Second Language Acquisition

Second Language Acquisition

1. Input Hypothesis - Stephen Krashen

   • The most important question in language acquisition - "How do we acquire language?" "The same way."
   • Comprehensible input
     • anything to help language acquisition
     • talking is not practicing

2. BICS vs CALP - Jim Cummins

   • BICS - basic interpersonal communicative skills
     • discreet language skills - decoding skills
       • rule-governed aspects of language
     • converstaion flunecy - what kinds bring to school around ages 4-5; can respond to questions; fluent in their language (basic)
   • CALP - cognitive academic language proficiency
     • our ability to produce increasingly complex aspects of the language

3. Universal Grammar - Noam Chomsky

   • States that all human language rests on innate blocks of expression - verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc

4. Threshold Hypothesis - Jim Cummins

   • bilingualism has positive effects on children

5. Critical Period Hypothesis - Eric Lenneberg

   • language acquisition is linked to age
     • first years are critical period