Mahnoor Jamal

Second Language Acquisition I

1. Second language acquisition: Interlanguage

Learners often transfer aspects of their L1 knowledge to their interlanguage grammars. The use
of learners’ L1 knowledge in their L2 output can cause transfer errors. The following sentence
contains this type of error of a learner learning English. Speculate about what might be
responsible for this error.

a. I bought some fruits at the store.

Depending on the situation, the learner does not know when the word “fruit” has to
end with ‘s’ or not.
b. I told a funny yoke.

The learner cannot pronounce alveopalatal affricates ([dʒ] does not exist in their
language, so they difficulty producing the sound).

c. You need to transport those plants.

The learner uses what they already know from their knowledge of L1 (“transportation”)
and applies it to anything that is moving. They do not see a difference in L2.

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 2. Second language acquisition: Positive and Negative Evidence

French and English differ in adverb placement. French allows structures such as The man is
drinking slowly his coffee while English does not.

a. Which learner would require positive evidence? Which would require negative evidence? An
English speaker learning French or a French speaker learning English?

An English speaker learning French will require positive evidence while a French
speaker learning English will require negative evidence. An English speaker will be able
to notice the verb and adverb can switch places. A French speaker learning English will
be able to notice that an adverb it is grammatically incorrect for an adverb to occur in
between a verb and its direct object (unlike French).

b. What might be some examples of the positive evidence that the learner might need?

Some examples of the positive evidence that the learner might need are storytelling,
games and exercises in order to indirectly stress the post verb rules.

c. What might be some examples of the negative evidence that the learner might need?

Some examples of the negative evidence that the learner might need are explanations,
explicit grammar teachings, and corrections of wrong sequences or ungrammatical
sentences. Basically, things that will show what cannot be done.

d. What kinds of errors would you expect a French speaker learning English to make?

1) Question Formation:

“Do you like to dance?” (Correct)

“You like to dance, isn’t it?” (Error)

The auxiliary verb “do” is missing. In French, they say « n’est-ce pas ? » at the end.

2) Incorrect word order:

“She speaks English very well” (Correct)

“She speaks very well English” (Error)

The adverb is in the wrong place. In French, it is grammatically correct to put an

adverb in between a verb and its direct object.

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 3. Second language acquisition: Markedness Hypothesis
Long and short vowels are contrastive (i.e., they make a meaning difference) in German but not
in English, which has only contrastive short vowels. Would it be harder for a German speaker to
acquire English short vowels, or would it be harder for an English speaker to acquire German
long vowels? Explain in terms of markedness.
It would be more difficult for an English speaker to acquire German long vowels. Using the
Markedness Differential Hypothesis, L2 learners will have more difficulty with marked
structures. English only has short vowels (unmarked/simple/common), but German has
both short (unmarked/simple/common) and long (marked/complex/less common). It would
be easier for a German speaker because they are familiar with short vowels and an English
speaker is not familiar with long vowels. Also, learning long vowels would be more difficult
because they are marked (complex) and short vowels are unmarked (simple).

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