FIFTH EDITION ee @ Reser LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING ii a a H. DOUGLAS BROWN San Francisco State UniversityPrinciples of Language Learning and Teaching, Fifth Edition ‘Copyright © 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc “All rights reserved. No part of this publicabon may be reproduced, stored lea retrieval syacen, oF transramed in any form or ty any means, electronic, mechsnical, photocopying, recarding. or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher Pearson Education, 10 Bank Street, White Plains, NY 10606 Staff credits: The praple who made up the Principles of Lariguage Learning and Teaching, Fifth Edition team, representing editorial, precuction, design, and rranufacturing, we Danielle Beifiore, ‘Tracey Mune Cataldo, Dave Dickey, Laura Le Dréan, and Melinsa Leyva, Text design: Wendy Wolf ‘Test compasition. Laserwordls Private Limited ‘Text font: Garamond Library of Congress Cataloging ia-Publication Data Brown, H. Douglas, 1048 Principles of language learning and teuchingg / Congas Hoon, —Sth cet p em. Includes bibtiographical references and index. ISBN 0-15-19912840 (student book » alk. paper) |. Language and languages—Seudy and teaching, 2. Language acquisition, |. Tide PSLB77S 2006 418.0071 —de22 MOSIITSE ISBN, 0-13-199128-0 Printed in the United States of America 6789 1-RRD-10 09 08.CONTENTS _ Preface to the Fifth Edition, xt Chapter 1 Language, Learning, and Teaching 1 it Questions about Second Language Acqui Learmer Characteristics, 2 Context, 3 Purpose, 3 Rejoicing in Our Defeats, 3 Language, 5 ning and Teachir Schools of Thought in Second Language Acg Linguistics and Behavioral Psychology, 9 Generative Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology, 11 Constructivism: A Multidisciplinary Approach, Nineteen Centuries of Language age Teaching in the Twenti sstions for Study and Discussion, 19 20 Experionce: Journal Entry I, 21 pr Eniry I, 22 PART L. AGE FACTORS Chapter 2 First Language Acquisition 24 uage Acepuisition, 25 al Approaches, 26 al Approachesiv Contenn The Nativist Approach, 28 Challenges to Nativist Approuches, 31 Functional Approaches, 33 Issues in Fitst Language Acquisition, 35 Competence and Performance, 35 Comprebension and Production, 38 Nature or Nurture?, 39 Universals, 40 Systemaricity andl Variability, 42 Language and Thought, 42 Imitation, 43 Practice and Frequency, 45 Input, 46 Discourse, 47 First Language Acquisition Insights Applied to Language Teaching, 48 Topics and Questions for Study and Disctession, 51 Suagested Readings, 52 Language learning Experience: fournal Entry 2.54 Chapter 3 Age and Acquisition Dispelling Myths, 54 Types of Comparison and Contrast, $6 The Critical Period Hypothesis, 57 Neurobiofogical Considerations, 58 Hemispheric Lateralization, 38 Biological Timetables, $9 Right-Hemispheric Pamicipation, 60 Anthropological Evidence, 61 The Significance of Accent, 62 Cognitive Considerations, 65 Affective Considerations, 68 Linguistics Considerations, 71 Bilingualism, 72 Interference Between First and Second Languages, 72 ‘Onder of Acquisition, 7 Issues in First Language Acquisition Revisited, 75 Competence and Performance, 75 Comprehension and Production, 75. Nature of Nurnure?, 76 Universals, 76 Systematicity and Variability, 76 Language and Thought, 77 Imitation, 77Convene v Practice and Frequency, 77 inp Disco Some “Age-ane-Acquisition-Inspired” Language Teaching Methocls, 78 Total Physical Response, 78 The Natural Approach, 79 Topics and Questions for Study and Discussion, 31 Sugnested Readings, 82 Language Learning Experience: journal Enery 3, 83 PART I. PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS Chapter 4 Human Learning 86 Learning and Training, 86 Paviow’s Classical Behaviorism, 87 Skinner's Qperunt Condition Ausubel’s Subsumption Theory, 91 Rote vs. Meaningful Learning, 91 Systematic Forgetting, 94 Humanistic Psychology, 97 Types of Learning, 99 Transfer, Interference, and Overgeneralizat Inductive and Deductive Reasoning, 1 age Aptitude, 105 iligence and Language Leaming, 107 ing Theories in Action: Two Language Teaching Methods in Contrast, 110 The Avdiolingual Method, 111 Community Language Learning, 112 Topics and Questions for Study-and Discussion, WA Suggestod Readings, 115 Language Learning Experience: Journal Entry 4, 116 Chapter § Styles and Strategies 118 Proc y 118 tyke, and Strat Leaming Styles, 119 Field Independence, 121 Left- and Right-Beain Dominanc niguity Tolerance, 126 Reflectivity and Impulsivity, 127 Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Styles. 125vi Cunerite Auronomy, Awareness, and Action, 130 Strategies, 132 Learning Strategies, 133 Communication Strategies, 137 Avoidance Strategies, 137 Compensatory Strategies, 139 Strawepies-Based Instruction, 140 Identifying Learners’ Styles and Straregies, 143 Incorporating SBI into the Language Classroom, 145 Sumulating Strategic Action Beyond the Classroom, 147 Topics and Questions for Stecy cand Discussion, 148 Suggested Readings, 149 Language Learning Experience: fournal Entey 5,150 Chapter 6 Personality Factors 152 The Affective Domain, 153 Affective Factors in Second Language Acquisition, 154 Self-Esteem, 154 Attribution Theory and Self-Efficacy, 156 Willingness to Communicate, 156 Inhibition, 157 Risk Taking, 160 Anxiety, 161 Empathy, 164 Extroversion, Hits Motivation, 168 Theories af Motivation, 168 Instrumental and Integeative Orientations, 170 Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation, 172 The Neurobialogy of Affect, 175 Personality Types and Language Acquisition, 176 Measuring Affective Factors, 179 Intrinste Motivation in the Classroom, 180 Topics and Questions for Study and Discussion, 182 Suggested Readings, 184 Language Learning Experience: lowenal Entry 6, 185 PART I. SOCIOCULTURAL FACTORS Chapter 7 Sociocultural Factors 188 ‘Culture: Definitions and Theories, 188 Stereotypes or Generalizations? 190Comments vii Attudes, 192 Second Culture Acquisition, 193 Social Distance, 196 Teaching Intercultural Competence, Language Policy ikics, 203 ‘World Englishes, 204 ESL and EFL, 205 Linguistic tmperialism and Language Rights, 206 Language Policy and the “English Only" Debate, 2 Language, Thought, and Culture, 2 Framing Our Conceptual Liniverse, 208 The Wharfian Hypothesis, 211 Culture in the Language Classroom, 214 Topics anet Questions for Stud) and Discussion, 214 Suggested Readings, 215 Language Learning Experience: Journal Eniry 7, 217 Chapter 8 Communicative Competence 218 6, 218 Defining Comrmunicath Language Functions, 223 Halliday's Seven Functions of Functional Approaches to Language Teaching, 225 Discourse A 226 Conversation Analysis, 228 Corpus Linguistics, 230 Contrastive Rhetoric, 231 Pragenatics, 242 Sociopragmatics and Pragmalinguistics, 233 Language and Gender, 234 Discourse Styles, 235 Nonyerbal Communication, 237 Competer 23 cS, 238 Eye Contact, 238 Proxemics, 239 Anifacts, 239 Kinesthetics, 239 Olfactory Dimensions, 240 CC in the Classroom CLT and Task-Based Teaching, 241 icative Language Teaching, 241 Task-Based Instruction, 242 Topics and Questions for Study ane Discussion, 243 Suggested Readings, 244 anguage Learning Experience: Journal Entry &, 246 Commvill Comer PART IV. LINGUISTIC FACTORS. Chapter 9 Cross-Linguistic Influence and Learner Language 248 The Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis, 248 From the CAH to CL, 251 Markedness and Universal Grammar, 254 Learner Language, 255 Error Analysis, 257 Mistakes and Errors, 257 Errors in Error Analysis. 259 Identifying and Describiag Eeeéies, 260 Sources of Error, 263 Interlingual Tradsfer, 263 Intralingual Transfer, 26-4 Contest of Learning, 266 Communication Sirategies, 266 Stages of Leaner Language Development, 266 Variation in Learner Language, 268 Fossilization or Stabilization?, 270 Errors in the Classroom: A Brief History, 273 Form-Focused Instruction, 276 Categories of Error Treatment, 277 Effectiveness of FFI, 278 Topics and Questions for Steedy and Diseusstor, 281 Suggested Readings, 282 Langtiage Learning Experience: Journal Entry 9, 283 Chapter 10 Toward a Theory of Second Language Acquisition 285. Building a Theory of SLA, 287 Domains and Generalizations, 287 Hypotheses ane Claims, 288 Cnteria for a Viable Theory, 290 Hot Topics in SLA Research, 291 Explicit and Implicit Learning, 201 Awareness, 292 Input ded Qurpur, 293, Frequency, 295 An Innatist Model: Krashen’s Input Hypothesis, 254 Five Hypotheses, 294 Evaluations of the Five Hypotheses, 296 ‘The Output Hypethesis, 297 ‘Cognitive Models, 299 McLaughlin's Attention-Processing Model, 299ay: tt A Reciprocal Relat for Thi Su 0 f Discussion, 31 | Entry, 31PART IV LINGUISTIC FACTORSCHAPTER 9 CROSS-LINGUISTIC INFLUENCE AND LEARNER — LANGUAGE Ur-vo this point in the treatment of principles of second language acquisition, o focus has been on psychological (learning, cognition, strategies, emotions) and. (cultural, sociolinguistic, pragmatic) principles of second language acqui Psychosocial variables form the foundation stones for building a com understanding of the acquisition of the linguistic sysiem. In this chapter we will a different direction as we begin 10 cxamine the most salient component of language acquisition: the Linguage itself, This treatment will first consider, im ical progression, an ere of presccupation with studies of contrasts between native and target language and the effect of the first language on a second. We: then see how the cra of contristive analysis gave way to an era of crror analysis, its guiding concept of interlanguage, or whitt is also called learrier language, questions about the effect on acquisition of input, interaction, feedback, a and error treatment will be addressed. Finally, we will take a look at research ont effect of chissroom instruction, especially debates about focus on form, all of has some obvious practical implications for the language teacher, THE CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS HYPOTHESIS In the middle of the twentieth century, one of the most popular pursuits for app Linguists was the study of two languages in contrast, Eventually the stockpile : companttive and contrastive data on a multitude of pairs of languages yielded wh commonly came to be known as the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAM Deeply rooted in the behavioristic and structuralist approaches of the day, the Gi claimed that the principal barrier to second language acquisition |s the interferenc of the first language system with the second language system, and that a structural analysis of the two languages in question would yield a taxonomy of guistic contrasts between them which in turn would enable linguists and la teachers to predict the difficulties a learner would encounterCHAPTER 9 Gress-Linguistie Influence and Learner Language — 249 it was at that time considered feasible that the tools of structural linguistics, such as Fries's (1952) slot-filler grammar, would enable a linguist to accurately describe the two languages in question, and 19 match those two descriptions against each other fo determine valid contrasts, or differences, between them, Behaviorism contributed fo the potion that human behavior is the sum of its smallest parts and components, and therefore that language learning could be described as the acquisition of all of those discrete units. Morcover, human learning theories highlighted imferfering cle- ments of learning, concluding that where no interference could be predicted, ne dif- ficulry would be experienced since one could transfer positively all other items in a language. ‘The logical conclusion from these various psychological and linguistic assumptions was thet sccond language lcarning basically involved the overcoming of the differences between the two linguistic systems—the native and target languages. Intuitively the CAH has appeal in that we commoniy observe in second language learners a plethora of errors attributable to the negative transfer of the native lan- guage to the target language It is quite common, for example, to detect certain for- eign accents and to he able to infer, from the specch of the learner alone, where the learner comes from. Native English speakers can easily identify the accents of English language lcamers from Germany, France, Spain, and Japan, for example, Such accents can even be represented in the written word. Consider Mark Twain's The finccerts Abad (1869, p. 111), in which the French-speaking guide introduces himself; “If ze zhentlemans will to me make ze grande honnéur to me muttain im hees serveece, | shall show to him everysing zat is magnifique to look upon in xe beautiful Paree, I speaky zé Angleesh parfaitmaw" Or William E. Callahan's Juan Castaniegos, a young Mexican, who: “Help me to leave from thees place, But, Sehor Capitan, me, ave do notheeng. Notheeng, Sefor Capitin” These excerpts also capture the trinsfer of vocabulary and grammatical rules from the native language. Some rather strang claims were made of the CAH by language teaching experts and linguists. One of the strongest was made by Robert Lado (1957, p, vii) in the prefice to Linguisties Across Cultures; “The plan of the book rests on the assump- tion that we can predict and describe the patterns that will cause difficulty in earning, and those that will not cause difficulty, by comparing systematically the language and the culture to be learned with the native language and culture of the student” ‘Then, in the first chapter of the book, Lado. continues: “in the comparison between native and foreign language lies the key to ease or difficulty in foreign language Icarning., ‘Those elements that arc similar to [the learner's] native lan- guage will be simple for him and those elements that are different will be diffi- cult” (pp. 1-2). An equally strong efaim was made by Banathy, Trager, and Waddle (1966, p37): “The change that has to take place in the language behavior of « for- ¢ign language student can be equated with the differences between the structure of the student's native fanguage and culture and that of the target language and culture* Such claims were supported by what some researchers claimed to be an empir- ical method of prediction, A wellhknown model was offered by Stockwell, Bowen, and Martin (1965), who posited what they called a hierarchy of difficulty by which a teacher or linguist could make a prediction of the relative difficulty of a given aspect of250 caer # Cross-Linpuiatic fnlluence ane! Leurner Language the uirget language. For phonological systems in contrast, Stockwell and his associates suggested cight possible degrees of difficulty, These degrees were based upon the notions of transfer (positive, negative, and zero) and of optional and obligatory choices: of certain phonemes in the nwo languages in contrast. Through a very cureful, eye tematic analysis of the properties of the two languages in refer ¢ 10 the hierarchy of difficulty, applied linguists were able to derive a reasonably accurate inventory of phonological difficulties that 4 second language learner would encounter Stockwell and his associates also constructed a hierarchy of difficulry for prammnatical strectures of two languages in contrast. Their grammatical hierarchy included 16 levels of difficulty, based on the same notions used to construct phono logical criteréa, with the added dimensions of “structural correspondence” and “functional/semantic correspondence.” Clifford Praror (1967) captured the essence ‘of this grammatical hierarchy in six categories of difficulty Prator’s hierarchy was applicable to both grammatical and phonological features of language. The six car egories, in ascending order of difficulty, are listed below, Most of the examples are taken from English and Spanish (a native English speaker learning Spanish as a second language); a few examples illustrate other pairs of contrasting languages. Level 0—Transfer, No difference or contrast is present between the pwo languages. ‘The learper cin simply transfer (positively) a sound, structure, ‘or lexical item from the native language to the target language. Examples: ‘English and Spanish cardinal vowels, word order, and certain words (reorteal inteligente, arte, americanas). Level I—Goalescence. Two items in the mative language become coalesced — into essentially one item in the target Language. This requires that learners: overlook a distinction they have grown accustomed te, Examples: English ihird-person possessives require gender distinction (bfs/ber), and in Spanish they do not (st); an English speaker learning French must overlook the distinction berween teach and dearn and use just the one word apprendre? iin French, Level 2—Underdifferentiation. An item in the native language is absent in the trget language. The learner must avoid that item. Examples: English Jearners of Spanish must “forget” such irems as English de as a tense carrier, possessive forms of uve words (tebose), of the use of som with mass nouns — Level 3—Reinterpretation. An item that exists in the native language & given a new shape or distribution, Example: An English speaker learning French must learn a new distribution for nasalized vowels, Level 4—Overdifferentiation. A mew item entirely, bearing litle if any similarity to the native language item, must be learned. Example: An Engiisti speaker learning Spanish must learn to include determiners in generalized nominals (Man is mortal/El hombre es mortal), or, most commonly, to iearn Spanish grammatical gender inherent in nouns.