Introduction to Second Language Acquisition

1. Introduction: describing and explaining L2 acquisition By : AnnisaMustikanthi Introduction to Second Language Acquisition

2. What is ‘second language acquisition’? What are the goals of SLA? Two case studies Methodological issues Issues in the description of learner language Issues in the explanation of L2 acquisition What we are going to learn in this chapter:

3. The word ‘second’ in ‘second language acquisition’ (L2) refer to any language that is learned subsequent to the mother tongue. L2 can be defined as the way in which people learn a language other than their mother tongue, inside or outside of a classroom, and ‘Second Language Acquisition’ (SLA) as the study of this. What is ‘second language acquisition’? back

4. Description of L2 acquisition Explanation; identifying the external and internal factors that account for why learners acquire an L2 in the way they do What are the goals of SLA?

5. The social milieu in which learning takes place The input that learners receive, that is, the samples of language to which a learner is exposed. External factors

6. The goals of SLA , then, are to describe how L2 acquisition proceeds and to explain this process and why some learners seem to be better at it then others. back

7. A case study is a detailed study of a learner’s acquisition of an L2. The two case studies which we will examine were both longitudinal. One is of an adult learner learning English in surroundings where it serves as a means of daily communication and the other of two children learning English in a classroom. Two case studies

8. A case study of an adult learner Richard Schmidt, a researcher at the University of Hawaii, studied Wes’s, a thirty-three year-old artist and a native speaker of Japanese, language development over a three-year period from the time he first started visiting Hawaii until eventually took up residence there.

9. Richard Schmidt researched Wes by asking him to make a recordings in English during the trips to Tokyo. He then made written transcription of these monologues, which lasted between one and three hours. Schmidt also made recordings and transcriptions of informal conversation between Wes and friends in Honolulu. Schmidt was interested in how Wes’s knowledge of English grammar developed over the three years and he focused in a small number of grammatical features, such as the use of auxiliary be, plural –s, third peson –s, and regular past tense.

10. Wes did not have the same knowledge of progressive –ingas a native speaker Wes did succeed in using progressive –ingwhen it was requires, as in: All day I’m sitting table. he also supplied it in sentences when it was not required: So yesterday I didn’t painting.

11. Wes had little or no knowledge at the beginning of the study of most of the grammatical structures Schmidt investigated. A general feature of Wes’s use of English was his use of formulas-fixed expressions. He became quite skilled conversationalist, very effective at negotiating complex business deals in English and even able to give talks about his paintings in English. He was also highly skilled at repairing communication breakdowns.

12. The writer investigated two child learners in a classroom with different native language. J was ten-year-old Portuguese boy, R was an eleven-year-old boy from Pakistan, speaking Punjabi as his native language. A case study of two child learners

13. Both learners were capable of successfully performing simple request even they knew very little English. Both learners manifested development in their ability to perform requests over the period of study. Many of their requests seemed formulaic in nature. Both learners progressed in much the same way despite the fact that they had different native language. From the research we got a number of points.

14. By the end of the study, therefore, the two learners’ ability to use requests had grown considerably. Their requests tended to be very direct.

15. They raise a number of important methodological issues relating to how L2 acquisition should be studied. They raise issues relating to the description of learner language. They point to some of the problems researchers experience in trying to explain L2 acquisition. What do these case studies show us? back

16. One issues has to do with what it is that needs to be described. Another issue concerns what it means to say that a learner has ‘acquired’ a feature of the target language. Another problem is in determining whether learners have ‘acquired’ a particular feature. Methodological issues back

17. Learners make errors of different kinds. L2 learners acquire a large number of formulaic chunks. These case studies is whether learners acquire the language systematically. Issues in the description of learner language back

18. Learners internalize chunks of language structure. They acquire rules. 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. Issues in the explanation of L2 acquisition

19. It is not necessary to learn the full grammar of a language in order to get one’s meaning across. These case studies illuminate the kinds of issues that preoccupy SLA. These issues will figure in subsequent chapters.

20. Thank you