Second language acquisition

Children vs. adults in second-language acquisition

Who do you think is better at 2nd language acquisition? Why?

2 factors involved in 2nd language acquisition:

1.psychological
Intellectual processing,
memory,
motor skills.
2. social

P S YC H O L O G I C A L FA C TO R S
I n t e l l e c t u a l p r o c e s s i n g : explication vs. induction
Explication: dog/z/, duck/s/ Induction: John danced and then John (he) sang
Work in pairs on the following assignment (devise a suitable task for each method):
Teach past simple tense by using the 1. explication method, 2. induction method?
Which method, in your opinion, would be more suitable for a) young learners, b) adults? Why?

Memory
How do children acquire new words? Abstract words?
How, in your opinion children acquire the question forms or the negative?
The simple memorization where words, phrases and sentences are remembered just as they are
rote memorization. Items are stored as they are, without any analysis or processing.
Decline in rote memorization around 8 years of age and then again around 12. Why?
By 50 years of age-20% memory loss (decrease of brain cells in the cortex), by 75 40% loss.
In the normally aging brain, long-term memories seem unaffected, but short-term are.

Motor skills
Good pronunciation > ability to control the organs of speech > under the control of the brain
Are children better than adults in acquiring foreign language pronunciation? If yes, then at what age
does this ability begin to decline?

SOCIAL SITUATIONS AFFECTING SECOND-LANGUAGE LEARNING

Learning language in a natural setting
The paradigm case: a young child living in another country and learning the language
Adults have a limited opportunity to experience appropriate second-language data.
For them social interaction mainly occurs through the medium of language > The older the child,
the greater the role that language plays in social interaction.
Since language is essential for social interaction, foreign adults often tend to stick together in the
new environment.
Learning language in the classroom
Planned, artificially constructed situation: teacher is the planner
Language itself is the prime aspect of life around which everything revolves; teacher is the prime
source of the new language
Exposure to good native speech, role playing and games help for natural self-discovery of
language and its use
Learners must follow classroom rules
ESL vs. EFL (SLA vs. FLA)

Who is better?
In the natural situation, younger children will do best (social interaction, induce grammar and syntax, better
memory and motor skills (pronunciation)). Young adults will do better than adults.
In the classroom situation, adults will do better than young children (better concentration, attention and
ability to sit still for a long time). Young adults (around 12) will do better than adults.

Critical age
Do you think there is a critical age for second-language acquisition? Consider the cases of both syntax and
pronunciation?
Syntax:
Can be learned perfectly (no critical age)
Pronunciation:
Thomas Scovel The Joseph Conrad Syndrome (native speaker of Polish started studying English at 20)

Psychological and social factors affecting second-language learning for children and adults
Psychological factors

Social factors

Intellectual

Situation

Inductive

Explicative

Memory

Motor skills

Natural

Classroom

Children
under 7

High

Low

High

High

High

Low

7-12

High

Medium

Med/High

Med/High

Medium

Medium

Adults
over 12

High

High

Low

Low

Low

High

BILINGUALISM &
COGNITION

Varieties of bilinguals (vs. bidialectalism)

Proficiency is evaluated with respect to a variety of variables: knowledge of syntax, vocabulary and
pronunciation

Is bilingualism beneficial or detrimental?

Is it harmful linguistically/ intellectually?

Effects on the development of language

Negative reports
1930s, Madorah Smith, data from Iowa (monolingual children English) and Hawaii (ethnically diverse
bilingual children (English and Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Japanese, Korean and Portuguese).
- Hawaii children had many errors in their English speech > bilingualism caused retardation in language
development? (followed by Bereiter, Engelmann and Bernstein, 1960s, non-standard speakers had poor
language knowledge compared to standard English speakers).
- Steinberg: Smiths research was not correct for several reasons; Labov 1960s/70s
Positive reports
Lambert and his associates, Canada (Eng.& French, official languages): research with children in so-called
language immersion programmes. 1976, Bruck et al., long-term study
- by 4th or 5th grade the second language French skills were almost as good as those of native French-speaking
children.
- The immersion group did better than the English monolingual control group on creativity tests +
mathematics and science

Conclusion: inconclusive evidence

Effects on the development of intelligence

Negative reports
1917, Goddard, 30 recently arrived Jewish adult immigrants at Ellis Island, English language version of the
Binet intelligence test
Result: less than half could provide 60 words (much below the 200 words that 11-year-old American children
could provide). > request to Congress to restrict immigration to US.
Psychological researchers: Brigham and Florence Goodenough foreigners were inferior in intelligence
1950s- psychologists: knowledge of language was not a fair measure of intelligence; it was biased.
Positive effects
1980, Bain and Yu, compared monolingual and bilingual young children (6-8 months of age) in different parts
of the world (Alberta, Canada, France, Hong Kong) bilingual in either English and French/Chinese raised
under the guidance of the researchers. Tests: puzzles and having to carry out verbal instructions.
Result: bilinguals were superior to monolinguals (1986, Hakuta, challenges these results on methodological
grounds)

Conclusion: research evidence shows no harmful effects either regarding language or intelligence (VIDEO)

Simultaneous and sequential learning situations

Simultaneous: 1P-1L (e.g. mother speaks Macedonian, father speaks English)
1P-2L (e.g. mother and father use both Macedonian and English)

Mixed input sandwiched language

Trilingual children e.g. English, Japanese and Russian
-Whether the child must be conscious of the existence of two languages in order to make progress in acquiring
them is impossible to determine!
Advice: use 1P-1L fashion right from the start

Sequential: parents speak one language and community another

- In acquiring the second language, speed, proficiency and fluency will be determined by certain psychological
and social variables

Transfer effect of L1 and L2 learning

Similarity of syntax, vocabulary and sound system
Compare for instance English, French, Russian, Japanese. Which one of these languages will be easiest/ most
difficult to learn for a Macedonian/ Korean/ German learner?
- The greater the similarity between two languages, the more rapid the rate of acquisition
Facilitation
Knowledge of first language facilitates the learning of a second language (even when they are very different)
Task: Give an example of your own for first language (Macedonian) facilitation in learning a second language
(English).

Errors, interference and second and first language strategies

Error analysis: What might be the cause of errors? (interference)
First language strategy: apply first language knowledge to the second
Second language strategy: apply general knowledge of the second language to the second language (e.g. go-ed)
Task: Give examples of your own for interference/ first and second language strategy.
Question: Would a bilingual person necessarily make a good professional translator or interpreter? (VIDEO-20
lang.)