SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - Assignment

PAOLA MONTERO
MARTINEZ
GROUP 28
SLA
ASSIGNMENT
FEBRUARY 27TH,2011

Assignment:

According to Swain,

...producing the target language may be the trigger that forces the learner to
pay attention to the means of expression needed in order to successfully
convey his or her own intended meaning.
(Swain 1985: 249)

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 SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - Assignment

In Swain's view, learners need not only input, but output: they need to use language in
order to learn it. Krashen, however, as recently as 2009, stated that:

Research done over the last three decades has shown that we acquire
language by understanding what we hear and read. The ability to
produce language is the result of language acquisition, not the cause.

Forcing students to speak English will not improve their ability to

speak English. (Korea Times, 2009).

“Is it possible to reconcile these two seemingly opposite views as to what

constitutes second language acquisition or ‘learning’, as Swain puts it? Or do
the two views represent two extremes of both theory and practice?”

Guidelines: To answer this question in essay form:

1.- you will need to refer to alternative concepts of acquisition and learning proposed by
other theorists,

2.- judge them in relation to these two apparent extremes of input versus output, and
then

3.- try to draw some conclusions.

4.- You must ensure that both Krashen and Swain are discussed within the broader
framework of SLA theory, and thus demonstrate that you understand the general field.

INTRODUCTION
How languages are learned has been a subject of study for many years now, I
personally don’t think that only one theory is correct or that we may ever find an answer
that satisfies all researchers at once.

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Even though many theories can be joined up in order to make sense I mostly think that
all these theories that have come up through time have at some point and still are true
and relevant.

I don’t think there is a way of opposing or comparing the ideas proposed here for both
of them focus on different parts of the language learning are. While Swain focus on
correctness ( “the need to convey his / her meaning when communicating) Krashen
focus on skills ( they can communicate because they understand what they’ve been
getting from some time now, “forcing them to speak, won’t improve their ability to
speak Englsih”)

“Is it possible to reconcile these two seemingly opposite views as to what

constitutes second language acquisition or ‘learning’, as Swain puts it? Or do
the two views represent two extremes of both theory and practice?”

Certainly both views can support each other. If language acquisition is “the process by
which humans acquire the capacity to perceive, produce and use words to understand
and communicate. This capacity involves the picking up of diverse capacities
including syntax, phonetics, and an extensive vocabulary. This language might be
vocal as with speech or manual as in sign. Language acquisition usually refers to first
language acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native language, rather
than second language acquisition, which deals with acquisition (in both children and
adults) of additional languages.”

Over the last fifty years, several theories have been put forward to explain the process
by which children learn to understand and speak a language. They can be
summarised as follows:

Behavourist (Skinner): Children imitate adults. Their correct utterances are reinforced
when they get what they want or are praised.

Nativist (Chomsky): The LAD (Language Acquisition Device) concept is an instinctive

mental capacity which enables an infant to acquire and produce language. This theory
asserts that humans are born with the instinct or "innate facility" for acquiring language.
Chomsky has gradually abandoned the LAD in favour of a parameter-setting model of
language acquisition (principles and parameters).

Cognitive (Piaget): A child's brain contains special language-learning mechanisms at

birth.

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 SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - Assignment

Interaction (Bruner): This theory emphasizes the interaction between children and their
care-givers.

As it was mentioned before, this perceiving of words, phrases, syntax, phonetics and
an extensive vocabulary is followed by the “Silent Period”. This is a stage where
learners don’t feel ready to produce L2 yet. It depends on different variables such as:
exposure to the L2, self-confidence or level of anxiety. The main characteristic of this
stage is that after some initial exposure to the language, the learner is able to
understand much more than s/he can produce. There are some researches that prove
some learners need a period of 6 months before production, but there are others in
which it takes longer. Everything and everyone need to take their own time before
producing.

But if Krashen proposes that language acquisition takes place only when learners
receive input just beyond their current level of L2 competence I find a contradiction
here. According to some EFL texts, the exposure to L2 must be done under a graded
framework. Any person will learn any word spoken in Russian if he/she doesn’t have a
previous background which could make this language easier.

“Language acquisition is a subconscious process not unlike the way a child learns
language. Language acquirers are not consciously aware of the grammatical rules of
the language, but rather develop a "feel" for correctness. "In non-technical language,
acquisition is 'picking-up' a language."

Taken from: A Summary of Stephen Krashen's "Principles and Practice in Second

Language Acquisition"By Reid Wilson
http://www.languageimpact.com/articles/rw/krashenbk.htm

According to Wikipedia, “Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire

the capacity to perceive, produce and use words to understand and communicate. This
capacity involves the picking up of diverse capacities including syntax, phonetics, and

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 SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - Assignment

an extensive vocabulary. This language might be vocal as with speech or manual as

in sign. Language acquisition usually refers to first language acquisition, which studies
infants' acquisition of their native language, rather than second language acquisition,
which deals with acquisition (in both children and adults) of additional languages.”

Over the last fifty years, several theories have been put forward to explain the process
by which children learn to understand and speak a language. They can be
summarised as follows:

Behavourist (Skinner): Children imitate adults. Their correct utterances are reinforced
when they get what they want or are praised.

Nativist (Chomsky): The LAD (Language Acquisition Device) concept is an instinctive

mental capacity which enables an infant to acquire and produce language. This theory
asserts that humans are born with the instinct or "innate facility" for acquiring language.
Chomsky has gradually abandoned the LAD in favour of a parameter-setting model of
language acquisition (principles and parameters).

Cognitive (Piaget): A child's brain contains special language-learning mechanisms at

birth.

Interaction (Bruner): This theory emphasizes the interaction between children and their
care-givers.

cobcenglang.homestead.com/CLA/CLA_theories.doc

“Language learning, on the other hand, refers to the "conscious knowledge of a second
language, knowing the rules, being aware of them, and being able to talk about them."
Thus language learning can be compared to learning about a language.”

Taken from: A Summary of Stephen Krashen's "Principles and Practice in Second

Language Acquisition"By Reid Wilson
http://www.languageimpact.com/articles/rw/krashenbk.htm

There are three important theories which confirm this definition and they are: Universal
Grammar (Chomsky), Monitor Theory (Krashen) and Comprehensible Output
hypothesis (Swain).

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 SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - Assignment

“Universal grammar is a theory in linguistics that suggests that there are properties that
all possible natural human languages have. The theory suggests that some rules
of grammar are hard-wired into the brain, and manifest without being taught.”

Monitor Theory “asserts that before the learner produces an utterance, he or she
internally scans it for errors, and uses the learned system to make corrections. Self-
correction occurs when the learner uses the Monitor to correct a sentence after it is
uttered. According to the hypothesis, such self-monitoring and self-correction are the
only functions of conscious language learning.”

Comprehensible Output hypothesis states “that learning takes place when

encountering a gap in the linguistic knowledge of the L2. By noticing this gap the
learner becomes aware of it and might be able to modify his output so that he learns
something new about the language. Although Swain does not claim that
comprehensible output is solely responsible for all or even most language acquisition,
she does claim that under some conditions, CO facilitates second language learning in
ways that differ from and enhance input due to the mental processes connected with
the production of language.”

1.- Language acquisition evokes that every individual needs to be exposed to his/her
L1 since they are born. Parents and caregivers are part of this process and it is
improved through the time. Input is part of this exposure.

2.- Language learning expresses that every learner needs to receive as much as
information in the L2. Teachers are the first source of input, but there are others like
course books, books, television, music and others. On the other hand, this input must
be graded so the learner will be able to understand and learn new expressions or
vocabulary at the same time, on the contrary all the sources the learner is exposed will
be aimless.

3.- There’s a “silent period” in which the person needs to process all the information
he/she received during the input stage. It could take short or long time because it
depends on some variables that may affect it. After this period, the person feels ready
to produce the L2 in different skills, in consequence output emerges.

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 SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - Assignment

Important: you have to write your personal details and the subject name on the
cover (see the next page). The assignment that does not fulfil these conditions
will not be corrected. You have to include the assignment index below the cover.

Name and surname(s):

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Date:

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SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - Assignment