Preview of Chapter 3: Crosslinguistic influences

Jung Min and I are doing the preview of this chapter. I will begin by giving you a summary of the chapter, after which Jung Min will post the discussion questions.

Definition
Crosslinguistic influence is also known as "transfer", and has displaced the older term "interference", to preempt the unwanted implication that L1 knowledge hinders L2 development.

Overview
In the '50s and '60s, the hypothesis was that differences between L1 and L2 resulted in the learner experiencing difficulties in her L2 (among specific learner groups with the same L1). Contrastive Analysis sought to compare similarities and differences between L1 and L2 pairs.

In the '60s and '70s, SLA researchers (turning to analyses of actual learner language using the new methodology of Error Analysis and Performance Analysis) found out that externally catalogued L1-L2 differences could determine neither the linguistic knowledge nor the linguistic behavior of L2 learners.

Early SLA researchers concluded that not only differences, but even more often, misleading similarities between L1 and L2 cause the so-called learning difficulties. German researcher Henning Wode (1976) called this principle the Crucial Similarity Measure. Roger Anderson (1983) in the US added the principle of Transfer to Somewhere, suggesting that both L1 and L2 must have some feature that invites the (mis)perception of a similarity.

The findings in the '70s and '80s led to the understanding that learners' psychological perceptions of L1 and L2 similarities and/or differences are really the forces the shape crosslinguistic influence, rather than external language comparisons. The judgement can be (but not necessarily) made as a conscious, strategic choice, such as when there is a gap in L2 knowledge, and the best available solution is to rely on L1 knowledge.

Key Concepts
Universal sequences of language development: L2 learners, regardless of L1 background, go through predictable paths in their acquisition of certain L2 phenomena, especially in:

• morphology, particularly grammatical markers like -ing, -s, -ed
• morpho-semantics, such as the encoding of verb tense
• word order, for example, in questions and with negation
• other syntactic phenomena, such as relative clauses

Interlanguage: the language system each learner constructs at any given point in development and which reflects an interim competence that contains L1 and L2 elements, and beyond.

Interlanguages are said to be systematic, natural languages in their own right. Note however that while L1 transfer cannot radically alter the route of L2 acquisition, it can impact the rate of learners' progress along their natural developmental paths. This was first proposed by Zobl (1982).

For example, for L2 English learners whose native languages do not contain articles, there is a big initial disadvantage in the rate of acquisition.

Markedness: closed set of possibilities within a linguistic system, where the given possibilities rank from simplest and most frequent among languages of the world (unmarked) to the most complex and rarest (marked). This is an important source of universal influence, and the existence of each marked member presupposes the existence of the less marked members, but not the other way around.

Markedness Differential hypothesis: the general implication for L2 development is that marked froms tend to be more difficult to learn and therefore cause more interlanguage solutions, and that a form that is more marked in the L1 is less likely to be transferred than a form that is less marked.

Transferability (psychotypology): the claim that L1 transfer is partly a function of learners' conscious or subconscious intuitions about how transferable certain phenomena are. Kellerman (1985) noted that transferability interacts with L2 proficiency to shape what may or may not be transferred, regardless of apparent L1-L2 similarities or differences.

Avoidance (errors of omission): where negative L1 transfer does not lead to noticeable errors of commision or ungrammaticalities in L2. In such cases, because learners take fewer risks in the L2, avoidance may also delay their L2 development of the area being avoided.

Underuse and Overuse: there tends to be an underuse of certain L2 forms because the same forms are not present in the L1 (i.e., they are more marked in L1); conversely, there is usually an overuse when the forms are more marked in the L2. While knowledge of the L1 can often have a positive impact on the rate of L2 learning, especially if they are typologically and genetically close (such as sister languages German and English), it is interesting to note that it is possible for one L1 group to learn faster than another through overuse in a particular L2 form.

Information structure: a subtle L1 transfer comparing topic-prominent and subject-prominent languages. Carroll et al. (2000) argue that information structure in the L1 continues to exert an important if subtle influence on the L2 even at very advances stges of proficiency.

For example, English and Romance languages prefer existential constructions (where new referents are introduced), while German favors locational constructions.

Pragmatic competence - crosslinguistic influences go well beyond form-form or form-function correspondences to extend to and include all layers of language at the levels of form, meaning, and function, as well as pragmatic competence.

Latest Developments
There is growing evidence that suggests that knowledge of two (or more) languages can accelerate the learning of an additional one, especially if L1 and L2 are typologically related to L3, because there are more relevant cognates and similarities in forms and meanings.

Also, better vocabulary learning strategies would have been developed by the time L3 is being learned.

Of note is that all previously learned languages (and not just L1) can influence additional learning, usually because they are typologically closer to L3, or that the learner is more proficient in that language, or that it is the last one learnt immediately prior to the learning of L3 (especially if it was also learnt as a foreign language). L1 does not hold a privileged status in the acquisition of additional languages, except in the area of semantic transfer.

However, as the learner gains proficiency in L3, the presence of or the functional roles played by each language in L3 production gradually recede.

Next, Jung Min will post some questions to help you think more about this chapter. In particular, she will refer to interlingual identifications, which is found in section 3.2 on page 2 of the chapter.

Happy holidays, and don't sweat over this! ;-)

Summary and reflection of week 2 (by Merica)

Tuesday, August 28

* Foreword: Sorry it's perhaps a bit longer than expected, but I didn't want to leave anything out. Also sorry I didn't post earlier but my laptop is in the shop.

Reminder: We should post a photo of ourself on the blog site if we haven’t done so yet. It helps everybody match names and faces.

Instructions for group discussion: Students were provided with three different questions to discuss (each on different colored papers). The questions were from comments on the blog. Each group discussed the question on their sheet. Later, we formed new groups, with one student from each original group. In our new groups, we shared the main points from our first group discussion.

Personal note: I really liked the group dynamics and the discussion topics in this activity. I might borrow this idea sometime...

Comments from the blue group (from Megumi’s comment to Anne’s chapter 2 preview):
- If there is no guarantee that early start works, the philosophy of teaching should be to have fun to increase students motivation.

- Outside of school, some parents start even at a young age sending students to cram schools to prepare them for tests.

- Masaki: In Japan, many elementary school teachers don’t feel comfortable teaching English, so some junior high teachers sometimes come in to elementary schools to do the English lessons. In junior high, the English teachers are already doing test preparation, so these teachers’ philosophy of teaching doesn’t match the needs of the elementary school students.

- Ky: There should be a clear distinction between ESL and EFL. He thinks it’s very difficult to teach EFL intensively in his country (Vietnam) at that age. But with ESL, students can have access to much more exposure to English through people and media. Earlier may be better if the environment supports it.

Comments shared in the class discussion:
- Ben shared about some of his experiences teaching ESL students in the US. He said he had two Russian brothers, one was 9 and the other was 5. The older brother had problems with grammar and pronunciation, but the younger one sounded like a native speaker and didn’t have grammatical problems. Pronunciation is one of the easiest aspects of L2 learning to notice.

- Lourdes: Reading chapter 2 points out overwhelming tendencies about L2 learning being easier before a certain age, but there are some exceptions in both extremes, i.e. there are cases of some children who arrive early and have an accent, and there are some people like Julie who can pass as a native speaker.
- The critical period explanation is a biological one.

- Jongmin mentioned tongue surgery in Korea (She added that it is rare. Hmm. Curious.) Nevertheless, Lourdes pointed out that even if that does help in pronunciation, perception, vocabulary, and syntax are totally different aspects.

- Ben mentioned that the case study of Julie learning Arabic is oft sited. Lourdes added that there are also other cases of extremely successful learners in Arabic, German, French, and English.

- Lourdes mentioned that when David Birdsong said 5-25 percent of language learners are “amazingly successful late language learners,” perhaps that is an exaggeration.

- 1.5 generation: Oftentimes they are great with peers chatting, but not competent in English when it comes to academic content (Note: This happens with “native speakers” in their L1, too.

- In favor of bilingual education: If students get support in their L1, they do better in both languages. Myth that Ss pulled into English only will help them.

- Yellow group: What other consideration should be taken into account to decide whether earlier is better?

- Ben: Most EFL contexts don’t spend enough time to make a difference and it takes a lot of money, so is it worth the money? There should be more hours and do it effectively or cut it out altogether.

- Jongmin: Oftentimes the English teaching focuses on grammar.

- Lourdes: If they start teaching students when they're young, it’s important for the it to be age appropriate, with pictures, hands on activities, fun, appropriate vocabulary and methodology.

- Jongmin: Children are shy and will try to talk. On the other hand, adults are more afraid of making mistakes.

- Early learning: Shay thinks parents should support the kids learning English, e.g. reading English to their kids.

- Lourdes: Is “bad pronunciation” contagious?

- Another issue is maybe at home they need support for the L1 language and culture.

- When parents try to be teachers to their kids there are sometimes problems. (e.g. sometimes kids resent it).

Thursday, August 30

- Announcement: On the Thursday when Dr. Ortega is away at a conference (Sept. 13), we’ll go into the computer lab. Ky, Nick, and Ben can assist other students who need technological help in posting their profiles and/or pictures. We will also have a synchronous chat in which we will discuss some questions which Lourdes’ provides.

- A couple of interesting points about age and L2 learning:
- accent likely after age 4-5
- subtle grammar differences if learn English as late as 15 years old

- Forecasting L2 attainment: I liked the analogy she made to weather forecasting, i.e. we can say what is probable, but we don’t know for certain because there are exceptions. In other words, starting late doesn’t necessarily preclude success and vice versa.

- When is puberty? A point that I found interesting was the variable of puberty. Lourdes pointed out that many researchers refer to the differences when learning an L2 prior to or after the onset of puberty. However, puberty occurs at different times for different individuals. Therefore, this introduces some error. Would it be better if researchers included a question about when the participants experienced puberty?

- The monolingual bias: In the case of the phenomenal language learner Julie, the British woman who attained possibly a native level of proficiency in Arabic whilst living in Cairo, Egypt with her husband, we don’t know whether Julie had studied another language prior to learning Arabic. From what Lourdes said, I don’t think that the research report actually states this specifically, but there seems to be a monolingual bias, i.e. we assume that she was a monolingual person with English as her L1. Although, as an educated woman from the U.K., she probably had some prior language learning experience, e.g. at least some French in school.

- Is younger better? A comment which Dr. Schmidt mentioned in his Brown Bag on Thursday and Lourdes agreeably reiterated in our class is that the idea of younger is better has been oversold. When a student asked why this is the case, Lourdes explained that it seems intuitive that if you start learning a language younger, that you would acquire greater competence. As we know from research, however, this issue is rather complex and involves many variables. Although Muñoz’s recent research in Cataluña showed that the foreign language learners with a young start did not have an advantage even after several years, Lourdes added that we need more research and that it would be beneficial to do the same study in Japan and Korea.

- A call for research: This reminded me that research from professors and graduates of our program are expected to undertake groundbreaking research in the field of second language studies.

- Long-term language planning: It was also pointed out that long term language planning is essential in order to reap the benefits. For example, young learners might initially gain foreign language skills, but if instruction is not sustained throughout the student’s education, what was learned could gradually evaporate. Providing appropriately challenging material throughout is necessary as well because it would be demotivating if some students had already learned the material covered in class.

- BICS and CALP: BICS = Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills and CALP = Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (Cummins ’79). CALP actually takes about 5-7 years to attain. Such research provides support for the importance of multiple years of academic assistance for English language learners and warns against mainstreaming them too soon.

- Academic English in elementary school: Lourdes mentioned that the fourth grade in U.S. schools suddenly becomes more academically demanding. Consequently, at this time, English language learners’ deficiency in CALP may become more apparent.

- Biased linguistic expectations: Lourdes brought up an interesting point about how there are different expectations for a Japanese person learning English versus a person with English as their L1 learning Japanese. Interesting point. Many people think this way. Why? And is it fair?

* A note about formatting on this site: Don't spend too much time making your text look fancy on Microsoft Word because when you copy and paste it onto the blog site, it did not show what I had underlined and made bold. However, there are useful and easy to use editing options on the window where you edit your posting.

Reading Preview: Chapter 2: Age

READING PREVIEW

CHAPTER 2: AGE

Summary:

L1 and L2 learning outcomes vary greatly in terms of age. One of the major focuses of SLA research has been to gain insight into the relationship between age and L2 acquisition in an effort to answer the question “is there an optimal age to learn a second language?” Empirical studies of the age factor in SLA have yielded a wide range of results, some suggesting that age is a universal, biological factor in L2 acquisition, others concluding that individual and social factors are involved. Further research in this area is necessary because evidence of a connection (or not) between age and L2 acquisition can guide language and educational policies, in particular, bilingual education policies.

Key Concepts:

• The critical period hypothesis suggests that after a certain age, it is impossible to achieve native-like ultimate attainment in the L2. Studies of feral children and deaf individuals who experienced postponed L1 acquisition suggest that a critical or sensitive period indeed exists for L1 acquisition. Likewise, biologically based critical periods are present in other species (eg. kittens, ducks, owls). Acquisition of syntactic and semantic functions of language is fundamentally different; research shows that syntax involves a critical period whereas semantics does not. However, neurocognitive studies of language and the brain are difficult to interpret in terms of a critical period for language learning.
• Research suggests that adolescents and adults acquire an L2 at a faster pace, but that children eventually “catch up” and surpass the older learners. A possible explanation for this could be that learning contexts (naturalistic vs. instructed, foreign language vs. second language) influence the frequency and type of L2 input, in turn affecting universal factors such as age.
• Correlation studies looking at age show that learners who begin acquiring their L2 before puberty are more successful in achieving ultimate attainment. However, exceptionally successful late L2 learners who begin learning their L2 in their 20s or later and indeed achieve a native-like final state in terms of L2 phonology and morphosyntax do exist, and may even be more common than previously thought. This evidence challenges the critical period hypothesis. Other findings reveal that the age factor is not influenced by biology or nature, but rather socio-affective and environmental factors.

Reflecion:

This chapter definitely cleared up some confusion that I had about age and language learning. Until now, I thought that there was a much stronger body of evidence in favor of the critical period hypothesis. I was expecting to read about more clear-cut findings saying that, basically, children acquire language more quickly and with greater ease, therefore, “the earlier, the better.” And now I see that there’s a lot of counter-evidence and many questions that still need answers. More empirical research in this area is necessary.

I found it interesting that in instructed, foreign language contexts late starters (11 years old) actually achieved better learning results than early starters (8 years old). This underscores the importance of context and illustrates that, like many theories and implications coming from SLA, there is no “one size fits all” solution.

I didn’t find any parts of the chapter particularly confusing or difficult to follow, but there are a lot of examples from research studies both for and against a critical period or age factor throughout the reading. I think it would be helpful to start by reading the summary and then go to the beginning of the chapter…hopefully the reading previews will help too!

Pre-Reading Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Pre-Reading Material

Chapter two focuses on the age factor on language acquisition. It will closely look at the relationship between age and L2 acquisition. There have been many contrasting views and findings. Even those with neuro-scientific research have contrasting views, therefore it is difficult to pin point a specific answer.

The age hypothesis states that there is a critical period for L1 acquisition and consequently for L2 acquisition is considered to be true, however this chapter gives the reader a different perspective on the critical and sensitive period.

The chapter also covers the possibilities of attaining a high level of proficiency in a person L2 language based on age. Is it only possible to gain mother-like fluency when a learner starts early? Or are people capable and able to obtain proficiency from a much later age?

It is widely believed that L2 learning in children is done effortlessly. However, the question is about the rate in which the learner learns the language. This chapter will look into the advantages of learning L2 as an adult.

There is section on age and L2 morphosyntax as well as a section titled evidence on L2 morphosyntax from cognitive neuroscience. Make sure that you turn to the end of the chapter for the tables. They are helpful in understanding the concept of the section.

One helpful hint is to not get tied down with the different names of researchers. There are many names that appear in this chapter. A suggestion would be to skim over the names and only re-read the names of the researcher who’s idea interest you. It will make the reading process smoother than getting into each and every researchers name.

Finally, reading the summary first will also help you guide through the reading material. The summary is located at the end of the chapter in section 2.11.

Welcome to the SLA class (fall 2007)

Welcome to the SLA class of fall 2007

I have created this blog so we can all post messages for the class whenever we have information to share, and for certain assignments in this class, which we will do on this blog.

I hope you all enjoy contributing to the class blog.