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Chapter 1: What is Language?

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Language can be viewed as a social fact, as a psychological state (mental dictionary), as a set of
structures (a grammatical system: a system to what orders the words have to come in if they are to make
sense), or as a collection of outputs (utterances/sentences: spoken or written).
Language can be viewed as a set of choices (different ways of saying a sentence), a set of contrasts (an
inversion of sentences).
Idiolect (I-language: language of the individual): the language system of an individual as expressed by
the way he or she speaks or writes within the overall system of a particular language. In a broader sense,
someones idiolect includes their way of communicating; for example, their choice of utterances and the
way they interpret the utterances made by others. In a narrower sense, an idiolect might entail features,
either in speech or writing, which distinguish one individual from others, such as
o voice quality ( the overall impression that a listener obtains of a speakers voice or
characteristics of a particular voice that enable the listener to distinguish one voice from another,
such as when a person is able to identify a telephone caller)
o pitch ( when we listen to people speaking, we can hear some sounds or groups of sounds in their
speech to be relatively higher or lower than others)
o speech rhythm (rhythm in speech is created by the contracting or relaxing of chest muscles).

Many linguists prefer to use the term IDIOLECT for the language of an individual. So you do not speak
English, you speak your idiolect. That seems simple enough until we ask what English consists of.
Presumably it consists of the sum of all the idiolects of people who we agree are speaking English.

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I-language: an approach to language which sees it as an internal property of the human mind and as not
something external or an attempt to construct grammars showing the way human mind structures
language and which (universal) principles are involved.
E-language: an approach to language which describes the general structures and patterns.
E-language= Langue (Saussure) = Competence (Chomsky): the system of a language, that is the
arrangement of sounds and words which speakers of a language have a shared knowledge (agree to use).
Langue is the ideal form of a language.
Parole (Saussure): the actual use of language by people in speech or writing.
Competence: a persons internalized grammar of a language. This means a persons ability to create and
understand sentences, including sentences they have never heard before. It also includes a persons
knowledge of what are and what are not sentences of a particular language. For example, a speaker of
English would recognize I want to go home as an English sentence but would not accept a sentence such
as I want going home even though all the words in it are English words. Competence often refers to the
ideal speaker/hearer, that is an idealized but a not real person who would have a complete knowledge of
the whole language.
Performance: a persons actual use of language. A difference is made between a persons knowledge of
the language (competence) and how a person uses this knowledge in producing and understanding
sentences (performance). The difference between linguistic competence and linguistic performance can
be seen, for example, in the production of long and complex sentences. People may have the
competence to produce an infinitely long sentence but when they actually attempt to use this knowledge

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(=perform) there are many reasons why they restrict the number of adjectives, adverbs, and clauses in
any one sentence. They may run out of breath, or their listeners may get bored or forget what has been
said if the sentence is too long. In using language, people make errors or false starts. These may be due
to performance factors such as fatigue, lack of attention, excitement, nervousness. Their actual use of
language on a particular occasion may not reflect their competence. The errors they make are described
as examples of performance.

Keywords
Language: the system of human communication which consists of the structured arrangement of sounds or
written representation into larger unit e.g. morpheme, word, sentence, utterance.
A social fact, a kind of social contract, or a set of structure or as a collection of output.

Idiolect: langue for specific group of people or language for individual; only the speaker of this language can
understand.
Utterance: a unit of analysis in speech which has been defined in various way but commonly as a sequence of
words within a single persons turn at talk that fall under a single intonation contour.
Universal grammar: a thorny which claims to account for grammatical competence of every adult no matter
what language he or she speaks.
Langue: part of language which is not complete in any individual, but exists only in the collectivity.
Parole: language that is used individually. (I-language)
E-language: is the external manifestation of the internally (mentally) represented grammar of many
individual. It is appropriate for social, political, mathematical and logical statement.
I-language: language viewed as internal property of human mind or a computational system in human brain.

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Answer Qs

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1. The author says, A language is a social fact, a kind of social contract. What does this mean?
This means that language is the mean of communication which not only an individual but also all people in the
community accept and understand it as a whole. People use language as a contract for their daily life, since language is a
social fact that people use to understand each other and purposely set up the proof of their will or promise.
2. What do you understand from the examples that follow?
a. Kim kissed crocodile.
b. The crocodile kissed Kim.
c. Kissed crocodile Kim the.
Sentence A and B are understandable; that is, we can say that they are language which is seen as a set of choice and a
set of contrast. A set of choice or contrast means that a group of word are systematically in order that makes us
understand what the intention of the sentence is. However, sentence C does not make sense at all, and it is not a
language.
3. What is the difference between speak a grammar and speak a language?
Speak a language means to speak a language that make other people understand; that is, it refers to when people in the
society speak language of the society (E-language), which they use it as mean of communication. However, speak
grammar refers to when an individual speak his or her own language sticking deep inside their mind or brain, and
cannot be understood by others. This language is not for society, but for individual only.

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4. Saussure (1969) make an analogy as saying when orchestra plays a symphony, the symphony exists externally to
the way in which it is performed: that existence is comparable to langue in language study. The actual
performance, which may contain idiosyncrasies or errors, is to be comparable to parole. Use this analogy to
explain what E-language and I-language are.
This means that E-language is the same as langue, which refers to the language that is externally used in the society and
it is accepted as the language of the society, which people use it as the mean of contract and communication. However,
I-language is equalized to parole referring to the language existing only in the individual, and usually it is not understood
by others and considered as the error of language for people in the society.
5. Language is a set of choice and a set of contrast, yet why cant we always choose to organize the word in
utterances in our preferred way?

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Even though language is a set of choice and contrast, we cannot just organize language as we want because our own
organization of language can become I-language which is not understood by others. This is because I-language is the
language for individual only, and only the speaker can understand it.

Chapter 2: Components of Language

Phonology is the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a language.
Phonology is concerned with the abstract or mental aspect of the sounds in language rather than with the
actual physical articulation of speech sounds.
Phonology is concerned with the abstract set of sounds in a language that allows us to distinguish
meaning in the actual physical sounds we hear and say.
Phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish two words or each one of
these meaning-distinguishing sounds in a language. /p/, /b/ are phonemes of English.
o Phoneme has contrastive property. If we substitute one sound for another in a word and there is a
change of meaning, then the two sounds represent different phonemes.
o English is often considered to have 44 phonemes: 24 consonants and 20 vowels.
Phone is the different versions of the phoneme regularly produced in actual speech ( in the mouth).
Allophone is a group of several phones, all of which are versions of one phoneme. For example, the [t]
sound in the word tar is normally pronounced with a stronger puff of air (aspirated) than is present in the
[t] sound in the word star.
Minimal pair is when two words in a language which differ from each other by only one distinctive
sound (one phoneme), occurring in the same position, and which also differ in meaning. For example,
fan-van, bet-bat, site-side, put-shut are some examples of minimal pairs.

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The Sound Patterns of Language

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Minimal set is when a group of words can be differentiated, each one from the others, by changing one
phoneme (always in the same position in the word). For example, bet-set-vet-get-let and big-pig-rig-figdig-wig are examples of minimal set.
Phonotactics is the arrangements of the distinctive sound units (phonemes) in a language. For example,
in English, the consonant groups /spr/ and /str/ can occur at the beginning of a word, as in sprout, strain,
but they cannot occur at the end of a word.
Syllable is a unit in speech which is often longer than one sound and smaller than a whole word. For
example, the word terminology consists of five syllables: ter-mi-no-lo-gy.
o A syllable contains onset (consonant(s)) and rhyme which has two parts nucleus (vowel) and
coda (consonant(s)). The basic structure of the kind of syllable found in English words can be
CCVC (green), VCC (eggs), CVC (them), etc.
Consonant cluster is a sequence of two or more consonants. Consonants clusters may occur at the
beginning of a word (an initial cluster), at the end of a word (a final cluster) or within a word (a medial
cluster).
Co-articulation is the process of making one sound almost at the same time as the next sound. Coarticulation has two well-known effects: assimilation and elision.
o Assimilation occurs when a speech sound changes, and becomes more like another sound which
follows or precedes it, or when two sound segments occur in sequence and some aspect of one
segment is taken or copied by the other.
o Elision is the leaving out of a sound or sounds in speech.
o Everyones normal speech entails assimilation and elision which should be regarded as some
type of sloppiness or laziness. The point of investigating these phonological processes is not to
arrive at a set of rules about how a language should be pronounced, but to try to come to an
understanding of the regularities and patterns which underlies the actual use of sounds in
language.

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Words and Word-formation Process

-Etymology: the study of the origin and history of a word
-Coinage: the invention of totally new terms (Ex: aspirin, nylon, Vaseline)
-Borrowing: words that is borrowed from other languages (Ex: Piano(Italy), Sofa(Arabic), Yogurt(Turkish))
-Compounding: two separate words are joint together (bookcase, doorknob, fingerprint, textbook)
-Blending: combination of 2 separate forms to produce a single new term. Ex: motel (motor/hotel), smog
(smoke/haze)
-Clipping: reduction of words more than one syllable to a shorter form. Ex: condo (condominium), bra
(brassiere), ad (advertisement)
-Backformation: reduction of words which also change the function, usually from noun to verb. Ex:
emote (from Emotion), donate (from Donation), babysit (from Babysitter)

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-Conversion: a change in the function of a word, esp noun becomes verb without any reduction. Ex:
Someone has to chair the meeting. or We bottled the homebrew
-Acronyms: new words that are formed from initial letters of a set of other words. Ex: CD (compact
disk), VCR (video cassette recorder), ATM (automatic teller machine), PIN (personal identification
number)

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-Derivation: the affixes (prefix & suffix) added to the beginning or the end of a word. Ex: unhappy,
misrepresent, joyful, careless

Morphology: the study of forms

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Morphology

Morpheme: a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function.

lexical

Free

functional

Morpheme

derivational

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bound

inflectional

Free morpheme: morpheme that can stand by themselves as single word.

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- Lexical morpheme: set of ordinary nouns, adjectives and verbs. For example: Car, red, drive.
- Functional morpheme: functional words in the language such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles
and pronoun. For exp: and, but, when, because, on, near, above, in the, them.
Bound morpheme: morpheme that cannot stand alone and must attached to another forms.
- Derivational morpheme: the affixes that make words into a different grammatical category from stem.
For exp: -ful, -less, re-, un- Inflectional morpheme: set of bound morphemes to indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a
word.
2 inflections attached to nouns, -s (possessive) and s (plural).
4 inflections attached to verbs, -s (3rd person singular), -ing (present participle), -ed (past tense) and
en (past participle).
2 inflections attached to adjectives: -est (superlative) and er (comparative).

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Allomorph: the group or set of different morphs, all versions of one morpheme OR any of the different forms of
a morpheme. For example: -s, -es, (zero morph). They are all allomorphs of the plural morpheme.

Grammar
Traditional grammar: a grammar which is usually based on earlier grammar of Latin or Greek and applied to
the analysis of newer languages such as English.

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Agreement:

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In English sentence, agreement is based on the category of number, whether the noun is singular or plural. It is
also based on the category of person, that is, first person (involving the speaker), second person (involving the
hearer) and third person (involving any others).
The form the verb must also be described in terms of tense. The final category is gender.
Gender vs Grammatical gender:

Gender refers to the natural gender or biological gender, that is, male or female and what words agree
with it. (She, her) refer to female entities, whereas (he, his) refer to male entities.
Grammatical Gender refers to the types of nouns which is considered masculine and feminine. For
example, in Spanish there are article to call a noun in feminine (la) or masculine (la) such el sol ( the

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sun), la luna (the moon). It does not imply that the moons sex is female or the suns male. The grammar
simply states this way to use article with different noun.

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The prescriptive approach:

Grammarian in the eighteen century in English create rule for the proper use of English. For example: You must
not split an infinitive. You must not end a sentence with a preposition.
Therefore, traditional teacher would correct sentences like: Who did you go with? to With whom did you go?
However, we should be skeptical of the origin of some of these rules and asking whether they are
appropriately applied to the English language. Lets study this traditional rule You must not split an
infinitive. The book elaborates by using Captain Kirks infinitive. To boldly go, to solemnly swear, according
to Traditional grammar, is inappropriate. To go boldly, boldly to go should be the appropriate form. In Latin
grammar, it is clear that infinitive cannot be separated from a word because Latin infinitives are single words.
However, it is not appropriate to carry this idea over to English where the infinitive form does not consist of a
single form, but of two words, to and go.

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The descriptive approach

Analysts collected samples of the language they were interested in and attempted to describe the regular
structure of the language as it was used, not according to some view of how it should be used. This is called the
descriptive approach.
Structural Analysis
Structural analysis main concern is to investigate the distribution of forms in a language. The method involves

The _________ makes a lot of noise. I heard _______ yesterday.

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the use of test-frame that can be sentences with empty slots in them. For example:

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By developing a set of test-frames of this type and discovering which forms fit the slots in the test-frame, we
can produce a description of some aspects of the sentence structures of a language.

Immediate Constituent Analysis: is designed to show how small constituents (or components) in
sentences go together to form larger constituents. One basic step is determining how words go together to form
phrases. (pg 61)

Labelled and bracketed sentences: put brackets (one on each side) round each constituent, and then
more brackets round each combination of constituent. We can label each constituent sing abbreviated

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Syntax

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grammatical terms such as Art (= article), N (noun), NP, V, VP, S (pg 62 and 63)

Syntax: the study on the structure and ordering of components within a sentence.
-Generative grammar: general rules to create all the well-formed sentences, not the ill-formed ones.
-Syntactic structures: the grammar rule that capable of generating an infinite number of well-formed
structures, but not the ill-form structures.
-Deep structure: an abstract representation of a sentence.
-Surface structure: the outward form of a sentence that can be spoken and heard.
EX:

Charlie broke the window

The window was broken by Charlie.

From the 2 sentences, surface structure has changed, but

deep structure (meaning) remains the same.

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-Structural ambiguity: the confusion versions of deep structure which are interpreted from one
particular surface structure. (Ex: Annie whacked a man with an umbrella.)

-Recursion rule: the structure rules which more sentences are used to add to the original sentences.
-Transformational rule: the process rule that enable to change or move constituents in the structures
derived from the phrase structure rules.

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Semantics
What is semantics?

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Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences. This technical approach is
concerned with objective or general meaning, not subjective or local meaning.
Differentiate between conceptual and associative meanings. Give example to illustrate.
- Conceptual meaning: the basic, essential meaning conveyed by the literal use of a word. Example: the
basic components of a word needle (thin, sharp, steel instrument) would be a part of conceptual
meaning.

What does it mean be the phrase semantic features? Give example.

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3.

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- Associative meaning: different associations/connotations attached to a word. The meaning of a word

might be interpreted in different ways according to experience or culture of an individual. Example: Pain,
blood, or knitting is associated with the word needle.

Features that can be treated as the basic elements involved in differentiating the meaning of each words
in a language from every other words. The sentence The hamburger ate the boy is syntactically good,
but semantically odd, if based on semantic features. The kind of noun that can be the subject of the
ate must denote an entity that is capable of eating, while The hamburger does not have this
property. All word is the container or coverage that carries the meaning components.
4.

Look at the sentence: A assassinates B. If you use semantic features to analyze it, what do you learn
from the sentence?
We can see that there is a relative association between A and B through the verb assassinates. A and B
must possess the properties of human, since A is entitled of performing the verb assassinates and B is
capable of being assassinated.

5.

What do semantic roles mean? What do they consist of? Briefly explain each.

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Semantic roles (or thematic roles): the roles of words that fulfill within the situation described by a
sentence, rather than by analyzing the meaning of those words. Semantic roles consist of:
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What is Lexical Relation? What does it consist of?

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Lexical Relation is a series of words related to one another, under which they fall under an umbrella of a
category of a certain word. Lexical Relation consists of:

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- Synonymy: words with very closely related meanings (almost/nearly, broad/wide, buy/purchase)
-Antonymy: two forms of words with opposite meaning. Antonymy has two types, plus reversives.
+ Gradable antonyms: can be used in comparative structures (big/small). One negative member
of this type does not necessarily imply the other. My car is old does not mean My car is new.
+ Non-gradable antonyms: cannot be used in comparative structures (Not: dead
deader).
One negative member of this type does imply the other. My grandfather is dead = he is not
alive.

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+ Reversives: cannot be used as negative test to identify non-gradable antonyms. For example:
undress does not oppose to dress, it means do reverse of dress.
- Hyponymy: relations when the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another, such as
animal/dog, vegetable/carrot, flower/rose.

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6.

Agent and theme: The boy kicked the ball. The ball is the theme where it receives the effect from
the action of the agent The boy.
Instrument and experience: The boy cut the rope with a scissor. A scissor is an instrument, while
The boy is an experiencer who has feeling, perception or state.
Location, source and goal: On the wall (location), From George (source), and Back to George (goal).

Horse is the hyponym of Animal.

Cockroach is the hyponym of Insect.

Animal and Insect are called Superordinate (higher

level term)

Horse and Cockroach are called Co-hyponym.

- Prototype: the idea of the characteristic instance of a category. It helps explain the meaning of certain
words, like bird, not in terms of component features (feathers, or wings), but in terms of resemblance to
the clearest example. Thus, even the native English might wonder if ostrich and penguin should be
hyponyms of bird. Likewise, given vegetable, we tend to accept carrot before potato or tomato.
- Homophones and Homonyms
- Polysemy: the word with multiple meanings. In dictionary, it has a single entry with a list of different
meanings, unlike homonymy which has separate entries. Ex: Head (on top of the body or of a company)
- Word play: it is usually used for humorous effect, interpreted by using homonymy, homophone, or so.

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- Metonymy: relationship between words, based simply on a closed connection in everyday experience.
Those words usually go hand in hand. Ex: container-content (bottle/water), whole-part (car/wheels),
representative-symbol (the President/the White House).
- Collocation: words that usually occur with other words. Ex: bread/butter, hammer/nail, table/chair.

Pragmatics
Pragmatics is the study of connection between meaning and context, attempted by the speaker.

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Invisible meaning:

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Dealing with how we recognize what is meant even when it is not actually said or written. This depends
much on shared assumption and expectation. Ex: On the road, you just see a sign but you can interpret
it as No Entry.
Context:

The dependence on surrounding words or phrase to interpret/understand a certain word.

- Linguistic context (co-text): a set of words that give a strong influence on a particular one. Ex: She
goes to the bank to withdraw some cash: the word bank must mean financial institution, not river bank
because we see the word withdraw and some cash.

Deixis:

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- Physical context: the interpretation of words based on physical appearance. Ex: There is a word bank
on a building in the town, and you would say it is a financial institution, not river bank.

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The expression that means pointing via language use, not physical action. We have three kinds of
Deixis: Person Deixis (him, them, those idiots), Spatial Deixis (here, there, near that), and Temporal Deixis
(now, then, last week). Ex: Last week, those people came here to receive.
Reference:

An act by which a speaker uses language to enable a listener/reader to identify something.

Inference:
The process of identifying things, said or done by the speaker.
Anaphora:
The use of Pronoun, The, and Nouns relating to the preceding noun as subsequent reference to an
already introduced entity.
Ex: We saw a video about a boy washing a puppy in a small bath. (Antecedents)

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The puppy was shaking and the boy got wet.

When he let go, it jumped out of the bath and ran away.

(anaphoric expressions)

Presupposition:
The Pre + suppose that a speaker/writer assumes is true or known by a listener/reader.
Ex: A man approaches you with a black eye. And you presuppose that he has been beaten up, even
before talking to him. Note that Presupposition can be either right or wrong.
Speech Acts:

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The interpretation of meaning of an utterance in terms of what the speaker intended to convey,
describing the speaker intention whether he is doing a request, command, question, or inform.

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- Direct speech acts: Can you drive? Function is asking ability, and Form is question.

- Indirect speech acts: Can you pass the salt? Function is doing a request, and Form is question.
Politeness:

The ideas of being tactful, modest or nice to other people.

- Face-threatening act: Close your book, now!
- Face-saving act: Please, close your book.

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+ Negative face: is concern about imposition (Im sorry to bother you..; I know youre busy, but .)

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+ Positive face: show solidarity and draw attention to a common goal (You and I have the same
problem, so ..)

Chapter 5: The Psychology of Second Language Acquisition

Language and the brain
Notions that particular locations in the brain may be specialized for language functions date back at least
into the 19th century.
- Brocas area (an area in the left frontal lobe): is responsible for the ability to speak. Therefore, an
injury to the left side of the brain was much more likely to result in language loss than an injury to the
right side.

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- Wernickes area: area adjacent to the part of the cortex that processes audio input.
- Language is represented primarily in the left hemisphere of the brain within an area around the
Sylvain fissure (a cleavage that separates lobes in the brain). In other words, core linguistic processes are
typically housed in the left hemisphere.
- Lateralization: differential specialization of the two halves of the brain. For example, the left
hemisphere becomes specialized for most language activity, many believe during a critical period for
language development.

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- Plasticity: is the capacity of the brain to assume new functions/ one area of the brain becomes less able
to assume the functions of another in the event it is damaged. In early childhood, if one area of the brain is
damaged, another area of the brain is able to assume the functions of damaged area because it retains this
aspect.

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- Critical Period Hypothesis: is the claim that children have only a limited number of years during which
they can acquire their L1 flawlessly; if they suffered brain damage to the language areas, brain plasticity in
childhood would allow other areas of the brain to take over the language functions of the damaged areas,
but beyond certain age, normal language development would not be possible. This critical period lasts until
puberty (around age 12 or 13 years). This concept is commonly extended to SLA as well, in the claim that
only children are likely to achieve native or near-native proficiency in L2.
Principal communicative specialization of L and R hemispheres

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Principal hemispheric specializations

left hemisphere
right hemisphere
phonology
nonverbal (as babies cries)
morphology
visuospatial information
syntax
intonation
function words and inflections
nonliteral meanings and ambiguity
tone systems
many pragmatic abilities
much lexical knowledge
some lexical knowledge
Interest in how the brain might be organized for multiple languages also dates back to the 19 th
century. The initial questions arose from observing differing patterns for the interruption and recovery of
languages following brain damage in multilinguals. Most individuals lose or recover multiple languages
equally, but some recover one before the other, and some never recover use of one (either L1 or L2). These
findings suggest that two or more languages may be represented in somewhat different locations in the
brain and/or have different networks of activation. This possibility has stimulated observation and research
on the topic for the past century, and the following are the specific questions which have been explored.
1. How independent are the languages of multilingual speakers?
Multiple language systems are neither completely separate nor completely fused. Ervin and Osgood
suggested three possibilities for how languages relate in an individuals mind: coordinate bilingualism,
compound bilingualism, and subordinate bilingualism.

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*Bilingualism: the use of at least two different languages either by an individual or by a group of
speakers, such as the inhabitants of a particular region or a nation.
- Coordinate bilingualism: the organization of two languages in the brain as parallel linguistic
systems, where L1 and L2 are independent of one another. An extreme case of coordinate bilingualism
would be the rare individual who has learned two or more languages in different contexts and is not able
(even with conscious effort) to translate between them.
- Compound bilingualism: the organization of two languages in the brain as a fused or unified
system. Many believe that compound bilingualism characterize simultaneous bilingualism in early
childhood (before the age of three).

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- Subordinate bilingualism: the organization of two languages in the brain where one linguistic
system is accessed through the other. Subordinate bilingualism is believed to result from learning L2
through the medium of L1 as in grammar-translation approaches to foreign language instruction.
2. How are multiple language structures organized in relation to one another in the brain? Are both languages
stored in the same area?
For some multilinguals, it appears that L1 and L2 are stored in somewhat different areas of the
brain, but both are predominantly in (probably overlapping) areas of the left hemisphere. During brain
surgery researchers have found that disturbing some points in the brain blocks people from being able to
name things in both languages, and those points are in Sylvian fissure that is the area common to both L1
and L2. However, only L1 or L2 (more likely L2) is disrupted by stimulation of points further away from
the Sylvian fissure.

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3. Does the organization of the brain for L2 in relation to L1 differ with age of acquisition, how it is learned, or
level of proficiency?

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- Individuals who acquire L2 later in life show more right-hemisphere involvement. Supporting this
conclusion, Wuilemin and Richards report more right-hemisphere involvement for individuals who acquire
L2 between ages 9 and 12 than for those who acquire L2 before age 4.
- There is little knowledge about how organization of knowledge in the brain might be related to
level of proficiency in a second language, but it seems probable that the organization of L2 knowledge is
more diffuse for lower levels of proficiency and more compact for highly fluent L2 users. Furthermore, a
PET-scan of the brain shows that a multilingual person may use more memorization for L2 and more direct
processing of meaning for L1. Other types of research show L2 learners increasing reliance on meaning over
memory as their proficiency in L2 increases.
4. Do two or more languages show the same sort of loss or disruption after brain damage? When there is a
differential impairment or recovery, which language recovers first?
- Obler and Gjerlow conclude that a significant factor in initial recovery is which language was most
used in the years prior to the incident which caused the damage, whether this is L1 or L2.

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- Research shows that not only can different languages be affected differentially by brain damage,
but different abilities in the same language may be differentially impaired such as syntax vs. vocabulary,
production vs. comprehension, or oral vs. written modality. These observations have possible implications
for the claims that different elements of language are located in separate parts of the brain.
- We may conclude that what is being added in the brain when a second language is acquired is not
very different from what is already there for the first.
Learning process

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Psychology provides us with two major frameworks for the focus on learning processes: information
processing (IP) and connectionism. There are three approaches based on information processing:
multidimensional model, processability, and competition model.

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Information processing (IP)

- IP is concerned with mental processes involved in language learning and use, including perception
and the input of new information; the formation, organization, and regulation of internal (mental)
representations; and retrieval and output strategies.
- Our mental capacity requirements for controlled processing are obvious when we are beginning to
learn a second language, as we need to concentrate our attention to comprehend or produce basic
vocabulary and syntactic structures. After these have been automatized with practice, we can attend to
more complex, high-order features and content.

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- Fossilization: a process which sometimes occurs in which incorrect linguistic features become a
permanent part of the way a person speaks or writes a language. Aspects of pronunciation, vocabulary
usage, and grammar may become fixed or fossilized in second or foreign language learning. Fossilized
features of pronunciation contribute to a persons foreign accent.

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Stages of information processing

Input (perception)
Central processing (controlled-automatic processing; declarative-procedural
knowledge; and restructuring)
Output (production)
- Perception: the recognition and understanding of events, objects, and stimuli through the use of
senses (sight, hearing, touch, etc.)
- Central processing: is the heart of the Information Processing framework, where learning occurs as
learners go from controlled to automatic processing and reorganize their knowledge.
- Automatic processing: the performance of a task without conscious or deliberate processing. Many
skills are considered to be learned when they can be performed with automatic processing. For example, a
learner may speak a foreign language with relatively few grammatical errors in situations where automatic
processing is being used (e.g. when talking in a relaxed situations among friends).

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- Controlled processing: is involved when conscious effort and attention is required to perform a task.
For example, a learner driver may operate a car using controlled processing, consciously thinking about
many of the decisions and operations involved while driving. The learner may speak less accurately fluently
and make more grammatical errors when controlled processing is being used (e.g. when speaking in public
before an audience).
(In cognitive psychology, two different kinds of processing employed in carrying out tasks are
distinguished.)

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- Declarative or factual knowledge: information that consists of consciously known facts, concepts,
or ideas that can be stored as propositions/ involves the acquisition of isolated facts and rules and
processing is relatively slow and often under attentional control. For example, an account of the tense
system in English can presented as a set of statements, rules or facts; i.e., it can be learned as declarative
knowledge.

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- Procedural knowledge: knowledge concerning things we know how to do but which are not
consciously known, such as how to ride a bicycle, or how to speak German. In other words, it involves
processing of longer associated units and increasing automatization, and proceduralization requires
practice.
Input for SLA is whatever sample of L2 that learners are exposed to, but it is not available for
processing unless learners actually notice it: i.e. pay attention to it. Then it becomes intake. Factors that
influence awareness of the input:
- frequency of encounter with items

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- perceptual saliency of items

- instructional strategies that can structure learner attention

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- individuals processing ability

- readiness to notice particular items

- task demands, or the nature of activity the learner is engaged in
Output: is the language that learners produce, in speech/sign or in writing. Meaningful production
practice helps learners by:
- enhancing fluency by furthering development of automaticity through practice
- noticing gaps in their own knowledge as they are forced to move from semantic to syntactic
processing, which may lead learners to give more attention to relevant information
- test hypotheses based on developing interlanguage, allowing for monitoring and revision
- talking about language, including eliciting relevant input and collaboratively solving problem

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*Interlanguage: the type of language produced by second and foreign-language learners who are in
the process of learning a language. In language learning, learners errors are caused by several different
processes:
- language transfer: borrowing patterns from the mother tongue
- overgeneralization: a process in which language learners extend the use of a grammatical
rule of linguistic item beyond its accepted uses. For example, a child may use ball to refer to all round
object or use mans instead of men for the plural of man.

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- communication strategy: a way used to express a meaning in a L2 by a learner who has a

limited command of the language. For example, the learner may not be able to say Its against the law to
park here and so he/she say This place, cannot park.

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Since the language which the learner produces using these processes differs from both the mother
tongue and the target language, it is sometimes called an interlanguage.
- Restructuring ( regular systemic reorganization and reformulation): qualitative changes to make
mental representations more coordinated, integrated, and efficient. I think restructuring is more like Ushaped development: learners use of an initially correct form such as plural feet in English, followed by
incorrect form such as foots, and eventually correct form again such as feet. In this case, feet is learned as an
unanalyzed word, without recognition that it is a combination of foot plus plural. The later production of
foots is evidence of systemic restructuring that takes place when the regular plural s is added. Feet
reappears when the learner begins to acquire exceptions to the plural inflection rule.

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Theories regarding order of acquisition

Psychological approaches to SLA have made significant contributions to understanding why certain
elements are acquired in a fixed sequence.

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- Multidimensional Model: this approach claims the following:

+ Learners acquire certain grammatical structures in a developmental sequence.
+ Developmental sequences reflect how learners overcome processing limitations.

+ Language instruction which targets developmental features will be successful only if

learners have already mastered the processing operations which are associated with the previous stage of
acquisition.
Clashen infers the following hierarchy:
(1): Canonical order strategy:
(2): Initialization/finalization strategy:
(3): Subordinate clause strategy:

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A reorientation of the Multidimensional Model is known as Processability Theory, and it aims to determine
and explain the sequences in which processing skills develop in relation to language learning. The following
acquisitional hierarchy of processing skills is proposed:
- lemma/word access: words are processed, but they do not carry any grammatical information, nor
are they associated with any ordering rules.
- category procedure: lexical items are categorized, and grammatical information may be added (e.g.
number and gender to nouns, tense to verbs)

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- phrasal procedure: operations within the phrase level occur, such as agreement for number or
gender between adjective and noun within the noun phrase.

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- S-procedure: grammatical information may be exchanged across phrase boundaries, such as

number agreement between subject and verb.
- Clause boundary: main and subordinate clause structures may be handled differently.
The sequence of strategies describes the developing learner grammar in terms of processing prerequisites
needed to acquire grammatical (syntactic and morphological) rules at successive stage.

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Competition model: a functional approach to SLA which assumes that all linguistic performance involves
mapping between external form and internal function. The form of a lexical item is represented by its
auditory properties, and its function by its semantic properties; the forms of strings of lexical items are wordorder patterns and morphological inflections, and their functions are grammatical. For example, for the word
horse the form is represented by the sounds [hors]; the function is the meaning of a four-legged, hay-eating
animal. In the sentence Horses eat hay, the word orders of horses before and hay after the verb are forms; the
functions are to convey that horses is the subject and hay is the object. The inflection s on horses is a also a
form; its function is to convey that more than one horse is being referred to.

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Competition model: this approach considers that learning the system of form-function mapping is basic for
L1 acquisition.
Cue strength: a part of form-function mapping where learners detect cues in language input which are
associated with a particular function and recognize what weight to assign each possible cue.
Cue: is what listeners may attend to in order to comprehend sentences. For example, if a listener wants to
know what the subject of a sentence is, there might be following cues he or she could attend to: word order, subjectverb agreement, animacy (e.g. does the verb require an animate being to perform the action/ the capacity for
volitional action), case marking, and others.
Multiple cues are available simultaneously in input; language processing involves competition among various cues.
For example, for the grammatical function of subject, possible cues are word order, agreement, case marking, and
animacy. All of these cues are illustrated in the following sentences:
(a) The cow kicks the horse.
(b) The cow kick the horses.

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(c): Him kicks the horse.
(d): The fence kicks the horse.

In English, the word order is a cue strength over the other possibilities because native speakers are most likely to
identify the first noun phrase in each of the above sentences as subject.
The following are determinants of cue strength:
- task frequency: how often the form-function mapping occurs. The vast majority of English sentences have a
subject before the verb, so the mapping of word-order form to subject function is very frequent.

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- constrative availability: when the cue is present, whether or not it has any constrastive effect. In example (a)
above, the third person singular s on the verb agrees with both noun phrases and the so the agreement cue tells
nothing about which is the subject. An must occur constratively if it is to be useful.

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- Conflict reliability: how often the cue leads to a correct interpretation when it is used in comparison to other
potential cues.
Connectionist approaches

- connectionist approach: a cognitive framework for explaining learning processes, beginning in the 1980s and
becoming increasingly influential. It assumes that SLA results from increasing strength of associations between
stimuli and responses.

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The best-known connectionist approach within SLA is Parallel Distributed Processing (PDA). According to this
viewpoint, processing takes place in a network of nodes (or units) in the brain that are connected by pathways. As
learners are exposed to repeated patterns of units in input, they extract regularities in the patterns; probabilistic
associations are formed and strengthened. These associations between nodes are called connection strengths or
patterns of activation.

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Many linguists and psychologists would argue against a strong role for frequency of input in language learning. One
counterargument is that some of the most frequent words in English (including the most frequent, the) are relatively
late to appear, and among the last (if ever) to be mastered.

Differences in learners (why some people are more successful that others)
1. Age

Younger Advantages
Older Advantages
brain plasticity, not analytical, fewer inhibitions, learning capacity, analytic ability, pragmatic skills,
weaker group identity, simplified input
greater knowledge of L1, real-world knowledge
2. Sex
-Female: verbal fluency, memorization of complex form, automatized skills
-Male: computing compositional rules, better semantic and interpretive skills
3. Aptitude

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-phonemic coding ability: capacity to process auditory input into segment
-inductive language learning capacity:
concerning central processing that restructuring
occurs

-grammatical sensitivity:

-associative memory capacity: how linguistic forms are stored, recalled, and used.
4. Motivation: determines the level of effort of learner in L2 development
-goal/need of the learning language

-desire to attend the goal

-perception to fulfill goal/need

-belief in likelihood to success/fail

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Learning Strategies

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-value of potential outcomes

a. Metacognitive: planning & monitoring the learning

b. Cognitive: making use of direct analysis
c. Social/Affective: involving interactions
Traits found in good learners:

enhance learning quality

-concern for language form (accuracy)

-concern for communication (fluency)

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-active task approach

-awareness of learning process

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-capacity to use strategies flexibly by task requirement

Chapter 6: Social Contexts of Second Language Acquisition

Communicative competence
Communicative competence: what a speaker needs to know to communicate appropriately in a particular language
community. It includes not only aspects of linguistic structure such as phonology, grammar, vocabulary, etc. but also
when to speak, what to say to whom, and how to say it properly in any given situation. It also involves social and
cultural knowledge speakers are presumed to have, enabling them to use and interpret linguistic forms.
Language community: a group of people who share knowledge of a common language to at least some extent.
Multilingual individuals are often members of more than one language community.

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Second language (SL): language generally learned and used within the context of a language community which
dominantly includes members who speak it natively/ language needed to participate in that community socially,
academically, politically, and economically. Example of SL learners is Spanish speakers in the USA learning English,
etc.
Foreign Language (FL): language learned and used within context of the native culture, the learners often have little
opportunity to interact with members of the language community who speak FL natively, and the learners typically
do not engage fully in the FL society. Example of FL learners is Cambodian speakers in the Cambodia learning
English, etc.
Auxiliary Language (AL): language learned and used for political or political purposes. Example of AL leaners is a
Thai speaker who uses English for international trade.

Microsocial factors
- Variation in learner language

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*Within the definition of communicative competence, the content of what a speaker needs to know and judgments
of relative success in attaining that knowledge depend on the social context within which he or she learns and is using
language.

Which variable features including vocabulary, phonology, morphology, syntax, discourse occurs in the production of
any speaker depends largely on the communicative contexts in which it has been learned and is used. Some relevant
contextual dimensions are:
Linguistic contexts: elements of language form and function associated with the variable
element.

Psychological contexts: factors associated with the amount of attention given to language
form during production, the level of automaticity versus control in processing, or the
intellectual demands of a particular task. For example, That is a book may be produced
during a formal second language lesson or in a writing exercise but That a big book may be
used in informal conversation.
Microsocial contexts: features of setting/situation and interaction that language is being
produced, interpreted, and negotiated, including level of formality and participants
relationship to one another.

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* Accommodation theory: it states that speakers (usually unconsciously) change their pronunciation and even the
grammatical complexity of sentences they use to sound more like whomever they are talking to. This is in part
accounts for why the native speakers tend to simplify their language when they are talking to L2 learners who is not
fluent.
* Sociolinguistic perspectives are:
1. what is acquired in L2 includes variable linguistic structures and knowledge of when to use each.
2. the process of acquisition includes progress through stages in which different types of variability are evident.

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3. reasons why some learners are more successful than others include how well they can perceive and align their own
usage in accord with the target system.
Input and interaction
Input to the learner is absolutely necessary for either L1 or L2 learning take place. For example, according to
behavior theorists, input is necessary to form stimuli and feedback which learners respond to and imitate.
From a social perspective, interaction is deemed essential because it provides learners the quantity and quality of
external linguistic input required for internal processing, focuses learner attention on aspects of their L2 differing
from target norms or goals, provides collaborative means for learners to build discourse structure, and expresses
meanings beyond the current level of linguistic competence.

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Input: language which a leaner hears or receives and from which he or she can learn.

Nature of input modifications

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Intake: input which is actually helpful for the leaner. Some of the language (i.e. the input) which a learner hears may
be too rapid or difficult for the learner to understand, and therefore cannot be used in learning (i.e. cannot serve as an
input).

Foreigner talk: the type of speech often used by native speakers of a language when speaking to foreigners who are
not proficient in the language in order that foreigners can understand.
Characteristics of foreigner talk are simple vocabulary, using high-frequency words and phrases, long pauses, slow
rate of speech, careful articulation, loud volume, stress on key words, simplified grammatical structures,
topicalisation (topic at the beginning, then a comment about it), retention of full forms (e.g. less contraction, fewer
pronouns).

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Modifications in academic texts: frequent organization markers, such as headings and linking devices, clear topic
statements, highlighting of key terms and inclusion of synonyms and paraphrase, bulleted or numbered lists of main
points, elaboration of sections which require culture-specific background knowledge, visual aids, such as illustrations
and graphs, explicit summations at regular intervals, questions used for comprehension checks

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Interactional Modifications: repetition, paraphrase, expansion and elaboration, sentence completion, frame for
substitution, vertical construction, and comprehension check and request for clarification.
*When L1 speakers converse with L2 learners, interactional modifications appear to provide even more significant
help than do the modification of oral input.
Feedback
Negative feedback can be in direction correction or indirection correction. Direction correction includes explicit
statement That is the wrong word; directives concerning what cannot or must be said; explanations related to
points of grammar and usage. However, indirection correction involves with interactional modifications.
- comprehension check or request for clarification means NNS utterance was incorrect.
NSS: I cant assist class. (Meaning I cant attend class.)
NS: You cant what? (Meaning Youve got the wrong word. Try again.)

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- rising intonation questions means the utterance was wrong, and repetition by NSs with falling
intonation means the utterance was right.
- paraphrase of an NNS utterance by NSs provides an alternative way to say the same thing without
suggesting that an error has been made.
NNS: John goed to town yesterday.
NS (correcting): Yes, John went shopping.
* Interactionist perspective is:
- what is acquired in L2 includes only that portion of L2 input assimilated and fed into the IL system.

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- L2 is acquired in a dynamic interplay of external input and internal processes, with interaction facilitating SLA.

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- the reasons that some learners are more successful than others include their degree of access to social experiences
allowing for negotiation of meaning and corrective feedback. However, reciprocal interaction as a source and stimuli
for learning ignores those who can teach themselves from books and recordings.
Interaction as the genesis of language

Sociocultural Theory (S-C theory): the key concept is that interaction not only facilitates language learning but also
cause language acquisition, and it suggests that all learning is a social process grounded in sociocultural settings. It
also emphasizes on learner activity and involvement over innate and universal mechanisms, and it focuses on factors
outside the learner rather than factors in the learners head.

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According to S-C theory, learning occurs due to symbolic mediation, a link between a persons current mental state and
higher order functions (complex mental functions) provided primarily by language.
Interpersonal interaction

Interpersonal interaction: communicative events and situations which occur between people.

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Zone of proximal development: an area of potential development, where the learner can achieve that potential only
with assistance.
*According to S-C theory, mental functions beyond an individuals current level must be performed in collaboration
with other people before they are achieved independently.
Scaffolding: verbal guidance an expert (including teachers and more knowledgeable learners) provides to help a
learner perform any specific task, or the verbal collaboration of peers to perform a task which would be too difficult
for any one of them individually.
*For L2 learners, L1 and L2 can provide helpful mediation. Talk between peers who are collaborating tasks in L1 can
provide an efficient medium for problem-solving and enhance learning of both L2 and any academic subjects students
are studying in L2.
*Symbolic mediation can be interactional without involving face-to-face communication such as reading which is
interaction between the individual and the author of a text or book, resulting in altered state of knowledge.
Sometimes, it doesnt have to involve language but nonlinguistic symbols such as gestures, diagrams and
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Intrapersonal interaction

Intrapersonal interaction: communication that occurs within an individuals own mind.

Inner speech/private speech: speech that more mature individuals use to control thought and behavior. Children
usually use private speech to build up their language competence. For example, they can talk about something they
play with, or they focus on grammar as well as on the sound of their utterances.

*Sociocultural theory concludes that:

- language is learned through socially mediated activities.

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Private writing: writing in which individuals record language forms and other meaningful symbols on paper to help
store items in memory, organize thought, solve problems, etc. without intent to communicate with others. For
example, students of language may keep personal journals or diaries of their learning experiences, jot notes in the
margins of textbooks, highlight or underline important points.

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- reasons learners are successful than others due to their level of access to or participation in a learning community, or
the amount of mediation/help they receive from experts or peers, and how well they make use of that help.
Acquisition without interactions; interaction without acquisition

Factors explaining some individuals interact quite successfully with others while developing little or no competence
in a common linguistic code include:
- background knowledge and experience helping individuals organize new information and make guesses about what
is going on and what will happen next.

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- understanding of the overall situation or event, including its goal, the relationships among participants, and what
they expect one another to do and say
- extralinguistic context, including physical settings and objects
- guestures, facial expressions, and other nonverbal signs

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Macrosocial factors

Macrosocial factors that affect SLA include:

- global and national status of L1 and L2:
+ at a national level: the need for L2 learning is strongest when groups from other language
backgrounds immigrate to a country without prior knowledge of its official or dominant language, and when the
official or dominant language shifts because of conquest, revolution, or other major political change. For example,
immigrants who come from other language backgrounds are expected to add English as a requirement for citizenship,
for participation in US democratic processes, for economic mobility, and for access to education and other social
services because all citizens are able to use one language English to display national unity.
+ At a global level, need for L2 learning is motivated by access to resources in areas of commerce and
technology/information transfer or by relative economic or military power or status. For this reason, interest in
learning Chinese as an L2 can be predicted to increase as the economic status of China grows.

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*In short, where knowledge of a particular language confers few visible economic or social benefits, there will
be little motivation for acquiring it as an L2.
- boundaries and identities:
+ linguistic boundaries serve not only to unify speakers as members of one language community but
also to exclude outsiders from insider communication. For example, unification is served when the official use of
Hebrew is used in Israel as part of the process for establishing nation-state. Language communities may also reinforce
their boundaries by discouraging prospective L2 learners by holding and conveying the attitude that their language is
too difficult to learn or inappropriate for others to use.

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+ crossing a linguistic boundary to participate in another language community and to identify or be

identified with it, requires learning that language. Acculturation means the full participation requiring learning the
culture of that community and adapting to those values and behavioral patterns.

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+ in acculturation model, John Schumann found that factors that are likely to social distance
between leaner and target groups, limit acculturation, and thus inhibit L2 learning are: dominance of one group over
the other, a high degree of segregation between groups, and desire of the learner group to preserve its own lifestyle (motivation
whether groups of immigrants or ethnic minorities integrate culturally and linguistically into the dominant society).
For example, English speakers in the Southwestern USA often live and work side by side with Spanish speakers for
years without acquiring more than a few words of the language.
- institutional forces and constraints: social institutions: social systems established by law, custom, or practice
to regulate and organize the life of people in public domains such as politics, religion, and education. Institutional
forces and constraints are language-related social control, determination of access to knowledge, and other instances of
linguistic privileges or discrimination.

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+ linguistic social control can take form of official or unofficial policies that regulate language which
language is to be used in particular situations. For example, use of the national language is often required in political
meetings or is sometimes required for applying for permits of various kinds or negotiating for social services.
Furthermore, a high level of fluency in the national language is typically required for election or appointment to
political office, which tends to reinforce the power of some groups over others because the language they speak. Also,
in Bolivia and Guatemala, Spanish was spoken natively by only a minority but their economic status and
institutionalization of Spanish as the official language enabled them to maintain control of the Quechua/Aymara and
Mayan L1 majorities.
+ access to education may also be limited because applicants need to display competence in proper
dominant language usage. For example, admission to universities and professional schools in some countries requires
prior study of a foreign language (often English), with the necessary quality and quantity of language instruction
available only in exclusive preparatory. This means that children whose parents are wealthy can send them to
private schools. Thus, wealth and social status may determines opportunities for acquisition of an L2.
+ There are recent concerns about the power position of English as the international language for
scholarly conferences and publications, for example, since this status clearly privileges individuals in many disciplines
who have received higher education in English-medium universities.
- social categories: people are categorized according to socially relevant dimensions: e.g. age, sex, ethnicity,
education level, occupation, and economic status. Social categorization often influences what experiences they have,
how they are perceived by others, and what is expected of them.

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+ Young L2 learners are more likely than adult learners to acquire the language in a naturalistic
setting (highly contextualized face-to-face situations) as opposed to a formal classroom context (involving reading
and writing). However, some aspects of social setting may disadvantage lower age groups. Young immigrant children
who are submerged in L2 dominant environments appear to do less both in L2 learning and in academic content
learning through the medium of L2 than do children who immigrate after receiving basic education in their native
language and begin L2 learning at an older age.
+ The age of first exposure to a new language is less important for predicting ultimate ability than
when learning the L2 really becomes important to the learners, and when they take active responsibility for that
learning. Also, older learners succeed in SLA to the level of being able to pass for a native speaker (even in
pronunciation) when social motivation is strong enough.

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+ Members of ethnic group who perceive themselves to have much in common are more likely to
interact, and thus are more likely to learn the others language. Miller found that fair-haired Europeans who
physically resembled their Australian classmates established friendships and assimilated more readily than did
differently appearing students from Asia.
+ Other factors potentially contributing to perceptions of social distance include religion and cultural
background along with patterns of behavior considered appropriate for interaction with strangers or new
acquaintances. For example, children from South America and the Middle East as well as from Europe appeared to
establish friendships with American children more readily than did children from China, Japan, and Korea.

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+ Two outcomes of SLA related to the ethnic group are the types of bilingualism resulting from
contact. Additive bilingualism happens where members of a dominant group learn the language of a subordinate
group without threat to their L1 competence or to their ethnic identity, and subtractive bilingualism happens where
members of a subordinate group learn the dominant language as L2 and are more likely to experience some loss of
ethnic identity and attrition of L1 skills, especially if they are children. Factors contributing additive versus
subtractive outcomes are the degree of opportunity for continued contact with their country of origin, the
composition of families (e.g. whether they include grandparents or other elderly relatives), and whether the L1
continue to fulfill an institutional function such as the practice of religion.

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- Circumstances of learning

+ Learner differences in cognitive styles and learning strategies are in part based in cultural
experiences. For example, field-dependent (FD) and field-independent (FI) correlate how children are raised.
Findings showed that FD styles appear to be related to the more cooperative settings of rural residence, FI to more
competitive urban circumstances; FD seems to relate to lower economic categories and FI to more affluent.
+ A clear example of culture-based learning strategies is seen in the superior capacity for rote learning
among Asian students who have had more experience with teaching methods that involve memorization. Chinese
students score significantly higher than Europeans and Americans on tests that measure memory for numbers,
reflecting ways they have learned in the course of earlier schooling. This suggests that Chinese students learning
English as an L2 may learn effectively and efficiently through memorization.
+ Another fundamental difference in situational circumstances is whether L2 learning is informal
versus formal, or naturalistic versus instructed. Informal/naturalistic learning generally takes place in settings where
people contact and need to interact with speakers of another language. For example, they can live in a multilingual
society, their family and friends are multilingual, their lifestyles involve international travel and residence for

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business or pleasure. Formal/instructed learning takes place in schools, social institutions established in accord with
the needs, beliefs, values and customs of the cultural settings.

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+ Social attitudes toward ethnic boundaries and identities influence whether students are segregated
from L2 peers or have integrated learning experiences. Social attitudes toward the value and validity of students L1
largely determine if instructional goals include multilingual competence with L2 added while L1 is maintained and
enriched, or there is a complete transition to L2.

7.1. Schools of Thought in SLA

See book for info.

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Chapter 7: Schools of Thought

7.2. Methodological History of Language Teaching

Grammar Translation Method (GTM)

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Classical Method (originated from Greek and Latin) focus on grammatical rules, memorizations of
vocabulary and of various declension and conjugation, translation of texts, doing written exercises.
In Classical Method, language were not being taught primarily to learn oral/aural communication, but to
learn for the sake of being scholarly or, in some instances, for gaining a reading proficiency in a foreign
language.
In 19th century the Classical Method came to be known as the GTM which attempts at the turn of the 20 th
century to reform language-teaching methodology.
The major characteristics of GTM: classes are taught in mother tongue
1- A massive use of bilingual vocabulary list
2- Long, elaborate explanation of grammar points done by instructor
3- Students learn the rules for assembling words in to sentence (focus on form)
4- Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early
5- Little attention is paid to the content of texts
6- Regular activities are translating sentences from the target language into the mother tongue.
7- Little or no attention is given to pronunciation.
GTM is still popular because:
1- It requires few specialized skills on the part of teachers.
2- Tests of grammar rules are easy to construct and can be objectively scored.
3- Many standardized tests of FL still focus on grammar.
4- It is sometimes successful in leading a student toward a reading knowledge of SL.

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(Ruuny & Sathea)

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Gouin and Series Method

(Chhorda)

Gouin was already a successful Latin teacher and wanted to give German a go.
The Grammar Method
He started learning German as he had learned Latin, by memorizing a German grammar book and a table of 248
irregular verbs. He was great at memorizing so that was a breeze. However when he moved to Hamburg
(Germany) to enroll in the academy he realized he could not understand a word.

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The Vocabulary Method

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He memorized 800 words and re-memorized the grammar and verb forms. As you probably guessed the results
were just as disappointing. He tried his best to communicate and use his carefully constructed sentences but the
German speakers would just laugh.
The Translation Method

Francois then tried another classical approach, translation. Poor Francois even memorized an entire dictionary
as he learned to translate, but no luck. He was starting to lose patience and enthusiasm so he returned home for
a break.
The Series Method

When he returned home, he decided to investigate how his three-year-old nephew had learnt a language.

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He noticed his nephew was very curious and when visiting new places would ask the name of everything. After
returning home he would talk about what he had learned to whoever would listen o him. The kid would use
language as way of transforming perceptions into concepts, using language as a tool to describe life.

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Francois Gouin discovered the hard way that you cannot learn a language by learning its rules or Grammar. He
realized that you cannot detach language from life and that realistic interaction is required for effective learning.
Just learning vocabulary is not useful if you cannot link it to something in the real world. Many modern
language learning methods have built on this idea and help you learn a language the direct way by linking
settings, pictures or sounds to new words or expressions directly to your target language.

The Direct Method

(Melika & Hour)

The founder of Direct Method was Charles Berlitz, a German linguist.

Direct Method was well-known and widely practiced around 1900s. However, its popularity declined in
1920s both in Europe and U.S. when most language curricula returned to the Grammar Translation Method
or to a reading approach. But in the middle of 20th century, it was revived and redirected into most visible
of all language learning classroom.

The basic premise of Direct Method was similar to that of Gouins Series Method that SL learning should be

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more like first language learning lots of oral presentation, spontaneous use of language, no translation
between L1 and L2 and little or no analysis on grammar rules.

Principles of Direct Method:

1. Classroom instruction was conducted in the target language.
2. Only everyday vocabulary and sentences were taught.
3. Oral communication skills were built up through Q & A exchanges between teacher and student in
small, intensive classes.
4. Grammar was taught inductively.
5. New teaching points were taught through modeling and practice.

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7. Both speech and listening comprehension were taught.

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6. Concrete vocabulary was taught through demonstration, object and picture while abstract vocabulary
was taught by association of ideas.
8. Correct pronunciation and grammar were emphasized.

Direct Method did not work well in the public education where the constraint of budgets, classroom size,
time, teacher background made such method fail to succeed. In contrast, this method can succeed when
learning take place in small classroom, individual attention and intensive study.

Direct Method was criticized for its weak theoretical foundation. Its success may have been more a factor of
the skill and personality of the teacher than of the methodology itself.

(Viphea)

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The Audiolingual Method

History:

The US educational institutions had shown that reading approach was more useful than oral approach,
but there was a language-teaching revolution after World War II.

The US military provided the impetus with funding for special, intensive language courses that focused
on aural/oral skills; these courses came to be known as the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP)
or, more colloquially, the Army Method.

The characteristic of the courses was a great deal of oral activity pronunciation and pattern drills and
conversation practice with virtually none of grammar and translation found in traditional classes.

Then, it became successful and changed to be called Audiolingual Method

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Characteristics:
1. New material is presented in dialogue form. (You can find target language points in the dialogue.)
2. There is dependence on mimicry (repetition), memorization of set phrases, and over-learning.

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3. Structures are sequenced by means of contrastive analysis and taught one at a time. (There are
differences between L1 and L2)
4. Structural pattern are taught using repetitive drills.
5. There is little or no grammatical explanation. Grammar is taught by inductive analogy rather than by
deductive explanation.
6. Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context.
7. There is much use of taps, language labs, and visual aids.

9. Very little use of the mother tongue by teachers is permitted.

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10. Successful responses are immediately reinforced.

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8. Great importance is attached to pronunciation.

11. There is such a great effort to get students to produce error-free utterances. (Mistakes are not allowed)
12. There is a tendency to manipulate language and disregard content. (students can create any conversation
and do not need to care about content, but based on target language point)
Audiolingual Method had been popular for many years, but it did not last forever.

They discovered that language was not really acquired a process of habit formation and overlearning, the
errors were not necessarily to be avoided at all cost, and that structural linguistics did not tell us everything
about language that we needed to know.

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Cognitive Code Learning

(Sokna)

Audiolingualism is a kind of inductive approach that the learners subconsciously acquire a system of
rule.

Seeing that audiolingualism alone cannot create communicatively proficient learners, teachers and
material developers began to promote a deductive approach which is called cognitive code learning.

Cognitive code learning is an approach that emphasized a conscious awareness of rules and their
application to second language learning.

In cognitive cod learning class, there is the amalgamation of Audiolingualism and Grammar translation
technique which the classes retained the drilling typical of ALM but added healthy doses of rule
explanation.

Unfortunately, the innovation was short-lived, for the rote drilling bored students, open cognitive
attention to the rule, paradigms.

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Designer Methods of the Spirited 1970s

1. Community Language Learning

(Chenda)

By the decade of the 1970s, people started to recognize the importance of affective domain in education,
thats why some innovation methods took place, one of them is called Community Language Learning.

In CLL, there are two people involved: Mr. Carl Roger and Charles Curran.

According to Car Rogers, the classroom is not a class but a group, which is in need of therapy and
counseling.

For Charles Curran, his idea was somehow inspired by Carl Rogers, in which he introduced his model
of education called Counseling method. It means teachers play a role as a Counselor and students play
a role as a client.

To make it short, in CLL (vice versa learning a language as in a community), students are clients and
teacher are counselor, and the way of learning and teaching happens through interpersonal interaction
relationship and trust.

There is an example of Japanese students learning English as L2. Students are sitting around a teacher
who will translate what students say into L2, and then they repeat. This way goes along with intense
struggle and confusion, but from time to time, students will be able to move away from complete
dependence by using L2 without the translation and explanation from teachers. So we can say that CLL
moves students from dependence and helplessness to independence and self-assurance.

2. Suggestopaedia

(Zana)

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3. The Silent Way

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-$?part missing?$-

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Like Suggestopaedia, the Silent Way focuses on cognitive (brain function).

The Silent Way was characterized by a problem solving approach to learning, and capitalized on
discovery learning procedures.

The theory of learning behind the Silent Way:

1. Learners discover and create
2. Physical objects used
3. Problem solving involving the material to be learned

Roles of the teacher:

+ Be silent much of the time

Learning is facilitated.

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+ Resist their instinct to tell students everything

+ Come to the aid of students at the slightest downfall
+ Get out of the way while students worked out solutions
+ Give minimal corrective feedback

Criticisms of this method:

1. A harsh method that discourages a communicative atmosphere

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2. Time consuming
4. Total Physical Response (TPR)

(Phallica)

James Asher (1977) is the developer of TPR. He began experimenting with TPR in the 1960s.

TPR is the idea of building a method of language teaching on the principle of psychomotor associations.

TPR is used in the children language acquisition. Asher noted that children, in learning their first
language appear to do a lot of listening before they speak, and that their listening is accompanied by
physical responses (reaching, grabbing, moving, looking and so forth).

Asher believed that language classes were often the locus of too much anxiety, so he wished to devise
methods that were stress-free as possible.

TPR classroom was one in which students did a great deal of listening and acting. The teacher was very
directive in orchestrating a performance.
The instructor is the director of a stage play in which the students are the actors.
Ex: Commands: open the window, close the door.
Questions: wheres John? wheres the teacher?

TPR heavily utilized the imperative mood. No verbal response was necessary.

Eventually students would feel comfortable enough to venture verbal response to questions, then ask
questions themselves and so on.

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* Limitation:
Effective in the beginning levels of language proficiency. It loses its distinctiveness as learners
advanced in their competence.
After overcoming the fear of speaking, classroom conversations and other activities proceeded as
in any other communicative classroom.
In reading and writing activities, students are limited to spinning off from the oral work in the
classroom.
And soon learners needs for spontaneity and unrehearsed language must be met.
5. The Natural Approach
History : It was developed by Stephen Krashen and his colleague, Tracy Terrel.

(Mana)

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It supports the so-called Silent Period (delay of oral production) and Comprehensible Input of
Total Physical Approach.
-

They felt that learners would benefit from delaying production till speech emerges, that learners
should be as relaxed as possible in the classroom, and that a great deal of communication and
acquisition should take place.

Its goal is to enable leaners to achieve basic personal communication skills. For example, everyday
language situation conversations, shopping, listening to the radio and so on.
There are 3 stages in the Natural Approach:
Preproduction stage: the development of listening comprehension skills

Early production stage: students are marked with errors and struggles with the language. And the

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teacher does not make a point of correcting errors unless it blocks or hinder meaning entirely.
Last stage: stretches of discourse involving more complex games, role plays, open-ended dialogues,

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discussions and extended small-group work.

Learners role: not learn the language in the usual sense but try to lose themselves in communication
Teachers role: is primary source of comprehensible input, creates positive climate, and brings about
variety

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Pros

- Their silence is beneficial since students are

accustomed to new knowledge

- Create self-confidence since students

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language egos are not easily threatened or

embarrassed.

Cons

- Problematic when speech never emerges

- Problem with classroom management for the
teacher in waiting for the so-called
emergence of students speech

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Take-home tasks
I.
Key terms
Write the definitions and /or meanings of the listed below. The terms are from units 4-7.
Morpheme: a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function.
Free morpheme: is the morpheme that can stand by themselves as single words, for example, open and tour.
Bound morpheme: is the morpheme that cannot normally stand alone and are typically attached to another
form, for example, re-, -ist, -ed, -s.

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Lexical morpheme: is one of the two categories of free morphemes; it is a set of ordinary nouns, adjectives and
verbs that we think of as the words that carry the content of the messages we convey. Ex:
girl, man, house, yellow, open.
Functional morpheme: is one of the two categories of free morphemes; it is a set of words that consist of
prepositions, articles, and pronouns and we almost never add new functional
morphemes to the language. Ex: and, but, when, because, on near, that, it, them.
Derivational morpheme: is one of the two sets of bound morphemes; it is the word-formation processes that
the set of affixes are used to make new words or to make words of a different
grammatical category from the stem. Ex: care careful, careless.

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Inflectional morpheme: is one of the two sets of bound morphemes; it is not used to form new words in the
language, but rather to indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word. It is
used to show if a word is plural or singular, etc. all the inflectional morphemes are
suffixes. Noun+ -s, -s; Verb+ -s, -ing, -ed, -en; Adjective+ -est, -er.
Morph: is the phonetic realization of a morpheme.

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Allomorph: is any of the different forms of a morpheme.

Grammar: a description of the structure of phrases and sentences in a way that we account for all the
grammatical sequences in a language and rule out all the ungrammatical sequences.
Generative grammar: a system of rule that can help the learners to generate more compound sentences.
Notional grammar: refers to the structure of a language which only exists as an idea not in the reality.
Prescriptive grammar: refers to the structure of a language as certain people think it should be used.
Descriptive grammar: refers to the structure of a language as it is actually used by speakers and writers.
Hierarchical organization: refers to the system of organizing or ranking of words according to their differences
in levels.
Syntax: the rules which determine how the words are used and form together.

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Constituent structure: is an analysis, often in the form of a schematic representation, of the constituents of a
construction such as a sentence.
Syntactic structure: refers to the grammar rule that capable of generating an infinite number of well-formed
structures, but not the ill-form structures.
Structural ambiguity: refers to the confusion versions of deep structure which are interpreted from one
particular surface structure.
Structural description: the description of how word is structured.

Gender: a biological distinction between male and female (sex).

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Deep structure: an abstract representation of a sentence.

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Recursion/recursive rule: the structure rules which more sentences are used to add to the original sentences.

Surface structure: the outward form of a sentence that can be spoken and heard.

Transformational rules: is the process of changing, by the application of certain syntactic rules, an abstract
underlying structure into a surface structure.
Semantics: the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences.

Semantic feature: a technique that is used to help sorting out the similarities and differences of a group of
events, people, objects or ideas.

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Semantic properties: the aspects of a linguistic unit, such as a morpheme, word, or sentence, that contribute to
the meaning of that unit.

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Hyponym: a relationship between two words, in which the meaning of one of the words includes the meaning
of the other word.
Super-ordinate: a word the meaning of which includes the meaning of another word or words.
Co-hyponym: a set of hyponyms that share the same super-ordinate.
Prototype theory: a set of idea that the members of a category best represent the category as a whole. Ex:
chair is a better example of furniture, not the bench or stool.
Polysemy: the association of one word with two or distinct meanings.
Metonym: is a word or phrase used in place of another with which it is closely associated.
II.

Comprehension and concept questions

Answer the questions or do the tasks as instructed.

1. Why should word-formation processes matter?

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- The word-formation processed is important as it helps us to create new word and also learn how some
words are formed. It gives us some ideas of where the word comes from and what are the meanings
attached, as well as how it has evolved into English.

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2. Give Two examples to distinguish between Lexical and Functional Morphemes.

-Lexical Morphemes: girl (n), sad (adj), look (v). Another morpheme can be added to it.
-Functional Morphemes: when (conj), on (prep), the (art), them (pron). Another morpheme cannot
added to it.
3. Give Two examples to distinguish between Derivational and inflectional Morphemes.
-Derivational morpheme: suffixes such as ish in foolish, -ly in quickly, and ment in payment. Prefixes
such as un- in unemployed, mis- in misunderstand.
-Inflectional Morphemes: nouns such as s (possessive) and s ()plural).
Verbs such as s (3rd person), -ing (present participle), -ed (past participle), -en (past participle)
adjectives such as: -est (superlative), -er (comparative).

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4. Briefly explain how Morphs and Allomorphs deal with morpheme-related problems. Exemplify.
-Morphs and Allomorphs are used to deal with some English word in which the different morphemes
are not easily identified. For example, Sheep (singular) sheep (plural), Man men (plural). As can be
seen in these examples, the inflectional morphemes cannot be identified. Yet Morphs and Allomorphs
are used to treat these differences in the inflectional morphemes.
5. Differentiate between Gender and Grammatical Gender.
-Gender is based to a biological diction between male and female (sex)
-Grammatical Gender is based on the type of noun (masculine and feminine) and is not tied to sex. In
this sense, nouns are classified according to their gender class and, typically, articles and adjectives
have different forms to agree with the gender of the noun.

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6. Briefly explain how useful Descriptive Approach is to grammatical analysis.

-Descriptive Approach helps the analysts to collect samples of the language that they were interested in
and attempted to describe the regular structures of the language as it was used, not according to some
view of how it should be used.
7. The sentence below is believed to be grammatically correct yet semantically wrong. Why? The table
listens to the radio.
-The reason that we say the table listens to the radio is semantically wrong is because the subject of
the verb listens must denote an entity that is capable of listening. Yet, the noun table does not
have this property.
8. Identify all the thematic roles of the constituents in the sentence below. The hay was loaded on the
truck by the farmer.
The hay was loaded on the truck by the farmer.
Theme

Goal

Agent

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9. Represent the sentence below using Tree Diagram. The fact that John is considered a genius bothers
his classmates.
S

NP

CP
C

V
S

NP

NP
Adj

Aux

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VP

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Art

VP

NP

Art

Passive
Present
The

fact

that

John

consider

Genius

bothers

his classmates

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10. What is the application of transformation rule? Explain with an example.

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Transformational rule is the rule that enables to change or move constituents in the structures derived from the
phrase structure rules. For example, we can move an adverb to either front or end.
Ex: Mary saw George recently.
Recently Mary saw George.