La Consolacion College, Liloan, Cebu, Inc.

Poblacion, Liloan, Cebu

MODULE IN EL13 Principles and Theories of Language Acquisition Learning

GENERAL DIRECTION: Read the following properly and focus on the general terms
highlighted. All answers must be HANDWRITTEN and WRITE NEATLY AND
LEGIBLY.

Wee Course Contents / Topics

k
1–2 UNIT I: Introduction to Language Acquisition
- Child Language Acquisition, Bi/Multilingualism and Second Language
Acquisition

Language Acquisition
Language acquisition is the process whereby children learn their native
language. It consists of abstracting structural information from the language they hear around
them and internalizing this information for later use. The first language acquisition is the
process of learning the language everyone learns from birth or even before birth when
infants acquire their native language. Language acquisition involves structures, rules and
representation. The capacity to use language successfully requires one to acquire a range of
tools including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and an
extensive vocabulary. Language can be vocalized as in speech, or manual as in sign. Human
language capacity is represented in the brain. Even though human language capacity is finite,
one can say and understand an infinite number of sentences, which is based on a syntactic
principle called recursion. Evidence suggests that every individual has three recursive
mechanisms that allow sentences to go indeterminately. These three mechanisms
are: relativization, complementation and coordination.
Students learning a second language move through five predictable
stages: Preproduction, Early Production, Speech Emergence, Intermediate Fluency,
and Advanced Fluency (Krashen & Terrell, 1983).
 Researchers define language acquisition into two categories: first-language
acquisition and second-language acquisition. First-language acquisition is a universal
process regardless of home language. Babies listen to the sounds around them, begin to
imitate them, and eventually start producing words.
For example, a child may correctly learn the word "gave" (past tense of "give"),
and later on use the word "gived". Eventually, the child will typically go back to using the
correct word, "gave".

Child Language Acquisition

There is no genetic code that leads a child to speak English or Spanish or Japanese.
Language is learned. We are born with the capacity to make 40 sounds and our genetics
allows our brain to make associations between sounds and objects, actions, or ideas. The
combination of these capabilities allows the creation of language. Sounds come to have
meaning. The babbling sound "ma - ma - ma" of the infant becomes mama, and then mother.
In the first years of life children listen, practice, and learn. The amusing sounds of a young
toddler practicing language (in seemingly meaningless chatter) is really their modeling of the
rhythm, tone, volume, and non-verbal expressions they see in us.

Language -with all its magnificent complexity- is one of the greatest gifts we give our
children. Yet, we so often treat our verbal communication with children in a casual way. It is a
misconception that children learn language passively. Language acquisition is a product of
active, repetitive, and complex learning. The child's brain is learning and changing more
during language acquisition in the first six years of life than during any other cognitive ability
he is working to acquire. How much easier this learning process can be for children when
adults are active participants!

Adults help children learn language primarily by talking with them. It happens when a
mother coos and baby-talks with her child. It happens when a father listens to the fractured,
rambling, breathless story of his 3-year-old. It happens when a teacher patiently repeats
instructions to an inattentive student.
 Bi/Multilingualism and Second Language Acquisition
Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is a broad research field dealing with the
learning of additional languages. Bi/multilingualism focuses on the practices and needs of
people who have learnt or are learning more than one language.Bilingualism is a specific case
of multilingualism, which has no ceiling on the number of languages a speaker may dominate.
The timing and sequence in which one learns each of the languages has led to other
distinctions between kinds of multilingualism. The main difference between Bilingualism and
Second Language Acquisition is that SLA is when a person has a language that they
already speak fluently and they begin to learn an additional language. Whereas
childhood bilingualism involves the child learning two languages simultaneously.

OUTPUT:
(1) QUIZZES
(2) RESEARCHED ARTICLE ON CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND
REFLECTION PAPER
DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 25, 2022
3–4 UNIT II: Multilingual Language Acquisition
- Bilingual Development The Role of Age, Bilingualism and Cognitive
Development

Multilingual Language Acquisition

Multilanguage learners (MLLs) are children learning two (or more) languages at the
same time, as well as those learning a second language while continuing to develop their
first (or home) language.

How is multilingualism acquired?

The first language (sometimes also referred to as the mother tongue) is usually acquired
without formal education, by mechanisms about which scholars disagree. Children
acquiring two languages natively from these early years are called simultaneous bilinguals.
Bilingual Development: The Role of Age, Bilingualism and Cognitive Development
What is the role of of bilingualism on cognitive development?

Bilingual people show increased activation in the brain region associated with
cognitive skills like attention and inhibition. For example, bilinguals are proven to be better
than monolinguals in encoding the fundamental frequency of sounds in the presence of
background noise.
OUTPUT:
 (1) RESEARCHED ARTICLE ON Bilingual Development: The Role of Age,
Bilingualism and Cognitive Development (MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE THE
SOURCE)
(2) PROVIDE A REFLECTION PAPER.

DEADLINE: MARCH 11, 2022

SAMPLE RESEARCHED ARTICLE ON BILINGUALISM: (Please read)

5–6 UNIT III: Language Acquisition

- Transfer and the role of the L1: A historical account (Behaviorism/ Contrastive
Analysis/ Error Analysis)

BEHAVIORISM THEORY
Behaviorism started as a reaction against introspective psychology in the 19th century,
which relied heavily on first-person accounts. J.B. Watson and B.F. Skinner rejected
introspective methods as being subjective and unquantifiable. These psychologists wanted to
focus on observable, quantifiable events and behaviors. They said that science should take
into account only observable indicators. They helped bring psychology into higher relevance
by showing that it could be accurately measured and understood, and it wasn’t just based off
opinions.
Watson and Skinner believed that if they were given a group of infants, the way they were
raised and the environment they put them in would be the ultimate determining factor for how
they acted, not their parents or their genetics.
Pavlov’s Dogs is a popular behaviorism experiment. A group of dogs would hear a bell ring
and then they would be given food. After enough time, when the bell would ring the dogs
would salivate, expecting the food before they even saw it. This is exactly what behaviorism
argues—that the things we experience and our environment are the drivers of how we act.
The stimulus-response sequence is a key element of understanding behaviorism. A stimulus
is given, for example a bell rings, and the response is what happens next, a dog salivates or
a pellet of food is given. Behavioral learning theory argues that even complex actions can be
broken down into the stimulus-response.
BEHAVIORISM LEARNING THEORY
In the classroom, the behavioral learning theory is key in understanding how to motivate
and help students. Information is transferred from teachers to learners from a response to the
right stimulus. Students are a passive participant in behavioral learning—teachers are giving
them the information as an element of stimulus-response. Teachers use behaviorism to show
students how they should react and respond to certain stimuli. This needs to be done in a
repetitive way, to regularly remind students what behavior a teacher is looking for.
Positive reinforcement is key in the behavioral learning theory. Without positive
reinforcement, students will quickly abandon their responses because they don’t appear to be
working. For example, if students are supposed to get a sticker every time they get an A on a
test, and then teachers stop giving that positive reinforcement, less students may get A’s on
their tests, because the behavior isn’t connected to a reward for them.
Repetition and positive reinforcement go hand-in-hand with the behavioral learning
theory. Teachers often work to strike the right balance of repeating the situation and having
the positive reinforcement come to show students why they should continue that behavior.
Motivation plays an important role in behavioral learning. Positive and negative
reinforcement can be motivators for students. For example, a student who receives praise for
a good test score is much more likely to learn the answers effectively than a student who
receives no praise for a good test score. The student who receives no praise is experiencing
negative reinforcement—their brain tells them that though they got a good grade, it didn’t
really matter, so the material of the test becomes unimportant to them. Conversely students
who receive positive reinforcement see a direct correlation to continuing excellence,
completely based on that response to a positive stimulus.
CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS
The theoretical foundations for what became known as the contrastive analysis hypothesis
were formulated in Robert Lado's Linguistics Across Cultures (1957). In this book, Lado
claimed that "those elements which are similar to [the learner's] native language will be simple
for him, and those elements that are different will be difficult". While it was not a novel
suggestion, Lado was the first to provide a comprehensive theoretical treatment and to
suggest a systematic set of technical procedures for the contrastive study of languages. That
involved describing the languages (using structuralist linguistics), comparing them and
predicting learning difficulties.
During the 1960s, there was a widespread enthusiasm with this technique, manifested
in the contrastive descriptions of several European languages, many of which were sponsored
by the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC. It was expected that once the areas
of potential difficulty had been mapped out through contrastive analysis, it would be possible
to design language courses more efficiently. Contrastive analysis, along with behaviorism
and structuralism exerted a profound effect on SLA curriculum design and language teacher
education, and provided the theoretical pillars of the audio-lingual method.
CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS: CRITICISM AND ITS RESPONSE
In its strongest formulation, the contrastive analysis hypothesis claimed that all the
errors made in learning the L2 could be attributed to 'interference' by the L1. However, this
claim could not be sustained by empirical evidence that was accumulated in the mid- and late
1970s. It was soon pointed out that many errors predicted by Contrastive Analysis were
inexplicably not observed in learners' language. Even more confusingly, some uniform errors
were made by learners irrespective of their L1. It thus became clear that contrastive analysis
could not predict all learning difficulties but was certainly useful in the retrospective
explanation of errors.
In response to the above criticisms, a moderate version of the Contrastive Analysis
Hypothesis (CAH) has developed which paradoxically contradicts Lado's original claim. The
new CAH hypothesizes that the more different the L2 is with one's L1, the easier it is for one
to learn the target language. The prediction is based on the premise that similarities in
languages create confusion for learners.[2]
With the help of technological advancement, contrastive analysis has adopted a more efficient
method in obtaining language data, a corpus-based approach, which generates vast amount
of juxtapositions of language differences in various fields of linguistics, for
example lexis and syntax.
ERROR ANALYSIS
What is an error?
An error is a form in learner language that is inaccurate, meaning it is different from
the forms used by competent speakers of the target language. For example, a learner of
Spanish might say "Juana es *bueno," which is not what competent speakers of Spanish
would say. The accurate form should be "buena."

What is error analysis?

Error analysis is a method used to document the errors that appear in learner
language, determine whether those errors are systematic, and (if possible) explain what
caused them. Native speakers of the target language (TL) who listen to learner language
probably find learners' errors very noticeable, although, as we shall see, accuracy is just one
feature of learner language.

While native speakers make unsystematic 'performance' errors (like slips of the tongue)
from time to time, second language learners make more errors, and often ones that no native
speaker ever makes. An error analysis should focus on errors that are systematic violations
of patterns in the input to which the learners have been exposed. Such errors tell us something
 about the learner's interlanguage, or underlying knowledge of the rules of the language being
learned (Corder, 1981, p. 10).

OUTPUT:

DIRECTION: In no less than 250 words, answer the following comprehensively.

(1) How to do an error analysis?

(2) Make a Venn Diagram about Behaviorism Theory and Cognitivism Theory.
(3) What is the purpose of Contrastive Analysis?

DEADLINE: March 25, 2022

7–8 UNIT IV: Language Development in Children
Language Development in Children
Language development starts with sounds and gestures, then words and sentences.
You can support language development by talking a lot with your child, and responding when
your child communicates. Reading books and sharing stories is good for language
development.
The Six Stages in Children’s First Language Acquisition
Stage 1: Pre-talking Stage / Cooing – Zero to Six months (0-6 months)
Stage 2: Babbling Stage – Six to Eight months (6-8 months)
Stage 3: Holophrastic Stage – Nine to Eighteen months (9-18 months)
Stage 4: The Two-word Stage – Eighteen to Twenty-four months (18-24 months)
Stage 5: Telegraphic Stage – Twenty-four months to Thirty months (24-30 months)
Stage 6: Later Multiword Stage – Thirty months and up (30 months and up)

The Five Stages of Learning a New Language

Stage 1: Pre-Production

During this stage, the student is normally silent while listening to new words and gaining an
understanding of the language.

Stage 2: Early Production

At this stage, students start to practice pronouncing new words, and typically learn at least
1,000 new words and their meanings. They also start using their new words to speak in short
phrases.

Stage 3: Speech Emergence

 Vocabulary continues to expand, and students will know a minimum of 3,000 words by the
end of this stage. They start to speak in longer phrases and sentences, and to ask questions.
In addition, at this stage they will start reading and writing assignments.

Stage 4: Intermediate Fluency

Students start to think and form responses in the new language. By the end of this stage,
most people have learned well over 6,000 different words and their meanings. They are also
speaking more fluently and continuing to improve upon their reading and writing abilities.

Stage 5: Advance Fluency

People who reach this stage continue to improve upon and expand their vocabulary and
abilities in their second language.

OUTPUT:

DIRECTION: In no less than 250 words, answer the following comprehensively.

(1) Why is language important to children’s development?

(2) What does language development mean in child development?
(3) How can we encourage children’s language development?
(4) Make a collage about language development in children.
RUBRICS:
PRESENTATION – 50 percent
THEME – 50 percent
-------------------------------------------------------
100 percent

DEADLINE: April 01, 2022

9 – UNIT V: Language Acquisition and Age
10 At What Age Does Our Ability to Learn a New Language Like a Native Speaker
Disappear?
• By: Dana G. Smith on May 4, 2018
•
They concluded that the ability to learn a new language, at least grammatically, is
strongest until the age of 18 after which there is a precipitous decline. To become
completely fluent, however, learning should start before the age of 10.

There are three main ideas as to why language-learning ability declines at 18: social
changes, interference from one’s primary language and continuing brain development. At 18,
kids typically graduate high school and go on to start college or enter the work force full-time.
Once they do, they may no longer have the time, opportunity or learning environment to study
a second language like they did when they were younger. Alternatively, it is possible that after
one masters a first language, its rules interfere with the ability to learn a second. Finally,
changes in the brain that continue during the late teens and early 20s may somehow make
learning harder.

This is not to say that we cannot learn a new language if we are over 20. There are
numerous examples of people who pick up a language later in life, and our ability to learn new
vocabulary appears to remain constant, but most of us will not be able to master grammar like
a native speaker—or probably sound like one either. Being a written quiz, the study could not
test for accent, but prior research places the critical period for speech sounds even earlier.

The Age Factor in Second Language Acquisition

Is there an optimal age for second language acquisition? Everybody agrees that age
is a crucial factor in language learning. However to which extent age is an important
factor still remains an open question. A plethora of elements can influence language
learning: biological factors, mother tongue, intelligence, learning surroundings,
emotions, motivation and last but not least: the age factor.
Lenneberg´s critical period hypothesis (1967) suggests that there is a biologically
determined period of life when language can be acquired more easily. Beyond this time
a language is more difficult to acquire. According to Lenneberg, bilingual language
acquisition can only happen during the critical period (age 2 to puberty). The critical
period hypothesis is associated with neurophysiological mechanisms suggesting that
in late bilinguals the early and the late acquired languages are represented in spatially
separated parts of the brain (Broca’s area). In early bilinguals, however, a similar
activation in Broca’s area takes place for both languages. This loss of the brain´s
plasticity explains why adults may need more time and effort compared to children in
second language learning.

The advantages of early second language acquisition

In early childhood, becoming bilingual is often an unconscious event, as natural as

learning to walk or ride a bicycle. But why? According scientific surveys, language aspects
such as pronunciation and intonation can be acquired easier during childhood, due
to neuromuscular mechanisms which are only active until to the age of 12. Another possible
explanation of children’s accent-free pronunciation is their increased capability for imitation.
This capability fades away significantly after puberty. Other factors that we should take into
consideration are children’s flexibility, spontaneity and tolerance to new experiences. Kids
are more willing to communicate with people than adults, they are curious and they are not
afraid of making mistakes. They handle difficulties (such as missing vocabulary) very easily
by using creative methods to communicate, such as non-verbal means of communication and
use of onomatopoetic words. Also the idea of a foreign civilisation is not formed in their minds
yet. Only at the age of 8 does it become clear to them that there are ethnic and cultural
differences. Last but not least, aspects such as time, greater learning and memory
capacity are in any case advantages in early language learning. On the other hand there are
surveys which point out the risk of semi-lingualism and advise parents to organise language
planning carefully.

The advantages of late second language acquisition

First of all it is important to clarify that by late second language learning we mean
learning a language after puberty. Linguists, psychologists and pedagogues have been
struggling for years to answer the following question: is it possible to reach native-like
proficiency when learning a language after puberty? In order to give an answer we have to
consider the following factors: First of all, adults (meaning people after puberty) have an
important advantage: cognitive maturity and their experience of the general language
system. Through their knowledge of their mother tongues, as well as other foreign languages,
not only can they achieve more advantageous learning conditions than children, but they can
also more easily acquire grammatical rules and syntactic phenomena. According to Klein
Dimroth (see references), language learning is an accumulative process that allows us to
build on already existing knowledge. Children cannot acquire complex morphological and
grammatical phenomena so easily.

It would be useful to point out that sometimes incorrect pronunciation is not a matter of
capability but of good will. According to different surveys, adults do not feel like themselves
when they speak a foreign language and they consider pronunciation an ethno-linguistic
identity-marker. A positive or negative attitude towards a foreign language should not be
underestimated. Another factor to consider is the adults’ motivation to learn a foreign
language. When an adult learns a foreign language there is always a reason behind it:
education, social prestige, profession or social integration. The latter is considered a very
strong one, especially in the case of immigrants.

Conclusion

It is obvious that the language learning processes in adults and children have advantages
and disadvantages. However, age is an important but not overriding factor. All people,
regardless of age, perceive a language learning process differently and individually.
Personality and talent can influence this process significantly: there are shy children and very
communicative adults. My (the author’s) conclusion? It is advisable to encourage language
learning at an early age. The younger the child is, the more they can take advantage
of neuromuscular mechanisms that promote language learning and thus reach a native-like
level with less effort and time. Other advantages, such as increased communication abilities,
better articulation, tolerance to foreign cultures and personal cognitive development, are
among the benefits of early language learning. Yet this does not exclude effective
language learning in adults. Under ideal learning situations, with motivation and a positive
attitude, everybody can reach an excellent language level!
Written by Katerina Karavasili, translator and Master´s student of German as a foreign
language (2014). Former TermCoord Communication Trainee.

OUTPUT:

(1) Research on an article about the relationship of age and language acquisition.
(Make sure to include the source)

(2) Make a reflection paper and discuss why motivation affects second language
acquisition.

(3) Make an infographic collage about Language Acquisition and Age.

Sample Infographic collage:

RUBRICS:

PRESENTATION – 50 percent
THEME – 50 percent
 -------------------------------------------------------
100 percent
DEADLINE: April 22, 2022

11 – UNIT VI: Language Acquisition and the Linguistic Environment

12 Language Acquisition and Development

Language development in humans is a process starting early in life. Infants start

without knowing a language, yet by 10 months, babies can distinguish speech sounds and
engage in babbling. Some research has shown that the earliest learning begins in utero when
the fetus starts to recognize the sounds and speech patterns of its mother's voice and
differentiate them from other sounds after birth.
Typically, children develop receptive language abilities before their verbal or
expressive language develops. Receptive language is the internal processing and
understanding of language. As receptive language continues to increase, expressive
language begins to slowly develop.
Usually, productive/expressive language is considered to begin with a stage of pre-
verbal communication in which infants use gestures and vocalizations to make their intents
known to others. According to a general principle of development, new forms then take over
old functions, so that children learn words to express the same communicative functions
they had already expressed by proverbial means.
Linguistic Development
- Acculturation Model
Acculturation refers to the balance between changing attitudes and
behaviors as a result of contact with a dominant group and retention of existing
cultural values, beliefs, and traditions. In the United States, institutions such as
the educational system and the media are a part of the acculturation process.
- Input (Krashen)
The Input hypothesis is Krashen's attempt to explain how the learner
acquires a second language – how second language acquisition takes place. The
Input hypothesis is only concerned with 'acquisition', not 'learning'. According to this
hypothesis, the learner improves and progresses along the 'natural order' when
he/she receives second language 'input' that is one step beyond his/her current stage
of linguistic competence. For example, if a learner is at a stage 'i', then acquisition
takes place when he/she is exposed to 'Comprehensible Input' that belongs to level
'i + 1'. Since not all of the learners can be at the same level of linguistic competence
at the same time, Krashen suggests that natural communicative input is the key to
 designing a syllabus, ensuring in this way that each learner will receive some 'i + 1'
input that is appropriate for his/her current stage of linguistic competence.
- Interaction and Negotiation
From these patterns of communication, five distinct negotiation styles have
emerged: competing, collaborating, compromising, accommodating, and
avoiding. Negotiators often fall into one or more of these five styles whether they are
trying to reach an agreement or resolve a conflict with multiple parties.
- Output and Feedback
Output represents the desired result, outcome, or goal. Process
represents the operations that occur to transform the inputs to the desired outputs.
Inputs represent the basic materials or resources that will be transformed to the
output. Feedback is the element of control.

NO OUTPUT: READY YOURSELF FOR THE MIDTERM EXAM.

13 – UNIT VII: Development of Learner Language (Interlanguage)
14 Development of Learner Language (Interlanguage)
Interlanguage (IL) is a linguistic system used by second language learners. Learners
create this language when they attempt to communicate in the target language. Learners
create rules, and they are changed through input such as teachers, peers, etc. and by the
learner.

What is learner language interlanguage?

Learner language is what learners say or write when they are trying to
communicate spontaneously in a language they are learning. Interlanguage (IL) is the
system that underlies learner language grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. The
language being learned is sometimes called the target language (TL).

OUTPUT:

DIRECTION: In no less than 250 words, answer the following comprehensively.

(1) What are the principles of interlanguage?

(2) What are the main characteristics of interlanguage?
(3) What is the best way to describe interlanguage?
 (4) What is interlanguage in second language acquisition?
(5) Who developed interlanguage theory and why interlanguage is important in
psycholinguistics?

DEADLINE: May 06, 2022

15 – UNIT VIII: Language Acquisition and Cognition
16 - Information Processing/ Skill Acquisition Theory/ Memory and Attention
OUTPUT:
(1) Research on the following Language Acquisition and Cognition and Define
each term comprehensively in no less than 250 words.
Information Processing –
Skill Acquisition Theory –
Memory and Attention –
DEADLINE: May 20, 2022
17 – UNIT IX: Foreign Language Learning and Aptitude
18 OUTPUT:
(1) Research on an article of which refers to a specific talent for learning a
foreign or second language (L2). (Make sure to indicate the source)
(2) Make an essay of not less than 250 words about your researched article.

DEADLINE: June 03, 2022

19 FINAL EXAMINATION

Prepared by: DONNA MAE D. SURALIZA-TAGSIP, LPT, MaEd-ELLT, DevEdD

College Instructor

“In perseverance, little by little, a little becomes lot.” – Dr.Donna