Language+Acquisiton Week 1

7/29/2019 Language+Acquisiton Week 1

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Language Acquisiton

First Week


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Language acquisition

Krashen call his theory as the "MonitorTheory" of adult second language acquisition.(but the theory is most commonly named asthe Input Hypothesis nowadays.

Monitor Theory hypothesizes that adults havetwo independent systems for developingability in second languages:

Subconscious language acquisition and

conscious language learning, and that thesesystems are interrelated in a definite way:subconscious acquisition appears to be farmore important.


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A particular view of language and of languageacquisition

According to Chomsky, the human mind is

inhabited by a specific module whichhandles language. This is the Universal

Grammar, which is at the base of all human

languages, and which consists in a series of

parameters which are set differently fordifferent languages. (or principles?)


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This is an unconscious process - the

child does not usually hypothesize about

language out loud, but simply goes about

its daily business, incidentally acquiring

the language.


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Critical Period

This vision of language acquisition is

often linked to the idea of there being a

'critical period' - that is to say that

anyone who has not learned a languagebefore a certain age will never be able to

do so.

Steven Pinkercites the case of Chelsea(also remember the case of Genie

(Lenneberg)


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Acquisition/Learning

There are two ways of getting knowledge

about language:

On the one hand, we have the approach to

knowledge-getting that typifies the classroom ofyesteryear - the learner cons rules of grammar, lists

of vocabulary, and so on.

This can be contrasted with the way in which the

child absorbs the mother tongue: it is only rarelythat the infant shows any conscious effort in his

increasing mastery of language - most of the time,

he progresses while attending to other business.


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Learning is a conscious process, demanding

effort and attention to the task in hand.

Acquisition, Krashen believes, is the main road

to FL mastery. Learning has some utility, for itallows the student to construct a Monitor which

checks on the output to ensure that it is

correct. But acquisition is your main vehicle.

There is no interface between learning and

language acquisition.


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The Natural Order Hypothesis

If language acquisition is powered by aspecific program, and if this program is innate,we would expect all language acquirers tomove along the same pathway to mastery.

There would be a predictable and necessarysequence of acquisition. Furthermore, if theLAD remains available to adult learners, theacquisition process will be the same as it is forchildren, and adults learning English as an L2would, all things being equal, follow the samepathway as children.


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The Natural Order Hypothesis

This leads us to The Natural Order Hypothesis.

There is an order of acquisition for a number ofgrammatical morphemes which all learners of EFLfollow, whatever their language of origin.

Thus, for example, the 's' of the third personsingular of verbs in the present tense is acquiredlate, whereas the 's' of plural nouns is acquiredearly. (The order of acquisition for EFL is similar

but not exactly identical to the order of acquisitionfor English as mother tongue).


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A dialogue of FLA

Child : Want other onespoon, Daddy.

Child : Yes, I want other

one spoon, pleaseDaddy.

Child : Other ... one ...spoon.

Child : Other.

Child : Spoon. Child : "Other ... spoon.

Now give me other onespoon?

Father :You mean, youwant THE OTHERSPOON.

Father : Can you say"the other spoon"?

Father : Say "other".

Father : "Spoon".

Father "Other ... spoon."


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The Input hypothesis

Babies do not speak. However, we know thatthey listen. They are already listening whilethey are in the womb, for they recognize theirmothers' voices from the moment they areborn. After a few weeks, they begin to babble -and quite soon, the babbling begins to echothe sounds of the mother tongue. So they arelistening. They keep on listening for quite

some time before they actually say anything.Yet during this time, they are processinglanguage, and getting ready to talk.


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Krashen takes a further radical step:

He says that listening - input - is all that isnecessary to language acquisition. So long as

the learner receives comprehensible input, he orshe will automatically become competent in thenew language. In such societies as our own -literate ones - the input can be both oral andwritten.

What is important is that the learner should wantto listen or to read the material, on the one hand,and that it should be comprehensible on theother.


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i+1 ?

If i represents previously acquired linguisticcompetence and extra-linguistic knowledge,

the hypothesis claims that we move from i toi+1 by understanding input that contains i+1.Extra-linguistic knowledge includes ourknowledge of the world and of the situation,that is, the context. The +1 represents newknowledge or language structures that weshould be ready to acquire.


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Teachers, then, should not be challenging

learners to speak all the time: a learner will

talk when he or she is good and ready, and if

s/he remains silent, s/he has good reasons fordoing so.

In any case speaking and writing do NOT lead

to acquisition. Output is not a necessary part

of the learning process. Of course, if thelearner *wants* to speak, we are not going to

stop her. But if she doesn't, that's fine.


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The Monitor Hypothesis

The monitor hypothesis asserts that a

learner's learned system (grammar) acts

as a monitor to what they are producing.

In other words, while only the acquired

system is able to produce spontaneous

speech, the learned system is used to

check what is being spoken.


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The Monitor Hypothesis

Before the learner produces an utterance,

he or she internally scans it for errors, and

uses the learned system to make

corrections. Self-correction occurs whenthe learner uses the Monitor to correct a

sentence after it is uttered. According to the

hypothesis, such self-monitoring and self-

correction are the only functions of

conscious language learning.


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Three conditions for use of the

monitor

According to Krashen, for the Monitor to be successfullyused, three conditions must be met:

The acquirer/learner must know the ruleThis is a very difficult condition to meet because it

means that the speaker must have had explicitinstruction on the language form that he or she is tryingto produce.

The acquirer must be focused on correctnessHe or she must be thinking about form, and it is difficult

to focus on meaning and form at the same time. The acquirer/learner must have time to use the monitor

Using the monitor requires the speaker to slow down andfocus on form.


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High users

Low users

Optimum users


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The Affective Filter Hypothesis

People whose attitudes towards language-learningare, for one reason or another, negative, will acquireless than those whose attitudes are positive - theyhave high Affective Filters, which keep the input out of

the part of your mind responsible for acquisition.Here, there are two points we can note :

First is that the effects of attitude factors are mostmarked on acquisition, rather than on learning.

Second, while a positive attitude is a necessary pre-condition for acquisition to take place, it does not playa direct role in the process, which remains entirelydriven by CI.


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The Affective Filter Hypothesis

Three affective variables' have been

identified as being related to language-

acquisition:

These are motivation', self-

confidence' and anxiety'


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Language+Acquisiton Week 1

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