Matakuliah : G0922/Introduction to LinguisticsTahun : 2008

Session 13Second Language Acquisition

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Outline• Steps in Child Language Acquisition • Factors influencing CLA• Roles of first language in SLA• Roles of second language in SLA• Factors affecting Second Language Acquisition

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LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Students are able to mention the steps of child language acquisition and the factors influencing them

• Students are able to indicate the role of their first language in learning English

Students are able to relate the factors influencing students in learning a second language learning and factors influencing them in learning English

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Language acquisition• The learning and development of a person

language.– The learning of a native or first language

is called First language acquisition.– The learning of a second or foreign

language is called Second language acquisition.

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Factors influencing First language Acquisition

1. Adult Speech/ care giver speech :- A type of speech given to the young learners- Features of English caregiver speecha. Phonetics:

Slow, carefully articulated speechHigher pitchExaggerated intonation and stressLonger pauses

b. Lexical and semantic :More restricted vocabularyReference to here and now

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C. Syntactic

– Few incomplete sentence– Short sentences– More imperatives and questionsD. Conversational– More repetitions– Few utterances per conversational turn

2. Feedback : the response of adults to a child utterancesRecast : response by repeating Child: Daddy is here

Mother : Yes, Daddy is here

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3. Cognitive development• Cognitive development influences language acquisition and

vice versa• Object permanence

– Child will learn more if the object is permanent because they think that the object does not cease any longer if they cannot see it.

– Children will learn the names of objects more quickly if they understand that the object exists.

• Seriation– The ability to arrange elements (such as sticks) in order

of increasing or decreasing size.– Children under five only understand things that are long

and short. They can only say that something is short or long

– Children of five and above are capable of seriation

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The role of the first language• The first language influence the learning of the

second language in:phonology, syntax and morphology

• The language between the first and second language is called interlanguage.

• Some examples of interlanguage between Indonesian and English are:Phonology : the /de/ ; think /ting/Syntax : white flower bunga putih mod noun noun modifierMorphology : one spoon two spoonI go he go

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Factors influencing SLA– Attitude towards the second language

• The more positive the attitude the learners have towards the language, the greater motivation they will have and the better and the faster they learn

• Holmes (1992) – the attitudes towards a language depend on the situation of the politics, economy and social life of the people speaking the language

– Motivation• The stronger the motivation is the better the learners learn

– Self esteem • The more self esteem a person has, the better self confidence he has.

This kind of person will not be shy in correcting his mistakes over and over

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Factors influencing SLA

– Peers• The more supportive the peers towards the learning of the

second language is, the better learners the person will be– Social life

• Acquiring the second language like children should be done in a context so people will learn the language in a natural situation

- Toughness As learning a language needs a long time, the

learners should be tough. - Age.

Is there any critical period in learning a language?