This document discusses linguistic theories related to second language acquisition. It explains that the structure of relative clauses varies across languages and this influences how easy it is for learners to acquire relative clauses in a new language. It also discusses Chomsky's theory of Universal Grammar and how innate linguistic knowledge can help explain and predict language acquisition. The concept of a critical period for language learning is introduced, where acquiring a second language is easier during childhood than adulthood for most learners. Differences between marked and unmarked structures are explained in relation to transfer from a learner's first language.

1. Lecturer: Uyun Nafi’ah, M. P.d
Arranged:
Anisa Ardianti
Makrub
Pipian Rosa

2. Languages vary in whether they have relative
clauses structures. This linguistic difference
influences the ease with which learners are able to
learn relative clauses.

3. In language like English, a relative clause can be attached
to the end of matrix clause:
 The police have caught the man who bombed the hotel.
Or they can be embedded in the main clause:
 The man who bombed the hotel has been caught by
the police.

4. Linguistic have shown that languages are
more likely to permit relative clauses with a
subject pronoun than with an object pronoun.
It is called accessibility hierarchy.
For example:
the use of who rather than the use of
whom

5. Relative pronoun function Example
Subject The writer who won the Booker
prize is my lofelong friend.
Direct object The writer whom we met won the
Booker prize.
Indirect object The writer to whom I introduced
you won the Booker prize
Object of preposition The writer with whom we had
dinner won the Booker prize.
Genitive The writer whose wife we met won
the Booker prize
Object of comparative The writer who I have written more
books than has won the Booker
prize.

6. The accesibility hierarchy serves as an example of how SLA
and linguistics can assist each other.
 Linguistic facts can be used to explain and even predict
acquisition.
 The results of empirical studies of L2 acquisition can be
used to refine our understanding of linguistic facts.

7. Effects of relative clause structure on L2 acquisition
◦ It is easier to learn a L2 with relative clauses if you
already know them from your L1.
◦ There are two ways to use relative clauses in English:
attached to the end of a sentence or interrupting a main
clause.
Learners of L2 English tend to use the first possibility.

8. NoamChomsky`stheory of Universal grammar:
Example: (Reflexives)
governed by a set of highly
abstract principles.
Language
Only local
binding
English
Local and
long-distance
binding
Japanese

9. Result: Japanese Learners of L2 English do have to
learn that reflexives in English permit only local
binding. The question if they are able to do so could
not be answered clearly. Not even by a number of
studies. It is not absolutely clear, although very
important.

10.  Children learning their L1 must rely on innate knowledge of a
language.
 Poverty of stimulus insufficiency which enables children
to discover the rules of a language.
 Input Positive evidence: what is gramatical
their parents do not generally correct their
grammatical mistakes
Negative evidence: what is ungrammatical

11.  The input seriously undetermines learning,
it does not provide the information needed
for learning to be successful
 Children must have prior knowledge of
what is grammatically possible and
impossible and that this is part of their
biological endowment.

12.  The Critical Period Hypothesis
states that there is a period when language acquisition is easy and
complete, and beyond which it is difficult and incomplete.
 People who lost their linguistic capabilities: as a result of an
accident, were able to regain them totally before puberty but
were unable to do so afterwards.

13. There is a considerable evidence that supports the claim that L2
learners who begin lerning as adults are unable to achieve native-
speaker competence in either grammar or pronunciation
(Immigrants in the United States).
Not all learners are subject to critical periods. Some achieve
native-speaker ability from an adult start.
The relative lack of success of most L2 learners in comparison to
L1 learners suggests that there may be radical differences in the
way first and second languages are acquired.

15. Chomskyan linguistics
Unmarked structures are those
that are governed by UG and
which, therefore require only
minimal evidence for acquisition.
For example, ‘local binding’ of reflexives
is considered unmarked in relation to
‘long-distance binding’.

16. Hypothesis relating to
markedness:
The learners acquire
less marked structures
before more marked
ones.
Learners are much
more likely to transfer
unmarked structures
from their L1 than they
are marked structured.

17.  It has been proposed that learners are much
more likely to transfer unmarked structures
from their L1 than their marked structures.
For example:
English contrasts the sounds /t/ & /d/
Word initially (tin/din) , word medially (betting/bedding), finally
(wet/wed)
German, however, only contrasts these two sounds word initially and
medially

18. There is no consensus on whether
L2 acquisition is to be explained in
terms of a distinct and innate
language faculty or in terms of
general cognitive abilities.
It allows for modularity – the
existence of different components of
language that are learned in
different ways, some through UG
and others with the assistance of
general cognitive abilities.