SLA Modules

Course Syllabus
Department of English and Applied Linguistics

De La Salle University-Manila
Br. Andrew Gonzalez FSC College of Education
COURSE CODE/COURSE TITLE: ENG 631M

(Second Language Acquisition)
Faculty: Dr. Rochelle Irene G. Lucas (rochelle.lucas@dlsu.edu.ph)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course provides a general introduction to the theories of second language acquisition. The
dominant focus of this course is to extend students’ understanding of the complex processes
and mechanisms that drive language acquisition.
OBJECTIVES
The course aims to:
1. Provide a survey of the history of SLA and the factors that have influenced it;
2. Present theories that are specific to the field of SLA that aim to account for the many
facets of non-native linguistic behavior;
3. Introduce major concepts and issues in L2 acquisition;
4. Provide students with hands-on opportunity to come up with their own studies on second
language acquisition.
TOPICS/COURSE OUTLINE
Schedule Topics Readings
Week 1 Module 1: Introduction to the Course Mitchel & Myles, 1998,

A. Issues and Concepts pp. 1-40
B. History of SLA research and approaches
C. SLA Theories
Week 2 Module 2: Module 9: Classroom and SLA Ellis, 1994, pp. 516-611
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Article discussion:
Article Discussion: Kroll et al., 2012,
Kroll, J., Bogulski, C., & McClain, R.
(2012). Psycholinguistic perspectives on pp. 1-25
second language learning and bilingualism:
The course and consequence of cross-
language competition. Linguistic approaches
to bilingualism. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Publishing Co.
Week 3 Module 3: Approaches to Language

Teaching
Week 4 Module 4: Internal Factors Affecting SLA Ellis, 1994, pp.293-346

A. Language Transfer
B. Motivations Krashen, 1981,
pp. 19-39
C. Attitude and Aptitude in Second Language
Acquisition and Second Language Learning
Article discussion:
Lucas, R.I.,Pulido, D., Miraflores,E., Lucas et al., 2010,
Ignacio,A.,Tacay, M., & Lao, J. (February 2010). pp. 2-23
A study on the intrinsic motivation factors in
second language learning among selected
freshman students. Philippine ESL Journal, Vol.
4, pp. 3-23.
Week 5 Module 5: External Factors Affecting Second Ellis, 1994,

pp. 191-243
Language Acquisition
Mitchel & Myles, 1998,
A. Social Factors and SLA
pp. 121-140
B. Input, Interaction and SLA
Article discussion: Gass, 2005, pp. 224-

Gass, S. (2005). Input and interaction. In 255 (in Doughty & Long,
Doughty, C. & Long, M. (Eds.). (2005). (The 2005)
handbook of second language acquisition.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Week 6 Module 6: Individual Differences in SLA Ellis, 1994, pp. 467-528

A. Individual Learner’s Differences O’Malley & Chamot,
B. Learning Strategies 1990, pp. 114-150
Article discussion:
Paradis, J. (2011).Individual differences in child
English second language acquisition: Paradis, 2011,
Comparing child-internal and child-external pp. 213-237
factors. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing
Company.
Week 7 Module 7: Approaches to SLA Mitchel & Myles, 1998,

A. Cognitive Processes in Second Language pp. 72-98
Learners and Bilinguals
Article discussion: Kroll & Sunderman,
Kroll, J. & Sunderman, C. (2005). Cognitive 2005, pp. 104-129 (in
processes in second language learners and

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bilinguals: The development of lexical and Doughty & Long, 2005)
conceptual representations. In Doughty, C. &
Long M.(Eds.). (2005). The handbook of
second language acquisition. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Week 8 Module 8: Approaches to SLA Mitchel & Myles, 1998,

B. Universal Grammar: Linguistics and pp. 42-69
Language Learning
Article discussion: White, 2005, pp. 19-42
White, L. (2005). On the nature of (in Doughty & Long,
interlanguage representation: Universal 2005)
grammar in second language. In Doughty, C.
& Long, M. (Eds.). (2005). The handbook of
Second language acquisition. Cambridge:
Week 9 Module 7: Approaches to SLA Mitchel & Myles, 1998, pp.

100-117
C. Functional/Pragmatic Perspectives on
Second Language Acquisition
Theories of SL Pragmatic Development Kasper & Rose, 2002, pp.
13-61
1. Acculturation model
2. Cognitive processing
3. Socio-cultural theory
4. Language socialization
Article discussion:
Ravid, D., Olshtain, E., Ze’elon, R. (2003).
Gradeschoolers’ linguistic and pragmatic
speech adaptation to native and non-native Olshtain et al., 2003, pp.
71-99
interlocution. Journal of Pragmatics, 35, pp.
71-99.
Week 10 Module 9: Approaches to SLA Mitchel & Myles, 1998, pp.

D. Sociolinguistics 163-182
Article discussion:
Woon Yee Ho, J. (2009). The language of
Woon Yee Ho, 2009,
anger in Chinese and English narratives.
International Journal of Bilingualism, vol. 13, pp. 481-500
number 4, pp. 481-500.
Week 11 Independent Study # 2

Week 12 Presentation of Research Papers
Week 13 Independent Study # 2
Week 14 Submission of Final Paper
TEACHING METHOD/ STRATEGIES

Each class meeting involves an in depth discussion of the assigned reading. Students are
expected to have read the assignment for the meaningful facilitation of the lesson.
REFERENCES
Doughty, C. & Long, M. (Eds.). (2005). The handbook of second language acquisition.

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Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gass, S. (2005). Input and interaction. In Doughty, C. & Long, M. (Eds.). (2005). (The
handbook of second language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Krashen, S. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning. Oxford:
Pergamon Press.
Kroll, J. & Sunderman, C. (2005). Cognitive processes in second language learners and
bilinguals: The development of lexical and conceptual representations. In Doughty, C. &
Long M.(Eds.). (2005). The handbook of second language acquisition. Cambridge:
Kroll, J., Bogulski, C., & McClain, R.(2012). Psycholinguistic perspectives on second
language learning and bilingualism: The course and consequence of cross-language
competition. Linguistic approaches to bilingualism. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Publishing Co.
Lucas, R.I.,Pulido, D., Miraflores,E., Ignacio,A.,Tacay, M., & Lao, J. (February 2010). A
study on the intrinsic motivation factors in second language learning among
selected freshman students. Philippine ESL Journal, Vol. 4, pp. 3-23.
Mitchell, R. & Myles, F. Second language learning theories. London: Arnold.
O’Malley, J. & Chamot, A. (1990). Learning strategies in second language acquisition.

Paradis, J. (2011).Individual differences in child English second language acquisition:

Comparing child-internal and child-external factors. Linguistic Approaches to
Bilingualism Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Ravid, D., Olshtain, E., Ze’elon, R. (2003). Gradeschoolers’ linguistic and pragmatic speech
adaptation to native and non-native interlocution. Journal of Pragmatics, 35, pp. 71-
99.
White, L. (2005). On the nature of interlanguage representation: Universal grammar in

second language. In Doughty, C. & Long, M. (Eds.). (2005). The handbook of Second
language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Woon Yee Ho, J. (2009). The language of anger in Chinese and English narratives.
International Journal of Bilingualism, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 481-500.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1. Attendance (Additional points will be given to students who have perfect attendance)
2. Quizzes/seatwork 40%
3. Article presentation 20%
4. Research Paper 40%
a. Research presentation 10%
b. Research paper 30%

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GUIDELINES
A. ATTENDANCE
• Attendance in the course is required. A student exceeding the allowed number of
absences as reiterated in the DLSU Student Handbook will automatically get a
failing mark.
B. QUIZZES
• Quizzes are given before or after the discussion of the readings assigned for the
whole week.
• NO MAKE UP QUIZ IS GIVEN TO LATE AND ABSENT STUDENTS.
C. INDIVIDUAL SHARING
• For article discussion (40 minutes)
• As discussion leader, the student will facilitate the class discussion on the chosen
article. The discussion leader is expected to prepare visual aids and provide hand-
outs for the class. Likewise, the same procedure will be followed for the
presentation of the individual research, which is part of the final paper requirement.
D. RESEARCH PAPER
- 20 to 30 pages
- The paper should follow the format prescribed:
I. Introduction
A. Background of the study
B. Review of related literature and studies
C. Research problem
D. Conceptual framework
II. Methodology
A. Research design
B. Participants
C. Setting
D. Instruments (if any)
E. Procedure
F. Method of Analysis
III. Results and Discussion

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A. Results
B. General discussion
C. Conclusion
E. TYPING SPECIFICATIONS
• Font Size: 12
• Font Type: Arial, Garamond or Times New Roman
• Spacing: Double
• Margins: Left- 1.5

Right, Top & Bottom- 1.0
• Ink Color: Black
• Paper Size: 8 ½” x 11” (short white paper)
• Paper Substance: 70-80 gsm
IMPORTANT REMINDERS
1. All papers submitted (Critic paper and module) should not be inserted or enclosed in an
envelope, plain folder or sliding folder. Please staple or clip all the required papers due
for submission.
2. Submission of late requirements is highly discouraged. Late papers WILL NEVER BE

ACCEPTED!
3. No make-up quiz, report or individual presentation will be given for those who will be
absent on the assigned day of the abovementioned class activities.
4.
Module 1
Introduction
to the Course
TOPICS
A.Issues and Concepts
B.History of Second Language Research and Approaches
C. SLA Theories

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OBJECTIVES
At the end of the module, the students will be able to:
1. be informed of the various issues and concepts regarding second language acquisition
and learning;
2. be cognizant of the importance of knowing the early beginnings of second language
study and the different approaches and methods of its development;
3. be aware of the different approaches and methods to the study of second language
learning and development.
ESTIMATED NUMBER OF MEETINGS

• 1 meeting (3 hours)
MATERIALS/EQUIPMENT
1. power point presentation of the whole discussion on the following points:
A. Issues and concerns about the second language
B. History of SLA and SLL research and approaches
C. SLA theories
KEY CONCEPTS FOR UNDERSTANDING

Second language Error analysis
B.F. Skinner Krashen’s Monitor model
Noam Chomsky Schumann’s pidginization/acculturation
Cognitive factors Affective factors
Behaviorism First Language acquisition

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PROCEDURE

1. Power point presentation on key concepts and issues 20 minutes
2. Discussion on the chronological overview of

language development and the different approaches
and methods in the study of second language acquisition 1 hour and 30 mins.
3. Individual processing on the focus questions provided 30 minutes

4. Open discussion on the focus questions given 40 minutes
POINTS FOR DISCUSSION

A. CONCEPTS AND ISSUES ON SECOND LANGUAGE
1. Definition of Second Language
• It refers to any language other than the learner’s ‘native language’ or ‘mother
tongue.’
• It encompasses both languages of wider communication encountered within the

local region or community (e.g. at the workplace, in school, or in the media).
2. Definition of Second Language Acquisition and Learning

• Second language acquisition is the process by which people learn a second
language in addition to their native language.
• It is often said to be ‘effortlessly learned.”
• Second language learning however refers to the inclusion of learning any language
at any level, provided only that the learning of the ‘second’ language takes place
sometime later than the acquisition of the first language.
3. Reasons Why We Need to Understand Second Language Acquisition and

Learning
• Improved knowledge in this particular domain is interesting in itself, and can also
contribute to more general understanding about the nature of language, of
human learning, and of intercultural communication, and thus about the human
mind itself, as well as how these are interrelated and affect each other.
• The knowledge can be useful. If we become better at explaining the learning

process, and are better to account for both success and failure in learning, there
will be a pay-off for millions of teachers, and tens of millions of students and
learners, who are struggling with the task.
4. The Language Learning Process (Nature-Nurture)

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th
• In the 20 century, the best-known controversy on the issue as far as first
language was concerned involved the Behaviorist psychologist, B.F. Skinner
and the linguist Noam Chomsky.
• Skinner (1957) attempted to argue that language in all its essentials could be
and was taught to the child by the same mechanisms which he believed
accounted for other types of learning. From this point of view, language could
be learned primarily imitating caregivers’ speech). (Nurture)
• Chomsky (1959) on the other hand, has argued consistently for the view that
human language is too complex to be learned, in its entirety, from the
performance data actually available to the child; we must therefore have
some innate predisposition to expect natural language to be organized in
particular ways and not others. (Nature)
• How does the nature-nurture debate impact in theories of second language

learning? If humans are endowed with an innate predisposition for language,
then perhaps they should be able to learn as many languages as they need
or want to, provided that the time, circumstances, and motivation are
available.
• On the other hand, the environmental circumstances for L2 learning differ

systematically from L1 learning, except where infants are reared in
multilingual surroundings.
5. Factors Affecting Individual Second Language Learning

1. Cognitive Factors
a. Intelligence
- there is clear that L2 students who are above average on formal measures
of intelligence tend to do well in L2 learning, at least in formal classroom settings
b. Language aptitude
- a number of sub skills believed to be predictive of L2 success are used to

measure language learners
c. Language learning strategies
- several research have been done to show that proficient language learners do
indeed employ strategies that are different from those used by the less proficient
2. Affective Factors
a. Language attitudes
- it refers to the feelings of a person about their own language or the language
of others
- this behavior affects one’s attitude towards learning the L2
b. Motivation
- it pertains to the desire to achieve a goal, the effort extended to achieve this
goal and the satisfaction of the accomplishment of this goal
c. Language anxiety
- it refers to the emotional state that affects the learner’s ability to learn the
second language

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B. HISTORY OF SLA AND SLL RESEARCH AND APPROACHES
6. The 1950s and 1960s
• As far as its linguistic content was concerned, the 1950s language pedagogy drew
on a version of structuralism developed by British linguist Palmer in the 1920s
and subsequently by Fries in the 1940s.
• It has been said that the learning theory to which language teaching experts and
reformers were appealing at this time was the general learning theory then
dominant in mainstream psychology, behaviorism.
• As mentioned earlier, language learning is seen like any other kind of learning, as
the formation of habits. It stems from work in psychology which saw the learning
of any kind of behavior as being based on the notions of stimulus and response.
And through repeated reinforcement, a certain stimulus will elicit the same
response time and again, which will then become a habit.
• Applied to language learning, the process is simple: the learners have to learn a
set of new habits as they learn to respond to stimuli in their environment.
• In learning the second language however, the learner will have to replace those
‘L1 habits’ with a set of new ones. The complication is that the old L1 habits
interfere with this process, either helping or inhibiting it.
• From a teaching point of view, the implications of this approach were twofold:
a. It strongly believed that practice makes perfect; in other words,

learning would take place by imitating and repeating the same
structures time to time.
b. Teachers need to focus their teaching on structures which were

believed to be difficult and aid the learners in the difficulties they
encounter in second language learning.
• The 1960’s saw a shift from structural linguistics, which was based on the
description of the surface structure of a large corpus of language, to generative
linguistics which emphasized rule-governed and creative nature of human
language. This shift has given birth to the nativist or the innatist theory of
Chomsky (1959).
• Chomsky (1959) claimed that children have an innate faculty which guides them
in their learning of their language. Given a body of speech, children are
programmed to discover its rules, and are guided in doing that by an innate
knowledge of what the rules should look like.
7. The 1970s
• As far as first language acquisition studies are concerned, researchers such as
Slobin (1970), Brown (1973), and Klima and Bellugi (1966), found striking
similarities in the language learning behavior of young children whatever the
language they are learning.
• It seems that children all over the world go through similar stages, use similar
constructions in order to express similar meanings, and make the same kinds
of errors.
• Brown’s (1973) morpheme study was the best known L1 study of that time, and
was very influential for second language acquisition research. He found that
although the rate at which children learnt these morphemes varied, the order in
which they acquired them remained the same for all children.

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• Another important characteristic of child language which started to receive
attention is that it is rule-governed, even if initially the rules children do not
correspond to adult ones. Also, it has been demonstrated that when children
produce adult-like form which is the result of the application of the rule, they
are not merely imitating and repeating parrot-fashion the adult language
around them. This finding seemed to support Chomsky’s claims that children
followed some kind of pre-programmed, internal route in acquiring language.
• The study of second language acquisition saw the birth of Error Analysis. Error
Analysis is the systematic investigation of second language learners’ errors.
Corder (1967) was the first to investigate the importance of studying learners’
errors, as it became evident that they did not all originate from the first
language.
• Several studies conducted on Error analysis (Hernandez-Chavez, 1972; Dulay &

Burt, 1973; Tran-Chi-Chau, 1975) have found that errors must be learner-
internal in origin not from the L1 and the target languages.
• The 1970s also introduce us to interlanguage coined by Selinker (1972). It

refers to the language produced by the learners, both as a system which can
be described at any one point in time as resulting from systematic rules, and
as the series of interlocking systems that characterize learner progression.
• In other word, interlanguage puts emphasis on two important notions: (1) the
language produced by the learner is a system in its own right, obeying its own
rules; (2) it is a dynamic system, evolving over time.
• The 1970s also showed us the development of Krashen’s (1977a; 1977b; 1978)
Monitor Model which became a very important model in language teaching
(full details will be discussed in the next section).
8. The 1980s and the Contemporary Times

• In the 1980s, the field of second language acquisition and learning research was
no longer subordinate to the immediate practical requirements of curriculum
planning and language pedagogy.
• Instead, it had matured into a much more autonomous field of enquiry,

encompassing a number of substantial programs of research, with their
distinctive theoretical orientations and methodologies. Research into the
structure of language(s) and its use continues to be extensively drawn upon, and
so is research into language variation and change.
• New links have emerged with cognitive science, with neuropsychology and with
sociocultural frameworks which have greatly enriched our perceptions of the
many facets of second language acquisition and learning.
• But SLA/SLL continues to focus on a number of fundamental issues carried forward

from the 1970s, such as:
a. The role of internal mechanisms (language specific and cognitive)
b. The role of first language
c. The role of psychological variables
d. The role of social and environmental factors
C. Second Language Theories

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1. MONITOR MODEL
• Krashen developed this theory in the late 1970’s which is considered the most influential
and well-known theories of second language acquisition.
• The Monitor Model is an overall theory that had important implications for language
teaching.
• The Monitor Theory attempts to cover most of the factors involved in L2 acquisition: age,
personality traits, classroom instruction, innate mechanisms of language acquisition,
input and environmental influences.
Five Central Hypotheses Underlying the Monitor Model
a. The Acquisition versus Language Hypothesis

• The basic premise is that language acquisition, on the one hand, and learning on
the other, are separate processes.
• Acquisition refers to the ‘subconscious process identical in all important ways to the
process children utilize in acquiring their first language’ (Krashen, 1985), and
learning refers to the ‘conscious process that results in “knowing about”
language’ (1985).
• In other words, acquisition is the result of natural interaction with the language via
meaningful communication, which sets in motion developmental processes
similar to those outlined in first language acquisition.
• Learning however, is the result of classroom experiences, in which the learner is

made to focus on form and to learn about the linguistic rules of the target
language.
• Learning does not turn into acquisition and it usually takes place in formal
environments, while acquisition can take place without learning in informal
environments.
b. The Monitor Hypothesis

• Learning has the function of monitoring and editing the utterances produced
through the acquisition process.
• The use of the Monitor is affected by the amount of time that the second language
learner has at his/her disposal to think about the utterance he/she is about to
produce, the focus on form, and his/her knowledge of second language rules.
• According to Krashen (1982), learning has only one function, and that is as a
Monitor or editor and that learning comes into play only to make changes in the
form of our utterance, after it has been ‘produced’ by the acquired system.
• Given enough time, when focus on form is important for the learner, they might
make use of the Monitor in order to consciously modify the output produced by
the acquired system.
c. The Natural Order Hypothesis

• The Natural Order Hypothesis posits that the acquisition of the rules of language is
in a predictable order. The order does not appear to be determined solely by
formal simplicity and there is evidence that it is independent of the order in which
rules are taught in language classes.

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• The natural order of second language simply states that some language rules are
early-acquired and some are late-acquired. This order does not necessarily
depend on simplicity of form while it could be influenced by classroom instruction.
d. The Input Hypothesis

• The Input Hypothesis is linked with the Natural Order Hypothesis in that it claims
that we move along the developmental continuum by receiving comprehensible
input.
• Comprehensible input is defined as L2 input just beyond the learner’s current L2

competence, in terms of its syntactic complexity.
• If a learner’s current competence is i, then the comprehensible input is i + 1, the

next step in the developmental sequence.
• Krashen views the Input hypothesis as central to his model of second language
acquisition:
1. Speaking is a result of acquisition and not its cause. Speech cannot be taught
directly but ‘emerges’ on its own result of building competence via
comprehensible input.
2. If input is understood, and there is enough, the necessary grammar is

automatically provided.
• This hypothesis suggests that receiving comprehensible input is the only way that
can lead to the acquisition of a second language.
e. The Affective Filter Hypothesis

• Comprehendible input will not be fully utilized by the learners if there is an affective
filter that acts as a barrier to the acquisition process (Krashen, 1982).
• The Affective Filter Hypothesis captures the relationship between affective

variables and the process of second language acquisition by posing that
acquirers vary with respect to the strength or level of affective filters.
• Those whose attitudes are not optimal for second language acquisition will not only
tend to seek less input, but they will also have a high or strong affective filter.
Those with attitudes more conducive to second language acquisition will not only
seek and obtain more input, they will also have a lower or weaker filter.
2. INTERLANGUAGE THEORIES
• This term interlanguage was first coined by Selinker (1969) to describe the linguistic
stage L2 learners go through during the process of mastering the target language.
• Interlanguage has become a major strand of L2 acquisition research and theory.
• Selinker’s description of the interlanguage system has a cognitive emphasis and focus
on the strategies that learners employ when learning L2.
• Selinker posits that interlanguage is temporary grammar which is systematic and

composed of rules. These rules are the product of five main cognitive processes:
9. Overgeneralization
• Some rules of the interlanguage system may be the result of the overgeneralization
of specific rules and features of the target language.

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a. Transfer of Training
• Some of the components of the interlanguage system may result from transfer of
specific elements via which the learner is taught the L2.
b. Strategies of Second Language Learning

• Some of the rules in the learner’s interlanguage may result from the application of
language learning strategies as a tendency on the part of the learners to reduce
the target language to a simpler system.
c. Strategies of Second Language Communication

• Interlanguage system rules may also be a result of strategies employed by the
learners in their attempt to communicate with native speakers of the target
language.
d. Language Transfer
• Some of the rules in the interlanguage system may be the result of transfer from
the learner’s first language.
3. UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR THEORIES

• These theories are based on Chomsky’s claim that there are certain principles that form
the basis on which knowledge of language develops.
• These principles are biologically determined and specialized for language learning.
• Originally, UG theory did not concern itself with L2 learning, it referred to the first
language learner.
• UG theories of L2 acquisition were generated in order to provide explanations for

empirical evidence and they were primarily concerned with the internal mechanisms
that lead to the acquisition of the formal aspects of the target language and the
similarities and the differences between acquiring a particular language as L1 and L2.
4. COGNITIVE THEORIES
• Psychologists and psycholinguists viewed second language learning as the acquisition of
a complex cognitive skill.
• Some of the sub-skills involved in the language learning process are:
1. Applying grammatical rules
2. Choosing the appropriate vocabulary
3. Following the pragmatic conventions governing the use of a specific language
• From the cognitivist’s point of view, language acquisition is dependent in both the content
and developmental sequencing on prior cognitive abilities and language is viewed as a
function of more general nonlinguistic abilities.
• The language acquisition theories based on a cognitive view of language development

regard language acquisition as the gradual automatization of skills through stages of
restructuring and linking new information to old knowledge.
5. MULTI-DIMENSIONAL MODEL
• The learner’s stage of acquisition of the target language is determined by two

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dimensions: the learner’s development stage and the learner’s social-psychological
orientation.
• This model has both explanatory and predictive power in that it not only identifies stages
of linguistic development but it also explains why learners go through these
developmental stages and it predicts when other grammatical structures will be
acquired.
6. ACCULTURATION/PIDGINIZATION MODELS
• These models were proposed by Schumann (1978a;1978b; 1978c).
• He observes that the closer the learners feel to the target speech community, the better
learners will ‘acculturate’, and the more successful their L2 learning will be. The more
alienated from the community they perceive themselves to be, the more pidgin-like
their L2 will remain.
• These theories are greatly affected by the degree of social and psychological distance
between the learner and the target-language culture.
• L2 acquisition is just one aspect of acculturation and the degree to which a learner
acculturates to the target-language group will control the degree to which he acquires
the L2.
• Pidginization is characterized by simplifications and reductions occurring in the learner’s

interlanguage which lead to fossilization when the learner’s interlanguage system does
not progress in the direction of the target language.
FOCUS QUESTIONS FOR PROCESSING

1. Discuss the importance of studying second language acquisition and learning.
2. What can be learned from the different periods in second language acquisition and
learning?
REFERENCES
Mitchell, R. & Myles, F. (1998). Second language learning theories. London: Arnold.
Gitsaki, C. (2000). Second language acquisition theories: Overview and evaluation. Available:
www.joho.nucba.ac.jp/JCLSarticles/gitsaki4298.pdf.

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Module 2
Internal Factors Affecting
TOPICS
A. Language Transfer
B. Motivations
C. Attitude and Aptitude in Second Language Acquisition and Learning
OBJECTIVES
At the end of the discussion, the students will be able to:
2. identify the different internal factors affecting second language acquisition and learning;
3. understand how these factors contribute to the success in learning the target language;
4. become aware that these factors are truly important in the learners’ processing of the
target language and its use.

• One meeting: 3 hours
MATERIALS/EQUIPMENT
• LCD
• Laptop
• Power point presentation of the discussion

• Language transfer

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• Motivations
• Language Attitude
• Language Aptitude
PROCEDURE
Brief review of previous lesson 20 minutes
Discussion on the following points:
Language Transfer 25 minutes
Motivations 40 minutes
Language Attitude and Aptitude 40 minutes
Presentation and discussion of journal article 40 minutes
Processing of discussion 25 minutes

A. LANGUAGE TRANSFER
GENERAL DISCUSSION
• Behaviorist views of language learning and teaching were predominant as espoused by

Skinner (1957). According to this theory, language learning is promoted when the
learner makes active and repeated responses to the stimuli. This position emphasizes
the importance of reinforcing the learners’ responses by rewarding target-like
responses and correcting non-target-like ones.
• According to behaviorist theorists, the main impediment to learning was the interference
from prior knowledge. Proactive inhibition occurred when old habits got in the way of
attempts to learn new ones. In such cases, old habits had to be ‘unlearnt’ so that they
could be replaced by new ones.
• In the case of L2 learning, the notion of ‘unlearning’ made little sense, as learners clearly
did not need to forget their L1 in order to acquire an L2, although in some cases, loss
of the native language might take place eventually. As such, the behaviorist theories of
L2 learning emphasized the idea of ‘difficulty’, defines as the amount of effort required
to learn an L2 pattern
• The degree of difficulty was believed to depend primarily in the extent to which the target

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language pattern was similar to or different from a native-like pattern. Where the two
were identical, learning could take place through positive transfer of the native-
language pattern, but where they were different, learning difficulty arose and errors
resulting from negative transfer were likely to occur.
• Such errors or ‘bad habits’ were considered damaging to successful language learning
because they prevented the formation of the correct target-language habits.
• The terms interference and transfer are closely associated with the behaviorist theories
of L2 learning. However, it is now widely accepted that the influence of the learner’s
native language cannot be adequately accounted in terms of habit formation. Nor is
transfer simply a matter of interference or of falling back on the native language, as
other previously acquired ‘second’ languages can also have an effect.
1. Definition of Transfer
• Odlin (1989) defines transfer as the influence resulting from the similarities and
differences between the target language and any other language that has been
previously (and perhaps imperfectly) acquired.
2. Manifestations of Transfer
• In traditional accounts of language transfer, several researches had focused on
errors that learners produced. These are: errors (negative transfer), facilitation
(positive transfer), avoidance (underproduction), and over-use.
a. Errors (negative transfer)
• can be defined as a deviation from the norms of the target language. Errors however,
are different from mistakes (Corder, 1967).
• Errors take place when the deviation arises as a result of lack of knowledge and
represents a lack of competence.
• Mistakes however, occur when learners fail to perform their competence. That is, it is
the result of processing problems that prevent learners from accessing their
knowledge of a target language rule and cause them to fall back on some
alternative, non-standard rule that they find easier to access.
• Mistakes then are performance phenomena and are, of course, regular features of
native-speaker speech, reflecting processing failures that arise as a result of
competing plans, memory limitations, and lack of automaticity.
b. Facilitation (positive transfer)
• The learner’s L1 can also facilitate L2 learning. Odlin (1989) points out that the
facilitative effects can only be observed when learners with different native
languages are studied and learner comparisons are carried out. Facilitation is
evident not so much in the total absence of certain errors-as would be expected on
the basis of behaviorist notions of positive transfer- but rather in reduced numbers
of errors and, also, in the rate of learning.
• The facilitative effect of the L1 can also be adduced by certain types of U-shaped
behaviors (Kellerman, 19851). Learners may sometimes pass target through an
early stage of development where they manifest correct use of a target language
feature if this corresponds to an L1 feature and then, subsequently, replace it with
a developmental L2 feature before finally returning to the correct target-language
feature.
• In such a case, the facilitative effect is evident in the early stages of acquisition,
before the learner is ‘ready’ to construct a developmental rule. The ‘re-learning’ of
current target-language rule occurs when learners abandon the developmental rule

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as they come to notice that it is incompatible with the input.
• The facilitative effect of the L1 is evident in other aspects of l2 acquisition. In many

cases, this is obvious, as when two languages share a large number of cognates
(e.g.Tagalog and Spanish), thus giving the learners a head start in vocabulary.
c. Avoidance (underproduction)
• Learners also avoid using linguistic structures which they find difficult because of the
differences between their native language and the target language. In such cases,
the effects of the L1 are evident not in what learners do (errors) but in what they do
not do (omissions).
• Avoidance is a complex phenomenon, Kellerman (1992) attempts to sort out the

complexity by distinguishing the 3 types:
(1) Avoidance occurs when learners know or anticipate that there is a problem and
have at least some sketchy idea of what the target form is like. (this is the
minimum condition for avoidance)
(2) It arises when learners know what the target is but find it too difficult to use in the
particular circumstances. (e.g., in the context of free-flowing conversation)
(3) Avoidance is evident when learners know what to say and how to say it but are
unwilling to actually say it because it will result in them flouting their own norms
of behavior.
d. Over-use
• The over-use or “over-indulgence’ (Levenston, 1971) of certain grammatical forms in

L2 acquisition can occur as a result of intralingual processes such as
overgeneralization.
• Over-use can also result from transfer-often as a consequence of the avoidance or

underproduction of some ‘difficult’ structure.
3. Constraints on Transfer
a. Language level
• Transfer is more pronounced at the level of the sound system than at the level of
syntax.
• The influence of L1 is felt more strongly in L2 pronunciation, lexis, and discourse than
syntax.
b. Sociolinguistic factors
• Sociolinguistics factors have also been shown to influence when and to what extent
transfer takes place.
(1) Social context
Odlin (1989; 1990) has suggested that negative transfer is likely in focused
contexts, where there is concern to maintain the ‘standardness’ of languages
than in unfocused contexts.
He also added that negative transfer is less common in classroom settings than
in natural settings because in the former, learners constitute a ‘focused’
community and as a consequence treat L1 forms as intrusive and even
stigmatized. In natural settings, learners may comprise either ‘focused’ or an
‘unfocused’ community where they are unfocused, language mixing will be
freely permitted, thus encouraging negative transfer to take place.

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(2) Relationship between the speaker and the addressee on transfer
Tarone (1982) has argued that L1 transfer is likely to be more evident in learner’s
careful style than in their vernacular style, on the grounds that when learners
are paying greater attention to how they speak, they are more likely to make
use of all their resources, including L1 knowledge.
c. Markedness
marked - limited use • It is a marked linguistic structure is one that can be used with fewer constraints than
unmarked - more use (less a related unmarked one.
constraints) • For example, the adjective old is considered less marked than young because it can
be used in both questions (e.g. How old are you?) and statements (e.g. He is very
old), whereas young cannot be similarly used in questions (e.g. How young are
you?).
• Learners seem more likely to transfer unmarked native language features than
marked ones, particularly if the corresponding feature in their target language is
marked.
d. Prototypicality
• Kellerman (1977; 1978; 1979; 1986; 1989) posits that learners have perceptions
of the structure of their own language; treating some structures as potentially
non-tranferable and others as potentially transferable, and that these perceptions
influence what they can really transfer.
e. Language distance and psychotypology
• Distance can be viewed as both a linguistic phenomenon (i.e. by establishing the

degree of actual linguistic difference between two languages) or a
psycholinguistic phenomenon (i.e. by determining what learners think is the
degree of difference between their native language and the target language).
• Kellerman (1977) use the term psychotypology to refer to learners’ perceptions

about language distance.
• The actual distance between the native and target languages acts as a constraint
on transfer.
• Language distance can affect L2 learning either through positive transfer or through
negative transfer.
f. Developmental factors
• Taylor (1975) have claimed that negative transfer is more evident in beginners,
and that learners may need to reach a certain stage of development before
transfer of L1 properties becomes possible. Transfer interacts with natural
principles of L2 acquisition, sometimes occurring early on and sometimes later.
B. MOTIVATIONS
• Motivation affects the extent to which individual learners persevere in learning the L2,
the kinds of learning behaviors they employ (e.g. their level of participation in the
classroom), and their actual achievement.
• The main body of work in SLA is that associated with Gardner, Lambert, and their
associates. This is based on the assumption that the main determinants of motivation
are the learner’s attitudes to the target language community and their need to learn the
L2.

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• Motivation can be causative (i.e. have an effect on learning) and it can be resultative (i.e.
influenced by learning).
• It can also be intrinsic (i.e. derive from the personal interests and inner needs of the
learner) and extrinsic (i.e. derive from external sources such as material rewards).
• Skehan (1989) puts forward 4 related hypotheses on motivation:
a. The Intrinsic Hypothesis
Motivation derives from an inherent interest in the learning tasks the learner is
asked to perform.
b. The Resultative Hypothesis
Learners who do well will persevere; those who do not do well will be discouraged and try
less hard.
c. The Internal Cause Hypothesis
The learner brings to the learning situation a certain quantity of motivation as a given.
d. The Carrot and Stick Hypothesis
External influences and incentives will affect the strength of the learner’s motivation.
1. Socio-cultural Model (Integrative and Instrumental Motivation)

• According to Gardner (1985) the social and cultural milieu in which the learners
grow up determines the attitudes and motivational orientation that learners hold
towards the target language, its speakers, and its culture- which in turn influence
the sorts of learning behaviors learners engage in, and thereby learning
outcomes.
a. Integrative Motivation
• Integrative Motivation involves an interest in learning an L2 because of a ‘a sincere

and personal interest in the people and culture represented by the other
language group’ (Lambert, 1974).
• Gardner and Lambert (1972) described this motivation as wanting to be esteemed

and identified in a foreign setting, to be like the foreign people, to understand the
culture and participate in it.
• It is basically a motivation to be a member of a target society in a foreign setting but

it also includes a motivation coming from just an interest or a favorable feeling to
a target culture or people.
• It has been shown to be strongly related to L2 achievement. It combines with

instrumental motivation to serve as a powerful predictor of success in formal
contexts.
• Learners with integrative motivation are more active in class and are less likely to
drop out.

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b. Instrumental Motivation
• Instrumental Motivation involves the ‘practical value and advantages of learning a

new language’ (Lambert, 1974).
• A learner with instrumental motivation regards language as an instrument to get a

reward.
• Though instrumental motivation also influences second language learning to the

extent that an instrumental motive is tied to a specific goal, its influence tends to
be maintained only until that goal is achieved. On the other hand, if the goal is
continuous, it seems possible that an instrumental motivation would also
continue to be effective.
2. Self- Determination Theory (Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation and

Amotivation)
• It is a general theory of human motivation and is concerned with the choices people
make with their own free will and full sense of choice, without any external
influence and interference.
• In simple terms, SDT focused on the degree to which an individual’s behavior is

self-endorsed and self-determined (Deci & Ryan, 2002).
• According to Deci and Ryan (1985), an individual’s reason for performing a given
activity can be understood in terms of degree to which it is perceived as freely
chosen and endorsed by the self.
a. Intrinsic Motivation
• Intrinsic Motivation is defined as the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfactions
rather than for some separable consequence.
• Intrinsic Motivation is the most self-determined form of motivation, refers to internal

factors such as enjoyment and satisfaction for oneself.
• Vallerand et al., (1997) have extended this dimension of self-determination theory

further by dividing IM into 3 subtypes, each increasingly more self-determined.
(1) IM-Knowledge
• It is the motivation to perform an activity for the feelings associated with

exploring new ideas and developing knowledge (e.g. enjoying the
feeling of learning about French-speaking people and their way of
life).
(2) IM-Accomplishment
• It refers to the sensations related to attempting to master a task or

achieve a goal (e.g. the feelings experienced when one understands a
difficult idea in French).
(3) IM-Stimulation
• This is the most self-determined of all IM, refers to motivation based

simply on the sensations stimulated by performing the task, such as
aesthetic appreciation, fun and excitement (e,g, the pleasure of
hearing French spoken by French speakers).
b. Extrinsic Motivation

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• Extrinsic Motivation is a construct that pertains whenever an activity is
done in order to attain some separable outcome.
• It is manifested through a focus on achieving some kind of instrumental

end.
• It can be divided into 3 subtypes, each one increasingly self-determined:
(1) External Regulation
• It refers to the pressure or reward from the social

environment to learn a language (e.g. getting a good job).
(2) Introjected Regulation
• It refers to more internalized reasons for learning an L2 (e.g.

to prove that one is a good citizen).
(3) Identified Regulation
• This is the most self-determined form of EM, refers to a

personal choice, priority, or value placed on the outcome of
language learning (e.g. choosing to be the kind of person
who can speak more than one language).

* A characteristic of the sub-types of EM is that they all imply some kind of external
coercion, which once removed, may result in the language learner abandon L2
learning (Noels, Clement & Pelletier, 2001).
c. Amotivation
• Amotivation can be defined as a state in which individuals cannot perceive a

relationship between their behavior and that behavior’s subsequent outcome
(Deci & Ryan, 1985; 2002).
• Amotivated individuals cannot predict the consequences of their behavior, nor

they can see the motive behind it. They may feel disintegrated or detached
from their action and will thus invest little effort or energy in its effectuation.
Such individuals will perceive their behavior as outside their control. The state
of amotivation has been linked to that of learned helplessness (Abramsom,
Seligman & Teasdale, 1978).
Taxonomy of Academic Amotivation
• Amotivation due to ability beliefs, effort beliefs, characteristics of the task, and value
placed on the task are conceptualized here as complementary aspects of
amotivation.
• Amotivation subtypes are further theorized to constitute subcomponents of a higher

order concept representing general amotivation, an overall feeling of alienation and
helplessness, as described by SDT (Deci & Ryan, 1985; 2002).
(1) Ability Beliefs
• This concept borrows from Bandura (1977; 1982) notion of self-

efficacy expectancy and Skinner, Wellborn, and Connell’s (1990)
theory that people hold expectations about their ability to apply

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appropriate strategies in order to execute a task.
• When perceived self-efficacy is high, more ambitious challenges are

pursued, and a greater goal commitment is applied. When self-
efficacy is dubious, failure is perceived as a likely outcome.
• Indeed, it has been suggested that students who are most detached
from school have little belief in their academic ability (Patrick,
Skinner & Connell, 1993) and that students attribute their
academic difficulties in their low perceived competence (Wigfield,
1988).
(2) Effort Beliefs
• Effort beliefs depict the student’s desire and capacity to invest the
energy or effort demanded by a given behavior (Pelletier et al.,
1999).
• Students may be aware of what is required to fulfill academic

requirements. They may also positively appraise their ability to do
so. However, they may still be academically unmotivated. This may
be due to the fact that they do not believe they can initiate or
maintain the effort that is required by the academic tasks.
(3) Value Placed on the Task
• Amotivation can be described in terms of the individual’s values in

relation to the task at hand.
• It has been noted that the consideration of values permits the

prediction of behavior (Landy & Becker, 1987). It was also noted
that amotivation stems from not valuing an activity (Ryan, 1995).
• When the task is not an integral component of a student’s lige, or if, in

effect, it is not important to the student, amotivation may result.
(4) Characteristics of the Task
• When a task is void of interesting or stimulating qualities and when it

is boring, routine, tedious, arduous, or irrelevant, amotivation may
ensue.
• Such an activity is likely to be abandoned or neglected. Thus, the

unappealing characteristics of the academic task may indeed lead
to academic disengagement.
C. ATTITUDE AND APTITUDE IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND

LEARNING
• Aptitude is directly related to conscious learning, while attitudinal factors may be more
closely linked to acquisition.
• Second language attitude refers to acquirer’s orientations toward speakers of target

language, as well as personality factors. Such factors relate directly to acquisition and
only indirectly to conscious learning.
• The ‘right’ attitudinal factors produce two effects: (a) they encourage useful input for
language acquisition and (b) they allow the acquirer to be ‘open’ to this input so it can
be utilized for acquisition.

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1. Attitude
• The roles of attitude has been extensively researched by Lambert and Gardner (1972;
1985).
• Language attitudes are the feelings people have about their own language variety or the
languages or the language varieties of others.
• Learner attitudes have an impact on the level of L2 proficiency achieved by individual

learners and are themselves influenced by this success.
• Thus, learners with positive attitudes, who experience success, will have these attitudes
reinforced. Similarly, learners’ negative attitudes may be strengthened by lack of
success.
Implications of Language Attitudes
(a) Language attitudes usually entail attitudes to the speakers of the particular language or
dialect.
(b) There is evidence that language attitudes influence sound change.
(c) Language attitudes may influence how teachers deal with students.
(d) Attitudes about language may affect second language learning.
(e) Language attitudes may affect whether or not varieties are mutually intelligible.
• Baker (1988) discusses the main characteristics of attitude:
(a) Attitudes are cognitive (i.e. are capable of being thought about) and affective (i.e.
have feelings and emotions attached to them).
(b) Attitudes are dimensional rather than bipolar- they vary in degree of
favorability/unfavorability.
(c) Attitudes predispose a person to act in a certain way, but the relationship between
attitudes and actions us not a strong one.
(d) Attitudes are learnt, not inherited or genetically endowed.
(e) Attitudes tend to persist but they be modified by experience.
• Bourdieu (1979) argued that linguistic exchanges invoke a complex network of power
relations in which the producer, by producing an utterance, or text, makes a bid for social
authority, and the recipient or audience decides to what degree to recognize that claim to
authority.
• He introduced the concept of linguistic capital to describe the respect or authority

enjoyed by a speaker. Those with high capital speak with a command i.e. the power to
influence a listener toward the desired interpretation.
• Utterances are always ventured in a particular field or market, in which certain social
expectations for speech and interaction are obtained.
• In a linguistic market, people undertake speech production with a certain anticipation of

profit, or anticipation of the expected reception of their words.
• Thus, according to Bourdieu, linguistic capital is created, adapted, asserted, and re-
evaluated through linguistic encounters.
• Linguistic production is governed by linguistic habitus, or a historically and socially

constituted sedimentation of experiences in linguistic markets.

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• Linguistic habitus signifies the internalized inclination toward certain types of styles of
linguistic production, which is considerably shaped by one’s personal history of social
interaction and one’s sense of the value of one’s language.
2. Aptitude
• Carroll (1973; 1981) defines aptitude as a capability of learning a task which depends on
some combination of more or less enduring characteristics of the learner.
• In case of language learning aptitude the capability involves a special propensity for
learning an L2.
• Carroll (1965) identified 4 factors in language aptitude:
a. Phonemic coding ability
• It is the ability to code foreign sounds in a way that they can be remembered later.
• This ability is seen as related to the ability to spell and handle sound-symbol
relationships.
b. Grammatical sensitivity
• It is the ability to recognize the grammatical functions of words in sentences.
c. Inductive language learning ability
• It is the ability to identify patterns of correspondence and relationships involving

form and meaning.
d. Rote learning ability
• It is the ability to form and remember associations between stimuli.
• This ability is hypothesized to be involved in vocabulary learning.

1. Discuss how the following internal factors influence successful second language
learning:
a. Language Transfer

b. Motivation
c. Language Attitude and Aptitude
2. Explain why teachers teaching a second language need to understand the internal
factors affecting L2 learning in their conceptualization and design of their
curriculum and learning materials.

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REFERENCES
Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Krashen, S. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning.

Oxford: Pergamon Institute of English.
Legault, L., Pelletier, L., & Green-Demers, I. (2006). Why do high school students
lack motivation in the classroom? Toward an understanding of academic
amotivation and the role of social support. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 98, pp. 567-582.
Ryan, M.& Deci, E. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions
and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, pp. 54-67.
Vandergrift, L. (2005). Relationships among motivation orientations, metacognitive

awareness and proficiency in L2 listening. Applied Linguistics, 26, pp. 70-89.
Module 3
External Factors Affecting

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TOPICS
A. Social Factors and Second Language Acquisition
B. Input, Interaction and Second Language Acquisition
OBJECTIVES
1. identify the different social factors influencing second language acquisition and learning;
2. understand how input and interaction affect a learner’s success in the learning and
acquisition of the second language.

• One meeting: (3 hours)
MATERIALS/EQUIPMENT
• Laptop
• Projector
• Power point presentation on the topic

• Age
• Gender
• Social class
• Ethnic identity
• Input
• Interaction

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PROCEDURE
40 minutes Discussion on social factors affecting SLA
40 minutes Discussion on Input
40 minutes Discussion on Interaction
40 minutes Processing of the discussion

A. SOCIAL FACTORS AND SLA
• Social factors have a major impact on L2 proficiency but probably do not influence it
directly. Rather, their effect is mediated by a number of variables.
• These factors are restricted to the 4 variables which have received the most attention in
SLA research. These are: age, gander, social class and ethnic identity.
1. Four Social Factors

A. Age
• It has been found that younger learners are generally more successful than older
learners, possibly because their identity is less threatened by target-language
norms.
B. Gender
• Female learners generally outperform male learners in language classroom settings

and also display more positive attitudes. However, males do better in vocabulary.
• It is also said that women are more sensitive to new forms and more likely to
incorporate them into their speech. Men on the other hand, may be less sensitive
to new forms but once they have started to use them, are less likely to reject them.
• Both principles suggest that women might be better at L2 learning than men; they are
likely to be more open to new linguistic forms in the L2 input and they will be more
likely to rid themselves of interlanguage forms that deviate form target-language
norms.
C. Social class
• An individual’s social class is typically determined by means of a composite measure

that takes account of income, level of education and occupation. It is customary to
distinguish four groups: lower class, working class, lower middle class, and upper
middle class.
• The effects of social class may depend crucially on the setting; in language
classrooms that emphasize formal language learning, working-class children are
often less successful than middle-class children, whereas there is some evidence
that in immersion settings they do just well.

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• Preston (1989) points out that there is a clear parallel between socio-linguistic
phenomena associated with social class and language change and interlanguage
development.
D. Ethnic identity
• There is a general consensus that ethnic identity can exert a profound influence on
L2 learning. This influence can take 3 possible forms: normative, socio-
psychological and socio-structural views.
3 views on Ethnic identity
(a) Normative view
• Research based on a normative view of the relationships between ethnic identity and
L2 learning seeks to establish to what extent membership of a particular ethnic
group affects L2 achievement.
• A key concept here is that of the ‘distance’ between the cultures of the native and
target languages, the idea being that more distant the two cultures are, the more
difficult L2 learning is and, therefore, the lower the achievement levels.
(b) Socio-psychological view
• A socio-psychological view of the relationship between ethnic identity and L2

proficiency emphasizes the role of attitudes.
• The attitudes that learners hold towards the learning of a particular L2 reflect the
intersection of their views about their own ethnic identity and those about the
target-language culture. These views will influence both L2 and L1 learning, as
shown in the table below
Attitudes towards
Native culture Target culture
Additive bilingualism + +
Subtractive bilingualism - +
Semilingualism - -
Monolingualism + -
• In additive bilingualism, learners maintain their L1, by adding the L2 to their

linguistic repertoire. In such cases, learners may become balanced bilinguals.
• In the case of subtractive bilingualism learners replace their L1 with their L2, failing
to develop full competence in their mother tongue, or in some cases, actually
losing competence that has been acquired.
• When learners have negative attitudes towards both their own culture and that of
the target language, semilingualism may result. That is, the learners may fail to
develop full proficiency in their language.
• Monolingualism (i.e. failure to acquire the L2) is strongly associated with a strong
ethnic identity and negative attitudes towards the target-language culture.
(c) Socio-structural view

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• According to the ethnolinguistic identity theory (Giles and Johnson, 1981),
members of an in-group may or may not adopt positive linguistic
distinctiveness strategies when communicating with members of an out-
group.
• Giles and Ryan (1982) suggest that speakers evaluate a situation and then
decide whether to adopt status or solidarity, and person-centered or group-
centered strategies.
• In situations where people emphasize solidarity with their own in-group,

linguistic divergence from the out-group is likely, whereas in situations where
they are more concerned with status and are person-centered, convergence
is likely.
2. The Social Context of L2 Learning

• Discussions on the learner’s reference group has inevitably involved a consideration
of the type of context or setting in which learning takes place. It was found that
learners’ choices are constrained by the contexts they find themselves in.
• This discussion have adopted a macro-social approach by identifying a number of

general contexts of learning that have been shaped by social, economic, and
political forces of various kinds.
(a) Natural versus educational settings
• A general distinction can be made between ‘natural’ and ‘educational’

settings. The former arise in the course of the learners’ contact with
other speakers of the L2 in a variety of situations- in the workplace, at
home, through the media, at international conferences, etc.
• There will be some learners who experience the L2 entirely in natural

settings and others whose only contact with it is in the educational
settings. However, many learners will be exposed to the L2 in both
natural and educational settings.
• A general assumption is that the learning that takes place in natural and
educational settings is very different in nature. In natural settings,
informal learning occurs. That is, learning is considered to result from
direct participation and observation without any articulation of the
underlying principles or rules. Also there is a social significance of what
is being learnt rather than on the mastery of the subject matter.
• Learners in natural settings often resort to conscious learning and may

deliberately seek out opportunities to practice specific linguistic items
they have studied.
• In contrast, formal learning is held to take place through conscious

attention to rules and principles and greater emphasis is placed on
mastery of ‘subject matter’ treated as a decontextualized body of
knowledge.
• Learners in classrooms may not be required to treat the language as

‘subject matter’, but instead be given opportunities for acquisition.
• Krashen (1976) distinguishes two ways in which knowledge of an L2 can

be developed, through acquisition and learning.
• By and large, it has been found that learning in natural settings results in
higher levels of grammatical competence than learning in educational
settings though several studies also have indicated that learners who
receive formal instruction become more grammatically accurate than

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those who do not.
(b) Natural contexts
• Rapid learning of L2 takes place as individuals identify with the majority

group and seek to improve their social status.
• Judd (1978) has proposed 3 broad types of context in natural L2 learning

settings:
(1) Second language learning in majority language contexts
• L2 learners in majority language contexts are typically members of ethnic

minorities: immigrants, migrant workers, or the children of such groups.
(2) L2 learning in official language contexts
• In official language settings, there is often less individual resistance to the

acquisition of the ‘foreign’ official language.
• Less resistance occurs when the L2 is perceived as an additional

language (Fishman, Cooper, & Conrad, 1977) rather than a
replacement language.
• Official language contexts can also give rise to new local standard
varieties, for example, New Englishes (Kachru, 1989).
(3) Second language learning in international contexts
• A number of languages-in particular English- are now widely

used as international languages. They serve as a means of
communication between speakers of different languages in
wide range of contexts: business and trade, academic and
scientific, media and the arts, travel and tourism and
literature.
• The speakers may or may not be native speakers of the

language and the speech events may or may not take place
inside a country where the language is spoken as a mother
tongue.
• The use of an L2 in an international setting is characterized by

both non-native speaker-non-native speaker interaction and
non-native speaker-native interaction.
• In such situations then, the learners’ reference group is not

speakers of standard British or American English but
instead, a prestige local group. Also in these situations, we
can expect to see creative use of interlanguage resources
for impression management.
(c) Educational contexts
• Skutnab-Kangas (1986; 1988) identifies 4 broad types of educational

contexts:
(1) Segregation

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• Segregation occurs where the L2 learner is educated separately from the
majority or a politically powerful minority, who speak the target language
as their mother tongue.
• Immigrants or migrant workers who are educated in special schools,

centers and units designed to cater for their language needs constitute
an example of segregation in a majority setting.
• Skutnab-Kangas (1988) claims that segregation settings produce poor

results. She argues that the overall aim of education in these settings is
the development of limited L2 proficiency-sufficient to meet the needs of
majority or powerful minority and to ensure their continued political and
economic control.
• She sees segregation education as characterized by inadequate

organization (e.g. no attempt is made to provide alternative
programmes, and the cultural content of the teaching materials may be
inappropriate for the students) and negative learner-affective factors
(e.g. high level of anxiety and low self-confidence).
• Segregation also has some advantages where L2 learning is concerned.

In particular, it is possible to tailor input to their level. Where the learners
have different L1s, the l2 is likely to serve as a language of classroom
communication and not just a learning target. For these reasons,
segregation may facilitate the development of ‘survival skills’ in the L2.
(2) Mother tongue maintenance
• Skutnab-Kangas (1988) points out that mother tongue maintenance can

take 2 forms. In the weaker form, students are given classes in their
mother tongue, directed at developing formal language skills, including
full literacy. In the stronger form, learners are educated through the
medium of their mother tongue.
• Mother tongue maintenance programs are based on enrichment theory,

according to which high levels of bilingualism are seen as a cognitive
and social advantage. This contrasts with deficit theory, which views
bilingualism as a burden and as likely to result in cognitive
disadvantage.
• Mother tongue maintenance provides support for L2 learning in 2 main

ways. First, ensuring that the L2 is an additional rather than a
replacement language results in learners developing a positive self-
identity. It is more likely to result in the positive attitudes needed for
successful L2 development.
• The second way involves a consideration of Cummins’ interdependency

principle (1981). The notion of interdependency is important because it
suggests that the development of full L1 proficiency confers not only
cognitive and social advantages attendant on mother tongue use but
also benefits the acquisition of L2 proficiency.
(3) Submersion
• Skutnab-Kangas (1988) describes this as a program where linguistic

minority children with low-status mother tongues are forced to accept
instruction through the medium of a foreign majority language with high
status, in classes where some children are native speakers of the
language of instruction, where the teacher does not understand the
mother tongue of the minority children, and where the majority language
constitutes a threat to their mother tongue—a subtractive language
learning situation is created.

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• Right from the beginning, L2 learners are taught with native speakers.
This can create communication problems and insecurity in the learners
as it deprives learners of the opportunity to progress in content subjects.
• It has been found that L2 submission programs for minority students

involve virtually no concessions to the child’s language or culture and
have well-documented negative effects for many children.
(4) Immersion
• Cummins (1988) distinguishes ‘L2 monolingual immersion programs for

minority students’ which provide English- only (or target language- only)
instruction directed at classes consisting entirely of L2 learners and ‘L1
bilingual immersion programs for minority students’, which begin with
L1-medium instruction , introducing L2 medium-instruction some time
later; L2 bilingual immersion programs for minority students’, which
emphasize instruction in and on the L2 but which also promote L1 skills.
(5) Language classroom
• The setting where the target language is taught as a subject only and is
not commonly used a medium of communication outside the classroom.
• In this sense, it includes both ‘foreign’ language and ‘second’ language

classrooms where the learners have no contact with the target language
outside the language classroom.
• Two contextual aspects are of potential importance in language classroom

settings according to Gardner and Clement (1990).
(a) Learning situation in the classroom
• Pertains to the role relationship between the teacher and the

student in the learning environment.
• In the case of traditional approaches to language teaching,

where the target language is perceived primarily as an
‘object’ to be mastered by learning about its formal
properties, the teacher typically acts as a ‘knower/informer’
and the learner as an ‘information seeker.”
• The nature of these classroom roles is likely to influence the

level and type of proficiency that develops.
(b) Support from parents
• Parents may play an active role by monitoring their children’s

curricular activities.
• They may also play a more indirect role by modeling attitudes

conducive to successful language learning.
• Several studies have proved that parental encouragement

influence the proficiency of students in learning the target
language.
5. Social Models of L2 Acquisition
• Social factors have a general impact on the kind of learning that takes place,
whether informal or formal. Both types can occur in natural and educational
settings but there is a tendency for informal learning to occur in natural settings
and formal in educational settings (particularly in foreign language classrooms).

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• The relationship between social factors and L2 achievement is an indirect rather
than a direct one. That is, their effect is mediated by variables of a psychological
nature (in particular attitudes towards to the target language, its culture and its
speakers) that determine the amount of contact with L2, the nature of the
interpersonal interactions learners engage in and their motivation.
A. Acculturation Model
• Schumann’s Acculturation Model was established to account for the acquisition of an
L2 by immigrants in majority language setting.
• Acculturation which can be defined generally as ‘the process of becoming adapted to

a new culture‘(Brown, 1980), is seen by Schumann as governing the extent to
which learners achieve target-language norms.
• Schumann (1978) asserts that second language is just one aspect of acculturation
and the degree to which a learner acculturates to the target-language group will
control the degree to which he acquires the second language.
• The extent to which learners acculturate depends on two sets of factors which
determine their levels of social distance and psychological distance.
• Social distance concerns the extent to which individual learners are comfortable with
the learning task and constitutes, therefore, a personal rather than a group
dimension.
Factor Description
Social dominance The L2 group can be politically, culturally, technically,

or economically superior, inferior of equal.
Integration pattern The L2 group may assimilate and seek to preserve its
lifestyle and values of TL group while maintain its own
intra-group use.
Enclosure The L2 group may share the same social facilities or

may have different social facilities.
Cohesiveness The L2 group is characterized by intra-group contacts

(cohesive) or intergroup contacts (noncohesive).
Size The L2 group may constitute a numerically large or

small group.
Cultural congruence The culture of the L2 group may be similar or different

to that of the TL group.
Attitude The L2 group and TL group may hold positive or

negative attitudes towards each other.
Intended length of The L2 group may intend to stay for a long time or a
residence short time.
• Psychological distance comes into play where social factors constitute neither a
clearly positive nor a negative influence on acculturation.
Factor Description
Language shock The extent to which L2 learners fear in speaking the

target language.

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Culture shock The extent to which L2 learners feel anxious and
disoriented upon entering a new culture.
Motivation The extent to which L2 learners are integratively or

instrumentally motivated to learn the L2.
Ego permeability The extent to which the L2 learners perceive their L2

to have fixed and rigid permeable and flexible
boundaries and therefore the extent to which they are
inhibited.
• In his early writings, Schumann suggested that acculturation affects L2 acquisition

by its effect on the amount of contact learners have with TL speakers. The greater
the contact, the more acquisition takes place.
B. Inter-group Model
• The inter-group model primarily concerns itself with the conditions under which the
subordinate group members (e.g. immigrants or members of an ethnic community)
are most likely to acquire native-like proficiency in the dominant group’s language.
• This model also asserts that learners from minority group will be unlikely to achieve
native-speaker proficiency when their ethno-linguistic vitality is high. (Kindly refer to
table)
Variable Description
Identification with one The extent to which L2 learners see themselves as

ethnic group members of a specific group that separate from the
out-group, and also consider their L1 an important
dimension of their identity.
Inter-ethnic comparison The extent to which L2 learners make favorable or

unfavorable comparisons with the out-group.
Perception of ethno- The extent to which L2 learners see their in-group as

linguistic vitality having low or high status and as sharing or being
excluded from institutional power.
Perception of in-group The extent to which L2 learners see their group as

boundaries culturally and linguistically separate from the out group
or as culturally and linguistically related.
Identification with other The extent to which learners identify with other social
social groups groups (occupational, religious, gender) and as a
consequence, whether they hold an adequate or
inadequate status within their in-group.
• This occurs if : (1) they identify strongly with their own in-group ; (2) they see their in-
group as inferior to the dominant out-group; (3) their perception of their ethno-
linguistic vitality is high; (4) they perceive in-group boundaries as hard and closed;
(5) they do not identify with other social groups and so have an inadequate group
status.
• The inter-group model is very similar to the acculturation model as both were
designed to account for L2 acquisition in majority language settings, both attempt
to specify a set of socio-psychological factors that govern how successful individual
learners will be, and both use these to describe ‘good’ and ‘bad’ learning situations.
C. Socio-educational Model

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• This model seeks to interrelate four aspects of L2 learning: (1) social and cultural
milieu; (2) individual learner differences; (3) the setting; (4) learning outcomes.
• Gardner (1979) believes that the basis of the model is that L2 learning-even in
classroom setting- is not just a matter of learning new information but of ‘acquiring
symbolic elements of a different ethnolinguistic community.’
• One of the predictions of the socio-educational model is that the relationship between
the social/cultural milieu and L2 proficiency and also between the learners’
attitudes and their proficiency is an indirect one, whereas that between integrative
motivation and their proficiency is more direct and, therefore, more stronger.
A. INPUT, INTERACTION AND SLA

• Several language theories are studied in view of the role of input in L2 acquisition and
learning:
(1) Behaviorist theory
• Behaviorist accounts of L2 acquisition propose a direct relationship between input and

output.
• Because they reject the idea of ‘mind’ as an object for inquiry, they ignore the internal
processing that takes place inside the learner.
• Input, as the Behaviorists view it is comprised of stimuli and feedback.
• With stimuli, the person speaking to the learner models specific linguistic forms and
patterns which the learner internalizes by imitating them.
• Feedback takes the form of positive reinforcement or correction, depending on whether the
learner’s output is perceived to be target-like.
• Behaviorist models of learning emphasize the possibility of shaping L2 acquisition by

manipulating the input to provide appropriate stimuli and by ensuring that adequate
feedback is always available.
• Acquisition is thus controlled by external factors, and the learner is viewed as a passive
medium.
(2) Mentalist
• The mentalist theories emphasize the importance of the learner’s ‘black box.’
• Although input is still seen as essential for L2 acquisition, it is seen as only a ‘trigger’ that
sets off internal language processing.
• Learners are equipped with innate knowledge of the possible forms that any single
language can take, and use the information supplied by input to arrive at the forms that
apply in the case of the L2 they are trying to learn.
(3) Interactionist
• This model is further subdivided into two:
(a) Cognitive interactionist model sees acquisition as a product of the complex

interaction of the linguistic environment and the learner’s internal mechanisms.
(b) Social interactionist model on the other hand is more social in orientation. It sees
verbal interaction as crucial for learning the second language.
1. Krashen’s Input Hypothesis

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• Input hypothesis as proposed by Krashen (1985) proposes that exposure to
comprehensible input is both necessary and sufficient for second language learning to
take place.
• The hypothesis states that ‘humans acquire language in only one way-by understanding
messages, or by receiving ‘comprehensible input’ (Krashen, 1985).
• Krashen’s Input hypothesis (1981; 1985; 1989) makes the following claims:
(1) Learners progress along the natural order by understanding input that contains
structures a little bit beyond their current level of competence.
(2) Although comprehensible input is necessary for acquisition to take place, it is not
sufficient, as learners also need to be affectively disposed to ‘let in’ the input they
comprehend.
(3) Input becomes comprehensible as a result of simplification and with the help of
contextual and extralinguistic clues; ‘fine-tuning’ (i.e. ensuring that learners receive
input rich in specific linguistic property they are due to acquire next) is not necessary.
(4) Speaking is the result of acquisition, not its cause; learner production does not
contribute directly to acquisition.
• Characteristics of input to language learners:
(1) Input text: native-speaker usage
• Implies to what native speakers actually say or write.
• It denotes the use of the target-language norms that L2 learners should use in the native
community.
(2) Input discourse: the description of modified input
• It refers to the special kind of ‘register’ that is used when speakers addressed
language learners.
• For instance, when caregivers speak to young children who are in the process
of acquiring their L1, they typically adjust their speech in a number of ways.
• The register that results has been referred to variously as baby talk, motherese,
caregiver talk and child directed language.
• Similarly, when native speakers talk to L2 learners they also modify their
speech; the resulting register is known as foreigner talk.
• It is also possible to talk about interlanguage talk, the language that learners
address to each other.
B. Long’s Interaction Hypothesis
• Long (1985) went on to propose an extension of Krashen’s Input Hypothesis, which has
come to called the Interaction hypothesis.
• The hypothesis proposes that important role of interaction it plays in negotiation for
meaning helps to make input comprehensible while still containing unknown linguistic
elements, and, hence, potential intake for acquisition.
• Long (1985) suggested the following three steps as a way of gaining insight into how
input/interaction affects acquisition:
Step 1: Show that (a) linguistic/conversational adjustments promote (b)

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comprehension of input.
Step 2: Show that (b) comprehensible input promotes (c) acquisition.
Step 3: Deduce that (a) linguistic/conversational adjustments promote (c) acquisition.
• Long also suggested as to what extent comprehensible input promotes acquisition:
Source of evidence Brief explanation
Caretaker speech Caretaker speech to young children is roughly tuned to

the children’s receptive abilities and is motivated by the
need to aid comprehension.
Foreigner talk Foreigner talk to NNSs is also roughly tuned and

functions as an aid to comprehension.
Silent period Some young children go through a silent period in L2

acquisition. During this period they do not produce but
nevertheless learn the L2.
Age difference Krashen (1985) argues that ‘older learners obtain more
comprehensible input’ and that this may explain why
they learn more quickly initially than younger learners.
Comparative method studies Studies show that teaching methods that supply plenty
of comprehensible input are more successful than
methods that supply little.
Immersion programs Immersion programs have generally been found

superior to foreign/second language programs-
because they supply plenty of comprehensible input.
Bilingual programs Then success of different kinds of bilingual programs is

related to the extent to which they supply
comprehensible input.
Delayed L1 and L2 acquisition Studies of children in both L1 and L2 acquisition who

are deprived of comprehensible input (children of deaf
parents) show that acquisition is delayed or non-
existent.
Reading and vocabulary Studies indicate that children are able to increase their
acquisition L1 vocaulary and also develop a ‘deep’ understanding
of new words through pleasure reading,
Reading and spelling Studies indicate that spelling can be most effectively
acquisition acquired through exposure to the written word in
extensive reading undertaken for pleasure.

1. Discuss thoroughly how comprehensible input aid in successful acquisition and learning
of the target language.

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2. Discuss the role of interaction in second language learning and acquisition.
3. Explain the relationship between input and interaction in meaningful second language
acquisition and learning.
REFERENCES
Press.
Mitchell, R. & Myles, F. (1998). Second language learning theories. London: Arnold.
Module 4
Individual Differences in Second
TOPIC
A. Individual Learner Differences
B. Language Learning Strategies
OBJECTIVES
1. Understand the different factors affecting individual learner’s differences;
2. Assess how different language learning strategies contribute to successful second
language acquisition and learning.

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MATERIALS/EQUIPMENT
• Lap top
• LCD projector

• Second language learning strategies
• Factors affecting individual learner differences
PROCEDURE
50 minutes Discussion on L2 learning strategies
50 minutes Discussion on factors affecting individual learner

differences
50 minutes Article sharing
30 minutes Processing of discussion

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A. Individual Learner Differences
• Learners have been found to hold different beliefs about how an L2 is best
learnt. These differences reflect their past learning experiences and general
factors such as learning style and personality.
• Horwitz (1987a) and Wenden (1987a) have shown that learners have strong,
pre-conceived ideas about issues such as the importance of language
aptitude, the nature of language learning, and the strategies that are likely to
work best.
• Secondly, learners have been shown to be strongly influenced by their affective

states (Bailey, 1983).
• Some learners are fearful of starting to learn an L2, while some are confident.
• Some develop anxiety as a result of their competitive nature and their

perceptions of whether they are progressing or not.
• Both learners’ attitudes and their affective states are subject to change as a
result of experience.
• Third, there are various general factors such as age, language aptitude,
learning style, motivation and personality that help account individual
learners’ differences as far as learning the target language is concerned.
1. Learners’ Beliefs about Language Learning
• Language learners-especially adults- bring a variety of beliefs to the classroom.
• The study of learners’ opinions about their language learning constitutes an important area
of inquiry, as it is reasonable to assume that their ‘philosophy’ dictates their approach to
learning and choice of specific language learning strategies.
• Wenden (1986a; 1987a) categorized three general beliefs about language learning:
(a) Use of the language
• It includes beliefs relating to the importance of learning in a ‘natural way’-

practicing, trying to think in the L2, and living and studying in an environment
where L2 is spoken.
(b) Learning about the language
• Learners with beliefs in this category emphasized learning grammar and

vocabulary, enrolling in language class, receiving feedback on errors they
made, and being mentally active.
(c) Importance of personal factors
• It includes beliefs about the feelings that facilitate or inhibit learning, self-
concept, and aptitude for learning.
2. Learners’ Affective States

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• Learners, in particular classroom learners, react to the learning situations they
find themselves in a variety of affective ways.
• Learners it seems need to feel secure and to be free of stress before they can
focus on the learning task- the importance of which is directly acknowledge in
the humanistic approaches to language teaching (see Moskowitz, 1978).
1. Anxiety
• Anxiety arising out of poor performance, communication

apprehension, tests, and fear of negative evaluation is likely to
have a debilitating effect on L2 learning.
• Learners can also experience anxiety as a result of fear or

experience of ‘losing oneself’ in the target culture. As Oxford
(1992) points out, this is closely related to the idea of ‘culture
shock.’
• Oxford (1992) lists the affective states associate with this source of
anxiety: emotional regression, panic, anger, self-pity, indecision,
sadness, alienation and ‘reduced personality.’
• Scovel (1978) however draws attention to Alpert and Haber’s

(1960) distinction between facilitating and debilitating anxiety.
• Facilitating anxiety motivates learners to ‘fight’ the new learning

task, prompting them to make extra efforts to overcome their
feelings of anxiety. (Horwitz, 1986) suggests that this may only
occur in fairly simple learning tasks.
• Debilitating anxiety causes the learner to ‘flee’ the learning task in

order to avoid the source of anxiety.
• Williams (1991) suggests that the distinction between these two

types of anxiety may correspond to the intensity of the anxiety,
with a low-anxiety state having a facilitating function and a high-
anxiety state a debilitating effect.
2. The importance of learner’s affective states
• Learner’s affective states are obviously of crucial importance in

accounting for individual differences in learning outcomes.
• Whereas learners’ beliefs about language learning are likely to be

fairly stable, their affective states tend to be volatile, affecting not
only overall progress but responses to particular learning
activities on a day-by-day and even moment-by-moment basis.
3. General Factors Contributing to Individual Difference in Second Language Acquisition

and Learning
• Learners’ beliefs and affective states are likely to have direct effect on L2 learning,
but they themselves may be influenced by a number of general factors relating to
learners’ ability and desire to learn and the way they choose to go about learning.
a. Age
• There is a widely-held belief that younger L2 learners generally do better than older
learners.
• This is supported by the critical period hypothesis, according to which there is a

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fixed span of years during which language learning can take place naturally and
effortlessly, and after which it is not possible to be completely successful.
• A number of explanations have been advanced to account for the existence of a

critical or sensitive period.
• Muhlhauser (1986) concludes that adults and children appear to behave very
much in the same manner, which indicates that activation of certain linguistic
developments is dependent on the presence of specific environmental factors,
rather than on different cognitive abilities of children and adults.
• Long (1990a) on the other hand, concludes that a neurological explanation is best
and proposes the attractive-sounding ‘mental muscle model’, according to which,
the language-specific endowment remains intact throughout adult life, but access
to it is impeded by varying degrees and progressively with age, unless the faculty
is used and kept plastic.
• Children generally enjoy an advantage over adults in L2 learning because of their

age, particularly in pronunciation. However, this will only become evident after
substantial exposure to the L2. Adult learners however, may be able to acquire a
native accent with the assistance of instruction.
• Young learners may be more likely to acquire a native grammatical competence.

The critical period for grammar may be later than for pronunciation (around 15
years). Some adult learners, however, may succeed in acquiring native levels of
grammatical accuracy in speech and writing and even full ‘linguistic competence.’
• Irrespective whether native-speaker proficiency is achieved, children are more

likely to reach higher levels of attainment in both pronunciation and grammar
than adults.
• Adult learners, have an initial advantage where rate of learning is concerned,

particularly in grammar. They will be eventually overtaken by child learners who
receive enough exposure to the L2.
• The process of acquiring an L2 grammar is not substantially affected by age, but

that of acquiring pronunciation may be.
• It is not necessary to posit neurological explanations to account for why older

learners learn rapidly. One possibility, which can be considered, is that older
learners experience more negotiation of meaning and, therefore, better input.
• Another obvious possibility is that adolescents and adults posses more fully
developed cognitive skills, which enable them to apply themselves effectively to
the task of learning a L2. This is likely to give them an initial advantage over
children, but may not be sufficient to guarantee high levels of proficiency. Most
likely, the rate advantage enjoyed by adults is the result if a combination of
factors.
b. Language Aptitude
• Language aptitude involves both an underlying language learning capacity and a
capacity to handle decontextualized language. Language aptitude has been
found to be one of the best predictors of l2 learning.
• It is not to be viewed as a prerequisite for L2 acquisition (as all learners,

irrespective of their aptitude, may achieve a reasonable level of proficiency), but
as a capacity that enhances the rate and ease of learning.
• Carroll (1965) identified four factors in language aptitude:

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(1) Phonemic coding ability (the ability to code foreign sounds in a way that they
can be remembered later) This ability is seen as related to the ability to spell
and to handle sound-symbol relationships.
(2) Grammatical sensitivity (the ability to recognize the grammatical functions of

words in sentences).
(3) Inductive language learning ability (the ability to identify patterns of

correspondence and relationships involving form and meaning).
(4) Rote learning ability (the ability to form and remember associations between
stimuli). This ability is hypothesized to be involved in vocabulary learning.
c. Learning Style

• The idea of learning style comes from general psychology. It refers to the
characteristic ways in which individuals orientate to problem-solving.
• Keefe (1979) defines learning style as the characteristic cognitive, affective, and
physiological behaviors that serve as relatively stable indicators of how learners
perceive, interact with and respond to the learning environment.
• Learning style therefore reflects the totality of psychological functioning (Willing,

1987).
• An individual’s learning style is viewed as relatively fixed and not readily changed.
• However, Little and Singleton (1990) argue that it is possible to help adult learners
to explore their own preference and to shape their learning approach to suit the
requirements of a particular learning task.
4 Perceptual Learning Modalities (Reid, 1987)
Modalities Examples
Visual learning Reading and studying charts
Auditory learning Listening to lectures or
to audio tapes
Kinesthetic learning Involving physical response
Tactile learning Hands-on learning
e.g. building models
4 Learning Styles Used by Adult ESL Learners (Willing, 1987)
General learning style Main characteristics
Concrete learning style Direct means of processing

information; people-oriented;
spontaneous; imaginative; emotional;
dislikes routinized learning; prefers
kinesthetic modality
Analytical learning style Focuses on specific problems and

proceeds by means of hypothetical-

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deductive reasoning; object-oriented;
independent; dislikes failure; prefers
logical, didactic presentation
Communicative learning style Fairly independent; highly adaptable

and flexible; responsive to facts that do
not fit; prefers social learning and the
communicative approach; enjoys
taking decisions
Authority-oriented learning style Reliant on other people; needs

teacher’s directions and explanations;
likes structured learning environment;
intolerant of facts that do not fit; prefers
a sequential progression, dislikes
discovery learning
d. Motivation
• Strength of motivation serves as a powerful predictor of L2 achievement, but may
itself by the result of previous learning experiences. Learners with either
integrative or instrumental motivation, or a mixture of both, will manifest greater
effort and perseverance in learning.
• Other internal sources of motivation, such as self-confidence, may be more

important than either type of motivation in some contexts.
• Motivation can also take the form of intrinsic interest in specific learning activities
and, as such, may be more easily influenced by teachers than goal-oriented
motivation.
e. Personality
• The relationship between personality variables and L2 learning is not yet clear.
• There is some evidence to show that extroverted learners are advantaged in the
development of the kind of language associated with basic interpersonal
communication skills. Extroverted learners may also more likely to participate
actively in oral communication.
• These individual differences produce variation in the rate of learning and the
ultimate level of L2 attainment. Overall, there is little evidence to suggest that
they have a marked effect on the internal processes that account for
interlanguage development.
B. Language Learning Strategies

• O’Malley, Chamot, and Walker (1987) and O’Malley and Chamot (1990) have attempted
to ground the study of learning strategies within the information-processing model of
learning developed by Anderson (1980; 1983).
• They noted that Anderson distinguishes three stages of skill-learning:
(a) Cognitive stage - where the learner is involved in conscious activity resulting in
declarative knowledge
(b) Associative stage – where the learner strengthens the connections among the
various elements or components of the skill and constructs more efficient production
sets
(c) Automatic stage – where execution becomes more or less autonomous and

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subsconscious
• Anderson’s theory provides for two interpretations of the term ‘strategy.’ One, favored by
Rabinowitz and Chi (1987 as cited in O’Malley and Chamot, 1990) is that strategies
can only occur in the early cognitive stage when they are conscious; they cease to be
‘strategic’ when they are performed automatically.
• The other view is that strategies occur in all three stages of development of skill-learning.
1. Definitions of Learning Strategies
Source Definition
Stern (1983) Strategy is best reserved for general tendencies or

overall characteristics of the approach employed by
the language learner, leaving techniques as the term
to refer to particular forms of observable learning
behavior.
Weinstein and Mayer (1986) Learning strategies are the behaviors and thoughts
that a learner engages in during learning that are
intended to influence the learner’s encoding process.
Chamot (1987) Learning strategies are techniques, approaches or

deliberate actions that students take in order to
facilitate the learning, recall of both linguistic and
content area information.
Rubin (1987) Learning strategies are strategies which contribute to

the development of the language system which the
learner constructs and affect learning directly.
Oxford (1989) Language learning strategies are behaviors or actions

which learners use to make language learning more
successful, self-directed and enjoyable.
Oxford’s (1989) Main Characteristics of Strategies:
1.) Strategies refer to both general approaches and specific actions or techniques used
to learn an L2.
2.) Strategies are problem-oriented—the learner deploys a strategy to overcome some

particular learning problem.
3.) Learners are generally aware of the strategies they use and can identify what they
consist of if they are asked to pay attention to what they are doing/thinking.
4.) Strategies involve linguistic behavior (such as requesting the name of an object) and
non-linguistic (such as pointing at an object so as to be told its name).
5.) Linguistic strategies can be performed in the L1 and the L2.
6.) Some strategies are behavioral while others are mental. Thus some strategies are
directly observable, while others are not.
7.) Strategies contribute indirectly to learning by providing learners with data about the
L2 which they can then process. However, some strategies may also contribute
directly (for example, memorization strategies directed at specific lexical items or
grammatical rules).
8.) Strategy use varies considerably as a result of both the kind of task the learner is
engaged in and individual learner preferences.

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2. Classifying Learning Strategies
• O’Malley and Chamot (1990) distinguished three major types of strategy in accordance
with the information-processing model on which their research is based.
(1) Metacognitive strategies – make use of knowledge about cognitive processes and
constitute an attempt to regulate language learning by means of planning,
monitoring, and evaluating
(2) Cognitive strategies – refer to the steps or operations used in problem-solving that
require direct analysis, transformation or synthesis of learning materials
(3) Social/Affective strategies – concern the ways in which learners choose to interact
with other learners and native speakers. Chamot gives examples such as
‘cooperation’ (working with one or more peers to obtain feedback, pool information or
model a language activity) and ‘question’ (asking a teacher or other native speaker
for repetition, paraphrase, explanation and/or examples).
O’Malley and Chamot’s Framework
Learning Strategy Description
A.) METACOGNITIVE
Advance organizers Making a general but comprehensive preview of the

concept or principle in an anticipated learning activity.
Directed Attention Deciding in advance to attend in general to a learning

task and to ignore irrelevant distracters.
Selective Attention Deciding in advance to attend to specific aspects of

language input or situational details that will cue the
retention of language input.
Advance preparation Planning for and rehearsing linguistic components

necessary to carry out an upcoming language task.
Self-monitoring Correcting one’s speech for accuracy in

pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, or for
appropriateness related to the setting or to the people
who are present.
Delayed production Consciously deciding to postpone speaking to learn

initially through listening comprehension.
Self-evaluation Checking the outcomes of one’s own language

learning against an internal measure of completeness
and accuracy.
B. COGNITIVE
Repetition Imitating a language model, including overt practice

and silent rehearsal.
Resourcing Defining or expanding a definition of a word or

concept through the use of target language reference
materials.
Directed physical response Relating new information to physical actions, as with

directives.

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Translation Using the L1 as a base for understanding and/or
producing the L2.
Grouping Reordering or reclassifying and perhaps labeling the

material to be learned based on common attributes.
Note-taking Writing down the main idea, important points, outline, or

summary of information presented orally or in writing.
Deduction Consciously applying rules to produce or understand the

L2.
Recombination Constructing a meaningful sentence or larger language

sequence by combining known elements in a new way.
Imagery Relating new information to visual concepts in memory via

familiar easily retrievable visualizations, phrases, or
locations.
Auditory representation Retention of the sound or similar sound for a word, phrase,
or longer language ssequence.
Key word Remembering a new word in the l1 by (1) identifying a

familiar word in the L1 that sounds like or otherwise
resembles the new word, (2) generating easily recalled
images of some relationship with the new word.
Contextualization Placing a word or phrase in a meaningful language

sequence.
Elaboration Relating new information to other concepts in memory.
Transfer Using previously acquired linguistic and/or conceptual

knowledge to facilitate a new language learning task.
Inferencing Using available information to guess meanings of new

items, predict outcomes, or fill in missing information.
C. SOCIAL/AFFECTIVE STRATEGIES
Cooperation Working with one or more peers to obtain feedback, pool

information, or model a language activity.
Question for clarification Asking a teacher or other native speaker for repetition,
paraphrasing, explanation and/or examples.
• Perhaps the most comprehensive classification of learning strategies to date is provided by

Oxford (1985).
• The classification scheme she first came up with was used as a basis for constructing a
questionnaire on learning strategies---The Strategy Inventory for Language Learning
(SILL) (Oxford, 1986).
• Her framework is distinctly drawn between the direct and indirect strategies.
• Direct strategies consist of strategies that directly involve the target language in the sense
that they require mental processing of the language. While indirect strategies provide
indirect support for language learning through focusing, planning, evaluating, seeking
opportunities, controlling anxiety, increasing cooperation and empathy and other means.
Oxford’ (1985) Framework
LEARNING STRATEGIES

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Direct Strategies Memory strategies
Cognitive strategies
Compensation strategies
Indirect Strategies Metacognitive strategies
Affective strategies
Social strategies
3. Factors Affecting Strategy Choice
• Learners have found to vary considerably in both the overall frequency with which they
employ strategies and also the particular types of strategies they use (O’Malley et al.,
1985a; Chamot et al.,1987 and 1988; Ehrman, 1990).
• The following are the factors that affect strategy choice:
a. Individual Learner Differences

• Individual learner differences are considered in terms of (1) affective states; (2)
attitudes and (3) personality of the learners.
b. Beliefs About Language Learning

• It was found that learners who emphasized the importance of learning tended to
use cognitive strategies that helped them to understand and remember specific
items of language.
• However, learners who emphasized the importance of using language employed

few learning strategies, relying instead on communication strategies.
• Learners who stressed personal factors did not manifest pattern of strategy use.
c. Learner Factors

• Age emerges as a clear factor affecting the way strategies are used.
• Young children have been observed to employ strategies in a task-specific manner,

while older children and adults make use of generalized strategies which they
employ more flexibly (O’Malley and Chamot, 1990).
(1) Learner’s personal background
(2) Situational and social factors

4. Relating Learning Strategies to Second Language Development
• The following are some conclusions drawn to relate language learning strategies to second
language development:
(a) The strategies that learners choose to use reflect their general stage of L2
development.
(b) Successful learners appear to use learning strategies more frequently and in
qualitatively different ways than learners who are less successful.

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(c) Successful language learning involves attention to both form and meaning. Good
language learners appear to be able to switch the focus of their attention while they
are performing a task- even as beginners.
(d) Different kinds of learning strategies may contribute to different aspects of L2

proficiency.
(e) Learners need to employ strategies flexibly by selecting those strategies that are
appropriate for performing a particular learning task.
(f) The more successful learners are better able to talk about the strategies they use.
(g) The learning strategies used by children and adults may differ; social and
interactional strategies may be more important with young learners.

1.) Discuss how the various factors of individual differences affect a learner’s ability to
learn and/or acquire his/her target language.
2.) How can the different learning strategies positively and negatively affect second
language learning?
REFERENCE
Press.
Module 5
Cognitive Processes in Second
Language Learners and
Bilinguals
TOPIC
A. Cognitive processes in Second Language Learners and Bilinguals

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OBJECTIVES
1. Understand the different cognitive processes essential to L2 learning;
2. Identify how these processes affect effective L2 acquisition and eventually, learning.

MATERIALS/EQUIPMENT
• Laptop
• LCD
• Power point slides

• Perceptual saliency approach
• Cognitive processing models
• Learning strategies
• Communication strategies in L2 use
PROCEDURE
60 minutes Discussion on cognitive approaches to L2 learning
40 minutes Discussion on assigned article
50 minutes Processing of article discussion

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C. INTRODUCTION
• A cognitive theory of language acquisition sees linguistic knowledge as no different in
kind from other types of knowledge and views the strategies responsible its
development.
• The cognitive approach to language learning do not believe that language is separate
from other aspects of cognition, i.e. the human mind is geared to the processing of all
kinds of information (information being understood in a broad sense).
D. Cognitive Approaches to L2 Learning

(1) Perceptual saliency approach
• This approach is largely based on the work of Dan Slobin in the 70s and 80s.
• He argues that the similarity in linguistic development across children and

across languages is due to the fact that human beings are programmed to
perceive and organize information in certain ways.
• He has devised a number of operating principles which guide children in their

processing of the linguistic strings they encounter.
Slobin’s Operating Principles
(a) Operating principles and first language acquisition
• This principle is based on the claim that certain linguistic forms are
more accessible or more salient to the child than the others.
Operating principle A: Pay attention to the ends of words
Operating principle B: There are linguistic elements which encode relations

between words
Operating principle C: Avoid exceptions
Operating principle D: Underlying semantic relations should be marked

overtly and clearly
Operating principle E: The use of grammatical markers should make

semantic sense
(b) Operating principles and second language acquisition
• An interlanguage system should be constructed in such a way that

an intended underlying meaning is expressed with one clear
invariant surface form or construction.

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(c) Learnability/Teachabillty Theory
• The notion of learnability arises from the well-documented

observation that L2 learners follow a fairly rigid route in their
acquisition of certain grammatical structures.
• This notion of route implies that structures only become learnable

when the previous steps on this acquisitional path have been
acquired.
• In other words, learners cannot acquire a complex structure

straight away, but have to follow the developmental route
associated to this structure.
• Moreover, in the teachability dimension of this theory, pedagogical

implications of the learnability model has to be considered about
how structures should be taught.
• If a structure only becomes learnable when the previous steps

have been acquired, it follows that, by looking at the productions
of a language learner and placing them on the developmental
continuum for a given structure, the teacher can assess what
this learner can be expected to learn next.
(2) Connectionism or Parallel distributed processing models (PDP)
• This model likens the brain to a computer which would consist of neural
networks, complex clusters of links between information nodes.
• These links or connections become strengthened or weakened through

activation or non-activation respectively.
• Learning in this view occurs on the basis of associative processes, rather

than the construction of abstract views.
• In other words, the human mind is pre-disposed to look for associations

between the elements and create links between them.
• These links become stronger as these associations keep recurring, and they
also become part of larger networks as connections between elements
become more numerous.
• When applied to language learning, connectionism claims that learners are

sensitive to regularities in the language input and extract probabilistic
patterns on the basis of these regularities. Learning occurs as these
patterns become strengthened by repeated activitation.
(3) Information processing approach
• This approach originated from information processing models developed by

cognitive psychologists, which have been adapted to the treatment of
language processing, both L1 and L2.
2 Information Processing Models
a.) McLaughlin’s Information Processing Model
• In general, the fundamental notion of the information-processing approach

to psychological inquiry is that complex behavior builds on simple
processes (McLaughlin and Heredia, 1996).
• The main characteristics if such an approach can be summarized as

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follows:
1. Humans are viewed as autonomous and active.
2. The mind is a general-purpose, symbol processing system.
3. The mind is a limited-capacity processor.
• Within this framework, second language learning is viewed as the

acquisition of a complex cognitive skill.
• To learn a second language is to learn a skill, because various aspects of

the task must be practiced and integrated into fluent performance.
b.) Anderson’s Adaptive Control Model (ACT) Model
• Anderson’s ACT (1976) rests on the distinction between declarative and

procedural knowledge.
• He characterizes the essential differences between the two in the form of

three assumptions:
1. Declarative knowledge seems to be possessed in an all-or-none manner,

whereas procedural knowledge seems to be something that can be
partially possessed.
2. One acquires declarative knowledge suddenly, by being told, whereas one

acquires procedural knowledge gradually, by performing the skill.
3. One can communicate one’s declarative knowledge verbally, but not one’s
procedural knowledge.
• Learning a language, like other type of skill learning, involves the

development of procedures that transform declarative knowledge into a
form that makes for easy and efficient performance.
• Anderson asserts that we speak the learned language (i.e. the second
language) by using general rule-following procedures applied to the rules
we have learned, rather than speaking directly as we do in our native
language.
• Not surprisingly, applying this knowledge is a much slower and more painful
process than applying the procedurally encoded knowledge of our own
language.
• He also asserts that whereas L1 learners almost invariably reach the

autonomous stage, foreign language learners typically only reach the
associative stage. Thus. Although foreign language learners achieve a
fair degree of proceduralization through practice, and can use L2 rules
without awareness, they do not reach full autonomy.
E. COGNITIVE ACCOUNTS OF SECOND LANGUAGE COMMUNICATION

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• The discussion in this section will focus on how learners construct their L2 knowledge in
communication.
• The focus shifts from how learners construct their L2 systems to how they use them in
communication.
• To account for procedural skill it is necessary to explain how learners make use of their
existing L2 knowledge and also how they overcome the problems that result from
insufficient L2 knowledge or inability to access L2 knowledge.
2 Aspects of L2 Communication
(1) Second language speech planning and the development of ‘procedural skill’
• These speech planning phenomena are of two basic kinds: temporal

variables and hesitation phenomena
• Both temporal variable and hesitation phenomena are measures of speech

and related to the idea of fluency.
Speech planning phenomena
A. Temporal variables Variables related to the rate of speaking
Speech rate The number of syllables per second. This

measure includes pause time.
Articulation rate The number of syllables per second of time

of articulation. This measure excludes pause
time.
Pause length The mean length of pauses above a stated

threshold level.
Length of run The mean number of syllables between

pauses.
B. Hesitation Variables relating to linguistic features that

phenomena disturb the smooth flow of speech.
Filled pauses The use of phonetic devices such as ‘uh’ or

‘mhm’ to fill pauses.
Repetitions The unchanged re-occurrence of a substring

of an utterance that has no
syntactic/semantic function.
Corrections A change made to some part of the

preceding utterance—from a single phoneme
to a long sequence of text.
• The study of speech planning phenomena can shed light on the nature of the
development that learners undergo in acquiring procedural skill.
• L2 learners need to increase their control over that knowledge which has already
been acquired (i.e. learn how to process this knowledge in unplanned as well
as planned language use).
(2) Communication strategies
• Communication strategies (CS) are used primarily to deal with lexical

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problems, such as when a learner who does not know the word for art
gallery also refers to picture place.
• CS can also be utilized to get around a grammatical problem, as when a

learner deliberately choose to use ask instead of make because of
uncertainty regarding which form of the infinitive (plain infinitive or ‘to’ +
infinitive) to use with ‘make.’
• As a starting point, it is useful to distinguish two broad theoretical approaches

to CSs. They can be viewed as discourse strategies that are evident in
interactions involving learners, or they can be treated as cognitive
processes involved in the use of the L2 in reception and production.
• (The interactional approach- Discourse strategies) Tarone (1977) defined

CS as involving a mutual attempt of two interlocutors to agree on a
meaning in situations where requisite meaning structures do not seem to be
shared.
• As such they differed from production strategies, which were defined as

attempts to use one’s linguistic system efficiently and clearly, with a
minimum of effort.
Tarone’s (1977) Typology of Communication Strategies
COMMUNICATION STRATEGY DESCRIPTION OF STRATEGY
1. Avoidance
Topic avoidance Avoiding reference to a salient object for which

learner does not have necessary vocabulary
Message abandonment The learner begins to refer to an object but gives

up because it is too difficult.
2.Paraphrase
Approximation The learner uses an item known to be incorrect

but which shares some semantic features in
common with the correct item (e.g. worm for silk
worm)
Word coinage The learner makes up a new word (e.g. person

worm for caterpillar)
Circumlocution The learner describes the characteristics of the

object instead of using the appropriate L2 items
3.Conscious transfer
Literal translation The learner translates word for word from the
native language
Language switch The learner inserts words from another language
4.Appeal for assistance The learner consults some authority- a native

speaker, a dictionary
5. Mime The learner uses a nonverbal device to refer to

an object or event.

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1. What cognitive model/s best fit your second language learning? Discuss your answer
thoroughly.
2. Discuss how the cognitive approach to second language learning account for effective
L2 acquisition.
REFERENCES
Mitchel, R., & Myles, F. (1998). Second language learning theories. London: Arnold.
Module 6
Universal Grammar: Linguistics
and Language Learning
TOPIC
A. Universal Grammar
OBJECTIVES
1. Understand the theory of Universal Grammar and its role in second language
acquisition and learning;
2. Identify the different universals of UG based learning such as principles,
parameters and markedness.

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MATERIALS/EQUIPMENT
• Laptop
• LCD
• Power point slides

• Universal Grammar Approach
• Principles
• Parameters
• Markedness
• Grammatical competence
PROCEDURE
50 minutes Discussion on Universal Grammar
50 minutes Article sharing
50 minutes Processing of article discussion

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A. INTRODUCTION
• The Universal Grammar (UG) approach claims that all human beings inherit a universal
set of principles and parameters which control the shape human language can take,
and which are what make human languages similar to one another.
• UG approach to language is concerned with knowledge of language i.e. with the abstract
mental representation of language which all human beings possess, with competence.
• It is not about performance, about how language is used in real life, given the time
constraints and competing demands on the brain’s information-processing facilities.
• Chomsky believes that children could not learn their first language so quickly and
effortlessly without the help of an innate language faculty to guide them.
• This biologically endowed Universal Grammar would make the task facing the child
much easier, by equipping them in advance with a clear set of expectations about the
shape which language will take.
• This would also explain why the different languages of the world are strikingly similar in
many respects.
B. UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR AND SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING

• In second language learning, language learners still have access to UG in the same way
as children do, and the fact that they do not typically achieve full mastery of the second
language is due to their different needs.
• L2 learners still access UG, but via their first language, with parameter values already
set for that language.
• The language faculty in children, because it is biologically triggered according to a

predetermined timetable, atrophies with age and is not available to adult L2 learners
who then have to resort to general problem-solving devices.
• L2 learners only have access to part of UG; some parameters are no longer available.
C. PRINCIPLES AND PARAMETERS OF UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR

• Chomsky (1981; 1986a; 1986b) argues that the core of human language must comprise
these two components—principles and parameters.
• His proposed principles are unvarying and apply to all natural languages; in contrast,
parameters possess a limited number of open values which characterize differences
between languages.
1. Principles
• The term principles refers to highly abstract properties of grammar which apply to

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language in general and which, therefore, underlie the grammatical rules of all
specific languages.
• The principle that will be discussed is the principle of structure-dependency which

states that language is organized in such a way that it crucially depends on the
structural relationships between elements in a sentence (such as words,
morphemes, etc)
• What this means is that words are regrouped into higher-level structures which are
the units which form the basis of language.
• The UG theory claims that the fact that children never use computationally simple
rules based on linear ordering, but instead use computationally complex
structure-dependent rules, is because the hierarchical nature of human language
is part of the human mind, and does not have to be learnt as such.
2. Parameters
• The term parameters refer to principles that vary in certain restricted ways from
one language to another.
• That is, they take the form of a finite set of options which individual languages
draw on and which define the variation possible between languages.
a. Head parameter
• This parameter specifies the position of the head to its complement(s)

within phrases for different languages.
• This parameter has only 2 possible settings: head-first and head-last.
• From an acquisitional point of view, what all this means is that children,
equipped with Universal Grammar (UG), do not need to discover that
language is structured into phrases, as this principle forms part of the
blueprint for language in their mind.
• They also ‘know’ that all phrases in the language they are learning are
going to be consistently ordered in relation to the head.
• The only task remaining is to learn which parameter-setting actually applies

in the language which the child is learning, (in this case, is it head-first, or
head last?
D. VARIOUS HYPOTHESES ON SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

1. Hypothesis 1: No access to UG
• Proponents of this position argue that there is a critical period for language acquisition, and
that adult L2 learners have to resort to other learning mechanisms.
• The reasons for adopting such a position are several, but perhaps the most convincing one
is the common-sense observation that immigrant children generally become native-like
speakers if their L2, whereas their parents rarely do.
2. Hypothesis 2: Full access to UG

• This position argues that UG continues to underpin L2 learning, for adults as well as
children, and there is no such thing as ‘critical period’ after which UG ceases to operate.

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• It also suggests that learners can acquire principles and or parameters settings which
differ from those characteristic of their L1 and the best interpretation is the continuing
operation of UG.
3. Hypothesis 3: Indirect Access

• Proponents of this position claim that learners only have access to UG via their L1.
• They have already assessed the range of principles applying to their L1, and set
parameters to the L1 values, and this is the basis for their L2 development.
• Other parameter-settings are not available to them, and if the L2 possesses parameter-
settings which are different from those of their L1, they will have to resort to other
mechanisms in order to make the L2 data fit their internal representations.
• Thus, the picture of the difference between child language development and foreign
language learning is illustrated here:
Child language development Adult foreign language learning
Universal Grammar Native language knowledge
Domain-specific learning procedures General problem-solving systems
• Schachter (1996) does accept that UG may be available for young L2 learners but argues
that there is a critical period (periods) for the successful acquisition of L2 principles
and/or parameter settings, if these have not been operative in the learner’s L1.
• She calls this critical period a Window of Opportunity, and argues that young L2 learners
pass through different Windows for different modules of the target language.
4. Hypothesis 4: Partial Access

• Learners do not seem to produce ‘wild’ grammars, i.e. grammars which would not be
constrained by UG.
• Learners produce grammars which are not necessarily like either their L1 or their L2.
• Some principles and parameters seem to be unproblematic to reset (e.g. the head
parameter), others more difficult, or even impossible (e.g. subjacency).

1. Explain how the Universal Grammar helps account for children and adult’s L1 and L2
language learning?
2. What UG hypotheses supports your own L1 and L2 language learning process?

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REFERENCES
Mitchell, R., & Myles, F. (1998). Second language learning theories. London: Arnold.
Module 7
Module 8
Functional/Pragmatic
Perspectives on SLA
TOPIC
A. Functional Perspectives on First Language Development
B. Pragmatic Perspectives on Second Language Development
OBJECTIVES
1. Identify the various functional perspectives on L1 in relation to L2;
2. Understand the pragmatic perspectives on L2.


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MATERIALS/EQUIPMENT
• Power point presentation about the topic
• Laptop
• LCD

• Functional perspectives on L1 development
• Pragmatic perspectives on SLA
PROCEDURE
40 minutes Discussion on functional perspective on L1
50 minutes Discussion on pragmatic perspective on L2
40 minutes Sharing about the article assigned
30 minutes Processing of the article discussed

F. INTRODUCTION
• This section will focus on the ways in which L2 learners set about making meaning, and
achieving their personal communicative goals.
• Researchers argue that the great variety of interlanguage forms produced by second
language learners cannot be sensibly interpreted, unless we pay attention also to the
functions which learners are seeking to perform.
• It is also argued that these meaning making efforts on the part of the learner are a
driving force in ongoing second language development, not excluding the development

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of formal grammatical systems.
G. FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON FIRST LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

• Researchers studying child language have been interested for many years in the
meanings which children are trying to convey, and the possible relationship between
developments in children’s messages, and the developments in the formal systems
through which they are expressed.
• The child’s language at this point is lacking in the morphological markers of case, tense,
number etc. as seen in Brown’s 1973 study.
11 Important Early Semantic Relations and Examples

Relation Example
Attributive Big house
Agent-Action Daddy hit
Action-Object Hit ball
Agent-Object Daddy ball
Nominative That ball
Demonstrative There ball
Recurrence More ball
Non-existence All-gone ball
Possessive Daddy chair
Entity + Locative Book table
Action + Locative Go store
• Researchers in this tradition have argued essentially that syntactic categories develop as
prototypes based on semantic information (Harley, 1995).
• Budwig (1995) produced a useful recent survey of broadly functionalist approaches to the
study of child language development.
• She brings together a wide range of perspectives on the relationship between form and
function in child language, and on development in this relationship over time.
4 Orientations According to Budwig (1995):
1. Cognitive Orientation
• The cognitive orientation is typified by the work of Slobin (1985a).
• He proposes the existence of a ‘basic child grammar’, in which children

construct their own form-function relationships to reflect a child’s-eye
view of the world.
• For instance, Slobin suggests on the basis of cross-linguistic

comparisons that regardless of the particular target language which is
being acquired, one of the opening wedges of grammar is the
linguistic encoding of a scene in which an agent brings about a
change of the state in an object.
2. Textual Orientation
• This approach has its roots in functional-systematic linguistics, e.g. the

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work of the Prague school, or of Michael Halliday.
• At the level of the individual sentence, theorists in this tradition are

interested in how the underlying information structure is reflected in
surface syntax. ( e.g. topic-comment, theme-theme, or given-new
information)
• At the level of discourse, functional-systemic linguists are interested in

how lexis and grammar are deployed to create textual cohesion.
(conjuncts, deictic elements, pronominal systems).
• In child language studies functionally oriented research is concerned

with textual matters has mostly concentrated on the systems used by
older children to establish cohesion in narratives.
• Again it has been argued that children begin by deploying forms

adopted from adult input, for their own distinctive set of textual
functions.
3. Social Orientation
• Functionalist child language research with a social orientation is

interested in relationships between the development of the child’s
formal language system, and aspect of their social world.
• Some of this work examines the speech acts which children perform,
and their relationships with lexical/grammatical choices.
• Other studies look much more broadly at the social context within the
which children interact, and the types of speech events in which they
are engaged, and seeks to link these wider influences to grammatical
development.
4. Multifunctioninal Orientation
• The functional approaches to child language studies pay attention to the

relations between grammatical development and event schemata;
between grammar and text organization; and between grammar and
the social world.
• Budwig (1995) reviews possible factors which may drive children

forward to continually reorganize their systems of form-function
relationships, along the documented developmental path; linguistic
maturation, cognitive development, encounters with target input, and
communicative need.
H. PRAGMATIC PERSPECTIVES ON SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND

LEARNING
• Early studies on pragmatic development were descriptive rather than guided by theories
of second language learning, and this remains a fair characterization of most
developmental interlanguage pragmatics research to date.
• They have engaged Gricean pragmatics to examine learners’ comprehension of

implicature (Bouton, 1992), Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory to
describe the acquisition of politeness strategies (Olshtain & Blum-Kulka, 1985), and
theories accounting for listener alignment through the use of discourse particles
(Sawyer, 1992).

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• The majority of studies are grounded in speech act theory and its extension into
empirically based models of the pragmalinguistics and sociopragmatics of different
communicative acts including requests (Achiba, 2002; Blum-Kulka & Olshtain, 1986;
Ellis, 1992, etc.) apologies (Blum-Kulka & Olshtain, 1986; Rose, 2000, etc.),
refusals (Houck & Gass, 1996; Robinson, 1992), suggestions and rejections
(Bardovi-Harlig & Hartford, 1993a), invitations (Scarcella, 1979) , complaints
(Trosborg, 1987) and compliment responses (Rose, 2000).
Theories and Constructs
1. The Acculturation Model

• The first theoretical approach adopted to explain pragmatic development was
Schumann’s (1978) acculturation model.
• The model’s fundamental assumption is that second language learning is

crucially linked to the learner’s social position in the target community and
interaction with members of the target group.
• It is also recognized in other theories of SLA that ascribe a critical role om second
language learning to social context.
• But unlike theories that have more recently been applied to SLA, the
acculturation model is a causal model that conceptualizes the social dimension
in learning in social-psychological terms, as a complex independent variable.
• As a social-psychological model of second language acquisition, the acculturation

model subsumes two factor groups comprising social and affective variables.
• Social variables describe the learner’s social distance to the target community.
They include:
a. the power relations between the groups of L2 learners and target language
speakers (dominance, nondominance, subordination)
b. the L2 group’s integration pattern (assimilation, acculturation, preservation)
c. the L2 group’s relative enclosure
d. the L2 group’s relative cohesiveness
e. the size of the L2 group
f. the cultural (in)congruence of the L2 and target groups
g. the mutual group attitudes
h. the L2 group’s intended duration of stay in the target language community

(Schumann, 1978; 1986)
• Because not all group contact situations can be unambiguously categorized

according to these variables, Schumann argued that in addition to the social
distance that individuals experience as group members, the learner’s
psychological distance to the target group needs to be taken into consideration.
The affective factors include:
a. Language shock
b. Culture shock – the anxiety resulting from disorientation encountered upon

entering a new culture
c. Integrative vs. instrumental motivation

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d. Ego permeability—roughly equivalent to empathy
2. Cognitive Processing
• Two influential cognitive processing approaches proposed in SLA were extended
by Schmidt’s (1993) noticing hypothesis and Bialystok’s (1993,1994) two-
dimensional model of L2 proficiency development.
• These two theoretical proposals address different stages of the learning process.
• The noticing hypothesis is concerned with the initial phase of input processing
and the attentional conditions required for input (the L2 data available in the
learner’s environment) to become intake (the subset of the input that the
learner appropriates to build the interlanguage).
• In order to acquire pragmatics, one must attend to both the linguistic forms of
utterances and the relevant social and contextual features with which they are
associated.
• The two-dimensional model of L2 proficiency explains the development of already

available knowledge along the dimensions of analyzed representation and
control processing.
• Bialystok’s model contends that children’s primary task in pragmatics is to

develop analytic representations of pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic
knowledge, whereas adult L2 learners mainly have to acquire processing
control over already existing representations.
3. Sociocultural Theory
• Frawley and Lantolf (1984) took 30 years to discover Vgotsky’s sociocultural
theory and appropriate it for the study of second language learning.
• Sociocultural studies of SLA do not conceive of interaction as just a means for

acquiring morpho-syntax and lexis.
• The single most fundamental tenet of sociocultural theory is that human cognition
is mediated in various ways- through tools, semiotic systems (especially
language), and social interaction.
4. Language Socialization
• Language socialization was proposed by its founding mothers as a linguistic-
anthropological perspective on developmental psychology (Schieffelin and
Ochs, 1986).
• As an interdisciplinary approach to the joint processes of enculturation and

language acquisition, it draws on sociology, psychology, linguistics, and
anthropology, specifically on the ethnography of communication, symbolic
interactionism, phenomenology, and sociocultural theory.
• It has been defined as the process whereby children and other novices are
socialized through language, part of such socialization to use language
meaningfully, appropriately, and effectively (Ochs, 1996).
• In this perspective, language plays a dual role in that it constitutes both means
and a central goal of socialization. Particular focus is given to the linguistic

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resources and interactional practices that inform novices about statuses and
roles in their social group and the recognition and expression of affect.
• The locus of language socialization is concrete activities in which novices

participate with experts- in the case of children, with peers, older siblings, or
adults- and in which they attain, through language use in interaction,
sociocultural knowledge of specific activities and contexts as well as those of
the wider society.
• Accordingly, language socialization is seen as a lifelong process through which

social groups and individuals transform themselves and each other by taking
on alternating expert and novice roles.

1. Explain how functional perspective of language learning influence one’s learning or
acquisition of the target language?
2. How is pragmatics related to the acquisition or learning of the second language?
REFERENCES
Kasper, G., & Ross, K. (2000). Language learning: Pragmatic development in second
language. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Mitchell, R., & Myles, F. (1998) Second language learning theories. London: Arnold.
Module 9
Sociolinguistics and Second
TOPIC

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A. Socio-cultural perspectives in second language acquisition and learning
B. Sociolinguistic perspectives
OBJECTIVES
1. Understand the underlying theories that support the socio-cultural perspectives in
effective second language acquisition and learning;
2. Identify the various factors that help account for the sociolinguistic approaches to
learning the second language.

• 1 meetings (3 hours)
MATERIALS/EQUIPMENT
• Laptop
• LCD
• Power point presentation of the topic to be discussed

• Socio-cultural perspectives in SL acquisition and learning
• Sociolinguistic approaches in SL learning acquisition and learning
PROCEDURE
40 minutes discussion on socio-cultural perspectives

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40 minutes discussion on sociolinguistic approaches
30 minutes processing of discussion
40 minutes article discussion
30 minutes processing of article discussed

I. SOCIO-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND
LEARNING
1. Introduction
• The socio-cultural theory has its roots on Vgotsky particularly on his studies and theories
on child development.
• This was later applied in classroom studies by many educational researchers.
• The discussion in this module will outline a number of key ideas current in contemporary
interpretations/discussions of Vgotsky, which has been recently been taken up by SLL
theorists.
2. Socio-cultural theories
a. Mediation
• Mediation whether physical or symbolic, is understood to be the introduction of an
auxiliary device into an activity that then links humans to the world of objects to
the world of mental behavior.
• From a Vgotskian perspective, the prime symbolic tool available for the mediation
of mental activity is, of course, language. Through language, we can direct our
own attention (or that of others) to significant features in the environment,
formulate a plan, or articulate the steps to be taken in solving a problem.
b. Regulation, Scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development

• The mature, skilled individual is capable of autonomous functioning, that is of self-
regulation.
• However, the child or the unskilled individual learns by carrying out tasks and
activities under the guidance of other more skilled individuals (e.g. parents,
teachers, etc.), initially through a process of other-regulation, typically mediated
through language.
• That is, the child or the learner is inducted into a shared consciousness through
collaborative talk, until eventually they take over new knowledge or skills into
their own individual consciousness.
• The process of supportive dialogue which directs the attention of the learner to key

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features of the environment, and which prompts them through successive steps
of a problem, has come to be known as scaffolding (Wood et al., 1976).
• The domain where learning can most productively take place is called the Zone of
Proximal Development (ZPD).
• It is the domain of knowledge or skill where the learner is not yet capable of
independent functioning, but can achieve the desired outcome given by relevant
scaffolded help.
• ZPD was defined by Vgotsky as the difference between the child’s developmental
level as determined by independent problem solving and the higher level of
potential development as determined through problem solving under adult
guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.
c. Microgenesis
• Throughout their life, human being are capable of learning; and the local learning
process for more mature individuals acquiring new knowledge or skills is viewed
as essentially the same.
• That is, new concepts continue to be acquired through social/interactional means, a

process which can sometimes be traced visibly in the course of talk between
expert and novice. M
• This local, contextualized learning process is labeled microgenesis; it is central to

sociocultural accounts of language learning.
d. Private and Inner Speech

• Private speech is viewed differently in sociocultural theory. It is seen as evidence of
the child’s growing ability to regulate his own behavior- when, for example, the
child talks to himself through the painting of a picture, or solving a puzzle.
• For Vygotsky, private speech eventually becomes inner speech, a use of language
to regulate internal thought, without any external articulation. Thus for Vygotsky,
private speech reflects an advance on the earliest uses of language which are
both social and interpersonal.
e. Activity Theory

• Leontiev (1981) proposed that Activity Theory comprises a series of proposals for
conceptualizing the social context within which individual learning takes place.
• In his analysis, Leontiev conceived activity as containing a subject, an object,

actions and operations. A perfect example is the classroom set up.
• Donato and McCormick (1994) define activity in terms of sociocultural settings in

which collaborative interaction, intersubjectivity, and assisted performance occur.
J. SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVES ON SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND

LEARNING
1. Introduction

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• Sociolinguistics or the study of language in use, is itself a diverse field, with multiple
theoretical perspectives.
• In second language learning studies, we find that one main strand of sociolinguistic
influence is concerned with the description of L2 use.
3. Ethnography of L2 Communication
• Ethnography of communication studies the social roles of language, in structuring the

identities of individuals and the culture of entire communities and societies.
• In particular, linguistic anthropologists such as Hymes, Saville-Troike and others have

studied the characteristics of speech events which have patterning and
significance for members of a particular speech community.
• Examples of speech events with their own distinctive structures and routines in
current urban society might be telephone conversations, service encounters,
classroom interactions, or job interviews.
• The ability to participate appropriately in relevant speech events is an important part

of communicative competence, now generally accepted as the broad eventual
target of L2 learning, as well as of L1 development.
• The ethnography of L2 communication aims similarly to study contexts and events

where participants are struggling to achieve communicative goals through the
means of second or other language.
• A number of themes are prominent in ethnographic studies of L2 use, which are

relatively neglected in other types of L2 research. These themes are:
a.) Gatekeeping and power relations in L2 communication
b.) Mismatches and change in cultural expectations
c.) Speakers’ identity and self-esteem
d.) Affect and emotion in L2 use
4. Variation in Second Language Use
• Variability is an obvious feature of both child language and of learners’ of L2

interlanguage, which has been noted and discussed in many studies.
• Towell and Hawkins (1994) argue that it is one of the basic characteristics of
interlanguage which learning theorists have to explain.
• By variability, we refer to the fact that L2 learners commonly produce different

versions of particular constructions, more or less close to the target language form
within a short time span.
4 Main Types of Variation:
a. Variation according to linguistic context
b. Variation according to psychological processing factors
c. Variation according to features of social context (interlocutor, task or topic, social

norms)
d. Variation according to language function
5. Pidginization and Acculturation

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• In the late 1970’s John Schumann made a number of theoretical proposals about
second language learning.
• He popularized the two linked concepts of pidginization and acculturation, which

served for a decade or more as some of the main representatives of sociolinguistic
thinking in the field of second language acquisition.
• The concept of pidginization is inspired by the branch of sociolinguistics which

concerns itself with the study of contact languages (pidgins and creole).
• According to Schumann, pidginization may be a universal first stage in second

language acquisition
• Pidgin languages are contact varieties without native speakers, which arise in
settings of military or trade contact, slavery or plantation labor. To summarize,
pidgins have the following characteristics:
a. Have no native speakers
b. Are the result of contact between 2 or more languages
c. Are not mutually intelligible with their source languages
d. Usually draw most of their vocabulary from one language
e. Have grammars which are simplified and reduced compared with the grammars of
their input languages
f. Tend to have simple phonological systems
g. Tend to have semantically transparent relationships between words and meanings
h. Have small vocabularies where words cover a wide semantic range
• Schumann (1986) ended by proposing the concept of acculturation as a way of

accounting much more generally for the varying degrees of success achieved by
(unrestricted adult) L2 learners. In his terms, whether learners moved beyond the
initial, pidginization stage or not was dependent on the extent of social and
psychological contact with the TL group—the degree to which a learner
acculturates to the TL group will control the degree to which he acquires the
second language.
6. Second Language Socialization
• Second language socialization has its roots in anthropological linguistics (Foley,

1997), and some key studies in this tradition are ethnographic studies of children
learning to talk (and to read and write) their first language, in non-Western, non-
urban societies.
• Researchers in the language socialization tradition believe that language and culture
are not separable, but are acquired together, with each providing support for the
development of the other.
• Ochs (1988) posits that it is evident that acquisition of linguistic knowledge and
acquisition of socio-cultural knowledge are interdependent. A basic task of the
language acquirer is to acquire tacit knowledge of principles relating to linguistic
forms not only to each other but also to referential and nonreferential meanings
and functions.
• He also added that given the meanings and functions are to a large extent
socioculturally organized, linguistic knowledge is embedded in sociocultural
knowledge. On the other hand, understandings of the social organization of
everyday life, cultural ideologies, moral values, beliefs, and structures of

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knowledge and interpretation are to a large extent acquired through the medium of
language.
• Language socialization however, is not a one-way process by which the learners

blindly appropriate static knowledge and skills. It occurs through the micropolitics of
social interaction.

1. How will the different sociolinguistic perspectives presented in this module affect your
own perspective in the teaching of English as a second language?
2. Among the different sociolinguistic perspectives we have discussed, what do you think
is the best ‘model’ that will account for your students’ acquisition or learning of the
target language?
REFERENCES
Mitchel, R., & Myles, F. (1998). Second language learning theories. London: Arnold.
Module 10
Classroom and Second Language
Acquisition
TOPICS
A. Classroom interaction and second language acquisition
B. Formal instruction and second language acquisition
OBJECTIVES
1. familiarize themselves with the different aspects of classroom interaction and its

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importance in the acquisition and/or learning of the second language;
2. identify the relationships of classroom and formal instruction with the acquisition and /or
learning of the target language

MATERIALS/EQUIPMENT
• Laptop
• LCD
• Power point presentation on the topics to be discussed

• Classroom interaction
• Formal instruction
• Methods of researching learning in the second language classroom
• Aspects of classroom interaction
• Effects of interaction on acquisition
PROCEDURE
40 minutes Discussion on classroom interaction and SLA
40 minutes Discussion on formal instruction and SLA
40 minutes Report on the article assigned
35 minutes Processing of the report

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K. INTRODUCTION
• The classroom affords the L2 researcher three different perspectives:
1. The first perspective is that found in comparative method studies. These seek to
compare the effect of different language teaching methods on L2 learning.
Such studies are ‘product’-based because they rely entirely on

measurements of language learning and make no attempt to examine the
instructional and learning ‘processes’ that take place inside the classroom.
2. The second perspective involves going inside the ‘black box’ of the classroom
itself. It views the classroom as a place where interactions of various kinds
take place, affording learners opportunities to acquire the L2.
Allwright (1984) sees interaction as the fundamental fact of pedagogy

through a process of live person-to-person interaction. This perspective has
drawn heavily on the research and theories dealing with the relationship
between input/interaction and L2 learning.
It leads the researcher to observe and describe the interactional events that
take place in a classroom in order to understand how learning opportunities
are created.
3. The third perspective involves investigating the effects of formal instruction. In

this case, instruction is viewed as an attempt to intervene directly in the
language learning process by teaching specific properties of the L2.
Researchers have been particularly interested in whether instruction directed

at specific grammatical rules has any effect on interlanguage development.
L. CLASSROOM INTERACTION AND

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
1. Methods of Researching Learning in the

Second Language Classroom
• Chaudron (1988) describes four different research traditions in L2 classroom
research.
• The psychometric and interaction analysis typically involve ‘quantitative’ and
‘explanatory’ research, while the discourse analysis and ethnographic traditions
make use of more ‘qualitative’ and ‘descriptive’ methods.
Tradition Typical Issues Methods

Psychometric Language gain from different Experimental method-

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methods, materials, treatments. pre- and post-tests with
experimental and control
groups.
Interaction Analysis Extent to which learner behavior Coding classroom
is a function of teacher- interactions in terms of
determined interaction. various observation
systems and schedules.
Discourse Analysis Analysis of classroom discourse Study classroom
in linguistic terms. transcripts and assign
utterances to pre-
determined categories.
Ethnographic Obtain insights into the Naturalistic ‘uncontrolled’
classroom as a cultural system. observation and
description.
4 Research Traditions
a. The Psychometric Tradition
• The psychometric tradition is evident in program-product comparisons of
the kind used to evaluate different types of immersion programs.
• The main problem with such studies is that without a process element to
provide information about the actual events that take place inside the
classroom, it is difficult to be certain that the method-program
distinctions actually result in different classroom behaviors.
• The psychometric approach is also evident in correlational studies that
have examined the relationship between specific classroom behaviors
(such as teachers’ requests) and learning outcomes.
b. Interaction Analysis
• The interaction analysis involves the use of a form or schedule consisting
of a set of categories for coding specific classroom behaviors.
• Long (1980) refers to three different types of interaction analysis:
(1) Category system
• each event is coded each time it occurs
(2) Sign system
• each event is recorded only once within a fixed time span
(3) Rating scale
• an estimate of how frequently a specific type of event
occurred is made after the observation period
c. Discourse Analysis
- Discourse analysis serves as a device for systematically describing the
kinds of interactions that occur in language classrooms.
- Drawing on initial work on content classrooms by Belleck et al. (1966)
and by the Birmingham school of linguists (Sinclair and Coulthard,
1975; Coulthard and Montgomery, 1981; Sinclair and Brazil, 1982)
discourse analysis give attention not only to the function on individual
utterances but also to how these utterances combine to form larger
discoursal units.
- They aim to account for the joint contributions of the teacher and student
and to describe all the data, avoiding the kind of ‘ragbag’ category found
in many interaction analysis schedules.
- The Birmingham framework can be adapted to account for the discourse
structure found in language lessons. Some researchers have made use
of discourse analysis to show how ‘natural’ discourse is distorted in the

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language classroom as a result of the teacher’s dominance.
- Other researchers have developed frameworks based on discourse
analysis to characterize the different types of interaction that can occur in
the L2 classroom.
- More commonly, researchers have used the techniques of discourse
analysis to develop comprehensive accounts of specific areas of
discourse. Studies involve teacher feedback and discourse-based
analysis of teacher’s questions to mention a few.
d. The Ethnographic Tradition

• The ethnographic tradition involves the kind of detailed descriptive work
advocated by Van Lier (1988).
• Long (1980b) identifies a number of ethnographic approaches:
(1) Participant Ethnography
• it involves the researcher taking a regular part in the activities
under study
(2) Non-participant Ethnography

• sets the researcher outside the classroom events being
observed
• it uses a variety of data collection techniques such as: note
taking, interviewing, questionnaires, ratings of personal
opinions
• Gaies (1983a) gives three advantages of such method:
(1) it can account for learners who do not participate actively in class
(2) it can provide insights into the conscious thought processes of
participants
(3) it helps to identify variables which have not previously been
acknowledged
2. Aspects of Classroom Interaction

• Classroom process research viewed language lessons as ‘socially
constructed events’ and sought to understand how they took place.

a. The nature of second language classroom discourse
• Classroom discourse mediates between pedagogic decision-making and
the outcomes of language instruction.
• Teachers plan their lessons by making selections with regard to what to
teach (syllabus), how to teach (method), and perhaps also the nature of
the social relationships they want to encourage (atmosphere).
• When acted on, their plans result in classroom interaction.
• The interaction provides learners with opportunities to encounter input or to
practice the L2.
Syllabus Input
Method Practice opportunities
Atmosphere Receptivity
(1) Teacher Talk

• Teacher talk has attracted attention because of its potential effect on
learners’ comprehension, which has been hypothesized to be important
for L2 acquisition.

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• Chaudron (1988) summarizes the main features of teacher talk based on
the comprehensive survey of studies on teacher talk.
Main Features of Teacher Talk

Feature Main Conclusions
Amount of talk In general, it was found that teachers take
about two-thirds of the total talking time
Functional distribution Researches also suggest that teachers
dominate talk time. They are likely to use the
time to explain, question and command
learners to respond.
Rate of Speech Teachers slow down their rate of speech when
talking to L2 learners.
Pauses Teachers are likely to make use of longer
pauses when talking to L2 learners than to
native speakers.
Phonology, intonation, Teachers appear to speak more loudly and to
articulation, stress make their speech more distinct when
addressing L2 learners.
Modifications in Teachers vary the use of vocabulary in
vocabulary accordance with the level of proficiency of
their L2 students.
Modifications in syntax Teachers use fewer marked structures but use
more declaratives and statements than
questions.
Modifications in There is some evidence that teachers use
discourse more self-repetitions with L2 learners, in
particular when they are low level proficiency.
(2) Error Treatment

• Error treatment constitutes an interactional event of considerable
complexity. Teachers do not correct all their students’ errors and they are
often inconsistent in whether they correct and which errors they correct.
Learners often fail to incorporate the teacher’s corrections in their
subsequent responses.
• A number of terms have been used to refer to the general area of error
treatment; these are ‘feedback’, ‘repair’ and ‘correction.’
• Feedback serves as a general cover term for the information provided by
learners on the reception and comprehension of messages.
• Repair refers to attempts to identify and remedy communication problems,
including those that derive from linguistic errors.
• Correction refers to attempts to deal specifically with linguistic errors; it
constitutes an attempt to supply ‘negative evidence’ in the form of
feedback that draws the learners’ attention to the errors they have made.
• Chaudron (1977) distinguishes four types of error treatment:
(a) Treatment that results in learners’ ‘autonomous ability’ to correct
themselves on an item.
(b) Treatment that results in the elicitation of a correct response from
learners.
(c) Any reaction by the teachers that clearly transforms, disapprovingly
refers to, or demands improvement.
(d) Positive to negative reinforcement involving expressions of approval
or disapproval.
(3) Teachers’ Questions

• Teachers, whether in content classrooms or in language classrooms,

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typically ask a lot of questions.
• Teachers vary considerably in the number and the type of questions they
ask. Several studies have shown that display/closed questions
predominate over referential/open questions. The latter type may result in
more meaning negotiation and more complex learner output.
• Studies of teachers’ questions in the L2 classroom have focused on the
frequency of the different types of questions, wait time (the length of time
the teacher is prepared to wait for an answer), the nature of the learners’
output when answering questions, the effect of the learners’ level of
proficiency on questioning, the possibility of training teachers to ask more
‘communicative’ questions, and the variation evident in teachers’
questioning strategies.
(4) Learner Participation

• Studies investigating the relationship between learner participation and L2
proficiency have produced inconsistent rules.
• Both a ‘participation causes proficiency’ and a ‘proficiency causes
participation’ explanation need to be considered.
(5) Tasks and Interaction

• The quantity and quality of interaction varies according to task.
• Although much work needs to be done to establish how specific task
characteristics affect interaction, there is some preliminary evidence to
suggest that tasks which require information exchange, allow learners to
plan their output, and have a limited number of possible outcomes result
in interaction which facilitates acquisition.
(6) Small-group work and Interaction

• Small-group work has been found to provide more opportunities for
meaning negotiation than lockstep teaching, if the tasks are of the
‘required-information exchange’ type.
• The quality of interaction also appears to be enhanced if the learners
comprising the pair/group are heterogeneous with regard to sex and
proficiency level.
• Group work may not be the best way to develop sociolinguistic competence.
• However, Long and Porter (1987) suggest that group work increases
language practice opportunities, it improves the quality of student talk, it
helps to individualize instruction, it promotes a positive affective climate,
and it motivates learners to learn.
b. Structure and General Characteristics of classroom discourse

• Classroom discourse has an identifiable structure.
• Mehan (1979) distinguishes three components in general subject lessons:
(1) an opening phase, where the participants inform each other that they
are, in fact, going to conduct a lesson as opposed to some other
activity
(2) an instructional phase, where information is exchanges between
teacher and students
(3) a closing phase, where participants are reminded of what went on in
the core of the lesson
• Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) also developed a hierarchical model by
identifying the following ‘ranks’ in the structure of the classroom discourse:
(1) Lesson
(2) Transaction
(3) Exchange
(4) Move
(5) Act

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c. Types of Language Use
• Several researches have sought to describe classroom interaction by
identifying the different types of language use or interaction found in the
L2 classroom.
• Allwright (1980) provides what he calls a ‘micro-analysis of language
teaching and learning’ by identifying three basic elements:
(1) Samples – instances of the target language, in isolation or in use
(2) Guidance – instances of communication concerning the nature of the
target language
(3) Management activities – aimed at ensuring the profitable occurrence
of (1) and (2)
• Other accounts of types of classroom use distinguish between interaction
where the focus is the code itself (a key feature of the language
classroom) and interactions which center on genuine meaning exchange.
McTear (1975) identifies four types of language use based on this general
distinction:
(1) Mechanical (no exchange of meaning is involved)
(2) And Meaningful (meaning is contextualized but there is still no
information conveyed)
(3) Pseudo-communicative (i.e. new information is conveyed but in a
manner that is unlikely in naturalistic discourse)
(4) Real communication (i.e. spontaneous speech resulting from the
exchange of opinions, jokes, classroom management, etc.).
d. Turn-taking
• Research which has specifically examined turn-taking in the L2 classroom
has drawn extensively on ethnomethodological studies of naturally
occurring conversations (e.g. Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson, 1974).
• These identified a number of rules that underlie speaker selection and
change:
(1) Only one speaker speaks at a time
(2) A speaker can select the next speaker by nominating or by performing the
first pair of an adjacency pair (e.g. asking a question that requires an answer)
(3) A speaker can alternately allow the next speaker to self-select
(4) And there is usually competition to take the next turn
• Lorscher (1986) found that turn-taking in language classrooms does not differ
from that in general subject classrooms.
• He found that turns were almost invariably allocated by the teacher, the right to
speak returned to the teacher when a student turn was completed, and the
teacher had the right to interrupt or stop a student turn.
• Lorscher argues that these rules are determined by the nature of the school as a
public institution and by the teaching-learning process.
• Van Lier (1988) identifies a number of turn-taking behaviors that he considers the
identification of participation in classroom discourse as characterized by what he
calls as learner initiative.
Van Lier’s Indicators of Learner Initiative in Classroom Discourse:

(1) Topic
• The turn is off-stream (i.e. discontinuing), introduces something new, or
denies/disputes a proposition in a previous turn.
(2)Self-selection
• Selection originates from the speaker
(3)Allocation
• The turn selects one specific next speaker
(4)Sequence
• The turn is independent of the sequence.

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3. The Relationship between Classroom Interaction
and Second Language Learning
a. Second Language Learning in the Communicative Classroom

• A number of scholars have proposed that the most effective way of
developing successful L2 competence in a classroom is to ensure that the
learners have sufficient opportunities to participate in discourse directed
at the exchange of information.
• There is now convincing evidence that learners can learn ‘naturally’ in
communicative classroom setting.
• However, it was found that an intensive ESL course which was taught by
means of communicative methods emphasizing tasks leading to natural
interaction produced little evidence of syntactic development.
• Researchers also recognized that learners in immersion programs generally
fail to acquire certain grammatical distinctions.
• Ellis (1992a) argue that classroom learners may experience interpersonal
needs to perform speech acts such as requests, and also expressive
needs that lead them to do so in varied ways, but they do not experience
any sociolinguistic need to modify the way they perform these speech
acts in accordance with situational factors.
• This is because the classroom constitutes an environment where
interactants achieve great familiarity with each other, removing the need
for the careful face-work that results in the use of these speech acts.
• Ellis also presented his views of teaching in the communicative classrooms:
(1) Giving beginning learners opportunities for meaningful communication
in the classroom helps to develop communicative abilities and
also results in linguistic abilities no worse than those developed
through more traditional, form-focused approaches.
(2) Communicative classroom settings may not be sufficient to ensure the
development of high levels of linguistic and sociolinguistic
competence, although they may be very successful in developing
fluency and effective discourse skills.
b. The Effect of Interaction on Acquisition

• The following conclusions are some of the evidences to present the effects
of interaction on the learners’ acquisition:
(1) Opportunities to negotiate meaning may help the acquisition of L2
vocabulary (Tanaka, 1991; Yamazaki, 1991).
(2) Pushing learners to reformulate their utterances to make them more
target-like may lead to greater grammatical accuracy in the long term
(Nobuyoshi and Ellis, 1993).
(3) Teacher-controlled ‘pedagogic discourse’ may contribute to the
acquisition of formal language skills, while learner controlled ‘natural
discourse’ may help the development of oral language skills
(McDonald, Stone and Yates, 1977).
(4) Learners need access to well-formed input that is tailored to their own
level of understanding. This can be achieved in teacher-directed
lessons with a clearly-defined structure and by well-adjusted teacher
talk (Wong-Filmore, 1982; 1985).
(5) Listening to other students in teacher-led lessons may be more
important for learning than direct learner participation (Slimani, 1989).

4. The Difference between Classroom and Naturalistic Discourse
• The discourse that results from trying to learn a language is different from
that which results from trying to communicate.

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• Edmondson (1985) draws on Labov’s (1985) idea of the Observer’s
Paradox, to suggest that there is also ‘the teacher’s paradox’, which
states that teachers seek in the classroom to teach people how to talk
when they are not being taught.
• Thus, there is a tension between the discourse that is appropriate to
pedagogic goals and discourse that is appropriate to pedagogic settings.
• Kramsch (1985) suggests that the nature of classroom discourse will
depend on the roles the participants adopt, the nature of the learning
tasks, and the kind of knowledge that is targeted.
• Instructional discourse arises when the teacher and the students act out
institutional roles, the tasks are concerned with the transmission and
reception of information and are controlled by the teacher, and there is a
focus on knowledge as a product and on accuracy.
• Naturalistic discourse is characterized by more fluid roles established
through interaction, tasks that encourage equal participation in the
negotiation of meaning, and a focus on the interactional process itself and
on fluency.
B. FORMAL INSTRUCTION AND

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
1. Introduction
• The term formal instruction has been understood to refer to grammar
teaching.
• This reflects both the importance which has been traditionally attached to
grammar teaching in language pedagogy, and also the centrality of
grammar in SLA research.
• The focus on grammar has had both a practical and a theoretical
motivation.
• It has helped teachers to understand the factors that determine whether
instruction is successful, and it has helped researchers to explore a
number of issues of importance for theory building- in particular, the
relationship between the linguistic environment and the learner’s internal
processing mechanisms.
2. The Effects of Formal Instruction in

Second Language Learning
• Teachers use formal instruction because they want to develop learner’s
general proficiency, to improve accuracy with which they use specific
features, and to help them acquire new linguistic features.
• The following are some discussions made to present the effects of formal
instruction in second language learning:
a. The Effects of Formal Instruction in General Language Proficiency

• The studies done under this classification has sought to examine whether
learners who receive formal instruction achieve higher levels of L2
proficiency than those who do not.
• In general, it was found that formal instruction helps learners (both foreign
and second) to develop greater L2 proficiency, particularly if it is linked
with opportunities for natural exposure. Foreign language learners benefit
by developing greater linguistic accuracy.
b. The Effects of Formal Instruction on Production Accuracy

• This classification has considered the effects of formal instructions on the
accuracy with which learners use specific linguistic items and rules.

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• There is sufficient evidence to show that formal instructions can
result in definite gains in accuracy. If the structure is ‘simple’ in the
sense that it does not involve complex processing operations and is
clearly related to a specific function, and if the formal instruction is
extensive and well-planned, it is likely to work.
• However, if the instruction is directed at a difficult grammatical structure
which is substantially beyond the learners’ current interlanguage, it is
likely that it will only lead to improved accuracy in planned language use,
when learners can pay conscious attention to structure.
• Instruction may lead to more accurate use of grammatical structures in
communication provided a learner is able to process them.
c. Formal Instruction and the Sequence of Acquisition

• This classification has studied whether formal instruction affects the order or
sequence of acquisition.
• The following are some of the conclusions that were drawn to explain the
importance of formal instruction and the sequence of acquisition:
(1) Instructed learners manifest the same order of morpheme acquisition
as naturalistic learners (Fathman, 1978).
(2) Instructed learners also manifest the same order of acquisition of
features comprising grammatical sub-systems such as relative
pronoun functions as naturalistic learners (Pavesi, 1986).
(3) Grammar instruction may prove powerless to alter the natural
sequence of acquisition of developmental structures, as these are
manifest in learner production (Pienemann, 1989).
(4) Premature instruction may cause learners to avoid using structures
and so may inhibit acquisition (Pienemann, 1987).
(5) Grammar instruction can be effective in enabling learners to progress
along the natural order more rapidly. One way in which this might be
achieved is by teaching marked features within the sequence
(Eckman et al., 1988).
(6) Grammatical features that are not subject to developmental
constraints may be amenable to instruction (Pienemann, 1984).
(7) Formal instruction may help learners to comprehend the meanings of
grammatical structures, even if it does not enable them to use the
structures in production (Buczowska and Weist, 1991).
d. The Durability of Formal Instruction

• This classification has investigated to what extent any effects for instruction
are durable (i.e. whether the effects are short term or long term).
• Lightbown (1991a) suggests that for the effects of instruction to be lasting,
learners need subsequent and possibly continuous access to
communication that utilizes the features that have been taught.
• Only if learners are motivated to acquire native-speaker norms, as a result
perhaps of a desire to become integrated into the target-language culture,
or as a result of an instrumental need to pass an examination that places
premium on grammatical accuracy, will they retain features that from a
purely communicative point of view are redundant.
• According to this view, the durability of instructional effects is closely linked
to the nature of the learner’s motivation.

3. The Effects of Different Types of Formal Instruction
a. Focus on Forms vs. Focus on Form

• Focus on forms refers to instruction that seeks to isolate linguistic forms in
order to teach and test them one at a time.
• It is found when language teaching is based on a structural syllabus.
• Focus on form involves alternating in some principled way between a focus

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on meaning and a focus on form.
• It occurs when teachers follow a task-based syllabus, but focus learners’
attention on specific linguistic properties in the course of carrying out
communicative activities.
• Long (1991) argues that instruction built around a focus on forms is
counter-productive, while that which allows for focus on form results in
faster learning and higher levels of proficiency.
• This encourages learners to pay attention to the formal properties of
language in the context of trying to communicate either by means of
meaning negotiation or by corrective feedback. This may facilitate
acquisition (Lightbown and Spada, 1990).
• A focus on form approach to language instruction is attractive as it provides
a way of integrating ‘fluency’ and ‘accuracy.’
b. Implicit vs. Explicit Instruction

• Formal instruction can take the form of an implicit treatment, where learners
are required to induce rules from examples given to them, or an explicit
treatment, where learners are given a rule which they then practice using.
• To balance, the available evidence indicates that an explicit presentation of
rules is the most effective way of presenting difficult new material.
However, the effectiveness of an implicit or explicit instructional treatment
may depend on the type of linguistic material being learnt and the
characteristics of the individual learner.
c. Practice vs. ‘Consciousness-raising’

• Traditionally, a focus on forms approach has involved giving learners the
opportunity to practice.
• Ellis (1991) identified a number of features of language practice from the
teacher’s perspective:
(1) there is some attempt to isolate specific grammar features
(2) learners are required to produce sentences containing the targeted
structure
Classroom
(3) they must do so repetitively Interaction
(4) they are expected to do so correctly
(5) they receive corrective feedback
• Formal instruction might alternatively take the form of conscious raising,
which differs from practice primarily with regard to (2), (3) and (4).
• In conscious raising activities, the learners are not expected to produce the
target structure, only to understand it by formulating some kind of
cognitive representation of how it works.
• Whereas practice is aimed at developing implicit knowledge of the rule,
consciousness raising is directed only at explicit knowledge.
d. Interpretation vs. Practice

• One of the assumptions of formal instruction directed at interpretation is that
it is psycholinguistically easier to manipulate the process of intake than it
is to ensure that learners accommodate intake by undertaking the
necessary restructuring of their interlanguage systems.
• Interpretation teaching typically requires learners to display their
comprehension of input that has been carefully structured to contain
examples of specific rules or items.
• Practice on the other hand serves as one of the ways in which learners can
improve their accuracy over linguistic features they already acquired.
• For practice to be of any real benefit, however, it may be necessary to
ensure that it takes place under real operating conditions by providing
opportunities for learners to produce target structure in similar
circumstances to those that prevail in normal communication.

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4. The Role of Formal Instruction: Some Theoretical Positions
•
a. The Zero Option
• The zero option advocates the abandonment of formal instruction.
• Prahu (1987) have proposed that classroom language learning will proceed
more effectively if language learners are allowed to construct their
interlanguages ‘naturally’, in the same way as they would if they were
learning through the process of learning how to communicate.
• He further states that the development of competence in a second language
requires not systematization of language inputs or maximization of
planned practice, but rather the creation of conditions in which learners
engage in an effort to cope with communication.
• The zero position, as advocate by Krashen and Prahbu entails not only a
rejection of planned intervention by means of the presentation and
practice of different items and rules but also of unplanned intervention in
the form of error correction.
b. The Interface Hypothesis

• According to the interface hypothesis, instruction facilitates acquisition by:
(1) supplying the learner with conscious rules
(2) providing practice to enable them to convert this conscious ‘controlled’
knowledge into ‘automatic’ knowledge
• The main problem with the interface hypothesis is that it does not give
recognition to the difficulty of altering developmental sequences; learners
do not acquire structures they are not ready for, no matter how much they
practice.
c. The Variability Hypothesis

• The variability hypothesis differs from the interface hypothesis in one major
respect; it claims that teaching learners new structures will affect their
careful style but not their vernacular style.
• Thus its effects will be evident when learners are performing in planned
language use but not in unplanned language use.
• This hypothesis explains why instruction is powerless to alter the ‘natural’
route of acquisition, as this is evident only in the learner’s vernacular
style.
• It also explains why instructed learners do better overall than untutored
learners, as the former benefit from the ‘pull effect’ of a more developed
careful style.
d. The Teachability Hypothesis

• Pienemann (1985a) proposes that the best way to facilitate natural
language development is through the presentation and practice of a
series of discrete linguistic teaching points (i.e. focus on forms).
e. The Selective Attention Hypothesis

• This position states that formal instruction acts as an aid to acquisition, not
by actually bringing about the internalization of new linguistic features, but
rather by providing the learner with ‘points of success’ (Lightbown,
1985a).
• Practice does work, but not always. In particular, practice may often fail to
bring about any development in the learner’s vernacular style. Teaching
learners structures they are ready for, however, can result in ‘full’
acquisition and can cause learners to use the structures in a wide range
of linguistic context.
• Facilitating selective attention by devising instructional activities that equip
learners with conscious rules, or that help them interpret the meanings of

Page 87 of 95
specific forms in the input, is both psycholinguistically feasible and
possible in practical terms.
• Finally, formal instruction may prove most facilitative when it matches the
learners’ preferred learning styles.

1. Discuss the difference between classroom interaction and formal instruction. How do
these differences relate to second language acquisition and learning?
2. How is the study of classroom interaction and formal instruction important in the
learning process of the target language?
REFERENCES
Module 11
Approaches to Second Language
Teaching
TOPIC
A. Second language learning and language teaching styles
B. Present day teaching methods
C. Alternatives methods to aid second language learners

Page 88 of 95
OBJECTIVES
1. familiarize themselves with the different second language teaching methods;
2. understand the second language learning and language teaching styles most
appropriate for their learners

MATERIALS/EQUIPMENT
• LCD
• Laptop
• Power point presentation on the discussion

• Present day second language teaching methods
• Alternative methods
• Second language learning and language teaching styles
PROCEDURE
30 minutes discussion on second language teaching styles
30 minutes discussion on present day methods of teaching
30 minutes discussion on alternative methods
20 minutes processing of the discussion

Page 89 of 95
50 minutes demo-teaching using the methods discussed

A. SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING AND
LANGUAGE TEACHING STYLES
1. The Academic Style
• The academic style is characterized by teaching techniques of grammatical
explanation and translation, and by its reliance on texts.
• This style is a time honored way of teaching foreign languages, popular in secondary
schools and in the teaching of advanced students in the university systems around the
world.
• The academic style does not directly teach people to use the language for the same
purpose outside the classroom. Ostensibly it is language teaching with individual goals
aimed primarily at the learning of L2 as an academic subject, in other words at the
creation of linguistic competence in the students’ minds.
• It often tries in addition to train the students to think better, to appreciate other cultures,
and to foster other educational values.
• But the academic style is also frequently intended as preparation for the actual use of
language. By developing academic knowledge the student eventually becomes able to
use the L2 in real-life situations outside the classroom.
• While the style does not directly practice communication in the classroom, nevertheless it
can provide a basis for communication when the student requires it.
2. The Audiolingual Style
• Lado (1964) proposes that the audiolingual style has its emphasis on teaching the spoken
language through dialogues and drills.
• The audiolingual style most blatantly reflects a particular set of beliefs about L2 learning,
often referred to as a ‘habit formation.’ Language learning is seen as a set of habits.
• The dialogues concentrate on unconscious ‘structures’ rather than the conscious ‘rules’ of
the academic style.
• The goal of the audiolingual style is to get the students ‘behave’ in common L2 situations.
It is not learning language for its own sake but learning it for actual use, either within the
society or without.
• Syllabi and textbooks in the audiolingual style see structures, phonemes, and vocabulary
items as the sum total of language. Though based on the four skills of listening,
speaking, reading, and writing, it pays surprisingly little attention to the distinctive
features of each skill.
3. The Social Communicative Style
• In the social communicative style, language is defined as communication between people,

rather than as texts or grammatical rules or patterns.
• Language is seen as forming relationships with people and for interrelating with them.
Using language means meeting people and talking to them. Language is not so much
rules or structures or texts as ways of talking to people. It aims to give the students the
ability to engage in conversations with people.
• The teaching syllabus is primarily a way of listing the aspects of communication the

Page 90 of 95
students will find most useful, whether functions, notions, or processes. It tries to
develop the students’ ability to communicate fluently rather than in grammatical flawless
sentences.
4. The Information Communicative Style

• Teaching that emphasizes the information that is transferred rather than the social
interaction between the participants can be called information communicative style.
• The overall goal is to get students to use the language, first by comprehending, then by
producing.
• The information communicative style is hard to illustrate from teaching materials because it
mostly depends on the individual teacher’s preparation and improvisation during the
class.
• In terms of classrooms, it is teacher-dominated, with the teacher supplying, in person or

through materials, the language input and the organization of the students’ activities and
classroom strategies.
5. The Mainstream EFL Style
• The goals of the mainstream EFL style in a sense is like an updated versions of
audiolingualism.
• What matters is how students use language in the eventual real-world situation rather than
their academic knowledge or the spin-off in general educational values.
• The version of learning involved is similarly a compromise, suggesting that students learn
by conscious understanding, by sheer practice, and by attempting to talk to each other.
B. PRESENT DAY TEACHING METHODS

1. Grammar-Translation
• Grammar translation implicitly assumes that conscious control of grammar is necessary for
mastery. In other words, learning needs to precede acquisition.
• This assumption necessitates that all target structures be introduced and explained. There
is, therefore, no limitation of the set rules to be learned to those that are learnable,
portable, and not yet acquired.
• Most grammar-translation classes are designed for foreign language instruction and are
taught in the students’ first language.
• While there is some variation, grammar-translation usually consists of the following:
(a) Explanation of a grammar rule, with sample sentences.
(b) Vocabulary, presented in the form of a bilingual list.
(c) A reading selection, emphasizing the rule presented in (1) and (2).
(d) Exercises designed to provide practice on the grammar and vocabulary of lesson.
These exercises emphasize on translation in both directions, from L1 to L2 and L2 to

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L1.
2. Audio-Lingualism
• Audio-lingual language teaching lesson typically begins with a dialogue, which contains the
structures and vocabulary of the lesson.
• The student is expected to mimic the dialogue and eventually memorize it. Often, the class
practices the dialogue as a group, and then in smaller groups.
• The dialogue is followed by pattern drill on the structures introduced in the dialogue. The
aim of the drill is to ‘strengthen habits’, to make the pattern ‘automatic.’
• There are four basic drill types:
(a) simple repetition
(b) substitution
(c) transformation (e.g. changing an affirmative sentence into negative sentence)
(d) translation
3. Cognitive Code
• Cognitive code assumes that once the student has a proper degree of cognitive control
over the structures of the language, facility will develop automatically with the use
language in meaningful situations. In other words, learning becomes acquisition.
• The assumption of cognitive code is that conscious learning can be accomplished by

everyone, that all rules are learnable, and that conscious knowledge should be available
at all times.
• Like the grammar-translation, the lesson begins with an explanation of the rule, and this is
often done, in foreign language situations, in the students’ first language. Activities follow
the lesson. These activities provide the practice in meaningful situations include the
following:
(a) dialogues
(b) games
(c) role playing
4. Direct Method
• The direct method assumes that conscious control is necessary for acquisition, that
conscious knowledge of grammar can be assessed at all times, and by all students.
• It demands full control of late-acquired structures in oral production from the very
beginning and may thus encourage over-use of the grammar.
• The language used in the classroom is the target language. This includes the language of
the exercises and the teacher talk used for classroom management.
• The method focuses on inductive teaching of grammar. To aid in induction, the teacher
asks questions that are hopefully interesting and meaningful, and the students’ response
is then used to provide an example of the target structure.
• The goal of instruction is for the students to guess, or work out, the rules of the language.

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• The direct method insists on accuracy and errors are corrected in class.
5. Natural Approach
• The natural approach is designed to be consistent with what is known as monitor

functioning. The absence of error corrections in the classroom is a recognition that there
are constraints on when the conscious grammar is used: students are expected to utilize
the monitor only at home, when they have time, when they are focused on the form, and
when they know, or are learning a rule.
• This method can be described by the following principles:
(a) Class time is devoted primarily for providing input for acquisition.
(b) The teacher speaks only the target language in the classroom. The students may use
either the first and second language. If they choose to respond in the second
language, their errors are not corrected unless communication is seriously impaired.
(c) Homework may include formal grammar work. Error corrections are employed in
correcting homework.
(d) The goals of the course are ‘semantic;’ activities nay involve the use of a certain
structure, but the goals are to enable students to talk about ideas, perform tasks, and
solve problems.
6. Total Physical Response
• The total physical response or TPR, consists basically of obeying commands given by the
instructor that involve an overt physical response.
• The assumption of TPR is that grammar will be learned inductively, that is, students will
work out to correct form of the rule during the class activity.
• Asher (1977b) lists the three principles of the TPR system:
(a) Delay speech from students until the understanding of spoken language has been
extensively internalized.
(b) Achieve understanding of spoken language through utterances by the instructor in

the imperative.
(c) Expect that, at some point in the understanding of spoken language, students will
indicate a ‘readiness’ to talk.
C. ALTERNATIVE METHODS TO AID SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS BEYOND

THE CLASSROOM
• The role of the second or foreign language classroom is to bring a student to a point where
he can begin to use the target language to the outside world for further second language
acquisition.
• Supplementary activities are needed to aid the language learner to make the L2 teaching
methods or approaches more effective.
• The following are some alternative methods to help language learners to learn the L2 even
outside the classroom.
1. Conversation
• Conversation here is referred to as interaction with a native speaker who is motivated to try

Page 93 of 95
to help the second language learner understand and use the target language.
• If such arrangement cannot be done due to the absence of a native speaker to ‘interact’
with, the learner may opt to use the target language with other L2 learners.
2. Pleasure Reading
• In doing pleasure reading, readers have the option of skipping the words they do not
understand, understanding the main points and to choose the material that they find
interesting.
• The only requirement is that the story or main idea is comprehensible and that the topic be
something the student is genuinely interested in, and that the learner will read it in his
second language.
3. Using Subject Matter for Language Teaching
• Subject matter teaching has, thus, the full potential for encouraging language acquisition.
• The use of subject matter in the second language classroom, using the target language as
a vehicle maybe effective for language presentation and explanation.
4. Immersion Programs
• It has been reported that immersion program students have acquired high-levels of
competency in the second language.
• Although they may not achieve native-like levels, they make normal progress in school,
doing as well in content classes like their monolingual counterparts.
• This ‘linguistic segregation’ eliminates the kind of ridicule that students exert onj less
proficient performers, teachers have positive expectations and the program is voluntary.
• Also in some immersion programs, students are permitted to speak in the L1 until they are
ready to speak in the L2.
• The immersion experience however, does not bring these students to native speaker
levels, and immersion students’ second language competence may have gaps,
especially when it comes to interaction abilities in casual conversation.
F OCUS QUESTIONS FOR PROCESSING
1. Why should language teaching styles be considered in teaching second language

learners?
2. What second language teaching methods/approaches do you think is very appropriate

for your learners?
3. What other alternative and creative methods can you still develop for your language
students?
REFERENCES
Cook, V. (1991). Second language learning and language teaching. London: Edward Arnold.

Page 94 of 95
Krashen, S. (1987). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. New York: Prentice-
Hall International English Language Teaching.

Page 95 of 95

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Course Syllabus

Department of English and Applied Linguistics

COURSE CODE/COURSE TITLE: ENG 631M

Faculty: Dr. Rochelle Irene G. Lucas (rochelle.lucas@dlsu.edu.ph)

3. Introduce major concepts and issues in L2 acquisition;

Week 1 Module 1: Introduction to the Course Mitchel & Myles, 1998,

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Week 3 Module 3: Approaches to Language

Week 4 Module 4: Internal Factors Affecting SLA Ellis, 1994, pp.293-346

Week 5 Module 5: External Factors Affecting Second Ellis, 1994,

Article discussion: Gass, 2005, pp. 224-

Week 6 Module 6: Individual Differences in SLA Ellis, 1994, pp. 467-528

Week 7 Module 7: Approaches to SLA Mitchel & Myles, 1998,

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Week 8 Module 8: Approaches to SLA Mitchel & Myles, 1998,

Week 9 Module 7: Approaches to SLA Mitchel & Myles, 1998, pp.

Week 10 Module 9: Approaches to SLA Mitchel & Myles, 1998, pp.

Week 11 Independent Study # 2

TEACHING METHOD/ STRATEGIES

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Mitchell, R. & Myles, F. Second language learning theories. London: Arnold.

O’Malley, J. & Chamot, A. (1990). Learning strategies in second language acquisition.

Paradis, J. (2011).Individual differences in child English second language acquisition:

White, L. (2005). On the nature of interlanguage representation: Universal grammar in

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• NO MAKE UP QUIZ IS GIVEN TO LATE AND ABSENT STUDENTS.

- The paper should follow the format prescribed:

A. Background of the study

B. Review of related literature and studies

D. Instruments (if any)

III. Results and Discussion

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• Font Type: Arial, Garamond or Times New Roman

• Margins: ​Left- 1.5

• Ink Color: Black

• Paper Size: 8 ½” x 11” (short white paper)

• Paper Substance: 70-80 gsm

2. Submission of late requirements is highly discouraged. Late papers WILL NEVER BE

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ESTIMATED NUMBER OF MEETINGS

KEY CONCEPTS FOR UNDERSTANDING

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2. Discussion on the chronological overview of

POINTS FOR DISCUSSION

• It encompasses both languages of wider communication encountered within the

2. Definition of Second Language Acquisition and Learning

• It is often said to be ‘effortlessly learned.”

3. Reasons Why We Need to Understand Second Language Acquisition and

• The knowledge can be useful. If we become better at explaining the learning

4. The Language Learning Process (Nature-Nurture)

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• How does the nature-nurture debate impact in theories of second language

• On the other hand, the environmental circumstances for L2 learning differ

5. Factors Affecting Individual Second Language Learning

- a number of sub skills believed to be predictive of L2 success are used to

c. Language learning strategies

- this behavior affects one’s attitude towards learning the L2

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a. It strongly believed that practice makes perfect; in other words,

b. Teachers need to focus their teaching on structures which were

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• Several studies conducted on Error analysis (Hernandez-Chavez, 1972; Dulay &

• The 1970s also introduce us to interlanguage coined by Selinker (1972). It

• Margins: Left- 1.5