First Language Acquisition

vs.
Second Language Learning
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 Historically,
theories and theorists may have
emphasized either nature or nurture as the
most important explanatory factor for acquisition.
Nativist linguistic theories hold that
children learn through their natural ability
to organize the laws of language, but
cannot fully utilize this talent without the
presence of other humans.
Chomsky claims that children are born
with a hard-wired language acquisition
device (LAD) in their brains.
B.F. Skinner's radical behavioral
psychology, emphasized trial-and error
learning over biological predisposition.
Nativist theories/Behaviorism
Childrenare born with the major principles of
language in place, but with many parameters
to set.

According to nativist theory, when the young

child is exposed to a language, their LAD
makes it possible for them to set the
parameters and deduce the grammatical
principles, because the principles are innate.
One idea central to the Chomskian view is
the idea of Universal Grammar,
which posits that all languages have the
same basic underlying structure, and that
specific languages have rules that transform
these underlying structures into the specific
patterns found in given languages.
The argument from the poverty of
stimulus is that there are principles of
grammar that cannot be learned on the
basis of positive input alone, however
complete and grammatical that evidence
is.
While all theories of language acquisition
posit some degree of innateness, a less
convoluted theory might involve less
innate structure and more learning.
the acquisition-learning hypothesis,
the monitor hypothesis,
the natural order hypothesis,
the input hypothesis,
the affective filter hypothesis.

The theory consists of five hypotheses,

which describe different aspects of SLA:
The acquisition-learning
Accordingto Krashen these are two
independent systems of L2 performance;
acquisitionis a product of subconscious
processing similar to children’s L1 acquisition
and requires life-like L2 interaction, which
focuses on communication not correctness,
learning occurs through formal instruction
and comprises conscious processing, which
results in knowledge about the L2, e.g.
grammatical rules.
Krashenbelieves ‘learned competence’ acts
as a monitor or editor

He claims that learned knowledge enables

learners to read and listen more, so
acquisition is effective.

The monitor hypothesis asserts that learners’

emotional states act as adjustable filters that
freely permit or hinder input necessary to
acquisition.
He suggests that adolescence and puberty
are not good periods for SLA, as this
‘affective filter’ arises out of self-conscious
reluctance to reveal oneself and feelings of
vulnerability.
The comprehensible input theory assumes
that in order to have meaningful and
effective learning the level of knowledge
should be on a slightly higher level than the
knowledge of the students (I +1).
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During the first two months of life, infant
vocalizations are mainly expressions of
discomfort (crying), along with sounds
produced as a by-product of reflexive or
vegetative actions such as coughing,
sucking, swallowing.

Babbling
During the period from about 2-4 months,
infants begin making "comfort sounds",
typically in response to pleasurable
interaction with a caregiver.
The earliest comfort sounds may be grunts
or sighs, with later versions being more
vowel-like "coos".
Initially comfort sounds are brief and
produced in isolation, but later appear in
series separated by glottal stops.
During the period from 4-7 months, infants
typically engage in "vocal play",
manipulating pitch, loudness (producing
"yells"), and tract closures to produce friction
noises, nasal murmurs.
Babbling is a stage in child language
acquisition, during which an infant appears
to be experimenting with making the sounds
of language, but not yet producing any
recognizable words.
Infants begin to produce recognizable words
usually around 12 months, though babbling
may continue for some time after this.
Human babies engage in babble as a sort of
vocal play that does not occur in any other
mammal species.
At about ten months, infants start to utter
recognizable words.
Some word-like vocalizations that do not
correlate well with words in the local
language may consistently be used by
particular infants to express particular
emotional states.

The holophrastic stage

At this stage, the baby does not do very
much imitating anymore.
This is the great experimental stage
which will last for several months.
Babies experiment with exactly two
words at a time no matter what language
they are learning.
This is when they learn nouns and verbs
and adverbs although they don't need
lessons in these things.

The two word stage

Telegraphic speech, is speech during the
two-word stage of language acquisition in
children, which is laconic and efficient.
As children develop language, they speak
similarly: when a child says "Water Now!"

Telegraphic speech
 most infants can give evidence of understanding
some words at the age of 4-9 months, often even
before babbling begins.
 Newborns can distinguish speech from non-
speech, and can also distinguish among speech
sounds within a couple of months of birth.
 Early linguistic interaction with mothers, fathers
and other caregivers is important in establishing
and consolidating early abilities.

Perception vs. production

Early words are acquired at a rate of 1-3
per week; in many cases the rate may
suddenly increase to 8-10 new words per
week, after 40 or so words have been
learned.
The rate of vocabulary acquisition
definitely does accelerate in the third year
and beyond: a plausible estimate would be
an average of 10 words a day during pre-
school and elementary school years.

Rate of vocabulary development

early multiple-unit utterances can be seen
as concatenations of individual naming
actions that might just as well have
occurred alone: "mommy" and "hat"
might be combined as "mommy hat";
"shirt" and "wet" might be combined as
"shirt wet".

Early multi-unit utterances

In the early multi-word stage, children who
are asked to repeat sentences may simply
leave out the determiners, modals and
verbal auxiliaries, verbal inflections, etc., and
often pronouns as well.
She's gone. Her gone school. (Domenico at
24 months)
He's kicking a beach ball. Her climbing up
the ladder there. (Jem at 24 months).
I teasing Mummy. I'm teasing Mummy.
(Holly at 24 months)
I having this. I'm having 'nana. (Olivia at 27
months).
I'm having this little one. Me'll have that.
(Betty at 30 months).
Mummy haven't finished yet, has she?
(Olivia at 36 months).
CHILD: My teacher holded the baby
rabbits and we patted them.
ADULT: Did you say your teacher held the
baby rabbits.
CHILD: Yes.
ADULT: What did you say she did?
CHILD: She holded the baby rabbits and
we patted them.
ADULT: Did you say she held them
tightly?
CHILD: No, she holded them loosely.
At a certain point, it is common for children
to over-generalize the regular case,
producing forms like "bringed", "goed";
"foots", "mouses",
At this stage, the child's speech may actually
become less correct by adult standards than
it was earlier, because of over-regularization.
Feature  L1 acquisition L2 (foreign language)
acquisition

1. Overall  children normally adult L2 learners are

    success achieve perfect L1 unlikely to achieve perfect
mastery L2 mastery

2. General  success guaranteed complete success rare

    failure
3. Variation little variation in L2 learners vary in overall
degree of success success and route
or route
4. Goals Target language  L2 learners may be content
competence with less than target
language competence or
more concerned with
fluency than accuracy
Fossilisation unknown common, plus backsliding
(i.e. return to earlier
stages of development

Intuitions children develop L2 learners are often

clear intuitions unable to form clear
about correctness grammaticality judgments

Instruction not needed helpful or necessary

Negative  correction not correction generally helpful

    evidence found and not or necessary
necessary

Affective  not involved play a major role

    factors determining proficiency
 In language teaching we must practice and
practice. Just like small children acquiring their
mother language.
 He repeats things over and over again. During
the language learning stage he practices all the
time.
 Language learning is mainly a matter of
imitation. You must be a mimic. Just like a
small child. He imitates everything.
 First we practice the separate sounds, then
sentences. This is the natural order and is
therefore right for learning a foreign
language (bottom-up).

The similarities between FLA and

SLA:
 In FLA the child first listens then he speaks.
(comprehension precedes production).
 A small child listens and speaks and no one would
dream to make him write or read.
 You did not have to translate when you were small.
A small child simply uses the language. He does
not learn formal grammar.
 It is equally unnecessary to use grammatical
conceptualization in teaching a foreign language
(communicative approach).