ENG504 Quiz 1 Notes

Lesson-01: INTRODUCTION TO SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

•  In the sciences and social sciences, the construct “theory” has a particular meaning.
•  A ‘theory’ is a more or less abstract set of claims about the significant units within phenomenon under study. It aims at explanation as well as description.
•  Theories are produced collaboratively and evolve through a systematic enquiry.
•  These are assessed through hypothesis testing and involve a reflexive process.
•  A good theory is supposed to give clear and explicit statements about its claims. It must be testable or falsifiable in some way.
•  The linguists view language as a complex communication which must be analyzed on different levels.
•  The linguists are more interested in ‘property theory.’
•  They are concerned with the structure of the language and how a language changes; how certain words become obsolete; how certain factors lead to the addition of new words and merge them in a language system.
•  In property theory, the language system is important.
•  ‘Transition theory’ is more concerned with the developmental processes of language education.
•  It is interested in finding out the different stages of learning in a second language learner.
•  It can relate to the first language acquisition telling about the different learning stages in a child’s life and how that learning is different or similar to second language learning.
•  Language is the most important phenomenon in the world.
•  From birth to death, all our activities are regulated by language.
•  Language dominates every aspect of human life.
•  In fact, it is a yardstick to separate us from other beings.
•  Language is a mean of communication.
•  Learning of language is not an automatic process.
•  Of course, it is behaviour but not of the type like walking and crawling that comes to child in a natural way.
•  Each language is a unique system.
•  The system of language consists of sounds, structures, and vocabulary.
•  A person who wants to learn a new language will have to learn new sounds, new structures, and new vocabulary.
•  The sound system of language differs from language to language depending upon the culture to which a language belongs.
•  Similarly, each language has its own system of vocabulary.
•  Thus languages are systematic in their own nature.
•  Learning of a language is a skill subject.
•  It is a skill like swimming and cycling.
•  So a lot of repetition for major linguistic skills like listening, speaking, reading and writing is required.
•  Language is the best means of communication and self-expressions.
•  Human beings express their ideas, thoughts, feelings, and emotions through language.
•  In this way language is a means to connect past, present, and future.
•  Each language is governed by a particular set of rules.
•  For example, English is S.V.O. language.
•  In forming a sentence, we put subject, then verb, and after verb there comes object.
•  Language is unique: Each language is unique because it has its own style of functioning.
•  The sounds, vocabulary and structures of every language have their own specialty.

Lesson-02 NATURE OF LANGUAGE, MODULARITY AND LANGUAGE VARIABILITY

Linguists disagree over their main focus of interest and study. Noam Chomsky prefers competence over performance. By competence, he refers to the abstract and hidden representation of language knowledge held inside minds with its potential to create and understand original utterances in a given language. However, there are difficulties in studying competence as language performance data are believed to be imperfect reflections of competence. The competence can only be assessed indirectly, under controlled conditions, through wideranging tests. The best known controversy involves B. F. Skinner and Noam Chomsky. Skinner advocates behaviorist mechanisms; whereas, Chomsky emphasized the role of innate dispositions that expect natural languages to be organized in particular ways and support the role of Universal Grammar (UG). Further, there are different views on seeing mind as modular or unitary. In Piaget’s view, language is simply one manifestation of general skill of symbolic representation and first language acquisition does not require any special mechanism; whereas, Chomsky considers language as too complex to be learnt from environmental exposure and too distinctive in its structure to be learnable by general cognitive means. Universal Grammar is thus endowed with its own distinctive mechanism for learning. When we talk about errors in SL utterances, Behaviorists view errors as a result of ‘bad habits’ which can be controlled through rote learning and pattern drilling using target language models. Recent studies contradict this view by claiming that errors and mistakes are patterned although some of them are caused by first language influence, yet this is not true for all of them. Learner’s language system is unstable and characterized by high degree of variability which is a central feature of learner interlanguage.

Lesson-03: CREATIVITY AND SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING

•  Fossilization refers to the situation when a learner’s SL system seems to ‘freeze’ or become stuck at some more or less deviant stage.
•  Learners’ performance in SL is influenced by the language/languages they already know which are obvious in their accent as well as in certain characteristic mistakes in their utterances.
•  This phenomenon is called language transfer.
•  Behaviorists view it as an important source of error and interference in SLL; whereas, recent theorists find widely differing views on extent and nature of influences.
•  Performing in a language involves speaking, making sense of data we hear, interpreting, and processing incoming language data.
•  Language input is essential for normal language learning.
•  Behaviorist theory saw regular (oral) practice as helpful in forming correct language ‘habits’ whereas the contemporary theorists put emphasis on ‘practice’ function.
•  For instance, information-processing theorists argued that language competence consists of both a knowledge component and a skill component.

Lesson-04 SECOND LANUAGE USE AND PERFORMANCE PERSPECTIVE

•  Negative evidence means any kind of input that informs about unacceptable forms in the target language.
•  It includes formal correction by teacher and informal paraphrasing by a native-speaking conversational partner.
•  However, corrections often seem ineffective; therefore, recent theorist put more emphasis on the provision of positive evidence.

Lesson-05 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL LEARNERS

•  This period since the 1950s can be divided into three main phases: 1950s – 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s onwards.
•  In 1950s and early 1960s SLL theorizing was much adjunct to the practical business of language teaching.
•  Language teaching methods at that time had to be justifiable in terms of an underlying theory. ‘Progressive’ language pedagogy (1950s) drew on a version of structuralism developed by British linguist Palmer.
•  This approach is summed up as follows:

The conviction about finite set of ‘patterns’ or ‘structures’ in language systems

The belief that reception and practice result in accuracy and fluency in foreign language habits

Methodology to teach ‘the basic’ first before encouraging learners to communicate their own thoughts and ideas

Lesson-06 BEHAVIOURISM AND FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Behaviorists view language learning (like any other kind of learning) as a formation of habits; that is creation of stimulus–response pairing which becomes stronger with reinforcement. In case of first language learning, the process is relatively simple as we have to learn a new set of habits. Second language learning involves replacing those habits by a set of new ones, which is complicated. If SL structures are similar to the learners’ first language then learning will easily take place but in case they are different, learning will be difficult.