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MODULE TWO

ACQUISITION OF THE FIRST AND THE SECOND

LANGUAGE

LESSON 2
Contents
….
 Second language acquisition
 Learning stages to acquire a second or a foreign language
 Interlanguage: processes
 Pidgin
 The different views of L1 and L2 acquisition.
….

Aims

 Define second language acquisition

 Place the learning stages to acquire a second or a foreign language
 Determine what interlanguage is and explain its processes.
 Exemplify pidgin
 Contrast the different views of L1 and L2 acquisition.
…..

Task four: Read the next text and do what it is indicated.

1) What is second language acquisition?
2) Build a process chart for the learning stages to acquire a second or a foreign language

Second-language acquisition, second-language learning, or L2 acquisition

Definition.-It is the process by which people learn a second language. Second-language
acquisition (often abbreviated to SLA) refers to any language learned in addition to a person's first
language; although the concept is named second-language acquisition, it can also incorporate the
learning of third, fourth, or subsequent languages.(Wikipedia, 2013c)
Stages.-Second-language acquisition can be divided up into five stages: preproduction, early
production, speech emergence, intermediate fluency, and advanced fluency.The first stage is
preproduction, also known as the silent period. Learners at this stage have a receptive vocabulary
of up to 500 words, but they do not yet speak their second language. Not all learners go through a
silent period. Some learners start speaking straight away, although their output may consist of
imitation rather than creative language use. Others may be required to speak from the start as
part of a language course. For learners that do go through a silent period, it may last around three
to six months.
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The second stage of acquisition is early production, during which learners are able to speak in
short phrases of one or two words. They can also memorize chunks of language, although they
may make mistakes when using them. Learners typically have both an active and receptive
vocabulary of around 1000 words. This stage normally lasts for around six months.

The third stage is speech emergence. Learners' vocabularies increase to around 3000 words
during this stage, and they can communicate using simple questions and phrases. They may often
make grammatical errors. The stage after speech emergence is intermediate fluency. At this stage,
learners have a vocabulary of around 6000 words, and can use more complicated sentence
structures. They are also able to share their thoughts and opinions. Learners may make frequent
errors with more complicated sentence structures. The final stage is advanced fluency, which is
typically reached somewhere between five and ten years of learning the language. Learners at
this stage can function at a level close to native speakers.

Task five: Read the next text and do what it is indicated.

1) What is interlanguage?
2) Build a semantic map for the different processes of interlanguage.
3) What is pidgin?

When we learn a second language, we make mistakes because our first language interference.
Sometimes these errors are systematic and we call interlanguage to this phenomenon. An
interlanguage is an emerging language system in the mind of a second-language learner. A
learner's interlanguage is not a deficient version of the language being learned filled with random
errors, nor is it a language purely based on errors introduced from the learner's first language.
Rather, it is a language in its own right, with its own systematic rules. It is possible to view most
aspects of language from an interlanguage perspective,includinggrammar, phonology, lexicon,
and pragmatics.

There are three different processes that influence the creation of interlanguages:

 Language transfer. Learners fall back on their mother tongue to help create their language
system. This is now recognized not as a mistake, but as a process that all learners go through.

 Overgeneralization. Learners use rules from the second language in a way that native
speakers would not. For example, a learner may say "I goed home", overgeneralizing the English
rule of adding -ed to create past tense verb forms.

 Simplification. Learners use a highly simplified form of language, similar to speech by children
or in pidgins.

Pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more
groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such
as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the country in
which they reside.
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Task six: Read the next text and compare the for different views of L1 and L2 acquisition.

Different views of L1 and L2 acquisition (Brewster , J., Ellis, G. and Girard, D. ,2003).
We have all observed children acquiring their L1 with ease yet struggling to learn and L2 in the
classroom and sometimes even failing. These days it is generally recognized that understanding
more about similarities and differences in L1 an L2 acquisition processes can help teachers in the
foreign language classroom. Explanation of early L1 and L2 acquisition has changed a great deal in
the last fifty years. The most useful and influential views arise from different schools of
psychology: behaviorist, nativist (also known as innatist), cognitive – developmental, and social-
interactionist.

If we think of language acquisition as a jigsaw, we can consider each of these views as a piece,
each providing useful insights, but only a partial explanation. Let us briefly examine their main
characteristics.

Behaviorist views
Behaviorism had strong influence on the audio-lingual approach, which can still be seen in some
parts of the world. Among other things this approach emphasizes repetition in the form of drills,
accuracy and the avoidance of errors. It arose from the work of Skinner (1957), who wrote Verbal
Behavior. Behaviorists believe that imitation and practice or habit formation are key processes in
language development. This view stresses the importance of positive reinforcement in L1 and L2
acquisition where correct learning behavior is rewarded by praise. Nowadays, Linguists recognize
that although imitation and practice are clearly important parts of language, the do not provide
the complete picture. It does not explain children’s gift for creativity in language. For example, a
child was reported to exclaim ‘Thunder!’ every time he heard a jet fly overhead. Lightbown and
Spada (1993:6) give two neat examples of children learning about the prefixes ‘de’ and ‘un’ in
English. In the first, David, Almost four years old, experiments with the word ‘undressed’.
Mother: Get undressed
David: I´m getting undressed.
I´m getting on dressed.
I´m getting in dressed.
I´m getting off dressed.
The child is playing with similar sounds and comparing patterns and meanings which he
recognizes from other words. In their second example, a father tells his child of six to wait for
some bread to be defrosted. The child does not want to wait and protests ‘but I like it frossed’.
Both examples show how children are able to understand and apply rules they have worked out
in a very logical way, but which then leads them to produce language they have never heard. So
we can see that although behaviorism offers a partial explanation for routine aspects of both L1
and L2 language acquisition it cannot explain the acquisition of more complex grammatical
structures and lexical relationships.

Nativist views
The nativist, or innatist, view arose originally from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century theories
that suggested there were innate and therefore universal features of the human mind. In the
1950s these ideas were revived by Chomsky, who changed forever the way we think about
language. In the nativist view, children are pre-programmed to learn a language and are highly
sensitive to the linguistic features of their environment. Chomsky (1959) challenged behaviorist
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views by suggesting an internal or innate Language Acquisition Device, (LAD), now referred to as
Universal Grammar (UG), which allows infants to process all the language they hear and to
produce their own meaningful utterances. This view inspired a huge range of research studies
which revealed the complex ways in which children develop grammatical competence in their L1.
This view allowed for the child’s creativity as an important part of L1, a factor which has been
carried over to L2 learning. Innatists’ views were another step in the right direction, although
there was not enough consideration of communication with real people in real time. Thus, over
time social-interactionists, criticized Chomsky’s preoccupation with the structures of languages,
feeling that other more personal and social aspects of language use were being neglected.

Cognitive-development views
According to Whitehead(1990), the cognitive-development view emphasized the language
development was an aspect of general cognitive growth, claiming that certain thinking skills must
first mature in order to create a framework for early language development. This view also
stressed children’s intentions and meanings and their uses in developing language ability. In terms
of L2 learning, the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH), as proposed by Lenneberg (1967), suggested
that there is a specific and limited time for language acquisition. This controversial theory has
been put to the test by many other researchers, who have often found that there are many
important factors to consider aside from age, such as motivation and learning conditions. In many
studies younger children were often found to be less efficient learners of vocabulary and grammar
than older learners. For example, a study in Holland with children learners, except for
pronunciation (see Snow and Foefnagel-Hohle 1978). Younger learners, on the other hand, did
best at pronunciation, story comprehension and storytelling. Because of studies like these, the
pure version of CPH is no longer held to be valid, although there is general agreement that early
language acquisition has cognitive and linguistic dimensions.

Social-interactionist views
In the late 1970s and 1980s developmental psychologists emphasized the importance of social
factors, which leads us on to the current view, ‘social-interactionist’. This emphasizes the
importance of human social interactions, and the role of adult and child relationships in learning.
A crucial element in this view is the way language is modified to suit the level of the learner. As a
result, many studies were made of the way the chief caregiver, often the mother, talked to the
child. Bruner (1983) showed how an innate device, such as Chomsky’s LAD, was not able to
function without the help given by an adult. They called this kind of there needed to be a child
component, incorporating an innate tendency for active social interaction and language learning
(LAD), and a social support component provided by other speakers, especially adults (LASS).

The partner with whom the child interacts provides a structure or framework, which Bruner
referred to as ‘scaffolding’. Te work of Vygostsky in the 1930s (not published in the West until the
1960s) was significant in terms of emphasizing the way in which human thinking is dominated by
mental processes arising from language. He coined the phrase ‘zone of proximal development’
(ZPD) to explain the fact that children can do much more with the help of someone more
knowledgeable or skilled than themselves they can do alone. This highlights the importance of
social interaction and learning from working with others. Vygotsky then describes how the child is
able to move away from learning with others to more independent thought and behavior. The
notion of the ZPD has provided us with insights into how teachers can both support and yet
challenge learners through into how teachers can both support and yet challenge learners
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through the careful design and staging of tasks. The work of both Vyogotsky and Bruner has been
influential in developing a theory of how children think and learn language and has helped to
emphasize the importance of an interactional aspect in learning a foreign language.

It seems that the final picture is very complex. Imitation and practice are important in language
learning although children are also immensely creative. No doubt in the future more research will
develop other insights and views on the child language acquisition process.

LIST OF REFERENCES

Brewster , J., Ellis, G. and Girard, D. (2003). The primary English teacher’s guide. England: Penguin
English Guides.

Schmitt, N. (ed.). (2010). An Introduction to Applied Linguistics. London: Hodder Education

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.(2013a). Second language. Retrieved from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_language

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.(2013b). Foreign language. Retrieved from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_language

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.(2013c). Second language acquisition. Retrieved from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-language_acquisition