SLA lecture on the role of input and interaction in interlanguage development, and on developmental sequences

1. Learning theory and SLA
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Interlanguage, input, interaction
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Learner errors, learner varieties

2. Interlanguage
Selinker, 1972
Learner language is not just
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Incorrect, L1-influenced language
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Random errors in language output
Learner language is systematic
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Learner errors have an internal logic
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Different learners go through the same
stages

3. 1. Input hypothesis
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Krashen's Monitor Model
– Acquisition versus learning
– Natural order hypothesis
– Comprehensible input at i + 1 is
the necessary and sufficient
condition for learning
– Monitoring is limited
– Affective filter prevents
learning under stress

4. 2. Interaction
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Interaction hypothesis
– Susan Gass
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Output hypothesis
– Merrill Swain

5. SLA research
SLA research
Developmental sequences

6. DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCES
The acquisition of morphemes or
syntactic constructions appears
in stages
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which are not taught
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which occur in all learners.

7. Cross-linguistic study:
acquisition of the past
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Bardovi-Harlig compared
• untutored and tutored learners
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and found that all the learners
passed through the same stages.

8. UNTUTORED (natural, TUTORED (classroom
‘street’ learners of learners of
French, English, German) English)
1. no explicit reference
• no tense/aspect 1. no reference
morphology
• scaffolding,
chronological order
2. adverbials
2, 3 adverbials,
3. emergence of verbal
morphology verbal morphology
4. increasingly systematic
use 4. systematic
5. very systematic
(80%)
6. reverse order
reports
7. pluperfect

9. 2 conclusions:
a) instruction can alter the rate
but not the route of acquisition
b) instructed learners may
progress further than untutored
learners

10. Developmental sequences
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a series of versions of the
language
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gradual progress towards
targetlike production
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formally correct
●
used appropriately

11. Before reaching the target, learners
pass through incorrect stages which
still indicate progress
1a Yesterday I tell John something
1b Yesterday I telled John something
1b is better, because the past is
marked.

12. Error-free production is not
necessarily the best measure of
progress
2a John is talking to the man. The man is
his brother.
2b The man who John is talking to him is his
brother.
2b indicates more complex language