Dr.Majid MaSafadaran APPROACHES Mosazadeh-Kohan TO LANGUAGE IN THE CLASSROOM CONTEXT Students: Silvina Paula Mascitti, FPMTFL - Master in Teaching English as a Foreign Language Lizza Belle Mendieta Bendaña, Juan Rafael Miranda Echavarría. Logins: ARFPMTFL1328828 - HNFPMTFL1037564 COFPMTFL1409677 Group: fp_tefl_2013-06 Date: October 5th, 2014. ..…………….....Assignment INDEX Introduction....... page 11 Bibliography......................…………………………………………………………………….....Task 3……………………………………………........… page 4 Data Analysis ........…………………………………………………………… page 13 Appendix 2 ..ALCC. page 3 Data Analysis ...... page 12 Appendix 1 ......…………………………………………………………… page 16 2 ..........Task 1....... page 8 Data Analysis .…………………………………...........………….Task 2...........…......................................................................……………………………………..........……………… page 10 Conclusion ........………….....………………………....….....…………………………………………………………… page 14 Appendix 3 ...........……...................………….. The learner. Thus. will develop a series of thesis about the new language which in turn will help give it shape. the educator may be able to accompany the learners’ language acquisition development in a more effective and helpful way. a process triggered by constant exposure to the target language. 22) By making use of some techniques. phonetics and grammar rules. s/he will begin to create a unique interpretation of the new language.Assignment Introduction Acquiring a second language is not an easy task. through the mentioned procedure. The name of this practice is Interlanguage (Selinker. Interlanguage is allegorically a step bet ween the first language (L1) and the Target Language. n. and meaningful interaction in it. Unfortunately IL as expected has its own vocabular y. to reach the desired level of proficiency in the target language. The role of the teacher is of paramount importance during the second language acquisition process since his/her output will serve as input and subsequent intake within the classroom and it is his/her responsibilit y to lead learners to achieve competence in L2 and. noticing the gap. reformulation and reconstruction (T hornbur y. to help them prevent fossilisation and L1 interference (Funiber. as a result of this procedure. wher e L1 works as the building blocks that combined with TL end up in a new form. The way we approach the language and the process of language acquisition attempts to get information from the utterances of the L2 3 . such as input enhancement. 1972). 1997: 327).p. at the same time.ALCC. It entails a process by which the learner builds up a conscious and/or unconscious correlative analysis via trial and error. placing difficulties on the learner as well as the teacher.d. 8) In order to understand the causes for the errors students make. (Funiber. Give your reasons for postulating this generali zation. p. n. Said discourse analysis goes further than simply analysing the utterances.d. Even though it is difficult to figure out the reasons wh y these students made some mistakes since they do not share a common mother tongue. while also combining the observation of how the language is incorporated to attempt to produce more complex units of discourse. p. but some conclusions can be made.d. Work out an IL generalizat ion that might account for the forms in boldface. n. it is important to develop some Discourse analysis. restructure and reorganize their interlanguage as they test it by confronting it with realit y and real use of the language they are tr ying to learn. 4 . Theorists like Noam Chomsky and Lenneberg have proposed the existence of a Language Acquisition Device and a Latent Language Structure which allegedly exist before the process of learning a foreign language. Subsequently an analysis of data collected from learners‘ assignments (provided in the appendices) can be encountered in the follo wing pages to pinpoint features of interlanguage in them. and this process activates them using the basis of a Universal Grammar to take the shape of the particular grammar of the L2. Fragmented sentences may not provide enough evidence to make an accurate analysis.ALCC.Assignment learners and how they form. (Funiber. Data Anal ysis Task 1 1. 61). structure. by taking into account all the participants in the interaction when possible. (Richards. Generally. irrespective of their mother tongue. 5 Gerund Past Tense Misuse of lexical chunks Regularisation Simplification STUDENT CASES Overgeneralization lexical chunks through simplification. One of (regularisation) them relates and the other elements (simplification). About two hours driving eastern from Bangkok.Assignment it may be stated that “all learners of the same L2. n. 5 and 6 convey regularisation whereas sentences 4.. 4. 6. 3. language learners tend to employ two features of generalisation that can be clearly depicted in the examples above. sentences 1 and 3 portray gerund.ALCC. When he was 7 years old. he went schooling. 17).” of errors. Doctors have the right to removed it from him. 2. . Soccer is the most common sporting. 8 and 9 illustrate misuse of 1 1. After finished my college studied. sentences 2. would overgeneralization has produce a the universal same kind character. p. thus 1974 in Funiber. 7. I went to my country. 5. overgeneralization of to the overuse of regular forms refers to simplif ying structures and For instance.d. America refused continual supported our military request. and uses the past form since it was something that happened before. Correction: It’s a two-hour drive east from Bangkok. since it is accompanied by an adjective phrase. 8. the word “sport” must be accompanied by same ending. it is not necessary in his/her L1 in this case and misuses the verb as well. Correction: “America refused continued support to our military request. the learner visualises the idea that all verbs with the combination “to go” are immediately followed by a verb using “ing”.” Or “America refused to continue supporting our military request” In sentence 3. go walking and applies rules. Concerning sentence 2. and assumes “support” is a verb in this case. There is a night for asleep.Assignment 7. 6 . the student assumes that since most of the sports end in “ing” (for example skiing. the student believes “Continual” is the same as “Continued”. Moreover it may lead to conflicting. I am not going to get married when I will graduation the school. 2. go camping. For example. go hiking. swimming. Correction: Soccer is the most common sport. 9. skating) therefore. the learner believes there is no need for a subject in this sentence (simplification or reduction) Probably.ALCC. Regarding sentence 4. What strategy/strategies do you think these learners have come up with regarding lexical use? As for sentence 1. ALCC. The learner may have meant that Someone still has the night to sleep.. Correction: There is a night for sleeping or There is a night to sleep. I went to my country.” Correction: After finishing my college studies. Moreover. 18).or After I finished my college studies. It is probably the result of trying to use something that is at that point above the level of the 7 .Assignment In this particular case. the learner uses the regular form of the verb “remove” instead of its infinitive form. In the case of sentence 9. there is a simplification of the use of time clauses. “the tendency to use regular forms where possible. given the fact that the learner may have omitted the subject “I” when stating “After I finished my college…. By doing so. it may lead to conflict.d. By doing so. Finishing the idea with the word “Conflicting” instead of “Conflict” may be the result of overgeneralization from seeing the word “conflicting” in other contexts and seeing it as a noun formed through the use of a gerund. simplification can be traced in this example. p. It is not clear what the learner meant to say. so the rest of the context is lost. Correction: Doctors have the right to remove it from him. n. he/she is undergoing the process of regularisation. I went to my country. sentence 5. implying that he/she has not acquired them yet.e. the learner tends to use a regular form of the verbs “finish” and “study” instead of using the -ing form in “finished” and the noun “studies”. As for sentence 7. but it is evident that the use of the adjective is not appropriate here. In sentence 6. or that the night is when people sleep. i. Correction: Moreover. he/she shows his/her lack of mastery and acquisition in terms of infinitive forms.” (Funiber. It is important to point out that sentence 8 begins with an adverb that usually introduces more information. the learner uses the adjective “asleep” instead of the -ing form of the verb “sleep”. As for question 1. confusing “I will graduation” with the form “when I graduate”. What additional information. Correction: I am not going to get married when I graduate from school. then they could simply be prompted for correction. If they are slips. if they are slips or developmental errors. What feature of English grammar is being tested in each of the test items? All questions emphasize the use and conjugation of verbs. Task 2 1. 3. The sources for this information were their compositions. there will be a better intake of the language. This could also lead to the conclusions of whether these errors are fossilized or not. particularly the conjugation for third person. i. since it may show more evidence to understand their processes.e. Another aspect that would be relevant to analyze is their ability in Speaking. the use of 8 . Concerning questions 2 taking in consideration its irregular form and 4. would you like to have from these learners to test your hypothesis? The description “Intermediate” falls short to really describe where they stand in the development of L2 learning. so having them speak in public and in small groups would provide invaluable evidence to see if the reasons described really explain the errors shown. is being tested. but if they are developmental errors. It would also be important to know about the amount of comprehensible input they get and the amount of exposure they receive in L2.ALCC.Assignment learner’s interlanguage. the use of the Present Simple. so a larger look could be taken into their interlanguage. It would be very interesting to know the current level of these learners in the process of acquiring L2. with better and more frequent comprehensible input. if any. they could be addressed and practiced in different contexts to help the students gain familiarity with more complex and correct forms of the language. d. he/she produces hybrid forms until he/she manages to produce the correct past tense form. the learner is not able to produce the past tense form. 9 . so as to make further conclusions. Once he/she internalises the participle. Firstly. n. It may be caused due to the process of fossilization in interlanguage (Funiber. However. Who appears to be the least advanced learner and why? Learner D appears to be the least advanced learner since he/she seems to have internalised the infinitive of the verbs and the future tense “will”. 4..Assignment Simple Past is being tested. the learner restructures and reorganises his/her interlanguage until he/she succeeds in acquiring the correct form of the verbs in the past tense form. Then. he/she has not acquired the Conditional Perfect structure yet. n. there are five stages in the order of acquisition. After that. (Funiber. lack of learning opportunity or nature of feedback on learner’s use of L2). Finally. p. 22). the Chaos Theory (Larsen-Freeman. the use of the Conditional Perfect is being tested in question 3. lack of desire to acculturate) or external factors (communicative pressure.. which takes place because of internal factors (age. What is more. By going through this process. Who appears to be the most advanced learner and why? Learner C appears to be the most advanced learner given the fact that he/she manages to answer complete sentences. 3. However. he/she will be able to produce it correctly.p. the learner begins to produce the correct past tense form. written and oral. 13 ) He/she has acquired the irregular past tense of verbs and now he/she may be learning the past participle and produces the irregular form of the verb “eat” instead of “eaten”. he is going through a regression since acquisition follows a U-shape course of development. You could use point form here.ALCC. According to Ellis (1997). it would be appropriate to analyse other pieces of the learner’s output. 2. Afterwards.d. Probably. the learner overgeneralizes the regular past tense form. What generalization can be made about the order of acquisition for learning these constructions? Please note that you will not be able to reproduce the matrix you have for this question (in your study materials) in the VC. The learner disregards the use of the auxiliary verb ¨do¨ in the sentence structure. However. the teacher is in control of the situation. spanish. What limitations are there in doing order of acquisition analysis based on data of this sort? Employing controlled settings to carry out some research on this field limits the scope of the analysis and does not provide real information in terms of natural language acquisition or really spontaneous interchanges since mostly. variety of resources. sometimes topics are not chosen at random but they follow syllabus requirements Moreover. the order of acquisition could be measured in real spontaneous situations and contexts. Furthermore. unmarked structure) in his/her L1 interfere with the 10 . and a “social context” where language is used for communication.ALCC. n. Krashen (1988). Therefore. Describe this learner's knowledge of English negation.” (Funiber. thus reducing interactions and enhancing fossilisation of mistakes due to lack of negotiation of meaning.d. Ellis (1985) and Seliger (1983) believe that the classroom is both a formal and a natural focus. “creating both a focus on the targeted language forms. 5. and the negation is expressed with “No” which is encountered before the verb. it would be a better idea to compare and contrast this analysis results with the ones deriving from uncontrolled settings. Spanish. it can be assumed that the student is simplifying the structure. class time as well as focus on product rather than process. which may be used in the classroom instead of L2. For instance. Other constraints that may be faced when dealing with controlled settings refer to limitations in terms of physical space. By doing so.. English.p. 57) Task 3 1. Additionally s/he is transferring negation from his/her L1. some authors agree on the advantages of formal settings for SLA. these students share their mother tongue. Tests of this type are designed primarily to elicit spontaneous utterances in a controlled setting. On the contrary. This type of transfer is negative since the negation rules (which is a basic.Assignment 1997) gives account of the instability in complex systems in interlanguage development until the learner manages to acquire the correct structures. 4 and 10. 2. What can be gathered is that perhaps the student has learned the phrase as a lexical chunk. it may be stated that the analysis of Interlanguage will yield evidence that may be crucial when dealing with the learning process of a learner. At this same time.ALCC. Also 11 . This means the student is not familiar enough with the correct form. by taking IL into account in his/her teaching practices. Another aspect to take into consideration is the use of object pronouns in the place of the subject. Furthermore. Does this alter your hypothesis about the pattern described in question 1? If so. It provides a clear blueprint of current level. how? In this instance we cannot assume that the learner has rectified the building sentence process and now is using “do”. and it also accounts for how students are restructuring the language constantly given the fact that interlanguage is unstable and dynamic (Long. Conclusion After delving into Second Language Acquisition theories and analysing the tasks above.Assignment new structures he/she is trying to acquire in L2. he/she seems to be trying different approaches to form negative sentences. Also. the teacher leads students to pay attention to salient features of language that may become intake. fossilized errors and even linguistic and cultural background in L1. 1990). thus producing an error. which is a direct transfer from spanish “A mí no me gusta…” like in sentences 3. this non-native speaker produced many examples of "I don't know". It also allows teachers to determine in which points he/she needs to reinforce a process of noticing. H. corrective feedback reformulation and meaning-driven. Krashen. R. 1997: 327) Bibliography Ellis. S. (1990) Maturational Constraints in Language Development. 12 . A. M.) Approaches to Language in the Classroom Context.d. (1988) Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Lennon. (1985). resources to enhance language acquisition. D. (Thornbury. reconstruction tasks to accompany learners in their language acquisition.ALCC. (1997) Chaos/complexity Science and Second Language Acquisition Research. Funiber Long. Larsen-Freeman. Second Language Acquisition. such as input enhancement.Assignment he/she will employ a wide range of consciousness-raising. Hempstead: Prentice Hall International. E. Second Language Acquisition. De Prada. N. Oxford: Oxford University Press. R. Hockly. (n. (1997). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Ellis. 12: 251-186. London: Longman. Oxford: Oxford University Press. S.C. Harlow: Essex. Seliger. students on an intensive course. L. Error Analysis. H. DATA: 13 .. Data Source: student compositions.209 Thornbury. Longman. Background Information: Intermediate level.) Classroom Oriented Research in Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge University Press. Rowley. 10:3 p.ALCC. J. Seliger and M. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching. (1972) Interlanguage . IRAL. Target Language: English. (1983) Learner Interaction in the Classroom and its Effects on Language Acquisition. Cambridge. Selinker. Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition. APPENDIX 1 Task 1 Native Languages: Mixed. Mass: Newbury House. (1974). (1997) About Language. Long (eds.Assignment Richards. In H. if any.ALCC. would you like to have from these learners to test your hypothesis? 14 . Moreover it may lead to conflicting. When he was 7 years old. America refused continual supported our military request. he went schooling. Doctors have the right to removed it from him. I am not going to get married when I will graduation the school. QUESTIONS: 1 Work out an IL generalization that might account for the forms in boldface. After finished my college studied. 2 What strategy/strategies do you think these learners have come up with regarding lexical use? 3 What additional information. Give your reasons for postulating this generalization. There is a night for asleep. About two hours driving eastern from Bangkok.Assignment 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Soccer is the most common sporting. I went to my country. 1 2 3 4 He wants to eat some food.. Data Source: Responses to a picture story from a standard proficiency test... they fall B. Background Information: Pre-adolescents. It fell. the king eat . A. born in Mexico. Below are the responses to these test items by five ESL learners (A-E). DATA: Below are the "correct" responses to standardised test items. 15 .ALCC.Assignment APPENDIX 2 Task 2 Native Language: Spanish. C.. Target Language: English. living in United States. The dog ate the food. The king would have eaten it. 1 2 3 4 he wants to eat the dog ate it the king would eat it it fell 1 2 3 4 he want the food the dog ate . . it fall 1 2 3 4 he wanna eat. the dog eat..Assignment 1 2 3 4 he wants to get some food the dog ate it the king would have ate it it fell 1 2 3 4 he want. QUESTIONS: 1 What feature of English grammar is being tested in each of the test 2 3 4 items? Who appears to be the most advanced learner and why? Who appears to be the least advanced learner and why? What generalization can be made about the order of acquisition for learning these constructions? Please note that you will not be able to reproduce the matrix you have for this question (in your study materials) 5 in the VC. the king will eat.. the dog eat-ate it he would eat it it fall D... You could use point form here.. Tests of this type are designed primarily to elicit spontaneous utterances in a controlled setting. E... What limitations are there in doing order of acquisition analysis based on data of this sort? APPENDIX 3 Task 3 16 .ALCC. Me no comin. eh? Me no like stay in the house.Assignment Native Language: Mexican Spanish. Does this alter your hypothesis about the pattern described in question 1? If so. No American. You no go Calexico? My brother no go to school. At this same time. Data Source: Tape-recorded spontaneous speech. No in town. Background Information: Adult male. No now. No like it. No es correct. No. No cheese. Target Language: English. I me no speaka too much Englee. how? 17 . I no like tortilla. No money. Maybe no good for me. DATA: Following are examples of this subject's use of negatives: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 No write. QUESTIONS: 1 2 Describe this learner's knowledge of English negation. this non-native speaker produced many examples of "I don't know". The operation ya no good. ya no work.ALCC.