CHAPTER 9

 CHAPTER 9

INSTRUCTION AND L2 ACQUISITION

In this chapter we will consider three branches of this research. The first concerns whether teaching learners grammar has any effect on their interlanguage development. Second, it draws on the research into individual learner differences. The third branch looks at strategies training.

Form Focused Instruction

Recently communicative Language Teaching is premised on the assumption that learners do not need to be taught grammar before they can communicate but will acquire it naturally as part of the process of learning to communicate. In some versions of Communicative Langugae Teaching, then, there is no place at all for the direct teaching of grammar.

Does Form Focused Instruction Work?

The result of the research that was conducted by Teresa Pica, suggest that the effect of instruction may depend on the target structure that is being taught. If the structure is simpe and manifests a straightforward form function relationship, instruction may lead to improve accuracy. If the structure is formally simple and silent but is functionally fairly complex, the instruction may help learners to learn the form but not its use so learners end up making a lot of errors. If the structure lacks saliency and its functionally very complex, instruction has no effect at all.

Teachability hypothesis

Predicts thsat instruction can only promote language acquisition if the interlanguage is close to the point when the structure to be taught is acquired in the natural setting.

  There is no ample evidence that the effects of form focused instruction are not restricted to careful language use but are also evident in free communication.

What Kind of Form Focused Instruction Works Best?

The first concerns the distinction between inputs based and production based practice. Traditionally, grammar teaching has emphasized production.

This figure shows us hat input processing works better than instruction hat emphasize output productions:

(A)                                                                                                       (B)

Input based instruction                                                                     Production based instruction

                                                                                                                            

:Input                                   Intake         L2 Knowledge                                 Output

Consciousness raising: refers to attempts to make learners aware of the existence of specific linguistic features in the target language.

Learner Instruction Matching

A distinct possibility, however is that the same instructional option is not equally effective for all L2 learners. Individually differences to do with such factors as learning style and language aptitudes are likely to influence which options work best.

Strategy Training

Teaching learners specific grammatical structure constitutes an attempts to intervence directly I interlanguage development.

Questions:

1.      If we do learner instruction matching, should we know each of the learners’ differences with such a factor?

2.      Is it still appropriate for us to learn L2 by applying grammar based?

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 8

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN L2 ACQUISITION

So far we have explained the aspect of L2 acquisition. These dimensions are many and various. It can be learners’ personality, the degree of anxiety they experience, and their preparedness to take risks in learning and using an L2.

Language Aptitude

It has been suggested that people differ in the extent to which they posses a natural ability fo learning an L2. This ability, known as language aptitude, is believed to be in part related to general intelligence but also to be in part distinct.

The identification of the number of components of language aptitude:

1.      Phonemic coding ability         : to identify the sounds of foreign language so that they can be remembered later

2.      Grammatical sensitive             : the ability to recognize the grammatical functions of words in sentences

3.      Inductive language learning ability: the ability to identify patterns of correspondence and relations between form and meaning.

4.      Rote learning ability: the ability to form and remember association between stimuli.

Motivation

It involves the attitudes and effective states that influence the degree of effort that learners make to learn an L2. Various kinds of motivation have been identified:

1.      Instrumental motivation

Learners may make efforts to learn an L2 for some functional reason to pass an examination, to get a better job, or to get a place at university.

2.      Integrative motivation

Some larners may choose to learn a particular L2 because they are interested in the peple and cultre represented by the target language group.

3.      Resultative motivation

An assumption of the research referred to above is that motivation is the cause of L2 achievement. However, it is also possible that motivation is the result of learning.

4.      Intrinsic motivation

In some learning situations, it may not be learners’ general reasons for learning an L2 that are crucial in determining their motivation.

Learning Strategies

Are the particular approaches or techniques that learners employ to try to learn an L2

Different kinds of learning strategies have been identified:

1.      Social strategies concern the ways in which learners choose to interact with other speakers

2.      Cognitive strategies

Are those that are involved in the analysis, synthesis, or transformation of learning materials.

The study of learning strategies is of potential value to language teachers.

Questions:

1.      Which is the best motivation to have for us?

2.      Would yo explain about the correlation between one aspect of aptitude and others one

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 7

LINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF INTERLANGUAGE

Typological Universal: Relative Clauses

A good example of how linguistic enquire can shed light on interlaguage development can be found in the study of relative clauses. Learners whose L1 includes relative clauses find them easier to learn than learners whose L1 does not and, consequently, they are less likely to avoid learning them.

A effect of relative clause structure on L2 acquisition can be identified. Linguists have shown that languages are more likely to permit relative clauses with a subject pronoun than with an object pronoun. In fact the hierarchy of relativization,is known as the accessibility hierarchy.

The accessibility hierarchy serves as an example of how SLA and linguistics can assist each other. On the other hand, linguistic facts can be used to explain and even predict acquisition. On the other, the results of empirical studies of L2 acquisition can be used to refine our understanding of linguistic facts.

Universal Grammar

SLA also owes a considerable debt to another branch of linguistic- that associated closely with Noam Chomsky’s theory of Universal Grammar. He argues that language is governed by a set of highly abstract principles that provide parameters which are given particular setting in different languages.

Learnability

Chomsky has claimed that children learning their L1 must rely on innate knowledge of language because otherwise the task facing them is an impossible one. His argument is tht input to which children are exposed is insufficient to enable them to discover the rules of the language they are trying to learn. This insufficiency is referred to as the poverty of the stimulus.

Negative evidence would make possible children to find out that sentences are ungrammatical

The Critical Period Hypothesis

it states that there is a period during which language acquisitions easy and complete and beyond which it is difficult and typically incomplete.

Access to USG

We will briefly examine a number of theoretical positions.

1.      Complete access

It is argued that learners begin with the parameter setting of their L1 but subsequently learn to switch to the L2 parameter setting.

2.      No Access

Here is that UG is not available to adult L2 learners. They rely on general learning strategies.

3.      Partial Access

Another theoretical possibility is that learners have access to parts of UG but no others.

4.      Dual Access

According to this position, adult L2 learners make use of both UG and general learning strategies.

Markedness

This uncertainty regarding the contribution of linguistic theory to the study of L2 acquisition is also evident in another area of linguistic enquiry-.

Cognitive versus Linguistic Explanation

In short, it comes down to whether L2 acquisition is to be explained in terms of a distinct and innate language faculty or in terms of general cognitive abilities. There is no consensus on this issue. It should be noted however that UG does not claim to account for the whole of a language or even the whole of the grammar of a language.

Questions        :

1.      What is actually meant by “markedness” ?

2.      What is more influence between cognitive and linguistic explanation?

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 6

PSYCHOLINGISTIC ASPECTS OF INTERLANGUAGE

Psycholinguistic is the study of the mental structures and processes involved in the acquisition and use of language. Here we will focus on a small number of major issues L1 transfer, type role of consciousness, process operations, and communication strategies.

L1 TRANSFER

L1 transfer refers to the influence that the learners of L1 exerts over the acquisition of an L2, as we noted in the section on error analysis in chapter 2, the learners of L1 is one of the sources of errors in learner language. This influence is referred to as negative transfer. While the opposite one is called as positive transfer.

L1 transfer can also result in avoidance, when they attempt to avoid such kinds of grammatical system in L2.Overuse is somehow found in L2 learners, when they always use the formal language in the non formal conversation.

According to Eric Kellerman, learners have perceptions regarding the linguistic features of their own language. They treat some features as potentially transferable and others as potentially non-transferable.

It is clear, then, that transfer is governed by learners’ perception about what is transferable and by their stage of development. It follows that interlanguage development cannot constitute a restructuring continuum. That is, the starting point is not the learners’ L1, and learners do not proceed by replacing L1 rules. Rather they construct their own interim rules.

THE ROLE OF CONSIOUSNESS IN L2 ACQUISITION

When children acquire their L1 they seem to do so without conscious effort. In contrast, L2 learners, especially adults, seem to have to work hard and to study the language consciously in order to succeed.

The term “consciousness” is often used very loosely in SLA and argues that there is a need to standardize the concept that underlies its use. For example distinguish between consciousness as “intentionally” and consciousness as “attention” “ Intentionality” refers to whether a learner makes a conscious and deliberate decision to learn some L2 knowledge. It contrast with “incidental learning”, which takes place when learners pick up L2 knowledge through exposure. This distinction is important and helpful. It helps us to see that when Krashen talks about “acquisition” being “incidental” acquisition mightin fact still involve some degree of conscious “attention” to input.

Schimdt argues that learning cannot take place without what he calls noticing- the process of attending consciously to linguistic features in the input.

Schimdt also points to a third sense in which we can talk about consciousness in language learning. He uses the term “awareness to refer to whether learners are conscious of acquiring new L2 elements.

Irrespective of whether learners learn implicitly or explicitly is widely accepted that they can acquire different kind s of knowledge.

Krashen’s view is that most learners are only capable of learning fairly simple rules.

Explicit knowledge may aid learners in developing implicit knowledge in a number of ways. First, contrary to the claims of Krashen, a direct interface may occur. Second, explicit knowledge may facilitate the process by which learners attend to features in the input. Third, explicit knowledge may help learners to move from intake to acquisition by helping them to notice the gap between what they observe in the input and the currents state of their interlanguage as manifested in their own output.

PROCESSING OPERATIONS

a.      Operating principles, is the study of the L1 acquisition og many different languages has led to the identification of a number of general strategies which children use to extract and segment linguistic information from the language they hear.

b.      Processing constraints, govern when it is possible for a learner to move from one stage to another.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES

Are seen as part of the planning phase. They are called upon when learners experience some kind of problem with an initial which prevents them from executing it.

TWO TYPES OF COMMUNICATIONAL MODEL

One type involves the idea of serial processing. That is, information is processed in a series of sequential steps and results in the representation of what has been learned as some kind of rule.

The alternative type of apparatus involves the idea of parallel distributed processing. This credits the learners with the ability to perform a number of mental tasks at the same time.

QUESTIONS

1.      What is meant by ga[p on page 57

2.      Could you mention kinds of communication strategies that learners do?