Bethany LeFlore
Coralia Sanchez
EDBE5653
Definition of Developmental
Sequence
All learners of a language will pass through
the same order of acquisition regardless of
their backgrounds and different learning
environment (Lightbown & Spada, 2006, p.
82).
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Gramatical Morphemes –Studied and researched
by Stephen Krashen, are the smallest unit that
expresses a distinct meaning.
Examples: independent or free unit: jump, dog, or
happy.
prefix or suffix attached to another morpheme
to modify its meaning: –ed or –ing for verbs, plural
–s or possessive –s for nouns or –ly or –ness added
to adjectives to turn them into adverbs or nouns.
(Fillmore and Snow (2000) p. 14)
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Negation- Researched by John Schumann and
Henning Wode, the use of a negative in a sentence
to express a thought. In L2 developmental
sequence, although the path is similar to L1
developmental sequences, the L1 language
background may influence the stages.
Stage 1 - the use of “no” before the verb or noun.
“No cookie”
Stage 2 - using “don’t” compound negative.
‘He don’t want a cookie’
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Stages of Negation continue…
Stage 3 – placing the negative element after auxiliary
verbs. using ‘are’, ‘is’, and ‘can’ with ‘not’.
“You can not have a cookie”
Stage 4- using auxiliary verb with ‘not’ in agreement
with person, tense, and number.
“He doesn’t want a cookie”
(Lightbown & Spada, 2006, p. 85)
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Questions – Researched by Pienemann, Johnston
and Brindley, is the development of asking
questions. In L2 developmental sequence,
although the path is similar to L1 developmental
sequences, the L1 language background may
influence the stages.
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Question Stages:
Stage 1 – single words or sentence fragments
Cookie?
Stage 2 – declarative word order(no fronting
and no inversion) The girl eat the cookie?
Stage 3 – fronting with ‘do’ or ‘wh-’ but no
inversion. Do you have a cookie in your hand?
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Question stages continue…
Stage 4 -inversion in ‘wh’+copula and yes/no
questions. Where is the cookie?
Stage 5 – inversion in ‘wh’ quesitons.
Why does he like the cookie?
Stage 6 – complex questions.
The cookie is good, isn’t it?
(Lightbown & Spada, 2006, p. 86-87)
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Possessive Determiners- researched
by Helmut Zobl, and adapted by Joanna
White, deals with the use of the
possessive forms his and her
(Lightbown & Spada, 2006, p. 89).
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Possessive determiners stages:
Stage 1- pre emergence- no use of his and her.
The little boy ate the cookie.
Stage 2- emergence – strong preference to use
‘his’ and/or ‘her.
The little boy got the cookie. He put her
icing on the cookie and drank her milk.
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Possessive determiners stages continue…
Stage 3 – “post emergence- differentiated use of
‘his’ and ‘her’, but not when the object possess
has natural gender” (Lightbown & Spada, 2006,
p. 89).
The little boy ate his cookie. Her mother
wanted one too.
Stage 4- error free use of ‘his’ and ‘her’.
The little boy ate his cookie. His mother
wanted one too.
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Relative Clauses – Studied by Keenan, Comrie,
& Gass, is a subordinate clause that modifies a
noun phrase, most commonly a noun
(Wikipedia). Pattern of acquisition for relative
clauses:
Subject – The boy who ate the cookie was
happy.
Direct object – The cookie that I ate was
good.
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Relative clauses continue…
Indirect object – The boy who(m) I gave the
cookie to was happy.
Object of preposition – I found the recipe that
Mary was talking about.
Possessive - I know the woman whose recipe
we used.
Object of comparison – The recipe that I used
is better than Johnny’s.
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Reference to the past – Studied by Meisel and
Bardovi-Harling, they refer to events of the past
(Lightbown & Spada, 2006, p. 91).
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Initially referring to the events in the order that
occurred.
We sat in the kitchen. We ate cookies. We
liked them.
Attachment of grammatical morphemes to verb
to mark past tense (-ed, -ing).
We eated cookies. Now all gone.
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Past tense is marked more on action verbs than on
state verbs (Lightbown & Spada, 2006, p. 91).
We ate cookies everyday.
Past tense is marked when referring to completed
events more than extended events with out clear
end-point (Lightbown & Spada, 2006, p. 91).
We eated cookies everyday.
We ate cookies yesterday.
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Current Research
 Larsen-Freeman’s review article discussing L2 morpheme
processing and acquisition allow us to understand that it is more
difficult to learn morphology than to study how they are acquired,
making it so interesting to researchers.
 Her strongest point in this review is that the frequency of using
morphemes is critical for their acquisition.
 On the other hand, she suggests more study to be conducted
due to the variety of language learner’s L1 who are learning an
L2.
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Current Research Continued
 Dyson (2008) studied two Chinese students learning English as a second
language in Australia. He concentrates his study in the developmental stage of
questions and suggests tests such as the TOEFL and the IELTS assume and not
tests questioning abilities. On page 24, Dyson states “if stages research is
compatible with meaning-oriented, communicative assessment, it could
supplement current approaches to ESL testing in several ways.”
 His study showed that the stages of SLA are not acquired during the early
months of learning a second language as commonly understood.
 Finally, He provides suggestions to teachers on how to assist students in
question development, as for example, encouraging student’s questions by
creating situations for students to formulate them.
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Current Research Continued
 The role of type and token frequency in using past tense morphemes correctly by Elena
Nicoladis, Andrea Palmer and Paula Marentette, examined how children, both bilingual and
monolingual learned past tense morphology. The study that was conducted examined how English
speaking, French speaking and Bilingual English / French speaking children retold a story of a
short cartoon that they watched.
 both bilingual children and monolingual children follow the same developmental sequence
when learning language.
 children that are learning language as bilinguals often exhibit a small difference in language
development which can be “categorized as cross-linguistic effects and delay” (Nicoladis et al.,
2007).
 The study found that while the number of words used to describe the story differed, the
number of past-tense words spoken tended to average out among all the children, although the
accuracy rate of the words used in producing past tense morphology was lower in bilingual
children. “These differences are likely due to less frequent exposure to either language than
monolinguals” (Nicoladis et al., 2007).
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Activity
Talking with Puppets
Appropriate for Ages
5 years - 9 years old
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Activity continue…
Student Objective: Students will be able to ask and
answer questions of the puppet that are relatable
to subject topic.
Lesson Goal: To provide a fun atmosphere for
students to practice using their second language to
communicate.
Stages of Developmental
Sequences
Activity continue…
Activity: Prior to the puppet show, students will make
and assemble the puppets and the stage.
Throughout the activity students will take turns playing
the role of the puppet. Other students will then ask
the puppet questions in English that are related to
content area. The student that is playing the role of the
puppet will then be given the opportunity to answer
the question in English.
*Once the puppets and the stage have been made, this activity can be used
throughout the year as part of many different lessons.
References
Ellis, R. (2009). Second language acquisition, teacher
education, and language pedagogy. Language Teaching
43:2, 182-201
Fillmore, L. W., & Snow, C. E. (2000). “What teachers need to
know about language.” [on-line]. Available:
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.9
3.91117&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Lightbown, P.M. (2000). Anniversary article classroom SLA
research and second language teaching. Applied
Linguistics, 21(4), 431-462.
References
Lightbown, P. & Spada, N. (2006). How languages are
learned, Third Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nicoladis, E., Palmer, A., and Marentette, P. (2007). The role
of type and token frequency in using past tense
morphemes correctly. Developmental Science, 10 (2), 237254.
Video URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_LOBBLmgYc&fe
ature=player_detailpage
Wikipedia, T. F. E. (2011, October 12). Relative clause.
Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_clause