第二语言习得ellis rod 要点 打印版.doc

1.Introduction:describing and explaining L2 acquisitiona.What is Second language acquisition?Its emergence is no accident. This has been a time of the global village and the World wide Web. As never before ,people have had to learn a second language ,not just as a pleasing pastime ,but often as a means of obtaining an education of securing employment.Second can refer to any language that is learned subsequent to the mother tongue. It can refer to the third or fourth language.Also, second is not intended to contrast with foreign. so L2 acquisition can be defined as the way in which people learn a language other than their mother tongue ,inside or outside of a classroom.Second Language Acquisition is the study of L2 acquisition.b.What are the goal of SLA?Some approaches for you to set about finding how the learners acquire an L2:1.ask the learners how they did it .This approach has provided some valuable insights but it is limited in that learners are not aware of the actual learning process they engaged in2.collecting samples of learner language that learners produce and analyse them carefully .These samples provide evidence of what the learners know about the target language .If the samples are collected at different points in time ,It may be possible to find out how learners knowledge gradually develops. in other words , what we are trying to is describe how learner language change over time.c.the focus of SLASLA has not focused on these communicative aspects of language development - how learners overall ability to communicate develops, how they become more fluent in their use of an L2 .but on the formal features of language that linguists have traditionally concentrated on .- pronunciation (how learnersaccents change over time.) words-how learners build up their vocabulary；most of ten ,the focus has been on the grammar-the focus has been the grammar of the L2d.the goals of SLAOne of the goal of SLA is the description of L2 acquisition.Another is explanation; identifying the external and internal factors that account for why learners acquire an L2 in the way they do. One of the goal of SLA are to describe how L2 acquisition proceeds and to explain this process and why some learners seem to be better as it than others.e.What are the external and internal factors?One of the external factors is the social milieu in which learning takes place. Social conditions influence the opportunities learners have to hear and speak the language and the attitudes that they develop towards it.Another external factor is the input that learners receive,that is,the sample of language to which a learner is exposed. Language learning can not occur without some input.L2 acquisition can be explained in part by these external but internal factors also should be considered. Learner possess cognitive mechanisms which enable to extract informationabout L2 from the input.L2 learner bring an enormous amount of knowledge to the task of learning an L2.First,they can draw on the mother tongue ,Second, learners possess general knowledge about which can help them understand L2 input .Finally ,learners possess communication strategies that help them make effective use of their L2 knowledge. Besides ,it has been suggested that people vary in their language aptitudef.two case studiesA case study is a detailed study of a learners acquisition of an L2,which is longitudinal, involving the collection of samples of the learners speech or writing over a period of time. One is of an adult learner learning English in surroundings where it serves as a means of daily communication and the other of two children learning English in a classroom.Research Schmidt says-.Wes ,a naturalistic learner -who learns English by learning to communicate in it; he was still far short for native speaker accuracy, but he did develop in other ways, eg, his use of formula, he can identify the fixed phrases and practise them consciously. This help him develop fluency in English, In fact , we is a successful communicator, a skilled conversationalist.Researcher Rod Ellis says-J and R .the instruction the two learners received involves both formal instruction and informal instruction. The focus is the request. because English is the medium of communication ,there are numerous opportunities for them to hear and perform requests. the similarities between J and R ;1,both were capable of successfully performing simple requests.2,both manifested development in their ability to perform requests.3.many of their requests seemed formulaic in nature.4,both progressed in much the same way despite the fact they had different native languages, however ,the ability is limited in a number of respects.5,in short ,despite ample opportunity to master requests, both were still far short of native like competence at the end of the study.P11.Methodological issues1,what needs to be described2,what it means to say that a learner has acquired a feature of the target language.(Schmidt defines acquisition in terms of whether the learner manifests patterns of language use that are more or less the same as native speakers of the target language. However, this conflates what learners know with what they can do.3, What determines whether learners have acquired a particular feature?4,it concerns learners overuse of linguistic forms in trying to measure whether acquisition has taken placeP12,Issues in the description of learner language1,What is the role that the formulas play ,not just in enhancing learner performance but in their acquisition of an L22,has the learners acquired the language systematically ?P12,two findings1,One finding is that learners make errors of different kinds. Not only in grammatical errors, but sociolinguistic errors2,Another finding is that learners acquire a number of formulaic chunks, which they use to perform communicative functions and which contribute to the fluency of their unplanned speech.3,learners do acquire aspects of an L2 systematically and follow particular developmental routes.P13,Issues in the explanation of L2 acquisitionAn explanation of L2 acquisition must account for both item and system learning and how the two interrelate1,one explanation is that learner follow a particular developmental pattern because their mental faculties are structured in such a way that this is the way they have to learn2,other explanations emphasize the importance of external as opposed to internal factors.2.The nature of learner languageThe main way of investigating L2acquisition is by collecting and decribing samples of learner language .the description may focus onerrors and error analysis:identifying errors,The first step in analysing learners errors is to identify them. it is clear that identifying the exact errors that learners make is often difficult.P15.good reasons for focusing on errors:1st ,they are a conspicuous feature of learner language2nd,it is useful to know what errors learners make3rd,paradoxically,it is possible that making errors may actually help learners to learn when they self- correct errors they make.P17,the definition of errors and mistakesErrors reflects gaps in a learners knowledge ; they occur because the learner does not know what is correct; mistakes reflect occasional lapses in performance; they occur because ,in a particular instance ,the learner is unable to perform what he or she knowsp17,how to distinguish errors and mistakesone way might be to check the consistency of learners performanceanother is to ask learners to try to correct their own deviant utterancesdescribing errors,most common grammatical category of error is how to distinguish errors and mistakes in an analysis of Jeans errors.Most common general error type is “misinformation”P18.ways of describing and classifying all the errors into types1st,classify errors into grammatical categories2nd,identify general way in which the learners utterances differ from the reconstructed target-language utterances, which includes omission, misinformation , misorderingexplaining errors,(P18)The identification and description of errors are preliminaries to the task of trying to explain why they occur. Errors are systematic and predictable.P19.How many sources can errors have?some errors seem to be universal ,reflecting learners attempts to make the task of learning and using the L2 simpler.1st, learners commit errors of omission.2nd,they overgeneralize forms that they find easy to learn and process; ie, overgeneralization3rd,other errors reflect learners attempts to make use of their L1 knowledge. These are known as transfer errorserror evaluation (19)the purpose of the error analysis is to help learners learn an L2 ,there is a need to evaluate errors. some errors can be considered more serious than others because they are more likely to interfere with the intelligibility of what someone says. global errors are difficult to understand because their structure is wrong .local errors affect only a single constituent, less likely to create any processing problemsdevelopmental patternsThe early stage of L2 acquisitionLearners make no attempts to say anything to begin with in a silent period. which may serve as a preparation for subsequent production .when L2 learners begin their speech ;their utterances have two characteristics; one is formulaic chunks which can give a mistakenimpression of competence the other is propositional simplificationP21.two developing questions:1st. acquisition order-Do Learners acquire the grammatical structures of an L2 in a definite order? Learners do seem to find some grammatical features easier than others ,so it is quite possible that acquisition follows a definite order.2nd.sequence of acquisition- Do learners learn such structures in a single step or do they proceed through a number of interim stages before they master the target structure?P21-p25 The order of acquisition .sequence of acquisitionU-shaped course of development- initially learners may display a high level of accuracy only to apparently regress later before finally once again performing in accordance with target-language normsRestructuring- In order to accommodate new knowledge ,learners reorganize their existing knowledge ,which is believed to be prevalent is referred to as restructuringIt is clear that acquisition of a simple grammatical feature is a highly complex affair. not only are there general stages ,but there may be stages within stages. despite the complexity of learners behaviour, it is clear that it is far from random. FollowSome implications:L2 acquisition is systematic and to a large extent, universal, reflecting ways in which internal cognitive mechanisms control acquisition; the work on developmental pattern tells us that some linguistic feature s are inherently easier to learn than others.A existing question: is the orders and sequences of acquisition can be altered through formal instruction ?P25-29 variability in learner languagelearner language is systematic and variable. the variability is also systematic . there are some evidence of systematic variability. eg, learners choice of past tense marker depends ,in part, on whether the verb refers to an event ,an activity, or a state .Broadly speaking ,it is determined by a variety of factors such as linguistic context, situational context and the availability of planning time1st.learner s vary in their use of the L2 according to linguistic contexts. one linguistic form can trigger the use of another form.2nd.learners vary the linguistic forms they use in accordance with the situational context. They are more likely to use the correct target-language forms in formal contexts and non-target forms in informal contexts.3rd.Another factor that accounts for the systematic nature of variability is the psycholinguistic context. Which mainly refers to the availability of planning timeA characteristic of any natural language is that forms realize meanings in a systematic way. However, form-function mappings which learners make do not always conform to those found in the target language. The resulting systems are often very different from the target-language system. With time ,they becomemore target-like.It is possible that free variation constitutes an essential stage in the acquisition of grammatical structures. Different kinds of variability may be evident at different stages of development .It is important to recognize that this general sequence of acquisition applies to specific grammatical features. Thus ,it is possible for individual learners to be at different stages in the sequence for different grammatical features. Not all learners reach the completion stage for every grammatical structure .Many will continue to show non-target language variability in at least some grammatical features. it is for this reason that we can talk of fossilization. many learners stop developing while still short of target- language competence. Also, learners may succeed in reaching target-language norms in some types of language use but not in others.Summary In this section ,we have examined a number of properties of learner language and in doing so ,traced the way inwhich SLA has evolved as a field of enquiry .Early on ,researchers focused on learners errors, developing procedures for identifying ,describing, explaining ,and evaluating them. These studies revealed that learners errors are systematic and that they reflect the stage of development that a learner has reached ,An important finding was that learner seem to go beyond the available input ,producing errors that show they actively construct rules, which although non-target-like ,guide their performance in the L2Subsequently, researchers focused on exploring the regularities of L2 acquisition by searching for “orders “and sequences of acquisition .They found evidence to suggest that learners regularly master some grammatical features misrepresented what actually occurred .Increasingly ,descriptive research in SLA has focused on how learners acquire specific grammatical subsystems such as negatives, interrogatives, relative clauses and verb tenses like the past tense, It has been able to show that grammatical features manifest clear developmental sequences, involving stages that reflect unique rules not evident in the input to which learners are exposed .Learners seem to be actively involved in shaping how they acquire an L2.Research on variability has sought to show that , although allowance should perhaps be made for some free variation, variability in learner language is systematic .That is, learners use their linguistic sources in predictable ways. The use of specific grammatical forms has been shown to vary according to the linguistic context, situational context and the psycholinguistic context.Furthermore , variability plays an integrative part in the overall pattern of development, with learners moving through a series of stages that reflect different kinds variability3. InterlanguageBehaviourist learning theory: the dominant psychological theory of the 1950s and 1960s was Behaviourist learning theory. According to this theory ,language learning involves habit formation .Habits are formed when learners respond to stimuli in the environment and subsequently have their responses reinforced .thus ,a habit is a stimulus response connection. It is believed that all behaviour could be explained in terms of habits. learning took place when learners had the opportunity to practise making the correct response to a given stimulus. Behaviourist accounts of L2 acquisition emphasize only what can be directly observed and ignore what goes on in the black box of the learners mind.Mentalist theory: the 1960s witnessed a major shift in psychology and linguistics. From a preoccupation with the role of nurture ,researchers switched their attention to nature. This new paradigm was mentalist in orientation. in the 1960s and 1970s a mentalist theory of L1 acquisition emerged. According to this theory;1,only human being are capable of learning language2,The human mind is equipped with a faculty for learninglanguage ,referred to as a language acquisition device.3.This faculty is the primary determinant of language acquisition4. Input is needed but only to trigger the operation of the language acquisition device.What is interlanguage ? Interlanguage was coined by American linguist Larry Selinker.In recognition of the fact that L2 learners construct a linguistic system that draws ,in part ,on the learnersL1 but is different from it and also different the target language, A learners interlanguage is a unique linguistic system.The concept of interlanguage involves the following premises about L2 acquisition:1. The learner constructs a system of abstract linguistic rules which underlies comprehension and production .the system of rules is viewed as a “mental grammar and is referred as as interlanguage2. The learner s grammar is permeable. That is ,the grammar is open to influence from the outside and inside3. The learners grammar is transitional.4. some researchers have claimed that the systems learners construct contain variable rules. others see variability as an aspect of performance rather than competence.5. learners employ various learning strategies to develop their interlanguage.6. The learner s grammar is likely to fossilize. Fossilization does not occur I L1 acquisition and thus is unique to L2 grammars.The concept of interlanguage incorporates elements from mentalist theories of linguistics and elements from cognitive psychologyA computational model of L2 acquisition The learner is exposed to input ,which is processed in two stages.First parts of it are attended to and taken into short term memor