second language acquisition 二语习得.docx

second language acquisition 二语习得.docx

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secondlanguageacquisition二语习得

Preface:

Inthepast30–40years,thefieldofsecondlanguageacquisitionhasdevelopedintoanindependentandautonomousdiscipline,completewithitsownresearchagenda.

Whatisparticularlynoteworthyaboutthefieldofsecondlanguageacquisitionisitsinterdisciplinarycharacter.Secondlanguageresearchisconcernedwiththegeneralquestion:

Howaresecondlanguageslearned?

Scholarsapproachthefieldfromawiderangeofbackgrounds:

sociology,psychology,education,andlinguistics,tonameafew.Thishasbothpositiveandnegativeeffectsonthefield.Theadvantageisthatthroughthemultiplicityofperspectives,weareabletoseearicherpictureofacquisition,apicturethatappearstobemorerepresentativeofthephenomenonofacquisitioninthatlearningasecondlanguageundoubtedlyinvolvesfactorsrelatingtosociology,psychology,education,andlinguistics.Ontheotherhand,multipleperspectivesonwhatpurportstobeasingledisciplinebringconfusion,becauseitisfrequentlythecasethatscholarsapproachingsecondlanguageacquisitionfromdifferent（oftenopposingandseeminglyincompatible）frameworksarenotabletotalktooneanother.Thisissobecauseeachperspectivebringswithititsownwayofapproachingdataanditsownresearchmethodology.

1INTRODUCTION

1.1Thestudyofsecondlanguageacquisition

WhatisthescopeofSLA?

WhatdoesthestudyofSLAconsistof?

Itisthestudyofhowsecondlanguagesarelearned.Inotherwords,itisthestudyoftheacquisitionofanon-primarylanguage;thatis,theacquisitionofalanguagebeyondthenativelanguage.Itisthestudyofhowlearnerscreateanewlanguagesystemwithonlylimitedexposuretoasecondlanguage.Itisthestudyofwhatislearnedofasecondlanguageandwhatisnotlearned;itisthestudyofwhymostsecondlanguagelearnersdonotachievethesamedegreeofknowledgeandproficiencyinasecondlanguageastheydointheirnativelanguage;itisalsothestudyofwhyonlysomelearnersappeartoachievenative-likeproficiencyinmorethanonelanguage.Additionally,secondlanguageacquisitionisconcernedwiththenatureofthehypotheses（whetherconsciousorunconscious）thatlearnerscomeupwithregardingtherulesofthesecondlanguage.

Secondlanguageacquisitionisnotaboutpedagogyunlessthepedagogyaffectsthecourseofacquisition.

Linguistics

Whenwestudyhumanlanguage,weareapproachingwhat

somemightcallthehumanessence,thedistinctivequalitiesofmindthatare,sofarasweknow,uniqueto[humans].

（Chomsky,1968,p.100）

Thestudyofhowsecondlanguagesarelearnedispartofthebroaderstudyoflanguageandlanguagebehavior.Itisnotmorecentralorperipheralthananyotherpartoflinguisticstudy,whichinturnhasasitslargergoalthestudyofthenatureofthehumanmind.

Languagepedagogy

Peoplehavecometorealizethatifoneistodeveloplanguage-teachingmethodologies,therehastobeafirmbasisforthosemethodologiesinlanguagelearning.Itwouldbecounterproductivetobaselanguageteachingmethodologiesonsomethingotherthananunderstandingofhowlanguagelearningdoesanddoesnottakeplace.

Studiesinsecondlanguageacquisitionhavemadelanguageteachersandcurriculumdesignersawarethatlanguagelearningconsistsofmorethanrulememorization.Moreimportant,perhaps,itinvolveslearningtoexpresscommunicativeneeds.Thedetailsofthisnewconceptualizationoflanguagelearninghaveresultedinmethodologiesthatemphasizecommunication.

Asecond,perhapsequallyimportantbutlessassuming,rationalerelatedtolanguagepedagogyhastodowiththeexpectationsthatteachershaveoftheirstudents.

Cross-culturalcommunicationandlanguageuse

Ininteractionswithspeakersofanotherlanguage/culture,wehavecertainexpectationsandweoftenproducestereotypedreactions.Forexample,wemayfindourselvesmakingjudgmentsaboutotherpeoplebasedontheirlanguage.Itturnsoutthatmanystereotypesofpeoplefromothercultures（e.g.,rudeness,unassertiveness）arebasedonpatternsofnonnativespeech.Thesejudgmentsinmanyinstancesarenotjustified,becausemanyofthespeechpatternsthatnonnativespeakersusereflecttheirnonnativenessratherthancharacteristicsoftheirpersonality.

Languagepolicyandlanguageplanning

Itisimportanttoreemphasizethatthestudyofsecondlanguageacquisitionisseparatefromthestudyoflanguagepedagogyalthoughthisdoesnotimplythattherearenotimplicationsthatcanbedrawnfromsecondlanguageacquisitiontotherelateddisciplineoflanguageteaching.

SLAispartofthehumanities,inthesensethatitispartofthebranchof“learning（asphilosophy,arts,orlanguages）thatinvestigate[s]humanconstructsandconcernsasopposedtonaturalprocesses（asinphysicsorchemistry）andsocialrelations（asinanthropologyoreconomics）”（fromMerriam-Websteronlinedictionary）,althoughclearlythereareareasofthefieldthatdoconsidersocialrelationsasanintegralpartoflearning.

Secondlanguageacquisition,whilerightfullypartofthehumanities,isalsopartofthesocialsciences,defined（Merriam-Websteronline）as“abranchofsciencethatdealswiththeinstitutionsandfunctioningofhumansocietyandwiththeinterpersonalrelationshipsofindividualsasmembersofsociety.”

1.2Definition

NativeLanguage（NL）:

Thisreferstothefirstlanguagethatachildlearns.Itisalsoknownastheprimarylanguage,themothertongue,ortheL1（firstlanguage）.

TargetLanguage（TL）:

Thisreferstothelanguagebeinglearned.

SecondLanguageAcquisition（SLA）:

SLAreferstotheprocessoflearninganotherlanguageafterthenativelanguagehasbeenlearned.Sometimesthetermreferstothelearningofathirdorfourthlanguage.TheimportantaspectisthatSLAreferstothelearningofanonnativelanguageafterthelearningofthenativelanguage.Aswiththephrase“secondlanguage,”L2canrefertoanylanguagelearnedafterlearningtheL1,regardlessofwhetheritisthesecond,third,fourth,orfifthlanguage.Bythisterm,wemeanboththeacquisitionofasecondlanguageinaclassroomsituation,aswellasinmore“natural”exposuresituations.SecondLanguageStudies（SLS）asitisatermthatreferstoanythingdealingwithusingoracquiringasecond/foreignlanguage.

ForeignLanguageLearning:

Foreignlanguagelearningisgenerallydifferentiatedfromsecondlanguageacquisitioninthattheformerreferstothelearningofanonnativelanguageintheenvironmentofone’snativelanguage（e.g.,FrenchspeakerslearningEnglishinFrance）.Thisismostcommonlydonewithinthecontextoftheclassroom.

Secondlanguageacquisition,ontheotherhand,generallyreferstothelearningofanonnativelanguageintheenvironmentinwhichthatlanguageisspoken（e.g.,GermanspeakerslearningJapaneseinJapan）.Thismayormaynottakeplaceinaclassroomsetting.

1.3Thenatureoflanguage

Allnormalhumansacquirealanguageinthefirstfewyearsoflife.Theknowledgeacquiredislargelyofanunconscioussort.

Soundsystems

Knowledgeofthesoundsystem（phonology）ofournativelanguageiscomplex.Minimally,itentailsknowingwhatsoundsarepossibleandwhatsoundsarenotpossibleinthelanguage.

Phonologicalknowledgealsoinvolvesknowingwhathappenstowordsinfastspeechasopposedtomorecarefullyarticulatedspeech.

Syntax

Thisiswhatisfrequentlyknownasgrammar,referringprimarilytotheknowledgewehaveoftheorderofelementsinasentence.Wepointoutbrieflythattherearetwokindsofgrammarthataregenerallyreferredto:

（a）prescriptivegrammarand（b）descriptivegrammar.Byprescriptivegrammar,wemeansuchrulesasaregenerallytaughtinschool,oftenwithoutregardtothewaynativespeakersofalanguageactuallyuselanguage.

Ontheotherhand,linguistsareconcernedwithdescriptivegrammars:

theyattempttodescribelanguagesastheyareactuallyused.Thus,whentalkingaboutknowledgeofsyntax,wearereferringtodescriptivegrammars

Morphologyandthelexicon

Thestudyofmorphologyisthestudyofwordformation.Inmanycases,wordsaremadeupofmorethanonepart.Forexample,thewordunforeseenismadeupofthreeparts:

un,whichhasanegativefunction;fore,whichmeansearlierintime;andseen,whichmeansvisualized.Eachpartisreferredtoasamorpheme,whichcanbedefinedastheminimalunitofmeaning.Therearetwoclassesofmorphemesthatwecanidentify:

boundandfree.Aboundmorphemeisonethatcanneverbeawordbyitself,Afreemorphemeisonethatisawordinandofitself.

Semantics

Thestudyofsemanticsreferstothestudyofmeaning.This,ofcourse,doesnotnecessarilycorrespondtogrammaticalitybecausemanyungrammaticalsentencesaremeaningful,oratleastinterpretable.

Knowledgeofthesemanticsofalanguageentailsknowledgeofthereferenceofwords.

Itisimportanttonotethatthelimitsofawordarenotalwaysclear.

Referentialmeaningsareclearlynottheonlywayofexpressingmeaning.Asnativespeakersofalanguage,weknowthatthewaywecombineelementsinsentencesaffectstheirmeaning.

Pragmatics

Yetanotherareaoflanguagethatweconsiderandthatispartofwhatsecondlanguagelearnersneedtolearnhastodowithpragmatics,orthewayinwhichweuselanguageincontext.

Similarly,wordorder,asdiscussedearlier,mayhaveaneffectonmeaninginsomegrammaticalcontexts,butinothersitdoesnot.

1.4Thenatureofnonnativespeakerknowledge

ThebasicassumptioninSLAresearchisthatlearnerscreatealanguagesystem,knownasaninterlanguage（IL）.Thisconceptvalidateslearners’speech,notasadeficitsystem,that