INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AND INSTRUCTION IN L2

Input Overuse Developmental pattern Variability in learner language Form-function mapping Revision: some terminology

LAD Language typology Universal grammar (UG) Learnability

How L2 is learnt ? UG Other learning strategies: Resetting parameters (word order, NPs, VPs) Instruction? Language typology: Markedness

Social aspects of interlanguage Interlanguage as a stylistic continuum A number of different styles that learners access according to a variety of factors The Accomodation Theory Social accomodation and the part this plays in L2 acquisition Social identity; a learner’s social identity is ’multiple and contradictory’ Explain!

Discourse aspects of interlanguage The role of input and interaction in L2 learning Grammatical foreigner talk Krashen’s input hypothesis (comprehensible input) Long’s interaction hypothesis What is negotiation of meaning?

Psycholinguistic aspects of interlanguage L1 transfer (negative and positive) Avoidance and overuse What is Contrastive analysis? The role of consciousness in L2 acquisition (Schmidt: noticing) Communication strategies

Individual differences Affective factors: Learners’ personalities: are they anxious or prepared to take risks in learning and using an L2? Learners’ learning styles and strategies Aptitude Motivation

APTITUDE, MOTIVATION AND INSTRUCTION Aptitude: Phonemic coding ability, the ability to handle sound-symbol relationships Grammatical sensitivity, the ability to recognize the grammatical functions of words in sentences Inductive language learning ability (discover patterns between form and meaning) Rote learning ability (to form and remember associations between stimuli, important in vocabulary learning)

Motivation Instrumental motivation: learners learn an L2 for some functional reason Integrative motivation: interested in the people or culture; English-speaking Canadians learning French Resultative motivation: If learners are successful, they become more interested to learn. Is also the opposite true? Do they become less interested?

Intrinsic motivation : no particular reason for learning an L2. Foreign language learners? Unmotivated?

Learning strategies Learning strategies can be cognitive, meta- cognitive and social/affective Cognitive: constructing a meaningful sentence by recombining known elements of the L2 in a new way Metacognitive: planning, monitoring and evaluating learning; ’selective attention’

Social/affective strategies: how learners chose to interact with other speakers (questioning for clarification)

What are good language learners like? A checklist: Pay attention to both form and meaning Very active Show awareness of the learning process and their own personal learning styles Flexible and appropriate in their use of (more) learning strategies (metacognitive strategies), different strategies for different aspects and stages of L2 learning

WHAT IMPACT DOES TEACHING HAVE ON L2 LEARNING? Things to consider: The teaching of grammar, individual learner differences and strategy training; those strategies used by good language learners Form-focused instruction? Does it work? In teaching items but not in teaching systems? (the acquisition of the French definite articles, German word order (Ellis, p. 81) Quite a few interesting studies: Pica, Pienemann and others; tutored vs. untutored learners

INSTRUCTION IN L2 (CONTINUED) Production-based instruction Input-based instruction (see the model, p. 84 in Ellis); could induce noticing in learners Consciousness-raising (positive or negative evidence can be supplied) The critical period hypothesis Learning must come before a certain age (puberty).

The Trahey study on the acquisition of English adverbs by French learners (input-flooding) The White study: explicit information + negative evidence

The Teachability Hypothesis (Pienemann) The interlanguage must be close to to the point when the structure to be taught is acquired in the natural setting. Difficult! How can you have this information about your learners?

Learner - instruction matching: some learners are good at phonology, some at spelling, others at grammar; input-based instruction doesn’t suit all learners either Strategy training: helping learners to take responsibility for their own learning

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Communicative Language Teaching (CLT): Providing learners with real communicative experiences, includes grammar teaching today

CLT (continued) CLT: shallow-end version: grammar but in functional terms (asking the way etc.) CLT: deep-end version: rejected grammar totally, Task-based learning

Why teach grammar? The sentence-machine argument The rule of law argument The fine-tuning argument The learner expectations argument

THORNBURY: HOW TO TEACH GRAMMAR (2008) The case for and against teaching grammar A teaching grammar scale: zero grammarNatural approach, Deep-end CLTzero grammar Audiolingualism, Direct method Shallow-end CLT focus on grammarGrammar translationfocus on grammar