Lecture XV

Second language
acquisition

May 20th 2008

Structure of the talk

• SLA and interlanguage
• Transfer – the role of L1 and L2
• Transfer errors and developmental errors
• A model of communicative competence
• Interlanguage grammars – L2 grammar
• The notion of markedness
• L2 phonology
• L2 syntax
• L2 morphology
• Factors affecting SLA (age, affective factors)
• Is it possible to become a native speaker of many tongues?

SLA and interlanguage

• SLA – how people attain proficiency in a

language which is not their mother tongue.

• Studying L2 at university
• Learner beginning to learn a foreign

language in his/her forties

• A child learning a foreign language after

moving to a new country

• Bilingualism
• Interlanguage grammar – a systematic

grammar influenced by both L1 and L2

Transfer

• Transfer – the process whereby a feature or rule

from a learner’s L1 is carried over to the IL
grammar.

• Phonological transfer:
- final devoicing – bag, live, grab, change
- phonotactics – *I espeak Espanish.
- stress placement – maintain, success, etc.
- sound replacement - *//, //, //
- word order - * I don’t know where lives my uncle.

Transfer errors and
development errors

• The Ontogeny Model – there are two

types of language errors, namely
transfer and developmental ones.

• Transfer errors reflect the influence

of L1 grammar

• Developmental errors are similar to

those children make while acquiring
their L1

Types of errors found in the
acquisition of English

Communicative
competence

• Communicative competence – a speaker’s

underlying knowledge of the linguistic
system and the norms for the appropriate
socio-cultural use of language in particular
situations.

• Communicative strategies – strategies used

by L2 learners when they are lacking the
necessary linguistic knowledge to say what
they want to communicate (e.g.
paraphrasing).

A model of communicative
competence

Types of competence

• Grammatical competence
• Textual competence
- Fiats can be very temperamental. Fiats won’t start if they are

wet. When they work, Fiats are fun to drive. They do not work

often.

- Like most cars, Fiats can be very temperamental. For

instance, they won’t start if they are wet. However, on the rare

days when they work, they are fun to drive.

• Sociolinguistic competence
- I assume we will be working late this evening? What a shame!
- Workin’ late again! Dammit!
• Illocutionary competence
- Are you cold? Could I close the window? Why on earth is the

window open?

L2 phonology and the notion of
markedness

• Markedness – structures (sounds) that are

simple and therefore common in the world’s

languages are said to be unmarked.

• Language universals and implicational

universals

• X is more marked thay y if the presence of x

implies the presence of y, but not vice versa.

• Segmental phonology – Polglish, Spanglish,

Franglish (Franglais)

• The Markedness Differential Hypothesis

L2 syllabification

• plant – pilanti
• Fred – Fired(i)
• Translate – tiransilet(i)
• Wstrzemięźliwość ?

L2 syllabification

L2 phonology – the notion of
repair

• When a learner hears a foreign word, s/he mentally maps it on a

familiar L1 string.

• If the mapping is unsuccessful, the learner finds some near

matches and tries to suppress L1 phonological processes in
order to produce the target word.

• For example,English learners trying to produce the Polish word

ptak cannot find words having a word-initial // cluster.

• Conclusion: the cluster results from deletion of an unaccented

vowel.

• Repair – delete unaccented vowel in near matches, e.g. patato,

potential

• Repair – a strategy which leads the L2 learner from an ufamiliar

intention – a word of L2, to a familiar production – repaired by
suppression of an assumed L2 process.

L2 syntax

• Null subjects – speakers of languages that

allow null subjects (e.g. Polish, Spanish,
Russian) have other grammatical traits
that disambiguate an utterance.

• The verb movement parameter – V

raises/does not raise to Infl.

• In French a verb is preceded by an

adverb, whereas in English a verb is
followed by an adverb.

L2 morphology

L1 development
- -ing
- Plural –s
- Irregular past
- Possessive –s
- Copula be
- Articles
- Regular past
- 3rd person –s
- Auxiliary be

L2 development
- -ing
- Copula be
- Articles
- Auxiliary be
- Plural –s
- Irregular past
- Rugular past
- 3rd person –s
- Possessive -s

Factors affecting SLA

• Age – crytical period hypothesis
• Affective factors:
- Empathy
- Inhibition
- Risk-taking
- Motivation: instrumental and

integrative

Characteristics of the good
language learner

Native speaker of many
tongues?

• Native speakers: use language without hesitation, vary styles,

never worry about the quality of a sound.

• One needs to immerse in the target language in early childhood.
• A native speaker’s speech can be accented by a foreign language

(native speakers hardly ever speak the standard version of their
language)

• Formal vs. natural setting learners.
• Natural setting learners: do not differentiate between styles – use

lexicalised casual speech forms

• Formal setting learners: use some phonostylistic processes

productively. Theoretical knowledge helps learners acquire
connected speech phenomena.

• CONCLUSION: it is possible to achieve a nativelike pronunciation

by means of a formal training