[转载]读书笔记—Second Language Acquisition（Rod
2013-09-15 18:22阅读：
这本书用简洁的语言概述了第二语言习得的研究状况，通俗易懂，对于刚入门的读者来说会有很大帮助。我认为该书在编排上最大的优点是在书的末尾有与正文有关的一些小案例，可以帮助读者更好的理解和掌握作者在书中讲到的理论。在读完这本书后，我自己感觉收获颇丰。
——Second Language Acquisition（Rod Ellis, 上海外语教育出版社）
1.
What’s ‘Second Language Acquisition’?
1) Introduction: describing and explaining L2 acquisition
L2 is fairly a recent phenomenon, belonging to the second half of
the twentieth century. ‘L2 acquisition’ can be defined as the way
in which people learn a language
other than their
mother tongue ,inside or outside of a classroom, and Second
Language Acquisition (SLA) as the study of this.
2) What are the goals of SLA?
In general, SLA has not focused on the communicative aspects of
language development but on the formal features of language that l
inguists have traditionally concentrated on. One of the goals of
SLA description of L2 acquisition. Another is explanation :
identifying the external and internal factors that account for why
learners acquire an L2 in the way they to . One of the external
factors is the social milieu in which learning takes place. Another
external factor is the input that learners receive, that is , the
samples of language to which a learner exposed.
The internal factors are as follows: (1) Learners possess cognitive
mechanisms which enable them to extract information about the L2
from the input ;(2)L2 learners bring an enormous amount of
knowledge to task of learning an L2；（3）L2 learners possess general
knowledge about the world which they can draw on to help them
understand L2 input; (4) L2 learners possess communication
strategies that can help them take effective use of their L2
knowledge.
The goals of SLA , then , are to describe how L2 acquisition
proceeds and to explain this process and why some learners seem to
be better at is than others.
2. The nature of learner language
1) The main way of investigating L2 acquisition
The main way of investigating L2 acquisition is by collecting and
describing samples of learner language . The description may focus
on the kinds of errors learners make and how these errors change
over time, or it may identify developmental patterns by describing
the stages in the acquisition of particular grammatical features
such as past tense, or it may examine the variability found in
learner language.
2) Errors and error analysis
(1) The first step in analyzing learner errors is to
identify them. It is difficult to identify errors because of two
reasons: firstly, it is often difficult to identify the exact
errors that learners make. secondly, it’s hard to distinguish
errors and mistakes.
(2) The second step is describing errors. Once all the errors have
been identified , they can be described and classified into types.
There are several ways of doing this . One way is to classify
general ways in which the learners utterances differ from the
reconstructed target-language utterance. Such ways include
‘omission’, ‘misinformation’ and ‘disordering’.
(3) Explaining errors: the identification and description of errors
are preliminaries to the much more interesting task of trying to
explain why they occur.
(4) Error evaluation
3) Development patterns
(1) The early stages of L2 acquisition : in the circumstances which
L2 learners learn a language as a natural, untutored process, they
undergo a silent period. When learners do begin to speak in the L2
their speech is likely to manifest two particular characteristics.
One is the kind of formulaic chunks. The second characteristic of
early speech is propositional simplification.
(2) The order of acquisition: accuracy order and the order of
acquisition
(3) Sequence of acquisition
4) Variability in learner language
Learner’s language is systematic, but it is also variable. These
two characteristics are not contradicted because it is possible
that variability is also systematic.
(1) It appears that learners vary in their use of the L2 according
to linguistic context.
(2) Learners also vary the linguistic forms they use in accordance
with the situational context.
(3) Another important factor that accounts for the systematic
nature of variability is the psycholinguistic context.
But it would seem that at least some variability is ‘free’.
Learners do sometimes use two or more forms in free
variation.
3. Interlanguage
1) Behaviorist learning theory
2) A mentalist of language learning
In the 1960 and 1970 , a mentalist theory first language (L1)
acquisition emerged. According to this theory:
(1) Only human beings are capable of learning language.
(2) The human mind is equipped with a faculty for learning
language, referred to as a Language Acquisition Device. This is
separate from the faculties responsible for other kinds of
cognitive activity ( for example, logical reasoning).
(3) This faculty is the primary determinant of language
acquisition
(4) Input is needed, but only to ‘trigger’ the operation of
the language acquisition device.
The conception of interlanguage drew directly on these mentalist
views of L1 acquisition.
3) What’s ‘interlanguage’?
The term ‘interlanguage’ was coined by the American linguist, Larry
Selinker, in recognition of the fact that L2 learners construct a
linguistic system that draws, in part, on the learner’s L1 but it
also different from it and also from the target language. A
learner’s interlanguage is, therefore, a unique linguistic
system.
The concept of interlanguage involves the following premises about
L2 acquisition:
(1) The learner constructs a system of abstract linguistic
rules which underlies comprehension and production of the L2. This
system of rules is viewed as a ‘mental grammar’ and is referred to
as an ‘interlanguage’.
(2) The learner’s grammar is permeable.
(3) The learner’s grammar is transitional.
(4) Some researchers have claimed that the systems learners
construct contain variable rules.
(5) Learners employ various learning strategies to develop
their interlanguages.
(6) The learner’s grammar is likely to fossilize.
4)A computational model of L2 acquisition
Input →intake→L2 knowledge →output
4.Social aspects of interlanguage
Three rather different approaches to incorporating a social angle
on the study of L2 acquisition can be identified. The first views
interlanguage as consisting of different ‘styles’ which learners
call upon under different conditions of language use. The second
concerns how social factors determine the input that learners use
to construct their interlanguage. The third considers how the
social identities that learners negotiate in their interactions
with native speakers shape their opportunities to speak and,
thereby , to learn an L2.
1) Interlanguage as a stylistic continuum
Drawing on work on variability in learner language, Elaine Tarone
has proposed that interlanguage involves a stylistic
continuum.
Another theory that also draws on the idea of stylistic variation
but which is more obviously social is Howard Gile’s accommodation
theory.
2) The acculturation model of L2 acquisition
A similar perspective on the role of social factors in L2
acquisition can be found in John Schumann’s acculturation
model.
3) Social identity and investment in L2 learning
The notions of ‘subject to’ and ‘subject of’ are central to Bonny
Peirce’s view of the relationship between social context and L2
acquisition.
5 Discourse aspects of interlanguage
The study of learner discourse in SLA has been informed by two
rather different goals. On the one hand there have been attempts to
discover how L2 learners acquire the ‘rules’ of discourse that
inform native-speaker language use. On the other hand, a number of
researchers have sought to show how interaction shapes
interlanguage development.
1) Acquiring discourse rules
2) The role of input and interaction in L2 acquisition
(1) According to Stephen Krashen’s input hypothesis, L2
acquisition takes place when a learner understands input that
contains grammatical forms that are at ‘i+1’. According to Krashen
, L2 acquisition depends on comprehension input.
Michael Long’s interaction hypothesis also emphasizes the
importance of comprehensible input but claims that it is most
effective when it is modified through the negotiation of
meaning.
(2) Another perspective on the relationship between
discourse and L2 acquisition is provided by Evelyn Hatch. Hatch
emphasizes the collaborative endeavors of the learners and their
interlocutors in constructing discourse and suggests that syntactic
structures can grow out of the process of building discourse.
(3) Other SLA theorists have drawn on the theories of L.S.
Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist , to explain how interaction
serves as the bedrock of acquisition.
3) The role of output in L2 acquisition
Krashen argues that ‘Speaking is the result of acquisition not it’s
cause’. In contrast, Merrill Swain has argued that comprehensible
output also plays a part in L2 acquisition.
6 Psycholinguistic aspects of interlanguage
1) L1 transfer
It is clear that the transfer is governed by learners perceptions
about what is transferable and by their stage of development.
2) The role of consciousness in L2 acquisition
Stephen Krashen has argued the need to distinguish ‘acquired’L2
knowledge and ‘learned’ Ls knowledge . He claims that the former is
developed subconsciously through comprehending input while
communicating, while the latter is developed consciously through
deliberate study of the L2.
Richard Schmidt has pointed out that the term ‘consciousness’ is
often used very loosely in SLA and argues that there is a need to
standardize the concepts that underlie its use.
Schmidt argues that no matter whether learning is intentional or
incidental, it involves conscious attention to features in the
input.
3) Processing operations
(1) Operating principles
The study of the L1 acquisition of many different languages has led
to the identification of a number of general strategies which
children use to extract and segment linguistic information from the
language they hear. Dan Slobin has referred to these strategies as
operation principles. Roger Anderson describes a number of
operating principles for L2acquisition, and he claims that his
principles are ‘macro principles’.
4) Processing constraints
5) Communicative strategies
6) Two types of computational model
One type involves the idea of ‘serial processing’. The
alternative type of apparatus involves the idea of parallel
distributed processing.
7. Linguistic aspects of interlanguage
1) Typological universals: relative clauses
A good example of how linguistic enquiry can shed light on
interlanguage development can be found in the study of relative
clauses.
2) Universal Grammar
Chomsky argues that language is governed by a set of highly
abstract principles that provides parameters which are given
particular settings in different languages.
3)learnability
Chomsky has claimed that children learning their L1 must rely on
innate knowledge of language because otherwise the task facing them
is an impossible one.
4) The critical period hypothesis
The critical period hypothesis states that there is a period
during which language acquisition is easy and complete and beyond
which it is difficult and typically incomplete.
5) Access to UG
We will briefly examine a number of theoretical
positions.
a) Complete access: An assumption is that full
target-language competence is possible and that there is no such
thing as a critical period.
b) No access : The argument here is that UG is not available
to adult L2 learners.
c) Partial access: Another theoretical possibility is that
learners have access to part of UG but not others.
d) Dual access
According to this position, adult L2 learners make use of
both UG and general learning strategies.
6) Markedness
7) Cognitive versus linguistic explanations
8. Individual differences in L2 acquisition
1) Language aptitude
Early work by John Carroll led to the identification of a
number of components of language aptitude. These are:
(1) Phonemic coding ability.
(2) Grammatical sensitivity.
(3) Inductive language learning ability.
(4) Rote learning ability.
2) Motivation
Various kinds of motivation have been identified: instrumental,
integrative, resultative and intrinsic.
3) Learning strategies
Different kinds of learning strategies have been
identified.
Cognitive strategies are those that are involved in the
analysis, synthesis, or transformation of learning materials.
Metacognitive strategies are those involved in planning,
monitoring, and evaluating learning.
Social/ affective strategies concern the ways in which learners
choose to interact with other speakers.
9.Instruction and L2 acquisition
Some researchers have studied what impact teaching has on L2
learning. In this chapter we will consider three branches of this
research. The first concerns whether teaching learners grammar has
any effect on their interlanguage development. The second draws on
the research into individual learner differences. The third branch
looks at strategy training.
1) Form-focused instruction
2) Does form-focused instruction work?
3) What kind of form-focused instruction works best?
Given that instruction can work, it becomes important to discover
whether some kinds of instruction work better than others. To
illustrate this we will consider a number of options in
form-focused instruction. The first concerns the distinction
between input-based and production-based practice.
The second issue concerns conscious-raising.
4) Learner-Instruction matching
A distinct possibility is that the same instructional option is not
equally for all L2 learners.
5) Strategy straining
Most of the research on strategy training has focused on vocabulary
learning.
