SLA TERMS Flashcards
(26 cards)
Fossilization
A term coined by Larry Selinker in 1972 that refers to when an L2 learner’s internal linguistic system stops evolving.
Inflectional morphemes
Morphemes that are added to nouns and verbs but don’t change the fundamental meaning of the root word, or its function. (Brown)
Brown’s morpheme orders
The sequence in which morphemes are acquired over time:
Progressive -ing
Plural -s
Irregular past tense: Mary went
Possessive -s
Articles a/an/the
Regular past -ed
Third person -s
Auxiliaries (be)
Interlanguage
A term coined by Larry Selinker in 1972 that refers to an L2 learner’s mental competence at any point in time during development.
Input
Refers to the language (written, spoken, or signed form) the learner is exposed to in communicative contexts.
The Behaviourist approach
This means that learning results from an organism’s response to stimulus and subsequent reaction to that response. Imitation and drills are important methods.
The Generativist approach
Language is a system that exists inside the mind, learners have something internal that guides the active processing of information to convert it into something usable. Children are pre-wired to learn certain things (Universal Grammar and LAD).
Development sequences
Stages in which a structure is acquired over time (such negation in English)
U-shaped development
A learner starts to do something correctly, then incorrectly, then correctly again.
Markedness relationships
How frequent/typical/simple a linguistic form or structure is.
Monitored output
It occurs when a learner has formally studied grammar and can apply consciously learned rules and formal features to speech or writing as he or she produces it. Often in controlled environments, such as the classroom.
Comparison of L1 and L2 acquisition of negation
Stage 1: Not have coffee, No singing… (not is put before nouns and verbs)
Stage 2: No moves into the sentence (there no squirrels) “can’t”
Stage 3: Auxiliaries and modals used correctly with not ( I can’t have the book)
L2 Stage 4: Do appears as an auxiliary and is used correctly with not in different persons and tenses.
Intake
The subset of input for which a learner can connect form and meaning during real-time comprehension. e.g. professor gives homework. (mapping meaning onto form)
Backsliding
The phenomenon by which a learner regresses to a development stage prior to the one he or she is in.
Explicit knowledge
Knowledge of language that is conscious and can be articulated by a person.
Explicit learning
Processing linguistic input with conscious attention paid to the formal properties of language.
Implicit knowledge
Knowledge of language that exists outside of one’s awareness and whose contents can’t be articulated by a person.
Implicit learning
Processing linguistic input without paying conscious attention to the formal properties of language.
Comprehensible input
Input must be comprehensible in some way, during the comprehension, learners are engaged in mapping meaning onto form, in other words, they are engaged in creating language.
Modified input
Input that is adjusted by another speaker to a language learner based on a perceived communication problem.
Output
Language that the learner produces.
Transfer
Refers to the influence that the L1 has on L2 acquistion.
Communicatively embedded output
Language that the learner produces is part of the expression and interpretation of meaning in a given context with a given (communicative) purpose.
Communication
The expression and interpretation of meaning in a given context with a given purpose.
