The Nature of Language learner By M Jamaluddin

The Nature of Language learner By: M. Jamaluddin (2201410039) Second Language Acquisition book, 2003, by Rod Ellis Chapter 2, page 15 -29

The Nature of Language learner Investigating L 2 acquisition can be seen from three ways The Nature of Language Learner L 2 learner’s Errors Development Pattern Variability in Language Learner

L 2 Learner’s Errors Reasons Explain Describe Identify L 2 Learner’s Errors Evaluation

L 2 Learner’s Errors Some good reason for focusing on learner’s Errors § They are a conspicuous feature of learner language § It is useful for teachers to know what errors learners make § Errors may make learners have selfcorrect L 2 Learner’s Errors

Identifying Errors compare the learner sentences with native speaker sentences L 2 Learner’s Errors

Describing Errors Classify errors into grammatical categories Identify general ways in which the learners’ utterances differ from the reconstructed target-language utterances L 2 Learner’s Errors

Describing Errors Jean’s most common grammatical category of error is past tense L 2 Learner’s Errors The most common general error type is misinformation

Explaining Errors Most learners go through a stage of learning where they substitute simple with past tense form Not all errors are universal Errors can have different sources L 2 Learner’s Errors

Error Evaluation Some errors can be considered more serious than others Teachers will focus on these errors L 2 Learner’s Errors

Error Evaluation Global Errors: errors that violate the overall structure of a sentence Local Errors: errors that affect only a single constituent in the sentence L 2 Learner’s Errors

Development Pattern The early stage of SLA The order of acquisition Sequence of Acquisition Some implications Development Pattern

The early stages of SLA This is the silent period They begin with listening and reading There are propositional simplifications Using fixed expressions Development Pattern

The Order of Acquisition Researchers choose a number of grammatical structures to investigate the order of acquisition They collect samples of learner language and identify how accurately each feature is used by different learners. Development Pattern

Sequence of Acquisition Stage 1 - Learners fail to mark the verb for past time Stage 2 - Learners begin to produce irregular past tense form Stage 3 - Learners overgeneralize the regular past tense form Stage 4 - Sometimes learners produce hybrid forms Stage 5 – learners produce correct irregular past tense form Development Pattern

Some implications The work on developmental patterns is important Learners naturally learn one feature before another they must necessarily do Development Pattern

Variability in Learner Language There is a definite accuracy order and that this time remains more or less the same irrespective of the learners mother tongue, their age, and weather. The order does vary somewhat according to learner’s first language. Variability in Learner language

THANK YOU