Goal of Second Language Acquisition

¶ … Goal of Second Language Acquisition

Ellis (142) defines two positions of linguistic knowledge. The first, which draws on the work of Chomsky claims that linguistic competence consists of a biological capacity for acquiring languages, commonly referred to as Universal Grammar (UG). Lightbown and Spada (35) explain that "the innate knowledge of the principles of UG permits all children to acquire the language of their environment during a crucial period of their development" and that there is evidence that language learners learn more about the second language than they have exposure to. This suggests that the knowledge of UG has a similar effect on second language acquisition as it does with first language acquisition.

The second position, presented by Ellis (142) is based on the connectionist theories of language learning as advanced by cognitive psychologists and does not view language learning as cognitively different from other forms of learning. It draws on a general mental capacity for registering and storing phonological, lexical, and grammatical sequences in accordance with their distributional properties in input. Linguistic knowledge emerges gradually as learners acquire new sequences, restructure their representation of old sequences, and, over time, extract underlying patterns that resemble rules. Ellis (143) asserts that both positions acknowledge that linguistic competence comprises implicit knowledge.

Lightbown and Spada (82) assert that second language learners progress through sequences of development in a similar manner as first language learners. This development occurs in the area of grammatical morphemes, negation, questions, possessive determiners, relative clauses, and reference to past. Lightbown and Spada (83) report that the developmental sequence of second language learners in learning grammatical morphemes is similar to that of first language learners. For example, students learn plurals more quickly than possessives and verbs ending in -- ing more quickly that regular past tense verbs.

Lightbown and Spada (85) add that the developmental sequence for negative sentences of second language learners is nearly identical to that of first language learners. They present the following stages:

Stage 1 -- The negative element is placed before the verb.

For example: No bicycle. I no like it. Not my friend.

Stage 2 -- 'No' and 'not' may alternate with 'don't,' but 'don't' may not follow correct form.

For example: He don't like it. I don't can sing.

Stage 3 -- Learners begin to place negative elements after auxiliary verbs, but may still use 'don't' incorrectly.

For example: You can not go there. He was not happy. She don't like rice.

Stage 4 -- Learners typically use the correct tense, person, and number with 'do;' however, mistakes may still occur.

For example: It doesn't work. We didn't have supper. I didn't went there. (Lightbown and Spada, 85-86).

According to Lightbown and Spada (86) the developmental sequence for asking questions is similar for both first and second language learners. Again the development is presented in stages:

Stage 1 -- Single words, formulae, or sentence fragments.

For example: Dog? Four children?

Stage 2 -- Declarative word order, no inversion or fronting.

For example: It's a monster in the right corner? The boys throw the shoes?

Stage 3 -- Fronting.

For example: Do you have a shoes on your picture? Where the children are playing? Does in this picture there is four astronauts?

Stage 4 -- Inversion in wh- copula; yes/no questions with other auxiliaries.

For example: Where is the sun? Is there a fish in the water?

Stage 5 -- Inversion in wh- questions with both an auxiliary verb and a main verb.

For example: How to you say proche? What's the boy doing?

Stage 6 -- Complex questions.

For example: It's better, isn't it? Why can't you go? Can you tell me what the date is today? (Lightbown and Spada 86-87).

Lightbown and Spada (89-90) explain that the developmental sequence for possessive determiners may be complicated by a language that assigns gender to nouns. The present the following sequence for French-speaking students learning English:

Stage 1 -- Pre-emergence; no use of 'his' and 'her.' 'Your' is used for all persons, gender and number.

For example: The little boy play with the bicycle. He have band-aid on the arm, the leg, the stomach. This boy cry in the arm of your mother.

Stage 2 -- Emergence; emergence of 'his' and 'her' with a preference for one of the forms.

For example: The mother is dressing her little boy, and she put her clothes, her pant, her coat, and then she finish.

Stage 3 -- Post-emergence; differentiated use of 'his' and 'her' but not correctly when the possessed object has gender.

For example: The girl fell on her bicycle. She look his father and cry.

Stage 4 -- Error free use of 'his' and 'her' in all contexts.

For example; The little girl with her dad play together. And the dad take his girl on his shoulder and he hurts his back (Lightbown and Spada 89-90).

In examining the developmental sequence of relative clauses, Lightbown and Spada (90) report a definitive sequence, presented below.

Subject -- The girl who was sick went home.

Direct object -- The story that I read was long.

Indirect object -- The man who (m) Susan gave the present to was happy.

Object of preposition -- I found the book that John was talking about.

Possessive -- I know the woman whose father is visiting.

Object of comparison -- The person that Susan is taller than is Mary. (Lightbown and Spada 90).

They also explain that the acquisition of relative clauses is highly influenced by the first language.

As second language learners acquire the ability to use past tense verbs, they pass through a developmental sequence similar to young children acquiring knowledge. Additionally, the process seems to be similar regardless of the first language (Lightbown and Spada 91). The first stage involves no reference to time (My son come. He work in a restaurant.) The second stage involves the addition of a grammatical morpheme (Me working long time). Second language learners typically acquire past tense of irregular verbs before regular verbs.

Lightbown and Spada (96) outline three other areas of communicative competence. These include vocabulary, pragmatics, and pronunciation. Vocabulary is an important skill for second language learner; however, it is an area that is often neglected. Additionally, Lightbown and Spada (96) explain that while vocabulary development for first language learners is almost effortless, second language learners do not have as much exposure to vocabulary. Therefore, development becomes more difficult. Lightbown and Spada (99) add that exposure to frequently used words, cognates, and borrowed words may aid in vocabulary development.

Pragmatics refers to how language is used in context. Lightbown and Spada (100) explain that pragmatics includes elements such as directness, politeness, and deference. Second language learners must develop skills such as "interpreting requests, responding politely to compliments or apologies, recognizing humour, and managing conversations" (Lightbown and Spada 101). According to Lightbown and Spada (103-104), pragmatics should be integrated into classroom instruction by using communicative, content-based, and task-based approaches to second language acquisition.