SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION_Meeting 1.pptx

SLA course

1. SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION GIG3103/ 3 Credit hours/ Semester V RPS Click` here

2. COURSE DESCRIPTION This course provides the students with some theoretical and practical knowledge on how the language learners learn/acquire second/foreign languages inside and outside classrooms , and with some information on the development of language acquisition . At the end of the semester, the students are able to identify and describe some theoretical and practical knowledge on how the language learners learn/acquire second/foreign languages inside and outside classrooms, and with some information on the development of language acquisition.

3. REFERENCES Ellis, R. (1985). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press Ingram, D. (1989). First Language Acquisition: Method, Description, and Explanation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Brown , H.D. (1987). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching: Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Krashen, S.D. (1988). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Hertfordshire: Prentice-Hall International ( UK)Ltd. Littlewood , W. (1987). Foreign and Second Language Learning: Language Acquisition Research and Its Implications for the Classroom . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Richards , J.C. and Rodgers, T.S. (1986). Approaches and Methods in LanguageTeaching: A Description and Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

4. Meeting 1: August 13 th , 2024 Overview of the course Definitions of First Language Acquisition Definitions of Second Language Acquisition

5. What is SLA? Mother tongue vs second language Second/third/fourth/foreign language Learning it naturally or formally L2 Acquisition: The way people learn a language other than their mother tongue, inside or outside the classroom SLA: the study

6. What is SLA? First Language Acquisition >> a language acquired between 18 months and three to four years of age ( for children who grow up monolingually ) Bilingual Acquisition or multilingual acquisition >> process of learning two or more languages relatively simultaneously during early childhood – that is, before the age of four Second language acquisition (SLA, for short) is the scholarly field of inquiry that investigates the human capacity to learn languages other than the first, during late childhood, adolescence or adulthood, and once the first language or languages have SLA as a field investigates the human capacity to learn languages once the first language – in the case of monolingual children – or the first languages – in the case of bilingual or multilingual children – have been learned and are established SLA began in the late 1960s

7. The Goals of SLA What learners actually do in learning L2? To describe how learner language changes overtime ( Understand: Learner language and Target language ) >> Description of L2 Acquisition Example: Pronunciation, fluency, grammar development overtime

8. The Goals of SLA To explain L2 Acquisition External factors: Social milien and input Internal factors: Cognitive mechanism, background knowledge (mother tongue, general knowledge, communication strategies), and language aptitude

9. Case studies A case study of an adult learner: Wes (a J apanese)investigated by Richard Schimdt A case studyof two child learners: J (a Portuguese boy) and R (a Pakistani) investigated by Ellis

10. Conclusions of these case studies Methodological issues of how L2 Acq. Shoud be studied? Issues of the description of learner language Problems of explaining L2 Acq.

11. Methodological Issues What needs to be described? Focusing on some specific aspects “Acquired” meaning >> what learners know and what learners can do Whether learners have “acquired” a particular feature? Example: Can I have ...? vs ‘can’ in other kinds of sentences Overuse of linguistic forms: the Wes’ use of “ing” forms.

12. Issues in the description of language learner Errors (Example: omission, overuse, grammatical, sociolinguistics) Formulaeic chunks for communicative functions (the role these formulas play in L2 acquisition, e.g: “Can I have ..?” to “can” in grammar Systematical acquisition or not? Do all L2 learners learn following the same route?

13. Issues in the explanation of L2 acquisition Item learning e.g: “Can I have a ...” System learning e.g: ‘can’ with go, swim, borrow, etc for a variety of functions The explanation of L2 acquisition must cover both and their relations Explanation of systematic nature of L2 Aquisition: internal and external factors. None of the three reached a native-speaker level of performance. Why? More time to learn? Stop learning? Not belong to the community leading to linguistic distance? Possible for very young children? Direct intsruction only for difficult language feature?