Mahnoor Jamal

Second Language Acquisition II

1. Indicate the type of error (phonological, morphological, syntactic, or lexical) found in the
following sentences.
a) She play tennis almost every day. Morphological
b) I no get on the train on time. Lexical
c) The house old needs painting. Morphological
d) I’m not a very good cooker. Morphological
e) You should get your hairs cut. Syntactic
f) Look at that goose with antlers! Lexical
g) I miss the bus, yesterday. Morphological
h) Tank you very much. Phonological

2. In your second language learning experience, can you think of an example of an L2 property
that seemed very different from your L1 and that you found easy to learn? Can you think of
an example of something different that you found hard to learn? What do you think might
have led to the difference in ease of learning?

My first language is English and my second language is French.

One property of French that’s very different from English that I found a little difficult
to learn is that French words are either masculine or feminine, while English words are
not either. For example, “the chair” is « la chaise » (feminine) and “the bed” is « le lit »
(masculine). “The” changes depending on if the subject word is masculine or feminine
in French, while in English, “The” remains the same no matter what. I think this
concept can be difficult because it is hard to remember if a word is masculine or
feminine (there are so many words in the language), and so you have to memorize them.

One property of French that’s very different from English that I found easy to learn is
that in French sentences adjectives (most of the time) follow the subject, while in
English sentences adjectives come prior to the subject. For example, “the happy girl” is
« la fille heureuse » (adjective = heureuse). I think this was really easy for me to catch
on to because the only thing you have to do is switch around a few placements of words.

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 3. In second language learners whose first language does not allow coda consonants, we
sometimes see variation in the production of English codas. Examine the following phrases
and propose an explanation as to why some stops in coda position are deleted, and others are
produced. Segments in boldface are produced while struckthrough segments are deleted.
Focus only on either boldface or struckthrough segments for this question.
a) cup of coffee

Cup is pronounced as “cap” or “cop” in many other. The usage of coda consonants
or vowels are common for such words.
b) back to work

The word “back” is said as “pack” in some countries, and similarly “work” is said
as “wourk”.
c) met on the train

The word “train” is said in French as “trin” which could have a negative impact on
English pronunciation.

d) bad with numbers

The word “bad” is said as “bed” in many countries, this is considered as a major
part in English.

4. What explanation would you give for a native speaker of French who produced the English
sentence I drink frequently coffee ? How could you explain the fact that when the same
speaker produces the sentence He is frequently late , it is grammatical? Do any other English
verbs have the same properties as be ?

Adverbs are used to modify verbs, not nouns or pronouns. The first sentence “I drink
frequently coffee” is trying to modify the word “coffee” (noun), which is why it is
ungrammatical. While the second sentence “He is frequently late”, modifies “be”
(verb), which is why it is grammatical. Have also has the same properties as “be”.

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 5. Consider the possible responses of a teacher when a student produces the following
ungrammatical sentence: Why he should bring a sweater?
Teacher A: That should be “why should he bring a sweater?”
Teacher B: He should?
Teacher C: Think about what you know about WH questions with modals in them.
Teacher D: Because it might be cold in the theatre.
What do you see as the pros and cons of each of the responses? What might influence your
response?
Teachers A and B: Reactive focus on form
Teacher C: Pre-emptive focus on form
Teacher D: Doesn’t bring attention to mistake
Teachers A, B, and C all tell the student (directly/indirectly) that there is a mistake or to
focus on something specific, whereas Teacher D doesn’t give any feedback at all. This
can be a pro for Teachers A, B, and C because this will bring attention to the error
that’s made and the student will give more attention/go over it more thoroughly to
make sure a mistake is not made. This can be a con of Teacher D because the student
might believe they are grammatically correct and will continue to produce sentences
like that. On the other hand, explicit feedback is not always productive and can lead to
inconclusive results, but, spontaneous focus on form, AKA teachers A, B, and C can still
help some students.

6. Imagine that you are teaching English to a group of L2 learners. How might you respond to
the following non-target like utterances? What do you think the intended utterance was? If
you tried to explain the nature of the errors, what would you say?

a) I like to fish eat.

“I like to eat fish”

b) He said that he late would arrive.

“He said that he would arrive late”

c) I was disgusted for the film.

“I was disgusted by the film”

d) What did you see the man read the book that was on?
“What did the man who read the book see?”

e) Is raining.
“It is raining”

g) I bought in Japan
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