Theories of language Acquisition

1. EXPLAINING SECOND
LANGUAGE LEARNING I
by Lisa Kaci, Josephin Oberhokamp, Hendrik Fitzner & Camilla Honerlage

2. Table of content
1. Behaviourism
 Mimicry and memorization
2. The innatist perspective
 Universal Grammar
3. Cognitivist/developmental perspective
 Information processing
 Connectionism
 The competition model
4. Sociocultural perspective

3. Behaviourism
 Theory of learning
 Very influential between the 1940s and 1970s
 Nurture → Environment has great importance

4. Behaviourism
 Explains learning in terms of:
 Imitation
 Practice (mimicry)
 Reinforcement
→ Formation of habit = language development

5. Behaviourism
 Influence on development of audiolingual teaching
and material
→ great emphasis on mimicry and
memorization

6. Behaviourism
 Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis assumes:
First and target language
similar
Target language is learned
with ease
First and target language
different
Target language is learned
with difficulty

7. Behaviourism
 But: learners did not do the predicted errors
→All learners made nearly the same errors
 Influence of first language is the process of finding
similarities

8. Criticism on Behaviourism and CAH
 Behaviourism + Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis are
inadequate explanations for second language
acquisition

9. Universal Grammar
 Noam Chomsky
 Innate linguistic
knowledge which
consists of a set of
principles common to all
languages
 Explanation for second
language acquisition?

10. Universal Grammar
 Lydia White:
 best perspective for second language acquisition; but
nature of Universal Grammar is altered
 Robert Bley-Vroman/Jacquelyn Schachter:
 Not a good explanation for second language
acquisition: critical period is passed
 Vivian Cook
 Learners have more knowledge than input could give
them

11. Universal Grammar
→ Different theories about its nature
 Nature and availability of Universal Grammar are
the same in first language acquisition and second
language acquisition
 Universal Grammar that is present to second
language learners has been altered in its nature by
acquisition of other languages

12. Monitor Model
 Stephen Krashen
 Model of second
language acquisition
 Influenced by
Chomsky‘s theory of
first language
acquisition

13. Monitor Model
Based on 5 hypotheses:
1. Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis
2. Monitor Hypothesis
3. Natural Order Hypothesis
4. Input Hypothesis
5. Affective Filter Hypothesis

14. Monitor Model

15. Cognitivist/developmental perspective
 Since 1990 central role in second language
acquisition
 Computer as metaphor for mind
→ Capacities for storage, integration and retrieval
 No specific module in brain for acquisition/learning
 UG as explanation for first language acquisition
→ Less successful for second language acquisition

16. Cognitivist perspective
 Theories:
 Information processing
 Connectionism
 The competition model

17. Information processing
 Norman Segalowitz:
 Second language acquisition as the building up of
knowledge for automatic use of speaking and
understanding
 Learner first pays attention to any aspect of language
for understanding/production
→ controlled processing
 Experience/practice → easier process of information
→ quicker automatic access

18. Information processing
 Slow access
 Under control of
attention
 Limited in capacity
 Quick access
 Requires little attention
 Needs little capacity
to perform
Controlled processing Automatic processing

19. Information processing
 Robert DeKeyser:
 Second language acquisition as “skill learning”
 Learning starts with declarative knowledge
 Becomes procedural knowledge through practice
 Processes become proceduralized/automized like other
skills
 Parallel to development from controlled to automatic
processing

20. Information processing
 Involves acquisition of
isolated facts and rules
→ knowing that
 e.g. knowing that a car can
be driven
 Requires practice
 Involves processing of
longer units and increasing
automization
→knowing how
 e.g. knowing how to drive a
car
Declarative knowledge Procedural knowledge

21. Information processing
 Example: car driving
 Begin learning to drive a car
◼ Close attention to every action/decision
◼ Aware that performances can easily be disturbed (e.g.
talking)
 Practice → skill improves
◼ Automization
 Experienced driver
◼ Able to pay attention to previously disturbing events

22. Information processing
 Restructuring
 Changes in language behavior
 Quality changes in learner‘s knowledge
◼ New forms are not just added to old
◼ Regular systematic reorganization and reformulation
 Sudden burst of knowledge or backsliding
◼ Systematic aspect of learner‘s language incorporates too
much or wrong things
→ saw + ed

23. Connectionism
 Innate: only the simple ability to learn
 Very important: the role of the environment

24. Connectionism
 Connectionism: frequency of encountering certain
language features in the input allow learners to
make connections.
 Knowledge of language built up through exposure
 “connections” build up
 Stronger connections → the more often something is
heard→ chunks

25. Connectionism
 Emphasis is on the frequency
 Encountering of specific linguistic features in the input
 How often features occur together

26. The competition model
 Explains first language and second language
acquisition
 Hypothesis:
“language acquisition occurs without the necessity of a
learner‘s focused attention or the need for any innate
brain module that is specifically for language“

27. The competition model
 Language use and language meaning important
 Learners understand how to use “cues”
→ word order, grammatical markers and
animacy of nouns

28. The competition model

 Example: „Box push boy“
→ Depends on the mother tongue, how second languages
are learned
→ Example: “Il giocattolo guardail il bambino”
Two/three year old Four year old
Uses cues of animacy and their
knowledge of the way things work in the
world.
Children will give a SVO interpretation to
strings of the words.

29. The Sociocultural Perspective
• Vygotsky’s theory proposes:
• Cognitive development, including language development,
arises as a result of social interaction.
• Learning occurs how?
When an individual
- interacts with an interlocutor
- within his ZPD ( a situation where the learner is capable of
performing at a higher level because there is support from the
interlocutor.
- Focus on input and output in the interaction.
- Cognitive development starts from the social context then
become internalized.

30. Bibliography
Doughty, C. J. & Long, M.H. (eds.) (2003). The Handbook of Second Language
Acquisition. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Gramley, S. & Gramley, V. (eds.) (2008). Bielefeld Introduction to Applied Linguistics.
Bielefeld: Aithesis.
Lightbown, P. M. & Spada, N. (2006). How Languages are Learned. 3rd Edition. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Mitchell, R. & Myles, F. (1998). Second Language Learning Theories. London: Arnold.
Richards, J.C. & Rodgers, T. S. (2001). Approachesand Methods in Language Teaching.
2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Saville-Troike, M. (2006). Introducing Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.