Kasdi Merbah University – Ouargla

Faulty of Letters and Languages

Domain: Lettres et langues étrangères
Department of Letters and English Language
_______

A Course in Applied Linguistics

Module: applied linguistics
Speciality: linguistics
Level: Master 1

Author: Dr. Touria Drid

Academic Year: 2019-2020

 Prepared by: Dr. Touria Drid (Kasdi Merbah University, Algeria)

Kasdi Merbah University – Ouargla

Faulty of Letters and Languages
Domain: Lettres et langues étrangères
Department of Letters and English Language
_______

A Course in Applied Linguistics

Module: applied linguistics
Speciality: linguistics
Level: Master 1

Author: Dr. Touria Drid

Academic Year: 2019-2020

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 Prepared by: Dr. Touria Drid (Kasdi Merbah University, Algeria)

Course Description

Introductory in purpose, A Course in Applied Linguistics is an annual series of lectures for Master

1 students of linguistics. This two-semester course is designed to provide instructional material for 22

weeks with one class per week. Each lesson contains content material for reading. It provides its target

audience with the preliminaries of this discipline. The course prerequisites include fundamental

knowledge about the linguistics (the scientific study of language), its micro- and macro- branches and a

clear idea about the most important linguistic theories. What is emphasized in the present course is the

application contexts of this discipline, and since language teaching and learning are the central areas of

application, most lectures focus on these particular contexts and provide in-depth discussions of complex

issues in them. The core content of the course appears in the form of theoretical lectures. Basic and extra-

reading materials are provided for further elaboration on specific topics. This would enhance the students’

autonomy in learning. Student presentations, book chapter summaries and critical discussions are also

included as modes of instruction.

I. Goals

This course aims at giving the student a comprehensive introduction into the different aspects of

applied linguistics. The lectures constituting this course cover a wide range of themes in applied

linguistics. This is to equip the Master students with the required background knowledge on applied

linguistics itself and on its major areas of research. This would function as a pedagogical support for them

as future practitioners in various professional contexts, especially language teaching, and as prospective

researchers. Additionally, the course prepares the learners to develop a research topic for their Master

dissertation.

II. Objectives

Upon completing the applied linguistics course, students are expected to:

- Understand the senses and views of applied linguistics,

- Have a clear understanding of its historical development,

- Know about the branches of applied linguistics,

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- Reach a thorough understanding of the major issues of first and second language learning,

- Establish the connection between applied linguistics and second / foreign language teaching,

- Demonstrate understanding of the techniques of applied linguistics.

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Official Syllabus

Intitulé du Master : LINGUISTICS

Semestre: 1, 2, 3 Applied Linguistics
Intitulé de l’UE : Fondamentale
Crédits : 6
Coefficients : 3

Objectifs de l’enseignement
- Amener les étudiants chercheurs à tenter une réflexion approfondie sur les sujets
abordés par cette discipline et les questions qu’elle se pose.
Connaissances préalables recommandées (descriptif succinct des connaissances requises
pour pouvoir suivre cet enseignement – Maximum 2 lignes).

- connaissances en langue anglaise ;

- connaissances générales en linguistique théorique ;
- connaissances notionnelles en linguistique appliquée ;

Applied Linguistics:
1/ What is applied Linguistics
2/ Different Trends in Applied Linguistics
3/ Applied Linguistic subfields
4/ Issues in Applied Linguistics
5/Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching/Learning
6/SL Acquisition
7/Applied Linguistics and FL teacher education
9/Language varieties
10/Language testing

Mode d’évaluation : TST 60% –EC20% - EXPOSE 20%

Références:

Allen, J. P. B. and Corder, S. P. (1973 -1975) The Edinburgh Course in Applied

Linguistics. Vols. 1/3, London: OUP.
Arcaini, E. (1972) Principes de linguistique appliquée. Paris: Payot.
Cook, G. and Seidlhofer, B. (eds.) (1995) Principle and practice in Applied Linguistics.
Oxford: OUP.
Corder, S. P. (1973) Introducing Applied Linguistics. Middlesex: Penguin Books.
Davies, A. (2007) An Introduction to Applied Linguistics: From Practice to Theory.
Edinburgh University Press
McCarthy, M. (2001) Issues in Applied Linguistics. Cambridge: CUP
McNamara T. F. (1997) ‘Interaction in second language performance assessment: Whose
performance?’ Applied Linguistics, Vol. 18, No 4, p. 446.
Munby, J. (1978) Communicative Syllabus Design. Cambridge: CUP
Sealy, A. & Carter, B (2004) Applied Linguistics as Social Science. Cotinuum.
Wardhaugh, R and Brown, H. D. (eds.) (1976) A Survey of Applied Linguistics. Ann
Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Widdowson, H. G. (1979) Explorations in Applied Linguistics. Oxford: OUP.
Widdowson, H. G. (1983) Learning Purpose and Language Use. London: OUP.

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Detailed Syllabus

Theme N°
Month

Week Theme Course Objectives Delivery

Oct. 1 1 Defining Applied - To distinguish between applied Lecture

Linguistics linguistics and theoretical linguistics
- To distinguish between the broad
and narrow senses of applied
linguistics
- To understand the scope
(application contexts) of applied
linguistics
2 2 Views on Applied - To demonstrate understanding of Lecture
Linguistics the three senses of applied linguistics
3 History of Applied - To demonstrate understanding of Lecture
Linguistics (part 1) the origins and main phases marking
the history of applied linguistic
research
4 History of Applied - To demonstrate understanding of Lecture
Linguistics (part 2) the origins and main phases marking
the history of applied linguistic
research
Nov. 5 3 Language Teaching - To show understanding the senses Chapter
and Learning: of some basic technical terms in the summary
Terminological field of language teaching and and
Distinctions (part 1) learning: discussion
1. First Language / Second Language
2. Bilingualism
3. Second / Foreign Language
4. Language Learning
5. Language Teaching
6 Language Teaching - To show understanding the senses Chapter
and Learning: of some basic technical terms in the summary
Terminological field of language teaching and and
Distinctions (part 2) learning: discussion
1. First Language / Second Language
2. Bilingualism
3. Second / Foreign Language
4. Language Learning
5. Language Teaching
7 Language Teaching - To show understanding the senses Chapter
and Learning: of some basic technical terms in the summary
Terminological field of language teaching and and
Distinctions (part 3) learning: discussion
1. First Language / Second Language
2. Bilingualism
3. Second / Foreign Language
4. Language Learning
5. Language Teaching

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8 4 Applied Linguistics - To demonstrate understanding of Lecture

and Language the position and contribution of
Teaching applied linguistics and language
teaching
- To distinguish the levels of the total
language teaching operation
Dec. 9 5 Introduction to - To understand the goal, methods of Lecture
First Language research, characteristics and stages of
Acquisition (part 1) first language acquisition

10 Introduction to - To understand the goal, methods of Lecture

First Language research, characteristics and stages of
Acquisition (part 2) first language acquisition

Winter leave
Winter leave
Jan. First Semester Examinations
First Semester Examinations
First Semester Examinations
11 6 Theories of First - To demonstrate understanding of Lecture
Language the major theories explaining first
Acquisition (part 1) language acquisition:
1. Behaviourism
2. Nativism
3.Connectionism
4. Social Interactionism
Feb. 12 Theories of First - To demonstrate understanding of Lecture
Language the major theories explaining first
Acquisition (part 2) language acquisition:
1. Behaviourism
2. Nativism
3.Connectionism
4. Social Interactionism
13 7 Introduction to - To have an idea about origins of Lecture
Second Language research in SLA
Acquisition (part 1) - To distinguish the stages of SLA
- To demonstrate understanding of
the Individual Differences as factors
influencing SLA: first language, age,
aptitude, motivation, learning style,
personality, gender, etc
14 Introduction to - To have an idea about origins of Text
Second Language research in SLA reading and
Acquisition (part 2) - To distinguish the stages of SLA discussion
- To demonstrate understanding of
the Individual Differences as factors
influencing SLA: first language, age,
aptitude, motivation, learning style,
personality, gender, etc

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15 Theories of Second - To know about the theories of Lecture

Language second language acquisition and the
Acquisition ( part 1) relationships/ contrasts between
them: behaviourism, cognition-
oriented theories, context-oriented
theories
Mar. 16 Theories of Second - To know about the theories of Lecture
Language second language acquisition and the
Acquisition (part 2) relationships/ contrasts between
them: behaviourism, cognition-
oriented theories, context-oriented
theories
17 8 SLA and Second - To draw a connection between Lecture
Language Pedagogy second language pedagogy and SLA
(part 1) - to demonstrate understanding of the
major language teaching methods:
1. Grammar translation
2. the direct method
3. the audio-lingual method
4. community language
learning
5. the silent way
6. (de)suggestopedia
7. total physical response
(TPR)
8. communicative language
teaching (CLT)
9. task-based instruction
10. content-based instruction
11. eclecticism
Spring leave
Spring leave
Apr. 18 SLA and Second - To draw a connection between second Lecture
Language Pedagogy language pedagogy and SLA
(part 2) - To demonstrate understanding of the
major language teaching methods:
1. Grammar translation
2. the direct method
3. the audio-lingual method
4. community language learning
5. the silent way
6. (de)suggestopedia
7. total physical response (TPR)
8. communicative language
teaching (CLT)
9. task-based instruction
10. content-based instruction
11. eclecticism
19 Contrastive - To demonstrate understanding of the Lecture
Analysis (part 1) technique of contrastive analysis, its
methodology, criticism and implications
for SLA

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20 Contrastive - To demonstrate understanding of the Lecture

Analysis (part 2) technique of contrastive analysis, its
methodology, criticism and implications
for SLA
21 Error Analysis To demonstrate understanding of the Lecture
(part 1) technique of error analysis, its
methodology and implications for SLA
May 22 Error Analysis To demonstrate understanding of the Lecture
(part 2) technique of error analysis, its
methodology and implications for SLA
Second Semester Examinations

Second Semester Examinations

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Contents

Course Description ..................................................................................................... 02

Official syllabus .......................................................................................................... 04
Detailed Syllabus ........................................................................................................ 05
Contents …………………………………………………………………………….. 09
Abbreviations ............................................................................................................. 13
General Introduction ……………………………………………………………… 14
PART ONE: PRELIMINARIES ............................................................................ 16
Lecture 1: Defining Applied Linguistics …………………………………………. 17
I. Nature of Applied Linguistics …………………………………………………….. 17
II. The Narrow Sense ……………………………………………………………….. 18
III. The Broad Sense ………………………………………………………………… 18
Lecture 2: Views on Applied Linguistics …………………………………………. 23
I. Linguistics Applied (The Pro-Linguistics View) …………………………………. 23
II. The Applied Linguistics View …………………………………………………… 24
III. Autonomous Applied Linguistics ………………………………………………. 25
Lecture 3: History of Applied Linguistics ……………………………………….. 27
I. Applied Linguistics in Ancient Times ……………………………………………. 27
II. The European Origins of Early Applied Linguistics ……………………………. 28
III. Early Applied Linguistics in the United States …………………………………. 28
IV. The Growth of Applied Linguistics …………………………………………….. 29
V. Trends and Perspectives in the 1990s and the 2000s ………………………….. 30
PART TWO: LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING ............................... 34
Lecture 4: Language Teaching and Learning: Terminological Distinctions ...... 35
I. First Language and Second Language ..................................................................... 35
II. Bilingualism ........................................................................................................... 36
III. Second Vs Foreign Language .............................................................................. 37
IV. Language Learning ............................................................................................... 38
V. Language Teaching ................................................................................................. 38
Lecture 5: Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching ………………………... 40
I. Language Teaching: Guided or Free? …………………………………………….. 40
II. The Total Language Teaching Operation (TLTO) ………………………………. 40
III. Hierarchy of Planning and Decision-Making in the TLTO .…………………….. 41
A. Level One …………………………………………………………………... 42
B. Level Two ………………………………………………………………….. 42

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C. Level Three ………………………………………………………………… 43

Lecture 6: Introduction to First Language Acquisition ....................................... 44
I. The Goal of Acquisition …………………………………………........................... 44
II. Gathering Data on First Language Acquisition ....................................................... 45
III. General Characteristics of First language Acquisition .......................................... 46
IV. Reading assignment: Stages of First Language Acquisition ................................. 46
Lecture 7: Theories of First Language Acquisition ................................................ 49
I. Behaviourism ………………………………………………………………............ 49
A. John B. Watson (1878–1958) …………………………………………….... 49
B. Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904–1990) .......................................................... 50
II. Nativism ……………………………………………………………….................. 51
III. Connectionism ………………………………………………………………....... 53
IV. Social Interactionism …………………………………………............................. 54
Lecture 8: Introduction to Second Language Acquisition ............................... 56
I. Origins of Research in SLA ……………………………………………………… 56
II. Stages of SLA ………………………………………………………………......... 56
A. The Silent Period ………………………………………………………….... 56
B. Formulaic Speech ........................................................................................... 57

C. Structural and Semantic Simplifications ........................................................ 57

III. Individual Differences and SLA ........................................................................... 58
A. First Language ................................................................................................ 58
B. Age ................................................................................................................. 59
C. Aptitude .......................................................................................................... 60
D. Motivation ..................................................................................................... 60
E. Learning Style ................................................................................................ 60
F. Personality ..................................................................................................... 60
G. Gender ............................................................................................................ 62
Lecture 9: Theories of Second Language Acquisition ........................................... 63
I. Behaviourism ........................................................................................................... 63
II. Cognition Vs Context-Oriented Theories ............................................................... 64
A. Cognition-oriented theories ............................................................................ 64
1. The Creative Construction Hypothesis (Interlanguage Theory) ........ 64
2. The Input Hypothesis (The Monitor Model) ........................................ 65
3. The Universal Grammar Hypothesis .................................................... 65
B. Context-Oriented Theories ............................................................................ 66
1. The Interaction Hypothesis ................................................................ 66

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2. The Output Hypothesis ...................................................................... 67

3. The Scaffolding Hypothesis ............................................................... 68
4. The Acculturation Model and Social Identity Theory ...................... 68
Lecture 10: SLA and Second Language Pedagogy ............................................ 71
I. Traditional Methods ............................................................................................. 71
A. The Grammar-Translation Method ............................................................. 71
B. The Direct Method ....................................................................................... 71
II. Later Developments: The Age of Methods .......................................................... 72
A. The Audio-Lingual Method ......................................................................... 72
B. Cognitive and Humanistic Approaches ........................................................ 72
1. Community Language Learning .......................................................... 72
2. The Silent Way .................................................................................... 73
3. (De)suggestopedia ............................................................................... 73
4. Total Physical Response (TPR) .......................................................... 74
C. The Modern Era ............................................................................................ 74
1. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) ....................................... 74
2. Task-Based Instruction ....................................................................... 74
3. Content-Based Instruction .................................................................. 75
PART THREE: TECHNIQUES IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS ........................... 77
Lecture 11: Contrastive Analysis ......................................................................... 78
I. Definition and Objectives ..................................................................................... 78
II. Language Transfer .............................................................................................. 79
A. Definition .................................................................................................. 79
B. Types ......................................................................................................... 79
III. The Contrastive Analysis Refuted (Criticism) .................................................. 80
A. The Learner's Exclusion ............................................................................ 80
B. The Faulty Predictions ............................................................................... 81
1. Underprediction .................................................................................. 81
2. Overprediction .................................................................................... 81
3. Indeterminate Predictions ................................................................... 82
IV. The Strong Vs the Weak Claims of Contrastive Analysis ................................. 82
A. The Strong Claim ....................................................................................... 82
B. The Weak Claim ........................................................................................ 82
Lecture 12: Error Analysis .................................................................................... 84
I. Definition ............................................................................................................ 84
II. EA Theoretical Foundations ............................................................................... 84

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A. Status of Errors .......................................................................................... 84

B. Mentalistic Orientation ............................................................................. 85
III. Objectives of EA .............................................................................................. 85
A. Developmental Error Analysis .................................................................. 86
B. Remedial Error Analysis .......................................................................... 86
IV. Competence Vs Performance Errors ................................................................ 86
A. Errors ........................................................................................................ 87
B. Mistakes .................................................................................................... 87
V. Methodology in Error Analysis ......................................................................... 87
A. Identification of Errors .............................................................................. 87
B. Description of Errors ................................................................................. 88
C. Explanation of Errors ................................................................................ 89
D. Evaluation of Errors ................................................................................. 89
E. Correction of Errors .................................................................................. 90
IV. Criticism of EA .................................................................................................. 91
General Bibliography ................................................................................................ 93
Glossary .................................................................................................................. 96

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Abbreviations

AL : Applied linguistics
B.C.E. : Before the Common Era
BASIC: British American Scientific International Commercial
CA: Contrastive analysis
CAH: Contrastive analysis hypothesis
CDS: Child-directed speech
CLT: Communicative language teaching
EA: Error analysis
EAP: English for academic purposes
EFL: English as a foreign language
ELI: English language institute
EOP: English for academic
ESL : English as a second language
ESP: English for academic
FL: Foreign language
i+1: Comprehensible input
IL: Interlanguage
L1: First language
L2: Second language
LAD: Language acquisition device
LASS: Language acquisition support system
M1: Master one
R: Operant response or behaviour
S
R: Reinforcing stimulus
SD: Discriminative stimulus
SL: Second language
SLA: Second language acquisition
TEFL: Teaching English as a foreign language
TL: Target language
TLTO: The total language teaching operation
TPR: Total physical response
UG Universal grammar

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General Introduction

For a novice, the term “applied linguistics” suggests no more than applying the findings of

linguistics for some well-defined purpose. However, probing deeply into this discipline, one would

encounter, in the first place, a multitude of senses of the term. In the second place, its theoretical feeding

sources will be found to extend far beyond linguistics. Also, an infinite range of application areas can be

identified within it. On this basis, students seeking expertise knowledge on applied linguistics need to be

provided with an unambiguous picture on its wide-ranging, interdisciplinary scope and its controversial

defining aspects. Courses in applied linguistics generally attempt to demystify the field and present the

application areas as well as the theoretical and methodological perspectives in an evenly balanced way.

That is, they present it to a general audience, without any special emphasis being placed on a given

context over the others. A Course in Applied Linguistics differs slightly from this perspective, for it tries

to practically serve the needs of a particular audience, fulfilling the “fitness of purpose” principle.

The present course is designed for the first-year Master students of linguistics at Kasdi Merbah

University, Ouargla, Algeria. These EFL learners have received a three-year non-specialized BA course

in English, built on a number of content and language subjects, such as literature, civilization, linguistics,

phonetics, didactics; written comprehension and expression, oral expression, etc. The BA curriculum

provides them with requisite knowledge which permits them to specialize in one of the Master streams

later. Considering the professional sectors the target audience can choose, most of them choose to teach

English either at public middle or secondary schools or at private schools. Additionally, a number of them

aim at enrolling in doctoral programmes in applied linguistics or didactics. Given such needs, the present

course has been structured in such a way that it firstly introduces the field and then focuses mostly on

language learning and teaching issues.

A Course in Applied Linguistics encompasses three main sections. The first part, “preliminaries”,

presents applied linguistics as a problem-driven discipline and discusses thoroughly all the controversies

related to the fuzziness of the term itself. Next, it proceeds to shed light on the phases of its evolution

over more thant a century of existence. Most importantly, this section offers an overall map, which

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delineates the scope of applied linguistics by presenting an array of real-life contexts where the applied

linguist may contribute to the resolution of some language-related problems. Last but not least, it

discusses the major views available in the literature on the relationship between linguistics and applied

linguistics. The second part, “Language teaching and learning”, which is the longest, covers a wide range

of self-contained topics in applied linguistics, all of which tackle terminological, conceptual and

theoretical aspects of language learning and language teaching. The last part, “Techniques in applied

linguistics”, focuses on three main techniques that applied linguists have adopted, in a chronological

fashion, to explain second language learning and to derive implications of both theoretical and

pedagogical purposes. The three sections cover the first-year syllabus and are taught in two semesters.

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Part 1

Preliminaries

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Lecture 1: Defining Applied Linguistics

Introduction

Linguistic studies seek in the first place to understand the nature of language by following

scientific methodology. This pure interest in learning about all the micro- and macro- aspects of language

(structure, use, learning and interplay with other phenomena) is accompanied with a more practically-

oriented interest. The latter involves finding ways to use the accumulated theoretical body of knowledge

in some realistic way to resolve real life problems involving language. With this orientation to treating

language-related issues, applied linguistics is contrasted with theoretical linguistics.

•Theoretical •Applied
Linguistics undertandin Solving linguistics
g the nature language-
of language related
problems
producing
theoretical Using
knowledge theoretical
knowledge

Theoretical knowledge Resolving real life

- sounds
micro problems involving
- words
- sentences language
- meaning
- discourse

- language and mind

- language and society
macro - language and culture

Figure 1.1: Theoretical linguistics Vs applied linguistics

I. Nature of Applied Linguistics

Wie (2014) states that “Applied Linguistics can mean different things to different people, even

among those who would describe themselves as Applied Linguists” (p.2). Starting from this statement

one can understand that there is some fuzziness surrounding the nature of this discipline. However, there

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is a common core in defining it. Applied linguistics involves essentially the exploitation of theories

(originating from linguistics and other disciplines) to handle issues in multiple areas of language use.

Applied linguistics is applied in nature since it uses information from theoretical disciplines in order to

develop its own models. It mediates between language-related disciplines and professional practice. The

sense of this term has undergone some change in line with the continuous expansions of research in this

discipline. Groom and Littlemore (2011) explain how it started with a narrow focus and ended as a wide-

ranging discipline.

II. The Narrow Sense

In the narrow sense (which is the oldest sense), it is restricted only to the study of second and

foreign language learning and teaching. At its inception in the second half of the 20th century (1950s),

applied linguistics focused mainly on questions related to learning and teaching of foreign languages and

was meant directly at experienced language teachers wishing to do a master’s degree for reasons of

professional progress. At that time, programmes in applied linguistics were limited to courses on

pedagogical issues such as curriculum, syllabus and materials design, language teaching methodology,

classroom management and language skills, jointly with courses on pronunciation, language testing,

teacher education and so on. Linguistics, in this sense, seems to be the main contributing theoretical

discipline.

SL/FL learning &

linguistics applied linguistics
teaching

Figure 1.2: The narrow sense of applied linguistics

III. The Broad Sense

The traditional sense has now given way to a vaster signification. In its current usage it refers to

using knowledge about language to solve language problems in a wider range of areas. For example,

Grabe (2002) mentions some of the concerns of applied linguistics in this new outlook: “The focus of

applied linguistics is on trying to resolve language-based problems that people encounter in the real

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world, whether they be learners, teachers, supervisors, academics, lawyers, service providers, those who

need social services, test takers, policy developers, dictionary makers, translators, or a whole range of

business clients” (p.9). Many other linguists delineate the new scope of the field in a similar way:

“The theoretical and empirical investigation of real-world problems in which language is a central issue”

(Brumfit, 1997, p. 93)

“The study of language and linguistics in relation to practical problems” (Richards & Schmidt, 2002)

“Applied Linguistics is using what we know about (a) language, (b) how it is learned, and (c) how it is

used, in order to achieve some purpose or solve some problem in the real world” (Schmitt & Celce-

Murcia, 2002, p. 1).

In this perspective, the theoretical knowledge does not come only from linguistics (although

linguistics is the most important source) but can originate from other language-related fields, such as

biology, cultural studies, economics, education, philosophy, politics, sociology, psychology,

anthropology, and information theory among others. This makes applied linguistics eclectic and

interdisciplinary. The areas which may benefit from applied linguistic work are increasingly getting

wider and wider. Examples of such problem fields include, but are not limited, to the following: language

learning/ acquisition, language teaching, syllabus design, literacy, language contact, language policy and

planning, language assessment, language use, language and technology, translation and interpretation,

language pathology (speech therapy), lexicography (dictionary making), stylistics, sociolinguistics,

critical discourse analysis, bilingualism, deaf education, forensic linguistics. The figure below shows the

broad sense of applied linguistics.

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language
Sociology pathology

psychology lexicography

applied SL/FL learning

linguistics
linguistics & teaching

politics, . . . stylistics, . . .

Figure 1.3: The broad sense of applied linguistics

Groom and Littlemore (2011) divide the application areas into two gross categories: Pedagogically

focused research and Non-pedagogically focused research. This is shown in Figure 1.4.

Figure 1.4: Application areas in applied linguistics

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Conclusion

The double definition of applied linguistics may seem to be somewhat unnecessary. However, its

relevance is unquestioned because it essentially tells us about how applied linguistics has developed over

the years as an academic subject. One should not assume that there is a definite separation between the

two senses of applied linguistics today. It is important to know that for many, “applied linguistics” is still

used as an alternative term to TEFL, showing disagreement with the broader view. Nevertheless, it is

safe to say that the broader view of the field sketched out above is becoming more and more frequently

recognized at present.

Exercise

Read the extract below and try to explain how the applied linguist helped in resolving some real life

problem. Identify the following:

1. The real world problem (the area of application).

2. The type of theoretical research in linguistics which helped in solving the problem.

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Extracted from: Antony, A. M. “Applied linguistics: What does it mean? Its uses and limitations”.

Reading Assignment

Read Chapter 2 “Topics in applied linguistics” and summarize the type of research undertaken by applied

linguists in both pedagogically focused and non-pedagogically focused areas of research.

Reference: Groom, N. and Littlemore, J. (2011). Doing Applied Linguistics: A Guide for Students.

Routledge.

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Lecture 2: Views on Applied Linguistics

Introduction

The definition of applied linguistics implies the application of some theoretical knowledge to

solve real life problems. What is problematic is whether this knowledge comes from linguistics, from

other language-related disciplines or whether applied linguistics is a self-contained subject, which works

in an autonomous way. In this connection, the role and rapport between linguistics and applied linguistics

(AL) has been differently understood because of the vagueness of the term “applied linguistics”.

According to Berns and Matsuda (2010), three views are held vis-à-vis the nature of applied linguistics:

the linguistics applied view, the applied linguistics view and the autonomous view.

I. Linguistics Applied (The Pro-Linguistics View)

In this position, as the literal interpretation of the term “applied linguistics” suggests, applied

linguistics means the application of linguistic theories. Linguistics is regarded as the ‘parent’ discipline.

Widdowson (2000) explains “In the case of linguistics applied the assumption is that the problem can be

reformulated by the direct and unilateral application of concepts and terms deriving from linguistic

enquiry itself. That is to say, language problems are amenable to linguistics solutions” (p.5). It is

understood in this outlook that linguistics is the unique resource of theories that fulfill the objectives of

applied linguistics. Linguists offer descriptions of language with terms and concepts which are directly

appropriate for the resolution of real life problems in domains like language teaching, interpreting and

translating, lexicography and so on.

According to Davies and Elder (2004), this view came out from two traditions: (1) the European

philological tradition brought to the USA through scholars such as Roman Jakobson and (2) the North

American tradition of linguistic-anthropological field-work. This view was embraced by many subsequent

scholars. For instance, Robins (1971) claims “The teacher who understands and can make use of the

methods of scientific linguistics will find the task of presenting a language to his pupils very much

lightened and facilitated” (1971, p. 308). Brown (1987) takes a similar perspective “Applied linguistics

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has been considered a subset of linguistics for several decades, and it has been interpreted to mean the

applications of linguistics principles to certain more or less practical matters” (p. 147). Berns and

Matsuda (2010) mention other proponents like Michael Halliday, and Dell Hymes. By and large, this

stance holds that linguists are the sole contributors to applied linguistic work.

II. The Applied Linguistics View

The second view is known as the ‘applied linguistics’ position. It differs from the first view in

that the theoretical knowledge which the applied linguist uses is not obtained from linguistics alone but

extends to other relevant disciplines. Widdowson (2000) explains, “In the case of applied linguistics,

intervention is crucially a matter of mediation . . . applied linguistics . . . has to relate and reconcile

different representations of reality, including that of linguistics without excluding others” (p.5). In this

perspective, it is believed that the knowledge that a linguist provides is insufficient to solve problems. To

compensate for this shortage, the applied linguist resorts to other professionals, even beyond the academic

world. Wei (2014) states, “contemporary Applied Linguists feel free to draw on almost any field of

human knowledge, and use ideas from philosophy, education, sociology, feminism, Marxism and media

studies, to name a random few” (p.5). Davies and Elder (2004) show that Pit Corder was the leading

proponent of this view. In fact, he highlights the importance of linguistic findings while broadening the

theoretical resources to other disciplines. For Corder, the applied linguist is a consumer of theories

originating from linguistics and a number of other fields. Another figure is Peter Strevens, who was well-

known for his eclectic attitude. Smith (2019) sums up this position in the following words, “a less

linguistics-driven, more interdisciplinary and problem-oriented conception can be identified whereby

applied linguistics is seen as a kind of 'buffer zone' between practice and theory, and where the applied

linguist is seen as a mediator between practice and a variety of possible source disciplines, without

priority necessarily being given to linguistics” (online).

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III. Autonomous Applied Linguistics

The autonomous view, which is also called the independent view, sees that applied linguistics is a

self-contained discipline. It claims semi-autonomy, if not complete autonomy of applied linguistics from

the parent field of linguistics or any other source discipline, without denying that linguistics may be part

of applied linguistics. Smith (2019) explains that this trend supports the idea that applied linguistics

develops its own theories, descriptions and methods which are more needs-oriented and which do not

emanate from source disciplines. In his words “the applied linguist is no longer a consumer of theories or

descriptions in this conception but a producer of relevant theories on the basis of research (in relation to

language teaching, the growth of Second Language Acquisition as a field of applied linguistic research

perhaps best epitomizes this)” (online).

The three views are summarized in Figure 2.1 below:

1 2 3
Application of Application of Autonomous from
linguistics findings linguistic and non- linguistics and other
alone linguistic skills and disciplines
knowledge

Figure 2.1: Views on applied linguistics

Conclusion

Based on the previous discussion, it becomes obvious that dissimilar conceptualizations of

applied linguistics have developed over time and that the sense of applied linguistics has been under

almost continuous disagreement. When considering the three senses of applied linguistics, one can clearly

have an idea about the growth of linguistics itself and its expansion. Paradigm shifts in the study of

language, which resulted in the broadening of the scope of linguistics, together with the idea of

interdisciplinarity, have all led to the alteration of the sense of this term. In recent years, applied linguists

started to distinguish themselves from linguists and other specialists by claiming autonomy of their field.

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Such a tendency reflects the quick evolution of the field and suggests the beginning of a self-contained

area of research with unique theoretical foundations and practical tools of research.

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Lecture 3: The History of Applied Linguistics

Introduction

In a survey on the history of applied linguistics, Grabe (2010) presents a thorough picture on the

chronological line that applied linguistics has traced, which is discussed below. According to him, the real

start of applied linguistics is usually linked to the founding of the English Language Institute at the

University of Michigan in 1941. The term “applied linguistics” is historically linked to the issuing in 1948

of Language Learning: A Quarterly Journal of Applied Linguistics. There are surely other possible

beginnings of the discipline (See section II), mainly from a British angle, but this point is predominant in

most discussions of the start of applied linguistics. Although these developments have been significant in

launching applied linguistics in the mid-20th century, both the term and the concept of applied linguistics

have longer histories.

I. Applied Linguistics in Ancient Times

The studies of grammar and rhetoric in the ancient world embraced the beginnings of applied

linguistics. A number of rhetorical terms and concepts can be found in the works developed by ancient

civilizations: Greece, Rome and India from the eighth millennium B.C.E., China between the fourth and

fifth millennium B.C.E., Greece since the fifth millennium B.C.E. and Egypt during the second

millennium B.C.E. (Kennedy, 1998). The antique scholars in these civilizations were interested in a

variety of language-related issues and their real-world implications (e.g. the development and style of

discourse, the relationship between discourse and knowledge, the construction of logical argument, the

construction of credibility in discourse, the consideration of the affective responses of the audience, and

the teaching of the art of discourse production). The work of the Greeks and Romans, notably, rhetorical

studies continued throughout history until the Renaissance and after, and it was re-energized in the New

Rhetoric movement in the 1960s.

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II. The European Origins of Early Applied Linguistics

The term ‘applied linguistics’, which originally arose in relation to general linguistics, can be

traced back to 19th-century Europe in the very early days of linguistics. Linguistics was gaining credit as

an independent and scientific non-historical discipline. Another line of premature applied linguistics can

be found in the Reform Movement, particularly the efforts of Henry Sweet in England, Paul Passy in

France, and Otto Jespersen in Denmark. Another significant tradition of applied linguistics that emerged

in early 20th-century England is associated with the work of C. K. Ogden, who is most renowned for his

cooperation with I. A. Richards in developing BASIC (British American Scientific International

Commercial) English. Notably, all these traditions of early applied linguistics tried align themselves with

the emergent discipline of ‘scientific’ linguistics. It is important to note that the span of early applied

linguistics (before the 1940s) was not necessarily limited to language teaching.

III. Early Applied Linguistics in the United States

Applied linguistics in early 20th-century North America was robustly tied to the expansion of

American structural linguistics. In the early 20th century, applied linguistics was seen almost entirely as

linguistics applied (the “linguistics applied” view). Furthermore, applied linguistics was an integral part

of linguistics and had no separate disciplinary self-sufficiency. Linguistic descriptions at that time were

applied to the translation of the Bible into Native American languages. During the 1940s, the applied

linguistic approach to language teaching played a significant part in training anthropologists for

fieldwork. What is emphasized is that the area of application in applied linguistics at that time was

language teaching – specifically the teaching of English in schools, the teaching of foreign languages

other than English, and the teaching of English as a second language (the narrow sense of applied

linguistics). The important figures of AL in America are Leonard Bloomfield, Charles Fries, scholars at

the English Language Institute (ELI), the University of Michigan in 1941 (Harold B. Allen, H. Douglas

Brown, Kenneth Croft, Edward Erazmus, Diane Larsen Freeman, Larry Selinker, William Slager, and

Ronald Wardhaugh). Even in the 1950s, the term continued to be connected to structural and functional

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linguistics and how their findings could of direct relevance to solve problems in second language teaching

and also in some cases of first language (L1) literacy and language arts, keeping the pedagogical focus.

IV. The Growth of Applied Linguistics

The term continued to be essentially linked to the use of linguistic insights in language teaching

and related practical language issues in the 1960s. Simultaneously, other language-related contexts got

integrated within its areas of application, such as language assessment, language policies, and the new

field of second language acquisition (SLA), focusing on learning, rather than on teaching. By the late

1960s, an amplification of the centrality of second language teaching as applied linguistics, as well as a

growth into other realms of language use can be clearly seen. In this respect, applied linguistics began to

become known as a real language-centered problem solving venture. It started to widen its range.

In the 1970s, the development of the field of applied linguistics continued, accompanied by more

blatant specification of its role as a discipline that addresses real-world language-based problems. Even

though the focus on language teaching remained fundamental to the discipline, it also took into its domain

the rising subfields of language assessment, SLA, L2 literacy, multilingualism, language-minority rights,

language policy and planning and language teacher training.

These trends evolved during the 1980s as major points of departure from an earlier, no longer

appropriate, “linguistics applied” perspective. Thus, definitions of applied linguistics in the 1980s

emphasized both the range of issues addressed and the types of disciplinary resources used in order to

work on language problems (moving towards the “applied linguistics” position and including non-

pedagogical foci). In the 1980s, applied linguistics grew in a structured way beyond language teaching

and language learning issues to cover additional areas: language assessment, language policy and

planning, language use issues in professional settings, translation, lexicography, bilingualism and

multilingualism, language and technology, and corpus linguistics.

By the beginning of the 1990s, applied linguistics was viewed as incorporating many subfields

and drawing on many supporting disciplines in addition to linguistics (e.g., anthropology; education;

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English studies—including composition, rhetoric, and literary studies; modern languages; policy studies;

political sciences; psychology; public administration; and sociology). Combined with these two

foundations (subfields and supporting disciplines) was the view of applied linguistics as problem-driven

and real-world based rather than theory-driven and detached from actual language use (the “applied

linguistics” view). Applied linguistics has grown further throughout the 1990s and 2000s, departing from

its picture in the 1980s.

V. Trends and Perspectives in the 1990s and the 2000s

The field of applied linguistics has extended in size and profundity. A number of foci have

marked the scene in applied linguistics in the 1900s and 2000s:

 New foci in language teaching: Under the umbrella of applied linguistics, research in language

teaching, language learning, and teacher education has now included notions of language awareness,

attention and learning, learning from dialogic interactions, patterns of teacher-student interaction,

task-based learning, content-based learning, and teacher as researcher through action research.

Research in language learning has shifted in the direction of a focus on information processing and

the importance of more general cognitive learning principles. Instructional research and curricular

issues have centered on learning definite language skills.

 Critical studies: the second emphasis that has taken hold in discussions among applied linguists

themselves is the role for critical studies. This term covers critical awareness, critical discourse

analysis, critical pedagogy, student rights, critical assessment practices, and ethics in language

assessment and language teaching.

 Languages for specific purposes: A third emphasis is on language uses in academic, disciplinary,

and professional settings (EAP, ESP, and EOP). This research examines ways in which language is

used by participants and in texts in various academic, professional, and occupational settings. It also

emphasizes how language can act as a gate-keeping instrument or can create unfair obstacles for

those who are not aware of appropriate discourse rules and expectations. In academic settings, the

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key issue lies in understanding how genre and register expectations form the basis for successfully

negotiating academic work.

 Discourse analysis: A fourth emphasis centers on descriptive (usually discourse) analyses of

language in real settings and the possible application of analyses in corpus linguistics, register

variation, and genre variation.

 Multilingualism and bilingual interaction: A fifth emphasis in applied linguistics research

addresses multilingualism and bilingual interaction in school, community, and work and in

professional settings or policy issues at regional and national levels. Because the majority of people

in the world are to some extent bilingual, and because this bilingualism is associated with the need to

negotiate life situations with other cultural and language groups, this area of research is fundamental

to applied linguistics concerns.

 New issues in testing and assessment: A sixth emphasis is on the changing discussion in language

testing and assessment. During the past decade, the field of language assessment has taken on a

number of important issues and topics that have ramifications for applied linguists more generally.

An additional major change in language assessment with significant implications for applied

linguistics more generally is the greater emphasis being given to assessment for learning (sometimes

discussed as formative assessment). The goals for assessment have shifted from assessing what

students can do at a given moment to using assessment as a way to improve learning effectiveness on

a continuing basis. More generally, emphases on technology applications, ethics in assessment,

innovative research methodologies, the roles of standardized assessment, standards for

professionalism, and critical language testing are all reshaping language assessment and, by

extension, applied linguistics.

 Neurolinguistics and brain studies: A seventh emphasis is on the resources and perspectives

provided by neurolinguistics and brain studies associated with language learning and language use.

The potential and the benefits of research in neurolinguistics and the impact of language learning on

brain processing is perhaps not an immediate concern of applied linguistics. However, significant

advances in the relations between brain functioning and language learning (including literacy

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development) suggest that research insights from neurolinguistics may soon become too important to

ignore.

Conclusion

To summarize the path that applied linguistics has travelled, it should be emphasized that this

area of research, which had antecedents before the twentieth century, emerged in a very narrow circle:

that of language teaching and learning and took its first insights from the parent discipline of linguistics.

However, with the evolving span of linguistics itself and the growing context-based interest in resolving

real-life language-related problems, applied linguistics has become more and more interdisciplinary and

wide-ranging. It has not only enriched its earliest topics with fresh dimensions of research, such as the

case of language pedagogy, but has also encompassed newly-emerging areas of application where

language is central. Seen in this way, the history of applied linguistics tells us that in the future decades, it

will be open to more enhancement and ramification, for language now is seen as a central component in a

number of new-fangled real life contexts.

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Figure 3.1: The history of applied linguistics

Produced by: Racha Hadj Said (M1 student/ 2018-2019)

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Part II

Language Teaching and Learning

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Lecture 4: Language Teaching and Learning: Terminological Distinctions

Introduction

In discussions on language teaching and learning, a number of terms are commonly used with

well-defined senses. Issues of learning and teaching require a non-ambiguous understanding of their

terminology. The latter is greatly influenced by the contexts of language use and often by the specific

meanings attributed by the theorists themselves. Stern (1983) clarified satisfactorily many of the terms

and concepts which seem crucial in any pedagogical discussion. He notes that one has to be attentive to

this source of possible confusion.

I. First Language and Second Language

Stern (1983) presents the first two confusing terms: “mother tongue” (or “native language”) (L1)

and “second language” (L2) (or “foreign language”). He holds that these designate a subjective rapport

between a language and an individual or a group. Each has a set of corresponding terms:

L1 L2

first language second language

native language non- native language

mother tongue foreign language

primary language secondary language

stronger language weaker language

The whole set of terms should be distinguished from another set which describe language objectively, for

they refer to the geographical, social, political and other considerations. This class includes the following:

language of wider communication, standard language, regional language, national language, official

language, modern language, classical language). Mystification arises when terms from the first set are

confused with terms from the second one.

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To distinguish between L1 and L2, t is important to spell out the features that characterize L1 and

L2. Two criteria are to be used when deciding on this issue: (1) the order of language acquisition and (2)

the level of proficiency. To start with, a first language signifies that a person has acquired the language in

infancy and early childhood (hence ‘first’ or ‘native’) and generally within the family (hence ‘mother

tongue’). By contrast, a second language is any language acquired later than the native language (at an

early age, in adult life or at any phase between these two extremes). The concept of L2 suggests the

previous accessibility of the individual to an L1, in other words, some form of bilingualism. Furthermore,

the L1 terms signal a distinctive level of proficiency in the language. They imply an intuitive, ‘native-

like’, ‘full’, or ‘perfect’ command of the language. The term ‘second language’ indicates an inferior level

of actual or believed proficiency. Hence, “second” means also “weaker” or “secondary”. Within L1, one

can also discriminate between “native language” for the language of early childhood acquisition and

“primary language” for the language of dominant or preferred use.

II. Bilingualism

Another term which is sometimes fuzzy is bilingualism. This term can be used objectively or

subjectively. The first use (societal bilingualism) is associated with the objective or legal status of two

languages in a country. It does not inevitably mean that each individual is skillful in both languages. It

means that some people are native speakers of one language and other people are native speakers of the

other language. The second use of the term (personal bilingualism) signifies that two languages are

accessible to an individual equally; it implies a good command of two languages, that is, having an L1

proficiency in two languages uniformly. Personal bilingualism is often referred to as “early-childhood

bilingualism”. It is important, however, to note that this conception of bilingualism is too narrow. It was

claimed that this type of bilingualism is rare to find due to certain reasons. The command of both

languages is scarcely balanced; it is subject to “dominance configuration”. That is to say, preferring one

language over the other may be influenced by such factors as the following:

1. receptive Vs productive use,

2. written Vs spoken language,

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3. degrees of formality,

4. domains of verbal use.

For this reason, a more flexible definition of individual bilingualism has replaced the first conception.

Bilingualism is more roughly defined so that it refers to any proficiency level in more than one language.

III. Second Vs Foreign Language

Formerly, the term “foreign language” was most broadly contrasted to “native language”. Now,

the other term “second language” has been increasingly applied for all types of non-native language

learning. Mostly the two are used synonymously. However, in some contexts they are conceptually

distinguished. The contrasts between them are summarized below.

Second language Foreign language

Area of use a non-native language learnt and a non -native language learnt and used
used within one country with reference to a speech community
outside national or territorial boundaries
Status has official status or a recognized has no official status or a recognized
function within a country function within a country
Purpose of needed for full participation in the often undertaken with a variety
use political and economic life of the of different purposes in mind, for
nation; it may be the language example, travel abroad, communication
needed for education with native speakers, reading of a
foreign literature, or reading of foreign
scientific and technical works
Learning usually learnt with much more has no environmental support/
environmental support/ often learnt usually requires more formal instruction
informally (‘picked up’) and other measures compensating for the
lack of environmental support

Table 4.1: Second Vs foreign language

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IV. Language Learning

In psychology, the concept of learning is extensively interpreted. It goes far beyond learning

formally from a teacher or learning through study or practice. Indeed, there are other forms of learning,

such as the learning of skills (for example, swimming or sewing) or the acquisition of knowledge,

learning to learn and learning to think, the modification of attitudes, the acquisition of interests, social

values, or social roles; and even transformations in personality. Language learning is also very broadly

understood. It includes all kinds of language learning for which no formal provision is made through

teaching. The following forms can be described as forms of language learning:

- First-language acquisition,

- Second language learning by informal, unplanned imitation and use in actual communication,

- Second language learning in response to teaching.

In some contexts, the term “language acquisition” has been contrasted with language learning (by

Stephen Krashen) in the 1970s. In the context of a second language, according to him:

“acquisition” means second language learning which is analogous to the way in which a child

acquires his first language, that is ‘naturally’, without focus on linguistic form, and ‘learning’ as

conscious language development particularly in formal school-like settings. (Stern, 1983, p. 20)

It appears that getting a second language is conscious, it is the case of learning, and when it happens

subconsciously through exposure and communication, it is the case of acquisition. This distinction is

accepted in discussions on language learning in general.

V. Language Teaching

According to Stern (1983), language teaching covers all provisions made by a society to enhance

language learning. In other words, it means the activities which are intended to cause language learning to

happen. This is not restricted to instructing a language class but includes multiple other forms. These are

listed below:

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1. Formal instruction or methods of training,

2. Individualized instruction,

3. Self-study,

4. Computer-assisted instruction,

5. The use of media, such as radio or television,

6. The preparation of teaching materials, teaching grammars, or dictionaries,

7. The training of teachers,

8. Making the necessary administrative provision inside or outside an educational system,

9. Informal approaches like “deschooling”

Since learning is an integral part of the definition of teaching, formulating a theory of language teaching

should always begin with a conception of how learning occurs. It is barely possible to envisage a

language teaching theory which does not highlight language learning. An effective language teaching

theory should focus on learners’ needs in optimal ways. Failure to do so may lead to malfunction of

teaching methods. Hence, a better concern for understanding the learner has been a goal of many

language teaching theorists. However, this should not be regarded as the only component of such theories.

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Lecture 5: Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching

Introduction

In discussing the relationship between applied linguistics and language teaching, Corder (1973)

presents a network which demonstrates the connections between linguistics and other theoretical

disciplines on the one hand, and the application of their insights in the area of language teaching on the

other. In his discussion, Corder (1973) illustrates the second view on the nature of applied linguistics.

That is, he recognizes the role of the linguist as well as other specialists, especially in sociology and

psychology. The scheme presented by Corder is called the “Total language teaching operation”.

I. Language Teaching: Guided or Free?

There has always been a debate on whether language teaching is an art or science. For many, it is

an art. That is to say, it is based on the personal skills, the private knowledge and the convictions of the

teacher; it cannot be carried out successfully by following a set of rules. It is “unteachable”, and it is

improved only through the exercise of greater individual talents. It takes this feature because it contains

human considerations that are uncontrollable. However, for many other people, language teaching is a

science, i.e. it is susceptible to systematization: it is undeniable that a teacher can learn a lot about the

way is activity can be successfully done. The work of the linguist provides an increasing body of

knowledge about language which can direct the work of the language teacher. It is the task of the applied

linguist to present such knowledge to the teacher to be exploited in the resolution of language problems

encountered in the classroom.

II. The Total Language Teaching Operation (TLTO)

Teaching is commonly restricted to what a teacher does in the classroom, but this represents only

the end point of a multi-stage activity, planning, thorough preparation, correcting, and evaluation of

learners’ achievement. All of these are an important, indeed crucial, part of their work. In fact, teacher’s

activities depend on the work of others, who also contribute to and, partially, decide on what happens in

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the classroom. Teachers use textbooks, equipment, visuals and other aids. They follow a syllabus and

follow agenda and tests prepared by others. These materials and plans are often things that they have little

or no part in, but which contribute to, or even control, to some extent, what goes on in the classroom. The

total language teaching operation refers to all planning and decision-making at whatever level which

bears directly or indirectly on what goes on in the classroom. The task of the teacher is that of creating the

conditions in which learning can most advantageously take place, but all decisions which bear on that

objective are part of the total teaching operation. The linguist makes some of these decisions.

III. Hierarchy of Planning and Decision-Making in the TLTO

Decisions and plans about the activity of language teaching are made at different levels. These are

represented in the following diagram:

The political level

Governments & ministries/ National education authorities/ sometimes
sociolinguistic studies (Determining the aims and providing the means of
language teaching)
- Whether language are to be taught,

1 - Which languages are to be taught,

- How much money is to be available for training and paying teachers.
(Local education authorities)/ regional or institutional
- For how long,

- for what purposes

2 The applied linguistic level (implementation of decisions)
- to whom shall certain languages be taught?
- What to teach (content)
- How to organize it (syllabus)

Devising of syllabuses and materials to carry out the intentions of education

The classroom level: The teacher
authorities
3 (Psychology: how people learn languages/ General pedagogy: motivation,
attitudes, intelligence and personality)
- How to teach

Figure 5.1: The total language teaching operation (TLTO)

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A. Level One

At the highest level the decisions are political and made by governments and ministries. At this

level, decisions are of a very general nature: whether language are to be taught, which languages are to

be taught, how much money is to be available for training and paying teachers. One might think that

linguistics has no role at this level. This is certainly the case in most European countries, but in many

multilingual states in Africa and Asia the decisions about which language to teach and at what level in the

educational system to teach them are difficult ones and are made, at least in part, on the basis of studies

made by sociolinguists into the distribution and various functions of different languages in the community

and the role that these languages have in the political and commercial life of the community and in its

contacts with the world outside. This is an area of linguistic studies sometimes known as language

planning. When such fundamentally political decisions have been made there is another aspect of

planning and decision-making which is based on economic, administrative and social considerations

within the country: for how long? For what purposes? To whom shall certain languages be taught?

Decisions of this sort may be taken at a lower point in the administrative hierarchy, often regionally, and

sometimes, depending upon the administrative structure of the educational system, in the school itself.

Here again the sociolinguist has a part to play.

B. Level Two

The second level is concerned with the implementation of these decisions. This level is the

applied linguist's domain. It deals with the problems of: what to teach?(content), how to organize it?

(syllabus). It is at this level that the contribution of linguistics to language teaching is principally

effective. Applied linguistics has to do with the devising of syllabuses and materials for carrying out the

intentions of education authorities whether local or national. Syllabuses relate to specific languages to be

taught to more or less specific groups of learners for more or less specific purposes within more or less

specific limitations of time and money. Textbooks and teaching materials of all sorts are the tangible

realizations of the syllabus plan.

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C. Level Three

The third level at which decisions are made about language teaching is that of the classroom (the

teacher). The linguistic contribution at this level is clearly psychological, and is concerned with how

people learn second languages. But many other considerations play a part: general pedagogic principles

concerned with motivation, attitudes, intelligence and personality. These are largely non-linguistic, and

are just as important in the teaching of other subjects as in the teaching of languages. Those who plan at

the second level do not have the detailed information available to the classroom teacher and can only take

account of these variables in the most general way.

Conclusion

The total language teaching operation shows clearly that what might be thought of as a teacher-

based classroom work is in fact the product of a chain of preparatory actions undertaken outside the realm

of language teaching. Starting from the political decisions and with the mediation of the applied linguist,

linguists, sociolinguists, psychologists and pedagogues all have a decisive role in organizing the content

and methodology of language teaching. Hence, any attempt to frame this process should not discard its

root sources.

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Lecture 6: Introduction to First Language Acquisition

Introduction

Language learning is an extremely wide-ranging topic, which covers all contexts: learning native

languages or learning second languages. First language acquisition is the child’s learning of his or her

native language (Tavakoli, 2012). Research in first language acquisition has had a massive impact on the

study of second language learning both about the nature of the learning process and the techniques used to

scrutinize it. It is maintained that a good knowledge of first language acquisition has served as a major

source for perceiving and understanding many facts about second language learning. Indeed, many

researchers see their long-term objective as to produce “one theory of language acquisition” as a sole

frame since both experiences are materializations of the general human gift to learn and use language.

There are several facts about first language acquisition which are of interest to researchers.

I. The Goal of Acquisition

The goal of first language acquisition is to reach a full social integration into a community of

speakers. This encompasses learning all the elements of a language. These elements constitute a person’s

competence:

 Phonological rules: Children need to learn the sound system, the phonology (sound segments,

phonotactic constraints, stress patterns on words, tone in words, and the intonation contours in

sentences.

 Morphological rules: They need to learn about the structure of words, their morphology and

their meanings.

 Syntactic rules: They need to know how to combine those words; the possible sequences of

words in a language have to be learnt.

 Semantic rules: In learning a language, children must learn the conventions of using language

to convey meaning: meanings of words, suffixes, and prefixes and even of constructions.

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 Pragmatic rules: Children must learn how each word and construction can be used to convey

their intentions. They learn how to make assertions, requests, and promises. They learn

politeness and appropriateness rules.

 Discourse rules: Children also learn how to construct larger stretches like giving directions or

telling stories. They need to learn to use language effectively, whatever the genre, whoever the

addressee, and whatever the goal.

Of course, children do not acquire all such rules at once. The process happens gradually and the last

components, that is pragmatic rules and discourse rules, continue to be learnt during the whole course of

one’s life.

II. Gathering Data on First Language Acquisition

Studies of first language acquisition are not recent. All aim at depicting how children acquire

their native languages. King (2006) explains that such descriptions depend on collecting data representing

the speech of children and then drawing conclusions from them. The methods of data collection vary, but

in essence researchers generally seek naturalness and representativeness in their data. Natural data are

comparable to the language children utilize in daily life, whereas representativeness has two aspects: (1)

the language data collected from a sample child should correspond to the language used by that child

every day and (2) the sample of children studied should be representative of the general population under

investigation. That is, their speech should indicate the general features of speech in the population to

which they belong. Three approaches to collecting child language data exist and vary in the degree to

which they achieve naturalness and representativeness in data collection. These are briefly described

below:

Parental Observational Experimental

diaries studies studies

Longitudinal cross-sectional
studies studies

Figure 6.1: Approaches to collecting child language data

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III. General Characteristics of First language Acquisition

Studies of language acquisition demonstrate that healthy children in all societies acquire, in the

course of a few years, an effortless control of a language. McGregor (2009) explains that by the time they

are five years old, children know several thousand words, have acquired the most important phonological,

and grammatical systems of their language(s), as well as the essentials of the semantic and pragmatic

systems and how the language functions in its social context (with exceptions). Acquiring a first language

has some general characteristics:

 A first language is not hereditarily transmitted: children acquire the languages spoken around

them (parents, community members, other children). Children have no hereditary disposition to

speak a particular language. If detached from their biological parents at an early age, and brought up

by foster parents, the child will learn the foster parents’ language like any native-born child.

 A first language is not explicitly taught: Children acquire their first language spontaneously through

interactive situations. Explicit instruction is fruitless, and if given usually has modest effect. (Deaf

children acquire a sign language if exposed to it). This spontaneous acquisition of speech and signing

contrasts with writing, which is usually learnt through explicit instruction ( at school or by parents

and siblings)

 The acquisition of all languages is believed to progress through well-defined developmental stages.

The stages, which are identical across the variety of languages in which acquisition has been

investigated, are as follows: the pre-language stages (cooing, babbling), the one-word stage, the two-

word stage, telegraphic speech, basic mastery, and elaboration and expansion.

 Children vary noticeably concerning the times they attain the different stages in terms of speed. Not

considering whether the child is fast or slow in the acquisition of language, ultimately it seems not to

matter: all children finish up with a full control of language. Moreover, it should not be assumed that

the stages are strictly dissimilar; they merge into one another.

Reading assignment: Stages of First Language Acquisition

Read the text below, and try to find more about the stages of first language acquisition, their duration and

their characteristics:

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Source: McGregor, W. (2009). Linguistics: An introduction. London: Continuum.

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Lecture 7: Theories of First language acquisition

Introduction

The way children acquire their first language is accounted for by many theories. The clarifications offered

by each reflect diverse lines of thought within the fields of linguistics and psychology. Some emphasize

the inborn predispositions (nature), while others see first language acquisition as a product of

environmental influences (nurture). In this brief overview, the chief principles of each of these paradigms

and their attempts to describe how children manage to pick up a linguistic system are presented.

I. Behaviourism

Behaviourism, an approach which dominated psychology in the first half of the 20th century, is a

term indicating a set of doctrines that highlight the primacy of behaviour over mind. This approach

discarded all forms of mental processing and focused on what is directly observable as part of its quest for

objectivity and scientific rigor. In this paradigm, all behaviour is explained exclusively in connection with

external factors in the environment. Two figures have contributed to the development of behaviourism: J.

B. Watson and F. B Skinner.

A. John B. Watson (1878–1958)

The origins of behaviourism date back to the work of the American

psychologist John B. Watson. He studied biology, physiology, and

behavior of animals, stimulated by Ivan Pavlov’s experiments on dogs (the

procedure of classical conditioning), and later the behavior of children

(Little Albert). Watson pronounced the first foundational statements on

behaviouristic psychology in his seminal article “Psychology as a

Behaviorist Views It” (1913), known as the behaviourist manifesto. He

claimed that psychology is an objective and experimental branch of natural

science. It dispenses with mentalist notions, like consciousness and avoids introspection.

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Accordingly, similarity is established between the behaviour of man and the behaviour of animals.

For Watson, humans are more sophisticated than animals but both operate on parallel principles.

He believes that all animals were complex machines, which can be conditioned by experience

thanks to their physiological devices. He rejects heredity impacts on human behavior, and he called

the brain a “mystery box” that was used to explain behaviour in the absence of a real cause. Among

his most famous quotes are the following:

“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them

up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of

specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-

man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and

race of his ancestors” (Watson, 1924, p. 82)

“The Behaviorist cannot find consciousness in the test-tube of his science” (Watson &

McDougall, 1929, p.26)

Such quotes demonstrate the primacy given to nurture over mental or inheritance traits in Watson’s

thinking.

B. Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904–1990)

F. B Skinner represented radical behaviourism, which departed from cognitive

psychology and its related set of mentalist terms. He formulated what is known as

operant conditioning as an explanatory framework to learning. This is based on

the hypothesis that features of the environment are determinants of responding.

Reinforcement consolidates responses and boosts their future probability of

occurring when the stimuli are there (Schunk, 2012). That is, engaging an

organism in any behaviour is simply bound to the type and amount of

reinforcement provided. In this model, Skinner introduces three interdependent

key components:

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SD→ R → SR

- The discriminative stimulus SD: the type of situation the organism is in and to which it responds.

- The operant response or behaviour R: a response that can be modified as a function of its

consequence.

- The reinforcing stimulus/ or reinforcement/ or reinforcer SR (reward): it is any stimulus or event that

follows a response and results in response strengthening.

The response is positively reinforced (positive reinforcement) if the operant is followed by something

pleasant, and negatively reinforced (negative reinforcement) if it is followed by the removal of

something unpleasant. Hergenhahn and Henley (2014) observe that “Negative reinforcement is

reinforcement by removal of an unpleasant environmental circumstance instead of providing a rewarding

circumstance (as in positive reinforcement)—but in both situations the result is reinforcing” (p.422).

Underlying physiological or mental states have no bearing on learning.

Such principles were applied to first language acquisition. A child might imitate a parent’s

utterance. The parent may provide positive reinforcement by reacting with a “yes” or a smile or might just

ignore the utterance. In this manner, the target-like utterances will persist through reinforcers, while non-

target-like ones will vanish. As children grow up, the parents alter their reinforcement strategies, and, as a

result, the child’s utterances are shaped in such a way that they resemble the adults’ speech around them.

In this paradigm, children acquire language mechanically and passively. In his 1957 work, Verbal

Behavior, Skinner attempted to demonstrate that one could account for both the productivity and

pragmatic appropriateness of language (King, 2006). The operant conditioning principles have been

challenged by cognitive theorists who argue that by ignoring mental processes, operant conditioning

offers a partial description of human learning.

II. Nativism

Noam Chomsky (1959) criticized Skinner’s behaviorist account of language learning in a

renowned review of Skinner’s book. This represented the first step in the cognitive or nativist revolution.

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Nativists hold that language learning is too complex to be explained in the light of the general learning

principles. It is an innate capacity restricted to humans. According to King (2006), nativists have a

number of arguments against behaviourism:

 Uniformity and ease of L1 learning: All children acquire language effortlessly and quickly in the

span of few years. They acquire their mother tongue at equal rate and they go through similar

developmental stages, in spite of having different first languages and of receiving non-identical

quantity and quality of linguistic input from their environment.

 Poverty of the stimulus: the adult speech that young children hear is a deficient model (filled with

incomplete sentences, false starts, and slips of the tongue). However, children take this patchy and

non-perfect input and are able to construct a highly complex grammar. In the face of the meager nature

of the stimulus they get from their environment, children acquire their L1 very rapidly. If input alone

is to account for learning a language, how could imperfections turn into a sophisticated speech?

 Absence of feedback: children hardly ever receive explicit feedback on the grammaticality of their

utterances. Adults usually concentrate on the content of an utterance rather than its correctness. When

adults happen to offer feedback or explicit language instruction to their children, the children are

unaware of it.

 Creative construction rather than imitation: Imitation and reinforcement alone cannot account for

utterances as “He goed to the store” and “We saw mouses” today? Apparently, environmental input

never includes such sentences. It is argued that such over-regularization errors are a proof that the

child is active and is creating language, testing hypotheses about it, and extracting its rules rather than

imitating.

The nativists believe that language is a species-specific cognitive capacity, resulting from an inborn

predisposition called the language acquisition device (LAD). The precise place and nature of the LAD is

debatable (neurologists have identified multiple areas of the brain responsible for the perception,

comprehension, and production of language), but the LAD is hypothetically what enables children to

process language and build up a suitable grammar quickly with no specialized input to yield a totally

different output.

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III. Connectionism

The nativist approach to language learning has gained a wide acceptance in linguistics and other

fields. Yet in recent years increasing criticism from several directions on both its theoretical and practical

grounds has been leveled against it. Connectionism represents one of the lines of attack to nativism. The

connectionist (previously known as associationist) approach to learning has been around for some time,

but advances in computer technology have given it a new breath of life. Since the mid-1980s especially,

there has been a growing number of studies applying a connectionist framework to the general study of

memory and learning. More recently, connectionism has been applied to SLA.

In this model, the brain is likened to a computer that would consist of neural networks: complex

clusters of links between information nodes. These links or connections become strengthened or

weakened through activation or non-activation, respectively. Language learning, like all cognitive

processes, must emerge from an interaction between processing in the brain and the environment.

Connectionism focuses on the kind of representations which develop as a function of experience with the

input. The basic principle is that learning occurs on the basis of associative processes, rather than the

construction of abstract rules (rejecting the idea of rule-making). In other words, when exposed to many

examples which contain a given pattern (e.g. plural form), children can detect the regularities in the

language input (i.e. the regular co-occurrence of particular language forms) and extract probabilistic

patterns on the basis of these regularities through induction. Learning occurs as these patterns become

strengthened by repeated activation, i.e. many examples which contain the same pattern (Mitchell &

Myles, 2004).

To back these claims, connectionists have designed computer neural networks. These models are

usually fed linguistic input (for example, a certain number of verbs and their past tenses) and then asked

to produce output for a new form (e.g. generate the past tense of walk or sing). Rumelhart and

McClelland (1986), for example, reported that their neural network learned to produce the correct past

tense for both regular (e.g. walk) and irregular (e.g. sing) verbs. These networks contained no a priori

knowledge of linguistic rules, but rather demonstrated rule-like behavior after having been exposed to

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many examples. Connectionism has been condemned for addressing only the syntactic aspect of language

acquisition and also for the lack of similarity between the conditions in which children are exposed to

language and those in which networks are fed input (King, 2006).

IV. Social Interactionism

It is the view that language is an activity learned through interaction with others. It opposes

especially those theories which view language as an innate capacity. According to King (2006), social

interactionism emphasizes communication between child and caregiver in the language acquisition

process. Social interactionists do not totally reject the notion of LAD, but they neglect its importance. As

a substitute, the LASS (language acquisition support system) is stressed in accounting for child

language acquisition. The LASS involves the daily contacts and emotional relationships a child forms

with his/her caregivers. In these interactions, participants use gaze and smiles and special language. This

permits children to be progressively trained in turn-taking and to have awareness of the communicative

nature of language. Important in interaction is the notion of scaffolding i.e. assisting the child to build up

a linguistic system. In this paradigm, researchers attempt to find out the connection between interactions

and children’s language development.

For social interactionists, there are features which characterize the language used within

interactions. Important is the use of child-directed speech (CDS) (also known as motherese, caretaker

speech or baby talk). This refers to the whole array of typical linguistic characteristics found in adult

speech addressed specially to young children. This type of speech is thought to help attract the child’s

attention to challenging forms and to actively engage him/her in conversation. This involves the use of

following: higher pitch, attractive pronunciations and exaggerated intonation, simplified sentence

structures, diminutives (e.g. doggie or kittie), repetition and imitation, and recasts (target-like

reformulations of the child’s original ungrammatical utterance to help the child master more intricate

language forms). They maintain that child-directed speech seems to be especially geared to ease language

learning. Crystal (2008) explains that social interactionists reject the nativists’ poverty-of-stimulus

argument. Research has shown that child-directed speech is systematic. Furthermore, interactionists do

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admit that parents never teach explicit grammar, but through continuous feedback on effectiveness of

children’s utterances, they contribute to language development.

Conclusion

Theories of first language acquisition can be placed on a continuum. At one extreme, some theories

emphasize the innateness of this process. At another extreme, others stress the environmental role. A third

position is to recognize both factors_nature and nurture. Understanding the process of first language

acquisition is illuminating in so far as it contributes to the understanding of the human mind and how it

works, knowing about brain organization, and understanding the nature of language as a system.

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Lecture 8: Introduction to Second Language Learning

Introduction

A Second language (L2) broadly refers to any language that is learnt after the first language (L1). This

can be the “second,” “third,” or even “fourth” (etc.) language. Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is

roughly defined as the methodical formal study of the learning processes and teaching practices related to

the acquisition of non-native languages. Most researchers tend to use Second Language Learning as a

cover term for all non-native language learning (Mackay, 2006). The scope of SLA includes informal L2

learning, formal L2 learning and L2 learning that involves a combination of these settings and

circumstances (Saville-Troike, 2006).

I. Origins of Research in SLA

The real beginning of SLA is traced to the late 1960s, when this interdisciplinary enterprise,

which borrowed equally from the fields of language teaching, linguistics, child language acquisition and

psychology, came into existence. During the 1980s and 1990s, SLA developed significantly in scope and

methodology, reaching its status as an autonomous discipline by the end of the 20th century (Macaro,

2010)

II. Stages of SLA

According to SLA research on L2 learning in natural contexts, three developmental stages can be

distinguished: the silent period, formulaic speech, and structural and semantic simplification (Ellis,

1994).

A. The Silent Period

Learners opt for a lengthy silent period when immediate production is not required from them.

This helps them to discover the language. Many pieces of research have shown that some L2 learners stay

silent for the first few months, while others do not. Some researchers attribute this difference to the

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learner’s social or cognitive orientation. Some learners are other-directed (have an interpersonal, social

orientation), while others are inner-directed (have intrapersonal, code orientation). Some scholars argue

that the contribution the silent period has in second language acquisition is to build competence via

listening; others view it as a stage of rejection or incomprehension.

B. Formulaic Speech

The second stage of L2 learning involves the use of formulaic speech, “expressions which are

learnt as unanalyzable wholes and employed on particular occasions” (p.84). These expressions can have

the form of (1) routines (whole utterances learned as memorized chunks (e.g. I don't know.) or (2)

patterns (partially unanalyzed utterances with one or more slots (e.g. Can I have a ____?, how to ___?, I

wanna ____). These expressions can be composed of complete scripts, such as greeting sequences, as

they are unchanging and expected. This phenomenon appears even in the speech of native speakers.

These expressions reflect the societal knowledge shared within a speech community. Therefore, they are

necessary to produce appropriate language. They are very common in L2 acquisition, particularly in early

stages. It occurs in the learners’ speech irrespective of their age.

C. Structural and Semantic Simplifications

In addition to memorization of fixed utterances, learners move towards a more creative use of the

new language, but in earlier stages the main feature is simplification. The early creative utterances

consist of one or two words (e.g. library = he is in the library, clean floor = Give me something for

cleaning floors, come back = He is coming back). Structural simplification means the omission of

grammatical words (auxiliaries, articles) and bound morphemes (plural -s and past tense -ed). Semantic

simplification entails dropping some content words which would normally occur in native speaker

speech. These two forms of simplification may be due to lack of knowledge of the unnecessary language

forms, or they have no ability to access them in their productions.

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III. Individual Differences and SLA

In first language acquisition, dissimilarities between children are mostly eclipsed by remarkable

resemblance in terms of natural stages and final accomplishment. However, research shows that cardinal

differences exist among L2 learners. It is argued that they are not all the same nor do they achieve

identical degrees of proficiency over time in L2. This variation is related to psychological and social

factors. The role of such differences has attracted scholarly attention in recent years (Ellis, 1994; King,

2006; Saville-Troike, 2006; VanPatten & Benati, 2015). In fact, there is a not single approach to studying

individual differences and the factors influencing them. The following is a summary of three surveys:

Figure 8.1: Research on individual differences

A. First Language

The individual difference of learner’s L1 has been the centre of much research in SLA.

Contrastive analysts have considered the differences between L1 and L2 the source of all language errors.

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This strong claim gradually lost its vigor with the rise of mentalistic thinking. In spite of this decline, the

role of L1 on L2 acquisition cannot be overlooked. Recent research indicates that the characteristics of L1

do not necessarily predict errors, but they do influence the development of L2. Knowledge of L1 is often

transferred to L2 communication, causing learners to deviate from the norms of L2 (King, 2006).

B. Age

The way age affects L2 outcomes has been a main issue in SLA for several decades. It is thought

that younger learners are more successful than adults in learning L2. One hypothesis supporting this is the

Critical Period Hypothesis. It was initially discussed in the late 1960s by Eric Lennebergt. It states that

normal acquisition is possible during a limited period of a child’s life (before puberty). The human brain

loses its plasticity (the capacity to assume new functions) after this period as a result of physiological

changes. If an individual is deprived of linguistic input in the course of this period, language learning will

never occur in a normal manner (e.g. the case of Genie). Lennebergt claims that the critical period applies

both to SLA and L1 and that this explains why roughly all L2 speakers have a “foreign accent” if they do

not begin learning the language before this age. The validity of such claims remains open to debate. King

(2006) states:

Because some adult learners do achieve native-like proficiency in the L2, some researchers have

argued for use of the term sensitive period to reflect the fact that while success in acquiring a

second language may be much more likely for children, it is still possible for adults. (p.447)

Research on the relationship between age and L2 learning has provided many insights on abilities that

older learners have, while younger ones do not: better memory for vocabulary, greater analytic ability,

higher levels of pragmatic skills and knowledge of L1 and more real-world knowledge. On the other

hand, it also pinpoints the advantages that younger learners have: younger learners are probably more

successful in informal and naturalistic L2 learning; they are less inhibited by L2 learning; and they are

more likely to receive simplified language input from others, which might facilitate their learning.

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C. Aptitude

Aptitude refers to “cognitive abilities that learners bring to the task of acquisition. These abilities

can be anything from the perception and encoding of sounds to working memory to grammatical

sensitivity (e.g., pattern recognition ability) and others” (VanPatten & Benati, 2015, p. 44). Some

researchers have identified a firm positive association between scores on aptitude tests and scores on tests

of L2 acquisition. Most aptitude tests cover four interrelated components: (1) Phonemic coding ability

(the capacity to process auditory input into segments which can be stored and retrieved), (2) Inductive

language learning ability (ability to identify patterns of correspondence and relationships of form and

meaning), (3) Grammatical sensitivity (processing auditory input to induce grammatical functions of

words in sentences), and (4) Associative memory capacity (how linguistic items are stored, and with

how they are recalled and used in output) (Saville-Troike, 2006). Language-learning aptitude means that

possessing different degrees of these abilities predicts correlated degrees of success in L2 acquisition.

D. Motivation

Motivation refers to “a willingness to learn or do something” (VanPatten & Benati, 2015, p. 45).

Motivation is a multifaceted construct. It can be integrative (involving the learner’s attitudes towards the

target language group and the aspiration to be assimilated into the target language community), or

instrumental (refers to more realistic reasons for language learning, such as achieving some social or

economic compensation through L2 achievement). It can also be extrinsic and intrinsic. In SLA, it is

widely held that motivation, regardless of its source or nature, is somehow related to successful

acquisition of L2. King (2006) states that for some researchers, motivation is the unique and most

significant individual difference which impacts on SLA. On the whole, the relationship between

motivation and L2 acquisition is reciprocal.

E. Learning Style

Learning styles, also referred to as cognitive styles, refer to one’s favored mode of processing

information. This includes perceiving, conceptualizing, organizing, and recalling information. Styles are

usually categorized in pairs:

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Figure 8.2: Categorization of cognitive styles

Another dimension included within cognitive style is sensory preference for processing input: visual

(vision-oriented), auditory (hearing-oriented), kinesthetic (movement-oriented), or tactile (touch-

oriented). Apparently, no one means of processing has an intrinsic advantage over others, but L2 learners

seemingly feel more at ease when teachers’ instructional strategies are compatible with their sensory

preference (Saville-Troike, 2006). Mismatches between teachers’ orientations and learners’ orientations

can result in less-than-optimal learning environments.

F. Personality

Personality differences among L2 learners represent crucial factors affecting the accomplishment

or malfunction of L2 learning. Research on this issue has identified an array of personality variables,

which everyone can have. As is the case of cognitive styles, such variables are usually represented in

pairs. The highlighted features in the list below are found to correlate positively with proficiency in L2

(Saville-Troike, 2006).

Figure 8.3: Personality features and L2 proficiency

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Ellis (1994) shows that some of these are extracted from deep-rooted theories of personality, while others

are based on very broad constructs in general psychology. Research on the effect of personality features

on L2 is not conclusive, and it was found that such characteristics affect the aspects of learning

differently. Also, other variables like age and cultural context overlap with the effects of personality.

G. Gender

The gender of the learner is found to impact on L2 progress. King (2006) presents interesting

research findings. According to him, females have the tendency to employ and use frequently more

learning strategies than males. Additionally, females were found to have more positive attitudes towards

learning an L2 and have more impetus. Concerning performance, findings have been contradictory. Other

studies indicate that males and females process language differently. Gender also affects interaction and

classroom dynamics at large. It is important not to overlook the variability of gender expression across

cultural groups. That is why to identify gender effects in second language learning becomes a complex

task.

Conclusion

An enduring question in SLA research is the reasons behind non-uniform success in learning a second

language. The speed and degree of success of language learning is affected by various factors. These

include environmental factors and learner characteristics. The examination of the differences between

learners in age, gender, learning style, personality, motivation and other factors is very important for

pedagogical purposes. If instructors are equipped with concrete data about the features of their learners in

any teaching context, this would enable them to adjust instructional content in such a way that it meets the

learners’ characteristics.

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Lecture 9: Theories of Second Language Acquisition

Introduction

Before the 1990s, explanation of second language acquisition (SLA) fell into two fundamental

periods. The first is distinguished by the prevalence of behaviourism and by structuralist approaches to

the study of language. Afterward, as research showed some major inadequacies in the structuralist-

behaviourist paradigm, the field of SLA witnessed the emergence of multiple other theories, attempting to

explain SLA. There were many opposing accounts and explanations of various aspects of SLA at that

time. Some of these have progressed and continued to be prominent, while others have diminished in

popularity. The period from the 1980s onwards expansion in theories characterized SLA research to reach

the status of a relatively independent area of inquiry (a 'coming of age'). The effect of Chomskyan

linguistics has continued to be important, but ideas coming from a variety of other fields have also

become increasingly noteworthy (Mitchell & Myles 2004; VanPatten & Williams, 2015)

I. Behaviourism

According to VanPatten and Benati (2015), behaviourism was applied to second language

learning as well, and it was widely influential in the 1950s and 1960s. Behaviourists hold that second

language learners – like children learning their native tongues – acquired language behaviours as habits.

The role of repetition and reinforcement is vital for learning to occur. To learn a second language (L2),

learners should be exposed to a considerable number of target examples of language; they should

reproduce these models repetitively and obtain proper feedback: positive feedback for exact imitations

and rectification of inaccurate ones. This process should be reiterated until these behaviours become

mechanical and error-free. It is central to note the significant function of output in this theory. Active

participation (through imitation) by the learner is considered a key element of the learning process.

The most important feature of SLA that distinguishes it from L1 acquisition is that L2 learners

already know a first language (L1), which must be overcome in the process of acquiring a second

language. For behavioursts, the errors produced by L2 learners could be attributed to interference from

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the learner’s L1. Existing L1 knowledge or “habits” that differed from those of the L2 could interfere

with second language development. Differences between L1 and the L2 were thought to be the main

source of difficulty and error. Errors were seen as evidence of lack of learning; thus, they have to be

eradicated. Reiterations of correct models (drilling) as well as instantaneous and constant correction were

seen as the best techniques to eliminate errors and facilitate language learning (VanPatten and Williams,

2015). This paradigm flourished within the approach of contrastive analysis.

II. Cognition-Oriented Vs Context-Oriented Theories

Littlewood (2004) presents a comprehensive discussion of the theories of second language

learning. According to him, they fall roughly into two classes: “those which take as their starting point the

cognitive processes that underlie second language learning and those that start from the context of

learning. Of course no cognition-oriented theory can ignore the context in which the cognitive processes

are activated and no context-oriented theory can ignore the processes which convert input into learning. It

is a question of emphasis” (p. 515).

A. Cognition-Oriented Theories

These theories include three interconnected hypotheses, which see language learning as process

occurring through inborn mechanisms.

1. The Creative Construction Hypothesis (Interlanguage Theory)

It appeared in the 1970s. SLA in the creative construction hypothesis is considered to be very

much similar to L1 acquisition. It is a process in which learners make unconscious hypotheses due to the

input they receive from the environment. It regarded acquisition as a learner-internal driven process,

guided by innate mechanisms. Very often, this theory is viewed as the ‘L1 = L2 hypothesis (Tavakoli,

2012). Advocates of this hypothesis hold that L2 as well as L1 learners process language and create their

own internal grammar. For Littlewood (2004), the grammar that learners construct is often called their

“interlanguage (IL)” (i.e., a language located somewhere on a range between their mother tongue and

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the target language) or “transitional competence” (i.e., a competence which is in a state of transition, as

it develops in the direction of the target language). However it does not become the same as the target

language, for some non-target features become “fossilized” in the learner’s grammar. Many of these

innate mechanisms are specific to language learning rather than being of a general cognitive nature. The

input acts primarily as a “trigger” to stimulate the mechanisms. According to VanPatten and Benati

(2015), the major argument for creative construction consisted of the morpheme studies, in which learners

of different L1 backgrounds seemed to acquire features of language in identical order. Thus, major

features of the Creative Construction Hypothesis were: (1) L1 transfer is insignificant; and (2) there is

universality in acquisition sequences. Creative construction was included in the monitor model, and

disappeared by the late 1980s.

2. The Input Hypothesis (the Monitor Model)

This is a more wide-ranging theory, which incorporates the creative construction hypothesis,

formulated by Stephen Krashen. It became popular beginning in the 1970s. Researchers began to view

language learning as a complex interaction of internal and external factors. According to Littlewood

(2004), in order to learn the target language, L2 learners needed to be exposed to a special type of input.

This is called comprehensible input (that is, input in the target language that is understandable but

somewhat more advanced than the learner’s present level). Comprehensible input is often shortened to

“i+1,” where “i” refers to the learner’s current level and “+1” denotes the slightly more advanced input.

Through introduction to this input, L2 acquisition was thought to develop automatically and in the same

fashion as L1 acquisition – but only if the learner’s affective filter (or emotional barrier) is low.

“Learning” is conscious and often occurs through instruction or error correction.

3. Universal Grammar

Universal grammar (UG) is associated with Noam Chomsky’s school of thought. For him,

grammar (UG), the knowledge contained in the LAD, is innate and it matures. UG functions as an

independent “black box” containing principles and parameters. The principles are true universals,

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occurring in all (or nearly all) languages, and the parameters, are universal to the extent that they occur

across languages in one form or another. The theory of UG claims that the principles are already wired

into the human brain when we are born and they govern all languages. For example, the principle of

“Head” exists in all languages. That is, all phrases have a head element, e.g. the head of a noun phrase.

Languages allow for variation in the form of certain parameters that need to be set in particular languages.

The learner’s task is to discover how these parameters should be “set” for the particular language he or

she encounters. For example, the Head Parameter indicates whether the head (major constituent) falls at

the beginning or at the end of a standard phrase (Littlewood, 2004; Tavakoli, 2012).

B. Context-oriented Theories

These theories emphasize the context itself and the ways in which it facilitates the process of

learning.

1. The Interaction Hypothesis

The “interaction hypothesis” is a development of the input hypothesis. This framework was

developed in the early 1980s. In this hypothesis, the condition for learning is still seen as comprehensible

input, but consideration is given to the circumstances that enable input to be made comprehensible

(Littlewood, 2004). This happens through interaction. According to VanPatten and Benati (2015),

interaction refers to conversations between learners and other interlocutors. The Interaction Hypothesis

posits that interactions play a fundamental role in second language acquisition processes. They may do so

in essentially two ways:

(1) Input modification

(2) Giving feedback related to the linking of meaning and form.

Input modification occurs when the interlocutor perceives that the learner does not

understand what is being said, and restates something by simplifying, exemplifying, or

otherwise altering the original statement. Feedback occurs when the interlocutor uses

particular devices to inform the learner about something he or she has said. (p. 76)

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When learners attempt to communicate with other speakers in the L2, they experience difficulties and

engage in further interaction with their interlocutors to resolve their problems. Interactions provide

opportunities for the negotiation of meaning: through requests for clarification, repetitions,

confirmations, reformulations and comprehension checks. As a result, it is more likely that the input

will be tuned to the current level of competence of the individual learner (Mackey, 2006)

Examples:

(Mackey, 2006, p.438-39)

2. The Output Hypothesis

In this hypothesis, it is claimed that successful second language acquisition requires not only

comprehensible input, but also comprehensible output, that is, language produced by the learner that can

be understood by other speakers of the language (the work of Merrill Swain). The basic principle is that

“forcing” learners to speak in the L2 (i.e., putting them in a situation where they have to construct an

utterance which they know may be wrong) leads to acquisition. It is proposed that production may

support learners to move to syntactic processing (influenced by interaction hypothesis). Whereas

comprehension of a message can happen with little syntactic analysis of the input, production forces

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learners to pay attention to the means of expression. Thus, output gives learners opportunities to make

hypotheses about how the grammatical system works, and they get feedback about whether these

hypotheses are correct.

3. The Scaffolding Hypothesis (Sociolculturalism)

The scaffolding hypothesis is based on sociocultural theory. As an account of SLA, it rejected

both linguistic theory and cognitive theory as being too “mind/brain” oriented and, as an alternative,

positioned the learner as a dynamic participant in learning within specific social contexts (VanPatten &

Benati, 2015). It holds that social interaction is the most important incentive for all learning. “Interaction

not only facilitates language learning but is a causative force in acquisition; further, all of learning is seen

as essentially a social process which is grounded in sociocultural settings” (Saville-Troike, 2006, p. 111).

Sociocultural theory posits that interactions between individuals are the source of all cognitive

development (including language). An important kind of interaction is the interaction between a less

skilled L2 learner and a more expert “other” – a teacher, tutor, or more skillful fellow learner. The expert

can afford the learner a form of scaffolding. “Scaffolding” refers to the way in which, with support from

others, learners can attain levels of achievement which they would be not capable to reach autonomously.

It is the verbal assistance which an expert provides to help a learner complete any specific task, or the

verbal cooperation of peers to perform a task which would be too difficult for any one of them

individually (Saville-Troike, 2006). What happens during scaffolding is that the expert simplifies the task,

controls the learner’s frustration, models solutions, and brings the learner’s attention to important features

of the task. The expert can provide the learner with the chance to expand and practice a specific linguistic

skill, enabling the learner to achieve more.

4. The Acculturation Model and Social identity Theory

Acculturation is a process, intentional or unintentional, by which an individual or group adopts

one or more of another group’s cultural or linguistic features, resulting in new or blended cultural or

linguistic patterns. Acculturation involves adaptation and change (Tavakoli, 2012). The Acculturation

Model, associated with John Schumann, claims that the process of acculturation (adapting to a new

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culture) is directly linked to acquisition. There are social and psychological factors that have a direct

effect on the success L2 learners have in acquiring a second language. According to the model, success

depends on the extent to which learners adjust completely to target language culture. Two major factors

are identified in acculturation: social distance (due to the social dominance of the language group, the

ability for the individual to integrate into the group socially, and so on) and psychological distance (due to

anxiety, motivation, and self-confidence). Sometimes a person never acquires a new language because of

certain distance that exists between two linguistic groups. Researchers in this theory maintain that success

in second language learning has a lot to do with the learner’s degree of acculturation into the second

language culture (VanPatten & Benati, 2015). The “social identity model” is a theory formulated by

Peirce and Norton. Social identity is the relationship between the individual and the larger social world.

The model holds that learners’ social identities influence how successful they will be in learning an L2

(Tavakoli, 2012). It is based on the reciprocated influences that link language and identity. “As a person

consolidates his or her identity in a new community, so his or her ability to speak and learn the language

increases” (Littlewood, 2004, p. 520).

Conclusion

The relatively new field of second language acquisition encompasses a range of approaches to explaining

second language learning. An all-inclusive theory is obviously the fundamental objective of most SLA

research; however, each of the existing theories considers the problem of accounting for the L2 learning

process from a somewhat special perspective. Most theories have started from preceding research and, in

their continuing progress, have offered promising outlooks on the L2 learning process. Researchers are

increasingly borrowing insights from associated disciplines and approaches to improve understanding of

SLA. Thus, theory development and testing in this field is getting richer.

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Theories of Second Language Aquisition
- 1950s/1960s
1 Behaviourism - L2 acquisition = habit formation
- Repetition (imitation), reinforcement, positive
feedback
- Errors (eradicated), signs of failure (lack of
learning)
- L1 influences L2 learning
- Errors are caused by L1 interference
- Differences = difficulty of learning
- Reinteration of correct forms = the best
technique of eliminate errors

2 Multiple theories (from 1980s onwards)

Cognition-oriented theories Context-oriented theories

Creative construction hypothesis The interaction hypothesis

The input hypothesis The output hypothesis

Universal grammar The scaffolding hypothesis

The acculturation model/ social

identity theory

Figure 9.1: Theories of SLA (summary)

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Lecture 10: SLA and Second Language Pedagogy

Introduction

The connection between SLA theory and second language pedagogy is the centre of much debate.

While some SLA researchers see no urgent need to emphasize the relationship between SLA and L2

pedagogy, other SLA researchers highlight the usefulness of SLA studies to language pedagogy if applied

with care. A subfield within SLA research appeared to address the function of formal instruction on

second language development, called instructed SLA. It focuses on the degree to which external

teaching can influence L2 learning. The divergence between teachers’ work and learners’ readiness to

learn can be effortlessly corrected if the teacher is attentive to SLA research findings (Mackey, 2006).

Over the years, a number of attempts have been made to put SLA research and language pedagogy on the

same side. In this brief overview, some of the methodologies for L2 teaching are examined by stressing

the points at which some of them have drawn on theories of learning

I. Traditional Methods

A. The Grammar-Translation Method

It is a method of teaching in which students study grammar and translate words into their own

language. There is no practice of communication and little focus on speaking. A teacher starts by

presenting a grammar rule and vocabulary lists, and then students translate a written text from their

own language into the second language. Explanation in the learner's first language dominates most of the

teaching. This method is lacking in theoretical justification. With the noticed necessity for oral

proficiency in using other foreign languages, this approach gradually diminished in importance.

B. The Direct Method

This approach is also known as the ‘oral’ or ‘natural’ method. It began around the 1900s as a

substitute to the traditional grammar translation method. As previous techniques were failing to improve

spoken communication, teachers at this time were starting to try out new teaching and educational

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models. The Direct Method is founded on the direct participation of the student in speaking and listening

to the foreign language in ordinary everyday situations (using visuals aids and demonstration). Meaning

is taught directly. Accordingly, teachers encourage much oral interaction and spontaneous use of the

language. There is no translation and hardly any analysis of grammar rules and syntax. Writing and

reading come after speaking and listening. The method had no systematic theoretical basis.

II. Later Developments: The Age of Methods

“The Age of Methods” refers to the period from the 1950s to the 1980s because a number of

very thorough proposals for teaching approaches came into existence during this time.

A. The Audio-Lingual Method

In the Audiolingual Method primacy is given to spoken language. Grammar is taught inductively,

with little or no explicit grammar explanation. Audio-lingualism was derived from the psychological

theory of behaviourism, structural linguistics and contrastive analysis. It claimed that language learning

was essentially habit formation, requiring mimicry, memorization, feedback, drilling, and over-learning.

Meaning was given secondary position. Structures were gradually presented and sequenced. Positive

reinforcement was considered vital for learning to occur. Errors were seen as a sign of failure, and thus

they had to be discarded. This method is reproached for teaching decontextualized language and

banishing all forms of language processing by eliminating the significance of error-making.

B. Cognitive and Humanistic Approaches

On the whole, starting from the 1960s till the 1970s the magnitude of both cognitive and

affective factors was acknowledged. Stemming from Chomsky’s mentalistic ideas, cognitive thinking,

which emphasizes hypothesis-testing and error production, has become popular. In the same period, four

methods emerged. They are described as Humanistic Approaches because their designers are chiefly

concerned with lowering students’ affective filters and removing the psychological barrier to learning.

1. Community Language Learning

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Based on research insights in the fields of cognitive and educational psychology (e.g. by

Vygotsky and Piaget), more humanistic methods have been developed focusing on the social interaction

and affective and interpersonal factors in learning. In this method, teachers were regarded as counselors

rather than instructors, providing a warm, empathic, and nonthreatening atmosphere, where their clients

(the students) could shed their insecurities and anxieties about learning a new language. In this way, the

learners were gradually led to become more autonomous in using the L2 to convey their thoughts.

2. The Silent Way

Developed by Caleb Gattegno, the method also became more widespread. The underlying

principle of this approach was more concerned with cognition than with affect. Language is taught

through problem-solving. The teacher spoke only when necessary (hence the term ‘silent’), thus

encouraging students to discern the rules of the language by themselves rather than relying on the teacher.

It was seen as imperative for students to raise their attentiveness to L2 and to grow to be autonomous

learners. To this end, props such as colored wooden rods and color-coded charts were used extensively

to stimulate student analysis and use of the target language.

3. (De)suggestopedia

It is the pedagogical application of the study of suggestion to pedagogy. It has been developed by

Lozanov in the 1960s to help students eradicate the feeling that they cannot be successful and the negative

association they may have toward studying (overcoming the psychological barriers to learning). A much

attention is placed on students’ feelings. One of the basic principles of the method is that if students are

relaxed and confident, they will not need to try hard to learn the language. It will just come naturally and

effortlessly. The method relies on the use of dialogues, situations, and translation to present and

practise language, and in particular, makes use of music, visual images, decoration, furniture,

arrangement of the classroom and relaxation exercises to have a tranquil milieu that eliminates any fear

of failure on the part of the learners.

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4. Total Physical Response (TPR)

It is a language teaching method developed by Asher in the early 1970s. It is built around the

combination of speech and action. It tries to teach language via physical (motor) activity. Developed

by a professor of psychology, it draws on several traditions, including developmental psychology,

learning theory, and humanistic pedagogy. In TPR items are presented in the foreign language as orders,

commands, and instructions, which require a physical response from the learner (e.g. opening a

window or standing up, sitting down, walking to the board, and so forth). It is based on the premise that

motor activity strengthens recall. TPR gives greater emphasis to comprehension than many other teaching

methods. This proved to work better with younger learners.

C. The Modern Era

1. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

CLT appeared in the 1980s. Its origins lie in sociolinguistics and pragmatics. In this approach, the

object of language learning is communicative competence and making meaningful communication.

Learning happens through creative construction, and it essentially entails trial and error. Teaching relies

heavily on communicative tasks. CLT addresses all four skills and incorporates recent insights about the

importance of active learner participation. Focus is given to accuracy and appropriateness of language

forms. CLT lacks approved classroom techniques in comparison with some the other methods. It is

‘fuzzy’ in teachers’ understanding. There is no one single agreed upon version of CLT. Some of the tenets

of CLT have been incorporated into other communicative approaches, such as task-based language

teaching, cooperative language learning, and content-based instruction.

2. Task-Based Instruction

In Task-Based Instruction, teaching is done completely by involving learners in communicative

tasks. There is no prearranged grammar syllabus, focusing on language use after a task has been

completed. A task is a feature of everyday life (shifting a wardrobe from one room to another, planning

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the budget, organizing a trip, etc). Tasks are meaningful, and in doing them, students need to

communicate. Tasks have a clear outcome so that the teacher and students know whether or not the

communication has been successful. Students work in small groups, and as they seek to complete the task,

they have to work to understand each other and to express their own thoughts. This interaction and

checking is thought to assist language acquisition. Students have to comprehend, negotiate, express ideas,

and get their message across in order to accomplish a goal.

3. Content-Based Instruction

It is a method that combines language instruction and subject-matter instruction in the target

language. The content-based instruction is not utterly a language program, but instead it integrates the

learning of language with the learning of some other content. The content can be themes in which

students are interested. Often, the content is academic subject-matter, such as history or science.

Language thus becomes the medium for learning content. It has been observed that academic subjects

provide natural content for language study. Such observations motivated the ‘language across the

curriculum’ and ‘immersion programs’.

Conclusion

Advances in SLA research and linguistic theory have influenced how languages are thought to be

best learned and taught. Present SLA research suggests that in selecting a method, teachers also need to

think about their learners’ backgrounds, the context and institutional constraints within which they are

working, as well as their own experience and intuitions about what does and does not work for their

learners in the L2 classroom. SLA theory should not prescribe what happens in the classroom, but it can

supply language teachers with information about classroom options and ideas that they can adapt. The

modern teacher use a multiplicity of methodologies and approaches, choosing techniques from each

method that they deem efficient and applying them according to the learning context and objectives. They

prepare their lessons to facilitate the understanding of the new language being taught and do not rely on

one specific ‘best method’. This orientation is known as eclecticism.

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Figure 10.1: A chronology of language teaching methods

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Part III

Techniques in Applied

Linguistics

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Lecture 11: Contrastive Analysis

Introduction

Research in SLA has been much influenced by the approach known as contrastive analysis. In

this perspective, a continuing major theme of SLA research has been introduced: the influence of L1 on

L2. This has many repercussions on L2 is taught. It started with a linguistic focus; however, with the

introduction of Chomskyan thinking, an internal focus in SLA supplanted this paradigm, giving way to

the approach of error analysis.

I. Definition and Objectives

Contrastive analysis (CA) is one of the techniques of applied linguistics which tries to shed light

on second language learning and to account for the learners' deviations from the target language. It is

defined by Van Els et al (1984) as “a systematic comparison of specific linguistic characteristics of two or

more languages". It has as its central goal the revealing of the structural differences and similarities that

exist between languages. Such a comparison provides insights into L2 learning. It was greatly influenced

by theories which were prevailing in linguistics and psychology within the USA in the 1940s to the

1950s, Structuralism and Behaviorism. The prompt to this activity was provided in 1957 by the

publication of Robert Lado's pioneering work Linguistics across Cultures (1957). It is possible to

summarize the objectives of CA in three main points:

1. Providing insights into similarities and differences between languages,

2. Explanation and prediction of problems in second language learning,

3. Developing course materials for language teaching.

The second objective constitutes the core of the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis. Lado (1957)

states the principal assumption of CAH as follows: “Those elements that are similar to his [the learner's]

native language will be simple for him, and those elements that are different will be difficult” (p.2).

Wherever the structure of the second language differs from that of the mother-tongue we expect both

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difficulty in learning and error in performance. In this way CA has a predictive power of areas of

difficulty. Errors are caused by L1. One can say, therefore, that second language learning consists above

all in overcoming the differences between the first and second language systems (Littlewood, 1984), and

teaching will be directed at those points where there are structural differences between the languages.

ease of
Language 1 similarities =
learning

Language 2
difficulty Errors (caused
differences =
of learning by L1 alone)

Focus in
teaching

Figure 11.1: The Contrastive analysis hypothesis

II. Language Transfer

A. Definition

The concept of transfer constitutes the core of CAH hypothesis. It is originally derived from skill

research in learning psychology. It refers to the effects of prior learning on subsequent learning. Wilkins

(1972) explains: “Faced with a new learning task, an organism will make use of what knowledge or skills

it already possesses to ease the process of acquisition” (p.199). In the context of second language

learning, the individual already possesses knowledge of his mother-tongue, and it is this which he tends to

transfer when learning another. Hence we can talk of language transfer.

B. Types

Several types of language transfer can be distinguished according both to its direction and to its

effect: Van Els et al (1984) observe that transfer can be either retro-active or pro-active. Pro-active

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transfer is the transfer of existing skills onto new skills, and retro-active transfer is transfer of new skills

onto existing skills. In both cases, it may be positive or negative. Positive transfer, also called

facilitation, occurs when the systems of the first language resemble and hence facilitate the learning of

the second language. Negative transfer, or interference, takes place when the systems differ. In that case

the native language impedes the learning of the second and it accounts for difficulty and error (p.49).

Contrastive analysts focus on" pro-active interference" and consider it the sole active force in second

language learning.

pro-active
Skill 1 Skill 2

(L1) (L2)
retro-active

Figure 11.2: Types of language transfer

III. The Contrastive Analysis Refuted (Criticism)

The contrastivist ideas represented for many years the bible of SL/FL language teaching.

Consequently, a number of contrastive analysis projects were launched in many parts of the world,

inspired both by linguistic and by pedagogical incentives. By the end of the 1960s and the early 1970s,

however, there was a remarkable shift of emphasis away from the theory of language transfer and its

implications. Many researchers began to reappraise its argument in second language teaching. CA was

criticized for two main points.

A. The Learner's Exclusion

The contrastivists, as it has been explained earlier, argue that the “knotty” areas in second

language learning can be simply pinpointed via a systematic comparison of languages. In other words,

errors are not so much concerned with learning but with specific structures of the L2: those which differ

from the structures of the first language. Contrastive analysis “does not actually take the L2 learner into

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account” (Van Els et al, 1984, p.37). Klein (1986), in this connection, explains that: “It is not the

existence of a structure as described by the linguist that is important, but the way the learner deals with it

in comprehension and production. Therefore, comparison of structures may totally miss the point” (pp.25-

26). In fact, the analysis of linguistic differences between languages is not helpful to understand learning,

which is a psycholinguistic process.

B. The Faulty Predictions

More importantly, the predictive power of CA and the status of language transfer as a “unique”

source of learners’ errors were criticized.

1. Underprediction

CA was shown to underpredict the occurrence of a number of actual errors. In this respect, James

(1980) cites many cases where actual learner errors are not entirely the result of L1 interference. Other

major sources of errors have been recognized. He rejects the exaggeration of CA claims. Other

researchers came to the same conclusions. Duskova, for instance, mentions examples where the structures

of English and Czech seem exactly parallel but where none-the-less errors occur (Wilkins, 1972, p.200).

2. Overprediction

Many research findings asserted that CA overpredicts errors where they have often not occurred.

Differences sometimes did not cause difficulties for learners. Corder (1973), referring to such a case,

points out, “Many teachers will have been glad to find that what was identified as a difference and

predicted as difficulty turned out not to be so” (p.229). This is explained by the fact that difficulty is a

psychological matter while difference is a purely linguistic one. All these are cases of what James (1980)

calls 'false' predictions.

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3. Indeterminate Predictions

In addition to that, James (1980) argues that CA, at times, provides indeterminate predictions:

“Indeterminacy refers to the CA being unable to specify which of two or more structurally likely

substitutions the learner will select” (p.183).

Such a criticism reveals that CA lacks empirical validations; it has not always been supported by

strong evidence. CA’s argument and applicability, as a result, became less acceptable. It was necessary

then to jettison, or at least to revise, the original claims held by the contrastive studies.

IV. The Strong Vs the Weak Claims of Contrastive Analysis

There are a number of variants to the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis along a “weak – strong”

scale (Klein, 1986, p. 25). The distinction drawn between the strong and weak versions of the hypothesis

paved the way for what came to be known as 'Error Analysis'. Wardhaugh was the first to posit a

distinction between the two claims.

A. The Strong Claim

The strong (a priori) version is originally the one provided by Lado. It highlights, as it has

already been explained, the prediction of second language (L2) learning problems on the basis of

linguistic differences between the mother tongue and L2. In this version, all errors can be predicted by

comparing languages, and all difficulties are caused by L1 interference.

B. The Weak Claim

The weak (a posteriori) version, on the other hand, claims that comparison could help to explain

learner errors, as Corder (1975) states, CA can be referred to in order to explain some observed errors.

Wilkins (1972) supports this claim by asserting that prediction is an extraordinarily difficult thing. He

attaches greater importance to the actual performance of the learner by saying that, “Contrastive analysis

should be carried out to provide a linguistic explanation for known errors, rather than as a predictive

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procedure. (p.202). The second claim is generally considered to be more acceptable, though less

interesting from a scientific angle.

Conclusion

Although CA gained some popularity for some time, contrastive research projects in the late

1960s took two broad directions: the first being linguistic and concerned with language typology and the

search for universals; and the second being purely psycholinguistic, more oriented towards discovering

second language acquisition intricacies. Here CA became part of the wider undertaking of Error Analysis.

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Lecture 12: Error Analysis

Introduction

Error Analysis (EA) is the earliest approach to the study of SLA which includes an internal

spotlight on learners’ creative capacity to construct language. It is founded on the description and scrutiny

of real learner errors in L2, rather than on idealized linguistic structures of L1 and L2. It largely

substituted CA by the early 1970s. By and large, error analysis added much useful insights to SLA

research and had interesting pedagogical applications.

I. Definition

Error Analysis (EA) involves the study of a learner’s linguistic performance with focus on

errors. The notion of “error” signifies a deviation or a faulty version of the target language. Ellis (1994)

defines EA as: “a set of procedures for identifying, describing, and explaining errors in learner language”

(p.701). EA is comparative, as explained by Corder, in the sense that it attempts to compare the learner’s

form of language at any particular point in his learning, Interlanguage (IL), with the target language

(TL). According to EA proponents, errors are not to be attributed solely to the mother tongue, and they

are not predicted from the areas of differences between languages. In this paradigm, only some of the

observed errors are caused by L1 interference. Many other sources of errors can be postulated.

II. EA Theoretical Foundations

A. Status of Errors

EA starts from the actual observed errors. It is said to consider the language learner as the focal

point, and his errors are said to be tokens of the learning process. Ellis (1985) maintains that “The most

significant contribution of Error Analysis . . . lies in its success in elevating the status of errors from

undesirability to that of a guide to the inner workings of the language learning process” (p.53). It follows

then that the so-called “deviations” from the TL norms assumed a new significance. Rather than

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regarding them as regrettable by-products, they became a natural, even a necessary, part of learning a

second language.

B. Mentalistic Orientation

While CA developed in a “structural-behaviourist” climate (Corder, 1975, p.202), EA is

characterised by its cognitive affiliation. Saturated with the Chomskyan mentalistic ideas prevalent in the

1960s, it followed the path of research in first language acquisition. Error analysts assume that identical

processes are involved in learning the mother tongue or any other language. Corder (1981) notes: “I

propose therefore as a working hypothesis that some at least of the strategies adopted by the learner of a

second language are substantially the same as those by which a first language is acquired” (p.8).

Corder (ibid) maintains that errors are evidence of a system the learner is using at a particular

point in the learning process. On account of this, he objects to the use of the terms “error”, “deviant” and

“ill-formed” and proposes the term idiosyncratic instead. He states, “I suggest it is misleading to refer to

the idiosyncratic sentences of the second language learner as deviant. I also suggest that it is as

undesirable to call them erroneous as it is to call the sentences of a child erroneous, because it implies

willful or inadvertent breach of rules which, in some sense, ought to be known” (p.18).

III. Objectives of EA

Richards et al (1992) see that EA has three main goals: (1) to identify strategies which learners

use in language learning, (2) to identify the causes of learner errors, (3) and to obtain information on

common difficulties in language learning, as an aid to teaching or in the preparation of teaching materials.

It becomes clear then that two major broad objectives guide research within this area: one purely

theoretical, concerned with the psychological aspect of learner language; and the other practical and

significant to language teachers (Corder, 1975, p.205). Accordingly, Remedial Error Analysis is

distinguished from Developmental Error Analysis (Schachter and Celce-Murcia, 1983, p.275).

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A. Developmental Error Analysis

At a later stage of its development, the analysis of learner’s errors became a major contributor to

second language acquisition (SLA) research, being concerned with the development stages in language

learning. In EA, the learner is seen to construct for himself a grammar, or a “competence” in the

Chomskyan sense, through the hypotheses he formulates. This competence is transient in nature, since the

learner’s hypotheses are continuously being tested and reformulated. Errors are seen as signs of this

process; their analysis provides hints about the strategies the learner uses and the nature and

characteristics of his competence at a given stage of its development. Developmental EA attempts to shed

light on the successive stages in interlanguage development in the hope of understanding of the universal

features of second language learning processes and strategies.

B. Remedial Error Analysis

Remedial EA represents the pedagogical aspect of the hypothesis. EA is considered a useful tool to

language teachers. Errors can be positively exploited to better teaching. Corder (1981) explains that such

deviations are significant to the teacher: “In that they tell him, if he undertakes a systematic analysis, how

far towards the goal the learner has progressed and, consequently, what remains for him to learn” (p.11).

Lee (1983) holds the same view when he says: “Mistakes analyses based on adequate materiel show

clearly what is most troublesome for the learners concerned and thus where they most need support”

(p.149). EA is used to reorient learning materials and remediation. The latter therefore can be successfully

achieved just on the basis of the errors observed.

IV. Competence Vs Performance Errors

When conducting an error analysis, it is important to discriminate genuine errors from other sorts

of deviations.

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A. Errors

Corder (1973) refers to them as breaches of the code (p.259), in other words, deviations from a

norm. They arise from lack of knowledge about TL and the application of a transitional rule. Errors are

systematic and related to competence. Peculiar to these errors is that they are not recognized by the

learner as an error. They are only errors from a teacher’s or a researcher’s perspective, not from the

learner’s. Therefore, the learner is, evidently, unable to correct them. Errors are of direct relevance to EA.

2. Mistakes

Mistakes are often referred to as lapses (Corder, 1974b). They are due to chance circumstances

indicating failure to use a known system correctly. Mistakes are non-systematic and associated with

performance. That is, mistakes are one-time-only events readily correctable by the learner himself. This

sort of deviations encompasses “slips of the tongue” like false starts, changes of plan, confusion of

structures and so forth. Corder (1974) observes that “These lapses seem to increase in frequency under

conditions of stress, indecision and fatigue” (p.123). Mistakes fall beyond the scope of EA. Self-

correction is seen to be the only criterion in error or mistake identification.

V. Methodology in Error Analysis

Evidently, the whole process of EA first presupposes the collection of a sample of learner

language, i.e. a corpus, using known elicitation techniques. The data collected can be either spoken or

written. A number of steps are followed in conducting an error analysis. Van Els et al (1984) distinguish

the following. The first three steps are crucial, while the last two rest on the objective of the researcher:

they are essential so long as the objective of EA is pedagogic and redundant if it is to research SLA.

A. Identification of Errors

The first step in EA consists in identifying the errors. Recognizing that an error has been

committed necessarily involves the interpretation of the learner’s utterance in context. Corder (1974)

maintains that the utterances may be “erroneous” in two ways: overtly or covertly. Overt errors are

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superficially deviant, i.e ungrammatical in terms of TL rules, while Covert errors appear to be

grammatical (superficially well-formed) but are inappropriate in the sense that they do not reflect the

learner’s intentions in the context of communication. Interpretations of the learner’s intended meaning are

of two sorts: authoritative or plausible (Corder, 1975). The former is used to when the learner is

available; he is directly referred to so as to provide a translation to his utterance in his L1. The latter is

undertaken in the learner’s absence using whatever sources to reconstruct the utterance in an acceptable

form.

B. Description of Errors

The second step in EA encompasses the linguistic description of errors (a comparative process

of IL (idiosyncratic utterance) and TL (reconstructed utterance). A number of different categories for the

description of idiosyncrasies have been identified. According to Corder (1973) the most superficial

taxonomy involves four surface categories of errors: omission, addition selection and misordering.

These categories are to be assigned to different linguistic levels. The result is the following matrix for the

classification of errors:

Phonological / orthographical Grammatical Lexical

Omission he write

Addition they wented

Selection she have a car

Ordering happened an accident

Table 12.1: Classification of errors

(Source: Corder, 1973)

In the end, the classified errors are systematically explained by the rules which have been violated at each

linguistic level in a given system (e.g. vowel or consonant systems, tense, aspect, mood, number, gender

or case). Most linguists recognize the complexity of this stage, but they cannot agree on the number of

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possible categories that errors can fall into. It is not only the number of categories that is problematic but

also their overlapping.

C. Explanation of Errors

The third stage of the procedure is the crucial goal of EA. It entails attributing the errors to their

sources, in other words, providing a psycholinguistic explanation to error production. The role that the

explanation of learner idiosyncrasies plays in deepening our insights about the process of second

language acquisition at large is of paramount importance. Determining the sources of errors is still

speculative; nonetheless, a number of hypothesized causes have been influential, the most prevalent of

which are the following: (1) Transfer errors (They reflect the effect of L1 on L2 learning. In this case,

errors are interlingual), (2) Analogical errors (They relate to the structure of L2 and the learning

process; they are known as intralingual errors), and (3) Teaching-induced errors (They result from the

teaching methodology employed. Corder (1974b) regards them as redundant and avoidable (p. 131). A

number of other sources were provided to account for how and why errors occur. Their diversity reflects

the fact that many factors come into play when deciding to attribute errors to their postulated causes.

D. Evaluation of Errors

The next step in the process of Error Analysis, therefore, involves the assessment of the

seriousness of each inaccuracy depending on its kind and its frequency in the learner’s production.

Measuring error gravity is then crucial to EA. Researchers have set different standards in their

evaluation of errors. Corder (1975) mentions two types of criteria: the linguistic and the communicative.

The linguistic evaluation of errors consists in setting linguistic touchstones to measure the degree of

deviance from the target form such as: the number and nature of the rules violated, the classification of

errors as syntactic or semantic, or the distinction of errors as global or local. A global error is one which

involves the overall structure of a sentence and a local error is one which affects a particular constituent.

The communicative evaluation, however, assesses the seriousness of errors in terms of the effect they

have on the efficiency of communication: some hinder comprehensibility while others do not, regardless

of their linguistic form. It is argued that global errors impede communication while local errors do not.

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Hoornstra (2003) adds a third approach, which assesses errors in relation to the current pedagogical focus

of the lesson set by the teacher. Teachers would overlook those errors which are not of immediate

relevance to the objective of the lesson and focus solely on the errors where attention is needed to

accomplish this objective.

E. Correction of Errors

Van Els et al define correction as feedback on errors. It is closely related to evaluation: An

erroneous bit of language cannot be corrected unless its seriousness is evaluated. Klassen (1991) wrote:

“I believe the gravity of the error should determine whether correction is necessary” (p.10). Research on

error correction methods is not at all conclusive on the most effective method or technique for error

correction. The problem of language teachers lies in determining what to correct and how to correct.

Different tendencies can be distinguished. For some analysts, treatment is undertaken on

linguistic grounds such as: the frequency of an error type or the degree of its linguistic deviance.

Another trend favours the correction of erroneous utterances in terms of their interference with

comprehensibility (correction of global errors). The current tendency is to incorporate the affective

factors in error treatment. In its extreme form, it recommends no direct treatment of error at all, similar

to the natural environments of L1 or L2 learning. Correction was shown to inhibit learning, especially the

flow of communication. At the other end of the scale, proponents of correction opt for an immediate

treatment of every error at the moment it is made. Their counterclaim is that tolerating erroneous

utterances is a kind of positive feedback that leads the learner to internalize incorrect forms in the same

way he does with correct ones. Selinker (1974) coined the term fossilization to refer to this phenomenon.

He states that: Fossilisation can be observed in “foreign accents” and also in certain persistent syntactic or

lexical deviant forms .The learner does not try to use a more refined and sophisticated form. The reason is

that he can confidently “get by” with what he knows of the TL.

Balancing these various perspectives, one can safely conclude that a perceptive language teacher,

supported by a clear understanding of the nature and source of each error, is advised to handle these

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sensitive spots in learning with great care to attain a more efficient teaching and a better learning of the

target language.

V. Criticism of EA

It is important to note that more and more criticism has been made against EA’s approach and

methodology. The tendency now is to include non-errors (or successes), alongside errors, for a better

account of L2 learning. It is believed that the failures should not be permitted to eclipse the successes of

the language learner. The error analysis approach focuses just on the products of second language

learners. As a result, it tended to neglect the process.

Interlanguage Analysis, or performance analysis, is proposed as a comprehensive approach

that aims at uncovering the process of second language acquisition. Here the attention is no longer

focused on deviations from the L2 norm (errors) at a given point in time, but on the process of L2

learning as a whole. It includes the development of the various systems and subsystems of L2 as well.

Therefore, the Performance Analysis approach examines the performance of second language learners

from many angles. Much more research has been done into syntactic and morphological development

than into lexical and phonological development (learning inflections of verbs, learning interrogatives,

learning comparatives, learning articles

This type of analysis may take a longitudinal approach (along a period of time), but it can also be

done cross-sectionally (at one point in time). A choice has to be made between longitudinal and cross-

sectional research designs. In the first type of research, the language behavior of one and the same

informant or group of informants is registered for a certain period at specific intervals (e.g. one hour,

twice a week, for 12 months). In the second case, one single sample of the language behavior of a group

of informants is taken. From such a sample, one may draw conclusions about which aspects of L2 have

been mastered to what extent. In contrast with cross-sectional studies, where the time factor has in fact

been eliminated, longitudinal studies give a picture of language development over time. A lot of research

into language development is cross-sectional, which has to do with the fact that longitudinal research is

by definition time-consuming, and with the difficulty involved in applying it to large numbers of

informants.

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The basic idea of performance analysis is that the L2 learner constructs an internal grammar on

the basis of the L2 input he/she receives, a grammar which in subsequent stages or ‘varieties’ keeps being

reconstructed and will approximate a certain target variety of native speakers of that language more and

more, although it will rarely be identical to it.

Conclusion

One can conclude by saying that Error Analysis has broadened the view of ESL and EFL learning owing

to its cognitive orientation. Rather than regarding errors as fatal to proper learning, which was crucial to

the behaviourist pattern, they became – from an EA’s perspective – a necessary positive factor indicative

of the language learning process. EA proponents emphasize great potential for deriving practical insights

about teaching from a clear understanding of the learning process. EA was shown to subsume CA in that

the latter is appealed to only to explain a portion of the errors that learners commit, those resulting from

L1 interference, but it fails to handle a larger portion of such deviations attributable to L2 complexity.

More and more criticism has been made against EA’s approach and methodology, but despite its

weakness, EA continues to provide hints at the possible relationship between the classroom and the

psycholinguistic questions of language learning.

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General Bibliography

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Applied Linguistics, 7(1), 86–94.

Corder, S. P. (1973). Introducing applied linguistics. Baltimore : Penguin Education.

Corder, S. P. (1975). Error analysis, interlanguage and second language acquisition. Language

Teaching and Linguistics: Abstracts, 8, 201-18.

Crystal, D. (2008). A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics (6th ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Davies, A. (1999). An introduction to applied linguistics: From practice to theory. Edinburgh:

Edinburgh University Press.

Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford university Press.

Grabe, W. (2002). Applied linguistics: an emerging discipline for the twenty-first century. In R. B.

Kaplan (ed.), The Oxford handbook of applied linguistics (pp. 3-12). Oxford: Oxford University

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Grabe, W. (2010). Applied linguistics: A twenty-first-century discipline. In Robert E. Kaplan (Ed),

The Oxford handbook of applied linguistics (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Groom, N. and Littlemore, J. (2011). Doing applied linguistics :A guide for students. Abingdon:

Routledge.

Hergenhahn, B.R. & Henley, T.B. (2014). An introduction to the history of psychology (7th ed.).

Belmont, CA, USA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

James, C. (1980). Contrastive analysis. London: Longman.

Kennedy, G. A. (1998). Comparative rhetoric: an historical and cross-cultural introduction. New York:

Oxford University Press.

King, K. A. (2006). Child language acquisition. In R. Fasold and J. Connor-Linton (Eds), An

introduction to language and linguistics (pp. 205-234). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Klein, W. (1986). Second language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Lado, R. (1957). Linguistics across cultures. Ann Arbor: The University Of Michigan Press, 1957.

Littlewood, William T. (1984). Foreign and second language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Littlewood, William T. (2004). Second language learning. In Alan Davies & Catherine Elder (Eds.),

The handbook of applied linguistics (pp. 500–524). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Macaro, E. (2010). Second language acquisition: The landscape, the scholarship, and the reader. In E.

Macaro (Ed.), Continuum companion to second language acquisition (pp. 3-28). London, UK:

Continuum.

Mackay, A. (2006). Second language acquisition. In R. Fasold and J. Connor-Linton (Eds.), An

introduction to language and linguistics (pp. 433-463). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Mitchell, R. & Myles, F. (2004). Second language learning theories (2nd ed.). London: Hodder Arnold

Saville-Troike, M. (2006). Introducing second language acquisition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge

University Press.

Schmitt, N. & Celce-Murcia, M. (2002).An overview of applied linguistics. In N. Schmitt (Ed.), An

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Bloomsbury.

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Theories in second language acquisition (2nd ed.) (pp. 17-33). New York and London:

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Routledge

Watson, J. B. (1924). Behaviorism. New York: People’s Institute.

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Glossary

- Acculturation A process through which a person from one culture comes to

espouse the practices and values of another culture.
- Affective filter The level of anxiety of the learner.
- Amnesia A problem in memory caused by brain damage or disease.
- Anthropology The study of the physical, biological and cultural aspects of
humans.
- Applied linguistics The discipline which tries to use theoretical findings to solve
language-related problems in real life contexts.
- Applied linguistics view The view which defines applied linguistics as the use of findings
of AL from linguistics and other disciplines to solve language-related
problems in real life contexts.
- Aptitude Mental ability to learn a language.
- Autonomous view of AL The view that regards applied linguistics as an autonomous field
of study, not necessarily linking it to some theoretical discipline.
- Babbling A prelanguage stage in child language acquisition during which
an infant experiments with uttering sounds but does not yet
produce any meaningful words.
- Behaviourism The theory of language learning which explains it in terms of
imitation and habit formation.
- Bilingualism The state of speaking two languages by a person or the existence
of two languages in the same nation.
- Brain plasticity The capacity of the brain to assume new functions.
- Child-directed speech A type of adult speech which is specially constructed to address
babies.
- Classical conditioning A form of learning whereby a conditioned stimulus becomes
associated with an unconnected stimulus in order to produce a
response.
- Classical language A language that is no longer used in modern life and that is
restricted only to some functions in society such as literature or
religious ceremonies.
- Classroom management The process of ensuring that lessons run efficiently without
troublesome behaviour from students.
- Communicative The knowledge about how and when to use utterances
competence appropriately.

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- Competence The abstract knowledge that a native speaker has of his native
language which consists of rules of various types: phonological,
syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, etc.
- Comprehensible input Language that is intelligible but just a little more advanced than
the student's existing level to understand it.
- Comprehensible output The language produced by the learner that can be understood by
other speakers of the language.
- Comprehension checks In conversation, strategies used by the speaker to check if the
interlocutor understands or not.
- Connectionism A theory of second language acquisition stemming from an
approach to the study of human cognition that utilizes
mathematical models, known as neural networks.
- Contrastive analysis The comparison of languages to detect the similarities and
differences between them.
- Contrastive Analysis The view that similarities between languages are easy to learn
Hypothesis while differences are difficult and lead to errors in L2.
- Cooing A stage of infants' prelinguistic speech development which
consists of the uttering of one syllable, vowel-like sounds.
- Corpus linguistics The study of language based on large collections of real life
language use (corpora) accumulated in computerized databases.
- Covert error A superficially well-formed structure but which does not mean
what the learner intended it to mean.
- Creative construction The processing of linguistic input by innate mechanisms to create
new output based on the extracted rules.
- Critical awareness An understanding of social, cultural, political, historical, and
ideological aspects of language learning and teaching in a given
context.
- Critical discourse Critically describing, interpreting, and explaining how discourses
analysis construct, maintain, and legitimize social inequalities.
- Critical language testing The study of the uses and consequences of tests in education and
society.
- Critical pedagogy A theory and practice of helping learners achieve critical
consciousness..
- Critical period The theory that links language acquisition to age assuming that
hypothesis there is an optimal period for acquiring languages.
- Curriculum The totality of academic content taught in a school or in a specific

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course or programme.
- Developmental error The analysis of language errors for the purpose of discovering the
analysis successive stages in interlanguage development.
- Developmental stages The stages which mark the gradual acquisition of a language.
- Discourse analysis The study of language in context both linguistic and situational.
- Discriminative stimulus In operant conditioning, a stimulus that increases the probability
of a response.
- Drilling A language teaching activity associated with behaviouristic
principles based on repetition for the purpose of learning.
- Eclecticism A tendency in language teaching which does not hold rigidly to a
single method of teaching but relies on deriving techniques from a
broad and diverse range of methods.
- Environmental support The existence of a language in the close environment of a person,
which enables him/her to pick it up informally without receiving
any explicit teaching of that language.
- Error A repeated deviation from the target language which reflects a
transitional rule made by the learner.
- Error Analysis The systematic identification, description and explanation of
learner’s errors.
- Error description Comparing the false form with the target language form and
classifying the type of error according to the rule being broken
within the system of language.
- Error evaluation Deciding on the seriousness of an error (gravity).
- Error explanation Finding the source (cause) of an error.
- Error identification Recognizing that an error has been committed in learner
language.
- Explicit instruction The teaching of a language in a formal way, usually in the
classroom by a teacher.
- Facilitation A type of language transfer (positive) where the systems of the
first language resemble and ease the learning of the second
language.
- Feedback The response or reaction (of an adult or teacher) to an utterance
produced by a child or a learner.
- First language The language which a person acquires first in his/ her life and in
which he has full command.
- First language The subconscious process of learning one’s first language without

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acquisition explicit instruction.

- Foreign language The language which a person acquires after his first language
without it being used in his/ her immediate environment.
- Forensic linguistics The application of linguistic findings and methods to the law.
- Formulaic speech Expressions which are learnt as wholes and employed in specific
contexts.
- Fossilization The permanent use of incorrect linguistic features (errors) when
learning a second language.
- Global error A language error which extends on the overall structure of a
sentence.
- Holophrastic stage The stage in which a child produces a word to mean a whole
sentence.
- Humanistic approaches Language teaching approaches chiefly concerned with lowering
students’ affective filters and removing the psychological barrier
to learning.
- Imitation The act of repeating exactly the same utterance (input) heard from
the environment.
- Immersion programme A programme where learners are fully immersed in the target
language for a certain period of time.
- Instructed SLA Learning or acquisition which happens as a result of teaching.
- Instrumental The practical or pragmatic reason for language learning.
motivation
- Integrative motivation A positive attitude toward the target language community with
the intention to integrate and adapt to a new target culture through
use of the language.
- Interaction In language learning, communication or direct involvement with
other people.
- Interdisciplinarity Taking insights from more than one discipline.
- Interference Transfer of native language rules, which impedes the learning of
the second language.
- Interlanguage The learner’s form of language at any particular point in his
learning
- Language acquisition An inborn mental capacity which enables an infant to acquire and
device produce language.
- Language acquisition The process whereby adults help a younger child to acquire
support system a language.

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- Language across the An approach which aims to infuse foreign language across the
curriculum curriculum by teaching content through it. This can be partial or
complete in an institution.
- Language awareness The explicit knowledge about language, and conscious perception
and sensitivity in language learning, language teaching and
language use.
- Language of wider A language used by people as a medium of communication across
communication language or cultural barriers. The language may or may not be the
L1 of anyone involved in the communication.
- Language pathology Speech therapy.
- Language planning The measures taken by official agencies to influence the use of
one or more languages in a particular speech community.
- Language proficiency (A measurement of) how well an individual has mastered
a language.
- Language teacher Providing the skills needed to be a language teacher.
training
- Language teaching The activities which are intended to cause language learning to
happen
- Language-based Problems in real life contexts which involve language in some
problems way.
- Language-minority The rights of linguistic minorities to decide for themselves on the
rights language(s) they prefer to use for communication in public or
private spheres in a given society.
- Languages for specific An area of applied linguistics that focuses on the analysis and
purposes teaching of language in order to meet specific language needs of
non-native speakers of the language.
- Learning style One’s favored mode of processing information.
- Lexicography The activity of compiling dictionaries.
- Linguistics The scientific study of language.
- Linguistics applied view The view that applied linguistics is restricted to the application of
of AL the findings of linguistics alone to solve real life language related
problems.
- Local error An error which affects only a particular constituent of a sentence
- Mistake A non-systematic deviation from the target language norms
caused by psychological factors and correctable by the learners.
- Motivation The willingness to learn or do something (e.g. learn a language)

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- Multilingualism The ability of an individual speaker or a community of speakers

to communicate effectively in three or more languages.
- Narrow sense of AL The use of linguistics findings to solve problems related to
language learning and teaching.
- National language A language officially designated the language of a nation or
country, usually for cultural and/or ethnic reasons. It acts as one
of the features which constitute the nation’s identity.
- Nativism A theory of language learning which holds that people learn
languages by means of inborn mental abilities rather than by
imitation or environmental factors.
- Nature The effect of innate predispositions on the learning of a language
- Negotiation of meaning A process that speakers go through to reach a clear understanding
of each other by asking for clarification, rephrasing, and
confirming what one thinks he/she has understood.
- Neurolinguistics The branch of linguistics dealing with the relationship between
language and the structure and functioning of the brain.
- New rhetoric A theory of argumentation that was popular in the 1960s.
- Non-pedagogically Research which is not related to language learning and teaching.
focused research
- Nurture The effect of the environment and external factors on the learning
of a language.
- Official language A language given a special status in a particular country. It is used
in government, administration, news, schools, etc.
- Operant conditioning A method of learning that takes place through rewards and
punishments for behaviour.
- Operant response Behaviour (e.g. saying a word in the case of language) that is
modifiable by its consequences.
- Negative transfer The negative effect which a first language has on second language
learning when their systems differ.
- Pro-active transfer The influence of a previously learnt skill on a new skill.
- Other-directed learners Learners who have an interpersonal, social orientation in
language learning.
- Overt errors Errors which are superficially deviant, i.e. ungrammatical in
terms of TL rules.
- Parameters The components of universal grammar which are language-
specific.

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- Parental diaries Diaries written by parents about their children’s language

development.
- Pedagogically focused Research which is related to language learning and teaching.
research
- Pedagogy The study of teaching: how knowledge and skills are conveyed in
an educational context.
- Performance analysis The study of the development of the various systems and
subsystems of L2.
- Personal bilingualism Speaking two languages by an individual
- Positive transfer Facilitation
- Primary language The language of dominant or preferred use
- Principles The aspects of universal grammar which are common between
languages.
- Reform Movement A movement in the 1880s and 1890s in north-western Europe
which attempted to modernize methods of language instruction.
- Reinforcement In behaviourism, a consequence applied that will strengthen a
future behaviour whenever it is preceded by a stimulus.
- Remedial Error The systematic analysis of language errors for teaching purposes.
Analysis
- Representativeness The fact that data gathered represent the features of the
population.
- Retro-active transfer The influence of a new skill on a previously learnt skill.
- Rhetoric The study of the art of speaking or writing effectively; the art of
persuasion.
- Scaffolding. The way in which, with support from others, learners can attain
levels of achievement which they would be not capable to reach
autonomously.
- Second Language The methodical formal study of the learning processes and
Acquisition teaching practices related to the acquisition of non-native
languages.
- Second Language A term used as a cover term for all non-native language learning.
Learning
- Semantic simplification Dropping some content words which would normally occur in
native speaker speech.
- Sensory preference The preference an individual possesses in relation to information
acquisition through sensory stimuli (i.e. visual, auditory, ...).

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- Silent period A stage in second-language acquisition where the learner does not
yet produce but is actively processing the second language.
- Social identity The relationship between the individual and the larger social
world.
- Social interactionism The view that language is an activity learned through interaction
with others.
- Societal bilingualism The use of more than one language within the same nation.
- Sociolinguistics The study of the effect of aspects of society on the way language
is used.
- Speech therapy The treatment of communication problems and speech disorders.
- Standardized Assessment constructed by experts and published for use in many
assessment different schools and classrooms.
- Stimulus In behaviourism, it is a linguistic input or an utterance that a
person receives from the environment.
- Structural The omission of grammatical words (auxiliaries, articles) and
simplification bound morphemes (plural -s and past tense -ed).
- Stylistics The study of the linguistic devices (such as rhetorical figures and
syntactical patterns) which produce expressive or literary style.
- Syllabus An expression of opinion on the nature of language and learning
which specifies the content and its organization in a course of
study.
- Syllabus design The act of preparing the scope and sequence plan in a syllabus as
part of a curriculum.
- Task A classroom activity or exercise that has an objective which can
be achieved only by interaction among learners and which
requires them to focus on meaning and use language to do the
task.
- Telegraphic speech A child’s condensed speech in which only the most central words
are used (grammatical endings and function words are usually
deleted).
- Textbook A complete collection of content in a branch of study produced by
specialists to meet the needs of educators and teachers.
- Theoretical linguistics The study of the nature of language without an interest in realistic
applications.
- Total language teaching All planning and decision making by politicians, linguists,
operation psychologists, pedagogues and applied linguists which guides the

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work of a language teacher in the classroom.

- Turn-taking Knowing when to start and finish a talking in a conversation.

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