Chapter 1: Second language acquisition research

Understanding Second Language Acquisition

Summarized by: Fatemeh Kazemi

Professor: Dr.Haniyeh Davatgari

What is second language acquisition?

• Second language acquisition (SLA) is a complex process involving many interrelated
factors. In order to investigate SLA, it is important to establish clearly what is meant by
the term. A number of key questions need to be addressed so that the reader is clear what
positions researchers have taken up in order to study how a second language (L2) is learnt.
• SLA is not a uniform and predictable phenomenon. There is no single way in which
learners acquire knowledge of a second language (L2); SLA is the product of many factors
pertaining to the learner on the one hand and the learning situation on the other; it is
important, therefore, to start by recognizing the complexity and diversity that results from
the interaction of these two sets of factors.
• “L2 Acquisition” can be defined as the way in which people learn a language other than
their mother tongue, inside or outside of classroom, and “Second Language Acquisition”
(SLA) as the study of this.

What is 'Language'?
A distinction is often made between competence and performance in the study of language.
According to Chomsky (1965).
Competence consists of the mental representation of linguistic rules which constitute the speaker-
hearer's internalized grammar.
Performance consists of the comprehension and production of language. Language acquisition
studies, both first and second, are interested in how competence is developed.

What is 'Second' Language?

A second language is any language that a person uses other than a first or native language. A
second language is a language that is learned in addition to a person's mother tongue, or first
language.

Distinction between ‘Second’ and ‘Foreign’ language

• ‘Second language acquisition’ refers to the learning of another language in a context in
which the language is used as a means of wider communication.
• ‘Foreign language acquisition’ refers to the learning that typically takes place in a
classroom through instruction where there are no or only limited opportunities to use the
second language in daily life.

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The key difference between second language and foreign language is that while both second language
and foreign language are languages other than the mother tongue of the speaker, second language
refers to a language that is used for public communication of that country whereas foreign language
refers to a language that is not widely used by the people of that country.

What is ‘acquisition’?
Acquisition refers to the incidental process where learners ‘pick up’ a language without making
any conscious effort to master it; acquisition takes place through communicating in the L2 in a
second language context whereas learning involves intentional effort to study and learn a language
learning takes place through instruction in foreign language contexts.

The key difference between language acquisition and language learning is that language acquisition
is subconscious learning, whereas language learning is conscious learning. Language learning is
using a formal education method where direct instructions and rules are provided by an educator.
This process is conscious. Language acquisition is a non-conscious procedure that takes place at
any period of a person’s life. The term language acquisition is usually related to unconscious
learning of one’s native language with the help of a close family or the surroundings.

Distinguish implicit knowledge (acquired) and explicit knowledge (learned) because these involve
different capabilities for the use of a second language.
implicit L2 knowledge Implicit knowledge of a language is knowledge that is intuitive and tacit.
It cannot be directly reported. The knowledge that most speakers have of their L1 is implicit. The
study of linguistic competence is the study of a speaker-hearer’s implicit knowledge of a language.
explicit learning Explicit learning is a conscious process that is also likely to be intentional. It can
be investigated by giving learners an explicit rule and asking them to apply it to data or by inviting
them to try to discover an explicit rule from data provided.

A brief history of SLA

Order and Sequence in L2 acquisition
➢ Brown (1973) reported a longitudinal study of three children’s acquisition of a group of
English morphemes. He showed that the children achieved mastery of these features in
more or less the same fixed order. These findings motivated SLA researchers to investigate
whether a similar order of acquisition and sequence of acquisition occurred in L2
acquisition.
➢ Corder (1976) suggested that second language learners, like first language learners have a
‘built-in syllabus’ that directs when the grammar of a second language is acquired.
➢ Selinker (1972) subsequently gave the name that has become the standard term for referring
to the mental grammar that a learner constructs and reconstructs—interlanguage. He coined
the term fossilization to refer to the fact that learners stop learning even though their
interlanguage does not fully conform to the target language system.
➢ More recently, however, the existence of a fixed order and sequence of acquisition has
been challenged by some researchers (for example, Tarone and Liu 1995), who claim that
what learners acquire and the order they acquire it in depends not on their so-called built
in syllabus, but on the social context in which they are learning the second language.

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The order of acquisition
To investigate the order of acquisition, researchers choose a number of grammatical structures to
study. Researchers have shown that there is a definite accuracy order and that this remains more
or less the same irrespective of the learners’ mother tongues, their age, and whether or not they
have received formal language instruction. Other researchers have shown that the order does vary
somewhat according to the learners’ first language.

Variability in learner language

At any stage of development, learners will manifest variability in their use of the second language.
Sometimes they will make errors and at other times they will use the target language form.
Variability also occurs because learners do not abandon old forms when they acquire new ones.
➢ Tarone (1983) claimed that, by and large, variability is systematic. She argued that learners
are responsive to the situational context and make use of their linguistic resources
accordingly. In situations where they do not need to attend carefully to their choice of L2
forms, they employ a vernacular style (the style of speech associated with every-day,
informal use of language) while in those contexts that call for close attention to speech,
they make use of their careful style (the style of speech associated with formal situations).
In particular, learners are responsive to their addressee.Another source of systematic
variability is the linguistic context.
➢ R. Ellis (1985) proposed that when a new linguistic form first enters the
learner’sinterlanguage, it is likely to be used interchangeably with an old form.

The importance of variability in understanding L2 acquisition is reflected in Widdowson’s (1979)

comment: ‘… change is only the temporal consequence of current variation’ (p. 196). This is
evident in a number of ways. Free variation gives way to systematic variation. Forms that are
initially only part of the learner’s careful style, over time, enter the vernacular style. Forms that
figure initially only in easy linguistic contexts will gradually become available for use in more
difficult linguistic contexts.

Rethinking the role of the first language

there was a general assumption that the difficulties facing the L2 learner were largely due to
‘interference’ from the first language. It was thought that learning a second language involved
overcoming the effects of negative language transfer. Where the L1 and the L2 were similar,
positive transfer assisted learning, but where the two languages differed there would be negative
transfer and learning would be impeded.
✓ Burt 1975 argued that negative transfer played a relatively minor role in L2 acquisition,
accounting for only five per cent of the errors that learners made. However, other
researchers continued to acknowledge that it played a significant role.
✓ Kellerman proposed a number of factors that could explain when transfer was likely to
manifest itself. One of these was language distance: learners whose first language was very
similar to the second language. But language distance was not the only factor. Learners
also had an inbuilt capacity to assess which features were likely to be transferable.

Researchers also recognized that first language transfer did not just manifest itself in learner errors
but exerted its influence in other ways. Researchers have continued to show a strong interest in
language transfer right up to today. The focus of this research has broadened, however. It is not

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focused so exclusively on pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar but also addresses how the first
language influences the expression of politeness, discourse conventions, and even gesture. There
is now wide acceptance that the L1 plays a significant role in L2 acquisition, but that to understand
this role it is necessary to examine how language transfer functions as a cognitive process
alongside other cognitive processes.

Input and interaction

The term ‘input’ refers to the samples of the oral or written language a learner is exposed to. This
constitutes the ‘data’ that learners have to work with to construct their interlanguage.
The term ‘interaction’ refers to the oral exchanges a learner participates in—with native speakers
or with other learners—which provide both ‘input’ and opportunities for ‘output’
As a pioneer in the research field of SLA, Stephen Krashen has made significant contributions to
explaining the process of language acquisition, and his theories are known as the source of ideas
for the study of SLA because of the diversity and creativity. Researchers addressed how the
linguistic environment influenced L2 acquisition.
Three influential hypotheses:
1- The input hypothesis
2- The interaction hypothesis
3- Comprehensible output hypothesis

The input hypothesis: Krashen emphasizes the status of comprehensible input in the process of
input, pointing out that comprehensible input is an essential factor of SLA, and all other factors
are considered to encourage or lead to language acquisition only if they assist to comprehensible
input. Krashen's claim to Input Hypothesis makes it the focus of attention in SLA. On the one
hand, the concept of comprehensible input has been recognized and supported by many second
language learners, and its theoretical approach has also been used in classroom teaching.

The interaction hypothesis: Michael Long proposes Interaction Hypothesis. In his opinion, it is
not enough to fully understand and recognize the nature of language input only based on language
input, and it is necessary to pay close attention to the interaction between native speakers and
learners. The interactive process provides input and feedback for learners. In the interaction
between the two parties, there are two adjustments for language input. One is adjusting the
language form, which makes the language input closer to the learners' level. The other is adjusting
the structure and function of discourse, which improves the comprehension of input with the
assistance of asking questions, repeating speeches, explaining meanings, and so on.

Comprehensible output hypothesis: ‘Output’ is language produced by the learner. It can be

comprehensible or incomprehensible to an interlocutor. Swain has proposed that when learners
make efforts to ensure that their output is comprehensible—i.e.produce pushed output (This is a
term used by Swain to refer to learner output that is produced with effort and reflects the outer
limits of the learner’s linguistic competence.) —acquisition may be fostered. According to the
Output Hypothesis, it is limited that input influences learners' language acquisition. Therefore only
output can truly promote the development of language productive abilities of learners. Because
language output forces learners to process language forms, only in this way can language ability
be developed.

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Finally, Swain mentions three important functions of the Output Hypothesis:
1) Through language output, learners can find gaps between the target language and learned
language in which their language develops further;
2) Learners can check their assumptions about language expressions or form by output;
3) Output can reflect on language problems and encourage learners to discuss them.

Consciousness and L2 acquisition

SLA researchers turned to cognitive psychology to explain how input was processed by learners
and thus how acquisition—viewed as an internal, mental phenomenon—took place.
✓ Schmidt: One of the main findings was that he only learned what he had first noticed in the
input. Schmidt ‘subjectively felt … that conscious awareness of what was present in the
input was causal’. He also reported noticing-the-gap when he compared a non-target form
he had produced with the target form that appeared in the input. Schmidt’s claims about
the role of ‘noticing’ and ‘noticing-the-gap’ concern the role that attention plays in
acquisition. he developed what has become known as the Noticing Hypothesis.

Noticing Hypothesis:
The strong version of the hypothesis claims that learners will only learn what they consciously
attend to in the input. The weak version allows for the representation and storage of unattended
stimuli in memory but claims that ‘people learn about the things they attend to and do not learn
much about the things they do not attend to’ (Schmidt 2001). Schmidt’s claims about the
importance of conscious noticing are controversial. Schmidt’s Noticing Hypothesis has informed
an increasing number of studies investigating whether (1) learners do notice linguistic forms in
the input, and under whatconditions, and (2) whether this results in learning.

Implicit and explicit learning

Implicit learning as ‘acquisition of knowledge about the underlying structure of a complex
stimulus environment by a process which takes place naturally, simply and without conscious
operations’.
Explicit learning is a ‘more conscious operation where the individual makes and tests hypotheses
in search of structure. As defined, implicit learning is incidental (there is no intention to learn),
whereas explicit learning is intentional (the learner makes deliberate attempts to learn an L2
feature).
Connectionist theories (Connectionist accounts of L2 learning view language as anelaborative
neural network rather than as a set of rules. The network changes over time as a response to input
frequencies and productive use of l2 features. The underlying assumption is that L2 learning is a
complex phenomenon but can be accounted for by a relatively simple mental mechanism that is
not specific to language learning.) claim that although learners may appear to behave in a rule-like
way, they do not acquire rules but rather construct a web of connections in the neural structure of
the brain. Implicit learning is an associative process whereby combinations of sounds, words, and
larger units of language are internalized in accordance with the frequency with which these
combinations occur in the input. a connectionist view of learning contradicts the Noticing
Hypothesis as it assumes that an associative network is constructed without consciousness.

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R. Ellis (1994) suggested ways in which the explicit knowledge resulting from explicit learning
can assist the processes involved in implicit learning. He suggested that if learners have explicit
knowledge of a grammatical rule, they are more likely to pay attention (i.e. ‘notice’) exemplars of
this rule in the input they are exposed to and— through noticing—fine-tune their developing,
implicit knowledge-system. Explicit knowledge of rules could also prime ‘noticing-the-gap’.
Furthermore, learners could use their explicit knowledge to construct sentences in the L2, which
then served as ‘auto-input’ that fed into the mechanisms responsible for implicit learning. The
distinction between implicit and explicit learning is important for understanding the role played
by form-focused instruction in L2 acquisition.

Dual-mode system
The second language knowledge of the learner can be either explicit and rule-based or implicit and
exemplar-based, meaning that it is made up of pre-formed stored chunks. In other words, learners
may possess a dual-mode system. For dual-mode system memory is organized for convenience of
use and to take account of the fact that learners’ capacity for processing information is limited.
When they need to communicate rapidly and fluently, learners will draw substantially on the
exemplar-based system which is capacious and easily accessed. However, when they need to
communicate complex ideas concisely and accurately, they will resort to the rule-based system.
Skehan argued that L2 learners need to build both systems and proposed that this could be achieved
by manipulating the conditions under which they were required to use the L2.

L2 acquisition as skill-learning
The notion of skill learning theory has its roots in cognitive psychology. Although it offers a
completely different connection between them, it depends on a difference that is comparable to the
implicit/explicit divide. Declarative knowledge, or the representation of facts, is distinguished
from procedural knowledge, or the representation of activities in specific contexts, by Anderson's
(1993) ACT theory. According to the hypothesis, practise may turn declarative information into
procedural knowledge (DeKeyser 1998).
The steps in this approach, when applied to language acquisition, are to:
(1) developing an explicit representation of a linguistic feature;
(2) practising the use of the feature using the explicit representation n as an aid toperformance;
(3) proceduralizing the feature and automatizing its use.
So, from conscious, controlled processing to automatic, unconscious usage, there is a continuum.
Second language proficiency can be either explicit or implicit.
DeKeyser (2007) defined 'practice' broadly as 'specific activities in the second language'. The
development of procedural knowledge is more likely to occur when the cognitive operations
involved in the practice activity match those in a natural communicative context. Some languages
are much further along the declarative-procedural-automatic path than others.

Transfer appropriate processing: The principle of transfer-appropriate processing states that ‘the
learning environment that best promotes rapid, accurate retrieval of what has been learned is that
in which the psychological demands placed on the learner resemble those that will be encountered
later in natural settings. DeKeyser noted that practice leads to qualitative changes in the learner's
knowledge system over time but only 'in the basic cognitive mechanisms used to execute the same
task' . In other words, learning would be restricted to situations and conditions of use that mirrored

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the operating conditions which figured in DeKeyser's theory. in other words, learning would be
restricted to the situations and conditions of use that mirrored the operating conditions which
figured in the practice provided. Two key points follow from this.
First, for a feature to become automatic for use in natural communication learners need to
experience practicing it under communicative conditions; controlled, mechanical practice will not
suffice.
Second, acquisition is domain-specific and thus proceeds separately for comprehension and
production; learning to process a feature receptively will not enable the learner to use it in
production and vice versa.

Skill-learning theory assumes a more or less direct interface between declarative and procedural
knowledge. This is in contrast to theories based on the distinction between implicit and explicit
knowledge. Implicit/explicit theories see the two types of knowledge as disassociated and only
indirectly related. Explicit knowledge does not transform into implicit knowledge, but can
facilitate processes involved in implicit learning.

The social turn in L2 acquisition

SLA, was primarily cognitive-interactionist in orientation: the underlying view was that learning
takes place inside the learner’s head as a result of processing input and output through interaction.
Block (2003) noted ‘until the mid-1990s explicit calls for an interdisciplinary, socially informed
SLA were notable by their absence’. Although this was not entirely true, Block was correct in
pointing to the relative neglect of the social context in SLA.
Acculturation Model: Schumann proposed that factors governing the social distance between the
L2 learner and the target language community influenced the likelihood of the learner acculturating
and thus the speed at which learning takes place. in the Acculturation Model, social factors were
simply grafted on to the underlying cognitive interactionist model of learning.

Social-interactionist SLA:
Social-interactionist SLA: Firth and Wagner (1997), they argued cognitive accounts of L2
acquisition were 'individualistic and mechanistic' and that to achieve a better balance it was
necessary to consider the contextual dimensions of language use.
✓ They were especially critical of the way in which SLA researchers characterized the subject
of their enquiry as a 'learner' or a 'non-native speaker', ignoring the host of other social
identities which might influence the use and acquisition of an L2.
✓ They argued, too, that mainstream SLA had largely focused on classroom settings and on
interactions between learners and native speakers whereas many learning contexts were
multilingual in nature in which learners were more likely to interact with other learners
than with native speakers.
✓ They pointed out the importance of people's local agendas and the social and institutional
factors that were instantiated in the interactions they participated in. Thus, in Firth and
Wagner's social interactionist SLA, learners were not just subject to social factors, as in
Schumann's Acculturation Theory, but could also influence the social world they inhabited.
The importance of social identity in shaping learners' opportunities for learning is most fully
argued in Norton's (2000) Social Identity Theory. To obtain the 'right to speak' learners need to be
able to see themselves as legitimate speakers of the L2, not defective communicators. They have
to be prepared to challenge the subservient social identity that native speakers thrust upon them.

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Sociocultural SLA
Sociocultural SLA draws on the work of the Russian psychologist, Lev Vygotsky (1986), who
argued that learning arises when an expert (a teacher) interacts with a novice (a learner) to enable
the novice to learn a new concept. When this happens, the expert and the novice jointly construct
a zone of proximal development (ZPD).

Zone Of Proximal Development (ZPD) : This refers to ‘the distance between the actual
developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential
development as determined through adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers’
(Vygotsky 1978: 86). It is a term used in sociocultural SLA. Learning occurs when a zone of
proximal development is constructed for the learner through mediation of one kind of another.

✓ Lantolf (2000); Swain (2006). The key finding of this theory Learning commences
externally within interaction. mediation; (This is a term used in sociocultural SLA.
Mediation in second language learning includes (1) mediation by others in social
interaction, (2) mediation by self through private speech, and (3) mediation by artifacts (for
example, tasks and technology)) internalisation; (A term used in sociocultural theory to
refer to the process by which a person moves from other-regulation to self-regulation.
✓ Ohta (2001) referred to this as ‘the movement of language from environment to brain’)
collaborative dialogue; ‘languaging’; (This refers to the use of language to mediate
cognitively complex acts of thinking. It is ‘the process of making meaning and shaping
knowledge and experience through language’ (Swain 2006). According to sociocultural
theory, languaging is indicative of learning in progress.)

Emergentism
SLA is an all-embracing theory, incorporating both cognitive and social dimensions of learning.
According to N. Ellis (1998), there is no need to posit a language acquisition device to explain
how language acquisition (first or second) takes place. Like Skill-Learning Theory, emergentism
assumes that learning a language is like learning any other skill. Emergentism informs a number
of theories of L2 acquisition. One of these is

Complexity Theory:
Complexity theory seeks to explain complex, dynamic, open, adaptive, self-organizing, non-linear
systems … It sees complex behavior as arising from interactions among many components – a
bottom-up process based on the contributions of each, which are subject to change over time.
Larsen-Freeman's Complexity Theory claims that a language system is 'dynamic' and 'open' in the
sense that it is constantly changing. It rejects the notion of a 'final state' in any language system
(including the native speaker's) and, in accordance with connectionist views of language, claims
that small changes are forever ongoing.
aims to account for how the interacting parts of a complex system give rise to the system’s
collective behavior and how such a system simultaneously interacts with its environment (Larsen-
Freeman & Cameron, 2008).
▪ The emergent behavior is often non-linear, in other words, disproportionate to its causal
factors.
▪ The agents or elements in a complex system change and adapt in response to feedback.

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▪ They interact in structured ways, with interaction sometimes leading to self-organisation
and the emergence of new behavior.
▪ They operate in a dynamic world that is rarely in equilibrium and sometime in chaos.

Complex systems:

▪ Change over time – often referred to as ‘dynamic(al) systems’.

▪ Adaptation and learning occur in these systems – sometimes referred to as ‘complex
adaptive systems’.
▪ They have no distinct permanent boundaries.
▪ They exist through fluctuations that feed them.

Complexity theory

▪ In brief, complexity theory “deals with the study of complex, dynamic, non-linear, self-
organizing, open, emergent, sometimes chaotic, and adaptive systems” (Larsen-Freeman,
1997).
▪ According to Larsen-Freeman, complex systems can be found throughout applied
linguistics:
▪ In the language used by a discourse community
▪ The interactions of learners and their teacher in a classroom
▪ Functioning of the human mind.
▪ By reconceputalizing these phenomena in terms of complexity, there is a possibility for
new understandings and actions.

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