Second Language Acquisition.docx

Second Language Acquisition.docx

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SecondLanguageAcquisition

Secondlanguageacquisition

FromWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia.

（RedirectedfromSecondlanguagelearning）

Secondlanguageacquisition,orSLA,istheprocessesbywhichpeoplelearnlanguagesinadditiontotheirnativetongue（s）.Justassecondlanguageisthestandardtermforanylanguagewhoseacquisitionstartsafterearlychildhood,includingwhatischronologicallythethirdorsubsequentlanguage,SLAistheacquisitionofanysecondlanguage.Thelanguagetobelearnedisoftenreferredtoasthe"targetlanguage"or"L2"（andSLAisoftencalledL2A,for"L2acquisition"）.ThestudyofSLAisusuallyviewedaspartofappliedlinguistics.

Theterm"languageacquisition"becamecommonlyusedafterStephenKrashencontrasteditwithformalandnon-constructive"learning."Today,mostscholarsuse"languagelearning"and"languageacquisition"interchangeably,unlesstheyaredirectlyaddressingKrashen'swork.However,"SecondLanguageAcquisition"or"SLA"hasbecomeestablishedasthepreferredtermforthisacademicdiscipline.

Contents

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∙1Describinglearnerlanguage

o1.1Erroranalysis

o1.2Interlanguage

o1.3Developmentalpatterns

▪1.3.1Orderofacquisition

▪1.3.2Sequenceofacquisition

o1.4Variability

∙2Learner-externalfactors

o2.1Socialeffects

o2.2Inputandintake

o2.3Interaction

o2.4Pedagogicaleffects

∙3Learner-internalfactors

o3.1Cognitiveapproaches

o3.2Languagetransfer

o3.3Linguisticuniversals

∙4Individualvariation

o4.1Languageaptitude

o4.2Age

o4.3Strategyuse

o4.4Affectivefactors

▪4.4.1Anxiety

▪4.4.2Socio-culturalfactors

▪4.4.3Motivation

∙5UnderstandingSLA

o5.1Conceptsofability

∙6Referencesandfurtherreading

∙7Seealso

∙8Externallinks

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Describinglearnerlanguage

Throughthedescriptivestudyoflearnerlanguage,SLAresearchersseektobetterunderstandlanguagelearningwithoutrecoursetofactorsoutsidelearnerlanguage.Researchersmayadoptaninterlanguageperspective,exploringlearnerlanguageasalinguisticsystem,ortheymaystudyhowlearnerlanguagecomparestothetargetlanguage.Researchiscenteredonthequestion:

Whataretheuniquecharacteristicsoflearnerlanguage?

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Erroranalysis

ThefieldoferroranalysisinSLAwasestablishedinthe1970sbyS.P.Corderandcolleagues.Awidely-availablesurveycanbefoundinchapter8ofBrown,2000.Erroranalysiswasanalternativetocontrastiveanalysis,anapproachinfluencedbybehaviorismthroughwhichappliedlinguistssoughttousetheformaldistinctionsbetweenthelearners'firstandsecondlanguagestopredicterrors.Erroranalysisshowedthatcontrastiveanalysiswasunabletopredictagreatmajorityoferrors,althoughitsmorevaluableaspectshavebeenincorporatedintothestudyoflanguagetransfer.Akeyfindingoferroranalysishasbeenthatmanylearnererrorsareproducedbylearnersmakingfaultyinferencesabouttherulesofthenewlanguage.

Erroranalystsdistinguishbetweenerrors,whicharesystematic,andmistakes,whicharenot.Theyoftenseektodevelopatypologyoferrors.Errorcanbeclassifiedaccordingtobasictype:

omissive,additive,substitutiveorrelatedtowordorder.Theycanbeclassifiedbyhowapparenttheyare:

overterrorssuchas"Iangry"areobviousevenoutofcontext,whereascoverterrorsareevidentonlyincontext.Closelyrelatedtothisistheclassificationaccordingtodomain,thebreadthofcontextwhichtheanalystmustexamine,andextent,thebreadthoftheutterancewhichmustbechangedinordertofixtheerror.Errorsmayalsobeclassifiedaccordingtotheleveloflanguage:

phonologicalerrors,vocabularyorlexicalerrors,syntacticerrors,andsoon.Theymaybeassessedaccordingtothedegreetowhichtheyinterferewithcommunication:

globalerrorsmakeanutterancedifficulttounderstand,whilelocalerrorsdonot.Intheaboveexample,"Iangry"wouldbealocalerror,sincethemeaningisapparent.

Fromthebeginning,erroranalysiswasbesetwithmethodologicalproblems.Inparticular,theabovetypologiesareproblematic:

fromlinguisticdataalone,itisoftenimpossibletoreliablydeterminewhatkindoferroralearnerismaking.Also,erroranalysiscandealeffectivelyonlywithlearnerproduction（speakingandwriting）andnotwithlearnerreception（listeningandreading）.Furthermore,itcannotcontrolforlearneruseofcommunicativestrategiessuchasavoidance,inwhichlearnerssimplydonotuseaformwithwhichtheyareuncomfortable.Forthesereasons,althougherroranalysisisstillusedtoinvestigatespecificquestionsinSLA,thequestforanoverarchingtheoryoflearnererrorshaslargelybeenabandoned.Inthemid-1970s,Corderandothersmovedontoamorewide-rangingapproachtolearnerlanguage,knownasinterlanguage.

Erroranalysisiscloselyrelatedtothestudyoferrortreatmentinlanguageteaching.Today,thestudyoferrorsisparticularlyrelevantforfocusonformteachingmethodology.

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Interlanguage

Interlanguagescholarshipseekstounderstandlearnerlanguageonitsownterms,asanaturallanguagewithitsownconsistentsetofrules.Interlanguagescholarsreject,atleastforheuristicpurposes,theviewoflearnerlanguageasmerelyanimperfectversionofthetargetlanguage.Interlanguageisperhapsbestviewedasanattitudetowardlanguageacquisition,andnotadistinctdiscipline.Bythesametoken,interlanguageworkisavibrantmicrocosmoflinguistics.Itispossibletoapplyaninterlanguageperspectivetolearnerpronunciation（interlanguagephonology）,butalsotolanguage-usenormsfoundamonglearners（interlanguagepragmatics）.

Bydescribingthewaysinwhichlearnerlanguageconformstouniversallinguisticnorms,interlanguageresearchhascontributedgreatlytoourunderstandingoflinguisticuniversalsinSLA.Seebelow,under"linguisticuniversals".

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Developmentalpatterns

Ellis（1994）distinguishedbetween"order"torefertothepatterninwhichdifferentlanguagefeaturesareacquiredand"sequence"todenotethepatternbywhichaspecificlanguagefeatureisacquired.

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Orderofacquisition

Researchershavefoundaveryconsistentorderintheacquisitionoffirstlanguagestructuresbychildren,andthishasdrawnagreatdealofinterestfromSLAscholars.Considerableefforthasbeendevotedtotestingthe"identityhypothesis,"whichassertsthatfirst-languageandsecond-languageacquisitionconformtothesamepatterns.Thishasnotbeenconfirmed,probablybecausesecond-languagelearners'cognitiveandaffectivestatesaresomuchmoreadvanced.However,ordersofacquisitioninSLAdooftenresemblethosefoundinfirstlanguageacquisition,andmayhavecommonneurologicalcauses.

Mostlearnersbegintheiracquisitionprocesswitha"silentperiod,"inwhichtheyspeakverylittleifatall.Forsomethisisaperiodoflanguageshock,inwhichthelearneractivelyrejectstheincomprehensibleinputofthenewlanguage.However,researchhasshownthatmany"silent"learnersareengaginginprivatespeech（sometimescalled"self-talk"）.Whileappearingsilent,theyarerehearsingimportantsurvivalphrasesandlexicalchunks.Thesememorizedphrasesarethenemployedinthesubsequentperiodofformulaicspeech.Whetherbychoiceorcompulsion,otherlearnershavenosilentperiodandpassdirectlytoformulaicspeech.Thisspeech,inwhichahandfulofroutinesareusedtoaccomplishbasicpurposes,oftenshowsfewdeparturesfromL2morphosyntax.Iteventuallygiveswaytoamoreexperimentalphaseofacquisition,inwhichthesemanticsandgrammarofthetargetlanguagearesimplifiedandthelearnersbegintoconstructatrueinterlanguage.

Thenatureofthetransitionbetweenformulaicandsimpliedspeechisdisputed.Some,includingKrashen,havearguedthatthereisnocognitiverelationshipbetweenthetwo,andthatthetransitionisabrupt.Thinkersinfluencedbyrecenttheoriesofthelexiconhavepreferredtoviewevennativespeakerspeechasheavilyformulaic,andinterpretthetransitionasaprocessofgraduallydevelopingabroaderrepertoireofchunksandadeeperunderstandingoftheruleswhichgovernthem.Somestudieshavesupportedbothviews,anditislikelythattherelationshipdependsingreatpartonthelearningstylesofindividuallearners.

Aflurryofstudiestookplaceinthe1970s,examiningwhetheraconsistentorderofmorphemeacquisitioncouldbeshown.Mostofthesestudiesdidshowfairlyconsistentordersofacquisitionforselectedmorphemes.Forexample,amonglearnersofEnglishtheclusteroffeaturesincludingthesuffix"-ing,"theplural,andthecopulawerefoundtoconsistentlyprecedeotherssuchasthearticle,auxiliary,andthirdpersonsingular.However,thesestudieswerewidelycriticizedasnotpayingsufficientattentiontooveruseofthefeatures（idiosyncraticusesoutsidewhatareobligatorycontextsintheL2）,andsporadicbutinconsistentuseofthefeatures.Morerecentscholarshippreferstoviewtheacquisitionofeachlinguisticfeatureasagradualandcomplexprocess.Forthatreasonmostscholarshipsincethe1980shasfocusedonthesequence,ratherthantheorder,offeatureacquisition.

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Sequenceofacquisition

AnumberofstudieshavelookedintothesequenceofacquisitionofpronounsbylearnersofvariousIndo-Europeanlanguages.ThesearereviewedbyEllis（1994）,pp.96-99.Theyshowthatlearnersbeginbyomittingpronounsorusingthemindiscriminately:

forexample,using"I"torefertoallagents.Learnersthenacquireasinglepronounfeature,oftenperson,followedbynumberandeventuallybygender.Littleevidenceofinterferencefromthelearner'sfirstlangua