Prerequisite information

“Conditions that make 2nd language learning successful.”

Any discussion about 2nd L requires discussion about L1 because in L1 there are certain insights that are beneficial to any 2nd L researcher.

Teaching

•    It is related to the teacher role (activities of the teacher).

Learning

•    It is related to the learner role.

•    It is the change that happened to the learner (it can be the result of teaching or other factors).

•    Whether teaching  leads to learning or not  is debatable matter.

•    Thus, teaching & learning are not 2 sides of the same coin. When a teacher teaches, it doesn’t mean that the students are learning.

•    Activities, methods of the teacher, and the objectives are always questioned: Are the objectives reached or not?

•    It depends on the learner. Maybe there are real barriers like: the student is absent-minded, or listening to music while you’re teaching.

•    This leads us to focus on the learner. Because there is much said about the teacher: how to write a preparation, what method to follow, how to plan a lesson, etc.

In order to understand the 2nd language learning, you have to see how the L1 is acquired. For example, if you think that children acquire their L1 as a behavior (behaviorism) – you can apply this to L2. (That’s the theoretical level.)

At the practical level, the ways, methods and data about L1 were all transferred into L2.

I. Origins and Definitions SLA

The real beginning of SLA is traced to the late 1960s, when this interdisciplinary enterprise that borrowed equally from the fields of language teaching, linguistics, child language acquisition and psychology came into existence. During the 1980s and 1990s, SLA developed significantly in scope and methodology, reaching its status as an autonomous discipline by the end of the 20th century.

A Second language (L2) broadly refers to any language that is learnt after the first language (L1). This can be the “second,” “third,” or even “fourth” (etc.) language.  

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is roughly defined as the methodical formal study of the learning processes and teaching practices related to the acquisition of non-native languages. Most researchers tend to use Second Language Learning as a cover term for all non-native language learning (Mackay, 2006).

The scope of SLA includes informal L2 learning, formal L2 learning and L2 learning that involves a combination of these settings and circumstances. 

II. Stages of SLA

According to SLA research on L2 learning in natural contexts, three developmental stages can be distinguished: the silent period, formulaic speech, and structural and semantic simplification (Ellis, 1994).

A. The Silent Period

Learners opt for a lengthy silent period when immediate production is not required from them. This helps them to discover the language. Many pieces of research have shown that some L2 learners stay silent for the first few months, while others do not. Some researchers attribute this difference to the learner’s social or cognitive orientation.

Some learners are other-directed (have an interpersonal, social orientation), while others are inner-directed (have intrapersonal, code orientation).

Some scholars argue that the contribution the silent period has in second language acquisition is to build competence via listening, others view it as a stage of rejection or incomprehension.

B. Formulaic Speech

The second stage of L2 learning involves the use of formulaic speech “expressions which are learnt as unanalyzable wholes and employed on particular occasions” (p.84). These expressions can have the form of

(1) routines (whole utterances learned as memorized chunks (e.g. I don't know.) or  (2) patterns (partially unanalyzed utterances with one or more slots (e.g. Can I have a ____?, how to ___?, I wanna ____).

These expressions can be composed of complete scripts such as greeting sequences, as they are unchanging and expected. This phenomenon appears even in the speech of native speakers. These expressions reflect the societal knowledge shared within a speech community. Therefore, they are necessary to produce appropriate language. They are very common in L2 acquisition particularly in early stages. It occurs in the learners’ speech irrespective of their age.

C. Structural and Semantic Simplifications

In addition to memorization of fixed utterances, learners move towards a more creative use of the new language, but in earlier stages the main feature is simplification. The early creative utterances consist of one or two word (e.g. library = he is in the library, clean floor = Give me something for cleaning floors, come back = He is coming back).

Structural simplification means the omission of grammatical words (auxiliaries, articles) and bound morphemes (plural -s and past tense -ed).

Semantic simplification entails dropping some content words which would normally occur in native speaker speech. These two forms of simplification may be due to lack of knowledge of the unnecessary language forms or they have no ability to access them in their productions.