TOPIC 2. Foreign language learning and acquisition.

TOPIC 2. Foreign language learning and acquisition.

1. THEORIES

   • Behavioural theories
     • B.F. Skinner. Verbal Behaviour (1957)
     • Focus only on observable behaviours and ignore mental activities.
     • Learning is habit formation. Learner is a passive recipient.
     • Error seen as defiency in learning and leads to contrastive analysis of transfer.
   • Cognitive theories
     • Learner as an active participant in knowledge acquisition.
     • Learning undestood as the gradual automation of skills through stages of reconstructing and linking new information
   • Socio-cultural theories
     • Lang not a private, mental issue, but a socially constructed phenomenon.
     • Vigotsky
     • Learning is a social activity where the process is participating in a knowledge-building comunitiy or community of practice
     • Meditation, interaction, regulation, Zone of Proximal development, culture
   • SLA theories
     • Krashen's Monitor Model
       • Based on Five hypothesis
         • - Acquisition/learning hypothesis - input hypothesis- monitorhypothesis- affectivehypothesis- natural order hypothesis
       • the most influential model for SLA and learning
     • Others
       • Accomodation Theory
       • Acculturation Model
       • Discourse Theory
       • Universal Hypothesis

2. INTERLANGUAGE

   • Origins
     • Slinker 1972 defined after questioning Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis' conclusions
   • definition
     • The separate linguistic system evidenced when adult L2 learners attempt to express meaning in a language they in the process of learning
     • Different from both L1 and L2
     • 5 psycholinguistic processes of this latent psychological structure that shape IL
       • a) L1 Transfer b) overgeneralisation of  TL rules c) transfer of traning d) strategies of communication e) strategies of learning
   • study
     • Relevant date are utterances by L2 learners when trying to communicate meaning in TL
     • Unresolved in SLA research, bc some authors introduce learner's grammatical intuition, and IL is extremely variable.
   • Development of IL concept to the early 1990s
     • Krashen's Monitor Model and the Universal grammar have downplayed its role
     • Contibution to SLA is a historically rooted, research-based, and theoretically motivated framework to the study of SLA
     • From the 90s the central claims have remained unchanged, although there have been some modifications and expansions
       • IL hypothesis not restricted to apply only on L2 adult learners
       • ILs do not have to obey language universlas
       • IL development seems to vary in different social contexts and discourse domains

3. ERROR TREATMENT

   • error vs mistake
     • error= incorrect use of language due to ignorance of some elements of the linguistic system of the language used. (fault in competence, Chomsky)
     • mistake= incorrect use of language not corresponding to lack of knowledge on the system, but to other factors, wether internal or esternal: fatigue, lack of attention, noise,... (performance)
     • errors are not intentional. In the process of L2 acquisition, learners build transitional grammar. They systematize acquired knowledge and dare formulate morphosysntactical rules they do not know yet.
   • origins
     • Learners make use of a set of strategies in order to get their meaning accross
       • L1 transfer
       • Simplification
       • Overgeneralization
       • Avoidance
   • attitudes
     • Behavioural psychology regarded errors as negative outcomes of learning > had to be corrected and punished immediately
     • Chomsky's criticism to Skinner's theory. Error= sign of process. Learning processes are not habit-formation but of Hypothesis formulation> check> Confirmation/reformulation.
     • Contrastive analysis based on Chomskyan Universal Grammar
       • erros byproduct of negative transfer of L1 to L2
         • ellicit difference between L1 and L2
         • highlight points of coincidence between L1 and L2
         • errors by other reasons difficult to explain
       • Mentalist theories in recent years
         • Relevance of interaction on the learning process of a language. The degree and frequence determines the development of communicative competence.
         • advocate for a gradual correction of errors > dealing with errors which the learner can understand and assimilate at his level of IL development.
           • an order of priority for item correction must be established
   • strategies for correction
     • abuse > frustration > fossilisation; lack > insecurity/indeterminacy = teacher to know learning styles
     • phases
       • Spotting the error
         • echoing
         • reapeat rising intonation
         • repeat sentence until mistake
         • Gestures/ face expressions
         • Ask: Are you sure about what you said?
         • Other techniques: traffic lights, error hunting, contrast correct/incorrect, customised flashcards
       • Description of error
         • identify the breach of the rule
         • by learner or other learners; teacher last resource
         • know what he/she wanted to express (grammar and communication)
         • code of correction: aux, S, voc, tense, punct, sing/pl, sp,...
       • Rephrasing first hypothesis
         • group/peer correction
         • second chance
         • correct/incorrect. Why?
         • Observation files with description of most common errors, examples of correct and incorrect forms.
   • Behaviourims treated error as a negative side-effect of learning. In later years, it has become a sign of the learner's process stauts.
   • some basic principles established although consensus not reached yet.
   • Corder provided a new direction, a guide on the language learning process.
     • IL gradual, dynamic and non-linear

4. INTRO

5. CONCLUSION