? cross-cultural communication:
Cultural imperialism With the monopoly of one language over others, its accompanied ideologies, structures and practices will be a potential threat to the individual cultural identity and cultural integrity.
linguistic imperialism vs. linguistic nationalism
? linguistic imperialism: the promulgation of global ideologies through the world-wide expansion of one
language
? linguistic nationalism: the special efforts made by some countries to protect its language from being
corrupted by other language
Chapter 10 Language Acquisition
language acquisition --- the child‘s acquisition of his mother tongue, i.e. how the child comes to understand and speak the language of his community
(1) theories of child language acquisition
1. a behaviorist view of language acquisition(by B.F.Skinner) Language can be viewed as a behavior and language learning is simply a matter of imitation and habit formation. stimulus organism response language input the learner imitation e.g. ?This is a pen.‘ ?This is a pen.‘ ? four steps for a child to acquire his/her L1:
imitation reinforcement repetition habituation positive negative good bad correct performance errors e.g. praise or reward e.g. correction
? Criticisms of behaviorist learning theory:
1. overemphasize the external factors (i.e. language input) 2. ignore the internal factors (i.e. the role of learner himself) 3. overemphasize the role of imitation
2. an innatist/ nativist view of language acquisition (by Noam Chomsky)
? the innate hypothesis: human beings are biologically programmed for language and that the language
develops in the child just as other biological functions such as walking. ? the logical problem of language acquisition: How can children come to know more about the structure of their language than they could reasonably be expected to learn from the language samples they hear?
? language acquisition device (LAD) --- an imaginary ?black box‘ existing somewhere in the human brain,
which contains principles that are universal to all human languages
? universal grammar (UG) --- the abstract principles that comprise a child‘s innate knowledge of language and
that guide L1A
? A comparison of behaviorist learning theory and the innatist approach:
1. While the former holds the view that language learning is similar to the learning of other things, the latter claims that language learning is different from the learning of other things.
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2. The former emphasizes the external factors for language learning, whereas the latter stresses the internal ones. 3. While the former attaches great importance to the role of language input, the latter holds that input is needed, but only to ?trigger‘ the operation of the LAD. ? Contributions of the innatist approach:
It regards children‘s language as a reasonable system rather than something full of errors. ? Weakness of the innatist approach: 1. difficult to observe LAD 2. hard to find out the nature of LAD
3. an interactionist view of language acquisition Language develops as a result of the complex interplay between the human characteristics of the child and the environment in which the child develops.
(2) the Critical Period Hypothesis (by Eric Lenneberg)--- the theory that in child development there is a period during which language can be acquired more easily than at any other time.
According to Lenneberg, the critical period lasts until puberty. He suggested that language learning may be more difficult after puberty because the brain lacks the ability for adaptation. This, he believed, was because the language functions of the brain have already been established in a particular part of the brain; that is, because lateralization has already occurred by this time. (3) stages in child language development 1. phonological development The presence of palatal and velar sounds presupposes the presence of labials and dentals. By 2 p b m n w 2.5 t d k g h 3 f s l j 2. vocabulary development ? under-extension
e.g. denial that birds are animals
e.g. denial that the color of white can be used for paper ? over-extension e.g. apple for all fruit e.g. dog for all animal
e.g. apple for anything round e.g. daddy for all adults 3. grammatical development
? one-word utterance at 1.5 years signifies the onset of speech. ? two-word utterance at the second birthday: e.g. want cake give candy no wet mommy sock
? three-word utterance at 2.5 years: e.g. Kate clean car, Sue eat cake that big bag where dog gone put truck window
? telegraphic speech --- child‘s speech which contains content words but lacks functions words There are no syntactic or morphological markers in telegraphic speech, no inflections for number, person, or
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tense, and so on.
4. pragmatic development Child: Can I have a cake? Parent: What do you say? Child: Please. Parent: Yes.
Parent: Here‘s an ice-cream. (Child accepts it.)
Parent: What do you say? Child: Thank you. Parent: That‘s right.
Chapter 11 Second Language Acquisition second language acquisition:
? the process by which people develop proficiency in a second or foreign language
foreign language vs. second language
? A foreign language is a language which is taught as a school subject but which is not used as a medium of
instruction in schools nor as a language of communication within a country (e.g. in government, business or industry).
e.g. English is described as a foreign language in France, Japan, China, etc.
? A second language is a language which is not a native language in a country but which is widely used as a
medium of communication (e.g. in education and in government) and which is usually used alongside another language (s).
e.g. English is described as a second language in countries such as Fiji, Singapore, and Nigeria.
(1) L1A vs. L2A/FLL:
1. While the L1 is acquired subconsciously, the L2 or FL is more commonly learned consciously.
2. In acquiring their L1, children always concentrate on meaning. The L2 learners concentrates on code/structure. 3. One learns his L1 directly from reality. The L2 is learnt in manageable sequence, i.e. syllabus and course books. 4. In L1A children apply the rules subconsciously, while the L2 learners, after a period of training, are able to verbalize the rules.
(2) contrastive analysis (CA):
The comparison of the linguistic systems of two languages, e.g. the sound system or the grammatical system. CA was developed and practised in the 1950s and 1960s, as an application of structural linguistics to language teaching, and is based on the following assumptions:
Assumptions for CA:
a. the main difficulties in learning a new language are caused by interference from the L1. b. these difficulties can be predicted by CA.
c. teaching materials can make use of CA to reduce the effects of interference.
language transfer: It refers to the effect of one language on the learning of another. Two types of language transfer may occur. positive transfer vs. negative transfer
? Positive transfer is transfer which makes learning easier, and may occur when both the native language and
the target language have the same form.
? Negative transfer, also known as interference, is the use of a native-language pattern or rule which leads to
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an error or inappropriate form in the target language.
Problems of CA:
? Some of the predicted errors did not occur while some unpredicted ones did occur. ? ―Difference‖ and ―Difficulty‖ are not identical concepts.
(3) error analysis (EA)
The study and analysis of the errors made by second and foreign language learners. EA may be carried out for the following purposes. Purposes for EA:
a. find out how well someone knows a language b. find out how a person learns a language
c. obtain information on common difficulties in language learning, as an aid in teaching or in the preparation of teaching materials.
The main purpose for CA is to predict learners‘ errors while that for EA is to explain learners‘ errors. Types of errors: 1. interlingual errors
an error which results from language transfer, i.e. which is caused by the learner‘s native language a. phonological evidence: /f/ --- /h/: 发, 花, 湖 /l/ --- /n/: 蓝, 南, 男 b. lexical evidence: to touch the city to open some courses to lose the rice bowl to go out to buy things 你几时走? 今个星期 我们骑单车去。 今天我们在班房上课。 老师，那篇文章我转头给你。 c. grammatical evidence two car apply for driving license A: Aren‘t you happy today? B: Yes (said when B feels unhappy ). 2. intralingual errors An error which results from faulty or partial learning of the target language, rather than from language transfer.
a. overgeneralization foots, sheeps comed, goed, doed Jane suggested me to give up smoking. Please explain me the rules. b. cross-association other/another; much/many The soup is too sour to eat it.
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3. pragmatic failure e.g. Have you eaten? e.g. I‘m afraid you must have had a tiring journey. e.g. A: Thank you for helping me. B: It‘s my duty to do so. (4) Interlanguage (IL) The term was given by Pit Corder and Larry Selinker to refer to the type of language produced by second- and foreign-language learners who are in the process of learning a language. NL TL IL IL IL
Since the language which the learner produces differs from both the native language and the target language, it is called an interlanguage.
characteristics of interlanguage: ? systematicity permeability fossilization (5) input hypothesis a hypothesis proposed by Krashen, which states that in second or foreign language learning, for language acquisition to occur, it is necessary for the learner to understand input language which contains linguistic items that are slightly beyond the learner‘s present linguistic items that are slightly beyond the learner‘s present linguistic competence (i.e. comprehensible input, or i+1 input) (6) individual differences 1. language aptitude 2. motivation
? integrative motivation (A) ? instrumental motivation (B) ? resultative motivation (C) ? intrinsic motivation (D)
A: Some learners may choose to learn an L2 because they‘re interested in the people and culture represented by the target language group.
B: Learners may make efforts to learn an L2 for some functional reason –-- to pass an exam, to get a better job, etc.
C: Learners‘ motivation is strongly affected by their achievement, it is possible that motivation is the result of learning
D: Motivation involves the arousal and maintenance of curiosity and can ebb and flow as a result of such factors as learners‘ particular interests and the extent to which they feel personally involved in learning activities. 3. learning strategies ? cognitive strategies ? metacognitive strategies ? affect/social strategies 4. personality 5. learning styles
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