Lesson 2

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Lesson 2, language acquisition 
Goals:
Relate language to thought
Recognize the foreign language acquisition and the learning context
Recognize the language acquisition process through language’s social function 
Introduction:
In this class, we will keep on dealing with the instigating and complex theme of acquisition which was started in our first class.
Language and Thought
According to Vygotsky (2002), initially, thought is nonverbal and language is not intellectual, and for that reason, human beings tend to think that they are two very different things. However, the author argues that their developmental trajectories are not parallel, but intertwined.
When a child is about two years old, his/her thought starts to become verbal and his/her language starts to become rational.
Even though it might seem that in the beginning the child uses language only to interact superficially with people around him/her, after sometime this language penetrates his/her unconscious mind to become the structure of the child’s thinking. (VYGOTSKY, op cit)
Very soon the child realizes that everything has a name. When he/she notices that the name of some object is unknown to him/her, he/she turns to an adult for help. 
The learning of these basic-meaning words will help the child form new and more complex concepts.
Therefore, his/her cognitive abilities and thought structuring will be a result of the environment in which the child is brought up. Indeed, the author goes on to say that the society in which a child is raised and the child’s personal history plays a significant role in determining the child’s thought pattern.
So, according to Vygotsky (op cit),
There is a fundamental interrelationship between thought and language, one providing resources to the other. Thus, language has a key role in shaping the thought and character of an individual.
Also, based on Moraes’s (1999) considerations regarding how language shapes the character of an individual, it can be claimed that language precedes thought, since it is language that structures thought.
Now that we understood the process of first language acquisition a little bit more, let’s discuss a related topic: second or foreign language acquisition.
Second Language Acquisition (SLA)
Second language acquisition may seem to be a self-explanatory term, however according to Rod Ellis (2003), some things must be taken into consideration when using it:  
“For one thing … ‘second’ can refer to any language that is learned subsequent to the mother tongue. Thus, it can refer to the learning of a third or fourth language. Also, ‘second’ is not intended to contrast with ‘foreign’. Whether you are learning a language naturally as a result of living in a country where it is spoken, or learning it in a classroom through instruction, it is customary to speak generically of ‘second’ language acquisition.” (ELLIS, 2003)
Thus, in this section, we will be using the term second language acquisition (L2 acquisition) and foreign language acquisition interchangeably, meaning the way in which people learn another language, different from their mother tongue, inside or outside of a classroom.
How do learners acquire an L2? 
When researchers want to find out how learners acquire an L2, they can set about doing it in two different ways:
• they can interview successful second language learners about how they did it; or…
• …they can find out what these learners really did, instead of relying on what they think they did, in order to learn a second language.
The advantage of using the first approach is that it has been widely used by researchers and it has provided them with some valuable insights about L2 learning. On the other hand, the disadvantage is that sometimes learners are not really aware of, or cannot remember, what they did during the process of learning another language.
The advantage of using the second approach is that the researcher does not need to rely on the learner’s memory or awareness, in order to be able to find out about the learning processes he/she was engaged in. In this case, the researcher would simply collect samples of learner language and analyze them aiming at finding evidence of what exactly the learner knows about the target language.
Remember:
 
Target language → The language that a learner is trying to learn.
 
Learner language → The term given to the language that learners produce in speech and writing during the course of language acquisition. (ELLIS, op cit)
When analyzing the learners’ language, researchers can focus on one or more of the items below: 
 
• pronunciation - How does it change during the learning process?
• accent - How does it change over time?
• vocabulary - What words do learners use? How do learners build their vocabulary up?
• grammar - How do learners develop their ability to produce a specific grammar structure?
It’s a good idea to collect language samples at different points in time, so that it’s possible for the researcher to keep track of the gradual development of learners’ language knowledge and describe precisely what happened at each different stage.
External and Internal Factors that Interfere with Second Language Learning
SLA also identified that some external and internal factors seem to play a significant role in second language acquisition. They will be presented briefly here and studied in more detail in our next lesson:
External factors:
Some words, such as NUMBERS, do not fit in any of the word classes given above. They can behave as adjectives (one loaf or two?) or pronouns (I want one now!).
External factors: Input received – This is about the samples of language to which the learner is exposed.
Example: Does the type of input received facilitate learning? Do learners benefit from receiving input that has been simplified for them? Is it better to expose learners to authentic native speakers’ language?
Internal factors:
 Learners’ cognitive mechanism – This mechanism allows learners to extract information about the L2 from the input received.
E.g. When learners realize that to form the plural of words in English, it’s necessary to add an –s to the end of a noun, they are using their cognitive mechanism.
Internal factors:
Learners’ background knowledge – Besides having already learned their mother tongue, learners also have knowledge about the world and they will draw on both types of knowledge when learning an L2.
E.g. If a learner does not know how to say ‘art gallery’ and needs to use this term, he/she might make use of a communicative strategy and convey the idea of the term by inventing a word like ‘picture place’.
Internal factors:
Learners’ individual differences in L2 acquisition - This factor includes the following items: language aptitude, age, motivation and learning strategies.
The goal of SLA research, then, is to describe the process of second language acquisition and to explain why some learners are more successful than others at it. This description might focus on three areas:
• The errors that learners make during the process of learning a foreign language and how they change over time;
• The stages in the acquisition of particular grammatical structures;
• Variability in learner language.
Learners’ Errors
Before starting this discussion, we need to consider the difference between two related terms which sometimes are used as synonyms, but which in fact, are not.
Errors → Deviations in usage which result from gaps in learners’ knowledge of the target language.
Mistakes → Deviations in usage that reflect learners’ inability to use what they actually know of the target language. (ELLIS, op cit)
In other words, a learner makes an error when he/she does not know the right way of saying something, whereas, he/she makes a mistake when he/she, for some reason, is unable to perform what he/she already knows.
Some of the errors learners make are universal, no matter what theirfirst language is, where they learn or what their personal characteristics are. These errors are:
Omission – When learners fail to use words or parts of a word.
E.g. ‘He went to post office’ instead of ‘He went to the post office’.
Overgeneralization – When learners use a language feature in contexts in which it does not occur in target-language use.
E.g. ‘He ated a hamburger’ instead of ‘He ate a hamburger’.
Transfer – When the learners’ mother tongue influences the acquisition and use of the target language.
E.g. ‘You is a lawyer?’ (Você é advogado?) instead of ‘Are you a lawyer?’
Researchers have been focusing on identifying, describing, explaining and evaluating learners’ errors and mistakes. They have found out that depending on the type of error or mistake made, it’s possible to notice that learners seem to go beyond the available input. In fact, they are able to produce errors that reveal they actively construct rules.
Some errors are more serious than others, since they make communication almost impossible. Teachers will focus on this type of mistakes.
Developmental Patterns
Besides the universality of some errors learners make, there are also some universal developmental patterns which are worth investigating. These are:
Silent period – During this initial period, students usually make no attempt to say anything. It doesn’t mean they are not learning. In fact, they might be preparing themselves for production when they feel more confident to do it.
Production of formulaic chunks – In this stage, learners start to produce fixed expressions, such as: “I don’t know.” “May I _____?”
Propositional simplification – Because it’s still difficult for students to speak in full sentences, they tend to leave some words out, in order to simplify communication. E.g. “Me no pencil” instead of “I don’t have a pencil.”
Acquisition order – Learners seem to find some grammatical structures easier than others, therefore, it’s possible that acquisition follows a definite order.
Sequence of acquisition – Do students learn a grammatical structure in a single step or do they go through different stages before mastering the target structure?
Second language learners consistently use the same grammatical form at a particular stage of development, in other words, their language use is systematic. This is not to say that their language use is consistent with native speakers’ language use when they are learning their first language. 
However, learner language is also variable. That means that learners might use different forms at any given stage of development.
During the learning process, an error might alternate with another, as in the following example:
 
Yesterday I buy a suitcase.
Yesterday I buying a suitcase.
 
Or an error can also alternate with the correct target-language form:
 
Yesterday I buy a suitcase.
Yesterday I bought a suitcase.
The examples presented above do not invalidate what was said before, namely, that learner language is systematic. In fact, according to Ellis (op cit), [1: used to introduce more exact and detailed information about something that you have just mentioned]
 
“…it is possible that variability is also systematic. That is, we may be able to explain, and even predict, when learners use one form and when another.”
According to the same author this language variation is determined by three different types of context:
Linguistic context – the language that surrounds a particular grammatical structure and which may influence the learner’s language choice.
Situational context – The actual situation in which the communication takes place. Situational factors such as who the student is talking to, influences the language choice.
It’s also important to note that the sequence of acquisition applies only to specific grammatical structures. That means that it’s perfectly possible that a learner is at different stages in the process of learning different grammatical features. It’s also possible that some language features of individual learners will stop developing. That’s a phenomenon called fossilization.
In our next class we will continue to talk about the complex and intriguing theme of second language acquisition.
See you there!
Pesquise na Internet ou em livros o fenômeno da fossilização e escreva com suas palavras o que entendeu sobre o assunto. Não esqueça de mencionar a fonte pesquisada no final do seu texto.
Activity
1 – Regarding language and thought we can say that: 
They are not related.
There is an interrelationship between them.
Their developmental trajectories are intertwined.
‘a’ e ‘b’ are correct.
‘b’ e ‘c’ are correct.
Síntese da Aula
Nesta aula, você:
Relacionou linguagem e pensamento;
reconheceu aquisição de língua estrangeira e o contexto de aprendizagem;
reconheceu o processo de aquisição através da função social da língua.
Próxima Aula
Na próxima aula, você vai estudar:
Na próxima aula, aprofundaremos os tópicos estudados nessa aula.