二语习得1Introduction-to-SLA

LectureOneIntroductiontoSecondLanguageAcquisitionForeignLanguageDepartmentofWestAnhuiUniversityGaoRui-kuoTel:13085095592E-mai:[e-mail]?Lead-inQuestions:1.Thefollowingconversationtakesplaceinanimmigrantfamily:Father:Son,MomandIarehavinganargument,andwe'dlikeyoutobethejudge.Inyouropinion,whoseEnglishisbetter,Mom'sandDad's?Son:You‘rebothterrible.Question:Whydoesthesonsayso?Thinkaboutitanddiscusswhy.Keywordstoanswerthequestions:error,pidginInterlanguagefossilizationcriticalperiod,etc.2.Whyisitthecase?王红和李华于1989年秋进入南京某高校英语专业学习。至调查之日，她们己在同一个班级学习了两年。她们有着类似的家庭背景，高考入学考试的中文和英文成绩几乎—样。两人都很想把英语学好，但根据两人每星期课外花在英语上的时间，李华似乎比王红勤奋。王红每星期大约花21个小时，李华却花了41个钟头。尽管她们几乎在同样的条件下学习，但两年后，她们的英语水平出现了惊人的差异。最为令人不解的是，李华几乎是付出了双倍的代价，但在全国四级考试中，成绩(62.5)却比王红(90.5)低26分之多，而王红却成了1991年全国四级考试中的佼佼者。(文秋芳1995)Keywordsforexplanation:individualdifferences,learningstrategy,languageaptitude,personality,etc.AllthesefactorsareincludedinSLAstudy.MorequestionsforSLA:Isthelearningofasecondlanguagethesameasthatofyourfirstone?Howtomotivateyourselforotherstolearnaforeignlanguage?Howdowedevelopourownlanguagesystem?Howtolearnaforeignlanguagemoreefficiently?------ItintendstoexploreallthefactorsconcerninglanguagelearningandlearnersSLAisafairlyrecentacronymandstandsfortheterm“SecondLanguageAcquisition.Ithastwomeanings.First,itreferstotheprocessesbywhichpeoplelearn(oracquire)languagesinadditiontotheirnativetongue(Johnson&Johnson,1998).Second,itreferstothestudyoftheseprocesses.Wecallthelanguageaquiredinthefirstfewyearsofone'slifeone'smothertongueorfirstlanguage(L1).Anylaguageoneacquiresinadditiontoorsubsequenttothefirstlanguageiscalledasecondlanguage(L2).InSLAliterature,L2mayalsobecalledtargetlanguage,thelanguageoneistryingtolearnoracquire.Thatistosay,weuse“second”asacoverterm.Butadistinctionbetweensecondandforeignlanguageacquisitionissometimesmade.Secondlanguagefunctionsasarecognizedmeansofcommunication(officiallg)amongmemberswhospeakotherlgastheirmothertongue(Stern1997;Larsen-Freeman2000),asinthecaseofZambia,India,Singapore,etc.Foreignlanguagelearningtakesplaceinsettingswherethelanguageplaysnomajorroleinthecommunityandisprimarilylearntintheclassroom,asinthecaseofChina,Japan,Korea,etc.Thedistinctionmaybesignificantinthattherewillberadicaldifferencesinbothwhatislearnedandhowitislearnt.DistinguishingacquisitionandlearningSometheoristsuselearningandacquisitionsynonymously.Othersmaintainacontrastbetweenthetwoterms,usinglearningtomeanaconsciousprocessinvolvingthestudyofexplicitrulesoflanguageandmonitoringone'sperformance,asisoftentypicalofclassroomlearninginaforeignlanguagecontext,andusingacquisitiontorefertoanonconsciousprocessofruleinternalizationresultingfromexposuretocomprehensibleinput,asismorecommoninasecondlanguagecontext.Inthiscourse,weuseacquisitionasacoverterm,torefertothelearninganddevelopmentofaperson'slanguageingeneral.ThelearningofasecondorforeignlanguageisthuscalledSecondLanguageAcquisition(SLA).HowtounderstandSLA1)SLAisanindependentfieldinitsownrightbecauseithasitsownobjectofstudylanguagelearningandlearners;itsownscientificsystemoftheoriesandmethodologies;itsownresearchers2)SLAisaninterdisciplinarydisciplineinthatitnotonlydrawsupontheoriesfromasinglescience,butfromseveralsciencessuchassociologyandpsychology.3)SLAisanappliedscience.Itsobjectiveistosolvepracticalproblemsinlanguagelearning.4)SLAisanempiricalscience,itusesexperimentsandquantitativeandqualitativedataforlanguageresearch.TherelationshipbetweenSLAandFLLisaunidirectionaloneinwhichtheoriesandhypothesesflowfromSLAtoFLL(VanPattern1990;Yangetal.2007).FLLisa“subset”ofSLA,whateveristrueforFLLmustbetrueforSLA,butnotviceversa(Ellis1999;Larsen-Freeman2000).RefertoTBPp4-52.WhatarethegoalsofSLAOnegoalistodescribeorfindouthowlearnersacquireanL2.AnothergoalistoexplorefactorsaffectingtheprocessandoutcomeofSLA,identifyingtheexternalandinternalfactorsthataccountforwhylearnersacquireanL2inthewaytheydo.1.AreasSLAstudiesAccordingtoEllis(1994),SLAstudiesfourspecifiedareas:a)interlanguage,orlearnerlanguage;b)learnerexternalfactorssuchassocialenvironment,familybackground,schoolfacilities,teachingmethod,etc.c)learnerinternalfactorssuchasaptitude,intelligence,learningstyles,learningstrategies,etc.d)individuallearnerdifferencessuchasage,gender,personality,motivation,nativelanguageproficiencylevel,etc.2.SignificanceofstudyingSLAa)tobetterunderstandandexplainthecomplicatedprocessoflanguagelearning,tounravelthemysteriesoflanguageacquisition;b)toapplySLAresearchandresearchfindingsinSLAandteaching,soastolayagoodfoundationforourfuturework,teachingEnglishasasecondlanguage(TESL)orforeignlanguage(TEFL).ResearchinSLAattemptstoanswerthefundamentalquestion,“Howdoesacquisitionofasecondlanguageoccur,thatis,howdolearnersofanativelanguageinternalizethelinguisticsystemofanotherlanguage?”Thisbasicquestionspawnsanumberofsmallerquestions:Whatdolearnersdowhenacquiringanotherlanguage?Whatstagesdotheygothrough?Whatdoestheirsecondlanguagelooklike?Whatkindsoferrorsdotheymake