CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 5

DISCOURSE ASPECTS OF INTERLANGUAGE

Here we consider about the nature of the communication is and how it affects L2 acquisition. A number of researchers have sought to show how interaction shapes inter-language development.

Acquiring Discourse Rules                                

There are rules in this ways in which native speakers hold conversations. However, L2 learners behave differently. Sometimes they fail to respond to compliment at all. at other times they produce bare responses. There is a growing body of do research investigating learner discourse. This show that, to some extent at least, the acquisition of discourse rules, like the acquisition of grammatical rules, is systematic, reflecting both distinct types of errors and developmental sequences.

The Role of Input and Interaction In L2 Acquisition

just as caretakers modify the way they speak to children learning their L1, so do native speakers modify their speech when communicating with learners. Ungrammatical foreigner talk is characterized by the deletion of certain grammatical features such as copula be, modal verbs (for example, van and must), and articles, the use of the base form of the verb in place of the past tense form, and the use of special constructions such as “ no+ verb”.

Grammatical foreigner talk is the norm. Various types of modification of baseline talk, first, grammatical foreigner talk is delivered at a slower pace. Second, the input is simplified.

When learners have conversation in L2, they sometime do the negotiation of meaning. According to Stephen Krashen’s input hypothesis, L2 acquisition takes place when a learner understands input that contains grammatical forms that are at “i + I”. Krashen suggests that the right level of input is attained automatically when interlocutors succeed in making themselves understood in communication.

Michael Long’s interaction hypothesis also emphasizes the importance of comprehensible input but that it is most effective when it is modified through the negotiation of meaning.

As the interaction between Hiroko and Izumi illustrates, learners often receive negative evidence. That is , their interlocutors indicate when they have not understood and, in the course of so doing, may model the correct target-language forms.

Learners and their interlocutors in constructing discourse and suggests that synthetic structures can grow out of the process of building discourse is called scaffolding. That is the learners use the discourse to help them produce utterances that they would not be able to produce on their own, as in this example from Wagner Gough.

The Role of Output in L2 Acquisition

Krashen claims that the only way learners can learn from their output is by treating it as auto input. That is learners learn L2 by practicing them. She argued that comprehensible output also plays a part in L2 acquisition. She suggests a number of specific ways in which learners can learn from their own output. Output can serve a consciousness- raising function by helping learners to notice gasp in their interlanguages. That is, by trying to speak or write in the L2 they realize that they lack the grammatical knowledge of some features that is important for what they want to say. Second, output helps learners to test hypotheses. Third, learners sometimes talk about their own output, identifying problems with it and discussing ways in which they can be put right.

Questions:

1.      What is said as zone of proximal development on page 48?

2.      What is actually auto input itself?