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by Teresa Naves from SLA FOR CLIL MODULE by C. Muñoz (UB), T. Naves (UB) (module co-ord) and Maria Pavesi (U Pavia). 56287-CP-1-98-IT-LINGUA-LA supported by the European Comission (DGXXII) through Lingua A of the Socrates programme Work in Progress. Not to be cited without permission.
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Links to Teresa Naves Web on AICLE-CLIL and Tie-CLIL Project homepage
Table of Contents:
2. WHAT IS INTERLANGUAGE? by Teresa Naves
2.1. Introduction to Interlangauge4. Further reading
2.2. Language Acquisition
2.3. Similarities between First language and SL acquisition
2.4. Interlanguage
2.5. Learners' errors
2.6. Developmental sequences
2.7. The acquistion of negation in English
2.8. The acquisition of interrogatives in English
2.9. The acquisition of relative clauses in English
2.10. Pienamann’s and Johnson’s Multidimensional ModelRecommended readings
4.1. P. Lightbown & Spada, N. 1994 "Learners language" in How languages are learned?
4.2. Larsen-Freeman, Diane 1997 "Grammar and Its Teaching: Challenging the Myths"
4.3. McLaughlin, Barry 1992 "Myths and Misconceptions About Second Language Learning: What Every Teacher Needs to Unlearn"
Optional readings (on-line readings)
4.4. Rosa Trenchs "Lingusitic Profiling and Language Assessment" in E. Tragant, T. Naves and R. Ribé (forthcoming) ELT Methodology
4.5. Carmen Pérez "Are we teaching against all SLA research evidence?" in E. Tragant, T. Naves and R. Ribé (forthcoming) ELT Methodology
2. WHAT IS INTERLANGUAGE? by Teresa Naves
2.1. Introduction to Interlangauge In this section we are going to consider learner’s language itself. We will examine the type of language second and foreign language learners produce in the process of learning the target language. We will examine the types of errors learners make and discuss what they can tell us about their knowledge of the language and their ability to use this knowledge. English children learning their mother tongue may say goed instead of went. We have also heard second language learners saying teached instead of taught. We will discuss the extent to which second and first language acquisition are alike in this respect. Most people seem to be aware of the fact that learners’ first language may influence the learning of a second one. What most people are not aware of, however, is the fact that learners with different language background in learning English as a SL will go through the same stages in learning some grammatical features such as verb negation. In other words, Spanish, Italian, German, Finish learners of English in the process of learning negation in English will go through the very same four stages. Please notice that the Spanish negation system is preverbal (Yo no lo quiero) (I don’t want it) whereas several of the other languages are not. The differences among those learners can be best understood in terms of rate (how fast they would move from one stage to the next ). An important SLA finding is that there are some learners’ errors that cannot be predicted nor attributed to learners’ first language, instructional setting (formal, informal) nor age.
2.2. Language Acquisition Although for most SLA researchers the terms acquisition and learning are interchangeable, for others acquisition is contrasted with learning. Acquisition is associated with the unconscious learning which takes place when the emphasis is on communication and there is no attention to form, whereas Learning refers to the development of conscious knowledge of the TL (target language)through formal study. For the second group of researchers, learning means the same as explicit knowledge
When do researchers consider that something has been acquired? In the early 70’s researchers would say learners had acquired a given morpheme when they were able to use grammatically most of the time. Lately, however, most researchers would say learners had acquired a language form when they are able to use it in spontaneous settings whether in a target-like fashion or not, most of the time. One researcher in particular developed one of the latest models of acquisition based on the idea that a language form had been acquired if learners would use it at least in three obligatory contexts from the communicative tasks in which they were engaged, yet not necessarily target like. When learners are in the process of learning something they would attempt to use the language form in a wide variety of ways, overgeneralising its rule and also using it in non-obligatory contexts. For example when a learner is in the process of learning the –ed past the learner may say I saw you yesterday when I go beach but I didn’t saw Mia. I’m going to called her
2.3. Similarities between First language and SL acquisition Children do not learn their mother tongue simply through imitation and practice; instead, they produce utterances that are not like those they have heard. Children’s language seems to be created on the basis of some internal processes and knowledge which interact with the language they are exposed to, allowing them to find out how the language system works gradually. Children’s early language seems best described as a developing system with its own internal and systematic structures, not just an imperfect imitation of the language they are in the process of learning. Finally, children’s language reveals there is an order of acquisition of morphemes and also some other syntactic structures such as negation. For example English children invariably first start using –ing morpheme before they would ever come up with a plural –s form; or they start using the irregular –ed past of some highly frequent verbs such as saw and went before they start using the regular –ed morpheme. When they start using the regular –ed morpheme, they also tend to overgeneralise its use and apart from saying called, they would also say comed. In acquiring English negation, children also go though a series of stages, some of which are not target-like (grammatically correct). A stage 2, for example, children use pre-verbal negation in utterances like mummy no comb hair.
SLA research also have found out that SL learners learn English morphemes in a given order of acquisition and that the plural –s morpheme is acquired much earlier than the third person –s morpheme. In fact, the 3rd person –s morpheme along with the –ed morpheme is one of the latest morphemes acquired by SL learners. SL learners would only start using those morphemes in spontaneous situations once they had already acquired other morphemes such as the plural –s.
2.4. Interlanguage Interlanguage is the learners’ language i.e. the type of language produced by SL learners who are in the process of learning a SL. Interlanguage is also defined as the learners’ developing SL knowledge. Analysis of the learners’ interlanguage shows that it has some characteristics of the learner’s native language, some characteristics of the second language and some characteristics which are very systematic, i.e. rule-governed and common to all learners. In language acquisition, learners’ errors are caused by several different processes
2.5. Learners’ errors SLA has identified three main types of errors. The first of these are developmental errors, which are similar to the errors made by children learning the language as their first language. Developmental errors are assumed to be a natural product of a gradually developing ability in the new language in the studies so far carried out, developmental errors make up the majority of errors exhibited by second language learners. Examples of developmental errors are the misuse of third person –s (she work hard), the –ed morpheme (she teached us last year), of negation (I not like it) and of interrogatives ( I wonder what is she doing) Transfer or Interlingual errors, or errors clearly attributable to first language influence, are said to be less frequent than the former. One example of a transfer error for Catalan L1 learners is adverb placement in examples like I have everyday a cup of coffee in the morning. The last type of errors cannot be classified as either developmental errors or transfer errors.
2.6. Developmental sequences. Research on SLA has revealed that there are important similarities between first language acquisition and second language acquisition. One important finding has been that in both first and second language acquisition there are sequences or ‘stages’ in the development of particular structures. That is, certain features of the language seem to appear relatively early in learners’ language while others are acquired much later. Developmental sequences are similar across learners from different language backgrounds, from different ages, or from different learning contexts (formal instruction vs. naturalistic). In other words, second and foreign language learners in the process of learning the target language, pass through a series of identifiable stages in acquiring grammatical structures such as, in the case of English, negatives, interrogatives and relative clauses.
The language that learners produce (IL) provides evidence that they acquire different morphological features in a fixed order and also that they pass through a sequence of developmental stages in the acquisition of specific syntactic features. The existence of developmental sequences is one of the most important findings of SLA research to date. There is a general acceptance in the SLA research community that the acquisition of some features of L2 grammar occurs in stages.
2.7. The acquisition of negation in English. There are four stages second language learners of English regardless of their L1 go through in acquiring negation in English as a SL. At stage 1 learners may say things like no work / I not like/ No have money; that is the negative element, (usually no and not but also don’t) is typically placed before the word being negated and it often occurs as the first element in the utterance. Stage 2is characterised by the fact that don’t is introduced but it is used both for the 3rd person sing. as well as for past tense and modals. Typical utterances of stage 2 are the following: I don’t like it (either meaning I don’t like it or I didn’t like it), She don’t like it (for she doesn’t like it) and she don’t can come (for She can’t come). In Stage 3 learners begin to place the negative element after the copular verb and after modals but don’t is not fully analysed yet. Illustrative examples are I cannot come; I am not hungry; She don’t like it . It is not until stage 4 that don’t is fully analysed for person and tense (e.g. I couldn’t come. She doesn’t agree. You didn’t come.)
2.8. The acquisition of interrogatives in English All learners seem to pass through, regardless of age, native language or learning context the following sequences in the acquisition of interrogatives in English:
1. Rising intonation. Questions are formed by marking statements with rising intonation.
- Single words and chunks: Tired? Agree? Four cups? Your pencil? She out? Cat playing?
- S.V. You’re tired? She agree? You need four cups? It is your pencil? She is out? The cat is playing?
- Wh- / Do- Fronting: Do you are tired? Do she agree? Do you need four cups? Where it is your pencil? Do she out? Where the cat is playing? Do the cat is playing?
- 2nd Inversion in Wh+ copula / Inversion with and Yes/ No questions (except with the auxiliary ‘do’): Where is your pencil? Where are the cups? Is this your pencil? Is she out? Is the cat playing?
- Wh- Inversion What does she need? What is the cat doing?
- Overinversion Do you know what does she need? Do you know what is the cat doing?
Differenciation and complex questions: Do you know what she needs? Do you know what the cat is doing? The cat is playing, isn’t she? Can you tell me what the cat is doing?
2.9. The acquisition of Relative Clauses in English The hierarchy of the acquisition of relative clauses in English is as follows:
- Sbj: the teacher who did not come yesterday…
- DO: The optional subject that I have chosen
- IO: The teacher who(m) I handed in my exam
- Object of preposition. I read the book that you told me about
- Possessive: I know the teacher whose daughter is in our class.
Object of comparison. The teacher that Mary is more strict than is Mike.
2.10. Pienamann’s and Johnson’s Multidimensional Model
There are constraints on L2 learning that affect its teachability and learnability. There are sequences in English which are acquired under two conditions: first, in an order of increasing linguistic and psycholinguistic complexity and second, with respect to the learner readiness (i.e. learners must be at an appropriate developmental stage in their L2 leaning for them to acquire the next stage)- Stage X : Canonical: This is your pencil? I no like She like it.
- Stage X+1: Adv.-Do- and Wh fronting: Yesterday I am tired. Do she need four cups? Why she not out?
- Stage X+2 The canonical order is disturbed. Grammatical knowledge is required for identification of movable elements with Yes/No questions, complementarizer insertion and particle separation: Have you four cups? I like to eat my friend house You can take it off.
- Stage X+3: Movement at this stage requires recognition of grammatical knowledge (aux second, ‘do’ second, reflexive pronouns, dative ‘to’, 3rd person singular –s): Why did you go? She does not know. She wrote it herself. She gave the book to the new librarian. She works too hard
Stage X+4 Complex structures: She wants us to do it. She has never met him. She didn’t like it, did she?4. FURTHER READING
4.1. P. Lightbown & Spada, N. 1994 "Learner Language" in How languages are learned. Oxford University Press:71-90From OUP catalogue From Amazon
4.2. Larsen-Freeman, Diane 1997 "Grammar and Its Teaching: Challenging the Myths". ERIC Digest. Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics Washington DC.Larsen-Freeman discuss the following myths about grammar:
1. Grammar is acquired naturally; it need not be taught.
2. Grammar is a collection of meaningless forms.
3. Grammar consists of arbitrary rules.
4. Grammar is boring.
5. Students have different learning styles. Not all students can learn grammar.
6. Grammar structures are learned one at a time.
7. Grammar has to do only with sentence-level and subsentence-level phenomena.
8. Grammar and vocabulary are areas of knowledge. Reading, writing, speaking, and listening are the four
skills.
9. Grammars provide the rules/explanations for all the structures in a language.
10. "I don't know enough to teach grammar."
4.3. McLaughlin, Barry 1992 "Myths and Misconceptions About Second Language Learning: What Every Teacher Needs to Unlearn" Published by the National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity andSecond Language Learning, University of California, Santa CruzIn this article McLaughlin discusses the following five myths:
- Myth 1. Children learn second languages quickly and easily
- Myth 2. The younger the child, the more skilled in acquiring an L2.
- Myth 3.The more time students spend in a second language context, the quicker they learn the language.
- Myth 4. Children have acquired an L2 once they can speak it.
- Myth 5. All children learn an L2 in the same way.
4.4. Rosa Trenchs "Lingusitic Profiling and Language Assessment" in E. Tragant, T. Naves and R. Ribé (forthcoming) ELT Methodology Text-guia d'Ensenyament de l'Anglès com a Llengua Estrangera. Barcelona: Publicacions de la Universitat de Barcelona
4.5. Carmen Pérez "Are we teaching against all SLA research evidence?" in in E. Tragant, T. Naves and R. Ribé (forthcoming) ELT Methodology Text-guia d'Ensenyament de l'Anglès com a Llengua Estrangera. Barcelona: Publicacions de la Universitat de Barcelona
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Last Updated on 20 October 2000 by Teresa Naves