2nd language acquisition midterm

prewired

• state of readiness of language acquisition

• babies are born w/ predisposed ability to acquire language skills

high amplitude sucking

• measures preferences of infants to count and infant perceptual abilities

• increase rate = increased interest

high amplitude sucking facts

• infants like sounds

• lose interest in repetitive sounds

• regain interest w/ new sounds

sound contrasts

• infants can identity pronunciation differences/contrasts even if it’s not in native language

• unable to identity after 8-10 months if not in native language

babbling

3-4 months

reduplicated babbling

• cu combos are repeated

  • ex: ba-ba-ba

nonreduplicated

• varying cu sequences used

  • ex: ba-da-ga

development of babbling

• marginal babbling: 4-6 months

• vocal play (6-8 months)

• reduplication, then nonredpulication (6-8 months)

• 8-12 months: jargon, conversational babbling

overextension

• child’s use of a word for objects/items that share feature

• ex: using “dog” for all four legged animals

underextension

• word used with narrower meaning

• ex: “dog” only used for family pet

different stages

• first word/holophrastic stage

• two word stage

• telegraphic stage

telegraphic stage

children begin producing 2-4 word long units

morphemes

• smallest meaning-bearing unit of languages

• ex: -s, -ed, -ing, etc

mean length of utterence

• used to calculate development of children’s grammar

• # of morphemes/# of total utterances

input

language which an individual is exposed in the environment

nativism

theoretical approach emphasizing innate, possibly genetic contributes to behavior

empiricism

environmental contributions/experiences influencing behavior

behaviorism

• learning principles can explain behavior and observable events

• child is a passive recipient, subjected to environmental experiences

• b.f. skinner

universal grammar

• innate properties that characterize grammar of all human languages

• environment is only a trigger for language development

• we possess a “language faculty”

interactionism

include experience, environment, and innate capacities

child directed speech

special speech register used by adults/older children when speaking to young children

emergentism

• emergence of language abilities in real time

• language emerges from interconnections between neurons

connectionism

language learned through export to input, constructing associations among units

1st and 2nd language differences

• age

• emotion

• social expectations higher for 2nd language

• context of learning

• exposure time

• CDS talk more present in first language

• attainment

transfer

influence of 1st language in using language 2 and vice versa

interference

influence of language 1 in language 2 when it leads to an error or vice versa

1st and 2nd language parallels

• needs to be exposed to target language

• repititon

• formulaic sequences or expressions

• young children and older l2 learners understand more than they can produce

• systematic, structured, organized fashion

• overgeneralization

CHILDES

online corpus including transcripts of dialogue between children and adults/older children

formulaic sequences or expressions

• phrases that learners learn and use as a whole unit without analyzing into individual units

  • ex: “how are you?” as a single unit

bilingual first language acquisiton

simultaneous acquisition of two languages from birth or shortly after

factors of bilingualism

• degree

• function

• alternation

• interference

degree

how bilingual are they?

function

what do they use their languages for?

alternation

to what extent do they alternate languages?

interference

how well do they keep their languages apart?c

code mixing

use of words/morphemes from both languages

language perception

the way in which languages are used with a child

bilingual lexical representation

how words from two languages are mentally stored or organized

lexical access

how words are accessed or recalled

semantic priming

experiments requiring decision as to whether a given string of letters is a real word or not when preceded by semantically related word

stroop experiments

show color words printed in ink that does/doesn’t match the word

language mode

state of activation of bilingual’s or multilingual’s languagese

executive control/functions

processes or functions localized in the brain’s frontal lobe

cognitive reserve

• brain’s ability to cope with and delay the appearance of symptoms of degenerative brain changes

• bilingualism helps with this

theory

set of statements that explain why phenomena occur

Piaget’s theory

children go through four stages of cognitive growth

sensorimotor stage

• first stage

• infants react to their environment based on what they perceive through their senses

formal operations

• 12 years old

• fourth stage

• abstract thought

Thomas Kuhn’s criteria of theory choice

• accurate

• consistent

• broad scope

• simple

• fruitful

broad scope

theory should extend beyond what it was initially designed to explain

fruitful

should disclose new phenomenon/new relationships among phenomenon

hypothesis

prediction about distinct phenomena from a more general theory

structuralist

• emphasis on language forms and structures

• identities and describes obeservable units of language

contrastive analysis

comparison of linguistic structures of 2+ languages to determine similariteis/differences

behaviorist procedures

• help develop habits in l2 learning

• imitation

• repetition

• reinforcement

• response connections

• claims that l1 and l2 are a similar process

response connections

establishment of habits through stimulus

contrastive analysis hypothesis

• where there are similarities between two languages, the learners will acquire l2 structures w/ ease and vice versa

• l1 interference is main obstacle in l2 learning

• hierarchy of difficulty

hierarchy of diffculty

zero level to split

problems w/ CA

difficult/impossible to make decisions on degree of similarity/differences because of subjectivity

cross linguistic influence

• instances of phonological, lexical, grammatical, or other aspects of transfer from one language to another

• can help explain occurrence of certain errors resulting from transfer from l1 to l2

error analysis

• involving description and classification of errors to gain insight into learner’s current underlying knowledge of l2 system

• overgeneralizaiton

• type of frequency of errors change

• pit corder

• creative construction

interlanguage

language produced in systematic ways from that of native speaker

problems with EA

• lack of focus on what learner can actually achieve

  • doesn’t account for learner avoidance or difficulty

error analysis procedures

• collection of learner language

• identification of errors

• description of errors

• explanation of errors

• evaluation of errors

developmental error

error that reflects learner’s gradual discovery of second language system

communicative competence

use of a language in situationally and socially appropriate ways

communicative language teaching

interactive, converted meaning based language and learning that replicates natural language-learning environment

competence

underlying knowledgee that accounts for one’s language ability

formalist

emphasis on forms and structures

UG and l2 learning

do l2 learners still have UG constraints?

poverty of stimulus

input is not enough to explain abstract set of rules that characterize learner’s language

theories of ug access

• nature and availability the same for l1 and l2

• available to l2 learners, but l1 has affected its availability in l2 acquisition, so learners access ug indrectly though l1

• l2 has no acces to UG

minimalist program

grows greater role to lexicon in determining grammatical featuersp

problems with UG

• doesn’t include effects of social factors

• doesn’t include sociocultural context of langauge

• ideal speaker-hearer

• doesn’t include psychological factors

monitor model

• based on concept that learners have two systems and learned system acts as a monitor of acquired system

• krashen

acquisition learning hypothesis

• there is a fundamental distinction between ways in which learners can develop language competence

• acquistion

• learning

  • non-interface position

acquistion

• subconscious exposure to language

  • learner engages in communicative exchanges and is not consciously focused on language features

learning

• conscious exposure to language data

• typical classroom setting

non interface position

what is learned can’t be acquired knowledge

natural order hypothesis

language elements are acquired in fixed, predetermined order

bilingual syntax feature

structured communicative technique that elicits natural speech from children in convo with adult

comprehensible input hypothesis

one of most effective ways to increase l2 competence is by exposure to comprehensible input

output

• language produced by learner

• essental to l2 learning

affective filter hypothesis

learners possessed mechanism/filter that could cause access to LAD to become blocked

language acquisition device

mental organ for language acquisition

natural apporach

• emphasis on communicative activities

• exposure to large amounts of comprehensible input

social constructivism

emphasizes social interaction as source for construction of knowledge systems

sociiocultural theory

• social interaction is necessary for l2 development and learning needs to be examined in social context

• lev vygotsky

• mediation and internalization

mediation

langage is one of the basic means to mediate/connect with others and the physical world

internalization

process where people internalize knowledge acquired through social interactions

zone of proximal development

• difference between what learner can do w/ and without help

• l2 learners advance to higher levels when they interact w/ speakers who know more

scaffolding

role others play in supporting learners development

translanguaging

• how multilinguals use their linguistic resources to make sense/interact w/ world around them

• embraces variety of theoretical and practical examples of fluid use of languages

competence

holistic sum of multiple-language capacities

repertoire

totality of idinvidual’s language knoweldge

restricting study of SLA

restriction to specific contexts the field is missing factors and processes associated w/ linguistic and social characteristics of other languages

multilingual speaker shift

shifting from imagined perfect monolingual speaker to real learner

emotion and language learning

emotions are not the same for all languages

two main types of speakers

• l2 learners who need to speak language of host country

• foreign learners who learn a language of international communication at school

communicatie competence limitations

looks at one language at the time and not at multiple languages