Universidad Central Del Ecuador

Facultad De Filosofa, Letras y Ciencias de la Educacin.

Student:
Subject:
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Cabezas Guerrero Carlos

Zambrano Anggy.
Didactics I
4th
SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

INTERFERENCE OF FIRST LANGUAGE IN THE ACQUISITION OF SECOND LANGUAGE

Language acquisition is one of the most important and fascinating aspects of human development.
There are various subconscious aspects of language development such as metalinguistic, conscious,
formal teaching of language and acquisition of the written system of language in both L1 and L2. Various
language variables are involved in the language processes like phonology, vocabulary, morphology,
syntax, paralinguistic, pragmatics and discourse. In order to provide success in cognitive functioning as
well as professional life of an individual, his/her first language acquisition must develop strongly in the
early years.
Factors that cause language interference
1. The interlingual factor
Interlingual transfer is a significant source for language learners. This concept comes from contrastive
analysis of behavioristic school of learning. It stresses upon the negative interference of mother tongue as
the only source of errors.
Commonly, errors are caused by the differences between the first and the second language. Such a
contrastive analysis hypothesis occurs where structures in the first language which are different from those
in the second language produce the errors reflecting the structure of first language. Such errors were said
to be due to the influence of learners first language habits on second language production
2.

The over extension of analogy

Usually, a learner has been wrong in using a vocabulary caused by the similarity of the element between
first language and second language.
3. Transfer of structure
There are two types of transfer according to Dulay et.al (1982: 101), positive transfer and negative
transfer. Negative transfer refers to those instances of transfer, which result in error because old habitual
behavior is different from the new behavior being learned. On the contrary, positive transfer is the correct

utterance, because both the first language and second language have the same structure, while the negative
transfer from the native language is called interference.
Fossilization
Fossilizable linguistic phenomena are linguistic items, rules, and subsystems which speakers of a
particular native language will tend to keep in their interlanguage relative to a particular target language,
no matter what the age of the learner or amount of explanation or instruction he receives in the target
language, its mean that fossilization refers to the process in which incorrect language becomes a habit and
cannot easily be corrected.
Fossilized Error
A fossilized error is an error that has become a habit, part of a students repertoire and used
subconsciously as if it were the correct form.
There are a number of factors that contribute to the phenomenon. One is over-generalization of rules; for
example the addition of "s" in the third person singular present.
Another factor is the constant use of false friends. For example, in French "sympathique" means nice
when referring to a person. In English, the word "sympathetic" has a different meaning.
How Can We Help Students Break a Fossilized Error?
We can take steps to help learners identify the error type they are making. We can help them to analyze the
cause of the error, which may be caused by interference from their mother tongue such as a pattern that
they have transferred from their native language, a feature that does not exist in their native language, or a
very obscure rule which has no logic to them.
Is Scl Like First Language Acquisition?
It depends on what you look at, because for some people is very easy the acquisition of the second
language, but look at the general view exist similarities and differences in both languages, and all deepens
too about cultural factors, the age and the motivation.

STEPHEN KRASHENS L2 ACQUISITION THEORY

Stephen Krashen is an expert in the field of linguistics, specializing in theories of language acquisition and
development. He believes that there is no fundamental difference between the way we acquire our first
language and our subsequent languages. He claims that humans have an innate ability that guides the
language learning process. Infants learn their mother tongue simply by listening attentively to spoken
language that is (made) meaningful to them. Foreign languages are acquired in the same way.
Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require
tedious drill.

Krashens Theory:

THE ACQUISITION-LEARNING HYPOTHESIS

'Adults have two distinctive ways of developing competences in second languages ... acquisition,
that is by using language for real communication ... learning .. "Knowing about" language'
(Krashen & Terrell 1983)
There are two ways of developing language ability: by acquisition and by learning. Acquisition is a subconscious process, as in the case of a child learning its own language or an adult 'picking up' a second
language simply by living and working in a foreign country. Acquisition requires meaningful interaction
in the target language - natural communication - in which speakers are concerned not with the form of
their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding.
Learning is the conscious process of developing a foreign language through language lessons and a focus
on the grammatical features of that language.
Application:
According to this theory, the optimal way a language is learned is through natural communication.
As a second language teacher, the ideal is to create a situation wherein language is used in order to
fulfill authentic purposes. This is turn, will help students to acquire the language instead of just
learning it.

THE NATURAL ORDER HYPOTHESIS

'We acquire the rules of language in a predictable order'

According to Krashen, learners acquire parts of language in a predictable order. For any given language,
certain grammatical structures are acquired early while others are acquired later in the process. This
hypothesis suggests that this natural order of acquisition occurs independently of deliberate teaching and
therefore teachers cannot change the order of a grammatical teaching sequence.
Application:
According to this hypothesis, teachers should be aware that certain structures of a language are
easier to acquire than others and therefore language structures should be taught in an order that is
conducive to learning. Teachers should start by introducing language concepts that are relatively
easy for learners to acquire and then use scaffolding to introduce more difficult concepts.

THE MONITOR HYPOTHESIS

'conscious learning ... can only be used as a Monitor or an editor' (Krashen & Terrell 1983)
This hypothesis further explains how acquisition and learning are used; the acquisition system, initiates an
utterance and the learning system monitors the utterance to inspect and correct errors. Krashen states
that monitoring can make some contribution to the accuracy of an utterance but its use should be limited.
He suggests that the monitor can sometimes act as a barrier as it forces the learner to slow down and
focus more on accuracy as opposed to fluency.
Application:
As an SL teacher it will always be a challenge to strike a balance between encouraging accuracy and
fluency in your students. This balance will depend on numerous variables including the language
level of the students, the context of language use and the personal goals of each student. This
balance is also known as communicative competency.

THE INPUT HYPOTHESIS

'Humans acquire language in only one way - by understanding messages or by receiving

"comprehensible input"'

We acquire language in one way only: when we are exposed to input (written or spoken language) that is
comprehensible to us. Comprehensible input is the necessary but also sufficient condition for language
acquisition to take place. It requires no effort on the part of the learner.
Application:
This hypothesis highlights the importance of using the Target Language in the classroom. The goal
of any language program is for learners to be able to communicate effectively. By providing as
much comprehensible input as possible, especially in situations when learners are not exposed to the
TL outside of the classroom, the teacher is able to create a more effective opportunity for language
acquisition.

THE AFFECTIVE FILTER HYPOTHESIS

'A mental block, caused by affective factors ... that prevents input from reaching the language
acquisition device' (Krashen, 1985, p.100)
According to Krashen one obstacle that manifests itself during language acquisition is the affective filter;
that is a 'screen' that is influenced by emotional variables that can prevent learning. This hypothetical
filter does not impact acquisition directly but rather prevents input from reaching the language acquisition
part of the brain. According to Krashen the affective filter can be prompted by many different variables
including anxiety, self-confidence, motivation and stress.
Application:
In any aspect of education it is always important to create a safe, welcoming environment in which
students can learn. In language education this may be especially important since in order to take in
and produce language, learners need to feel that they are able to make mistakes and take risks. This
relates to directly to Krashens hypothesis of the affective filter.

Activity:
We want to represent the Krashens Theory Hypothesis through this activity that would be using no
translation giving and acquiring the language in a natural way and allowing the students to discover the
meaning by their own.
MEMORY GAME
Goal: to learn new vocabulary about Global warming.
Time: 8 minutes
Procedure: In this activity we will read a paragraph about Global Warming. Inside this text there will be
several new expressions that students have to pay attention to.
1

ozone

layer

cut down

trees

greenhouse

effect

endangered

species

Global

warming

North

pole

polar

bear

Later they will be divided into 2 groups, both groups will receive the 2 groups of words and they will have
to form the correct expression. Then, to win the game, they have to make one member of the group guess
the expression using mimics or synonyms.

GLOBAL WARMING
Right now, the Earth is being victim of global warming, as a
consequence of the greenhouse effects. This is generating
changes in the ozone layer which is making us to lose a lot
of endangered species, which have lost their houses. One
example if this we can see in the North Pole, because, the
polar bear, the animal that lives here, is going to lose a
place to live.
Its our job to make a change, we shouldnt cut down trees
or throw garbage in the street, because theres only one
planet.

Bibliographic references

Bilash
Olenka.
(2009).
Krashen's
6
Hypotheses.
Retrieved
http://www.educ.ualberta.ca/staff/olenka.bilash/best%20of%20bilash/krashen.html

Krashen, Stephen. (1987). Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Prentice-Hall
International.

Krashen, Stephen. (1988). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning.
Prentice-Hall International.

Schtz, Ricardo. (2014). Stephen Krashen's Theory of Second Language Acquisition. Retrieved
from: http://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash.html.

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