SLA

Myles
tocbasics of SLA

1. Second language acquisition is highly systematic route of acquisition does not change according to first language or environment

2. Second language acquisition is highly variable rate or outcome - some learners learn better and more quickly than others

significance of errors - U-shaped learning curve 1. unanalyzed chunk > incorrect form > correct form where's the ball? > where the ball is > where is the ball

like L1 learners: went > goed > went learn by rote, then learn rule, then learn exception

consequences for teaching 1. need to understand developmental stages to help learning 2. recursive curriculum which revisits structures and does not expect immediate accuracy OR functional/task-based curriculum

1. Systematicity

Developmental stages/route - interlanguage. Pienemann

Universal Grammar Cognitive models (connectionism) Interactionist/socio-cultural models

Universal grammar - only need input, Communicative Language Teaching

Cognitivism - learners need practice, interaction, feedback

2. Variability

age fossilization form-focused instruction (input enhancement, input flood)

Lightbown:
implications of research for instruction

1. Adults and adolescents can 'acquire' a second language

2. The learner creates a systematic interlanguage which is often characterised by the same systematic errors as a child makes when learning that language as his/her first language, as well as others which appear to be based on the learner's own native language

3. There are predictable sequences in L2 acquisition such that certain structures have to be acquired before others can be integrated

4. Practice does not make perfect

5. Knowing a language does not mean one will be able to use it in communicative interaction

6. Isolated explicit error correction is usually ineffective in changing language behavior

7. For most learners, acquisition stops before the learners has achieved native-like master of the target language

8. One cannot achieve native-like or near native-like command of a second language in one hour a day

9. The learner's task is enormous because language is enormously complex

10. A learner's ability to understand language in a meaningful context exceeds his/her ability to comprehend decontextualised language and to produce language of comparable complexity and accuracy

Ellis:
principles of instruction

1. Instruction needs to ensure that learners develop both a rich repertoire of formulaic expressions and a rule-based competence

2. Instruction needs to ensure that learners focus predominantly on meaning

3. Instruction needs to ensure that learners also focus on form

4. Instruction needs to focus on developing implicit knowledge of the second language while not neglecting explicit knowledge

5. Instruction needs to take into account the learner's built-in syllabus

6. Successful instructed language learning requires extensive second language input

7. successful instructed language learning also requires opportunities for output

8. the opportunity to interact in the second language is central to developing second language proficiency

9. Instruction needs to take account of individual differences in learners

10. In assessing learners' second language proficiency, it is important to examine free as well as controlled production

Journals
dedicated to SLA • Applied Linguistics • Applied Psycholinguistics • Asian EFL Journal (open access) • Asian ESP Journal (open access) • Canadian Modern Language Review • Chinese EFL Journal (open access) • English International Language Journal (open access) • Foreign Language Annals • German as a foreign language (open access) • Heritage Language Journal (open access) • Internet TESL Journal (open access) • Journal of Second Language Writing • Language Learning • Language Learning and Technology (open access) • Language Teaching Research • Linguistics Journal (open access) • Modern Language Journal • Novitas-ROYAL (open access) • Reading in a Foreign Language (open access) • Scripta Manent (open access) • Second Language Research • Studies in Second Language Acquisition • TESOL Quarterly • Zeitschrift für interkulturellen Fremdsprachenunterricht (open access)