LEARNER LANGUAGE

INTRODUCTION

Discussion
 The Concept of Learner
Language

Learner language

What is it?

What learners say or write when they are trying

to communicate spontaneously in a language
they learning (University of Minnesota)
 Until the late, 1960s, most people
regarded second language learners’ speech
simply as incorrect version of the target
language. Their errors were believed to be
the result mainly transfer from their first
language. Contrastive analysis was the
basis for identifying differences between
the first and second language and
predicting areas for potential errors

HOWEVER
It has been observed that the errors are not
always ‘bi-directional’
 1970s Error analysis

Involved a detailed description and

analysis of the kinds of errors second
learners make.

When learners produce ‘correct’ sentences,

Pit Corder (1967)
they may simply be repeating something they
have already heard: when they produce
sentences which differ from the target
language, we may assume that these sentences
reflect the learners current understanding.
 Interlanguage

Analysis of learner’s interlanguage

shows that it has some characteristics
influenced by the learner’s previously
learned language.
The activity

• One-a french-speaking
secondary school student.
The other a chinese –
speaking-adult learner.
• The great toy robbery
• After viewing the film,
students were asked to
retell the story in writing

Their errors reflect learners’ understanding of

the second language itself. These are referred to
as developmental errors because they are errors
which might very well be made by children
acquiring English as their first language.
 Error caused by trying to use a rule in
Overgeneralization context where it does not belong

Where elements of a sentence are left

out or where all verbs have the same
Simplification form regardless of person, number, or
tense

Those familiar with the English of Chinese

speakers may recognize errors made by the
Transfer or
chinese learner as being due the learner’s
interference
attempt to use patterns of chinese in
English sentences.
Jacquelyne Schacter pointed out in
a 1974 article, learners sometimes
avoid using certain features of
language which they perceive to be
difficult for them

The phenomenon of ‘avoidance’

may also be a part of the learner’s
systematic second language
performance.
DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCES
IN SECOND LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION
 Let ‘s assume

Second Language
Acquisition
 5 stages of second language acquisition

Advance fluency .
Intermediate fluency
Speech emergence
Early Pre-production
Preproduction
 DEFINITION OF DEVELOPMENTAL
SQUENCES

According to Doughty ( 2003)

Developmental sequences is
'fixed series of stages’ which
all learners pass through
have been identified for
linguistic features
 Developmental sequences

• SLA research has revealed that:

• L2 learners, like L1 learners, pass through sequences of
development.
• In a given language, many of these developmental sequences
are similar for L1 and L2 learners.
• It is not always the case that L2 features which are heard or
read most frequently are easier to learn (e.g., every English
sentence has one or more Articles - ‘a’ & ‘the’). Many students
get difficulty in using the forms correctly.
• Even among L2 learners from different L1 backgrounds and
different learning environments, many of these developmental
sequences are similar.
 Grammatical
morphemes

Reference Negation
to past
Developmental
sequences

Relative Question
clauses
 GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES
 Like the first language researchers, the second
• Grammatical
language researchers look at learners’ use of morpheme?
grammatical morphemes such as plural,-ing, past • “A word that
tense, etc. functions to
specify the
 The researchers took speech samples from learners at relationship
one point in time and scored each morpheme for between one
lexical
accuracy in the learner’s speech. morpheme
and another“

 Most studies showed Learners are often more accurate

in using plural -s than in using possessive -s’ and in
using -ing than in using -ed past.

 This suggests the accuracy order is not determined

entirely by the learners’ L1.

 However, a thorough review of all morpheme

acquisition studies suggests that learners’ L1 has a
more important influence on acquisition sequences (
e.g. Learners whose L1 has possessive s form which
 NEGATION

The Acquisition of Negation in English researched by John Schumann

(1979)
The acquisition of The difference is
negative sentences that L2 learners
by L2 learners from different
follows a path that language
looks nearly backgrounds
identical to the behave somewhat
stages of L1 differently within
language acquisition those stages.
 Stage 4
Stage 3 using auxiliary
verb with ‘not’ in
placing the agreement with
stage 2 negative person, tense,
element after and number.
“ no and auxiliary
not” may verbs. using 1.He doesn’t
alternate ‘are’, ‘is’, do, want cookie
Stage 1 with and ‘can’ with 2.We didn’t have
the use of “don’t” ‘not’. supper
“no or not 1.He don’t
” before 1.You can not
like it (It is have a cookie”
the verb not
or marked 2.She was not
noun. for happy
1.No person) 3. She don’t
cookie” 2. I don’t like cookie (
2.No have can sing “don’t” is still
any sand ( used not fully
before analyzed)
3.I not like
it modal)
 QUESTIONS

Questions – is researched by
Pienemann, Johnston ,and
Brindley (1988)
Stage 6
Complex questions( question tag, negative, Developmenta
embedded question)
It’s better, isn’t it?
l stages for
Why can’t you go? questions in L2
Can you tale me what the date is to day? learners
Stage 5
inversion in wh- questions with “do and other
auxiliaries
How do you say?
What’s the boy doing?
Stage 4
inversion in wh- + copula and ‘yes/no’ questions
Where is the sun?
Is there a fish in the water?

Stage 3
Fronting ( wh-fronting ,do- fronting , other fronting)
Where the little children are?
Do you have shoes on your picture?
Is the picture has two planets on top?
Stage 2
Declarative word order, no inversion,
no fronting
It’s a monster in the right corner?
The boys throw the shoes?
Stage 1
Single words formulae or sentences fragments
A dog?
Four children?
FROM THE FIGURE, IT IS CLEAR THAT :

The The developmental

developmental sequence for questions,
sequence for while very similar across
questions by L2 learners, also appears
learners is similar to be affected by L1
in most respects to influence (e.g., German
L1 language learners of English,
acquisition

German requires For example: can

subject + verb inversion you play
Once , they reach stage baseball?
4 (Subject+ auxiliary One may hear
inversion) they assume questions “play
subject + verb inversion you baseball?
is possible
 COMPREHENSION

Based on the information before, can you identify which stages of SL

question development each question fits into?

1.Does a dog is black and white?

2.It is five questions?
3.How many spot the dog has?
4.Why do children like toys?
5. She is beautiful, isn’t she?
6.Can I take the dog outside?
*
Accessibility hierarchy for relative clauses in
English:
Part of speech Relative clause
Subject The girl who was sick went home
Direct object The story that I read was long
Indirect object The woman who(m)I gave the present to
was absent
Object of preposition I found the book that John was talking
about
Possessive I know the woman whose the father is
visiting
Object of comparison The person that Susan is taller than is Mary

Languages which include the structure at the bottom of the

table is would also have those at the top, but not vice versa
*
Changing ability to express the same meaning
Similar pattern across learner

Mention Attach Learners

a time grammatical may still
or morpheme, make
verb is marked
place errors
in the past

Learner finds it is easier to mark past tense when

referring to completed events than when referring to
states and activities without a clear end-point.
*

“ there are systematic and predictable

stages, or sequences,
of acquisition”
*In the developmental stages, learners do not left
behind when they enter another
*In examining language sample:
* the individual learner: cannot examine one example
in every stages.
*Group Learners: may use sentences typical of several
different stages
*Stress or complexity in a communicative interaction
can cause the learner to ‘slip back’ to an earlier
stage
 New Ways of Looking at First
Language Influence

Researcher rejected the

interpretation of constrictive analysis constrictive analysis was
which made transfer or interference closely associated with
the explanation for all of learner’s behaviorist views of
difficult with target language. language acquisition.

In rejecting behaviorism, some

researcher also discarded contractive
analysis as source of valuable Most of
information about learner’s Researcher
language.

Learners draw on their knowledge of other language as

they try to discover the complexities of new language
they are learning
 New Ways of Looking at First
Language Influence

Learners reach a certain

The first language interact
with development sequences
in learner language.
Example: German's
speaker inversion of
subject and lexical verb in
question
stage and perceive a
similarity of their first
language, they may linger
longer at the stage
They may learn a second
language rule but restrict
its application

Example: French speaker’s The first language may

rejection of subject – influence learner’s
auxiliary inversion with interlanguage in other
noun subjects ways as well.
 New Ways of Looking at First
Language Influence
The phenomenon of avoidance which Jacquelyne Schachter described
appeared to be caused at least in part by learner ‘ perception that a
feature in the target language was so distance and difference from
their first language that they preferred not to try it.

The evidence of learner's sensitive to degree of

distance to attempt a transfer over too great distance

Learner seem to know idiomatic

or metaphorical uses of words.

The effect of first language to second language acquisition is in

making it difficult to notice something they are saying absent as it is
used by more proficient speaker.
 New Ways of Looking at First
Language Influence

The difficult learners are based on patterns which are very

similar but not identical from the first language to second
language in the features.

If the learner does not cause any difficult in

communicating meaning, the learner may find
in the restriction on adverb placement.
SAVO Is English
SVAO Is French
 SUMMARY

This chapter focus on the second language acquisition

by the people who receive some instruction, also have
considerable exposure to their second language in
natural setting.

The researchers have found that learners who receive

grammar- based instruction still pass through the
same developmental sequence and make same types of
error as those who acquire language in natural setting
 Quote
of the day