Ellis (1997): SLA

Chapter 4 and 5: Social and Discourse Aspects of Interlanguage

For the course: SLA (for undergraduate students)
Course Presenter: Dr Yaser Hadidi
• Prevailing perspective on Interlanguage is psycholinguistic
• But the social factors are also important
• Three social angles on L2 acquisition and IntLg:
• 1) Intlg as a stylistic continuum
• 2) social factors determine the input that learners use to
construct their Intlg
• 3) social identities learners negotiate in their interactions
• Intlg as a stylistic continuum:
• Careful style
• Vernacular style
• Variability in accuracy when using different styles
• Two problems:
• 1) style may not correlate with accuracy
• 2) the role of social factors unclear; NSs style-shift according to social factors
• So this may show psycholinguistic roots of variability rather than social (output planning
time).
• Accommodation theory: learner’s social group affecting acquisition:
• 1) convergence
• 2) divergence
• SLA is the result of long-term convergence towards NS norms → proficiency → attitudes ,
interaction, identity
•
• Acculturation Model:
• Distance
• Pidginization (early fossilization) of the L2 is the result of:
• Learners failing to acculturate to the target-language group
• Unable or unwilling to adapt to a new culture
• Social and psychological distance
• Amount of contact
• Problems:
• 1) Factors like ‘integration pattern’ and ‘attitude’ are not fixed
• 2) Learners may be the initiator and agent of social context of learning/change.
Not just subject TO social conditions
• Social identity and investment in L2 Learning:
• Bonny Peirce:
• ‘subject to’ / ‘subject of’ in the link between social context and L2 acquisition
• Being the subject of discourse in conversation (and not be humiliated)
• Vs
• Being the subject to a discourse which assumed an identity she did not have
• L2 learners have complex social identities within power relations that shape social
structures
• An L2 learner’s social identity is multiple and contradictory
• Learning is successful when L2 learners summon up or construct an identity that enables
them to impose their right to be heard and be the subject of discourse
• This requires investment → belief in one’s efforts increasing the value of one’s cultural
capital (knowledge and modes of thought needed to function successfully in social contexts)
• L2 Acquisition → struggle and investment
• Learners are not computers who process input data
• They are combatants who battle to assert themselves
• They are investors who expect a good return on their efforts
• Successful learners reflect critically on how they engage with NSs
• They are prepared to challenge the accepted social order by constructing
and asserting social identities of their own choice.
• Giles, Schumann, Peirce → sociocultural models of L2 Acquisition
• They assume a SL environment for explaining L2 success and attainment
• These models may be less relevant to FL environments
• Chapter 5: Discourse Aspects of Interlanguage
• Social aspects of intlg do not show the black-box
• By studying the discourse produced by L2 learners,
• And by studying how discourse shapes intlg, we can understand more
things about the nature of the intlg in the L2 learner’s head
• Acquiring discourse rules for the L2 learner may be relatively
systematic and developmental
• But more research is needed to understand which discourse aspects
are universal and which are L1 based
• But we know a lot of discourse aspects come from L1
•The Role of Input / Interaction in L2
Acquisition
• Three positions
• Behaviorist
• Mentalist
• Interactionist
• Interactionist perspective
• Input modifications
• Foreigner Talk: grammatical / ungrammatical
• Intriguing → there is no evidence that learners’ errors (their intlg) derive from
the language (grammatical or ungrammatical) they are exposed to.
• Grammatical foreigner talk by NSs is:
• 1) Delivered at a slower rate
• 2) Is simplified (table 5.1)
• 3) Regularized
• 4) Elaborated language use
• Negotiation of meaning even in NNS – NNS interaction
• Krashen → input helps acquisition by ‘i + 1’ = comprehensible input
• Michael Long: interaction H
• Comprehensible input + negotiation of meaning (negative evidence, clarification,
simplification, etc)
• But the relationship between interaction and acquisition is clearly a complex one.
• Hatch: co-building of discourse / syntax through scaffolding
• Vygotsky: interaction the bedrock of acquisition → activity theory :
• Motive: define the activity for themselves by deciding what to attend to and what
not to attend to
• Internalization: ZPD and scaffolding causes internalization by the learner
• Acquisition is the result of interaction with more expert / more knowledgeable
others
• Then gradual weaning from assistance
• Activity theory: socially constructed L2 knowledge is is necessary for intlg
development
• The Role of Output in L2 Acquisition
• Krashen doesn’t believe in it: auto-input at most
• Unlike Swain: comprehensible output → learning from one’s own output
• 1) A consciousness raising function → Noticing the gap
• 2) Testing hypotheses
• 3) Discussing their own output