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CHAPTER 1 Introduction: Describing and Explaining L2 Acquisition. Ellis, 2003. second language acquisition Name : putri wardaningsih Nim : 2201410107. What is ‘second language acquisition’?.
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CHAPTER 1Introduction: Describing and Explaining L2 Acquisition Ellis, 2003. second language acquisition Name : putri wardaningsih Nim : 2201410107
What is ‘second language acquisition’? The systematic study of how people acquire a second language (often offered to as an L2) is a fairly recent phenomenon, belonging to the second half of the 20th century. People have had to learn a second language, not just a pleasing time but often as a means of obtaining an education or securing employment.
At the first sight, the meaning of the term ‘second language acquisition’ seems transparent but, in fact, it requires careful explain. In this context ‘second’ can refer to any language that is learned subsequent to the mother tongue. Thus, it can refer to the learning of a third or fourth language. Also ‘second’ is not intended to contrast with ‘foreign’.
‘L2 acquisition’, can be defined as the way in which people learn a language other than their mother tongue, inside or outside classroom, and ‘Second Language Acquisition’ (SLA) as the study of this.
What are the goals of SLA? The description of L2 acquisition. Explanation; identifying the external and internal factors that account for why learners acquire an L2 in the way they do.
External Factors • Social milieu in which learning takes place. Social conditions influence the opportunities that learners have to hear and speak the language and the attitudes that they develop towards it. • The input that the learners receive. The samples of language to which learners is exposed. Language learning cannot occur without some input.
Internal Factors • Learners possess cognitive mechanism which enable them to extract information about the L2 from the input. • L2 learners bring an enormous amount of knowledge to the task of learning an L2. • Learners are eqquiped with knowledge of how language in general works and that this helps them to learn a particular language.
The goals of SLA are to describe how L2 acquisition proceeds and to explain this process and why some learners seem to be better at it than others.
What is Case Study? A case study is detailed study of a learner’s acquisition of an L2. It is typically longitudinal, involving the collection of samples of the learners’ speech or writing over a period of time.
Two Case Studies The two case studies were both longitudinal. A case study of an adult learner. Focused on a small number of grammatical features. A case study of two child learners. They can be relatively simple or can be quite complex.
Methodological Issues One issue has to do with what it is that needs to be described. Language is such a phenomenon that researchers have generally preffered to focus on some specific aspect rather than on the whole of it. Another issue concerns what it means to say that a learner has ‘acquired’ a feature of the target language.
Learners may manifest target-like use of a feature in a formula without having acquired the ability to use the feature productively. SLA researchers recognize the need to investigate how the relationship between form and function in learners’ output compares with that of the speakers.
Issues in the description of learner language Learners make errors of different kinds. For examples: failed to use grammatical, ommision and overuse. L2 learners acquire a large number of formulaic chunks. An important issue in SLA is the role that these formulas play, not just in enchanching learners’ performance but also in their acquisition.
One of the most interesting issues raised by these case studies is whether learners acquire the language systematically.
Issues in the explanation of L2 acquisition On the one hand, learners internalize chunks of language structure (i.e. formulas). On the other hand, they acquire rules (i.e.the knowledge that a given linguistic feature is used in a particular context with a particular function). In other words, learners must engage in both item learning and system learning.
Learners engage in both types of learning. An explanation of L2 acquisition must account for both item and system learning and how the two interrelate.
The systematic nature of L2 acquisition also requires explanation. There are a number of possible explanation: The learners follow a particular developmental pattern. Other explanation emphasize the importance of external as opposed to internal factors.
