BilingualismSome Types

Bilingual = speakers of two languagesMultilingual = speakers of more than two

languages

When?- Have native-like control of both languages?

Exclude too many people.- Fluent speaker of one language and able to read

a little in another? Include too many people

- Able to hold a conversation with monolingual speakers of two different languages

How?1. From birth simultaneous bilingualism

- Parents speak two different languages

- Parents’ language different from that of the environment

2. By immigration

- As young children sequential bilingualism

- As adults second language acquisition

3. By formal education second language acquisition

Second Language Acquisition

• Some Acquisition Barriers :

1. Age : teenage or adult

2. Time : a few hours each week of school time

3. Occupation : a lot of other occupations

4. Possession of L1 : lack of motivation

5. Muscular inflexibility : adult’s tongue gets stiff

from pronouncing one type of language

• Acquisition and Learning

- Acquisition : gradual development of ability in a lan-

guage by using it naturally in communicative situations.

Acquisition and ....

- Learning : conscious process of accumulating knowledge

of the vocabulary and grammar of a language

The Affective Filter

- A kind of barrier to acquisition that results from negative feeling or experience, such as unwillingness, embarrassment, lack of emphaty, resulting from dull textbook, unpleasant classroom surrounding, exhaustive schedule, etc.

- Teenagers are more self-conscious than young children

- Children are less constrained by the affective filter

Focus on Method (1)

• Three mainstream methods reflecting different views on how a foreign language is best learned:

1. Grammar-Translation Method

- Treat L2 learning on a par with other academic subjects

- Long list of words with their translation and a set of grammatical rules to be memorized

- Emphasis on written language and learning about the language produces students who knows a lot about the language but at a loss when confronted with its use.

- Attend to language form

Focus on method (2)2. Audiolingual Method

-Emphasis on spoken language

- Involves a systematic presentation of L2 structures in the form of drills students have to repeat

- Fluent language use is a set of habits

- L2 learning is basically a mechanical process of habit formation

- Isolated practice/drilling bear no resemblance to interactional nature of actual language use

- Can be very boring

Focus on Method (3)

3. Communicative Approaches

- Reaction against the artificiality of ‘pattern practice’ and belief that consciously learning the grammar of a language will necessarily results in an ability to use the language

- Emphasis on the function rather than the form of language

- Lessons are organized around concepts such as “asking for things” in different social contexts

- Attempts to provide more appropriate materials for English for Special Purposes (ESP)

Focus on the LearnerA shift of concern: from teacher, textbook, and method to

the learner and the acquisition process.

Example: toleration of errors. Errors are not hindrances. They are signs of learning

Errors may be due to transfer from L1. But transfer may be positive or negative

Positive transfer occurs when L1 and L2 have similar feature and it may be beneficial to the learner.

Negative transfer (interference) occurs when L1 and L2 have different feature and usually it isn’t effective for L2 communication. Negative transfer is more common in the early stages of L2 learning and will decrease as the learner becomes more familiar with L2.

Some terms used in L2 Acquisition

• Interlanguage: in-between language system used in L2 acquisition containing certain aspects of both L1 and L2 as well as features of neither languages and has its own rules.

• Fossilization: an L2 acquisition process in which some features which do not match the target language do not progress any further. It is typically found in pronunciation.

• Input: the language that the learner is exposed to. To be beneficial it has to be comprehensible by being simpler in structure and vocabulary as in a variety of speech known as Foreigner Talk.

• Negotiated input: L2 material that the L2 learner can acquire in interaction through requests for clarification and active attention being focused on what is said.

Some terms

• Output : what the learner produces comprehensibly in a meaningful interaction. It is a crucial factor in the learner’s development of L2 abilities, yet the most difficult to provide in a large foreign language class-rooms.

• Communicative competence: the ability to use the L2 accurately, appropriately, and flexibly. It consists of three components: 1. grammatical competence, i.e. accurate use of words and structures in the L2. 2. sociolinguistic compe-tence, i.e. the ability to interpret or produce language appro-priately, to know when to say Can I have some water? Vs. Give me some water. 3. strategic competence: the ability to organ-ize a message effectively and to compensate, via strategies, for any difficulties.