SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

TOPIC 1: Basic concepts of first language, second language, and dual/multilingual

Components of the This unit will review and critique past and current theories of Second
course Language Acquisition from a range of theoretical perspectives: linguistic,
cognitive, psychological, and social
It will also examine the wide range of factors that affect second language
learners and how these might be mitigated
It will then continue by indicating the implications for teaching and learning
and how far these have an impact on approaches, methods, strategies, and
techniques in the classroom
Course assignment 1. Attendance participation: At least 80% of the class
2. Weekly individual written assignment: Self-written journals
Students submit written journals of approximately 250 words each about the
weekly content of the course
3. Group written assignment: Critical review of foreign/second language
theories
Key terms 1. First language (L1, mother tongue, native language): The language first
learned. Many children learn more than one language from birth and may be
said to have more than one first language
Mother tongue vs Mother tongue Native language
Native language Refers to the language of the family Refers to the language of the area the
you grew up in. The language your person grows up in
parents spoke in the house, or to
each other out-and-about if
applicable. Often, parents will use
the same language as that of the
region however it can differ
E.g. a family of immigrants from Mexico to the U.S. In their house and with
family and friends they may use Spanish. But at school, restaurants, stores,
etc they would use English. In this case, the native language is English and
the mother tongue is Spanish
2. Second language (L2): any language other than the first language learned.
Thus, it may actually refer to the third or fourth language
3. Foreign language: a language this is learned in an area where that language
is not generally spoken, which is not the native language of large numbers of
people in a particular country or region, and is not widely used as a medium of
communication in government, media, etc.
4. Second Language Acquisition refers to the field that investigates the human
capacity to learn language once the first language (- in the case of monolingual
children, or the first language – in the case of bilingual or multilingual
children) has been learned and is established
(SLA: the process of learning additional languages)
5. Multilingualism: refers to the ability to use two or more languages
6. Bilingualism: the ability to use two languages
7. Monolingualism: the ability to use only one language
TOPIC 2: How do different languages connect in our minds?

I. How do different
languages connect in
our minds
1. What is bilingual? “A person who knows two languages equally well”, “native-like control of two
languages”
_Leonard Bloomfield_
“A person who can use another language effectively”
_Eniar Haugen_

2. Two languages in People have separate systems for each language in their mind
one mind There is no confusion between the two languages

Coordinate
bilinguals

People see a concept, then their mind come up with it in two

languages
 Have the same system of concepts in mind but the only
change is producing the concept in different languages
Compound
bilinguals

People who have learnt second language and cannot

understand it without having translation into the mother
tongue
Subordinat
e bilinguals

Weinreich’s study of bilinguals

- Coordinate bilinguals keep the languages separately
- Compound bilinguals combine the two languages together
- Subordinate bilinguals link the second language to the first
II. Characteristics of
L2 users
1. L2 users think
differently
TOPIC 3: Explaining second language acqusition

I. The behaviourist
perspective
II. The innatist
perspective
III. Cognitive
perspective
IV. Sociocultural
TOPIC 4: Acquiring words in a second language

I. What is a word? Words are vital element of the language

To acquire a second language incrementally, learners need to integrate new
vocabulary, and get used to listening and pronouncing the words in that
language
Words mean both “word” and “speech” or “talk”
e.g. According to Eve Clark and Alaine Andersen, children have a very
early awareness of words, correcting themselves when they make
errors with words even if they do not know how to write and read
those words on paper
Extra activity What does it mean to know a word
- Meaning
- Spelling + Pronunciation
- Part of speech (noun)
- Word formation
II. How does a
person learn words in
the first language
1. Chomsky – Children born with a set of concepts to which they simply have to attach names
biological endowed Problems
mechanism - Differences between cultures and languages configure concepts
- Children’s engagement with words: NOT fast and straightforwad
(over-extension/under-extension)  phải là 1 quá trình phát triển về
mặt ngôn ngữ, không phải ghép/nối cái này với cái kia

2. Communication Early vocab mostly composed of items related to everyday activities

among adults and Child directed communication/baby talk
children e.g.

L1 children’s
lexical development
is partly the result of
specialized
linguistics interaction
with their parents
and enviroment
around them, partly
the result of the
natural
predipositions in the
minds
III. How does one
learn words in the
second language
1. L2 users # babies - At more advanced stages in cognitive terms
- Already been through the process of LA (know about labeling function of
words and kinds of ways they may relate)

… (next lesson)
Innate dimensions of
vocab acquisition?
Yes. Foreign talk
Specialized linguistic
interaction?
Similar items of meaning (already internalized in L1)  L2: recycle +
Associations minimum adjustment
between L1 & L2 Different items (not correspond in L2)  over/under-extension
words

2.
IV. Techniques of
learning words
1. Word by word Rote-learning (học vẹt)
learning (Atomistic Common in classroom-based learning of additional languages
approach) Rote-learning: words are learnt by ear
Mnemonic strategies
Learners deliberately connect now words they come across with words
they already know (in their own another language) to help them retain
the new words in question
“Key word” technique: constructing a mental image which links the
newly encountered word with a word which is already known

2. Learning words “through exposure when one’s attention is focused on the use of language,
from context rather than on learning”
 No item-by-item basis
 No conscious memorization (try to learn by heart)
2 interpretations of Incidental Vocab learning
- Krashen: new words can be picked up just from reading and entirely
concentrate on the message (learn L1)
 Criticism: Small number of words acquired
How long such gains actually lasted?
- More psychological interpretation: without being told in advance to
memorize materials & may involve focusing on experience & experimental
tasks
Parreren: Inferring meaning from context in L2 reading results in better lexical
retention than having words and their meanings presented in an isolated
manner.
Three-phase action sequence:
+ Guessing the meaning of the unknown word
+ Checking the guess
+ Focusing on the form of the word, analyzing it in relation to other
words known
Hulstijin:
- Words can be accquired from reading although the number of words is likely
to be limited
- Relevance of an unknown word to informational needs is a significant factor
in relation to the amount of attention (depends on how important the new word
is in the given context)
- Making the effort to deprive the meaning from context & formal clues
improve the chance of word retention (the more effort they put in the new
word, the longer they remember)
 Diminish dependence on L1:
- Context-based vocab acquisition is more effective in fostering second
Always effective? language lexical knowledge which is not dependent
Not all contexts are - Evidence
equally rich 
meaning not always
specific (không đủ
dữ kiện để hiểu
nghĩa)

TOPIC 5:
I. Introduction to Grammar is elaborate technical description in grammar books
Grammar Grammar refers to the grammatical resources an individual speaker of a
language has in their mind – the ability to put sentences together to convey a
meaning
 Grammar is a practical necessity for communicating in a language and
underlies …
Grammar is the part of the study of language which deals with …

Some aspects of grammar

- Word order
- Changing the form of words
- Grammatical systems
Word order Word order refers to the way words are arranged in a sentence
Grammar has merits that words have to come one after the other by making
this order of words themselves have meaning

Changing the form of This can be done through:

words - Inflections on the end of the word
- Changing the vowels within the words

Grammatical systems A grammatical system consists of a choice between meaningful grammatical

options

Learning

Teaching Ellis (1994) suggests that the ideal approach to the teaching of grammar is the
combination of both formal teaching and engaging in communicative activities
It enables the teacher to break down the language into many pieces 
fundamental rules and structures for students to pick up and understand 
communicative skills
II. Learning the (L1) Independent grammar assumption: children have mental grammar of their
grammar of a second own at each stage of language development
language - They don’t so much pick up bits
e.g.
(L2) Interlanguage grammar: learners create a grammar system of their own
own out of
- The presence of L1
- The fragments of the second language they encounter
- Their other experiences such as teaching, social encountrers and so on

III. Three areas of

grammar
1. Grammatical The smallest unit of language that has a role in grammatical structure (Cook,
morphemes 1993)
Young English children acquiring L1 typically leave inflections …
TOPIC 6:

Critical period
Critical period
hypothesis