Second language acquisition in the classroom

TEFLTEFL
SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
IN THE CLASSROOM
Elih Sutisna Yanto
ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAMME
Unsika, West-Java, Indonesia
elihsutisnayanto@gmail.com
SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
IN THE CLASSROOM
Elih Sutisna Yanto
ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAMME
Unsika, West-Java, Indonesia
elihsutisnayanto@gmail.com

2
Definitions of L1 & L2
• Definition of “first language” (L1):
– The language(s) that an individual learns first.
– Other terms for “first language”-
• Native language or mother tongue
• Definition of “second language” (L2):
– Any language other than the first language learned (in a broader
sense).
– A language learned after the first language in a context where the
language is used widely in the speech community (in a narrower
sense).
• e.g., For many people in Taiwan, their L1 is Taiwanese and L2 is
Mandarin.

3
Definitions of FL & TL
• Definition of “foreign language” (FL)
– A second (or third, or fourth) language learned in a context where the
language is NOT widely used in the speech community. This is often
contrasted with second language learning in a narrower sense.
e.g., English or Japanese is a foreign language for people in Taiwan.
• Definition of “target language” (TL)
– A language which is being learned, where it is the first language or a
second, third language.
e.g., English is a target language for you now.

THEORIES OF SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNINGTHEORIES OF SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING
 All learning, whether verbal or non-verbal takes place
through the same underlying process, habit formation.
 Learners receive linguistic input from speakers in their
environment, and positive reinforcement for their
correct repetitions and imitations.
 As a result, habit are formed.
 Because language development is described as the
acquisition of a set of habits, it is assumed that a person
learning a second language starts off with the habit
associated with the first language.
 All learning, whether verbal or non-verbal takes place
through the same underlying process, habit formation.
 Learners receive linguistic input from speakers in their
environment, and positive reinforcement for their
correct repetitions and imitations.
 As a result, habit are formed.
 Because language development is described as the
acquisition of a set of habits, it is assumed that a person
learning a second language starts off with the habit
associated with the first language.
BEHAVIORISM: THE SECOND LANGUAGE VIEWBEHAVIORISM: THE SECOND LANGUAGE VIEW

 For the behaviorist, errors are seen as first language
habits interfering with the acquisition of second
language habits. This psychological learning theory has
often been linked to the contrastive analysis hypothesis
(CAH).
 The CAH predicts that where there are similarities
between the two languages, the learner will acquire
target language structure with ease; where there are
differences, the learner will have difficulty.
 Researchers have found that not all errors predicted by
the CAH are actually made.
 For the behaviorist, errors are seen as first language
habits interfering with the acquisition of second
language habits. This psychological learning theory has
often been linked to the contrastive analysis hypothesis
(CAH).
 The CAH predicts that where there are similarities
between the two languages, the learner will acquire
target language structure with ease; where there are
differences, the learner will have difficulty.
 Researchers have found that not all errors predicted by
the CAH are actually made.

For example:
Adult beginners use simple structures in the target
language just as children do: ‘ No understand’ or ‘
Yesterday I meet my teacher’..
For example:
Adult beginners use simple structures in the target
language just as children do: ‘ No understand’ or ‘
Yesterday I meet my teacher’..

Behaviorism
• Language development as habit formation;
• A person learning an L2 starts with the habits
formed in L1 (transfer)
• These habits interfere with the new ones
needed for the second language;
• CAH

 Cognitive psychologists tend to see second language
acquisition as the building up of knowledge systems that
can eventually be called on automatically for speaking
and understanding.
 At first, learners have to pay attention to any aspect of
the language which they are trying to understand or
produce. Gradually, through experience and practice,
learners become able to use certain parts of the
knowledge so quickly and automatically that they are not
even aware that they are doing it.
 This frees them to focus on other aspects of the
language which, in turn, gradually become automatic
(Mc Laughlin 1987)
 Cognitive psychologists tend to see second language
acquisition as the building up of knowledge systems that
can eventually be called on automatically for speaking
and understanding.
 At first, learners have to pay attention to any aspect of
the language which they are trying to understand or
produce. Gradually, through experience and practice,
learners become able to use certain parts of the
knowledge so quickly and automatically that they are not
even aware that they are doing it.
 This frees them to focus on other aspects of the
language which, in turn, gradually become automatic
(Mc Laughlin 1987)
COGNITIVE THEORY: A NEW PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACHCOGNITIVE THEORY: A NEW PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH

 Cognitive theory is a relative newcomer to SLA research, and
has not yet been widely tested empirically.
 Because the theory itself cannot easily predict what kinds of
structures will be automatized through practice and what will
be restructured, direct applications of this theory for
classroom teaching are premature.
 Cognitive theory is also not able to predict which first
language structures will be transferred which will not.
 This theory, which look at the learning process, is incomplete
without a linguistic framework of some kind.
 This had led some cognitive psychologists to seek
collaboration with linguists so that the aspects of language
which are studied will have clearer relevance to the complex
phenomenon of second language acquisition.
 Cognitive theory is a relative newcomer to SLA research, and
has not yet been widely tested empirically.
 Because the theory itself cannot easily predict what kinds of
structures will be automatized through practice and what will
be restructured, direct applications of this theory for
classroom teaching are premature.
 Cognitive theory is also not able to predict which first
language structures will be transferred which will not.
 This theory, which look at the learning process, is incomplete
without a linguistic framework of some kind.
 This had led some cognitive psychologists to seek
collaboration with linguists so that the aspects of language
which are studied will have clearer relevance to the complex
phenomenon of second language acquisition.
COGNITIVE THEORY: A NEW PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACHCOGNITIVE THEORY: A NEW PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH

 It is , in some respects, similar to Chomsky’s ideas on first
language learning.
 Learners are thought to ‘construct’ internal representations
of the language being learned.
 One may think of these internal representations as ‘mental
pictures’ of the target language.
 The learners need not actually speak or write in order to
acquire language.
 Acquisition takes place internally as learners read and hear
samples of the language that they understand.
 It is , in some respects, similar to Chomsky’s ideas on first
language learning.
 Learners are thought to ‘construct’ internal representations
of the language being learned.
 One may think of these internal representations as ‘mental
pictures’ of the target language.
 The learners need not actually speak or write in order to
acquire language.
 Acquisition takes place internally as learners read and hear
samples of the language that they understand.
CREATIVE CONSTRUCTION THEORYCREATIVE CONSTRUCTION THEORY

 The speech and writing which the learner eventually produces
is seen as an outcome of the learning process rather than as
the cause of learning or even as a necessary step in learning.
 Learners’ oral or written production is useful only in so far as
it allows the learner to participate in communicative
situations.
 The creative construction theory which has had the most
influence on second language teaching practice is the one
proposed by Stephen Krashen (1982).
 The speech and writing which the learner eventually produces
is seen as an outcome of the learning process rather than as
the cause of learning or even as a necessary step in learning.
 Learners’ oral or written production is useful only in so far as
it allows the learner to participate in communicative
situations.
 The creative construction theory which has had the most
influence on second language teaching practice is the one
proposed by Stephen Krashen (1982).
CREATIVE CONSTRUCTION THEORYCREATIVE CONSTRUCTION THEORY

A psychologist named Stephen Krashen
transformed language teaching. He had
been developing his ideas over a number
of years, but several books he published in
the 1980s received widespread
acceptance.

• Much has been made of Krashen's theory of
second language acquisition, which consists of
five main hypotheses:
• The acquisition learning hypothesis
• the monitor hypothesis,
• the natural order hypothesis,
• the input hypothesis, and
• the affective filter hypothesis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiTsduRreug&f

• According to Krashen’s acquisition-learning
hypothesis, there are two independent ways
to develop our linguistic skills: acquisition and
learning.
• This theory is at the core of modern language
acquisition theory, and is perhaps the most
fundamental of Krashen's theories on second
acquisition.

• Acquisition
Subconscious process where individual is not aware.
One is unaware of the process as it is happening and
when the new knowledge is acquired, the acquirer
generally does not realize that he or she possesses
any new knowledge.
• According to Krashen, both adults and children can
subconsciously acquire language, and either written
or oral language can be acquired. This process is
similar to the process that children undergo when
learning their native language.
• Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the
target language, during which the acquirer is focused
on meaning rather than form.

Summary
• Language acquisition is a process similar, if not
identical, to the way children develop ability in
their first language.
• Language acquisition is a subconscious process;
language acquirers are not usually aware of the
fact that they are acquiring language, but are
only aware of the fact that they are using the
language for communication.

Summary
• We are generally not consciously aware of the
rules of the languages we have acquired.
Instead, we have a “feel” for correctness.
Grammatical sentences “sound” right, or “feel”
right, and errors feel wrong.
• Other ways of describing acquisition include
implicit learning, informal learning, and natural
learning. In non-technical language, acquisition
is “picking-up” a language.

• Learning
Learning a language, on the other hand, is a
conscious process, much like what one experiences
in school. New knowledge or language forms are
represented consciously in the learner's mind,
frequently in the form of language "rules" and
"grammar" and the process often involves error
correction. Language learning involves formal
instruction, and according to Krashen, is less
effective than acquisition.

• We use the term “learning” to refer to
conscious knowledge of a second language,
knowing the rules, being aware of them, and
being able to talk about them.
• In non-technical terms, learning is “knowing about” a
language, known to most people as “grammar”, or
“rules”.
• Some synonyms include formal knowledge of a
language, or explicit learning.”

• For Krashen, acquisition is by far the more
important process.
• He asserts that it is only acquired language which
readily available for natural, fluent
communication.
• Further , he asserts that learning cannot turn into
acquisition, citing as evidence for this that many
speakers are quite competent without ever having
learned rules, while other speakers may ‘know’
rules but continue to break them when they
focusing their attention on meaningful interaction
rather than on the application of grammatical rules
for accurate performance

• Error correction has little or no effect on
subconscious acquisition, but is thought to be
useful for conscious learning.
• Error correction supposedly helps the learner to
induce or “figure out” the right form of a rule. If,
for example, a student of English as a second
language says “ I goes to school every day” and the
teacher corrects him or her by repeating the
utterance correctly, the learner is supposed to
realize that the /s/ ending goes with the third
person and not the first person, and alter his or
her conscious mental representation of the rule.

• Some second language theorists have assumed
that children acquire, while adults can only learn.
• The acquisition-learning hypothesis claims,
however, that adults also acquire, that the ability
to “pick-up” language does not disappear at
puberty.
• This does mean that adults will always be able to
achieve native-like levels in a second language. It
does not mean that adults can access the same
natural “language acquisition device” that children
use.

• Evidence from child language acquisition confirms
that error correction does not influence acquisition
to any great extent.
• Brown and his colleagues have shown that
parents actually correct only a small portion of the
child’s language (occasional pronunciation
problems, certain verbs, and dirty words!)
• They conclude from their research that parents
attend far more to the truth value of what the
child is saying rather than to the form. For
example, Brown, Cazden, and Bellugi (1973) report
that a sentence such as:

Her curl my hair
‘was approved, because the mother was, in fact,
curling Eve’s hair” (p.330). On the other hand,
Walt Disney comes on on Tuesday.
was corrected, despite its syntactic correctness, since
Walt Disney actually came on television on
Wednesday.

Learning
acquisition
conscious
subconscious
knowing about
pick up

• The Acquisition – Learning Distinction
Acquisition
Sub-conscious
by environment
(Ex: games,
Movies, radio)
Picking up words
Learning
Conscious by
instructors
Correct errors
Knowing about
Grammar rules
SLA

Differencies
• Acquisition
• Natural
• Conscious
• Informal setting
• Instruction?
• Learning
• Not natural
• Conscious
• Formal setting
• Instruction

Factors involved in L2Learning
• Language Input
The language one gets from listening or
reading.
• Learning Environment
Whether the learner is encouraged to learn
or not.
• Age
The age at which one starts to learn L2.
• Time
The time learner has to learn L2
• Motivation
The need or purpose of learning L2.
– to survive in L2 speaking community.
– to complete a task there
– to continue education
• Prior Knowledge
What the learner has already acquired
and learned before learning L2. A
previous S/F language
• Personality
Personal traits such social, outgoing,
.
• First Language
The language the learner has been
speaking from childhood.
• Situation
The way the learner learns L2, by
formal instruction or natural
interaction.
• Learner Strategies
The styles the learner adopts in
learning L2.

The Monitor Hypothesis
• Krashen argues that the acquired system acts
to initiate the speaker’s utterances and is
responsible for fluency and intuitive judgments
about correctness.
• The learned system, on the other hand, acts
only as an editor or ‘ monitor’, making minor
changes and polishing what the acquired
system has produced.

• The Monitor hypothesis explains
the relationship between acquisition
and learning. The monitoring function
is the practical result of the learned
grammar. According to Krashen, for
the Monitor to be successfully used,
three conditions must be met:

• The acquirer/learner must know the rule:
This is a very difficult condition to meet
because it means that the speaker must
have had explicit instruction.
• The acquirer must be focused on
correctness: He or she must be thinking
about form, and it is difficult to focus on
meaning and form at the same time.

• Having time to use the monitor: The
speaker is then focused on form rather
than meaning, resulting in the production
and exchange of less information.
• Due to these difficulties, Krashen
recommends using the monitor at times
when it does not interfere with
communication, such as while writing.

Summary
• Krashen has specified three conditions necessary for
monitor use: sufficient time, focus on form, and
knowing the rules.
• Thus, writing is more conducive to monitor use than
is speaking, where the focus is on content and not on
form.
• He maintains that knowing the rules only helps the
speaker polish what he has acquired via real
communication, and the focus of language teaching
should therefore be communication and not rule-
learning.

Summary
• The obvious weakness in this hypothesis is that it is
very difficult to show evidence of ‘monitor’ use. In
any give utterance, it is impossible to determine
what has been produced by the acquired sytem and
what is the result of monitor use.
• Krashen’s claim that ‘learning cannot turn into
acquisition’ means that anything which is produced
quickly and apparently spontaneously must have
been acquired rather than learned.

THE NATURAL ORDER HYPOTHESIS
• This hypothesis states that we acquire the
rules of a language in a predictable
sequence – some rules are acquired early
while others are acquired late.
• Krashen asserts that the natural order is
independent of the order in which rules
have been taught.

Cont...
• Most of the evidence for this hypothesis
comes from the morpheme studies, in
which children’s speech has been
examined for accuracy of certain
grammatical morpheme (mostly noun and
verb ‘endings’ such as plural –s and past
tense –ed in English).
• A large number of studies have provided
evidence that learners pass through
similar sequences or stages in
development.

Cont...
• The acquisition of grammatical structures
follows a “natural order” which is
predictable.
• English is perhaps the most studied
language as far as natural order
hypothesis is concerned, and of all
structures of English, morphology is the
most studied.

• FIRST MORPHEMES ACQUIRED:
• The progressive marker –ing
• Plural marker /s/
• ACQUIRED LATER
• Third person singular marker
• The possessive /s/

• The order of acquisition for second
language is not the same as the order of
acquisition for first language, but these are
some similarities.
• Krashen believes that the implication of
the natural order hypothesis is not that our
syllabi should be based on the order found
in the studies.

• He rejects grammatical sequencing in all
cases where the goal is language
acquisition.
• The only instance in which the teaching of
grammar can result in language
acquisition (and proficiency) is when the
students are interested in the subject and
the target language is used as a medium
of instruction.

Table “Average order of acquisition of grammatical morphemes
for English as a second language (children and adults)

Research in order of acquisition for
other language
Acquiring English negation, many first and
second language acquirers pass through a stage
in which they place the negative marker outside
the sentence.
•No mom sharpen it. (from Klima and Bellugi’s
(1966) study of child L1 acquisition)
•No like it now (from Ravem’s (1974) study of
child L2 acquisition)

other language
A typical later stage is to place the negative
marker between the subject and the verb, as in
•I no like this one (Cancino et al. (1975) study of
child L2 acquisition)
•This no have calendar. (from Schumann’s
(1978) study of adult L2 acquisition)

other language
Predictable stages in the acquisition of wh-
questions in English include an early stage in
which the wh- word appears before the rest of
the sentence, which is otherwise left in its
normal uninverted form, as in:
•How he can be a doctor? (Klima and Bellugi,
1966, child L2 acquisition)
•What she is doing? (Ravem,1974 child L2
acquisition)

The Affective Filter Hypothesis
• ‘The affective filter’ is an imaginary barrier
which prevents learners from using input
which is available in the environment.
• ‘Affect’ refers to such things as motives,
needs, attitudes, and emotional states.
• A learner who is tense, angry, anxious, or
bored will screen out input, making it
unavailable for acquisition.

• Thus, depending on the learner’s state of
mind or disposition, the filter limits what is
attended to and what is acquired.
• The filter will be ‘up’ or operating when the
learner is stressed, self-conscious, or
unmotivated.
• It will be ‘down’ when the learner is relaxed
and motivated.

• What makes this hypothesis attractive to
practitioners is that it appear to have immediate
implications for classroom practice.
• Teachers can understand why some learners, given
the same opportunity to learn, may be successful
while others are not.
• The difficulty with the hypothesis is that , it is
difficult to be sure that the affective factors cause
the differences in language acquisition.

• The Affective Filter hypothesis,
embodies Krashen's view that a number of
'affective variables' play a facilitative, but
non-causal, role in second language
acquisition.
• These variables include: motivation, self-
confidence and anxiety.

• Low motivation, low self-esteem, and
debilitating anxiety can combine to 'raise'
the affective filter and form a 'mental block'
that prevents comprehensible input from
being used for acquisition. In other words,
when the filter is 'up' it impedes language
acquisition.

• Krashen claims that learners with high
motivation, self-confidence, a good self-
image, and a low level of anxiety are
better equipped for success in second
language acquisition.

THE INPUT HYPOTHESIS
• Krashen asserts that we acquire language
in only one way – by receiving
comprehensible input, that is, by
understanding message.
• If the input contains forms and structures
just beyond the learner’s current level of
competence in the language, then both
comprehension and acquisition will occur.

Cont...
In other words,
•We acquire language only when we
understand language that contains structure
that is “a little beyond” where we are now.
•This is possible because we use more than
our linguistic competence to help us
understand.

• The input hypothesis says that we acquire
by “going for meaning” first, and as a
result, we acquire structure.
• It also states that speaking fluency cannot
be taught directly. It emerges over time,
on its own.

• The best way to teach speaking,
according to this view, is simply to provide
comprehensible input.
• Early speech will come when the acquirer
feels “ready:” It is typically not
grammatically accurate.
• Accuracy develops over time as the
acquirer hears and understands more
input.

Summary
• Krashen’s writing has been influential in
strengthening the recent focus on
communicative language teaching,
particularly in North America.
• On the other hand, the theory has also been
seriously criticized for failing to meet certain
minimum standards necessary in scientific
research and writing.

Providing Input for Acquisition
A. The Potential of the Second Language
Classroom
 The classroom is of benefit when it is the major
source of comprehensible input.
 When acquirers have rich sources of input
outside the class , and when they are proficient
enough to take advantage of it (i.e., understand
at least some of it), the classroom does not
make an important contribution.

In the case of the adult beginner, the classroom
can do much better than the informal
environment.
In the second language classroom, we have the
potential of supplying a full 40-50 minutes per
day of comprehensible input, input that will
encourage language acquisition.
The value of second language classes , then lies
not only in the grammar instruction, but in the
simpler “teacher talk”, the comprehensible
input.

B. Limitation of the Classroom
 It is clear that the outside world can supply
more input. Living in the country where the
language is spoken can result in an all-day
second language lesson!
 The discourse that the student can be exposed
to in a second language classroom is quite
limited, no matter how “natural” we make it.
There is simply no way the classroom can match
the variety of the outside world, although we
can certainly expand beyond our current

The classroom will probably never be able to
completely overcome its limitations, nor does it
have to. Its goal is not to substitute for the
outside world, but to bring students to the point
where they can begin to use the outside world
for further acquisition, to where they can begin
to understand the language used on the outside.
It does this in two ways: by supplying input so
that students progress in language acquisition, so
that they understand “real” language to at least
some extent,

And by making the student conversationally
competent, that is, by giving the student tools to
manage conversations despite a less than perfect
competence in the second language.

C. The Role of Output
 The Input Hypothesis makes a claim that may
seem quite remarkable to some people we
acquire spoken fluency not by practicing talking
but by understanding input, by listening and
reading. It is , in fact, theoretically possible to
acquire language without ever talking.
 Output has a contribution to make a language
acquisition, but it is not a direct one: Simply, the
more you talk, the more people will talk you!

A second language speaker who makes lots of
mistakes, has a poor accent, and is hesitant, will
most likely receive, in general, more modified
input than a speaker who appears competent
and fluent.
Engaging in conversation is probably much more
effective than “eavesdropping, to listen secretly
to what other people are saying, for acquisition.

In conversation, the second language acquirer
has some degree of control of the topic, can
signal to the partner that there is a
comprehension problem etc.
In other words, he can manage and regulate the
input, and make it more comprehensible.
There is no such control in eavesdropping! But in
order to participate in conversation, there must
be at least some talk, some output, from each
partner. Hence, the indirect contribution of
speech.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Krashen, Stephen D. Principles and Practice
in Second Language Acquisition. Prentice-Hall
International, 1987.
• Krashen, Stephen D. Second Language
Acquisition and Second Language Learning.
Prentice-Hall International, 1988.
• Lightbown, P& Nina Spada.1993. How
language are learned. New York: Oxford
University Press.

Second language acquisition in the classroom

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