Matakuliah : G0922/Introduction to Linguistics
Tahun
: 2008
Session 13
Second Language Acquisition
Outline
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Steps in Child Language Acquisition
Factors influencing CLA
Roles of first language in SLA
Roles of second language in SLA
Factors affecting Second Language Acquisition
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LEARNING OUTCOMES
• Students are able to mention the steps of child language
acquisition and the factors influencing them
• Students are able to indicate the role of their first
language in learning English
 Students are able to relate the factors influencing
students in learning a second language learning and
factors influencing them in learning English
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Language acquisition
• The learning and development of a person
language.
– The learning of a native or first language is
called First language acquisition.
– The learning of a second or foreign language
is called Second language acquisition.
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Factors influencing First language
Acquisition
1. Adult Speech/ care giver speech :
- A type of speech given to the young learners
- Features of English caregiver speech
a. Phonetics:
Slow, carefully articulated speech
Higher pitch
Exaggerated intonation and stress
Longer pauses
b. Lexical and semantic :
More restricted vocabulary
Reference to here and now
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C. Syntactic
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D.
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Few incomplete sentence
Short sentences
More imperatives and questions
Conversational
More repetitions
Few utterances per conversational turn
2. Feedback : the response of adults to a child utterances
Recast : response by repeating
Child: Daddy is here
Mother : Yes, Daddy is here
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3. Cognitive development
• Cognitive development influences language acquisition and
vice versa
• Object permanence
– Child will learn more if the object is permanent because they
think that the object does not cease any longer if they
cannot see it.
– Children will learn the names of objects more quickly if they
understand that the object exists.
• Seriation
– The ability to arrange elements (such as sticks) in order of
increasing or decreasing size.
– Children under five only understand things that are long
and short. They can only say that something is short or long
– Children of five and above are capable of seriation
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The role of the first language
• The first language influence the learning of the second
language in:
phonology, syntax and morphology
• The language between the first and second language is
called interlanguage.
• Some examples of interlanguage between Indonesian
and English are:
Phonology : the /de/ ; think /ting/
Syntax : white flower  bunga putih
mod noun
noun modifier
Morphology : one spoon  two spoon
I go  he go
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Factors influencing SLA
– Attitude towards the second language
• The more positive the attitude the learners have towards the
language, the greater motivation they will have and the better and
the faster they learn
• Holmes (1992) – the attitudes towards a language depend on the
situation of the politics, economy and social life of the people
speaking the language
– Motivation
• The stronger the motivation is the better the learners learn
– Self esteem
• The more self esteem a person has, the better self confidence he
has. This kind of person will not be shy in correcting his mistakes
over and over
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Factors influencing SLA
– Peers
• The more supportive the peers towards the learning of the
second language is, the better learners the person will be
– Social life
• Acquiring the second language like children should be done
in a context so people will learn the language in a natural
situation
- Toughness
As learning a language needs a long time, the learners
should be tough.
- Age.
Is there any critical period in learning a language?
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