1. CLL Session 1: Introduction LAEL, Lancaster University Florencia Franceschina

2. Popular ideas about SLA Exercise

3. Terminology Second language acquisition Foreign language acquisition Acquisition of additional languages Bilingual language acquisition

4. Big questions What are L2 grammars like? What is the nature of interlanguage grammars? How are L2 grammars acquired? How do they develop? How are L2 knowledge put to use?

5. Approaches to SLA research Sociolinguistic Linguistic Psycholinguistic …

6. Linguistic approaches Generativist Emergentist (usage-based) Functionalist …

7. L2 grammar The focus of this course will be on the study of L2 grammars (a.k.a. Interlanguage grammars or ILGs, after the term coined by Selinker)

8. The nature of ILGs Exercise

9. Universal Grammar (UG) Many linguists claim that there is a great deal in common among the grammars of the world ’ s languages. Most advocates of this position believe that the commonalities exist because linguistic structure is largely determined by human biology. The term ‘ universal grammar ’ is used to mean three subtly different things: i. what is common to the world ’ s languages ii. linguists ’ representations of these commonalities iii. the biological structures that are claimed to underlie the common features Sag et al. (2003: 570)

10. Evidence for UG in L1A L1A is: Quick Effortless Uniform across stages of acquisition Robust in terms of noisy/variable input It shows equipotentiality across learners

11. Evidence for UG in SLA? We will consider the evidence in the next module

12. Reading Gass, S. and L. Selinker 2001: Second language acquisition. An introductory course. (2nd edition) Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. (Chapter 1) Hawkins, R. 2001: Second language syntax. A generative introduction. Oxford: Blackwell. (Chapter 1) White, L. 2003: Second language acquisition and Universal Grammar. (2nd edition) Cambridge: CUP. (Chapter 1)