MODULE 3: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND LEARNING

"Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language

natural communication in which speakers are concerned not with the form of
their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding."
(Stephen Krashen)
The distinction between
Comprehensible input is the target
acquisition and learning and the need for language that the learner would not be
comprehensible input are the foundations able to produce but can still understand.
of Krashen’s theory. It goes beyond the choice of words and
involves presentation of context,
Critical Period Hypothesis explanation, rewording of unclear parts,
the use of visual cues and meaning
negotiation. The meaning successfully
Lenneberg observed that this ability to develop
conveyed constitutes the learning
normal behaviors and knowledge in a variety of experience.
environments does not continue indefinitely and
that children who have never learned language
(because of deafness or extreme isolation) cannot
do so if these deprivations go on for too long.
He argued that the language acquisition device, like other biological functions, works successfully only when it is stimulate
‘critical period’. This notion that there is a specific and limited time for language
acquisition is referred to as the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH).
The CPH proposes that, like other aspects of biological development, the natural ability to develop language
through the LAD or UG is available only for a limited period, or up to a certain age.
This period is the “critical period”, after which the LAD or UG is no longer available, and the language learner
must rely on other sources.

School of Thoughts
A large group of scholars subscribe to a strong form of the CPH,
believing that especially for older L2 learners, the UG or LAD no longer operates.
Thus, they draw on more general learning theories in psychology, rather than those
specific to language learning.
Ultimate Attainment
The second group, of whom Michael Long is one of the leading
figures, accepts a weak form of the CPH. It believes that the LAD or UG
operates less strongly as a person gets older. Thus, learners of a new language,
being typically older, would not be able to learn an L2 in the same way as their L1,
and would need to supplement the internal work of the LAD or UG with external
sources of learning, such as classroom instruction on grammar rules.

The last group, whose most influential figure is Stephen Krashen,

rejects the CPH. It believes that SLA happens in almost the same way as L1
acquisition – that is, the L2 learner possesses the same internal resources (i.e., the
LAD or UG) as a child learning his mother tongue.

Age of Acquisition

Language Acquisition

Language acquisition refers to the natural assimilation of languages by means of intuition and
subconscious learning. It is the product of real interactions between people in environments of the target
language and culture, where the learner, as an active player, develops his communicative abilities. Like
the chameleon, which changes color to integrate its surroundings, any person will acquire the language of
the social environment they belong.

A common example of second language acquisition are the

adolescents and young adults that live abroad for a year in exchange programs, often attaining near
native fluency, while knowing little about the language. They have a good pronunciation without a
notion of phonology, don't know what the perfect tense is, modal or phrasal verbs are, but intuitively
they recognize and know how to use all the structures.

Language Learning

Language learning refers to the analysis and study of the language as a system, primarily in its
written form. The objective is to understand the structure of the language and produce knowledge about it. It
has been the traditional approach to the study of languages for centuries and is still today practiced in high
schools worldwide. But in face of the complexity and irregularity of the languages, it often leads to
nowhere.
 The many graduates in Brazil with arts degrees in English are classic examples of language learning. They are certified
teachers with knowledge about the language and its literature but able to communicate in English only with poor pronunciation,
limited vocabulary and lacking awareness of the target culture.
Learning vs. Acquisition
Stephen Krashen and The
This view is
comprehensive, if not most
central hypotheses. In the
Krashen proposes that language
through learning (formal,
language) or through
subconscious learning through
suggests that there is an internal
through formal learning which
process of error correction in
The monitor plays only a minor
compared to the role of
became part of Krashen and
language teaching (Krashen &
Acquisition-
Natural Order
Learning
Acquisition parallels first
language development in
children while learning
approximates the formal
teaching of grammar in
classrooms.
Conscious thinking about the
rules is said to occur in second
language learning while
unconscious feeling about what
is correct and appropriate occurs
in language acquisition.
Learning Acquisition
Artificial Natural
Technical Personal
Priority on written language Priority on the spoken language
Formal Teaching Meaningful interaction
Theory (Language Analysis) Practice (Language in use)
Deductive Teaching (rule driven; top- Inductive Coaching (rule-discover;
down) bottom-up)
Conscious Subconcious
Preset Syllabus Learner-centered activities with room
Translation and use of L1 improvisation
Activities ABOUT the Language No Translation; no L1
Focus on form Activities IN the language
Produces knowledge Focus on Communication
Produces an ability
Monitor
suggests that grammatical
structures are acquired in a
predictable order for both acts to notice patterns in the
language, and hence errors in the
children and adults, that is, certain
learner’s own use of it.
grammatical structures are
acquired before others.
enables the learner to edit his own
language and make alterations as
he consciously perceives them.
‘polishes’ the language that
‘acquisition’ has produced.
“super monitor user”,
“underuser.” “optimal user”
Monitor Model (1981)
considered the most
ambitious, consisting of five
monitor model, linguist Stephen
learning is accomplished either
conscious learning about
acquisition (informal,
experience with language). He
"monitor," which is developed
is a part of the conscious
when speaking a new language.
role in developing fluency,
acquisition. This model later
Terrell's Natural Approach to
Terrell, 1983)
Input Hypothesis Affective Filter
It is the key factor that enables
“acquisition.” Learners of a new
language need to be able to suggests the circumstances and
conditions that enable optimal
understand or comprehend the
processing of input by the learner.
input they receive (i.e. what is
said to them) in that language.
If the input is not comprehensible, affective factors such as the
learner’s motivations, attitudes
the learner will not be able to take
and feelings play a very
in or “acquire” any of the
language. However, if the important role in deciding how
much “acquisition” occurs,
language used is too simple, and
because they form a filter that
the learner can understand
decides how much input is
everything completely.
absorbed.
The language input the learner
receives must be just beyond or
a little more difficult than what
he can understand. Krashen
calls this the i + 1 level of
language for the learner.