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.

I bought fruits at the store
In L1 they might use auxiliaries/determiners

b. I told a funny yoke.

Transfer from L1 –> L1 wouldn’t have J in the consonants

c. You need to transport those plants.

They don’t have sociolinguistic competence (formal vs informal, “transport” vs “move”)
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?

English speaker learning French  negative

French speaker learning English  positive

b. What might be some examples of the positive evidence that the learner might need?
That the adverb must go after the verb

c. What might be some examples of the negative evidence that the learner might need?
The adverb can go before or after the verb

d. What kinds of errors would you expect a French speaker learning English to make?
-putting adverbs after verbs
-putting adjectives after nouns
-SOV vs SVO
-not dropping the subject in English
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 harder for the English speaker to learn German because long vowels are more
marked than short vowels, and according to the Markedness Differential Hypothesis, this would
make it harder for an L1 English speaker to learn.