English 418
Second Language Acquisition
Session One Notes
Goals/Objectives:
1) To gain a grasp of the beginning terminology used in the study of second language acquisition and the implications of the use
of the various terms
2) To gain an understanding of the relatively short history of SLA proper and how it has led to a tension between two
perspectives – Innatism vs. Behaviorism (aka “nature” vs. “nurture”)
Questions/Main Ideas
Notes:
(Please write these down as
 Beginning Terminology
you think of them)
 There are several problems with terms in the field of “Second Language Acquisition” or
SLA
 First, SLA may refer to:
 1) the process of learning a language
 2) the field of study of individuals and groups who are learning a language
 Beginning Terminology
 Another problem:
 The additional language is called a second language even though it may actually be the
third, fourth, or even tenth to be acquired
 Beginning Terminology
 It may also go by the abbreviation L2 (as opposed to L1)
 It is also commonly called target language or TL
 Beginning Terminology
 Another problem:
 The scope of SLA includes informal L2 learning that takes place in naturalistic contexts,
formal L2 learning that takes place in classrooms, and L2 learning that involves a mixture
of these settings and circumstances
 Beginning Terminology
 There are two other important distinctions that must be made:
 A second language is typically an official or societally dominant language needed for
education, employment, and other basic purposes. It is often acquired by minority group
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members or immigrants who speak another language natively (at home).
Example?
Beginning Terminology
We can oppose this to a foreign language, which is one not widely used in the learners’
immediate social context. It might be used for future travel or other cross-cultural
communication situations, or studied as a curricular requirement or elective in school, but
with no immediate or necessary practical application.
Example?
Beginning Terminology
Some other distinctions that can be made:
A library language is one which functions primarily as a tool for further learning through
reading, especially when books or journals in a desired field of study are not commonly
published in the learners’ native tongue.
Example?
Beginning Terminology
An auxiliary language is one which learners need to know for some official functions in
their immediate political setting, or will need for purposes of wider communication, although
their first language serves most other needs in their lives.
Example?
Beginning Terminology
Other restricted or highly specialized functions for ‘second’ languages are designated
language for specific purposes and the learning of these typically focuses only on a narrow
set of occupation-specific uses and functions. One such prominent area is English for
Academic Purposes (EAP).
Beginning Terminology
Other terms that you will encounter may include:
TESL – Teaching English as a Second Language
TESOL – (which can mean two things)
1) Teaching English to speakers of other languages
2) Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.
Beginning Terminology
ESL – English as a Second Language
ESOL – English to speakers of other languages
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LEP – Limited English proficient
ELL – English language learners
ENL – English as a new language
ELD – English language development
Bilingual – speaks more than one language
Beginning Terminology
One other group of students you should be familiar with:
Generation 1.5
Students who “enter college while still in the process of learning English”
Are “U.S.-educated English language learners
“Some of these students immigrated to the United States while they were in elementary
school; others arrived during high school. Still others were born in this country but grew up
speaking a language other than English at home.”
Beginning Terminology
What they all have in common is what Reid refers to as “ear” learners. “These students,” she
explains, “have learned English by being suddenly immersed in the language and the culture
of the U.S. Specifically, they have acquired English principally through their ears. They
listened, took in oral language (from teachers, TV, grocery clerks, friends, peers), and
subconsciously began to form vocabulary, grammar, and syntax rules, learning English
principally through oral trial and error.
Beginning Terminology
These students may be “Equipped with social skills in English” and thus “often appear in
conversation to be native English speakers.”
They have relatively developed English oral fluency and listening skills, and they understand
the slang, the pop music, the behaviors, and the “cool” clothes of the schools they attend.
Their background knowledge of life in the U.S. is, in many cases, both broad and deep.
Beginning Terminology
They are familiar with class structures and expectations; they have opinions on current
controversies and issues; and they recognize cultural references to, for instance, television
programs, cartoon humor, and advertising.”
In a nutshell, these are students who have “playground English” and “kitchen Spanish.”
Beginning Terminology
Despite having graduated from a US high school, however, Generation 1.5 students may not
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feel that they have a full command of English, having grown up speaking another language
at home or in their community.” As a result, they are “usually less skilled in the academic
language associated with school achievement, especially in the area of writing,” which
requires “familiarity with complex linguistic structures and rhetorical styles that are not
typically used in everyday social interactions.”
Beginning Terminology
Census figures suggest that there are about 10 million of these students in the United States
between the ages of 5 and 17
Represents about 18.4 percent of this population
In California, 42.6 percent of school-aged children are members of households where
English is not the primary language
Beginning Terminology
This provides an interesting contrast to international or foreign students who generally
have a basis of comparison between English and fully developed oral and written skills in
their first language.”
Many of these nonimmigrant, visa-holding students come from relatively privileged and
well-educated backgrounds. They are literate and fluent in their first language, and they have
learned English in foreign language classes.” These students, who Reid refers to as “eye”
learners, ‘have learned English principally through their eyes, studying vocabulary, verb
forms, and language rules.”
Beginning Terminology
These students know, understand, and can explain English grammar. Often their reading
skills are substantial. Usually, however, their listening and oral skills are hampered by lack
of experience, nonnative English-speaking teachers, and the culture shock that comes from
being immersed in a foreign culture.
Beginning Terminology
2011/2012
Total # of International Students?
764,495
(North Dakotans – 699,628)
Places of Origin?
1. China
194,029
2. India
100,270
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3. South Korea
72,295
4. Saudi Arabia
34,139
5. Canada
26,821
Beginning Terminology
6. Taiwan
23,250
7. Japan
19,966
8. Vietnam
15,572
9. Mexico
13,893
10. Turkey
11,973
This is an increase of 5.7% over the previous year
Question?
 Notice anything significant about this population?
 What effect do you think this would have on curriculum and materials development?
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Beginning Terminology
Top U.S. State for hosting international students?
California
102,789 (3.2 billion spent)
Top U.S. institution for hosting international students?
University of Southern California
9,269
UCLA is 6th with 6,703 intern’l students
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(From Open Doors – Institute of International Education)
Question?
 What do all these students have in common? (In other words, what is this class all about?)
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A short history of SLA
Why so many problems?
Partly because SLA has a limited history, scope, and conception
This, in turn, has negatively constrained educational practice
IOW, we are victims of our own limited understanding of SL learning
IOOW, the findings are often contradictory and confusing
A short history of SLA (con’t)
The 20th Century
America: drew its inspiration from Ferdinand de Saussure’s University of Geneva lectures,
known as le cours de linguistique generale (1916)
Was interested in describing the synchronic system (rather than diachronic system) of
structural relations that made up grammars of a language
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913)
A short history of SLA (con’t)
Americans held what they professed to be an egalitarian rhetoric
Believed that, even though languages were diverse in structure, they all functioned equally
well in meeting communicative needs of people who used those languages
A short history of SLA (con’t)
Led to the founding of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) in 1924
“To counteract resistance to the idea that languages of highly civilized people were on a par
with those of savages”
A short history of SLA (con’t)
Much of this ethos can be traced to Franz Boas
Primarily interested in documenting American Indian Languages (which had no written
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records), especially those that were on the brink of dying
Franz Boas (1858-1942)
A short history of SLA (con’t)
Continually made the ideological point that human languages are diverse, yet essentially
equal
Rejected the kind of grammatical analysis that forced non-European languages into
categories developed to describe European ones
Rejected the idea that European languages were superior to “primitive” languages
A short history of SLA (con’t)
This interest in diversity was subsequently maintained in projects conducted by Leonard
Bloomfield and his followers
Gave clear shape and definition to the “American school” of structural or descriptive
linguistics
Rejected writing in favor of describing speech
Leonard Bloomfield (1887-1949)
A short history of SLA (con’t)
Believed that a theory of language should give a physical description of language (speech)
Thus, speech was reduced to many S-R (stimulus-response) interactions: to movements of
the vocal cords (speaker) and ear drums (listener)
A short history of SLA (con’t)
Language as a whole, then, was nothing more than the sum of many individual “acts of
speech utterance”
Gap between bodies was bridged by sound waves.
As these speech and response techniques become “habits,” a child acquires a language
A short history of SLA (con’t)
By now, you should see a parallel with psychology, especially with:
Ivan Pavlov
B.F. Skinner
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
A short history of SLA (con’t)
The Bloomfieldian/ Structuralist/ Behaviorist view of language held sway for the first half
of the 20th century
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Summary/Minute Paper:
Language was essentially a set of “habits”
Led to the “audio-lingual” method of teaching (still widely used throughout the world)
A short history of SLA (con’t)
In 1957, the tide changed dramatically
Publication of Syntactic Structures by Noam Chomsky
Same year, publication of Verbal Behavior by B.F. Skinner
In 1959, scathing review of Skinner’s book by Chomsky
Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
A short history of SLA (con’t)
Changed the direction of American linguistics
Chomsky revived and refined the “Mentalist” conception of language
Chomsky argued that “the general features of grammatical structure are common to all
languages and reflect certain fundamental properties of the human mind”
A short history of SLA (con’t)
The Mentalist or Innatist position assumes a special inborn capacity for language a set of
psychological predispositions which are specifically linguistic
aka competencies
A paradigm shift!!!
A short history of SLA (con’t)
We will discuss Chomsky’s theories in depth later in the semester
For now, realize that this dichotomy between Bloomfieldian Behaviorism and Chomskyan
Innatism still exists
It’s nature vs. nurture
A short history of SLA (con’t)
So which is the right answer?