Applied Linguistics

Lecture 7: Learner Language

7.1 Contrastive analysis, error analysis, and interlanguage

7.1.1 Contrastive analysis

  • In 1960s developed the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH)
  • According to CAH, errors in learners’ target language (L2) are the result of transfer from their first language (L1).
  • That is, errors are predicted to be caused by the differences between L1 and L2.
  • A simplified version of CAH predicts that errors are bi-directional:

For example: In French object pronouns precede the verb

Le chien le mange (French)

The.MAS dog it eat.3S

‘The dog eats it’

An English speaker learning French
Le chien mange le
‘The dog eats it’ / A French speaker learning English
‘The dog it eats’
  • According to the CAH, learners have intuitions about which language features can be transferred from L1 to L2 (e.g. idioms can not be translated word-by-word).
  • The weakness of CAHwas that it cannot explain many aspects of learners’ language.

7.1.2 Error Analysis

  • In 1970s developed the ‘Error Analysis’.
  • The Error Analysis describes and analyzes the kinds of errors learners make.
  • Instead of prior prediction of errors, Error Analysis discovers and describes learners’ errors and how learners process second language data regardless about the first language.
  • According to the Error Analysis, second language learner language is, like child’s language, a system in its own.

7.1.3 interlanguage

  • Interlanguage is a learner’s developing second language knowledge.
  • Learners’ interlanguage has

▫ characteristics of their L1

▫ characteristics of L2

▫ general characteristics among all interlanguage systems such as omission of function words and grammatical morphemes.

  • Interlanguage is systematic but dynamic whenever the leaner receive more input, Learners’ interlanguage progresses more.
  • Some of interlanguage features may be fossilized (or stop changing) as a result ofthe lack of feedback that enables the learner to realize the difference between his/her interlanguage and the target language.

7.2 Developmental sequence

Like first language learners, second language learners pass through developmental sequence of grammatical morphemes, negation, questions, possessive determiners, relative clause, reference to past.

7.2.1 Grammatical morphemes

  • Some studies suggest thatlearners’ speech is analyzed as follows:

Accuracy order morphemes with higher accuracy are the first in the learner developmental sequence:

  • Despite that the order of morpheme acquisition is fixed among learners’ interlanguages, learners’ L1 seems to have an influence. For example, learners whose L1 has a possessive from that resembles the English ’s (such as German and Danish) acquire English possessive earlier than those whose L1 has a different way of forming possessive.
  • There are number of variables that contribute the order:

▫ Salience (how easy it is to notice the morpheme)

▫ linguistic complexity (how many elements you have to keep track of)

▫ semantic transparency (how clear the meaning is)

▫ similarity to first language form

▫ frequency in the input

7.3 More about first language influence

  • A similarity between L1 and L2 causes learners to linger longer in a stage.

For example, the German speaker’s inversion of subject and lexical verb in questions.

  • An L2 feature that is different or distinct from that of L1 makes learners avoid it.
  • More similar two languages are, a more tendency to transfer from L1 to L2.

For example, Swedish is more similar to English than Finnish to English.

  • It is difficult for learners to notice features that are different from those of L1.

For example, French speakers learning English tend to put the adverb between the verb and the object (i.e. SVAO), contrary to English SVOA.

7.4 Vocabulary

  • A learner must acquire 100,000-1,000,000 words for successful communication in a variety of settings.
  • An educated adult speaker of English is believed to know at least 20,000 words.
  • Frequency is a factor for learnable words. A learner needs as high as 16 times before a new word becomes firmly established in the memory, and more before it can be retrieved fluently in speech or automatically understood in a new context.
  • Seeing and hearing new words such as ‘friend’, ‘book’, etc. + connecting them to meaning → make them established in the memory.
  • International words such as ‘T-shirt’, ‘Pizza’,etc are easy to learn.
  • Cognates or words that look similar and have the same meaning in two languages such as ‘government’, ‘dictionary’,etc may have been seen or exposed to the learner.
  • Some opinions suggest that reading is an important source of vocabulary development.
  • Other opinions suggest that vocabulary development becomes successful when learners are fully engaged in activities that require them to attend carefully to the new words and to use them in productive tasks.

7.5 Pragmatics

  • Knowing 5,000 words, syntax and morphology of the target language is not enough.
  • Pragmatics is the study of how language is used in context to express such things as directness, politeness, and deference.
  • Interlanguage pragmatics is the study of how second language learners develop the ability to express their intentions and meanings through different speech acts.
  • Among the studies on learners’ use of pragmatic features are the acquisition of requests in English and learning how to make and reject suggestions.
  • The appropriate input in the classroom is important for learning how to realize many speech acts. Unlike structure-based teacher-fronted classrooms, content-based, and task-based communicative classrooms provide a variety of input through engaging learners in different roles, producing and responding to a wider range of communicative functions.

7.6 Phonology

  • After audiolingual and behaviorism were criticized, little attention was given to pronunciation.
  • Studies show learners’ pronunciation is affected by number of factors:

1. learners’ first language

▪ Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis explains the first language influence on second language learners’ phonological development.

For example, ▫ Japanese and Korean learners of English have problems in /l/ and /r/ because they are not distinct in their L1.

▫ Spanish learners have no consonant cluster begins with /s/, so they say ‘I e-speak e-Spanish’

▪ The greater the difference is between two languages the greater difficulty a learner faces to reach phonological fluency.

For example, a Chinese-speaker faces a greater challenge than does a speaker of German or Dutch.

2. period of exposure: Longer periods of exposure lead to improved pronunciation.

3. ethnic affiliation and sense of identity: ethnic affiliation and sense of identity affect the way learners produce L2.

4. method of instruction: instructions focusing on suprasegmental stress and rhythm in pronunciation classes is more effective than segmental lessons emphasizing on individual sounds.

Reading for this lecture:

Lightbown & Spada (3th ed.): 77-107

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LANE 423 –2014/15