SLA

SLA

1. Five central processes

   • Transfer of training
   • SLL strategies
   • SL communication strategies
   • Overgeneralization
   • Language transfer
     • A better term is crosslinguistic influences

2. L2 learning

   • Learning processes
     • Simplification
       • Used when messages need to be conveyed with little language.  1 meaning - 1 form.
     • Overgeneralization
       • Application of a rule to contexts where it applies and where it does not.  Random or systematically.  It supposes a level of development, because there has to be some understanding and regularity of form. 
     • Restructuring
       • Self-reorganization of grammar knowledge representations. It involves knowledge changes that are qualitative and related to development and progress. This is NOT ACCURACY.
     • U-shaped behaviour
       • Part of restructuring. Appearance of native-like forms at an early stage of development which undergo a process of attrition to be restored later. In the first phase, accuracy is coincidental because it lacks the full target-like representations and forms of the last phase. 
   • Competence vs. Development
     • COMPETENCE: the nature of mental representations comprising the internal grammar of learners.  DEVELOPMENT: the processes and mechanisms by which those expectations and the ability to use them change over time
   • Characteristics
     • Uneven pace. Predictable. Systematic.  Variability. SLA has order and sequence, so we cannot expect our learners to learn what they are not developmentaly ready to learn. 
   • Patterns of acquisition
     • Order and sequence.  Teachers can only hope to teach successfully what learners are developmentally ready to learn.  PHASE 1: Pragmatic means PHASE 2: Lexical means aded PHASE 3:  Morphological means added When morphology emerges to express tense and aspect, not all forms emerge at once.  We can say the person has acquired X morpheme when the learner shows between 80/90% accuracy. 
     • Qualifications
       • 1. In written grammar tests, instructed learners may be able to supply all morphemes with relative accuracy, but thet would not show their ability for real-time use of the L2.  2. This patterned attainment of accuracy should not be equated with linear proggression from inaccurate to accurate in a form-by-form fashion. Before reaching the accuracy benchmark, L2 users undergo non-linear increases and decreases in accuracy.  3. On occasion, some studies have reported slightly different ranks for structures within a given box. However, the rank of structures is never violated across the boxes. 
     • Aspect Hypothesis
       • Predicts that the developmental pathway of emergence of tense and aspect will reflect prototypical combinations where the semantics of the verb morphology is congruent with the semantics of the meaning of the verb to which the morphology is attached.  Development unfolds in a gradual form-function mapping process that is guided by prototypical pairings of verbal morphology with verb semantics 
     • Syntax
       • Markedness. From + frequent and - marked, to - frequent and + marked.  1. Subject 2. DO 3. IO 4. Object of preposition 5. Genitive 6. Object of comparison 

3. Role of the L1

   • Codeswitching
     • L1 use. Intrasentential/Intersentential
   • Meta-talk
     • Talk employed to establish what kind of activity to make of an instructional activity and what operations to employ when performing it. 
   • Crosslinguistic influence
     • Transfer is not only one-way. Conceptual transfer involves the underlying ways in which a learner perceives and conceptualizes the world.
   • Positive transfer
     • When there are similarities between the L1 and the L2. The possitive efect of the L1 may be more evident in decoding than encoding. 
   • Communication strategies
     • Used by an individual to overcome the crisis that happens when language structures are inadequate to convey the individual's thought.  3 ways:  - Literal translation (word by word) - Language switch (insert an L1 word in the middle). Borrowing. - Foreignizing (L1 word with L2 pronunciation)
   • Sociocultural Theory
     • The L1 is used as one of the primary means by which learners can mediate L2 learning. There are 2 ways: through private/inner speech, or by serving as a cognitive tool for scaffolding production. 
   • Affect
     • The use of the L1 in the classroom can serve as a means of reducing learner anxiety and creating rapport. 

4. INTERLANGUAGE

   • Interlingual identifications
     • Connections between the IL and MT and the IL and TL
   • Latent Psychological Structure
     • Psycological structure latent in the brain and activated when one attempts to learn a second language
   • Interlanguage continuum
     • All users of a language can be placed in the continuum. Natives go from a position of insecurity to one of security. Non-natives go from a position of security (they know the rules of their L1) to one of insecurity (they have to leave the comfort zone and meaning of the L1). Non-natives constantly move along the continuum, but at some time they meet with a glass wall which they cannot cross. 
   • Fosilization/ Stabilization
     • A mechanism that is thought to exist in the latent psychological structure. No matter the age og the learner or the ammount of exposure, the fossilized items always come back in certain situations.  EXAMPLES: Patty 
   • Contrastive Analysis
     • Structuralism and behaviourism.  L2 errors are only a product of L1 transfer.  PROBLEM: a lot of data was left out because it didn't fit the theory. Lack of systematicity. 
   • Error Analysis
     • Comparison between the errors learners make in the TL. Validates systematically the predictions of CA. The focus shifted from teaching materials and hypotheses about L2 problems. to the systematic observation of learner language.  CONCLUSION: lots of errors are not caused by transfer. 
     • Corder
       • Errors: systematic.  Mistakes: slips.  L1 has a facilitative role in SLA.  Errors are important because learners can use them to test their hypotheses about the TL. 
     • Error gravity
       • Duarte & Pampillo Errors from different perspectives: who is the judge? 1. Teacher: errors are an indication of how much has been learnt. Attention to the whole.  2. Learner: errors help discover the rules of the TL and are a potential contribution to the learning process.  3. Researcher: errorrs are windows into the learner's interlanguage. Frequency and types of errors are possible indicators of a given profficiency gain or level.   4. Examiner: assign value to the learner's linguistic production in a systematic way. They should prioritize the errors that mater. 5. Interlocutor: if it is a native, an error is a discrepancy between what learners say and what the collective entity of natives produce. Difference between being intelligible and getting the message across. 
       • Teachers have to play the native. If we are too sympathetic, we run the risk that learners will develop strategies to get the message across without the need of being intelligible. 
       • Criteria to determine error gravity
         • 1. Lexico-grammatical continuum: lexical errors are more relevant than grammatical ones, especially if they require a higher degree of processing.  2. Frequency: the number of times a learner produces the same error. Error density is calculated by counting the amount of errors.  3. Comprehensibility: intelligibility. Faulty rhythm, stress and mispronunced phonetics account for 71% of intelligibility reduction. Lexico-grammatical errors account for 9%.  4. Irritation potential: the receiver's attitudes towards the errors. 
     • Sources of errors
       • 1. Psycholinguistic: the nature of language system 2. Sociolinguistic: social aspects (the learner's ability to adjust the language to social contexts) 3. Epistemic: lack of knowledge of the world 4. In the discourse structure: organization of information coherently.
       • Competence
         • Errors.  Mostly due to transfer. Intralingual errors (overgeneralization, transitional competence)
       • Performance
         • Mistakes.  Interlingual. Processing problems and communication strategies. 
   • Generalizations about IL
     • 1. L2 learners build mental representations that are different from what the target input in their surrounding environment looks like 2. L2 learners build mental representations that are different from the grammar representations in their L1 3. Many of the same developmental solutions can be observed in the speech of younf children who are learning their mother tongue  

5. VROMAN

   • Logical problem of foreign language acquisition
     • The gap between available experience and attained competence.  Possible solution: the gap is bridged by an innate UG
     • One possibility is that the innate system that guides child acquisition no longer operates in adult foreign language learning. However, there is a consensus that the same fundamental process controls both the child's learning of an L1 and the adult's learning of an L2.  Foreign language learning: when the language to be learnt is not the native language of the society.  Second language: in a country where that language is spoken
   • Fundamental Difference Hypothesis
     • Differences between adult learning and child learning
       • INTERNAL DIFFERENCES: in the internal cognitive system. (NOT due to external factors) LINGUISTIC DIFFERENCES: in the language faculty specifically  (NOT because of changes in the learning ability) QUALITATIVE DIFFERENCES: the domain-specific acquisition system is unavailable
     • Adult learning
       • UG is no longer available in adults, so they resort to other devices to compensate.  1. NATIVE LANGUAGE KNOWLEDGE: it surrogates UG. It leads to interlingual identifications  (what is universal and what is proper of one language)  2. PROBLEM-SOLVING SYSTEM: must be goal-oriented, must find strategies of  utilizing feedback and instruction, must include analysis, hypothesis formation and tests. 
       • 9 Characteristics
         • 1. Lack of success 2. General failure 3. Variation in success, course and strategy 4. Variation in goals 5. Fossilization 6. Indeterminate intuitions 7. Importance of instruction 8. Negative evidence 9. Role of affective factors

6. Age

   • Age is an index of the state of development of the L1 system. The more fully developed the L1 system is when L2 learning commences, the more stronger the L1 influence the L2. 
   • Critical Period Hypothesis
     • There is a specific period of time early in life when the brain exhibits a special propensity to attend to certain experiences in the environment and learn from them. The possibility exists that a biological schedule may operate, after which the processes and outcomes of L2 acquisition are fundamentally and irreversibly changed. 
     • Julie's case
       • A strong case against the Critical Period Hypothesis. 
   • L2 learning rate
     • Older is better initially, but younger is better in the long run. Adult learners and older children learn at a faster pace than younger children. Adults may be able to use cognitive and metacognitive abilities and strategies to learn many aspects of the L2 faster, but children always catch up and surpass the late starters. Younger learners do not seem to catch up where the L2 is available only through instruction. 
   • Myelination
     • The development during the first 10-12 years of life of white-matter substance around the brain's nerve fibres which protect the nerves and enables faster conduction of information across nerve cells.
   • Ultimate attainment
     • Most learners who begin accuring the language before puberty will develop levels of morphosyntactic and phonological competence that are very close to native speakers. Post-pubertal learners are not likely to perform in the native speaker range, and this holds true regardless of the years they have resided in the L2 environment. 

7. Instruction

   • Teachability Hypothesis
     • Instruction can only promote LA if the IL is close to the point where the structure to be taught is acquired in the natural setting. It helps speed up learners' passage through the natural sequence of acquisition. Learners need to be developmentally ready. We cannot skip stages. 
   • Advantages
     • Instructed learners progress at a faster rate. They are likely to development elaborate language repertoires and they typically become more accurate than uninstructed learners. 
   • 3 branches of research
     • Form-focused instruction
       • Teaching grammar.  Instruction does not have any long-lasting effect on the way learners construct their IL system. Learners appear to process some built-in-syllabus that regulates how and when they acquire particular grammar. Learners have an internal order and sequence and will not learn the grammar structures presented by the teacher unless they are developmentally ready to do so. 
     • Learner-instruction matching
       • The kind of instruction matches learners' preferred ways of learning an L2. The same instruction option is not equally effective for all L2 learners. Differences: learning style or lg aptitude. They may achieve similar levels of success and the type of instruction enables them to maximize their strengths. For some, input-based instruction works better. For others, production-based instruction is better. 
     • Strategy training
       • Teaching learners to use the learning strategies used by good lg learners.  Training students to use strategies that involve different ways of making associations involving target words is usually useful. Not enough is known about which strategies or combinations of strategies work well. 

8. Components of Acquisition

   • Attention
     • Learners need to notice the relevant matirial. Notice IS NOT understanding. Noticing means aknowledging the material.  Understanding involves conscious analysis and comparison with what has been noticed previously.  
   • Intention
     • The learner's motivation. Why are they learning an L2?
   • Negotiated interaction
     • Long
       • Interaction Hypothesis. Input is not enough, so he modified Krashen's theory. Learning happens trough comprehension, but the focus should be on interaction. Input should be interactionally modified (i.e. negotiation of meaning). 
       • Interactional modifications used to negotiate meaning.  1. Clarification requests (when sth was not understood) 2. Confirmation checks (when the interlocutor is unsure of having understood the message) 3. Comprehension checks (when the interlocutor suspects the speaker may not have understood the message)
   • Comprehensibe Input
     • Krashen
       • Comprehensible input is the source of L2 learning. This is the language that learners process for meaning and which contains sth to be learned. The learner processes oral and written messages for meaning and the grammar learning occurs.  Krashen's hypothesis was based on the assumption that L2 learning is the same as L1 learning. He proposed that we only need input. 
   • Pushed Output
     • Output pushes learners to process language more deeply (with more mental effort) than does input.  Learners can fake comprehension but they cannot do so in production. To produce, learners need to create linguistic form and meaning, and in doing so, discover what they can and cannot do.  Output may stimulate learners to move from semantic, open-ended, non-deterministic, strategic processing prevalent in comprehension, to the complete grammatical processing required for accurate production. 
     • Swain
       • By focusing on Output we may be focusing on ways in which learners can play more active, responsible roles in their learning. Output seems to have a potentially significant role in the acquisition of syntax and morphology. 
     • 3 functions
       • Noticing
         • In producing the TL, learners may encounter a gap between what they want to say and what they can really produce, leading them to notice what they do not know or know only partially. 
       • Metalinguistic
         • Learners reflect upon their own TL use. This function allows them to control and internalize linguistic knowledge. Under certain conditions, learners will reflect upon their hypotheses, using language to do so. Using language to reflect upon language. For this we need tasks which encourage reflection on language form while still being oriented in getting meaning across. Learners negotiate meaning but the content of that negotiation is language form and the relation with meaning they are trying to express. This way, learners use language to negotiate form. 
       • Hypothesis testing
         • Learners may use output to try out new language forms and structures as they stretch their IL for communicative needs. Some errors in written and spoken production reveal hypotheses held by learners about how the TL works. During processes of negotiating meaning, learners modify their output in response to clarification requests or confirmation checks. 

9. Cognition

   • How information is processed and learned by the human mind. 
   • Information Processing
     • Reaction against behaviouristic theories.  The human mind is viewed as a symbolic processor that constantly engages in mental processes. These mental processes operate on mental representations and intervene between input and output. Performance is key because inferences about mental processes can only be made by inspecting what is observable during processing while performing tasks. 
     • Key assumptions
       • 1. The human cognitive architechture is made of representation and access.  2. Mental processing is dual, comprised of two different kinds: automatic or fluent (unconscious) and voluntary or controlled (conscious).  3. Cognitive resources such as attention and memory are limited. 
     • Representation and access
       • Representation: knowledge Access: processing Linguistic representation is comprised in 3 kinds of knowledge: grammatical, lexical and schematic or word-related.  New L2 knowledge is stored in the mind and has to be accessed and retrieved every time it is needed for use in comprehension or production. 
     • Automatic and controlled processing
       • Access entails the activation of relevant knowledge via 2 different mechanisms: automatic and controlled processing.  Automatic processes require small effort and take up few cognitive resources. During automatic processing, cognitive activation is triggered bottom up by some aspect of the data in the input or environment.  Controlled processing is handled by the central executive and it is activated by top-down sources (something inside the processor, goal-directed motivation in the mind). We intentionally set out to control behaviour. Controlled processes allow us self-regulation, but they require a lot of effort and cognitive resources. This is why controlled processing is subject to a bottle neck effect. Controlled processes annot operate in parallel, if this happens, our attention is divided and to attend to one thing we need to block out the rest.