Second Language Acquisition Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering core terms, theoretical hypotheses, and empirical concepts across all five Second Language Acquisition lecture modules.

Mother Tongue

The language that a person acquires in early years and which normally becomes his or her natural instrument of thought and communication.

Second Language (L2)

Any language other than a person's mother tongue that a person learns or acquires, irrespective of the learning environment or existing multilingual repertoire.

Language Learning

The conscious process of 'picking up' a language that usually results from consciously studying a language in a formal institutional setting and involves developing formal rules.

Language Acquisition

The spontaneous, subconscious, and incidental process of 'picking up' a language through natural language use where attention is focused on meaning rather than formal grammatical rules.

Input

Linguistic data derived from the environment (both externally and internally sourced) that is socially determined and available for 'going in'.

Intake

That part of linguistic input that is allowed in, processed, or noticed by the learner, converting raw input into cognitive data for acquisition.

Output

Linguistic data that has been processed and comes out in the form of comprehension or production, compelling learners to transition from semantic to syntactic processing.

Error

A noticeable, recurrent, and systematic deviation from the norm of a target language system resulting from a lack of underlying knowledge (competence deficit).

Mistake

A non-systematic performance failure occurring when a learner fails to perform to reflect their competence due to temporary cognitive processing problems, access obstacles, or psychophysical fatigue.

Transfer

The cognitive process whereby prior linguistic knowledge (typically from L1) influences the acquisition, processing, and production of a second language.

Positive Transfer (Facilitation)

A type of transfer that occurs when L1 and L2 structures match, accelerating acquisition and promoting target-like accuracy.

Negative Transfer (Interference)

A type of cross-linguistic influence occurring when L1 rules or habits conflict with L2, producing systematic interlingual errors across phonology, syntax, or morphology.

Overgeneralization

An intralingual phenomenon occurring when an L2 learner extends an L2 rule to irregular contexts where that rule does not apply.

Error Analysis (EA)

A systematic procedure utilized by researchers and teachers involving collecting learner language samples, identifying errors, describing and classifying them grammatically, explaining their psycholinguistic causes, and evaluating their communicative gravity.

Autonomous Linguistic System

The view of learner language (interlanguage) as a legitimate, autonomous system governed by its own internal rules that is systematic, permeable, and dynamic along the interlanguage continuum.

Massive Sample

A sample collection method in Error Analysis where multiple language samples are collected from a broad population of learners to compile a comprehensive error corpus.

Specific Sample

A sample collection method in Error Analysis where one specific sample of language use is collected from a narrowly targeted group of learners.

Incidental Sample

A sample collection method in Error Analysis that utilizes readily available participants and convenience samples for exploratory analysis.

Interaction Hypothesis

A theoretical framework propounded by Michael Long asserting that second language acquisition is driven by conversational interaction and negotiated interpersonal communication.

Negotiation of Meaning

The collaborative conversational process where interlocutors work together to resolve communication breakdowns and achieve mutual understanding.

Interactional Modifications

Real-time linguistic adjustments made during speech to ensure comprehension, including clarification requests, confirmation checks, and comprehension checks.

Modified Input

Speech that is simplified, slowed down, repeated, or paraphrased in response to listener difficulty.

Modified Output

An utterance that a learner actively alters to become more target-like following interactional feedback or recasts.

Focus on Form (FonF)

A pedagogical model that strategically draws learner attention to grammatical form within meaningful, task-based communication without reverting to isolated grammar drills.

The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis

A core hypothesis of Krashen's Monitor Model asserting that adult L2 learners possess two distinct, mutually independent cognitive processes for developing L2 competence: subconscious acquisition and conscious learning.

The Monitor Hypothesis

A core hypothesis of Krashen's Monitor Model asserting that the acquired system initiates spontaneous speech, while the learnt system acts strictly as an internal editor or monitor under conditions of time, focus on form, and rule knowledge.

The Natural Order Hypothesis

A core hypothesis of Krashen's Monitor Model stating that language acquirers follow a statistically predictable, invariant developmental route in acquiring grammatical structures regardless of L1, age, or instruction.

The Input Hypothesis

A core hypothesis of Krashen's Monitor Model stating that humans acquire language in only one way: by understanding messages containing comprehensible input at level $i + 1$.

Level $i + 1$

The formula in Krashen's Input Hypothesis where $i$ represents the learner's current level of acquired competence and $1$ represents language structure slightly ahead of that stage.

The Affective Filter Hypothesis

A core hypothesis of Krashen's Monitor Model postulating an internal mental barrier influenced by motivation, self-confidence, and anxiety that determines whether comprehensible input reaches the Language Acquisition Device.

Monitor Under-Users

Learners who rely entirely on their acquired system and do not edit their speech, producing fluent speech without hesitation but with frequent grammatical errors.

Monitor Over-Users

Learners who constantly check and edit their speech against learnt rules, resulting in slow, hesitant speech and disrupted fluency.

Optimal Monitor Users

Learners who use the Monitor judiciously when appropriate, such as in writing or planned speech, without allowing it to disrupt communicative flow.

Additive Bilingualism

A type of bilingualism where a speaker adds a second language without any loss of competence in their first language, potentially leading to balanced bilingualism.

Balanced Bilingualism

A state in which a speaker or speech community possesses equal linguistic competence in both the first language and the second language.

Subtractive Bilingualism

A type of bilingualism where the addition of a second language leads to the gradual erosion or attrition of the first language.

Simultaneous Bilingualism

The process of growing up acquiring and using two languages simultaneously from early childhood until attaining balanced bilingualism.

Sequential Bilingualism

The process of picking up one language first before picking up another language sometime later.

Code Switching

An inter-sentential sociolinguistic phenomenon involving switching between two languages at sentence or clause boundaries.

Code Mixing

An intra-sentential sociolinguistic phenomenon involving mixing elements of two languages within a single clause or sentence.

Linguistic Competence

In Chomskyan theoretical frameworks, a learner's underlying, internalized knowledge of the target language linguistic code.

Linguistic Performance

In Chomskyan theoretical frameworks, the actual, observable use of language in either comprehension or production.

Behaviourism

A psychological paradigm asserting that human and animal behaviours are governed by environmental learning, habit formation, operant conditioning, and reinforcement.

Contrastive Analysis (CA) Hypothesis

A systematic methodology grounded in Behaviourist psychology and Structural linguistics that compares two languages to identify structural differences and predict learner errors a priori.

Poverty of the Stimulus

Noam Chomsky's argument that environmental language input heard by children is flawed, incomplete, and degenerate, yet children rapidly acquire a flawless, creative linguistic system.

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

An innate, domain-specific grammatical processor housed in the human brain that processes primary linguistic data into acquired competence.

Universal Grammar (UG)

An invariant system of principles and parameters common to the human species that characterizes the pre-linguistic biological initial state ($S_0$).

Primary Linguistic Data (PLD)

Natural ambient speech input from the environment that acts as a biological trigger to switch on the Language Acquisition Device.

Special Nativism

A nativist perspective asserting that humans possess an innate biological mechanism for language acquisition that is domain-specific and dedicated exclusively to language learning.

General Nativism

A nativist perspective asserting that language learning relies on innate, domain-general cognitive mechanisms and principles used for other non-linguistic tasks such as mathematics and reasoning.