interact with speakers of L2 who are better than they are, e.g. the teacher or a more
advanced learner. The notion of the zone of proximal development can be applied
here. It’d be the level of performance the learner can achieve when there’s support
from interaction with a more advanced learner

 SUMMARY: all theories intend to explain how we learn a L2 and how our mind works

It does not explain how we

We learn the language by exposure to the language; learn complex structures; it
BEHAVIOURISM repetition, correction; evidence from experiments with doesn’t account for the
animals in labs (stimuli and responses) complexity of human language
learning
Exposure to the language creates connections in our
Impossible to generalise to the
brain, evidence from computer stimulation,
CONNECTIONISM complexity of a normal human
experiments with an invented language (based on only
language learning
a set of language features – vocabulary, grammar)
We’re born with knowledge (LAD) that enables us to
learn the language and which is activated by the Too much focus on the product
INNATISM
environment; evidence from the studies of the of language learning, not on the
(Chomsky, Krashen)
proficient speaker’s language knowledge; i.e. the final process
state of language knowledge
COGNITIVISM
Input (language environment) is the main source of Not enough focus on the role of
(McLaughlin, Schmidt,
language knowledge, focus on the process of learning interaction with other learners
McLeod)
We learn the language by interacting with other Modified input is not enough;
CONSTRUCTIVISM,
languages; evidence form observing and recording innate principles of languages
INTERACTIONISTS
learners’ interactions with other learners; the teacher that learners can use are
(Long, Lantolf)
and native speakers (modified input) important as well