Second Language Acquisition and Second ... - Stephen Krashen

More documents

Recommendations

Info

similarities across acquirers as to which structures tend to be acquired early and which tend to be acquired late (Brown, 1973; Dulay and Burt, 1975). Acquirers need not have a conscious awareness of the "rules" they possess, and may selfcorrect only on the basis of a "feel" for grammaticality. Conscious language learning, on the other hand, is thought to be helped a great deal by error correction and the presentation of explicit rules (Krashen and Seliger, 1975). Error correction it is maintained, helps the learner come to the correct mental representation of the linguistic generalization. Whether such feedback has this effect to a significant degree remains an open question (Fanselow, 1977; Long, 1977). No invariant order of learning is claimed, although syllabi implicitly claim that learners proceed from simple to complex, a sequence that may not be identical to the acquisition sequence. The fundamental claim of Monitor Theory is that conscious learning is available to the performer only as a Monitor. In general, utterances are initiated by the acquired system--our fluency in production is based on what we have "picked up" through active communication. Our "formal" knowledge of the second language, our conscious learning, may be used to alter the output of the acquired system, sometimes before and sometimes after the utterance is produced. We make these changes to improve accuracy, and the use of the Monitor often has this effect. Figure 1 illustrates the interaction of acquisition and learning in adult second language production. Fig.1. Model for adult second language performance The acquisition-learning distinction, as I have outlined it, is not new: Lawler and Selinker (1971) propose that for rule internalization one can "postulate two distinct types of cognitive structures: (1) those mechanisms that guide 'automatic' language performance... that is, performance... where speed and spontaneity are crucial and the learner has no time to consciously apply linguistic mechanisms... and (2) those mechanisms that guide puzzle- or problem-solving 2
performance..." (p.35). Corder (1967), citing an unpublished paper by Lambert, also discusses the acquisition-learning distinction and the possibility that acquisition is available to the adult second language performer. The Monitor Theory differs somewhat from these points of view, in that it makes some very specific hypotheses about the inter-relation between acquisition and learning in the adult. In the papers that follow, I argue that this hypothesis sheds light on nearly every issue currently under discussion in second language theory and practice. Conditions of Monitor Use There are several important constraints on the use of the Monitor. The first condition is that in order to successfully monitor, the performer must have time. In normal conversation, both is speaking and in listening, performers do not generally have time to think about and apply conscious grammatical rules, and, as we shall see later, we see little or no effect on the Monitor in these situations. This condition, however, is necessary but not sufficient. Heidi Dulay and Marina Burt have pointed out to me that a performer may have time but may still not monitor, as he or she may be completely involved with the message. There is, thus, a second condition: the performer must be "focused on form", or correctness. As we shall see later, the second condition predicts some recent data nicely. An important third condition for successful Monitor use is that the performer needs to know the rule, he or she needs to have a correct mental representation of the rule to apply it correctly. This may be a very formidable requirement. Syntacticians freely admit that they have only analyzed "fragments" of natural languages, applied linguists concede that they have mastered only part of the theoretical literature in grammar, language teachers usually do not have time to fully study the descriptive work of all applied linguists, and even the best language students do not usually master all the rules presented to them. It is therefore very difficult to apply conscious learning to performance successfully. Situations in which all three conditions are satisfied are rare (the most obvious being a grammar test!). 3
Page 1 and 2: Second Language Acquisition and Sec
Page 3 and 4: Acknowledgments I would like to tha
Page 5: Introduction This book is concerned
Page 9 and 10: when it does not get in the way of
Page 11 and 12: language (some similarities to firs
Page 13 and 14: In the second part of this chapter,
Page 15 and 16: far more valuable then the exercise
Page 17 and 18: Monitoring generally improves accur
Page 19 and 20: overconcern with correctness, howev
Page 21 and 22: language is spoken or may be expose
Page 23 and 24: 2. Attitude and Aptitude in Second
Page 25 and 26: 1973, p. 8). Carroll also suggests
Page 27 and 28: outines and patterns, and at a more
Page 29 and 30: Sentences, Paired Associates, and S
Page 31 and 32: stay-ins appeared to be integrative
Page 33 and 34: motivation played no role because o
Page 35 and 36: (1977), after interviewing teachers
Page 37 and 38: did not produce the same results. T
Page 39 and 40: a stage many people, but not all, r
Page 41 and 42: The Good Language Learner Revisited
Page 43 and 44: predict differences in student achi
Page 45 and 46: settle the issue of whether adults
Page 47 and 48: language had higher scores than stu
Page 49 and 50: Table 1. English proficiency and ye
Page 51 and 52: The "self-study" reinterpretation o
Page 53 and 54: series the evidence for learning is
Page 55 and 56: 4. The Domain of the Conscious Gram
Page 57 and 58:
Ann Fathman, confirmed our earlier
Page 59 and 60:
significant differences for any of
Page 61 and 62:
Table 1. Studies analyzing grammati
Page 63 and 64:
Table 3. Counterexamples to orderin
Page 65 and 66:
Table 4 (cont.) ___________________
Page 67 and 68:
ut *der Katze Ohr (The cat's ear).
Page 69 and 70:
Research Findings 1. First language
Page 71 and 72:
First-language-influenced errors he
Page 73 and 74:
and (4) Ich weiss nicht, I know not
Page 75 and 76:
ain", the right hemisphere, appears
Page 77 and 78:
second language acquisition in adul
Page 79 and 80:
hemisphere is removed, and the pati
Page 81 and 82:
Monitor, to exist, and the degree t
Page 83 and 84:
advantage in the first language. En
Page 85 and 86:
while English "orients its users to
Page 87 and 88:
7. On Routines and Patterns in Lang
Page 89 and 90:
adulthood. A. Smith (1966) describe
Page 91 and 92:
"That's a _______") which were char
Page 93 and 94:
variation. Nelson, for example, dis
Page 95 and 96:
which he had learned by imitation.
Page 97 and 98:
and often incorporated them into hi
Page 99 and 100:
what utterances mean by observing h
Page 101 and 102:
Furthermore, she associated strings
Page 103 and 104:
and patterns other than as discours
Page 105 and 106:
similar difficulty orders for gramm
Page 107 and 108:
understanding language that is "a l
Page 109 and 110:
up to the intermediate level. As Wa
Page 111 and 112:
practical only in a foreign languag
Page 113 and 114:
is making some effort at making him
Page 115 and 116:
It may be useful to distinguish thr
Page 117 and 118:
the luxury of building up acquired
Page 119 and 120:
marker /-s/, and the regular and ir
Page 121 and 122:
to speak the language they were lea
Page 123 and 124:
9. The Theoretical and Practical Re
Page 125 and 126:
contact with. "Teacher-talk" is the
Page 127 and 128:
language in Los Angeles. S. K. also
Page 129 and 130:
Caretaker Speech and Language Acqui
Page 131 and 132:
speech is so well rooted in the "he
Page 133 and 134:
speech is: they are simpler than na
Page 135 and 136:
Freed (1980) reports that foreigner
Page 137 and 138:
e boredom. When they overshoot, the
Page 139 and 140:
class was conducted entirely in Fre
Page 141 and 142:
more expansions as well as repetiti
Page 143 and 144:
Broen, P. (1972) The Verbal Environ
Page 145 and 146:
Dulay, H. and M. Burt (1977) "Remar
Page 147 and 148:
Hakuta, K. and H. Cancino (1977) "T
Page 149 and 150:
Learning Aptitude. Rowley, Ma.: New
Page 151 and 152:
Academy of Aphasia. Victoria, Briti
Page 153 and 154:
Smith, A. (1966) "Speech and other
show all

Second Language Acquisition and Second ... - Stephen Krashen

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?