Subset II - Language Acquisition Flashcards
Language Acquisition
The process by which people acquire the ability to understand and use words.
Chomsky’s Universal Grammar, or Language Acquisition Device
The capacity to use language grammatically must be genetically endowed or innate, since toddlers can’t have learned it the ordinary way.
Genetic Predisposition, or Innate Capacity
A Universal Grammar is programmed into every human brain and facilitates language development.
Social Interaction
An environmental factor of language acquisition.
Sociocultural Factors of Language Acquisition
The effect of social class on how children use language. Different social classes employ different language codes. (Ex: grammar differences, discrimination, narrative styles)
Affective Factors of Language Acquisition
Personal qualities such as empathy, self-esteem, extroversion, lack of inhibition or anxiety, ability to imitate, and overall outlook that would positively affect the acquisition of language skills.
What are the 3 types of of systems in education to address students learning a second language.
1) Promoting bilingualism and teaching students in their native tongue rather than English.
2) Transitional: allowing students to speak their own language until they have learned enough English to participate in English-only classes.
3) Total immersion: students must immediately take part in English-only classes with no transitional period.
Krashen’s Theory of Second Language Acquisition
1) The Acquisition-Learning hypothesis
2) The Monitor hypothesis
3) The Natural Order hypothesis
4) The Input hypothesis
5) The Affective Filter hypothesis
The Acquisition-Learning hypothesis
There are two independent systems for leaning a second language: the acquired system and the learned system. The acquired system uses a subconscious process that depends on natural, meaningful communication in the target language, so that the speaker is concentrating mainly on communication instead of forming sentences (like children learning langauge). The learning system is the traditional process of formal instruction in a language. Krashen insists that “acquisition” is significantly more important than “learning”.
The Monitor hypothesis
Explains that the acquisition is the initiator of an utterance and the learning is its “monitor” or editor. The role of the monitor is minor, useful only in correcting deviations from standard speech.
The Natural Order hypothesis
Declares that acquiring grammatical structures in a second language always follows a “natural order,” regardless of the student’s age, first language, and conditions of exposure to the second language.
The Input hypothesis
Posits that a second language learner makes progress along the “natural order” of development each time he or she receives an input from the second language that is one step beyond his or her current level of competence in the language.
The Affective Filter hypothesis
The idea that a number of “affective variables,” such as motivation, self-confidence, anxiety, play an important “facilitative but non-causal” fole in language acquisition.
The Critical Period hypothesis
Affirms that a person’s ability to learn language peaks during early childhood.
What are the 4 types of linguistic behavior?
1) Transfer: When a speaker uses his or her second language in a way that is semantically or syntactically appropriate for the first or native language but not for the second.
2) Negative transfer: When a speaker uses skills from a previously learned behavior or topic but applies them incorrectly to a new topic. (Ex: past tense of fake is faked, but the past tense of take is not taked).
3) Hypercorrection: When a person who has been corrected for a mistake in usage makes further mistakes in trying to avoid the original error.
4) Borrowing: When a speaker switches into his or her first language and borrows single words or entire phrases for which they know no equivalent in the second language.
