SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

By Natasha Velásquez Manrique

WHAT IS SLA?• “Second Language Acquisition 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 been acquired” (Ortega, 2009)

BRIEF HISTORY• SLA began in the late 1960s.• During the 1980s and 1990s, SLA expanded considerably in

scope and methodology.• At the end of the twentieth century, it had finally reached its

coming of age as an autonomous discipline.• It continues growing.

SLA APPROACHES

According to Saville-Troike (2006, pp. 24):• Linguistic• Psychological• Social

LINGUISTIC• There have been two foci for the study of SLA from a linguistic

perspective since 1960: internal and external.• Internal focus: • Have been based on the work of Noam Chomsky.• It refers to the linguistic competence.• External focus: • It emphasized the use of language (performance).

PSYCHOLOGICAL • There have been 3 foci in the study of SLA from a

psychological perspective: • Languages in the brain:• There is a critical period for language acquisition which has a

neurological basis.• Learning processes:• It has been heavily influenced by computer-based Information

Processing (IP) models of learning.• L2 is a complex skill. It tries to answer the question of how.• Processability and Conectionism.• Learner differences:• It has been concerned with the question of why some learners

are more successful than others.

SOCIAL• Some of the frameworks can be considered linguistic or

cognitive.• They all emphasize the importance of social context for

language acquisition and use.• There are 2 foci for the study of SLA from this perspective:• Microsocial focus:• Language acquisition and use in immediate social context of

production, interpretation, and interaction.• Macrosocial focus:Language acquisition and use to broader ecological contexts, including cultural, political, and educational setting.

THE LINGUISTICS OF THE SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUSIITION

• Early approaches to SLA:

Internal focus:• Contrastive analysis• Error analysis• Interlangage• Morpheme Order Studies• Monitor Model• Universal Grammar

External focus:• Systemic Linguistics• Funtional Typology• Function-to-Form• Mapping• Information Organization

CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS• According to Saville-Troike (2006, pp. 34):• This is an approach to the study of SLA which involves

predicting and explaining learner problems based on a comparison of L1 and L2 to determine similarities and differences.

• It was influenced by Struturalism and Behaviorism.• The concept of transfer: This means the transfer of elements

acquired in L1 to the target L2.

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE TRANSFER

• The transfer is called positive when the same structure is appropriate in both languages. Example:

• Spanish plural –s morpheme on nouns to English.

• The transfer is called negative when the L1 structure is used inappropriately in the L2, as in the additional transfer of Spanish –s to a modifier in number agreement with the noun. For example:

• Lenguas modernas to languages moderns.

• The easiest L2 structure are those which exist in L1 with the same form, meaning and distribution and are thus available for positive transfer; any structure in L2 which has a form not occurring in L1 needs to be learned, but this is not likely to be very difficult if it has the same meaning and distribution as an “equivalent” in L1.

How can your hypothesis help students to learn?• This hypothesis can help students to learn based on the fact

that many people ignore that there are many structures in other languages that are similar to our native language. If we use these similarities we can learn a language faster and also improve it easily.

How can your hypothesis help teachers? • The process of CA involves describing L1 and L2 at each level,

analyzing roughly comparable segments of the languages for elements which are likely to cause problems for learners.

• This information provides a rationale for constructing language lessons that focus on structures which are predicted to most need attention and practice, and for sequencing the L2 structures in order of difficulty.

Sources• Ortega, Lourdes. (2009). Understanding Second Language

Acquisition. New York: Routledge• Saville-Troike, Muriel. (2006). Introducing Second Language

Acquisition. United States of America: Cambridge University Press.