early sla studies sla emerged in the 1940s and 1950s. first topic of study: contrastive analysis....

Early SLA Studies

SLA emerged in the 1940s and 1950s. First topic of study: Contrastive Analysis.

Journals on language learning (as opposed to language teaching) began to be published at this time.

University of Michigan important. English Language Institute, Charles Fries, Director, 1941.

Language Learning, University of Michigan, 1948. Betty Wallace Robinett, Editor.

SLA emerges at a moment of transition for some scholars, from language teaching, to language learning. 1

Contrastive Analysis, History

Sir William Jones, India, 1786.

Proposed that Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek shared a common source. Cf. Proto Indo-European / “proto” language studies.

Methodologically, Jones searched Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek for ways the languages were similar and different. In comparing and contrasting these languages, Jones engaged in the first documented study of “contrastive analysis.”

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Contrastive Analysis, History

Proto Indo-EuropeanP.I.E. *pater- *mater- *swesor- *bhrater- *dhugheter *sunu- *widhewa

Modern English father mother sister brother daughter son widow

OLD ENGLISH faeder modor sweostor brothor dohtor sunu widuwe

GERMAN Vater Mutter Schwester Bruder Tochter Sohn Wittwe

LATIN pater mater soror frater ------ ------ vidua

GREEK pater meter ------ phrater thugater huios ------

RUSSIAN ------ mat' sestra brat ------ syn vdova

SANSKRIT pitar matar svasar bhratar duhitar sunu widuwe

SPANISH padre madre ------ ------ hija hijo viuda

FRENCH pere mere soeur frere ---- veuve 3

http://colfa.utsa.edu/drinka/pie/lang_oe.htm

http://colfa.utsa.edu/drinka/pie/lang_german.htm

http://colfa.utsa.edu/drinka/pie/lang_latin.htm

http://colfa.utsa.edu/drinka/pie/lang_greek.htm

http://colfa.utsa.edu/drinka/pie/lang_russian.htm

http://colfa.utsa.edu/drinka/pie/lang_sanskrit.htm

http://colfa.utsa.edu/drinka/pie/lang_spanish.htm

http://colfa.utsa.edu/drinka/pie/lang_french.htm

Contrastive Analysis

Meanwhile, back at the University of Michigan, contrastive analysis relative to SLA was defined as:

“A scientific description of the language to be learned, carefully compared with a parallel description of the native language of the learner” (Lado, 1957, p. 1).

Lado, R. (1957). Linguistics across cultures. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.

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https://elearning.uky.edu/bbcswebdav/courses/ENG513-001-201210/03.%20Lado%201957.pdf




From the beginning, particular interest was given to areas where the first language seemed to “interfere” with the target language, hence “interference.”

“Individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings, and the distribution of forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and culture” (p. 2).

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1.Examine how Contrastive Analysis works: areas of analysis

2.Examine the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis

3.Consider the purpose of Contrastive Analysis

4.Engage in Contrastive Analysis

5.Examine the eclipse of Contrastive Analysis; consider the epistemological orientation of Contrastive Analysis.

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Lado’s table of contents. How to compare two …

•sound systems

•grammatical structures

•vocabulary systems

•writing systems

•cultures

How indeed?

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Contrastive Analysis – Sound Systems

1.presence or absence of sounds (phonemes)

Spanish lacks / v /, / ð /, / z /, / š /, / ž /, / ǰ /.

2.classification of sounds (phonemes, distinctive; v. allophones, nondistinctive)

English: [pʰæt] v. [pæt]

same or different?

Hindi: [pʰəl] v. [pəl]

same or different?

Different: [pʰəl] = “fruit”; [pəl] = “moment”

Same

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2.classification of sounds (phonemes, distinctive; v. allophones, nondistinctive)

In Japanese phonetics, would we write

/ l / and / r /, or

[ l ] and [ r ] ?

Why? Because these sounds are nondistinctive in Japanese, they are allophones of the same phonemes, hence the bad Hollywood stereotypes of Japanese speech:

[lays] and [rays] = “lice” and “rice.”

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3. distribution (location in word) of sounds

English and French both have the phoneme / ž /.

“pleasure” / “jamais”

How is the sound distributed (located) differently in each language?

In English words, / ž / never occurs syllable initial (distinguished from words borrowed from French, like “Jacques”).

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4.vowel length

German does not distinguish between / ɪ /, the lax, high-front vowel: “bit”

/ i /, the tense, high-front vowel: “beat.”

5.Other sound differences discussed by Lado:

stress

rhythm

intonation

pitch

“tones”

6. Other sound contrasts?

and

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Contrastive Analysis – Grammatical Structures

1.Word order

Where do we place the adjective in English and French?

The red house

La maison rouge.

2.case, tense, gender, inflections (morphology)

How do we make plurals?

baby

enfant

anak

babies (English)

enfants (French)

anak-anak (Malay; “reduplication”)

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Contrastive Analysis – Grammatical Structures

3.functions: question formation, classifiers, etc.

“five cigarettes” English

“lima batang rokok” Malay (five small cylindrical things cigarette)

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Contrastive Analysis – Vocabulary Systems

Cognates

Cognate are words that have a common origin and have similar forms / meanings across languages.

“Cognate” derives from Latin cognatus, from co (with) +gnatus, natus, past participle of nascor “to be born.” Literally it means “related by blood, having a common ancestor, or related by an analogous nature, character, or function.”

night (English) and nacht (German)

shalom (Hebrew) and salaam (Arabic): “peace”

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Contrastive Analysis – Vocabulary Systems

“False Friends”

Pairs of words in two languages that look and/or sound similar, but differ in meaning. They may be cognates (but also may not be); if so, meaning has diverged:

“attendre” French, to wait

“attend” English, to participate

“nova” English, spectacular star; Chevy

“nova” Spanish, not a good name for a car

Other examples?

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Contrastive Analysis – Writing Systems

1. Languages may use the same writing system.

Roman alphabet: English, Malay, others?

2. Or the same writing system with minor differences.

There are a few diacritics in the French roman alphabet: è, é, ç

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There are a great many diacritics in the Vietnamese roman alphabet.

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3. Language may add (or subtract) letters to / from the Roman alphabet.

Icelandic adds the Ð / ð (eth) and Þ / þ (thorn) for the voiced / less interdental fricative.

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4. Languages may use different alphabets.

English and Cyrillic are somewhat different.

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Khmer is dramatically different, but still an alphabet.

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5. Chinese is not an alphabet, but a logographic system, in which each symbol represents an idea.

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Contrastive Analysis – Culture

Different rhetorical structures – ways of organizing thoughts / expository material per culture / language.

Contrastive rhetoric: Kaplan, R. (1966). Cultural thought patterns in intercultural education. Language Learning 16(1): 1–20.

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Contrastive Analysis – Hypothesis

Lado’s and others’ contrastive analyses (note: he doesn’t give us any data; this is not a “study” as defined by this class) led him to formulate the “contrastive analysis hypothesis”, CAH:

“Those elements that are similar to [a learner’s] native language will be simple for him [or her], and those elements that are different will be difficult” (Lado, p. 2).

This is the “strong” version of the CAH: Contrastive analysis has predictive power. Through contrastive analysis, we can predict areas of difficulty (and vice versa) for our students.

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Contrastive Analysis – Purpose

Predicting areas of difficulty will allow teachers to facilitate second language learning through informed attention to materials, tests, classroom activities and so on – “to find [and address] the hurdles that really have to be surmounted in the teaching” (Lado, p. 3).

Exercise: In groups, do a contrastive analysis of English with another language. Include contrasts for each of the topic areas we have discussed:

sound systems

grammatical structures

vocabulary systems

writing systems

cultures

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Contrastive Analysis – Eclipse

Contrastive analysis fell out of favor for 3 reasons:

1. Teachers did not know that languages of their students and, and could not do extensive contrastive analyses.

How many languages spoken in a typical public school classroom?

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Contrastive analysis fell out of favor for 3 reasons:

2. The strong version of the CAH didn’t work. When the CAH was tested empirically, its predictive value was proved inaccurate.

What would CAH predict about native English speakers learning to pronounce French words? Specifically, about words beginning with / ž /?

Recall that in English words, / ž / never occurs word-initial.

Answer: it would be difficult for native English speakers to pronounce words that begin / ž /.

Is this true? Do we have trouble w/ “Jacques”?26


3. CAH fell victim to an epistemological shift in SLA research. Of the two ways of understanding language acquisition (behaviorism v. nativism), which best fits CA?

“Before any of the questions of how to teach a foreign language must come the much more important preliminary work of finding the special problems arising out of any effort to develop a new set of language habits against a background of different native language habits” (foreword by Fries).

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“Before any of the questions of how to teach a foreign language must come the much more important preliminary work of finding the special problems arising out of any effort to develop a new set of language habits against a background of different native language habits” (foreword by Fries).

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“The basic problems arise not out of any essential difficulty in the features of the new language themselves but primarily out of the special ‘set’ created by the first language habits” (foreword by Fries).

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“The basic problems arise not out of any essential difficulty in the features of the new language themselves but primarily out of the special ‘set’ created by the first language habits” (foreword by Fries).

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“Research in the psychology of language and in language learning in psychology has not as a rule made any conscious systematic use of assumptions of importance of the native language habits in foreign language learning” (Lado, p. 2).

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“Research in the psychology of language and in language learning in psychology has not as a rule made any conscious systematic use of assumptions of importance of the native language habits in foreign language learning” (Lado, p. 2).

Answer: Behaviorism. CA is deeply rooted in the belief that (second) language learning is a process of habit formation. 32



Extending theories of first language acquisition to the process of second language acquisition, early SLA scholars adopted Skinnerian behaviorism as their epistemological orientation.

As thinking in first language acquisition shifted to language learning as a process of rule formation, interest waned in CA in SLA – how to facilitate the development of new language habits. 33

Contrastive Analysis – Weak Version

Contrastive analysis remains an influential construct in SLA, in its weak version: using comparisons of languages to explain (not predict) areas of difficulty for learners.

Next: Error Analysis and new ways of understanding SLA.

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Review

Interest in SLA emerged during a moment of transition for some scholars, from language teaching, to language learning.

The field also emerged during a moment of epistemological transition among scholars of first language acquisition, from behaviorism to nativism.

And from a view of language acquisition as a process or habit formation to language acquisition as a process of rule formation.

language teaching

behaviorism

habit formation

language learning

nativism

rule formation 35

Error Analysis


Corder, S.P. (1967). The significance of learner’s errors.

International Review of Applied Linguistics, 5, 161–170.

1. Locate Corder’s argument

2. Define error analysis

3. Identify innovative concepts in error analysis

4. Examine a taxonomy of errors

5. Consider the purpose of error analysis

6. Engage in error analysis.

7. Understand the eclipse of error analysis.

Error Analysis

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https://elearning.uky.edu/bbcswebdav/courses/ENG513-001-201210/04.%20Corder%201967.pdf




Error Analysis


Corder, S.P. (1967). The significance of learner’s errors. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 5, 161–170.

To begin, note how Corder locates his argument relative to the transitions we have discussed:

Error Analysis

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Error Analysis

“Both linguistics and psychology are in a state at the present time of what Chomsky has called ‘flux and agitation.’ What seemed to be well established doctrine a few years ago is now the subject of extensive debate. The consequence of this for language teaching is likely to be far reaching and we are perhaps only now beginning to feel its effects. One effect has been perhaps to shift the emphasis away from a preoccupation with teaching toward a study of learning. [T]his has shown itself as a renewed attack upon the problem [of] the acquisition of the mother tongue” (p. 163).

language teaching language learning 38

Error Analysis

“The most widespread hypothesis about how languages are learned [is] behaviourist” (p. 163). “The new hypothesis [on the other hand] states that a human infant is born with an innate predisposition to acquire language; that he must be exposed to language for the acquisition process to start; that he possesses an internal mechanism of unknown nature which enables him from the limited date available to him to construct a grammar of a particular language” (p. 164).

behaviorism nativism

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Error Analysis

“No one expects a child learning his mother-tongue to produce from the earliest stages only forms which in adult terms are correct or non-deviant. We interpret his ‘incorrect’ utterances as being evidence that he is in the process of acquiring language … The best evidence that a child possesses construction rules is the occurrence of systematic errors, since, when the child speaks correctly, it is quite possible that he is only repeating something that he has heard. … It is by reducing the language to a simpler system than it is that the child reveals his tendency to induce rules”(p. 165).

habit formation rule formation 40

Error Analysis

Corder extends the trajectories of first language acquisition to second language acquisition.

“If the acquisition of the first language is a fulfilment of the predisposition to develop language behaviour, then the learning of the second language involves the replacement of the predisposition of the infant by some other force” (p. 164).

“I propose therefore as a working hypothesis that some at least of the strategies adopted by the [SL] learner are substantially the same as those by which a first language is acquired” (pp. 164–5).

First language acquisition

SLA41

Error Analysis: Introduction

In error analysis (EA), scholars approach errors as evidence that learners are actively engaged in hypothesis testing / inducing rules.

The study of errors by teachers / researchers can facilitate learning by identifying where learner are on their way to full competence in the target language.

In EA, errors are treated productively, as evidence of learner engagement. Cf. contrastive analysis, where errors “are ascribed to interference from the habits of the mother tongue” and are treated as hurdles to be overcome. In EA, on the other hand, they are “signs that the learner is investigating the systems of the new language” (p. 168).

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Error Analysis: Central Concepts

Mistakes versus Errors

Mistakes are slips of the tongue; they are “products of chance circumstances” (p. 166); they occur in the realm / at the level of performance (parole)

Errors are products that “reveal [learners’] under-lying knowledge of the language to date, or as we may call it [their] transitional competence” (p. 166).

Note: performance and competence. Mistakes happen when we mis-speak. Errors are artifacts of our competence in language at a given time – from them, we can infer something of learners’ deep underlying understanding of the language to date.

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Built-in syllabus

The order in which learners need to learn things – the “learner-generated sequence” (p. 166).

Note the contrast with the “instructor-generated sequence” (p. 166).

We will return to this concept in Dulay and Burt and morpheme acquisition studies. #

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Transitional Competence

In the process of language acquisition, learners’ use “a definite system of language at every point in [their] development, although it is not the adult system in the one case [i.e., in first language acquisition], nor that of the second language in the other [i.e., SLA]. The [learners’] errors are evidence of this system and are themselves systematic” (p. 166).

We may call learners’ “underlying knowledge of the language to date [their] transitional competence” (p. 166). #

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Interlanguage

Selinker, L. (1972). Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 10(3), 209–231.

Interlanguage : the “language system that the learner constructs out of the linguistic data to which [s/he] has been exposed” (LF&L, p. 60).

At any given moment, the learner will have been exposed to unique and specific data; will have induced U / S rules; and will control a U / S competence in the language. As they learn more, they progress along the “interlanguage continuum.”

No TL Full TL 46


Interlanguage




No TL Full TL 47


Interlanguage




No TL Full TL 48


Interlanguage




No TL Full TL 49


Interlanguage



Halted progress is called “fossilization”: linguistic items, rules, or subsystems which speakers … tend to keep in their IL, no matter what the age of the learner or amount of explanation and instruction” (Selinker, p. 215).

No TL Full TL50

Error Analysis: Taxonomy

I. Interlingual errors

1. First language interference (CA re-emerges)

“Is the book of my friend.”

Perhaps interference from a +PD language.

II. Intralingual errors

2. Overgeneralization

“I wonder where are you going.”

Overgeneralization of sub – aux inversion for question formation to incorrect context. #

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3. Simplification

“I studied English for two year.”

Removal of perceived redundant morphology – the plural “s.” [This is a hallmark of pidgin languages.]

4. Communication based

“Look at the “fire flowers”! (fireworks)

Communication is achieved through creative word coinage, but resulting word is nonstandard. #

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5. Induced errors

“She cries as if a baby” (She cries like a baby).

The teacher has defined “as if” to mean “like,” but does not explain the grammatical differences between the two:

as if is a subordinating conjunction that joins two clauses: “She cries as if she is hurt.”

like is a preposition that should only be followed by a noun phrase: “She cries like a baby.” #

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I. Interlingual errors

1. First language interference (CA re-emerges)

“Is the book of my friend.”


2. Overgeneralization

“I wonder where are you going.”

3. Simplification

“I studied English for two year.”

4. Communication based

“Look at the fire flowers! (fireworks)

5. Induced errors

“She cries as if a baby” (She cries like a baby). 54

Error Analysis: Purpose

Purpose of error analysis for the teacher:

Error analysis tells the teacher “how far toward the [target language] the learner has progressed and, consequently, what remains for him [or her] to learn” (p. 167).

Purpose for the learner:

Error analysis “is a way the learner has of testing his [or her] hypotheses about the nature of the language he [or she] is learning. The making of errors then is a strategy employed both by children acquiring their mother-tongue and by those learning a second language” (p. 167).

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Error Analysis: Process

During a sunny day, a cowboy go in the desert with his horse. he has a big hat. His horse eat a flour. In the same time, Santa Clause go in a city to give some surprises. He has a red costume and a red packet of surprises. You have three robbers in the mountain who sees Santa Clause with a king of glaces that it permitted us to see at a long distance. Every robbers have a horse. They go in the way of Santa Clause, not Santa Clause but his pocket of surprises. After they will go in a city and they go in a saloon.

A French speaker learning English 56

Error Analysis: Process

This year Christmas comes soon! Santa Claus ride a one horse open sleigh to sent present for children, on the back of his body has big packet. it has a lot of toys. in the way he meet three robbers. They want to take his big packet. Santa Claus no way and no body help, so only a way give them, then three robbers ride their horse dashing through the town. There have saloon, they go to drink some beer and open the big packent. They play toys in the Bar. They meet a cow boy in the saloon.

A Chinese speaker learning English57

Error Analysis: Eclipse

Contrastive analysis – Lado, 1957

Error analysis – Corder, 1967

EA fell out of favor in the early 1970s for 2 reasons:

1. EA did not explain errors. It was often impossible to discern the cause of the error – interlingual, or intralingual? Teacher induced, or overgeneralization?

2. Scholars began to demand greater rigor in empirical research in SLA, and the “untestable” nature of EA (i.e., impossibility of precisely defining the cause of the error) rendered it unsatisfactory.

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Error Analysis: Eclipse

Interlanguage remains as a very productive area of inquiry in SLA – this is our next main discussion.

CA EA Interlanguage

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early sla studies sla emerged in the 1940s and 1950s. first topic of study: contrastive analysis....

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