Theories of SLA

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• Theories of SLA
• SLA and theory
• Enlightenment modernism search for unity,
  comprehensiveness, grand scheme of things,
  Grand Narrative
• Social Sciences Walt Whitman Rostow, The Stages
  of Economic Growth A Non-Communist Manifesto
  (Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1960) v.
  Andre Gunder Frank, Capitalism and
  Underdevelopment in Latin America Historical
  Studies of Chile and Brazil (New York Monthly
  Review Press, 1967).
• Piaget, Marx, and so on.
• In postmodern era, less of this kind of
  theorizing.

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• Theories of SLA
• SLA follows this same pattern, foreshortened.
• In the 1970s, there were several attempts to
  develop comprehensive theories of SLA.
• This tendency has dramatically lessened today
  scholars seem content in exploring circumscribed
  aspects of SLA whether as mini-narratives of
  the postmodern era, or something else (not much
  discussion of postmodernism in SLA though see
  Michael Long 2007, Problems in SLA Chapter 6,
  Breaking the Siege, pp. 139168. Mahwah, NJ
  Lawrence Erlbaum).

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• Theories of SLA Acculturation
• Lybeck, K. (2002). Cultural identification and
  second language pronunciation of Americans in
  Norway. Modern Language Journal, 86(2), 174191.
• John Schumann, UCLA
• 10-month study of untutored acquisition of
  English by 6 native speakers of Spanish.
• Interested in development sequences in negative
  formation, question formation, and so on.
• Alberto did not progress. Why?
• Intelligence IQ test indicated no problem
• Age but other adult learners were progressing
• Pidginization restriction to communication

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• Theories of SLA Pidginization
• What is a Pidgin language?
• A language developed by speakers of distinct
  languages who come in contact with one another
  and share no common language.
• Venues trade, plantation
• Examples Sabir (Mediterranean) Tok Pisin
  (Papua New Guinea) Hawaiian Pidgin English
  various Pidgin languages of Pacific Northwest,
  involving native American language, English /
  Russian
• Pidgins are usually based on a dominant language
  (English, French, Dutch, Russian), but contain
  relatively more / less lexical / syntactic items
  from other languages.

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• Theories of SLA Pidginization
• What is the difference between a Pidgin language
  and a Creole language?
• Creoles are spoken as a first language by
  children of Pidgin speakers.
• Some evidence that BVE is a creole language (from
  Gullah), English and W. African languages.

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• Theories of SLA Pidginization
• Pidgins are languages reduced to a purely
  communicative function to the purveyance of
  meaning.
• Certain regularized features of pidgins across
  time and space, including
• replacement of inflectional with free morphemes
• absence of tense markers and definite articles
• reduplication
• lack of some kind of movement rules
  (transformations)
• reduced lexicon
• possession by juxtaposition

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• Theories of SLA Pidginization
• Schumann noticed that Albertos speech was
  characterized by pidgin-like features, and he
  asked, Why? His hypothesis (the pidginization
  hypothesis)
• the speech of the SL learner will be restricted
  to the communication function if the learner is
  socially and / or psychologically distant from
  the speakers of the target language (Schumann.
  1976. Second language acquisition The
  pidginization hypothesis. Language Learning, 26,
  391-408).
• Psychological distance referred to affective
  considerations like culture shock, and
  motivation.
• Social distance was an innovative concept,
  predicted on a complex comparative analysis.

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• Theories of SLA Pidginization
• Analysis of Political, Economic, Technical,
  Cultural, and Structural Characteristics for Good
  and Bad Language Learning Situations and for
  Worker v. Professional Immigrants from Latin
  America to the United States.

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• Theories of SLA Pidginization
• Group Activity 1
• In your 6 groups
• examine Schumanns social distance graphic
• be able to explain it relative to Latin American
  professionals and workers
• identify another group-pair for which social
  distance would suggest good / bad language
  learning situations.

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• examine Schumanns social distance graphic
• explain it relative to Latin American
  professionals and workers
• identify another group-pair for which social
  distance would suggest good / bad language
  learning situations.

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• Theories of SLA Acculturation Theory
• On the basis of the Pidginization Hypothesis and
  the social distance model, Schumann later
  developed Acculturation Theory The degree to
  which a learner acculturates to the target
  language group will control the degree to which
  s/he acquires the language.
• Schumann, 1978, The Pidginization Process A
  Model for Second Language Acquisition, Newbury
  House Publishers, p. 34.
• Elegant theory, simple, hard to test.

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• Theories of SLA Lybeck
• Lybeck, K. (2002). Cultural identification and
  second language pronunciation of Americans in
  Norway. Modern Language Journal, 86(2), 174191.
• Note Schumanns acculturation model has not
  been the focus for analysis for some time but
  with some modification it may yet provide a
  useful framework for investigating the effects of
  social and affective factors in L2 acquisition
  (p. 174).
• Four modifications of Schumann
• Group Activity 2
• What are they, and do they make sense?

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• Theories of SLA Lybeck
• Eliminating the distinction between social and
  psychological distance
• consolidating them into one group of
  social-affective variables that affect what can
  be labeled as cultural distance (p. 175).
• (This is not entirely clear to me.)
• Focus on pronunciation
• Bidirectional Analysis of Culture
• acculturation is a two-way street the
  social behaviors of the target culture will be
  just as influential as those of the learner
  group (p. 175).
• (I think Schumann does this.)
• 4. Operationalization via Social Network Theory.

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• Theories of SLA Lybeck
• Nine Americans sojourners in Norway.
• What are the acculturation patterns of American
  sojourners in Norway?
• How native-like is their Norwegian pronunciation
  across 6-month interval?
• Do acculturation patterns correlate with
  acquisition of L2 pronunciation?

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• Theories of SLA Lybeck
• Data collected
• semi-structured interviews (on informants social
  networks, and their opinions about Norwegians
  more generally), over 6 months
• pronunciation data global rating, and use of
  American / r /.
• Analysis of cultural distance / acculturation (as
  operationalized through social networks) showed
  there to be three groups A, B, C.

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• Theories of SLA Lybeck
• Group Activity 3
• Grp 1 Describe Group A acculturation experience
  discuss in Schumanns terms
• Grp 2 Describe Group B acculturation experience
  discuss in Schumanns terms
• Grp 3 Describe Group C acculturation
  experience discuss in Schumanns terms
• Grp 4 Describe pronunciation skills of all
  groups
• Grp 5 Discussion acculturation / pronunciation
  correlation of all groups
• Grp 6 Consider how the conclusions of this
  study correlate with, and differ from, Schumann.

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• Grp 1 Describe Group A acculturation experience
  discuss in Schumanns terms
• Grp 2 Describe Group B acculturation experience
  discuss in Schumanns terms
• Grp 3 Describe Group C acculturation
  experience discuss in Schumanns terms
• Grp 4 Describe pronunciation skills of all
  groups
• Grp 5 Discussion acculturation / pronunciation
  correlation of all groups
• Grp 6 Consider how the conclusions of this
  study correlate with, and differ from, Schumann.

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