COMPARING AND COMPARING AND CONTRASTING FIRST AND CONTRASTING FIRST AND SECOND LANGUAGE SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITIONACQUISITION

Dolly Ramos G

First and Second LgFirst and Second Lg

In foreign lg education most standard In foreign lg education most standard text and curricula include material in text and curricula include material in L1 acquisitionL1 acquisition

Types of Comparison and Types of Comparison and ContrastContrast

L1 Children vs L2 Adults Wrong

L1 and 2L on childrenL2 Children and adults.

Child Adult

L1

L2

Feature of L1 and L2Feature of L1 and L2

1. Overall Children  L1 mastery

adult L2 learners are unlikely

2. General  failure success guaranteed complete success rare3. Variation little variation in degree

of success or route L2 learners vary in

overall success and route

4. Goals target language  competence L2 learners more concerned

with fluency than accuracy5. Fossilization unknown common, plus backsliding (i.e.

return to earlier stages of development

6.Intuitions children develop clear

intuitions about correctness L2 learners are often unable to

form clear grammaticality judgments

But bilingual children are better at this than monolinguals

Feature of L1 and L2Feature of L1 and L27. Instructionnot neededhelpful or necessary8. Negative 

    evidence correction not found

and not necessarycorrection generally

helpful or necessary

9. Affective     factors

not involved play a major role

determining proficiency

The Critical Period The Critical Period HypothesisHypothesisBiological period of time

First language acquisition

Second language learning time

Eric Lenneberg

LATERALIZATIONLATERALIZATION

LogicReasoningObjetiveVerbalSelf orientesDetailed focusedLanguage functions

IntuitionEmotion SubjectiveWhole pic focusedPlayfulnessCreativityEmotionsSocial

Other aspect to considerOther aspect to consider

Linguistic Considerations Affective Considerationscognition ConsiderationsPsychomotor Considerations Neurological Considerations

Neur

olog

ical

Neur

olog

ical Human brain matures certain

functions or lateralization: Intellectual, logical, and analytical functions appear to be located in the left hemisphere while the right controls emotional and social needs.

Language function appear to be controlled mainly in the left hemisphere, though there is a good deal of conflicting evidence.

closely related to neurological considerations is the role of the psychomotor coordination of the "speech muscles" in sla, or, more commonly, accent.

several hundred muscles used in the articulation (throat, mouth, lips, tongue, and other muscles)a tremendous degree of

muscular control is required to achieve the fluency of a native speaker of a lg

Psy

chom

otor

Some of these changes are critical, others are more gradual and difficult to detect. Jean Piaget outlines the course of intellectual development in a child through various stages:

The sensorimotor stage from ages 0 to 2

The preoperational stage from ages 2 to 7

The operational stage from ages 7 to 16

cogn

ition

cogn

ition

affec

tive

affec

tive

The affective domain includes many factors: empathy, self-esteem, extroversion, inhibition, imitation, anxiety, attitudes.

when you consider the noticeable nature of language, any affective factor are relevant to second language learning.

ReferencesReferenceshttp://www.literature.freeservers.com/image_p

olat/ccfsla.html

Differences between L1 and L2 acquisitionEllis 94 (based on Bley-Vroman 1988); updated in Cook (2009, click above SLL&LT link)

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/SLA/L1%20and%20L2.htm