THE THEORETICAL MODEL: Five Hypotheses

THE THEORETICAL MODEL: Five Hypotheses

1. The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis

   • This hypothesis states that adults develop competence in second languages in two distinct ways.
     • Acquisition
       • The first way is via language acquisition, that is, by using language for real communication. This is the "natural" way to develop linguistic ability, and is a subconscious process in which we are not aware of the rules of languages we have acquired.
         • *similar to child first language acquisition *"picking up" a language subconscious *implicit knowledge *formal teaching doesn't help.
     • Learning
       • The second way is by language learning, this is knowing about language or formal knowledge of a language. Differentt to the acquisition, learning is conscious, that is, we are aware of the rules of the language. In conclusion, adults can still acquire second languages.
         • *formal knowledge of language *"knowing about" a language conscious *explicit knowledge *formal teaching helps

2. The Natural Order Hypothesis

   • States that grammatical structures are acquired in a predictable order, but not everyone will acquire them in the same order. Also that we will see similarities across acquirers, some structures will be acquired early while others will be acquired late.
     • Brown discovered that children acquire certain grammatical morphemes earlier than others.
       • The progressive tense marker -ing as in "he is going to work", and the plural -s as in "two hats" are usually the first morphemes acquired by children.
       • The third person singular morpheme -s as in "he goes to work every day at nine", and the possessive marker "it is John's hat" are acquired later.
       • Even tho the order of acquisition for second language and for first language are not the same, there are some similarities.
         • ING (possessive)
           • PLURAL
             • COPULA (to be)
               • Auxiliarity (progressive) Article (a, the)
                 • Irregular past
                   • Regular past lll singular (-s) Possessive (-s)
       • AVERAGE ORDER OF ACQUISITION OF GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES FOR ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

3. The Monitor Hypothesis

   • States that conscious learning has an extremely limited function in adult second language performance: it can only be used as a monitor
     • When we produce utterances in a second language, the utterance is "initiated" by the acquired system, and our conscious learning only comes into play later. We can thus use monitor to make changes in our utterances only after they were generated by the acquired system.
       • It may happen before or after we speak or write, when it happens after the utterance it is called self-repair
         • Our fluency in production is hypothesized to come from what we have acquired in natural communicative situations.
           • Our formal knowledge of a second language is not responsible for fluency, but only has the function of checking and making repairs on the output of the acquired system.
   • There's three requirements that must be satisfied in order to use the monitor succesfully
     • The performer has to have enough time: in rapid conversations, taking time to think about rules, such as the structure or subject-verb agreement may disrupt communication
     • The performer has to be thinking about correctness or be focused on form: sometimes we may not be concerned with whether we have inflected the ver correctly, we may be more concerned with what we are saying and not how we are saying it.
     • The performer has to know the rule: linguistis admit that they have only been able to describe a fragment of the grammar of even well-studied languages such as English.

4. The Input Hypothesis

   • States that we acquire language by understanding input that is a little beyond our current level of competence. It attempts to answer the question: "How do we acquire language?
     • It claims that listening comprehension and reading are of primary importance in the language program.
       • Speaking ability "emerges" after the acquirer has built up competence through comprehending input.
         • In order for acquirers to progress to the next stages in the acquisition of the target language, they need to understand input language.
           • When caretakers talk to acquirers so that they understand the message, input automatically contains "i+1", the grammatical structure the acquirer is "ready" to acquire.

5. The Affective Filter Hypothesis

   • States that certain attitudinal variables relate primarily to subconscious language acquisition.
     • People who are motivated will seek and obtain more input.
     • Performers with optimal attitudes have a lower affective filter, that means that the performer is more open to the input.
       • That will encourage them to get more input, to interact with speakers of the target language and to be more receptive to the input they get.