How Languages Are Learned

Question 1

What are the first signs of vocalizations in L1?

Answer 1

Involuntary crying, cooing, and gurgling.

Question 2

What are a 1-year-old’s L1 characteristics?

Answer 2

They begin to produce a word or two that everyone recognizes.

Question 3

What are a two-year-old’s L1 characteristics?

Answer 3

They produce more words, as well as, “telegraphic sentences”.

Question 4

What are “telegraphic sentences”?

Answer 4

In these sentences, children leave out function words and grammatical morphemes. The words continue to have a meaningful relationship.

Question 5

What are developmental sequences?

Answer 5

Gradual acquisition of the linguistic elements for expressing ideas that have been present in children’s cognitive understanding for a long time.

Question 6

What is the “wug test”?

Answer 6

In this test, children are shown drawings of imaginary creatures with novel names or people performing mysterious actions.

Question 7

What can a 4yo do in L1?

Answer 7

4-year-olds can ask questions, give commands, report real events, and create stories. They have acquired the basic structure of language, they continue to learn vocabulary and begin to acquire less frequent and more complex linguistic structures.

Question 8

What is “metalinguistic awareness”?

Answer 8

The ability to treat language as an object separate from the meaning it conveys.

Question 9

What are the three main theoretical positions to explain language development?

Answer 9

Behaviorist perspective, innatist perspective, and interactionist perspective.

Question 10

What is “behaviorism”?

Answer 10

A theory of learning which argues that children imitated and practiced the language produced by those around them.

Question 11

What are the primary processes of behaviorism?

Answer 11

Imitation and practice.

Question 12

According to behaviorists, what is imitation?

Answer 12

Word-for-word repetition of all or part of someone else’s utterance.

Question 13

According to behaviorists, what is practice?

Answer 13

Repetative manipulation of form.

Question 14

What does innatism argue?

Answer 14

That children are biologically programmed for a language and that language develops in a child the same way the other biological functions develop.

Question 15

What is the “Critical Period Hypothesis”?

Answer 15

The hypothesis that all animals, including humans, are programmed to acquire certain kinds of knowledge and skill at a specific time in their life.

Question 16

What is the interactionist’s view?

Answer 16

Language acquisition is the child’s ability to learn from experience. They give more emphasis on the environment.

Question 17

What is Piaget’s view on children’s language?

Answer 17

The developing cognitive understanding is built on the interaction between the child and the things that can be observed or manipulated. For Piaget, language was one of a number of symbol systems that are developed in childhood.

Question 18

What is Vygotsky’s view on children’s language?

Answer 18

For Vygotsky, language develops primarily from social interaction. In a supportive environment, children are able to advance to higher levels of knowledge and performance.

Question 19

What is scaffolding?

Answer 19

A kind of supportive structure that helps children make the most of their knowledge the have and also to acquire new knowledge.

Question 20

What children are called “simultaneous bilinguals”?

Answer 20

Children who learn more than one language from the earliest childhood.

Question 21

What children are called “sequential bilinguals”?

Answer 21

Children who learn a new language later in life.

Question 22

What is BICS?

Answer 22

Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills.

Question 23

What is CALP?

Answer 23

Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency.

Question 24

What is “subtractive bilingualism”?

Answer 24

The loss of a language on the way to learn another.

Question 25

What is “additive bilingualism”?

Answer 25

The maintenance of the home language while the L2 is being learned.

Question 26

What is cognitive maturity?

Answer 26

The ability to engage in problem-solving, deduction, and complex memory tasks.

Question 27

What is the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH)?

Answer 27

The idea that learner’s errors resulted from interference from their L1.

Question 28

What is interlanguage?

Answer 28

It’s the learner’s developing L2 knowledge.

Question 29

What are the characteristics of interlanguage?

Answer 29

It has some characteristics from previously learned languages, some from the L2, and some characteristics, such as the omission of grammatical morphemes and function words.

Question 30

What are the 5 stages of negation by L2 learners?

Answer 30

Stage 1: The negative element (no or not) is typically placed before the verb to the element being negetated.
Stage 2: “No” and “not” may alternate with “don’t”. However, “don’t” is not marked for person, number, or tense and it may be used before modals.
Stage 3: Learners begin to place the negative element after the auxiliary verb, but at this stage, the “don’t” for is not yet fully analyzed.
Stage 4: “Do” is marked for tense, person, and number, and most interlanguage sentences appear to be just like those of the TL.

Question 31

What are the 6 stages of question formation in L2?

Answer 31

Stage 1: Single words, formulae, or sentence fragments.
Stage 2: Declarative word order, no inversion, no fronting.
Stage 3: Fronting: do-fronting, wh-fronting without inversion, other fronting.
Stage 4: Inversion in wh- + copula; yes/no questions with other auxiliaries.
Stage 5: Inversion in wh- questions with both an auxiliary and a main verb.
Stage 6: Complex questions.

Question 32

What are the 3 stages of possessive determiners in L2?

Answer 32

“Pre-emergence”: No use of his/her. Definite article or “your” used for all persons, genders, and numbers.
“Emergence”: Emergence of his/her, with a strong preference to only use one of the forms.
“Post-emergence”: Differentiated use of his/her but not when the object possessed has a natural gender.

Question 33

What are the 5 stages of semantic development in L2?

Answer 33

“Pre-basic”: Highly context-dependent, no syntax, no relational goals.
“Formulaic”: Reliance on unanalyzed formulas and imperatives.
“Unpacking”: Formulas incorporated into productive language use, shift to conventional indirectness.
“Pragmatic expansion”: Addition of new forms to the repertoire, increased use of mitigation, more complex syntax.
“Fine-tuning”: Fine-tuning of requestive force to participants, goals, and contexts.

Question 34

What is language learning aptitude?

Answer 34

The ability to learn quickly.

Question 35

What are some components of language learning aptitude?

Answer 35

The ability to identify and memorize new sounds, understand the function of particular words in sentences, figure out grammatical rules from language samples and remember new words.

Question 36

What is instrumental motivation?

Answer 36

Language learning for immediate or practical goals.

Question 37

What is integrative motivation?

Answer 37

Language learning for personal growth and cultural enrichment through contact with speakers of the other language.

Question 38

What are the 3 phases of motivation?

Answer 38

Choice motivation (getting started and setting goals), executive motivation (carrying out the necessary tasks to maintain the motivation), and motivation retrospection (the students’ appraisal of and reaction to their performance).

Question 39

What are “visual” learners?

Answer 39

They learn something once they see it.

Question 40

What are “auditory” learners?

Answer 40

Learners who seem to learn best by ear.

Question 41

What are “kinaesthetic” learners?

Answer 41

Physical action such as miming or role-playing seems to help the learning process.

Question 42

What is the acquisition/ learning hypothesis, according to Krashen’s Monitor Model?

Answer 42

It suggests that we acquire L2 as we are exposed to samples of language that we understand in much the same way that children pick up their L1.

Question 43

What is the monitor hypothesis according to Krashen’s Monitor Model?

Answer 43

L2 users draw on what they have acquired when they engage in spontaneous communication. They may use rules and patterns that have been learned to “monitor” their speech and writing, allowing them to make minor changes in language generated by acquired knowledge.

Question 44

What is the natural order hypothesis, according to Krashen’s Monitor Model?

Answer 44

L2 acquisition unfolds in unpredictable sequences and the language rules that are easiest to state are no necessarily acquired first.

Question 45

What is the comprehensible input hypothesis, according to Krashen’s Monitor Model?

Answer 45

It’s that acquisition occurs when one is exposed to a language that is comprehensible.

Question 46

What is the affective filter hypothesis, according to Krashen’s Monitor Model?

Answer 46

Some people who are exposed to large quantities of comprehensible input do not acquire the language successfully.

Question 47

What is the affective filter?

Answer 47

A metaphorical barrier that prevents learners from acquiring language even when appropriate input is available.

Question 48

What is “affect” in Krashen’s Monitor Model?

Answer 48

The feelings of anxiety or negative attitudes that may be associated with poor learning outcomes.

Question 49

What are some conversational modifications?

Answer 49

Comprehension checks (efforts of the native speaker to ensure that the learner has understood), Clarification requests (efforts made by the learner to get the native speaker to clarify something that has not been understood), and Self-repetition or paraphrase (the more proficient speaker repeats their sentence either partially or entirely).

Question 50

What are the three principles of practice?

Answer 50

1. Practice should be meaningful, 2. Practice should be interactive, 3. Practice should be a focus on task-essential forms.

Question 51

What are the characteristics of natural acquisition settings?

Answer 51

1. Language is not presented step by step, 2. Learner’s errors are rarely corrected, 3. The learner is surrounded by the language for several hours a day, 4. The learner encounters a number of different people who speak the TL proficiently, 5. Learners observe or participate in many different types of language events, 6. Older children and adults may encounter the written language in the use of video and web-based material, 7. Learners must use their limited L2 knowledge to respond to questions or to get information, 8. Modified input is available in many one-to-one conversations.

Question 52

What are the characteristics of structure-based instructional settings?

Answer 52

1. Linguistic items are presented and practiced in isolation, 2. Errors are frequently corrected, 3. Learning is limited to a few hours a week, 4. The teacher is often the only native or proficient speaker, 5. Children experience a limited range of discourse types, 6. Children feel pressure to speak or write in the L2, 7. Teachers use the child’s native language to give instructions.

Question 53

What are the characteristics of communicative instructional settings?

Answer 53

1. Input is made comprehensible by the use of contextual cues, props, and gestures, 2. There is a limited amount of error correction on the part of the teacher and meaning is emphasized over form, 3. Learners have limited time for learning, 4. It’s usually only the teacher who is a proficient speaker, 5. A variety of discourse types may be introduced through stories, pair, and group work, and through authentic material like newspapers and television, 6. There is little pressure to perform at high levels of accuracy, 7. Modified input is a defining feature of this approach to instruction.

Question 54

What is the explicit correction?

Answer 54

The explicit provision of the correct form. The teacher indicates that what the student said was incorrect.

Question 55

What are recasts?

Answer 55

Involve the teacher’s reformulation of all or part of the student’s utterance, minus the error.

Question 56

What are clarification requests?

Answer 56

They indicate to students either that their utterance has been misunderstood by the teacher or that the utterance is incorrect in some way and that a repetition or a reformulation is required.

Question 57

What is metalinguistic feedback?

Answer 57

It contains comments, information, or questions related to the correctness of the child’s utterance, without explicitly providing the answer.

Question 58

What is elicitation?

Answer 58

It refers to the three techniques used by teachers to directly elicit correct forms: First, teachers elicit completion of their own utterances. Second, teachers use questions to elicit correct forms. Third, teachers occasionally ask students to reformulate their utterances.

Question 59

What is repetition?

Answer 59

It refers to the teacher’s repetition of the student’s erroneous utterance.

Question 60

What are “display” questions?

Answer 60

The questions to which the teacher already knows the answer.

Question 61

What are genuine or referential questions?

Answer 61

The questions to which the teacher may not know the answer.

Question 62

What is “uptake”?

Answer 62

A learner’s utterance that immediately follows that teacher’s feedback.