Description
Read the readings and comment on the post below.. Responses can provide additional ideas, thoughts, and personal experience, or appropriately challenge the reflections. Similar to reflections, responses should be based on the readings and class discussion.This week’s readings discuss how social aspects can make an impact on learners’ second language acquisition. Social factors, like motivation, culture, and immersion, can all play a role. These factors can make a difference in students’ learning motivation, which in turn affects achievement. Therefore, teachers should strive to create an inclusive environment that encourages learners to practice their language skills.After reading Anya’s article (2021), I thought of a quote made by Noam Chomsky, “A language is not just words. It’s a culture, a tradition, a unification of a community, a whole history that creates what a community is. It’s all embodied in a language.” However, as English is a lingua franca shared by all global citizens, people shouldn’t regard it as a language belonging to Americans, or Caucasians in particular. In other words, when choosing and using lesson materials, teachers are expected to include diversity in their lessons. In the Practicum class, Dr. Hoa mentioned that we could include names from different countries to diversify the course materials, reminding the students that English names are more than “Western names” (e.g., Sarah, Emily, Tom). Although it may sound insignificant and like trivia, I believe it can make a difference for students based on my personal experience. In my CLP class, I assigned the name “Elva Chang” to a Korean student to do a role-play activity. To be honest, I designed this name randomly without thinking too much because I thought “It was just a name; a fake name.” Much to my surprise, the Korean student took the name very seriously and even asked me, “Is this Elva a Chinese-American? I have never seen the surname ‘Chang’.” It was at that moment that I realized how these tiny details can make an impact on students. Since then, I have paid more attention to naming characters in role-play activities and tried to include diversity in my curriculum.In addition, I was impressed by Norton’s (2001) discussion on the term, imagination, which suggests learners can “create images of the word and see connections through time and space via the extrapolation of experience” (p. 80). He also mentioned imagined communities and imagined identities in the article, which are both related to “envision.” I am convinced that it is essential to have students envisage the scene of speaking the target language in imagined scenarios with specific interlocutors. Speaking of imagination, Wenger (1998) also indicated that imagination does not mean that learners must create fictional stories or scenarios, but rather that they must be able to imagine the language being used in real contexts. They should also be able to imagine the reactions and responses of their interlocutors.As the social aspect plays a significant role in language learning, Ellis (2015) also stated that “learning is no longer seen as essentially an individual, cognitive affair but as a participatory and social affair.” (p.224) That is, interaction is undoubtedly of paramount importance in language acquisition, which can be further proven by Schumann’s Acculturation Model and Gardner’s Socio-educational Model. As teachers, what we should bear in mind is that language learning is not just about learning linguistic knowledge. Rather, it is about developing interactional competence. It’s our responsibility to create a condition to foster students’ language acquisition.
Unformatted Attachment Preview
Understanding Second Language Acquisition
Published in this series
BACHMAN: Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing
BACHMAN and PALMER: Language Assessment in Practice
BACHMAN and PALMER: Language Testing in Practice
BATSTONE: Sociocognitive Perspectives on Language Use and Language Teaching
BRUMFIT: Individual Freedom and Language Teaching
BRUMFIT and CARTER (eds.): Literature and Language Teaching
CANAGARAJAH: Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in Language Teaching
COOK: Language Play, Language Learning
COOK: Translation in Language Teaching
COOK and SEIDLHOFER (eds.): Principle and Practice in Applied Linguistics
DÖRNYEI: Research Methods in Applied Linguistics
DÖRNYEI: The Psychology of Second Language Acquisition
ELLIS: Understanding Second Language Acquisition (second edition)
ELLIS: SLA Research and Language Teaching
ELLIS: Task-based Language Learning and Teaching
ELLIS: The Study of Second Language Acquisition (second edition)
ELLIS and BARKHUIZEN: Analysing Learner Language
FOTOS and NASSAJI (eds.): Form-focused Instruction and Teacher Education
HOLLIDAY: The Struggle to Teach English as an International Language
HOWATT WITH WIDDOWSON: A History of English Language Teaching (second edition)
HYLAND: Academic Publishing: Issues and Challenges in the Construction of Knowledge
JENKINS: The Phonology of English as an International Language
JENKINS: English as a Lingua Franca: Attitude and Identity
KERN: Literacy and Language Teaching
KRAMSCH: Context and Culture in Language Teaching
KRAMSCH: The Multilingual Subject
LANTOLF (ed.): Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning
LANTOLF and THORNE: Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language Development
MACKEY: Input, Interaction, and Corrective Feedback
MACKEY (ed.): Conversational Interaction and Second Language Acquisition
MURPHY: Second Language Learning in the Early School Years: Trends and Contexts
NATTINGER and DECARRICO: Lexical Phrases and Language Teaching
PHILLIPSON: Linguistic Imperialism
SEIDLHOFER (ed.): Controversies in Applied Linguistics
SEIDLHOFER: Understanding English as a Lingua Franca
SELIGER and SHOHAMY: Second Language Research Methods
SKEHAN: A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning
STERN: Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching
TARONE, BIGELOW and HANSEN: Literacy and Second Language Oracy
WIDDOWSON: Aspects of Language Teaching
WIDDOWSON: Defining Issues in English Language Teaching
WIDDOWSON: Practical Stylistics
WIDDOWSON: Teaching Language as Communication
WRAY: Formulaic Language
Understanding Second Language
Acquisition
Second Edition
ROD ELLIS
1
1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of
excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Oxford University Press 2015
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
eBook Edition
ISBN: 978 0 19 442201 7 eBook (epub)
ISBN: 978 0 19 442202 4 eBook (mobi)
First published in 2015
No copying or file sharing
This digital publication is protected by international copyright laws. No part of this digital publication may be
reproduced, modified, adapted, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, to any other
person or company without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by
law. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the ELT Rights Department,
Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not modify, adapt, copy, store, transfer or circulate the contents of this publication under any other branding
or as part of any other product. You may not print out material for any commercial purpose or resale
Any websites referred to in this publication are in the public domain and their addresses are provided by Oxford
University Press for information only. Oxford University Press disclaims all and any responsibility for the content of
such websites
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors and publisher are grateful to those who have given permission to reproduce the following extracts
and adaptations of copyright material: p.98 Figure from “On the Variability of Interlanguage Systems” by Elaine
Tarone, Applied Linguistics, Vol. 4 (2), 1983. Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press. p.107 Figure
adapted from “A Dynamic Look at L2 Phonological Learning: Seeking Processing Explanations for Implicational
Phenomena” by Pavel Trofimovich, Elizabeth Gatbonton and Norman Segalowitz, Studies in Second Language
Acquisition, Indiana University Linguistics Club. Reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press. p.122
Table from The Study of Second Language Acquisition by Rod Ellis (Oxford University Press, 2008), adapted from
The Sounds of English and Spanish by Robert P Stockwell and J Donald Bowen (University of Chicago Press,
1965). Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press and University of Chicago Press. p.125 Extract from
“Markedness and the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis” by Fred R. Eckman, Language Learning, Vol. 27 (2), 1977.
© 1977 Language Learning Research Club, University of Michigan. Reproduced by permission of John Wiley and
Sons. p.187 Table from Input Processing and Grammar Instruction by Bill VanPatten (Ablex Publishing Company,
1996). Reproduced by permission. p.242 Table from Investigations in Instructed Second Language Acquisition by
Alex Housen and Michel Pierrard, (De Gruyter, 2004). Reproduced by permission of De Gruyter.
Although every effort has been made to trace and contact copyright holders before publication, this has not been
possible in some cases. We apologize for any apparent infringement of copyright and if notified, the publisher will be
pleased to rectify any errors or omissions at the earliest opportunity.
Additional online resources are available at www.oup.com/elt/teacher/understandingsla
To my children – Lwindi, Emma, Anne, and James – for their forbearance
Contents
Introduction
1 Second language acquisition research: an overview
Introduction
Defining ‘second language acquisition’
A brief history of SLA
Summary
2 Age and second language acquisition
Introduction
Age and ultimate attainment
Age and rate of acquisition
Age and the route of L2 acquisition
Educational policy
Summing up
Concluding comment
3 Psychological factors and second language acquisition
Introduction
Key psychological factors
Language aptitude
Motivation
Language anxiety
Learning strategies
Effects of strategy instruction
Age and psychological factors
Conclusion
4 The development of a second language
Introduction
Order of acquisition, sequence of acquisition, and usage-based accounts of L2
development
Case studies of L2 learners
Learner varieties
Order of acquisition
Sequence of acquisition
Development of other linguistic systems
L2 pragmatic development
Summing up
Conclusion
5 Variability in learner language
Introduction
Variationist sociolinguistics
The Dynamic Paradigm
Dynamic Systems Theory
Conclusion
6 The role of the first language
Introduction
Defining ‘language transfer’
Investigating language transfer
Linguistic factors
Psycholinguistic factors
Contextual factors
Developmental factors
Individual factors
Language transfer as a multifactorial phenomenon
Conceptual transfer
Transfer in communication and learning
Conclusion
7 Input and interaction: the cognitive-interactionist perspective
Introduction
Key interactionist constructs
Focus on form and incidental learning
Early research on input and interaction
The Input and Noticing Hypotheses
Pre-modified input and noticing
Interactionally-modified input and noticing
Pre-modified input and acquisition
Interactionally-modified input and acquisition
Modified output and acquisition
Corrective feedback and L2 acquisition
Interaction, working memory, and acquisition
Measuring the effects of input and interaction on acquisition
Conclusion
8 Cognitive aspects of second language acquisition
Introduction
Paradigms in cognitive SLA
The representation of L2 knowledge
Attention
Cognitive theories of L2 acquisition
Systems are adaptable
Unstable systems
Researching cognitive processes in SLA
Conclusion
9 Social aspects of second language acquisition
Introduction
Social factors and L2 achievement
SLA—a cognitive or a social enterprise?
Sociocultural SLA
The sociocognitive approach
The conversation-analytic approach
The social identity approach
Language socialization and L2 learning
Conclusion
10 The role of explicit instruction
Introduction
Types of intervention
Types of explicit instruction
Presentation-Practice-Production instruction
Integrated explicit instruction
Concept-based instruction
Comprehension-based instruction
Pattern practice
Consciousness-raising instruction
Feedback
The interface positions revisited
Conclusion
11 The role of implicit instruction
Introduction
Theoretical issues in implicit instruction
Types of implicit instruction
Investigating task-based teaching
Input-based tasks
Output-based tasks
Some general comments on research involving tasks
Explicit vs. implicit instruction
Conclusion
12 Understanding and applying second language acquisition
Introduction
The boundaries of SLA
What do we know about L2 acquisition?
Applying SLA
Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
The first edition of this book was published in 1985—thirty years ago—when second
language acquisition as a disciplinary field (SLA) was still in its infancy. At that time,
it was a relatively easy task to survey the quite limited research and provide an
overview of the key areas of SLA. Since then research has proliferated, the boundaries
of SLA have expanded, theories have been revised and new theories developed, old
methodologies have been challenged and new ones proposed. This makes the task of
providing a succinct but comprehensive account of the field much more challenging. I
have approached it with trepidation.
This new edition has turned out, in fact, to be an entirely new book with an old title.
Some of the areas that figured in the earlier edition are also addressed in this book
reflecting their continuing importance: the significance of learners’ starting age
(Chapter 2); individual learner factors such as language aptitude and motivation
(Chapter 2 and Chapter 3); the order and sequence of second language development
(Chapter 4); variability in learner language (Chapter 5); the role of the learner’s first
language (Chapter 6) and input and interaction (Chapter 7). But each of these areas has
been the subject of intensive research in the last thirty years, leading to new theoretical
insights. Some of the conclusions I reached in the first edition are now much less
certain. For example, whether there are universal orders and sequences in the
acquisition of grammatical features of a second language—for a long time an accepted
‘fact’—has become a matter of dispute. The chapters that deal with these issues have
been almost completely rewritten to reflect the new perspectives and findings of
research completed since 1985.
Some areas I addressed in the first edition have since fallen out of favour. I have not
included a separate chapter on learning strategies for example. Although work has
continued in this area, there is growing recognition of the problematic nature of this
construct and of the methodological weaknesses in much of the research that has
investigated it. I also decided to omit dealing with linguistic universals and Universal
Grammar. This is a more controversial decision and will be a disappointment to those
who view SLA as a testing ground for theories of grammar. My decision was based
partly on what I considered to be of relevance to the primary readers of this book—
language teachers or students training to become teachers—and partly on my own
conviction that purely linguistic theories, especially those that assume a separate
language faculty, cannot provide an adequate account of how second languages are
learned. SLA, of course, does have a role to play in linguistics, but that would need a
very different kind of book to this one.
Two entirely new chapters (Chapter 8 and Chapter 9) address respectively the
cognitive and social aspects of second language acquisition, two of the more recent
major developments in SLA. They outline the key theoretical constructs and discuss
different theoretical positions, replacing the chapter in the 1985 edition called
‘Theories of Second Language Acquisition’. Increasingly, researchers have turned to
research in cognitive psychology to explain the mechanisms responsible for processing
input and output and the role these play in learners’ developing second-language
systems. More recently, however, some researchers have challenged the view that
acquisition is just a cognitive phenomenon and argued that it is just as much, if not more
so, social in nature. Social theories view second language learning as inextricably
connected with learners’ social identities and the social communities they belong to.
They also see acquisition as taking place not in the learner’s mind but within the social
interactions in which they participate.
In the first edition, I included a single chapter on form-focused instruction. In this
book, there are two separate chapters addressing instruction and second language
acquisition. Chapter 10 examines different types of explicit instruction (i.e. instruction
directed at intentional learning of specific linguistic features). Chapter 11 considers
implicit instruction (i.e. instruction catering to the incidental acquisition of specific
linguistic forms). In both cases, I consider these two types of instruction and the
research that has investigated them in relation to theoretical positions introduced in
earlier chapters.
Much of the earlier research focused on the acquisition of grammar. This led to the
criticism that SLA was overly narrow in scope as it paid scant attention to phonology
and vocabulary and ignored almost completely the acquisition of macro-aspects of
language such as pragmatic features and interactional routines. I have tried to address
this imbalance in the new book by including reference to research on all the microaspects of language and also on some of the macro-aspects. However, the book
continues to reflect the continuing importance of grammar in SLA.
The intended readers of this book are the same as those of the first edition:
undergraduate students taking an initial course in SLA who want more than a barebones account of the field; graduate students enrolled in applied linguistics or language
teaching programmes; and teachers who want to improve their understanding of how
second languages are learned both in naturalistic and instructed contexts.
An understanding of how learners learn a second language seems to me an essential
requirement for language teachers. In order for teaching to be effective, it needs to
accord with how learners learn. All teachers have a theory of language learning, but
this is often implicit, based on their own experience of learning a language in a
classroom. Hopefully, this book will help them to evaluate their beliefs about language
learning, enable them to make their theory of learning explicit, and encourage them to
think about how they can best ensure that their practice of teaching takes account of how
learners learn. An understanding of second language acquisition serves as a basis for
making pedagogic decisions in a principled manner.
I have endeavoured to make the material in the book accessible to readers with no
prior knowledge of SLA. In Chapter 1, I provide a brief history of SLA—from its
origins in the 1960s up to today—so that readers can obtain a general picture of what
SLA entails and how it has developed over time. SLA has spawned a large number of
technical terms for labelling different concepts. In this respect, it is like any other
academic discipline but this proliferation of metalanguage makes entry into the field
somewhat forbidding. To help readers, I have provided definitions of key technical
concepts when these are first introduced and also provided a glossary where readers
can check their understanding when they come across them later.
This book could not have been written without support and guidance from a number
of people. In particular, I would like to thank my editor, Cristina Whitecross (also the
editor of the first edition), for constantly reminding me of the need to be clear and
frugal with the research I elected to address. If readers find the book accessible then
much of the credit goes to her. I am also grateful to my fellow academics who gave
their time to comment on the various chapters and point out my errors of omission and
commission. These kind people were: Nick Ellis, Anne Burns, Peter Skehan, Elaine
Tarone, Judit Kormos, Fred Eckman, Jean-Marc Dewaele, Alison Mackey, Robert
DeKeyser, David Block, Patsy Lightbown, and Pauline Foster. Of course, any
remaining faults in the book are of my own doing. Finally, I am grateful to Luiza Sauer
who spent many hours checking the bibliographical entries.
1
Second language acquisition research: an overview
Introduction
In this book, I will make a distinction between ‘second language acquisition’
(henceforth ‘L2 acquisition’) and the field in which this is studied, which I will refer to
as ‘SLA’. Readers should recognize, however, that this distinction is not uniformly
adhered to by other researchers, who sometimes use ‘SLA’ to refer to ‘L2 acquisition’.
It is useful, however, to make a clear distinction between the object of study and the
discipline that has investigated it. The purpose of the book is to outline what SLA has
discovered about L2 acquisition.
L2 acquisition is a complex process, in many ways much more complex than first
language (L1) acquisition as the factors involved are more numerous. For a start, as L2
acquisition takes place after L1 acquisition, it is influenced by the first language. Also,
whereas first language acquisition is almost invariably accomplished in the first few
years of a child’s life, L2 acquisition can take place at any age following the onset of
first language acquisition through into old ageNOTE 1. Many L2 learners are cognitively
mature and thus can bring to bear learning strategies not available to the L1 learner.
Also, the contexts of L2 acquisition are much more varied than those of first language
acquisition. For many L2 learners, the only context available is the classroom.
SLA is a relatively new academic discipline. While there has been an interest in how
learners acquire a second language for a long time, the systematic study of L2
acquisition did not really begin until the 1960s. Since then, the discipline has grown
exponentially, spawning numerous studies and many theories. A useful way of
introducing SLA, therefore, is through a brief history of its development. This is the
main purpose of this chapter. First, though, I will define exactly what is meant by ‘L2
acquisition’.
Defining ‘second language acquisition’
What is ‘language’?
A distinction is often made between competence and performance. For Chomsky
(1965), ‘competence’ is the mental representation of the grammatical rules that
comprise a speaker-hearer’s mental grammar while ‘performance’ involves the use of
language for comprehension and production. For some SLA researchers, the goal is to
describe and explain the L2 learner’s competence—especially grammatical
competence. However, there is no direct window into competence. Competence can
only be inferred by inspecting how learners use the second language. In effect, then, all
that researchers can do is to investigate some kind of performance. Performance,
however, involves much more than grammar. Recognition of this has increasingly led
researchers to investigate both traditional areas of language (i.e. pronunciation,
vocabulary, and grammar) and the use of language for social purposes in connected
discourse.
What is a ‘second’ language?
Some learners learn more than one ‘second’ language. In fact, in many communities it is
normal for a person to learn to speak several languages. It might make sense therefore
to also talk about ‘third’, ‘fourth’, or ‘fifth’ language acquisition and there are studies of
learners who have learned a ‘third’ language (for example, Cenoz and Jessner 2000).
Despite these problems, SLA has stuck with ‘second language (L2) acquisition’ as an
all-inclusive term for learning any language after the first, although recently there have
been moves to reframe it as the study of bi/multilingualism in all its manifestationsNOTE 2
(Ortega 2012).
It is common to make a distinction between ‘second’ and ‘foreign’ language
acquisition. This involves what is essentially a contextual difference. ‘Second language
acquisition’ refers to the learning of another language in a context in which the language
is used as a means of wider communication—for example, the learning of English in the
United States or the United Kingdom. The assumption is that learners will ‘pick up’ the
language as a result of the everyday communicative situations they experience. ‘Foreign
language acquisition’ refers to the learning that typically takes place in a classroom
through instruction where there are no or only limited opportunities to use the second
language in daily life. However, ‘L2 acquisition’ has come to be used to refer to the
learning that takes place in both contexts. There is a good reason for this: while the
contextual difference is very real, we cannot take it for granted that the process of
acquiring a second language is different in these different contexts.
What is ‘acquisition’?
‘Acquisition’ is sometimes contrasted with ‘learning’ on the assumption that these
involve different processes (Krashen 1981). Acquisition refers to the incidental
process where learners ‘pick up’ a language without making any conscious effort to
master it; whereas learning involves intentional effort to study and learn a language. On
the face of it, this looks very similar to the ‘second’ versus ‘foreign’ language
acquisition distinction: acquisition takes place through communicating in the L2 in a
second language context whilst learning takes place through instruction in foreign
language contexts. However, this is a false correlation. Both acquisition and learning
can take place in both contexts although there may be a bias towards the former in the
second language contexts and towards the latter in foreign contexts. In accordance with
general usage in SLA, I will use ‘L2 acquisition/learning’ interchangeably as cover
terms for both naturalistic ‘acquisition’ and instructed ‘learning’. However, it is
important to consider whether acquisition and learning are in fact different and—if they
are—in what ways.
Investigating L2 acquisition
Irrespective of whether we are talking about acquisition or learning, we need to
consider how we can tell whether a learner has ‘acquired’ or ‘learned’ some L2
feature. This is also quite a complex issue. For example, can we say that learners have
acquired/learned a feature because they can comprehend its meaning, or do they also
need to be able to produce it? Many researchers focus on learners’ ability to produce
an L2 feature; however, it is also possible to consider acquisition/learning in terms of
learners’ ability to comprehend a feature. Is it possible to distinguish whether a feature
has been ‘acquired’ or ‘learned’? Do ‘acquisition’ and ‘learning’ result in different
types of L2 knowledge? Again, we will find that it may be necessary to distinguish
implicit knowledge (i.e. acquired) and explicit knowledge (i.e. learned) because these
involve different capabilities for the use of a second language. However, irrespective
of whether we are interested in receptive/productive abilities or implicit/explicit L2
knowledge, in order to demonstrate that acquisition (or learning) has taken place, it is
necessary to show that some development in the learner’s knowledge system has
occurred. SLA is the study of the change that takes place in the learners’ L2 knowledge
over time and of what brings about this change. In this respect, it contrasts with other
linguistic disciplines such as discourse analysis which are concerned only with the use
of language. However, as we will see, there is a close connection between the ‘use’
and the ‘acquisition’ of second language.
Summing up
In this book I will use ‘SLA’ to refer to the field of study (i.e. body of research and
theory that has investigated L2 acquisition). The term ‘L2 acquisition’ will be used as a
general cover term for the acquisition or learning of any language other than a learner’s
first language that can take place in both second and foreign language contextsNOTE 3. I
will also need to distinguish between the kind of knowledge—implicit and explicit—
that learners acquire from time to time.
A brief history of SLA
In many respects, SLA is a parasitic discipline. It draws on different models of
language taken from linguistics. It exploits concepts and methodologies for investigating
L2 acquisition drawn from a variety of disciplinary fields—psychology and sociology
in particular. The development of SLA, therefore, reflects these different influences and
the impact they have had on SLA at different times. Early work was heavily influenced
by research on first language acquisition. The attempt to explain how acquisition arose
out of social interaction led researchers to draw on discourse analysis. The need to
explain how learners processed the second language input they were exposed to led
SLA researchers to borrow theoretical constructs from cognitive psychology. As
researchers switched their attention to the social aspects of L2 acquisition, they began
to draw on theories and methodologies from sociology. The inputs from these different
disciplines have helped to make SLA a rich and exciting field of study, but they also
create difficulties for a newcomer to this field. One of the purposes of this brief history
is to help readers with such difficulties by providing them with a general picture.
Order and sequence in L2 acquisition
Early work in SLA was informed by the findings and methodology of research into first
language acquisition. Brown (1973) reported a longitudinal study of three children’s
acquisition of a group of English morphemes (for example, plural -s, past tense -ed, and
the articles ‘a’ and ‘the’). He showed that the children achieved mastery of these
features in more or less the same fixed order. Other studies (for example, Klima and
Bellugi 1966) showed that children acquired syntactical structures such as English
negation in a sequence of stages. These findings motivated SLA researchers to
investigate whether a similar order of acquisition and sequence of acquisition
occurred in L2 acquisition. A number of studies involving both child and adult second
language learners (for example, Dulay and Burt 1973; Cancino, Rosansky, and
Schumann 1978) provided evidence that similar—although not identical—orders and
sequences occurred in naturalistic L2 acquisition. For example, L2 learners typically
acquired plural -s (as in ‘boys’) before third-person -s (as in ‘comes’). Also, all
learners manifested an early stage in the acquisition of negatives by placing ‘no’ before
the verb (for example, ‘no coming today’) as do children acquiring English as their first
language.
These studies led to questioning of a widely held belief at that time, namely that
learning involved overcoming the influence of the first language in order to form
correct second language ‘habits’. It was difficult to reconcile such a view of learning
with evidence that showed that all learners, irrespective of their first language,
followed a similar order and sequence when learning the grammar of a second
language. This led Corder (1967) to propose that ‘at least some of the strategies
adopted by the learner of a second language are substantially the same as those by
which a first language is acquired’ (p. 164). Corder suggested that second language
learners, like first language learners have a ‘built-in syllabus’ that directs when the
grammar of a second language is acquired. Selinker (1972) subsequently gave the name
that has become the standard term for referring to the mental grammar that a learner
constructs and reconstructs—interlanguage.
The analogy with first language acquisition, however, only worked so far. There was
one obvious difference. All normal children are successful in acquiring their mother
tongue. There may be differences in the rate of acquisition and also in children’s ability
to make use of their first language, but they all succeed in acquiring the grammar of
their first language. In contrast, most L2 learners do not achieve full grammatical
competence. Selinker (1972) coined the term fossilization to refer to the fact that
learners stop learning even though their interlanguage does not fully conform to the
target language system. However, as we will see later, the extent to which fossilization
actually occurs is controversial.
The research investigating the order and sequence of L2 acquisition can be thought of
as the starting point for SLA. Numerous studies appeared in the 1960s and 1970s and
continue up to today although they are no longer as common as they once were.
Whereas the early work was essentially descriptive in nature—i.e. it involved
collecting and analysing samples of learner language—later work has been more
theoretically driven, aimed at investigating specific hypotheses regarding why one
grammatical feature is acquired earlier than another (see, for example, Pienemann
1998).
More recently, however, the existence of a fixed order and sequence of acquisition
has been challenged by some researchers (for example, Tarone and Liu 1995), who
claim that what learners acquire and the order they acquire it in depends not on their
so-called built-in syllabus, but on the social context in which they are learning the
second language. This is a point I will return to later in this chapter.
The early influence of L1 acquisition research in SLA is also evident in the attention
that L2 researchers paid to formulaic sequences. A formulaic sequence is a readymade chunk of language that is accessed as a whole rather than generated by combining
its individual elements. We will see later that formulaic sequences are not just
important for language use, but also play a role in language acquisition. Learners
gradually identify the type of elements that comprise a sequence. For example, they
discover that words like ‘book’, ‘pencil’, and ‘ruler’ can all be used to complete the
‘Can I have a ____?’ chunk and thus come to recognize that these words all belong to
the same grammatical category.
The research that has investigated the order and sequence of acquisition and
formulaic sequences is considered in Chapter 4.
Variability in learner language
At any stage of development, learners will manifest variability in their use of the
second language. Sometimes they will make errors and at other times they will use the
target language form. In part, this can be explained by the fact that learners will
sometimes draw on well-formed formulaic chunks (for example, ‘I don’t like’) and at
other times construct utterances on the basis of their current interlanguage rules (for
example, ‘I no like’). Variability also occurs because learners do not abandon old
forms when they acquire new ones. For example, learners initially produce questions
without inversion:
Where the book is?
and then later begin to use subject-verb inversion:
Where is the book?
However, learners do not instantly switch from the earlier to the later construction.
Rather, they alternate between the two constructions and only gradually abandon the
non-target form.
Researchers such as Tarone (1983) and R. Ellis (1985) sought explanations for this
variability. Tarone claimed that, by and large, variability is systematic. She argued that
learners are responsive to the situational context and make use of their linguistic
resources accordingly. In situations where they do not need to attend carefully to their
choice of L2 forms, they employ a vernacular style (i.e. the style of speech associated
with every-day, informal use of language) while in those contexts that call for close
attention to speech, they make use of their careful style (i.e. the style of speech
associated with formal situations). In particular, learners are responsive to their
addressee. For example,
