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Guiding Questions 3

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18 views3 pages

Guiding Questions 3

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lennardgregor
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University of Potsdam

Department of English and American Studies


Approaches to SLA

Functional Approaches

Read the literature (Saville-Troike & Barto 2017: 56-66). On that basis, prepare some
notes regarding the following questions.

1. On Functional Linguistics (and SLA)


a. What are general differences between structuralist/formalist linguistics and
functionalist linguistics? If necessary, consult further sources. You may, for
instance, return to Kortmann (2020: 5-20).
External focus on language teaching
-language as a system of communication
-form follows function
b. What is a linguistic ‘function’?
a term with several meanings
structural function: The role which elements of a language play as a
subject or object , or as an actor or goal
pragmatic function: what the use of language can accomplish, such as
convey information, control others’ behaviour or express emotion
c. What are general features and assumptions of functional(-linguistic)
approaches to SLA?
Chomsky: Focus on language in real life situations (Performance) and
underlying knowledge (competence)
-Purpose of language is communication and development of linguistic
knowledge need communicative use

2. On Systemic Linguistics and Function-to-Form Mapping


a. Who are central figures and/or proponents of these approaches?
A model for analysing language in terms of the interrelated systems of choices that
are available for expressing meaning
Learning language is learning how to mean (learning language needs to be seen as
mastery of linguistic functions and learning use of language)

Function-to-Form: Description and analysis of interlanguage

b. Which pragmatic functions do Systemic Linguists propose to be acquired


during L1 acquisition?
Halliday (1975):

Instrumental- language used as means of getting things done (I “want”)


Regulatory- language used to regulate others’ behaviour (“do as I tell you”)
Interactional- language use in interaction between self and others (me and you)
Personal- language as a form of one’s own identity (here I come)
Heuristic – language as a way of learning about things (tell me why)
Imagination- creation of a world of one’s own meaning (let’s pretend)
Representational- expressing propositions/ communicating about something
(I’ve got something to tell you)
c. What does SLA entail, according to Systemic Linguistics?
SLA is adding multilingual meaning potential to what has already been
achieved in L1
d. Explain in how far language acquisition can be understood to entail a
grammaticalization process.
A developmental process in which a grammatical function is first conveyed by
shared extralinguistic knowledge and inferencing based on the context of
discourse, then by a lexical word and only later by a grammatical marker

Bardovi-Harlig: there are three steps of expressing for example past:


Context – lexical means – grammatical means
e. In how far does the distinction between pragmatic and syntactic modes of
expression fit with this?
Givon: it is not a binary distinction, but differences between those two poles
are:
Pragmatic: conveying information while relying on context (beginning of
learning)
Syntactic: conveying information while relying on grammatical means
(end point of learning)
Other differences: pragmatic uses more extralinguistic means and speak fairly
slow

3. On Functional Typology
a. What is the goal of linguistic typology?
Classification of language and their features into categories with the goal being
to describe patterns of similarities and differences among them and to
determine what patterns and typed occur more or less frequently or are
universal in distribution
b. Explain the notion of linguistic ‘markedness’, and provide one example each for
‘marked’ and ‘unmarked’ linguistic features.
Classification of languages according to whether a specific feature occurs more
frequently than a contrasting element in the same category, is less complex
structurally or conceptually or is more “normal” or “expected” along some
dimensions.
SVO is more common than SOV so SVO is relatively unmarked and SOV is
marked
c. How does the notion of ‘markedness’ relate to SLA?
Unmarked elements are more likely to be acquired than marked elements
since they are less complex and more expected, thus they are easier to learn
in the L2
d. What does Eckman’s Markedness Differential Hypothesis propose?
Unmarked features in L1 are more likely to transfer to L2 and marked features
in L2 will be harder to learn
e. In how far does the MDH constitute a development of the Contrastive Analysis
Hypothesis?
Comparison between elements of different languages in order to predict and
explain transfer to L2
4. On Information Organization
a. Who are central proponents of this approach?
How sentences and larger linguistic units are structured as a means of
conveying information from speaker/writer to hearer/reader
The way language learners put their words together
b. Briefly summarise the European Science Foundation project.

c. What developmental levels (of interlanguage) are proposed by this approach?

d. What is the ‘Basic Variety’, and how does it connect to the developmental
levels?
A development at which L2 learners have constructed an interlanguage
grammar consisting of infinitival verbs and during which there is an increasing
use of grammatical relators such as preposition.
e. How does ‘grammaticalisation’ connect to the developmental levels?

f. How may the order of the developmental levels, and differences in learner
success, be explained?

Nominal utterance organization: basically noun phrases, that are loosely connected

Ifinite utterance organization: slowly add verbs, yet mostly the infinitve (uninflected)
basic variety (enough knowledge to formulate sentences)

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