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Introduction - Describing and Explaining L2 Acquisition

This document discusses two case studies of second language acquisition. The first is of an adult Japanese learner of English named Wes over three years. The second examines two child learners - a Portuguese boy and Pakistani boy - learning English requests. Both case studies show learners acquiring language systematically through item and system learning. They follow developmental patterns but don't fully reach native-level performance, possibly due to needing more time or other factors. The case studies examine important methodological, descriptive, and explanatory issues in studying second language acquisition.

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215 views2 pages

Introduction - Describing and Explaining L2 Acquisition

This document discusses two case studies of second language acquisition. The first is of an adult Japanese learner of English named Wes over three years. The second examines two child learners - a Portuguese boy and Pakistani boy - learning English requests. Both case studies show learners acquiring language systematically through item and system learning. They follow developmental patterns but don't fully reach native-level performance, possibly due to needing more time or other factors. The case studies examine important methodological, descriptive, and explanatory issues in studying second language acquisition.

Uploaded by

Kha Wla
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Name : Dyah Arista Pradikawati

NIM : 2201411066
Rombel : 103-104

Introduction: describing and explaining L2 acquisition


What is Second Language Acquisition?
L2 acquisition can be defined as the way in which people learn a language other than
their mother tounge, inside or outside of a classroom.

What are the goals of SLA?


One of the goal of SLA is 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. The goals of SLA, then, are to describe how L2 acquisition proceeds and to
explain this proces and why some learners seem to be better than others. How SLA researcher
have set about trying to achieve these goals we will now examine two case studies of L2
learners.

Two case studies

A case study of an adult learner


Wes was a 33 years old artist, a native speaker of Japanese. He is an example of
naturalistic – someone who learns the language at the same time as learning to commnicate in it.
Ricard schmidt, a researcher at the University of Hawaii, studied Wes’s language
development over a three years period from the time he first started visiting Hawaii until he took
up residence there. First, schmidt asked Wes to make recordings in English in his informal
conversation. Then, Schmidt was interested in how Wes’s knowledge of English grammar
developed over the three years. Wes could already use some of the feature with native-like
acuracy at the beginning of his study. However, Wes had not really acquire these. .
However, Wes developed in other ways. For example, his use of formulas-fixed
expressions. Wes became quite skilled conversationalist, very effective at negotiating complex
business deals in English and even able to give talks about his painting in English. He was also
higly skilled at repairing commnication breakdowns.

A case study of two child learners


J was a ten years old Portuguese boy. R was eleven years old boy from Pakistan,
speaking (but unable to write) Punjabi as his native language. Both learner was learning English
in a language unit in London. The writer wanted to find out how the two learners acquired the
ability to perform request for service and goods.
The two learners appeared to develop in the same way. Initially, their request was
verbless. A little later, they began to use imperative verbs in their request
Give me.
Some time after this, they learn to use Can I have.......................?
Name : Dyah Arista Pradikawati
NIM : 2201411066
Rombel : 103-104

A number of point emerge from this. One is both learners were capable of successfully
performing simple requests even when they knew very little English. Another is they acquired
alternative ways of performing them. Third, many of their requests seemed formulaic in nature.
Fourth, both learners progressed in much the same way despite the fact that they had different
native language.
However, their request tended to be very direct throughout, whereas native speakers would tend
to use indirect request.
These case studies show us, first, they raise a number of important methodological
issues relating to how L2 acquisition should be studied. Second, they raise issues relating to the
description of learner language. Third, they point to some of the problems researcher experience
in trying to explain L2 acquisition.

Methodological issues
Schmidt, like many other researcher, defines acquisition in term of whether the learners
manifest pattern of language use that are more or less the same as native speakers of the target
language.There is another problem in determining whether learner have acquired a particular
feature. Learners may acquire the feature, but they cannot use the feature prodctively. A third
problem in trying to measure whether acquisition has taken place concerns learners’ overuse of
linguistic forms.

Issues in the description of learner language


One finding is that learners make errors of different kinds, for example, errors of
ommision and overuse, and grammatical errors in their request. Another finding is that L2
learners acquire a large number of formulaic chunks, which they use to perform commnicative
function that are important to them and which contribute to the fluency of their unplanned
speech. Next, the issue is whether learners acquire the language systematically. According to
Wes, J, and R, suggest that learners acquire aspect of an L2 systematically, moreover, that they
follow particular developmental routes, with some features being acquired before others.

Issues in the explanation of L2 acquisition


We can begin these descriptive finding with the hypothesis that L2 acquisition involves
different kinds of learning. Learners must engage in both item learning an system learning. When
the learners learn the expression ‘Can I have....? they are engaging in item learning. When they
learn that can is followed by a variety of verbs and that it can express a variety of functions.
They are engaging in system learning.
The systematic nature of L2 acquisition also requires axplanation. One is that learners
follow a particular developmental pattern because their mental faculties are structured in such a
way that this is the way they have to learn.
None of the three learners in the two case studies reached a native speakers level of
performance. There are some possibility that cause the problem. One possibility is that they
needed more time to learn, and many other.

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