Understanding Second Language Acquisition

321 Pages·2013·1.66 MB·English

by  Ortega, Lourdes

Understanding
Second language
acquisition
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Understanding
Second language
acquisition
Lourdes Ortega
Understanding
Language Series
Series Editors:
Bernard Comrie
and
Greville Corbett
First published 2009 by Hodder Education
Published 2013 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2009 Lourdes Ortega
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
The advice and information in this book are believed to be true and
accurate at the date of going to press, but neither the authors nor the publisher
can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 13: 978-0-340-90559-3 (pbk)
Extracts from The Philosopher’s Demise: Learning French by Richard Watson
are reprinted by permission of the University of Missouri Press.
Copyright © 1995 by the Curators of the University of Missouri.
Cover © Mark Oatney/Digital Vision/GettyImages
Typeset in 11/12pt Minion by Phoenix Photosetting, Chatham, Kent
Amispadres,AndrésyLourdes,quetanbienmehanentendidosiempreentodas
mislenguas,aunquesólocompartamosuna.
Tomyparents,AndrésandLourdes,whohavealwaysunderstoodmesowellacross
mylanguages,eventhoughweonlyshareone.
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Contents
Preface xiii
Tablesandfigures xvi
1 Introduction 1
1.1 WhatisSLA? 1
1.2 Whencelanguage?Description,evolutionandacquisition 2
1.3 Firstlanguageacquisition,bilingualismandSLA 3
1.4 Mainconceptsandterms 5
1.5 InterdisciplinarityinSLA 7
1.6 SLAintheworld 7
1.7 Aboutthisbook 9
1.8 Summary 10
1.9 Annotatedsuggestionsforfurtherreading 10
2 Age 12
2.1 Criticalandsensitiveperiodsfortheacquisitionofhumanlanguage 12
2.2 Julie,anexceptionallysuccessfullateL2learnerofArabic 14
2.3 ArechildrenoradultsbetterL2learners?Questionsofrate 16
2.4 AgeandL2morphosyntax:questionsofultimateattainment 17
2.5 EvidenceonL2morphosyntaxfromcognitiveneuroscience 20
2.6 L2phonologyandage 22
2.7 Whatcausestheageeffects?Biologicalandotherexplanations 23
2.8 AbilingualturninSLAthinkingaboutage? 25
2.9 HowimportantisageinL2acquisition,and(why)doesitmatter? 27
2.10 Summary 28
2.11 Annotatedsuggestionsforfurtherreading 29
3 Crosslinguisticinfluences 31
3.1 OnL1–L2differencesandsimilarities 31
3.2 Interlingualidentifications 32
3.3 BesidestheL1 34
3.4 Firstlanguageinfluencesvis-à-visdevelopment 34
3.5 MarkednessandL1transfer 37
3.6 Canacupbreak?Transferability 38
3.7 Avoidance 39
viii Contents
3.8 Underuseandoveruse 41
3.9 PositiveL1influencesonL2learningrate 42
3.10 Firstlanguageinfluencebeneaththesurface:thecaseofinformation 44
structure
3.11 Crosslinguisticinfluencesacrossalllayersoflanguage 46
3.12 BeyondtheL1:crosslinguisticinfluencesacrossmultiplelanguages 48
3.13 Thelimitsofcrosslinguisticinfluence 51
3.14 Summary 52
3.15 Annotatedsuggestionsforfurtherreading 54
4 Thelinguisticenvironment 55
4.1 Wes:‘I’mneverlearning,I’monlyjustlistenthentalk’ 55
4.2 AcculturationasapredictiveexplanationforL2learningsuccess? 58
4.3 Inputforcomprehensionandforlearning 59
4.4 Interactionandnegotiationformeaning 60
4.5 Outputandsyntacticprocessingduringproduction 62
4.6 Noticingandattentionasmoderatorsofaffordancesintheenvironment 63
4.7 Twogenerationsofinteractionstudies 64
4.8 Theempiricallinkbetweeninteractionandacquisition 65
4.9 Outputmodification 67
4.10 Learner-initiatednegotiationofform 69
4.11 Negativefeedbackduringmeaningandformnegotiation 71
4.12 Thelimitsofthelinguisticenvironment 76
4.13 Summary 79
4.14 Annotatedsuggestionsforfurtherreading 80
5 Cognition 82
5.1 InformationprocessinginpsychologyandSLA 82
5.2 Thepowerofpractice:proceduralizationandautomaticity 84
5.3 AnexemplarystudyofskillacquisitiontheoryinSLA:DeKeyser(1997) 85
5.4 Long-termmemory 87
5.5 Long-termmemoryandL2vocabularyknowledge 88
5.6 Workingmemory 89
5.7 Memoryasstorage:passiveworkingmemorytasks 91
5.8 Memoryasdynamicprocessing:activeworkingmemorytasks 92
5.9 AttentionandL2learning 93
5.10 Learningwithoutintention 94
5.11 Learningwithoutattention 95
5.12 Learningwithoutawareness 96
5.13 Disentanglingattentionfromawareness? 97
5.14 Learningwithoutrules 99
5.15 Anexemplarystudyofsymbolicvsassociativelearning:Robinson(1997) 100
5.16 AnemergentistturninSLA? 102
5.17 Summary 105
5.18 Annotatedsuggestionsforfurtherreading 108
Contents ix
6 Developmentoflearnerlanguage 110
6.1 Twoapproachestothestudyoflearnerlanguage:generalcognitiveand 110
formallinguistic
6.2 Interlanguages:morethanthesumoftargetinputandfirstlanguage 112
6.3 Cognitivistexplanationsforthedevelopmentoflearnerlanguage 113
6.4 Formula-basedlearning:thestuffofacquisition 114
6.5 Fourinterlanguageprocesses 116
6.6 Interlanguageprocessesatwork:Ge’sda 118
6.7 Developmentasvariability-in-systematicity:ThecaseofJorge’snegation 119
6.8 Interlanguagebeforegrammaticalization:theBasicVarietyofnaturalistic 121
learners
6.9 Patternedattainmentofmorphologicalaccuracy:thecaseofL2English 124
morphemes
6.10 MoreonthedevelopmentofL2morphology:concept-drivenemergence 126
oftenseandaspect
6.11 Developmentofsyntax:markednessandtheacquisitionofL2relativization 129
6.12 Alastexampleofsystematicity:cumulativesequencesofwordorder 130
6.13 Fossilization,orwhenL2developmentcomestoastop(butdoesit?) 133
6.14 Whatisthevalueofgrammarinstruction?Thequestionoftheinterface 136
6.15 Instruction,developmentandlearnerreadiness 138
6.16 Advantagesofgrammarinstruction:accuracyandrateoflearning 139
6.17 Thefutureofinterlanguage? 140
6.18 Summary 141
6.19 Annotatedsuggestionsforfurtherreading 143
7 Foreignlanguageaptitude 145
7.1 Thecorrelationalapproachtocognition,conationandaffectin 146
psychologyandSLA
7.2 LearningandnotlearningFrench:KaplanvsWatson 147
7.3 Languageaptitude,allmighty? 148
7.4 AptitudeaspredictionofformalL2learningrate:theMLAT 149
7.5 IsL2aptitudedifferentfromintelligenceandfirstlanguageability? 151
7.6 LackofL2aptitude,orgenerallanguage-relateddifficulties? 152
7.7 MemorycapacityasaprivilegedcomponentofL2aptitude 154
7.8 Thecontributionsofmemorytoaptitude,complexified 156
7.9 Aptitudeandage 158
7.10 DoesL2aptitudematterunderexplicitandimplicitlearningconditions? 159
7.11 Mostrecentdevelopments:multidimensionalaptitude 161
7.12 Playingittoone’sstrengths:thefutureofL2aptitude? 163
7.13 Summary 164
7.14 Annotatedsuggestionsforfurtherreading 166
8 Motivation 168
8.1 Thetraditionalapproach:theAMTBandmotivationalquantity 168
8.2 Integrativenessasanantecedentofmotivation 170