SECOND LANGUAGE

ACQUISITION AND

MATERIALS

DEVELOPM

ENT

Chapter

2

1

INTRODUCTIO

N

2

SLA

Second language acquisition (SLA):

1. SLA is the process by which people acquire and/or learn any language in addition to their first language.

2. It is also the name of the academic discipline which studies that process.

3

ACQUIS IT ION:It is informal, subconscious process of gaining a language from exposure and use.

LEARNING:It is deliberate, conscious study of a language in order to be able to use it.

4

ACQUIS IT IONIt is the initial stage of gaining basic communicative competence in a language.

DEVELOPMENTIt is the subsequent stage of gaining the ability to use the language successfully in a wide range of media and genres for a variety of purposes.

Tomlinson (2007)

5

WHAT DO W

E KNOW ABOUT

THE PR

OCESS OF SLA

Resea

rch an

d theo

ry

6

IT IS GENERALLY AGREED THAT SLA IS FACILITATED BY:

1• A rich and meaningful exposure to language in use

2• Affective & cognitive engagement

3• Making use of those mental resources typically used in the

communication in the L1

4• Noticing how the L2 is used

5• Being given opportunities for contextualized and purposeful

communication in the L2

6• Being encouraged to interact

7• Being allowed to focus on meaning

7

8• Being relaxed

9• Being motivated to participate to learn

10• Being helped to develop an emerging interlanguage which gradually

moves closer to the target language

11• Developing hypotheses about how the language is used for

communication

12• Being catered for fast or slow learners, their learning styles, their use of

language with inconsistent accuracy and effect

13• Making full use of non-linguistic means of communication

14• Being ready to acquire a focused feature

8

A RICH AND MEANINGFUL EXPOSURE TO LANGUAGE IN USE

Powerful evidence Extensive reading 9

Krashen

Exposure to comprehensive input is both necessary and sufficient for SLA

Inputrich meaningful

• It contains a lot of implicit information about how the language is actually used to achieve communicative effect

• It provides natural recycling of language features

It is relevant to the learner and the learner is able to understand enough of it to gain meaning from it.

AFFECTIVE ENGAGEMENT

No emotional responses

Negative emotions

Positive emotions

10

Self-confidence

Self-esteem

COGNITIVE ENGAGEMENT

predicting

connecting

11

evaluating

Inferencing

Reading & listening• Inner voice• Visual imaging• Motor imagingPrior to speaking & writing• Visual imaging • Inner speech

To silently eco the utterances we hear or see and to comment to ourselves about them

To present the meaning of what is said or written

Mm

To recreate movements which are described

To develop a mental representation of our intended message

To prepare what we are going to say or write

12

MAKING USE OF THOSE MENTAL RESOURCES TYPICALLY USED IN THE COMMUNICATION IN THE L1

NOTICING HOW THE L2 IS USED

13

Nothing in the input can become intake without noticing it.

Schmidt

Psychological readiness is an important facilitator of

acquisition and this can be influenced by materials and

teachers.Pienneman

BEING GIVEN OPPORTUNITIES FOR CONTEXTUALIZED AND PURPOSEFUL COMMUNICATION IN THE L2

Output: (producing language for communication) It can provide learners with contextual feedback It helps to automatize language It constitutes auto-input and it can elicit further

comprehensible input tooPushed output (communicating something which is not easy to express) It stretches the learners capabilities by: making them make full use of their acquired language and of

their strategic competence providing opportunities for new but comprehensible input

from their interlocutors who are helping them to negotiate meaning.

This would suggest that setting learners achievable communicative challenges is likely to be more useful than providing easy practice.

14

BEING ENCOURAGED TO INTERACT

15

Interaction hypotheses

Oral interaction in the L2 creates positive conditions for its acquisition as: it helps to make input more comprehensible It provides meaningful feedback & it pushes learners to modify their output

BEING ALLOWED TO FOCUS ON MEANING

Helping learners to acquire language from a focus on meaning:Use an experiential approach in which the learners first experience an engaging text holistically, respond to it personally and then return to the text to focus discretely on a salient feature of language use.

This procedure was advocated by Long as a ‘form-focused’ approach to replace the typical ‘form-focused approach’ in which the teacher or textbook focuses the learners’ conscious attention on a pre determined, discrete form (e.g. the present perfect).

This procedure is also made use of in language awareness approaches in which the learners first experience a form in use and are then helped to make their own discoveries about it and in consciousness rising approaches in which the learners are guided towards finding out how a form is used.

16

17