SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION THEORIES

Behaviourism:

• Learning happens through imitation, practice, reinforcement, and habit formation.

• Classroom activities such as mimicry and learning dialogues by heart.

Innatism:

• Chomsky states the principle of Universal Grammar, which allows children to acquire the language
of their environment during what he calls a critical period of their development.
• Lydia White says acquisition of grammatical features happens naturally when learners are engaged
in meaningful uses of the language.

Krashen’s 5 Hypothesis:
Acquisition / Learning Hypothesis: We “acquire” language the same way children pick it up – with no
conscious to form. We “learn” language through conscious attention to form and rules.
More language is acquired than learned.
Monitor Hypothesis: We use language we have acquired in spontaneous communication. Rules learned
as a monitor, allows us to polish language we produce.
The Natural Order Hypothesis: Based on how second language acquisition opens in predictable
sequences. Language rules are easily learned but are not the first to be acquired.
The Comprehensible Input: Acquisition occurs when the learner is exposed to comprehensible language
and contains the formula “i + 1”, that is, language just a notch above their level.
The Affective Filter: a barrier can prevent learners from acquiring language due to feelings of anxiety or
negative attitudes. The lower the filter, the better the learner will acquire the language.

Cognitive Perspective:

• Second language acquisition has the same process as a computer, in that it has the capacity to
store, integrate and retrieve prior information, thus shaping their perception of the new language.

• There is a limit to how much information a learner can pay attention to. At an early stage, they may
not notice grammatical morphemes attached to some words. However, gradually through
experience and practice, information that was once new now becomes easier to process and
learner access it quicklier and even automatically.

• Proficient learners hear words they know and utter automatic responses. They can understand the
overall meaning of a text or conversation. As for less proficient learners pay attention to the
meaning of individual words and the relationships between them.

Interaction Hypothesis:

• Conversational interaction is essential. Modified interaction is a necessary mechanism for making

language comprehensible.
• Learners need opportunities to interact with their peers and negotiate meaning.
Noticing Hypothesis:

• Richard Schmidt proposed that nothing is learned unless it has been noticed before. It does not
result in acquisition but until learners had not become aware of the process in the input it will not
happen.

Input Processing:

• Learners have limited processing capacity and cannot pay attention to form and meaning at the
same time, without it interfering with their progress in acquiring the language.
• They tend to give priority to meaning, overlooking some aspects of the form.

The sociocultural perspective:

• Speaking and writing mediates thinking.

• Learners internalize what others say to them thus gaining control over their mental process.
• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). A situation in which the learner can perform at a higher level
because of the support offered by an interlocutor.

Connectionism:
• Knowledge is represented as patterns of numerical activity across large sets of simple processing
units
• Processing occurs via transformations of patterns of activity across large sets of connections.
• Learning occurs as the confluence of innate but domain-general architectural and learning
mechanisms, plus experience.