精选优质文档-倾情为你奉上Chapter I Introduction Describing and Explaining L2 Acquisition1.1What is second language acquisition?Second language refers to any language that is learned subsequent to the mother tongue.1.2What are the goals of second language?The goals of SLA are to describe how L2 acquisition proceeds and to explain this process and why some learners seem to be better at it than others. 1.3Two case studies of L2 learners1.3.1 A case study of an adult learner1.3.2 A case study of two child learnersWhat do these case studies show us? a. They raise a number of important methodological issues relating to how L2 acquisition should be studied b. They raise issues relating to the description of learner languagec. They point out some of the problems researchers experience in trying to explain L2 acquisition.1.4Methodological issuesWhat is that needs to be described?a. What it means to say that a learner has acquired a feature of the target language?b. Whether learners have acquired a particular feature?c. How to measure whether acquisition has taken place? (Learners overuse of linguistic forms.)1.5Issues in the description of learner languagea. Learners make errors of different kinds.b. Learners acquired a large number of formulaic chunks, which will influence their performance in communication and the fluency of their unplanned speech. c. Whether learners acquire the language systematically?1.6Issues in the explanation of L2 acquisitionItem learning: formulaic chunks System learning: rules Internal (mentalist) account:External account:Chapter2 the Nature of Learner Language2.1Errors and error analysis 2.1.1 Identifying errors 2.1.1.1 Compare the learners language with the normal ones. 2.1.1.2 Distinguish errors and mistakes. Definition: Errors reflect gaps in a learners knowledge Mistakes reflect occasional lapses in performance. Methods: a. Check the consistency of learners performance. b. Ask them to correct their own utterance.Errors and mistakes: 2.1.2 Describing errors Methods: a. error type oriented: b. error maker oriented: Meaning: Classifying errors in these ways can help us to diagnose learners learning problems at any one stage of their development and, also to plot how changes in error patterns occur over time. 2.1.3 Explaining errors Errors are systematic, predictable, and some of them are universal: (Learners has constructed some kind of “rule”, albeit a rule different from that of the target language) Eg: omission: leave out the article “the”, leave out the s in plural nouns Overgeneralization error: eated-ate Transfer errors reflect learners attempt to make use of their L1 knowledge. 2.1.4 Error evaluationTypes of errors: Global errors: violate the whole structure of the sentence Local errors: affect only a single constituent in the sentence2.2Developmental patterns 2.2.1 The early stage of L2 acquisition Silent period: children make no attempt to say anything to begin with. This period makes a preparation for subsequent production. Trials and errors: Mulaic chunks: they provide learners with the means of performing useful language functions such as greetings and requests. Eg:“How do you do?” “My name is_” Propositional simplification: leave words out Eg: “Me no blue” 2.2.2 The order of acquisition Accuracy order: there is a definite accuracy order and that this remains more or less the same irrespective of the learners mother tongues, age, and whether or not they have receive formal language instruction.2.2.3 Sequence of acquisition a. The acquisition of a particular grammatical structure, therefore, must be seen as a process involving transitional constructions.b. Acquisition follows a U shaped course of development.c. The process in which learners reorganize their existing knowledge in order to accommodate new knowledge is called restructuring.2.2.4 Some Implications a. L2 is systematic and universal, reflecting ways in which internal cognitive mechanisms control acquisition, irrespective of the personal background of learners or the settings in which they learn.b. Some linguistic features are inherently easier to learn than others. 2.3Variability in learner languagea. Variability is also systematic, that is, learners use their linguistic sources in predictable ways.b. Learners vary in their use of the second language according to linguistic context (George playing football/ .all the time) situational context.(kids/daughter)& psycholinguistic context (prepared/unprepared)c. form-function mappingd. free variation:e. fossilization:石化成因任何现象的出现都不是偶然的,是可以追溯出它的原因的,二语习得过程