II. L2 acquisition. Testung. Historical development of the field in the
1970ies.Psycholinguistic theories of SLA.
2.1. Testing.
Linguistic tests are used in many situations: learning tests, exploring tests,
psychological tests. Important: whether the test checks the level of mastering a foreign
language or the ability to answer questions and the sum of learned knowledge.
Levels of grammatical development according to the teaching experience.
1. Zero, and the first level. Able to read, vocabulary not exceeding 300-500 words,
low temp of speech, minimal (learned) grammatical competence.
2. Second level. Vocabulary about 1000 words, knowledge of principal grammatical
rules without exceptions, able to discuss things, automatic speech.
3. Third level. Vocabulary about 3000-4000 words, knowledge of exceptions,
idiomatic use of linguistic means. Close to native-speaker.
2.2. Conscious learning vs. picking up the language (corrections are not always
successfull).
Aptitude & attitude.
Foreign language aptitude - "the rate at which a person at the secondary school ,
university and adult level learn to criterion" (Carrol, J. 1973. Implications of aptitude
test research and psycholinguistic theory for foreign language teaching. Linguistics
112, 5-13).
Modern Language Aptitude Test & Language Aptitude Battery.
1. Phonetic coding ability - the ability to store new language sounds in memory.
2. Grammatical sensitivity. Words in sentences subtest.
Which words or phrases do the same thing as the capitalized one?
He spoke VERY well about you
Suddenly the music became quite loud.
1
2
3
4
3. Inductive ability shows the capacity to examine language material & identify
patterns and correspondences and relationships involving either meaning or
grammatical form. Artificial language.
Conscious language learning .
Attitudinal factors: encourage intake, favour the utilization of the input. (Labov children acquire the dialect of their peers rather than of their elders). Empathy, attitude
towards the class and the teacher, analytic orientation.
Individual (psychological) differences.
Anxiety level - negative correlation with subconscious acquisition, positive corr. with
conscience learning.
Self-image (the more positive a subject's self concept, the higher his/her achievements
in ESL.
Oller, J., Hudson, A. & Liu, P. 1977. Attitudes and attained proficiency in ESL: a
sociolinguistic study of Mexican-Americans in the southwest. TESOL Quaterly 11:
173-183.
Outgoing personality (introversion//extraversion) sociability is connected to the
capasity to speak the foreign language fluently.
Pimsleur, P. 1966. Testing foreign language learning. In A.Valdman (ed.) Trends in
Language Teaching.NY, pp.175-214.
An Alcohol Study - pronounciation of Thai sentences better after 1 -1,25 ounces of
alcohol. Early positive stage of intoxication.
Guiora, A., Beit-Hallahmi, B., Brannon, R., Dull, C. & Scovel, T. 1972. The effects of
experimentally induced changes into ego-states on pronunciation ability in the second
language: an exploratory study. Comprehensive Psychiatry 13, 421-428.
2.3.Hypotheses about SLA.
1. The acquisition - learning distinction. Children acquire, while adults learn.
2. The natural order hypothesis. Brown 1973 - A first language: Ing and S-pl is earlier
than liveS and Daddy's.
ING-PLUR-COP ->> Auxiliary—Article ->>Irregular past -->> Regular past.
Transitional forms and constructions (constituent order). I no like it.
3. The Monitor hypothesis.
Learned competence (the Monitor)
Acquired competence ----------------------------------------- - OUTPUT.
Monitor -users : under-users, over-users, optimal users.
4. The input hypothesis: We acquire by undersytanding language that contains
structure a bit beyound our current level of competence (i+1) with the help of the
context and extra-linguistic information.
5. An affective-filter hypothesis:
Motivation + Self-confidence + Anxiety (low).
Dulay, H. & Burt, M. Remarks on creativity in language acquisition. In Burt, Dulay &
Finnochiaro (Eds.) Viewpoints on English as a second language. NY Regents, pp. 95126.
Krashen, Stephen. 1981. Second language acquisition and scanned language learning.
Pergamon Press. Oxford, NY, Toronto, Sydney, Paris, Frankfurt.
Krashen, Stephen. 1982. Principles and practice in second language acquisition.
6. Language acquisition as a kind of information processing, or psycholinguistic
processing
McLaughlin, B. Rossman, T. McLeod, B. 1983. Second language learning: An
information processing perspective. Language Learning, 33, 135-158.
Simple and complicated strings - novel lexical items, phonologically unclear, obscure
referents. Multilinguals are better in learning the next language than monolinguals
(Nation & McLaughlin 1986. Novices & experts: An information processimg
approach to the “good language learner”.
Competition model
The bone ate the dog.
His parents above all loves the good boy. The patient cured
the doctor. (Cues that match and dismatch)
Psycholinguistic proccessing approaches break down the difference between
comprehension and learning.
Bates, E. & MacWhinney, B. 1981. Second language acquisition from a functionalist
perspective.: pragmatic, semantic & perseptual strategies. In Winitz.H (Ed.) Annals of
the New York Academy of science conference on native and foreign language
acquisition. NY , NY ac. of sciences.
MacWhinney, B. 1987. Applying the competition model to bilingualism. Applied
Psycholinguistics. 8, 315-328.