L2 Group Activity

Review Time!
Animal “Languages”

But, to claim that human language

is qualitatively different from
Human language is animal communication does not
fundamentally different claim human superiority
from animal Humans are not inferior to
communication systems one-celled amoeba because
we can’t reproduce by
splitting in two
• A Grammar includes everything one knows about the structure of
one’s language:
• Phonetics and Phonology (the sounds and the sound system or
patterns)
• Lexicon (the words or vocabulary in the mental dictionary)
• Morphology (the structure of words)
• Syntax (the structure of phrases and sentences and the constraints
on well-formedness of sentences)
• Semantics (the meaning of words and sentences)
• Pragmatics (the making of meaning)
 THEORIES of LANGUAGE TEACHING
THEORIES of LANGUAGE LEARNING and ACQUISITION
THEORIES of LANGUAGE
 The Conceptual Framework

Spiral Progression

➢ Skills, grammatical items, structures and various types of texts will be taught,
revised and revisited at increasing levels of difficulty and sophistication. This
will allow students to progress from the foundational level to higher levels of
language use.

Interaction
➢ Language learning will be situated in the context of communication (oral and
written). Activities that simulate real-life situations of varying language
demands (purposes, topics, and audiences) will be employed to help students
interact with others thereby improve their socialization skills.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
 The Conceptual Framework

Integration

➢ The areas of language learning – the receptive skills, the productive skills, and
grammar and vocabulary will be taught in an integrated way, together with the
use of relevant print and non-print resources, to provide multiple perspectives
and meaningful connections. Integration may come in different types either
implicitly or explicitly (skills, content, theme, topic, and values integration).

Learner-Centeredness
➢ Learners are at the center of the teaching-learning process. Teaching will be
differentiated according to students’ needs, abilities and interests. Effective
pedagogies will be used to engage them and to strengthen their language
development.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
 The scientific study of human
language

What is Aims of linguistic theory:

Linguistics? • What is knowledge of language?

(Competence)
• How is knowledge of language acquired?
(Acquisition)
• How is knowledge of language put to use?
(Performance/language processing)
What is the heart of the language?
Where is the biologically based ability
for humans to use language rooted
in?
 A multilingual person, in a broad
definition is one who can
communicate in more than two
languages be it actively or passively.

Multilingual:
What does communicating actively
mean?
How about communicating
passively?
Active communication Passive
is done through communication is
speaking, writing and through listening,
signing. reading or perceiving.
LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION POLICIES

The Legal Basis

 1987 Constitution of the

Philippines

 Department Order No. 53, s.

1987 – “The 1987 Policy of
Bilingual Education” aims for
achievement of competence in both
Filipino and English
LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION POLICIES

 Goals of the bilingual education policy:

1) enhance learning through two languages to achieve
quality education;
2) propagate Filipino as language of literacy;
3) develop Filipino as linguistic symbol of national unity
and identity;
4) cultivate and elaborate Filipino as language of
scholarly discourse,
i.e.. continue its intellectualization; and
5) maintain English as international language and as
non-exclusive language of science and technology.
LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION POLICIES

• Bilingual education means separate use of Filipino and English as

media of instruction in different subject areas

 Filipino is used in Social Studies, Social Sciences, Music, Arts,

Physical Education, Home Economics, Practical Arts and Character
Education

 English is used in Science, Math and Technology subjects

 Use of English and Filipino as media of instruction starting Grade

I in all schools

 Use of vernacular in locality or place where school is located and

was prescribed as auxiliary to media of instruction but only when
necessary to facilitate understanding of concepts being taught in
English, Filipino or Arabic, as case may be
LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION POLICIES
• DECS Order No. 11 s. 1987- “An Act Granting Priority to
Residents of the Barangay, Municipality or City where the
School is Located, in the Appointment or Assignment of
Classroom Public School Teachers”
which allows use of local language specifically where local
culture should be enhanced in cultural communities

 Executive Order No. 210 (May 17, 2003) - “Establishing

the Policy to Strengthen the Use of the English Language
as a Medium of Instruction in the Educational System” so
DepEd Memorandum No. 181 s. 2003 issued
provides that English language be used as medium of
instruction to develop aptitude, competence and proficiency of
students in the language, to maintain and improve their
competitive edge in emerging and fast growing local and
international industries, particularly in area of Information and
Communication Technology (ICT)
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BILINGUAL
EDUCATION POLICY
B. In the Primary Grades

 Lingua Franca Education Project (1999-2003)

➢ aimed at defining and implementing national bridging

program to develop initial literacy
➢ all subjects in Grade I were taught in lingua franca
including reading readiness and beginning reading
➢ Filipino was taught orally
➢ Oral English was introduced in second semester
➢ Schools were given the option to select which lingua
franca to use: Tagalog, Cebuano or Ilocano
➢ Results showed that reading in first language developed
self-confidence and facilitated smooth transfer of learning
from first language to second language
Language
Acquisition
Lesson 4
Objectives:

Summarize the processes involved in first

language acquisition

Elaborate on the second language acquisition

teaching methods

Give the importance of Elli’s principles for SLA

classrooms in language acquisition
First Language Acquisition
What do you think is
the meaning of first
language?
 Languages which are acquired during
early childhood – normally beginning
before the age of about three years – and
What is a that they are learned as part of growing
up among people who speak them.
first
language? first language, native language, primary
language, and mother tongue (roughly
synonymous set of terms)
“The capacity to learn language is deeply
ingrained in us as species, just as the capacity to
walk, to grasp objects, to recognize faces. We don’t
find any serious difference in children growing up in
congested urban slums, in isolated mountain
villages, or in privileged suburban villas”

Dan Slobin, The Human Language Series 2 (1994)

 Every language is complex.
FIRST
LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION Before the age of 5, the child
knows most of the intricate
system of grammar:
Use the
syntactic,
phonologi
cal, Use Form
Join Ask Negate
morpholog sentences questions
appropriate
sentences
relative
ical and pronouns clauses
semantic
rules of the
language
 How do children acquire such a complex system
so quickly and effortlessly?

Does a child decide to consciously pursue

ISSUES IN certain skills? (e.g., walking)

FIRST
LANGUAGE Do babies make a conscious decision to start
learning a language?
ACQUISITION
We correct children’s errors sometimes. Does it
help?

• “Nobody don’t like me”

 CORRECTION
• Child: Want one other spoon, Daddy.
• Father: You mean, you want the other spoon.
• Child: Yes, I want one other spoon, please
Daddy.
• Father: Can you say “the other spoon”?
• Child: Other…one…spoon.
• Father: Say “other.”
• Child: Other.
• Father: “Spoon.”
• Child: Spoon.
• Father: “Other spoon.”
• Child: Other…spoon. Now give me one other
spoon.
Quoted in Braine, 1971
 Nature vs. Nurture
THEORIES OF
LANGUAGE
Behaviorism (1950s)
ACQUISITION
•Children learn language
through imitation,
reinforcement and
analogy
 Nature vs. Nurture

Behaviorism (1950s)
THEORIES OF
LANGUAGE •The three theories of
ACQUISITION language acquisition :
imitation, reinforcement and
analogy, do not explain very
well how children acquire
language.
 Nature vs. Nurture

Behaviorism (1950s)
• Imitation does not work because children
produce sentences never heard before,
such as "cat stand up table." Even when
they try to imitate adult speech, children
THEORIES OF cannot generate the same sentences
LANGUAGE because of their limited grammar. And
ACQUISITION children who are unable to speak still learn
and understand the language, so that when
they overcome their speech impairment
they immediately begin speaking the
language.
 Nature vs. Nurture

Behaviorism (1950s)
THEORIES OF • Reinforcement also does not work because it
seldomly occurs and when it does, the
LANGUAGE reinforcement is correcting pronunciation or
ACQUISITION truthfulness, and not grammar. A sentence
such as "apples are purple" would be
corrected more often because it is not true,
as compared to a sentence such as "apples
is red" regardless of the grammar.
 Nature vs. Nurture

Behaviorism (1950s)
• Analogy also cannot explain language
acquisition. Analogy involves the formation
THEORIES OF of sentences or phrases by using other
LANGUAGE sentences as samples. If a child hears the
ACQUISITION sentence, "I painted a red barn," he can say,
by analogy, "I painted a blue barn." Yet if he
hears the sentence, "I painted a barn red,"
he cannot say "I saw a barn red." The
analogy did not work this time.
The "Innateness Hypothesis" of child language acquisition,
proposed by Noam Chomsky,

states that the human species is pre-wired to acquire language,

and that the kind of language is also determined. Many factors
have led to this hypothesis such as the ease and rapidity of
language acquisition despite impoverished input as well as the
uniformity of languages. All children will learn a language, and
children will also learn more than one language if they are
exposed to it. Children follow the same general stages when
learning a language, although the linguistic input is widely varied.
What are the
basic
requirements for
a child to learn a
language?
 BASIC REQUIREMENT

Environment and interaction to bring this capacity into operation

The child must be physically capable(being able to hear)

Interaction.

All these requirements are related.

 • In spite of different backgrounds, different
locations, and different upbringings, most
children follow the very same milestones
in acquiring language.

THE • The biological schedule is related to the

ACQUISITION maturation of the infant’s brain to cope
SCHEDULE with the linguistic input

• Young children acquire the language by

identifying the regularities in what is heard
and applying those regularities in what
they say.
CARETAKER SPEECH (MOTHERESE)
 CARETAKER SPEECH (MOTHERESE)
A type of simplified
speech adopts by
someone who spends
Frequent use of Simplified Phonological
time with the child questions lexicon reduction
characterized by:

Higher pitch- Stressed Simple A lot of

extra loudness intonation sentences repetition

example: Oh, goody!

Now Daddy will push
choo choo!
 MOTHER: Look!

CHILD: (touches picture)

CARETAKER MOTHER: what are those?
SPEECH
CHILD: (vocalizes a babble string and smiles)
(MOTHERESE)
MOTHER: yes, there are rabbits

CHILD: Vocalizes and smiles

MOTHER: (laughs) yes, rabbit

Any Filipino and
Kapampangan version
of a conversation
using the caretaker
speech?
Language acquisition, imitation, and correction
• First language is not taught but acquired over time
• Deaf children stop making utterances after 6 months
• Children’s language journey incorporates a lot of mistakes,
errors, repetition, and trial
• Children do not simply imitate adults, they actively construct
words and phrases based on the rules they pick up intuitively.
• Studies show that adult’s correction of children’s speech does
not help much, they have their own way of saying things. They
may repeat for a moment but they go back to their own way
after a moment.
• A child neither imitates an adult nor accepts correction.
 Stage Typical Age Description

cooing 3-5 months Vowel-like sounds

babbling 6-10 months Repetitive CV patterns

One-word stage 12-18 months Single open-class words or

word stems

L1 Two-word stage 18- 20 months "mini-sentences" with

ACQUISITION simple semantic relations

Telegraphic stage 24-30 months sentence structures of lexical

words no functional or
grammatical morphemes

Later multiword stage 30+ months Grammatical or functional

structures emerge
 Few weeks: cooing and gurgling, playing
with sounds. Their abilities are constrained
by physiological limitations
They seem to be discovering phonemes at
this point.

COOING Producing sequences of vowel-like sounds-

high vowels [i] and [u].

4 months- sounds similar to velar

consonants [k] & [g]

5 months: distinguish between [a] and [i]

and the syllables [ba] and [ga], so their
perception skills are good.
 • Different vowels and consonants ba-ba-ba and
ga-gaga
• 9-10 months- intonation patterns and
combination of ba-ba-ba-da-da
• Nasal sounds also appear ma-ma-ma
• 10-11months use of vocalization to express
BABBLING emotions
• Late stage- complex syllable combination (ma-
da-gaba)
• Babbling is now considered the earliest form of
language acquisition because infants will
produce sounds based on what language input
they receive.
 Single terms are uttered for everyday
objects ‘milk’, ‘cookie’, ‘cat’

THE WORD
Produce utterance such as ‘Sara bed’
STAGE
(HOLOPHRAS but not yet capable of producing a
TIC) phrase.

Convey a more complex message

 Vocabulary moves beyond 50 words

By 2 years old, children produce

TWO- utterances ‘baby chair’, ‘mommy eat’

WORD Interpretation depends on context

STAGE
Adults behave as if communication is
taking place.
 By 2 years & a half, they
produce multiple-word speech.

Developing sentence building

TELEGRAPHIC capacity.
STAGE
E.g. ‘this shoe all wet’, ‘cat drink
milk’, ‘daddy go bye-bye’
•Vocabulary continues to grow
•Better pronunciation
 By 2-and-a-half years old- use of some
inflectional morphemes to indicate the
grammatical function of nouns and verbs.

DEVELOPING The first inflection to appear is –ing after it

MORPHOLOGY comes the –s for plural.

Overgeneralization: the child applies –s to

words like ‘foots’ ‘mans’ and later ‘feets’
and ‘mens’
 The use of possessive ‘s’ appears ‘mommy’s bag’

Forms of verb to be appeared ‘is’ and ‘are’

The –ed for past tense appears and it is also

overgeneralized as in ‘goed’ or holded’
DEVELOPING
MORPHOLOGY Finally –s marker for 3rd person singular

present tense appears with full verbs first

then with auxiliaries (does-has)

 OVERGENERALIZATION
EXAMPLE…
• Child: My teacher holded the baby rabbits and
we patted them.
• Mother: Did you say your teacher held the baby
rabbits?
• Child: Yes.
• Mother: What did you say she did?
• Child: She holded the baby rabbits and we
patted them.
• Mother: Did you say she held them tightly?
• Child: No, she holded them loosely.

4 year old quoted in Cazden, 1972

Developing syntax

Children’s speech is creative

and shows comprehension,
even when the child is
unable to repeat exactly
what has been said:

Father: “The owl that eats

candy runs fast.”
Child: “Owl eat candy
and he run fast.”
 1st stage:
• Insert where and who
E.g. sit chair?
to the beginning of an Where horse
expression with rising
intonation
go?

2nd stage:
E.g. why you
FORMING • More complex
expression smiling? You
QUESTIONS want eat?

3rd stage:
• Inversion of subject
E.g. will you help
and verb me? What did I
do?
 Stage 1:
• Putting not and no at the beginning

e.g. not teddy bear, no sit here

Stage 2:
FORMING • Don’t and can’t appear but still use no and not before
VERBS
NEGATIVES
e.g. he no bite you, I don’t want it

Stage 3:
• didn’t and won’t appear

e.g. I didn’t caught it, she won’t go

 Developing Semantics

•
DEVELOPING SEMANTICS

The distinction
Antonymous between more/less,
relations are before/after seem
acquired late to be later
acquired.
Importance of senses
 deaf children don´t progress to babbling
 they don´t receive auditory feedback (they can´t hear
themselves while speaking)
 at the beginning of language acquisition blind children
cannot associate names of objects with objects
 they have to learn through the sense of touch
The "Critical Age Hypothesis" suggests that there is a critical age
for language acquisition without the need for special teaching or
learning. During this critical period, language learning proceeds
quickly and easily. After this period, the acquisition of grammar is
difficult, and for some people, never fully achieved. Cases of
children reared in social isolation have been used for testing the
critical age hypothesis.
“Wild Children“

...And how they acquire language

Introduction

Here are some

There are some
examples with the
children who grew up
focus on the way how
in isolation of
these children
language for different
learned language
reasons
(after their isolation )
Victor

 Victor was found in the woods in Aveyron, France in

1800
 He was about 11 or 12 years old, as it was assumed
 He appeared to be a “wolf child“ (only wore a
“tattered shirt“)
 He did not speak, only made “guttural animal-like
noises“
Victor

 Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard cared for him and

developed a special speech programme
 Victor had to repeat some words or speech
sounds, e.g.“Li“, or “lait“ and made him touch
his neck to feel how the vocal cords vibrate
 Itard told Victor how to spell “lait“ and other
words using “cut-out letters“
Victor
 Victor realized “the relation between written
symbol and object“
 He was able to use the cards and even to
write some words himself from memory
 He was able to say easy words as “lait“, but
did not acquire any further speech ability and
that was why, in the end, Itard gave up on
him
Victor

 While learning how to read and write

Victor “went through some of the same
problems of overgeneralization that
ordinary children go through in learning
language “
 Genie

 Genie was discovered in the late 1970s in the United

States.
 She was 13 ½ years old
 She had been locked in a small room by her father for 12
years, being mistreated and without being spoken to
 In consequence of that she did not speak
Genie

 Being cared for now, she learned many new

words during the first months
 She needed much time to understand many
things said to her, even 5-10 minutes to
understand commands and carry them out
 Genie

 Genie went through the several stages

children go through when learning a
language
 She made “good progress in speech
production“, but this progress was “very
slow“
 Her language ability remained below normal
 Genie

 Itis not clear why Genie did not achieve the

“normal level“ of language and to what extend
the trauma she went through influenced her
ability in learning language, what psychological
aspects may have disturbed her learning
process
Isabelle
 Isabelle was discovered in 1938 in Columbus, Ohio, in the
USA
 She was 6 ½ years old
 She had been locked with her deaf and mute mother in a
room after birth; her mother only communicated through
gestures
 When Isabelle was found she did not speak and did not try
to do but still used gestures
Isabelle

 Mason, the assistant doctor of the speech

clinic where Isabelle was, helped her
 After one week Isabelle first tried to
vocalize sounds
 3 months later Isabelle produced
utterances
Isabelle

1 year later she could listen to stories and

retell them, including complex structures,
e.g. “What did Miss Mason say when you
told her I cleaned the classroom?“
 20 months later Isabelle was able to speak
in full length sentences and in asking
“intelligent“ questions
Isabelle

Isabelle got through the same

stages as other children do but
more “rapidly“, as her speech
development is described
 Helen

Before that she had

Helen Keller got deaf already got through When she was 7 years
and blind because of the first stages of old her parents
an illness when she language acquisition, engaged Anne Sullivan
was 19 months old but then was isolated Macy to teach her
from language
 Macy taught her speech by
touch; (Macy spelled the
word for the object she
referred with her fingers into
Helens‘ hand)
Helen 2 Macy also taught Helen how
to speak by “directly
touching the voice
articulators (mouth, lips
vocal cords etc. )“
 Keller learned to speak, but with a
“strange voice“; she learned to
read Braille and to write.

Her way to get there and the

importance language has for her is
Helen 3 described in her book “The story of
my life“
Helen graduated from Radcliffe and
became “an acclaimed lecturer and
writer in the service of handicapped
people“
What can you conclude
about language
acquisition upon
knowing the stories of
these children?
Summary
None of these children was able to learn language without social
contact

Helen and Isabelle were able to acquire a high stage of language,

while Victor and Genie were not; the reasons are not clear

All these children went through the same stages of language

acquisition
Second Language
Acquisition
 What is a second language?
•A second language is typically an official or societally
dominant language needed for education, employment,
and other basic purposes. It is often acquired by minority
group members or immigrants who speak another language
natively.

•A foreign language is one not widely used in the learners’

immediate social context which might be used for future
travel or other crosscultural communication situations, or
studied as a curricular requirement or elective in school,
but with no immediate or necessary practical application.
 What is SLA?
• Second Language Acquisition (SLA) refers both to the study of individuals
and groups who are learning a language subsequent to learning their first
one as young children, and to the process of learning that language.
• The additional language is called a second language (L2), even though it
may actually be the third, fourth, or tenth to be acquired. It is also
commonly called a target language (TL), which refers to any language that
is the aim or goal of learning.
• The scope of SLA includes informal L2 learning that takes place in
naturalistic contexts, formal L2 learning that takes place in classrooms,
and L2 learning that involves a mixture of these settings and
circumstances.
For example, “informal learning” happens when a child from Japan
is brought to the US and “picks up” English in the course of playing
and attending school with native English-speaking children without
any specialized language instruction, or when an adult Guatemalan
immigrant in Canada learns English as a result of interacting with
native English speakers or with co-workers who speak English as a
second language.

“Formal learning” occurs when a high school student in England

takes a class in French, when an undergraduate student in Russia
takes a course in Arabic, or when an attorney in Colombia takes a
night class in English.
 Give example of
situations of formal and
informal language
learning in the
Philippines.
• A combination of formal and informal learning takes place
when a student from the USA takes Chinese language classes in
Taipei or Beijing while also using Chinese outside of class for
social interaction and daily living experiences, or when an adult
immigrant from Ethiopia in Israel learns Hebrew both from
attending special classes and from interacting with co-workers
and other residents in Hebrew.
 Give example of
situations of mixed
formal and informal
language learning in
the Philippines.
 Second language acquisition
What is research focuses on the
Second developing knowledge and
Language use of a language by children
Acquisition? and adults who already know
at least one other language.
This field of research has both
theoretical and practical
importance.
 The theoretical importance is
related to our understanding
of language is represented
in the mind and whether
there is a difference
between the way language
is acquired and processed
and the way other kinds of
information are acquired
and processed.
What is
Second
Language
Acquisition?
The practical
importance arises from
the assumption that an
understanding of how
languages are learned
will lead to more
effective teaching
practices.
Theories Both linguistic and
psychological theories have
of L2 influenced research in a
second language acquisition.
Learning One of the fundamental
differences between theories
developed in these two
disciplines is the role they
hypothesize for internal and
external factors in the learning
process.
Linguistics
Perspectives:
Universal Monitor
Grammar theory
Universal The idea that there exists a universal
grammar (UG) of human languages
grammar originated with Chomsky's (1968)
view on first language (L1)
acquisition. He was looking for an
explanation of the fact that virtually
all children learn language at a time
in their cognitive development when
they experience difficulty grasping
other kinds of knowledge which
appear to be far less complex than
language. It was observed that even
children with impaired intellectual
ability were usually successful in
acquiring the language they heard
around them.
Universal Researchers who study second
language acquisition from a UG
grammar perspective seek to discover a
language user's underlying
linguistic 'competence' (what a
language user knows) instead of
focusing on his or her linguistic
'performance' (what a language
user actually says or writes or
understands. Therefore researchers
have usually used indirect means
of investigating that competence.
Monitor theory
Monitor Theory shares a number of assumptions of
the UG approach but its scope is specifically
second language acquisition. As with UG, the
assumption is that human beings acquire language
without instruction or feedback on error. Krashen
developed this theory in the 1970s (Krashen, 1982).
Monitor theory
The 'Monitor hypothesis suggests that, although
spontaneous speech originates in the 'acquired system' ,
what has been learned may be used as a monitor to edit
speech if the L2 learner has the time and the inclination to
focus on the accuracy of the message.

Monitor theory has been criticized for the vagueness of the

hypothesis and for the fact that some of them are difficult
to investigate in empirical studies (DeKeyser, 1997;
McLaughlin, 1990; White, 1987).
Psychological
Perspective:
Behaviorism
Cognitive Psychology
Connectionism
Processability Theory
Interactionist Perspective
Sociocultural Perspective
Behaviorism

Behaviorism was based on the view that all learning – including language
learning – through a process of imitation, practice, reinforcement and habit
formation. According to behaviorism, the environment is crucial not only
because it is the source of the linguistic stimuli that learners need in order to
form associations between the words they hear and the objects and events
they represent, but also because it provides feedback on learners'
performance. Behaviorists claimed that when learners correctly produce
language that approximates what they are exposed to in the input, and
these efforts receive positive reinforcement, habits are formed (Skinner,
1957).
Behaviorism

Behaviorism came under attack when Chomsky (1968) questioned the

nation that children learn their first language by repeating what they hear in
the surrounding environment. He argued that children produce novel and
creative utterances – ones that they would never have heard in their
environment.
Cognitive Psychology
Since the late 1980s, there has been a revival of
interest in psychological theories of language
learning. In contrast to the hypothesis of
linguistic theories, cognitive psychologist see no
reason to assume that language acquisition
requires specific brain structures used uniquely
for language acquisition. Rather, they
hypothesize that second language acquisition,
like other learning, requires the learner's
attention and effort – whether or not the learner
is fully aware of what is being attended to.
 Connectionism
Another psychological approach to
understanding language learning is that taken
in connectionist, emergentist and parallel
distributed processing models (N. Ellis, 2003;
Rumelhart and McClelland, 1986).
According to these views, the brain creates
networks which connects word or phrases to
other words or phrases (as well as to events
and objects) which occur at the same time. It
is suggested that these links (or connections)
are strengthened learners are repeatedly
exposed to linguistic stimuli in separate
contexts.
 Processability Theory

One of the central questions within

psychological accounts of second
language acquisition is why is that L1and L2
learners go through a series of predictable
stages in their acquisition of grammatical
features. Slobin (1973) proposed 'operating
principles to help explain what L1 learners
found easier or harder to process and learn.
Within second language acquisition,
Processability Theory represents a way to
relate underlying cognitive processes to
stages in the L2 learner's development
(Pienamann. 1998)
 Processability Theory

Processability Theory was originally

developed as a result of studies of the
acquisition of German word order and, later,
on the basis of research with L2 learners of
English (Pienamann, 1989).
One of the pedagogical implications drawn
from the research related to Processability
Theory is the 'Teachability Hypothesis': that
learners can only be taught what they are
psycholinguistically ready to learn.
 Second Language Acquisition Teaching Methods
1. Grammar-translation: the student memorizes words, inflected words, and syntactic
rules and uses them to translate from native to target language and vice versa; most
commonly used method in schools because it does not require teacher to be fluent;
however, least effective method of teaching

2. Direct method: the native language is not used at all in the classroom, and the student
must learn the new language without formal instruction; based on theories of first
language acquisition

3. Audio-lingual: heavy use of dialogs and audio, based on the assumption that language
learning is acquired mainly through imitation, repetition, and reinforcement; influenced
by psychology

4. Natural Approach: emphasis on vocabulary and not grammar; focus on meaning, not
form; use of authentic materials instead of textbook
5. Silent Way: teachers remain passive observers while students learn, which is a
process of personal growth; no grammatical explanation or modeling by the
teacher

6. Total Physical Response: students play active role as listener and performer,
must respond to imperative drills with physical action

7. Suggestopedia: students always remain comfortable and relaxed and learn

through memorization of meaningful texts, although the goal is understanding

8. Community Language Learning: materials are developed as course

progresses and teacher understands what students need and want to learn;
learning involves the whole person and language is seen as more than just
communication

9. Community Language Teaching: incorporates all components of language

and helps students with various learning styles; use of communication-based
activities with authentic materials, needs of learner are taken into
consideration when planning topics and objectives. (ielanguages.com)
Four skill areas

The four skill areas of learning a foreign language

need to be addressed consistently and continually. Good
lesson plans incorporate all four: Listening, Speaking,
Reading (and Vocabulary), and Writing (and Grammar).
Native speakers do not learn the skill areas separately, nor
do they use them separately, so they shouldn’t be taught
separately. However, it is easy to fall into the trap of
teaching about the language, instead of actually teaching
the language. (ielanguages.com)
Elli’s Principles of
SLA
Elli’s Principles of Second Language Acquisition/
Instructed Language Learning
1. Instruction needs to ensure that learners develop a rich repertoire of
formulaic expressions and a rule-based competence.
2. Instruction need to ensure that learners focus predominantly on
meaning.
3. Instruction needs to ensure that learners also focus on form.
4. Instruction needs to be predominantly directed at developing implicit
knowledge of the L2 but should not neglect explicit knowledge.
5. Instruction needs to take account of the learner’s built-in syllabus.
Elii’s Principles of Second Language Acquisition/
Instructed Language Learning
6. Successful instructed language learning requires
extensive L2 input.
7. Successful instructed language learning also
requires opportunities for output.
8. The opportunity to interact in the L2 is central to
developing L2 proficiency.
9. Instruction needs to take account of individual
differences in learners.
10. Instruction needs to take account of the fact that
there is a subjective aspect to learning a new
language.
11. When assessing learners’ L2 proficiency it is
important to examine free as well as controlled
production.
Principle 1
Instruction needs to ensure that learners
develop a rich repertoire of formulaic
expressions and a rule-based
competence.
Formulaic Expressions

⚫ I don’t know.
⚫ I don’t understand.
⚫ I don’t want ___.
⚫ Can I have __?
⚫ What’s your name?
⚫ I’m very sorry.
⚫ No thank you.
⚫ How much does ___ cost?
Rule-Based Competence

⚫ Traditionally catered for through a focus-on-forms

approach but this may result in learners learning rote-
memorized patterns.
Principle 2:
Instruction needs to ensure that
learners focus predominantly on
meaning
Two senses of ‘focus on meaning’

1. Semantic meaning (i.e. the meanings of different

lexical items or of specific grammatical structures).
2. Pragmatic meaning (i.e. highly contextualized
meanings that arise in acts of communication).
Both types of meaning are important but central to L2
acquisition is a focus on pragmatic meaning.
Reasons for Focussing on Pragmatic meaning

1. When learners are engaged in decoding and encoding

messages in the context of actual acts of communication the
conditions are created for acquisition to take place (cf.
immersion programmes).
2. To develop true fluency in an L2, learners must have
opportunities to create pragmatic meaning (DeKeyser 1998).
3. Engaging learners in activities where they are focused on
creating pragmatic meaning is intrinsically motivating.
 Give examples of
phrases/sentences in
Kapampangan/Filipino to
differentiate semantic
and pragmatic meaning.
Principle 3:
Instruction needs to ensure that
learners also focus on form.
How instruction can cater to a focus on form

1. Through grammar lessons designed to teach specific grammatical

features by means of input- and/ or output-processing.
2. Through focused tasks(i.e. tasks that require learners to comprehend
and process specific grammatical structures in the input, and/or to
produce the structures in the performance of the task).
3. By means of methodological options that induce attention to form in the
context of performing a task (e.g. the provision of time for strategic and
on-line planning (Foster and Skehan 1996) and corrective feedback
(Lyster 2004).
Two Types of Focus-on-Form Instruction

1. Intensive (pre-selected linguistic forms)

2. Extensive (incidental attention to form through
corrective feedback)
Principle 4:
Instruction needs to be
predominantly directed at
developing implicit knowledge of
the L2 while not neglecting
explicit knowledge.
Implicit Knowledge

⚫ Procedural
⚫ Accessed by means of automatic processes
⚫ Unconscious
⚫ Not verbalizable

Note: The goal of teaching an L2 should be to develop

implicit knowledge.
Explicit Knowledge

⚫ Declarative (i.e. ‘facts’ about language)

⚫ Accessed through controlled processing
⚫ Conscious
⚫ Verbalizable (metalanguage)
The role of explicit knowledge

Two possible roles:

1. As an initial starting point for the development of
implicit knowledge. Explicit knowledge → implicit
knowledge
2. As a means of developing awareness of what needs
to be learned and thus facilitating the processes
involved in developing implicit knowledge.
The role of consciousness-raising tasks.
Principle 5:
Instruction needs to take into
account the learner’s ‘built-in-
syllabus’.
Two aspects of the ‘built-in syllabus’

1. Order of acquisition (morpheme studies)

2. Sequence of acquisition (studies of transitional
structures such as negatives and interrogatives)
Ways of accommodating instruction to the ‘built-
in syllabus’
1. The zero grammar approach (i.e. adopt a task-based
approach).
2. Teach grammatical structures that learners are ready
to acquire.
3. Teach explicit rather than implicit knowledge – explicit
knowledge is not subject to the same developmental
constraints.
Principle 6:
Successful instructed language
learning requires extensive L2
input.
Strategies for giving learners access to extensive
input
1. Maximise use of the L2 inside the classroom – use L2
for framework as well as core goals.
2. Create opportunities for students to receive input
outside the classroom – through extensive reading
programmes, self-access centres and learner–
training.
Principle 7:
Successful instructed language
learning also requires
opportunities for output.
How output can contribute to L2 acquisition
(Skehan; Ellis)
⚫ Production serves to generate better input through the feedback that
learners’ efforts at production elicit; it forces syntactic processing (i.e.
obliges learners to pay attention to grammar);
⚫ it allows learners to test out hypotheses about the target language
grammar;
⚫ it helps to automatize existing knowledge;
⚫ it provides opportunities for learners to develop discourse skills, for
example by producing ‘long turns’;
⚫ It is important for helping learners to develop a ‘personal voice’ by
steering conversation on to topics they are interested in contributing to.
⚫ it provides the learner with ‘auto-input’ (i.e. learners can attend to the
‘input’ provided by their own productions).
Principle 8:
The opportunity to interact in
the L2 is central to developing
L2 proficiency.
Key requirements for interaction to create an acquisition-rich
classroom (Johnson)

1. Creating contexts of language use where students have a reason to

attend to language
2. Providing opportunities for learners to use the language to express their
own personal meanings
3. Helping students to participate in language-related activities that are
beyond their current level of proficiency
4. Offering a full range of contexts that cater for a ‘full performance’ in the
language.
Johnson argues these are more likely when the academic task structure
and social participation structure are less rigid.
Principle 9:
Instruction needs to take account
of individual differences in
learners.
Language Aptitude

Learners have different types of language aptitude (e.g.

analytical vs. memory-based).
Teachers can cater to variation in their students’ aptitude by
means of:
⚫ Learner-instruction matching
⚫ Using a variety of learning activities
⚫ Providing learner training to encourage flexible learning
approach (cf. good language learner studies)
Motivation
Teachers also need to accept that it is their responsibility to
ensure that their students are motivated and stay motivated
and not bewail the fact that students do not bring any
motivation to learn the L2 to the classroom. While it is probably
true that teachers can do little to influence students’ extrinsic
motivation, there is a lot they can do to enhance their intrinsic
motivation.
Dornyei’s strategies for developing learner motivation.
Principle 10:

Instruction needs to take account of the fact that

there is a subjective aspect to learning a new
language
A new symbolic form

Learning a new language is not just a question of

developing communicative ability but, potentially at
least, an opportunity to acquire a new symbolic form.
Learners have the opportunity to develop their
subjective selves by taking on new identities and even
a new personality.
Developing symbolic competence
This requires instructional activities that encourage language play and
emotional identification with the language:
• through the introduction of literature and creative writing into the L2
curriculum.
• ensuring that a lesson has both predictability and unpredictability
• transgressing the conventions of language use by using it in absurd ways
• the teacher demonstrating how he/she has dealt with being multilingual
• recognizing the value of silence
• above all encouraging personal expression in the language.
Principle 11:
In assessing learners’ L2
proficiency it is important to
examine free as well as controlled
production.
Four Types of Measurement (Norris and Ortega)

1. metalinguistic judgement (e.g. a grammaticality judgment

test)
2. selected response (e.g. multiple choice)
3. constrained constructed response (e.g. gap filling exercises)
4. free constructed response (e.g. a communicative task).
Magnitude of effect of instruction greatest in the case of (2)
and (3) and least in (4). Yet, arguably, it is (4) that constitutes
the best measure of learners’ L2 proficiency
L4 Activity

Select three (3) of Eli’s Principles of Second Language Acquisition/ Instructed

Language Learning that you think express the most important ideas in teaching
language in schools. Thus, need to be priotitizaed. Cite your reasons for choosing
each principle.