SLA Flashcards

Question

The Role of Correction in L2 Learning

Answer 1

“Interaction is also interesting to linguistic theorists, because of recent controversies over whether the provision of negative evidence is necessary or helpful for second language development. By ‘negative evidence’ is meant some kind of input that lets the learner know that a particular form is not acceptable according to target language norms. In second language interaction this might take different forms, ranging from a formal correction offered by a teacher, to a more informal rephrasing of a learner’s second language utterance, offered by a native-speaking conversation partner.” (M & M, 1998, p.22) For many SLL corrective feedback is ineffective. “For some current theorists, any natural language must therefore be learnable from positive evidence alone, and corrective feedback is largely irrelevant.” (p. 22) Within the context of social theories, the use of scaffolding is used to transmit second-language forms. Scaffolding is used between an expert and a novice. It is possible that the corrections which are produced by learners immediately after negative feedback are quickly forgotten, and do not affect their underlying interlangauge system; it is also possible that recasts can function as effective input and lead to learning, without any explicit repair being produced. I. Mackey and Philp (1998) pg. 182 Second Language Learning Theories 1. The use of recasts, and their impact on the learning of English as a second language question forms. II. 35 Adult learners 1. Program of information gap pushing them toward production of English as a second language questions (story completion, picture sequencing, picture drawing) 2. Student carried out tasks with a native speaker interlocutor, and also completed a series of pre- and post- tests that identified their level on the Pienemann and Johnston (1987) developmental scale for English questions. III. Some of adults in the study received intensive recasting from the native speaker interlocutor whenever they made an error in question formation. Others did the same tasks, but without receiving the recasting ‘treatment’, whereas a control group did the pre- and post- tests only. During the actual study, the learners who received the recasts very seldom repaired of modified their utterances in response to them (only 5% of recasts were followed by learner repairs). However the post-tests showed that most of the learners who began the study at stage 4 on the developmental scale for questions, and who experienced recasting, progressed by at least one Stage (ie to Stage 5) in course of the study. No other group made similar progress; the researchers interpret these results as showing that recasting was beneficial for learners who were developmentally ready, in spite of the lack of overt uptake while interaction was actually in progress. IV. The Mackey and Philp (1998) study compared the effectiveness of interaction plus recasting, with interaction alone, and found that the inclusion of recasting seemed to promote interlangauge development as far as question formation was concerned (though only for the most advanced learners in the study). ## Footnote

Answer 2

Anderson’s ACT model speaks of declarative knowledge (knowledge that something is the case) to become procedural knowledge (knowledge how to do something). “Anderson posits three kinds of memory: a working memory, similar to McLaughlin’s short-term memory and therefore tightly capacity-limited, and two kinds of long-term memory- a declarative long-term memory and a procedural term memory.” (Mitchel & Myles, 1998, p. 102) To see how declarative and procedural knowledge apply to SLL we can look at the example given in “Second Language Learning Theories.” Declarative knowledge would be when the student knows that the third person s/he + verb requires an –s to the stem of the verb. “However, that same learner might not necessarily be able to consistently produce the –s in a conversation in real time. This is because this particular learner has declarative knowledge of that rule, but it has not yet been proceduralized. After much practice, this knowledge will hopefully become fully proceduralized, and the third person –s will be supplied when the context requires it.” (M & M, 1998, p. 103) The role of instruction is to help transform the student’s declarative knowledge into procedural knowledge. “According to Anderson, the move from declarative to procedural knowledge takes place in three stages: 1. The cognitive stage: a description of the procedure is learnt. 2. The associative stage: a method for performing the skill is worked out. 3. The autonomous stage: The skill becomes more and more rapid and automatic.” (M & M, 1998, p. 103)

Answer 3

1)Nativist Approaches: Chomsky-LAD & Universal Grammar. 2) Computational Models: Connectionism Information Processing. 3) Social Interactionist Approaches: Sociocultural Theory

Answer 4

(Chomsky, 1965)

Answer 5

the final outcome of second language acquisition

Answer 6

The idea that there may be an optimal, maybe even critical, age period for the acquisition of language entered SLA research through the work of neurolinguists Penfield and Roberts (1959) and Lenneberg (1967). These authors contributed neurolinguistic data supporting a natural predisposition in the child's brain for learning the first language, together with anecdotal observations that possible causes were also adept foreign language learners, when compared to adults.