chapter 1. language and how is it acquired

8/8/2019 Chapter 1. Language and How is It Acquired

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1. LANGUAGE AND HOWIT IS ACQUIRED


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Chapter 1.The Acquisition ofLanguage

1. How Language Works.

When we study language, we are approaching what some might call the human essence, the

distinctive qualities of mind that are, so far as we know, unique to man.

Noam Chomsky, Language and Mind.

Descriptions of English and other languages

remained little changed from times of the Greeks

and Romans until this century. These

descriptions were based on an analysis of the roleplayed by each word in the sentence.

StructuralismIn the 1930s language was first described interms of structural frameworks. By varying the

words within these structural frameworks,

sentences with different meanings can be

generated. This method of linguistic analysis led

in English language teaching to the development

of the substitution table as a typical means of

explaining grammatical patterns. In a structuralist

view, sentence patterns were a series of slots intowhich specified fillers could be placed. For

example:

Animate Subject transitive verb Direct ObjectJim visited Mary.

The Boy ate an apple.

It also represented a behavioral view of language,

where language acquisition was seen as a set of

learned habits.

Noam ChomskyIf all language is learned behavior, how is it that

young children can say things they have never

said before? How is it possible that adults all

through their lives say things they have never

said before? How is it possible that a new

sentence in the mouth of a four-year-old is the

result of conditioning? Noam Chomsky (1928 - )

is an American linguist, political writer and a

leading figure in linguistics, (professor at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology), who in

1965 published a strong attack upon B.F.Skinners Verbal Behavior, and explained hisrejection of the behaviorist model of language

acquisition by stating that children were innately

programmed to acquire language; he proposed

the existence of a Language Acquisition

Device (LAD). LAD is characterized as having

various innate linguistics properties:

1. The ability to distinguish speech sounds from

other sounds.

2. The ability to organize language into systemof structures.3. The knowledge of what is possible and what

is not in any linguistic system.

4. The ability to construct the simplest possible

system based on the linguistic data to which one

is exposed.

Language UniversalsChomsky argued that children were innately

programmed to acquire language since they do itso quickly and with limited (and less than ideal)

input. There must be certain languageuniversals in the human mind that make it

possible for a child to perceive the syntactic

patterns of the speech of his/her parents and

allow a person to utter or understand each new

combination of words. These innate principles

constitute the Universal Grammar and help

children discover the rules of their first language.

Universal Grammar does not provide


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prefabricated rules; instead, it sets parametersthat must be fixed in response to the particular

input data to which children are exposed.

According to the Universal Grammar Theory,

there are basic grammatical elements that are

common to all natural human languages and that

predispose children to organize the input incertain ways. For example, all languages have

vowels, yet each language has a set of vowels

selected from all the possible vowels available,

resulting in different phonological characteristics

in each language. The principles themselves are

believed to be innate, a product of LAD.

The universal principles that children discover

constitute the core grammar which is

congruent with general principles operating

across all languages. The peripheral grammar

consists of rules or features that are not

determined by Universal Grammar, but are

Language-specific, such as the relative clause

pattern in English that lacks a relative pronoun

(Give me the pen I write with). Rules of core

grammar are normally acquired earlier thanperipheral ones.

For example, all languages follow a certain word

order when using an object. There are no

languages that follow a random order (languageuniversal). This means that the choices are:

Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), Verb-Subject-

Object (VSO), Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) and

Object-Subject-Verb (OSV). When a child is

exposed to the language of a community, the

brain marks the forms to reflect the features of

that particular language. Children born intoSpanish, Chinese and English language

environments subconsciously select SVO; a child

born into an Arabic environment subconsciously

selects VSO; one born into a Korean

environment SOV, and so forth (peripheral).

These rules are often not consciously known by

the speakers of the language.

Surface Structure vs. DeepStructure

Chomsky argued that when people learn a

language, they do it by learning how to put the

words in order, not which word follows anotherword. They learn which word category (noun,

verb, etc.) follows which other category. We

understand the meaning of a sentence while

keeping in mind a number of grammatical rules;

there is an invisible superstructure holding the

words in place, somewhat like an inverted tree:

In this case the rule says that the sentence (S)

contains a noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase

(VP). The noun phrase contains a determiner

(Det), an adjective (A), and a noun (N). The verb

phrase contains a verb (V) and another noun

phrase which in turn contains an adjective and anoun. There is no need to learn that the adjective

precedes the noun for the subject, and then haveto learn the same thing for the object, and again

for the indirect object (in case there is one);

people simply use the same kind of phrase in

many different positions in a sentence, including:

I like the happy boy.

I gave the happy boy a cookie.

The happy boys cat eats ice cream.

Chomsky stated that the meanings of sentencescould be explained this way. For example: The

sailor danced with a wooden leghas more thanone meaning. This meaning is the deep

structure, or abstract representation of the

relationships expressed in a sentence, and

Chomsky developed rules for transforming deep

structures into surface structures and for

relating sentences to each other.

S

NP VP

Det A N V NP

The happy boy eats A N

Strawberry ice cream


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In the sentence He discussed sex with

Madonna, the two meanings come from thedifferent ways in which words can be joined up

in a tree. For example, in tree No. 1 (where PP

means prepositional phrase), sex is the matter to

be discussed, and it is to be discussed withMadonna; alternative meaning comes from

analyzing tree No. 2: the words sex withMadonna form a single branch of the tree, and

sex with Madonna is what is to be discussed

(This sentence is from an interview with Dennis

Rodman, the basketball player, in Timemagazine)

No. 1

No. 2

Another example would be the close relationship

in meanings between Dont give up just because

things look bad and it aint over till the fat lady

sings.

Chomsky also made a distinction between

competence (referring to an individuals implicit

or explicit knowledge of the system of the

language) and performance (the actual

production and comprehension of language in

specific instances of language use). Performance

is often imperfect, due to memory lapses, false

starts, slips of the tongue; thus, performance is

not a perfect rendition of competence. This later

led to Hymes (1972) postulation of

communicative competence, which has since

been modified and refined numerous times.Some theorists assume that the same universals

that children use to construct their native

language are available to adults; others believe

that they are no longer available and that

different cognitive processed must be involved in

adult second/foreign language learning. Another

theory holds that they are still available to adults

but are less accessible because of multi-rational

constraints related to aging, linguistic constraints,

and the fact that the second language involves

two languages the target language and the

learners native language.

S

NP VP

PRO V N PP

He discussed sex P NP

with Madonna

S

NP VP

PRO V NP

He discussed N PP

sex P NP

with Madonna


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2. The Brain and Language

The brain is the most complicated part of the

human body and less is known about it thanabout any other part. It is quite small a normal

human brain weighs about one kilogram, and a

bigger brain does not mean a better brain.

The brain receives information from the world

through the sensory system. This information is

gathered through the eyes, nose, eras, mouth, and

surface of the body; scientists have not been able

to find any limit to the amount of information

that the human brain can store.

On opening the skull, one sees the outer surfaceof part of the forebrain, a wrinkle surface called

the cerebral cortex (cortex means bark). The

cerebral cortex deals with higher cognitive

processing.

The BrainTHE CEREBRAL CORTEX

The outer surface of the cerebral hemisphere, the

cerebral cortex, has a surface area of one to two

square feet an area that is larger than it looks

because of the folds, or convolutions that allow

the cortex to fit compactly inside the skull. Theconvolutions give the surface of the human brain

its wrinkled appearance, its ridges and valleys.

The cerebral cortex is divided into four areas

called the frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal

lobes.

The most recently evolved part of the cerebral

cortex, the neocortex, has its full complement of

nerve cells at birth. Even if an individual lives

more than one hundred years, no new nerve cellsare formed in this part of the brain. Yet the most

rapid growth of the neocortex occurs during the

first ten years or so of life. What, then, is

growing?

NEURONS

Neurons are brain cells consisting of a compact

cell body, dendrites, and axons. They are

responsible for information processing through

the conversation of electrical and chemicalsignals. A normally functioning neuron is

continuously firing, integrating, and generatinginformation. Although a single neuron can

receive signals from thousands of other cells, and

its axon can branch repeatedly, sending signals to

thousands more, neurons generally connect most

with other neurons that are close-by, forming

what are called neural networks.

The receptive branches of the nerve cells, called

dendrites, are responsible for most of this

postnatal growth. Dendrites are extensions of the

nerve cell membranes that receive the input from

other nerve cells (while the axons are the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Brainlobes.svg


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transmitters of this output). The small gapseparating axons and dendrites is called a

synapse. Dendrites increase in number with use

and decrease with disuse.

Increases in cortical growth as a consequence of

stimulating environmental input have beendemonstrated at every age, including very old

age. The greatest changes, however as much as

16 percent increases have been noted during

the period when the cerebral cortex is growing

most rapidly the first ten years.

Since no two human brains are exactly alike, no

one enriched environment will completely satisfy

all learners for an extended period. The range of

enriched environments for human beings is

endless. For some, interacting physically with

objects is gratifying; for others, finding andprocessing information is rewarding; and for still

others, working with creative ideas is most

enjoyable. But no matter what form enrichment

takes, it is the challenge to the nerve cells that is

important. Data indicate that passive observation

is not enough; one most interact with the

environment.

Learning is a critical function of neurons. It

cannot be accomplished individually it must be

done by groups of neurons.

To our brain, we are either doing something we

already know how to do or we are doing

something new. Research long ago noted the

importance of automaticity, or seemingly

effortless performance made possible by

extensive experience and practice. As a persongains knowledge or skill, the neural pathways

become more and more efficient. This speeds up

electrical transmission and reduces interference

from other reactions in nearby cells,

strengthening the pathways between

interconnected neurons, creating neuralnetworks.

SENSORY AND MOTOR CORTEX

Different regions of the sensory cortex receive

information about different senses. For example,

cells in the parietal lobe take in information from

the skin and touch, pain and temperature;

whereas the cells in the occipital lobe receive

visual information from what we see. Stimulifrom the ears reach the cells in the temporal lobe

near areas of the cortex that are involved in

understanding language. The motor cortex

follows the same pattern. Neurons in specific

areas of the motor cortex initiate voluntary

movements in specific parts of the body, somecontrolling movement of the hand, others

stimulating movement of the foot, the knee, the

ear and so on.

ASSOCIATION CORTEX

Parts of the cerebral cortex that are not directly

involved with receiving specific sensory

information or initiating movement are called

association cortex. These are the areas that

perform such complex cognitive tasks as

associating words with images and other abstractthinking. Recent research has pinpointed areas

associated with concrete nouns and abstract

nouns, verbs, and so on, but much of this

research is still incomplete.

Most pathways to sensory organs or muscles

cross over as they enter or leave the brain. As a

result, the left hemisphere receives information

from and controls movements of the right side of

the body, while the right hemisphere receives

input from and controls the left side of the body.

A striking idea emerged from observations of people with brain damage: damage to limited

areas of the left hemisphere causes some loss of

the ability to use or comprehend language;

damage to corresponding parts of the right

hemisphere usually does not. By the nineteenth

century, it was apparent that language centers,such as Brocas area and Wernickes area, are

almost exclusively on the left side of the brain.

This suggested that one hemisphere is specialized

in a function with which the other side seems not

to be involved at all. During the 1960s, studies

by Roger Sperry, Michael Gazzaniga, and theircolleagues firmly established that there are

indeed some differences between the

hemispheres. More recently, new technologies,

such as electroencephalograms (EEGs),

computer-assisted tomography (CT scanning),

positron emission tomography (PET scanning)

and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are

allowing psychologists to view the brain while it


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is functioning. These techniques have helpedreveal that some complex mental functions

appear to be handled in one particular area of the

brain and the others are not as localized as

previously believed.

Damage to the association cortex in the frontallobe near motor areas that control facial muscles

can cause problems in the production of speech.

This part of the cortex on the left side of the

brain is called Brocas area. It was named after

Paul Broca, who in the 1860s described speech

difficulties that result from damage to the region.

Damage to Brocas area the mental organization

of speech to suffer. A person can still sing with

ease, but has great difficulty speaking, and what

the person says is often grammatically incorrect.

Each word comes out slowly. One patient with

aphasia who was asked about a dentalappointment said haltingly, yes Monday

Dad and DickWednesday 9 oclock 10

oclock doctors andteeth. The ideas

dentist and teeth are right, but the fluency is

gone.

Damage to a different association area can leave

fluency intact but disrupt the ability to

understand the meaning of words. Wernickes

area, described in the 1870s by Carl Wernicke, is

on the left side, in the temporal lobe, near the

primary receiving area in the cortex of hearing.Wernickes area is involved in the interpretation

of speech and, because it also receives input from

the visual cortex, is also involved in interpreting

written words. Damage to Wernickes area

produces complicated symptoms. A person with

Wernickes aphasia may have difficultycomprehending speech and may also produce

speech that is fluent but difficult to comprehend.

For example, a patient asked to described a

picture of two boys stealing cookies behind a

womans back said, mother is away here

working her work to get better, but when sheslooking the two boys looking in the other part.

Shes working another time.

Brocas area and Wernickes area are connected

by a bundle of nerve fibers called the arcuate

fasciculus.

Based on the symptoms of damage to brain areas,

combined with anatomical evidence of

connections among these areas, Wernicke and,

later, Norman Gerschwind, proposed a model of

how language is understood and produced.

According to this model, language informationreaches Wernickes area from either the auditory

cortex for spoken language or from visual cortex

for written language. In Wernickes area, the

words are interpreted and the structure of a

verbal response is formed. The output fromWernickes area goes to Brocas area, where a

detailed program for vocalization is formed. This

program is relayed to adjacent areas of the motor

cortex to produce speech.

HEARING THE SPOKEN WORD
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SEEING THE WRITTEN WORD

BILINGUALISM AND THE BRAIN

Researchers have discovered that the age at

which a second language is acquired determines

just where that language is stored within the

brain. When both languages are learned at thesame time early in life, they are represented in

areas that have considerable overlap; they are, in

essence, learning two first languages. These are

compound bilinguals (people who have one

meaning system from which both languages

operate).

Coordinate bilinguals, on the other hand, are

people who learn a foreign language in a separate

context, they have two meaning systems (e.g. a

child that speaks one language at home and is

taught school subjects in another). A second

language acquired during the teenage years is

represented in separate locations in Brocas area

from the ones registering activity for the native

language.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0b/Visualcortex.gif


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The Divided Brain in a Unified Self


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Lateralization is a slow process that begins

around the age of 2 and is completed around

puberty; nevertheless, it has been found that

children up to the age of puberty who suffer

injury to the left hemisphere are able to relocatelinguistic functions to the right hemisphere (but

comparable damage in an adult usually leads to

aphasia).

The precise nature and degree of lateralization

vary quite a bit among individuals. For example,

among about a third of left handed people, either

the right hemisphere or both hemispheres control

language functions. Only about 5 percent of

right-handed people have language controlled by

the right hemisphere.

The hemispheres work so closely together, and

each makes up so well for whatever lack of

ability the other may have, that people are not

aware that their brains are made up of two

partially independent, somewhat specialized

halves. In fact, even if the activity of one

hemisphere is dominant, the effect is usually

detectable only as differences in certain mental

abilities or cognitive styles. For example, a

person with a dominant right hemisphere may

learn toward musical rather than foreign

language studies.

Although the two hemispheres are somewhat

specialized, the differences between themshould not be exaggerated. People are not left

brained or right brained in the same way that

they are left or right handed. Normally the

corpus callosum (a massive bundle of more

than a million fibers that connects the two

hemispheres) integrates the functions of the

two hemispheres so that people are not aware

of their two brains.

It is possibly lateralization that makes itdifficult for older people to easily acquire

fluent control of a second language. Many

adults manage to learn new languages, but itis a more demanding task. The dominance of

the left hemisphere may contribute to a

tendency in adults to overanalyze and to betoo intellectually centered on the task of

foreign language learning.


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3. Learning First and Second languages

First Language Development

How do children learn all the rules of theirmother tongue without formal study? How can

we explain the fantastic journey from the first

anguished cry at birth to adult competence in a

convincing case that thought is more than

language? From the first word to tens of

thousands?

Studying shortly after birth, a baby brain cells

proliferate widely, making connections that may

shape a lifetime of experience. The brain

produces trillions more connections between

neurons than it can possibly use. The waves ofmental activity actually change the shape of thebrain, carving patterns that will enable the new

born infant to perceive a fathers voice, a

mothers touch, a shinny mobile hanging over the

crib.

At birth, a babys brain contains a hundred

billion neurons, roughly as many nerve cells are

there are stars in the Milky Way. Although the

brain contains almost all the nerve cells it will

ever have, the pattern of wiring between has not

yet stabilized.

What wires a childs brain, say Neuroscientists,

is repeated experience. Each time a baby tries to

touch a tantalizing object or gazes intently at a

face or listens to a lullaby, tiny bursts of

electricity shoot through the brain, knitting

neurons into circuits. Around the age of twomonths, for example, the motor-controlled

centers of the brain develop to the point that

infants can suddenly reach out and grab a nearby

object. Around the age of four months, the cortex

begins to refine the connections needed for depth perception and binocular vision. Infants

language development goes through certain

stages, no matter what the language is, and seems

to develop about as quickly as the growing brain

can handle it. Around the age of twelve months,

the speech centers of the brain are poised to

produce what is perhaps the most magical

moment of childhood: the first word that marks

the flowering of language.During their first year, infants the world over

make the same babbling sounds (bababababa,

mamamama). These babblings, which begin at

about four months of age, are the first sounds

infants make that resemble speech. Although

meaningless to the baby, they are a delight to

parents. By 6 months of age, infants in English-

speaking homes already have different auditorymaps (as shown by electrical measurements that

identify which neurons respond to different

sounds) from those in, for example, Swedish-

speaking homes.

At about nine months, babies who hear only

English start to lose their German gutturals and

French nasals. At this time, too, they begin to

shorten some of their vocalizations to da, and ma.

These sounds, which soon replace babbling,

seem very much like language. Babies use them

in specific contexts and with obvious purpose.

Before there are words, in the world of thenewborn, there are sounds. As small as babies,

children babble and coo and cry. But most of all,they listen. Speech does not develop in isolation;

there must be speech input, for example, Frenchchildren are exposed to French and German

children to German. In English there are

phonemes such as the sharp bas and das, drawn

out ees and lls and sibilant sss. In Japanesethey are different barked his, merged rr / lls.

When a child hears a phoneme over and over,

neurons in his ear stimulate the formation of

dedicated connections in his brains auditory

cortex.

Long before infants actually begin to learn

words, they can sort through a jumble of spoken

sounds in search of the ones that have meaning.

From birth to four months, babies are universallinguists capable of distinguishing each of the

150 sounds that make up all human speech. But

when a child hears a phoneme over and over,

neurons from his ear stimulate the formation of


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connections in his brains auditory cortex. InEnglish-speakers, the neurons in the auditory

cortex that respond to ra lie far from those thatrespond to la. But for Japanese where the soundsare nearly identical, neurons that respond to raare practically intertwined withthose forla. As a

result, a Japanese-speaker will have troubledistinguishing the two sounds. By just six

months, they have begun the metamorphosis into

specialists who recognize the speech sounds of

their native tongue.

Researchers find evidence of these tendencies

across many languages. In one experiment babies

listened as a tape-recorded voice repeated vowel

and consonant combinations. Each time the

sound changed a toy bear in a box was lit up and

danced. The babies quickly learn to look at the

bear when they heard sounds that were new tothem. Studying Swedish and American six-

month-olds, psychologist Patricia khul found

they ignored the subtle variations in

pronunciation of their own languages sounds,

for instance, the different ways two people might

pronounce ee but they heard similar

variations in a foreign language as separate

sounds. The implication? Six-month-olds can

already discern the sounds they will later need

for speech.

By eight to nine months, comprehension is morevisible, with babies looking at a ball when their

mothers say ball, for example. According to

psychologist Donna Thal, it is still impossible to

gauge just how many words babies understand, at

this point, but her recent studies of slightly older

children indicate that comprehension may exceedexpression by a factor as high as a hundred to

one.

By 12 months, infants babbling has acquired the

sounds of their language. As they reach the end

of the first year, specific attempts are made toimitate words and speech sounds heard around

them, and about this time they utter their first

words. By about 18 months of age these words

have multiplied considerably and are beginning

to appear in combination with each other to form

two-word and three-word sentences

commonly referred to as telegraphic utterances

such as all gone milk, bye-bye Daddy,gimme toy, and so forth.

SOURCES OF INPUT

Input (up to the age of three) is considered tocome from parents and other caretakers. Input is

usually one of two types in an infants life:

Baby Talk: when an adult repeats words exactly

the way the baby says them, or they say

simplified vocabulary items such as choochoo

for train and tummy for stomach.

Motherese or Caretaker Speech: Parents are the

brains first and more important teachers. The

more words a child hears, the faster he or she

learns language. And researchers have found thatchildren who dont play much or are rarely

touched develop brains 20% to 30% smaller than

normal for their age. These new insights stress

the importance of hands-on parenting, of finding

time to cuddle a baby, talk with a toddler, and

provide infants with stimulating experiences.

Among other things, parents appear to help

babies learn by adopting the rhythmic, high-

pitched speaking style.

The heart rate of infants increases when listening

to Motherese, even Motherese delivered in aforeign language. Moreover, motherese appears

to accelerate the process of connecting words to

the object they denote. A six-month-old can

recognize the vowel sounds that are the basic

building blocks of speech. Twelve-month-olds,

directed to look at the ball in Parentese, directtheir eyes to the correct picture more frequently

than when the instruction is delivered in normal

English. Talking to a baby a lot, researchers have

found, also speeds up the process of learning new

words. For example, recent studies show that the

size of toddlers vocabularies depends in a largepart on how much their mothers talk to them.

Compared with conversations among adults,

parents speech to children is slower, more

exaggerated in pitch, more directed to the here

and now. Topics are frequently contextualized,

often in a visual or tactile way. It is grammatical,

with slower, shorter sentences, affectionate


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encouragement, higher pitch, exaggeratedintonation, duplication of syllables, reduction of

consonant clusters and using the present tense

instead of past or future.

Most parents do not correct the grammar of their

young children; they are more concerned aboutwhat is said than about its form. When the little

boy with chocolate crumbs on his face says, I no

eat cookie, the mother is more likely to respond,

Yes, you did eat it, rather than asking the child

to say, I didnt eat the cookie. Meaning is

being reinforced, not form.

INTERACTION AND LANGUAGE

DEVELOPMENT

For language to develop there must be

interaction in addition to meaningful input. For

example, deaf parents of hearing children were atone time advised to have their children watch a

lot of television. In no case did the children learn

English because it is difficult for a child to figure

out what the characters in the televised world are

talking about, while their parents use sign

language to communicate. In addition, television

is unresponsive; it does not reply. Human

speakers also tend to talk about the here and now

in the presence of children; thus it is not difficult

for the child to figure out what is meant,

especially if many of the content words are

already known.

Children typically discover that things have

names before the age of eighteen months. Parents

usually do not notice, because adults expect

things to have names. But the youngsters, the

naming discovery can be a shock, as describedby Helen Keller. Helen Keller was deaf and blind

from the age of two. Then, when she was six, her

teacher held her hand under a flow of water and

spelled out the word w-a-t-e-r on the other. She

later wrote. Somehow the mystery of language

was revealed to me. I knew that w-a-t-e-r meantthe wonderful cool something that was flowing

over my hand. That living world awakened my

soul, set it free! Everything had a name

every object which I touched seemed to quiver

with life.

By around age 3, children can comprehend an

incredible quantity of linguistic behavior; their

speech capacity mushrooms as they chatternonstop. This fluency continues into school age

as children internalize increasingly complex

structures, expand their vocabulary and sharpen

communicative skills. At school age, children not

only learn what to say but what not to say as they

learn the social functions of their language.

When they reach school age, they continue to

internalize increasingly complex structures,

expand their vocabulary (the average six-year-

old commands about 13,000 words), and sharpen

communicative skills. By the time they graduate

from high school, the average American knows

about 45,000 words.

CRITICAL PERIODS

Many scientists believe that in the first few years

of childhood there are a number of critical orsensitive periods, or windows, when the brain

demands certain types of input in order to create

or stabilize certain long-lasting structures. The

window of acquiring syntax may close as early as

five or six years of age, while the window for

adding new words may never close. The ability

to learn a second language is highest between

birth and the age of six then undergoes a steady

and inexorable decline. This plasticity of the

brain enables children to acquire not only their

first language but also a foreign one.

The brains growth spurt draws to a close around

the age of 10. Starting at this age or earlier, the

excel connections, or synapses, that are seldom

or never used are drastically eliminated. The

experiences that drive neural activity are like the

sculptors chisel, chipping away at a lump ofstone. By the end of adolescence, around the age

of 18, the brain has declined in plasticity but

increased in power. Whether the potential for

greatness is realized as a gift for mathematics or

a brilliant criminal mind depends on patterns

etched by experience in those critical early years.Language develops as a result of the complex

interplay between the uniquely human

characteristics of the child and the environment

in which the child develops.

Order of AcquisitionChildrens language acquisition is best explained

as a developing system with its own interim


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rules. This sequence of development is called

order of acquisition.

1. ONE WORD STAGE: The earlieststage of grammatical development hardly seems

like grammar at all, since only single words are

involved. Most of the words at this stage seem tohave a naming function:

Mama, dada, cookie, doggie

This stage is most noticeable between

18 months.

2. TWO-WORD STAGE: At aroundeighteen months, vocabulary growth reaches the

rate of a new word every two hours that the child

will maintain through adolescence.

Children also begin to string two or more

words together at this age. As soon astwo-word utterances are made, they show

the target word order:

possessor / possessed Mommy shoeactor / action Daddy sleepingaction / object Drink milknoun / location Ball floor

3. TELEGRAPHIC STAGE: by age 2,spoken vocabulary probably exceeds 200 words.

And at this age, many children produce sentences

that are three or four words in length, andcombine these words in different ways to

produce a variety of grammatical constructions.

Typical sentences at this stage include:

Mommy go store.

-vs.- Mommy is going to the store

Him got car.- vs.- hes got a car.

Towards the age of 3, there is a major

grammatical advance, with the

appearance of sentences containing more

than one clause:

I let go cos it hurted me.

Children can speak in grammatically

correct sentences; the most common

error is overgeneralization: for example:

the child puts a regular suffix, like the

past tenseed, onto a word that forms its

past tense in an irregular way (i.e., goed).

4. FUNCTION WORD STAGE:according to numerous studies in first language

acquisition, children develop grammatical

morphemes, like the third person singulars, ored for past tenses in a remarkably similarsequence. The following list shows the

approximate order of their acquisition:a. Present progressive: Mommy running

b. Plural s: Two books

c. Irregular past forms:Baby went

d. Possessive s: Daddys hat.

e. Present tense of be as copula: Annie is a nicegirl.

f. Articles the and .

g. Regular past ed: She walked.

h. Simple present, third person singular s: Sheruns.

i. Present tense of the verb be as an auxiliary islearned last:He is going.

Children may master these morphemes at

different ages, but the order of acquisition is very

similar.

Second Language LearnersLearning a second language in a natural

acquisition context or on the street is not the

same as learning in the classroom. A natural

acquisition context is that in which the learner is

exposed to language at work or in socialinteraction; if the learner is a child, it occurs in a

school situation where most of the other children

are native speakers of the target language and

where instruction is directed toward nativespeakers rather than towards learners of the

language.

Order of Acquisition and Order ofDifficulty

Several studies in second language acquisition in

natural settings (non-instructional environment)

found that second language learners, even thosecoming from different first language

backgrounds (e.g. Spanish and Chinese),

acquired grammatical morphemes in much the

same way that first language learners do, and this

natural sequence is not determined by the

learners first language.


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However, related studies have found that theorder of difficulty (from easy to more difficult)

for second language learners is:

1. Plural s2. Progressive ing3. Present tense ofbe as copula

4. Present tense of verb be as an auxiliary5. Articles the and a6. Irregular past forms

7. Simple present, third person singular

8. Possessives

For example, processing the third person s is a

complex operation. Speakers have to keep track

of the following details:

Whether the subject is the third person or

not.

Whether the subject is singular or plural

Whether the action is present or not

Whether the action is habitual or going on at

the moment of speaking.

The order of difficulty cannot be interpreted as

an order of acquisition; researchers have realized

that it is not necessarily true that things that are

easy to use are learned first and vice-versa. An

order of acquisition cannot be based solely on an

order of difficulty. In addition, the frequency of

occurrence of the language items also affects the

order of acquisition, as well as the need to use it

when communicating.

Learning another language does not follow a

linear sequence, nor is a language learned

through the process of erecting a linguisticbuilding in a step-by-step manner, one

linguistic brick at a time, with the easy

grammatical bricks at the bottom of the wall,

providing a foundation for the more difficult

ones.

An organic approach to grammar dramatizes the

fact that different forms enable learners toexpress different meanings. Learners, in fact,

grow their own grammars. Learners do not

master an item and go on the next; instead, they

learn a variety of things simultaneously (and

some better than others). This implies that

language learning is an extremely complex

phenomenon.

A child or an adult learning a second language isclearly different from a child learning a first

language in terms of both personal characteristics

and conditions for learning. All second language

learners, regardless of age, have already acquired

at least one language (with the exception of

children that grow up in a bilingual homeenvironment). This prior knowledge can be an

advantage in the sense that the learner has an

idea of how languages work. On the other hand,

it can also lead learners to make incorrect

guesses about how the second language works

and this may cause errors which a leaner of a first

language may not take.

The Role of L1 in LanguageLearning

During the 1950s most linguists believed that

errors were due to interference from the mothertongue, and they placed a great deal of

importance on contrastive analysis. According

to this theory, if linguists could analyze the

systems of both the first and second languages,

they would be able to identify and predict the

errors that would occur during second language

learning. For example, if the first and second

languages were similar, language learning would

be easy, but if the languages were dissimilar,

learning the second language would be more

difficult. This theory was based on the

behaviorist model of learning: language is basically a set of conditioned verbal habits

learned through pattern drills; mistakes representthe persistence of old habits and the failure to

learn new ones.

Examples of typical interference errors are:

I am agree with you.

Put attention!

However, contrastive analysis was not a very

good predictor of errors in L2. Research has

shown that learners appear to go through basically the same stages in the process of

learning a language. In a breakthrough study,

Corder (1967) found that second language

learners produced errors that were both

systematic and creative in nature. His work gave

rise to the field of error analysis, which

examined systematic errors to determine that

underlying rule-governed behaviors of learners.


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These studies show that though some errors aredue to transfer from the learners native

language, many have nothing to do with the first

language, rather, are based on developmentalism

(learning develops in stages as learners interact

with the environment). Errors reflect the

learners creative capability of using language,for example:

At first, L2 learners rely heavily on L1 structures

and even vocabulary to get meaning across. As

the L2 becomes more internalized, the L1 is

relied upon less and less. Investigations of errors

by second language learners have revealed

surprising statistics. Although some errors are the

direct result of native-language interference, the

percentage is not as large as had previously beenbelieved. The errors tabulated by Dulay and Burt

(1973) indicated that only 3% of the errors in

their study were due to interference and 85% of

the errors were developmental.

Selinker (1972) coined the term into language torefer to errors due to interference from L1 and

intralanguage to refer to errors caused by the

target language itself. Each new feature of

language acquired by the learner requires

adjustments in the learners developing

competence: some of the rules the learneracquires may be permanent or stable, while other

may be constantly changing. The emphasis

shifted to explaining mistakes in terms of the

developmental stages the learners go through in

actively constructing their second language

competence; this occurs regardless of their first

language.

The most recent research in errors of second

language learners supports the following

assumptions: errors occur both as the result of

interference from the mother tongue and as aresult of incomplete transitional grammar of the

learner; language learning is characterized by the

creation of language and by the comparison of

the learners interim language system with that of

adult or native speech.

Probably a lot of mistakes are caused by a variety

of factors. A learner may overgeneralized a rule

or may assume that a structure can be used in the

same way as in the first language, on the basis of

evidence that it sometimes is and thus

overapplying it. Other factors can contribute, too;learners may be more likely to make mistakes

with a certain tense, for instance, if they are

concentrating on another one, or to make more

mistakes if they are tired. The same mistake

might have different origins on different

occasions.

Ladies may have a fit upstairs

Outside a Hong Kong tailorsshop

English Well Talking

Outside a shop.

In Case of Fire Do your utmost

to alert hotel porter

At a hotel.


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4. Acquiring a language: KrashensHypotheses

Stephen Krashen isan American linguist,

currently the author

of more than 175

articles and books in

the field of ELT,

whose ideas have had

a great impact on

modern language

teaching programs. He summarized his

theoretical research by stating the following five

hypotheses about second language acquisition.

The Acquisition / LearningDistinction HypothesesKrashen made a distinction between learning and

acquisition, where adults are seen as having two

distinct and independent ways of developing

competence in a second language:

Acquisition is a subconscious process similar, if

not identical, to the way children develop ability

in their first language.

Learning refers to the conscious knowledge ofthe rules of grammar of a second language and

their application in production.

The Natural Order HypothesisIn this hypothesis, krashen maintains that

acquisition of grammatical structures proceeds in

a predictable order when that acquisition is

natural (i.e. not by formal classroom learning).

This natural order is not identical to first

language order, but there are some similarities

and second language learners pass through

predictable stages as well. Regardless of thelearners first language, all learners seem to

acquire many features of the second language in

similar order. However, this is not always the

case. Researchers have found that there are

exceptions.

The Monitor HypothesisThe third hypothesis set forth by Krashen, is

directly related to his position on learning /

acquisition. It states that acquisition is the sole

initiator of all second-language utterances and isresponsible for fluency, while learning

(conscious knowledge of rules) can function only

as an editor or Monitor for the output.

The monitor functions only when there is

sufficient time, the focus is on form, and the

language use knows the rule being applied. This

hypothesis takes into consideration three types of

monitor users:

1. Over-monitor users are learners whoseldom trust their acquired competence, and

verify every sentence they produce by using their

learned competence. Such speakers are sure to

speak hesitantly and with no fluency.

2. Under-monitor users are speakers who do not

really care about correctness, only about

meaning. These speakers are usually very

talkative in their mother tongue and, although

they may make more mistakes than over-monitorusers, they also convey more meaning.

3. Optimal-monitor users are acquirers who

manage to use the monitor only when it isappropriate, e.g. when writing. Optimal-monitor

users usually give the impression that they posses

more competence than under-monitor users of

the same level of acquisition, because they can

use their learned competence together with the

acquired competence, and in many cases can use

their mother tongues grammar adopted, with

logical changes, to English by means of the

monitor.

The Input HypothesisKrashen was among the first to question thefacilitative effect of simplified input for all


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groups of learners. For Krashen, simplified inputcan only help those who are in the beginning

stages of language development. He suggests that

the single most important factor for language

development is not simplifies input, but what he

terms Comprehensible Input. According to the

hypothesis, we acquire language proficiency

by going for meaning, by focusing on what issaid rather than how it is said. We are aided inthis process by extralinguistic context (e.g. pictures and hand movements), and our

knowledge of the world. We do not acquire by first learning about the structure of thelanguage. We try to understand the message andthe structure is thereby acquired.(Krashen 1985).

The input hypothesis maintains that morelanguage is acquired only when students are

exposed to comprehensible input language that

contains structures that are a little bit beyond a

current level of competence, but which is

comprehensible through the use of context,

knowledge of the world, and other extralinguistic

cues. The language the students hear or read

should contain language they already know as

well as language they have not yet seen.

The input should be at a slightly higher level than

the student is capable of using, but that he iscapable of understanding. Krashen suggests that

if the input is too easy, the learner wont learn

anything new; if it is too hard, he claims that it

would be beyond the learners grasp.

A second part of the input hypothesis maintainsthat speaking fluency cannot be taught directly,

but rather emerges naturally over time.

Krashen maintains that although early speech is

not grammatically accurate, accuracy will

develop over time as the acquired word hears and

understand more input.

A third part of this hypothesis states that input

need not be deliberately planned to contain

appropriate structures: if communication is

successful and there is enough of it, input is

provided automatically. Krashen (1985) states:

the best input is not grammatically sequenced.

Rather, if the acquirer understands the input

presented, and enough of it is made available, thestructures will be automatically sequenced The

acquirers will receive comprehensive input

containing structures just a little beyond them if

they are in a situations involving genuine

communication, and these structures will be

constantly provided and automatically reviewed.They need not worry about missing the past tense

forever. With natural comprehensible input, the

hypothesis predicts that they will hear the past

tense again and again.

Krashen also proposed the presence of the silent

period, a period of time before the acquirer

actually starts to speak. The silent period is

noticeable in child second language acquisition:

young children in a new country may say nothing

(except for some memorized phrases) for several

months. According to the input hypothesis, thereis a time during which they are building up

competence via input, by listening and

understanding. When they are ready, they start to

talk. This initial silent period has been

incorporated into Krashen and Terrels natural

approach.

A number of studies have now demonstrated that

comprehensive input may facilitate language

development, but it does not guarantee mastery

of the language. Learners need exposure to the

specific types of input that the learner needs toacquire. This may vary from learner to learner,

but all learners benefit from input received and

used in language-promoting interaction.

The Affective Filter HypothesisKrashens fifth hypothesis states that

comprehensible input can have its effect on

acquisition only when affective conditions are

optimal, when the acquirer

is motivated

has self-confidence and good self-image

has a low level of anxiety

The affective filter acts like a gate controlling

the amount of input received. When learners

become defensive, the affective filter is high and

comprehensible input is prevented from entering.

If they are relaxed and in a pleasant environment,

more acquisition will take place. This is why it is

important to provide an appropriate environment


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in the classroom, eliminating anxiety andencouraging students.

In recent years, Krashens theories have been

repeatedly questioned. In spite of the many

criticisms on a variety of points, his theories have

had a strong influence on language teaching.

Virtually everyone recognizes the need to provide learners with comprehensible input

and finds his recommendations that affective

considerations are of primary importance very

appealing.


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5. Characteristics of Language Learners

Children as Language LearnersChildren, given a normal developmental

environment, acquire their native language

fluently and efficiently; moreover, they acquire itnaturally, without special instruction, they

experience a considerable amount of the

language in situations where they are involved

with communicating with an adult (usually a

parent); their gradual ability to use language is

the result of many subconscious processes.

Cognitive Development: generally we think that

children easily acquire a second or foreign

language, but, in fact, it implies a tremendous

cognitive and affective effort. Young secondlanguage learners begin the task of language

learning without the benefit of some of the skills

which adolescent and adult learners have.School-age children may actually have difficulty

in acquiring a foreign language for a multitude of

reasons. Ranking high on those reasons are a

number of complex personal, social, cultural and political factors at play in elementary school

teaching. Depending on their age, children are

still at the developmental stage that centers on

the here and now and the functional purpose of

language. The fact that they have little awarenessfor the language used to describe and explain

linguistic concepts means that rules,

explanations, and other even slightly abstract talk

about language must be approached with extreme

caution. They still have far to go in the area of

world knowledge before they reach the levels

already reached by adolescents and adults. And

children learning a foreign language in school are

under a traditional expectation of learning insteadof natural language development.

Dont use terms like future perfect orhypothetical situation to express grammar.

Avoid rules that are stated in abstract terms

(Dont tell first graders: to transform an

affirmative statement to negative, add the

auxiliary do or does and not).

Show them patterns (Notice the ed at the

end of the word) and examples (this is the

way we say something happened yesterday: I

watched TV.) to call their attention to certain

grammatical concepts.

Certain more difficult concepts or patterns

require more repetition than adults need. Forexample, repeating certain patterns (without

boring them) may be necessary to get the brain

and the ear to cooperate.

Most young learners do not feel nervous about

attempting to use the language. However, even

very young (pre-school) children differ in their

nervousness when faced with speaking a

language they do not know well. Some children

chatter away happily in the new language; others

prefer to listen and participate silently in social

interaction with their peers. Fortunately, for these

children, the learning environment rarely puts

pressure on them to speak when they are not

ready.

Attention span: one of the main differences

between adults and children is attention span.Children definitely do not have short attention

spans just put a child in front of a TV with a

favorite cartoon show and they will stay riveted

to their seats. The short attention span comesonly when they are bored; they find something

useless, or too difficult. The teachers job, then,

is to make language lessons interesting, lively,

and fun.

Activities should be design to capture their

immediate interest, since children are focused on

the immediate here and now.

A lesson needs to have a variety of activitiesto keep interest and attention alive.

A teacher needs to be animated, lively, and

enthusiastic about the subject matter. The

teachers energy will be infectious to others.Children need a certain exaggeration to keep

spirits buoyed and minds alert.


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A sense of humor will go a long way to

keep children laughing and learning.

Children have a lot of natural curiosity.

This helps the teacher maintain attention and

focus.

Sensory input: children need to have all five

senses stimulated. Activities should go beyond

the visual and auditory modes.

Pepper the lesson with physical activity,

such as having students act out things (role-play),

play games, or do TPR activities.

Projects and other hands-on activities will

help children internalize language.

Sensory aids will also help children

internalize concepts: the taste of foods, liberal

doses of audio-visual aids, songs, music all

these are important elements in childrenslanguage teaching.

Nonverbal language is important, as

children notice facial features and gestures.

Affective factors: children may have as many

inhibitions as adults do about learning a

language! They are extremely sensitive,

especially to peers: what do others think of me?

What will so-and-so think when I speak in

English? Children are in many ways more fragile

than adults; their egos are still being shaped.

Teachers need to help them overcome potentialbarriers to learning.

Help students laugh with each other at

various mistakes that they all make.

Be patient and supportive, to build self-

esteem, yet at the same time, be firm in your

expectations of students.

Elicit as much oral participation as possible

from students, especially the quieter ones, to give

them plenty of opportunities for trying things out.

Authentic, meaningful language: children arefocused on what this new language can actually

be used for right here and now. They are less

willing to put up with language that doesnt holdimmediate rewards for them.

Children are good at sensing language that is

not authentic; it will simply not be accepted.

Language needs to be firmly context

embedded. Story lines, familiar situations and

characters, real-life conversations, meaningful

purposes in using language these will establish

a context within which language can be receivedand sent and thereby improve attention and

retention.A whole language approach is essential. Dont

break up language into too many bits and pieces

or students wont see the relationship to the

whole.

Adults as Language LearnersAdults usually learn a foreign language in aclassroom setting; they may or may not be

motivated by the need for communication itself,

but rather by some type of extrinsic motivation

(i.e. promotion, career, etc.); they are often

distracted by problems and have other prioritiesor they are impatient and under pressure to learn;

and contrary to children learning their first

language, they frequently need a teacher. They

may also believe that knowing a language is

knowing about (i.e., rules, definitions, etc.)

instead of knowing how to use it.

Most adult students are quite comfortable with

structured learning environments. The linguisticsupport given in this environment allows students

to practice within a controlled framework and

build their confidence.

Older learners are often forced to speak to meet

the requirements of the classroom or to carry out

tasks such as jobs interviews.

One condition which appears to be common to

learners of all ages is access to modified input.

This adjusted speech is called caretaker talk for

first languages, and foreign talk or teacher talk

for second languages. Most people who interact

regularly with foreign language learners seem to

have an intuitive sense of what adjustments areneeded to help learners understand.

Error correction tends to be limited to correctionsof meaning including errors in vocabulary

choice in first language acquisition. In informal

second language acquisition, errors which do not

interfere with meaning are usually overlooked.Most people would feel they were being impolite


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if they interrupted and corrected someone whowas trying to have a conversation with them!

Nevertheless, they may correct if they cannot

understand what the speaker is trying to say.

Thus, errors of grammar and pronunciation are

rarely remarked on, but the wrong word choice

may receive comment from a puzzledinterlocutor. The only place where error

correction is typically present with frequency is

the language classroom.

Adults are no less successful in learning a foreignlanguage than children are. Adults have the

advantage of being able to learn and retain a

larger vocabulary. They can utilize various

deductive and abstract processes to shortcut the

learning of grammatical and other linguistic

concepts. And, in the classroom, they usuallylearn faster than a child. So, while children, with

their fluency and naturalness, are often the envy

of adults struggling with foreign languages,

children in classrooms may have some

difficulties.


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ACTIVITY.

Work in pairs. Complete the following chart showing the profiles of four language learners:

a) A child learning his or her first language

b) A child learning a second language informally

c) An adolescent learning a second language in a formal language learning setting

d) An adult learning a second language in a formal setting

Use a + for a characteristic which is usually present, a for a characteristic which is usually absent, and a?

for cases where the characteristic or condition is sometimes present, sometimes absent, or where you arenot sure of your opinion.

Learner Characteristics Child L1 Child

(informal)

Adolescent

(formal)

Adult

(formal)

1. The learner already knows another language.

2. The learner is able to engage in problem

solving, deduction, and complex memory

tasks.

3. The learner can define a word, say whatsounds make up a word, or state a rule such as

add an s to form the plural.

4. The learners general knowledge of theworld is extensive.

5. The learner is nervous about making

mistakes and sounding silly.

Learning conditions

6. The learning environment allows the learner

to be silent in the early stages of learning.

7. There is plenty of time for language learning

to take place, plenty of contact with proficient

speakers of the language.

8. The learner receives corrective feedback

when he or she makes errors in grammar or

pronunciation.

9. The learner receives corrective feedback

when he or she uses the wrong word.

From how languages are learned(1993) by Patsy Lightbrow and Nina Spada, OUP


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chapter 1. language and how is it acquired

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