California State University Northridge
Linguistics 417: Language Development and Acquisition
Spring Semester 2009 / Prof. Gayaneh V. HagopianClass Number: 13107 / Email:
Site: https://www.csun.edu/~ghagopian/
Days: MW / Office and messages: 328 Santa Susanna. 818.677.7839
Time: 12:00PM - 1:45PM / Office Hours: MW, 1:45-2:45 pm and by appointment
Location: JR 330 / Mail Box: 8251
Required texts:
How Children Learn Language by William O”Grady. Oxford University Press. 2005
How Languages are Learned by Patsy M. Lightbown & Nina Spada. Cambridge Un. Press
Additional articles will be distributed in class.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is an introduction to first and second language acquisition. We will explore current theories in language acquisition in behaviorist, innatist, and interactionist tenets. We will focus on the development of language, speech emergence, communicative competence, and bilingualism, as well as on exceptional language development.
The course also provides an overview of issues, challenges and opportunities presented by the language and cultural diversity of the US student body,
The students in the class include graduates and undergraduates majoring in Liberal Studies or Linguistics. Our classroom will be the “safe” place where we learn from each other and also learn from our own or others’ mistakes, treating each other with respect and understanding and helping each other to get through the hurdles.
Mutual tolerance and help does not mean that I do not expect you to work hard and grow and stretch. I appreciate work done in time, with care and thought.
Course Objectives
· To build a theoretical understanding of language structure and use and language acquisition processes.
· To acquire expert knowledge in specific subject areas of psycholinguistics concerning first and second language acquisition.
· To recognize the elements of linguistics which apply to language learning and language teaching.
· To compare and contrast the acquisition of different components of languages (phonetics and phonology, morphology and syntax, semantics and pragmatics) by first and second language learners.
· To understand the reasons of differential success among Second Language learners: the psychological, sociocultural, pedagogical, and political factors affecting language development.
· To understand the relationship between language, the mind, and the cultural reality.
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES
You are responsible for the announcements, assignments, and material that are covered in class, even if you are absent. Below, write down the names, phone numbers and email addresses of at least three classmates. If you are going to miss a class, call your class mate(s) beforehand. Ask them to take notes and get handouts for you before you return to class next week. If you contact them and still have questions, feel free to email me.
1. ______
2. ______
3. ______
You are responsible for doing the reading before the Tuesday class. In the syllabus the author and chapter are given for each week. Check your CSUN email account regularly or have it forwarded to another account that you check frequently.
Keep cell phones and pages off during class. Exception: if you are waiting for a call related to someone’s illness, inform me so that you can sit near the door with your phone on. Students who hold or view a cell phone during exam, will forfeit 50 points.
EVALUATION AND GRADING:
Class weeks / Assignment / Point ValueAll / 1. Class participation and required reading / 50
2, 6, 11, 15 / 2. Reflective journal logs / 40
8 / 3. Midterm Exam / 80
13, 14 / 4. First or Second Language Acquisition: Group project. / 100
Last week / 5. Final exam / 80
Total Possible Points / 350
Grading Scale: (in %-s) A = 100-95% A- = 94-90 B+ = 89-85
B = 84-80 B- = 79-75 C+ =74-70
C = 69-65 C- = 64-60 D+ = 60-55
D = 54-50 Below = F
Grading Criteria: Assignments must be done according to the APA style format (The Little, Brown Compact Handbook, 2nd Edition). Standard American English is the norm for all papers and projects with complete sentences, correct spelling and punctuation, etc. All papers must be word-processed, double-spaced. Each paper and presentation must include a minimum of one direct quote. Assignments are due in hard copy. Print out your work and had it into me in time. I will not accept emailed of faxed work or late homework. Late papers on FLA and SLA projects will be accepted but receive a lower grade. There is no make-up for exams. Students will be evaluated and provided feedback on all the following areas and graded according to the point system presented above.
Assignments
1. Class participation 50 points. These grades are based on your participation in class activities and your positive contribution to class discussions. Your participation is assessed also by how well you listen to me and your classmates.
Absences: I expect that you attend every class session, and that you arrive on time and stay till the end. Obviously, I will accept reasonable excuses. You may miss one class without losing points for active participation. Please, notify me in advance. Absences and late arrivals may affect your grade.
2. Four reflective journal logs, 50 points, due by Mondays in weeks 2, 6, 11, 15.
Maximum 2 pages typed, double spaced. Numerate your logs and subtitle them with reading chapters you are reflecting on.
Journal entries can be used to comment on the readings, pose questions you might have, relate personal experiences. Include reflections on what was covered in the class sessions, as well as the assigned readings. Let me know where you are in your readings: journals are the main means of informing me what you read and learn, and which topics interest and challenge you.
Journal log # 3: reflect on your personal experiences of language acquisition and your cultural background by using the theoretical knowledge acquired in class to shed new light on your past experiences. Journal log # 5: in your final journal, reflect on the entire course in general; how your worldview and beliefs were affected by the knowledge acquired in this course.
3. Midterm Exam, 80 points. Multiple Choice, week 8.
5. Final Exam, 80 points. Multiple Choice, last week.
4. Final Project, 100 points. Field experience and research paper on language acquisition:
FLA (First language acquisition) or SLA (Second language acquisition) project. Due weeks 13-14.
The field experience will assist you in making connections between theory and practice. It will provide you with a chance to do a case study of a particular language learner, and with a more immediate experience of this one person’s struggles and triumphs of beginning to talk or becoming bilingual.
This field experience is best to conduct in groups of two, by observing one child for 8 hours, plus 3 experiments, or 2 children each for 4 hours, plus 3 experiments for each child.
If you decide to work in a group of three students, observe 2 children for 6 hours each, plus 6 experiments, 3 per child.
If you prefer to work alone, conduct 8 hours of observations and 3 experiments.
Videotaping your observations and experiments is strongly encouraged.
FLA project subject must be AGES 18 months to 6 years old, and the SLA subject, AGE 5-85 years.
Final Project Requirements
Each participant is evaluated as a group member and individually. 30 points extra credit for an oral presentation in the classroom. For everything in the project team members are responsible equally, save the research paper: each student writes a separate paper based on the same:
· Class readings and discussions
· Observations of a child (FLA) or a second language learner (child or adult) and age appropriate experiments.
· Transcripts of observations & experiments: your research diary, 10-11 pages, typed and double-spaced.
· World Wide Web search, articles and materials on FLA or SLA and, for SLA, also curricular materials sensitive to language acquisition issues.
· In-group discussions between team members and creative decisions regarding the project (if you rather work alone, you will miss this important component for a successful field project).
· Research and references.
The Group Written Presentation includes the following:
· Cover sheet, Table of Contents, Bibliography and References.
· A group synthesis of research diary: transcripts of observations & experiments, 10-11 pages, typed, double-spaced
· Each student’s individual research paper 5-7 pages, typed, double-spaced
· Use of analytic visuals: tables, graphs, pictures, photographs, etc.
· Recommendations for the application of your findings for parents and classroom practices, for school/community relations, and for teachers of bilingual students learning English in school.
· Informative sheets helpful for educators, including curricular materials, statistics, and lesson plans (SLA only).
FLA Experiments: select 3 age-appropriate to conduct, describe and transcribe them in your research diary. Begin experiments when you already have at least 4 hours of observations to have a better idea which experiments will suit best your subject. You can find the language acquisition testing experiments in your readings and in the class video (“The Human Language Series”). Prepare experiments carefully and, in order to achieve positive results with experimenting, have in mind 2-3 additional experiments. If an experiment or two don’t render data of interest, conduct more.
FLA Research Diary: observation and experiment transcripts constitute your research diary; see guidelines in your textbook, O’Grady, pages 198-204. Read and understand these guidelines before beginning your observations. The research diary must be typed and double spaced. For children ages 18-26 months, transcribe everything they say, and for subjects older than 3 years, transcribe only the data that presents interest for FLA or SLA. Underline or italicize language learners’ errors and quote them in your paper for analysis. Do not include analysis in the diary. The research diary (observation and experiment transcripts) must describe what the child did and said, and what you saw and understood. Include the date, time, and setting of observation or experiment (focus on questions: who, what, when, where).
If your FLA subject is growing up bilingual, do not leave out one of the languages, and focus on simultaneous bilingualism, explore how that affects the cognitive development of the subject; 10 extra points for observations and research on a subject with 2 first languages.
SLA: Observation and Interview Guidelines
Interview a Second language learner (one of your ESL students, a friend, a neighbor) about his/her experiences of learning English or another second language but, please, not a foreign language. Tape your interview for future analysis. Focus on the processes and factors involved in language acquisition. Ask some or all of the following questions, but do not limit yourself to them:
Where are you from?
How long have you been living in the US (or the country of the SL discussed)?
What is your native language?
How old were you when you started learning English?
When did you start school? How many years did you go to school?
In what language was the instruction conducted?
How proficient you are in your L1?
Have you received formal instruction of English? For how long?
What language(s) do you speak to your parents, siblings, close friend(s)?
Do you have monolingual friends?
In what situations do you tend to use English?
What language(s) do you use at school, at work, or in organizations you belong to, e.g., church, clubs, etc.?
Do you find that one language is easier for you to express yourself in?
Why are you learning English? (try to find the motivation types)
What has helped you to learn English?
What makes learning English difficult?
What language do you use when you get mad at something or someone?
What language do you use when you have to count, deal with numbers?
Do you like sitcoms?
Do you read for pleasure? In what language?
Take into account that during a second language acquisition process jokes and numbers are acquired at the last stages. Pose questions with numbers, and also tell a joke or two to see where your interviewee is in the process of SLA. Note: the sense of humor and the understanding of jokes in another language are not identical. Pick up neutral jokes. Avoid political jokes; SL learners usually are not well familiar with political parties and coalitions and without this general information jokes do not makes sense even if the language is comprehensible. Also, avoid play on words; SL learners are often unfamiliar with the multiple meanings of a word.
Note also that in most emotional states people tend to switch to mother tongue. Do not try to make them mad but find a way to ask about the correlation of changing emotional states and accompanying code switching.
Describe your interviewee in terms of issues discussed in class and your readings. Interpret and analyze his/her answers, and evaluate your findings in terms of the theory of language acquisition and in terms of their possible further application in your teaching career. For example: What has been the role of schooling in the interviewee’s language and literacy development? How would you characterize your interviewee’s social distance from the target language and culture? What type of bilingualism are you dealing with? Is this person a member of one or of more than one speech communities?
Describe his/her ideas about the structure of English. How can you use the data of this interview in your future classroom? Analyze your interviewee’s errors in SL, find out the systematic features in his/her interlanguage: phonetics and phonology (accent), morphology (note if there are unusual word-building samples), syntax (the word order in positive, negative and interrogative sentences). In semantics, pay special attention if your interview uses idioms and conventional metaphors (e.g., I have cold; I didn’t buy that idea). Bring samples of unusual semantics, a) when you understand what is meant notwithstanding the unusual form (local errors); b) when it doesn’t make sense and you have to ask more questions to figure out what is meant (global errors).
FLA and SLA Research paper: write a 5-7 page paper in narrative form analyzing the data gathered during your research and presenting your conclusions according to what you learned from your field experience and in class. It focuses on specific issues in FLA or SLA and answers the questions: how and why. The paper presents the reasons for selecting the experiments and the purpose with which you conducted them. Provide some direct quotes, using your tape but avoid repeating s/he says. Analyze the replies and complement them with your observations. Elaborate on your subject’s communicative competence (grammatical, discourse, sociolinguistic and strategic), and analyze the source of his/her errors. Throughout your discussion, demonstrate your knowledge of language acquisition theories learned in class. Cite at least three current, scholarly sources. An excellent paper is focused on language acquisition issues, highlights some aspect of research, is properly cited, and virtually free from errors, grammatical, spelling or typographical, well-organized and easy to read (APA style format).