Some material from Second Language Acquisition Course

1. SECOND LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION
English Department UPR Aguadilla
Prof. Belinda Rodriguez Loperena

2. Research Methodology
 Approaches to Research
 Involving knowledge claims, strategies and methods: these
are all contributions to the research approaches, which can
be distributed in:
 Qualitative Approach
 Quantitative Approach
 Mixed Methods Approaches
Let’s learn from Creswell (handouts)

3. Activity
 Paraphrase what you have read from the Table
1.4, and write it on your column, then write it
on the black board.
 Read the sentences and decide as a group to
which column they belong.

4. A framework for design
 What is a framework?
 Is it necessary to adopt one?

5. A framework for design
 What is a framework?
Philosophy, strategies and methods
 Is it necessary to adopt one?
It is necessary. It will provide guidance about
all facets of the study, from assessing the general
philosophical ideas behind the inquiry to the
detailed data collection and analysis procedures.
It also allows researchers to lodge their plans in
ideas well grounded in the literature and
recognized by audiences that read and support
proposals for research. The research will not
depend completely on the framework, but it will
allow the researcher to organize the data and

6. A framework for design II
Important Areas in framework
 Identify the philosophical knowledge claims
 Consider what strategy of inquiry to use
 Identify a research methods to use
 Select a quantitative, qualitative or mixed
methods approach to selected research
 Criteria useful for selecting an approach
 Research problem
 Personal experiences
 Audiences for whom we seek to write

7. How do kids acquire L1?
 Video
 After watching the video and judging from your
own experiences in acquiring both:
 What is the main difference from L1 and L2
 The Puerto Rican experience
 TESL or TEFL
 Reflective Diary on this subject

8. Visiting the library and its
resources
 Getting to know the resources in the library
with the Librarian Stanley Irizarry

9. Krashen’s Theory of SLA
 No need of using conscious grammar rules
 It requires NATURAL interaction in the target
language
 Learners will be more concerned with messages
that are being conveyed and understood
 Not necessarily with the form of their utterances

10. Important methods for SLA
 Those that supply comprehensible input in low
anxiety situations
 Those that will not force production in early
stages,
 Those that allow students to produce when
they are ready
 Those that provide real world conversations

11. Who is Stephen Krashen?
 Linguist
 University of South California
 Hold over 100 books and articles and has
been invited to deliver over 300 lectures
throughout Canada and the US.

12. Five main hypothesis
 The Acquisition Learning Hypothesis
 The Monitor Hypothesis
The
Role of
 The Natural Order Hypothesis Gramma
r in
 The Input Hypothesis Krashen
’s View
 The Affective Filter Hypothesis

13. The Acquisition Learning
Hypothesis
 Most fundamental
 Two systems: The learned – the acquired
 Acquired – process children undergo with L1, it
requires natural communication
 Learned – product of formal instruction, comprises a
conscious process for a conscious knowledge
Learning is less important than acquisition

14. The Monitor Hypothesis
 Explains the relationship between acquisition and
learning, defining the influence of one over the
other.
 The monitoring function is the practical result of
the learning of grammar
 Acquisition system is the utterance initiator but the
learning system is the monitor, the one that
corrects and edits.
 Over-users, under-users and optimal users of the
monitor

15. The Natural Order Hypothesis
 Based on research, acquiring grammatical structure follows a
natural order
 It proceeds in a predictable order
 The order seem to be independent of:
 the learner’s age
 L1 Background
 Conditions of Exposure
The theory points out the implication of that natural order, however
he rejects grammatical sequencing when the goal is SLA

16. The Input Hypothesis
 Concerned with acquisition only
 Learner improves and progresses along the
natural order when he receives L2 input that is
one step beyond her stage of linguistic
competence
i+1

17. The Affective Filter Hypothesis
 Affective variables
 Motivation
 Self-confidence
 Anxiety

18. Ferdinand de Saussure
 The Sign
 Signified
 Signifier

19. Factors considered in SLA
Learner Characteristics
Who am I teaching?
Linguistics Factors
L1 and L2
Instructional Variables
Learning Processes Outside the classroom, home,
How does learning take place? natural environment…
Age and acquisition Context
Cultural and linguistics milieu
When does learning take place?
Purpose
Their reasons, Will it strengthen
the learning?

20. Eclectic Quest
 Eclectic – meaning
 No single theory or hypothesis will provide a
magic formula for all learners in all contexts
 However, you are urged to be extremely
cautious and critical in considering various
methods, theories and research findings.

21. A definition for language (Activity 1)
 30 minutes activity: Look at page 6 in Brown’s
text.
 Lets consider both definitions
 Judging by your experiences as a language
teacher or as a bilingual, make your own
definition, selecting or arranging only the
sentences you consider necessary for your
definition. Add if you think is needed.

22. What is learning?
 Brown’s text page 8

23. Schools of thought in SLA I
 Structural Linguistics (Descriptive)
 Rigorous application of scientific observation of
human languages
 Only “publicly observable responses” could be
subject of investigation
 Their task: Describing human languages and
identifying the structural characteristics of them.
 No preconception could apply across them, they
differ from each other without limit

24. Schools of thought in SLA II
 Language could be dismantled into small pieces
or units
Among psychologists, a behavioral paradigm also
focused on publicly observable responses:
Objectively perceived
Recorded
Measured
Disadvantage-the observable conduct can be
conditioned to respond in desired ways (as has
been shown in Pavlov experiments)

25. Schools of thought in SLA III
 Generative Linguistics and Cognitive
Psychology
 Tried to show that language can not be
scrutinized in terms of observable stimuli
 Descriptions of attaining the levels of descriptive
adequacy
 Explanatory levels of mentioned adequacy
 Early sings with Saussure
 Cognitive psychologists asserted that meaning,
understanding and knowing, looking for
organization and functioning (Ausubel 1965)

26. Behaviorism
 According to behaviorism the subject matter of
psychology is behavior including how and why it
happens. Psychology through a behaviorists eye is an
experimental extension of natural science. The goal of
behaviorism is the prediction and control of behavior.
The behaviorist uses animals responses and
compares them to man. The behavior of man is only
part of the total investigation of behaviorism. There
are also many individuals responsible for the
development of behaviorism. These are important
contributors.
 Pavlov and Watson
 These psychologists studied behaviorism
experimentally.

27. Rationalism
 This school of thought takes on various
philosophical positions that rely on the function
of reason when searching for truth. It can be
contrasted with empiricism, which believes
that experience is necessary to acquire
knowledge. For rationalists, ideas are innate.
For empiricists, ideas are acquired. Concepts
of rationalism can be traced back to early
Greece where Plato believed reason was
something internal, one of the four faculties of
the soul.
 Rene Descartes

28. Constructivism
 A multidisciplinary approach
 Constructivism emerged as a prevailing paradigm and
today is almost an orthodoxy
 It integrates:
 Linguistic
 Psychological paradigm
 Sociological paradigm
 The cognitive area deals with the learner’s own
mental representation of reality
 The social area emphasizes the importance of social
interaction and cooperative learning in constructing
cognitive and emotional images of reality.

29. Activity 2
 Creating a Timeline
 Go to page 15 in Brown’s text
 Create in the blackboard a timeline using the
information on Table 1.1
 As with any other activity, explain and
paraphrase what is written to achieve a better
understanding

30. Error analysis I
 Learning a language involves making mistakes
and errors.
 There is a difference between both
 A mistake is a performance error that is either a
random guess or a slip, it will happen to individuals in
native and second language situation. When attention
is called to them (the mistakes) can be self-corrected
 An error is a noticeable deviation from the adult
grammar of a native speaker, it reflects the
competence of the learner
Sometimes it is not easy to identify them, only when
they self-correct, otherwise there will always be a
doubt

31. Error Analysis II
 Error analysis has been defined as the evaluation
of errors that can be observed, classified, and
analyzed to reveal something of the system
operating within the learner
 Manifestations of errors arise from possible
general sources:
 Interlingual errors of interference from the native
language
 Interlingual errors with the target language
 The sociolinguistic concept of communication
 Psycholinguistics and cognitive strategies, among
others

32. Identifying and describing errors
 Overt errors
 Covert errors
See page 260 (Last paragraph)

33. Error identification I (Activity #
3)
 Using the blackboard make a list of common
mistakes made by language learners in any
language:
 Subdivide them in the four language arts
 English
 Spanish

34. Error identification II (Activity #
4)
 Addition
 Omission
 Substitution
 Ordering
 Levels
 Global
 Local
 Domain
 Extent
Look for definitions in pages 262-263

35. Interlingual transfer
 When learning a language (in the early stages)
the student is specially vulnerable to
interlingual transfer or interference from the
native language.
 The native language (L1) is the only system
upon which the learner can draw and produce.
 Example:
 Pronunciation
 Sheep instead of ship

36. Intralingual transfer
 Errors that become apparent within the target
language itself
 These errors are predominant once the
student is familiarized with the target language
system (L2)
 Example:
 Does John can sing?
 He goed
 I don’t know what time is it?

37. Typical English intralingual
errors
 Go to page 264-265
 Let’s discuss and understand Table 9.1

38. SLA Theory
 Stages Second language
 Stage I: Silent Stage acquisition refers to any
language other than one’s
mother tongue: the
 Stage II: Early Production stages mentioned here
describe the processes in
gaining the language
 Stage III: Emergence of Speech
Having L1 will
obstruct in the acquisition
 Stage IV: Intermediate ability of L2, however it will
become a fundamental
tool for the developmental
 Stage V: Advanced fluency processes in the target
language.

39. Stage I: Silent Stage
 It forms from about ten hours to six months
 Not yet speaking, but able to respond to new
words and pronunciation.
 Stage that should be focused in gaining words,
meaning and pronunciations
 Language shock – rejection of words for not
knowing their meaning
 Not speaking – though self-talking

40. Stage II: Early Production
 Lasts for about six months
 1000 active words
 Speaking of few words and simple phrases
 Mispronunciations are common

41. Stage III: Emergence of Speech
 Learners achieving what has been described in
previous stages will begin to speak in this stage
 Forming simple statements
 Improving pronunciation
 Steps toward reading and writing
 Mistakes in the grammatical structuring
 Motivate students to grater usage of words

42. Stage IV: Intermediate Ability
 1 year of length after the speech emergence
 Complex sentences and use of newly acquired
language
 They will be able to opine, discuss, and
Beginning to think in the 2nd language

43. Stage V: Advanced Fluency
 It may take a couple of years to gain complete
proficiency and absorb into their minds
 Fluent conversation and clear thinking in 2nd
language
 Development of separate vocabulary and
confidence of expressing one self by means of
one’s second language

44. Factors involved in L2
acquisition
 Age and acquisition
 Psychological
 Personality
 Sociocultural
 Communicative competence

45. Age and Acquisition
 The Critical Period Hypothesis
 Neurobiological considerations
 Hemispheric lateralization (Table 5.1, page 125)
 Biological timetables
 Anthropological Evidence
 The significance of Accent

46. Psychological
 Classical Behaviorism (Pavlov)
 Operant conditioning (Skinner)
 Subsumtion Theory (Ausubel)
 Humanistic Psychology (Roger)
 Transfer, Interference and Overgeneralization

47. Personality
 The Affective Domain (Emotional side of human
behavior)
 Self-Esteem
 AttributionTheory
 Willingness to Communicate
 Inhibition
 Risk Taking
 Anxiety
 Empathy
 Extroversion

48. Sociocultural
 Social Distance
 Teaching Intercultural Competence
 Language policy and politics
 World Englishes
 ESL and EFL
 Linguistic Imperialism
 Language Rights
 Language, thought and culture
 Culture in the language classroom

49. Communicative competence
 Language functions
 Discourse Analysis
 Conversation Analysis
 Contrastive Rhetoric
 Pragmatic
 Discourse Styles
 Nonverbal Communication

50. Teaching with movies (Why?)
 Watch the movie “Dead Poet Society”
 Visualize teaching your students using the
movie.
Be creative
 After watching the movie,
 Which techniques or strategies would you use to
teach:
 Listening comprehension
 Writing
 Reading
 Speaking