THEORIES OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

KRASHENS INPUT HYPOTHESIS

The acquisition /learning hypothesis

The affective filter hypothesis

The monitor hypothesis

Input hypothesis

The input hypothesis

The natural order hypothesis

KRASHENS INPUT HYPOTHESIS

Acquisition a subconscious and intuitive process of constructing the system of a language.

Learning a conscious learning process in which learners attend to form, figure out rules, and are generally aware of their process.

Fluency in second language performance is due to what we have acquired, not what we have learned. Conscious learning process and subconscious acquisition process are mutually exclusive.

KRASHENS INPUT HYPOTHESIS

The Monitor Hypothesis

The monitor is involved in learning

The Natural Order Hypothesis

We acquire language rules in a predictable or natural order.

It is a device to watch ones input, for editing and making alterations or correction

KRASHENS INPUT HYPOTHESIS

The Input Hypothesis

An important condition for language acquisition to occur is that the acquirer understand input language that contains structure a bit beyond his current level of competence.

The Affective Filter Hypothesis

The best acquisition will occur in environments where anxiety is low and defensiveness absent , in Krashens terms, in context where the affective filter is low.

If an acquirer is at stage or level i, the input he or she understands should contain i + 1.

McLaughlins Information Processing Model

Human are autonomous and active

The mind is a general purpose symbol processing system

Main characteristics of McLaughlins Information Processing Model

Complex behaviour is composed of simple modular (i.e. self contained) processes Component processes can be isolated and studied independently of other process

Processes take time, therefore predictions about reaction time can be made.

McLaughlins Information Processing Model

Controlled Processes
Capacity limited and temporary Learning a new skills, where only a few elements can be retained

Automatic Processes
Relatively permanent Processing of more accomplished skills Able to manage a lot of information simultaneously.

Focal Attention Peripheral Attention

THE SHIFT FROM CONTROLLED TO AUTOMATIC PROCESSING IN SLA

The shift from controlled to automatic processing in SLA
This continuing movement from controlled to automatic processing results in a constant restructuring of the L2 learners linguistic system. This may account for variable characteristics of learner language(i.e. interlanguage) Restructuring destabilizes certain structures which seem to have been acquired, and leads to the temporary reappearance of L2 errors. Likewise, fossilization is the result of a controlled process becoming automatic before it is native-like. As stated above automatic processes are difficult to modify as they are outside of the attention control of the learner. Therefore, automatic processes of this kind are likely to remain in the learners interlanguage producing a stable but erroneous construction

Learners first resort to controlled processing in the L2. This requires a lot of attention from the learner and is constrained by the limitations of the short-term memory (STM)

Through repeated activation, sequences first produced by controlled processing become automatic and are stored in long-term memory. This means they can be rapidly accessed whenever the situation requires it with minimal attention on the part of the learner. Automatic processes can, therefore , activate complex cognitive skills simultaneously. However, such automatic skills are difficult to delete or modify once acquired.

Learning is a movement from controlled to automatic processing via practice. When his shift occurs, controlled processes are freed to deal with higher level processing (i.e. integration of more complex skill clusters). It is necessary for simple skills and routines to become autonomic before more complex ones can be tackled. This explains the incremental nature of learning.

BIALYSTOKS MODEL OF LANGUAGE AND LEARNING

BIALYSTOKS MODEL OF LANGUAGE AND LEARNING

LONGS INTERACTION HYPOTHESIS

It has been shown that NS and NNS speakers (children and adults) can and will work actively to achieve mutual understanding, at least, within the framework of a fairly wide range of problem solving task.

Achievements in Longs Interaction Hypothesis

It has been shown that these negotiations involve both linguistic and interactional modifications which together offer repeated opportunities to notice aspects of target language form.

It has been shown that NNS participants in negotiations for meaning can attend to, take up and use language items made available to them from their NS contributors.

It has been shown that learners receiving certain types of explicit instruction relating to particular target language structures perform significantly well when later tested on those structures.