Applied linguistics

Partie Thewissen

SLA

Understand the L2 knowledge system that underlies LL, its development and retention and factors which impact both

LCR

Study LL on the basis of CLC, represents (near-) natural language use

Why (near-) natural ?

Not totally authentic

CLC

Computer learner corpora, electronic collections of LC

SLA and LCR’s common goal

Understanding of L2 learning

SLA vs LCR’s public

Individual learners vs. group of learners

SLA vs LCR’s preference for

Oral (real sight, more spontaneous) vs. written (easier to collect)

SLA vs LCR focus on

Grammar (though not only) vs. grammar + other interlanguages areas

SLA vs LCR’s widely represent

Beginners vs. advanced

SLA vs LCR’s orientation

Theory-oriented vs. description of LL

LL

Learner language

SLA vs LCR’s collection

Experimentally collected L2 data (from experiments) vs. LC data (lot of data according to strict compilation criteria)

LC’s characteristics (5)

Non-native varieties, continuous stretches, quite large, importance of representativeness, analysable with software tools

SLA’s aim

Understand what makes individuals learn at different rates and achieve degrees of success

ESL

English as Second Language

EFL

English as a Foreign Language

ESL and EFL are considered on

A continuum rather than dichotomy

Language acquisition

Subconscious process, natural learning, presuppose no learning

Language learning

Direct language instruction (explicit grammatical rules + voc), intentional process, effort required

Interference

Negative transfer from the L1 to the L2

CAH

Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (Lado, 1957)

CAH (explanation)

Compare a learner’s L1 with the target language to predict the types of errors he’s likely to make (//interference)

Positive transfer

Similarities between L1 and L2, ‘ease’ of acquisition

CAH’s critics

Overpredict and underpredict errors

Error analysis vs. CAH

Error analysis replaced CAH as a dominant method for SLA

Interlanguage

Transitional (LL) linguistic system developed during the course of learning (Selinker, 1972 ; continuum between L1 and L2, influenced by L1 but different of both)

Error analysis emphasis on

Comparison with native language (rather than L1/L2 comparisons)

The Monitor Model (Krashen, 1976)

5 hypotheses to explain SLA including input hypothesis and affective filter hypothesis

Input hypothesis (MM)

Acquisition if the input is one level above the learners’ current stage of acquisition (n+1)

Affective Filter Hypothesis (MM)

Affective factors impact SLA (also about psychology)

Interactions’ advantages

Provide feedbacks and corrections, encourage participation

Type of factors which impact SLA (2)

Environmental/setting and individual

Environmental/setting factors (2)

Social distance and learning environment

Individual factors (9)

Age, gender, affect, aptitude, attitudes, motivation, personality, learning style, learning strategies

Learner corpus (Mc Enery, 2006)

Collection of machine-readable authentic texts sampled to be representative (of a particular language/language variety)

ELF

English as a Lingua Franca

World Englishes

Indigenised varieties of English

Kachru’s expanding 3 circles of English

Inner circle, outer circle, expanding circle

Inner circle

Countries where English is the native language

Outer circle

Former colonies, English has an official existence as a secondary language (used in some officials spheres)

Expanding circle

Where English has no official status or historical link (IFL)

Accentism

Discrimination, prejudice, unfair behaviour based on accent or language use

2 mediums of LC

Written (+ frequent, easiest), spoken (time-consuming)

Most frequent genre of LC

Argumentative writings, but LSP emerged

Language for Specific Purposes Corpora

Texts specific to particular disciplines and genres, allowing more targeted analysis

Cross-sectional LC

Provides a snapshot of learners’ knowledge of the L2 at a particular moment (ICLE)

Longitudinal LC

Gather learner output at different stages in his development (track his progress/lack thereof over time ; LONGDALE)

Quasi-longitudinal LC

Data from different learners at various proficiency levels (CLC)

2 steps of LC collection

Get learners + collecting data

Before analyses, raw data need

Be cleaned to remove quotes or identification’s information + text unique identifier

Multi-modal LC

Written transcription + sound file

Corpus typology striking imbalance (4)

Mostly written, cross-sectional, intermediate to advanced, general LC (rather than LSP)