1.Introduction:describing and explaining L2 acquisition a.What is Second language acquisition?
Its emergence is no accident. This has been a time of the global village and the World wide Web. As never before ,people have had to learn a second language ,not just as a pleasing pastime ,but often as a means of obtaining an education of securing employment.
Second can refer to any language that is learned subsequent to the mother tongue. It can refer to the third or fourth language.Also, second is not intended to contrast with foreign. so L2 acquisition can be defined as the way in which people learn a language other than their mother tongue ,inside or outside of a classroom.Second Language Acquisition is the study of L2 acquisition.
b.What are the goal of SLA?
Some approaches for you to set about finding how the learners acquire an L2:
1.ask the learners how they did it .This approach has provided some valuable insights but it is limited in that learners are not aware of the actual learning process they engaged in
2.collecting samples of learner language that learners produce and analyse them carefully .These samples provide evidence of what the learners know about the target language .If the samples are collected at different points in time ,It may be possible to find out how learners knowledge gradually develops. in other words , what we are trying to is describe how learner language change over time.
c.the focus of SLA
SLA has not focused on these communicative aspects of language development --- how learners‘ overall ability to communicate develops, how they become more fluent in their use of an L2 .but on the formal features of language that linguists have traditionally concentrated on .----- pronunciation (how learners‘accents change over time.) words---how learners build up their vocabulary；most of ten ,the focus has been on the grammar---{the focus has been the grammar of the L2} d.the goals of SLA
One of the goal of SLA is the description of L2 acquisition.Another is explanation; identifying the external and internal factors that account for why learners acquire an L2 in the way they do. One of the goal of SLA are to describe how L2 acquisition proceeds and to explain this process and why some learners seem to be better as it than others. e.What are the external and internal factors?
One of the external factors is the social milieu in which learning takes place. Social conditions influence the opportunities learners have to hear and speak the language and the attitudes that they develop towards it. Another external factor is the input that learners receive,that is,the sample of language to which a learner is exposed. Language learning can not occur without some input.
L2 acquisition can be explained in part by these external but internal factors also should be considered. Learner possess cognitive mechanisms which enable to extract informationabout L2 from the input.L2 learner bring an
enormous amount of knowledge to the task of learning an L2.First,they can draw on the mother tongue ,Second, learners possess general knowledge about which can help them understand L2 input .Finally ,learners possess communication strategies that help them make effective use of their L2 knowledge. Besides ,it has been suggested that people vary in their language aptitude f.two case studies
A case study is a detailed study of a learner‘s acquisition of an L2,which is longitudinal, involving the collection of samples of the learner‘s speech or writing over a period of time. One is of an adult learner learning English in surroundings where it serves as a means of daily communication and the other of two children learning English in a classroom.
Research Schmidt says-----.Wes ,a naturalistic learner ---who learns English by learning to communicate in it; he was still far short for native –speaker accuracy, but he did develop in other ways, eg, his use of formula, he can identify the fixed phrases and practise them consciously. This help him develop fluency in English, In fact , we is a successful communicator, a skilled conversationalist.
Researcher Rod Ellis says----J and R .the instruction the two learners received involves both formal instruction and informal instruction. The focus is the request. because English is the medium of
communication ,there are numerous opportunities for them to hear and perform requests. the similarities between J and R ;1,both were capable of successfully performing simple requests.2,both manifested development in
their ability to perform requests.3.many of their requests seemed formulaic in nature.4,both progressed in much the same way despite the fact they had different native languages, however ,the ability is limited in a number of respects.5,in short ,despite ample opportunity to master requests, both were still far short of native –like competence at the end of the study. P11.Methodological issues 1,what needs to be described
2,what it means to say that a learner has acquired a feature of the target language.
(Schmidt defines acquisition in terms of whether the learner manifests patterns of language use that are more or less the same as native speakers of the target language. However, this conflates what learners know with what they can do.
3, What determines whether learners have acquired a particular feature? 4,it concerns learner‘s overuse of linguistic forms in trying to measure whether acquisition has taken place
P12,Issues in the description of learner language
1,What is the role that the formulas play ,not just in enhancing learner ?performance but in their acquisition of an L2
2,has the learners acquired the language systematically ? P12,two findings
1,One finding is that learners make errors of different kinds. Not only in grammatical errors, but sociolinguistic errors
2,Another finding is that learners acquire a number of formulaic chunks,
which they use to perform communicative functions and which contribute to the fluency of their unplanned speech.
3,learners do acquire aspects of an L2 systematically and follow particular developmental routes.
P13,Issues in the explanation of L2 acquisition
An explanation of L2 acquisition must account for both item and system learning and how the two interrelate
1,one explanation is that learner follow a particular developmental pattern because their mental faculties are structured in such a way that this is the way they have to learn
2,other explanations emphasize the importance of external as opposed to internal factors.
2.The nature of learner language
The main way of investigating L2acquisition is by collecting and decribing samples of learner language .the description may focus on errors and error analysis: identifying errors,
The first step in analysing learners errors is to identify them. it is clear that identifying the exact errors that learners make is often difficult. P15.good reasons for focusing on errors:
1st ,they are a conspicuous feature of learner language 2nd,it is useful to know what errors learners make
3rd,paradoxically,it is possible that making errors may actually help learners to learn when they self- correct errors they make.