First Language Influence
Pragmatics, Vocabulary, Phonology
…Vera Becker, Kristina Diekämper, Lea Gänsel…
Pragmatics
Definition:
“The study of how words and phrases are used
with special meaning in certain situations”
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
English (2003)
Pragmatics
• politeness
• request
• apologies
→ Same words can mean something totally
different in a different setting.
Pragmatics
Examples:
•
•
•
•
Have a good day and say „hi“ to your friends!
Are there any more questions in the back?
What a nice dress!
Is that your dog?
Pragmatics
Difficulties:
Learners progress their pragmatic knowledge
but
problems with specific cultural aspects remain
and
the language levels do not significantly correlate with
pragmatic knowledge.
Pragmatics
Knowledge:
1. The pragmatic knowledge necessary to cope
with a foreign language is available to all
learners from the start.
2. Some things are universal (international
structures of speech).
3. Some can be transferred from the L1 (could,
would, as elements of politeness).
Pragmatics
Classroom differences to
non- instrumental environments:
1. a more narrow range of speech acts
2. a lack of politeness marking
3. monopolization of discourse organization and
management by the teacher
Kasper (1997)
Pragmatics
Classroom strategies:
• observation tasks
• use of authentical material
• students observe a certain pragmatic aspect outside
the classroom
Pragmatics
• Learners are NOT native speakers, demanding
perfect pragmatic understanding would be
clearly over ambitious
• Native speakers might even expect nonnatives to act as non- native speakers on the
pragmatic level.
Pragmatics
Classroom advantages for
studying pragmatics:
1. opportunities to reflect on the L2 knowledge
2. opportunities to „try out“ the new pragmatic
knowledge
3. L2 teacher can offer support in the classroom
Peirce(1995)
Importance of Vocabulary
• We can communicate by using words that are
not placed in the proper order, pronounced
perfectly, or marked with the proper
grammatical morphemes.
BUT:
Communication breaks down if we
do not use the correct word!
English Vocabulary
• English has anywhere from 100.000 to
1.000.000 words.
• An educated adult speaker of English knows at
least 20.000 words.
• Most everyday conversation requires about
2.000 words.
Vocabulary Acquisition
• Acquiring a basic vocabulary is a significant
accomplishment for L2 learners.
BUT: → L2 learners are exposed to far smaller
samples of the language to be
learned than L1 learners!
→ The contexts in which L2 learners
encounter new vocabulary may not
be as helpful!
Access to Vocabulary Acquisition
• The first step in knowing a word is to
recognize that it is a word (Meara, 2005):
frolip – laggy – scrule – albeit
→ only albeit is an English word
gonion – micelle – lairage – throstle
→ all are English words
Factors for Vocabulary Acquisition
• The frequency with which a word is seen,
heard and understood is important to make
new vocabulary more easily learnable by L2
learners (Nation, 2001).
→ about 16 times and even more to retrieve
the word in fluent speech!
Factors for Vocabulary Acquisition
List 1
List 2
List 3
Friend
Hamburger
Government
More
Coke
Responsibility
Town
T-Shirt
Dictionary
Book
Walkman
Elementary
Hunt
Taxi
Remarkable
Sing
Pizza
Description
Box
Hotel
Expression
Smile
Dollar
International
Eye
Internet
Preparation
Night
Disco
Activity
→ Which list would you expect to be learned most easily
by beginning L2 learners?
Factors for Vocabulary Acquisition
• The presence of cognates and borrowed
words makes words more accessible to L2
learners.
BUT:
There can occur difficulties with
words that look similar but have
different meanings!
Learning Vocabulary
• Reading for pleasure is the best source of
vocabulary growth (Krashen, 1985/1989).
BUT:
You need to know at least 95% of the
words in a text to infer the meaning
of a new word (Laufer, 1992)!
Learning Vocabulary
• Vocabulary development is more successful
when learners are fully engaged in activities
that require them to attend carefully to the
new words and even to use them in
productive tasks (Hulstjin and Laufer, 2001).
Learning Vocabulary
• Effort and strategies like keeping a notebook,
looking up words in a dictionary, and
reviewing what has been learned are
associated with better vocabulary
development (Kojic-Sabo and Lightbown,
1999).
Phonology
• Grammar has been the focus for second
language teachers and researchers for a long
time.
• Pronunciation was the central component
during the audiolingual era.
 several teaching techniques were
developed
Audiolingual era
• Focus on getting learners perceiving and
producing distinctions between single
sounds.
 minimal pair drills
Audiolingual era
• Audiolingualism & behaviourism were
replaced by other views of learning.
 native-like pronunciation was an
unrealistic goal and the instruction time
was better spent on teaching features that
learners might learn more easily.
 Grammar
Communicative language teaching
• 1970‘s : Communicative language teaching
was introduced.
• Less attention to pronunciation
 emphasis was on rhythm, stress,
intonation
 considered more likely to affect
communication
Phonological development
• Aspects of 1st language acquisition have
influence on 2nd language learners’
phonological development.
• Example: Japanese & Korean
 problems to hear and produce
l and r
 these sounds do not occur in
their language.
Phonological development
• Example: few languages have the th sounds
that are frequent in English.
 Learners may substitute similar sounds
from their 1st language ( t or d, s or z ).
.
 Learners may overcompensate = Learners
pronounce a th where a t belongs.
Phonological development
• Such errors are similar to the
overgeneralization errors.
• If they replace earlier ‘correct’ pronunciation
of t or d sounds
 represent progress in learners ability to
notice and to produce the th sound.
Phonological development
• Big differences between 1st language and 2nd
language can lead to great difficulties.
 It takes learners longer to reach a high
level of fluency in a particular 2nd or
foreign language.
• Language distance affects pronunciation as
well.
Phonological development
• Theo Bongaerts ( 1999) collected speech
samples of…
…highly proficient speakers who had learned
Dutch in their adulthood.
…who came from a wide variety of 1st
language backgrounds.
Phonological development
• Native speakers of Dutch were asked to judge
these samples.
 Learners who spoke a language which was
closely related to Dutch were judged to
have a native-like accent ( German, English).
 Learners who spoke a language which was
more distant from Dutch were judged to
have no native-like pronunciation (Chinese).
Phonological development
• Influential contributors to pronunciation are:
 differences / similarities between 1st
language and 2nd language.
 the amount and type of exposure to the
target language.
(that longer periods of exposure to the 2nd
language can lead to improve pronunciation.)
 the degree of use of the 1st language.
(greater use of 1st language  stronger accent)
Segmental vs. Suprasegmental
• It can make a difference if the instructor
focuses on suprasegmental rather than on
segmental aspects of pronunciation.
• Tracey Derwing and her colleagues
(1998,2003) carried out a series of studies on
how intelligible learners were judged to be.
Segmental vs. Suprasegmental
• Learners who received pronunciation lessons
emphasizing stress an rhythm were judged to
be easier to understand than learners who
received lessons focused on individual sound.
 more accurate in their use of sounds
 did not increase listeners’ perception of
the intelligibility of their speech to others
What is the Standard ?
• Intelligibility rather than native-like ability is
the standard learners should strive toward.
• The presence of a strong foreign accent does
not necessarily result in reduced intelligibility
or comprehensibility. ( Tracey Derwing)
What is the Standard ?
• People increasingly interact with speakers who
have learned a different variety of the same
language.
 Nevertheless, a different accent still serves
as a marker of group membership/
discrimination.
Pronunciation
• To have a native-like accent is irrelevant to most
of the learners and not a goal they need to reach.
• Nevertheless, a combination of instruction,
exposure, experience and motivation should be
required.
• Achieving native or near-native pronunciation
ability is an accomplishment not experienced by
most second language learners.
Questions
• Why is it necessary to learn the use of pragmatics?
• What are the difficulties for L2 learners referring to
pragmatics?
• Which factors make new vocabulary more accessible
to L2 learners?
• What is more effective, receiving lessons on
segmental or suprasegmental phonology? Why?
• What are the influential contributors to
pronunciation?