Romance Languages 200 Second Language Acquisition Part I

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Romance Languages 200Second Language
AcquisitionPart I

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• Human language is perhaps the most distinctive
  behavioural adaptation on our planet. Language
  evolved in only one species, in only one way
  without precedent and without parallel.

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Human language

• Is productive.
• syntactic system
• Has semanticity.
• symbolic representation
• ideas, events and objects
• Offers possibility of displacement
• decontextualized language
• (not tied to here and now)

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1. The brain
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The sites
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Sagittal view of the brain
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Cortex from the left side
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the cerebral cortex

• "...makes humans what they are. Within the vast
  human cortex lies a critical part of the secret
  of human consciousness, our superb sensory
  capacities and sensitivities to the external
  world, our motor skills, our aptitudes for
  reasoning and imagining and above all our unique
  language abilities.
• Thompson, 1985, p22.

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The coexistence of two languagesConversations
with Neils Brain
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We are unaware of most of the things that go on
in our heads, and sometimes thats better, as in
Zen archery. When we really learn a new movement
sequence, it seems to become a subroutine that no
longer requires conscious attention tying a
necktie or hair ribbon required lots of conscious
attention in the beginning, but once established
(perhaps at a subcortical level) we can do it
better if we dont try to think about it. What
is, initially, consciously mediated can become
subconscious with practice. William H. Calvin in
The Cerebral Code
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Where is language?

• Subacute stroke hesitating speech transcortical
  aphasia

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Is it all one skill?

• Acute stroke writes, but cant read alexia
  without agraphia

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Applications in the classroom
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Regarding the brains perception and production
of language

• Physical movement ties in language.
• Text is easier when it is scrolled to the right
• Elements of language can be independent of each
  other.

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regarding memory in adults

• repetition does not produce long-term memory
• loss of information (depression) is
  natural/necessary/normal in adult brains
• long-term memory (plasticity) is associative

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Second Language... L2 ACQUISITION!

• Steven KrashenLearning is what you use to
  pass a test on Friday while Acquisition is what
  you use when you try to get a glass of wine in
  Paris. comprehension output acquisition

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Noam Chomsky

• Language Acquisition Device
• sufficient examples
• produces the rules of the language
  unconsciously

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• The innateness of the LAD means that language
  acquisition is biologically based.
• Some of the evidence that supports this
  hypothesis is as follows

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• 1. All human languages share a universal grammar.
  So, across all languages there are some common
  features.
• This would suggest that there are certain innate
  biological rules that all humans follow simply
  because it is a human biological trait.

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• 2. There is a uniform rate of language
  acquisition. In other words, language is learned
  by all humans in stages 1st words, 2-word stage,
  etc .....
• Hence, it is like a biological program unfolding.

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• 3. Language acquisition is specialized, meaning
  that it involves structures and operations that
  have no non-linguistic counterparts.

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• 4. Acquisition is automatic regardless of
  instructions. Adults seldom provide children with
  positive examples of the language. For example,
  parents often correct meaning rather than
  grammar.
• Even with severe induction problems, children
  still have normal comprehension and
  grammaticality judgments.

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5. It has been shown that there is a critical
period during development for language
acquisition.
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• 6. Language disorders may be genetically
  transmitted, meaning that there must be a
  biological device to be affected.
• 7. Language deficits are functionally modular,
  which means that some people have deficits that
  specifically impair language.
• example stuttering
• 8. Anatomically modular.

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I gotta tell Igor to stop getting me
right-brained monsters
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Romance Languages 200Second Language
AcquisitionPart II

• Teaching a Second Language

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The Natural Approach ... speaking ability
'emerges' after the acquirer has built up
competence through comprehending input." Steven
Krashen

• Acquisition-Learning hypothesis
• Acquired competence
• fluency
• unconscious language picked up in communicative
  situations
• Learned competence
• rules and grammar information
• make repairs on output

• Natural order hypothesis
• I no go.
• Input hypothesis
• Comprehensible input
• Affective filter hypothesis

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Problems with monitor theory

• no transfer between monitor and LAD

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Existing second language acquisition theories

• Krashen's monitor model (1981, 1985)
• McLaughlin's information processing model (1983)
• Schumann's acculturation theory (1986, 1978)
• Cummins' language proficiency models (1986, 1981)

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McLaughlin's information processing model (1983)

• http//typhoon.coedu.usf.edu/eme4402/lectures/lea
  rn/sld010.htm

• feedback is crucial in the learning process

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Information processing

• PERCEPTUAL FILTER

• The progress of recognition feedback is
  crucial in learning process
• What different individuals perceive is seen to be
  influenced in part by their own by their own
  relatively unique background or past experience
  stored in memory
• model is largely asocial

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Acculturation and the grammar of
selfSchumann, Fenimore

• grammar of self the rules for the social and
  linguistic self
• developmental stages (behavior)
• observer
• participant
• friendship

• Adaptation to a new culture
• reorientation of thinking, feeling and
  communicating

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What do we know about language acquisition, that
can be applied to the classroom?

• Only 5 of speakers can acquire full mastery of a
  2nd. Language after puberty.
• Ego link with accent of first language makes 2nd.
  Language acquisition impossible.
• Motivation is crucial with age.
• In US studies girls are better learners than
  boys. (right hemisphere)

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Me Tarzan! You Jane!
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Applications in the classroom
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dealing with memory

• Perceptual information can be stored for only a
  brief time, unless it is used immediately. If
  you attempt to crowd in too much, some will be
  lost.
• 15-20 seconds

• Until a high level of proficiency is acquired, an
  individual can concentrate only on one thing at a
  time.

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• The retention of briefly presented information
  depends on
• past experience,
• context,
• and its perceived importance.

• To improve memory
• relax
• relate.

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Gina is by lingalthat means she can say the
same thing twice, but you can only understand it
once.
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Second Language Acquisition

• Part III
• The teaching grammar

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• Pragnanz
• The law of Pragnanz states that forms with
  the most simplicity, regularity, symmetry, and
  ease of remembrance are most easily understood.
  People tend to see the interpretation of
  pictures that makes the most sense to them based
  on logic, intuition, and past experience.

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The essence of a shape

• What is the simplest way to represent the figure
  at left?

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• A line drawing is efficient.

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• The circle method. Draw a circle as large as
  possible within the bound of the figure, and
  repeat throughout. The centers of the circles are
  the points on the lines.

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• 'brush fire' method.
• Start a "fire" on each edge, and move inward
  until the "fires" meet.

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A grammar explanation should be...

• Simple

• Symmetrical

• Intuitive (connected to past experience)

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Ive written a book on grammar. Can I see
it?MAY I see it?

• Not only that, you can keep it.

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Our robust minds

• Scrambled words

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Advantages of adult learner

• Thinks about language.
• Questions.
• Can rehearse and practice.
• Additional ability
• self-criticism
• observe others usage
• select among possible styles.
• Increased exposure.

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Adult learning orientation a continuum(accultur
ation theory)

• L1
• native language metalinguistic
• well developed lexical structures
• fallback position
• L2
• target language
• progression development of explicit and implicit
  knowledge

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Learning task analysis(defense of eclectic
methodology)

• intellectual skills
• cognitive strategies
• verbal information
• motor skills
• attitudes.
• Gagne, R. M., Briggs, L. J., Wager, W. W.
  (1992). Principles of Instructional Design. Fort
  Worth Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College
  Publishers.

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Applications in the classroom
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Pedagogical implications

• suppress L1 orientation (L2 reading)
• consider students objective in learning
• physical aspect include practice drills
• instructors use normal speech

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Very brief bibliography

• Calvin, William H. , How Brains Think Evolving
  Intelligence, Then and Now, New York Science
  Masters, Basic Books, 1996.
• Deacon, Terrence W., THE SYMBOLIC SPECIES The
  Co-evolution of Language and the Brain, New York
  W. W. Norton Company, 1997
• Bickerton, Derek, Language and Human Behavior,
  Washington University of Washington Press, 1995.
  
• Fromkin, Victoria Robert Rodman, An
  Introduction to Language, 6th. edition, Fort
  Worth Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998.
• Krachen, Stephen D. Tracy D. Terrell, The
  Natural Approach, Language Acquisition in the
  Classroom, New York Prentice Hall, 1983.
• Pinker, Steven, The Language Instinct, How the
  Mind Creates Language. New York Harper
  Perennial, 1995.
• Purves et al., Neuroscience, Sunderland, Mass.
  Sinauer Associates, Inc., 1997.
• A Brief Description of Steven Krashens Theories
• Conversations with Neils Brain