4 -Learner Language

Studying the language of second language learners By: Amal Al-Matrafi

Knowing more about the development of learner language helps teachers to assess teaching procedures in the light of what they can reasonably expect to accomplish in the classroom.

Teachers and researchers cannot read learners’ minds, so they must infer what learners know by observing what they do

to design procedures that help reveal more about the knowledge underlying their observable use of language. These procedures determine whether a particular behaviour is representative of something systematic in a learner’s current language knowledge or simply an isolated item, learned as a chunk.

*Like first language learners, second language learners do not learn language simply through imitation and practice. They produce new sentences that appear to be based on internal cognitive processes and prior knowledge that interact with the language they hear around them.

-Contrastive analysis

-Error analysis -And

interlanguageDone by: Asma’a AL-Harthi

Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH)

According to CAH, errors were often assumed to be the result of transfer from learners’ first language ..

-Many errors can be explained better in terms of learners’ developing knowledge of the structure of the target language rather than an attempt to transfer patterns of their first language..

Eric Kellerman observed that learners have intuitions about which language features they can transfer from their first language to the target language and which are less likely to be transferable..

A number of researchers began to take a different approach to analyzing learners' errors ,this approach is known as “Error analysis”

The goal of this research was to discover what learners really know about the language.

Error analysis differed from contrastive analysis in that it did not set out to predict errors. Rather, it sought to discover and describe different kinds of errors in an effort to understand how learners process second language data .

Larry Selinker gave the name INTERLANGUAGE to learners’ developing second language knowledge

Interlanguages have been found to be systematic ,but they are also dynamic, continually evolving asLearners receive more input and revise their hypotheses about the second language.

Selinker also coined the term FOSSILIZATION to refer to the fact that ,some features in a learner’s language may stop changing .

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* Activity – Error AnalysisLooking at the activity on p. 80

“The Great Toy Robbery”◦Read the two texts and examine the errors

made by the two learners of English:◦ (a French-speaking secondary school

student and a Chinese-speaking adult learner).

Analysing Learner Language

Rokeya Sadiq

Q: Do they make the same kinds of errors? In what ways do the two interlanguages differ?

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Learner language and errorsTypes of errors

Developmental errors: the errors that might very well be made by children acquiring their L1 (e.g., “a cowboy go”).

Overgeneralization errors: the errors that are caused by trying to use a rule in a context where it does not belong (e.g., “They plays toys in the bar”, “She buyed a dress.”).

Simplification errors: the errors that are caused by simplifying or leaving out some elements of sentence (e.g., all verbs have the same form regardless of person, number or tense). The use of formulaic expressions (as an influence of classroom experience): (e.g., “Santa Claus ride a one horse open sleigh to sent present for children”).

Interference errors (transfer from L1): (e.g., “On the back of his body has big packet”

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Advantage of Error Analysis : It permits a description of some

systematic aspects of learner language. It describes what learners actually do rather than what they might do.

Constraints:It does not always give us clear insights

into what causes learners to do what they do, because it is very often difficult to determine the source of errors.

Learners sometimes avoid using certain features of language which they perceive difficult. This avoidance may lead to the absence of certain errors which may be considered a part of the learner’s systematic L2 performance.

Developmental sequences

Grammatical morphemes By: Kamlah karish’

- Grammatical morphemes Some studies have examined the development

of grammatical morphemes by learners of English as a second language in a variety of environments, at different ages, and from different first language backgrounds. In analyzing each learner’s speech , researchers identify the OBLIGATORY CONTEXTS

for each morpheme.

For example, the obligatory context for a past tense, a simple past and a plural –s.

What is the percentage accuracy for each morpheme.?

An accuracy score is created for each morpheme, and these can then be ranked from highest to lowest, giving an ACCURACY ORDER for the morphemes.

The overall results of the studiers suggested an order which , while not identical to the developmental sequence found for first language learners, was similar among second language learners from different first language backgrounds. For example, most studies showed a higher degree of accuracy for plural than for possessive, and for –ing than for regular past (-ed).

Some researchers identified a number of variables that contribute to the order. Salience, linguistic complexity, semantic transparency, similarity to a first language form and frequency in the input.

NEGATIONThe acquisition of negative sentences by

Learners follows a path that looks nearly identical to the stages of first language

acquisition.

However, learners from different language backgrounds behave somewhat

differently within those stages.

STAGES ONE:NO or NOT is typically placed before the verb or the element being negated, e.g. NO bicycle – I NO like it. STAGE TWO:

NO and NOT may alternate with don’t or used before modals

e.g. He don’t like it. I don’t can sing: .

STAGE THREE: Negative element is placed after auxiliary

verbs like are –is and can E.g. You can not go there

She don’t like rice STAGE FOUR: Using auxiliary verbs with ‘not’ that agree with

tense, person and number . e.g. It doesn’t work. We didn’t have supper.

Questions By: Amal Mahdi Al-Samli

The sequence in the acquisition of questions by learners of English is shown in Stages 1-6 below:

Stage 1:• Single words ,formulae , or sentence

fragments• E.g Dog ? • four children?

Stage 2Declarative word order, no inversion, no

fronting :E,g It’s a monster in the right corner? The boys throw the shoes ?

Stage3:Fronting

Do – fronting Do you have a shoes in your picture?

Wh – fronting Where the children are playing?

No inversion Does in this picture there is four

astronauts?

Other fronting Is the picture has two planets on top?

Stage 4 Inversion in wh + copula; ‘yes/no’ question with

other auxiliaries : E.g. Where is the sun ? Is there a fish in the water ?Stage 5 Inversion in wh questions with both an

auxiliary and a main verb : E.g. How do you say proche ? What’s the boy doing?

Stage6: Complex questions question tag: It’s better, isn’t it ? negative question : Why can’t you go? embedded question: Can you tell me what the date today ?

Note: progress to higher stage does not always mean that learners produce fewer errors .

• Possessive determinersBy : Ashwaq Sahal Al-Thebati

• The possessive determiners in English are : my , your , his, her, its , our , and their .

• Possessive determiners are sometimes called possessive adjectives , possessive pronouns , or simply possessive.

• The developmental sequence for the acquisition of English possessive forms is shown in four stages.

Stage1 Pre- emergence :No use of ‘his’ and ‘her’. Definite article or ‘your’ used for all persons, genders and numbers. E.g. The little boy play with the bicycle. There is one girl talk with your dad. Stage 2 Emergence : Appearance of ‘his’ and/or ‘her’, with a preference to use only one form. e.g. The girl making hisself beautiful. She put the make-up on his hand and his father is surprise.

: Stage 3 Post-emergenceةDifferentiated use of ‘his’ and ‘her‘ but not when the object possessed has natural gender.e.g. The dad put her little girl on the shoulder.

Stage 4 : Error-free use of ‘his’ and ‘her’ in all contexts including natural gender and body parts . e.g. The little girl with her dad play together.

* Relative clauses (RC):RC are clauses which allow us to add information about people or things we are talking about, without a need to repeat the name.

Relative Clauses By: Nora Hasan Al Ghebeishi

& Dalal Al-Qurashi

Example:

That is the house . The house was built on the main road.

= That is the house which was built on the main road.

* Second language learners first acquire relative clauses that refer to nouns in the subject and direct object positions and only later learn to use them to modify nouns in other sentence roles .

A summary of the observed pattern of acquisition for relative clauses is shown in the following table. It reflects the apparent ease with which learners have access to certain structures in the target language.

Relative Clause Part of speechThe girl who was sick went home Subject

the girl who I saw was pretty Direct objectThe girl who I gave the present to was absent Indirect objectI found the book that john was talking about Object of preposition

I know the girl whose father died possessiveThe person who john is taller than mary Object of comparison

Accessibility hierarchy for relative clause in English

REFERENCE TO PAST The developing ability to use language to

locate events in time goes through the following stages:

1- Learners with limited knowledge may simply refer to events in the order in which they occurred or mention a time or place to show that the event occurred in the past.

E.g. My son come. He work in restaurant. Viet Nam. We work too hard.

2- Later, learners start to attach a grammatical morpheme marking the verb for past, although it may not be the one that the target language uses for that meaning.

E.g. Me working long time. Now stop.

3- Past tense forms of irregular verbs may be used before the regular past is used reliably.

E.g. We went to school everyday. We spoke Spanish

4- After they begin marking past tense on regular verbs, learners may overgeneralize the regular –ed ending or the use of the wrong past tense forms.

E.g. My sister catched a big fish. She has lived here since fifteen

years.

MOVEMENT THROUGH DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCES

Although there are systematic and predictable developmental sequences in second language acquisition, it is important to emphasize that developmental stages are not like closed rooms. One should not expect behaviors from only one stage. On the contrary, at a given point in time, learners may use sentences typical of several different stages.

Another important observation about developmental sequences is the way they interact with first language influence.

More about first language influence

1. Vocabulary Vocabulary is everywhere. It can disturb

communication if we do not use the correct word.

*The first step in knowing a word may simply be to recognize that it is a word

* Among the factors that make new vocabulary more easily learnable by second language learners is the frequency with which the word is seen, heard and understood. A learner needs to have many meaningful encounters with a new word before it becomes firmly established in memory

•The presence of cognate and borrowed words can be exploited for vocabulary development. On the other hand, students may have particular difficulty with words that look similar in the two languages but have different meanings. Q: What is meant by cognate words?

•Some theorists argued that second language learners can learn a great deal of vocabulary with little intentional effort. •The best source of vocabulary growth is reading for pleasure.• It is difficult to infer the meaning and learn new words from reading unless one already knows 95% or more of the words in a text .

* Strategies for vocabulary acquisition By: Fatima Al-Sulami

* Vocabulary development is more successful when learners are fully engaged in activities that require them to attend carefully to the new words and even use them in productive tasks.

2-PragmaticsBy : Hamama Al-Zahrani

Pragmatics is the study of how language is used in context to express such things as directness, politeness and deference.

The study of how second language learners develop the ability to express their intentions & meanings through different speech acts is

referred to as interlanguage pragmatics .

speech acts

Requesting Refusing

Apologizing

*Studies on the acquisition of request outline a series of 5 stages of development:

1- Pre-basic. Highly context-dependent, no syntax, no relational goals. e.g. Me no blue .

Sir .2 -Formulaic .

Reliance on unanalysed formulas & imperatives.

e.g. Let’s play the game. Don’t look.

3 -Unpacking.Formulas incorporated into productive language use , shift to conventional indirectness.e.g. Can you pass the pencil please ?

4 -Pragmatic expansion.Addition of new forms to repertoire, increased use of mitigation,

more complex syntax .e.g. Can I see it so I can copy it?

5 -Fine tuning .Fine tuning of requestive force to participants,

goals, and contexts .e.g. You could put some blue tack down there .

Is there any more white?

*Learning how to make and reject suggestions has been investigated

* Non-native speakers tended to take on a passive role & did not initiate suggestions compared to

native speakers . * Non-native speakers tend to reject suggestions

made by the advisor in ways that the advisors might find rude or inappropriate.

*Non-native speakers were also much less adept than the native speakers at using mitigation.

*The question is no longer whether second language pragmatics should be taught but rather how it can be best

integrated into classroom instruction .

3- Phonology

The relationship between perception and production of sounds is complex.

• It is believed that the degree of difference between the learner’s native language and the target language can lead to greater difficulty.

• Moreover, language distance affects pronunciation as well as other language systems.

• Longer periods of exposure to the second language can lead to improved pronunciation

• Greater use of first language can lead to stronger foreign accents in the second language.

• Learners who received pronunciation lessons emphasizing stress and rhythm were judged to be easier to understand than learners who received lessons focused on individual sounds.

• Decontextualized pronunciation instruction is not enough and a combination of instruction, exposure, experience and motivation is required.