LANGUAGE

ACQUISITIONS
Group 2
 MEET THE GROUP

Peppa Mari Peppa Mecca Peppa Ella Peppa JD

PRAYER
ENERGIZER
GUESS THE MEANING

Mechanics: We will flash sentences and

you will guess the meaning of the
words in red. Anyone can answer.
Kindly, raise your hand and open your
mic. 
“Hayahay ang buhay.”
Hayáhay (Bikolano, Tagalog):

Malinis at
mabangong hangin
“Tara, mansikwat tayo
ng rank sa Mobile
Legends.”
Sikwát (Bikolano, Kapampangan,
Sinaunang Tagalog, Waray):

Pag-papataas o pag-aangat upang

makíta ang dakong ibig makíta
“Nabudyok na naman ako
dahil sa masarap na
pancit na binigay niya.”
 Budyók :

Pag-udyok na sumang-ayon sa
pamamagitan ng pambobola at
pagsulsol
“Lumudag na naman ako
dahil may nagtambak ng
putik sa EDSA.”
Ludág (Hiligaynon):

Maglakad sa
maputik na daan.
“Bro, absent ako ngayon.
Mayroon akong
alopakaya.”
Alopakayá (Sinaunang Tagalog):

Hindi makagawa at makakilos

dahil sa panghihinà at kawalan
ng kakayahan
 OBJECTIVES
Demonstrate understanding of basic
concepts of the different theories of first
language acquisition.
Explain the basic concepts that
characterize the linguistic theories that
support second language acquisition.
Apply the theories to language teaching-
learning situations.
FIRST LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION
BEHAVIORIST/ BEHAVIORAL THEORY
The Behavioural theory of language acquisition,
sometimes called the Imitation Theory, is part of
behaviourist theory. Behaviourism proposes that we
are a product of our environment. Therefore, children
have no internal mechanism or ability to develop
language by themselves. Skinner (1957), suggests that
children learn the language first by imitating their
caregivers and then modifying their use of language
due to operant conditioning.
BEHAVIORIST/ BEHAVIORAL THEORY
The association of a particular response with a
particular stimulus constitutes a habit. Hence, a habit
is formed when a particular response becomes
regularly linked with a particular stimulus.

BF Skinner (1957), believed that children learned

language by imitating caregivers and responding to
positive or negative reinforcement in a process known
as operant conditioning.
 MENTALIST THEORY
American-born linguist Noam Chomsky’s
(1959) criticism of Skinner’s theory of
language acquisition.
He believes that we are born with a
predisposition to learn language.
 MENTALIST THEORY
Noam Chomsky (1957) proposes that
children are born with an instinct or drive
for language learning which he calls the
language acquisition device (LAD).
SOCIAL INTERACIONIST THEORY

Jerome Bruner (1961) believed that children are

born with an ability to develop language but
they require regular interaction with their
caregivers or teachers to learn and understand
it to a level of full fluency. This idea is known as
the Language Acquisition Support System
(LASS).
SOCIAL INTERACIONIST THEORY
Social interactionist theory is an approach to
language acquisition that stresses the environment,
and the context in which the language is acquired. It
focuses on pragmatics of language rather than
grammar which should come later. In this approach,
the beginner speaker and the experienced speaker
exist in a negotiated arrangement where feedback is
always possible.
 SOCIAL INTERACIONIST THEORY
Social interactionist theory is an approach to language
acquisition that stresses the environment, and the context in
which the language is acquired. It focuses on pragmatics of
language rather than grammar which should come later. In this
approach, the beginner speaker and the experienced speaker
exist in a negotiated arrangement where feedback is always
possible.

Bruner believed that children are born with some capacity for
language acquisition, but require attention and support from
caregivers in order to develop language fully.
 INTERLANGUAGE THEORY
In his article ‘Interlanguage’ (1972), Selinker
coined the term interlanguage to describe the
linguistic stage second language learners go
through during the process of acquiring the
target language. It is an intermediate or
transitional language between the learner’s first
language and target language.
Selinker (1972) has pointed out the following
five principle processes in interlanguage:

• Overgeneralization: involves learners

extending the application of a rule in L2.

Ex.
woman = womans
move = moved
drive = drived
• Transfer training: applying knowledge and skills acquired
during training to a targeted language.

Ex.
“Tumatakbo siya ng mabilis”
“Running she fast”

• Laguage transfer: involves learners using their knowledge

of L1 to understand or produce meaning in L2.

Ex.
My mother... He has plenty of things to do…
Robert has her notebook.
 INTERLANGUAGE THEORY
• Strategies of L2 learning: Some of the rules in the
learner's interlanguage may result from the application
of language learning strategies “as a tendency on the
part of the learners to reduce the TL [target language]
to a simpler system” (Selinker, 1972, p. 219).

• Strategies of L2 communication: Interlanguage

system rules may also be the result of strategies
employed by the learners in their attempt to
communicate with native speakers of the target
language.
SECOND LANGUAGE
THEORY
 ACCULTURATION MODEL

Using social-psychological factors to predict the

proficiency levels of acquiring a second language
which include proximity to the target language,
attitude, congruence of the two cultures, the
desire to assimilate, preserve, and adapt, as well
as the intended length of time spent engulfed in
the target language.
 SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY
Vygotsky’s work began with researching the
relationship between education and the mental
development of a child (Vygotsky, 2011).
Daneshfar & Moharami (2018) explain that the
sociocultural theory (SCT) states that social
interactions with the use of psychological tools
(such as language) are a major part in one’s
cognitive development.
 SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY
Furthermore, Vygotsky explains the zone of proximal
development as being the level of which a student can
independently do a task compared to what that same
child can do while collaborating with a peer or teacher
to complete the same task (Vygotsky, 2011). The zone of
proximal development (ZPD) has made its way into
most educators’ vocabulary as the magnitude of
teaching students at a level slightly beyond what is
already developed and understood in their minds is
vitally important (Turuk, 2008).
KRASHEN’S THEORY OF SECOND
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR HYPOTHESIS
Chomsky approached language acquisition as more
than just social and psychological experiences
One way of visualizing Universal Grammar is to see
it as part of the brain: 'We may usefully think of the
language faculty, the number faculty, and others as
"mental organs", analogous to the heart or the visual
system or the system of motor coordination and
planning ' (Chomsky, 1980)
UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR HYPOTHESIS

Menezes (2013) further explains that explicit

instruction on grammar was not required for one to
learn and acquire their first language; (L1) therefore,
biologically, one is able to acquire a second language
without explicit instruction and a vast amount of
social experiences.
ICE BREAKER
 GROUP POSTER-MAKING
(Jamboard)
Mechanics: The class will be divided into five teams: Team 1
(Zebra), Team 2 (Cat), Team 3 (Dog), Team 4 (Sheep), and Team
5 (Fox). Each group will be given a word and requested to create
some visualization (poster-making) as well as a brief
explanation of how the assigned word visually expresses the
poster-making. The group will show the poster-making, and the
other group will guess which word is being assigned to that
group; when the other group predicts the word, the
representative of that group will explain the product, and so on.
"TEACHING"
ELLIS’ TEN PRINCIPLE
OF SLA CLASSROOM
 Rod Ellis’s ten principles provide a strong research base
for the planning and delivery of effective language
teaching and learning programmes.

1. Instruction needs to ensure that learners develop both a

rich repertoire of formulaic expressions and a rule-based
competence.
Repertoire of formulaic expression, repertoire
means behavior of someone that is habitually used,
formulaic expressions are common phrases or
expressions that are learned and used as a whole
rather than a unit or by words.
Ex.
How are you?
Thank you!
What is your name?
Ex.
I don’t know
I don’t understand
Classroom studies by Ellis (1984) and Myles,
Mitchell, and Hooper (1999) demonstrate that
learners often internalize rote-learned material
as chunks and then break them down for
analysis later on.
2. Instruction needs to ensure that learners
focus predominantly on meaning.

Learners should focus on what they want to say

(meaning) instead of thinking how to say it
(form).
Using the second language as a tool for
communication and not as an object that needs
to be analyzed and studied.
 3. Instruction needs to ensure that learners also
focus on form.
There is now widespread acceptance that acquisition
also requires learners to attend to form. Indeed,
according to some theories of second language
acquisition, such attention is necessary for acquisition
to take place (Schmidt, 2001).

Instruction can seek to provide an intensive focus on

linguistic forms, and extensive attention to form.
4. Instruction needs to be predominantly directed at
developing implicit knowledge of the L2 while not
neglecting explicit knowledge.

Implicit knowledge (procedural knowledge),

knowledge that is gained through incidental activities,
or without awareness that learning is occurring, this is
considered tobe the basis to fluently communicate in
the second language.
Explicit knowledge assisting language development,
development from the implicit knowledge, grammar
discovery tasks are recommended to lead learners to
figure out grammar rules.
5. Instruction needs to take into account the learner’s
‘built-in syllabus’.
built in syllabus refer to the capacity that any
learner of a second language has of ‘learning
grammar as implicit knowledge’
6. Successful instructed language learning requires
extensive L2 input.
Teachers should provide opportunities to learners
outside the classroom, such as an extensive
program with graded readings at the level of the
learners.
7. Successful instructed language learning also
requires opportunities for output.
This does not refer to controlled practice, exercises,
but to communicative tasks in language programs,
such as encouraging conversation on topics learners
might be interested to contribute to; or taking turns in
long conversations to help develop discourse skills.
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. In assessing learners’ L2 proficiency, it is important
to examine free as well as controlled production.

Metalinguistic (ability to reflect about or think about

language somewhat analytically)
Selected response (multiple choice)
Constrained constructed response (gap filling)
Free constructed response (communicative task)
These principles are explained and exemplified in Ellis's Instructed
Second Language Acquisition: A Literature Review (Ministry of
Education, 2005).
Language learning task
Ellis’s concept of a language learning task is relevant to
all teachers of languages. In his discussion of principle
2, Ellis describes classroom ‘tasks’ as language learning
activities that:
require the student to focus on meaning
include a ‘gap’ that students can close by communicating
require students to produce their own language structures
have a clear outcome.
Such tasks can be cross-curricular in nature and can provide students
with rich opportunities to develop thinking and problem-solving skills
as they engage in genuine social interactions.
GENERALIZATION
THANK YOU