Spada & Lightbown

1. Second Language
Acquisition
Nina Spada
Patsy M. Lightbown
Professor: Dr. Salimi
Presented by: Mojgan Azimi

2. What is SLA?
• Developing knowledge and use of a language
by children and adults who already know at
least one other language.
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3. SLA
Practical
Theoreti
cal
• representation of language in
the mind, difference between
lang. and information
processes
• learning a language,
effective teaching, goal
setting by policy makers
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4. L2 learning
Theories
Linguistic
• Lang. acquisition is
based on innate
knowledge of
principles being
common to all
languages.
Psychological
• Cognition is
responsible for
human learning and
information
processing .
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degenerate
knowledge=i
ncomplete
data logical
problem

5. • Chomsky describes this theory as
knowledge that people are born
with.(LAD)preprogrammed to
process language.All languages
have the same principles but
different parameters.
• Basically skill of language people
already have without being
thought.
• Plausible explanation only for L1
acquisition.
• UG is available for L2,
• UG is no longer available(critical
period).
UG
Chomsky,
1986

6. • Studying second language acquisition from a UG
perspective deals with language user’s
underlying linguistic ‘competence’ (what they
know) instead of focusing on their linguistic
‘performance’ (what a language user actually says
or writes or understands).
• The researcher may ask a language user to judge
whether a sentence is grammatical or not.
• Competence: abstract underlying knowledge of
language Ideal speakers’ situation .
• Performance: language representation
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7. 7

8. Acquisition-
Learning
Hypothesis
• Acquisition: unconscious development of language
through exposure.(implicit)
• Learning: conscious effort to develop language through
study and practice.(explicit)
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9. Monitor Theory
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• The fundamental
hypothesis of Monitor
Theory is that there is a
difference between
‘acquisition’ and
‘learning’.
• Learning functions as a
monitor or editor and its
focus on form/correctness
and rules.
• Acquisition is responsible
for fluency.

10. Natural Order
Hypothesis
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• L2 learners, like L1 learners, go through a
series of predictable stages in their acquisition
of linguistic features (Krashen ,1982) .

11. Comprehensio
n Input
Hypothesis
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• L2 learning, like L1 learning, occurs as a result
of exposure to meaningful and varied linguistic
input (Krashen).

12. Affective Filter
Hypothesis
(anxiety,motivation,self-confidence)
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• Learner’s feeling or
attitude impedes or
blocks input necessary
to acquisition.
• Successful acquisition
is that the learner be
motivated to learn the
L2 and thus receptive
to the comprehensible
input.
Lower filter, more
opportunity to learn.

13. • All learning, including
language learning, occurs
through a process of
imitation, practice,
reinforcement and habit
formation.
• Environment: Source of
linguistic stimuli.
• Focus: observable
behavior.
Behaviourism
B.F. Skinner,
1957
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14. Contrastive Analysis
Hypothesis• The ideas associated with behaviorism.
• Role of the L1 in L2 learning.
• CAH predicted that where similarities
existed between L1 and L2 structures,
there would be no difficulty for L2
learning.
• Differences, however, the L2 learner
would experience problems (Lado,
1964).
• It failed to predict errors that L2
learners were observed to make, and it
predicted some errors that did not
occur. Lado,1915-
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15. Cognitive
Psychology• Cognitive psychology examines internal mental
processes such as problem-solving, memory, and
language.
• It hypothesized that second language acquisition, like
other learning, requires the learner’s attention and
effort.
• Restructuring is a cognitive process in which
previously acquired information that has been
somehow stored in separate categories is integrated
and this integration expands the learner’s competence.
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16. Information Processing
Theory
Declarative
Knowledge
(intentional lang.
learning)
through
repeated
practice
Proceduralized
Knowledge (no
mental effort)
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controlled
processing
with attention
automatic
processing
with little/no
attention

17. Connectionism
• It explains how brain creates networks which
connect words or phrases to other words or
phrases (as well as to events and objects)
which occur at the same time.
• Links or connections are strengthened through
repeated (high frequency) exposure to linguistic
stimuli in specific contexts.
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18. Processability
Theory• Processability Theory represents a way to relate underlying cognitive
processes to stages in the L2 learner’s development (Pienemann, 1998).
• Theory was originally developed as a result of studies of the acquisition of
German word order and, later, on the basis of research with L2 learners of
English.
• L2 learners were observed to acquire certain syntactic and morphological
features of the L2 in predictable stages. These features were referred to as
‘developmental’.
• Other features, referred to as ‘variational’, appeared to be learned by some
but not all learners.
• It was suggested that each stage represented a further degree of
complexity in processing strings of words and grammatical markers .
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19. Interactionist
Perspectives
• Language learning takes place through social
interaction, and interlocutors adjust their speech to
make it more accessible to learners.
• Ex: children’s interaction with their caregivers and peers
which is tailored to their linguistic and cognitive abilities (
child-directed speech).
• These adjustments include modifications and
simplifications in all aspects of language, including
phonology, vocabulary, syntax ,discourse and
paraphrasing, repeating, clarifying.
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Adjustment
Comprehensi
on
Acquisition

20. Sociocultural
Perspectives
Vygotsky, 1987
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• Social interaction plays a fundamental role in the
development of cognition.
• There is an intimate relationship between culture and
mind, and that all learning is first social then individual.
• Through dialogic communication, learners jointly construct
knowledge and this knowledge is later internalized by the
individual.
• Sociocultural theorists emphasize the integration of the
social, cultural and biological elements.

21. • In the 1970s, a number of error analysis studies
found that errors made by L2 learners are
systematic.
• The term ‘interlanguage’ (Selinker, 1972) was
coined to characterize this developing linguistic
system of the L2 learner.
• L2 learners’ errors could not be attributed to L1
influence.
• Both L1 and L2 learners of English make similar
overgeneralization errors such as two mouses and
she goed.
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22. Developmental Sequences
• Study of second language acquisition based on
previous work in L1 acquisition.
• Brown’s (1973) longitudinal research on the language
development of three children ( how they acquired
grammatical morphemes).
• Result showed that forms are acquired in a similar
order.
• L2 learners go through similar sequence.
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23. L1 Influence
• Some aspects of language are more susceptible to L1
influence than others (pronunciation and word order).
• Learners may be slowed down when they reach a
developmental level at which a particular
interlanguage pattern is similar to a pattern in their L1.
• Another way in which the L1 interacts with
developmental sequences is in the constraints which
L1 influence may place on the use of L2 patterns
within a particular stage. (see p. 117)
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24. Instruction and Second Language
Acquisition
• Instruction can have a significant effect on L2
acquisition.
• It does not prevent learners from going through
developmental stages.
• But it may permit learners to move through the
stages faster.
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25. • Krashen (1982) argued that instruction tended to
lead only to what he called ‘learning’ and that
instruction could potentially interfere with
language ‘acquisition’.
• He concluded that exposure to ‘comprehensible
input’ would be sufficient to allow learners to
progress through developmental stages because
the language t
• One way to provide learners with more natural
input is through communicative and content-based
language teaching.
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26. THANK YOU
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