Second Language Acquisition and Real World Applications Alessandro Benati (Director of CAROLE, University of Greenwich, UK) Making Research in Second Language Acquisition Usable for Instruction and Instructors, 1-2 November 2014 New York College, Athens

What is Second Language Acquisition? Second language acquisition consists of a series of hypotheses, theories and generalisations about the way learners create and develop a new language system and how they can tap into that system during comprehension and speech production Second Language Acquisition could be equated to the construction of a building Second Language Acquisition is about Learners and Learning HOWEVER we should look at second language acquisition research for insights into language instruction Can these insights help language instructors to enhance second language acquisition? Instructors look for concrete answers to teaching questions! What do we know about Learners and Learning that might be of relevance for instruction and instructors?

Some of the Theories in SLA UG Theory Skill Acquisition Theory Input Processing Theory Processability Theory Emergentism and Usage-Based Theories Interaction Framework Declarative/Procedural Model Complexity Theory

Empirical Research Descriptive studies have examined the kinds of language produced by teachers and learners in classroom contexts Experimental studies have manipulated the instructional treatment provided to learners and measured the learning outcomes of the different treatments Ethnographic studies based on field observations of classrooms have generated a number of key questions Correlational studies have established key relationships between different sets of variables

Some of the claims L2 Learners creates an implicit system The system exists outside awareness Skill acquisition is different Language learning is an implicit statistical learning process L2 learners will rely on declarative knowledge for the learning of lexical items, fixed phrases, and idioms for example L2 learners will rely on procedural knowledge for the implicit learning, storage, and retrieval of rule-oriented information

Some of the claims Input plays a key role Input provides the data for the internal processors L2 learners intake a small portion of language input Input is crucial but might not be sufficient. Interaction plays also a role Acquisition of grammar is more a function of the learner Language is a complex and dynamic system residing in the mind/brain of a human Language is an integrated system interfacing and mapping things in the brain Acquisition is processing dependent Certain L2 features are acquired before others (stages)

Making it usable for Instruction and Instructors 1. Instructors need to take into account of L2 learner’s internal system - Employ a curriculum (e.g. a task-based approach) that makes no attempt to predetermine the linguistic content of a lesson - Expose learners to comprehensible and message-oriented input - Ensure that learners are developmentally ready to acquire a specific target feature

Making it usable for Instruction and Instructors 2. Instructors should aim at developing implicit knowledge - Competence is primarily a matter of implicit knowledge. Implicit knowledge develops naturally out of meaning-focused communication - Opportunity to participate in communicative tasks - Develop a working definition of communication - Communication = expression, interpretation and negotiation of meaning -Learners learn the language and something about the world

Making it usable for Instruction and Instructors 3. Instructors should ensure that L2 learners have adequate and extensive exposure L2 input - Maximize the use of the L2 inside the classroom - Define Input for acquisition - Making use of linguistics and non linguistics means - Design tasks with changing roles - Provide opportunities for ‘interaction’ and ‘negotiation of meaning’ - Developing effective communicative tasks - Create opportunities for students to receive input outside the classroom - Moving from input to output

Making it usable for Instruction and Instructors 4. Instructors need to provide a focus on meaning and a focus on form - Provide a focus on meaning (semantic and pragmatic) - Design grammar lessons to teach specific grammatical features by means of input or output processing - Use focused tasks that require learners to comprehend and process specific grammatical structures in the input - Use other options that induce attention to form in the context of performing a task such as in corrective feedback

Concluding remarks Learning of formal properties is constrained in various ways Acquisition of skills different that acquisition of language – practice does not help getting language in the head The more input the better The more interaction the better Instructors need to have a working definition of communication Focus on meaning and focus on form Language instruction should ensure that learners engage in effective output tasks Communicative tasks to be fully communicative must have practical/real world purpose

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